Dhwani Laboratory, Department of Mechanical Engineering, Indian Institute of Technology, Kanpur, India.
Am J Audiol. 2021 Dec 9;30(4):1096-1107. doi: 10.1044/2021_AJA-21-00125. Epub 2021 Nov 9.
In this work, we have determined the long-term average speech spectra (LTASS) and dynamic ranges (DR) of 17 Indian languages. This work is important because LTASS and DR are language-dependent functions used to fit hearing aids, calculate the Speech Intelligibility Index, and recognize speech automatically. Currently, LTASS and DR functions for English are used to fit hearing aids in India. Our work may help improve the performance of hearing aids in the Indian context.
Speech samples from native talkers were used as stimuli in this study. Each speech sample was initially cleaned for extraneous sounds and excessively long pauses. Next, LTASS and DR functions for each language were calculated for different frequency bands. Similar analysis was also performed for English for reference purposes. Two-way analysis of variance was also conducted to understand the effects of important parameters on LTASS and DR. Finally, a one-sample test was conducted to assess the significance of important statistical attributes of our data.
We showed that LTASS and DR for Indian languages are 5-10 dB and 11 dB less than those for English. These differences may be due to lesser use rate of high-frequency dominant phonemes and preponderance of vowel-ending words in Indian languages. We also showed that LTASS and DR do not differ significantly across Indian languages. Hence, we propose a common LTASS and DR for Indian languages.
We showed that differences in LTASS and DR for Indian languages vis-à-vis English are large and significant. Such differences may be attributed to phonetic and linguistic characteristics of Indian languages.
在这项工作中，我们确定了 17 种印度语言的长期平均语音谱 (LTASS) 和动态范围 (DR)。这项工作很重要，因为 LTASS 和 DR 是依赖于语言的函数，用于适配助听器、计算语音可懂度指数和自动识别语音。目前，印度使用英语的 LTASS 和 DR 函数来适配助听器。我们的工作可能有助于提高印度助听器的性能。
本研究使用母语说话者的语音样本作为刺激。每个语音样本最初都经过清理，去除了无关的声音和过长的停顿。然后，为不同的频带计算了每种语言的 LTASS 和 DR 函数。也为英语进行了类似的分析以供参考。还进行了双向方差分析，以了解重要参数对 LTASS 和 DR 的影响。最后，进行了一个单样本 t 检验，以评估我们数据的重要统计属性的显著性。
我们表明，印度语言的 LTASS 和 DR 比英语低 5-10dB 和 11dB。这些差异可能是由于印度语言中高频主导音素的使用频率较低，以及元音结尾的单词较多。我们还表明，印度语言之间的 LTASS 和 DR 没有显著差异。因此，我们提出了印度语言的共同 LTASS 和 DR。
我们表明，印度语言与英语的 LTASS 和 DR 存在显著差异。这些差异可能归因于印度语言的语音和语言特征。
