Lecture2

Ling 101: Introduction to Linguistics

PHONETICS

Basic Concepts

The basic concept of study in phonetics is the phone, or speech sound. Although the speech stream (the series of sounds coming from the mouth) is actually one continuous wave forms, humans divide it up into discrete "chunks", called segments. These segments can be identified and described using
specialized terms.

Phonetics: the study of linguistic speech sounds

how sounds are produced (articulatory phonetics)

the motor control of the articulators

what you do as a speaker

how they are perceived (auditory or perceptual phonetics)

what goes on inside your brain or ears as a hearer

the physical aspects of sounds (acoustic phonetics)

The properties of speech that you can measure while it travel in the air between the speaker and the hearer

Discrepancy between spellings and sounds in English

Alphabetic spelling represents the pronunciation of words, but frequently the sounds of the words in a language are rather unsystematically represented by orthography, i.e. by spelling.

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WE CANNOT DEPEND ON THE SPELLING
OF WORDS TO DESCRIBE THE SOUNDS.
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Different spelling but same sound:

Did he bel ieve that caesar could see the p eople seize the seas?

same spelling but different sounds:

dame dad f ather c all vill age m any

a combination of letters but a single sound:

shoot ch aracter Thomas physics either dea l

some letters have no sound at all in certain words:

mnemonic resign de bt p sychology is land

one letter but two sounds: the final x in Xerox (represent a k followed by an s)

Some Historic Background:

Spelling Reformers (orthoepists) wanted to revise the alphabet so that one letter would correspond to one sound and one sound to one letter, thus simplifying spelling (a phonetic alphabet).

1617: One of the earliest phonetic alphabets was produced by Robert Robinson.

1818: International Phonetics Assoication (IPA) developed a phonetic alphabet that could be used to symbolize the sounds found in all languages (based on the Roman letters, since many languages use a Roman alphabet like that used in the English writing system).

1989 Revision of the IPA phonetic alphabet

** To distinguish between the alphabet letters (phonetic transcription) from ordinary spelling, put the phonetic symbols between brackets [ ] .

ARTICULATORY PHONETICS

This branch of phonetics concentrates on studying how sounds are produced in the human vocal tract. Depending on the origin of the air, how it is manipulated (e.g. manner of articulation), and by what parts of the mouth and throat (i.e. place of articulation ), we can create different, distinct sounds.

The production of any speech sound (or any sound at all) involves the movement of air.

Speech sounds are produced by pushing lung air through the opening between the vocal cords – this opening is called the glottis and is located in the larynx (voice box) – through the tube in the throat called the pharynx, out of the oral cavity through the mouth and sometimes also through the nasal cavity and out the nose.

Sounds produced by using air from the lungs are called pulmonic sounds, since the air is pushed out, they are called egressive.

The majority of sounds used in languages of the world are produced by a pulmonic egressive airstream mechanism (All the sounds in English are produced in this manner).

The sounds of all languages fall into two major natural classes—consonants (C) and vowels (V).

CONSONANTS

Different consonantal sounds result when we change the shape of the oral cavity by moving the lips and tongue, the articulators, and change the place of articulation in the oral cavity.

Place of Articulation

Bilabials     bringing both lips together

Labiodentals      touching the bottom of lip to the upper teeth

Interdentals      inserting the tip of the tongue between the upper and lower teeth:

Alveolars            [t] [d] [n] [s] [z] raising the front part of the tongue to the alveolar ridge

                         [l] the tongue is raised to the alveolar ridge with the sides of the tongue down,
                        permitting the air to escape over the sides of the tongue.

[r] is produced in many ways. Many English speakers produce [r] by curling the tip of the tongue back behind the alveolar ridge. Such sounds are called retroflex sounds.

In some languages, the [r] may be an alveolar trill, produced by the tip of the tongue vibrating against the roof of the mouth.

Palatals (Alveopalatals)         The front part of the tongue is raised to a point on the hard palate just    behind the alveolar ridge.

Velars         raising the back of the tongue to the soft palate (velum)

Uvulars     raising the back of the tongue to the uvular (French [R])

Glottals      opening the glottis; no other modification of the airstream mechanism occurs in the mouth.   The tongue and lips are usually in the position for the production of the following vowels as the airstream passes through the open glottis.

Manners of Articulation

Speech sounds are also differentiated by the way the airstream is affected as it travels from the lungs up and out of the mouth and nose.

