THE AVERAGE SPECTRUM OF CHINESE SPEECH: DETERMINED BY FIELD AND LABORATORY MEASUREMENTS OF SPEECH NOISE
汉语的平均频谱:应用现场和实验室语噪声测量的结果

This report summurizes the preliminary work on the average spectrum of Chinese speech investigated by the Acoustics Laboratory (1956-1959), the principle of measurements being through the analysis of speech noise, a method found to be superior in many respects to the conventional method adopted by many authors. Both field and laboratory measurements were made and the spectra are presented.The average spectrum thus obtained from laboratory measurement (in an anechoic chamber) is compared with Tarnoczy's for Hungarian speech, Dunn and White for English speech etc. While the similarities of the shapes of these spectral distribution curves support the findings of the visible speech and show that the maximum energy characterizing all these languages falls approximately within the same range of frequency, the differences may be ascribed essentially to some special linguistic and phonetic features of Chinese speech sounds such as the predominance and tonal quality of the vowel sounds etc.A somewhat detailed account of the experimental techniques is given together with factors that led to uncertainties of the result enumerated and possibilities for further refinement of the present work (e.g., more accurate measurement to be conducted above 5,000 c/s etc.) discussed.