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 | ||
