Louis-Jean Boe

• Senior Researcher-Speech Comm.
• Senior Researcher at Grenoble Alpes University

The development of speech from infancy to adulthood results from the interaction of neurocognitive factors, by which phonological representations and motor control abilities are gradually acquired, and physical factors, involving the complex changes in the morphology of the articulatory system. In this article, an articulatory-to-acoustic model, in...

Recent articles on primate articulatory abilities are revolutionary regarding speech emergence, a crucial aspect of language evolution, by revealing a human-like system of proto-vowels in nonhuman primates and implicitly throughout our hominid ancestry. This article presents both a schematic history and the state of the art in primate vocalization...

Comparative research on the origins of human language often focuses on a limited number of language-related cognitive functions or anatomical structures that are compared across species. The underlying assumption of this approach is that a single or a limited number of factors may crucially explain how language appeared in the human lineage. Anothe...

Résumé Introduction/Objectifs Le menton correspond à la partie inférieure du visage. Sa visualisation sur le profil échographique de la face fœtale est déterminante pour le diagnostic prénatal de la rétrognathie des séquences de Pierre Robin. L’objectif de l’étude anatomique était de décrire la croissance et la forme du menton sur le profil fœtal...

Speech production mechanisms can be characterized at a peripheral level by both their acoustic and articulatory traces along time. Researchers have thus developed very large efforts to measure articulation. Thanks to the spectacular progress accomplished in the last decade, real-time Magnetic Resonance Imaging (RT-MRI) offers nowadays the advantage...

Language is a distinguishing characteristic of our species, and the course of its evolution is one of the hardest problems in science. It has long been generally considered that human speech requires a low larynx, and that the high larynx of nonhuman primates should preclude their producing the vowel systems universally found in human language. Exa...

Using pole settings to avoid LPC formant detection errors. Example LPC analyses of two grunts (top) and two barks (bottom), with 30 poles (red) and 60 poles (blue) superimposed on an FFT analysis. Both LPC & FFT calculated using MATLAB. For the grunts (F0 low) only the LPC with 60 poles fits the FFT well. LPC with 30 poles misses the first formant...

Supporting information. Complementary information on the rationale of the method, parameter settings for LPC analyses, MAS computation and normalization, results, and data file and software accessibility. (DOCX)

Anatomy of the tongue. Anatomic sagittal view of the head of a female baboon: (1) hyoid bone, (2) air sac, (3) thyroid cartilage, (4) epiglottis, (5) arytenoid cartilage, (6) vocal folds and glottis, (7) cricoid cartilage, (8) trachea, (9) lips, (10) incisors, (11) mandible, (12) hard palate, (13) velum, (14) pharyngeal wall, (15-16-17) anterior GG...

Spectrograms. Examples of spectrograms (from Praat, available at http://www.fon.hum.uva.nl/praat/) and overlaid FFT and LPC spectra (calculated using MATLAB) for grunts (♀♂), copulations calls (♀), wa- (♂), -hoo(♂), barks (♀), yaks (♀). (LPC was set to 60 poles for grunts, copulations calls (♀),-hoo(♀) and yaks, 30 poles for barks, and wa-. Samplin...

Language is a distinguishing characteristic of our species, and the course of its evolution is one of the hardest problems in science. It has long been generally considered that human speech requires a low larynx, and that the high larynx of nonhuman primates should preclude their producing the vowel systems universally found in human language. Exa...

Since humans share common ancestors with both apes and monkeys, current vocalizations of these primates provide us with an underexploited window for exploring the nature of (human) speech. Recent new analyses of their anatomy and of the acoustics of their vocalizations allow us to challenge old hypotheses on the emergence of speech. In that vein, w...

This book proposes a detailed picture of the continuities and ruptures between communication in primates and language in humans. It explores a diversity of perspectives on the origins of language, including a fine description of vocal communication in animals, mainly in monkeys and apes, but also in birds, the study of vocal tract anatomy and corti...

The growth of the head and neck and its components, including that of the vocal tract, is not homothetic but appears rather as an anamorphosis. The growth of various structures presents a phenomenon of heterochrony. Another important issue in vocal tract growth is sexual dimorphism. It was first claimed that sexual dimorphism appears at puberty, bu...

