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Word-level pronunciation reduction in spotaneous speech and identification of speech units
Tomanová, Eliška ; Machač, Pavel (advisor) ; Zíková, Magdalena (referee)
The thesis deals with the issue of word-level pronunciation reductions and with the identification of reduced word forms. The first part of the thesis focuses on the degree of the phonetic features' stability and presents an analysis of selected words from dialogues with a high degree of spontaneity. The results of this research confirm that the most stable features of speech are the fricativness of sibilants and / /ř , voice, the formant structure of vowels and the nasality of the nasal consonant. The closure of the explosives and the quality of vowels prove, on the other hand, to be relatively unstable features. The second part of the thesis focuses on perceptual tests, which are used to verify the identifiability of the selected words in relation to the degree of reduction and the type and complexity of the context. Furthemore, the thesis tries to determine the phonetic features, which are under given conditions relevant for the appropriate identification of words. The research proved, that the most often noted phonetic features correspond to the above mentioned features with high stability. Moreover, it was also confirmed, that the recognizability of words depends on the degree of their reduction and the type of the context: strongly reduced words without any context tend to be very difficult...
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Word-level phonetic variability in public speaking
Kodytková, Carmen ; Machač, Pavel (advisor) ; Zíková, Magdalena (referee)
This thesis concentrates on phonetic variability of words in public speaking. In the first part of the thesis, the aim was to summarize the existing knowledge about the characteristics and principles of spontaneous speech, about phonetic features of Czech speech sounds and about factors that may influence type and degree of reduction. Then we summarize the results of older studies done on other languages (esp. on Dutch and German) and outline a possible application of results from word variability analyses. In the second part of this thesis we look at five Czech words - protože, prostě, myslím, samozřejmě and určitě. We set several groups of variants according to the degree of reduction for each word, we examine stability of their phonetic features and survey whether position (initial, medial, final and I = F) in intonation unit and/or speed of pronunciation of the chosen word has an influence on degree of reduction. Five to eight hierarchical groups of variants were set for each chosen word. Stability of phonetic features in four types of speech sounds (vowels, nasals, unvoiced plosives and unvoiced sibilants) is in line with the existing observations (e.g. Machač, 2004). Speed of pronunciation of the word had an influence on the degree of reduction in words protože, prostě, samozřejmě and určitě,...
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Linguopalatal contact in Czech palatal stops
Bartošová, Petra ; Skarnitzl, Radek (advisor) ; Machač, Pavel (referee)
The topic of this bachelor thesis is an articulation analysis of Czech palatal stops [ť] and [ď] using electropalatography. The aim of the thesis is to analyse the average and maximum rate of linguopalatal contact in the palatal area as well as to examine the dynamic process of this contact. It also features a short analysis of occlusion duration of Czech palatal stops. The theoretical part of the thesis contains a description of stop consonants, palatals, and the research method - electropalatography. Since thorough analysis of such speech sounds in Czech has not been extensive, the thesis should contribute to a more detailed look on articulation effects during the production of Czech palatal stops. It should also explore the impact of several factors on the production of those speech sounds - in particular voicing, differences between speakers, vocalic environment and nature of the material. In addition, it might be valuable among EPG studies as a considerable number of different speakers (6) is analysed.
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Speaker identity indicators in the domain of the temporal modulation of the speech signal
Weingartová, Lenka ; Volín, Jan (advisor) ; Machač, Pavel (referee)
AbstractAbstractAbstractAbstract This diploma thesis aims to contribute to the field of speaker recognition in the domain of temporal changes in the speech signal. After a brief introduction into forensic phonetics, it gives an outline of approaches and factors which help or hinder successful recognition. The focus is then shifted to the temporal structure of speech and approaches to its analysis currently in use. The practical section of this thesis consists of an experiment designed to assess the contribution of certain temporal measures to speaker recognition. The variables used here are %V (the proportion of vocalic intervals within a sentence), ΔV and ΔC (the standard deviation of the duration of vocalic/consonantal intervals within a sentence), VarcoV and VarcoC (the previous variables normalised for average interval duration) and the Pairwise Variability Indices, both vocalic and consonantal, raw and normalised. Beside these, another variable is used to capture the local articulation rate and especially final deceleration in the utterances - LAR (the inverse of the distance between successive midpoints of the vocalic intervals). Whereas the first mentioned variables are not very successful in distinguishing the speakers, LAR seems very well suited for capturing speaker idiosyncrasies, although...
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Acoustic properties of monosyllabic words in semi-spontaneous dialogues and read speech
Ondrušková, Lucie ; Volín, Jan (advisor) ; Machač, Pavel (referee)
This thesis investigates temporal characteristics of monosyllabic words (je, se, že) in semi-spontaneous dialogues and read speech. Our material consisted of two sets of recordings from six speakers (three men and three women). The speakers read a text first, and this reading was followed by a recording of a spontaneous dialogue. We investigated differences of temporal characteristics of monosyllabic words between the two types of speech. In addition, we also examined how these characteristics are affected by different variables, which included: position in a stress group, presence of stress, presence of pause and speaker's personality. It was found that the type of speech had a significant influence on duration ratio of sounds in examined words je, že. Word se remained unaffected by the type of speech and generally appeared as a very stable element. The type of speech also influenced variability in duration - this variability proved to be higher in spontaneous speech. The type of speech did not affect average duration of words je, se, že. Position in the stress group also proved to have a significant effect on duration of words. This effect was mainly caused by words which created isolated stress groups - words in such position had longer duration than words in other positions. For words je, se...
