Demo of the
F0-Contour
Generation Program
The Theory in a Nutshell
The intonation of a phrase is mainly achieved by variations of the
pitch (the perceptional correlate of the fundamental frequency
F0 ).
Within a speech utterance the
range in which the pitch varies can be determined by two lines, the
topline and the baseline. Both lines have a slight
decrease over the full span of a phrase.
Certain words in a speech utterance are accented by a rise or a fall in
the F0-curve. In the model implemented in our F0-contour generation
program (the Tone-Sequence-Model by J. Pierrhumbert / C.
Féry) the notation is H*L for a fall and L*H for a rise.
Hence, the fall is realized by a high tone (H*) on a word-stressed
syllable and a low tone (L ) on the following syllable.
Phrases end either on a high (notation: H%), a low (L%)
or on a default pitch tone (%).
For a more detailed description of the theory and the program see
[1]. The Tone Sequence Model for German is
described
here. The F0 generation program, however, is not restricted to a
particular intonation model. It could be easily used with any other
model.
The Demo
For the German phrase "Mein Bruder mag moderne Musik"
(engl. "My brother likes modern music.") you can
apply a rising (L*H) or a falling (H*L) pitch accent for two specific words. The first possible accent
is on "Bruder" and the second on
"moderne". The phrase will end
either on a high (H%) or on a default boundary tone (%). The result
will be a the appropriate F0-contour and a sound file in
which we imposed this F0-contour on a recording (PSOLA-resynthesis).
Reference:
[1] Gregor Moehler & Grzegorz Dogil.
Test Environment for the Two Level Model of Germanic
Prominence.
Proceedings EUROSPEECH, Session WEam2C.4, Madrid 1995.
27. September 1996
IMS Stuttgart / WWW@IMS.Uni-Stuttgart.DE / Fri Jun 19 17:40:27 1998 (gregor)