Phonetics Lecture Notes PDF

Phonetics I. Background Two approaches to Phonetics - Articulatory phonetics: physiological mechanisms of speech production - Acoustic phonetics: measuring and analyzing the physical properties of the sound waves produced while speaking IPA (International Phonetic Alphabets): est...

Phonetics I. Background Two approaches to Phonetics - Articulatory phonetics: physiological mechanisms of speech production - Acoustic phonetics: measuring and analyzing the physical properties of the sound waves produced while speaking IPA (International Phonetic Alphabets): est 1888 The use of standardized phonetic alphabet enables linguists to transcribe languages consistently and accurately. Units of representation Features: subunits of segments (articulatory gestures, acoustic effects) Segments: individual speech sounds (phones) Syllables Evidence for the existence of segments Slips of tongues: Welcome mat  Melcome wat 스카치테프  스타케치프 C1V1 C2V2 C3V3 C4V4 C5V5  C1V1 C4V2 C2V4 C3V3 C5V5 The sound-producing system Air movement: Lungs  Larynx  Pharynx  Oral cavity/Nasal cavity Glottis: space between the vocal folds within larynx Glottal states 1. voiceless 2. voiced 3. whisper (voiceless, back portions are apart) 4. murmur (voiced, breathy) Sound classes Vowels, Consonants, Glides Vowels Consonants Obstruction No Complete or narrowing of vocal tract Sonority Loud Quiet Glides: (yet, wet, boy, now) Semivowels or semiconsonants 1 Syllable: A peak of sonority surrounded by less sonorous segments. Syllabicity: that which allows one to occupy a nucleus of a syllable Vowels and some consonants are syllabic II. Consonants 1. The tongue Tip Blade Body Back Root Dorsum (body + back) 2. The places of articulation Labial: bilabial labiodental Interdental Alveolar Alveopalatal Palatal Velar labiovelar Uvular Pharyngeal Glottal 3. Manners of articulation Stops: complete closure (Table 2.4) Aspiration (aspirated stops vs. unaspirated stops) A brief delay after the release of certain consonants before the voicing of a following vowel Voice Onset Time Pal vs. spill vs. bill (Figure 2.6) Fricatives: continuous airflow (Table 2.6) Affricates: slow release of closure (Table 2.7) Stridents (or sibilants) Nosier fricatives and affricates: alveolar and alveopalatal (Table 2.8) Liquids 2  Lateral (voiced vs. voiceless (please, clear)) Retroflex Flap (Table 2.10) Nasals (nasal stops): complete closure with the lowered velum Syllabic liquids and syllabic nasals Glides [j] virtually identical to [i] [w] virtually identical to [u] Summary: Table 2.12 III. Vowels 1. Simple vowels and diphthongs Diphthongs: vowels that exhibit a change in quality within a single syllable. English Diphthongs: vowel  glide (e.g., say, buy, cow, ice, go, boy, (heed, lose)) Table 2.13 2. Basic parameters a. Tongue Positions Height: high, mid, low Backness: front, (central), back b. Lip Rounding c. Tense vs. lax Tense vowels involve greater vocal tract constriction than lax vowels *Monosyllabic English words spoken in isolation do not end in lax vowels: see, say, Sue, so, saw 3. Schwa: reduced vowel (shorter duration) IV. Suprasegmentals 1. Pitch Two kinds of controlled pitch movement found in human language: tone, intonation A. Tone languages Differences in word meaning are signaled by differences in pitch. 3  Tone can have a grammatical function (i.e. verb tense in Bini: Fig 2.15) - Register (level) Tones (Fig. 2.12, 2.13) - Contour Tones (tone change within a syllable: Fig. 2.14) Autosegmental notation B. Intonation : pitch movement that is not related to differences in word meaning Terminal contour: falling intonation at the end Non-terminal contour: rising or level intonation (Fig 2.16) Tones: not absolute but relative pitches Downdrift in Igbo (Fig. 2.20) 2. Length short/long vowels/consonants distinguish meanings e.g) vowel length in Yapese (Table 2.19), consonant length in Italian (Table 2.20) 3. Stress a cover term for the combined effects of pitch, loudness, length  perceived prominence. e.g.) export (n) export (v), present (n), present (v) vowel quality change according to stress placement change in English: vowel reduction (Table 2.21) Stress notation V. Processes Assimilation: regressive (‘can’ vs. ‘cat’) progressive (Scots Gaelic: Table 2.22) devoicing (English ‘please’, ‘proud’, ‘pure’: [l], [r], [j]) voicing (Dutch [afbellen]  [avbellen]) place (English ‘impossible’, ‘intolerable’, ‘inconsistent’, ‘Banff’) Dissimilation: ‘fifths’ [fs]  [fts] Deletion: schwa deletion in English (Table 2.25) 4 Epenthesis: ‘something’ (Table 2.26) Turkish (Table 2.27) Metathesis: ‘spaghetti’  ‘pesghetti’, ‘prescribe’  ‘perscribe’ 5