Phonetics: The Sounds of Language

1. Phonetics: The Sounds of Language

2. Phonetics and Phonology • Phonetics: The physical manifestation of language in sound waves. • How sounds are articulated (articulatory phonetics) • How sounds are perceived (auditory phonetics) • Phonology: The mental representation of sounds.

3. Spelling and Sounds in English • English orthography (writing system) is not accurate in representing sounds: Did he believe that Caesar could see the people seize the seas? The silly amoeba stole the key to the machine • We need a more accurate representation of sounds: IPA (Fromkin, Rodman, Hyams p.223)

4. Phonemes • The smallest units of language. • Every language has its own inventory of linguistic sounds. • Phonemes can be divided into 2 types: • Consonants • Vowels • Keep in mind: We are not talking about letters here!

5. Consonants • How are phonemes produced? • Consonants are produced by obstructing the flow of air as it passes from the lungs through the vocal tract. • When we describe a consonant, one of the features we use is its place of articulation. • The other feature is the manner of articulation.

6. Place of articulation

7. Place of articulation • Examples of obstructing airflow to produce a consonant: • To form the initial [p] sound in “pill”, we put our lips together to shut off the flow of air before releasing it. • Sounds that are created by obstructing the flow of air with both lips are called bilabial • Compare the [p] sound with the [f] in “fill”. How is it produced? • Sounds like [f] are called labiodental

8. Place of articulation • Going further back in the mouth: • Pronounce the “th” sound as in “thin”. How is it produced? • The [θ] sound is called interdental (inter= between, dental= teeth) • Consider the [s] sound as in “soup”. How is it produced? • By putting the tip of the tongue right behind the upper front teeth. This part of the mouth is called alveolar ridge. Sounds like /s/ are called alveolar.

9. Place of articulation • Compare the [s] sound to the [ʃ] sound in “shell”. Where does the tongue move? • Sounds produced in this area are called palatal sounds. • The soft area further back is called velum. Sounds produced in this area are called velar sounds. Sounds in this area are produced by touching the heel of the tongue on the velum. • Examples of these sounds are: [g] and [k]

10. Place of articulation • Finally, we arrive at the glottis –the end of the vocal tract and beginning of your throat. There is only one glottal sound: /h/

11. Place of articulation of English Consonants

12. Manner of Articulation • Describing the features of Consonants. • What distinguishes [p] from [b] or [b] from [m]? All three are bilabial sounds… • Speech sounds vary in the way the airstream is affected as it flows from the lungs up and out of the mouth and nose.

13. Manner of Articulation • 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 • Try it out: put your hand to your throat and produce a [z] sound as in “buzz”. Now do the same with [s] as in “bus”.

14. Voiced and Voiceless sounds • The distinction is very important in English as it may change the meaning of the word: • rope/robe fate/fade rack/rag • choke/joke

15. Voiced and Voiceless sounds • Quick exercise: Of the sounds discussed so far, which are voiced and which are voiceless. Pronounce them with your hand at your throat. [p] [s] [m] [tʃ] [h] [θ] [l] [t] [d] [z] [ʃ] [ʒ] [dʒ] [b]

16. Nasal and Oral sounds • [b] and [p] sounds are distinguished as voiced/voiceless. But how is [b] different from [m]? • 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. • If [m] is a nasal, what other nasals can you identify? • [m] [n] [ŋ] ew

17. Stops and Fricatives • To produce the [t] sound, you place the tongue on the alveolar ridge and obstruct the flow of air. The [s] sound is produced at the same place of articulation. What is different about them? • Test for yourself: produce the sounds and observe what is happening to the airflow. • When the airflow is completely stopped, the sound is a stop. • When the airflow is only partially stopped, it’s a fricative.

