Acoustic Theory of Speech Production: With Calculations based on X-Ray Studies of Russian Articulations

Part I is devoted to the general theory of speech production and calculation techniques with an emphasis on the acoustics of compound resonator systems which is treated on the basis of equivalent circuit theory. It serves as a theoretical foundation for the specific studies undertaken in Part II as well as a reference for the theory of simple resonator systems and the theory of sound sources in speech, dealt with in the appendices.

Part II presents the results of calculations based on the X-ray studies of Russian articulations. The production of all .standard Russian vowels and consonants was X-rayed in 1951 by Dr. A. S. MacMillan and Dr. G. Kelemen at the Massachusetts Eye and Ear Infirmary, Harvard Medical School, under a plan of investigation drawn up by Prof. R. Jakobson, Harvard University, Prof. M. Halle, Massachusetts Instit~te of Technology (M.I.T.), and the author. These records and calculations have been prepared as a part of the 'project .. Description and Analysis of Contemporary Standard Russian", directed by R. Jakobson in connection with the Department of Slavic Languages and Literatures at Harvard University, under the sponsorship of the Rockefeller Foundation.

The main object of these calculations was to attempt a reconstruction ~f the spectra of speech sounds from physiological data of their production. This involves a comparison of samples of connected speech with corresponding data derived from sustained forms of a subject's articulation during X-ray photography. Some critical comments on the traditional pattern of articulatory descriptions are added.

Part Ill provides a summary of the relations between articulation and speech wave, with applications to the theory of distinctive features. The first section of this part is intended to supplement the beginning of Part I, being introductory in character and more linguistically oriented.