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Archive for the ‘Accent’ Category

Voice Transcription Adventures With A Southern Accent

Post a comment Posted on November 23, 2009 05:00:45 AM

The patient has fluferculosis, buperculosis, conbumption, arg!

The patient has fluferculosis, buperculosis, conbumption, arg!

I’ve dictated charts since I started private practice 16 years ago.  Although I like to think that I’m pretty good with the English language, it turns out that when I speak it, I mumble, slur and frequently dictate things that make no sense to the transcriptionist.

A standard chart for me might look like this:

‘This 44-year-old_____ complains of several days of ______ severe in the_______right______explosive and sudden in quanset.  (Unable to understand physician)….and stated that she(he) {please clarify} would not be short of ______ usually has no pain in _____ when she (he) falls onto the crown?’

Now, this is difficult enough, as you might expect.  And  often worse when I’m finishing a night shift, and the chart says ‘the patient is awake, alert and sleeping quietly at discharge,zzzzz.’

But voice transcription takes it to a new level.  No blanks, no question marks, it just says what it thinks I’m saying.  Now, let me interject with the fact that I think this is an excellent system, and I’m just getting started  on it; but the learning curve is entertaining.

So, the machine asks me to try saying some things.  Sample letters, so I can learn the computer and it can learn me.

Sample:

Dear Albert,

‘Thank you for your recent letter.  I hope you and your family are enjoying your new home in Phoenix.’

Sincerely,

Robert

Mind you, I have to include all punctuation.  ‘Dear Albert comma quotation mark, thank you for your recent letter period I hope you and your family are enjoying your new home in Phoenix period quotation mark

Sincerely comma

Robert

Which comes out, on voice recognition,

Rotation dark fear wal-mart donna loquacious harken condor rank and file boom door piquant feather serious night rope rope who sand four heartily wart singing or flu dome send penis furious donation bark

sinfully donna

robaxin

It’s only going to get better!

Edwin

*This blog post was originally published at edwinleap.com*

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Do Newborn Babies Cry With Mother’s Accent?

Post a comment Posted on November 13, 2009 09:00:57 AM

French and German scientists decided to analyze the crying of newborns from the two countries for differences in intonation. Turns out that German babies have a different “accent” to their cry compared with those from France, which implies that language learning perhaps begins even in the womb.

The analysis of crying conducted under the supervision of the psychologist Kathleen Wermke from the ZWES showed that the newborns tended to produce the intonation pattern most typical for their respective mother tongue. The crying patterns of the German infants mostly began loud and high and followed a falling curve while the French infants more often cried with a rising tone. This early sensitivity to features of intonation may later help the infants learn their mother tongue, the researchers say. “When they begin to form their first sounds, they can build on melodic patterns that are already familiar and, in this way, don’t have to start from scratch”, says the neuropsychologist. The evolutionary roots of this behaviour are older than the emergence of spoken language, the researchers believe. “The imitation of melodic patterns developed over millions of years and contributes to the mother-child bond” says Friederici.

Press release: Babies with an accent …

Abstract in Current Biology: Newborns’ Cry Melody Is Shaped by Their Native Language…

*This blog post was originally published at Medgadget*

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