A new methodology for comparing speech rhythm structure between utterances: Beyond typological approaches

Abstract

This paper proposes a new methodology for automatically comparing the speech rhythm structure of two utterances. Eleven parameters were automatically extracted from 44 pairs of audiofiles yielding 11-size difference vectors. The parameters include speech rate, duration-related stress group rate, prominence and prosodic boundary strength, f 0 peak rate, as well as the coupling strength between underlying syllable and stress group oscillators. The 11-parameter difference vectors were used to infer the perceptual differences identified by a group of 10 listeners who judged the same 44 pairs of audiofiles . The results indicate that duration-related prominence or prosodic boundary rate and speech rate, taken together, predict up to 71 % of the response variance. To a minor extent, prominence/boundary strength mean and non-prominent VV unit rate predict up to 60 % of the response variance when combined with prominence or prosodic boundary rate. © 2012 Springer-Verlag.