ISCA Archive Eurospeech 1999
ISCA Archive Eurospeech 1999

A system for learning the pronunciation of Japanese pitch accent

Goh Kawai, Carlos Toshinori Ishi

We propose a technique that associates the F0 of Japa-nese words with native-speaker perceptions of pitch ac-cents. Up till now, computer-aided prosody learning sys-tems that measure fundamental frequency (F0) have not mapped F0 values to perceptual thresholds of native speakers. Existing learning systems often instruct their students to fit F0 contours within a band designated by the system, but the band's boundaries do not to corre-spond to measures of acceptance by native speakers. Our method estimates intelligibility of pitch accent patterns based on perception experiments. Intelligibility scores motivate learners by guiding them towards meaningful goals.