Orthography vs. IPA

1. Orthography vs. IPA • Why is English orthography (writing system) not accurate in representing sounds? • Did he believe that Caesar could see the people seize the seas? • IPA is a representation of sounds not letters.

2. Phoneme • What is a phoneme? • The smallest unit of sound that carries meaning. • Phonemes can be divided into 2 types: • Consonants • Vowels • How are consonants produced? • Consonants are produced by obstructing the flow of air as it passes from the lungs through the vocal tract.

3. Place and Manner of Articulation • In your own words, explain the concepts of place and manner of articulation.

4. Place of articulation

5. Chart of consonants and places of articulation

6. Manner of articulation: Features of sounds • What is the difference between voiced and voiceless sounds? • When the vocal cords are apart when speaking, air flows freely through the glottis. Sounds produced in this way are voiceless. • If the vocal cords are together, the airstream forces its way through and causes them to vibrate

7. Nasals • How are nasal sounds produced? • When the uvular blocks the airway through the nose, the sound is oral. When the uvular is not raised, air escapes through the nose and the mouth. This is called a nasal sound. • What nasal sounds are there?

8. Stops, Fricatives and other sounds • What is the difference between stops and fricatives? Give examples • In your own words, describe how the [t] sound is produced. • What are the other 4 types of sounds and how are they produced?

9. Vowels • What are the 4 qualities of vowels? • The placement of the body of the tongue: • Vertical: high – mid – low • Horizontal: front – central – back • The shape of the lips: • Rounded – Unrounded • The degree of the vocal tract contraction: • Tense – Lax

10. Vowel Chart a

11. Diphthongs • What are diphthongs? What are the 3 different diphthongs? • Diphthongs are a combination of 2 vowel sounds. • kite bout boy • [aj] [aw] [ɔj]

12. Reading IPA • Quick exercise: Answer following questions in IPA • /wær du dɒktərswərk?/ • /wʌtkʌlərɪzðəskai?/ • /wʌtɪzθritaɪmzθri?/ • /hɔspɪtəl/ or /haspətəl/ • /blu/ • /najn/

13. Introduction to Phonology The mental representation of sounds

14. What is Phonology? • Phonology is concerned with the sound structure/patterns of languages. • What syntax is for grammar, phonology is for phonetics. • Knowledge of phonology determines how we pronounce morphemes depending on their context. Just as morphology has rules, phonology has its own rules.

15. The pronunciation of Plurals • Most English nouns have a plural form: cat/cats, dog/dogs, fox/foxes • You might think an “-s” makes nouns plural, but when you listen carefully, you’ll here a different pronunciation of that “-s”.

16. The pronunciation of Plurals • The final sound of the plurals in A is a [z] a voiced alveolar fricative. • For column B, the plural ending is an [s] – a voiceless alveolar fricative. • Column C is [əz] • Column D are irregular endings.

17. The Pronunciation of Plurals • Do you think the variance of plural pronunciation is random? • There’s a phonological rule behind it. To understand it, we must analyze the surrounding sounds. To understand the surrounding sounds, we need to look at minimal pairs.

18. Minimal pairs • Minimal pairs are words that only differ in one sound segment. For example • ship/sheep • cat/mat • Minimal pairs from the previous examples are cap/cab bag/back bag/badge • These minimal pairs differ in the final sound segment, so the final sound must determine the pronunciation of the plural ending.

19. The Pronunciation of Plurals