The Vocal Tract and Initiation of Speech: Anatomy and Physiology

1. The Vocal Tract and Initiation of Speech: Anatomy and Physiology

2. Outline • The vocal tract and articulatory organs • The airstream mechanisms • The state of the vocal cords • Velum position • Places of articulation • Manners of articulation • The articulation of vowels • Classification of speech sounds • Consonants vs. Vowels • Suprasegmental features

3. The vocal tract and articulatory organs

4. The airstream mechanisms

5. The state of the vocal cords Voiceless sounds: /p/, /t/, /k/, /f/, /s/, /ɕ/, /ʃ/, /x/, /t^s/, /t^ɕ/, /t^ʃ/ Voiced sounds: all vowels, sonorants and /b/, /d/, /g/, /v/, /z/, /ʑ/, /ʒ/, /d^z/, /d^ʑ/, /d^ʒ/ …

6. Velum position oral sound /b/ nasal sound /m/

7. Place of articulation (1)

8. Places of articulation (2):Labial articulations • labial (lower and upper lip) /b/ e.g. but, budka /p/ e.g. ptak, kropki /m/ e.g. most, pomost • labiodental(lower lip and upper front teeth) /v/ e.g. wił, wył /f/ e.g.fortuna

9. Places of articulation (3):Coronal articulations • Dental (tip of the tongue and upper teeth) /t/ e.g. piątek /d/ e.g. błędy /n/ e.g. nóż /θ/ e.g. moth • Post-dental(tip of the tongue, the upper teeth and the area just behind them) /s/ e.g. sąsiad /z/ e.g. język /t^ɕ/ e.g. ręce /d^ʑ/ e.g. pieniądze

10. Places of articulation (4):Coronal articulations • Palato-alveolar(tongue blade and the back of the alveolar ridge) EN: /s/ e.g. snake /z/ e.g. zebra /t/ e.g. tiger /d/ e.g. dog /ɾ/ e.g. better, ladder /ʃ/ e.g. shrew /ʒ/ e.g. measure /t^ʃ/ e.g. chimpanzee /d^ʒ/ e.g. lodger • Alveolar (tongue tip and alveolar ridge) PL: /t^ʃ/ e.g. rączka, tęcza /d^ʒ/ e.g. dżentelmen /l/ e.g. walka /r/ e.g. rak, burak

11. Places of articulation (5):Coronal articulations • post-alveolar(the blade of the tongue and the front of the hard palate) /ʃ/ e.g. szczęście /ʒ/ e.g. książę • alveolo-palatal(the blade and the center of the tongue and the front of the hard palate) /ɕ/ e.g. śnieg /ʑ/ e.g. zwięźle /t^ɕ/ e.g. pięć /d^ʑ/ e.g. dźwięk /ɲ/ e.g. mięsień

12. Places of articulation (6):Coronal articulations • palatal (front of the tongue and hard palate) • retroflex (tongue tip and the back of the alveolar ridge) • EN (optionally): /c/ e.g. kiedy /ɟ/ e.g. giełda /j/ e.g. jasny /ʂ/ e.g. try /ʐ/ e.g. dry

13. Places of articulation (7):Dorsal articulations • velar(tongue back and soft palate) /x/ e.g. harcerz /k/ e.g. kret, kredka /g/ e.g. góry,kangury /ŋ/ e.g. tango • uvular(tongue back and uvula), e.g. French „rat” • pharyngeal(tongue root and pharynx wall) • glottal(vocal cords are the active and passive articulator), e.g. PL: • nauka/naʔuka/ • uiścić/ʔuʔiɕtɕitɕ/ • o/ʔoʔ/(onlyifpronouncedinisolation)

14. Manner of articulation (1) It refers to the vertical relationship between the active and passive articulators. Stops – complete closure of the articulators, the airstream can not escape through the mouth • Oral stops(examplesfrom Polish, do not includeallstops)* • Nasal stops (-> nasals): /m/, /n/, /ɲ/ and /ŋ/ Velar /k/, /g/ Dental /t/, /d/ Bilabial /p/, /b/

15. Manner of articulation (2) • Affricates - involve more than one manner of articulation: • a combination of a stop followed by a fricative of the same place of articulation • (examplesfrom Polish) post-dental/t^s/, /d^z/ alveolar/t^ʃ/, /d^ʒ/ alveolo-palatal/t^ɕ/, /d^ʑ/ Fricatives – close approximation of two articulators, the airstream is partially obstructed and turbulent airflow is produced. (examplesfrom Polish, do not includeallophonicvariants) labiodental/f/, /v/ post-dental/s/, /z/ post-alveolar/ʃ/, /ʒ/ alveolo-palatal/ɕ/, /ʑ/ velar/x/

16. Manner of articulation (3) Liquids – the articulators approach each other, but to such an extent that there is a freepassage of air through the oral tract Alveolar /l/ ,/r/, /ɾ/, /ɹ/ lateral /l/ – producedwith a central obstruction – the air passes out at the side trill/r/ – articulator set in vibration by the airstream tap/flap /ɾ/ – a single movement in a trill, tongue hits the roof of the mouth approximant/ɹ/ – approximation of two articulators with no turbulent airstream

17. Manners of articulation (4) Glides (semi-vowels) – • the articulators are wide apart and the air flows unhindered • the position of the articulators is unstable • like consonants they do not form the nuclei of syllables jaj – jej kuj – kij odbij - odbyj biłem – byłem czuła – czoła muły - mały Glides and liquidsare classified as approximants. Togetherwithnasals and vowelstheybelong to sonorants. /j/ /w/

18. The articulation of vowels (1) • Classification of vowels: • Vertical position of the body of the tongue ->frontand back vowels • Horizontal position of the body of the tongue -> high, mid and low vowels • Lip rounding -> rounded and unrounded vowels Open approximation – the articulators do not come very close together;an unobstructed passage for the airstream in the oral cavity 1) heed, 2) hid , 3) head, 4) had, 5) father, 6) good, 7) food

19. The articulation of vowels (2) /i/ e.g. wij /ɨ/ e.g. wyj /e/ e.g. jej /a/ e.g. jaj /o/ e.g . czuła /u/ e.g. czoła

20. Classification of speech sounds Consonantal sounds can be described by referring to the following features: • Airstream mechanism • The state of the vocal cords • Velum position • Place of articulation • Manner of articulation Consonants – usually 3 dimensions: voicing, place and manner of articulation Vowels – the height of the tongue body, the front-back position of the tongue and the degree of lip rounding

21. Consonants vs. vowels • The distinction between vowelsand consonants is primary in the analysis and description of speech. • Vowels: • articulated with an open approximation • syllabic (nucleus) • Consonants: • articulated with some kind of an obstruction • non-syllabic (onset, coda)

22. Suprasegmental features (1) • These features are superimposed on units larger than a single speech unit (phoneme) -> syllables, phrases, sentences. • They include: • variation in stress • variation in pitch • (variation in length) Analysis and description – in relation to other items in the same utterance – relative values are linguistically significant.

23. Suprasegmental features (2) • Variation in stress • increased activity of respiratory and laryngeal muscles • functions • Grammatical e.g. (En) ins’ult (verb) vs. ’insult (noun) • Lexical e.g. (Pl) j’ajem vs. ja j’em • Grouping e.g. (Pl) do d’omu • Demarcative e.g. (Pl) niedal’eko, poj’utrze • Cumulative • Emphasis (focus) or contrastive emphasis

24. Suprasegmental features (3) • Variation in pitch • laryngeal activity • intonation – patterns of distinctive changes in pitch • domain: phrases, sentences • convey semantic, evidential and regulative information

25. Thank you for your attention!