Simulation of Human Speech Production Applied to the Study and Synthesis of European Portuguese

A new articulatory synthesizer (SAPWindows), with a modular and flexible design, is described. A comprehensive acoustic model and a new interactive glottal source were implemented. Perceptual tests and simulations made possible by the synthesizer contributed to deepen our knowledge of one of the most important characteristics of European Portuguese, the nasal vowels. First attempts at incorporating models of frication into the articulatory synthesizer are presented, demonstrating the potential of performing fricative synthesis based on broad articulatory configurations. Synthesis of nonsense words and Portuguese words with vowels and nasal consonants are also shown. Despite not capable of competing with mainstream concatenative speech synthesis, the antropomorphic approach to speech synthesis, known as articulatory synthesis, proved as a valuable tool for Phonetics research and teaching. This was particularly true for the European Portuguese nasal vowels.