Brief Insight About Speech Perception And Classification Of Speech Sound In Arabic Dialects

Abstract

Background: Speech is simply an acoustic signal that carries linguistic information. Sound is the basic requirement for speech production, initiated by a simple disturbance of air molecules in the vocal passage is provided by movement of certain body organs such as chest muscles, vocal cords, lips, teeth, tongue, palates etc. finally producing spoken language.  Speech signal is a multidimensional acoustic wave, which provides information about the words or message being spoken expressing speaker ideas, feelings and emotions to the listener reflecting speaker identity, physical and mental health, race, age, sex, education level, religious orientation and overall individual background. The Variation in speech production might be explained by several factors including inter-speakers and intra-speaker variations. The inter-speakers variation includes idiosyncratic and social-indexical differences as well as differences in vocal tract size as a result of age and sex differences. Therefore, two different speakers may articulate the same intended sound with different acoustic patterns and different sounds with the same acoustic patterns. Speech sounds may be classified under two major categories:  vowels and consonants. The 28 consonants in MSA ,3 short  vowels (/a/, /u/, /i/), 3 longer vowels (/a:/, /u:/, /i:/), and two diphthongs(/ai/, /au/).