“Young” and “Old” Voices: the prosodic auto-transplantation technique for speaker’s age recognition

The present study is intended to figure out the extent to which
prosody and intonation affect listeners’ ability to estimate the
speaker’s age. The performance of a 40-year old anchorman
and another by the same speaker at the age of 80 were spectroacoustically
analyzed in order to identify the prosodic features
of a “young” and an “old” voice. The results of the analysis
have shown significant differences between the two voices on
a suprasegmental level. To test the effects of these differences
on a perceptual level, through the prosodic transplantation
technique, the F0 values and the durations of segments and
silences were transferred from the “young” to the “old” voice
and viceversa. Two age recognition tests, based on original
and transplanted voices, were administered to Italian listeners.
The results of perceptual tests have confirmed the strict
relationship between some rhythmic and prosodic features and
the speaker’s age and have demonstrated the effectiveness of
the transplantation technique. With advancing age, articulation
rate and speech rate slow down, voice register rises and tonal
range widens. Moreover, the “old” voice is also characterized
by a higher percentage of vocalic portion which determines a
shift of the Italian rhythm towards the isomoraic pattern.