The weight of phonetic substance in the structure of sound inventories

In the research field initiated by Lindblom & Liljencrants in 1972, we illustrate the possibility of giving substance to phonology, predicting the structure of phonological systems with nonphonological principles, be they listener-oriented (perceptual contrast and stability) or speaker-oriented (articulatory contrast and economy). We proposed for vowel systems the Dispersion-Focalisation Theory (Schwartz et al., 1997b). With the DFT, we can predict vowel systems using two competing perceptual constraints weighted with two parameters, respectively λ and α. The first one aims at increasing auditory distances between vowel spectra (dispersion), the second one aims at increasing the perceptual salience of each spectrum through formant proximities (focalisation). We also introduced new variants based on research in physics - namely, phase space (λ,α) and polymorphism of a given phase, or superstructures in phonological organisations (Vallée et al., 1999) which allow us to generate 85.6% of 342 UPSID systems from 3- to 7-vowel qualities. No similar theory for consonants seems to exist yet. Therefore we present in detail a typology of consonants, and then suggest ways to explain plosive vs. fricative and voiceless vs. voiced consonants predominances by i) comparing them with language acquisition data at the babbling stage and looking at the capacity to acquire relatively different linguistic systems in relation with the main degrees of freedom of the articulators; ii) showing that the places “preferred” for each manner are at least partly conditioned by the morphological constraints that facilitate or complicate, make possible or impossible the needed articulatory gestures, e.g. the complexity of the articulatory control for voicing and the aerodynamics of fricatives. A rather strict coordination between the glottis and the oral constriction is needed to produce acceptable voiced fricatives (Mawass et al., 2000). We determine that the region where the combinations of Ag (glottal area) and Ac (constriction area) values results in a balance between the voice and noise components is indeed very narrow. We thus demonstrate that some of the main tendencies in the phonological vowel and consonant structures of the world’s languages can be explained partly by sensorimotor constraints, and argue that actually phonology can take part in a theory of Perception-for-Action-Control

A brief history of articulatory-acoustic vowel representation

International audienceThis paper aims at following the concept of vowel space across history. It shows that even with very poor experimental means, researchers from the 17 th century started to organize the vowel systems along perceptual dimensions, either articulatory, by means of proprioceptive introspection, or auditory. With the development of experimental devices, and the increasing knowledge in acoustic and articulatory theories in the 19 th century, it is shown how the relationship between the two dimensions tended to tighten. At the mid 20 th century, the link between articulatory parameters such as jaw opening, position of the constriction of the tongue, or lip rounding, and the acoustical values of formants was clear. At this period, with the increasing amount of phonological descriptions of the languages of the world, and the power of the computer database analysis allowing extracting universal tendencies, the question of how the vowel systems are organized arose. The paper discusses this important question, focusing on two points: (1) how the auditory constraints shape the positioning of a specific set of vowel within the acoustic space, and (2) how the articulatory constraints shape the maximal extension of the vowel systems, the so-called maximal vowel space (MVS)

Ability of reconstituted fossil vocal tracts to produce speech - Phylogenetic and ontogenetic considerations

International audienceWe analyzed 31 skulls from now to 1.5 Ma (millions anni) BP(Before Present) for fossil hominids available at the Musée de l'Homme in Paris or in the literature: (1) 10-30 ka BP: modern humans: Paleolithic; (2) 90-200 ka BP: anatomically modern humans; (3) 45-90 ka BP: Neanderthals; (4) 1.5 Ma BP: Homo ergaster; These skulls are all well kept and possess a jaw in the majority of cases but the vertebral column has been reconstituted. We attempt to: (1) Localize hyoid bone and then glottis position; (2) Reconstitute a vocal tract model in a plausible way using an articulatory model; (3) Quantify the acoustic capabilities of this reconstituted vocal tract. For this purpose, we combine phylogenesis and ontogenesis. We are in a position to state that our ancestors and distant cousins were equipped with a vocal tract that could produce the same variety of vowel sounds as we can today: the vowels /i a u/. The vocal tract morphology has been favorable to the emergence and production of speech since several hundreds of thousands of years

Human vocal tract growth: A longitudinal study of the development of various anatomical structures

International audienceThe growth of the head and neck and its components, including that of the vocal tract, is not homothetic but appears rather as an anamorphosis. The growth of various structures presents a phenomenon of heterochrony. Another important issue in vocal tract growth is sexual dimorphism. It was first claimed that sexual dimorphism appears at puberty, but a recent study has suggested that some prepubertal differences exist. To study these two phenomena, we used longitudinal radiographic data of sixty-eight typical subjects (966 radiographs, taken from 1 month to 25 years) and twelve fetuses (anatomical sections). In this study, we analyzed the growth curves and growth types of the hard and soft palate, the pharyngeal cavity and the estimated length of the whole vocal tract using non-linear mixed-effect models, in order to take advantage of our unique longitudinal dataset. Results indicate that most of the structures follow a neural/somatic growth type, while the pharyngeal cavity follows a more somatic growth type. As concerns sexual dimor-phism, no prepubertal differences were found, suggesting that the sexual dimorphism is likely to begin at puberty. These results have implications for the acoustics of speech production during development and should lead to improvements in vocal tract growth modeling

Vocal tract growth from birth to adulthood, applications for articulatory studies in infants and biomechanical modeling of the vocal apparatus

International audienceThe growth of the vocal apparatus is far from linear, and reflects several important changes during ontogeny. How are children able to reach acoustic targets in such a context? To counterbalance the nonuniform growth of the vocal tract, adequate motor control of the supra-laryngeal articulators is crucial. Therefore, prior to understand the development of speech production, not only in the acoustic space, but in respect with the articulatory-to-acoustic relationships evolution, it is crucial to study vocal tract morphology

Ce que les grammairiens n'ont point fait, des phonéticiens l'ont tenté : l'utopie de la notation exacte de la parole à l'aube du XXe siècle

1. Réforme de l'orthographe, Français fondamental et parole Dans une lettre ouverte au ministre de l'instruction publique, publiée en 1905, Ferdinand Brunot mettait l'accent sur l'inadéquation de l'orthographe française avec la prononciation et plaidait en faveur d'une réforme. Brunot s'y posait en contempteur d'une situation qu'il estimait absurde, notant que « l'orthographe est le fléau de l'école » (1905: 5). On se trouve ici aux marges du Français fondamental, puisque l'auteur de l’Histoi..

