Elements Of Acoustic Phonetics

E-Book Overview

This revised and expanded edition of a classic textbook provides a concise introduction to basic concepts of acoustics and digital speech processing that are important to linguists, phoneticians, and speech scientists. The second edition includes four new chapters that cover new experimental techniques in acoustic phonetics made possible by the use of computers. Assuming no background in physics or mathematics, Ladefoged explains concepts that must be understood in using modern laboratory techniques for acoustic analysis, including resonances of the vocal tract and the relation of formants to different cavities; digital speech processing and computer storage of sound waves; and Fourier analysis and Linear Predictive Coding, the equations used most frequently in the analysis of speech sounds. Incorporating recent developments in our knowledge of the nature of speech, Ladefoged also updates the original edition's discussion of the basic properties of sound waves; variations in loudness, pitch, and quality of speech sounds; wave analysis; and the hearing and production of speech.Like its predecessor, this edition of Elements of Acoustic Phonetics will serve as an invaluable textbook and reference for students and practitioners of linguistics and speech science, and for anyone who wants to understand the physics of speech.

E-Book Content

ELEMENTS OF ACOUSTIC PHONETICS 2 ND EDITION ..____, ELEMENTS or A(0USTI( PHONETICS Peter Ladefoged I H E U N I V E R S I T Y 0 F ( H I C I 6 0 F I E SS ( H I C I G 0 A N D l 0 N D ON '1'he University of Chicago Press, Chicago 60637 The University of Chicago Press, Ltd., London © 1962, 1996 by Peter Ladefoged All rights reserved. Published 1996 Printed in the United States of America 1009fl8D70605040302 345678 ISBN: @226-46763-s (cloth) 0-225-46764-s (paper) Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Ladefoged, Peter. Elements of acoustic phonetics I Peter Ladefoged. - 2nd ed. p. cm. Includes bibliographical references and index. 1. Phonetics. Acoustic. I. Title. P221.5.L33 1996 612.7'8— dc20 95-9057 @The paper used in this publication meets the minimum requirements of the American National Standard for Information Sciences-- Permanence of Paper for Printed Library Materials. AN5I 339-43-1992- CONTENTS Preface vii om: Sound Waves 1 TWO Loudness and Pitch 14 nmnn Quality 24 roux Wave Analysis 36 FIVE Resonance 57 srx Hearing 74 SEVEN The Production of Speech 92 am:-rr Resonances of the Vocal Tract 114 Nmra Digital Speech Processing 136 TEN Fourier Analysis 152 susvan Digital Elters and LPC Analysis 181 Iumax 215 ___s§§§__. PREFACE This is a new edition of Elements of Acoustic Phonetics, which provided, in seven short chapters, the basic aspects of acoustics that are important for the study of speech. A better title for the first edition might have been "Elements of Acoustics for Phoneticians," as it concen- trated on acoustics rather than phonetics. The present book has the same general aim. The basic elements of the subject have not changed in the forty years since the earlier version was written, so the first six chapters of the book have been updated only by small changes in tenni- nology and improved figures, drawn by special-purpose computer programs that make them more accurate. The seventh chapter has been expanded so as to take into account our modem insights into the nature of speech, and an eighth chapter added that deals with more particular phonetic issues, such as resonances of the vocal tract and how formants are related to different cavities. Additional chapters describe the really new elements that have been added to acoustic phonetics, due to