Acoustic and Auditory Phonetics

Chapter 1
Jerey Heinz
heinz@udel.edu
University of Delaware
February 8, 2011
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Traditional areas of phonetic study
speech production
how people plan and execute speech movements
speech perception
auditory perception
speech acoustics
general theory of acoustics (particularly in a tube)
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What is linguistic phonetics?
practical skills of production & transcription, introspection
about articulation
theoretical accounts of speech production, perception, and
acoustics; explanations of sound patterns in
languages
experimental obtaining data using specialized equipment with
the goals of developing theories of speech or
language and describing sounds or sound
structures of individual languages
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What is sound?
Fluctuations in pressure in a medium (generally air) which
impinge on the eardrum to produce the sensation of sound.
Figure: A tuning fork striking air resulting in sound (From Ladefoged
1996)
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More visualization
http://www.physicsclassroom.com/Class/sound/u11l1c.cfm
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What is speech?
In speech, air in the vocal tract is set in vibration by the action
of the vocal folds. As the vocal folds open and close, pulses of
air from the lungs act like sharp taps on air molecules in the
vocal tract, just like the tuning fork.
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Propagation of sound
soundwave: traveling pressure uctuation
movement at the sound source produces pressure uctuations
that move through space as a wave
The medium through which the wave travels may experience
some local oscillations as the wave passes, but the particles in
the medium do not travel with the wave.
Figure: Compression in Springs (from Fucci and Lass 1999) 7 / 17
Propagation of sound
soundwave: traveling pressure uctuation
movement at the sound source produces pressure uctuations
that move through space as a wave
The medium through which the wave travels may experience
some local oscillations as the wave passes, but the particles in
the medium do not travel with the wave.
Figure: Rarefaction in Springs (from Fucci and Lass 1999) 7 / 17
More Visualizations
http://www.physicsclassroom.com/mmedia/waves/lw.cfm
http://www.kettering.edu/
~
drussell/Demos/waves/wavemotion.html
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Representing soundwaves
Pressure uctuations at a given location can be represented
as a plot of pressure at the eardrum or at a microphone
against time.
High pressure corresponds to compression and low pressure
to rarefaction.
The simplest sound waves are sine waves.
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Figure: A Sine Wave
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Kinds of sound waves
1. Periodic sounds have a pattern that repeats at regular
intervals. These are called cycles.
2. Non-periodic sound waves are not even closely periodic.
2.1 White Noise
2.2 Impulse Noise
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Simple Periodic Waves
Simple periodic waves
= sine waves
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cycle The regular interval at which the sound wave repeats
period length of 1 cycle (T)
frequency number of cycles per unit time (f)
amplitude peak deviation from atmospheric pressure (A)
phase the timing of a waveform relative to some reference point ()
cycles per second frequency in Hertz (Hz)
1 / period frequency in Hz (f = 1/T )
decibel (dB) measurement of relative amplitude
Table: Important Properties of Simple Sound Waves
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Frequency
Frequency is often measured in terms of Hertz (Hz)the
number of cycles per second.
Frequency is heard as pitch. Higher frequency (more Hz)
means higher pitch.
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Amplitude
Amplitude is the maximum vertical displacement of the
wave (here, the amount of compression or rarefaction).
Peak-to-peak amplitude is twice the amplitude.
Amplitude is heard as loudness. So the higher amplitude
(more dB) the louder the noise.
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Phase
Phase measures the position of a wave relative to some
xed point.
It turns out that phase dierences are relatively
unimportant in speech perception, so the most linguistically
important aspects of the complex waves can still be
specied this way (i.e. with just frequency and amplitude).
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Complex periodic waves (Fouriers Theorem)
Complex periodic waves are the sum of multiple sine waves of
varying frequencies, amplitudes, and phases
Fourier synthesis: sine waves can be added to generate a complex
wave
Fourier analysis: a complex wave can be decomposed into its
component sine waves
Figure: Simple waves which compose a complex wave and their sum
(from Ladefoged 1996)
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Complex periodic waves (Fouriers Theorem)
Complex periodic waves are the sum of multiple sine waves of
varying frequencies, amplitudes, and phases
Fourier synthesis: sine waves can be added to generate a complex
wave
Fourier analysis: a complex wave can be decomposed into its
component sine waves
Figure: Simple waves which compose a complex wave and their sum
(from Ladefoged 1996)
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Another example
The component waves of the wave in the gure are composed of
the following sine waves:
Frequency Amplitude
100 Hz 3
200 Hz 1
300 Hz 2
Figure: Simple waves which compose a complex wave and their
sum (from Ladefoged 1996)
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Summary
1. Sound is air uctuating, i.e. pressure changes.
2. These pressure changes measured over time give us wave
representations.
3. There are properties of waves we need to be familiar with:
frequency, amplitude, period, etc.
4. Fouriers theorem lets us compose and decompose complex
waves from simple parts.
5. Speech is a complex wave with simple components (some of
which are ltered by the shape of the vocal tract at every
moment, though well talk about this aspect on Thursday).
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