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Short Introduction To Phonetics and Phonology
Short Introduction To Phonetics and Phonology
Descrierea CIP a Bibliotecii Naionale a Romniei VAN SCHAIK RDULESCU, MARA A short Introduction to phonetics and phonology / Van Schaik Rdulescu, Mara. - Bucureti, Editura Fundaiei Romnia de Mine, 2005 152 p.; 20,5 cm Bibliogr. ISBN 973-725-437-6 811.111.342344(075.8)
Redactor: Andreea DINU Tehnoredactor: Alexandru OAN Coperta: Stan BARON Bun de tipar: 26.01.2006; Coli tipar: 9,5 Format: 16/6186 Editura i Tipografia Fundaiei Romnia de Mine Splaiul Independenei nr.313, Bucureti, s. 6, O P. 83 Tel./ Fax 3169790; www. SpiruHaret.ro e-mail: contact@edituraromaniademaine
Ediia a II-a
Bucureti, 2006
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CONTENTS
FOREWORD . I. INTRODUCTION . 1. Phonetics and phonology as branches of linguistics . 1.1. Disciplines of linguistics .. 2. Speech sounds .. 3. The International Phonetic Alphabet . 4. On varieties of English 5. Questions . II. BRANCHES OF PHONETICS . 1. Acoustic phonetics .. 2. Auditory phonetics .. 3. Questions . III. ARTICULATORY PHONETICS ... 1. Airstream mechanisms . 2. The vocal cords ... 3. Resonance 4. Oral and nasal sounds .. 5. Active and passive articulators . 6. Manners of articulation 7. Fortis and lenis . 8. Places of articulation 9. Questions ..
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IV. CONSONANTS . 1. Obstruents 1.1. Plosives ... 1.1.1. Aspiration 1.2. Fricatives . 1.2.1. On the distribution of fricatives .. 1.3. Affricates . 2. Sonorant consonants . 2.1. Nasals . 2.2. Liquids 2.2.1. Laterals 2.2.2. Rhotics 3. Glides ... 3.1. Distribution and variation of glides . 4. Summary . 5. Questions and exercises V. VOWELS . 1. Criteria for classifying vowels 2. The Cardinal Vowels 3. Other criteria for classifying vowels 4. English vowel sounds .. 4.1. RP front vowels ... 4.2. RP back vowels ... 4.3. RP central vowels ... 4.4. RP centring diphthongs ... 4.5. RP diphthongs falling to [I] and to [U] .. 5. Questions and exercises VI. PHONOLOGY .. 1. Phonetics vs. phonology ... 2. Segmental vs. suprasegmental phonology 3. Segmental phonology . 6
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3.1 Phonemes and their variants . 3.2 Distribution ... 4. Questions .. VII. PHONOLOGICAL FEATURES ... 1. Major class features . 2. Consonantal features 2.1. Voice .. 2.2. Manner features . 2.3. Place features 3. Vowel features . 4. Summing up . 5. Questions and exercises VIII. PHONOLOGICAL RULES .. 1. Rule writing .. 2. Selecting the underlying form .. 3. Phonological alternations . 3.1 Phonetically conditioned alternations .. 3.2 Phonetically and morphologically conditioned alternations 3.3 Phonetically, morphologically and lexically conditioned alternations 4. More on rule writing 5. Derivations ... 5.1. Rule ordering .. 6. Questions and exercises
2. Other types of changes . 2.1. Deletion 2.2. Insertion .. 2.3. Metathesis 2.4. Reduplication ... 2.5. Haplology 3. Questions and exercises X. SUPRASEGMENTAL PHONOLOGY: THE SYLLABLE 1. Syllable structure .. 1.1. Sonority and the syllable .. 1.2. The onset-rhyme theory ... 1.3. The timing tier . 2. Syllabification .. 2.1. Principles of syllabification 3. Syllable weight . 3.1. Latin stress assignment rule 4. Questions and exercises XI. SUPRASYLLABIC STRUCTURE 1. Stress and accent .. 2. The metrical foot . 3. Intonation and tone .. 4. Questions and exercises .. SAMPLE TESTS ... APPENDIX 1: English consonantal clusters .. APPENDIX 2: English weak forms ... SUGGESTED ANSWERS TO SAMPLE TEST A . RECOMMENDED FURTHER READING BIBLIOGRAPHY 8
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FOREWORD
The general purpose of this course of lectures is to introduce the first year students in English to the study of sounds. The emphasis falls of course on the English sound system, but some examples from other languages are also brought up, so as to increase the explanatory power of the presentation. Preparing for this course will first of all enable the students to recognize, transcribe and describe the English sounds in general phonetic terms and to master the basic phonetic characteristics of the English language. At the same time, they will have the possibility to improve their knowledge of English pronunciation in relationship with the English spelling, thus increasing their speaking and writing proficiency. In the second part of the course, the students will become familiar with the object of phonology, its basic concepts, and the phonological description and classification of sounds. They will be introduced as well to the main phonological processes and their representation, with practical application on English specific phenomena. The third aim of the course is to present the main features of English suprasegmental phonology, starting with English phonotactics (phonological restrictions), and continuing with syllable structure and syllabification rules of English. Other categories that will fall under scrutiny are: stress, rhythm, intonation, the relationship between English weak and strong syllables, etc.
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I. INTRODUCTION
1. Phonetics and phonology as branches of linguistics Phonetics and phonology are two closely related branches of linguistics, the science which studies human language in all its aspects. The study of language is one of the oldest and dearest preoccupations of philosophers and scientists. Ever since ancient times, linguists and other scholars have understood that the phenomena of language are much too complex to be studied globally. There are, in fact, different levels at which the linguistic analysis can apply, including, for instance, the level of sounds, that of words and that of sentences. Of course, sounds, words and sentences cannot be separated in practice, as they are simultaneously included in the utterances that we use to communicate. However, a close examination will reveal that both the substance and the rules by which these elements of language are organized are quite specific and different from one another. This is the reason why each level of linguistic analysis has come to be studied by a different branch of linguistics, with its own principles and methods. Especially in the past century, the study of language has become such a complex and diverse enterprise that it has split up into various relatively independent branches the linguistic disciplines of today.
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1.1. Disciplines of linguistics In a philological approach, students are first to become familiar with the theoretical bases of the most important branches of linguistics, depending on the various levels of linguistic analysis, and then learn how to apply their newly acquired knowledge on the languages they are studying. Consequently, the full (four-year) curriculum of a department of foreign languages has come to contain courses covering the disciplines of phonetics, phonology, morphology, syntax, semantics, pragmatics, as well as other areas of linguistics, such as discourse analysis, sociolinguistics, psycholinguistics, computational linguistics, historical linguistics, etc. Below follows a short presentation of these branches. Phonetics deals with the physical aspect of speech sounds (or phones): their production, transmission, and reception (hence the three corresponding branches of phonetics: articulatory, acoustic and auditory phonetics). Phonology is the study of the distinctive sounds of a language, the so-called phonemes. Phonology examines the functions of sounds within a language, as well as the way they combine in syllables and other stretches of speech. Morphology is the study of morphemes, the smallest meaningful elements of a language. Morphemes may be whole words (e.g., thin, cat, wait) or parts of words (e.g., the plural marker -s in cats, the past tense marker -ed in waited, the comparative marker -er in thinner, etc.). Syntax is the study of sentence structure. There are several ways of defining and examining sentences, according to various grammars. Syntax may look at the inner structure of clauses or at the way clauses combine into complex sentences.
