Dimensions of Articulation

1. Dimensions of Articulation January 20, 2014

2. This Week • Have a go at: • Chapter 1, Exercise D • Chapter 1, Exercise E • Chapter 1, Exercise F • Note: this is a graded homework exercise. • Also: I will be here on Friday; • Jacqueline will lead you through some practice transcriptions on Monday of next week.

3. Vowel Systems before , part 1 • Rhotic dialects vary in the number of vowel distinctions that can be made before . • System 1: five vowels fear Coors weary fare four wary lorry far sorry • No distinctions between: Also: no or ‘fur’

4. Vowel Systems before , part 2  System 2: four vowels fear weary fare four, Coors wary lorry far sorry • Also missing distinction: • Only four vowel phonemes: • /i/ /o/ • /e/ /a/

5. Vowel Systems before , part 3  (Canadian) System 3: five (?) + three vowels fear Coors weary fare four wary lorry, sorry far  (Canadian) System 4: five (?) + two (?) vowels fear Coors weary, wary fare four lorry, sorry far

6. Vowel Systems before , part 4  System 5: lots of vowels before fear Coors weary lurid fare four Mary lorry far merry Murray marry sorry

7. Canadian Raising • Another characteristic of Canadian English is the “raising” of the first part of the diphthongs and . • In both cases, [a]  • “Raising” because low  mid • This happens only in certain sound environments: • “out” “loud” • “write” “ride” • “pipe” “bribe” • “like”

8. Canadian Raising (Canadian) Jon (American) Steve “house” “howl” “bike” “bile” • For fun: switch Jon’s vowels in “bike” and “bile” • Also compare: • (Canadian) Aaron: • (American) Steve: • And, lastly, (Canadian?) Amber:

9. Consonants • To understand the Canadian Raising pattern, it helps to know more about the way consonants are produced. • Consonants productions may be characterized along a series of articulatory dimensions. • The first dimension to consider is: airstream mechanism. • Most speech sounds use a pulmonic egressive airstream mechanism. • = air is pushed out of the lungs • it’s possible to produce pulmonic ingressive sounds; give it a try.

10. Mid-Sagittal Diagram

11. Dimension 2: Phonation • On the way out of the lungs • Air passes through the trachea • Reaches the larynx • The larynx consists of two “vocal folds” which may be opened and closed. If the vocal folds are: • 1. open: air passes cleanly through (voiceless sound) • 2. closed: air does not pass through (no sound) • 3. lightly brought together: vocal folds vibrate in passing air • (= voiced sound)

12. Voicing, Schematized Voiceless (folds open) Voiced (folds together)

13. Laryngoscopy Source: http://homepage.mac.com/changcy/endo.htm

14. Voicing, in Reality

15. Some Voicing Distinctions • Among English consonants: • VoicelessVoicedVoicelessVoiced • [f] [v] [p] [b] • [t] [d] • [s] [z] [k] [g]

16. Voicing Allophony • Vowels are longer before voiced consonants than voiceless consonants. • Length is denoted with the [:] diacritic. ‘feed’ [fi:d] vs. ‘feet’ [fit] • Note that Canadian Raising occurs before voiceless consonants. • voiceless: ‘out’ ‘write’ • voiced: ‘bribe’ ‘ride’

17. Layers • Canadian Raising occurs when and are followed by a voiceless consonant. • The voiceless consonant does not need to be at the end of a word. • Interesting examples: • ‘rider’ • ‘writer’ • Note: flap is voiced. • The voiceless consonant which induces Canadian Raising does not need to be voiceless on the phonetic “surface”! • The technical term for this is phonological opacity.

18. More Voicing Allophony • Consonants at the ends of words are sometimes devoiced. • Voicelessness is denoted with the [ ] diacritic. • ‘lose’ ‘peas’ • Also: ‘languages’ example from homework #1. • You can sometimes get contrasts in English like: • ‘peace’ ‘peas’ • /l/ and can be (partially) voiceless in English when they follow an aspirated consonant: • ‘play’

19. Aspiration Allophony • /p/, /t/, and /k/ are aspirated if: • They are at the beginning of a stressed syllable. • They are not preceded by /s/. • Ex: