Pre-production parameters

These parameters include everything that influences the speech before it is uttered. They are typically speaker-specific and include speaking style, Lombard effect s, dialects , mental and physical health , speech impairment , etc.

Pitch  or fundamental frequency

  The main variability in this parameter is between male and female speakers, the pitch  of the women being roughly one octave higher than that of men. Typical values are 200Hz for female speech and 100Hz for male speech [Thielen (1992)]. The pitch  of children is so different that they are often treated as ``the third sex'' .

Speaking rate 

This parameter can be measured in words/minute for representative words, or as a ratio with respect to the average of all speakers.

Long term speech spectrum

This is actually a set of parameters; a representation can be the average energy in third octave bands.

Talking style 

This includes amplitude (from whisper to shouting), fluency , clarity, etc. These are generally no objective measures.

Miscellaneous

Other characteristics, such as dialect , physical health , speech impairment .