198 resultados para Unstressed Vowels
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Research on aphasia has struggled to identify apraxia of speech (AoS) as an independent deficit affecting a processing level separate from phonological assembly and motor implementation. This is because AoS is characterized by both phonological and phonetic errors and, therefore, can be interpreted as a combination of deficits at the phonological and the motoric level rather than as an independent impairment. We apply novel psycholinguistic analyses to the perceptually phonological errors made by 24 Italian aphasic patients. We show that only patients with relative high rate (>10%) of phonetic errors make sound errors which simplify the phonology of the target. Moreover, simplifications are strongly associated with other variables indicative of articulatory difficulties - such as a predominance of errors on consonants rather than vowels -but not with other measures - such as rate of words reproduced correctly or rates of lexical errors. These results indicate that sound errors cannot arise at a single phonological level because they are different in different patients. Instead, different patterns: (1) provide evidence for separate impairments and the existence of a level of articulatory planning/programming intermediate between phonological selection and motor implementation; (2) validate AoS as an independent impairment at this level, characterized by phonetic errors and phonological simplifications; (3) support the claim that linguistic principles of complexity have an articulatory basis since they only apply in patients with associated articulatory difficulties.
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Objective: The aim of this study was to design a novel experimental approach to investigate the morphological characteristics of auditory cortical responses elicited by rapidly changing synthesized speech sounds. Methods: Six sound-evoked magnetoencephalographic (MEG) responses were measured to a synthesized train of speech sounds using the vowels /e/ and /u/ in 17 normal hearing young adults. Responses were measured to: (i) the onset of the speech train, (ii) an F0 increment; (iii) an F0 decrement; (iv) an F2 decrement; (v) an F2 increment; and (vi) the offset of the speech train using short (jittered around 135. ms) and long (1500. ms) stimulus onset asynchronies (SOAs). The least squares (LS) deconvolution technique was used to disentangle the overlapping MEG responses in the short SOA condition only. Results: Comparison between the morphology of the recovered cortical responses in the short and long SOAs conditions showed high similarity, suggesting that the LS deconvolution technique was successful in disentangling the MEG waveforms. Waveform latencies and amplitudes were different for the two SOAs conditions and were influenced by the spectro-temporal properties of the sound sequence. The magnetic acoustic change complex (mACC) for the short SOA condition showed significantly lower amplitudes and shorter latencies compared to the long SOA condition. The F0 transition showed a larger reduction in amplitude from long to short SOA compared to the F2 transition. Lateralization of the cortical responses were observed under some stimulus conditions and appeared to be associated with the spectro-temporal properties of the acoustic stimulus. Conclusions: The LS deconvolution technique provides a new tool to study the properties of the auditory cortical response to rapidly changing sound stimuli. The presence of the cortical auditory evoked responses for rapid transition of synthesized speech stimuli suggests that the temporal code is preserved at the level of the auditory cortex. Further, the reduced amplitudes and shorter latencies might reflect intrinsic properties of the cortical neurons to rapidly presented sounds. Significance: This is the first demonstration of the separation of overlapping cortical responses to rapidly changing speech sounds and offers a potential new biomarker of discrimination of rapid transition of sound.
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In this paper, I report on the variety of English spoken in the relatively new community of Happy Valley-Goose Bay, Labrador. The efects of dialect contact and the process of dialect levelling (Trudgill 1986; Britain 1997, Kerswill and Williams 2000; Kerswill 2002) are observed by examining the development of several vowels in the Happy Valley- Goose Bay vowel system. In this community the migrant generation showed evidence of mixing. The frst generation showed the most evidence of levelling along with the emergence of new distinctions. The second generation showed some evidence of levelling, the emergence of new distinctions, and in some cases a return to patterns present in the migrant generation. These results indicate that diferent vowels within a dialect can move through the stages of dialect contact at diferent rates due to the multitude of infuences on the process of dialect contact.
