Introduction to Language

1. Phonetics Introduction to Language

2. Objectives: • Explore the relationship between sound and spelling • Become familiar with International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA ) • Understand the nature of consonants and vowels • Learn where particular sounds occur (physical aspects of the human vocal tract) • How sounds change when different sounds surround them • Yule: Chapter 3, The Sounds of Language

3. Imagine a word spelled as SEAGH But pronounced as CHEF? How would one come to this spelling? sure dead laugh

4. Describing Language Sounds • The sounds of spoken English often do not match up with the letters of written English. • One solution to describe the sounds of a language is to produce a separate alphabet with symbols that represent sound  phonetic alphabet • These symbols represent both the consonant and vowel sounds of language

5. Phonetics the general study of the characteristics of speech sounds • Acoustic phonetics – the physical properties of speech as sound waves in the air (sound waves) • Auditory phonetics – the study of the perception of speech sounds, via the ear (perception) • Articulatory phonetics – the study of how speech sounds are made, or ‘articulated’ (production)

6. The English Alphabet • The English alphabet has 26 letters but there are over 40 different speech sounds: • 5 vowel and 21 consonant letters of the alphabet • About 20 vowel sounds and 24 consonant sounds (depending on dialect)

7. A “Good” Phonetic Alphabet: Not English • Same sound spelled using different letters: sea, see, scene, receive, thief, amoeba, machine • Same letters can stand for different sounds: - sign, pleasure, resign - dough, through, rough, cough, fought, drought

8. A “Good” Phonetic Alphabet: Not English • Single sound spelled by a combination of letters: lock, that, book • Single letter represents a combination of sounds: exit, use • Sometimes letters stand for no sound at all: know, doubt, though

9. Transcription • the conversion of spoken words into written words • the process of matching the sounds of human speech to special written symbols • using a set of exact rules, so that these sounds can be reproduced later.

10. The Organs of Speech (Yule, page 27)

11. English Sounds • All English words are made from combinations of consonants and vowels • Every English segment can be uniquely described in three or four words • [p] is the voiceless (bi-)labial (oral) stop • [e] is the upper-mid front vowel • [n] is the alveolar nasal (stop)

12. Voiced and Voiceless Sounds • Inside the larynx are the vocal cords • One position: voiceless • Vocal cords are open, the air from the lungs passes between them unimpeded. e.g. /s/ • Another position: voiced • When the vocal cords are drawn together, the air from the lungs repeatedly pushes them apart as it passes through, creating a vibration effect. e.g. /z/

13. Consonants • Consonants are generally produced with greater constriction within the vocal tract. • Description of consonants • Voicing: describes the state of the larynx • Place of Articulation: describes the location of the obstruction or constriction • Manner of Articulation: describes the type of constriction and the passage of airflow • e.g. /s/ voiceless alveolar fricative

14. English Sounds: Consonants • Manner • Stop • Fricative • Affricate • Nasals • Liquids • Glides • Glottal stops and flaps • (Yule pgs. 31-33) • Place • Bilabial • Labiodental • Dental • Alveolar • Palatals • Velar • Glottal (Yule pgs. 28-31)

15. IPA Consonants

16. English Consonants Yule, pg. 30

17. English Sounds: Vowels • Exercise: Hold your jaw lightly, now say he, who, and ha. Did your jaw move for ha? • Vowels don’t have a consonant-like point of articulation or manner of articulation. The three standard descriptors for consonants (place, manner, voicing) aren’t helpful when we want to describe vowels.

18. English Sounds: Vowels • There are 4 main ways in which speakers can change the shape of the vocal tract and thus change vowel quality. • Raising of lowering the body of the tongue • Advancing or retracting the body of the tongue • Rounding or not rounding the lips • A tense or lax gesture of the tongue body • Manner: all vowels are articulated in the same way, with the tongue raising or lowering to the target position • All vowels (in English) are voiced

19. Monophthongs of English You will find that you open your mouth a little wider as you change from [i] to [Ɛ] to [æ] seat set These varying degrees of openness correspond to different degrees of tongue height sat

20. Monophthongs of English Made with the front of the mouth less open because the tongue body is raised, or high Produced with an intermediate tongueheight Pronounced with the front of the mouth open and the tongue lowered.

21. Monophthongs of English boot beat Beat: the body of the tongue is raised and pushed forward so it’s just under the hard palate. Boot: made by raising the body of the tongue in the back of the mouth, toward the velum

22. Monophthongs of English Front: tongue is moved forward or advanced for all front monophthongs Back: tongue is retracted or pulled back for the back monophthongs

23. Lip Rounding • Vowel quality also depends on lip position • [u] in two  lips are rounded • [i] in tea lips are unrounded

24. Diphthongs of English Diphthongs: Complex vowel sounds because they are two-part vowel sounds, consisting of a transition from one vowel to the other in the same syllable Try saying eyevery slowly. How do you make this vowel sound? • Your tongue starts out in the low back position for [α] • Then your tongue moves toward the front position for [I]

25. Diphthongs of English Examples: buy bay bow oh

26. Homework • Do Study Questions Chapter 3; Read Chapter 4.

27. References • Yule, 2010 • Fromkin, et. al., 2009