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Semantics examines the meaning of linguistic signs (words) and strings of signs. This meaning may result from the relationship of a sign with the concept it corresponds to in our minds, with the object it represents in the real world or with another sign in the same natural language. Pragmatics studies the use of language and the relationship between language and its users. It is interested in what we do with utterances, the way we use them to a certain effect. Discourse analysis studies the various linguistic features of different types of text: e.g., the detective story, the political discourse, the medical scientific reports, etc. Sociolinguistics is the study of the interaction of language and social organization. Language has specific social functions, which make it change accordingly. Psycholinguistics studies the processes of language acquisition, language comprehension, language production, language memorization, etc., which have to do with the cognitive aspect of language. Computational linguistics is an interdisciplinary area of research between linguistics and information science. Some computer linguists simulate language structures into computer programs. Some others use the computer as a tool for the analysis of language (e.g., by using text corpus analysis). Historical linguistics studies the historical development of languages. Apart from the diachronic analysis (along time), it also deals with the synchronic analysis of certain states of language (e.g., Old English, the language of Shakespeare, that of the eighteenth century England, etc.). The evolution of the sound pattern in a language is studied by a subfield of historical linguistics: historical (or diachronic) phonetics and phonology.
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2. Speech sounds As can be seen from their definitions, both phonetics and phonology deal with human speech sounds. Speech sounds are the sounds we produce when we want to communicate, that is, the sounds that build up our words and sentences. Unlike animals, which use sets of sounds at random to transmit brief uncomplicated messages (e.g., a honey-bee dancing in front of its hive), human beings can combine their sounds in a precise order so as to form larger units and to convey much ampler and more abstract meaning. This double structuring of natural languages both at the lower level of sounds and at the higher levels of grammar and meaning has been referred to by linguists as double articulation. Owing to this special ability, human languages are (as good as) infinitely creative. In other words, human speakers can produce an indefinite number of words and sentences, while using a limited number of sound units and a restricted set of rules according to which these sounds are organized. Speaking a language we are intuitively aware that in order to pronounce it correctly (or accurately) we have to follow a certain pattern and pick those sounds that characterize it. This is because, as already stated, each language uses a closed set of sounds, and native speakers have the built-in ability to identify those sounds and associations of sounds, which normally occur in their language and distinguish them from alien ones. It is usually when we try to learn a foreign language that we start to realize what is typical of it (i.e., what rules are there to observe) and where it differs from our native language. For example, a Romanian will have difficulties when learning how to master the difference between the initial sound in the word there [D] and the corresponding sound in dare [d] because the former sound does not belong to the inventory of sounds of his own
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language. A similar lack of correspondence between the Romanian and the English sound systems stands behind the way the English vowel [] is rendered in Romanian in neologisms, e.g. in the way the name Lassie is pronounced Romanian [lesi]. Since there is no [] sound in Romanian, our language replaces it with the sound [e], which is the most similar to [] in our sound repertoire. Although each language can only make use of a finite set of sounds, each set is different, so there is no natural language that employs, has employed or probably will ever employ the same sounds as another one. Moreover, the sound system of any language changes in time. This is due to the fact that the vocal tract of a human being is sophisticated enough to produce an amazingly large variety of speech sounds (see Figure 1.1), so that when the generations of speakers change, the sounds they use will also change, even if only imperceptibly, under various conditioning factors. Small changes turn over centuries into big shifts. This explains, for instance, why the sets of sounds of related languages, e.g., Romanian, Italian, French, etc. are not identical among themselves and with the sounds of the motherlanguage they all emerged from in our example: Latin.
3. The International Phonetic Alphabet As a means of communication, language is fundamentally oral. However old writing might seem to be, as compared to speech it is a far younger development in the history of humanity. Writing is subordinate to speech and thinking, as its role is that of fixing ideas in a more or less durable material by means of symbols. The oldest systems of writing placed great emphasis on the iconic representation of words; thus, for each word corresponding to a referent in the real world or to a concept, a suggestive image was carved or painted. This led to the creation of a long list of symbols
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(ideograms), which had little to do with the actual pronunciation of words. Later on, the sounds contained in words came to be individualized in writing, first grouped in syllables, then separately. Thus the first alphabet was invented, marking a major breakthrough in peoples conception about language. An alphabet is a much more economical system of writing, as it starts from the idea that every sound should be represented by one symbol, a letter. Since, as already stated, there is only a small set of sounds employed in a language at a certain stage in its existence, the number of corresponding letters in an alphabet are also small, and thus easy to master and use. Nowadays, the most frequently employed alphabet is the Latin one, which has been adapted by many languages according to their phonetic system. Natural languages tend to change in their historical evolution, which makes the relationship between their spelling and their sounds imperfect. In fact, the older the alphabet, the more irregular the correspondence between letters and sounds, owing to the phonetic transformations which have taken place in the history of the respective language. In the English spelling, for instance, the relationship between the pronunciation and the spelling of words has become apparently so lax that learners have to memorize strings of letters whose value is different in different contexts: think, e.g., of the English ghost, laugh and thought. In the first word, the graphic sequence gh is pronounced [g], and in the second, [f], but in the third it is not pronounced at all. Faced with the imperfections and irregularities characterizing the alphabets of natural languages, in order to be able to refer unambiguously and rigorously to speech sounds, linguists have come to design special phonetic alphabets. Nowadays, the best known in the scientific world is the alphabet of the International Phonetic Association (in short: IPA see Figure 1.1), which can be used for the notation of speech sounds from all natural languages.
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The IPA was first devised at the end of the 19th century, and ever since it has been regularly revised and updated, so as to accommodate sounds features and from languages that are still being studied. Nevertheless, many American linguists prefer to use simpler symbols and diacritics available on typewriters. For instance, instead of IPA [S] and [Z], they use [] and [] to note the initial sounds in ship and genre, respectively. Like any alphabet, IPA makes use of letters and other small symbols attached to them (diacritics), which can express the tiniest nuances of pronunciation. For instance, there are numerous shades of [t] listed in the IPA alphabet: aspirated [th] (as in top), labialised [tw] (as in twitter), palatalized [tj] (as in tune), etc. (see Figure 1.1). Such detailed notations are necessary in the narrow phonetic transcription, which tends to be exhaustive in its description, that is, to capture all the details in the articulation of the respective sound. The narrow transcription is useful when we wish to give an accurate and unitary rendering of the pronunciation of a sound in a certain language and/or in a specific phonetic environment. If, on the contrary, we need to be economical, we may only note the sound as a simple symbol, without any detail (i.e., in broad phonetic transcription) in our example as [t]. By convention, the symbols used in the phonetic transcription are places within square brackets, e.g., the cat is on the mat: [D@ "k&t Iz Qn D@ "m&t]. As can be seen in Figure 1.1, apart from various types of sounds, the International Phonetic Alphabet also contains symbols for suprasegmental phonological phenomena like stress, tone, intonation, etc.
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4. On varieties of English Being spoken on all continents, English is the most widely spread language on earth. It is used by hundreds of millions of people, as a mother tongue, but also as a second language (e.g., in India, where it is an official language), or as a language of international communication (a lingua franca). The immense geographical spread of English makes it very different in various places. There are traditional dialectal differences, as those between standard British English and the English dialects spoken in the United Kingdom and Ireland (e.g., Scottish English, Irish English, etc.), but there are also differences due to the separate evolution of the language in various parts of the world (e.g., in the United States of America or Canada), or to the contact between English and the language of a colonized territory (e.g., in Hong Kong or South Africa). The Standard British English pronunciation, also known as Received Pronunciation (in short, RP), is based on the southern dialects of England and it is the type of language used by the upper middle classes, in schools and in the media. In the United States a corresponding standard variety is called General American (abbreviated GenAm or GA).
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5. Questions 1. What characterizes linguistics? 2. Which linguistics branches do you know? 3. What do phonetics and phonology share? 4. What are speech sounds? 5. What is the double articulation of language? 6. Why is it difficult to learn the sounds of a foreign language? 7. Does writing depend on speech? 8. Is the English spelling phonetic? 9. What is IPA and what does it contain? 10. How many kinds of phonetic transcription do you know? 11. Which are the most important varieties of English? 12. What are RP and GenAm?
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A phonetician may be interested in studying the speech sounds of the languages of the world in general (general phonetics) or he may apply himself to the study of the phonetic system of one given language. His approach may be synchronic (focusing on the state of a phonetic system at a certain moment in its historical development), or diachronic (following the historical evolution of the respective system). He may wish to compare or contrast two systems that are related or not (comparative phonetics). In his investigation, he can make use of various techniques and devices to probe the nature of speech sounds (experimental phonetics). If he makes use of instruments, which allow him to perform exact measurements, then he is an adept of instrumental phonetics. Phonetics, as practiced today, is an independent science, with its own methods of investigation and experiment, but importing data from the fields of anatomy, physiology and physics. As already stated, phonetics deals with speech sounds, focusing on how they are produced and perceived and on their physical features. Speech sounds can be described in three different ways: in terms of (a) the manner of their production; (b) the acoustic properties of the sound waves traveling between speaker and hearer; and (c) their physical effects upon the ear. Hence a threefold division of this science into: articulatory, acoustic and auditory phonetics. We will start with a short presentation of the last two branches.
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1. Acoustic phonetics Acoustic phonetics is the most technical branch of phonetics, as the data and the methods it operates with are mostly borrowed from physics. Analyzed from the physical point of view, speech sounds are waves, originated by the vibration of the source (the vocal cords in the human larynx) and transmitted through the air. Waves can be represented graphically in sinusoidal shape (see Figure 2.1). Apart from duration (= how long they last) they have two important characteristics. One of them is frequency, measured in Hertz (Hz). Frequency shows how close together the waves are and corresponds to the pitch (= the shrillness) of the sound. It is calculated by the number of sinusoidal cycles completed per second (cps). (A complete cycle is illustrated in Figure 2.1 as the movement between the rest points A and B.) Frequency peak x Amplitude x A x trough
Figure 2.1 Periodic wave
x B
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The second important aspect of sounds is amplitude (= intensity), measured in decibels (dB). Amplitude is the maximum distance between the highest point of the wave the peak and the lowest point the trough (often divided by 2) and corresponds to the loudness of the sound. This is related to the amount of energy that is transmitted through the air by means of the respective sound wave. As to the measurement of amplitude, the reference point for the decibel scale is the standard intensity of a sound, which has a fixed value close to the audible limit of sound. The sound intensity at the threshold of human hearing (= 0 dB) is conventionally taken to be one picowatt per square meter (1 pW/m), roughly the sound of a mosquito flying 3 m away, or a sound pressure level (SPL) of 20 micropascal (20 Pa). The reason for using the decibel is that the ear is capable of hearing a very large range of sound pressures. The ratio of the sound pressure that causes permanent damage from short exposure to the limit that (undamaged) ears can hear is more than a million. Psychologists have found that our perception of loudness is roughly logarithmic. In other words, you have to multiply the sound intensity by the same factor to have the same increase in loudness. This is why the numbers around the volume control dial on a typical audio amplifier are related not to the absolute power amplification, but to its logarithm. Because the power in a sound wave is proportional to the square of the pressure, the ratio of the maximum power to the minimum power is more than one trillion. To deal with such a range, logarithmic units are useful: the log of a thousand is 3 (from 103), so this ratio represents a difference of 30 dB from the audible limit. Similarly, a sound of 60 dB is a million times more intense than the standard value, while one of 120 dB is a trillion times more intense. The time it takes for a cycle to be completed is called the period of the vibration. Some sounds have constant regular periodic
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vibrations (= tones = musical sounds, including, of the speech sounds, vowels and sonorant), some others have irregular aperiodic vibrations (= noise sounds, including voiceless consonants), while still others have mixed vibrations (= tones and noises, including voiced consonants) (see also Chapter III). Vowels consist of bunches of periodic waves with various frequencies. The wave with the lowest frequency is called the fundamental (frequency), whereas the others are called the harmonics of the respective sound. The higher harmonics are whole number multiples of the fundamental (= the lowest harmonic). For instance, if a sound has as its fundamental frequency 100 Hz and one of its higher harmonics is, for instance, of 400 Hz, then we may say that this is its fourth harmonic, since it is four times higher than the fundamental. The fundamental frequency is produced by the vibration of the vocal cords in the larynx (hence the name laryngeal or glottal tone), whereas the harmonics are due to the resonating qualities of the vocal tract above the larynx (in the supraglottal cavities: the pharynx, the mouth and the nose), whose shapes can be modified during the articulation. Only some of the harmonics of a sound are emphasized by the shapes and materials of the resonating cavities, thus giving the sound a certain quality. That is why, when describing sounds, phoneticians speak of their characteristic energy bands (formants), namely the bands of strongly reinforced harmonics, corresponding to a specific shape of the resonating chamber. The complex range of formants of a sound make up its acoustic spectrum. For example, the spectrum of the vowel /A:/ has one band of strong components in the 800 Hz range and another one in the 1100 Hz range, while the formants of /i:/ are in the 280 and 2500 Hz range, respectively (see Figure 2.2).
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/i:/
/A:/
/aI/
Figure 2.2 Spectrograms of /i:/, /A:/, /aI/ (after Ladefoged 1971; Chioran 1978: 49)
The fundamental frequency of a sound corresponds to its pitch. While the fundamental frequency involves acoustic measurement expressed in Hz, pitch is used as a perceptual term, relating to listeners judgements as to whether a sound is high or low, whether one sound is higher or lower than another and by how much, and whether the voice is going up or down. Such judgements are not linearly related to fundamental frequency. For listeners to judge that one tone is twice as high as another, the frequency difference between the two tones is much larger at higher absolute frequencies, e.g., 1000 Hz is judged to be double 400 Hz, but 4000 Hz is judged to be double 1000 Hz. However, fundamental frequency values in speech are all relatively low (i.e., usually less than 500 Hz), and for most practical purposes pitch can be equated with fundamental frequency. Different persons have different pitches (women have shriller voices than men, though not as shrill as those of children; the average values for the fundamental frequency with men, women and children are 120 Hz, 225 Hz and 265 Hz, respectively). However, we can still recognize, e.g., an /i:/ or an /aI/ even if the type of voice which utters them is different from the point of view of pitch. What stays the same
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is the shape of the spectrum: e.g., in the /i:/ pronounced by a woman and the /i:/ of a man the harmonics with the greatest amplitude are of similar frequency (even if the lower pitch will involve a lower number of harmonics in the mans sound). The graphic representation of the frequencies (the formants) of a sound is called spectrogram and it can be obtained by means of a device called acoustic spectrograph. Nowadays the functions of such devices have been taken over by specially programmed computers. A recent field of activity, which involves knowledge of phonetics and much more, is speech processing, the study of speech signals and the processing methods of these signals. The signals are usually processed in a digital representation whereby speech processing can be seen as the intersection of digital signal processing and natural language processing. Speech processing can be divided in the following categories: (a) speech recognition (analysis of the linguistic content of a speech signal); (b) speaker recognition (where the aim is to recognize the identity of the speaker); (c) speech signal enhancement (e.g., noise reduction); (d) speech coding for compression and transmission of speech (in telecommunications); (e) voice analysis for medical purposes (e.g., analysis of vocal loading and dysfunction of the vocal cords); (f) artificial speech synthesis (by means of a speech synthesizer, a software or hardware device capable of rendering text into speech).