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The aim of this research is to describe and analyze the realization of the /R/ at the end of the syllable (coda) in the city of Uberlândia-MG, taking into account variationist aspects and possible phonological phenomena that permeates the variable realization of this segment. We used the labovian variationist methodology, that gave us the needed support to investigate and systematize the variation of one linguistic community. The corpus was compound by 5139 occurrences of /R/, which 2528 were retroflex realizations, 2480 were deletions and 132 were occurrences of other segments. The informants of this research were stratified by: sex; age group; scholarly; they were born in Uberlândia or they arrived in this city before fifth birthday. Beyond the extralinguistic variables (sex, age group and scholarty), we established as linguistic variables: following context; previous context; tonicity of syllable; lexical item; coda position in the syllable; and, at last, the word size. After the statistic analisis computed by the Goldvarb software, the favoring contexts to the retroflex realization were: coronal segments in the following context; labial segments in the previous context; unstressed syllables; nouns and others (non verbs); and words with one syllable. The favoring contexts to deletion were: dorsal segments int the following context and verbs. The extra linguistic variables favored the variation less scholarty. So, the factors male sex and age group from 26 to 49 years favored the retroflex variant, while the factors female and the age group with more than 49 years favored the deletion.
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This research analyzes the average previous stressed vowels [ε] and [e] and later [ɔ] and [o] in nominal and verbal forms in the 1st person singular and 3rd person singular and plural in the present tense, specifically the umlaut process of mid vowels /e/ and /o/, which assimilate in /ε/ and /ᴐ/ in stressed position. The general objective of this research is to describe and quantify the occurrence of umlaut and subsequently analyze in which words there is regularity or not. As specific objectives we have: i) to compile and to label an oral, spontaneous, synchronic and regional corpus, from radio programs produced in the city of Ituiutaba, Minas Gerais; ii) to describe the characteristics of the corpus to be compiled; iii) to investigate the alternating timbre of mid vowels in stressed position; iv) to identify instances of nominal and verbal umlaut of the middle vowels in stressed position; v) to describe the identified cases of nominal and verbal umlaut; vi) to analyze the probable causes for the variation of the middle vowels. To perform the proposed analysis, we have adopted as a theoretical-methodological basis multi-representational models: Phonology of Use (BYBEE, 2001) and Exemplar Theory (PIERREHUMBERT, 2001) combined with the precepts of Corpus Linguistics (BEBER SARDINHA, 2004). The corpus consisted of 16 radio programs – eight political and eight religious – from the city of Ituiutaba-MG, with recordings of about 20 to 40 minutes. We note, by means of the results generated by WordSmith Tools® software, version 6.0 (SCOTT, 2012), that the analyzed forms show little variation, which shows that the umlaut is a process already lexicalized in participants of the radio programs analyzed. We conclude that the results converge with the proposal of the Phonology of Use (BYBEE, 2001; PHILLIPS, 1984) that less frequent words that have no phonetic environment conducive to change, are changed first.
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This research investigated the nasality of vowels in the spontaneous speech of inhabitants of the quilombola communities of Brejo dos Crioulos and Poções (MG). As a theoretical framework, we based on the assumptions of Phonetics and Phonology, in renowned scholars on the investigation of nasality (CAGLIARI, 1977; CÂMARA JR., 1984, 2013; BISOL, 2013; ABAURRE; PAGOTTO, 1996; SILVA, 2015), with subsidies of the Corpus Linguistics. Its general goal was to investigate the occurrence of nasality, in the dialect of these quilombola communities, and their linguistic behavior, considering the linguistic factors that can interfere in the phenomenon. Specifically it was aimed to a) detect the occurrence of nasalized vowels with the help of the resources that the Corpus Linguistics provides (Praat and WorldSmith Tolls); b) discriminate the different types of occurring contexts of nasalized vowels; c) make quantitative and qualitative analyzes of the nasalized vowels in the study corpus; d) describe and analyze the behavior of nasalized vowels and; e) contrast the values of F1 and F2 of the oral and nasalized vowels. It was hypothesized that the nasality happens because it is conditioned by the nasal segment following the nasalized vowel - phonological process of “assimilation” - its position as the primary stress and grammatical category. It was believed that the quilombolas communities of Brejo dos Crioulos and Poções produce nasalized vowels in their speech and this linguistic phenomenon is favored by the adjacent presence of consonants or nasal vowels. Furthermore, it was hypothesized that the values of F1 and F2 of oral and nasalized vowels in these communities are distinct. The following research questions were elaborated: (i) is the presence of nasalized vowels in the speech of these quilombola communities conditioned to the presence of a nasal sound segment? (ii) does the nasal sound segment following the nasalized vowel favor the occurrence of the nasality phenomenon? is there a difference between the values of F1 and F2 of the oral and nasalized vowels in both quilombola communities considered? To compose our corpus, 24 interviews recordings were used (12 female speakers and 12 male speakers), a total of 24 participants. It was found that the following nasal sound segment tends to condition the nasalized vowel. In general, it assimilates the lowering of the soft palate of nasal consonant segment immediately following, but there are cases of nasal vowel segment - regressive assimilation; the stressed syllable tends to favor the nasality, but it occurs in pretonic and postonic position as well; F1 and F2 values of oral and nasalized vowels in the quilombola communities of Poções and Brejo dos Crioulos are distinct: the group of Brejo dos Crioulos tends to produce the F1 of oral and nasalized vowels more lowered than the group of Poções and the F2, in a more anterior position. The nasality tends to occur in verbs and nouns, although it is not specific to a grammatical category. This research found cases of spurious nasalization, confirming previous studies. In turn, it revealed cases of lexical items with favorable context for nasalization, but with its non-occurrence. This last case, considered as the lowering of the uniform soft palate in PB, presented pronounced vowels without the soft palate lowering. That is, it was detected variation in the phenomenon of nasalization in PB. With this work, it was promoted the discussion about nasality, in order to contribute to the linguistic studies about the functioning of Brazilian Portuguese in this geographical context.
