Pulsed Excitation Source in a Speech Signal

The properties of a speech burst of closure are studied by using a database of 39 speakers with single-digit and multi-digit numerals and parallel recording of signals on a telephone handset and a directional microphone. A speech burst is detected by short-term and long-term detectors of spectral-temporal inhomogeneities and by a detector for the measure of similarity between the eigenfunctions of a consonant burst spectrum and a current speech burst spectrum. The probability for the presence of a voiced or voiceless closure is estimated in the spaces of an amplitude spectrum and a group delay spectrum from the ratio between the energies in the high- and low-frequency regions. The place of articulation for a back-lingual consonant influences the probability distribution for the duration of the interval between the onsets of a speech burst and a vowel, for the frequency of a peak with a maximum amplitude in the high-frequency region, for the ratio between the energies in the spectral regions of high and low frequencies of a speech burst, and also for the measure of similarity between the eigenfunctions of a consonant burst spectrum and a current speech burst spectrum.