What is Phonetics?

Phonetics is the study of the speech sounds that occur in all languages

Two aspects of Phonetics that we will discuss:

The physiology of sound production:

The human vocal mechanism and the speech sound production

Description of the sounds of English:Consonants:

Place of articulationManner of articulationVoicing

Description of Vowels:Tongue HeightTongue Advancement(frontness)

Lip Rounding

• Phonemes: Speech sounds that distinguish one word from the other:Bat vs. matBack vs. bad

Our knowledge of phonetics tends to be tacit or unconscious

Mispronounce foreign words

adjust their pronunciation according to the native inventory of sounds

Decide if certain sequences of sounds are permissible in one’s language.

Tip , pit, *itp, *tpi

Phonetic Transcription:

sound and not writing.speech is primary manifestation of

language

writing is secondary.

The misfit between sound and spelling in English

spelling bees, spelling lists

Spelling inconsistencies are of three types:

Fewer or more sounds in a word than the spelling would suggestgnome, comb, light, night

A single sound represented by a variety of spellingsrough, roof, floor, photo

A letter representing several different soundscat, city, bus, busy

• The Phonetic Alphabet:Example: International Phonetic Alphabet

The Phonetic Alphabets share three characteristics:Each symbol = one and only one speech soundEach sound = one and only one symbolThe number of sounds = the number of symbols.

Car [kar] keep [kip]Gnome [nom] knee [ni]

• When words are written in phonetic symbols, they are said to be transcribed phonetically.

bat [bæt] boat [bot] keep [kip]

pail [pel] soot [sut] knight [najt]

Larynx

• Two sheets of elastic tissue (vocal cords)• Two positions of the vocal cords:

relaxed and spread relatively far apart—voiceless sounds

tensed and drawn close together—voiced sounds

• The space between the vocal cords--the glottis

Let’s try to produce voiced and voiceless sounds

Initial sounds of pairs of words listed belowpin binfan vanthin thenten dengap capsue zoomat hat

bilabial pat bat mat

• Labio-dental: few and view

• Interdental: thin, that

• Alveolar: ton, dawn, net, sea, zeal, leaf, reef

• Alveo-Palatal: shoes, leisure, chair, judge, you

• Velar: king, king, we, gum

• Glottal: him

Manner of Articulation

• Stop: pit, bit, tip, dip, keep, gum

• Nasal stop: met, net, king

• Fricative: few, view, sea, zeal, shoes, leisure, this, that

•

• Affricate: chair, judge

• Glide: you, we, house

• Liquid: leaf, reef

Vowels

• a class of unobstructed speech sounds.• essential part of a syllable.• described in terms of :

Tongue height: High, Mid, or LowTongue advancement: Front, Central, or BackLip rounding: Rounded or Unrounded

(Spread)Tense or lax

Syllabic Consonants

• Liquids and nasals that can constitute separate syllable

• Examples:

• Rhythm, button, prism, bottle

Sonorants

• Liquids, glides, nasals, and vowels

Obstruents

• nonnasal stops, fricatives, and affricates

Suprasegmental features

• Inherent properties part of all sounds regardless of their place or manner of articulation

• Three main suprasegmental features are:

• Pitch

• Length

• Stress

Pitch

• Depends on the vibration of the vocal cords

• Faster vibration of the cords—high pitch

• Women and children—smaller larynx and shorter vocal cords vibrate faster

• High-pitched voice than men

Two types of languages based on pitch

• Tone languages: Differences in word meanings are signaled by differences in pitch

Mandarin Chinese:

ma (falling pitch) means ‘scold’

ma ( high rising pitch) means ‘mother’

ma (fall and rise pitch) ‘horse’

ma (mid rising pitch) ‘hemp’

• Intonation: Pitch movement not related to differences in word meaning.

• English—car (with a rising pitch) has no meaning contrast from car (with a lower pitch)

•

• Falling pitch at the end of a statement –complete

• John parked the car

• Rising pitch at the end of a statement—incomplete (question)

• John is here.

• We have an exam today.

• WH-questions do not end in rising intonation

• Margo? Is that you?

• Counting numbers

• A: John is stupid

• Intonation for disagreeing

• Gradually falling pitch

• Rising pitch

• Abruptly falling pitch

• Rising and falling pitch

You know

(basic, question, assertion, insistence)

Length:

• The articulation of certain vowels and consonants are longer relative to other consonants and vowels

• Length is indicated by a colon• Italian, German, Hungarian, Japanese, Finnish

and Cree

•

Japanese

[i] ‘stomach’ [i:] ‘good’

[kuki] ‘stem’ [ku:ki] ‘air’

Stress

• Associated with vowels

• the intensity or the loudness of the airstream

• Three levels of stress

primary stress [´] (acute accent mark)

secondary stress [`] (grave accent mark)

No stress (no mark)

Stress patterns:

canopy

atomic

disappoint

elevate