Mathematical and prosodic analysis of intonation in Malayalam
摘要
This study investigates the intonation patterns of Malayalam, a language spoken in Kerala, India, using polynomial regression and Kernel Density Estimation. Malayalam has distinct pitch modulation patterns across genders and question types, with variations in acoustic features, syllables, and stress structures. We examine the mean pitch characteristics of different question types and analyze the correlation between stress patterns and syllable structure counts in the language. Additionally, we perform clustering analysis on Malayalam words to highlight similarities and diversities in acoustic features, which helps us understand the phonetic diversity within the language. Our analysis shows that the overlap of KDE curves in the feature space allows us to analyze the linguistic factors that influence variability in Malayalam speech. This suggests a need for further research on regions where syllable complexity and phonological patterns are notably concentrated.