Lost in Phonation: Voice Quality Variation as an Evaluation Dimension for Speech Foundation Models

Excerpt

arXiv:2510.25577v2 Announce Type: replace-cross Abstract: Recent advances in Speech Foundation Models (SFMs) enable direct processing of raw audio, allowing models to respond to subtle paralinguistic variation. However, how these models interpret non-lexical cues remains largely unstudied. We introduce VQ-Bench, a controlled evaluation suite featuring a parallel dataset of synthesized modal, breathy, creaky, and end-creak phonation types. We evaluate SFM sensitivity through open-ended generation