Doctoral Dissertation Research: The production and perception of breathy voice during nasal sounds

语言使用者经常调整或增强他们的语音，以便在不同的语境下更好地理解，例如在嘈杂的房间里说话时，或对有口音的人说话时，或在打电话时。语音增强策略的研究解决了关于人类语言的重要问题，包括语言是如何被听者感知和在头脑中呈现的。回答这些问题对言语治疗和言语技术都是至关重要的。对于语言治疗，这种理解可以改进语言障碍的诊断和治疗方法。对于语音技术，这种理解可以改进语音识别和合成，这两项都是公众日常使用的，比如在给公司的客服打电话时。对我们提高语音能力的方式的了解也有助于研究人员理解语言是如何以及为什么会随着时间的推移而变化的。这一理解对于教育公众了解语言的多样性、变化和保护是至关重要的。这项研究试图了解在发出鼻音时会发生什么增强，鼻音在世界上几乎所有的语言中都存在，包括美国英语。鼻音是个人声音的一个共同特征：在任何语言中，一些说话者听起来都比其他人听起来更鼻音。这项研究的重点是声音是如何被用来发出鼻音的。首先，研究人员调查说美式英语和巴西葡萄牙语的人是否会发出带有喉咙音调的鼻音。其次，他们研究了对声音的感知如何影响对鼻音的感知。这两种语言在鼻音的使用上有所不同，因此它们一起提供了对不同类型的鼻音在不同语言中是如何产生的更好的理解。这一知识将有助于澄清这种特殊类型的声音是如何产生和感知的，这有可能改进用于治疗无序语音的技术以及用于语音识别和合成的软件。

Language users often adjust or enhance their speech to be better understood in different contexts, such as when speaking in a loud room, or to a person with an accent, or when speaking on the phone. The study of speech enhancement strategies addresses important questions about human language, including how language is perceived by listeners and represented in the mind. Answering these questions is also vital to both speech therapy and speech technology. For speech therapy, this understanding can improve methods used in diagnosis and treatment of disordered speech. For speech technology, this understanding can improve speech recognition and synthesis, which are both used daily by the public, such as when calling a company's customer service. Knowledge of the way we enhance speech also helps researchers understand how and why languages change over time. This understanding is crucial for educating the public on linguistic diversity, change, and preservation.This research seeks to understand what enhancements occur when making nasal sounds, which are found in almost all languages of the world, including American English. Nasality is a common feature associated with an individual's voice: in any language, some speakers sound more nasal than others. This research focuses on how the voice is used to make sounds nasal. First, the researchers investigate whether speakers of American English and Brazilian Portuguese produce nasals with voice adjustments from the larynx. Second, they investigate how the perception of voice influences the perception of nasal sounds. These two languages differ in their use of nasal sounds, and so together they provide a better understanding of how different types of nasal sounds are made in different languages. This knowledge will help clarify how this particular type of sound is produced and perceived, which has the potential to improve techniques used to treat disordered speech as well as software used in speech recognition and synthesis.