Linguistics week 6
Phonetics 4
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Parameters for describing
consonants
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So far (this is not complete yet) we have
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So, [p] is …
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Airstream (usually the same for all consonants)
Place of articulation
Voicing
Manner of articulation
egressive pulmonic
bilabial
voiceless
plosive
This was what I was expecting in the quiz!
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3
Affricates in Mandarin
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/tsʰ/ and /ts/
/tʂʰ/ and /tʂ/
/tɕʰ/ and /tɕ/
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Can you guess what they are?
What is the ʰ?
Why have I suddenly started using /asd/ instead of
[asd]? (slant brackets instead of square brackets)
ㄘ and ㄗ
ㄔ and ㄓ(retroflex affricate)
ㄐ and ㄑ(alveolo-palatal affricate)
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Aspiration
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Aspirated and unaspirated consonants
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ㄅ is unaspirated [p]
» Voicing for the next sound (a vowel) begins immediately after
plosion
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ㄆ is aspirated [ph] (puff of air)
» Vocal folds remain open briefly, after the stop is released
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English: spit vs pit (aspiration difference)
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Compare pit vs bit
That is a voicing difference
Aspiration is much less important in English than in
Chinese
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Can you explain why?
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Because aspiration in Mandarin is
phonemic
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pʰ and p are two different phones; two different sounds
but in Mandarin they are different phonemes
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/pʰa/ (ㄆㄚ) and /pa/ (ㄅㄚ) represent different meanings
in English pʰ and p do not help to distinguish meaning
There are no minimal pairs like pʰa and pa
Slant brackets are used for phonemic transcriptions //
Square brackets are used for phonetic transcriptions []
This is an important point
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We will return to it later
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Mandarin sounds
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http://www.wfu.edu/~moran/Cathay_Cafe/I
PA_NPA_4.htm
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This week
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Sound description, recording and
animation. Take a look at
http://www.uiowa.edu/~acadtech/phonetics/
about.html# and click on “English library”.
Read about vowels, pp252-256. What are
the parameters for describing vowels (like
voicing, airstream etc with consonants)?
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Vowels vs consonants
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Consonants
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There is some obstruction in the vocal tract
(=the mouth or throat)
Vowels
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There is no such obstruction (the air flows
freely)
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Regional accent variation
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English accents
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The consonants are generally the same
The vowels are often very different
Mandarin Chinese accents
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Pronunciation of consonants often varies
widely according to region
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Describing vowels
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Say [i] followed by [æ] (like cat)
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Think about where your tongue is
Look in a mirror
What changes? What can you say about the
position of the tongue in the two cases?
This is one of the parameters of vowel
description
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Another parameter
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Now compare [ɑ] (father) with [æ] (like
cat)
You can also try comparing the vowels in
ㄢ and ㄤ
Notice any difference?
This is the second distinguishing parameter
(factor)
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The third parameter
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Fromkin (p254) invites you to compare 四
with 速
Or more straightforwardly, compare ㄧ with
ㄩ
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The difference should be quickly apparent
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So, the 3 parameters are…
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The IPA vowel chart
• This is a stylized
representation of the
inside of the mouth
• It shows
– the cardinal vowels
• marked by black dots
– and the approximate
position of vowels common
in many languages
• The next slide shows the
position of English vowels
on the same kind of chart
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British
American
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Links for vowel sounds
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General American (GenAm)
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British “Received Pronunciation” (RP)
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http://www.ic.arizona.edu/~lsp/IPA/SSAE.html
http://alvin.myplace.nie.edu.sg/niesounds/
Cardinal vowels (those shown on the IPA chart)
and diphthongs of RP and GenAm
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http://www.yorku.ca/earmstro/ipa/vowels.html
This is one of the best designed web interfaces I have
ever seen, by the way!
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Diphthongs
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Fromkin describes these as a vowel + a glide
(p255) so /bajt/; /bawt/
Most other writers say there are two vowels
involved
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an initial vowel, in “bite” or ㄞ = a
a target vowel, in “bite” or ㄞ = I
the tongue moves towards I
but doesn’t actually reach its target
Check the cool website for a demo
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Tense vs lax vowels: Fromkin
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British vowels are short /I/ or long /i:/
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American vowels are generally described as either tense or lax
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See p255
Some of the tense vowels correspond to diphthongs in British
pronunciation
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Some people write the transcription with the colon (:)
/lod/  /ləʊd/; /led/  /leId
This means that /e/ is available to transcribe American /ɛ/
so, “led” is /lɛd/ in American transcription, but /led/ in British
transcription
And /led/ would be spelled “laid” to an American linguist
A question for you to consider:
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We talked about 3 parameters for describing vowels. Why don’t we have
a 4th parameter “length” or “tenseness” or “laxness”?
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Quizzes, exams etc etc
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In week 10, there is an 80 minute midterm exam. You can
expect questions on:
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Anything I talked about in class
Anything on these slides
Anything from the web resources I referred you to
Anything from Fromkin, in the sections related to what we
covered in class
For some questions, you will write a short answer of a few
words, maybe a number, maybe a symbol
For other questions, you will write a short paragraph.
You will get a half credit for anything you write in Chinese
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Quizzes, exams etc etc
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The quiz last time was slightly disappointing
So, next week there will be another quiz
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All consonants (including approximants/glides and
affricates) found in English and Mandarin
Vowels of American English, classified according to
Figure 6.5 in Fromkin
If I ask for a symbol, write only one symbol
If I ask for the 3 or 4 parameters which define a
sound, write the term for each of the 3 or 4
parameters!
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