earticle

영어

The purpose of the present study is to provide normative data for acoustic measures of normal voices in Korean women aged between 20 and 59 years, exploring relations among voice parameters and examining changes in voice qualities with aging. Four acoustic measures—fundamental frequency(F0), jitter, shimmer, and noise-to-harmonics ratio(NHR) were obtained from a sustained vowel /a/. A total of 238 voices from 250 participants with no apparent voice disorders were acoustically analyzed by Praat. The results showed that the average values of F0, jitter, shimmer, and NHR were 218Hz, 0.275%, 3.37%, and 0.012, respectively. A significant correlation with the age factor was found only for F0(r = -0.21, p = .006) but not for jitter, shimmer, or NHR. Although aging effect was found only for F0, intraspeaker variability becomes larger in older females than younger females for all acoustic measures. Further correlation analyses indicated that F0 is negatively correlated with jitter, shimmer, and NHR, while jitter, shimmer, and NHR are positively correlated with one another. In other words, females with higher F0 values are more likely to have lower values in jitter, shimmer, and NHR; however, females with higher jitter values are more likely to have higher values in shimmer and NHR. Since previous studies on voice parameters of middle-aged Korean females using Praat have not been conducted yet, providing normative data has its own significance by itself. Also, this study may contribute to a better understanding of acoustic traits of normal voices and may encourage clinicians to conduct acoustic analyses using Praat as routine assessment for screening pathological voices. (Wonkwang Digital University)