Dieter Maurer- Doctor of Psychology
- Professor Emeritus at University of Zurich
Dieter Maurer
- Doctor of Psychology
- Professor Emeritus at University of Zurich
https://www.phones-and-phonemes.org
https://www.early-pictures.ch
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58
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Introduction
Dieter Maurer is a professor emeritus and currently academic guest at the Department of Computational Linguistics (Phonetic and Speech Sciences), University of Zurich. His main scientific interest is focused on the question of the fundamental syntactic form character of vocal and graphic expressions. He is the author of numerous articles and books on this matter and is the leading author of the associated, extensive sound and picture archives, which are accessible online.
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Publications
Publications (58)
For eBook (PDF) download, see https://www.peterlang.com/document/1462230.
For the sound archive of the Zurich Corpus of Vowel and Voice Quality, see https://zhcorpus.org/v2/. – Summary: In a first treatise on vowel acoustics, entitled Preliminaries, intellectual, methodological and empirical reasoning was exposed that gives rise to scepticism about...
(PDF see below)
ABSTRACT
It was shown that, for vowel sounds, the spectrum relates to fundamental frequency (f o) and the spectral envelope is ambiguous, often representing two or three different vowel qualities if f o is varied substantially. Thus, from a speech perception perspective, vowel quality is indicated to relate to the pitch of a vowel s...
In the specialist literature on vowel acoustics, there is an extensive and often controversial debate on whether the primary acoustic cues of vowel quality are contained in the formant patterns or, alternatively, in the spectral shape. Yet, recent studies have shown that neither formant patterns nor spectral shapes are vowel quality-specific but th...
An unsupervised automatic clustering algorithm (k-means) classified 1282 Mel frequency cepstral coefficient (MFCC) representations of isolated steady-state vowel utterances from eight standard German vowel categories with fo between 196 and 698 Hz. Experiment I obtained the number of MFCCs (1–20) in connection with the spectral bandwidth (2–20 kHz)...
Wie Bilder «entstehen»
In umfangreichen Untersuchungen widmet sich ein Forschungsteam der Zürcher Hochschule der Künste den frühesten Zeichnungen und Malereien von Kindern und auf diese Weise der «untersten» Struktur des Bildhaften und Ästhetischen:
Wie erscheinen, «entstehen» Bilder? Welche Eigenschaften, Strukturen und Entwicklungen lassen sich...
Existing databases of isolated vowel sounds or vowel sounds embedded in consonantal context generally document only limited variation of basic production parameters. Thus, concerning the possible variation range of vowel and voice quality-related sound characteristics, there is a lack of broad phenomenological and descriptive references that allow...
We tested the influence of fundame ntal oscillation ( fo) on
human and machine speaker recognition performance in
vocalic test utterances. In experiment I, we trained a
Gaussian-Mixture model on 15 speakers (80 multi-word
utterances each) and tested it with sustained vowel utterances
(/a:/, /i:/ and /u:/) under six fo conditions, three changing (fa...
On the basis of a comprehensive phenomenological investigation of early graphic expressions in ontogeny, first, basic aspects of the characteristics and status of early pictures in ontogeny and associated clarifications are discussed. Second, with regard to early pictures as such and including phylogeny, four suggestions are made: (i) a picture con...
In the literature, the recognition of sinewave vowels replicating statistical formant patterns is reported as impaired when compared to natural sounds. However, the corresponding formant simulating sinusoids were harmonically unrelated, with synthesised signals only accidentally being quasi-periodic, and vowel confusion was indicated to relate to v...
When investigating formant pattern and spectral shape ambiguity in Klatt synthesis, an earlier study showed that the perceived vowel quality of Standard German vowel sounds can be changed by varying fundamental frequency only [Maurer et al. (2017). J. Acoust. Soc. Am. 141(5):3469-3470]. In this follow-up study, the previous original synthesis exper...
The phonological function of vowels can be maintained at fundamental frequencies (fo) up to
880 Hz [Friedrichs, Maurer, and Dellwo (2015). J. Acoust. Soc. Am. 138, EL36–EL42]. Here, the
influence of talker variability and multiple response options on vowel recognition at high fos is
assessed. The stimuli (n¼264) consisted of eight isolated vowels (...
Front vowels can be synthesized on the basis of series of harmonics equal in amplitude, with frequencies only above 1 kHz. In these cases, spectral energy usually attributed to the first formant frequency is lacking. The present paper reports results of an experiment in which sound synthesis was performed on the basis of harmonic series covering hi...
Some studies of natural and of synthesized vowel sounds indicate “flat” vowel-related spectral envelopes or envelope parts in terms of vowel-related frequency ranges with harmonics equal in amplitude. The present investigation addresses this question in a vowel synthesis experiment in which sounds related to series of harmonics, multiples of 200 Hz...
The influence of varying fundamental frequency on the perception of vowel quality in synthesized vowels was tested in two experiments. In experiment 1, based on investigations of natural Standard German vowel sounds, various modelformantpatternsF1’ to F3’ were created and, for each single pattern, sounds were synthesised on two or three fundamental...
