This document is posted to help you gain knowledge. Please leave a comment to let me know what you think about it! Share it to your friends and learn new things together.
Transcript
Henry Rogers: The Sounds of Language
January 29, 2009
1 Introduction
perl le)o^ aql z.[ aJnotJ
eaqOEJ-L
........ splo] lEcon
xu^iel
aldde s,uepv
srllot6rdf
tp/Alea6ufueqd
';. sdt-l
tsnbEqdosff
xu^Jeud
lee6u^iet
spu
noi
l,!tJIP 1
-uot
mo.
lBsr
xutueq4..i
xu{.reqd 1e.rg "
xuLreqd lesery ..
enbuol
li1rnec 1et6
{1tnec;esery
se s+Jed aaJr{+ olur p;
::'.:";,";;;#"1':'Jii:"Tl] ,:jil: f:"u pue rplo aq, q,r^4 xvrrel
aqo111 'dy1ryar!r asaql dprls 'dwnfi pue /slpq sprom aql smor{s y7 atn3rg'auq lq8rerls p qlyr{ auq ppo13 aql uo ssalaJrol sr /s/ aq+ +eq} os1e pu! aurl
Ieuoror ar{} uo /s/ eq+ roJ arnlJrr}s a^r}eJr{ e rl+lzlt /DsD/ s^ oqs 9.7 arn8rg'ssalaJrol JoJ aurl lq8rerls e pue 'pecrozr JoJ aurl pa3?e[ e 1sqo13 aql Jo
qsr16u3 lo spunos )!see or{t r I
al!ls aql ^
or
uMorls SI PulErI] puE sJn;
aqo11 'd1r,rqJ
qlF 'ampr.4pue're1oaa1'do1s e ro; :-rurxordde udilry lsatrq o
'saurl ar-1o13 e ldarxSura,toqs sau
gede trretua
Surrnq'do1
'uado sr peq
2
2.1 English consonants
2.1.1 Allophones and phonemes
Levels for representing sounds: phonemic/phonological & phonetic/allophonic
• phonemes - /p/; broad transcription
• allophones - [p], [ph]; narrow transcription
• sounds in free variation - eg. [p] and [ph] in word-final position in English
2.1.2 Voicing
In English, voiced obrstruents are partially voiceless when they occur at the beginning or end of the word.
2.1.3 Length
In English, consonants at the end of the word are slightly longer than at the beginning (kick [ ])
2.1.4 Place of articulation
Dental assimilation - assimilation of alveolars before dentals to the dental place of articulation (width [ ]).
Retroflexion - assimilation of alveolars to the retroflexed position after an / / (bird [ ]).
The postalveolars / / and the retroflex / / have inherent rounding which is independent of the context.
The velar stops /k g/ are fronted if they are followed by a front vowel (key [ ]).
Homorganic nasals - nasals which assimilate to the place of articulation of the following consonant (symphony [ ]).
2.1.5 Manner of articulation
Aspiration = a delay in the onset of voicing in the segment following the aspirated stop (vowels and sonorants). Voiceless
stops are aspirated at the beginning of a stressed syllable, except after syllable-initial /s/ or at the beginning of an unstressed
A particular type of coarticulation, called overlapping, that occurs wistops is shown in words such as apt. Phonemically, the word is / ept/ v,t)
a simple sequence of /p/ followed by /t/. Phonetically, however, the /t/formed before the /p/ is released (Figure 8.4).Try saying apt;now, sayagain, but stop half-way through, during the /p/ . You will probably frthe tip of your tongue already at the alveolar ridge before the /p/ is t
leased. There is a short period when the closures for /p/ and. /t/ overlawe do not hear the release of the /p/ when the lips part because the tonghas already made a closure for the /t/. por this reason, we say that insequence of two overlapping stops, the first is released silently (Hendersand Repp, 1982); we can show this as tfil. We do not hear the release of t/p/ or the onset of the /t/.
tFTl, [t]
Labial
Silent releaseCoronal F
-
oilpl: '--=-_-- Silent onset
Voicing of [t]
Figure 3.4 overlapping in apt. The timing of the labial closure is shown inrelation to the alveolar closure
Release
Phonemic voiced stops are usually phonetically somewhat voiceless at tend of a word or phrase, and may be entirely voiceless: Ibed{l or [bed].may seem odd to say that aoiced sounds are aoiceless, but remember that rare dealing with different linguistic levels; stops which are considered voicrat the phonemic level may be voiceless at the phonetic level ln word-initiposition, the crucial phonetic distinction is aspiration.
