English Allophony

1. English Allophony September 24, 2010

2. 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:

3. Mid-Sagittal Diagram

4. 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)

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

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

7. Voicing, in Reality

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

9. 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’

10. 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.

11. 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/, /j/, /w/ and can be (partially) voiceless in English when they follow a voiceless consonant: • ‘play’

12. 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:

13. Dimension 3:Place of Articulation • After the stream of air passes through the larynx… • speech sounds may be made by constricting the flow of air through the vocal tract. • The place where such constrictions are made is known as the place of articulation of the sound. • Constrictions are made by placing an active articulator against (or near to) a passive articulator. • Generally: • active articulator = on the bottom • passive articulator = on the top

14. Anatomy Lesson #1

15. Anatomy Lesson #2

16. English Places of Articulation Bilabial [p] [b] [m] Labio-dental [f] [v] Interdental Alveolar [t] [d] [s] [n] [z] [l] Post-alveolar Palatal [j] Velar [k] [g]

17. X-Ray movie revisited • First check out “bogus”

18. Place Assimilation • Place assimilation occurs when: • One consonant’s place of articulation becomes identical to that of a neighboring consonant. • /n/ often takes on the place of articulation of a following consonant. • ‘unpleasant’ • ‘month’ • ‘engrossed’ • alveolars--except for /s/ and /z/--assimilate to following dentals • Ex: width, tenth, wealth

19. Front and Back • Velars /k/ and /g/ become fronted when preceding front vowels • the diacritic for “fronter” is • the diacritic for “backer” is • Examples: • ‘coo’ • ‘key’ • These diacritics may apply to vowels, as well. • Ex: ‘spoons’

20. Dimension 4: Aperture • The type of sound created by a constriction in the vocal tract depends on how narrow the constriction is. • Stop (or plosive): • Complete closure of the articulators • The airstream cannot escape through the mouth. • Fricative: • Close approximation of two articulators • The airstream is partially obstructed • Turbulent airflow is produced.

21. English Stops • Voiceless Voiced • Bilabial [p] [b] • Alveolar [t] [d] • Velar [k] [g] • Note--stops that: • Follow a vowel involve a closing gesture • Precede a vowel involve an opening gesture •  Stops at the end of words may be unreleased. • Example: “chocolate pudding”

22. English Fricatives Voiceless Voiced Labio-dental [f] [v] Interdental Alveolar [s] [z] Post-alveolar Glottal [h]

23. Dimension 4:Aperture, continued • Approximant: • a gesture in which one articulator is close to another • but without turbulent airflow being produced. 4. Affricate • combination of stop + fricative

24. More English Consonants • Approximants: • labio-velar, voiced: [w] • palatal, voiced: [j] • Some dialects of English also distinguish: • ‘witch’ [w] vs. ‘which’ • = voiceless, labio-velar approximant • Affricates -- • Voiced: Voiceless:

25. Really Narrow • The stops, /t/ and /d/, have a post-alveolar place of articulation in affricates: • An interesting question: • How do you say “tree” and “draw”? • /t/ and /d/ can become affricates before /r/: • ‘tree’ • ‘draw’

26. Dimension 5: Retroflexion • A retroflex sound involves the curling back of the tip of the tongue. • generally in the post-alveolar region. • There is only one retroflex sound in English, and it’s an approximant: • In other languages, stops and fricatives can be retroflex, too.

27. Dimension 6: Nasality • The back of the soft palate may be lowered or raised. • This may allow air to pass through the nose during speech. • Air passes through the nose during the production of nasal consonants… • …but it does not pass through the mouth in “nasal stops” • bilabial [m] • alveolar [n] • velar

28. One Last Time

29. Nasalization • Vowels often become nasalized before nasal consonants. • The diacritic for nasalization is: • Examples: ‘can’ vs. ‘cat’ • ‘Ben’ vs. ‘bed’ • Before other consonants, /n/ can drop out completely… • and leave the nasalization behind: • ‘can’t’ vs. ‘cat’ • ‘Winters’

30. Dimension 7: Laterality • Lateral approximant: • Obstruction of the airstream at a point along the center of the oral tract • With incomplete closure between one or both sides of the tongue and the roof of the mouth. • alveolar lateral: [l] “clear l” • velarized alveolar lateral: “dark l” • velarized = back of tongue is raised towards velum • Note: consonants which are not lateral are “central”. • Check out “oil” video

31. /l/ options • Dialectologically, /l/ is the most interesting consonant in English. • Dialect Type A: • “clear” /l/ syllable-initially: ‘leaf’ • “dark” /l/ syllable finally: ‘feel’ • Dialect Type B: • “clear” /l/ before front vowels: ‘leak’ • “dark” /l/ everywhere else: ‘lock’ • Others have “dark” /l/ pretty much everywhere. • (and maybe even lose the alveolar closure!)

32. Consonant Dimensions: Summary [t] [j] Airstream Mechanism pulmonic egressive p.e. Phonation Type voiceless voiced Place of Articulation alveolar palatal Aperture stop approx. Retroflexion non-retroflex non-retro Nasality oral oral Laterality central central

33. Manner of Articulation • Phoneticians usually combine dimensions 4-7 under the rubric of manner of articulation. • Example manners of articulation: • [t] = (oral) stop • [n] = nasal stop • [v] = fricative • [w] = approximant • [l] = lateral approximant • = retroflex approximant • = affricate

34. Notes • Consonant sounds are generally assumed to be: • pulmonic egressive • oral • central • …unless stated otherwise • Big picture thought: • Through combinatorics, language makes a large number of distinctions out of a minimal number of articulatory gestures.

35. English Consonant Chart

36. For Monday • Have a go at: • Chapter 2, Exercise H • (I will post this to the course web page later today.) • Note: this is a practice homework exercise that we will discuss together in class.