Discrimination of speakers using the formant dynamics of /u:/ in British English

Abstract

A study of speaker-distinguishing properties of the formant dynamics of /uː/ is presented. Measurements at equidistant intervals along the F1 and F2 contours of /uː/ are compared with polynomial characterisations of the contours. Approximating the contours with quadratic and cubic polynomials allows more speaker-distinguishing information to be conveyed with fewer parameters. Based on discriminant analysis, the best value per predictor is provided by a quadratic approximation of F2.