Work package 4: Neanderthal speech modelling

Study of Neanderthal speech articulation

Dr Anna Barney, ISVR, University of Southampton mail home page
Dr James Steele, Institute of Archaeology, University College London mail home page
Dr Antoine Serrurier, ISVR, University of Southampton home page

Start 01/10/2006 End 30/09/2009

Project 4

Objective

To investigate the potential range of speech articulatory gestures, and the sounds arising from them, that might be achievable by Neanderthals. This project builds on the models of Neanderthal vocal tract shape and vowel space defined in WP3.

Activities

The vocal tract shape functions will be used as input to an existing vocal tract acoustic modelling programme, to explore the range of sounds which might be achievable by a Neanderthal.

Related publications

Serrurier, A (2006). Three-dimensional modelling of the speech organs from MRI images for nasals production – Articulatory-acoustics characterization of the velum movements. PhD Thesis, Grenoble Institute of Technology, France.

Serrurier, A. & Badin, P. (2008). A three-dimensional articulatory model of the velum and nasopharyngeal wall based on MRI and CT data. Journal of the Acoustical Society of America, 123(4), in press.

Photo by Travis S.