Brasil

Interim field reports on the phonologies of previously undescribed languages can be tested for consistency using synthesis-by-rule techniques. Such a report on Mura-Pirahã of Brazil provided information for the feature rule component of Hertz's Cornell Speech Research System. Values for the parameter rules came from spectrograms made from a tape recorded in the field containing the examples in the report. Both sets of rules were revised to improve the match between the synthesized speech and the recordings. Out of this revision came recommendations about changes to the phonological description that the investigator can follow up on his next opportunity to do field work. In the current absence of such opportunity, several linguists attempted to transcribe the forms phonetically. One had special orientation to Mura-Pirahã phonology and the others had only general phonetic background. Variability was high, probably due to the complete lack of word recognition capability.