Phonetics: The Sounds of Language CONSONANT SOUNDS
Feb 13, 2016
Phonetics: The Sounds of Language
CONSONANT SOUNDS
Three ways of approaching phonetics: Articulatory Phonetics:
Physiological mechanism of speech production. Acoustic Phonetics:
The physical properties of sound waves. Auditory Phonetics:
Perception of the sounds by the brain.
Phonetics of languages
You can make a lot of noises with your mouth, but only some of these are used in speech.
Almost every language uses a different set of these possible sounds.
We will mostly focus on English sounds for now.
Tomato or Tomahto?
http://video.google.com/videosearch?hl=en&rlz=1G1GGLQ_ENUS244&q=gershwin+let%27s+call+the+whole+thing+off&um=1&ie=UTF-8&ei=lv-aSqeSD82pnAfu-6WWCA&sa=X&oi=video_result_group&ct=title&resnum=4#q=+let%27s+call+the+whole+thing+off&hl=en&emb=0
Differences in pronunciation
Tomato/Tomahto Do you say pin/pen in the same way? Do you say push or poosh? How do you say ‘car’? How about ‘dawn’?
How do you best symbolize the different pronunciation?
There are lots of conventions used. (see p. 41)
How well does the English alphabet represent sounds?
5 problems with English spelling The same sound can be represented by different letters: sea, see, scene,
receive, thief, ameoba, machine
One letter can represent several different sounds: fish, light; chart, character
Two sounds may be represented by a single letter: I; use; judge
Two letters may be used to indicate a single sound: ship, three, leisure, enough
Some letters represent no sound at all: base, knight, psychology
International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA) The IPA is consistent, unambiguous, and
there is always a one-to-one sound to symbol correspondence.
IPA has been developing since 1888 These symbols can be used to transcribe the
sounds of any language. The system represents each sound of human
speech with a single symbol. The symbol is enclosed in brackets [ ].
IPA, continued
IPA website http://www.arts.gla.ac.uk/ipa/ipachart.html To use a symbol to describe what someone says, we put
the symbols in square brackets “[ ]”. You will need to be able to:
identify the number of sounds in a word transcribe English words using IPA translate from IPA into English spelling
See page 43 for examples of symbols
Articulation of sound
Articulation is the motion or positioning of some part of the vocal tract with respect to some other vocal tract surface in the production of a speech sound
English uses a pulmonic (=lung) egressive (=blowing out) air stream mechanism.
Vowels are usually the nucleus of the syllable and consonants are usually the onset (start) or coda (end) of the syllable.
To describe articulation for consonants: Is the sound voiced or voiceless? (action of the
vocal folds) Where is the airstream constricted? (place of
articulation) How is the airstream constricted? (manner of
articulation) Descriptions are in the order of
Voicing+Place+Manner
Places of Articulation
Bilabial [p], [b], [m]
Labiodental
Interdental
Alveolar [t], [d], [s], [z], [], [r], [n]
[], []
[f], [v]
Places of Articulation Palatal [], [], [t], [d], []
Velar
Glottal [h]
[k], [g], [N], [w]
Places of Articulation
Manner of Articulation Plosive (Stop): Complete and momentary
closure of airflow through the vocal tract. [p], [t], [k], [b], [d], [g]
Nasal: The airflow passes through the nasal passages. [n], [m], []
Fricative: Continuous airflow through the mouth. [f], [], [s], [], [h], [v], [], [z], []
Manner of Articulation Affricate: The stop articulation is released and
the tongue moves rapidly away. [t], [d]
Liquid: Air escapes through the mouth along the lowered sides of the tongue. [], [r]
Glide: semi-consonants. [ j ], [w]
The consonant chart
See page 53 for the consonant chart
Some practice
1) Voiced bilabial stop2) Voiceless labiodental fricative3) Voiced bilabial nasal4) Voiceless velar stop5) Describe [n]6) Describe [w]7) Describe [g]8) Describe [m]