Anatomie et croissance du conduit vocal du fœtus à l'enfant de 5 ans

International audienceThe faculty of speech in humans is emerging during the first years of life: from first vocal folds control (around 2-3 month) to first words (around 18-20 month) through canonical babbling (around 7 month), this faculty is developing thanks to the progressive maturation of the neuromuscular control of speech articulators. Prior to understand how this faculty is evolving, and to simulate the acoustic productions during ontogeny, it is crucial to understand the anatomical development of the vocal tract.This study aims at observing the growth of the vocal tract and its constituents, from birth to 5 years. The biometric data presented here allow a better understanding of the evolution of these structures during ontogeny, and will be used in order to build models of newborn's and early child's vocal tracts, to simulate acoustic productions.La faculté de parler se construit durant les premières années de vie : de la phonation sans articulation (aux alentours de 2-3 mois) à la production des premiers mots (12-14 mois), en passant par le babillage (autour de 7 mois). Cette faculté se construit avec la maturation progressive de l'anatomie et grâce à celle du contrôle neuromusculaire des différents articulateurs impliqués dans la production de la parole. Pour comprendre comment se développe cette faculté, et simuler les productions acoustiques au cours de la croissance, il est d'abord indispensable de comprendre l'évolution anatomique de cet instrument. Cette étude se propose de décrire la croissance du conduit vocal et de ses constituants, depuis la période fœtale jusqu'à 5 ans. Les données biométriques présentent l'évolution de ces structures au cours de cette période cruciale. Elles pourront servir à modéliser le conduit vocal du nouveau-né et du jeune enfant, en vue de simuler les productions acoustiques

Typologies phonologiques et tendances universelles. Approche substantialiste

1. De l’intérêt des typologies La taxinomie vise à proposer un ordre à l’intérieur duquel seront classés les éléments d’un ensemble. C’est un des programmes fondateurs de toute science. Les botanistes, les zoologistes ont été peut-être les premiers spécialistes de ces grandes opérations de structuration. Avec de tels travaux se posent toute une série de questions de méthode. Où commence la variété ? Quelles sont les limites d’une espèce ? Sur quels critères doit-on rassembler les éléments d’u..

La croissance du conduit vocal du foetus à l'adulte : une étude longitudinale

International audienceLongitudinal radiographic archives of 68 Caucasian American people followed between 1 month and 25 years were used in order to quantify the growth of the vocal tract. 966 sagittal cephalometric radiographs from the American Association of Orthodontists were used, including a large number of radiographs covering the early years, which is a critical period for speech acquisition. The anatomical sections of 12 fetuses were added to ensure the continuity of data around birth. Eight variables are presented to specify in detail the growth of the vocal tract. These are (1) the oral cavity length; (2) the hard palate length; (3) the soft palate length; (4) the pharyngeal cavity height; (5) the estimated vocal tract length; (6), (7), and (8) the vertical position of each the glottis, the hyoid bone and the third cervical vertebra relative to the occlusal plane, in order to better estimate the vertical evolution of the pharyngeal cavity. Growth curves and growth rates are also computed. Finally, statistical tests are conducted in order to observe the onset of sexual dimorphism. These data are a source of information for the modeling of the vocal tract during ontogenesis, and for the study of articulatory-acoustic relationships during growth.Les archives radiographiques de 68 individus blancs nord-américains suivis longitudinalement entre 1 mois et 25 ans ont été utilisées afin de quantifier la croissance du conduit vocal. 966 téléradiographies sagittales de la tête et du cou provenant de l'Association Américaine des Orthodontistes ont été utilisées, incluant un grand nombre de radiographies couvrant les premières années de vie, période cruciale pour l'acquisition de la parole. Les coupes anatomiques de 12 fœtus ont été ajoutées afin d'assurer une continuité de données pour la période périnatale. Huit variables sont présentées afin de décrire en détail la croissance du conduit vocal : (1) la longueur de la cavité orale, (2) la longueur du palais dur, (3) la longueur du palais mou, (4) la hauteur de la cavité pharyngale, (5) la longueur totale du conduit vocal, (6) la position de la glotte (7) la position de l'os hyoïde et (8) la position de la troisième vertèbre cervicale, relativement au plan occlusal. Les courbes de croissance et les vitesses de croissance sont calculées. Des tests statistiques sont effectués dans le but d'observer l'émergence du dimorphisme sexuel. Ces données sont une source d'information pour modéliser la croissance du conduit vocal et permettent également de mieux comprendre les liens entre anatomie et acoustique au cours de l'ontogenèse

Des lexiques aux syllabes des langues du monde

1. Introduction Toute unité lexicale, quelle que soit la langue, est constituée d’un ou plusieurs types syllabiques existant dans cette langue. Une structure syllabique correspond à une concaténation de phonèmes décomposable traditionnellement en constituants C et V. Cependant, la nature de l’unité syllabique est encore actuellement l’objet d’un débat linguistique. Beaucoup on fait l’hypothèse que l’existence de l’unité syllabique ne pourrait être montrée que par l’existence de ses frontières..