Julien Meyer étudie aussi différents types de communications acoustiques et d'espaces sonores car... more Julien Meyer étudie aussi différents types de communications acoustiques et d'espaces sonores car il a également une formation de bioacousticien. Il s'intéresse aux liens entre langues et milieux écologiques. Il a développé une expertise sur le thème l'imitation sonore de la parole pour la télécommunication naturelle (parole sifflée, tambours parleurs) et pour l'expression de certaines musiques traditionnelles. Il travaille en Amazonie depuis 2009, et a passé les cinq premières années au Museu Goeldi de Belém au Brésil. Il collabore depuis 2012 avec les Wayãpi de l'Oyapock ainsi que l'Observatoire
the presence of traditional activities of subsistence (hunting, pastoralism, hill agriculture) wi... more the presence of traditional activities of subsistence (hunting, pastoralism, hill agriculture) with specific types of biotopes (dense forests and mountains). Finally, we present the geolinguistic variations that exist or have existed in a same language with the example of whistled Spanish which has been so far observed in several Canary Islands, but also in Mexico and in Andalusia.
will be published as: Meyer, J. (2024). L'adaptation des langues humaines aux contraintes acousti... more will be published as: Meyer, J. (2024). L'adaptation des langues humaines aux contraintes acoustiques du territoire dans le cas des modalités de parole à distance. Actes de la Conférence Annuelle 2022 du Centre d 'Etudes Francoprovencales. Grammaires de l'espace et relations au territoire, xx-xx , Italie.]
HAL (Le Centre pour la Communication Scientifique Directe), Aug 10, 2015
Listening abilities in humans have developed in rural environments which are the dominant setting... more Listening abilities in humans have developed in rural environments which are the dominant setting for the vast majority of human evolution. Hence, the natural acoustic constraints present in such ecological soundscapes are important to take into account in order to study human speech. Here, we measured the impact of basic properties of a typical 'natural quiet' and non reverberant soundscape on speech recognition. A behavioural experiment was implemented to analyze the intelligibility loss in spoken word lists with variations of Signal-to-Noise Ratio corresponding to different speaker-to-listener distances in a typical low-level natural background noise recorded in a plain dirt open field. To highlight clearly the impact of such noise on recognition in spite of its low level, we contrasted the 'noise + distance' condition with a 'distance only' condition. The recognition performance for vowels and consonants and for different classes of consonants is also analyzed.
HAL (Le Centre pour la Communication Scientifique Directe), Jun 13, 2022
Dans cette étude nous avons cherché à comprendre l'effet de la pratique instrumentale sur la perc... more Dans cette étude nous avons cherché à comprendre l'effet de la pratique instrumentale sur la perception et la catégorisation de la parole sifflée. Nous nous sommes intéressés à la spécificité instrumentale avec une focalisation sur 4 instruments : la voix, le violon, le piano et la flûte. Bien que le bénéfice de la pratique musicale sur la perception de la parole modifiée soit vérifié dans nos résultats, il apparait clairement que l'instrument pratiqué ainsi que le niveau de pratique ont un effet sur la perception de la parole sifflée. Ces résultats suggèrent que, lors de ce processus de catégorisation, les effets observés s'expliquent plus par un traitement modifié du signal sonore, grâce à une familiarisation acoustique spécifique chez les musiciens expérimentés, plutôt que par des fonctions générales (fonctions exécutives, mémoire ou attention) plus performantes.
The Gavião, a native Amazonian group in Rondônia, Brazil, use three different traditional musical... more The Gavião, a native Amazonian group in Rondônia, Brazil, use three different traditional musical instruments that they identify as “speaking” ones and that are characterized by a very tight music-lyric relation through similar pitch patterns: a flute (called kotiráp), a pair of mouth bows (iridináp), and three large bamboo clarinets (totoráp), played by three different players, each one playing a single-note clarinet. They show in different ways the relation of acoustic iconicity which exists between the words of the songs’ lyrics and the music played on such instruments to “sing” the songs. Linguistic analysis makes it possible to understand the phonetic and phonological nature of the iconicity. The sung speech form, being intermediate between the spoken and the instrumental forms, is useful for both learning and explaining the musical notes. In a language with distinctive tone and length, such as Gavião of Rondônia, the first question about speech that is played by musical instru...