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2. Auditory phonetics Auditory phonetics focuses on the perception of sounds (the way in which sounds are heard and interpreted). It is a field of study where the scientist has to rely heavily on notions of anatomy and physiology, involving the functions of the ear, but also of the brain, where the acoustic message is decoded. The ear receives auditory stimuli and transmits them further to the brain. The outer ear is made up of the pinna (auricle), which collects and focuses sound waves. From the pinna, the sound moves into the ear canal, a simple tube running to the middle ear. This includes the eardrum (tympanum or tympanic membrane) and the ossicles, three tiny bones (called hammer, anvil, and stirrup) which form the linkage between the tympanic membrane and the oval window that leads to the inner ear. The tympanum turns vibrations of air in the ear canal into vibrations of the ossicles. The inner ear contains the organ of hearing (the cochlea) and the labyrinth (vestibular apparatus), the organ of balance. The cochlea is a hollow organ filled with a fluid (endolymph) and lined on the inside with hair cells (sensory cells topped with hair-like structures), the stereocilia. All vibrations passing through the middle ear enter the endolymph. Hair cells are varied in length, so that they resonate with sounds of various frequencies. Whenever a hair cell resonates, it sends a nerve impulse to the brain, which is perceived as a sound of whatever pitch the hair cell is associated with. A very strong movement of the endolymph due to very loud noise may cause hair cells to die. This is a common cause of partial hearing loss, and the reason why anyone near guns or heavy machinery should wear earmuffs or earplugs.
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Our hearing mechanism is limited to an auditory field ranging from the frequency of roughly 20 Hz to that of 20000 or 22000 Hz. With age, the range decreases, especially at the upper limit. Above and below this range are ultrasound and infrasound, respectively. Lower frequencies cannot be heard but loud sounds can be felt on the skin. The optimum range of sensitivity is between 600 Hz and 4200 Hz. Frequency resolution of the ear is, in the middle range, about 2 Hz. That is, changes in pitch larger than 2 Hz can be perceived. However, even smaller pitch differences can be perceived through other means. For example, the interference of two pitches can often be heard as a (low-)frequency difference pitch. This effect is called beating. The intensity range of audible sounds is enormous. The lower limit of audibility is defined to 0 dB (we cannot hear sounds lower than this), but the upper limit is not as clearly defined. The upper limit is more a question of the limit where the sensation of pain occurs (because of too much pressure on the eardrums) and the ear will be physically harmed. This limit depends also on the time exposed to the sound. Sometimes, the ear can be exposed to short periods of sounds of 120 dB without harm, but long periods of exposure to 80 dB sounds will harm the ear. 150 dB sounds will cause physical damage to the human body. The human hearing is basically a spectral analyzer, that is, the ear resolves the spectral content of the pressure wave without respect to the phase or the waveform of the signal. In practice, though, some phase information can be perceived. Inter-aural (i.e., between ears) phase difference is a notable exception by providing a significant part of the directional sensation of sound. In some situations an otherwise clearly audible sound can be masked by another sound. For example, conversation at a bus stop can be completely impossible if a loud bus is driving past. This
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phenomenon is called intensity masking. A loud sound will mask a weaker sound so that the weaker sound is inaudible in the presence of the louder sound. Actually, the masking depends on two more parameters: frequency and temporal separation of the sounds. A sound close in frequency to the louder sound is more easily masked than two sounds far apart in frequency. This effect is called pitch masking. Similarly, a weak sound emitted soon after the end of a louder sound is masked by the louder sound. In fact, even a weak sound just before a louder sound can be masked by the louder sound. These two effects are called forward and backward temporal masking, respectively. The act of audition has objective as well as subjective characteristics when it comes to language. Most often we give a subjective interpretation to what we hear, selecting only those sound features that are relevant for the language we communicate in. For example, when listening to spoken standard English, untrained Romanians may have difficulty in recognizing (and reproducing) the difference between the aspirated and non-aspirated variants of voiceless stops (e.g., the difference between [ph] in top and [p] in stop), because they do not use aspiration in their own language. So in order to become able to perceive sounds correctly, speakers must also learn how to pronounce them and how to use them in the system of the respective language, and thus develop an awareness of auditory sensations corresponding to various sound qualities.
3. Questions 1. Which branches of phonetics do you know? 2. What do articulatory, acoustic and auditory phonetics study? 3. Which are the physical characteristics of sounds? 4. What is frequency and what is its unit of measure?
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5. What is amplitude and how is it measured? 6. What is the difference between periodic, aperiodic and mixed vibrations? 7. What is the fundamental frequency and how is it produced? 8. What is the relationship between pitch and fundamental frequency? 9. What are the harmonics and where are they produced? 10. What is an acoustic spectrum and what does it consist in? 11. What is a spectrograph and what is it used for? 12. What is speech processing? 13. How is sound transmitted to the brain? 14. Which are the limits of the human auditory field? 15. Which is the intensity range of audible sounds? 16. How can a sound be masked? 17. Can an untrained ear easily discern the sounds of a foreign language?
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The physical processes involved in the production of speech sounds are the domains of articulatory phonetics, which uses a lot of data from human anatomy and physiology in its descriptions. This is so because the same organs, which are involved in breathing processes, also participate in the production of speech. Speech sounds result from the modification of the volume and direction of the airflow originating in the lungs, which are carried out through the vocal tract (see Figure 3.1 for a schematic illustration of the anatomic parts involved in the process). 1. Airstream mechanisms The airflow initiated in the lungs follows the direction of the trachea (windpipe), larynx (in the Adams apple) and vocal tract (mouth and nose). This type of airstream mechanism, known as pulmonic egressive (from the lungs outwards) is involved in all human languages and for many languages it is the only mechanism employed to produce speech sounds (e.g., English, Romanian, etc.). For a small number of articulations, the airstream does not originate in the lungs, but rather from outside. The ingressive airstream mechanism produces sound through inhalation, as when uttering a gasp of astonishment by breathing in air: aa! A speech sound can also be generated from a difference in pressure of the air inside and outside a resonator. In the case of the oral cavity, this
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pressure difference can be created without using the lungs at all (producing clicks, for example). In the following discussion it will be assumed that the airstream mechanism is pulmonic egressive.
Alveolar ridge (Hard) Palate
Lungs
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2. The vocal cords In the larynx box, the air pushed out from the lungs meets the vocal cords. These are two flaps of muscle placed across the windpipe and bound to the arytenoids cartilages (which cause the protrusion called the Adams apple in males throats). The vocal cords can modify their position and thus allow the air to flow upwards in certain ways. When they are wide apart, the air passes through without any obstacle. This results in a so-called voiceless sound, such as the initial and final sounds in the word case [keIs]. If, on the contrary, the vocal cords are close together, with a narrow gap in between, then the pressure of the air moving through will cause them to vibrate, which will result in a voiced sound (as in all the sounds in the word gaze [geIz]). The vibration of the vocal cords can be heard when we cover our ears during the articulation, as well as felt by placing a finger on the larynx during the pronunciation of voiced sounds. To practice, try to articulate the voiced fricative consonants [z] or [v] in a prolonged manner, contrasting them with their voiceless counterparts [s] and [f]. Apart from these two most common positions of the vocal cords (open and narrowed), languages can also exploit a number of other configurations, such as complete closure. If the glottis (= the opening inside the larynx box, in between the vocal cords) is completely closed (glottal stop), the air accumulates below the vocal cords; when they are opened, the pressure is released with a cough-like puff of air. The glottal stop is important in the study of many kinds of British English, as it can be found in the dialects spoken in London (Cockney), Glasgow, Manchester and in some varieties of North American English (in New England). Take for instance the regional
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pronunciation of the final sounds in wha[?] (e.g., in what rain), shu[?] (e.g., in shut up), the dropped t or k pronunciation of, e.g., butter and crackle, etc., the vowel reinforcement in a hiatus, etc. (see also Section III.3). If the vocal cords are wide apart, as if for the pronunciation of voiceless consonants, but the air still causes some vibrations while passing through the glottis, we are dealing with the so-called murmured sounds or breathy voice. These are sounds we may produce every day when we whisper so as not to disturb the people around us.
