Absolute pitch in emphasized speech

Abstract

End and turning points of speech pitch contours show an influence of norm-tones that are dominant in daily music exposure (Braun, 2001). A possible relation of this effect to speech parameters was examined in 256 sentences of one contour type, read by eight female speakers of Dutch in normal or in locally emphasized voice. Only the emphasis condition showed a significant bias toward norm-tones, with the syllables related to emphasis producing the strongest effects. The results show that in speech production, the retrieval from a precognitive, absolute pitch memory apparently is dependent on motivational state, which would agree with known characteristics of brain anatomy. © 2002 Acoustical Society of America.