LING 001 Introduction to Linguistics

Fall 2010

Sound Structure I: Phonetics

Articulatory phonetics Phonetic transcription Jan. 25

Phonetics

• Phonetics is concerned with the production, physical nature, and perception of speech sounds.

• Articulatory phonetics studies the physiological mechanism of speech production - Today • Acoustic phonetics studies the physical properties of speech sounds - Wednesday • Auditory/perceptual phonetics studies how speech sounds are perceived - Later 2 LING 001 Introduction to Linguistics, Fall 2010

Vocal organs

Nasal Cavity Oral Cavity Pharynx Larynx: vocal folds in it Trachea: the windpipe Lung: supply airstream Sagittal section of the vocal tract LING 001 Introduction to Linguistics, Fall 2010 3

Larynx and vocal folds

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QuickTime™ and a TIFF (Uncompressed) decompressor are needed to see this picture.

• Vocal Folds (vocal cords) • • Two bands of muscle and tissue in the larynx Sounds produced when the vocal folds are vibrating are said to be voiced, those produced when the vocal folds are apart are voiceless LING 001 Introduction to Linguistics, Fall 2010 4

Vocal folds

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Articulators

6 Upper Surface Lower Surface LING 001 Introduction to Linguistics, Fall 2010

Articulation of consonants

• Places of articulation: which active articulator is making the articulation, and what part of the upper vocal tract is involved.

• Bilabial, labiodental, dental, alveolar, Retroflex, Paloto Alveolar, Palatal, Velar, etc.

• Manners of articulation: the ways in which consonants are produced. The articulators may close off the oral tract, or may narrow the space considerably.

• Oral stop, nasal stop, fricative, approximant, lateral approximant, tap/flap, affricate, etc.

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Places of articulation: labial

• ( Bilabial : made with two lips pie , buy , my ) • Labiodental : lower lip and Upper front teeth ( fie , vie ).

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Places of articulation: coronal

• • • • Dental : tongue tip or blade and upper front teeth ( thigh the lower front teeth).

, thy ). (interdental: the tip of the tongue protrudes between the upper and Alveolar : tongue tip or blade and the alveolar ridge ( tie , die , nigh , sigh , zeal , lie ).

Retroflex : tongue tip and back of the alveolar ridge ( rye , row , ray ).

Palato-Alveolar (post-alveolar): tongue blade and the back of the alveolar ridge ( shy , she , show, measure ).

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Places of articulation: dorsal

• Palatal : front of the tongue and hard palate ( you ). • Velar : back of the tongue and the soft palate ( hack , hag , hang ).

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Manners of articulation

• Stop: complete closure of articulators, so no air escapes through mouth • Oral stop: In addition to the articulatory closure in the mouth, the soft palate is raised so that the nasal cavity is blocked off, no air escapes through nose. Air pressure builds up behind closure, explodes when released.

• pie , buy (bilabial closure), (velar closure).

tie , dye (alveolar closure), kye , guy • Nasal stop: oral closure, but soft palate is lowered, air escapes through nose.

• my (bilabial closure), closure).

nigh (alveolar closure), sang (velar 11 LING 001 Introduction to Linguistics, Fall 2010

Oro-nasal process

12 • Oral sounds: The soft palate is raised so there is a velic closure.

• Nasal sounds: The soft palate is lowered so air escapes from nose.

LING 001 Introduction to Linguistics, Fall 2010

Manners of articulation

• • • Fricative: Close approximation of two articulators, resulting in turbulent airflow between them, producing a hissing sound.

• fie, vie (labiodental), (alveolar), shy thigh, thy (dental), (palato-alveolar).

sigh, zoo Approximant: One articulator is close to another, but without the vocal tract being narrowed to such an extent that a turbulent airstream is produced.

• yes (approximation in the palatal area), (approximation in the alveolar region).

we between the lips and in the velar region), (approximation raw Lateral approximant: Obstruction of airstream along center of oral tract, with opening around one or both sides of the tongue.

• lie , laugh (alveolar lateral) 13 LING 001 Introduction to Linguistics, Fall 2010

Manners of articulation

• Tap or flap • Tongue makes a single tap against the alveolar ridge • pity , butter • Affricate • A combination of a stop immediately followed by a fricative • church , judge 14 LING 001 Introduction to Linguistics, Fall 2010

Articulation of vowels

• • Position of the “highest” point of the tongue: • • Front vs. back high vs. low Shape of the lips: • Rounded vs. unrounded 15 LING 001 Introduction to Linguistics, Fall 2010

Vowel chart

• • Cardinal vowels: A set of reference vowels evenly spaced between the two most extreme tongue body positions: high front [i] and low back [ɑ]. The cardinal vowels demarcate the articulatory vowel space. Other vowels are placed on the (quadrilateral) vowel chart using these cardinal vowels as landmarks.

The vowel chart: 16 QuickTime™ and a TIFF (Uncompressed) decompressor are needed to see this picture.

Daniel Jones (1881-1967) LING 001 Introduction to Linguistics, Fall 2010

International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA)

• IPA is a phonetic notation system devised by the International Phonetic Association. It has been evolving since 1888. The latest version was published in 2005. • IPA attempts to represent each sound of human speech with a single symbol.

th

ing [ θɪŋ]

th

is [ ðɪs] bo

d

a (Spanish, “wedding”) [ b ɔða] • The symbols are enclosed in brackets [ ] to indicate that the transcription is phonetic (slashes / / are used to mark “phonemes”, more on this next week). 17 LING 001 Introduction to Linguistics, Fall 2010

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English consonants

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American English /r/

• American English /r/ has a variety of perceptually indistinct articulatory strategies.

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retroflex bunched LING 001 Introduction to Linguistics, Fall 2010

English vowels

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English vowels

• Many Americans don ’ t distinguish between caught and cot : an example of language change (more on this later this semester). • English also have diphthongs: complex vowels that combine a vowel with another vowel/semi-vowel • /aɪ/ (eye) • /aʊ/ (cow) • /ɔɪ/ (boy) 22 LING 001 Introduction to Linguistics, Fall 2010

Sounds in other languages

• There are about 7,000 languages in the world today. Over half of them (52 percent) are spoken by fewer than 10,000 people; over a quarter of them (28 percent) are spoken by fewer than 1,000 people; at least 10 percent of them are spoken by fewer than 100 people.

• There are about 600 consonants in different languages. The 10 most widely spoken languages use about 100 different consonants of which only 22 occur in English.

• Clicks occur in words in several African languages, such as Zulu, Nama, and Xhosa. Clicks also occur in interjections or non-linguistic gestures in many languages, for example, an interjection expressing disapproval in English.

tsk-tsk, • Greetings in Nama: LING 001 Introduction to Linguistics, Fall 2010 23