Fundamental Frequency and Pitch

doi:10.1017/9781108644198.014

13 - Fundamental Frequency and Pitch

from Section III - Measuring Speech

Published online by Cambridge University Press: 11 November 2021

Daniel Hirst and

Céline De Looze

Edited by

Rachael-Anne Knight and

Jane Setter

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Rachael-Anne Knight: Affiliation:
City, University of London
Jane Setter: Affiliation:
University of Reading

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Summary

Pitch, the subjective impression of whether individual speech sounds are perceived as relatively high or low, is an important characteristic of spoken language, contributing in some languages to the lexical identity of words and in all languages to the perception of the intonation pattern of utterances. Pitch corresponds to the physiological parameter of the frequency of vibration of the vocal folds, the fundamental frequency, which can be measured in cycles per second or hertz.Estimating and measuring fundamental frequency and modelling pitch is not easy. After presenting some automatic models of pitch, we address issues related to the detection and measurement of fundamental frequency, including tracking/detection errors, and explain how many of these errors can be avoided by the appropriate choice of pitch ceiling and floor settings. We finally discuss the use of acoustic scales (linear, logarithmic, psychoacoustic) for the measurement of pitch. Based on evidence from recent findings in neuroanatomy, neurophysiology, behavioural studies and speech production, we suggest that a new scale, the Octave-Median (OMe) scale, appears to be more natural for the study of speech prosody.

Keywords

pitch fundamental frequency (f0)automatic pitch detection pitch measurement pitch scales micromelodic effects Momel algorithm chromatic repetition Octave Median scale (OMe)

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Type: Chapter
Information: The Cambridge Handbook of Phonetics , pp. 336 - 361

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/9781108644198.014 [Opens in a new window]

Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Print publication year: 2021

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