Lecture 9
Intonation: Falling head and Fall-Rise nucleus
English consonants: realization/allophonic variation (fortis & lenis obstruents,
voicing and aspiration)
CEI 6.1 &
6.3 SI!
7.1-2
Fall-Rise nucleus
\/
Now
\/
No, it isn’t
It’s a \/ joke
It’s quite \/scandalous
The fall-rise nucleus
 starts on a high pitch, falls to a low pitch and
starts rising again (usually to mid-pitch)
 can occur with (low) prehead
 can occur with a (rising) tail
 if the tail contains a stressed syllable, the rise
may start either on the syllable following the
nucleus, or on the one following the stressed
syllable
 NB: does not occur with high head / high
emphatic head
 the head associated with the fall-rise nucleus
is called a falling head
1
The falling head
 starts on a high pitch and moves gradually
towards a lower pitch (different from the High
Fall which (a) is a nuclear tone and (b) does
the whole fall on one single syllable)
 combines only with a Fall-Rise nucleus (i.e.
cannot be used in combination with High Fall,
Low Fall, Low Rise, High Rise)
 can be emphatic (i.e. if there are two or more
accented syllables in it). Then each accented
syllable starts on a higher pitch than the
preceding syllable (examples in 3)
2
The meaning of the Fall-Rise pattern
 a rising tone  it is non-conclusive, nondefinite
 used when the speaker wants to
o sound tentative (e.g. Ex\/cuse me)
o express uncertainty (if used in a
statement)
o make clear that s/he hasn’t finished (a
continuation rise)
o express a reservation (typically followed by
but, e.g. I’d \/ love to…)
o express a contrast (Not \/ Tuesday, | but
\Thursday, I said)
o make a (polite) warning or correction (e.g.
\/
Careful! You mean \/ Tuesday )
In addition, the pattern may be associated with
complaining, concern, and worry.
3
Fortis and lenis obstruents: Force of
articulation
From The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Grammar
lenis Of a consonant sound: made with relatively
weak breath force. Contrasted with FORTIS. In
English, voiced plosives and fricatives (e.g. /b/, /d/,
//) tend to be made with less muscular effort and
less breath force than their voiceless counterparts.
They are therefore sometimes called lenis
consonants (Latin lenis, soft, easy).
fortis Of a consonant sound or its articulation:
made with relatively strong breath force; contrasted
with LENIS. In English the voiceless plosives and
fricatives (/p/, /t/, /k/, /s/, etc.) tend to be made with
stronger muscular effort and breath force than their
voiced counterparts. Such consonants are
therefore said to be fortis consonants and to be
pronounced with a fortis articulation.
4
The fortis/lenis distinction
Used about obstruents (fricatives and stops)
Concerns
 force of articulation (muscular tension)
 voicing
 stronger / weaker friction (fricatives and
affricates)
 +/- aspiration (plosives)
 length of preceding vowel (+ sonorants)
5
Fortis/lenis fricatives
Fortis: , , , , 
always voiceless
Lenis: , , , 
voiced in word-initial position: , ,
voiced in word-medial position:
()()
usually devoiced in word-final position (except
if a voiced sound follows immediately within
the same tone unit): 
Fortis/lenis stops
Fortis: , , , 
Always voiceless (exception: intervocalic /t/ in
GA)
Lenis: , , , 
Voiced in word-initial position: ,
,
Voiced in word-medial position:
 
Usually devoiced in word-final position (unless
a voiced sound follows immediately within the
same tone unit): 
6
Allophonic variation
Allophones = alternative pronunciations of a
phoneme
Complementary distribution: different allophones of
a phoneme are used in different context
Example: voiced vs. devoiced lenis fricatives [z]
and [z] are allophones. They are not used in the
same phonetic environment.
Voicing of /t/
A voiced allophone is used in GA (but not in RP) in
intervocalic position before an unstressed syllable,
i.e. it is pronounced as the voiced tap []: writer,
sitting
but as /t/ if the following syllable is stressed.
potato [p ]
Lenis stops (plosives and affricates)
 (wholly or partly) devoiced in word-final
position
 Voiced in word-initial position
 Voiced in word-medial position (but may be
devoiced next to a fortis sound, as in magpie)
7
Non-nasal sonorants /l, w, r, j/
Devoiced allophones after /p, t, k/
plate 
twist / /
creep / /
cube / /
Aspirated vs. non-aspirated fortis plosives
Aspiration = a h-like sound accompanying the
release stage of a fortis plosive (thus delaying the
voicing of the vowel slightly as well)
[] as in pie
[] as in take
[] as in Kate
The aspirated allophones are most common in
most positions, but
following a syllable-initial /s/, aspiration does not
occur (i.e. the unaspirated allophone is used after
/s/)
[p] as in spy
[t] as in steak
[k] as in skate
note: the lenis plosives are never aspirated
8