THE LONG-TERRI SPECTRAL MEASUREhlENT OF VOICE QUALITY

As a long-term vocal feature, voice quality can function as a marker of individuality, bc a carricr of personality Characteristics and affect, as \vclI as being characteristic of social and ethnic groups In measuring voice quality acoustically, therefore, the most appropriate measure is one that reflects this long-term nature, particularly when perceptual judgments are to bc related to the acoustic values. One potentially useful long-term acoustic measure of voice quality is the Iqng-term average spectrum. This paper reviews the succcss of the long-term average spectrum in discriminating voice qualities, and the consequent usefulness to researchers \vorking in such areas as phonetics, communications, cross-cultural studies, personality and the social psychology of languagc. A’cyivords: voice quality, long-term average spectrum, social marker, personality marke