Two more cities, for review.
Assignment: Projects! (Back up your data!)
Announcement: Last SPECTROGRAM BRUNCH of the semester,
Friday the 2nd, 10-10:50 in Gardner 308!
2011 November 28 (M)
Topics: Changes in phonetic perception during language acquisition.
Class:
- Effect of language experience on discriminative abilites
during first year (HO, Bb)
- la/ra discrimination by infants learning Japanese and
English (Kuhl et al. 2006 via Kuhl 2007)
- k'ae/q'ae and |a/||a (dental/lateral click) discrimination
by infants learning English (Best et al. 1995)
- (s)ta/da discrimination by infants learning English
(Pegg & Werker 1997)
- How does this fit into the overall timetable of
vocal development?
- Some evidence that loss depends on similarity to contrasts
in language being learned (Best et al. 1995)
- How to reconcile this with findings about
"natural auditory sensitivities" (Kuhl 1999)?
Assignment: Projects! (Back up your data!)
2011 November 21 (M)
Topics: Acquisition of phonetics. Initial state and input.
Class:
- Overall course of development in production:
- cooing (1-4 mos.)
- canonical babbling (5-10 mos.)
- first words (10--15 mos.)
- two-word utterances (18--24 mos.)
- Examples of normally-developing
infant vocalizations
- Acquisition of segments and syllable types in similar order
cross-linguistically:
- high V, low V, schwa; front and back mid V
- nasals, stops; voiceless fricatives; voiced fricatives; liquids
- labials, alveolars; velars; others
- Initial state for perception
- Recognizing native-language rhythm
- Very good discrimination, with peaks where adults have them
- Some integration of audio and video
- Input to infant learning
- ambient language
- infant-directed speech
Assignment: Projects!
2011 November 18 (F)
Topics: "Speech perception" by non-human animals.
Class:
- Next question: How do humans come to have the phonetic
abilities needed to perceive and produce sounds in their language?
- Relation to previous question: Do some of these abilities
come for free, as part of auditory perception?
- E.g., category boundaries: Wholly learned, or correspond to
regions of natural auditory sensitivity (Kuhl; Kluender; Diehl)?
How to tell?
- Other languages (last time)
- Nonspeech analogues (last time)
- Nonhuman listeners
- Prelinguistic infants
- Nonhuman listeners (HO)
Assignment:
- Keep working on projects; keep backing up your data!
2011 November 16 (W)
Topics: Theories of categorical perception. HW 5.
Class:
- Review: Categorical perception vs. Weber's Law
- Two theories of categorical perception:
- Linguistic labelling plus decay of detailed auditory memory
(Pisoni; Fujisaki & Kawashima)
- Natural auditory sensitivities (Kuhl; Pisoni)
- Where to look for evidence?
- Between-language differences (HO: Miyawaki 1975; Williamson 1975, Bb)
- Others?
- HW 5
- Time permitting: More cities!
Assignment:
- Keep working on projects; keep backing up your data!
2011 November 14 (M)
Topics: Categorical perception. Final-project presentations.
Class:
- Categorical perception
-
Typical results from a categorical-perception experiment
- How do these results conflict with Weber's Law? (Do they?)
- Two competing theories of categorical perception. How can we
distinguish them?
- Linguistic labelling plus decay of detailed auditory
memory (Pisoni; Fujisaki & Kawashima)
- Natural auditory sensitivities (Kuhl; Pisoni)
- Information on final project:
- Handout about analysis, presentation, and writeup. (Bb)
- Model handout (Bb)
- Sign up for presentation slots
Assignments:
- HW 5 due next time.
- Keep going on final projects (are you backing up your data?)
2011 November 11 (F)
Topics: Cross-linguistic differences in perception.
Class:
- Within perceptual-space model, languages can weight the
auditory dimensions differently.
- Vowel spaces from the Terbeek 1977 dissimilarity matrices
(Johnson Figure 6.11). What is the third dimension?
- In-class problem: Mandarin tones as perceived by
Mandarin vs. English speakers
(Huang 2001, Hume & Johnson 2003).
Assignment:
- For 11/14 (M): Do this
on-line demo of a categorical-perception experiment. Bring
results to class for discussion.
- (No Johnson reading for next time.)
- For 11/16 (W): HW 5 (Bb)
- Continue working on projects! See me if you're having trouble!
Reminder: Set the Praat recording buffer to a big size (at least
200 MB): Praat: Preferences: Sound recording preferences: Buffer size (MB). (See Sept. 7 handout on
Recording with Praat.)
2011 November 9 (W)
Topics: Audiovisual speech perception.
