Frantz Clermont & Elisabeth Zetterholm Department of Linguistics & Phonetics

Acoustic-Articulatory Interpretations of Professional Imitations of “hallå” in three Swedish Dialects Frantz Clermont & Elisabeth Zetterholm Department of Linguistics & Phonetics Centre for Languages & Literature Lund University, SWEDEN 2006 IAFPA Conference Gothenburg University, Sweden 25th July 2006

Clermont, F. & Zetterholm, E. (2006), “F-pattern Analysis of Professional Imitations of “hallå” in three Swedish dialects”, Proc. XIXth Swedish Phonetics Conf., 7-9 June 2006, Lund. THIS SEQUEL STUDY: ACOUSTIC-ARTICULATORY INSIGHTS OBSERVATION from F-patterns: “LANDMARKSofRESISTANCE” in NEIGHBOURHOOD of /l/ in“hallå” FORENSICALLY-ORIENTED QUESTIONS The EVIDENCE A Forensic Scenario: Hypothetical but Not Implausible • Managing Director of the Bank of Sweden receives 5 threatening calls on the same day • A male voice perceived for all 5 calls • Adifferent dialect perceivedoneach call • Every call followed a similar pattern: • the caller(s) started by saying “hallå” politely with situational variations • the caller(s) proceeded with threats expressed in harsh language 1a) What dialectal markers are detectable in “hallå” spoken by a given imitator? 1b) Are the markers consistent from situation to situation? 2a) Are there cues of an imitator’s in dialectal imitations? 2b) Do such cues persist from situation to situation?

DIALECTAL IMITATIONS Stockholm Gothenburg Skåne Småland IMITATOR Norrland SITUATIONS “hallå, det är Anders” answering the telephone “hallå, nu är jag hemma” signalling arrival at home SLF STK GTB SKN SLD NLD ACOUSTIC-ARTICULATORY APPROACH “hallå, det var längesen” meeting a long-lost friend ø ø ø ø ø ø Data Particulars &ResearchObjectives Listening Test Results on Impressionistic Scale [v. poor=1234567=v. good] 6 6 6 6 6 6 6 7 5 5 7 7 7 7 6 6 6 6 5 5 6 6 6 6 5 (1) To detect dialectal markers in “hallå” 1 situation (telephone-answering) 1 professional imitator 3 of the 5 dialects recorded (2) To look for cues of the imitator’s voice in the 3 dialectal imitations

POLE-GRAMS ‘a’ ‘l’ ‘å:’ Acoustic-Articulatory Methods: (1) Segmentation, F-pattern F-pattern Estimation Time Normalisation Phonetic Segmentation ? The Problem! ‘å:’ ‘a’ ‘l’

‘a’ ‘l’ ‘å:’ Acoustic-Articulatory Methods: (2)Time Normalisation[Approach guided by relative durations of ‘a’, ‘l’, ‘å’] • /l/-segment - a suitable reference segment • Rule of thumb: L(/a/) ≈ 3 times L(/l/) L(/å:/) ≈ 5 times L(/l/) • 5 landmarks for /l/  15 for /a/ & 25 for /å:/  a total of 45 landmarks • Values @landmarks via spline interpolation

SM67 SM67 LF75 iterate until error ≤ 0.001 Parseval’s Theorem Calculate Synthesise TARGET F-Pattern CANDIDATE F-Pattern Calculate Cosine Coefficients adjust adjust L = L ± dL Lmin = L0−3cm Lmax = L0+3cm dL = 0.5cm Calculate ECCENTRICITY from uniformity PZ70 Acoustic-Articulatory Methods: (3b)SM67-Model extended Acoustic-Articulatory Methods: (3a)SM67-Model {F1, F2, F3, …} L dx SM67-Model • Formant frequencies  Anti-symmetric component of • = odd-numbered terms of a Fourier cosine series • = even-numbered terms not easilyobtained from acoustics Anti-Symmetry • A limitation vis-à-vis symmetrically-shaped sounds • An advantage vis-à-vis shape uniqueness EXTANT PROBLEMS • How unique is the SM67’s Area Function? • How to set a realistic value for L? Sound Speed SM67: [Schroeder (1967); Mermelstein (1967)]

landmark 7 Eccentricity from Uniformity over a range of candidate VT-Lengths landmark 18 Cross-Sectional Area Function (@min. eccentricity) optimised to match target F-patterns landmark 30 Acoustic-Articulatory Representation of “hallå”: Examples of Key Parameters ‘a’ ‘l’ ‘å’

GBG STK SKN SELF DIALECTAL landmarks Potential Landmarks of RESISTANCE Vocal-TractShapes (area functions) & Lengths SELF

GBG STK SKN Quasi-Neutral Landmarks SELF DIALECTAL landmarks Vocal-TractShapes & Eccentricity from Uniformity

Vocal-TractShapes & /l/-relatedCoarticulation RMS distances between Area-Functions of ‘l’ (onset-landmark) and ‘Area-Functions of a’ (15 landmarks) Coarticulation-Resistance Landmarks RMS distances between Area-Functions of ‘l’ (offset-landmark) and Area-Functions of‘å’(25 landmarks)

Concluding Summary • Motivated present endeavour by way of a forensic “hypothetical” • Outlined current project on dialectal imitations of “hallå” • Discussed time-normalisation problem & demonstrated approach • Provided acoustic-articulatory evidence for potential “landmarks of resistance” to a complete disguise of “hallå”, namely: (1) Consistent quasi-uniformity of vocal-tract shapes through the landmarks of /l/ (2) Short sequence of landmarks of coarticulation resistance fro and to /l/

Ways Forward IN THE NEAR-TO-MEDIUM TERM: • To proceed with the other situational varieties of “hallå” • To strengthen the viability of the approaches presented here IN THE LONG TERM: • To acquire further data from the same imitator • To acquire “hallå” data from native speakers of Swedish dialects • To enrol more imitators – both professional & naïve

Tack så mycket(thank you very much) 3D sequence of Vocal-Tract Shapes through 45 landmarks of “hallå”

Frantz Clermont & Elisabeth Zetterholm Department of Linguistics & Phonetics