stops at the end of a phrase may be released immediately or held for sortime so that the release is inaudible. The raised corner [j] is used to shcstops with inaudible release: lab lleb - teb- - lebp - Iebb-I. The allophonof /b/ - tb b- bb bb-l - are thus in free variation with each other: i.e., a finstop may be released audibly or not with no difference in meaning, andmay be completely voiceless or partially voiceless, again with no difference
meaning. There are similar allophones in free variation for /d/ and /g/[ -_--_=.\PhongTically_ vgiceles,s stops aj the end of i1@' Phenctiqally yoiceless. They may be plain, aspirated, or inaudibly re--t"u"e
Like the final allophones of the voiced stops, these three alophones a
also in free variation: hip lhrpl - [hryhl - [hrp-], put lphut] - tphthl - lphufslck [srk] - [srkh1 - [srk-].
".If ;o ged IaMo^ ra^rols arll sMoLIsMorr! aql Jo ged raprqt aq;. ./ Me / Buoqlqdlpar{l smoqs 7y7 an8rg./lvreq/ paqrDsuerl sr moqprom aql tsil.ql-/M/ se lr as{oqurfs snql ampue '/n/ a1r1 uorlrsod papunorun luor; qSrq e o1salour lI 'ap{8 p aJoJaJagl sr pue saloru uo4rod
puoJas aLII'UD/ uror; loquds luaraJJrp e) /e/ se 1r aqrrJsuerl III^^ a,\,t!/e/ pve /D/ vaa,*'q sr uorgod tsrrr arIJ ./n/ e
nol Jr 'EuruurHaq ar{l }e /I/ aW Burpre8arsrq .l1.,vrois *o, prl^ arl+ SuI
-fes d.r1 (.punos /d/ o: sr arar{l :11igJrp,1_y3 TGog}rprl aU _ guot114d1p
J=?_.::l?T"1ojd,pue Surilads aq1 dgercadsn a1o51;*iffi pue pm6faldrurs e;o aruanbas e s! Buraq auq ar{l roJ paurJap aq-uerpubqlqffiy
s6uoqlqdlq
slamo^ burpereld /M/ pue fu sapu6 eql ll.Z e.rn6p1
7;7 atn611
qsr16u3 lo spunos )!seq aql . Z
'aJ
aurl J,
-snIII
71afi upapue uror
/3/ r- uoF
eq'
e Jag
-uostr'uoqe
ol uol
d+r"dare sd
Surda
6
3.1 English vowels
RP / GA vowels and diphthongs:
RP simple vowels
/i/ beat, see, these, piece
/t/ bit, myth, ring, happy
/t/ bet, bread, said
/e/ bat,land, sang
/z/ purr, stern, heard, fir/ t/ putt, Ioae, lung
/u/ boot, cube, aiezu
/u/ put, wood, should
/t/ bought, jaw, chalk
/o/ pot, rob, box
/ct/ palm, father, far
Our last simple vowel is a mid centralunrounded vowel, slightly lower than /z/(Figure 2.73); it has the special name schwaand is written /a/. In Rp schwa occursonly in unstressed syllables. Listen to thesecond vowel in sofa. This is a schwa; youmay find it hard to hear because it is soshort. If you slow down your pronuncia-tion of sofa in an attempt to focus on theschwa more clearly, you are likely to dis-
1-!
fueer i5-ipear !-o
01te ?l
i-/
/l r IIiur c ;'!
tort its pronunciation. Figure 2.13 Rp simple vowels
The diphthongfrom a mid vorrrthe low diphthorrng tncreases as \glide /w/. The tlips are roundedfor the / j/.
/ej/ pe!
/aw/ go.
Three diphthorthe loss of /t/. \'simply disappeari
a /a/ position (Fig
towards a cenfralcentring diphthor
/rc/ beer.
. /ea/ bare.
1 /ua/ cure.
In these diphthcscript diacriUc [p]For the present, hothat in many !\.or(cure, /mt/ moor.
The GA vowel
GA has the follorri
i11Ig
ej ,9-., o\i-e (..9. r!Ao
beat ibit r
bait ej
bet rbat !
The diphthongs /aw aj // (Figure 2.14) ailstart with low vowels and have long glides,either to a high front or high ba-k posi_tion. The vowel / a/ represents a low irontvowel; this is the position where the / aj/and /aw/ diphthongs begin (Figure 2.14).The starting point for / aw / js a little far-ther back th an for / aj/ . Note that the vowelin the diphthong is written / a/ , not / o/ .
