Transcript The Vocal Tract and Initiation of Speech: Anatomy and











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
Airstream
mechanism
Airflow
direction
language
outwards
Most languages,
for many it is the
sole AM
Velaric ingressive velum
inwards
Zulu (S. Africa)
Glottalic
egressive
glottis
outwards
Navajo (N.
America)
Glottalic
ingressive
glottis
inwards
Sindhi (India)
Pulmonic
egressive
Airflow initiator
lungs
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/ …
oral sound /b/
nasal sound /m/
Lips
•Labial articulations
Tongue tip
•Coronal articulations
and blade
The back of
•Dorsal articulations
the tongue

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

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

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

EN:
/s/ e.g. snake
/z/ e.g. zebra
/t/ e.g. tiger
/d/ e.g. dog
/ɾ/ e.g. better, ladder
Palato-alveolar (tongue blade and the back of the alveolar ridge)
/ʃ/ e.g. shrew
/ʒ/ e.g. measure
/t^ʃ/ e.g. chimpanzee
/d^ʒ/ e.g. lodger

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
palatal (front of the tongue and hard palate)

/c/ e.g. kiedy
/ɟ/ e.g. giełda
/j/ e.g. jasny

retroflex (tongue tip and the back of the alveolar ridge)
EN (optionally):
/ʂ/ e.g. try
/ʐ/ e.g. dry

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/ (only if pronounced in isolation)
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 (examples from Polish, do not include all stops)*
Bilabial
/p/, /b/

Dental
/t/, /d/
Nasal stops (-> nasals): /m/, /n/, /ɲ/ and /ŋ/
Velar
/k/, /g/
Fricatives – close
Affricates - involve more than one
approximation of two articulators,
the airstream is partially obstructed
and turbulent airflow is produced.
manner of articulation:
a combination of a stop followed by a
fricative of the same place of articulation
(examples from Polish, do not include
allophonic variants)
(examples from Polish)
labiodental /f/, /v/
post-dental /s/, /z/
post-alveolar /ʃ/, /ʒ/
alveolo-palatal /ɕ/, /ʑ/
velar /x/
post-dental /t^s/, /d^z/
alveolar /t^ʃ/, /d^ʒ/
alveolo-palatal /t^ɕ/, /d^ʑ/
Liquids – the articulators
approach each other, but to
such an extent that there is a
free passage of air through
the oral tract
Alveolar
/l/ , /r/, /ɾ/, /ɹ/
lateral /l/ – produced with 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
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
/j/
jaj – jej
kuj – kij
odbij - odbyj
/w/
biłem – byłem
czuła – czoła
muły - mały
Glides and liquids are classified as approximants.
Together with nasals and vowels they belong to sonorants.
Open
approximation
Classification
of vowels:– the articulators do not come very
close
together;
anofunobstructed
Vertical
position
the body of thepassage for the airstream
tongue
-> front
and back vowels
in
the oral
cavity
Horizontal position of the body of
the tongue -> high, mid and low
vowels
Lip rounding -> rounded and
unrounded vowels
1) heed, 2) hid , 3) head, 4) had, 5) father, 6) good, 7) food
/i/ e.g. wij
/ɨ/ e.g. wyj
/e/ e.g. jej
/a/ e.g. jaj
/o/ e.g . czuła
/u/ e.g. czoła
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
The distinction between vowels and 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)

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.

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

Variation in pitch
 laryngeal activity
 intonation – patterns of distinctive changes in pitch
 domain: phrases, sentences
 convey semantic, evidential and regulative
information