What's in a voice: a system of regional and social acoustic characteristics based on the analysis of 100 british English voices

The present paper is an attempt at a systematic description of regional and social acoustic charaoteristios of the Eng lish voioe within the framewerk o! one the ory and method. In a step-by-step analysis a series of experiments with natural speeoh wert:~ oond.uoted. wi th regards to the following aooustio oharacteristios: fundamental !requenoy,intensity,duration,long-term average speotrum.The results give evidenoe to oonsistent oorrelation between regional and .. sooial aooustic characterhrtios in an individual voice which may be interpreted as an interplay of two major tendencies in British Englieh intonation,rhythm,temporal organisatton and. voice quali ty variation: oral :folk speeoh trad.i tion and. oul tural formal speeoh tradition.The assumption is supported. by the d.ata whioh demoostrate Fo/intensity dominanoe as pitoh and stress indioators,.different tendencies in rhythm. tempo and voioe qtxali ty variation.