Class:
- Audiovisual speech perception
- High confusability of audio-only consonant place (Miller & Nicely 1955)
- Demo of
McGurk Effect.
- Results of McGurk & MacDonald 1978
- Integration of audio and video information via perceptual space (Braida et al. 1998 via Johnson 2003)
- Headset microphones
Assignment:
- Read Johnson 6.6 (cross-linguistic vowel perception), 7.5
(dimensions of fricative perception) for next time.
- HW 5 (on Blackboard), due in one week (11/16 W).
- If you have technical questions about running your experiment,
make an appointment with me.
- Back up your data, back up your data!
2011 November 7 (M)
Topics: Auditory perception vs. speech perception.
Class:
- Spectrograms vs. cochleagrams of speech sounds. Regions
of perceptual sensitivity.
- Speech perception is how listeners assign a linguistic
category to what they hear. Example: Perception of Hindi stops
by English speakers.
- Useful theoretical tool: Perceptual space (J. 5.4)
- Represents perceptual differences between stimuli
- Categories correspond to regions in space
- Mapping out a perceptual space (one way to do it, J. Ch. 5)
- Which acoustic/auditory differences are linguistically distinctive?
- Estimating perceptual distance (confusability plus "Shepard's Law")
- Example of confusion experiment using Praat is
here.
- Pinning down points in the space (MDS)
- Example (based on J. 5.4): English fricative perception
Assignment:
- For 11/9 (W): Read Johnson Ch. 5 through end of 5.2.
- For 11/9 (W): Watch
this video clip of the McGurk Effect.
- Send me final version of project plan and division-of-labor
if you haven't done so already.
- Work on projects. Back up your data!
2011 November 4 (F)
Class:
- Intensity and loudness: Filtering effects of the outer and middle ear.
- A tone rising from
70 Hz to 17000 Hz at constant
pressure amplitude. Notice how the loudness is not constant.
(From last time.)
- Equal-loudness curve (Johnson Figure 3.3)
- Anatomy of the ear.
- Frequency resolution: Effects of the inner ear and nervous system
Assignment: Full speed ahead on the projects.
- Back up your data after recording! You don't want
to lose those sound files if your disk crashes, or if someone
steals your computer.
- I'll have a handout for you next Wednesday about the
in-class presentation, the writeup, and grading thereof.
2011 November 2 (W)
Topics: Acoustics vs. audition. Intensity and loudness.
Anatomy and filtering effects of the ear.
Class:
- Acoustics vs. audition.
- HO: Decibels
- Intensity and loudness: Filtering effects of the outer and middle ear
- A tone rising from
70 Hz to 17000 Hz at constant pressure
amplitude. Notice how the loudness is not constant..
- HO: Intensity, pressure, and amplitude (Bb).
- A 1000-Hz tone being reduced in intensity in
3-dB steps.
- A 1000-Hz tone being reduced in intensity in
10-dB steps.
Assignments for Friday, November 4:
- Read Johnson, Ch. 4 (Audition)
2011 October 31 (M)
Topics: Clicks, trills, taps, and flaps.
Class:
- Clicks
- X-ray tracings from Ladefoged & Maddieson 1996 (Bb)
- Nama clicks from the Ladefoged CD-ROM.
- X-ray video of a click, same source.
- Xhosa clicks with varying accompaniments, same source.
- Trills, taps, and flaps
- X-ray tracings from Ladefoged & Maddieson 1996 (Bb)
- French uvular trills, same source.
- Bilabial and alveolar trills
in Kele and Titan, same source.
Assignment for Wednesday, November 2:
- Make appointment to see me re project soon!
- View this
animation of the cochlea.
- Read Johnson, Ch. 6.5 (acoustic vs. auditory spectra of vowels), 7.4
(fricatives), and 8.4 (stops)
2011 October 28 (F)
Topics: Non-English places of articulation. Project design.
Class:
- Hungarian palatal stops
from the Ladefoged CD-ROM.
- From the X-ray, predict the formants.
- What should it sound like?
- Nunggubuyu stops
from the Ladefoged CD-ROM.
- Palato/linguograms and X-rays in Ladefoged.
- Predict F2 transitions using perturbation theory.
- What about two-tube theory?
- Discussion re project design
Assignment for Monday, Oct. 31:
2011 October 26 (W)
Topics: Laterals and semivowels (including Am. Eng. /r/)
Class:
- Articulation of laterals (Ladefoged & Maddieson 1996,
Figures 6.1 and 6.6, Bb)
- Acoustic theory of laterals (Johnson Ch. 9, Figure 9.8).
- Acoustics of natural laterals
- Semivowels /j w r/
- Compared with their corresponding vowels
here.