32
Figure 2.14 RP lowdiphthongs
_q(
hr
High
The Sounds of Language
GA simple vowels
/i/ beat, see, these, piece, city
/t/ bit, myth, ring
/x/ bet, bread, said
/e/ bat,Iand, sang
/u/ boot, cube, ztiew
put, wood, should
bought, jara, chalk
putt, loue, Iung
palm, father, far, pot, rob, box
Low
Figure 2.17 GA simple vowels
\\"- f/aj/\>A
\\/,"*,Figure 2.18 GA low diphthongs
Figure 2.19 GA mid diphthongs
/u//t/
/ q./
Our last simple vowel is a mid centralunrounded vowel (Figure 2.17);it has thespecial name schwa and is written /a/.In GA, schwa occurs only in unstressedsyllables and before / il .Listento the sec-
ond vowel in sofa. This is a schwa; youmay find it hard to hear because it is so
short. If you slow down your pronuncia-tion of sofa in an attempt to focus on theschwa more clearly, you are likely to dis-tort its pronunciation.
/a/
The diphthongs /aw ajg/ (Figure 2.18)
all start with low vowels and have longglides, either to a high front or high backposition. The vowel /a/ rcpresents a lowfront vowel; this is the position wherethe /aj/ and /aw/ diphthongs begin as
shown in Figure 2.18. Note that the vowelin the diphthong is written /a/, not /s./.
Our last simple vowel is a mid centralunrounded vowel, slightly lower than /z/(Figure 2.73); it has the special name schwaand is written /a/. In Rp schwa occursonly in unstressed syllables. Listen to thesecond vowel in sofa. This is a schwa; youmay find it hard to hear because it is soshort. If you slow down your pronuncia-tion of sofa in an attempt to focus on theschwa more clearly, you are likely to dis-
1-!
fueer i5-ipear !-o
01te ?l
i-/
/l r IIiur c ;'!
tort its pronunciation. Figure 2.13 Rp simple vowels
The diphthongfrom a mid vorrrthe low diphthorrng tncreases as \glide /w/. The tlips are roundedfor the / j/.
/ej/ pe!
/aw/ go.
Three diphthorthe loss of /t/. \'simply disappeari
a /a/ position (Fig
towards a cenfralcentring diphthor
/rc/ beer.
. /ea/ bare.
1 /ua/ cure.
In these diphthcscript diacriUc [p]For the present, hothat in many !\.or(cure, /mt/ moor.
The GA vowel
GA has the follorri
i11Ig
ej ,9-., o\i-e (..9. r!Ao
beat ibit r
bait ej
bet rbat !
The diphthongs /aw aj // (Figure 2.14) ailstart with low vowels and have long glides,either to a high front or high ba-k posi_tion. The vowel / a/ represents a low irontvowel; this is the position where the / aj/and /aw/ diphthongs begin (Figure 2.14).The starting point for / aw / js a little far-ther back th an for / aj/ . Note that the vowelin the diphthong is written / a/ , not / o/ .
32
Figure 2.14 RP lowdiphthongs
_q(
hr
High
^,tE[c
+noq
froq
fe a]tqD -u+tud__ _
rrl\^o |aoq.\-n-- ind
! laq
tpQfa +ryq
r ]!Q
I laaq
V!
(v3-d
[a
I
I
D
c
lvlO
o
n
lra.e [e
[c
v lnQ
e alos
poq
:sla^,vrol 3up,ro11o; aql ser{ VD
ruols^s la/l^o^ Vg aql
1ct41 :1en1Jo pealsur /c/ a^evsraleads du aruos ,"rr.':k(fflr't;:;,aloN 'a)ps s,dl'rydrurs JoJ pallluo sr JrlrD!rp aq1 ,raaaa,roq ,luasard
"q; ,og
'16 raldeq3 aas) p^ro^ e 1ou ,apq8 e q +I +erll ^roqs
o1 [8] c4rnelp jagx-qns e qllzvr uaprr.\,r aq fpadord p1nor{s !.\,\r{JS aq} ,s8uoqlqdrp asaql u1
slai,
@q)ox
s6uoqlqdrp 6uuluar 4g
s6uoqlqdrp plru dU
g1'7 ern6r1
rtln[ 'ptnw ,Lnop ,,tootu'atn) /en/ .
