@inproceedings{lameris-etal-2024-role,
    title = "The Role of Creaky Voice in Turn Taking and the Perception of Speaker Stance: Experiments Using Controllable {TTS}",
    author = "Lameris, Harm  and
      Szekely, Eva  and
      Gustafson, Joakim",
    editor = "Calzolari, Nicoletta  and
      Kan, Min-Yen  and
      Hoste, Veronique  and
      Lenci, Alessandro  and
      Sakti, Sakriani  and
      Xue, Nianwen",
    booktitle = "Proceedings of the 2024 Joint International Conference on Computational Linguistics, Language Resources and Evaluation (LREC-COLING 2024)",
    month = may,
    year = "2024",
    address = "Torino, Italia",
    publisher = "ELRA and ICCL",
    url = "https://aclanthology.org/2024.lrec-main.1396",
    pages = "16058--16065",
    abstract = "Recent advancements in spontaneous text-to-speech (TTS) have enabled the realistic synthesis of creaky voice, a voice quality known for its diverse pragmatic and paralinguistic functions. In this study, we used synthesized creaky voice in perceptual tests, to explore how listeners without formal training perceive two distinct types of creaky voice. We annotated a spontaneous speech corpus using creaky voice detection tools and modified a neural TTS engine with a creaky phonation embedding to control the presence of creaky phonation in the synthesized speech. We performed an objective analysis using a creak detection tool which revealed significant differences in creaky phonation levels between the two creaky voice types and modal voice. Two subjective listening experiments were performed to investigate the effect of creaky voice on perceived certainty, valence, sarcasm, and turn finality. Participants rated non-positional creak as less certain, less positive, and more indicative of turn finality, while positional creak was rated significantly more turn final compared to modal phonation.",
}

Recent advancements in spontaneous text-to-speech (TTS) have enabled the realistic synthesis of creaky voice, a voice quality known for its diverse pragmatic and paralinguistic functions. In this study, we used synthesized creaky voice in perceptual tests, to explore how listeners without formal training perceive two distinct types of creaky voice. We annotated a spontaneous speech corpus using creaky voice detection tools and modified a neural TTS engine with a creaky phonation embedding to control the presence of creaky phonation in the synthesized speech. We performed an objective analysis using a creak detection tool which revealed significant differences in creaky phonation levels between the two creaky voice types and modal voice. Two subjective listening experiments were performed to investigate the effect of creaky voice on perceived certainty, valence, sarcasm, and turn finality. Participants rated non-positional creak as less certain, less positive, and more indicative of turn finality, while positional creak was rated significantly more turn final compared to modal phonation.
Lameris, Harm Szekely, Eva Gustafson, Joakim
The Role of Creaky Voice in Turn Taking and the Perception of Speaker Stance: Experiments Using Controllable TTS