Current formant measurement studies of vowel sounds generally use a Linear Predictive Coding (LPC) algorithm and rely on an interactive method of for-mant estimation which includes a comparison of measured formant tracks and characteristics of the spectrogram. Thereby, the selection of LPC parameters is based on the assumption that the number of po...
Current formant measurement studies of vowel sounds generally use a Linear Predictive Coding (LPC) algorithm and rely on an interactive method of formant estimation which includes a comparison of measured formant tracks and characteristics of the spectrogram. Thereby, the selection of LPC parameters is based on the assumption that the number of pol...
Zusammenfassung
Der vorliegende Aufsatz unternimmt den Versuch, die Morphologie früher Bilder in der Ontogenese auf der Grundlage ausgedehnter phänomenologischer und dokumentarischer Studien zusammenfassend darzustellen, im Sinne einer Revision bisheriger Darstellungen in der Literatur, welche frühe Bilder häufig unter den Bezeichnungen „Kritzeleie...
Formant frequency estimation using a linear prediction (LPC) algorithm is based on the assumption of age- and gender-specific number of poles. However, when visually crosschecking the calculated formant frequencies along with a spectrogram, investigators often change the parameter because of a lack of correspondence. The misprediction is mainly due...
The present paper reports findings of two experiments on filtered sounds of the Standard German vowels /i-y-e-ø-ɛ-a-o-u/ produced by a female speaker at two fundamental frequencies fo = 220 Hz and 659 Hz and a male speaker at fo = 131 Hz and 523 Hz. High-pitched sounds were included in order to account for a possible impact of the fo level on the p...
Recent studies have shown that accurate vowel category perception can be maintained at fundamental frequencies (fo) up to at least 880 Hz. In such cases, the typical first formant frequency (F1) of most vowels is exceeded by f o and the vocal tract transfer function is to a high degree undersampled. It seems, therefore, unlikely that common formant...
Questioning early manifestations of pictorial art in phylogeny, the elucidation of the abstract – above all, its time of appearance, its first characteristics and development, and its pictorial status – may prove to deliver some of the most important contributions to the understanding of why and how pictorial art emerged (on the general matter of t...
With regard to vowel sounds, there is no extensive, empirical database that documents systematic variation of basic production parameters. However, we consider such a corpus to be a prerequisite for a deeper understanding of both phoneme- and speaker-dependent acoustic characteristics. Cur-rently, we are working on a corresponding database for Stan...
eBook, open access, download link: https://www.peterlang.com/document/1067698 ––– For the second volume 'Acoustics of the Vowel – Indices', see: https://www.researchgate.net/search.Search.html?query=Acoustics+of+the+Vowel+%E2%80%93+Indices&type=publication –––
Abstract: It seems as if the fundamentals of how we produce vowels and how they are acou...
The question of vowel intelligibility as a function of F0 is still a matter of debate. Above all concerning vowel sounds produced at F0s exceeding vowel related statistical F1 in citation-form words (‘oversinging’ F1), it is unclear whether vowel category perception inevitably shifts towards the neighboring category with a higher F1 or can be maint...
In a between-subject perception task, listeners either identified full words or vowels isolated from these words at F
0s between 220 and 880 Hz. They received two written words as response options (minimal pair with the stimulus vowel in contrastive position). Listeners' sensitivity (A′) was extremely high in both conditions at all F
0s, showi...
There is a broad consensus in the literature that vowel-specific formant
patterns differ as a function of gender (men/women) or age (adults/children) due to different average vocal tract sizes. Although an additional influence of fundamental frequency F0 is discussed in corresponding normalization approaches, formant
patterns relating to sounds of...
The question whether or not vowel quality can be maintained at F0 of the sounds exceeding statistical F1 of "normal" speech is still a matter of debate. The present study investigates the perception of long Cantonese vowels /i, y, oe, a, ɔ, u/, spoken and sung in (C)V and (C)V:S context by a well-known female Cantonese Opera singer in the range of...
Previous research showed that, in singing, vowel qualities of isolated vowel sounds can be discriminated up to a fundamental frequency (F0) of about 500 Hz. However, indications are reported in literature for vowel discrimination on F0 > 500 Hz for singing (raised larynx condition, CVC context) as well as for speech-like sounds. In this study, we t...
Bilder – erzeugte Bilder – waren und sind nicht einfach
und immer da. Sie kommen auf, erscheinen, «ent-
stehen» und entwickeln sich. Bilder haben also eine
Geschichte und insbesondere auch eine Frühge
schichte.
Wie aber erscheinen, «entstehen» Bilder? Welche
Eigenschaften, Strukturbildungen und Entwicklungs
tendenzen lassen sich in frühen graphisch...
