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Licensed Unlicensed Requires Authentication Published by De Gruyter Mouton August 5, 2020

Wolfgang R. von Kempelen, Le Mécanisme de la Parole, Suivi de la Description d’une Machine Parlante. Vienne, ed. Bauer, 1791

  • Massimo Pettorino
From the journal Phonetica

Abstract

Strange as it may seem, von Kempelen’s speaking machine from 1791 is the best result obtained in various attempts to build a mechanism similar to the speech apparatus, capable of producing a vocal signal. In this book discussion, we will illustrate von Kempelen’s work, along with the attempts, across history, to build talking devices. We will highlight the 2 paths that have been followed over the centuries: “vocal transport” and “artificial voice.” The first case was a trick, because the voice was produced by a hidden subject and transported through an artifice to a head or a statue. The other path, that of research, has tried to imitate the phonatory apparatus to produce sequences of sounds somewhat similar to those that make up the speech chain. Which of the 2 paths led to the production of today’s synthesized speech? The trick or the research? We will try to answer this question.


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*Massimo Pettorino, University of Naples L’Orientale, Via Duomo 219, IT–80130 Naples (Italy), mpettorino@gmail.com

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  1. 1

    Virtual assistants such as Google Home, Alexa by Amazon Echo or Siri by Apple.

  2. 2

    “Tubus cochleatus” is the expression that Athanasius Kircher will use in his Musurgiae Universalis, 4 centuries later, to explain the functioning of the artifice devised by Albertus Magnus (Kircher, 1650).

  3. 3

    On the speaking heads of Abbot Mical and the synthesized vowels of Christian Gottlieb Kratzenstein, see Pettorino & Giannini, 1999, pp. 154–169.

  4. 4

    The effects of context on vowels and their correct identification with respect to isolated vowels as well as, more generally, of the context on speech perception will be widely treated starting from the second half of 1900, therefore almost 2 centuries after the work of von Kempelen. Many experimental studies have found that words in the context of the sentence have been identified better than words in isolation. For a detailed discussion on the subject see, among others, Mullennix & Pisoni (2014) or Stilp (2019).

  5. 5

    As regards the phenomenon of intrinsic vowel pitch of vowels, von Kempelen seems to anticipate the tongue-pull hypothesis in his work already. In section IV of his book De l’Alphabet, he states that vowels are associated with different degrees of tongue raising which, in turn, pulls the hyoid bone and the larynx upwards. This vertical pull causes an increased vocal cord tension and, therefore, a higher F0 (Ladefoged, 1964; Lehiste, 1970): “On met le doigt contre le gosier sur le larynx & on prononce les deux voyelles les plus éloignées, U et I. On sentira comment ce cartilage que est étroitement lié à la racine de la langue, s’élève & s’abaisse avec elle à mesure que le canal de la langue s’élargit ou se retrécit ” (p. 200).

  6. 6

    In English (translated by the author): We easily forgive a child, who sometimes stutters, the mistake of using a letter instead of another one, and we are content to have understood what he meant.

  7. 7

    When the book was released it did not generate great enthusiasm and attention. There was no magic and mystery, there was no human figure speaking but only an ingenious and complicated mechanism. The disappointment was accentuated by the fact that the human figure had been announced a few years earlier and it was said that a head, capable of clearly answering several questions, was already ready (Losano 1990, p. 102).

  8. 8

    On the speaking machine of von Kempelen as an instrument for research and its possible applications see also Trouvain & Brackhane (2011).

Received: 2020-03-13
Accepted: 2020-05-26
Published Online: 2020-08-05
Published in Print: 2020-09-01

© 2020 S. Karger AG, Basel

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