EURASIP Journal on Applied Signal Processing 
Volume 2005 (2005), Issue 9, Pages 1435-1448
doi:10.1155/ASP.2005.1435

Simulation of Human Speech Production Applied to the Study and Synthesis of European Portuguese

António J. S. Teixeira,1,2 Roberto Martinez,1 Luís Nuno Silva,1 Luis M. T. Jesus,1,3 Jose C. Príncipe,4 and Francisco A. C. Vaz1,2

 1Instituto de Engenharia Electrónica e Telemática de Aveiro (IEETA), Aveiro 3810-193, Portugal
2Departamento de Electrónica e Telecomunicações, Universidade de Aveiro, Aveiro 3810-193, Portugal
3Escola Superior de Saúde, Universidade de Aveiro, Aveiro 3810-193, Portugal
4Computational Neuroengineering Laboratory (CNEL), University of Florida, Gainesville 32611, FL, USA
Received 29 October 2003; Revised 31 August 2004

Abstract

A new articulatory synthesizer (SAPWindows), with a modular and flexible design, is described. A comprehensive acoustic model and a new interactive glottal source were implemented. Perceptual tests and simulations made possible by the synthesizer contributed to deepening our knowledge of one of the most important characteristics of European Portuguese, the nasal vowels. First attempts at incorporating models of frication into the articulatory synthesizer are presented, demonstrating the potential of performing fricative synthesis based on broad articulatory configurations. Synthesis of nonsense words and Portuguese words with vowels and nasal consonants is also shown. Despite not being capable of competing with mainstream concatenative speech synthesis, the anthropomorphic approach to speech synthesis, known as articulatory synthesis, proved to be a valuable tool for phonetics research and teaching. This was particularly true for the European Portuguese nasal vowels.