Philip J.B. Jackson research fellow Electronic Electrical and Computer Engineering Mama and Papa: the ancestors of modern-day speech science

Outline 1.The sounds of English 2.Darwin’s studies of phonetics 3.Human speech production 4.Darwin’s “speaking machine” 5.C.20 th speech synthesis 6.Summary INTRODUCTION

Analysis of Articulate Sounds 1.Imperfections of the present Alphabet 2.Production of Sounds 3.Structure of the Alphabet PHONETICS “The tongue, the lips articulate; the throat With soft vibration modulates the note.”

International Phonetic Alphabet PHONETICS

International Phonetic Alphabet PHONETICS

Articulators Jaw Lips Tongue tip Tongue blade Velum Larynx mid-sagittal MRI for vowel /i/ PRODUCTION

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.” PRODUCTION

Speaking machines PRODUCTION

Functional description Air pressure and reed –voice source (cf. larynx) Ducts –oral cavity –nasal cavity Variable geometry –articulation PRODUCTION

Anatomy of the larynx PRODUCTION

Voicing/phonation PRODUCTION

from Mohammad (2000) Articulation PRODUCTION

20 th -century speech synthesis Review by Klatt (1987) “Good evening radio audience”, Dudley (1939) Text-to-speech (Bell Labs) Festival (Univ. Edinburgh) SYNTHESIS

Extract the outline Vocal-tract geometry: SYNTHESIS

Discretise the outline Extracted outline: SYNTHESIS

Derive the area function Area function: SYNTHESIS

Compute acoustic response Vocal-tract transfer function: SYNTHESIS

Sounds of English Darwin’s idea of a phonetic alphabet Fundamentals of speech production Darwin’s speaking machine Modern speech synthesis Further information – CONCLUSION Summary