Contribution of low-frequency harmonics to Mandarin Chinese tone identification in quiet and six-talker babble background.
The goal of this study was to investigate Mandarin Chinese tone identification in quiet and multi-talker babble conditions for normal-hearing listeners. Tone identification was measured with speech stimuli and stimuli with low and/or high harmonics that were embedded in three Mandarin vowels with two fundamental frequencies. There were six types of stimuli: all harmonics (All), low harmonics (Low), high harmonics (High), and the first (H1), second (H2), and third (H3) harmonic. Results showed that, for quiet conditions, individual harmonics carried frequency contour information well enough for tone identification with high accuracy; however, in noisy conditions, tone identification with individual low harmonics (e.g., H1, H2, and H3) was significantly lower than that with the Low, High, and All harmonics. Moreover, tone identification with individual harmonics in noise was lower for a low F0 than for a high F0, and was also dependent on vowel category. Tone identification with individual low-frequency harmonics was accounted for by local signal-to-noise ratios, indicating that audibility of harmonics in noise may play a primary role in tone identification.
Department of Communication Sciences and Disorders, University of Texas at Austin, 1 University Station A1100, Austin, Texas 78712.
Chang
C
Liu
Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, Milwaukee, Wisconsin 53201.
Behnam
B
Azimi
Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, Milwaukee, Wisconsin 53201.
Moulesh
M
Bhandary
Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, Milwaukee, Wisconsin 53201.
Yi
Y
Hu
D000161:Acoustic Stimulation; D001302:Audiometry, Speech; D003463:Cues; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D009622:Noise / Q000009:adverse effects*; D010470:Perceptual Masking; D010700:Phonetics; D010898:Pitch Perception; D011571:Psychoacoustics; D017603:Signal Detection, Psychological; D059629:Signal-To-Noise Ratio; D013061:Speech Acoustics; D013065:Speech Intelligibility; D013067:Speech Perception; D014833:Voice Quality