3. Resonance As the air moves out of the larynx, owing to the movement of the articulators (the tongue, lips, etc.) the shapes of the vocal tract above it are modified, so that the vibrations of the air inside the oral and nasal cavities will also change, by a phenomenon called resonance, similar to the resonance inside a guitar box or a flute. Some sounds (the sonorants = vowels, glides, liquids and nasals) involve a relatively high degree of resonance (= sonorance or sonority). Other sounds (the obstruents) involve much less sonorance. Obstruents are noisy consonants produced by air disturbances: a sudden burst of air or air friction, whereas sonorants are more like pure, musical sounds. The most sonorous sounds are the vowels. In English all sonorants are voiced, while obstruents can be either voiced or voiceless.
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4. Oral and nasal sounds The choice between the oral and nasal articulations depends on the position of the soft palate (or velum), a muscular flap placed at the back end of the palate (= the roof of the mouth) (see Figure 3.1). If the velum is raised and the nasal port closed, the air flows only into the oral tract (the mouth), so that oral sounds are produced (most speech sounds are oral). If the velum is lowered, the air can flow both through the oral and the nasal cavities, which leads to the articulation of nasal sounds. Nasals are sonorant consonants (see Section III.3).
5. Active and passive articulators In the oral tract, the tongue and the lips, which move during the articulation of sounds, are considered to be active articulators, whereas the upper non-mobile surfaces of the mouth are usually referred to as passive articulators. Of the active articulators, the tongue is usually described in very precise details: the tip, blade, front, body, back and root. That is because the smallest alteration in its position can determine a perceptible change in the pronunciation of the sound. Passive articulators can be the lower lip, the teeth, the palate and the pharynx wall. By convention, the roof of the mouth is further subdivided into the alveolar ridge (= the gum ridge), the hard palate, the soft palate (often called velum) and the uvula (= the fleshy tip of the soft palate, used, e.g., in the articulation of French uvular r [K]) (see Section III.8).
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6. Manners of articulation The manner in which a sound is articulated depends on the channel opening (the distance between the active and passive articulators). This distance can vary from complete closure (or stricture) (a blockage in the mouth which prevents the air from escaping) to complete aperture (through which the air flows out unhindered). In the case of complete stricture, the air which has built up behind the blockage (the closure phase) is released with a small outburst when the blockage is removed (the release phase). This is the way in which stops are produced. Oral stops (also known as plosives if they are pulmonic egressive) are obstruent sounds articulated with a raised velum (e.g., the consonants in the word bide: [b] and [d]). Nasal stops involve a lowered velum (e.g., the initial and final consonantal sounds of mine [m] and [n]); they are sonorant sounds (in their production the nasal cavity acts as a resonator for the airflow vibrations). When the articulators are close together, but the stricture rests incomplete, the air escapes through a very narrow passageway with some friction (turbulence noise). This is the manner of articulation specific to fricatives (e.g., the first and last sounds in fuss: [f] and [s]). Since in the articulation of fricatives the air can pass continuously through the vocal tract, they are described as continuant sounds. The articulation of another type of obstruents involves complete closure, followed by a release phase which is prolonged. The air is slowly released through a narrow gap between the articulators, in a way that resembles the articulation of fricatives. The sounds produced in this manner are called affricates (e.g., the initial sounds [] and [] in cheat and gesture). Affricates do not behave however like a sequence made up of two sounds, but rather as one single segment. Examine, e.g., the following pairs of words: catch it
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(containing the sound []) and cat shit (containing the sequence [t+S], noticeably longer than the previous one). Apart from fricatives, there are some other sounds which can be characterized as continuant: the frictionless continuants or approximants, which are divided into two groups: glides and liquids. The glides are closely related to the corresponding high vowels (e.g., the glide [j] in yet resembles the short vowel [I] in sing). The liquids are laterals and rhotics (i.e., l and r sounds, respectively), which often are articulated with approximation, but not always. In the articulation of vowels (e.g., the middle sounds in fish [I], bad [] or boot [u:]), the air flows out unhindered because the articulators are more or less wide apart. Just like glides and liquids, vowels are continuant sounds.
7. Fortis and lenis Fortis consonants are produced with greater articulatory effort and more air pressure required by stronger resistance at the place of articulation. Lenis consonants are more lax: they require less intensity and tension. The duration of articulation is also longer in the case of fortis consonants than in the case of lenis ones. In a voiced/voiceless pair (e.g., [d]/[t]), the voiced consonant is lenis and the voiceless consonant fortis.
8. Places of articulation The production of a sound involves the movement of an active articulator towards a passive one. The articulators give the name of the place of articulation of the respective sound (see Table 3.1).
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Table 3.1 Places of articulation Bilabial sound produced with both lips (e.g., [p], [b], [m], etc.). Labiodental the lower lip and the upper teeth (e.g., [f], [v], etc.). Interdental the teeth and the tongue tip/blade (e.g., [], [], etc.). Alveolar the alveolar ridge and the tongue tip/blade (e.g., [t], [d], [s], [z], [n], [r], [l], etc.). Alveo-palatal the alveolar ridge/hard palate and the tongue blade (e.g., [S], [Z], [], []). Retroflex the hard palate and the tongue tip curled backwards (e.g., [], etc.). Palatal the hard palate and the tongue blade (e.g., [j], etc.). Velar the soft palate (velum) and the tongue body (dorsum) (e.g., [k], [g], etc.). Uvular the uvula and the tongue body (dorsum) (e.g., [K] in Fr. raison root, reason, etc.). Pharyngeal the pharynx wall and the tongue root (e.g., [] in Arabic [amm] uncle, etc.). Glottal the vocal cords in the larynx (e.g., [h], [?] (the glottal stop), etc.).
Bilabial and labiodental sounds are included in the general class of labials, since both sets involve at least one of the lips. The class of coronals (sounds produced by raising the front part of the tongue the tongue tip or blade, but not the body of the tongue) comprises the dentals, alveolars, alveo-palatals (= palato-alveolars or postalveolars), retroflex and palatal sounds. Velars and the uvulars have as an active articulator the body or dorsum of the tongue, so they are both referred to as dorsals. The class of gutturals contains pharyngeal and glottal sounds, which tend to behave as one group (see Table 3.2).
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Some consonants have two simultaneous places of articulation. Secondary articulation occurs when an additional vowel-like articulation is overlaid on the basic sound. In this case the consonant is articulated with a simultaneous glide, i.e., palatalized (e.g., [tj] in Romanian peti fish (pl.)), labialized (e.g., [kw] in English quick), etc. In the production of sounds with double articulation both places of articulation are equally important (e.g., the labio-velar glide [w] in wife).
Table 3.2 Groups of place of articulation LABIAL Bilabial Labio-dental CORONAL Dental Alveolar Alveo-palatal Retroflex Palatal DORSAL Velar Uvular GUTTURAL Pharyngeal Glottal
9. Questions and exercises 1. What do you know about the pulmonic egressive airstream mechanism? 2. Are there any other types of airstream mechanisms? 3. Which positions of the vocal cords do you know? 4. What is the difference between voiced and voiceless sounds? 5. How is a glottal stop articulated? 6. What is resonance? 7. Which sonorant sounds do you know? 8. What is the difference between oral and nasal sounds? 9. Which active and passive articulators do you know? 10. Which types of manner of articulation do you know?
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11. How are plosives / fricatives / affricates articulated? 12. How are nasals articulated? 13. How are liquids / glides / vowels articulated? 14. What is the difference between fortis and lenis consonants? 15. Which places of articulation do you know and how can they be grouped? 16. Which sounds correspond to each place of articulation? 17. What is the difference between secondary articulation and double articulation? 18. In each of the following words one sound is underlined. Describe it in terms of voicing, nasality (if necessary), place of articulation and manner of articulation: a) more b) bar c) assist d) lazy e) joy i) season j) north f) peach g) thin h) fast 19. Which are the active and passive articulators in the production of the following underlined sounds? a) choke b) very c) yet d) happy e) singing f) then g) cherry h) dear i) bridge j) shoe 20. For each of the pairs of words below identify the difference between the underlined sounds. Example: The difference between the [t] in pat and the [d] in pad is a matter of voicing ([d] is voiced, while [t] is voiceless). b) sent/tent c) vest/zest d) mob/bob a) pit/bit e) core/gore f) deck/neck g) soap/soak h) force/source i) lag/lad j) measure/mesher
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IV. CONSONANTS
Some languages may have other oral stops, produced in other places of articulation. For instance, in the pronunciation of Romanian [t] and [d] the passive articulators are the upper teeth rather than the alveolar ridge, as in English (dental stops are usually symbolised by [t ] and [d5], with a little tooth-like diacritic under the main symbol).
