Pitch Tracking + Prosody January 19, 2012

Homework! For Tuesday: introductory course project report Background information on your consultant and the language they speak. For Thursday: Digital Signal Processing exercises!

A Typology F0 is generally used in three different ways in language: 1. Tone languages (Chinese, Navajo, Igbo) Lexically determined tone on every syllable “Syllable-based” tone languages 2. Accentual languages (Japanese, Swedish) The location of an accent in a particular word is lexically marked. “Word-based” tone languages 3. Stress languages (English, Russian) It’s complicated.

Mandarin Tone ma1: mother ma2: hemp ma3: horse ma4: to scold Mandarin (Chinese) is a classic example of a tone language.

How to Transcribe Tone Tones are defined by the pattern they make through a speaker’s frequency range. The frequency range is usually assumed to encompass five levels (1-5). (although this can vary, depending on the language) Highest F0 Lowest F0

In Mandarin, tones span a frequency range of 1-5 Each tone is denoted by its (numerical) path through the frequency range Each syllable can also be labeled with a tone number (e.g., ma 1, ma 2, ma 3, ma 4 ) Tone

How to Transcribe Tone Tone is relative i.e., not absolute Each speaker has a unique frequency range. For example: Highest F0 Lowest F0 FemaleMale 100 Hz 200 Hz350 Hz 150 Hz

General Relativity In ordinary conversation, for European languages (Fant, 1956) : Men have an average F0 of 120 Hz A range of Hz Women have an average F0 of 220 Hz A range of Hz Children have an average F0 of 330 Hz In a normal utterance, the F0 range is usually one octave. i.e., highest F0 = 2 * lowest F0

Relativity, in Reality The same tones may be denoted by completely different frequencies, depending on the speaker.  Tone is an abstract linguistic unit. female speaker male speaker ma, tone 1 (55)

Accent Languages In accent languages, there is only one pitch accent associated with each word. The pitch accent is realized on only one syllable in the word. The other syllables in the word can have no accent. Accent is lexically determined, so there can be minimal pairs. Japanese is a pitch accent language… for some, but not all, words for some, but not all, dialects

Japanese Japanese words have one High accent it attaches to one “mora” in the word A mora = a vowel, or a consonant following a vowel, within a syllable. For example: [ni] ‘two’has one mora. [san] ‘three’ has two morae. The first mora, if not accented, has a Low F0. Morae following the accent have Low F0. It’s actually slightly more complicated than this; for more info, see:

Japanese Examples asa‘morning’H-L asa‘hemp’L-H

“chopsticks”H-L-L “bridge”L-H-L “edge”L-H-H

Stress Languages Stress is a suprasegmental property that applies to whole syllables. It is defined by more than just differences in F0. Stressed syllables are higher in pitch (usually) Stressed syllables are longer (usually) Stressed syllables are louder (usually) Stressed syllables reflect more phonetic effort. More aspiration, less coarticulation in stressed syllables. Vowels often reduce to schwa in unstressed syllables. The combination of these factors give stressed syllables more prominence than unstressed syllables.

Stress: Pitch (N) (V) Complicating factor: pitch tends to drift downwards at the end of utterances

Intonation Languages superimpose pitch contours on top of word- based stress or tone distinctions. This is called intonation. It turns out that English: has word-based stress and phrase-based pitch accents (intonation) The pitch accents are pragmatically specified, rather than lexically specified. = they change according to discourse context.

English Intonation We’ll analyze English intonation with a framework called TOBI Tones and Break Indices Note: intonational patterns vary across dialects The patterns and examples presented today might not match up with your own intonational system Also: this framework has only been applied to a few (primarily western) languages Check out the following: Course in Phonetics, pp Mary Beckman’s notes

Levels of Prominence In English, pitch accents align with stressed syllables. Example: “exploitation” vowelX X X X full vowelX X X stressX X pitch accent X Normally, the accent falls on the last stressed syllable.

Pitch Accent Types In English, pitch accents can be either high or low H* or L* Examples:High (H*)Low (L*) Yes.Yes? H* L* Magnification.Magnification? As with tones in tone languages, “high” and “low” pitch accents are defined relative to a speaker’s pitch range. My pitch range: H* = 155 HzL* = 100 Hz Mary Beckman: H* = 260 HzL* = 130 Hz

Whole Utterances The same pitch pattern can apply to an entire sentence: H* H*:Manny came with Anna. L* L*:Manny came with Anna? H* H*:Marianna made the marmalade. L* L*:Marianna made the marmalade?

Information Note that there’s a tendency to accent new information in the discourse. 4 different patterns for 4 different contexts: H* H*:Manny came with Anna. H* H*:Manny came with Anna. L* L*:Manny came with Anna? L* L*:Manny came with Anna?

Pitch Tracking H* is usually associated with a peak in F0; L* is usually associated with a valley (trough) in F0 Pitch tracking can help with the identification of pitch peaks and valleys. Note: it’s easier to analyze utterances with lots of sonorants. Check out both productions of “Manny came with Anna” in Praat. Note that there is more to the intonation contour than just pitch peaks and valleys The H* is followed by a falling pitch pattern The L* is followed by a rising pitch pattern

Tone Types There are two types of tones at play: 1.Pitch Accents associated with a stressed syllable may be either High (H) or Low (L) marked with a * 2.Boundary Tones appear at the end of a phrase not associated with a particular syllable may be either High (H) or Low (L) marked with a %

Tone Transcription L* H%

Phrases Intonation organizes utterances into phrases “chunks” Boundary tones mark the end of intonational phrases Intonational phrases are the largest phrases In the transcription of intonation, phrase boundaries are marked with Break Indices Hence, TOBI: Tones and Break Indices Break Indices are denoted by numbers 1 = break between words 4 = break between intonational phrases

Break Index Transcription Tones:L* H% Breaks: