Calendar

The course met twice a week, with lectures lasting about one hour. There were also two lab sessions scheduled each week. The calendar below provides information on the course’s lecture (L) and term project (P) sessions. The lab sessions covered similar topics, and lab reports were to be handed in on the next class day after the lab.

SES # TOPICS LABS KEY DATES
A. Introduction
L1

Organization; The Speech Chain

Recording Speech in a Sound-Treated Room; Acoustic Theory; SPL; dB

Digitizing, Waveform Editing and Spectral Analysis by Computer; Sampling Theorem, Waveform Windowing

Lab 1: Recording Speech in a Sound-Treated Room, Spectral Analysis and Waveform Editing by Computer   
B. Acoustic Analysis of Vowels and Consonants
L2 Broadband Spectral Analysis of English Vowels; Vocal Tract Transfer Functions for Vowels; Nasalization of Vowels Lab 2: Spectrographic and Spectrum Analysis of the English Vowel System Lab 1 report due
L3 Broadband Spectral Analysis of Sonorant English Consonants: Nasals, Liquids, Glides; Sound Sources and Transfer Functions for Consonants Lab 3: Broadband Spectral Analysis of Sonorant Consonants Lab 2 report due
L4 Sound Generation from Turbulence in the Vocal Tract; Spectral Analysis of Fricative and Stop Consonants; Frication Noise and Aspiration Noise Lab 4: Spectral Analysis of Stop and Fricative Consonants Lab 3 report due
L5 Sound Generation at the Larynx; Inverse Filtering and Spectrum of Glottal Source; Effect of Glottal Source on Spectra of Vowels Lab 5: Sound Generation at the Larynx: Characteristics of the Glottal Source Lab 4 report due
C. Speech Movements, Airflow
L6 Anatomy/Physiology of Speech Production Apparatus   Lab 5 report due
L7 Interpretation of Cineradiographic Motion Pictures

Studies of Speech Movements for Vowels and Consonants

Lab 6: Interpretation of Cineradiographic Motion Pictures  
L8 Further Discussion of Speech Movements

Measuring Speech Movements using Data from X-ray Microbeam Systems

Lab 7: Measuring Speech Movements using Data from X-ray Microbeam Systems Lab 6 report due
D. Quantal Theory and Features
L9 Quantal Nature of Articulatory-to Acoustic Relations; Quantal Theory for Consonant Place of Articulation and for Vowels Lab 8: Formant Frequency Calculations from Area Function Data Lab 7 report due
E. Sentence-level Phenomena
L10 Respiration for Speech; Initiation and Termination of Utterances; Techniques for Measuring Respiration during Speech Lab 9: Techniques for Measuring Respiration during Speech Lab 8 report due
L11 Some Reduction and Assimilation Phenomena in Fluent Speech; Effects of Stress Lab 10: Sound Segment Reduction Lab 9 report due
L12 Prosody 1: Vowel and Consonant Durations in Speech; Duration Rules for English Lab 11: Prosody 1: Vowel and Consonant Durations in Speech Lab 10 report due
L13 Prosody 2: Measurement and Interpretation of Fundamental Frequency Contours, Respiratory Constraints Lab 12: Prosody 2: Measurement and Interpretation of Fundamental Frequency Contours Lab 11 report due
F. Speech Perception
L14 Evaluation of Segmental Intelligibility; Intelligibility, Comprehension, Naturalness, Cognitive Load for Words in Sentences Lab 13: Speech Intelligibility and Confusion Matrices Lab 12 report due
G. Speech Disorders and Speech Development
L15 Speech Disorders

Acoustic Analysis and Interpretation of Individuals with Neuromuscular Disorders and of the Speech of Children with Articulation Disorders

Acoustic Analysis of Normal Speech Development in Children

Lab 14: Introduction to Speech Disorders: Analysis of the Speech in Children Lab 13 report due
H. Speech Synthesis and Recognition
L16 Speech Synthesis using a Formant Synthesizer; Review Acoustic Theory of Speech Production, Formant Synthesis; Synthesizing Syllables Lab 15: Speech Synthesis using a Formant Synthesizer Lab 14 report due
L17 No Lecture Continuation of Speech Synthesis Lab  
L18 Higher-Level Synthesis with a Formant Synthesizer, using Quasi-articulatory Parameters

Synthesis of Text by Rule

Lab 16: Higher-Level Synthesis Using Quasi-articulatory Parameters Lab 15 report due
L19 Topic Selection for Individual Term Project Research; Each Student describes Proposed Research   Lab 16 report due
L20 Use of Landmarks and Features for Speech Recognition; Labeling of Sentences; Rules for Feature Modification

Role of Lexicon in Refining Interpretation of Acoustic Evidence

Lab 17: Use of Landmarks and Features for Speech Recognition  
L21 Further Discussion of Feature-Based Models   Lab 17 report due
I. Term Projects
P1-P2 Individual Term Project Research    
P3-P5 Student Oral Reports on Term Project Results