Philip J.B. JacksonPhilip J.B. Jackson

research fellowresearch fellow

Electronic Electrical and Computer Engineering

Mama and Papa: the Mama and Papa: the ancestors of modern-day ancestors of modern-day

speech sciencespeech science

http://web.bham.ac.uk/p.jackson

Outline

1. The sounds of English2. Darwin’s studies of phonetics3. Human speech production4. Darwin’s “speaking machine”5. C.20th speech synthesis6. Summary

INTRODUCTIONINTRODUCTION

Analysis of Articulate Sounds

1. Imperfections of the present Alphabet

2. Production of Sounds3. Structure of the Alphabet

PHONETICSPHONETICS

“The tongue, the lips articulate; the throat

With soft vibration modulates the note.”

International Phonetic Alphabet

PHONETICSPHONETICS

International Phonetic Alphabet

PHONETICSPHONETICS

Articulators

JawLipsTongue tipTongue bladeVelumLarynx

mid-sagittal MRI for vowel /i/

PRODUCTIONPRODUCTION

Letter to George Gray, 1791

“…, as I once made a wooden head, which spoke distinctly p.a. and m. so that it said pam, map, papa, mamma; as plain as most human heads.”

PRODUCTIONPRODUCTION

Speaking machinesPRODUCTIONPRODUCTION

Functional description• Air pressure and reed

– voice source (cf. larynx)

• Ducts– oral cavity– nasal cavity

• Variable geometry– articulation

PRODUCTIONPRODUCTION

Anatomy of the larynxPRODUCTIONPRODUCTION

Voicing/phonationPRODUCTIONPRODUCTION

from Mohammad (2000)

ArticulationPRODUCTIONPRODUCTION

20th-century speech synthesis

• Review by Klatt (1987)“Good evening radio audience”, Dudley (1939)

• Text-to-speech (Bell Labs)http://www.bell-labs.com/project/tts/voices.html

• Festival (Univ. Edinburgh)http://festvox.org/voicedemos.html

SYNTHESISSYNTHESIS

Extract the outlineVocal-tract geometry:

SYNTHESISSYNTHESIS

Discretise the outlineExtracted

outline:

SYNTHESISSYNTHESIS

Derive the area function

Area function:

SYNTHESISSYNTHESIS

Compute acoustic response

Vocal-tract transfer function:

SYNTHESISSYNTHESIS

• Sounds of English• Darwin’s idea of a phonetic

alphabet• Fundamentals of speech production• Darwin’s speaking machine• Modern speech synthesis

• Further information– http://web.bham.ac.uk/p.jackson

CONCLUSIONCONCLUSION

Summary