Speech Production: Models, Phonetic Processes and Techniques brings together researchers from many different disciplines - computer science, dentistry, engineering, linguistics, phonetics, physiology, psychology - all with a special interest in how speech is produced. From the initial neural program to the end acoustic signal, it provides an overview of several dominant models in the speech production literature, as well as up-to-date accounts of persistent theoretical issues in the area. A particular focus is on the evaluation of information gleaned from instrumental investigations of the speech production process, including MRI, PET, ultra-sound, video-imaging, EMA, EPG, X-ray, computer simulation - and many others.

The research presented in this volume considers questions such as: the feed-back vs. feed-forward control of speech; the acoustic/auditory vs. articulatory/somato-sensory domains of speech planning; the innateness of human speech; the possible architecture of a speech production model; and the realization of prosodic structure in speech. Leaders in speech research from around the world have contributed their most recent work to this volume.