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It is widely accepted that infants begin learning their native language not by learning words, but by discovering features of the speech signal: consonants, vowels, and combinations of these sounds. Learning to understand words, as opposed to just perceiving their sounds, is said to come later, between 9 and 15 mo of age, when infants develop a capacity for interpreting others' goals and intentions. Here, we demonstrate that this consensus about the developmental sequence of human language learning is flawed: in fact, infants already know the meanings of several common words from the age of 6 mo onward. We presented 6- to 9-mo-old infants with sets of pictures to view while their parent named a picture in each set. Over this entire age range, infants directed their gaze to the named pictures, indicating their understanding of spoken words. Because the words were not trained in the laboratory, the results show that even young infants learn ordinary words through daily experience with language. This surprising accomplishment indicates that, contrary to prevailing beliefs, either infants can already grasp the referential intentions of adults at 6 mo or infants can learn words before this ability emerges. The precocious discovery of word meanings suggests a perspective in which learning vocabulary and learning the sound structure of spoken language go hand in hand as language acquisition begins.
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O presente artigo situa-se nos domínios de especialidade da Fonética e Fonologia. Pretende-se, com efeito, destacar algumas características fonético-fonológicas do português culto falado em Angola, nomeadamente no domínio do vocalismo, identificadas e recolhidas de enunciados orais de cidadãos angolanos e residentes em Angola, estudantes e profissionais com nível de instrução médio-alto. No falar português desses indivíduos constam elementos que se opõem a determinados usos e hábitos linguísticos normativos do Português europeu, recomendados como usos e hábitos oficiais. Procura-se, assim, demonstrar que, pelo menos em relação ao sistema vocálico, o português angolano das camadas cultas da população difere do Português europeu.
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This PhD thesis examines a phenomenon known as Monosyllabic Circumflexion (MC, hereafter) from a historical linguistics / phonological point of view. MC denotes a Lithuanian or Balto-Slavic phenomenon according to which long vowels and diphthongs in monosyllabic words exhibit a circumflex tone instead of the expected acute tone. It is observed in the following four categories: I. 3rd person future forms of monosyllabic stems (e.g., šõks ― šókti `to jump;' vy͂s ― výti `to drive') II. reflexes of PIE root nouns (e.g., Latv. gùovs `cow;' Lith. šuõ `dog') III. prepositions/adverbs (e.g., nuõ `from' ~ nùotaka `bride;' vė͂l `again' ~ Latv. vêl `still, yet,' tė͂ (permissive particle) < *teh1) IV. pronominal forms (e.g., tuõ ~ gerúoju `the good (m.~sg.~instr.),' tie͂ ~ tíeji `id. (pl.nom)'). The unexpected circumflex tone in these categories is problematic and important for the solution of a Balto-Slavic accentological question on the etymological background of acute and non-acute tones. The aim of this thesis is to partially contribute to the solution of this problem by establishing the existence of MC and its relative chronology. The first category, the 3rd person future forms, provides a substantial number of examples and counterexamples. The examination of them has revealed the fact that the counterexamples constitute a morpho-semantic group of verbs whose future stems underwent considerable morphological changes in the prehistory, hence not exhibiting MC. This shows that the regular tonal reflex of the 3rd person future forms of monosyllabic acute stem must be circumflex, allowing for the establishment of MC as a regular phonological process, although this category does not provide much information on the relative chronology of MC. The second category, the reflexes of Proto-Indo-European root nouns, gives an important clue as to where MC is located in the relative chronology of Balto-Slavic sound changes. Next, there is a discussion of whether the results of the examinations of the first two categories can be maintained for the data of the third and fourth categories, which show an irregular distribution of the acute and circumflex tones in monosyllabic forms. It is shown that various morphological factors, such as homonymic clashes within the paradigms for pronouns, can explain why some monosyllabic forms have acute tone. Also, the linguistic feature of West Aukštaitian dialects of Lithuanian that tend to preserve the results of MC is revealed. These dialects are known to have played an important role in the formation of standard Lithuanian. In this way, the monosyllabic forms with unexpected circumflex tone in Lithuanian are explained as a combination of MC in the Proto-Balto-Slavic time and the dialectal tendency of West Aukštaitian dialects of Lithuanian.
