THE SOUNDS OF LANGUAGECHAPTER 3

THE POWER OF LANGUAGE

•Humans are the only animals with complex verbal language

•What do you need to know in order to understand language?

THE POWER OF LANGUAGE

• Example: “My boyfriend and I are flying to his mother’s next week.”

• Distinct sounds

• Each word has a specific meaning

• Different tenses

• Implicit meanings

• Order of the words

THE POWER OF LANGUAGE

• This is linguistic knowledge• Most of this knowledge is unconscious and learned at a

young age during enculturation• It is intuitive and understood (most times) immediately• Words are arbitrary • Words are combinations of discrete and recombinable

sounds• Language is creative• It can discuss hypothetical or imaginary things

INTRODUCTION

• To learn a language, you must learn sound production

• Rules for producing any sound in any human language

• You must also learn phonology

• Many sounds in other languages will not be the same as those in your native language

PHONOLOGY• The study of sounds in a language

• It focuses on two differences

• 1. phonetics

• Identifies and describes language sounds

• 2. phonemics

• Analyzes the way sounds are arranged in a language

EMIC AND ETIC• Phonetic study is often etic

• Phonemic study is often emic

LANGUAGE AND SOUND

• In other words,

• Linguists describe and analyze the nature and patterning of sounds

• These patterns make the phonological system and the study of this is phonology

•When you speak you do not consciously think of sounds

• The word “debt”

• How many sounds does this have?

• How is this different from “pet”?

PHONOLOGY• A phonetic chart shows all the sounds of a language and

uses different symbols for different sounds made by the same letter

• The sounds on the chart are called phones

PHONOLOGY• A phonemic chart shows only the distinctive sounds of a

language, and all sounds made by one letter are grouped together

• The sounds on the chart are called phonemes

PHONOLOGY• If you grew up speaking one language you will probably use

the phonetic system even when learning new languages

• If you grew up speaking multiple languages, then you can use multiple phonetic systems

PHONETICS• Three types:

• 1. Acoustic• Physical properties of sounds/soundwaves

• Voice recognition, voiceprints

• 2. Auditory• How sounds are perceived and interpreted

• 3. Articulatory/Descriptive• How speech sounds are produced

• Catalogue all human language sounds

• Used in fieldwork

ROSETTA STONE

• Egyptian hieroglyphs are not pictures, they are phonemes

• https://www.khanacademy.org/humanities/history/ancient-medieval/Ancient/v/rosetta-stone--196-b-c-e

ANATOMY• Three areas of importance:

• 1. Lungs

• Push air out

• 2. Larynx

• Where voice box is located and where vocal cords modify air into sounds

• 3. Supralaryngeal vocal tract

• Above vocal cords

• Where sound waves become recognizable speech sounds

LARYNX• As air moves through larynx, it passes through vocal cords

• If cords are relaxed and open, the sound is voiceless

• If cords are closed and vibrating, the sound is voiced

• Touch your throat and say “ssssss” and “zzzzzz”

• Do you feel the difference?

SOUNDS

• Phonemes are the particular sounds that speakers and listeners recognize as distinct from other sounds

• This gives different sounds different meanings

• Compare:• /b/ and /p/• Put your hands on your ears and say these sounds out loud• /b/ causes vibrations and is called voiced (others: /d/, /z/, /v/,

/j/)• /p/ does not and is called voiceless (others: /t/, /s/, /f/)

ARTICULATION ABOVE LARYNX• After air moves through larynx, it goes to the nose and

mouth, where it can be modified and articulated

• The position of the tongue and lips can change sounds

• Articulation is

• Place: where the air is being modified

• Manner: how the air is being modified

ARTICULATION ABOVE LARYNX• Phonetic charts are important in understanding different

languages

• There are different spellings and symbols for different sounds in different languages

• International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA) was used to have one unique symbol for each sound

• This was modified to the American Usage System (AUS)

• Both charts are used

VOWELS AND CONSONANTS• These are shown on every phonetic chart

• Vowels have less constricted air flow and consonants have more constricted air flow

• Let’s practice pronouncing different ones

VOWELS AND CONSONANTS: ARTICULATION• “Bilabial Stop”

• Bilabial (with both lips)

