Finnish male university students' mean fundamental frequency in text reading in the 1990's and 2010's

Authors

• Anne-Maria Laukkanen Speech and voice research laboratory, Faculty of social sciences, Tampere University
• Teija Waaramaa Speech and voice research laboratory, Faculty of social sciences, Tampere University & Communication sciences, School of marketing and communication, University of Vaasa

DOI: https://doi.org/10.23997/pk.119691

Keywords:

fo, speaking pitch

Abstract

Speaking pitch varies individually and according to situation and culture. Average changesin the speaking pitch may reflect changes in the culture. As the content of speech and the situation largely affect pitch, the mean fundamental frequency (fo) of neutral text reading has been used as a rough estimate of habitual neutral speaking pitch. Our recent study showed that the mean fo in text reading of young Finnish female university students has significantly increased during the last three decades. This study focuses on males.

The material was obtained from the archive of studio recordings made at the Speech and Voice Research Laboratory in Tampere University. Text reading samples (duration 40–60 sec) from 95 Finnish male university students (age Md 24 years, range 19-30 years) were included. The students had not reported any voice or hearing problems, and the voice quality in the samples was evaluated to be normophonic. The samples were analyzed using Praat.

On average, the mean fo of the males in the 1990’s was 108 Hz (SD 16.9 Hz) and 111 Hz (SD 12.8 Hz) in the 2010’s. Mean within sample standard deviation for fo (in semitones) was 2.7 st (SD 0.68 st) and 2.9 st (SD 0.78 st), respectively. The differences were not statistically significant (Independent samples Student’s t-test, p > 0.05). The results seem to suggest that the speaking pitch of young Finnish males has not changed significantly during the time period studied.