Fundamental Frequency and Perturbation Measures of Sustained Vowels in Malaysian Malay Children Between 7 and 12 Years Old

Objective The study is going to investigate the fundamental frequency (F0) and perturbation measures of sustained vowels in 360 native Malaysian Malay children aged between 7 and 12 years using acoustical analysis. Methods Praat software (Boersma and Weenink, University of Amsterdam, The Netherlands) was used to analyze the F0 and perturbation measures of the sustained vowels. Statistical analyses were conducted to determine the significant differences in F0 and perturbation measures across the vowels, sex, and age groups. Results The mean F0 of Malaysian Malay male and female children were reported at 240آ آ±آ 34.88 and 254.48آ آ±آ 23.35آ Hz, respectively. The jitter (Jitt), relative average perturbation (RAP), five-point period perturbation quotient (PPQ5), shimmer (Shim), and 11-point amplitude perturbation quotient (APQ11) of Malaysian male children were reported at 0.43آ آ±آ 0.26%, 0.25آ آ±آ 0.16%, 0.26آ آ±آ 0.15%, 2.48آ آ±آ 1.61%, and 1.75آ آ±آ 1.04%, respectively. As for female children, the Jitt, RAP, PPQ5, Shim, and APQ11 were reported at 0.42آ آ±آ 0.22%, 0.25آ آ±آ 0.14%, 0.25آ آ±آ 0.13%, 2.47آ آ±آ 1.53%, and 1.75آ آ±آ 1.10%, respectively. Conclusions No significant differences in F0 were reported across the Malay vowels for both males and females. Malay females had significantly higher F0 than that in Malay males at the age of 8, 10, and 12 years. Malaysian Malay children underwent the nonsystematic decrement in F0 across the age groups. Significant differences in F0 were found across the age groups. Significant differences in perturbation measures were observed across the vowels in certain age groups of Malay males and females. Generally, no significant differences in perturbation measures between the sex were observed in all the age groups and vowels. No significant differences in all the perturbation measures across the age groups were reported in both Malaysian Malay male and female children.