ISSN:0031-8388    

DOI:10.1159/000261952

出版商:S. Karger AG    

年代:1994

数据来源: Karger

ISSN:0031-8388    

DOI:10.1159/000261953

出版商:S. Karger AG    

年代:1994

数据来源: Karger

摘要:

In this paper, a deductive approach to the study of vocal tract characteristics, vowel, vowel-to-vowel and vowel-consonant-vowel productions is presented. The distinctive region model, deduced from acoustic theory, is used to develop this approach. The model is characterized by simplicity and efficiency in its handling of the articulatory-acoustic relation. Vowel systems can be explained by means of this approach. A tentative study on the predictability of vowel-to-vowel characteristics is also presented. The obtained results suggest that the human communication system is driven by physical laws of the real world.

ISSN:0031-8388    

DOI:10.1159/000261954

出版商:S. Karger AG    

年代:1994

数据来源: Karger

摘要:

With a few exceptions, EMG data are interpreted with reference to the intended output, such as the phonetic description of utterances spoken by speakers. For a more rigorous interpretation, the data should also be analysed in terms of the displacement of the articulators and the acoustic patterns. In this paper, we describe our attempts to calculate the formant patterns from EMG activity patterns via an articulatory model. The value of the model parameters, such as the tongue body position or tongue body shape, is derived from the EMG activities of the specific pairs of antagonistic tongue muscles. The model-calculated F1-F2 patterns for 11 American English vowels correspond rather well with those measured from the acoustic signals. What strikes us is the simplicity of the mappings from the muscle activities to vocal-tract configurations and to the formant patterns. We speculate that the brain optimally exploits the morphology of the vocal tract and the kinematic functions of the tongue muscles so that the mappings from the muscle activities (production) to the acoustic patterns (perception) are simple and robust.

ISSN:0031-8388    

DOI:10.1159/000261955

出版商:S. Karger AG    

年代:1994

数据来源: Karger

摘要:

Measures of inferred subglottal air pressure, glottal airflow waveform characteristics, sound pressure level (SPL) and the acoustic spectral slope were studied for individual speakers with normal voices. Combinations of different levels of sub-glottal air pressure and varying glottal configurations could result in the same SPL. Relatively high air pressure levels were associated with a steep spectral slope, reflecting a more sinusoidal glottal waveform and a relatively abducted membranous glottis, which would result in damping of F1. Data suggested that the interarytenoid glottal opening could vary without systematically affecting SPL or voice quality. The results indicate that the principles of production-related economy of effort and physiological, acoustic and perceptual constraints may apply to voice production.

ISSN:0031-8388    

DOI:10.1159/000261956

出版商:S. Karger AG    

年代:1994

数据来源: Karger

摘要:

This paper presents the results of an auditory and instrumental investigation into glottal stops and glottalization as boundary markers in German colloquial read speech of a North German non-dialect variety. It also reports on the occurrence of glottal stops and glottalization, outside the domain of word and morpheme boundaries, as reduction phenomena of supraglottal stop articulations. Finally, these sound features are discussed as elements in an articulatory phonology of connected speech in German, providing insights into the general theory of human speech production.

ISSN:0031-8388    

DOI:10.1159/000261957

出版商:S. Karger AG    

年代:1994

数据来源: Karger

摘要:

This study examines vertical and horizontal tongue body movements in VCV sequences, where the consonant is a voiced or voiceless velar stop. The movement data were recorded using a magnetic transduction technique in two subjects. Consistent with studies of lip and jaw kinematics, the duration of the tongue body raising movement towards closure for the consonant was longer for the voiced stop. In contrast to lip and jaw movements, peak velocity and amplitude of the raising movements were consistently higher for the voiced stop. The larger displacement of the closing movement for the voiced stop was due to a lower starting position of the movement during the preceding vowel. Examination of the tongue body lowering movement for the vowel preceding the velar stop showed it to be longer when the following stop was voiced. Also this lowering movement had a higher peak velocity and amplitude in the voiced environment. These results thus suggest that both the lowering and raising movements in the VC sequence are affected by the voicing status of the consonant. In addition, the second vowel in the VCV sequence showed reliable influences on tongue body movements for the first vowel and the consonant.

ISSN:0031-8388    

DOI:10.1159/000261958

出版商:S. Karger AG    

年代:1994

数据来源: Karger

摘要:

Although the schwa sound is by far the most frequent vowel in Dutch, it has up to now been phonetically the most neglected. We used an existing database of vowel sounds from focus words in spontaneous speech and in lexically the same text, read aloud by one male speaker, to analyse durational and spectral characteristics of schwas, and we compared the results with data on schwa diphones used in Dutch text-to-speech synthesis. It turned out that, contrary to what is usually thought, lexical schwa sounds in natural continuous speech are considerably shorter than other short vowels, that there is no strong consonantal influence on schwa duration, that schwa sounds display a spectral spread larger than any other vowel, and that surrounding consonants seem to play a role with respect to the midpoint formant distribution of the schwa within the whole vowel system. In no way can the schwa be considered as the ‘bench-mark’ of a speaker’s vowel s

ISSN:0031-8388    

DOI:10.1159/000261959

出版商:S. Karger AG    

年代:1994

数据来源: Karger

摘要:

Audio recordings of lively conversational speech produced by 3 Swedish, 4 Finnish and 3 Estonian speakers were analyzed for durational correlates of quantity distinctions. The data suggest that duration contrasts are maintained more consistently by Finnish and Estonian than by Swedish speakers. This is attributed to the unusually complex structure of the Finnish and Estonian quantity systems, and to the fact that Finnish and Estonian, in contrast to Swedish, do not use vowel quality or diphthongization as correlates to quantity distinctions.

ISSN:0031-8388    

DOI:10.1159/000261960

出版商:S. Karger AG    

年代:1994

数据来源: Karger

摘要:

This paper reports some production and perception experiments challenging the idea that the rate of articulation of interpause intervals of speech is solely conditioned by internal phonological factors. The results reported demonstrate that, at least for one professional newsreader, rate of articulation in interpause intervals is conditioned by context and that deviations from the intended rate are easily noticeable and affect perceived naturalness negatively. It is also demonstrated that a context-conditioned rate of articulation does not affect interpause intervals uniformly but is unevenly distributed. These results are interpreted in terms of speaker adaptation to the listener’s running access to signal-independent informatio

ISSN:0031-8388    

DOI:10.1159/000261961

出版商:S. Karger AG    

年代:1994

数据来源: Karger