Introduction.- Historical Sketch.- The Diversity and Landscape Ecology of Whistled Languages.- Wh... more Introduction.- Historical Sketch.- The Diversity and Landscape Ecology of Whistled Languages.- Whistled Speech and Language Ecology.- Whistle Production and Physics of the Signal.- Acoustic Adaptation to Natural Environments.- Phonetics, Phonology and Typology of Whistled Languages.- Perspectives and Neurocognitive Aspects.- Evolutionary Perspectives.
Whistled speech is a form of modified speech where, in non-tonal languages, vowels and consonants... more Whistled speech is a form of modified speech where, in non-tonal languages, vowels and consonants are augmented and transposed to whistled frequencies, simplifying their timbre. According to previous studies, these transformations maintain some level of vowel recognition for naive listeners. Here, in a behavioral experiment, naive listeners' capacities for the categorization of four whistled consonants (/p/, /k/, /t/, and /s/) were analyzed. Results show patterns of correct responses and confusions that provide new insights into whistled speech perception, highlighting the importance of frequency modulation cues, transposed from phoneme formants, as well as the perceptual flexibility in processing these cues.
This paper reports the results of a pilot phonetic study of whistled Moroccan Tamazight. Whistled... more This paper reports the results of a pilot phonetic study of whistled Moroccan Tamazight. Whistled speech is an ancient traditional and natural practice that consists in a phonetic emulation and transformation of the spoken signal into a simple melodic line made up of frequency and amplitude modulations of a whistled signal. It is primarily used for long distance communication. We recorded four Moroccan Tamazight speakers in the High Atlas producing this special speech register. Given its particular characteristics, namely the extensive presence of words and syllables without vowels, the opportunity Tamazight affords for the execution of whistling may be particularly challenging. We show how speakers whistle a selected set of words and sentences and discuss the preliminary results from phonetic and phonological perspectives.
Whistled speech in a non tonal language consists of the natural emulation of vocalic and consonan... more Whistled speech in a non tonal language consists of the natural emulation of vocalic and consonantal qualities in a simple modulated whistled signal. This special speech register represents a natural telecommunication system that enables high levels of sentence intelligibility by trained speakers. It is not directly intelligible to naïve listeners. Yet, it is easily learned by speakers of the language that is being whistled, as attested by current efforts of revitalization of whistled Spanish in the Canary Islands. To understand better the relation between whistled and spoken speech perception, we looked here at how Spanish native speakers knowing nothing about whistled speech categorized four Spanish whistled vowels. The results show that naïve participants were able to categorize these vowels, although not as accurately as a native whistler.
Boletim do Museu Paraense Emílio Goeldi. Ciências Humanas, 2013
Em uma língua com tom e prolongamento distintivos, como Gavião de Rondônia, a primeira questão so... more Em uma língua com tom e prolongamento distintivos, como Gavião de Rondônia, a primeira questão sobre a fala tocada com instrumentos musicais é a relação entre as melodias e a fonologia suprassegmental das palavras correspondentes na fala cantada e na fala normal. A forma cantada serve para aprender e explicar os toques musicais. Ela é influenciada pelos recursos fonológicos da forma falada e pelos recursos musicais da forma instrumental, sendo intermediária entre as duas. Esta arte é executada com vários instrumentos musicais tradicionais na cultura Gavião de Rondônia. O papel da fala cantada instrumental é artístico, para acompanhar festas, e também prático, para ajudar a manter o patrimônio oral de uma cultura não escrita. Esta prática representa um patrimônio sociocultural do substrato tradicional das culturas da Amazônia, pouco estudado e ameaçado de extinção. Na Terra Indígena Igarapé Lourdes, usamos uma metodologia original para documentar este fenômeno nos instrumentos musica...
