8/3/2019 Poster Syllables

http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/poster-syllables 1/2

• Incorporating pronunciation variations of the schwa in the

standard transcriptions of sentences (using EBNF notation).

• Performing a phonetic recognition test using acoustic models

of phones (trained with and without linguistic knowledge of 

the schwa deletion/alternation).

Investigating New Syllable Prototypes

for the Portuguese LanguageSara Candeias1, Fernando Perdigão1,2

Examples of schwa pronunciation variation.The vertical slash | is used to signify phone alternation probability, between round brackets.mea

• Schwa contexts:

- word-beginning (T1);

- word-ending (T2);

- opened syllable (T3);

- closed syllable (T4).

1Institute of Telecommunications – Pole of Coimbra (PORTUGAL) 2 Dep. of Electrical & Computer Eng. – University of Coimbra (PORTUGAL)

{saracandeias, fp}@co.it.pt

The database is composed by 401,345 Portuguese words

• from Natura Project’s corpora;

• without acronyms, foreign-words, abbreviations;

• with syllables divided automatically:

• using the Natura Project tool Lingua::PT::PLN module);

• changing some syllable prototypes, according to new

syllabification rules.

Conclusions:

• [@], [] and [i] are variants (allophones);

• [] between two consonants allows new types of consonant

new syllable patterns;

• Schwa is not subjected to any rule which systematically rende

[i] obligatory.

• Syllable structures for Portuguese,

deriving from various acoustic-

phonetic restrictions of Portuguesespeech.

(MULTI)REALIZATION OF THE SCHWA

[@] Schwa presence

[] Schwa deletion

[i] Schwa alternation c

What is this study about? • To describe statistically the syllable structure pro

Portuguese (complementing the existing approaches).

• To present the syllabification architecture closer to ac

(based on acoustic-phonetic properties).

• To guide development of complementary models processing in speech applications.

What are the purposes of this study? 

How do we do that? 

Example of phone alignment between transcriptions

with (+ SPINF) and without (- SPINF) schwa multi-pronunciation information.

• Analysing the output utterances to point out the oc

schwa presence vs. schwa deletion and alternation wphone (comparative method).

Aligned transcription

- SPINF  SIL R @ f u r m a d u sp d @ sp u m 6 sp k o~ p 6 J i 6 sp d @ sp p @ t r O l i u S SIL 

+ SPINF  SIL R f u r m a d u d u m 6 sp k o~ p 6 J i 6 d @ sp p t r O l i u S SIL 

Schwa

pronunciation

variation

Phonetic forms Orthographic fo

(@|)

m u L E r (@|) S mulheres (wom

d (@|)

k o~ b a t (@|) S

f (@|) r O z (@|) S

de combates fe

 fierce fight )

(@|i|) (@|i|) S t i m u l a r estimular (to in

What are evaluated? 

How is it evaluated? 

• The influence on the schwa realization from the:

- stress position; - number of word phones; - schwa position in the word.

What are the results? 

2469

22535

6116

13897

963

21422

6186

12837

553

39

0

923

1

2

3

4

Occurrences

   C   o   n   t   e   x   t   T   y   p   e   s

Schwa Deletion

Schwa Retencion

Schwa Substitution

2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10

0

0.1

0.2

0.3

0.4

0.5

0.6

0.7

0.8

0.9

1

     V   a     l   u   e   s

Delections (%)vs schwapositioninword

-1 1

0

0.1

0.2

0.3

0.4

0.5

0.6

0.7

0.8

0.9

1

     V   a     l   u   e   s

Delections (%

• Proportion between

the schwa realizations

for a single context

type.

4 5 6 7 8 9 10 1 1 1 2 13 1 4 15 1 6 17 1 8

0

0.1

0.2

0.3

0.4

0.5

0.6

0.7

0.8

0.9

1

     V   a     l   u   e   s

Delections (%) vs NumberofPhones

Contexts of Schwa Examples 

Types  left  @  Right 

T1  SIL  @  <*> 

@Sforsu 

@StaZiu 

@Stadu 

T2  <*>  @  SIL 

sEri@ 

ko~tinu@ 

tutalme~t@ 

T3  <*>  @  <C.>| <CC.> 

imigr6~t@S 

d@Zvi6~dus@ 

sup@rStis6~w~ 

T4  <.C>  @  <.C>|<.V> 

m@LOr 

R@kuJ@sime~tu 

R@S@ad6 

• Neighbours of the schwa (left-to-right).

• Schwa deletion

could be

influenced by:

- the presence of the

fricative, nasal and

lateral features;

- the number of word-phones;

- the schwa position

into the word.

• Schwa presence and deletion are almost with the same p

• There are no significant - the relation between the schwa deletion phenomen

syllable stress position.

8/3/2019 Poster Syllables

http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/poster-syllables 2/2

Investigating New Syllable Prototypes

for the Portuguese LanguageSara Candeias1, Fernando Perdigão1,2

1Institute of Telecommunications – Pole of Coimbra (PORTUGAL), 2Dep. of Electrical & Computer Eng. – University of Coimbra (PORTUGAL)

{saracandeias, fp}@co.it.pt

• Syllable structures for Portuguese (PS)

based on acoustic-phonetic restrictions of speech.

What is this study about? 

• To describe statistically the PS prototypes (complemexisting approaches).

• To present the PS architecture closer to actual speech (deacoustic-phonetic properties).

• To guide development of complementary models for PSin speech applications (PS is an intermediary level betwand phones to explore).

What are the purposes of this study? 

• Focusing on the PS structures (in 401,345 words);

• Splitting syllables automatically (tool: LINGUA::PT::PLN module);

How did we do that? 

CANONICAL PS STRUCTURE

PORTUGUESE GRAMMAR

RHYME has a mandatory

nucleus (V)

ONSET and CODA are optional

(Csimple, Ccluster )

syllable: <graus> (degrees)

onset: <gr > rhyme: <aus>

nucleus: <a> coda: <us>

<r eunir > (to meet)<gasól eo> (diesel oil)<biunívoco> (biunivocal)

<r eu | nir ><ga | ó | l eo><biu | ní | vo | co>

• Keeping the sequential Vssince they were consideredgrowing diphthongs. 

<r e | u | nir > : <r e>(again) + <unir >unite) <bi  | u | ní | vo | co>: <bi  >(t<unívo | co>

• Taking into account atendency to make locasyllable boundaries cowith potential morphe

• Applying some new splitting rules to the canonical PS str

• Mapping all sequential C/V syllable patterns and relating

structuring.

Examples of canonical PS splitting: Examples of alternative PS splitti

<adv ertir > (to warn)<obt er> (to obtain)

<o pç ão> (option)

<ad  | v er | tir ><ob | t er ><o p | ç ão>

• Having the syllable boundarybetween the V and the C plosive.

<a | dv er | tir ><o | bt er ><o | pç ão>

• Linking a C sequence in oput plosives always in anlocation.

DATABASE

• 401,345 Portuguese words• from Natura Project’s corpora;

• without acronyms, foreign-words, abbreviations;

• with syllables divided automatically:

• using the Natura Project tool Lingua::PT::PLN m

• changing some syllable prototypes, according t

syllabification rules.

What conclusions we have? 

What were the results?