Playing with sound

[carlo]

I have just set up a small 'language lab' on my laptop, and am having fun poking at spectrograms, plotting pitch diagrams and computing formants. Oops, should I get a date?

I've only begun to understand the potential of this tecnology for language learning. You can record yourself and other people while having a conversation, talking on the phone, reading aloud from a book or talking to yourself. You can then literally dissect the sounds you've picked up, look for all sorts of interesting patterns and get a very accurate representation of the way you and other people speak (prosody, intonation, articulation, etc.) You can spot 'problems' and come up with 'prescriptions' to achieve the desired results.

Any trained actor will tell you that if you want to improve your speaking voice (in any language), mastering phonetics is not enough: choice of words, literacy and cultural understanding are probably as important as hitting all the right vowels or tones. However, getting constant and accurate feedback on voice production is extremely useful, in the right dosage.

If someone here is interested in this sort of things, here's a few suggestions:

- Get a good speech analysis software: many are free. I've tried a few, including Speech Filing System and Praat. The one that probably works best for amateurs like myself is SIL's Speech Tools (it was recommended by a Chinese linguist friend).

- Get a recording pen: now you can record anything, anywhere.

- Learn the basics. There are websites on spectrogram reading 101 and phonetics applied to language learning (mostly ESL, but the principles are universal).

- Record several speakers in different situations. For example, I would tape myself in various settings (talking to friends, speaking in public, talking on the phone etc). You can also record your favourite speakers, actors, or friends that have voices that 'sound like' yours, for comparison.

- Learning languages is an art, sort of like perspective painting: whilst grounded in science, you make the rules. When analysing speech, look for patterns, such as pronouncing habits, that you like or dislike. Try to understand why your speaking voice differs from that of others, and in what ways. Above all, train your ears.

- For Chinese, there are some interesting papers available on line: 沈炯 (http://chinese.pku.edu.cn/yuyinyj/shenjiong.htm) is a great source on intonation, for example. With these, you can find out what the professionals are doing, and come up with new ideas. The linguistics forums at BeiDa (http://chinese.pku.edu.cn/bbs/index.php) are also worth reading.

Have fun! ;)