Some Speech Basics Phonetic Transcription, Context-dependent variation, and Intonation Jennifer J. Venditti Postdoctoral Research Associate Columbia Computer Science 12 September 2002

1. Phonetic Transcription

Spelling vs. Sounds same spelling = different sounds o comb, tomb, bomb oo blood, food, good c court, center, cheese s reason, surreal, shy same sound = different spellings [i] sea, see, scene, receive, thief [s] cereal, same, miss [u] true, few, choose, lieu, do [ay] prime, buy, rhyme, lie combination of letters = single sound ch child, beach th that, bathe oo good, foot gh laugh single letter = combination of sounds x exit, Texas u use, music ‘silent’ letters k knife, know p psycho, pterodactyl e moose, bone gh through

Figures 4.1 and 4.2: Jurafsky & Martin (2000), pages 94-95.

On-line pronunciation dictionaries phoneset derived from: number of wordforms English variety LDC PRONLEX ARPAbet 90,694 American CMUdict 100,000 CELEX IPA 160,595 British Source: Jurafsky & Martin (2000), page 121.

Places of articulation alveolar post-alveolar/palatal dental velar uvular labial pharyngeal laryngeal/glottal http://www.chass.utoronto.ca/~danhall/phonetics/sammy.html

Vocal fold vibration [UCLA Phonetics Lab demo]

Articulatory parameters for English consonants (in ARPAbet) PLACE OF ARTICULATION bilabial labio-dental inter-dental alveolar palatal velar glottal stop p b t d k g q fric. f v th dh s z sh zh h affric. ch jh nasal m n ng approx w l/r y flap dx MANNER OF ARTICULATION VOICING: voiceless voiced

American English vowel space FRONT BACK HIGH LOW iy ih eh ae aa ao uw uh ah ax ix ux ey ow aw oy ay

[iy] vs. [uw] (From a lecture given by Rochelle Newman)

[ae] vs. [aa] (From a lecture given by Rochelle Newman)

Acoustic landmarks [p] [t] [ix] [ih] [ax] [ae] [iy] [sh] [s] [n] [l] “Patricia and Patsy and Sally”

Articulators in action (Sample from the Queen’s University / ATR Labs X-ray Film Database) “Why did Ken set the soggy net on top of his deck?”

Exercise (1) Write your name in: (a) IPA. (b) ARPAbet (if possible). Choose one of the following triplets and transcribe each word in both IPA and ARPAbet. cone, tomb, bottom blood, fool, hook court, race, cheese reason, surreal, cash thing, these, other laugh, through, ghoul

Figures 4.1 and 4.2: Jurafsky & Martin (2000), pages 94-95.

IPA consonants (Distributed by the International Phonetics Association.)

IPA vowels (Distributed by the International Phonetics Association.)

Context-dependent phonetic variation

Context-dependent variation What we would consider a single ‘sound’ can be pronounced differently depending on the phonetic context. For example, the phoneme /t/: Figure 4.8: Jurafsky & Martin (2000), page 104.

Another regular alternation I can ask [ay k ae n ae s k] I can see [ay k ae n s iy] I can bake [ay k ae m b ey k] I can play [ay k ae m p l ey] I can go [ay k ae ng g ow] I can carry [ay k ae ng k ae r iy] n  m / __ [+labial stop] n  ng / __ [+velar stop] (inopportune [n], insatiable [n], impervious [m], immortal [m], incoherent [ng], ingratitude [ng])

English plurals hiccup [p]  hiccups flood [d]  floods sock [k]  socks scab [b]  scabs habit [t]  habits frog [g]  frogs spoof [f]  spoofs comb [m]  combs hearth [th]  hearths grave [v]  graves lathe [dh]  lathes beach [ch]  beaches fool [l]  fools dish [sh]  dishes sewer [r]  sewers judge [jh]  judges pies [ay]  pies race [s]  races curfew [uw]  curfews axe [s]  axes sofa [ax]  sofas raise [z]  raises

