Transcript Ancient Sounds - Phonetics Laboratory

Ancient Sounds: mixing acoustic phonetics,
statistics and comparative philology
to bring speech back from the past
Investigator: John Coleman
Phonetics Laboratory
University of Oxford
Project Partner: John Aston
Statistics Laboratory
University of Cambridge
@sounds_ancient
Coleman supported by an AHRC
Science in Culture Innovation Award
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What would comparative and historical
phonology be like if we worked with
sounds instead of symbols?
Can interesting statistical or signal
processing methods give insights into
language?
Could we bring back to life the sounds
of dead languages?
Phylogenetic phonetics
After Schleicher (1860) Deutsche Sprache, and Aston, Buck, Coleman, Cotter, Jones,
Macaulay, MacLeod, Moriarty, and Nevins (2011) Phylogenetic inference for functionvalued traits: speech sound evolution. doi: 10.1016/j.tree.2011.10.001
Phylogenetic phonetics
Phylogenetic phonetics
Regular similarities ⇒ Shared ancestry
Dissimilarities Historical divergence
Latin
Italian
Spanish
Portuguese
French
1
[ˈu:nu-s/m]
[ˈu:no]
[ˈu:no]
[ũ(ŋ)]
[œ̃], [ɛ̃]
2
[ˈduo]
[ˈdu:e]
[dos]
[dois], [doiʃ]
[dø]
3
[tre:s]
[tre:]
[tres]
[tres], [treʃ]
[tʀwa]
4
[ˈkwatwor]
[ˈkwat:ro]
[ˈkwatro]
[ˈkwatru]
[katʀ]
5
[ˈkwi:ŋkwe]
[ˈtʃiŋkwe]
[ˈsi:ŋko], [ˈθi:ŋko]
[ˈsıŋku]
̃
[sɛ̃k]
6
[seks]
[sɛi]
[seis]
[sɐĭs], [sɐĭʃ]
[sis]
7
[ˈseptem]
[ˈsɛt:e]
[ˈsjete]
[ˈsɛti]
[sɛt]
8
[ˈokto]
[ˈot:o]
[ˈotʃo]
[ˈoĭtu]
[ɥit]
9
[ˈnovem]
[ˈnɔve]
[ˈnweve]
[ˈnɔvɨ]
[nœf]
10
[ˈdekem]
[ˈdjɛtʃi]
[ˈdjɛs], [ˈdjɛθ]
[ˈdɛʃ]
[dis]
But these are not sounds!
Latin
Italian
Spanish
Portuguese
French
1
[ˈu:nu-s/m]
[ˈu:no]
[ˈu:no]
[ũ(ŋ)]
[œ̃], [ɛ̃]
2
[ˈduo]
[ˈdu:e]
[dos]
[dois], [doiʃ]
[dø]
3
[tre:s]
[tre:]
[tres]
[tres], [treʃ]
[tʀwa]
4
[ˈkwatwor]
[ˈkwat:ro]
[ˈkwatro]
[ˈkwatru]
[katʀ]
5
[ˈkwi:ŋkwe]
[ˈtʃiŋkwe]
[ˈsi:ŋko], [ˈθi:ŋko]
[ˈsıŋku]
̃
[sɛ̃k]
6
[seks]
[sɛi]
[seis]
[sɐĭs], [sɐĭʃ]
[sis]
7
[ˈseptem]
[ˈsɛt:e]
[ˈsjete]
[ˈsɛti]
[sɛt]
8
[ˈokto]
[ˈot:o]
[ˈotʃo]
[ˈoĭtu]
[ɥit]
9
[ˈnovem]
[ˈnɔve]
[ˈnweve]
[ˈnɔvɨ]
[nœf]
10
[ˈdekem]
[ˈdjɛtʃi]
[ˈdjɛs], [ˈdjɛθ]
[ˈdɛʃ]
[dis]
But these are not sounds!
1
Latin
Italian
Spanish
Portuguese
French
[
u:nu-
[
u:no]
[
u:no]
[u]
[] []
[
du:e]
[dos]
[dois],
[d]
s/m]
2
[
duo]
[doi]
3
[tre:s]
[tre:]
[tres]
[tres],
[t]
[tre]
4
[
tor]
[
t:ro [
tro]
[
tru]
[t]
[
su]
[s]
]
5
[
i:e]
[
tie]
[
si:o],
[

i:o]
6
[ses]
[si]
[seis]
[s
s], [s
]
[sis]
7
[
septem]
[
st:e]
[
sjete]
[
sti]
[st]
8
[
oto]
[
ot:o]
[
oto]
[
otu]
[e
it]
9
[
novem]
[
nve]
[
neve]
[
nv
]
[nf]
Sound change continuum:
nasalization in un-us, -um
[un-o]
LPC spectrogram 1
LPC spectrogram
LPC spectrogram
LPC spectrogram
LPC spectrogram
LPC spectrogram
LPC spectrogram
Interpolated
LPC spectrograms
[ũ]
LPC spectrogram 2
GENERATION OF SYNTHETIC SPEECH
D Moore, J Coleman
Eur. Patent 1,504,443
Sound change continuum:
nasal vowel lowering
[ũ]
LPC spectrogram 1
LPC spectrogram
LPC spectrogram
LPC spectrogram
LPC spectrogram
LPC spectrogram
LPC spectrogram
Interpolated
LPC spectrograms
[ɛ]̃
LPC spectrogram 2
[œ̃ ]
Objectives for 2015 (this award)
“Triangulation backwards”: to reconstruct
(audible) acoustic examples of the likely
ancestors of words in: Romance (from Latin),
Germanic, and Greek
Develop techniques to overcome obstacles
besetting these methods
Presentations, publications and a workshop on
the new methods
To lay foundations for an “attack” on other
branches: Celtic, Slavonic, Indo-Aryan