Automatic detection and labeling of glides for the English and Spanish language

Abstract

This study outlines the development of a module for automatic detection of glide landmarks. We define glide landmarks as acoustic events that are observed during a narrowing in the oral cavity that does not result in cessation of airflow or in the conditions for turbulence noise. Glide landmarks are commonly associated with standard productions of underlying glides, a set that includes semivowels, liquids, and sounds produced by narrowing at the glottis, such as glottal stops, or the aspirant /h/. We lay out a framework that can be used to determine the acoustic measurements that are useful for detecting glide landmarks, and a Gausian Mixture Model is trained and tested, for automatic detection. A first investigation is carried out for /r/ production in English and Spanish. A closer look reveals that acoustic cues that describe abrupt onsets and offsets is useful for describing the trilled /r/ in Spanish, resulting in the need for an additional set of glide landmark cues for glide closure and glide release.