Detecting protagonists and antagonists in the voice quality of American cartoon characters: a quantitative LTAS-based analysis.

The voices of heroes and villains in cartoons contribute to their uniqueness and helps shape how we perceive them. However, not much research has looked at the acoustic properties of character voices and the possible contributions these have to cartoon character archetypes. We present a quantitative examination of how voice quality distinguishes between characters based on their alignment as either protagonists or antagonists, performing Principal Component Analysis (PCA) on the Long-term Average Spectra (LTAS) of concatenated passages of the speech of various characters obtained from four different animated cartoons. We then assessed if the categories of "protagonists" and "antagonists" (determined via an a priori classification) could be distinguished using a classification algorithm, and if so, what acoustic characteristics could help distinguish the two categories. The overall results support the idea that protagonists and antagonists can be distinguished by their voice qualities. Support Vector Machine (SVM) analysis yielded an average classification accuracy of 96% across the cartoons. Visualisation of the spectral traits constituting the difference did not yield consistent results but reveals a low-versus-high frequency energy dominance pattern segregating antagonists and protagonists. Future studies can look into how other variables might be confounded with voice quality in distinguishing between these categories.

The Quantal Larynx: The Stable Regions of Laryngeal Biomechanics and Implications for Speech Production.

Purpose: Recent proposals suggest that (a) the high dimensionality of speech motor control may be reduced via modular neuromuscular organization that takes advantage of intrinsic biomechanical regions of stability and (b) computational modeling provides a means to study whether and how such modularization works. In this study, the focus is on the larynx, a structure that is fundamental to speech production because of its role in phonation and numerous articulatory functions. Method: A 3-dimensional model of the larynx was created using the ArtiSynth platform (http://www.artisynth.org). This model was used to simulate laryngeal articulatory states, including inspiration, glottal fricative, modal prephonation, plain glottal stop, vocal-ventricular stop, and aryepiglotto-epiglottal stop and fricative. Results: Speech-relevant laryngeal biomechanics is rich with "quantal" or highly stable regions within muscle activation space. Conclusions: Quantal laryngeal biomechanics complement a modular view of speech control and have implications for the articulatory-biomechanical grounding of numerous phonetic and phonological phenomena.

Harsh voice quality and its association with blackness in popular American media.

Performers use various laryngeal settings to create voices for characters and personas they portray. Although some research demonstrates the sociophonetic associations of laryngeal voice quality, few studies have documented or examined the role of harsh voice quality, particularly with vibration of the epilaryngeal structures (growling). This article qualitatively examines phonetic properties of vocal performances in a corpus of popular American media and evaluates the association of voice qualities in these performances with representations of social identity and stereotype. In several cases, contrasting laryngeal states create sociophonetic contrast, and harsh voice quality is paired with the portrayal of racial stereotypes of black people. These cases indicate exaggerated emotional states and are associated with yelling/shouting modes of expression. Overall, however, the functioning of harsh voice quality as it occurs in the data is broader and may involve aggressive posturing, comedic inversion of aggressiveness, vocal pathology, and vocal homage.