Effect of Different Face Masks on Speech and Singing: Self-Perception and Acoustic Analysis

Abstract

The aim of this preliminary study is to better understand the effects of transparent, surgical, cloth, KN95 (FFP2), and singer’s face masks on speech and singing in French. A survey gathered self-perception, and a local and global acoustic analysis of conversational, loud spoken and sung productions by the same individual were conducted. According to the 303 subjects surveyed, plosive consonants seem to be produced with the greatest difficulty. Consonants requiring lip involvement seem to be the most affected. The transparent and KN95 (FFP2) masks attenuate the intensity of all the consonants and spoken utterances as a whole, unlike the singer’s mask.

Keywords

• Consonants. Face masks. Phonetics. Self-perception. Singing. Speech