- /r/ticulation
- Perceived rhoticity depends on F2-F3
distance.
Assignment for Friday, October 28: Read Ladefoged 14.4 to end of
Ch. 14 ("Other manners of articulation").
Announcement: Spectrogram Brunch again this week, Friday the 28th
from 10-11 in Gardner 308.
2011 October 24 (M)
Topics: Nasal consonants.
Class:
- Acoustic theory of nasal consonants (Johnson Ch. 9).
- Natural nasals before a schwa-like
vowel.
- Synthetic nasals made from
the simplified acoustic theory in Johnson Ch. 9, with closures at 100%,
90%, ..., 50% of the distance from the glottis to the lips.
- Swapping nasal murmurs:
- Mystery spectrograms: two more cities.
Assignments:
- Read Ladefoged Ch. 14, Sections 1-3, on consonant places of
articulation for 10/26 (W).
- Project proposals are due Monday, Oct. 31! Meet with me!
2011 October 19 (W)
Topics: Airstream mechanisms. Phonation types for stops.
Class:
- Airstream mechanisms: {pulmonic, glottalic} x {egressive,
ingressive}
- Phonation types
- Breathy-voiced (pulmonic egressive)
- Ejectives (glottalic egressive)
- Implosives (glottalic ingressive)
- Audio examples of stops, from the Ladefoged CD-ROM:
Assignment:
- Read Johnson 9.1 (bandwidth) and 9.2 (nasals) for Monday the 24th.
"FFT spectrum" is just an ordinary spectral slice. "LPC spectrum" we discussed on 9/23; Johnson talks about it in 3.3.5.
- Project proposal due Monday, Oct. 31. Talk to me!
2011 October 17 (M)
Topics: Tube models for alveolars and labials.
Spectrogram reading!
Class:
- Articulation of alveolar stops (figures from Perkell 1997, Bb)
- Two-tube schematization
- Natural VdV syllables for various vowels.
- Natural b, d, and g before wedge.
Note same F2 transition for d and g.
- Spectrogram reading: Identify [these famous cities]!
Assignment:
- Read Ladefoged on consonant phonation types: 13.4 (breathy voice),
13.7 (ejectives), and 13.8 (implosives)
- Article reports due Oct. 24 (M).
- Project proposals due Oct. 31 (M). Talk to me!
2011 October 14 (F)
Topics: Two-tube model of velars and the "velar pinch".
Class:
- Articulation of velar stops. Effect of vowel context. (Figures
from Perkell 1997, Bb)
- Two-tube schematization.
- Predicted and natural
- Partnership evaluation results
Assignments:
- Article reports due Oct. 24 (M).
- Project proposals due Oct. 31 (M). Talk to me!
2011 October 12 (W)
Topics: Perturbation theory for stops between schwas. Partnership
evaluation questionnaires.
Class:
- HW 4: perturbation theory of formant transitions near schwa.
- Synthetic
stop-plus-schwa syllables, with
constrictions 100%, 90%, ... 10%, 0% of the way from the glottis.
(Best to download it and listen to it in Praat, so you can hear the
syllables separately.)
- Partnership evaluation questionnaires
Assignments:
- Read Johnson 8.2 and 8.3 for Friday the 14th.
- Article report due Monday the 24th. Ask me and/or the Odum
Institute if you're having trouble.
- Project proposals due Monday, Oct. 31. Come see me if you
- Have a half-baked idea and want help baking it
- Want to measure something but don't know how
Announcement: Spectrogram Brunch at 10 a.m. in Gardner 308.
2011 October 10 (M)
Topics: Stop production and voice onset time. Final projects.
Class:
- Stop production
- Voicing, aspiration, and VOT
- Information about final projects (1)
- Time permitting: Spectrogram reading
Assignments:
- HW 4 is due Oct. 12 (Wed.)
- Article selections are also due Oct. 12 (Wed.)
- Article reports are due Oct. 24 (Mon.)
- Final-project proposals are due Oct. 31 (Mon.)
2011 October 7 (F)
Topics: Voicing in fricatives. Production of stops.
Class:
- Voiced fricatives
- Production of voiced fricatives.
- Effect of voicing on frication
(demo here;
use Praat to filter out frequencies below 3000 Hz)
- Rhotacism demo: [az@] intact,
then with the [z] low-pass filtered at 3000 Hz, then with the
filtered [z] doubled in amplitude.
- Stops
- HO: Sequence of events in stop production (Ladefoged 1993, Bb)
- Natural English labial stops,
illustrating voicing and aspiration
- Passive devoicing
- Acoustics:
- Burst
- Aspiration
- Formant transitions
Assignments:
- HW 4 due Wednesday the 12th.
