iz

This study investigates the face coverings’ effects on the acoustic properties of two Pahari central vowels (ə, a:). Three types of face coverings (helmet, mask, niqab) are used in this study. Ten participants (five males and five females) are being selected to investigate this phenomenon. Speech material consists of two monosyllabic words (məl, ma:l) in CVC context and these words are repeated three times by each speaker. Praat software is used for recordings and getting formant (F1, F2) frequencies and duration. Regression analysis is performed to find out the face coverings’ effects on acoustic properties of vowels. The results show that helmet, mask and niqab have significant effect on F1and F2 of /ə/ but has no significant affect on duration. In case of /a:/, the statistics show that mask and niqab donot have significant effect on F1, F2 and duration, but helmet has significant effect on F2 and duration.

Keywords: Facewears, Central Vowels, Acoustic Analysis, Formants, Duration.