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Phonetics

Phonetics. October 10, 2012. Housekeeping. Morphology homeworks are due!. Allomorphy. What’s going on here? /in-/ + probable = im probable /in-/ + mobile = im mobile /in-/ + possible = im possible /in-/ changes to /im-/ before both /p/ and /m/.

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Phonetics

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  1. Phonetics October 10, 2012

  2. Housekeeping • Morphology homeworks are due!

  3. Allomorphy • What’s going on here? • /in-/ + probable = improbable • /in-/ + mobile = immobile • /in-/ + possible = impossible • /in-/ changes to /im-/ before both /p/ and /m/. • /p/ and /m/ are both produced with the lips. • To explain patterns like this, we’re going to need to know something about how we actually produce the sounds of English. • We have to study Phonetics!

  4. What is phonetics? Phonetics is the scientific study of speech sounds. It consists of three main sub-fields: • Articulatory phonetics • = how speech sounds are produced • Acoustic phonetics • = how speech sounds are transmitted from producer to perceiver • Perceptual phonetics • = how speech sounds are perceived

  5. Phonetic Transcription • The primary tool of phonetic science is phonetic transcription. • The basic idea: • represent speech as a sequence of segments. • i.e., with an alphabet. • Segments = individual consonants and vowels. • Deep thought questions: • What kind of alphabet should we use? • How about the English alphabet?

  6. The Trouble with English • Some letters represent more than one different sound • c: recall vs. receive g: gear vs. siege • Some letters represent no sounds at all • receiveusehighknee • Sometimes two letters represent just one sound • recallphonetics • Some letters represent two or more sounds at once • taxuse • The same sound can be represented by many different letters (or letter combinations). • sh: shy, mission, machine, special, caution

  7. Phonetic Alphabet • Solution: use a phonetic alphabet • In a phonetic alphabet, sounds and symbols have a one-to-one relationship to each other • Each symbol represents one sound • Each sound is represented by one symbol • The use of a phonetic alphabet to represent speech is called phonetic transcription. • Our phonetic alphabet of choice: • The International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA).

  8. The IPA • Presided over by the International Phonetic Association • Created in 1886 • Still active and evolving today.

  9. Some IPA Principles • The alphabet should consist as much as possible of the ordinary letters of the Roman alphabet. • In assigning values to the Roman letters, international usage should decide. • ex: vowel in English “bee” is transcribed with [i] • 3. “There should be a separate letter for each distinctive sound; that is, for each sound which, being used instead of another, in the same language, can change the meaning of the word.” • one letter  one sound • Sound contrasts can be shown to exist in a language by finding minimal pairs.

  10. Minimal Pairs • A minimal pair consists of: • two words that have different meanings • which differ from each other in only one sound. • Some minimal pairs in English: pit vs. bit ~ /p/ vs. /b/ beet vs. bead ~ /t/ vs. /d/ boat vs. boot ~ /o/ vs. /u/ • A series of minimal pairs is called a minimal set. • tee ~ bee ~ key ~ sea ~ fee …

  11. Problem: Language Specific Phonetics • The IPA must be able to represent all the contrasts between sounds that are found in all languages of the world. • …including some which we cannot easily hear. • An English example: • Contrast: bit vs. pit • Non-contrast: vs. • Check out Thai: [ba] [pa] [pha] • ‘crazy’ ‘aunt’ ‘cloth’ • Closer to home: how about “Don” and “Dawn”?

  12. Technical Terms • • A phone is any sound that is used in speech. • (may or may not be contrastive) • A phoneme is a contrastive sound in a language • It may be used to distinguish between words in minimal pairs. • • An allophone is a phonetic variant of a phoneme • Different allophones often occur in specific contexts. • Note: analogy with allomorphs.

  13. Phonemic Analysis • Phoneme: /t/ (aspirated) (unaspirated) “flap” “glottal stop” (unreleased) Allophone 5: ‘bit’ • In our native language, we tend to hear the phonemes that the allophones belong to… • Rather than the allophones themselves.

  14. Broad and Narrow •  Broad transcriptions • Represent only contrastive sounds (phonemes) • Enclosed in slashes: / / • Generally use only alphabetic symbols • Narrow transcriptions • Represent phones • Capture as much phonetic detail as possible • Enclosed in brackets: [ ] • Can require use of diacritics

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