* Existing Literature

Singing Voices

   Nearly all of the existing literature of "vocal typology" or "voice types" is related to the long existing types established for singing voices.  Singing voice literature is both historically seated and incredibly detailed.  Unfortunately, the application to speaking voices is limited, as singing voices are classified largely by post-training ability and range, and not always by natural quality and features.  They have also not traditionally been scientifically assigned by scientific and acoustic study or by experimentation, as this study proposed to do.  In addition, singing voice are different from speaking voices in a number of key aspects.  Still, the singing voice literature, as it is the only existing "voice type" work, is highly relevant and necessary to any literature review on this topic.

Speaker Identification

   The existing methods of speaker identification are an absolute necessity to any study of speaker voice distinction by feature, quality, or acoustic signature, especially when used for forensic application.

Vocal Pleasantness

   Vocal Pleasantness studies represent some of the only scientific analyses of voices related to quality of voices by perception.

Sociolinguistic and Discourse Studies

   Sociolinguistic studies (such as those on voice discrimination by telephone and elsewhere) offer valuable research related to the application of vocal typology research in this study.  Likewise, discourse studies that deal with how the perception of individual and identity based indexical properties of speech affect how one is perceived in a conversation and in daily life, e.g., attraction and repulsion, would find new relevance in connection to the voice types established in this study.

Outlying Studies

   There are a number of studies, such as those related to whistling voices or language typology generally, that are of varying degrees of relevance to the current project.


*For more detail on the sources cited here and referenced and consulted for support on assumptions made throughout this thesis, please see the "Research Bibliography" section in the main menu.