Spectral Analysis of Speech Sounds

a technique for determining the acoustic structure of speech sounds. A speech sound is a complex acoustic signal that varies continuously with time and is formed of a number of frequency components of differing intensities (see).

Automatic electroacoustic instruments, such as spectrometers and spectrographs, are used in the spectral analysis of speech sounds. The sound entering the instrument—for example, through a microphone—passes through electroacoustic filters (channels), each with a certain passband, and is broken down into its frequency components. These components may be observed on a screen or photographed. Dynamic spectrographs are capable of analyzing running speech; the spectrograms obtained in this case reflect the continuity of the transition from one sound to another.