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Identification of Indian languages using multi-level spectral and prosodic features

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Abstract

In this paper spectral and prosodic features extracted from different levels are explored for analyzing the language specific information present in speech. In this work, spectral features extracted from frames of 20 ms (block processing), individual pitch cycles (pitch synchronous analysis) and glottal closure regions are used for discriminating the languages. Prosodic features extracted from syllable, tri-syllable and multi-word (phrase) levels are proposed in addition to spectral features for capturing the language specific information. In this study, language specific prosody is represented by intonation, rhythm and stress features at syllable and tri-syllable (words) levels, whereas temporal variations in fundamental frequency (F 0 contour), durations of syllables and temporal variations in intensities (energy contour) are used to represent the prosody at multi-word (phrase) level. For analyzing the language specific information in the proposed features, Indian language speech database (IITKGP-MLILSC) is used. Gaussian mixture models are used to capture the language specific information from the proposed features. The evaluation results indicate that language identification performance is improved with combination of features. Performance of proposed features is also analyzed on standard Oregon Graduate Institute Multi-Language Telephone-based Speech (OGI-MLTS) database.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. TCS Innovation Labs, Kolkata, 700091, West Bengal, India

    V. Ramu Reddy

  2. School of Information Technology, Indian Institute of Technology Kharagpur, Kharagpur, 721302, West Bengal, India

    Sudhamay Maity & K. Sreenivasa Rao

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  1. V. Ramu Reddy
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  2. Sudhamay Maity
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Correspondence to K. Sreenivasa Rao.

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Ramu Reddy, V., Maity, S. & Sreenivasa Rao, K. Identification of Indian languages using multi-level spectral and prosodic features. Int J Speech Technol 16, 489–511 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10772-013-9198-0

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