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<Paper uid="W97-1104">
  <Title>Prediction of Vowel and Consonant Place of Articulation</Title>
  <Section position="3" start_page="0" end_page="0" type="intro">
    <SectionTitle>
1 Introduction
</SectionTitle>
    <Paragraph position="0"> Attempts to explain speech production data often suffer from circularity. That is, the classification of data tends to be purely descriptive without shedding light on the processes that give rise to them. In criticizing the data-based approach, Lindblom (1990) favors, instead, the use of substance-based approaches. Here, deductions are derived from specific criteria or from characteristics of the speech production and/or perceptual systems in order to explain the data. In fact, researcher have successfully exploited the substance-based approach in explaining vowel systems, using a perceptually-driven maximum acoustic dispersion criterion (Liljencrants and Lindblom, 1972; Lindblorn, 1986). But this approach, too, may be thought of as being circular, to some extent, in that the criterion used may be viewed as, merely, a more encompassing description of the vowels themselves. The crucial task then is to explain the characteristics of the speech perception/production system itself. For example, what is it about the human speech apparatus that yields three and not four or five places of articulation? Is the vocal tract designed primarily for feeding or does it reflect adaptations specialized for speech? To answer some of these questions, we undertook to investigate what deformations (i.e. vocal tract configurations/shapes) of a simple acoustic tube, open at one end and closed at the other, and modeled after a male vocal tract, will yield (i) a good acoustic communication device, and (ii) an acoustic repertoire that closely matches the phonetic richness of human speech.</Paragraph>
  </Section>
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