H 9
J. Kim
Phonetics & Phonology
Consonants 0
Cross section of human vocal tract
Consonants 1: Place of Articulation
a. Bilabial (and Voicing)
A p is made by expelling air from the lungs, which is constricted by a closure made by
bringing the two lips together (so bilabial: two lipped). The lips are then moved apart,
and the sound is released. Because it is the two lips that come together and pull apart to
form the stop release, the p is categorized as a bilabial (meaning two-lipped) stop
consonant. And there are other English sound that also involve bilabial closure, b. p and
b are exactly same articulation except b involves voicing (closure of vocal tract). So p
and b are a pair: everything’s same except one –voicing
/p/-voiceless bilabial -pound
/b/-voiced bilabial -bound
/m/ -voiced bilabial (nasal) – film , mild
b. Labiodental
Air is constricted (although not complete closure: fricative) by the upper teeth and lower
lip (so Labiodental)
/f /- voiceless labiodental –phonology, fry
/v/ -voiced labiodental -voice, pry
c. Interdental
Sound is constricted (although not complete closure: fricative) between the upper and
lower teeth , into which the tip of tongue is placed.
/ /- voiceless interdental –thigh, thank you
/ / –voiced interdental –thy, father
d. Alveolar
Sound articulated in the vicinity of the alveolar ridge.
/t/-voiceless alveolar
/d/-voiced alveolar
(complete closure of alveolar ridge: stop)
/s/-voiceless alveolar
/z/-voiceless alveolar(not- complete closure: fricative)
/n/-voiced alveolar (nasal): air uses nasal cavity – kin
/l/-voiced alveolar (lateral: the sides of the tongues are lowered and air escapes)-like
/r/-voiced alveolar (retroflex sound: retroflex tongue position) –rabbit
e. (Alveo)palatal
Alveolar palatal sounds are made by placing the tip of the tongue just under the area
between the alveolar ridge and the hard palate.
/ /-voiceless (alveo)palatal (fricative) -ship
/ /-voiced (alveo)palatal (fricative) – decision, measure
/ /-voiceless (alveo)palatal (affricate) – chip
/ /-voiced (alveo)palatal (affricate)-judge
Affricate is a single but complex sound: beginning as a stop but releasing secondarily into
a fricative.
/y/ voiced (alveo)palatal (glide) - yes
f. Velar
Velar consonants are formed when the body of the tongue approaches or- in the case of
/k/ and /g/- touches the soft palate (the soft palate is called velum)
/k/ -voiceless velar (stop) – kite
/g/- voiced velar (stop) – gag
/ / -voiced velar (nasal) - king
g. Glottal
sound produced across the glottis.
/?/ - voiceless glottal (stop)
/h/ - voiceless glottal (fricative)
Consonant 2: Manner of articulation
a. Stop
Stops are sounds produced when the airflow is completely obstructed during speech.
In English, there are 6 stops: p, t, k and their voiced counterparts (b,d,g)
b. Fricative
Fricatives are sounds produced when the airflow is forced through a narrow opening in
the vocal tract so that noise produced by friction is created. In English, there are 9
fricatives: f, 0, s, s and their voiced counterparts (v, o, z, z) and h.
c. Affricate
An Affricate sound begin as a stop but releasing secondarily into a fricative. In English,
there are two affricates: c and its voiced counterpart j
d. Nasal
With nasals, the airflow and sound energy are channeled into the nasal passages, due to
the lowering of the velum (soft palate). Three nasals in English: m, n, n
e. Liquids
Liquid sound are found in the overwhelming majority of the world’s languages. The term
liquid is a nontechnical, impressionistic expression indicating that the sound is “smooth”
and “flows easily” English has two liquids:
/ l / labial liquid: the sides of the tongue are lowered, permitting the air to flow outward.
/ r / retroflex (or non lateral) liquid: in American English, it is produced with a tongue
blade that is raised toward the alveolar ridge. This sound is also produced with curled tip
of tongue upward and backward.
f. Glide
Glides are vowellike articulations that precede and follow true vowels. The term glide is
based on the observation that the sequence of a glide. Because the tongue position in
articulating the glides /y/ and /w/ is similar tot he tongue position of the vowels in beet
and boot , respectively, these glides are sometimes referred to as semivowels.
/y/ alveopalatal glide: it is formed with the body and blade of the tongue arched in a high,
front position, toward the hard palate. –yes
/w/ labialized velar glide: It is formed with the body of the tongue arched in a high, back
position, toward the soft palate. Lip rounding also accompanies the production fo this
sound. –wood
/w/ - a labialized velar glide with a voiceless beginning: Some speakers of English have
different initial sounds in the words which and witch. For these speakers the initial sound
in which begins as a voiceless sound, followed immediately by the glide w. some
linguists write this initial sound as the hw.
Consonant Chart
Practice)
Vowels 0
Whereas consonants are formed by obstructions-either partial or total- in the vocal tract,
vowels are produced with a relatively open vocal tract, the latter functioning as a
resonating chamber. The different vowels are formed by the different shapes of the open
resonating vocal tract, and the variety of shapes is determined by the following factors:
1. raising or lowering the body of the tongue
2. advancing or retracting the body of the tongue
3. rounding or not rounding the lips
4. making these movements with a tense or a lax gesture
therefore, when describing a vowel, it is necessary to provide information about these
four aspects of the articulation of the vowel.