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The glottal stop [?] has been compared with a slight cough. It has no voiced counterpart because the vocal cords cannot vibrate when they are in contact (see also Section III.2). Under some circumstances, voiceless stops may be reinforced or completely replaced by glottal stops: e.g., in bu[?] (button) (where the diacritic [ ] under [n] marks the syllabic nasal); li[?]or (liquor); si[? g]uy (sick guy); cu[? ]lice (cut slice), etc. If vowels occur (emphatically) at the beginning of a word or in a hiatus (two vowels juxtaposed in consecutive syllables), they may also suffer glottal reinforcement, as, e.g., in its [?]eight!; re[?]act.
1.1.1. Aspiration In most English varieties, when a voiceless stop is placed at the beginning of a stressed syllable, its release is followed by a perceptible puff of air, called aspiration and marked by a [h] diacritic, e.g. in [ph]ot, [th]op, [kh]an. On the other hand, when the stop follows the fricative [s] in the same initial position, its release stage is devoid of such an audible outrush of air (it is non-aspirated), e.g. in spot, stop, scan. In connected speech, aspiration may help us distinguish between otherwise ambiguous sentences, such as in the pair peace talks [pi:sthO:ks] and pea stalks [pi:stO:ks]. A weaker sort of aspiration may also be present in the articulation of stops at the beginning of unstressed English syllables, as well as in word-final position.
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1.2 Fricatives In many varieties of English, there is no voiced glottal fricative corresponding to the voiceless [h]. However, if the sound begins a stressed syllable, following a non-stressed syllable ending in a vowel, some English speakers make use of a breathy voice [], as in behead or rehearsal (see Section III.2). Some other English variants (e.g., Cockney) hardly make use of any [h] sound, which leads to ambiguities of pronunciation (e.g., in the pair hall all). In the so-called Celtic varieties of English (Irish, Scottish and Welsh) another type of fricative occurs: the voiceless velar [x] (e.g., in Scottish loch / Irish lough lake, as well as in German acht eight or Dutch nog still, more). Other languages use different places of articulation for the pronunciation of their fricatives, e.g., the Japanese voiceless bilabial [P], as in Fuji, the Spanish voiced bilabial [B], as in deber owe, the German voiceless palatal [], as in sich self, the Greek voiced velar [], as in []ata cat (see also the IPA chart = Figure 1.1).
Table 4.2 English fricatives Fricative (IPA) [f] [v] [] [] [s] [z] [S] [Z] [h] Place of articulation labio-dental labio-dental (inter)dental (inter)dental alveolar alveolar alveo-palatal alveo-palatal glottal Voice + + + + Examples fine, puff vat, move thick, path that, bathe sink, kiss zero, buzz shake, dash pleasure, beige hat, inherit
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1.2.1. On the distribution of fricatives Most of the English fricatives occur in all positions (wordinitial, word-medial and word-final). Words beginning with the voiced interdental [] belong to a small set of articles and adverbs, such as the, that, there, etc. Other fricatives with only limited distribution in English are [Z], [h] and [x]. The voiced alveo-palatal [Z] never occurs wordinitially (except in a couple of neologisms, e.g. gigolo and genre) and for the rest it can only be identified in relatively few words, e.g., pleasure, casual; beige, rouge. In word-final position [Z] may vary with the affricate [] (e.g., garage, etc.). The voiceless glottal fricative [h] can never be found in final position; it is restricted to the word-initial or word-medial position, but even then it must belong to the onset of a stressed syllable, e.g., in horse or ahead. [h] is regularly dropped from the initial position of several function words unstressed pronouns and auxiliaries (e.g., his, her, has, etc.) and it is often absent in other words in many varieties of English characterised as sub-standard. In those cases where the first orthographic sequence of a word is hu, the initial sound is sometimes pronounced as the palatal fricative [] followed by the glide [j]. In some North American varieties, these words actually begin with the glide [j], without any [h] sound (e.g., in huge, humid, etc.). The voiceless velar [x] never occurs word-initially in the Celtic English varieties.
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1.3 Affricates There are only two affricates commonly used in English, both alveo-palatal: voiceless [] (as in charity, teacher, catch) and voiced [] (as in generous, pledger, rage). Speakers of other languages make use of more affricates, such as the German voiceless labio-dental [pf], as in Pfeffer pepper, the Romanian voiceless dental [ts], as in ar country, or the Italian voiced dental [dz] in zio uncle.
2. Sonorant consonants 2.1 Nasals English nasals are stops. They correspond to the English plosives in terms of their place of articulation: there is a bilabial [m], as in money, an alveolar [n], as in nutty, and a velar [N], as in sing. The English velar nasal [N] cannot occur at the beginning of a syllable. In other languages we find different types of nasals (e.g., dental [n5], as in Romanian numai only, palatal [J], as in French ga[J]er (gagner) to win, Spanish ni[J]o (nio) child, Italian o[J]i (ogni) every, etc.).
2.2 Liquids 2.2.1. Laterals Laterals are those sonorants whose articulation involves a free flux of air over the lowered sides of the tongue. The central part of the tongue (the active articulator) touches the palate (the passive articulator) (in a so-called mid-saggital contact), but both (or at least
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one of) its lateral parts are free in the process. Characteristic of many languages including English is the alveolar lateral [l], as in lamb (in this case, the tongue blade is in contact with the alveolar ridge). Another type of lateral is Spanish and Italian palatal [F] (as in Sp. caballo horse, It. figlio son), etc. In English, a lateral liquid may occur in all positions in a word, but its articulation varies accordingly. An important distinction results from contrasting the articulation of (a) an [l] in initial position, or word-medially before a vowel, to (b) a lateral placed at the end of the word, before a consonant or in syllabic position. The lateral variant produced in the environments under (a) (e.g., in lake, ludicrous, follow, inland), which only has alveolar contact, is known as clear l and is symbolised as [l]. For the articulation of the other variant, in addition to the alveolar contact, the back of the tongue is simultaneously raised towards the soft palate (e.g., in pi[5], ki[5]t, ratt[5]). This secondary velar articulation has given the alveolar sound the description dark l.
2.2.2 Rhotics Under the name rhotics a large variety of sounds are usually grouped, and a good ear will notice the differences in the articulation of the r sounds used, for instance, in RP English, Scottish English, North American English, or other languages, such as Spanish, French and High German (see Table 4.3). In fact, as we will see, the general heading of rhotic covers sounds that either involve contact between the active and passive articulators, or friction, or neither contact nor friction (in the case of continuants). What all these r sounds share is that they tend to function as sonorants, even if they are not so phonetically.
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In the articulation of the alveolar trill (or roll) [r], which also happens to be the r sound characteristic of Romanian, the tongue blade vibrates against the alveolar ridge, touching it repeatedly (in intermitent closure). For the alveolar tap (or flap) [] (a stop of very short duration), a single tap of the tongue blade against the alveolar ridge is enough. Both the trill and the tap are met in the Scottish varieties of English, especially the latter. The tap (or flap) [] is also the intervocalic sound in North American English pattern, etc.