Die Frage, wie wir Vokale erzeugen und wie sie sich in der Folge akustisch «abbilden», scheint im Wesentlichen geklärt: Wir phonieren und artikulieren. Wir produzieren mit den Stimmbändern einen allgemeinen Klang oder ein Geräusch und formen diese über die Resonanzen von Rachen, Mund und Nase zu einem einzelnen, spezifischen Laut. Dementsprechend w...
Like buildings, pictures have not "simply been there". Nor do they appear out of nowhere. They come into being, are perceived, and develop. That in this process pictures have an inseparable relationship to buildings and vice versa is obvious.There is a history to this relationship that begins at some point — usually quite early. In this book Dieter...
Wie erscheinen, «entstehen» Bilder? Welche Eigen
schaften, Strukturen und Entwicklungen lassen sich
in frühen graphischen Äusserungen beobachten?
Sind frühe Bildmerkmale in einer bestimmten Kultur
allgemein oder individuell? Worin besteht frühe
bildhafte Erkenntnis und Ästhetik? Auf welche allge
meinen Bestimmungen von «Bild» oder «Bildern»
verweis...
Wie erscheinen, «entstehen» Bilder? Welche Eigen
schaften, Strukturen und Entwicklungen lassen sich
in frühen graphischen Äusserungen beobachten?
Sind frühe Bildmerkmale in einer bestimmten Kultur
allgemein oder individuell? Worin besteht frühe
bildhafte Erkenntnis und Ästhetik? Auf welche allge
meinen Bestimmungen von «Bild» oder «Bildern»
verweis...
In vowel production theory the vowel sound is related directly to defined positions of the articulators. A re-examination of tongue, lips and jaw positions with the dynamic method of electromagnetic articulography (EMA) was carried out on German vowels in spontaneous speech and in isolated and sustained vocalizations at different levels of FO. It w...
The formant frequencies of a particular vowel vary according to the speaker group and to coarticulation. Therefore, overlapping formant patterns of different vowels are commonly related to sex and age differences and to coarticulation, and are considered to concern mainly the F1-F2 pattern of adjacent vowels. However, several studies have reported...
The formant frequencies of a particular vowel vary according to the speaker group and to coarticulation. Therefore, overlapping formant patterns of different vowels are commonly related to sex and age differences and to coarticulation, and are considered to concern mainly the F(1) -F(2) pattern of adjacent vowels. However, several studies have repo...
In der akustischen Phonetik wird üblicherweise davon ausgegangen, dass sich die Lautidentitat von Vokalen physikalisch in charakteristischen Mustern von Resonanzen, sogenannten Formantmustern, ausdrückt. Es ist allerdings in der Literatur ausführlich beschrieben, dass die Muster eines Lautes zum Teil stark variieren. Diese Variationen werden meist...
Für die akustische Phonetik – und mit ihr für das Verständnis der menschlichen Stimme und Sprache – ist die Frage der Zuordnung von physikalischen Merkmalen und wahrgenommener Lautidentität von Vokalen grundlegend. In einem ersten Beitrag ("Vokale und ihre physikalischen Merkmale I") wurden empirische Befunde dargestellt, die starke Zweifel daran a...
Previous studies of vowel synthesis and of natural vowels have indicated: (1) a correlation between the lower formants and F0 for F0>175 Hz; (2) intelligibility and spectral differences of vowels with high F0>500 Hz; (3) severe methodological problems of formant frequency estimation for F0>300 Hz; (4) formant number alterations (appearance of diffe...
When isolated vowels were produced beyond F0 of speech (F0>150 Hz for men, F0>300 Hz for women and children), the related formantpatterns were found to deviate substantially from the values of formant statistics, and the formant frequency variations proved to be nonsystematic (for details, see poster Klinkert and Maurer). Moreover, formant frequenc...
Theoretic investigations of the “source-filter” model have indicated a pronounced acoustic interaction of glottal source and vocal tract. Empirical investigations of formant pattern variations apart from changes in vowel identity have demonstrated a direct relationship between the fundamental frequency and the patterns. As a consequence of both fin...
The first formant frequency of most German vowels can be 'oversung' in the sense of vocalizations with pitch frequencies above F1 of normal speech. Investigations of sung and synthesized vowels suggested that, with rising F0, either the vowel loses its identity and its spectral characteristics, or changes in the vocal effort and the speaker group a...
In acoustic theory, formant pattern differences within one vowel identify are related to differences in the speaker groups or in the types of vocalization. Yet, studies of vowel synthesis indicate that formant patterns can also vary strongly in relation either to pitch or to formant number alterations. Within this study, natural vocalizations of ni...
Formant measurements show sex and age differences in the formant patterns of a single vowel category. Comparisons of the formant frequency values of men, women and children indicate low, middle and high values, respectively (Chiba & Kajiyama 1941, Potter & Steinberg 1950, Peterson & Barney 1952). The differences are found for all vowel categories,...
Production theory explains vowel sounds by formants in terms of a resonance pattern of the vocal tract. In perception theory normalization must also be undertaken because of different formant values for one vowel category, as found in comparisons of men, women and children, and in studies of sung vowels and of synthesized vowel sounds. Synthesis in...
