The Sounds of Language

1. The Sounds of Language

2. The Sounds of Language • Phonology, Phonetics & Phonemics… • Producing and writing speech sounds... • Consonants, vowels & sound charts… • Phonemic analysis... • Etics and Emics… • Applications….

3. Phonetics • Acoustic • physical properties of sound, sound waves, • Auditory • perception of sounds, psychological “reality” • Articulatory • pronunciation of sounds, articulation • also known as descriptive phonetics.

4. Producing Speech Sounds • lungs • oral & nasal cavities • larynx & vocal cords • voicing • velum (soft palate)mouth closed: [m, n] mouth open = [õ]

5. Writing Speech Sounds • Spelling vs phonetic transcription • cat (English) • ciel (French) • cizi (Czech) • “ghoti” • Phonetic charts • I.P.A. • Pike.

6. Consonants • Point of Articulation (Place in vocal tract) • Manner of Articulation • Voice

7. Consonants: Place • bilabial [p, b, m] • From front to back: • labiodental [f, v] (inter)dental [, ] • alveolar [t, d, s, z, n, l] alveopalatal (palatal-alveolar; postalveolar) [, , ñ].

8. Consonants: Place (continued) Front to back • retroflex • [,  ] velar [k, g, x, , ] • uvular [] (French ‘r’) • pharyngeal [ (Arabic ‘ain’)] glottal [, h] .

9. Stops (plosives) [t, d], [!, ] Aspirated: [th, dh] Fricatives [s, z] Affricates [ʧ, ʤ] Taps & Trills Taps / flaps [ ] Trills [ r ] Nasals [ n ] Approximants [ l, , j, w ]. Consonants: Manner

10. Sometimes called liquids & glides Variously charted in different systems IPA calls them approximants [ w, j,  ] And lateral approximants [ l ] Pike calls some of them frictionless laterals [ l ] He calls some of them semivowels [w, y] And he calls some of them vowels [ r ]. A Word About Approximants

11. Consonants: Review different languages may use different sounds

12. Phonetic Charting • Mapping the sounds of a language • Helps you to analyze and pronounce sounds... • Helps you to analyze sound systems... • and to see patterns • Guides you in understanding accents….

13. Charting and Sounds • Shinzwani [  ] • voiceless • retroflex • stop • Czech [ř] • voiced • alveolar • fricative • AND trill.

14. Charting and Accents: 1 • How would you pronounce Shinzwani [ona]? • Why did you make the choice you made? • Place? • Manner?.

15. part of tongue raised front, center, back height of tongue high, mid, low Vowels: Place i u e o a

16. Vowels: Manner • rounded [u, o] - back (e.g. most English back vowels) [y, ø] - front (e.g., French, German, Danish) • unrounded [ i, e] - front (e.g. all English front vowels) [ , ] - back (e.g., Turkish, Native American languages) • tense/lax (close/open) • [i] vs [I] .

17. Charting Vowels

18. to front [ii] seen [ai] sign [i] boid Diphthongs • to back • [uu] sue • [ou] hoe • [au] how. • to center • [i] beer • [e] bear • [a] bar • [] bore

19. Suprasegmentals • Additional pronunciation • [o] as segment • Marked with diacritics • [  ] as suprasegmental (nasalization) • [o] = nasalized segment.

20. Phones and Phonemes • phone • smallest identifiable unit of sound in a language • more easily identified by outsiders • phoneme • smallest contrastive unit of sound in a language • heard as a single sound by insiders • Contrasts are not predictable.

21. Phonology • Sounds and their arrangements • Phonetics & Phonemics • Phonetics: • identify & describe sounds in detail (phones) • Phonemics • analyze arrangements of sounds • identify groupings of sounds (phonemes) • Examples: • English “pill” vs “spill -- [ph] + [p] = /p/ • Hindi “phl” (fruit) vs “pl” (minute) -- [ph] + [p] = /ph / + /p/ .

22. Identifying Phonemes • Minimal pairs • reveal contrasts in sounds • ‘pin’‘tin’‘kin’‘bin’‘din’‘gin’ • Examples for practice (W/R p. 48) • 3.2a Shinzwani • 3.2b Hindi • 3.2c Czech • 3.2d French • 3.2e Chatino.

23. Variations • a phoneme can be a single sound/phone • or it can be a group of sounds/phones • members of a group are usually similar • they are close on the phonetic chart • they sound like ‘variations’ of one another • members of a group are non-contrastive • they don’t mark differences in meaning • when such variations exist, they are called: “allophones of a phoneme”

24. allophones of a phoneme • are heard as ‘the same sound’ by native speakers • are usually ‘complementary’ to one another • we say they are in ‘complementary distribution’ • because the variation is usually ‘conditioned’ by neighboring sounds, • we can also call this ‘conditioned variation.’

25. is usually patterned predictable discoverable describable. Allophone Conditioning

26. Phonemes vs. Allophones: Review • allophones • non-contrastive • predictable distribution • [pn] and [spn] • phonemes • contrastive • non-predictable distribution • [pn] vs [tn].

27. Ken Pike, 1950s A core concept in anthropology Etics outside, cross-cultural /comparative absolute, objective a step to emic analysis Emics inside, culture-specific relative, subjective a goal of emic analysis. Etics vs. Emics

28. Doing Phonological Research • Descriptive v prescriptive approaches • Transcription v spelling • Avoid using your own categories • Find out how the system operates on its own terms • Describe the patterns you find • Identify the units • Identify relationships between the units.

29. Comparative Phonology • How many phonemes in a language? • From a few dozen to 100+ • average figures: • vowels: 8.7 • English has 14 • consonants: 22.8 • English has 24