Phonological rules for Engl. plurals Assume that the lexical form of plural is /z/. Insertion:   ix / [+sibilant] ^__ z # Devoicing: z  s / [-voice] ^__ # bus+PL cape+PL hen+PL /b ah s +z/ /k ey p +z/ /h eh n +z/ insertion: b ah s +ix z -- -- devoicing: -- k ey p s -- [b ah s ix z] [k ey p s] [h eh n z] /b ah s +z/ /k ey p +z/ /h eh n +z/ devoicing: b ah s s k ey p s -- insertion: -- -- -- *[b ah s s] [k ey p s] [h eh n z]

3. Intonation

Intonation makes the difference A: I’d like to fly to Davenport, Iowa on TWA. B: TWA doesn’t fly there ... B1: They fly to Des Moines. B2: They fly to Des Moines. A: What types of foods are a good source of vitamins? B1: Legumes are a good source of vitamins. B2: Legumes are a good source of vitamins. A1: I met Mary and Elena’s mother at the mall yesterday. A2: I met Mary and Elena’s mother at the mall yesterday.

Intonation is about ... Pitch Melody, or “tune” Alignment Prominence and focus Chunking, or “phrasing” ... and more ...

Vocal fold vibration Physical: Fundamental frequency (F0)  rate of vibration of the vocal folds Perceptual: Pitch fundamental freq. perceived pitch [UCLA Phonetics Lab demo]

Pitch range Differences can be due to physical size, gender, social identity, excitement level, linguistic, etc ... [from Prosody on the Web tutorial on pitch]

English Pitch Accents * * Lenora works for Lucent. Certain words in the speech stream can be made structurally and perceptually prominent by the use of pitch accents. * * Lenora works for Lucent. Pitch accents are local pitch movements (e.g. rising, falling) or pitch maxima/minima that accompany these metrically strong syllables. The intonational “tune” is the melody that is created by sequences of pitch accents over an utterance.

Intonational tunes: What do they mean? Lenora works for Lucent. * * [Tell me something about the world ...] * [... Really? I wasn’t aware of that.] * [... I hope she doesn’t have stock options.] * * [I’ve told you a million times ...] [See works by Bolinger, Ladd, Hirschberg ...]

Alignment differences cue “assertion” vs. “suggestion” A: I’d like to fly to Davenport, Iowa on TWA. B: TWA doesn’t fly there ... they fly to Des Moines they fly to Des Moines

Alignment with different words * * Legumes are a good source of vitamins.  “broad focus” A: What types of foods are a good source of vitamins? * B: LEGUMES are a good source of vitamins.  “narrow focus” # Legumes are a good source of VITAMINS.

Placement of focal accent LEGUMES are a good source of vitamins The rise-fall tune (= “I assert this”) shifts locations.

Placement of focal accent Legumes are a GOOD source of vitamins The rise-fall tune (= “I assert this”) shifts locations.

Placement of focal accent legumes are a good source of VITAMINS The rise-fall tune (= “I assert this”) shifts locations.

Chunking, or “phrasing” A1: I met Mary and Elena’s mother at the mall yesterday. A2: I met Mary and Elena’s mother at the mall yesterday.

Phrasing can disambiguate Mary & Elena’s mother mall I met Mary and Elena’s mother at the mall yesterday One intonation phrase with relatively flat overall pitch range.

Phrasing can disambiguate Elena’s mother mall Mary I met Mary and Elena’s mother at the mall yesterday Separate phrases, with expanded pitch movements.

Lists of numbers, nouns twenty.eight.five ninety.four.three seventy.three.seven forty.seven.seven seventy.seven.seven coffee cake and cream chocolate ice cream and cake fish fingers and bottles cheese sandwiches and milk cream buns and chocolate [from Prosody on the Web tutorial on chunking]

Exercise (2) 1. Sketch out an F0 contour of Does Manitowoc have a bowling alley? as uttered in the following two contexts: (a) “I know Green Bay has a bowling alley, but ...” (b) “I know Manitowoc has a theater, but ...” 2. Complete the sentence: When Madonna sings the song ... Describe the prosodic phrasing of your utterance. 3. How can phrasing help disambiguate the utterance: that’s right at the traffic light