The Brazilian Academy of Sciences (BAS) is an institution that brings together some of the main r... more The Brazilian Academy of Sciences (BAS) is an institution that brings together some of the main researchers from Brazil (as Full Members) and abroad (as Corresponding Members). Part of its functions is linked to the publication of scientific results, having the excellence of research as the main parameter. Since 1929, this non-profit organization has published the Annals of the Brazilian Academy of Sciences (AABC), which is the oldest periodical of the country with continuous circulation. As of 2000, all articles became available in print and online. In addition to the Editor-in-Chief, there are currently 13 Associate Editors and 79 Area Editors. With national and international circulation, this journal does not limit its publication to national researchers and has been increasingly sought after by scientists from other nationalities. As it could not be otherwise, the AABC are multidisciplinary in nature, publishing research results achieved in several scientific fields. Up to 2020, all papers were classified in 10 main areas, reflecting the basic structure of the Members of the Brazilian Academy of Sciences (e.g., Kellner 2020). In 2021, the Editorial Board decided to subdivide several areas, and currently manuscripts can be submitted in 16 main scientific fields: Mathematical Sciences (MaSci), Physical Sciences (PhSci), Chemical How to cite KELLNER AWA. 2022. The Annals of the Brazilian Academy of Sciences.
Main Supplementary Material with (a) Data sources; (b) Complementary distributions of inter-beat ... more Main Supplementary Material with (a) Data sources; (b) Complementary distributions of inter-beat durations (IBDs); (c) Rhythmic and tone patterns in proper names; (d) Data on Noun vs. Verb marker
To increase the range of modal speech in natural ambient noise, individuals increase their vocal ... more To increase the range of modal speech in natural ambient noise, individuals increase their vocal effort and may pass into the 'shouted speech' register. To date, most studies concerning the influence of distance on spoken communication in outdoor natural environments have focused on the 'productive side' of the human ability to tacitly adjust vocal output to compensate for acoustic losses due to sound propagation. Our study takes a slightly different path as it is based on an adaptive speech production/perception experiment. The setting was an outdoor natural soundscape (a plane forest in altitude). The stimuli were produced live during the interaction: each speaker adapted speech to transmit French disyllabic words in isolation to an interlocutor/listener who was situated at variable distances in the course of the experiment (30m, 60m, 90m). Speech recognition was explored by evaluating the ability of 16 normal-hearing French listeners to recognize these words and their constituent vowels and consonants. Results showed that in such conditions, speech adaptation was rather efficient as word recognition remained around 95% at 30m, 85% at 60m and 75% at 90m. We also observed striking differences in patterns of answers along several lines: different distances, speech registers, vowels and consonants.
The present study compares the perceptual categorization of four CV syllables /ta, da, ka, ga/ in... more The present study compares the perceptual categorization of four CV syllables /ta, da, ka, ga/ in two different speech registers-modal speech and whistled speech-of Tashlhiyt Berber used in the Moroccan High Atlas. Whistled speech in a non-tonal language such as Tashlhiyt is a special speech register used for long distance dialogues that consists of the natural production of vocalic and consonantal qualities in a simple modulated whistled signal. The technique of whistling imposes various restrictions on speech articulation, which result in a simplification of the phonetics of spoken speech into a 'whistled formant'. Here, we describe this simplification for Tashlhiyt syllables /ta, da, ka, ga/ and use them as stimuli in a behavioral experiment. We analyze and compare the perceptual categorization obtained from native Tashlhiyt listeners (trained since childhood in whistled speech) for both speech registers on these 4 syllable types. Results show that whistled stimuli were fairly well identified (~42%) above chance (25%), though less well than spoken ones (~84%). The detailed analysis of confusions between CVs enabled us to understand better how whistled consonants are perceived, highlighting the phonological contrasts that are best perceived and retained from spoken to whistled speech in this language.