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Plosives in Czech: temporal characteristics and variability in realization
Šimek, Jaroslav ; Machač, Pavel (advisor) ; Zíková, Magdalena (referee)
The aim of this diploma thesis is to closely investigate and describe selected phonetic properties of Czech oral plosives [p t ť k b d ď g] in normal speech. The re- search focuses mostly on temporal characteristics in various contexts; moreover, we deal with the possible manners of plosive articulation in Czech, including non-canonical realizations. Another important part of the present study is a comparison with earlier studies. In the domain of temporal characteristics we examine the influence of various contexts on phone duration. The contexts include: phonetic context, speaker gender, the position of the plosive in the stress unit or articulation rate. We also examine a possible connection between the duration of the plosive and its realization. In the part that deals with the manner of articulation we focus on the individual phonetic properties, for which we investigate especially the conditions and degree of their stability. Furthermore we describe the specific plosive articulations in certain pho- netic contexts and some alternative realizations of certain plosives. The speech material used is mostly spontaneous. All the speakers are non- professionals from various TV broadcasts. Keywords: plosives, duration, phone segmentation, phonetic properties, pho- netic context, gender, articulation...
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Comparison of some spectral and temporal characteristics of German fricatives [x] and [ç] and Czech fricative [x] and their reflection in perception
Sedláčková, Petra ; Skarnitzl, Radek (referee) ; Machač, Pavel (advisor)
The aim of this diploma thesis is to analyze some of the acoustic characteristics of German fricatives [x] and [ ] and Czech fricative [x]. These sounds will be described and compared partly on the basis of spectral qualities of their noise, expressed by the so-called spectral moments (see chap. 3), and partly on the basis of their temporal characteristics. We assume to find a co-articulatory influence of the preceding vowel on the spectral characteristics of a fricative. We further assume that potential differences in values of the spectral moments, which can be, to a certain extent, considered an acoustic correlation of the place of articulation, can demonstrate a slightly different place of articulation of Czech and German velar fricatives. Using a perception test, we will attempt to explore a possible relation of German "Ich-laut" in the speech of German students of Czech to spectral mean values. The spectral moment measurements along with the perception test results may be found useful in teaching German as a second language for improving one's pronunciation. In practise, it can lead to an improvement in accepting a foreign speaker as an efficient user of the language.
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Phonetics in the teaching of German as a foreign language
Holá, Klára ; Machač, Pavel (referee) ; Berglová, Eva (advisor)
This thesis explains the role of phonetics in the teaching of German as a foreign language. The beginning examines the present state - here I try to target in particular the Common European Framework of Reference for Languages and its parts that have to do with phonetics. Next, I explain certain terms with which I work with in most of the thesis. The next chapter concentrates on the role that phonetics play in the teaching of foreign languages. In the practical part of this work I deal with the differences of Czech and German pronunciation. The changes I discovered by comparing both languages became the fundamentals of the phonetic analysis of twenty recordings that obtained a total of 1480 analyzed documents, from which I determined that Czech students have the hardest time pronouncing the following German sounds , , , and . The task of the next analysis was to determine how the pronunciations of these problematic sounds are processed in the following text books: Delfin, Planet and Tangram. The best text book was Tangram, then Delfin and the worst was Planet. Unfortunately, none of the text books emphasize pronunciation and exercising it to a sufficient degree.
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Temporal features of Czech fricatives
Homolková, Veronika ; Skarnitzl, Radek (referee) ; Machač, Pavel (advisor)
The thesis is focused on a description of temporal features of Czech central fricatives (f, v, s, z, š, ž, ch [x], h). The duration of fricatives in the intervocalic position is investigated according to the place of articulation and the voicing contrast. These results are contrasted to the preceding comparable researches. Also other contexts that can influence the duration of fricatives are examined (the phonological quantity of the neighbouring vowels, the position of the fricative in the stress unit, the type of speech, the gender of the speaker). The possible reciprocal influences are analysed in relation to the duration of the fricative and the articulation rate. The thesis deals also with the compensation tendencies in the field of duration of sequences "vowel + fricative" or "fricative + vowel". The basis for this research is formed by adequately extensive material of two types - read speeches, acquired advisedly for this analysis, and semi-spontaneous speeches, gained thanks to the Prague Phonetic Corpus (formerly Phonetic-Acoustic Database of Czech), created at the Phonetic Department of the Faculty of Philosophy and Arts, Charles University in Prague. The methodical basis for the thesis is formed by the doctoral thesis of PhDr. Pavel Machač, Ph.D.
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