Phonetics COMDTaylor

The Consonants of English

BUT FIRST. . .

Describe the following:

• /b/• voiced bilabial stop

• /p/• voiceless bilabial stop

• /d/• voiced alveolar stop

• /t/

• voiceless alveolar stop

• /k/

• voiceless velar stop

• /ŋ/

• (voiced) velar nasal (stop)

• /r/

• (voiced) alveolar (central) approximant

• /l/

• (voiced) alveolar lateral (approximant)

• /f/

• voiceless labiodental fricative

• /z/

• voiced alveolar fricative

• /ʃ/

• voiceless alveopalatal fricative

• /dʒ/

• voiced alveopalatal affricate

Give the IPA for the following:

• voiceless labiodental fricative• [f]• voiced alveolar fricative• [z]• voiced alveolar nasal• [n]• voiced velar nasal• [ŋ]• voiceless alveopalatal fricative• [ʃ]

• voiced alveolar (central) approximant• [r]• voiced alveopalatal fricative• [ʒ]• voiceless alveopalatal affricate• [tʃ]• voiced velar stop/plosive• [g]• (voiceless) glottal stop• [ʔ]

What’s wrong with these?

• ‘shut’ [shut]• [ʃʌt]• ‘swift’ [swift]• [swɪft]• ‘follow’ [falo]• [faloʊ]• ‘frog’ [frog]• [frag]

What’s wrong with these?• ‘left’ [left]• [lɛft]• ‘child’ [tʃild]• [tʃaɪld]• ‘theme’ [ðim]• [θim]• ‘voice’ [vois]• [vɔɪs]• ‘rang’ [raŋ]• [reŋ]• ‘health’ [helθ]• [hɛlθ]

Postvocalic Cs

• How can we tell whether final C is voiced?

• Often no final release• Duration is often too short to tell

whether cords are vibrating during • Length of preceding vowel is key

– bead vs beat, bid vs bit, fade vs fate, said vs set, sad vs sat, bug vs buck, lewd vs loot, code vs coat, (hog vs hawk)

– Example

Homorganic Cs

• Two sounds with the same place of articulation– e.g., [d] and [n]

Nasal plosion

• Stop followed by a homorganic nasal– ‘sudden’ [sʌdn>]– ‘kitten’ Q: [kɪtn] but not [kɪʔn]

• Occurs only if there is no glottal stop or if the glottal stop is released after the alveolar closure has been made and before the velum is lowered

Lateral plosion

• Alveolar stop before the lateral [l]– air pressure built up during the stop can

be released by lowering the sides of the tongue ‘middle’ [mɪdl >]

Tap/flap

• In American English, the alveolar C between Vs is not really a stop, but a quick tap of the tongue blade against the alveolar ridge

• Q: how can we tell what the speaker has said?– ‘latter’ vs ‘ladder’

Fricatives

• Partial obstruction of airflow• Fricatives + Stops form a natural

class called ‘obstruents’

Post-vocalic

• +/- voice info carried on preceding vowel– long vowel = voiced post-vocalic fricative– short vowel = voiceless post-vocalic fricative– Point: voicing info carried on the longest,

most salient segments

• Fortis (-voice) held longer than lenis• Lenis (+voice) are not actually voiced

throughout

Fricatives: articulatory gestures

• Primary gestures: close approximation of articulators

• Secondary: lip rounding (labialization), if applicable, e.g., ‘same’ vs ‘shame’– changes shape, length of the chamber,

creates room in front of the teeth–dramatic acoustic effect

– ‘strong’: [stɹɔŋ] or [ʃtɹɔŋ]• rounding due to anticipation of upcoming [ɹ]

Affricates

• More than just a stop + a homorganic fricative

• Issue of timing between the stop and succeeding vowel– different kind of (gradual) release

Other (non-affricate) combos

• [ps] and [ks]: why aren’t they affricates?– not homorganic

• [tθ] and [ts]– cannot occur everywhere

• [tʃ] and [dʒ] are the only two that can occur anywhere and are homorganic (very close), so they get special phonological status in English

Nasals

• Velar opening is key– allows air into the nasal cavity

• Timing: N + V– velum lowered– occlusion– vocal cord vibration

• Timing: V + N – [an] (Engl.) occlusion vs [a] (French) no occlusion– voicing for vowel – velum lowered– occlusion

N + Fricative

• Move from occlusion to non-occlusion, often causes insertion of stop in between– [sʌMmθɪŋ][sʌmpθɪŋ]– [sɪ Mns][sɪ Mnts]

Final N can be syllabic

• Like [r, l]• Marked with vertical line under the N– [sʌdn>]

• Syllabicity can be in phrase:– ‘milk and cookies’ [mɪlkŋ>kʊkiz]

The velar nasal

• Cannot occur word-initially• Usually not syllabic• Can only be preceded by [ɪ,ɛ,æ,ʌ,ɑ]

Approximants

• Glides, lateral and rhotic– [j], [w], [l], [r]

• Vowel-like– no occlusion, – active articulator approaches passive

articulator– approach changes the shape of the

chamber– can occur in consonant clusters with stops

Rhotic [r]

• Hardest category to define• Number of different types of sounds

are included

Lateral [l]

• [l] and [r] – can be curled or bunched– light or dark• light: pre-vocalic: ‘light’, ‘right’• dark: post-vocalic: ‘pull’ ‘for’

– no contact with alveolar ridge– patterns like a diphthong: ‘feel’–velarized

– voiceless when they follow a voiceless stop• ‘clear’ and ‘creep’ [kl Qiɚ] and [kɹ Qi:p]

Glides: [j] and [w]• [j]: place of articulation?

– hard palate: voiced palatal glide• [w]: place of articulation?

– lips and velum: voiced labio-velar glide• Shortened versions of vowels

– [j] corresponds to [i]– [w] corresponds to [u]

Voiceless glottal fricative: [h]

• Open vocal tract• Set up for the vowel that follows

– compare ‘has’ ‘hut’ and ‘heat’

• Has the same status in all languages– Should it be categorized as a glide?

• No, because it’s voiceless (can’t be a semi-V)– L: voiceless counterpart of surrounding sounds

• Turbulence comes from entire vocal tract, with most turbulence coming from point of articulation of following vowel

More on [h]• Usually occurs at the beginning of words in

English– seldom between Vs within a word (mostly with

prefixed words)– never at the end of words– never in clusters

• If [h] occurs between vowels in an utterance, articulatory movement is continuous– [h] is realized as a weakening (not necessarily

complete devoicing): ‘the head’ vs ‘at home’• Some dialects distinguish between ‘witch’ [wɪtʃ]

and ‘which’ [hwɪtʃ], but that distinction appears to be disappearing

Overlapping gestures

• Anticipatory coarticulation– stops are slightly rounded when they

occur in clusters with [w] and [ɹ]• ‘kick’ ‘quick’; ‘tea’ ‘tree’• [s] can become [ʃ] when followed by [tɹ]:

why?

• Movement towards a target– series of movements towards targets

• Certain aspects of active articulator movement or placement are crucial (‘specified’)

Allophones and articulatory gestures

• No simple relationship between a languages phonemes and description of articulatory gestures

• Allophones arise from coarticulation effects– can result in completely different places

or manners of articulation– almost all neighboring sounds overlap