Correlations between body heights and formant frequencies in young male speakers: a pilot study

This paper investigates the relationships between body height and formant frequencies in young male adults. A total of 121 speakers were recorded uttering four Chinese vowels. The body height data of the speakers was close to be normally distributed, with a large range and standard deviation. Three subsets of formant parameters: the individual first four formant frequencies, formant interspaces and the sum of different formant frequencies were investigated. Moderate but significant negative relationships were found between most formant parameters of the three subsets and height. Comparatively, the strongest correlations were found between the subset of different formant frequency summations and height. A regression function was also given through multiple regression analysis. These results imply that formant parameters, especially the sum of different formant frequencies, can provide a relatively accurate indication of male speakers´ heights.