18. Voiced and Voiceless sounds • Quick exercise: Of the sounds discussed so far, which are stops and which are fricatives? Pronounce each and decide. [p] [s] [θ] [t] [d] [z] [ʃ] [ʒ] [k]

19. Affricates,Liquids, and Glides • Affricates are produced by a stop which is followed immediately by gradual release of air. Stop + fricative = affricate • There are only two: [tʃ] and [dʒ] • Liquids • During the production of the sounds [l] and [r], there is no real obstruction of the airflow that causes friction. Hence, these sounds are not stops, fricatives or affricates. They are called liquids • Glides • Are not causing significant obstruction and are always followed by vowels. • [j] and [w]

20. Complete table of consonants

21. IPA chart Consonants

22. Vowels • Vowel Qualities • 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

23. Vowel Qualities: Tongue Height • Experiment: • Say the words “meet” and “mat”. What happens to your jaw? • Now say the word “mate” in between.

24. Vowel Qualities: Frontness • Frontness is determining where the tongue is positioned horizontally. • Say the words hack [hæk] and hah in sequence: “hack, hah, hack, hah, hack, hah. • You should be able to observe the tongue movement. • front vowels: [i] [ɪ] [e] [ɛ] [æ] • Central vowels: [ə] [ʌ] • back vowels: [u] [o] [ɔ] [a] [ʊ]

25. Vowel Qualities: Lip Rounding • Vowels differ in roundness of the lips.

26. Vowel Chart a

27. Vowel Qualities: Tenseness • In English, there are tense and lax vowels • Compare “beat” and “bit”. Both sounds are high, front vowels, but they differ in tenseness of muscles in the vocal tract.

28. Diphthongs • The previously discussed vowels are also called monophthongs • Diphthongs are a combination of 2 vowel sounds. • In English, there are 3 (main) diphthongs. • Consider following words: • kite bout boy • [aj] [aw] [ɔj]

29. IPA chart Consonants Diphthongs Vowels

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

31. Introduction to Phonology The mental representation of sounds

32. 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.

33. Phonetics vs. Phonology • both deal with speech sounds • phonetics: deals with physical properties of speech sounds • phonology: deals with the organization of speech sounds in a particular language • Which sounds are predictable? Which are unpredictable? • What context allows us to predict the occurrence of certain sounds? • Which sounds affect the meaning of words?

34. Same sound or different sound? • Within a given language, some sounds are considered to be the same sound, even though they are phonetically distinct.

35. Same sound or different sound? • Within a given language, some sounds are considered to be the same sound, even though they are phonetically distinct. • Same or different? • pool [pul] spool [spul]

36. Same sound or different sound? • Within a given language, some sounds are considered to be the same sound, even though they are phonetically distinct. • Same or different? • pool [phul] spool [spul] • phonetically different (aspirated vs. unaspirated) • native speakers perceive the same sound

37. Same same but different • mitt, Tim, metal, mitten • phonetically different • all perceived as ‘t’ by English speakers Allophone: • one of a set of non-distinctive realizations of the same phoneme.

38. Contrastiveness • Two sounds are said to be contrastive if replacing one with the other results in a change of meaning. • E.g., [s] and [ʃ] are contrastive in English. • [su] and [ʃu] mean different things

39. Contrastiveness • Two sounds are said to be noncontrastive if replacing one with the other does not result in a change of meaning. • E.g., aspirated and unaspirated stops are not contrastive in English • [tep] and [teph] mean the same thing

40. Are [p] and [b] in contrastive distribution in English? • To answer this question, construct a minimal pair. • Minimal pair: two words that differ only by a single sound in the same position and have different meanings.

41. Contrastiveness • Note that the notion of contrastiveness must be determined within a given language. • In some languages (e.g., Hindi), difference between aspirated and unaspirated stops is contrastive (can make a difference in meaning). • [kap] ‘cup’ • [khap] ‘phlegm’

42. Phonemes and Allophones • Phoneme: • class of speech sounds judged by native speakers to be the same sound. • a mental entity • E.g., The /t/ sounds in mitt, Tim, metal, mitten corresponds to one phoneme.

43. Phonemes and Allophones • Allophone: • one of a set of non-distinctive realizations of the same phoneme. • Corresponds to something physical produced by a speaker • E.g., [th] and [t] are an allophone of /t/. • [p] and [ph] are allophones of the phoneme /p/.

44. 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”.

45. 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.

46. 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.

47. 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.

48. The Pronunciation of Plurals