RESUMO
OBJECTIVES: This study explored the extent and discriminatory potential of interspeaker variation in creaky voice in Dutch men. METHODS: Intervals of creaky voice for 30 speakers were manually segmented and annotated from a corpus of spontaneous speech data. For each speaker, at least 1500 syllables were analyzed. Total creakiness was calculated based on the proportion of creaky syllables. Creaky intervals were categorized into subtypes based on the degree of periodicity. Furthermore, acoustic measurements were taken from the intervals and tested for speaker-discriminating capacity by means of a linear discriminant analysis (LDA). RESULTS: Speakers differed in what percentage of syllables they realized with creaky voice, with a range of roughly 0-5% of all syllables. They likewise differed in the proportion with which they used different subtypes of creaky voice, such that some speakers have very distinctive profiles. The LDA resulted in correct classifications of creaky intervals to speakers at a rate above chance level. CONCLUSIONS: Interspeaker variation in creaky voice in Dutch male speech was confirmed and allowed for moderate speaker classification on the basis of speech acoustics.
