Vocal characteristics of English and Mandarin produced by Mandarin-English and English-Mandarin bilingual speakers : a long-term average spectral analysis

Abstract

The present study aims to examine the possible acoustical differences between languages (English and Mandarin) and ethnicities (Chinese and American). Sixteen Chinese (8 males and 8 females) and fourteen American bilingual adults were recruited (8 males and 6 females) and instructed to read one Mandarin and one English passage. Fundamental frequency (F0), jitter, shimmer, and parameters extracted from long-term average spectral analysis, including first spectral peak (FSP), mean spectral energy (MSE), and spectral tilt (ST) were measured from the speech samples using Praat. Results indicated acoustical differences between English and Mandarin, and between Chinese and American speakers. However, the language effect and race effect on voice quality interacted with each other. The findings imply that both race/ethnicity and language used by speakers should be considered when comparing to the normative data in voice therapy.