Table 4.3 Various types of rhotics Rhotic (IPA) [] [ ] [] [] [{] [] Place and manner of articulation alveolar trill/roll alveolar tap/flap (post-)alveolar approximant retroflex approximant uvular trill/roll uvular fricative Examples Sp. perro dog, Rom. ra duck, Russ. roza rose Sp. pero but, Scott. Eng. red, North Am. Eng. cutter Br. Eng. right North Am. Eng. rabbit Somewhat older (e.g., Edith Piafs) Fr. regrette regret French mari husband, High German richtig
The characteristic RP rhotic is the (post-)alveolar continuant (approximant) []. It is produced by raising the tongue blade towards the alveolar ridge, but in this case the sides of the tongue come into contact with the molars, which creates a narrow channel for the air to flow down the middle of the tongue. The retroflex approximant [] is articulated in a similar way (characteristic, e.g., of many North American varieties of English), but this time the tongue blade is curled backwards, to the post-alveolar position.
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The uvular roll (or trill) [{] and the voiced uvular fricative [] involve the vibration of the back of the tongue against the velum or in close approximation to it, respectively. The former reminds an English speaker of gargling and it occurs in some older dialects of French and in Lisbon Portuguese. The latter is the sound often heard in French and High German. The distribution of the r sounds lies at the basis of one of the major English dialect divisions. Thus, varieties with pre- and postvocalic r are called rhotic accents (i.e., accents where both the rhotics in e.g. rose or marry are pronounced, as well as in, e.g., fair and sort), whereas those with only pre-vocalic r are named nonrhotic accents. Most types of English are non-rhotic. The rhotic ones include the majority of North American English, Scottish and Irish English, etc. This dialectal difference rests on a historical sound change, which led to the post-vocalic loss of the rhotic in some types of English. The evidence comes from the spelling of English words, as well as from the presence at the end of a word like fair in non-rhotic accents of an r sound if the word is followed by another word which starts with a vowel, e.g., in fair answer (this rhotic is called linking r). This phenomenon occurs also within morphologically complex words, as for instance in boring (cf. bore): the rhotic always precedes a vowel-initial ending. Another phenomenon connected to the one illustrated above is intrusive r: the insertion of a word-final rhotic sound between two vowels in non-rhotic accents, e.g., in the idea [] of it. Intrusive r is most often heard word-finally after the vowel [@] and it is also sometimes heard word-internally for some speakers (e.g., compare soaring and saw[]ing (sawing)). Some adult speakers use a so-called defective r [], a labiodental approximant quite similar to the glide [w]. This type of pronunciation is often considered affected, and was typically a feature
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of upper class English English, but nowadays it is characteristic of the language spoken, for instance, by the working-class and lower middleclass in South Eastern England.
3. Glides In the articulation of glides, no contact is produced between the articulatory organs, which groups them together with the vowels. For this reason glides are also called semi-vowels. In fact, their articulation is slightly different from that of the corresponding vowels: when a glide is produced, the articulators are prepared for a vowel-like sound, but then they immediately change their position (get closer) to produce another sound. It is to this gliding that the sounds owe their name. Besides, glides are shorter and their articulation is more forceful than that of vowels. Glides are also called semi-consonants because they behave like consonants: unlike vowels, they cannot occur at the end of a syllable or preceding a consonant and they are always followed by a vowel. Together with some of the liquids with similar characteristics they build the class of approximants (frictionless continuant sounds). There are only two glides in English, as in the majority of languages: the palatal [j] (e.g., in yet) and the labio-velar [w] (e.g., in water). The articulation of the palatal [j] is similar to that of the vowel [i] (the front of the tongue is raised close to the palate). The labiovelar [w] shares the articulation features of [u] (the lips are rounded and the back of the tongue raised towards the soft palate). Apart from these most common two glides, there are also others, such as the French labio-palatal [H] (similar to French [y], the front round vowel) (e.g., in lui [H] him).
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3.1. Distribution and variation of glides In many North American types of English, as well as in some English English varieties, [j] cannot follow the alveolar consonants [t], [d], [s], [z], [n] and [l], or the dental fricative [], e.g., in tune, dupe, suit, presume, rebuke, lure, Lithuania, but it will follow [n] and [l] if they are placed in unaccented syllables, e.g., in ven[j]ue and val[j]ue. In those varieties of English where [j] can follow an alveolar sound, the sequences [t] + [j] and [d] + [j] frequently coalesce to form the alveo-palatal affricates []and []. This happens inside words or across word boundaries, e.g. in [une, []uring, as well as in bet you [bE@], bid you [bI@], etc. Similarly, the sequences [s] + [j] and [z] + [j] often combine into the corresponding alveo-palatal fricatives [S] and [Z], e.g. in ti[S]ue (tissue), ca[Z]ual (casual), as well as in ki[S]you (kiss you), ama[Z]you (amaze you). In Scottish, Irish and North American types of English, a sound which is very similar to the labio-velar glide, the voiceless labio-velar fricative [], spelled wh, functions as a distinct sound. Thus, in these types of English there is a clear contrast between the words: witch (with initial [w]) vs. which (with []), Wales vs. whales, weather vs. whether, etc. The other English varieties treat these words as pairs of homophones, both having the glide [w].
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52
Fricatives [] [] [] Affricates Nasals Approximants [] [] [] [] [] [] [] (liquids)
CLASS
Stops
bilabial
[] []
labio-dental
(inter) dental
alveolar
[] []
4. Summary
Table 4.4 resumes the typical English consonantal sounds introduced in this chapter.
Universitatea SPIRU HARET [ ] [ ] [] [] [] (glide) [] [] (in Celt. var.) [] (labio- velar) [] (glide)
alveo-palatal
palatal
velar
[] []
glottal
[?] (dial.)
5. Questions and exercises 1. Which English plosives do you know? 2. What characterizes the glottal stop? 3. What is aspiration and which sounds are affected by it? 4. Which English fricatives do you know? 5. What is particular in the distribution and variation of English fricatives? 6. Which affricates do you know? 7. Which sonorant consonants do you know? 8. What is characteristic of the English nasals? 9. Which English liquids do you know? 10. What is the difference between clear l and dark l? 11. What is the difference between rhotic and non-rhotic varieties of English? 12. What are linking / intrusive / defective r? 13. What are glides? 14. What characterizes the distribution and variation of English glides? 15. Indicate the symbols representing the sounds described below: a) voiceless dental fricative; b) voiceless bilabial stop; c) voiced velar nasal; d) voiced palatal glide; e) voiceless alveolar fricative; f) voiced alveo-palatal fricative; g) voiced alveolar lateral; h) voiceless glottal stop; i) voiced alveo-palatal affricate; voiced labio-velar glide; j) voiced labio-dental fricative; k) voiced bilabial nasal. 16. For each of the following symbols, find an adequate description in words. Example: [b] = voiced bilabial stop a) [] b) [z] c) [n] d) [p] e) [h]
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f) [] g) [/]
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h) [] o) [] v) []
i) [] j) [] k) [] l) [] m) [] n) [] p) [] q) [] r) [] s) [] t) [] u) [k]
17. Identify the difference in articulation between the following sounds, grouped in two sets. Example: [ s v ] differ from [d p k] in point of manner of articulation the sounds in the first set are all fricatives and the sounds in the second set are all stops. a) [ ] vs. [t d s z n] b) [n r ] vs. [d s z] c) [b d Z] vs. [p t S] d) [ ] vs. [ ] e) [j w] vs. [ ] f) [ ] vs. [b d g] g) [pf ts ] vs. [f s ] 18. Identify which of the following sounds does not share all the features of the rest of the sounds and specify what the difference consists in (sometimes there is more than one solution). Example: in the set [p, n, s, ], [n] is nasal and the rest are oral sounds. a) [w j t] b) [k x s] c) [r l m n] d) [m p b ] e) [v z h]
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V. VOWELS
The description of vowels is quite different from that of consonants. First of all, voicing is irrelevant in this case, since vowels are usually voiced in the majority of languages, so this feature is rarely mentioned. Secondly, the manner of articulation as such is equally irrelevant, since all vowels are by definition produced with the articulators wide apart. Thirdly, vowels are restricted to the palatal and velar places of articulation.
