“Bottom-up modeling of phoneme learning: Universal sensitivity and language-specific transformation” published in Speech Communication We are pleased to announce the publication of a new paper titled “Bottom-up modeling of phoneme learning: Universal sensitivity and language-specific transformation” in the journal Speech Communication. This study was conducted by Frank and Youngah. The research investigates the emergence and development of universal phonetic sensitivity during early phonological learning using an unsupervised modeling approach. The authors trained autoencoder models on raw acoustic input from English and Mandarin to simulate bottom-up perceptual development, focusing on phoneme contrast learning. The results demonstrate that phoneme-like categories and feature-aligned [...]

Cross-linguistic perceptual evidence for the suffixing preference Date: 6 Nov 2025 (Thu) Time: 4:00 pm Join Zoom link: https://hku.zoom.us/j/98370566345?pwd=FHgSMHHyYrjCka4XRAOOw6uuOXiRiE.1 MEETING ID: 983 7056 6345 PASSWORD: 104306

Phonological optimization for sight and sound: Disentangling visual-articulatory and auditory-acoustic factors in phonetic enhancement and hyperarticulation General Research Fund Award (GRF), 2025-28 Principal investigator: Jonathan Havenhill Amount: 941,184 HKD Abstract Sound is arguably the primary (and often only) medium by which spoken language is conveyed. This allows communication to proceed when the speaker is obscured, whether over the phone, in the dark, at a distance, or when wearing a face mask. At the same time, vision and other types of non-auditory perception are also important. Spoken language is often accompanied by facial expressions and manual gestures, and the ability to [...]