Voiced sounds The vocal cords are together, the airstream forces its way through and

causes them to vibrate.

Voiceless sounds The vocal cords are apart when the airstream is pushed from the lungs.

Nasal Sounds Sounds are produced when the velum is lower, air escapes not only through the mouth (when you open your lips), but also through the nose.

Oral Sounds Sounds are produced with the velum up, blocking the air from escaping through the nose.

Stops                 The airstream, after entering the oral cavity, is completely stopped.

Fricatives          While the airstream is not completely stopped, it is obstructed from flowing freely.

Affricates           a stop closure followed immediately by a slow release of the closure    (a sequence of a stop plus a fricative)

Glides       Glides are produced with little or no obstruction of the airstream in the mouth.
       [j] is a palatal glide:      the blade of the tongue is raise toward the hard palate
      [w] is a labio-velar:       classified as both a bilabial because it is produce with both lips rounded
                                        and as a velar because the back of the tongue is raised toward the velum.

Liquids      There is some obstruction of te airstream in the mouth, but not enough to cause any real constriction or friction.

Description of Consonants:
1) Voicing
2) Place of Articulation
3) Manner of Articulation

e.g.

[b] voiced labial stop
[v] voice labiodental fricative
[t] voiceless alveolar stop

VOWELS

For vowels, the vocal cords vibrate, i.e. all vowels are voiced

Vowels are produced without any articulators touching or even coming close together.

In the American English tradition, vowels are mainly classified according to three criteria; height, backness, and roundness.

How high is the tongue? High/Mid/Low
What part of the tongues is involved; that is what part is raised or lowered? Front/Central/Back
What is the position of the lips? Rounded/ Unrounded

Height

High Vowels: A vowel that is produced with the tongue raised very high in the mouth.

Mid vowels: A vowel that is produced by raising the tongue to a position midway between the high and low vowels.

Low vowels: A vowel that is produced by lowering the tongue.

Backness ( or Frontness)

The quality of sound that is produced by pushing the tongue more towards the front part of the mouth near the teeth or pulling more towards the back part of the mouth near the velum.

Front Vowels : A vowel that is produced with the tongue pushed forward towards the teeth.

Central Vowels: A vowel that is produced with the tongue resting and relaxed, neither pushing toward nor pulling back.

Back Vowels: A vowel that is produced with the tongue pulled backward towards the velum.

Lip Rounding (Roundness)

Vowels differ as to whether the lips are rounded.

Rounded vowels: A vowel that is produced with the lips pursed, or rounded.

Unrounded vowels: A vowel that is produced without lip rounding.

Tenseness

Vowels also differ as to whether they are produced with great tension of the tongue muscles and with long duration. For instance, the vowel [u] in boot is produced with greater tension of the tongue muscles and somewhat longer in duration than [U ] in put .

Tense vowels: [u]
Lax vowels: [U ]

Description of Vowels

1) height
2) backness
3) tenseness
4) roundness

e.g. [u]: high back tense (rounded) vowel
[U ]: high back lax (rounded) vowel

DIACRITICS

1. Aspiration [^h]

Aspirated Sounds

In English, the three voiceless stops /p t k/ are aspirated in word-initial position or before the stressed vowel (except when follow /s/).

pate [p^het] tale [t^hel] kale [k^h el]

Unaspirated Sounds

English stops are unaspirated in word-final position or when follow /s/ in the cluster /sC-/.

spate [spet] stale [stel] scale [skel]

2. Nasalization [ ṽ]

Nasal or nasalized vowels occur before nasal consonants in the same syllable.

bean [ bi)n] bone [bo)n] pin [ p^hI)n]

3. Duration [V:]

In some languages, there are vowels (or consonants)

that differ phonetically from each other by duration, or length. This difference is indicated by the use of a diacri tic "colon" after segment in transcription. e.g., [a:] or [ i:]

4. Devoicing [ 8 ]

Liquids become voiceless after voiceless consonants.

play [ pHl8e ] pray [ pHr8 e ]

5. Syllabicity [ _| ]

Every vowel, but not a consonant, constitutes a single syllable in English. However, liquids and nasals can be syllabic.

The diacritic [ _| ] under [l ] [r ] [m ] [n ] show that these sounds

are syllabic.

Placing a schwa [ e ] before the syllabic liquid or nasal also show that these are separate syllables.

Rachel [re č e l]

rhythm [rID e m]

listen [lI s e n]