PUB - Publikationen an der Universität Bielefeld

Human voices are notoriously difficult to characterize. A suitable and consistent description of voice characteristics is crucial in many applied disciplines such as speech therapy or forensics. The present study examines the ability of novice voice practitioners (students of clinical linguistics) to characterize voices before and after an expert explanation of laryngeal, supralaryngeal and prosodic voice features. Results show that even short expert explanations lead to a higher agreement between expert and novices. Especially voice characteristics related to laryngeal and supralaryngeal settings remain a major challenge to identify. We suggest that voice conversion technology may be employed in the future to assist the explanation of voice characteristics.