LX250: Introduction to Linguistics September 13, 2022 Phonetics 1: Let’s make some noises! Homework, due Tuesday, September 20: Contemporary Linguistics, Chapter 2, Exercises 37. 1. Letters and sounds • Phonetics is concerned with the physical aspect of speech, i.e. sounds. VERY IMPORTANT: From here on, please check your spelling at the door! English spelling is delightfully quirky to be sure, but it will be of no help to you in thinking about phonetics or phonology. • How many sounds do each of the following sequences of letters contain? thick though rough through chair night • George Bernard Shaw: a new spelling for the word fish? • bone • IPA: International Phonetic Alphabet. Designed to provide a unified system of detailed phonetic transcription for the languages of the world. • Type IPA online: vs. done vs. ghoti gone http://ipa.typeit.org/full/ • For sound files demonstrating the entire IPA and fantastic recordings of the sounds of languages from all over the world: http://www.phonetics.ucla.edu/index.html • For a clickable IPA chart: http://web.uvic.ca/ling/resources/ipa/charts/IPAlab/IPAlab.htm https://www.internationalphoneticassociation.org/IPAcharts/inter_chart_2018/IPA_2018 .html 2. Speech sounds: an introduction • Speech is superimposed on respiration. • Requirements: an airstream, and some means of modulating it... 3. Voicing, Place, and Manners of Articulation -1- LX250: Introduction to Linguistics September 13, 2022 • First big landmark in the vocal tract once you leave the lungs: the larynx. The larynx houses the vocal folds (also traditionally called vocal cords). • Vocal fold vibration and the control of pitch... • Vocal fold vibration as the source of oppositions within the English consonant system. Consider van vs. fan: vvvvvvvvvvv vs. fffffffffffff 3.1. Place of Articulation MEET YOUR VOCAL TRACT: ARTICULATORS: What is interacting with what in the articulation of speech sounds? Lips with lips or with teeth – otherwise mostly some part of the tongue with something along the roof of the mouth or back of the throat. -2- LX250: Introduction to Linguistics September 13, 2022 3.2. Manner of articulation: Consonants and Vowels CONSONANTS VOWELS more extreme constriction significantly impede airflow usually occupy syllable edges less extreme constriction shape resonating cavities form the cores or nuclei of syllables boat [bot] CVC CLOSED-OPEN-CLOSED 3.3. Manner of articulation for consonants STOPS: consonants articulated with temporary total obstruction of the flow of air out of the vocal tract. • English uses voicing to distinguish otherwise-identical stops. NASALS: involve lowering of the velum (soft palate), allowing air to flow out through the nasal cavity (whether or not it is also flowing out through the oral cavity). • If you lower the velum during a vowel, you get a nasalized vowel, as in French: beau [bo] FRICATIVES: air bon [bɔ̃] forced through a narrow constriction creating turbulence (frication) AFFRICATES: "complex" articulations composed of a stop followed by a fricative component, typically at the same place of articulation. APPROXIMANTS: consonants with less extreme constrictions. Airflow is not turbulent. -3- LX250: Introduction to Linguistics September 13, 2022 Liquids (lateral vs. central): [l, r] Glides: [w, j] • The Consonant Inventory of English stops affricates fricatives nasals voiceless p t k voiced b d g voiceless tʃ voiced dʒ voiceless f θ s ʃ voiced v ð z ʒ voiced m (ʔ) h n ŋ ɾ taps/flaps approximants central ɹ lateral l glides (w) j (w) 3.4. An excursus on trills, taps and flaps and 'r' TRILL: Rapid oscillation of one articulator (e.g., the tongue tip) against another (e.g., the alveolar ridge). Example: the trilled or rolled 'rr' in Spanish: TAP: Single perro 'dog' rapid articulation of the tongue tip against the alveolar ridge Example: short 'r' in Spanish: pero 'but' Note: precisely this sound exists in English as well, but as variant pronunciation not of 'r', but of 't' or 'd', as in 'butter' or 'rudder' • So how is American English 'r' produced? -4- bunched vs. retroflex r