Assessing respiratory contributions to f 0 declination in German across varying speech tasks and respiratory demands
Many past studies have sought to determine the factors that affect f0 declination, and the physiological underpinnings of the phenomenon. This study assessed the relation between respiration and f0 declination by means of simultaneous acoustic and respiratory recordings from read and spontaneous speech from speakers of German. Within the respective Intonational Phrase unit, we analysed the effect of the number of syllables and voiceless obstruents. Both factors could influence the slope of either f0 declination or rib cage movement. If respiration and f0 declination are related physiologically, their relationship might also be modulated by either one or both factors. Our results show consistently for both speech tasks that the slope of the rib cage movement is not related with f0 declination when length and consonant content vary. Furthermore f0 slopes are generally shallower in spontaneous than in read speech. Finally, although a higher number of voiceless obstruents yielded a greater rib cage compression, it did not affect f0 declination. These results suggest that although f0 declination occurs in many languages, it might not have a purely physiological origin in breathing, but rather reflects cognitive processing which allows speakers to look ahead when planning their utterances.