Speech tempo and fundamental frequency patterns: a case study of male monozygotic twins and an age- and sex-matched sibling.

This case study describes an investigation into the speaking characteristics of a set of male monozygotic (MZ) twins (T1 and T2) and an age- and sex-matched sibling (S). Measures of speech tempo and fundamental frequency (F0) were analysed in the speech samples of a reading passage. Results showed significant between-sibling differences for sentence durations and F0 parameters; however, Euclidean distance (ED) measures revealed the smallest distances between the F0 parameters of the MZ twins. The smallest ED values were also observed between T1 and T2 for word durations, pause durations, all-voiced sample durations, and all the all-voiced sample F0 parameters. Greater similarities were observed across all three siblings for the speech tempo and dynamic F0 parameters.