This paper aims at following the concept of vowel space across history. It shows that even with very poor experimental means, researchers from the 17th century started to organize the vowel systems along perceptual dimensions, either articulatory, by means of proprioceptive introspection, or auditory. With the development of experimental devices, a...

De Boer (2010a) used a simplified adaptation of Mermelstein's articulatory model – without lips – to investigate “the effect of larynx position on the articulatory abilities of a human-like vocal tract.” He found “an optimal larynx height at which the largest range of signals[are]produced”. Our replication of de Boer's simulations confirmed the pea...

The end of the twentieth century and the beginning of this one saw a reorganization of research in the field of speech and language emergence (SLE). Naturalism is the core of this new approach. It consists in describing the relations between biological aspects (in every sense of the word) on the one hand and speech and language, on the other hand,...

This paper addresses automatic classification of baboon vocalizations. We considered six classes of sounds emitted by Papio papio baboons, and report the results of supervised classification carried out with different signal representations (audio features), classifiers, combinations and settings. Results show that up to 94.1% of correct recognitio...

Influence de la dure-mère sur la base du crâne au cours de la croissance fœtale. Guillaume Captier(1,2,3), Louis Jean Boë(4), Pierre Badin(4), François Canovas(1). 1: Laboratoire d'Anatomie, Université de Montpellier 1, France. 2: Chirurgie Plastique Pédiatrique, CHRU Montpellier, France. 3: IURC, Laboratoire de Biostatistique d’Épidémiologie et d...

Since Lieberman and Crelin (1971), the question of vocal tract abilities and the link between anatomy and control has been the object of a number of conflicting papers. Part of the debate concerns the acoustic possibilities of the Variable Linear Articulatory Model (VLAM), an articulatory model that has provided the foundation of our own work for m...

Brain growth plays likely an important role for the skull growth. In the fetus, there exists an heterochrony for the growth of supratentorial (forebrain) and infratentorial regions (brainstem and cerebellum). The aim of the study was thus to model geometrically the growth of these two regions and to compare it with the inflection of the base of sku...

Since Lieberman and Crelin (1971), the question of vocal tract abilities and the link between anatomy and control has been the object of a number of conflicting papers. Part of the debate concerns the acoustic possibilities of the Variable Linear Articulatory Model (VLAM), an articulatory model that has provided the foundation of our own work for m...

Purpose: Two of the major functions of the human vocal tract are feeding and speaking. As ontogenetically and phylogenetically feeding tasks precede speaking tasks, it has been hypothesised that the skilled movements of the orofacial articulators specific to speech may have evolved from feeding functions. Our objective is to bring evidence to suppo...

The predominant way to synthesize stop consonants is currently to use an articulatory model controlled by vocal tract parameters. We propose a new method to make this synthesis in various vocalic contexts. To generate the formant transitions, the basic principle is to apply an opening function on the (equal-length section) area function derived fro...

L'Association Francophone de la Communication Parlée (AFCP) et de la Société Française d'Acoustique (SFA) considèrent que : « par souci déontologique, il conviendrait que tout spécialiste démontre sa compétence en identification du locuteur avant d'accepter de procéder à une quelconque expertise ». Depuis 20 ans, leurs représentants rappellent cett...

Une méthodologie originale est proposée pour l'étude de l'émergence du contrôle moteur de la parole chez l'enfant de 4 ans. Nous associons les résultats d'une analyse articulatoire et acoustique d'un corpus de parole contenant voyelles isolées et séquences voyelle-consonne-voyelle à des simulations obtenues avec un modèle biomécanique bi-dimensionn...

a b s t r a c t Vowels are by far the best understood units in human sound systems, and are well characterized at the articulatory, acoustic, and perceptual levels. This has permitted explanations of vowel systems as structured by perception, and has led to effective substance-based theories. By contrast, stops are far less thoroughly understood. I...

