Readings

Buy at MIT Press Buy at Amazon This section shows the set of readings for each lab, which are to be read before class. The readings are from the required textbook: Stevens, K. N. Acoustic Phonetics. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 1999. ISBN: 9780262194044.

SES # TOPICS LABS READINGS
A. Introduction
L1

Organization; The Speech Chain

Recording Speech in a Sound-Treated Room; Acoustic Theory; SPL; dB

Digitizing, Waveform Editing and Spectral Analysis by Computer; Sampling Theorem, Waveform Windowing

Lab 1: Recording Speech in a Sound-Treated Room, Spectral Analysis and Waveform Editing by Computer  
B. Acoustic Analysis of Vowels and Consonants
L2 Broadband Spectral Analysis of English Vowels; Vocal Tract Transfer Functions for Vowels; Nasalization of Vowels Lab 2: Spectrographic and Spectrum Analysis of the English Vowel System Chapters 3 and 6
L3 Broadband Spectral Analysis of Sonorant English Consonants: Nasals, Liquids, Glides; Sound Sources and Transfer Functions for Consonants Lab 3: Broadband Spectral Analysis of Sonorant Consonants Chapter 9
L4 Sound Generation from Turbulence in the Vocal Tract; Spectral Analysis of Fricative and Stop Consonants; Frication Noise and Aspiration Noise Lab 4: Spectral Analysis of Stop and Fricative Consonants Chapters 7 and 8
L5 Sound Generation at the Larynx; Inverse Filtering and Spectrum of Glottal Source; Effect of Glottal Source on Spectra of Vowels Lab 5: Sound Generation at the Larynx: Characteristics of the Glottal Source Chapter 2
C. Speech Movements, Airflow
L6 Anatomy/Physiology of Speech Production Apparatus   Chapter 1
L7

Interpretation of Cineradiographic Motion Pictures

Studies of Speech Movements for Vowels and Consonants

Lab 6: Interpretation of Cineradiographic Motion Pictures Chapter 1
L8

Further Discussion of Speech Movements

Measuring Speech Movements using Data from X-ray Microbeam Systems

Lab 7: Measuring Speech Movements using Data from X-ray Microbeam Systems  
D. Quantal Theory and Features
L9 Quantal Nature of Articulatory-to Acoustic Relations; Quantal Theory for Consonant Place of Articulation and for Vowels Lab 8: Formant Frequency Calculations from Area Function Data  
E. Sentence-level Phenomena
L10 Respiration for Speech; Initiation and Termination of Utterances; Techniques for Measuring Respiration during Speech Lab 9: Techniques for Measuring Respiration during Speech  
L11 Some Reduction and Assimilation Phenomena in Fluent Speech; Effects of Stress Lab 10: Sound Segment Reduction Chapter 10
L12 Prosody 1: Vowel and Consonant Durations in Speech; Duration Rules for English Lab 11: Prosody 1: Vowel and Consonant Durations in Speech  
L13 Prosody 2: Measurement and Interpretation of Fundamental Frequency Contours, Respiratory Constraints Lab 12: Prosody 2: Measurement and Interpretation of Fundamental Frequency Contours  
F. Speech Perception
L14 Evaluation of Segmental Intelligibility; Intelligibility, Comprehension, Naturalness, Cognitive Load for Words in Sentences Lab 13: Speech Intelligibility and Confusion Matrices  
G. Speech Disorders and Speech Development
L15

Speech Disorders

Acoustic Analysis and Interpretation of Individuals with Neuromuscular Disorders and of the Speech of Children with Articulation Disorders

Acoustic Analysis of Normal Speech Development in Children

Lab 14: Introduction to Speech Disorders: Analysis of the Speech in Children  
H. Speech Synthesis and Recognition
L16 Speech Synthesis using a Formant Synthesizer; Review Acoustic Theory of Speech Production, Formant Synthesis; Synthesizing Syllables Lab 15: Speech Synthesis using a Formant Synthesizer  
L17 No Lecture Continuation of Speech Synthesis Labs  
L18

Higher-Level Synthesis with a Formant Synthesizer, using Quasi-articulatory Parameters

Synthesis of Text by Rule

Lab 16: Higher-Level Synthesis Using Quasi-articulatory Parameters  
L19 Topic Selection for Individual Term Project Research; Each Student describes Proposed Research    
L20

Use of Landmarks and Features for Speech Recognition; Labeling of Sentences; Rules for Feature Modification

Role of Lexicon in Refining Interpretation of Acoustic Evidence

Lab 17: Use of Landmarks and Features for Speech Recognition  
L21 Further Discussion of Feature-Based Models    
I. Term Projects
P1-P2 Individual Term Project Research    
P3-P5 Student Oral Reports on Term Project Results