Glottal characteristics of male speakers: acoustic correlates and comparison with female data

Acoustic measurements believed to reflect glottal characteristics were made on recordings collected from 21 male speakers. The waveforms and spectra of three nonhigh vowels (/ae, lambda, epsilon/) were analyzed to obtain acoustic parameters related to first-formant bandwidth, open quotient, spectral tilt, and aspiration noise. Comparisons were made with previous results obtained for 22 female speakers [H. M. Hanson, J. Acoust. Soc. Am. 101, 466-481 (1997)]. While there is considerable overlap across gender, the male data show lower average values and less interspeaker variation for all measures. In particular, the amplitude of the first harmonic relative to that of the third formant is 9.6 dB lower for the male speakers than for the female speakers, suggesting that spectral tilt is an especially significant parameter for differentiating male and female speech. These findings are consistent with fiberscopic studies which have shown that males tend to have a more complete glottal closure, leading to less energy loss at the glottis and less spectral tilt. Observations of the speech waveforms and spectra suggest the presence of a second glottal excitation within a glottal period for some of the male speakers. Possible causes and acoustic consequences of these second excitations are discussed.