(Should take at most one hour to solve.
Hint: Johnson Figure 6.12.)
- Article selections due Wednesday the 12th.
2011 October 5 (W)
Class:
- Supralaryngeal VT anatomy.
- HO:
Naming conventions for consonant articulations
- Voiceless fricatives: Source/filter again.
- Turbulent (chaotic) source at constriction, with no f0.
- Filter is tube between constriction and lips.
- Synthetic frication source
- Artificial frication
unfiltered, then filtered by 2.5-cm, 5-cm, and 9-cm half-open tubes.
For best view, in the Edit window go to View > Show
Analyses and set "longest analysis" to 30s, use a
narrow-band spectrogram, and set it so you can see up to
8000 Hz. The lowest fricative formants are at about 3400 Hz
(2.5-cm tube), 1600 Hz (5-cm tube), and 1100 Hz (9-cm tube).
Is this what you expect? What happens at higher
frequencies?
- Synthetic
fricative noise with filter center frequency falling.
- Thought problem: Why are voiced fricatives hard to make? (J. p. 156)
Assignments:
- Aricle choices due Wednesday the 12th!
- Read Johnson Ch. 8 through end of 8.1 (source functions for stops and
affricates) for next time.
2011 October 3 (M)
Topics: Vowel-system typology. Dispersion theory. Article reports.
Class:
- Dispersion theory: Vowels spread out in perceptual space.
- HO:
Vowel-system typology (Crothers 1978)
- Compare with plots from HW 3.
- HO: Article reports (Bb, under "Assignments").
- Field trip to Odum Institute (basement of Manning)
Assignment:
- for Wednesday, October 5:
- Read Ladefoged 11.2 and 11.3 on place of articulation
- Read Ladefoged 6.5 on fricatives
- Read Johnson 7.1 and 7.2 on fricatives
- Bring mirrors!
- by Wednesday, October 12: Choose articles for article report
2011 September 30 (F)
Topics: Midterm. HW 3: Acoustic vowel space.
Class:
- Midterm
- Finding f0
- f0, F1, F2
- Plausibility checking
- HW 3, the acoustic vowel space
- Measuring the Ladefoged vowels
- Theory and reality
- Implications for percepual distinctness? (looking forward
to Adaptive Dispersion Theory)
- Impossible vowels
Assignment: Think about Impossible Vowels #3 and 4 from HW 3
for discussion on Monday.
2011 September 28 (W)
Topics: MIDTERM.
Assignment: Continue working on HW 3 (due Friday, September 30).
2011 September 26 (M)
Topics: Vowel typology. Two-tube vowel models. Nomograms.
Quantal theory.
Class:
- Vowel typology: near-ubiquity of /i a u/ (Crothers 1978, Maddieson
1984).
- Possible explanation: Quantal vowel theory (Stevens).
- Two-tube vowel models and nomograms
- Regions of stability as shown on nomograms
- Questions re midterm? HW 3?
Assignment:
- Continue working on HW 3.
- Midterm is Wednesday the 28th (i.e., next time).
2011 September 23 Fri
Topics: Nasalization and nasalized vowels.
Class:
- Vowel nasalization
- Video of French speaker producing
oral and nasal vowel (on Ladefoged CD-ROM).
- French oral and nasal vowels (on
Ladefoged CD-ROM).
- Go over goals for HW 3.
- Formant-measuring practice. Four methods, all requiring human
supervision:
- Measure wide-band spectrogram. (Easy but crude.)
- Measure spectral slice of wide-band spectrogram.
- Zoom in on a single glottal pulse.
- Put cursor on most intense part of pulse (where the higher
frequencies are darkest). Be careful not to fall between
pulses!
- Make slice. Find formants on slice.
- Measure spectral slice of narrow-band spectrogram. Pick most-intense
micropeak (harmonic) under each macropeak (formant).
- LPC (see Ladefoged chapters, and handout, on Bb)
Assignments:
- Read Johnson, sections 5.2 and 6.3 (quantal theory and adaptive
dispersion); review 6.1 (two-tube theory).
- Midterm is Wednesday, September 28.
- HW 3 is due Friday, September 30.
2011 September 21 Wed
Topics: English and non-English vowels. The IPA.
Class:
Demos of oral (= non-nasal) vowels from Ladefoged's Chapter 15:
Assignments:
- Vowel midterm one week from today; syllabus is here.
- Homework warning: HW 3 goes out Friday (next time), and is due one
week from then (i.e., at the class meeting after the midterm).
