The role of anatomical factors in speech production: towards the speaker-independent articulatory model.

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The overall goal of this research is to improve our understanding of inter-speaker variability in articulatory control of speech. Along with the theoretical importance, this knowledge has a number of important practical implications. These include the development of a speaker-independent model for speech recognition and synthesis and creation of a comprehensive speech movement reference database that can be used in cross-linguistic and speech production training studies. *** The specific focus of this application is on the anatomical factors underlying speech production variability. This line of enquiry is motivated by the lack of agreement in the literature on the existence of a relationship between factors such as oral cavity and tongue size, skull morphology and jaw length with speech and oral movement characteristics. In this study we will pursue the following questions: (1) Can a speaker be classified based on measures of their oral anatomy? (2) Do speakers with similar anatomies show similar articulatory movement patterns in speech? and (3) Does anatomic variability contribute to differences in tongue-jaw coordination and articulatory strategies during speaking. *** Anatomic data will be obtained from 60 adults using computer-aided lateral cephalometry. A large corpus of speech of different complexity (e.g., syllable to phrase to paragraph), style (e.g., fast, slow, clear) and non-speech tasks (e.g., maximum mouth opening) will be recorded using electromagnetic articulography. Anatomic measurements (e.g., tongue size, jaw and mandible size and shape) will be used in a cluster analysis to classify speakers into groups. Kinematic measures will include those focused on articulatory movements as a whole (e.g., articulatory working space, motion dynamic range), sound specific (e.g., articulatory position variability), and syllable/phrase specific measures (e.g., average movement speed, peak speed, movement duration, and range). They will be correlated to the anatomic measurements and compared between speakers in different anatomic groups. *** This research will be among first to comprehensively examine the variability in the anatomical dimensions of articulators and their role in speech movement variability in a large cohort of speakers. The outcome of this work will lead to identification of “canonical” articulatory parameters in speech production common across speakers and facilitate the development of the speaker-independent articulatory model of speech production.