Nous présentons un ensemble de travaux d'acquisition - pour un même locuteur - de données acoustiques, aérodynamiques et articulatoires, utilisant divers dispositifs complémentaires. Les modèles de production de parole développés à partir de ces données permettent d'exploiter de manière cohérente les caractéristiques de ces dispositifs, et reflèten...

Longitudinal radiographic archives of 68 Caucasian American people followed between 1 month and 25 years were used in order to quantify the growth of the vocal tract. 966 sagittal cephalometric radiographs from the American Association of Orthodontists were used, including a large number of radiographs covering the early years, which is a critical...

This study analysed biometric longitudinal growth of the vocal tract and its constituents from fetus to adulthood. It quantified the growth of vocal instrument and established the ontogenetic profile. These data allowed a detailed reading of bone growth and soft tissue constituting the vocal instrument, to determine precisely the relationship betwe...

A biomechanical model of the tongue of a 4-year-old child is presented and compared with articulatory data using ultrasound tongue imaging within the HOCUS system.

We analyzed 31 skulls from now to 1500 ka (kilos anni) BP (Before Present) for fossil hominids available at the Musée de l'Homme in Paris or in the literature: (1) 10-30 ka BP: modern humans: Paleolithic; (2) 90-200 ka BP: anatomically modern humans; (3) 45-90 ka BP: Neanderthals; (4) 1500 ka BP: Homo ergaster. These skulls are all well kept and po...

The growth of the vocal tract is far from linear and is particularly important during the first years of life. How are children able to reach acoustic targets in such a context? To understand the development of speech production, not only in the acoustic space, but with respect to the evolution of articulatory-to-acoustic relationships, it is cruci...

The end of the XXth century and the beginning of this century saw a reorganization of the researches in the field of speech and language emergence (SLE). Naturalism is the kernel of this new approach. It consists in describing the relations between biological aspects (in every sense of the word) on the one hand and speech and language, on the other...

Issu d'un colloque international organisé à l'Institut de la communication parlée de l'université de Grenoble en février 2005, cet ouvrage réunit 16 contributions relatives à l'histoire de la phonétique expérimentale et retrace les premiers pas de cette discipline en France et à Grenoble à la fin du XIXe siècle et au début du XXe siècle. Descriptio...

Résumé L'article s'intéresse dans cet article au thème de l'exception et des universaux linguistiques au niveau des tendances générales des structures phonologiques dans les langues du monde. S'appuyant sur les résultats déjà obtenus dans le domaine des systèmes vocaliques (plus les voyelles sont distinctes, plus elles ont de chance de survivre), l...

http://primatologie.revues.org/797

Faits de Langues n°37. ISBN : 978-2-7080-1314-8

The anatomical relationship between the oral and pharyngeal cavities is supposed to differ from our ancestors to today humans. A widespread hypothesis is that the emergence of speech should be attributed to this morphological change in the course of evolution. Pre-hominid and hominid fossils with well preserved skulls and jaws are quite rare, which...

The faculty of speech in humans is emerging during the first years of life: from first vocal folds control (around 2-3 month) to first words (around 18-20 month) through canonical babbling (around 7 month), this faculty is developing thanks to the progressive maturation of the neuromuscular control of speech articulators. Prior to understand how th...

The faculty of speech in humans is emerging during the first years of life: from first vocal folds control (around 2-3 month) to first words (around 18-20 month) through canonical babbling (around 7 month), this faculty is developing thanks to the progressive maturation of the neuromuscular control of speech articulators. Prior to understand how th...

Purpose To consider interactions of vocal tract change with growth and perceived output patterns across development, the influence of nonuniform vocal tract growth on the ability to reach acoustic–perceptual targets for English vowels was studied. Method Thirty-seven American English speakers participated in a perceptual categorization experiment....

In order to accurately follow the growth of the vocal tract and the speech articulators and to infer their motor control and acoustic potentialities, it is essential to have anatomic and physiologic data throughout ontogenesis, from gestation to adulthood. The morphogenesis of the vocal tract, which involves the bony structures, their development,...

The first two years of life are crucial for the acquisition and development of speech. To accurately follow the growth of the vocal tract and the articulators and to infer their motor control during this period, it is essential to have anatomic and physiologic data throughout ontogenesis from gestation to adulthood. The morphogenesis of the vocal t...

