Speech Face lets you generate sounds by controlling a virtual mouth. Use the virtual mouth like a musical instrument with speech organs as its controls (ie, mouth, tongue, vocal cords and breath). Speech Face is a visualization of the IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet).
An alphabet has been created out of the speech positions to aid in learning phonetics and languages. The speech position "letters" have been designed for easy reading and writing. As a script, it is intuitive to learn since it mimics actual speech and it can be used as a base script for all languages. It is a replacement for IPA's greek symbols based script which few people bother to memorize.
Uses:
- pronounce language sounds by viewing speech organ positions rather than guessing from transliterations
- learn language sounds without the additional burden of memorizing abstract scripts. Makes it easier for kids to learn language.
- learn how to pronounce words by knowing which speech organs to control. Helps deaf and speech impaired people learn language sounds without guessing from mouth shapes.
- learn unfamiliar language scripts quickly by mapping them to their visual vocalizations. Helps voice actors and customer service representatives quickly learn accents and dialects of a language.
- pronounce new words correctly in non-phonetic languages like English. Helps native speakers learn new words without making assumptions.
- pronounce words without confusion when languages share the same script but have different pronunciations, eg, the letter A in Dutch and English. Helps language learners avoid inadvertently using their pronunciation rules for pronuncing foreigin words.