The frequency range of the voice fundamental in the speech of male and female adults Hartmut Traunmüller and Anders Eriksson Institutionen för lingvistik, Stockholms universitet, S-106 91 Stockholm, Sweden. Published data on the frequency of the voice fundamental (F 0 ) in speech show its range of variation, often expressed in terms of two standard deviations (SD) of the F 0 -distribution, to be approximately the same for men and women if expressed in semitones, but the observed SD varies substantially between different investigations. Most of the differences can be attributed to the following factors: SD is increased in tone languages and it varies with the type of discourse. The more ‘lively’ the type of discourse, the larger it is. The dependence of SD on the type of discourse tends to be mom pronounced in the speech of women than of men. Based on an analysis of various production data A is shown that speakers normally achieve an increased SD by increasing the excursions of F 0 from a ‘base-value’ that lies about 1.5 SD below their mean F 0 . This is relevant to applications in speech technology as well as to general theories of speech communication such as the ‘modulation theory’ in which the base-value of F 0 is seen as a carrier frequency. INTRODUCTION There is a substantial amount of data on the frequency of the voice fundamental (F 0 ) in the speech of speakers who differ in age and sex. Such data have been published for several languages and for various types of discourse. The data reported nearly always include an average measure of F 0 , usually expressed in Hz, but in some cases the average duration of a period has been reported instead. Typical values obtained for F 0 are 120 Hz for men and 210 Hz for women. The mean values change slightly with age. For men, the decrease in F 0 that is most dramatic during puberty has been observed to continue with successive deceleration until about 35 years of age At bout 55 years of age, F 0 begins to rise again (Hollien and Ship, 1972; Kitzing, 1979; Pegoraro-Krook, 1988). For women, F 0 is stationary up to the age of menopause, when it decreases to reach a minimum that is about 15 Hz lower around 70 years of age (Chevrie-Muller et al., 1971; Kitzing, 1979; Stoicheff, 1981; Pegoraro-Krook, 1988). The physiological changes responsible for this can be understood as an effect of the increased testosterone-oestrogen ratio. A similar lowering of F 0 can be induced by the habit of smoking (Gilbert and Weismer, 1974). Most studies also report on the between-speaker spread in average F 0 for each sex. The present paper, however, is primarily concerned with the description of the within-speaker variations in F 0 of male and female adults. Statistical data on the distribution of F 0 -values or on the F 0 -range used by each speaker have been included in quite a large number of studies. Some of these have shown that the F 0 -range is influenced by various factors such as the language, the type of text, the type of discourse, and the emotional state of the speaker. We want to gain an overview of the effects of these factors on the F0-range used and we want to know in which way speakers expand and contract their F 0 -range, as far as this can be described in a general way. The present evaluation of published data has been initiated in preparation of an experimental investigation of the perception of F 0 -excursions (Traunmüller and Eriksson, 1994). The method used in that study involved simulations of various para- and extralinguistic variations, including speaker sex, in addition to variations in the extent of the F 0 -excursions.