Cet article analyse la genèse d’une communauté scientifique francophone dédiée à l’étude de la parole afin d’examiner ce qui est en jeu lorsqu’une science « humaine » se dote d’instruments sophistiqués et fait appel à des spécialistes de ces instruments. Dans le cas étudié, l’accroissement de l’instrumentation s’est accompagné d’une redéfinition de...

In this paper, we (1) Review certain key points in the debate and the issues at stake with respect to the existence of a single mother tongue for all the world’s spoken languages. (2) Review the methodology and the linguistics choices, both lexical and phonological, made by Ruhlen and Bengtson in order to arrive at the 27 Global Etymologies. (3) Pr...

Pour citer cet article : — Grossetti M. et Boë L.-J., Sciences humaines et recherche instrumentale : qui instrumente qui ?. L'exemple du passage de la phonétique à la communication parlée, Revue d'anthropologie des connaissances 2008/1, n° 3, p. 97-114. Distribution électronique Cairn pour Société d'anthropologie des connaissances . © Société d'ant...

In order to accurately follow the growth of the vocal tract and the speech articulators and to infer their motor control and acoustic potentialities, it is essential to have anatomic and physiologic data throughout ontogenesis, from gestation to adulthood The morphogenesis of the vocal tract, which involves the bony structures, their development, a...

Résumé Pour pouvoir étudier précisément l’évolution du conduit vocal et des articulateurs, et en induire des informations sur le contrôle moteur et les potentialités acoustiques durant la croissance, il est essentiel de disposer de données tout au long de l’ontogenèse, de la gestation à l’âge adulte. La morphogenèse du conduit vocal, qui s’étend su...

This wide-ranging survey of experimental methods in phonetics and phonology shows the insights and results provided by different methods of investigation, including laboratory-based, statistical, psycholinguistic, computational-modeling, corpus, and field techniques. The five chapters in the first part of the book examine the recent history and int...

The objective of this work is twofold. First, a model of the vocal tract is positioned into the bony architecture of the male and female skulls from birth to adulthood. Second, vowel spaces are determined and vowel prototypes, for the cardinal vowels, are synthesized using a simulation of the laryngeal source. Results of this modeling study during...

Articulatory exploration enables the infant to discover abilities of the vocal tract and learn relationships between movements and percepts. However, neither direct measurements nor transcription methods have access to tongue configurations in pre-linguistic infant vocalizations. A statistical articulatory–acoustic model integrating the non-linear...

This paper reports on the articulatory–acoustic relationships involved during vocal tract growth. Data were taken from a database of ten French vowels uttered by 15 speakers ranging in age from 3 years old to adulthood. Despite the important acoustic variation encountered, one feature is displayed by all the speakers: the production of extreme foca...

The goal of this experiment is to determine the influence of non uniform vocal tract growth on the ability to reach acoustic-perceptual targets for English vowels. An articulatory-to-acoustic model integrating non uniform vocal tract growth was used to synthesize 342 5-formant vowels, covering maximal vowel spaces for speakers at 5 growth stages: n...

The first typologies of phonological systems of the world's languages (Troubetzkoy, 1939) revealed that languages make use of relatively limited choices among all the phoneme possibilities determined by a simple combinatory rule. The most frequent consonant systems contain at least six plosives /p t k b d g/. If a language has three plosives (as in...

The ‘‘substance-based’’ approach to phonology was born some 35 years ago with two seminal contributions, one by Liljencrants and Lindblom (1972)—the first of Lindblom’s many variations on dispersion and perceptual contrast (Dispersion Theories: Lindblom 1986, 1990b)—the other, Stevens’s Quantal Theory (1972, 1989). These contributions constituted t...

This work is part of a project in a quest of the origin of speech. From classical bony landmarks of the head and jaw used in anthropology, and using a generic model of the vocal tract we attempted to apply the prediction of geometric limits of the vocal tract for modern man to fossils covering a period from 10 ka until 2 Ma (Paleolithic period). We...