A Forensic Phonetic Study of 'Dynamic' Sources of Variability in Speech: The DyViS Project

DyViS is a forensic phonetics research project which investigates dynamic variability in speech from two perspectives: firstly, the use of dynamic (timevarying) properties of the speech signal for characterising speakers, especially formant dynamics; and secondly, the speaker-distinguishing potential of phonological variability due to sound change. In order to explore these two sources of dynamic variability, a large-scale database of speech material collected in simulated forensic conditions is being compiled. This paper outlines our motivation for the investigation, the methods and structure of the DyViS database, and some findings for the sound change study.