Statistical Survey of Monophthong Formants in Mandarin for Students Being Trained as Broadcasters

Statistical Survey of Monophthong Formants in Mandarin for Students Being Trained as Broadcasters Zihou MENG, Yudong CHEN, Xiaohua LI Communication Acoustics Laboratory, Communication University of China, Beijing P.R.C. Tel/Fax:+86-10-65783400, E-mail: mzh@cuc.edu.cn Abstract: To study the group characteristics of Mandarin monophthong formants, the monophthongs of 212 female students and 126 male students from the department of broadcasters were recorded. The monophthong formants were measured using LPC method. The mean value and deviation of formants were given with statistical meaning. The results show the difference from the previous measurements by other researchers decades ago. Key words: Mandarin, monophthong, formants, statistical survey 1. Introduction There have been researchers on the monophthong formants characteristics of Mandarin (Putonghua) since 1960’s[1][2][3]. Because the number of the speech samples was limited, the results were insignificant in statistics and can not be used to describe the group characteristics of the monophthong formants of Mandarin. The computer aided Putonghua Shuiping Ceshi (Mandarin level testing) technique has been studied in Communication University of China since 1996. To develop computer aided PSC technique, it needs a statistical survey of the Mandarin speech characteristics with a large number of samples. Using the Mandarin speech database recorded in the Communication University of China, the monophthong formants of 212 trained female students and 126 trained male students were measured and analyzed. The result is meaningful in statistics. It should be helpful to the study of the group characteristics of Mandarin monophthong formants. It is also helpful for the study of parametric speech standard of Mandarin. 2. Measurement method The statistical survey is based on the Mandarin speech database in the Communication University of China. All speakers are students from the broadcaster’s department, aged from 19 to 21 years old and have been trained for 1 to 3 years. 212 female students and 126 male students were measured. The dialect atlas (hometown) of the students is listed in Table 1. Table 1. Dialect atlas of the students Dialect Area Female Male Anhui 6 0 Beijing 19 17 Chongqin 6 6 Fujian 2 0 Gansu 3 3 Guangdong 3 1 Guangxi 0 1 Guizhou 1 0 280 Dialect Area Female Male Hebei 7 5 Henan 14 8 Heilongjiang 24 14 Hubei 4 8 Hunan 6 4 Jilin 10 7 Jiangsu 13 5 Jiangxi 3 0 Liaonin 21 11 Neimenggu 2 3 Ningxia 2 0 Shandong 20 8 Shanxi(山西) 5 0 Shannxi(陕西) 9 5 Shanghai 6 2 Sichuan 9 3 Tianjin 4 9 Xizang(Tibet) 1 0 Xinjiang 4 2 Yunnan 1 2 Zhejiang 7 2 Total 212 126 The 10 monophthongs in the test are listed in Table 2. These 10 monophthongs of Mandarin are selected according to reference [4], and it is not completely same with the monophthong catalogue used by other researchers. Usually, ê[ε] is only used as the mood word “欸(诶)”,and its voice is unstable. In phonetics, there is dispute of whether the vowel should be put into the Mandarin speech frame. In this paper, considering the special application background, ê[ε] is dealt with …

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