Psy1302 Psychology of Language

1. Psy1302 Psychology of Language Lecture 6 Speech Perception I

2. Understanding Speech • Seemingly easy for us. • 1 sec. of conversation contains roughly • 8-10 phonemes • 3-4 syllables • 2-3 words • Difficult for engineers…

3. Big Picture

4. Big Picture

5. Overview • Preliminaries • Sound Waves, Spectrogram • Phonetics/Phonology • Why is Speech Perception Difficult? • Lack of invariance • Coarticulation • So How Do We Do It? • Categorical Perception (our endowment) • Motor Theory vs. Auditory Theory (next Tues) • Fine-tuning of Categorical Perception (next Tues) • Top-down Influences (next Thurs)

6. Sounds A wave is a disturbance of a medium which transports energy through the medium without permanently transporting matter.

7. Hearing Frequency: 20 Hz and 20000 Hz Speech: 200-8000 Hz Most sensitive to 1000-3500 Hz Phones: 300-3400 Hz Listening

8. Pressure Time Complex Sounds

9. Pressure Amplitude Time Frequency Pressure Amplitude Time Frequency Amplitude Pressure Time Frequency Complex Sounds + =

10. Sounds and Spectrograms

11. Vocal Tract: Vocal Fold  Lips (Modeled as a tube) Lips Vocal Fold Speaking Average Man - Length = 17.4cm

12. Vocal Tract Model L = 17.4cm Vocal Tract = 17.4 cm Speed of sound = 34800 cm/sec F1 500Hz λ = 4L Speed = Distance/Time = Wavelength x Frequency Freq = Speed/Wavelength F2 1500Hz λ = 4L/3 F3 λ = 4L/5 2500Hz

13. Speaking c d a b on top of his deck Vocal folds Lips c d b a

14. Vocal Tract oo ee oh eh ah http://www.exploratorium.edu/exhibits/vocal_vowels/vocal_vowels.html

15. Decrease of F2 (Place) (who) (heed) (hid) (hood) Increase of F1 (Tongue Height) (hay) (hoe) (her) (head) (hot) (hut) (had) (hall) Vowels • Vowels: unimpeded sound through vibrating vocal cords Lips http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v9Wdf-RwLcs

16. Frequency (Hz) 1000 Time (s) Spectrogram of 3 vowels oo ah ee

17. Phonetics and Phonology • Phonetics: the study of speech sounds • (articulatory, acoustic, auditory phonetics) • how are speech sounds are produced, what are the physical properties of the speech sounds, how are they interpreted? • Phonology: investigation the organization of speech sounds in languages, • what are the phonotactic rules of the language, which sounds (phonemes) affect meaning?

18. Phonemes & Phones • Phones: speech sounds • Phonemes: The unit of sound that makes a contribution to meaning • Minimal Pairs • [b] vs. [p] e.g., bat vs. pat • [r] vs. [l] e.g., rump vs. lump • Crosslinguistic Differences • The flied lice was yummy.

19. Phonemes • Two Kinds of Phonemes • Vowels • Consonants

20. Vowel articulation • Chambers in mouth • (above the glottis): • Oral cavity • Pharynx (behind tongue) • Area between lips • (Nasal cavity) • Length and shape of each chamber affect the ‘resonance’ (or the properties of the vibration) of vowel sound --- pharynx

21. 1) Tip 2) body 3) root Tongue body position Saggital view of tongue positions in vowels

22. Articulatory Description 4-part classification system for vowels: 1) Tongue height 2) Frontness vs. backness of tongue 3) Tenseness 4) Lip rounding [ also (5) Nasality (in many languages)]

23. Decrease of F2 (Place) (who) (heed) (hid) (hood) Increase of F1 (Tongue Height) (hay) (hoe) (her) (head) (hall) (hut) (had) (hot) Vowels • Vowels: unimpeded sound through vibrating vocal cords Lips

24. Decrease of F2 (Place) (who) (heed) (hid) (hood) Increase of F1 (Tongue Height) (hay) (hoe) (her) (head) (hall) (hut) (had) (hot) 1) Vowel Height • High vowels: tongue body is raised • Mid vowels: tongue body is intermediate • Low vowels: tongue body is lowered Lips

25. Decrease of F2 (Place) (who) (heed) (hid) (hood) Increase of F1 (Tongue Height) (hay) (hoe) (her) (head) (hall) (hut) (had) (hot) 2) Vowel Front/Backness • Front vowels: tongue body is pushed forward • Back vowels: tongue body is pulled back • Central vowels: tongue body is neutral Lips

26. Decrease of F2 (Place) (who) (heed) (hid) (hood) Increase of F1 (Tongue Height) (hay) (hoe) (her) (head) (hall) (hut) (had) (hot) 3) Vowel Tenseness • Tense: more extreme position of the tongue or lips • Lax: less tense position of tongue or lips Lips

