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Preface
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bling subsets of the overall system, and the provision of a variety of displays to
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view the functions of various modules. This system has been used successfully on
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several occasions, and is described in Chapter 14.
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With this new UNIX version of MITalk, J. Allen and R. Armstrong have un-
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dertaken extensive writing and editing which build on the 1979 summer course
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notes in order to construct the current text. In particular, all examples are a direct
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result of the current implementation, and new rule formulations have been added to
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the text by using a generalized notation for phonological rules. These rule im-
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provements have been achieved by R. Armstrong. Several new sections have been
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added, and extensive editing has been performed along with an expanded and more
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explicit representation of the actual algorithms and rules used in the system. Thus,
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the present text is the product of the original authors of the 1979 summer course
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notes (mentioned above), plus expansion in detail, examples, and both explicit and
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extensive rule formulations added by J. Allen and R. Armstrong. M. S. Hunnicutt,
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D. H. Klatt, and D. Pisoni have reviewed these changes for accuracy, and the ex-
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tensive formatting necessary to produce the camera-ready copy for this book was
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done by R. Armstrong.
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It is a pleasure to acknowledge the several sponsors of this work over the
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years. In the early stages, research was sponsored by the Joint Services Electronics
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Program, as well as the National Institutes of Health. For many years, continuing
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and generous support has been provided by an anonymous individual donor, sup-
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plying the flexibility necessary to pursue appropriate research directions. The four
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years of concentrated effort which led to the system’s 1979 version was supported
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by the National Science Foundation. It is important to note the donation of a
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hardware pitch detector from MIT’s Lincoln Laboratory, designed and built by
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T. Bially. The detector was instrumental in providing the very large volume of
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pitch contours used as the database to construct fundamental frequency rules.
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The MITalk system is the result of an exciting and satisfying project. Much
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important research has been performed as a result of its needs, and the overall sys-
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tem is an impressive statement of our knowledge in this field. Certainly, there is
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still more that needs to be done in order to provide highly natural speech in dis-
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course environments. But, MITalk’s contributions are likely to play an essential
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role in any of these continuing developments.
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