arXiv AI
Sep 12

Flexible and Interpretable Accent Distance Measurements

The paper introduces a method for measuring accent differences that balances interpretability and practicality. It proposes using articulatory representations obtained via articulatory inversion as an interpretable basis for accent comparison, while employing optimal transport to compare accents across any type of recording. This approach aims to overcome the limitations of traditional phonetic analyses and embedding‑based methods, which are either time‑consuming or non‑interpretable.

By Charles McGhee, Mark J. F. Gales, Kate M. Knill