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Sounds: the building blocks of language

Sounds: the building blocks of language. CA461 Speech Processing 1 Lecture 2. Building Blocks I. Think of a word Write it down and read the word aloud Without looking at the word, write down how many consonants and vowels are in the word Do the same with the following words:

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Sounds: the building blocks of language

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  1. Sounds: the building blocks of language CA461 Speech Processing 1 Lecture 2

  2. Building Blocks I • Think of a word • Write it down and read the word aloud • Without looking at the word, write down how many consonants and vowels are in the word • Do the same with the following words: • Do, doo, red, read • Do you notice anything?

  3. Building Blocks II • Now take all the words you have just considered, say them aloud but don’t look at their written forms, simply close your eyes and concentrate on listening to the words. Say them a number of times, slowly if you like. • How many distinct sounds make up the words, do and doo? • Our next aim is to describe these sounds

  4. Phonetics: The Description of Speech Sounds • Articulatory • Perceptual • Symbols • Acoustic • Will focus on acoustic description (next lecture), but it useful to be familiar with articulatory descriptions, symbols and phonetic alphabets…

  5. Articulatory Components • Vocal tract (filter) • Oral, pharyngeal, nasal cavities • Glottis (glottal source) • Space between vocals folds (cords) • Located in larynx (voicebox) • Anterior (front) of larynx is your Adam’s apple

  6. Vocal tract filter Stylised Mid-sagittal view

  7. Nasal Cavity Oral Cavity Pharyngeal Cavity

  8. Larynx/Glottis

  9. Consonant Classification • Voicing/Phonation type • Place of Articulation • Manner of Production -- Degree of Stricture • Velic Position • Passage of airflow thru oral cavity

  10. Voicing/Phonation type • Voiced • Glottis opens and closes rapidly • Male ~100 Hz • Female: ~200 Hz • Voiceless/Unvoiced/Devoiced • Glottis remains open • Can you find voiced/voiceless pairs? • Hint: Start with a voiced sound, e.g. [z]

  11. Place of Articulation • Main cavities for airflow • Passive articulators • Active articulators • Primarily the tongue

  12. Alveopalatal Palatal Velum Uvula Epiglottis Alveolar Ridge Lips Teeth

  13. Manner of Production(Degree of Stricture) • Stop/Plosive: complete closure • Fricative: close approximation • Approximant: open approximation • Trill • Affricate

  14. Other • Velic Position • Nasal • Passage of airflow thru oral cavity • Central • Lateral

  15. 3­term labels • For Example: • [ s ] Voiceless alveolar fricative • [ ʃ ] Voiceless alveopalatal fricative • [ m ] Voiced bilabial nasal stop • [ ŋ ] Voiced velar nasal stop • [ l ] Voiced lateral alveolar approximant • Notice the use of symbols • Not all correspond to orthography

  16. Vowel quality • Shape of vocal tract tube • Resonant frequencies -- formants • Standing waves • Tend to vary considerably • Acoustics…next lecture • Easier to use tongue and lip positions

  17. Vowel Classification by Tongue Position • Locate highest point of normally convex surface Tongue backness • Use vertical and horizontal dimensions Tongue height tongue

  18. Vertical: Tongue Height • 3 or 4 degrees: • close/high • close­mid • open­mid • open/low • Puzzle: Order the vowels in the following words in descending tongue height • Bed • Bayed • Bead • Bad

  19. Horizontal: Tongue Backness • 2 or 3 degrees: • front • back • Central • Puzzle: For each of the following pairs of words which vowel is front/back? • Head, hod • Hood, hid

  20. Vowel Classification contd... • Lip Position • Rounded • Unrounded • Puzzle: For the following pair of words which vowel is Rounded/Unrounded? • Reed, rude • Finer distictions (eg. Swedish)

  21. 3­term labels: Vowels • For Example: • [ i ] close front unrounded • [ ε ]open­mid front unrounded • [ u ] close back rounded

  22. Other ‘Dimensions’ for Classification • Voiceless • Nasality • Retroflexion: r­colouring / rhotacisation • Tense vs. Lax • Length • Breathy vs.Creaky

  23. Monophthongs vs. Diphthongs • Monophthong • Pure vowel • Diphthong: • rising/closing • centring • falling/opening • Triphthong?

  24. Cardinal vowels • Primary cardinal vowels • Secondary cardinal vowels

  25. Phonetic Alphabets • IPA • Arpabet • Sampa • Worldbet • Exercise: • Choose any word with more than 3 or more syllables • Phonetically transcribe it in IPA and one other phonetic alphabet

  26. Broad vs. Narrow Transcription

  27. Next • Acoustic phonetics • Puzzle for later (after next 2 lectures): • How does vowel height and backness relate to the first two formants?

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