Why can big.bi be changed to bi.gbi? A mathematical model of syllabification and articulatory synthesis

A simplified model of articulatory synthesis involving four stages is presented. The planning of articulatory gestures is based on syllable graphs with arcs and nodes that are implemented in a complex representation. This was first motivated by a reduction in the many-to-one relationship between articulatory parameters and formant space. This allows for consistent trajectory planning and computation of articulation dynamics with coordination and selection operators. The flow of articulatory parameters is derived from these graphs with four equations. Many assertions of Articulatory Phonology have been abandoned. This framework is adapted to synthesis using VLAM (a Maeda's model) and simulations are performed with syllables including main vowels and the plosives /b,d,g/ only. The model is able to describe consonant-vowel coarticulation, articulation of consonant clusters, and verbal transformations are seen as transitions of the syllable graph structure.

A mathematical model of the vowel space

The articulatory-acoustic relationship is many-to-one and non linear and this is a great limitation for studying speech production. A simplification is proposed to set a bijection between the vowel space (f1, f2) and the parametric space of different vocal tract models. The generic area function model is based on mixtures of cosines allowing the generation of main vowels with two formulas. Then the mixture function is transformed into a coordination function able to deal with articulatory parameters. This is shown that the coordination function acts similarly with the Fant's model and with the 4-Tube DRM derived from the generic model.