,' t:fim1A1 ilaql ,naq'anq /*/
Taat ,aapr ,3wma4'a.@q,naq
/et/'s8uoqlqd;p Surrluar
aql asaql IIeJ ueJ aru, ,uoqrsod I!JluaJ e sprelvlol
salour apr! aqt atu;5.OL.ZarnBrg; uo:nrsod. 1e1 espJe^rol aprlS e aureJaq qr !urreaddesrp dldurs/r/ eqt uBrF raq+er ,aseql qllM ./r/
lo ssoJ ar{l
Jo llnsar rrrolsnl aql are s8uoqqqdrp aarqJ
paot,a1ou'oB /lwe/4aatq,apaw,frad /[a/
.1[1 at41 tolos ssal aruoJaq pue /c/ aq+ JoJ papunoJ are sdrlarp !1[c1 q4zrt suaddeq asra^ar
"q7.1^1 "prp papunoJ aql ol / e / uor; oB nod se saseanur Bur-punor d{
Our last simple vowel is a mid centralunrounded vowel (Figure 2.17);it has thespecial name schwa and is written /a/.In GA, schwa occurs only in unstressedsyllables and before / il .Listento the sec-
ond vowel in sofa. This is a schwa; youmay find it hard to hear because it is so
short. If you slow down your pronuncia-tion of sofa in an attempt to focus on theschwa more clearly, you are likely to dis-tort its pronunciation.
/a/
The diphthongs /aw ajg/ (Figure 2.18)
all start with low vowels and have longglides, either to a high front or high backposition. The vowel /a/ rcpresents a lowfront vowel; this is the position wherethe /aj/ and /aw/ diphthongs begin as
shown in Figure 2.18. Note that the vowelin the diphthong is written /a/, not /s./.
Our last simple vowel is a mid centralunrounded vowel (Figure 2.17);it has thespecial name schwa and is written /a/.In GA, schwa occurs only in unstressedsyllables and before / il .Listento the sec-
ond vowel in sofa. This is a schwa; youmay find it hard to hear because it is so
short. If you slow down your pronuncia-tion of sofa in an attempt to focus on theschwa more clearly, you are likely to dis-tort its pronunciation.
/a/
The diphthongs /aw ajg/ (Figure 2.18)
all start with low vowels and have longglides, either to a high front or high backposition. The vowel /a/ rcpresents a lowfront vowel; this is the position wherethe /aj/ and /aw/ diphthongs begin as
shown in Figure 2.18. Note that the vowelin the diphthong is written /a/, not /s./.
Iaqle' sr 11 'a1qe11ts e Jo pua aq+ re s'nrr" r""":';t:# :T$T,;lt:t "ji; +e srnJ)o /q/ lua]l'o
]sotrAJ.r+a ,/n/ ssalarro^.! a{{ spunos oqmlo /q/ aql i/3/ ssalarro^ e a{rl spunos por,4 1o /^U) aUl !/I/.ssalarrol e J>[rl spunos a,/ lo /q/ aql snqJ .a1qe11.,{s e yo 3u1uu!3"q
"q, ln',{1.ro b,r,rrr,-o-,"lr"r.oruo, n se suorpury 1r ,uoqcnpo.rd qr yo ,r'.rr"1 .ri IaMoA ssalaJrol e q /q/ q8noqily 'uoqrsod ssalarrol e ur are sploJ lero^
"q,,rnri, 1dn"*" ,6;;,; Bura,ro11oy aql a{{ lsnf - laa,roa ssalaJrol e se pasqea, Xirrn,rrpro . ,i')':ipJrFuoqd
qsr16u1 lo spunos )!seq eql . Z
tqt ,v, pue du
3.1.1 Distributional restrictions
Tense/lax distinction:
• tense: longer, higher, more peripheral; / / / /
• lax: shorter, lower, more central; / /
The distinction is found only in syllables with primary and secondary stress.
In English, lax vowels do not occur in word-final open syllables. Tense vowels occur in both open and closed syllables.
3.1.2 RP
Smoothing: the glide in the diphthongs / / before / / is often lost and / / becomes a glide (fire, hour, player).
Linking / /
In 18th century in southern England, / / was lost at the end of a phrase or before a consonant (very far [ ], but far
away [ ]). Over time, the view has changed and the speakers no longer felt that the / / gets deleted, but that it gets
inserted between morphemes, if the preceding morpheme ends in a non-high vowel, and the following morpheme begins
with a vowel. As a result, the / / gets inserted where it never existed historically (the idea / / is).
