6.541J | Spring 2004 | Graduate

Speech Communication

Readings

The readings listed below for the course’s lecture (LE) sessions are from the required course textbook: Stevens, Kenneth. Acoustic Phonetics. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 1999. ISBN: 9780262194044. Additional references are also provided in this section.

SES # TOPICS READINGS
LE1-3 Introduction and Background. Methods of Approach to Study of Speech and Language: Speech Production, Acoustics, Perception, Segments and Features, Phonology, Syntax. Phonetic Transcription. Signal Processing for Speech. Survey of Speech Anatomy, Respiratory System, Airflows and Pressures. Auditory System and Human Response to Sound. Some Basic Acoustics of Resonators and Sources, Source-filter Concepts. Chapters 1, 3, parts of Chapter 4
LE4-6 Vowels. Acoustic Source at the Glottis. Mechanism of Vocal-fold Vibration. Source Characteristics for Females and Males. Different Vocal-tract Shapes: Articulatory Attributes, Acoustic Consequences. Features High, Low, Back, and their Articulatory and Acoustic Correlates. Other Vowel Features: Rounding, Nasalization, Tense-lax. Laryngeal Variations for Vowels; Breathy and Pressed Voicing; Tones; Stress. Auditory Processing of Vowels. Chapters 2 and 6
LE7-10 Consonants. Aerodynamics of the Vocal Tract, Turbulence Noise, Abrupt Release, Bursts. Place of Articulation for Consonants: Articulatory Attributes, Acoustic Consequences, Formant Transitions, Classification in Terms of Features. Aspiration and Voicing. Models of Stop, Nasal, and Fricative Consonant Production. Perception of Consonants. Liquids, Glides, Clicks, Other Features. Consonants and Consonant Sequences in Various Contexts. Chapters 7, 8, 9 and 10
LE13-15 Introduction to Syntax, Morphology and Phonology. Review of Features and Feature Hierarchies; Feature Geometry and its Relation to Speech Production. Phonological Evidence for Distinctive Features. Lexical Representation. Examples from English and Other Languages. Chapter 5
LE16-18 Prosody. Models of Speech Planning; Evidence from Speech Errors. Modification of Features and Acoustic Properties in Fluent Speech; Gestural Overlap, Reduction, Enhancement. Chapter 10

Additional References

Chomsky, N., and M. Halle. The Sound Pattern of English. New York, NY: Harper & Row, 1968. ASIN: B000F5MWH4.

Fant, G. Acoustic Theory of Speech Production. The Hague: Mouton, 1970. ISBN: 9789027916006.

Flanagan, J. L. Speech Analysis, Synthesis and Perception. New York, NY: Springer-Verlag, 1972. ISBN: 9780387055619.

Halle, M., and K. N. Stevens. “Knowledge of Language and The Sounds of Speech.” In Music, Language, Speech and Brain. Edited by J. Sundberg, L. Nord, and R. Carlson. Basingstoke, Hampshire: Macmillan Press, 1991, pp. 1-19. ISBN: 9780333564295.

Jakobson, R., G. Fant, and M. Halle. Preliminaries to Speech Analysis. Cambridge MA: MIT Press, 1963. ISBN: 0262600013.

Keyser, S. J., and K. N. Stevens. “Feature Geometry and The Vocal Tract.” Phonology 11 (1994), 207-236.

Klatt, D. H., and L. C. Klatt. “Analysis, Synthesis, and Perception of Voice Quality Variations Among Female and Male Talkers.” J. Acoust. Soc. Am. 87 (1990): 820-857.

Ladefoged, P., and I. Maddieson. The Sounds of the World’s Languages. Cambridge, MA: Blackwell, 1996. ISBN: 9780631198154.

Maddieson, I. Patterns of Sounds. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1984. ISBN: 9780521265362.

Minifie, F., ed. Introduction to Communication Sciences and Disorders. San Diego: Singular, 1994. ISBN: 9781565932029.

O’Shaughnessy, D. Speech Communication: Human and Machine. New York, NY: IEEE Press, 1999. ISBN: 9780780334496.

Rabiner, L. R., and B. -H. Juang. Fundamentals of Speech Recognition. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall, 1993. ISBN: 9780130151575.

Atal, B. S., J. L. Miller, and R. D. Kent, eds. Papers in Speech Communication: Speech Processing. Woodbury NY: Acoustical Society of America, 1991. ISBN: 9780883189603.

———, eds. Papers in Speech Communication: Speech Perception. Woodbury, NY: Acoustical Society of America, 1991. ISBN: 9780883189597.

———, eds. Papers in Speech Communication: Speech Production. Woodbury, NY: Acoustical Society of America, 1991. ISBN: 9780883189580.

Pickett, J. M. The Acoustics of Speech Communication: Fundamentals, Speech Perception Theory, and Technology. Needham Heights, MA: Allyn & Bacon: 1998. ISBN: 9780205198870.

Hardcastle, W. J., and J. Laver, eds. The Handbook of Phonetic Sciences. Malden, MA: Blackwell Publishers, Ltd., 1997. ISBN: 9780631188483.

Learning Resource Types
Lecture Notes
Problem Sets with Solutions