Syllabus

Week 1 - The Speech Chain

In which we discuss how spoken language is used for communication, and outline the essential elements in the generation, transmission and reception of a message.

Week 2 - Sound and Hearing

In which we discuss how the ear delivers auditory sensations from sounds, and how we can describe those sensations in terms of loudness, pitch and timbre.

Week 3 - Audio Signals and Systems

In which we look at how we can quantify the acoustic properties of a sound using its spectrum, and quantify the effect of a system that modifies a sound in terms of its frequency response characteristic.

Week 4 - Voice

In which we look at the production of voice in the larynx and the description and measurement of voice quality.

Week 5 - Vowels

In which we study the phonological, phonetic and acoustic character of vowel articulations.

Week 6 - Consonants

In which we study the phonological, phonetic and acoustic character of consonant articulations.

Week 7 - Syllables and Sequences

In which we study how vowels and consonants are put together to form syllables and words.

Week 8 - Prosody

In which we look at the phonetics of utterances in terms of timing, stress and intonation.

Week 9 - Speakers and Accents

In which we look at how speakers may be identified or characterised by the way they speak.

Week 10 - Style and Emotion

In which we look at the impact of speaking style and the emotional state of the speaker on the character of speech.

Word count: . Last modified: 13:00 11-Jan-2016.