3.1.3 GA
/ / do not occur before / /. That is also the only situation in which / / occurs in a stressed syllable.
8
3.1.4 Allophonic variations in RP and GA
Only lax vowels occur before / / and / /, except in borrowed words (usually from French, like quiche, fiche, douche), and in
words that ’are not felt to be ordinary words and often do not agree with regular phonotactic constraints (oink, boing).
Inherent length/contextual length
• tense vowels are slightly longer than lax vowels - inherent
• vowels are longer before a voiced sound, in an open syllable, and when stressed - contextual
Before /l/ the vowels /i u/ frequently have a schwa glide (peel [ ]). The glide in the diphthong /ej/ sometimes also
changes to [ ] (pail [ ]).
Next to a nasal consonant, vowels often get nasalised (man [ ]).
9
4 Suprasegmentals
4.1 Syllable, mora
Production of the syllable - Stetson (1951): ’chest pulse’theory
Perception of the syllable - sonority theory (problem /s/-stop clusters)
Mora - a unit of time; a consonant in a coda of a syllable is a separate mora, and a branching nucleus forms two moras.
Stress-timed languages - major stresses tend to occur at even intervals of time (English), syllable-timed languages - each
syllable of an utterance takes about the same amount of time (French), mora-timed languages - each mora of an utterance
takes about the same amount of time (Japanese).
4.1.1 English
Onset
• all consonants except / /
• / / in very few words, usually borrowed from French (gigue, genre)
Coda
• /h/ does not occur in coda
• in RP, / / does not occur in coda
Stress
• strong from vs. weak form - that [ ] vs. [ ]
4.2 Length
Both vowels and consonants can contrast in length - German: Staat [ ] vs. Stadt [ ]; Italian: [ ] vs. [ ].
4.3 Pitch and tone
Pitch - changes in the fundamental frequency.
Tone - the phonological use of pitch.
Contour tones have a specific shape at a particular point on the musical scale (high level, low falling, etc.) - Chinese, Viet-
namese.
Register tones are always level (high, low) - Shrebro, Nupe.
10
4.3.1 Drift and step
Downdrift
In H-L-H-L sequence, the level of high syllables that follow low syllables is reset a little lower after a low tone. The low
town can drift lower as well.
Downstep
Each syllable is specified as high, low, or downstep. After a high tone, a syllable with downstep is slightly lower in pitch that
the previous hight tone, and this level becomes the new level for later high tones.
4.3.2 Pitch accent
Syllables or moras don’t independently have a high or a low tone. There is an overall tonal pattern for words and a linguis-
tically determined lexical accent (eg. Japanese).
There are languages, like Swedish, that has contrastive pitch patterns. However, since the basic suprasegmental pattern
of such languages is intonational, the contrastive use of tone is a small part of a much larger pattern. Therefore, such
languages are not tone languages.
4.4 Stress
= the perceived prominence of one syllable over another, due to loudness, pitch and duration
Location of the stress can be determined by a general principle (Macedonian - antepenultimate stress) or it can be alternating.
A word can have more than one stress, and the stress pattern can be alternating. Such patterns are usually analysed in
terms of feet. There are feet that have a fixed number of syllables (bounded), and feet that can have any number of syllables
(unbounded). If the feet are bounded, and there is a foot with fewer than the usual number of syllables, it is said to be
degenerate. Another thing that has to be established is whether the foot is left-headed or right-headed, and, if they are
bounded, if the direction is left to right or right to left. Finally, we have to determine which foot is the head of the word and
carries primary stress.
If a syllable is not left over at the end of word-formation, but is overlooked at the beginning of foot formation, it is not
considered ti be a degenerate foot, but an extrametrical syllable. That can only be the first or the last syllable of a word (eg.
Polish - there is only one unbounded foot, but the stress falls on the penultimate syllable; the final syllable is extrametrical)
11
5 English accents
Traits which commonly distinguish English accents:
(1) Presence of non-prevocalic / / (rhotic and non-rhotic accents).
(2) Distinction of caught-cot.
(3) Distinction of but-put.
(4) Final vowel of baby: [ ] or [ ]?
(5) Distinction of pat-path.
(6) Presence of /h/.
(7) Vowels of hate and boat: diphthongs or monophthongs?
(8) Presence of /j/ after alveolars.
(9) Intervocalic /t/: voiced, tapped, or glottalised.