Julien Meyer étudie aussi différents types de communications acoustiques et d'espaces sonores car... more Julien Meyer étudie aussi différents types de communications acoustiques et d'espaces sonores car il a également une formation de bioacousticien. Il s'intéresse aux liens entre langues et milieux écologiques. Il a développé une expertise sur le thème l'imitation sonore de la parole pour la télécommunication naturelle (parole sifflée, tambours parleurs) et pour l'expression de certaines musiques traditionnelles. Il travaille en Amazonie depuis 2009, et a passé les cinq premières années au Museu Goeldi de Belém au Brésil. Il collabore depuis 2012 avec les Wayãpi de l'Oyapock ainsi que l'Observatoire
the presence of traditional activities of subsistence (hunting, pastoralism, hill agriculture) wi... more the presence of traditional activities of subsistence (hunting, pastoralism, hill agriculture) with specific types of biotopes (dense forests and mountains). Finally, we present the geolinguistic variations that exist or have existed in a same language with the example of whistled Spanish which has been so far observed in several Canary Islands, but also in Mexico and in Andalusia.
will be published as: Meyer, J. (2024). L'adaptation des langues humaines aux contraintes acousti... more will be published as: Meyer, J. (2024). L'adaptation des langues humaines aux contraintes acoustiques du territoire dans le cas des modalités de parole à distance. Actes de la Conférence Annuelle 2022 du Centre d 'Etudes Francoprovencales. Grammaires de l'espace et relations au territoire, xx-xx , Italie.]
HAL (Le Centre pour la Communication Scientifique Directe), Aug 10, 2015
Listening abilities in humans have developed in rural environments which are the dominant setting... more Listening abilities in humans have developed in rural environments which are the dominant setting for the vast majority of human evolution. Hence, the natural acoustic constraints present in such ecological soundscapes are important to take into account in order to study human speech. Here, we measured the impact of basic properties of a typical 'natural quiet' and non reverberant soundscape on speech recognition. A behavioural experiment was implemented to analyze the intelligibility loss in spoken word lists with variations of Signal-to-Noise Ratio corresponding to different speaker-to-listener distances in a typical low-level natural background noise recorded in a plain dirt open field. To highlight clearly the impact of such noise on recognition in spite of its low level, we contrasted the 'noise + distance' condition with a 'distance only' condition. The recognition performance for vowels and consonants and for different classes of consonants is also analyzed.
HAL (Le Centre pour la Communication Scientifique Directe), Jun 13, 2022
Dans cette étude nous avons cherché à comprendre l'effet de la pratique instrumentale sur la perc... more Dans cette étude nous avons cherché à comprendre l'effet de la pratique instrumentale sur la perception et la catégorisation de la parole sifflée. Nous nous sommes intéressés à la spécificité instrumentale avec une focalisation sur 4 instruments : la voix, le violon, le piano et la flûte. Bien que le bénéfice de la pratique musicale sur la perception de la parole modifiée soit vérifié dans nos résultats, il apparait clairement que l'instrument pratiqué ainsi que le niveau de pratique ont un effet sur la perception de la parole sifflée. Ces résultats suggèrent que, lors de ce processus de catégorisation, les effets observés s'expliquent plus par un traitement modifié du signal sonore, grâce à une familiarisation acoustique spécifique chez les musiciens expérimentés, plutôt que par des fonctions générales (fonctions exécutives, mémoire ou attention) plus performantes.
The Gavião, a native Amazonian group in Rondônia, Brazil, use three different traditional musical... more The Gavião, a native Amazonian group in Rondônia, Brazil, use three different traditional musical instruments that they identify as “speaking” ones and that are characterized by a very tight music-lyric relation through similar pitch patterns: a flute (called kotiráp), a pair of mouth bows (iridináp), and three large bamboo clarinets (totoráp), played by three different players, each one playing a single-note clarinet. They show in different ways the relation of acoustic iconicity which exists between the words of the songs’ lyrics and the music played on such instruments to “sing” the songs. Linguistic analysis makes it possible to understand the phonetic and phonological nature of the iconicity. The sung speech form, being intermediate between the spoken and the instrumental forms, is useful for both learning and explaining the musical notes. In a language with distinctive tone and length, such as Gavião of Rondônia, the first question about speech that is played by musical instru...
