Transcript Phonetics: The Sounds of Language CONSONANT SOUNDS Three ways of approaching phonetics:  Articulatory Phonetics:   Acoustic Phonetics:   Physiological mechanism of speech production. The physical properties of sound.

Phonetics:
The Sounds of Language
CONSONANT SOUNDS
Three ways of approaching phonetics:
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Articulatory Phonetics:
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Acoustic Phonetics:
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Physiological mechanism of speech production.
The physical properties of sound waves.
Auditory Phonetics:
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Perception of the sounds by the brain.
Phonetics of languages
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You can make a lot of noises with your
mouth, but only some of these are used in
speech.
Almost every language uses a different set of
these possible sounds.
We will mostly focus on English sounds for
now.
Tomato or Tomahto?
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Differences in pronunciation
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Tomato/Tomahto
Do you say pin/pen in the same way?
Do you say push or poosh?
How do you say ‘car’? How about ‘dawn’?
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How do you best symbolize the different
pronunciation?
There are lots of conventions used. (see p.
41)
How well does the English alphabet
represent sounds?
5 problems with English spelling
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The same sound can be represented by different letters: sea, see, scene,
receive, thief, ameoba, machine
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One letter can represent several different sounds: fish, light; chart,
character
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Two sounds may be represented by a single letter: I; use; judge
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Two letters may be used to indicate a single sound: ship, three, leisure,
enough
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Some letters represent no sound at all: base, knight, psychology
International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA)
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The IPA is consistent, unambiguous, and
there is always a one-to-one sound to symbol
correspondence.
IPA has been developing since 1888
These symbols can be used to transcribe the
sounds of any language.
The system represents each sound of human
speech with a single symbol.
The symbol is enclosed in brackets [ ].
IPA, continued
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IPA website http://www.arts.gla.ac.uk/ipa/ipachart.html
To use a symbol to describe what someone says, we put
the symbols in square brackets “[ ]”.
You will need to be able to:
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identify the number of sounds in a word
transcribe English words using IPA
translate from IPA into English spelling
See page 43 for examples of symbols
Articulation of sound
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Articulation is the motion or positioning of
some part of the vocal tract with respect to
some other vocal tract surface in the
production of a speech sound
English uses a pulmonic (=lung) egressive
(=blowing out) air stream mechanism.
Vowels are usually the nucleus of the syllable
and consonants are usually the onset (start)
or coda (end) of the syllable.
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To describe articulation for consonants:
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Is the sound voiced or voiceless? (action of the
vocal folds)
Where is the airstream constricted? (place of
articulation)
How is the airstream constricted? (manner of
articulation)
Descriptions are in the order of
Voicing+Place+Manner
Places of Articulation
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Bilabial 
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Labiodental  [f], [v]
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Interdental 
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Alveolar  [t], [d], [s], [z], [ ], [r], [n]
[p], [b], [m]
[ ], [ ]
Places of Articulation
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Palatal 
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Velar 
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Glottal 
[ ], [ ], [t ], [d ], [ ]
[k], [g], [N], [w]
[h]
Places of
Articulation
Manner of Articulation
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Plosive (Stop): Complete and momentary
closure of airflow through the vocal tract.
 [p], [t], [k], [b], [d], [g]
Nasal: The airflow passes through the nasal
passages.
 [n], [m], [ ]
Fricative: Continuous airflow through the mouth.
 [f], [ ], [s], [ ], [h], [v], [ ], [z], [ ]
Manner of Articulation
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Affricate: The stop articulation is released and
the tongue moves rapidly away.
 [t ], [d ]
Liquid: Air escapes through the mouth along the
lowered sides of the tongue.
 [ ], [r]
Glide: semi-consonants.
 [ j ], [w]
The consonant chart
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See page 53 for the consonant chart
Some practice
1)
2)
3)
4)
5)
6)
7)
8)
Voiced bilabial stop
Voiceless labiodental fricative
Voiced bilabial nasal
Voiceless velar stop
Describe [n]
Describe [w]
Describe [g]
Describe [m]