A gestural production model and its application to reduction in German

Area of Science:

• Linguistics
• Speech Science
• Computational Phonetics

Background:

• Articulatory gestures are key units in speech organization.
• Existing speech production models often rely on task dynamics.
• A new model focuses on gesture specifications as input.

Purpose of the Study:

• To develop and computer-implement a quantitative speech production model.
• To explain speech reduction phenomena using gesture alterations.
• To evaluate the model's capability with synthesized examples.

Main Methods:

• Implemented a computer model based on articulatory gesture specifications.
• Utilized a critically damped linear second-order system.
• Applied the model to analyze reduction phenomena in conversational German speech.

Main Results:

• Demonstrated the model's capability in explaining segmental alterations.
• Identified general principles governing gesture timing and magnitude changes.
• Synthesized examples to evaluate model parameters and gesture values.

Conclusions:

• The developed speech production model effectively explains reduction phenomena.
• Gesture timing and magnitude alterations are key to understanding segmental variations.
• The model provides a framework for analyzing speech production intricacies.