Introduction.- Historical Sketch.- The Diversity and Landscape Ecology of Whistled Languages.- Wh... more Introduction.- Historical Sketch.- The Diversity and Landscape Ecology of Whistled Languages.- Whistled Speech and Language Ecology.- Whistle Production and Physics of the Signal.- Acoustic Adaptation to Natural Environments.- Phonetics, Phonology and Typology of Whistled Languages.- Perspectives and Neurocognitive Aspects.- Evolutionary Perspectives.
Whistled speech is a form of modified speech where, in non-tonal languages, vowels and consonants... more Whistled speech is a form of modified speech where, in non-tonal languages, vowels and consonants are augmented and transposed to whistled frequencies, simplifying their timbre. According to previous studies, these transformations maintain some level of vowel recognition for naive listeners. Here, in a behavioral experiment, naive listeners' capacities for the categorization of four whistled consonants (/p/, /k/, /t/, and /s/) were analyzed. Results show patterns of correct responses and confusions that provide new insights into whistled speech perception, highlighting the importance of frequency modulation cues, transposed from phoneme formants, as well as the perceptual flexibility in processing these cues.
This paper reports the results of a pilot phonetic study of whistled Moroccan Tamazight. Whistled... more This paper reports the results of a pilot phonetic study of whistled Moroccan Tamazight. Whistled speech is an ancient traditional and natural practice that consists in a phonetic emulation and transformation of the spoken signal into a simple melodic line made up of frequency and amplitude modulations of a whistled signal. It is primarily used for long distance communication. We recorded four Moroccan Tamazight speakers in the High Atlas producing this special speech register. Given its particular characteristics, namely the extensive presence of words and syllables without vowels, the opportunity Tamazight affords for the execution of whistling may be particularly challenging. We show how speakers whistle a selected set of words and sentences and discuss the preliminary results from phonetic and phonological perspectives.
Whistled speech in a non tonal language consists of the natural emulation of vocalic and consonan... more Whistled speech in a non tonal language consists of the natural emulation of vocalic and consonantal qualities in a simple modulated whistled signal. This special speech register represents a natural telecommunication system that enables high levels of sentence intelligibility by trained speakers. It is not directly intelligible to naïve listeners. Yet, it is easily learned by speakers of the language that is being whistled, as attested by current efforts of revitalization of whistled Spanish in the Canary Islands. To understand better the relation between whistled and spoken speech perception, we looked here at how Spanish native speakers knowing nothing about whistled speech categorized four Spanish whistled vowels. The results show that naïve participants were able to categorize these vowels, although not as accurately as a native whistler.
Boletim do Museu Paraense Emílio Goeldi. Ciências Humanas, 2013
Em uma língua com tom e prolongamento distintivos, como Gavião de Rondônia, a primeira questão so... more Em uma língua com tom e prolongamento distintivos, como Gavião de Rondônia, a primeira questão sobre a fala tocada com instrumentos musicais é a relação entre as melodias e a fonologia suprassegmental das palavras correspondentes na fala cantada e na fala normal. A forma cantada serve para aprender e explicar os toques musicais. Ela é influenciada pelos recursos fonológicos da forma falada e pelos recursos musicais da forma instrumental, sendo intermediária entre as duas. Esta arte é executada com vários instrumentos musicais tradicionais na cultura Gavião de Rondônia. O papel da fala cantada instrumental é artístico, para acompanhar festas, e também prático, para ajudar a manter o patrimônio oral de uma cultura não escrita. Esta prática representa um patrimônio sociocultural do substrato tradicional das culturas da Amazônia, pouco estudado e ameaçado de extinção. Na Terra Indígena Igarapé Lourdes, usamos uma metodologia original para documentar este fenômeno nos instrumentos musica...