- Bring mirrors again on Friday!
2011 September 19 Mon
Topics: Source/filter independence and laryngeal vowel features.
English vowels and IPA.
Class:
- Significance of F3: rhoticity
- Some laryngeal vowel features:
- F0 (heard as pitch, used for tone and intonation)
- Creaky voice
- Breathy voice
- Movies from Edmondson & Esling 2006 article in Phonology.
- Natural audio examples from Ladefoged
(Mazatec)
- Schematic of effect of glottal posture on glottal waveform
(D. H. Klatt)
- Synthetic voice-quality demos (creaky, normal ("modal"), breathy)
- IPA symbols for English vowels. Practice materials are
here.
Assignments for Wednesday 9/21:
- Listen to the IPA vowel chart (this is also on your CD-ROM).
NOTE: The "baby gamma" symbol (mid-high back unrounded) links to the wrong sound file.
- Read Ladefoged Ch. 15, "Vowels around the world".
Announcement: The midterm will be on Wednesday, Sept. 28. I'll be posting a
midterm syllabus next time.
2011 September 16 Fri
Topics: HW 2. Source/filter independence.
Class:
- HW 2 (do-re-mi) due. Reminders:
- One writeup per partnership.
- Honor Code is (of course!) in force. If in doubt, ask
before turning something in.
- This is practice for the project --- are you dividing the
labor fairly?
- Perturbation theory (David/Goliath)
- Main point of HW 2: source/filter independence.
- Source: Measuring f0
- Filter:
- Measuring F1 and F2
- Difficulties measuring F1 and F2 in high-pitched vowels--why?
- Example: A
natural soprano voice (J. Wolfe, U. of New South Wales)
- Synthetic demo of the same point
Assignments for Monday the 19th:
- Read Ladefoged 13.5-13.7 ("Actions of the Larynx")
- Listen to Ladefoged's audio examples from Gujarati, Jalapa Mazatec,
and Mpi.
2011 September 14 Wed
Topics: Perturbation theory, vowel backness, and F2.
Class:
-
Simulation of air resonating in a half-open pipe (W. Fendt).
- Some low-tech ways of
observing your articulators
- Backness
- Articulation (linguini demo)
-
Acoustic effect of front vs. back oral constriction on F2
- Psychological effect of F2 on perceived vowel backness.
Synthetic demo of F2 being varied:
- With F1 low (high vowels).
- With F1 middling (mid vowels).
- With F1 high (low vowels).
- Vowel charts. Demo Praat vowel editor.
Assignments:
2011 September 12 Mon
Topics: Perturbation theory, vowel height, and F1.
Class:
- Basic vocal-tract landmarks. Chiba & Kajiyama 1941 figure
(J figure 6.7).
- Didier Demolin's
vowel articulations (Ladefoged)
- Height
- Relation between height and lip rounding
- Questions re HW 2 (pending)?
Assignment:
- Read Ladefoged Ch. 3, "Vowel Contrasts". This will introduce the
English vowel inventory and the IPA symbols that go with it.
- Bring mirrors again on Wednesday.
2011 September 9 Fri
Topics: Beyond schwa: Rounding.
Class:
- Perturbation theory (Johnson Ch. 6
Sect. 2 reading).
-
Simulation of half-open tube, showing nodes and antinodes (W. Fendt).
- Rounding
- Correlates and cues
- Go over HW 2 assignment
- The soundproof booth in Dey 103
- How to
reserve time on-line
- The key can be signed out in Dey 109
- Go downstairs and see it
Assignments:
- For 9/12 (M): Read Ladefoged Ch. 5, "Charting English vowels".
Bring mirrors again!
- For 9/16 (F): HW 2 (Bb, under "Assignments").
- For 9/23 (F): Do the
on-line human-subjects training.
2011 September 7 Wed
Topics: Nodes and antinodes of schwa. Recording.
Class:
- Nodes and antinodes.
- Demonstration with actual tube, and
simulation (W. Fendt).
- Issue microphones.
-
How to record in Praat, with examples:
- Sign up
here for the soundproof studio in Dey 103.
Assignment for Friday, September 9:
- Read Johnson Ch. 6, Sections 1 and 2
- Bring hand mirror to class.
- Start thinking about when you're going to find time for the
on-line human-subjects
training.
2011 September 2 Fri
Topics: Resonances of a half-open tube; formants of schwa.
Class:
- Reprise:
- Source/filter model of vowel production
- Effect of tubular filter on source (glottal) spectrum
- Echoes in the half-open tube
(
handout with audio)
- Destructive and constructive interference
- Resonant frequencies: F1, F2, F3, ...
