Transcript New Employee Orientation

Linguistics week 6
Phonetics 4
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Parameters for describing
consonants
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So far (this is not complete yet) we have
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So, [p] is …
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Airstream (usually the same for all consonants)
Place of articulation
Voicing
Manner of articulation
egressive pulmonic
bilabial
voiceless
plosive
This was what I was expecting in the quiz!
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Affricates in Mandarin
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/tsʰ/ and /ts/
/tʂʰ/ and /tʂ/
/tɕʰ/ and /tɕ/
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Can you guess what they are?
What is the ʰ?
ㄘ and ㄗ
ㄔ and ㄓ(retroflex affricate)
ㄐ and ㄑ(alveolo-palatal affricate)
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Aspiration
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Aspirated and unaspirated consonants
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ㄅ is unaspirated [p]
» Voicing for the next sound (a vowel) begins immediately
after plosion
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ㄆ is aspirated [ph] (puff of air)
» Vocal folds remain open briefly, after the stop is released
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English: spit vs pit (aspiration difference)
Aspiration is much less important in English than
in Chinese
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Can you explain why?
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Because aspiration in Mandarin is
phonemic (also, tone in Mandarin is
phonemic)
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pʰ and p are two different phones; two different
sounds
but in Mandarin they are different phonemes
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/pʰa/ (ㄆㄚ) and /pa/ (ㄅㄚ) represent different
meanings
in English pʰ and p do not help to distinguish meaning
There are no minimal pairs like pʰa and pa
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IPA: approximants (all voiced)
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An approximant
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2 common realizations of /r/ (in addition to the trills
described earlier)
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occurs as a consonant in syllabic patterning (CVC)
but, it’s like a vowel, because the articulators usually don’t touch.
[ɻ] retroflex approximant of Mandarin
[ɹ] alveolar approximant of English
A palatal approximant [j], often corresponding to the
English spelling “y”
A labial (=with rounded lips) velar approximant [w]
Then there is a lateral approximant [l]
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Lateral = “side”, that is where the obstruction is
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Mandarin sounds
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http://www.wfu.edu/~moran/Cathay_Cafe/I
PA_NPA_4.htm
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Vowels vs consonants
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Consonants
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There is some obstruction in the vocal tract
(=the mouth or throat)
Vowels
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There is no such obstruction (the air flows
freely)
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Regional accent variation
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English accents
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The consonants are generally the same
The vowels are often very different
Mandarin Chinese accents
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Pronunciation of consonants often varies
widely according to region
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Describing vowels
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Say [i] followed by [æ] (like cat)
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Think about where your tongue is
Look in a mirror
What changes? What can you say about the
position of the tongue in the two cases?
This is one of the parameters of vowel
description
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Another parameter
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Now compare [ɑ] (father) with [æ] (like
cat)
You can also try comparing the vowels in
ㄢ and ㄤ
Notice any difference?
This is the second distinguishing parameter
(factor)
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The third parameter
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Compare 四 with 速
Or more straightforwardly, compare ㄧ with
ㄩ
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The difference should be quickly apparent
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So, the 3 parameters are…
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The IPA vowel chart
• This is a stylized
representation of the
inside of the mouth
• It shows
– the cardinal vowels
• marked by black dots
– and the approximate
position of vowels common
in many languages
• The next slide shows the
position of English vowels
on the same kind of chart
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British
American
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This week’s homework
• Sound description, recording and
animation. Take a look at
http://www.uiowa.edu/~acadtech/phonetics
/about.html# and click on “English library”.
• Read about vowels again (page 48ff).
What are the parameters for describing
vowels (like voicing, airstream etc with
consonants)?
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Diphthongs
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Yule describes these as a vowel + an approximant
(p49) so /bajt/; /bawt/
We can also say there are two vowels involved
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an initial vowel, in “bite” or ㄞ = a
a target vowel, in “bite” or ㄞ = I
the tongue moves towards I
but doesn’t actually reach its target
Check the cool website for a demo
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Midterm exam
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On 20th November, there is a midterm exam. You can
expect questions on:
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Anything I talked about in class
Anything on these slides
Anything from the web resources I referred you to
Anything from Yule, in the sections related to what we covered in
class
For some questions, you will write a short answer of a few
words, maybe a number, maybe a symbol
For other questions, you will write a short paragraph.
You will get a half credit for anything you write in Chinese
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