Acoustic Phonetics 3/14/00
Methods of Acoustic Analysis Spectrograph: Produces visible patterns of acoustic energy called spectrograms Spectrographic Analysis: Acoustic signal changes rapidly & continuously Need a dynamic analysis revealing spectral features Short term running spectrum
Features of the Spectrogram Spectrographic Analysis Features of the Spectrogram Time, Frequency & intensity Time (horizontal axis): Phonetic elements will be from left to right Frequency (Vertical axis): Increasing in upward direction Intensity represented by a gray scale or as variations in darkness
Dimensions of Spectrograms A. Burst of noise B. Vowel with 4 formants Time C. Noise with high frequency energy
Wide Band Spectrogram Fricative noise: Above 3 or 4 kHz Diphthong: Horizontal bands of energy
Wide Band vs. Narrow Band Wide Band: analyzing filter wide, 300-400 Hz Good to show formants because they have a wide spread of acoustic energy Narrow Band: analyzing filter is of higher resolution, 100 Hz Good to show the harmonics of source spectrum
Vowel: Wide Band vs. Narrow Band
Digital Signal Processing Basic objective of digital signal processing: Convert the analog acoustic signal (Panel A) to a digital form (series of #’s) How do we get a waveform into a digital computer? Analog-Digital conversion (A-D): results in samples of time and amplitude Correct sampling rate is important to reconstruct the wave form Sampling rate must be 2x the bandwidth of analysis: Nyquist Frequency Ex. Sample speech with a bandwidth of 5000 Hz, than the sampling rate should be 10,000 Hz
Analog-Digital Conversion b. Time sampling intervals
Phonetic Quality: Vowels Front Vowels: Larger separation between F1 & F2 Small F2 & F3 separation Frequency of F1= Tongue height Back Vowels: Small separation between F1 & F2 Large separation between F2 & F3 Central vowels: Formant frequencies are evenly spaced Moderate jaw opening causes mid-range F1
Two Formant Spectrograms: Front, Back & Central Vowels
Phonetic Quality: Consonants Stop Consonants: Acoustic Cues: Silent or low energy interval, burst, transition Silent interval = oral constriction (i.e. closure of lips for /b/); also termed a stop gap Voiced stops can be seen on the voice bar as noise energy Burst = Articulatory constriction is released; energy released looks like noise on the spectogram Transition= formant transition into following vowel
Voiceless Stop Consonants
Phonetic Quality: Consonants Bilabial Stops (/p/, /b/): F1 starts at zero & rises to F1 of next vowel F2 starts at 800 Hz & rises to F2 of following vowel F3 increases for following vowel Alveolar Stops (/t/, /d/): F1 same as for bilabial stops F2 starts at 1800 Hz & rises to F2 of following vowel Velar Stops (/k/, /g/): F1 same as for bilabials F2 has 2 starting points 1300 & 2300 Hz
Spectrogram with Transitions: /d a d/