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O stress é a doença da actualidade, devido à exigência e à pressão emocional que o meio pode exercer sobre todas as pessoas, quer no seu ambiente pessoal quer no ambiente profissional. O termo stress serve cada vez mais como justificação ou forma de expressão de irritações, mal-estar físico e mental, cansaço, ansiedade e depressões. Todavia torna-se pertinente percebermos a evolução do stress enquanto conceito e enquanto doença. Neste trabalho contextualizamos o stress no âmbito da Emergência Pré – Hospitalar, explorando-o, avaliando-o e analisando-o, de modo a podermos perceber os níveis de stress e de que forma os Profissionais de Emergência a ele estão sujeitos. Considerando a base teórica deste estudo definimos, como objectivo geral do trabalho, a avaliação de níveis e factores de stress percepcionados pelos profissionais de emergência médica e como objectivos específicos do estudo a descrever e caracterizar, a nível da região centro, os indivíduos que desempenham funções na emergência préhospitalar, verificar a percepção dos mesmos no que respeita ao stress na sua vida profissional, conhecer como percepcionam os níveis de stress em situações profissionais de emergência e identificar a sua percepção no que concerne aos níveis de stress diário no seu quotidiano. Com estes objectivos, utilizamos uma amostra de 184 profissionais de Emergência Médica divididos por quatro profissões [Médicos, Enfermeiros, Técnicos de Ambulância de Emergência (TAE) e Operadores de Central de Emergência Médica(OPCEM)], com idades compreendidas entre os 20 e os 56 anos. Realizámos ainda um estudo descritivo explorando os questionários de stress no INEM (Instituto Nacional de Emergência Médica) e o Questionário de Vulnerabilidade do Stress com variáveis do estudo demográfico. Podemos concluir que o stress está presente nas actividades de emergência. A sua presença relaciona-se, por um lado, com uma maior ou menor discriminação dos factores stressantes e, por outro, numa maior ou menor centração no sujeito, nomeadamente, um maior perfeccionismo e intolerância à frustração que se apresentam como distressantes para a actividade profissional de emergência. Os aspectos estudados permitem-nos clarificar o sentido e a utilidade do conceito, a sua operacionalidade e a sua importância nos profissionais de emergência. / Stress is the disease of our time, due to the requirement and emotional pressure that the media can have on all people, both in their personal environment and in the professional environment. The word stress increasingly serves as a justification or form of expression of irritation, physical discomfort and mental fatigue, anxiety and depression. However it is pertinent to realize the evolution of stress as a concept and as a disease. In this work, we contextualize under the stress of the Pre - Hospital Emergency, exploring it, assessing it and analyzing it, so you can see the stress levels and how the Emergency Professionals are subject to it. Whereas the theoretical basis of this study as a strategic objective of the work, the assessment of levels and stress factors perceived by medical emergency professionals and specific objectives of the study description and characterization, the level of the center, individuals who perform functions in pre-hospital emergency, check their perception with regard to the stress in your life, know how they experience the stress levels of professionals in emergency situations and identify the perceptions of individuals regarding the levels of daily stress in their daily lives. For this we used a sample of 184 professionals of Medical Emergency divided by four professions [(Doctors, Nurses, Technicians Ambulance Emergency (TAE), Operators of Emergency Medical Center (OPCEM)], aged 20 to 56 years. We conducted a descriptive study also exploring the questionnaires of stress in INEM(National Institute of Medical Emergency) and Vulnerability Questionnaire Stress with variables of the study population. We can conclude that stress is present in emergency activities. Its presence is related to, first, with more or less stressful factors of discrimination and, secondly, a greater or lesser concentration on the subject, in particular, greater perfectionism and intolerance to frustration that stand as unstressed for the activity of emergency professionals. The areas studied will clarify the meaning and usefulness of the concept, its operation and its importance in day-to-day occupation of emergency.
