Summary
Objective
Purohit, in the Indian religious context (Hindu), means priest. Purohits are professional
voice users who use their voice while performing regular worships and rituals in temples
and homes. Any deviations in their voice can have an impact on their profession. Hence,
there is a need to investigate the voice characteristics of purohits using perceptual
and acoustic analyses.
Methods
A total of 44 men in the age range of 18–30 years were divided into two groups. Group
1 consisted of purohits who were trained since childhood (n = 22) in the traditional
gurukul system. Group 2 (n = 22) consisted of normal controls. Phonation and spontaneous
speech samples were obtained from all the participants at a comfortable pitch and
loudness. The Praat software (Version 5.3.31) and the Speech tool were used to analyze the traditional acoustic and cepstral parameters, respectively,
whereas GRBAS was used to perceptually evaluate the voice.
Results
Results of the independent t test revealed no significant differences across the groups for perceptual and traditional
acoustic measures except for intensity, which was significantly higher in purohits'
voices at P < 0.05. However, the cepstral values (cepstral peak prominence and smoothened cepstral
peak prominence) were much higher in purohits than in controls at P < 0.05
Conclusions
Results revealed that purohits did not exhibit vocal deviations as analyzed through
perceptual and acoustic parameters. In contrast, cepstral measures were higher in
Indian Hindu purohits in comparison with normal controls, suggestive of a higher degree
of harmonic organization in purohits. Further studies are required to analyze the
physiological correlates of increased cepstral measures in purohits' voices.
Key Words
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Article info
Publication history
Published online: May 17, 2018
Accepted:
March 1,
2018
Identification
Copyright
© 2018 The Voice Foundation. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
