The prosodic effects of using fabric face mask in reading a narrative

Abstract

This paper investigates whether fabric face mask can affect prosodic parameters through reading tasks of a narrative and, even, whether such changes resemble voice disguises, such as those used by individuals in forensic practice. For this purpose, three experimental conditions were contrasted: normal reading (control condition), reading with a mask and reading with a pencil, produced by four native speakers of BP, in a pilot study. The following parameters were analyzed: rate of speech, rate of articulation, pauses, duration of V-V units (BARBOSA, 2019), accent groups and tones. The results show that the V-V units, the pauses, and the accent group are the prosodic parameters affected by the use of the cloth mask. In addition, reading with a mask does not exhibit similar behavior to reading with a pencil, nor does normal reading. On the contrary, reading with a mask exposes intermediate behaviors. Thus, linguistic studies that focus on prosodic aspects should consider the mask also as a voice disguise, since it can change some prosodic parameters.