Cover not available
Article published In:
Historiographia Linguistica
Vol. 28:3 (2001) ► pp.289–330

Phonetics and speaking machines

On the mechanical simulation of human speech in the 17th century

| University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
This paper shows that in the 17th century various attempts were made to build fully automatic speaking devices resembling those exhibited in the late 18th-century in France and Germany. Through the analysis of writings by well-known 17th-century scientists, and a document hitherto unknown in the history of phonetics and speech synthesis, an excerpt from La Science universelle (1667[1641]) of the French writer Charles Sorel (1599–1674), it is argued that engineers and scientists of the Baroque period have to be credited with the first model of multilingual text-to-speech synthesis engines using unlimited vocabulary.
Published online: 13 June 2002
DOI logo
https://doi.org/10.1075/hl.28.3.02fag
References (47)
References
Adam, Antoine. 1958. Romans du XVIIe. Paris: Editions de la Pléiade.Google Scholar
Bedini, Silvio A. 1964. “The Role of Automata in the History of Technology”. Technology and Culture 41.24–42.Google Scholar
Caus, Salomon de. 1615 . Les Raisons des Forces Mouvantes. Paris: Hierosme (Jérôme) Drouart. (2nd ed., 1623.)Google Scholar
Chapman, Roger E. 1957. Harmonie Universelle: The books on instruments of Marin Mersenne. First English translation. The Hague: Martinus Nijhoff.Google Scholar
Chapuis, Alfred & Edouard Gélis. 1984[1928]. Le Monde des automates: Étude historique et technique. Facsimile ed. 21 vols. Genève: Slatkine.Google Scholar
Chomsky, Noam. 1966. Cartesian Linguistics: A chapter in the history of rationalist thought. New York & London: Harper & Row.Google Scholar
. 2000. New Horizons in the Study of Language and Mind. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Cohen, John. 1966. Human Robots in Myth and Science. South Brunswick: George Allen & Unwin.Google Scholar
Cordemoy, Gérault de. 1777[1668]. Discours physique de la parole. Facsimile of the second ed. Stuttgart-Bad Cannstatt: Friedrich Frommann, 1974.Google Scholar
Descartes, René. 1636. Discours de la Méthode: Pour bien conduire sa raison et chercher la vérité dans les sciences. Leyde: Jean Marie. (French translation by Etienne Gilson, Paris: J. Vrin, 1925.)Google Scholar
Dutoit, Thierry. 1997. An Introduction to Text-to-Speech Synthesis. Dordrecht– Boston–London: Kluwer.Google Scholar
Euler, Leonard. 1802[1761]. Letters to a German Princess on Different Subjects in Physics and Philosophy. Translated from French by Henry Hunter, D. D. London: Murrey & Highley.Google Scholar
Fant, Gunnar. 1960. The Acoustic Theory of Speech Production. The Hague: Mouton.Google Scholar
Friedell, Egon. 1930. A Cultural History of the Modern Age. Vol. II1. Translated from German by Charles F. Atkinson. New York: Alfred A. Knopf.Google Scholar
Gaffarel, Jacques 1650[1629]. Curiosités inouïes: Sur la sculpture talismanique des persans. Horoscope des Patriarches. Et lecture sur les étoiles. Paris: Alfred M.Google Scholar
Gillot, Hubert. 1914. La querelle des Anciens et des Modernes en France. Paris: Édouard Champion.Google Scholar
Godwin, Joscelyn. 1979. Athansius Kircher: A Renaissance man and the quest for lost knowledge. London: Thames & Hudson.Google Scholar
Hardcastle, William J. & Nigel Hewlett. 1999. Coarticulation: Theory, data and techniques. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Helmholtz, Hermann. 1863. Die Lehre von den Tonemp findungen als physiologische Grundlage für die Theorie der Musik. Braunschweig: Friedrich Vieweg.Google Scholar
Kemp, J. Alan. 1995. “Phonetics: Precursors to modern approaches”. Concise History of the Language Sciences: From the Sumerians to the Cognitivists ed. by E. F. K. Koerner & R. E. Asher, 371–388. Oxford & New York: Pergamon Press.Google Scholar
Kempelen, Wolfgang von. 1791. Mechanismus der menschlichen Sprache. Wien: J. B. Degen.Google Scholar
Kibbee, Douglas A. 1991. For to Speke Frenche Trewely. The French Language in England, 1000–1600: Its status, description and instruction. Amsterdam & Philadelphia: John Benjamins.Google Scholar