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In the present study, Korean-English bilingual (KEB) and Korean monolingual (KM) children, between the ages of 8 and 13 years, and KEB adults, ages 18 and older, were examined with one speech perception task, called the Nonsense Syllable Confusion Matrix (NSCM) task (Allen, 2005), and two production tasks, called the Nonsense Syllable Imitation Task (NSIT) and the Nonword Repetition Task (NRT; Dollaghan & Campbell, 1998). The present study examined (a) which English sounds on the NSCM task were identified less well, presumably due to interference from Korean phonology, in bilinguals learning English as a second language (L2) and in monolinguals learning English as a foreign language (FL); (b) which English phonemes on the NSIT were more challenging for bilinguals and monolinguals to produce; (c) whether perception on the NSCM task is related to production on the NSIT, or phonological awareness, as measured by the NRT; and (d) whether perception and production differ in three age-language status groups (i.e., KEB children, KEB adults, and KM children) and in three proficiency subgroups of KEB children (i.e., English-dominant, ED; balanced, BAL; and Korean-dominant, KD). In order to determine English proficiency in each group, language samples were extensively and rigorously analyzed, using software, called Systematic Analysis of Language Transcripts (SALT). Length of samples in complete and intelligible utterances, number of different and total words (NDW and NTW, respectively), speech rate in words per minute (WPM), and number of grammatical errors, mazes, and abandoned utterances were measured and compared among the three initial groups and the three proficiency subgroups. Results of the language sample analysis (LSA) showed significant group differences only between the KEBs and the KM children, but not between the KEB children and adults. Nonetheless, compared to normative means (from a sample length- and age-matched database provided by SALT), the KEB adult group and the KD subgroup produced English at significantly slower speech rates than expected for monolingual, English-speaking counterparts. Two existing models of bilingual speech perception and production—the Speech Learning Model or SLM (Flege, 1987, 1992) and the Perceptual Assimilation Model or PAM (Best, McRoberts, & Sithole, 1988; Best, McRoberts, & Goodell, 2001)—were considered to see if they could account for the perceptual and production patterns evident in the present study. The selected English sounds for stimuli in the NSCM task and the NSIT were 10 consonants, /p, b, k, g, f, θ, s, z, ʧ, ʤ/, and 3 vowels /I, ɛ, æ/, which were used to create 30 nonsense syllables in a consonant-vowel structure. Based on phonetic or phonemic differences between the two languages, English sounds were categorized either as familiar sounds—namely, English sounds that are similar, but not identical, to L1 Korean, including /p, k, s, ʧ, ɛ/—or unfamiliar sounds—namely, English sounds that are new to L1, including /b, g, f, θ, z, ʤ, I, æ/. The results of the NSCM task showed that (a) consonants were perceived correctly more often than vowels, (b) familiar sounds were perceived correctly more often than unfamiliar ones, and (c) familiar consonants were perceived correctly more often than unfamiliar ones across the three age-language status groups and across the three proficiency subgroups; and (d) the KEB children perceived correctly more often than the KEB adults, the KEB children and adults perceived correctly more often than the KM children, and the ED and BAL subgroups perceived correctly more often than the KD subgroup. The results of the NSIT showed (a) consonants were produced more accurately than vowels, and (b) familiar sounds were produced more accurately than unfamiliar ones, across the three age-language status groups. Also, (c) familiar consonants were produced more accurately than unfamiliar ones in the KEB and KM child groups, and (d) unfamiliar vowels were produced more accurately than a familiar one in the KEB child group, but the reverse was true in the KEB adult and KM child groups. The KEB children produced sounds correctly significantly more often than the KM children and the KEB adults, though the percent correct differences were smaller than for perception. Production differences were not found among the three proficiency subgroups. Perception on the NSCM task was compared to production on the NSIT and NRT. Weak positive correlations were found between perception and production (NSIT) for unfamiliar consonants and sounds, whereas a weak negative correlation was found for unfamiliar vowels. Several correlations were significant for perceptual performance on the NSCM task and overall production performance on the NRT: for unfamiliar consonants, unfamiliar vowels, unfamiliar sounds, consonants, vowels, and overall performance on the NSCM task. Nonetheless, no significant correlation was found between production on the NSIT and NRT. Evidently these are two very different