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The paper introduces current trends in speaker identification using phonetic methods. After providing a short historical background, it describes various attempts which have been made at more objective listening analysis in forensic contexts. One of the main aims of the paper is to propose a protocol for listening analysis in the Czech forensic context, called PRIM. The PRIM protocol combines the advantages, and mitigates the drawbacks, of existing approaches to analytical listening and, most importantly, includes all speech and voice dimensions relevant for the auditory comparison of speakers in Czech. Audio examples of some of the described voice qualities are featured on an accompanying webpage. The role of acoustic analyses in speaker comparison is also discussed, and the main parameters used for such comparisons are briefly introduced. These include various uses of vowel formants and spectral characteristics of noise in obstruent sounds at the segmental level, as well as melodic and temporal characteristics and acoustic correlates of various voice quality settings at the suprasegmental level. Automatic approaches to speaker identification are also briefly mentioned. Finally, the paper relates the current situation in forensic phonetics to the ongoing paradigm shift in forensic science generally, and in the Czech Republic specifically. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Monosyllabic prepositions in Czech are known to attract the stress of the words following them (e.g., ljedu ldo Prahy, I'm going to Prague, rather than ljedu do lPrahy). However, certain factors have been recognized which allow for the shift of stress from the preposition to the following word. This study examines these factors in two types of speech material, in read newscasts on Czech Radio and in spontaneous dialogues. The length (number of syllables) of the preceding word has a clear effect, with longer words attracting stress more than shorter ones. Stress also tends to be shifted less when the following word is a noun and more when it is an adjective modifying a noun. Perhaps most interestingly, a great majority of the instances when stress was shifted resulted in a more rhythmical configuration, in a more regular number of syllables in neighbouring stress groups. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The aim of the paper is to introduce electropalatography (EPG) as a method of investigating speech production to the Czech linguistic public. Its application was demonstrated on the Czech palatal plosives [c] and [ɟ]. The results show that the linguopalatal contact in these speech sounds is primarily coronal, with the blade of the tongue touching the front part of the artificial palate, as well as lateral, with the tongue dorsum touching the sides of the palate. Apart from revealing interesting idiosyncratic tendencies, the results also indicate different patterns depending on the voicing of the plosive. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The study examines the pronunciation of Czech /I/ and /i:/ in the speech of Czech Radio newsreaders. This vocalic contrast has been traditionally described as consisting in duration. The analyses reveal that the duration of the phonologically long /i:/ is only approximately 30% greater than that of the phonologically short /I:/. As for the analysis of formant values, the short /I:/ appears to lie closer to vowels of the /e/-quality than to its long counterpart /i:/. The morphological status of the syllables with /I/ and /i:/, as well as the position within an utterance have been taken into account. The results also indicate interesting idiosyncratic tendencies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]