27. Decrease of F2 (Place) (who) (heed) (hid) (hood) Increase of F1 (Tongue Height) (hay) (hoe) (her) (head) (hall) (hut) (had) (hot) 4) Vowel Roundness • Rounded: produced with rounded lips • Unrounded: produced with unrounded lips • Many languages also have front rounded vowels (e.g., French) lit “bed”; lu “read”; loup “wolf” Lips

28. Consonants: Impeded sound Consonants

29. Articulatory Description For consonants, three-part classification system: 1) Voicing 2) Place (of articulation) 3) Manner (of articulation) e.g., voiced labiodental fricative = [v]

30. 1) Voicing • Voicing: what is happening at the LARYNX? • Are the vocal folds spread apart (voiceless), or are they close together and vibrating (voiced)? Front Vocal folds Glottis Back

31. Voiced or Voiceless? voiced voiceless

32. Voiced or Voiceless? 1. [p] pat [b] bat 2. [d] die [t] tie 3. [g] gill [k] kill 4. [f] fat [v] vat 5. [s] sip [z] zip

33. Voiceless Voiced [p] pat [b] bat [t] tie [d] die [k] kill [g] gill [f] fat [v] vat [s] sip [z] zip [ө] thigh[δ] thy [š] dilution [ž] delusion [č] etch[ĵ] edge

34. Voicing Value liquid r * liquid

35. 2) Place • Place (of articulation): WHERE in the vocal tract is the constriction being made?

36. Place of Articulation • Place of contact creating the obstruction in making the consonant • Bilabial • Labial Dental • Dental/Interdental • Alveolar • Palatoalveolar • Palatal • Velar • Uvular • Glottal

37. Place • Bilabial: w/ both lips • [b], [p], [m], [w] • Labiodental: w/ lower lip and upper teeth • [f], [v] • (Inter-)dental: tip of tongue btw. the teeth • [ө] thin, [δ] then • Alveolar: tongue tip on alveolar ridge • [t], [d], [n], [l], [s], [z]

38. Place • (Alveo-)Palatal: w/ tongue at or near hard palate • Alveopalatal:[š] shill, [ž] azure, [č] church, [ĵ] jill • Palatal: [j] you • Velar: w/ tongue at or near soft palate, or velum • [k], [g], [ŋ] king • Glottal: produced at the larynx • [/] uh-oh, [h]

39. liquid r liquid

40. 3) Manner • Manner (of articulation): HOW is the air being modified as it moves through the vocal tract?

41. + Manner • Stop: full obstruction in oral cavity (w/ velum raised/closed) • [p], [b], [t], [d], [k], [g], [/] • Fricative: partial obstruction w/ turbulence • [f], [v], [ө] , [δ], [s], [z], [š], [ž] • Affricate: stop followed by fricative • [č], [ĵ]

42. Manner • Nasal: full obstruction in oral cavity w/ velum lowered/open • [m], [n], [ŋ] • Liquid: constriction but no turbulence • [l] = lateral liquid • [r] = retroflex liquid • Glide: slightly more constriction than a vowel • [w], [j] (and shows additional evidence of “consonantness”: patterns with consonants)

43. Manner liquid r liquid

44. Consonants & Vowel Trivia • Number of Consonants and Vowels • Varies dialectally • (Mary, Marry, Merry) • American Heritage • 25 consonants and 18 vowels

45. Consonants vs. Vowels • Silbo Gomero, a Whistling Language • Example 4 vowels and 4 consonants • 4000+ words • A: Hey, Servando!B: What?A: Look, go tell Julio to bring the castanets.B: OK. A: Hey, Julio!B: What?A: Lili says you should go get the kids and have them bring the castanets for the party.B: OK.OK.OK. • http://www.cnn.com/2003/TECH/science/11/18/whistle.language.ap/ • http://www.agulo.net/silbo/silbo.mp3

46. Why is it so difficult?(engineer’s lament) Segmentation Problem: • Speech sounds seem separable and sequential: like beads on a string • Reality: • Speech sounds overlap • Each speech sound is affected by the elements around it • (See your spectrograms!)

47. Co-articulation • speech sound is affected by the elements around it • /š/ (sh) in sheep, shoe • /k/ (k) in keep, cook • /d/ (d) in dee, do

48. Speech Rate • “I am going to leave.”

49. Why is it so difficult?(engineer’s lament) • The “Lack of Invariance” problem • local coarticulation effects • speech rate & style • prosody • individual variability • accent/dialect • speaker’s vocal tract – length matters.

50. How do we do it? • How do we perceive the sounds? • What acoustic cues do we use?