This book explores the nature of cognitive representations and processes in speech motor control, based primarily on evidence from speech timing. It engages with the key question of whether phonological representations are spatio-temporal, as in the Articulatory Phonology approach, or symbolic (atemporal and non-quantitative); this issue has fundamental implications for the architecture of the speech production planning system, particularly with regard to the number of planning components and the type of timing mechanisms. Alice Turk and Stefanie Shattuck-Hufnagel outline a number of arguments in favour of an alternative to the Articulatory Phonology/Task Dynamics model. They demonstrate that a different framework is needed to account for evidence from speech and non-speech timing behaviour, and specifically that three separate planning components must be posited: Phonological Planning, Phonetic Planning, and Motor-Sensory Implementation. The approach proposed in the book provides a clearer and more comprehensive account of what is known about motor timing in general and speech timing in particular. It will be of interest to phoneticians and phonologists from all theoretical backgrounds as well as to speech clinicians and technologists.

Essential principles, practical examples, current applications, and leading-edge research. In this book, Thomas F. Quatieri presents the field's most intensive, up-to-date tutorial and reference on discrete-time speech signal processing. Building on his MIT graduate course, he introduces key principles, essential applications, and state-of-the-art research, and he identifies limitations that point the way to new research opportunities. Quatieri provides an excellent balance of theory and application, beginning with a complete framework for understanding discrete-time speech signal processing. Along the way, he presents important advances never before covered in a speech signal processing text book, including sinusoidal speech processing, advanced time-frequency analysis, and nonlinear aeroacoustic speech production modeling. Coverage includes: Speech production and speech perception: a dual view Crucial distinctions between stochastic and deterministic problems Pole-zero speech models Homomorphic signal processing Short-time Fourier transform analysis/synthesis Filter-bank and wavelet analysis/synthesis Nonlinear measurement and modeling techniques The book's in-depth applications coverage includes speech coding, enhancement, and modification; speaker recognition; noise reduction; signal restoration; dynamic range compression, and more. Principles of Discrete-Time Speech Processing also contains an exceptionally complete series of examples and Matlab exercises, all carefully integrated into the book's coverage of theory and applications.

Since Malmberg's classic Manual of Phonetics published in 1968 there has been no definitive up-to-date account of the phonetic sciences. The Handbook of Phonetic Sciences is unique in that it brings together, in the same volume, chapters on the biological foundations of speech and hearing such as brain functions underlying speech, organic variation of the vocal apparatus, auditory neural processing, articulatory processes together with chapters on theoretical and applied areas.

When it comes to language acquisition, all parents have questions…and?this invaluable resource?has all the answers. When should I expect my baby’s first word? Is my toddler on his way to talking soon? Is my child speaking as clearly as her peers? All parents end up thinking questions like these during their children’s formative years, but too few act on them, assuming the answers are too unpredictable to be certain. Time to Talk answers these questions for the curious parent. Written by an experienced speech-language pathologist and mom, this practical and proactive guide will help parents: Understand the building blocks of speech and language Monitor progress against expected milestones Enhance their child’s communication skills Spot signs of potential problems with hearing, speech, or language development Address common concerns, such as articulation, late talking, stuttering, dyslexia, etc. Foster literacy Raise bilingual children successfully Your child’s language acquisition no longer must be a guessing game for you. From baby’s first babbling to reading readiness, Time to Talk provides everything a parent needs so this vital fundamental skill doesn’t have to be left to chance.

This collection of articles by leading researchers in each of the fields involved in text-to-speech synthesis provides a picture of recent work in laboratories throughout the world and of the problems and challenges that remain. by providing samples of synthesized speech as well as video demonstrations for several of the synthesizers discussed, the book will also allow the reader to judge what all the work adds up to-that is, how good is the synthetic speech we can now produce?

This book reports on an outstanding thesis that has significantly advanced the state-of-the-art in the automated analysis and classification of speech and music. It defines several standard acoustic parameter sets and describes their implementation in a novel, open-source, audio analysis framework called openSMILE, which has been accepted and intensively used worldwide. The book offers extensive descriptions of key methods for the automatic classification of speech and music signals in real-life conditions and reports on the evaluation of the framework developed and the acoustic parameter sets that were selected. It is not only intended as a manual for openSMILE users, but also and primarily as a guide and source of inspiration for students and scientists involved in the design of speech and music analysis methods that can robustly handle real-life conditions.

Time to Talk provides a powerful and accessible resource for practitioners to help develop their own skills, as well as supporting a whole-school or setting approach to speaking and listening. Written by the government’s former Communication Champion for children, it showcases and celebrates effective approaches in schools and settings across the country. Jean Gross helpfully summarises research on what helps children and young people develop good language and communication skills, and highlights the importance of key factors: a place to talk, a reason to talk and support for talk. This practical and engaging book also provides: whole-class approaches to developing all children and young people’s speaking and listening skills; ‘catch-up’ strategies for those with limited language ways in which settings and schools can develop an effective partnership with specialists, such as speech and language therapists, to help children with more severe needs; examples of good practice in supporting parents/carers to develop their children’s language skills; answers to practitioners’ most frequently asked questions about speech and language. This book is for all school leaders, teachers and Early Years practitioners concerned about the growing number of children and young people with limited language and communication skills.

This book constitutes the refereed proceedings of the Second International Workshop on Text, Speech and Dialogue, TSD'99, held in Plzen, Czech Republic in September 1999. The 57 revised full papers and 19 posters presented were carefully reviewed and selected for inclusion in the book. The book presents state-of-the-art research and technology in the field of natural language processing with emphasis on text, speech, and spoken dialogue.

The papers in this volume, written by authors experienced in intelligibility issues in speech pathology and related fields, describe the basic dimensions by which speech intelligibility can and must be understood. The dimensions are auditory perceptual, linguistic, acoustic and physiologic. These, in turn, are applied to the fundamental problems of definition and theory, measurement and clinical management. Only relatively recently has there been significant progress in formal intelligibility assessment and few, if any books have been published on intelligibility concerns in speech pathology. It is hoped that this book represents the topic of intelligibility in a way that will encourage further invention in research and clinical efforts relating to this essential aspect of speech and language performance.