Acoustic characteristics and the underlying rules of intonation of the common Japanese used by radio and television announcers

Announcements and narrations broadcast over radio and television have been serving in recent years as the most effective means for spreading the spoken version of the common Japanese, especially in regards to intonation. No formal studies, however, seem to have been conducted on the objective analysis and formulation of the rules of intonation of the common Japanese. The present work investigates the acoustical and perceptual characteristics of the intonation of the common Japanese used by radio and television announcers, and attempts to derive rules of intonation for efficient transmission of spoken messages. The results are expected to be of value both for high-quality speech synthesis and for scientific and objective teaching of the spoken version of the common Japanese.