Stephen E. Levinson, «Mathematical Models for Speech Technology»

From antiquity, the phenomenon of speech has been an object of both general curiosity and scientific inquiry. Over the centuries, much effort has been devoted to the study of this remarkable process whereby our eating and breathing apparatus is used to transform thoughts in the mind of a speaker into vibrations in the air and back into congruent thoughts in the mind of a listener. Although we still do not have satisfactory answers to many of the questions about speech and language that the ancients pondered, we do have substantial scientific knowledge of the subject and an evolving technology based on it.