The Brazilian Academy of Sciences (BAS) is an institution that brings together some of the main r... more The Brazilian Academy of Sciences (BAS) is an institution that brings together some of the main researchers from Brazil (as Full Members) and abroad (as Corresponding Members). Part of its functions is linked to the publication of scientific results, having the excellence of research as the main parameter. Since 1929, this non-profit organization has published the Annals of the Brazilian Academy of Sciences (AABC), which is the oldest periodical of the country with continuous circulation. As of 2000, all articles became available in print and online. In addition to the Editor-in-Chief, there are currently 13 Associate Editors and 79 Area Editors. With national and international circulation, this journal does not limit its publication to national researchers and has been increasingly sought after by scientists from other nationalities. As it could not be otherwise, the AABC are multidisciplinary in nature, publishing research results achieved in several scientific fields. Up to 2020, all papers were classified in 10 main areas, reflecting the basic structure of the Members of the Brazilian Academy of Sciences (e.g., Kellner 2020). In 2021, the Editorial Board decided to subdivide several areas, and currently manuscripts can be submitted in 16 main scientific fields: Mathematical Sciences (MaSci), Physical Sciences (PhSci), Chemical How to cite KELLNER AWA. 2022. The Annals of the Brazilian Academy of Sciences.
Main Supplementary Material with (a) Data sources; (b) Complementary distributions of inter-beat ... more Main Supplementary Material with (a) Data sources; (b) Complementary distributions of inter-beat durations (IBDs); (c) Rhythmic and tone patterns in proper names; (d) Data on Noun vs. Verb marker
To increase the range of modal speech in natural ambient noise, individuals increase their vocal ... more To increase the range of modal speech in natural ambient noise, individuals increase their vocal effort and may pass into the 'shouted speech' register. To date, most studies concerning the influence of distance on spoken communication in outdoor natural environments have focused on the 'productive side' of the human ability to tacitly adjust vocal output to compensate for acoustic losses due to sound propagation. Our study takes a slightly different path as it is based on an adaptive speech production/perception experiment. The setting was an outdoor natural soundscape (a plane forest in altitude). The stimuli were produced live during the interaction: each speaker adapted speech to transmit French disyllabic words in isolation to an interlocutor/listener who was situated at variable distances in the course of the experiment (30m, 60m, 90m). Speech recognition was explored by evaluating the ability of 16 normal-hearing French listeners to recognize these words and their constituent vowels and consonants. Results showed that in such conditions, speech adaptation was rather efficient as word recognition remained around 95% at 30m, 85% at 60m and 75% at 90m. We also observed striking differences in patterns of answers along several lines: different distances, speech registers, vowels and consonants.
The present study compares the perceptual categorization of four CV syllables /ta, da, ka, ga/ in... more The present study compares the perceptual categorization of four CV syllables /ta, da, ka, ga/ in two different speech registers-modal speech and whistled speech-of Tashlhiyt Berber used in the Moroccan High Atlas. Whistled speech in a non-tonal language such as Tashlhiyt is a special speech register used for long distance dialogues that consists of the natural production of vocalic and consonantal qualities in a simple modulated whistled signal. The technique of whistling imposes various restrictions on speech articulation, which result in a simplification of the phonetics of spoken speech into a 'whistled formant'. Here, we describe this simplification for Tashlhiyt syllables /ta, da, ka, ga/ and use them as stimuli in a behavioral experiment. We analyze and compare the perceptual categorization obtained from native Tashlhiyt listeners (trained since childhood in whistled speech) for both speech registers on these 4 syllable types. Results show that whistled stimuli were fairly well identified (~42%) above chance (25%), though less well than spoken ones (~84%). The detailed analysis of confusions between CVs enabled us to understand better how whistled consonants are perceived, highlighting the phonological contrasts that are best perceived and retained from spoken to whistled speech in this language.
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