• Stop (stop the air and then let it out)

• “B,” “P”

• Turn to pg. 57-59 and look over articulation places and manners

• Practice:

• Alveolar nasal “N”

• Palatal approximate “J”

• Velar stop (plosive) “K,” “G”

VOWELS AND CONSONANTS: ARTICULATION• Be familiar with the terms for place and manner

VOWELS AND CONSONANTS: ARTICULATION• Generally, consonants are sounds made by constricting the air

stream and vowels are made by not constricting the air as much or at all

• Phonetic charts are not as helpful for vowels

• We look at ways air streams can be modified• Height of tongue

• How high tongue is in mouth: “ee” sound tongue is high, “ah” sound is low

• Place of tongue

• How far forward or back tongue is in mouth: “ee” sound tongue is forward, “oo” sound tongue is back

• Rounding of lips

• Holding lips in rounded or flat position: “oh” sound versus “ee” sound

VOWELS AND CONSONANTS: ARTICULATION• These are guidelines

• Different dialects and accents can make these sound differently

BEYOND PHONETIC CHARTS• Phonetic charts show the basic sounds, or segments, of

language

• But language can further modify sounds

• These are called suprasegmentals are have their own special symbols in a phonetic chart

• Nasalization: sound goes through nasal cavity and not mouth

• Pitch: high or low “notes”

• Clicks: air released inward (symbol is ! In Kung)

• Lengthening: holding sound for longer period of time

ASSIGNMENT• Article on Click Languages

• Video Log on Click Languages• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c246fZ-7z1w

•  

PHONEMICS• In order to really understand and speak a language, you need

to also know how the sounds are used

• Phonemics/phonology analyzes the way sounds are arranged and what sounds are important in a language

• Phonemics can give you an insider (emic) view of a language

PHONEMICS• Phoneme is a sound that functions to distinguish one word

from another

• Example: “t” and “d” are different sounds, and also distinguish the word “tie” from the word “die”

• This is also a minimal pair, or a pair of words in which one difference in sound makes a difference in meaning

• This is how to identify phonemes

PHONEMICS• Allophones are another type of phoneme; they are a group

of sounds that together form a single phoneme

• Each allophone is a separate unit but all together they make up a phoneme

• Wherever you find allophones in a language, there is a good chance you will also find a pattern that defines how and where they are used in a language

• Example:

• [ph] (aspirated p sound) usually occurs at the beginning of words

• [p] (unaspirated p sound) usually occurs in the middle of words

PHONEMICS• Example:

• [ph] (aspirated p sound) usually occurs at the beginning of words

• [p] (unaspirated p sound) usually occurs in the middle of words

• Aspirated Unaspirated

• Peak Speak

• Pool Spool

• Pend Spend

• Pun Spun

PHONEMICS• The previous example is one of complementary

distribution (the different variations, or allophones, are distributed between different words)

• Conditioned variation means variation in allomorphs happens because of the sounds around them

• Sometimes this can be social

• Men and women can pronounce words differently (example, pg. 69)

• Even if two languages have the same phones, they may not group them into phonemes and allophones the same way

• How does “ng” sound in our language? Where is it found in a word?

• How do you pronounce ngoma (drum)? Why is this difficult?

PARALANGUAGE• Paralanguage refers to anything that is communicated

alongside language

• Voice cues

• Intensity

• Penmanship

• Emoticons

• USING ALL CAPS

• One must learn how to use these properly as well

VOICE QUALITY AND INTONATION• AKA tone of voice

• Most commonly noticed type of paralanguage

• What does it mean when you whisper?

• What does it mean if you whine?

• How do you talk to a baby?

• Trend of ‘rising intonation’ (began with “Valley Girl”): voice goes up at the end of a sentence

• How can this be confusing with meaning?

SOUNDS: TONE• Pitch of voice can also convey meaning

•What are the differences between these:• She went to class.• She went to class?

• In tone languages, changing voice pitch changes meaning of the word

• Example: Nupe (African):• Bá: high tone = “to be sour”, mid tone = “to cut”, low tone =

“to count”

• Example: Thai:• Nâa: tone falls on second vowel = “face”• Nˇaa: tone rises on second vowel = “thick”