Freshman Seminar:
How we speak
Weekly Schedule
Fall 2024 Weekly Schedule
Subject to Change — Always check back for current status
Week 1 Aug 29—Hallmarks of Human Language
and Producing Speech Sounds
and Producing Speech Sounds
Reading Due: DSWM Chapter 2 Section 1 pp. 23-39 [ebook pages 34-52]
[DSWM = textbook Discovering Speech, Words, and Mind Byrd & Mintz (associated website)]
Odyssey "Speech: Dances of the Vocal Tract" by Rubin & Goldstein
Fun Website: Slo-Mo Gargling
REMEMBER to fill out your required Lang Info Sheet.
Week 2 Sept 5—English Sounds and the International Phonetic Alphabet
Reading Due: DSWM Chapter 2 Section 1 cont. (same as last week)
Fun Website: Real-time MRI IPA Chart collected here at USC
Two handouts: mini IPA Chart for English Sounds; English Contrasts (These are combined into a single pdf here, albeit slightly smaller.)
This clickable IPA chart website is helpful for 'typing' (copy & paste) IPA symbols
Listen before next meeting: Professor Krisha Nayak's podcast interview on "But I'm Not an Engineer!" (20 min)
Homework 1 released and required for everyone (due Sept 19): Transcription
Week 3 Sept 12—Speech Acoustics
Reading Due: DSWM Chapter 2 Section 2 [pdf 63-76]
Handouts: Source Filter Handout (courtesy of Louis Goldstein)
Fun Website: The Resonant Bridge, Make your own spectrogram (requires microphone access)
Week 4 Sept 19—Varieties of English
Nicole Holliday's lecture "It's in the tone": how we make sociolinguistic judgments based on the acoustic properties of the voice and what language can tell us about identity and inequality. [28 min]Are southern accents disappearing? [pls listen rather than read only] (podcast 4 minutes)Other interesting items:"What it means to sound gay?" (pdf)--Washington Post July 28 2015Linguists hear an accent begin (Scientific American, 5 min audio)NYTimes Newsletter: CELF (Clinical Evaluation of Language Fundamentals)-5 test and children who speak Black EnglishFun websites: 22 Maps That Show How Americans Speak English Totally Differently From One Another; Your 'personal' dialect map; The Cambridge Online survey and its results; Accents of English (JC Wells); The speech accent archiveWe will watch in class: Jamila Lyiscott TedSalon 2014 "3 Ways to Speak English"
Homework 2 Option A released (due Oct 3): Transcribing a Variety of English [for supporting material see textbook reading; and Wired Magazine's YouTube 3-part video series hosted by Erik Singer "Accent Expert Gives a Tour of US Accents"-- Part 1 here]
Homework 1 due today September 19
In class, prep for DISC tour. Optional safety screening form for those who want to come inside the scanner room here .
Week 5 Sept 26—Sounds of the World's Languages
Reading Due: DSWM Chapter 3 Section 1 pp. 72-82 (ebook pp. 75-102)
Handout: Complete IPA Chart
Fun Websites: What are voiced and voiceless plosives (aka stops)?
UCLA Language Index for Sounds of the World's Languages and Vowels and Consonants; Talking IPA Chart or IPA with real-time MRI video from USC Span (click on individual phonetician); Audio language samples and language sample
Optional readings: Gibbs "Saving Dying Languages" Scientific American 2002
What is vocal fry?
Homework 2 Option B released (due Oct 24): Mini Fieldwork Demonstrating Phonetic Contrasts (not for English)
Week 6 Oct 3—Tour of the Dynamic Imaging Science Center
Meet in front of the Michelson Hall [MCB] at noon sharp to walk to basement.
Info and map here.
The USC Dynamic Imaging Science Center's low-field high-performance MRI with Professor Krishna Nayak.
See items to take care of in advance above under Week 4.
Homework 2 Option A due today Oct 3
Week 7 October 10-11 is a USC Holiday
Week 8 Oct 17 —Bilingualism
37 maps that explain how America is a nation of immigrants; NYT Everyone has an Accent; Washington Post Op-Ed: " Trudeau says he wants to tackle systemic racism. He should start with this policy." September 30, 2020
Optional/Fun Readings: From the New Yorker on Hyperglots "The mystery of people who speak dozens of languages;" What language does your state speak
Optional video: Bilingualism in business (5 min); Video example of code switching (1 min); Podcast on the benefits of bilingualism (28 min)
Week 9 Oct 24—Puzzles and Illusions of Speech Perception
Reading Due: Myers "From Sound to Meaning" Physics Today 2017Optional Reading after lecture: Does Sensory Modality Matter? Not for speech perception by L. RosenblumHomework 2 Option B due today Oct 24
Week 10 Oct 31—Hearing and Deafness
"This common habit can ruin your hearing and increase dementia"
Handout: Common Misconceptions About Hearing [website] [pdf]A pretty good online hearing test from Dr. Ir. Stéphane Pigeon -- need silence and headphones NYT FDA clears path for hearing aids to be sold over the counterWeek 11 Nov 7—Speech Production in Breakdown: Diseases and Disorders
Reading Due: DSWM Chapter 11
We have a vaccine for six cancers; why are less than half of kids getting it?
Video: Audiologist Answers Hearing Questions
Video: In a short documentary, John Hendrickson describes the frustration of having a stutter (New York Times; 8 min).
Optional Reading: The Atlantic "What Joe Biden Can’t Bring Himself to Say";
This American Life: Act One Time Bandit (24min)
Vaping and Public Health and E-cigarettes: Facts, stats and regulations
Website for future reference: American Speech and Hearing Association
Resources for quitting vaping: KickIt CA, Truth Initiative, smokefree.govRecommended documentary movie (required if you are going to do Homework 2 Option C): "When I Stutter" (director John Gomez; 1hr7min)
Homework 2 Option C released (Monday Dec 2) -- An Interview (documentary viewing above required)
Week 12 Nov 14—Guest Lecture from Dr. Miran Oh, AI/ML Voice Building Engineer for Apple Inc.
"A Primer on LLMs for AI"
"A Primer on LLMs for AI"
This will likely be a zoom lecture but we will all gather in our classroom.
Week 13 Nov 21—Speech Technology including Deep Fakes
And Course Close
Reading Due: Speech Synthesis: Toward a "Voice" for All. H. Timothy Bunnell; The Ethics of a Deepfake Anthony Bourdain Voice, Helen Rosner Fun Websites: A collection of some speech synthesis sites ; Kid tries to train Google Home; Meet the Woman Behind Amazon Alexa; A commercial with Susan Bennett (the voice of Siri); "How computers parse the ambiguity of everyday language"; "Alexa, Siri, and Google Don’t Understand a Word You Say"Homework 2 Option D released Speech Synthesis (due by email no later than Nov 29)
Nov 27-29 Thanksgiving Holiday
No Further Class Meetings
Monday December 2 Homework Two Options C or D due
Banner Art Credit: Lena Foellmer
Collection of Resources for the USC Community's health, safety and well-being
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