Professor of French and Linguistics
Pierre Delattre (1903–1969) was a pioneer in experimental phonetics, acoustic phonetics, and speech synthesis. Born in Roanne, France, he began his studies in phonetics and linguistics in France before moving to the United States in 1924. In 1937, he received his Ph.D. from the University of Michigan. He went on to became one of the key figures shaping modern speech science and foreign language pedagogy in the mid-20th century.
During the late 1940s and 1950s, Pierre Delattre collaborated with other researchers at Haskins Laboratories in New York City, using the Pattern Playback, the earliest speech synthesis device. His collaborative work on acoustic cues at Haskins directly contributed to the formulation of the Motor Theory of Speech Perception, which argues that humans perceive speech by referencing how sounds are physically articulated rather than by identifying the sound patterns that speech generates.
In addition to being a leading researcher in phonetics, Pierre Delattre was deeply committed to applying his knowledge to foreign language pedagogy. He established the "Oklahoma Plan" while teaching at the University of Oklahoma and spent 16 summers directing the Summer Remedial Phonetics Program at Middlebury College, refining methods for teaching French pronunciation through acoustic and experimental phonetics.
He later held academic appointments at the University of Pennsylvania and the University of Colorado, before coming to UC Santa Barbara in 1964, along with his wife, Geneviève Delattre (1920–1993). At UCSB he established the Speech Synthesis Laboratory, funded by the U.S. Department of Health, Education, and Welfare. His research at UCSB combined spectrographic analysis, cine-radiology, and speech synthesis to perform comparative phonetic analyses across English, French, German, and Spanish.
In addition to scores of scientific papers and reports, Pierre Delattre’s notable books include Les Difficultés phonétiques du français (Middlebury College, Vermont, 1948), Principes de phonétique française à l'usage des étudiants anglo-américains (Middlebury College, Vermont, 1951), Comparing the Phonetic Features of English, French, German and Spanish. An Interim Report, (Heidelberg, 1965), and Studies in French and Comparative Phonetics. Selected Papers in French and English (The Hague and London,1966). Phonetic Readings of Songs and Arias (co-authored with Berton Coffin), a widely referenced text in vocal pedagogy and diction for singers, combined his research interests with his love of classical music.
A memorial volume, Papers in Linguistics and Phonetics to the Memory of Pierre Delattre was edited by Albert Valdman (The Hague: Mouton, 1972). He was named a Fellow of the Acoustical Society of America and was knighted Chevalier of the Legion of Honor by the French government for his scientific and educational achievements.
The Pierre and Geneviève Delattre Memorial Library in the French and Italian Department and the Pierre and Geneviève Delattre Fellowship, an endowed graduate award instituted in 1994 to provide perpetual financial support for incoming and continuing graduate scholars in French, represent additional ways that Pierre's memory remains a living force at UCSB.