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Wolfgang von Kempelen's book "The Mechanism of Human Speech" from 1791 is a famous milestone in the history of speech communication research. It has an enormous relevance for the phonetic sciences and it marks an important turning point for the development of the (mechanical) speech synthesis. So far no English version of this work was available, which excludes many interested researchers. Access to the original versions in German and French is restricted for various reasons. For example the blackletter script of the German version is troublesome for most of today's readers. We report here on a new edition of Kempelen's book which unites a better readable German version and its English translation. It will now also be in a searchable electronic format and has been enriched with many commentaries, which aid in the understanding of details of the late 18th century that are little known or unknown to many researchers today.
Scientific interest in von Kempelen's 'speaking machine' stems mainly from a general interest in the history of science. This study, however, is devoted to the question of what relevance the 'speaking machine' has today. Apart for discussing why it fascinates researchers and non-researchers alike we describe the construction of a replica and its potential as an instrument for demonstration and for researching speech generation.
The paper reports on experiments with acoustic recordings of a self-built replica of the historic speaking machine of Wolfgang von Kempelen. Several possibilities of the reed as the glottal excitation mechanism were tested. Perception tests with naïve listeners revealed that the machinegenerated words 'mama' and 'papa' were partially recognised as an authentic child voice – as it was also the case in von Kempelen's demonstrations in the late 18th century.
Scientific interest in von Kempelen's 'speaking machine' stems mainly from a general interest in the history of science. This study, however, is devoted to the question of what relevance the 'speaking machine' has today. Apart for discussing why it fascinates researchers and non-researchers alike we describe the potential of replicas as an instrument for demonstration and for researching speech generation.
Die wissenschaftliche Beschäftigung mit der Kempelen'schen Sprechmaschine erfolgt zumeist aus wissenschaftshistorischen Motiven heraus. Der vorliegende Aufsatz widmet sich der Frage, welche Bedeutung der Sprechmaschine heutzutage zukommt. Neben möglichen Erklärungen, weswegen die Sprechmaschine auf Wissenschaftler wie Nicht-Wissenschaftler faszinierend wirkt, beschreiben wir den Einsatz von Nachbauten als Instrument zur Demonstration und auch zur Erforschung der Erzeugung von Sprachschall.