A computer program for synthesizing English intonation

Abstract

This paper will describe a computer program for synthesizing English fundamental frequency contours (F0 contours) which attempts comprehensive coverage of the different English melodies. The system's phonological representation of F0 contours is based on Pierrehumbert's work. [“The Phonology and Phonetics of English Intonation,” Ph.D. dissertation, MIT (1980)]. Experiments on production motivate our treatment of pitch range and its interaction with choice of melody [Liberman and Pierrehumbert, “Intonational Invariance Under Changes in Pitch Range and Length,” Language Sound Structure (MIT Press, Cambridge, MA, 1984)]. A set of rules has been developed for aligning crucial features of the F0 contour with the speech segments. The program was tested both with LPC‐encoded natural speech and with synthetic speech. A demonstration tape will be played at the meeting.