production tasks, where immediate imitation of single syllables on the NSIT results in high performance for all groups. Findings of the present study suggest that (a) perception and production of L2 consonants differ from those of vowels; (b) perception and production of L2 sounds involve an interaction of sound type and familiarity; (c) a weak relation exists between perception and production performance for unfamiliar sounds; and (d) L2 experience generally predicts perceptual and production performance. The present study yields several conclusions. The first is that familiarity of sounds is an important influence on L2 learning, as claimed by both SLM and PAM. In the present study, familiar sounds were perceived and produced correctly more often than unfamiliar ones in most cases, in keeping with PAM, though experienced L2 learners (i.e., the KEB children) produced unfamiliar vowels better than familiar ones, in keeping with SLM. Nonetheless, the second conclusion is that neither SLM nor PAM consistently and thoroughly explains the results of the present study. This is because both theories assume that the influence of L1 on the perception of L2 consonants and vowels works in the same way as for production of them. The third and fourth conclusions are two proposed arguments: that perception and production of consonants are different than for vowels, and that sound type interacts with familiarity and L2 experience. These two arguments can best explain the current findings. These findings may help us to develop educational curricula for bilingual individuals listening to and articulating English. Further, the extensive analysis of spontaneous speech in the present study should contribute to the specification of parameters for normal language development and function in Korean-English bilingual children and adults.
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Wydział Anglistyki
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Forensic speaker comparison exams have complex characteristics, demanding a long time for manual analysis. A method for automatic recognition of vowels, providing feature extraction for acoustic analysis is proposed, aiming to contribute as a support tool in these exams. The proposal is based in formant measurements by LPC (Linear Predictive Coding), selectively by fundamental frequency detection, zero crossing rate, bandwidth and continuity, with the clustering being done by the k-means method. Experiments using samples from three different databases have shown promising results, in which the regions corresponding to five of the Brasilian Portuguese vowels were successfully located, providing visualization of a speaker’s vocal tract behavior, as well as the detection of segments corresponding to target vowels.
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Voice acoustic analysis is becoming more and more usefúl in diagnosis of voice disorders or laryngological pathologies. The facility to record a voice sigiial is an advantage over other invasive techniques. This paper presents the statistical analyzes ofa set of voice parameters like jitter, shimmer and HNR over a 4 groups of subjects vvith dysphonia, fünctional dysphonia, hyperfünctional dysphonia, and psychogenic dysphonia and a control group. No statistical signifícance differences over pathologic groups were found but clear tendencies can be seen between pathologic and control group. The tendencies indicates this parameters as a good features to be used in an intelligent diagnosis system, moreover the jitter and shimmer parameters measured over different tones and vowels.
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Phonation distortion leaves relevant marks in a speaker's biometric profile. Dysphonic voice production may be used for biometrical speaker characterization. In the present paper phonation features derived from the glottal source (GS) parameterization, after vocal tract inversion, is proposed for dysphonic voice characterization in Speaker Verification tasks. The glottal source derived parameters are matched in a forensic evaluation framework defining a distance-based metric specification. The phonation segments used in the study are derived from fillers, long vowels, and other phonation segments produced in spontaneous telephone conversations. Phonated segments from a telephonic database of 100 male Spanish native speakers are combined in a 10-fold cross-validation task to produce the set of quality measurements outlined in the paper. Shimmer, mucosal wave correlate, vocal fold cover biomechanical parameter unbalance and a subset of the GS cepstral profile produce accuracy rates as high as 99.57 for a wide threshold interval (62.08-75.04%). An Equal Error Rate of 0.64 % can be granted. The proposed metric framework is shown to behave more fairly than classical likelihood ratios in supporting the hypothesis of the defense vs that of the prosecution, thus ofering a more reliable evaluation scoring. Possible applications are Speaker Verification and Dysphonic Voice Grading.