Vowels 1: Lax vowels (or short vowels)
/ I / high front lax unrounded – bit, wish
/ / mid front lax unrounded – get, mess
/ / low front lax unrounded –ash (lowered tongue body and jaw)
/^ / mid central lax unrounded vowel – putt
/U / high back lax rounded vowel –put, foot
/ / mid back lax rounded vowel – caught, bought
/ a / low back lax unrounded vowel- hot , pot
/ / schwa, a mid central lax, also called a reduced vowel. It is the last vowel sound in
the word sofa
Vowels 2: Tense vowels (or a long vowel)
/i/ high front tense unrounded –bead, three (iy)
/e/ mid front tense unrounded- clay, weigh (ey)
/u/ high back tense rounded- crude, shoe (uw)
/o/ mid back tense rounded – boat, toe (ow)
Practice
Phoneme
The smallest unit of sound capable fo distinguishing between two words.
This means that changing the phoneme will produce a change in the meaning of a word.
So that, for example, exchanging /p/ for /b/, in the word bin, will result in the new word,
pin. Two different pronunciation of a Truck [tr^k] and [tr^k] are not two different
phonemes they do not distinguish words.
The things on the consonants and vowels charts are phonemes in English, but not
necessarily in other languages.
Minimal pairs
Pairs of words which are distinguished from each other by only one phoneme.
bin & pin, putt & put, foot & put
Phonetic variations on a phone
Phonetic Variations on a phonemic Theme.
So far we have assumed that the sounds represented by the phonemic transcription
system of English are articulated exactly the same way each time they produced. This
assumption ignores an important aspect of the pronunciation of some phonemes. One
phoneme can be pronounced in different ways..
Phonetic variations
a. Aspiration of Stops : when a voiceless stop /p/ /t/ /k/ occurs at the beginning of a
syllable, its pronunciation is accompanied by a puff of air aspiration.
Example) Top vs. stop, pat vs. spat, kid vs. skid
In order to represent more detailed aspects of pronunciation such as aspiration, linguists
use a system called phonetic transcription. By convention, phonetic symbols are
enclosed in square brackets [ ], as opposed to the more general transcription (phonemic
transcription) we have been using that encloses symbols in slant lines / /.
In phonemic transcription kid and skid is /kId/ and /skId/ , but in phonetic transcription
they are [khId ] and [skId], two different forms of one phoneme /t/ in English.
b. Unreleased Stops: The pronunciation of final /t/ in words such as kit is frequently
unreleased in the speech of many Americans: The tongue touches the alveolar ridge but
does not immediately drop away to release the sound. It is represented as the symbol [ ]
after the consonant. So [kIt]
c. glottal stop replacement of t: In certain words the tendency to have a glottal closure
with the articulation of /t/ in certain environments reaches such an extreme that the glottal
stop actually replaces /t/ -The /t/ is generally replaced by the glottal stop if the following syllable contains a
syllabic /n/. The term syllabic here refers to the fact that nasal consonants /n/ can
function as syllables by themselves, without any accompanying vowel. It is represented
as [n]. - as in button [b^?n] and kitten [kI?n].
d. Alveopalatal t: [t] : occurs syllable-initial before r as in truck
e. Flap [D] for /t/ and /d/: in American English, it occurs between vowels, when the first
vowel is stressed – pitted [phI Did]
catty
caddy
latter
ladder
f. dental consonant: alveolar sounds are pronounced with the tip of tongue on the teeth
rather than on the alveolar ridge when followed by an interdental consonant.
Health
Unthinkable
Eighth
g. velarized [l]: as in feel (vs. leaf)
peel (vs. lip)
tall
golf
occur following vowels, either at the end of a word or before a word-final consonant.
h. Voiceless liquids and Glides
When liquids and glides in English follow a voiceless obstruent in speech they are
pronounced as voiceless consonants.
Proof [pruf]
Sleep [slip]
Quick [kwik]
i. Nasalized vowels
the vowel in green is nasalized as a result of the nasal consonant that follows it. (vs.
greed)
green [grin]
sewn [son]
lamb [l aem]
Allophones
The phoneme /t/ has a number of phonetic variants depending on its position in a word.
The phonemic symbol /t/ is actually a cover symbol for a range of different sounds
(phones). We refer to all of the sounds/phones as its allophones. So [t] [th] [t] [?] [t] [t]
and [D] are all allophones. They are not phonemes because they do not cause change of a
word or meaning. Only /t/ is the phoneme and [t] [th] [t] [?] [t] [t]and [D] are allophones
of the phoneme /t/ in English.
Allophones do not make minimal pairs.
Free variation and Complementary distribution
The final consonant of kit is sometimes released [khIt] and sometimes unreleased [khIt]:
both versions are possible – these allophones of /t/ are in free variation.
The allophones of a phoneme can also occur in complementary distribution. For example
in the position following /s/, the phoneme /t/ has the obligatory positional variant [t] and
the allophones [th] and [?] never occur in this position. In this case, these allophones are
in complementary distribution, not in free variation.