Kircher, Athanasius. 1641. Magnes sive de Arte Magnetica. Roma: Paulo Shor.Google Scholar
. 1650. Musurgia Universalis sive Ars Magna Consoni et Dissoni. Roma: Paulo Shor. (Facsimile ed. by Ulf Scharlau, Hildesheim: Georg Olms, 1970.)Google Scholar
. 1654. Oedipus Aegyptiacus. Roma: Rudolph Dreherr.Google Scholar
. 1673. Phonurgia Nova. Roma: Rudolph Dreherr.Google Scholar
Kohler, Klaus. 1981. “Three Trends in Phonetics: The development of the discipline in Germany since the nineteenth century”. Towards a History of Phonetics ed. by R. E. Asher & J. A. E. Henderson, 161–178. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press.Google Scholar
Kühnert, Barbara & Francis Nolan. 1999. “The Origins of Coarticulation”. Hardcastle & Hewlett 1999.7–30.Google Scholar
Laziczius, Gyula. 1963. Fonetika. Budapest: Tankönykiadó.Google Scholar
Marguin, Jean. 1994. Histoire des instruments et machines à calculer. Paris: Hermann.Google Scholar
Matthiae, Jacobus (Jacob Madsen). 1586. De literis libri duo. Basel. (New ed., Acta Jütlandica 21, 1930.)Google Scholar
Mersenne, Marin. 1625. La vérité des sciences, contre les sceptiques ou pyrrhoniens. Facsimile ed. Stuttgart-Bad Cannstatt: Frommann-Holzboog, 1977.Google Scholar
. 1635. Le Traité de l’Orgue. Paris: Pierre Ballard. (Facsimile ed., Leuven: W. Vergaelen, 1979.)Google Scholar
. 1636. Harmonie Universelle contenant la Théorie et la pratique de la musique. 191 vols. Paris: Sébastien Cramoisy.Google Scholar
. 1939. De Attractione. Paris: Hugo Grotius. (Repr. in Mersenne 1945–1977 [1617–1627], vol. VIII1, pp. 754–761.)Google Scholar
. 1945–1977 [1617–1627]. Correspondance du Père Marin Mersenne, religieux Minime. Ed. by C. De Waard et al., 131 vols. Paris: Beauchesne (vol.I1), Presses Universitaires de France (vols. II-IV1), CNRS (vols. V-XIII1).Google Scholar
Panconcelli-Calcia, Giulio. 1994 [1941, 1940]. Geschichtzahlen der Phonetik (1941) & Quellenatlas der Phonetik (1940). New ed. with an Introd. by Konrad Koerner. Amsterdam & Philadelphia: John Benjamins.Google Scholar
Roy, Emile. 1891. La vie et les œuvres de Charles Sorel. Paris: Hachette.Google Scholar
Scha, Remko. 1992. “Virtual Voices”. Mediamatic 71.1–14.Google Scholar
Séris, Jean-Pierre. 1993. “Language and Machine in the Philosophy of Descartes”. Essays on the Philosophy and Science of René Descartes ed. by S. Voss, 177–192. New York & Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
. 1995. Langages et machines à l’âge classique. Paris: Hachette.Google Scholar
Sorel, Charles. 1667 [1636]. Des Talismans, ou figures faites sous certaines constella- tions pour faire aimer, pour guérir les maladies […] etc., avec des observations contre les Curiosités inouies de Gaffarel. Paris: A. de Sommaville.Google Scholar
. 1641. La Science Universelle de Sorel où est traitté de l’Usage de toutes les choses du Monde. Où l’on trouve les plus beaux secrets des Arts, & les plus sérieuses inventions des Hommes. Troisième volume. Paris: Toussaint Quinet.Google Scholar
. 1667 [1664]. La bibliothèque française. Paris: La Compagnie des Libraires du Palais.Google Scholar
Stauff, Edward L. 1999. Encyclopedia of Organ Stops. Copyright on-line publication at [URL]
Wallis, John. 1674 [1653]. Grammatica Linguae Anglicana: de loquela, sive de sonorum formatione. Tractatus grammatico-physicus. London: L. Lichfield.Google Scholar
Wollock, Jeffrey. 1997. The Noblest Animate Motion: Biology, medicine and speech in pre-Cartesian linguistic thought. Amsterdam & Philadelphia: John Benjamins.Google Scholar
Cited by (3)

Cited by three other publications

Cotton, Kelsey, Katja De Vries & Kıvanç Tatar
2024. Proceedings of the 9th International Conference on Movement and Computing, ► pp. 1 ff. DOI logo
Warchhold, Sarah & Daniel Duran
2020. Proceedings of the 8th International Conference on Human-Agent Interaction, ► pp. 224 ff. DOI logo
Lindstedt, Iwona
2010. Sonorystyka w twórczości kompozytorów polskich XX wieku, DOI logo

This list is based on CrossRef data as of 3 july 2024. Please note that it may not be complete. Sources presented here have been supplied by the respective publishers. Any errors therein should be reported to them.