What is “Twangâ€‌?

A single female professional vocal artist and pedagogue sang examples of “twangâ€‌ and neutral voice quality, which a panel of experts classified, in almost complete agreement with the singerʹs intentions. Subglottal pressure was measured as the oral pressure during the occlusion during the syllable /pae/. This pressure tended to be higher in “twang,â€‌ whereas the sound pressure level (SPL) was invariably higher. Voice source properties and formant frequencies were analyzed by inverse filtering. In “twang,â€‌ as compared with neutral, the closed quotient was greater, the pulse amplitude and the fundamental were weaker, and the normalized amplitude tended to be lower, whereas formants 1 and 2 were higher and 3 and 5 were lower. The formant differences, which appeared to be the main cause of the SPL differences, were more important than the source differences for the perception of “twanginess.â€‌ As resonatory effects occur independently of the voice source, the formant frequencies in “twangâ€‌ may reflect a vocal strategy that is advantageous from the point of view of vocal hygiene.