In this paper, we provide evidence for rhythmic classifications of speech from duration measurements. Our investigation differs from previous studies in two ways. Firstly, we do not relate speech rhythm to phonological units such as interstress intervals or syllable durations. Instead, we calculate durational variability in successive acoustic-phonetic intervals using Pairwise Variability Indices. Secondly, we compare measurements from languages traditionally classified as stress-, syllableor mora-timed with measurements from hitherto unclassified languages. The values obtained agree with the classification of English, Dutch and German as stress-timed and French and Spanish as syllable-timed: durational variability is greater in stress-timed languages than in syllable-timed languages. Values from Japanese, a mora-timed language, are similar to those from syllable-timed languages. But previously unclassified languages do not fit into any of the three classes. Instead, their values overlap with the margins of the stress-timed and the syllable-timed group.

/pdf/durational-variability-in-speech-and-the-rhythm-class-4gywqh1cug.pdf

Durational variability in speech and the rhythm class hypothesis

https://hal.archives-ouvertes.fr/hal-00499180/document

Automatic speech recognition and speech variability: A review

British English and Singapore English are said to differ in rhythmic patterning. British English is commonly described as stress-timed, but Singapore English is claimed to be syllable-timed. In the present paper, we explore the acoustic nature of the suggested cross-varietal difference. In directly comparable samples from British English and Singapore English, two types of acoustic measurements were taken; we calculated a variability index reflecting changes in vowel length over utterances, and measurements reflecting vowel quality. Our findings provide acoustic data which support the hypothesized cross-varietal difference in rhythmic patterning; we show (1) that successive vowel durations are more nearly equal in Singapore English than in British English, and (2) that reduced vowels pattern more peripherally in the F1/F2 formant space in Singapore English than in British English. We complete the paper with a comparison of our vowel variability index with a set of acoustic measures for rhythm proposed by Ramus, Nespor, and Mehler (1999), which focus on variability in vocalic and intervocalic intervals. We conclude that our variability index is more successful in capturing rhythmic differences than Ramus et al. (1999)'s measures, and that an application of our index to Ramus et al.'s intervocalic measure may provide a further diagnostic of rhythmic class.

Quantitative characterizations of speech rhythm: syllable-timing in Singapore English.

Text-to-Speech Synthesis provides a complete, end-to-end account of the process of generating speech by computer. Giving an in-depth explanation of all aspects of current speech synthesis technology, it assumes no specialized prior knowledge. Introductory chapters on linguistics, phonetics, signal processing and speech signals lay the foundation, with subsequent material explaining how this knowledge is put to use in building practical systems that generate speech. Including coverage of the very latest techniques such as unit selection, hidden Markov model synthesis, and statistical text analysis, explanations of the more traditional techniques such as format synthesis and synthesis by rule are also provided. Weaving together the various strands of this multidisciplinary field, the book is designed for graduate students in electrical engineering, computer science, and linguistics. It is also an ideal reference for practitioners in the fields of human communication interaction and telephony.

/pdf/text-to-speech-synthesis-2y7hiwoykk.pdf

Text-to-Speech Synthesis

Preface Acknowledgments 1. Introduction 2. The Dispersion Theory of Contrast 3. Ways of Maximizing Distinctiveness 4. Consonant-Vowel Assimilation 5. Neutralization 6. Minimization of Allomorphy 7. Conclusions References Index

Auditory Representations in Phonology

Principles of Phonetics

Mora and prosodic coordination : a phonetic study of Japanese, Eskimo and Yoruba

Dictionary of linguistics and phonetics 4th edn. Ed. by David Crystal (review)

https://muse.jhu.edu/journals/language/v075/75.1.ingemann.pdf

Frances Ingemann

Papers

Principles of Phonetics

Mora and prosodic coordination : a phonetic study of Japanese, Eskimo and Yoruba

Dictionary of linguistics and phonetics 4th edn. Ed. by David Crystal (review)

The handbook of phonetic sciences Ed. by William J. Hardcastle and John Laver (review)