Acoustic analysis of voice gender in Hijazi Arabic

Abstract

Knowledge about vowel-related acoustic features and their role in gendered speech remains limited, especially in Hijazi Arabic. While dynamic analysis, particularly vowel-inherent spectral change, offers advantages, Arabic vowel studies have focused on single-point acoustic features. This study analyzes Hijazi Arabic vowels across genders. It examines F0, F1, F2, and duration using static and dynamic approaches, including trajectory direction, trajectory length, and rate of change. Data were collected from 20 native speakers producing vowels in different consonantal contexts. Measurements used one midpoint for static analysis and five points for dynamic analysis. Results show gender differences, with female speakers generally exhibiting higher F0 and formant values and longer durations. Dynamic features provided additional descriptive insights and improved classification accuracy by 6.6% across F0, F1, and F2, with F0 as the strongest predictor.