acoustic phonetics

The Problem with Voice-to-Text

Ever dictated a simple message only to have your phone produce utter nonsense? The frustration is real, but the reasons…

3 weeks ago

The Sound of a Vowel: What Are Formants?

Why does an 'ee' sound so different from an 'oo', even when sung at the exact same pitch? The secret…

3 weeks ago

How Do Babies Learn to Hear Word Breaks?

Ever wonder how babies find individual words in the continuous stream of speech they hear? It turns out their brains…

3 weeks ago

5 Languages You’ve Never Heard Of

Journey beyond the familiar and discover languages that defy expectations, from a whistled language that echoes through Canary Island valleys…

3 weeks ago

The Lombard Effect: Shouting to Be Heard

Ever found yourself practically shouting into your phone on a busy street? That involuntary impulse to raise your voice in…

3 weeks ago

The Pitch of Power: A Leader’s Voice

Beyond the words themselves, our brains rapidly process the *music* of speech—its pitch, rhythm, and tone—to make snap judgments about…

3 weeks ago

The Pitch-Accent Puzzle of Japanese

In Japanese, a single word like `hashi` can mean 'bridge' or 'chopsticks' based on a subtle change in melody. This…

3 weeks ago

The Mechanical Mouth: A History of Speech Synthesis

From the bellows-powered talking heads of the 18th century to the neural networks that voice our smart assistants, the quest…

3 weeks ago

The Sound of an Ancient City

We visualize the grand columns of the Roman Forum or the towering ziggurats of Babylon, but have you ever stopped…

3 weeks ago

Decoding Dolphin Dialects

We know dolphins communicate with a complex symphony of clicks and whistles, but could they have regional accents, just like…

3 weeks ago

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