A preliminary study of the consequences of intonation for the voice source

This paper reports the results of a pilot study on how intonational variables interact to determine characteristics of the voice source in English. By systematic variation of melody and voice levels within a sentence "Go from large up largest", it was possible to collect data on high and low FO levels at 5 different voice intensity levels. Voice source parameters sampled from these conditions show systematic trends that do not in all respecls conform with simple assumptions about underlying laryngeal behaviour and subglottal pressures. Thus, contrary to expectation, pulse skewing towards the right increased with FO level at a constant voice effort. Pulse skewing also increased with overiill voice effort. These phenomena are discussed with respect to general theory and previous investigations.