Transformation from normal to twang and sob vocal qualities

Vocal qualities such as twang and sob are produced when the speaker manipulates the pharyngeal and laryngeal regions of the throat. The laryngeal manipulations involve adjustments to the larynx with respect to mode of vibration and position in the throat. The epilaryngeal and pharyngeal regions of the vocal tract are then constricted or expanded to obtain the appropriate quality. In this study an attempt is made to simulate these qualities by analyzing a subject attempting a normal to affected‐quality transformation. A videolaryngoscopic examination and LPC analysis of steady‐state vowels was used to parametrize the changes occurring in the articulation. These changes were assumed to apply to sentence level speech. A glottal‐pulse driven linear prediction model was then used to modify sentence level speech. The results suggest that appropriate adjustments in formant locations (via rotations in the pole‐zero domain) can evoke the twang and sob qualities.