Graphical Models for Multi-dialect Arabic Isolated Words Recognition

AbstractThis paper presents the use of multiple hybrid systems for the recognition of isolated words from a large multi-dialect Arabic vocabulary. Such as the Hidden Markov models (HMM), Dynamic Bayesian networks (DBN) lack a discriminatory ability especially on speech recognition even if their progress is huge. Multi-Layer perceptrons (MLP) was applied in literature as an estimator of emission probabilities in HMM and proves it effectiveness. In order to ameliorate the results of recognition systems, we apply Support Vectors Machine (SVM) as an estimator of posterior probabilities since they are characterized by a high predictive power and discrimination. Moreover, they are based on a structural risk minimization (SRM) where the aim is to set up a classifier that minimizes a bound on the expected risk, rather than the empirical risk. In this work we have done a comparative study between three hybrid systems MLP/HMM, SVM/HMM and SVM/DBN and the standards models of HMM and DBN. In this paper, we describe the use of the hybrid model SVM/DBN for multi-dialect Arabic isolated words recognition. So, by using 67,132 speech files of Arabic isolated words, this work arises a comparative study of our acknowledgment system of it as the following: the use of especially the HMM standards leads to a recognition rate of 74.18%.as the average rate of 8 domains for everyone of the 4 dialects. Also, with the hybrid systems MLP/HMM and SVM/HMM we succeed in achieving the value of 77.74%.and 7806% respectively. Moreover, our proposed system SVM/DBN realizes the best performances, whereby, we achieve 87.67% as a recognition rate more than 83.01% obtained by GMM/DBN

An Algorithm For Building Language Superfamilies Using Swadesh Lists

The main contributions of this thesis are the following: i. Developing an algorithm to generate language families and superfamilies given for each input language a Swadesh list represented using the international phonetic alphabet (IPA) notation. ii. The algorithm is novel in using the Levenshtein distance metric on the IPA representation and in the way it measures overall distance between pairs of Swadesh lists. iii. Building a Swadesh list for the author\u27s native Kinyarwanda language because a Swadesh list could not be found even after an extensive search for it. Adviser: Peter Reves

Aspekte der Charakterisierung phonologischer Sprachstörungen vs. verzögerter Spracherwerb bei jordanischem Arabisch sprechenden Kindern

Bader S'da SI. Issues in the characterisation of phonological speech impairment vs. delayed acquisition in Jordanian Arabic-Speaking children. Bielefeld (Germany): Bielefeld University; 2010.Eine Studie des Spracherwerbs des jordanischen Arabisch bei jungen Muttersprachlern.A study with children speaking or acquiring Jordanian Arabic with or without phonological impairments

Unity and diversity within pidginized Arabic as produced by Asian migrant workers in the Arabian Gulf

Gulf Pidgin Arabic (GPA) is a simplified contact variety of language spoken in the Gulf States in the Middle East. This unique linguistic phenomenon has resulted from the frequent language contact between the non-indigenous workforce with no Arabic skills, who come from countries such as India, Indonesia, Pakistan and the Philippines for job opportunities, and native speakers who do not share a common language with them. Pidgin languages have not been studied until relatively recently, since the middle of the last century. Similarly, GPA has received relatively little attention in the literature apart from a few descriptive works such as Albakrawi, 2013; Alghamdi, 2014; Almoaily, 2008, 2012; Alshammari, 2010; Al-Zubeiry, 2015; Avram, 2014, 2015; Gomaa, 2007; Hobrom, 1996; Næss, 2008; Smart, 1990; Wiswal, 2002. This study aims to propose an account of both unity and diversity within Asian migrant Arabic pidgins in the states of the Arabian Gulf in terms of a set of parameters where purely linguistic developments interact with contextual ones. The analysis of the social situation and of the available linguistic data shows that the main factor behind conventionalizing within GPA is migrants’ mobility in the Gulf region. This is basically compatible with Bizri (2014)[1] who suggests that in Asian Migrant Arabic Pidgins (AMAP) “[’] mobility across the region is the major factor for homogenizing both native Arabic-speakers’ foreigner talk and migrants’ pidgin Arabic” (p. 385). One of the recommendations at the end of the study is that Saudi government should offer some courses for the foreign laborers to help them become familiar with basic Arabic words

Classical Arabic verb inflection: a WP-grammar, with an introductory phonemic investigation

This work presents a new grammar of the Classical Arabic Verb Inflection, carried out within the system of the WP morphological theory (the Word and Paradigm model of analysis as formalized by Professor P. H. Matthews). It is thus basically an application of this structural theory, rather than an assessment of its merits. Yet a general evaluation of characteristics of this theory, compared with two other interrelated systems, is presented with"particular attention to the concept of adequacy' in relation to Arabic grammar. The thesis consists of six chapters, the first of which represents an elaborated introduction meant to define the implicit questionable points that the title may raise. This is followed by a chapter on phonemic investigation, restricted to the problematic areas where the scholarly dispute over a specific number of Arabic phonemes has been building up since the Classical era. The terminological distinctions between the basic traditional terms of Arabic grammar and their presumed equivalents in modern linguistics is discussed in Chapter III as a prelude to the major body of the work. Chapter IV reviews, first, the three relevant linguistic models of analysis in relation to the morphology of Classical Arabic, which is taken here beyond the restrictive study of the individual language to the domain of the general linguistic theory; and, second, it presents a comprehensive summary of WP: its basic terms, rule system and evaluational procedure, followed by the reasons that made it the ideal choice for the present purpose. Chapter V, which serves as a background to the application in Chapter VI, represents the core of the discussions devoted to the Classical Arabic verbal system. It comprises all the explanations that are possibly needed for the making and understanding of the grammatical rules, and which find no room in the final chapter without interrupting the flow of the rule divisions. The final chapter is merely an application of the WP model to the inflectional system of the Classical Arabic verb. It consists of the verbal grammatical rules, preceded by a minimized group of the required guiding notes, and followed by an exemplary demonstration of the drivational system. The thesis is ended with a Summary and Conclusions that survey the work in general and briefly record its findings. In addition to the original views and postulations distributed over almost all the chapters of this work, and apart from the empirical value regarding the theory adopted, the present grammar represents on the one hand a further step in the evolutional course of the Classical Arabic grammar, and on the other it provides a new link between this classical grammar and the continual evolution of the linguistic theory