Interpretation of the Speech Oscillogram

Due to the dynamic nature of sound, it is difficult to observe speech characteristics quantitatively by ear and make precise reproducible measurements unless of a rather coarse nature. However, we can stop the motion and obtain static measurable elements by taking pictures of the sound waves. If the picture is a spectrogram, there is an innate distortion that blurs many details, but if the picture is a high‐quality oscillogram, then we can make precise reproducible measurements at great length. The visible display contains all the detail that can be heard in the original sound and actually much more. Any speech characteristic that we can hear now becomes visually observable and measurable. The chief application discussed is in the broad field of phonemic analysis. Some other areas of application are mentioned briefly. Consideration is also given to observing on a syllabic‐message basis rather than the usual carrier‐wave basis so as to reduce the amount of superficial or unnecessary information considered ...