Prosodic Disambiguation Using Chironomic Stylization of Intonation with Native and Non-Native Speakers

Xiao Xiao (1) , Nicolas Audibert (1) , Grégoire Locqueville (2) , Christophe d'Alessandro (2) , Barbara Kuhnert (1) , Claire Pillot-Loiseau (1)

1 LPP - LPP - Laboratoire de Phonétique et Phonologie - UMR 7018
2 IJLRDA-LAM - Lutheries - Acoustique - Musique

This paper introduces an interface that enables the real-time gestural control of intonation in phrases produced by a vocal synthesizer. The melody and timing of a target phrase can be modified by tracing melodic contours on the touch-screen of a mobile tablet. Envisioning this interface as a means for nonnative speakers to practice the intonation of a foreign language, we present a pilot study where native and non-native speakers imitated the pronunciation of French phrases using their voice and the interface, with a visual guide and without. Comparison of resulting F0 curves against the reference contour and a preliminary perceptual assessment of synthesized utterances suggest that for both non-native and native speakers, imitation with the help of a visual guide is comparable in accuracy to vocal imitation, and that timing control was a source of difficulty.

Mots clés: human-computer interaction; intonation; secondlanguage acquisition

Domaines: Linguistique; Traitement du signal et de l'image [eess.SP]; Son [cs.SD]; Interface homme-machine [cs.HC]

Xiao Xiao, Nicolas Audibert, Grégoire Locqueville, Christophe d'Alessandro, Barbara Kuhnert, et al.. Prosodic Disambiguation Using Chironomic Stylization of Intonation with Native and Non-Native Speakers. Interspeech 2021, Aug 2021, Brno (virtual), Czech Republic. pp.516-520, ⟨10.21437/Interspeech.2021-182⟩. ⟨hal-03329111⟩