Formant Characteristics of English-speaking Lebanese Men.

OBJECTIVE To report the formant characteristics of English-speaking Lebanese men during steady prolongation of vowels /a/ and /i/. DESIGN Cross-sectional study involving volunteer participants. PARTICIPANTS Fifty healthy English-speaking males with a mean age of 32 ± 4.027 years and a range of 42 years (18-60). MATERIALS AND METHODS A total of 50 healthy males between the age of 18 and 60 were recruited for the study. Each subject was asked to phonate a sustained /a/ and /i/ sound at a comfortable pitch and intensity level. Measures were made in real-time and formant frequencies across F1, F2, F3 and F4 were determined using the Real-time Spectrogram VP 3950 (Kay Elemetrics, New Jersey). MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES The formant frequencies across F1, F2, F3 and F4 were recorded. RESULTS For the vowel /a/, the mean values of F1, F2, F3 and F4 were 622.86 ± 61.293 Hz, 1264 ± 78.602 Hz, 2610.90 ± 206.359 Hz and 3483.56 ± 206.833 Hz, respectively. For the vowel /i/, the corresponding values were 378.88 ± 51.825 Hz, 2210.34 ± 124.077 Hz, 2847 ± 168.770 Hz and 3576.82 ± 242.760 Hz, respectively. CONCLUSION Formant characteristics vary among cultures and ethnic groups.