On sentence content, speaker familiarity and dialect

1. On sentence content, speaker familiarity and dialect Elisabeth Zetterholm, Erik J. Eriksson & Kirk P.H. Sullivan IAFPA 2006

2. Factors that may affect speaker identification The listeners’… • languge and dialect familiarity • familiarity with the speaker • age • semantic expectation • memory • emotional state IAFPA 2006

3. Language familiarity Hollien (2002): ’Most investigators have come to the conclusion that listeners find it difficult to identify talkers when they are speaking in a language other than their own’. • Distracts the listener • Subtle nuances in the language itself can be masked or lost • Tend to reduce the number of available segmental constrasts What about Swedish listeners and their different dialectal background? IAFPA 2006

4. A synthesis of results This presentation focus on the listeners’ semantic expectation, speaker familiarity, different dialect background and their age • A study of one Swedish bidialectal male speaker • Voice imitation of one Swedish politician • political speech • cooking speech - ’how to bake a cake’ IAFPA 2006

5. One Swedish bidialectal speaker • The Princess and the Pea • One male bidialectal Swede • Four foils • Listeners from Scania and Northern Sweden IAFPA 2006

6. The listeners • Native speakers of Swedish from the region of Scania and the Northern Sweden • 80 listeners – 50% male, 50% female • 40 listeners from Scania • 10 in each test • 40 listeners from Northern Sweden • 10 in each test IAFPA 2006

7. Four voice line-up The composition of the voice identification tests SC = Scania, ST = Stockholm IAFPA 2006

8. Results – all listenersCan the bidialectal speaker’s voice be identified? IAFPA 2006

9. Results - dialect shifting tests Test 1: J2 training voice J1 target voice Inf2 – same dialect area as J2 Test 2: J1 training voice J2 target voice Inf3 – same dialect area as J1 IAFPA 2006

10. Results – listeners from North and SouthA regional difference? Control tests Dialect shifting tests IAFPA 2006

11. Imitation of one Swedish politican POLITICAL SPEECH • Professional imitation of Carl Bildt by AM • Carl Bildt (Swedish politician) • AM natural voice • 4 other male adult speakers of Swedish COOKING SPEECH • Professional imitation of Carl Bildt by AM IAFPA 2006

12. The listeners • Exp 1 (political familiarisation passage) 128 adults 56 teens • Exp 2 (cooking familiarisation passage) 121 adults 57 teens IAFPA 2006

13. Results – the topic Political speech Cooking speech IAFPA 2006

14. Speaker familiarity IAFPA 2006

15. Results – speaker familiarity FCB+ FCB- Political speech Cooking speech IAFPA 2006

16. Results – different dialect background and age IAFPA 2006

17. Speaker and dialect familiarity IAFPA 2006

18. Discussion - sentence content • Expectation • if you know the speaker/the target voice • if you use the same topic in the line-up as in the familiarization passage IAFPA 2006

19. Discussion - familiarity with the speaker or the target voice • Improve the results in a speaker recognition test • A voice imitation often exaggerated for entertainment – and for recognition • Support other studies in this area • among others; Hollien, Majewski & Doherty 1983, Yarmey 1995 IAFPA 2006

20. Discussion - familiarity with the dialect • Familiarity with the dialect increase the identification rate… • …but not in a dialect switch-condition (’native’ dialect) • Listeners’ dialectal background seem to have an impact, especially if they are not familiar with the target voice IAFPA 2006

21. Thanks! Acknowledgements: Funded by a grant from Band of Swedish Tercentenary Foundation Dnr K2002-1121:1-4 to Umeå University for the project ’Imitated voices: A research project with applications for security and the law’. IAFPA 2006