This paper presents a kernel fuzzy clustering with a novel differential harmony search algorithm to coordinate with the diversion scheduling scheme classification. First, we employed a self-adaptive solution generation strategy and differential evolution-based population update strategy to improve the classical harmony search. Second, we applied the differential harmony search algorithm to the ...

The vowel space reflects the right-angled shape of the vocal tract, and many consonants exploit the palatal wall. These two facts suggest the importance of the geometry of peripheral structure in speech production. In this study, the relationship between geometry and articulatory variation was examined using a database of English and Japanese speakers. The geometry of each speaker's vocal tract...

The classification of unvoiced stops in consonant–vowel (CV) syllables, segmented from continuous speech, is investigated by features related to speech production. As burst and vocalic transitions contribute to identification of stops in the CV context, features are computed from both regions. Although formants are the truly discriminating articulatory features, their estimation from the speech...

In Japanese, there is frequent alternation between CV morae and moraic geminate consonants. In this study, we analyzed the phonemic environments of consonant gemination (CG) using the “Corpus of Spontaneous Japanese (CSJ).” The results revealed that the environment in which gemination occurs is, to some extent, parallel to that of vowel devoicing. However, there are two crucial differences. One...

Accurate estimation of segmental durations is crucial for naturalsounding text-to-speech (TTS) synthesis. This paper presents a model of vowel duration used in the Bell Labs Japanese TTS system. We describe the constraints on vowel devoicing, and effects of factors such as phone identity, surrounding phone identities, accentuation, syllabic structure, and phrasal position on the duration of bot...

A perception experiment on stop consonant voicing in (C)V1CV2 was conducted to test the effects of the preceding vowel. Five types of /ki/ as CV1 differing in closure voicing, vowel duration and vowel devoicing were spliced with a da-ta VOT continuum as CV2. Subjects’ judgment between the spliced kita and kida along a VOT range was compared with that of ta and da in isolation. Strong effects of...

This paper discusses two well-known phonetic-phonological phenomena of Japanese, vowel devoicing and mora-timed rhythm. Regarding vowel devoicing as a process of vowels getting consonantal, it may change the mora-templated syllable structures of Japanese, resulting in the deviation from mora-timed rhythm. To investigate spontaneous Japanese with comparison to other languages, the label data of ...

Vowel devoicing is a phenomenon that is reported to occur in many languages such as Japanese, Parisian and Montreal French, Turkish and English. This paper investigates vowel devoicing in Korean. A devoiced vowel does not exhibit characteristic vocal tract resonances, and instead is realized as a long interval of aspiration or frication following consonant release, resulting in non-distinct seg...

Harmony is a concept that plays a pivotal role throughout Chinese history (Li, 2008 ) as much as love does in Christianity. Also similar to love in Christianity, much good as well as evil has been done in the name of harmony. It is important therefore to delineate the basic structure of this root metaphor in order to differentiate between optimal and suboptimal versions of harmony. This chapter...