Voice quality analysis from a phonetic perspective: Voice Profile Analysis Scheme (VPAS) Profile for Brazilian Portuguese

The present study aimed at presenting the instructional material developed in the Brazilian Portuguese context to apply the Voice Profile Analysis Scheme-VPAS (PB-VPAS) for the perceptual evaluation of voice quality and at reporting preliminary data analyzed from a group of six judges who attended a workshop on VPAS. The adaptation of the VPAS into Brazilian Portuguese was accomplished and the corpus to be used in the training of judges was built up. Furthermore, the voice quality database necessary for the application of the protocol was recorded, evaluated by two expertise subjects and integrated into the instructive material of the PB-VPAS. Preliminary data from six judges (linguists and speech therapists) who attended a PB-VPAS workshop using the material described (in 2 stages: before and after a 20-hour workshop on VPAS) are presented. The relevance of the application of PB-VPAS to the analysis of voice disorders and expressiveness uses of voice quality is pointed out.