14th International Congress of Phonetic Sciences (ICPhS-14)

San Francisco, CA, USA
August 1-7, 1999


Evolution of an Artificial Society of Speech Agents: A Model for the Emergence of Phonetic Structures

Ahmed-Reda Berrah

Institut de la Communication Parlée, Grenoble, France

This paper addresses the emergence of a common phonetic code in a society of communicating speech agents using evolutionary techniques. Predictions of vowel systems of the world's languages and the explanation of the Maximum Use of Available distinctive Features (MUAF) principle are discussed. Other simulations aiming to answer more complex questions, such as the use of supplementary phonetic features in large vowel systems, are presented. These experimental results show how simple local rules of interaction between speaking agents may explain some of the universals characteristics of the phonological structure of the world's languages.

Full Paper

Bibliographic reference.  Berrah, Ahmed-Reda (1999): "Evolution of an artificial society of speech agents: a model for the emergence of phonetic structures", In ICPhS-14, 1977-1980.