ACOUSTIC CHARACTERISTICS OF MACEDONIAN CONSONANTS

Abstract

Introduction: Significant information about
the quality of speech is provided by the shape of
the spectrogram that contains quantitative data
of a sound. Spectral characteristics of consonants
can be analyzed by determining the spectral
moments.
Objective: The objective of the study was to
calculate spectral moments of Macedonian consonants
and formant frequencies from Fl to F5
and fundamental frequency (F o) of nasals and
laterals.
Material and methods: This study included
15 native speakers of Macedonian, five males,
five females, aged 26 to 50 years (mean age of
38.9±9.6 years), and five children, two boys
and three girls, aged 9 to 14 years (mean age of 10.6±1.9 years). The consonants were recorded
as isolated phonemes and analyzed in computer
program Praat.
Results: Mean center of gravity in all consonants
was in the range from 428 Hz to 4021
Hz. Mean spectral standard deviation was in
the range from 363 Hz to 3108 Hz. The highest
values were obtained in fricative /s/ in children.
Mean skewness was positive in all consonants.
Mean kurtosis was also positive in all consonants
except in fricative /JI (-1 .4) in female speakers.
Conclusion: Center of gravity and spectral
standard deviation in consonants analyzed as
isolated phonemes are lower than values obtained
in vowel context because of the effect
of coarticulation in which one phoneme affects
the production of preceding and upcoming phoneme.
Skewness and kurtosis are positive in
most speakers indicating concentration of energy
in the low frequencies and relatively high
peaks in the spectrum.