1. Criteria for classifying vowels Vowels are usually described according to their quality within a three-term system: vowel height, vowel backness, and vowel roundness. Vowel height is a vertical parameter, corresponding more or less to the consonantal criterion of manner, based on the distance between the articulators. Vowels vary from high (that position in which the tongue body is as near the palate as it can be without causing audible friction) to high-mid, mid, low-mid and low (where the tongue body is as far from the palate as possible) (older texts may also use close and open instead of high and low, respectively). Vowel backness is a horizontal criterion, parallel to consonantal place. It refers to the part of the tongue which is raised
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highest in the articulation of the vowel, varying from front (equivalent to palatal) (through central) to back (equivalent to velar). Vowel roundness: a vowel may be either rounded articulated with the corners of the lips brought towards each other and the lips pushed forwards, e.g., [u] or unrounded. Some phoneticians make a further distinction within unrounded vowels, between spread vowels produced with the corners of the lips moved away from each other, as for a smile, e.g., [i], and neutral vowels where the lips are not noticeably rounded or spread, e.g., [@].
2. The Cardinal Vowels Applying the three major criteria presented above, we can delimit the vowel articulation from the articulation of other sounds, calculating the so-called vowel space. This is the space within the oral cavity available for the production of vowels. For the sake of simplicity, the most common representation of the vowel space takes the stylized arbitrary shape of a quadrilateral (a trapezoid), as first proposed by Daniel Jones in the 1920s, under the name of Cardinal Vowel chart (see Figure 5.1). In Figure 5.1, the upper left corner represents the tongue position for the (ideally) highest and furthest forward vowel ([i]), while the lower right corner shows the tongue position for the lowest and furthest back vowel [A]. Six other sounds, approximately placed equidistantly from each other, are also indicated, thus giving a series of eight cardinal vowels, of which 1 to 5 are unrounded, and 6 to 8 rounded. These are known as the primary cardinal vowels. By reversing the rounding value, we obtain eight more secondary cardinal vowels, of which 9 to 13 are rounded, and 13 to 16 unrounded. Two more vowels are numbered in the chart: the high central unrounded 17 [] and the high central rounded 18 []. There are also other central vowels
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which do not belong to the inventory of cardinal vowels, but are included in the IPA chart: the central low unrounded vowel [6], the central low-mid unrounded vowel [3], the central mid unrounded vowel [@], etc. [@] is shaped like an inverted e and is usually called schwa (pronounced [SwA]), which is the old Hebrew term for a diacritic indicating a missing vowel (Hebrew writing usually only includes consonants). 1 2 3 4
i e E a
u 8 o 7 O 6 A 5
A few other IPA vowels are important in the description of the English vocalic system. One of them is [] (found in conservative RP and in most American English varieties). This vowel is somewhat higher and fronter than [a], but also a little lower than [E]. IPA [I] and [Y] are the lower, more central, short, and lax counterparts of [i] and [u], respectively, while [U] similarly corresponds to [u] (see Figure 5.2).
high high-mid mid low-mid low front central back
i y I Y e {
M u G o
E 9 a
@ 3 6 Q A
V O
The Cardinal Vowel chart is a schematic representation of the vowel space and its limits. It establishes reference points (hence the label cardinal) to which vowels in specific languages can be compared and described as, for instance, higher than the cardinal vowel X, further back than the cardinal vowel Y, or more rounded than the cardinal vowel Z. In this sense, the vowels in the words sea and shoe are said to illustrate the high cardinal vowels [i] and [u], respectively. But so is said about the French vowels in the words si yes and chou cabbage, and yet there is a perceptible difference between the two pronunciations. This is because the French vowels are closer to the corresponding cardinal vowels than are the English vowels. A special mention needs to be made of the symbol [a] being commonly used to represent a low central vowel rather than a low front vowel (as specified in the Cardinal Vowel chart). This sound is typical, for instance, of Romanian (e.g., in are (he) has).
3. Other criteria for classifying vowels Traditionally in describing English vowels we use the quantity distinction long vs. short. Long consonants are also known (e.g., fricatives take longer to be articulated than plosives; plosives can be long if they are doubled or geminated as, e.g., in Italian). Long vowels can be 50 to 100 percent longer than short vowels. For example, there is an obvious difference in length between the vowel in feet [i:] (the colon indicates a long vowel) and the one in fit [I]. At the same time, the two vowels also differ through quality factors: [I] is lower and more central than [i:]. That is because length in most English varieties is never the only feature which distinguishes two vowels. This is not the case in other languages (e.g., Danish) or even in a number of Scottish and Northern Irish English varieties, where
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length is sometimes the only criterion of distinction between pairs of words such as daze [dez] and days [de:z]. Long vowels are always associated with a higher degree of muscular tension in the articulatory organs. Consequently, they are described as tense. Short vowels are produced with less tension, in a more relaxed manner hence their description as lax. The more advanced or retracted position of the tongue root can differentiate among vowels. Vowels articulated with the root of the tongue pushed forward of its normal position are described as advance tongue root (ATR) vowels. Non-ATR vowels are articulated with the tongue root in its resting position. The former type of vowels are also tenser and higher than the latter. Another important way of distinguishing vowel sounds depends on whether the tongue stays in the same position or is shifted during the articulation. Some vowel sounds are relatively steady (monophthongs, also called pure vowels), e.g. in feet, some others involve tongue movement after the beginning of the articulation (diphthongs), e.g., in fight. Monophthongs are represented by a single vowel symbol, such as [i:] in feet, while diphthongs are represented by two symbols (indicating the starting and the finishing positions of the tongue, respectively), such as [aI] in fight. Both monophthongs and diphthongs belong to one single syllable. The duration of a diphthong is usually equal to the duration of a long vowel, but there are languages which make use of short diphthongs (e.g., Icelandic). One of the members of the diphthong sequence dominates over the other. If the dominant member comes first in the sequence, we are dealing with a falling diphthong. English only has falling diphthongs, of two kinds: opening in fact, centering (ending in [@], e.g., [I@] in beard) and closing (ending in [I] or in [U], e.g., [OI] in voice and [aU] in loud). In other languages, e.g., Romanian, there are also rising diphthongs, where the dominant member comes second, e.g., in iarn (winter), iute spicy, quickly, ies I go out, coad tail, ceas
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clock, watch, hour, etc. However, some linguists (especially Americans) describe diphthongs (and even long monophthongs) as sequences of glide + vowel (e.g., [ja], [wa]) or vowel + glide (e.g., [aj], [aw]). In some non-rhotic English varieties, closing diphthongs may be followed by [@] (in those environments where rhotic varieties have an r sound), e.g., in RP sour [saU@], sayer [seI@], fire [faI@], lawyer [lOI@], and slower [sl@U@]. Thus triphthongs result, which by nature are very unstable and subject to reduction. Their reduction usually implies the loss of the intermediary vowel, which automatically determines the compensatory lengthening of the initial vowel. The RP words enumerated above are now pronounced [sa:@] (sour), [se:@] (sayer), [fa:@] (fire), [lO:@] (lawyer), and [sl3:] (slower), with a further tendency towards monophthongisation of the resulting centring diphthong. Thus the pairs slower and slur [3:], fire and far [A:], and even layer and lair (if the [e:@] is further reduced to [E:]) tend to become homophonous. The position of the velum can also be used as a criterion in distinguishing vowels. In most of the situations the soft palate is raised, so that oral vowels are produced, but if it is lowered, the change results in the articulation of nasal vowels. In some languages oral vowels contrast with nasal vowels as in French, e.g., in the pair lait [lE] milk vs. lin [lE)] flax (the nasal sound is marked by the tilde symbol [~]). In English, nasalised vowels are always positional variants: if a vowel precedes a nasal stop it will be produced with lowered velum so as to anticipate the following consonant, as in seen [ i):].
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4. English vowel sounds Vowels have a tendency to move about in the articulatory space much more than consonants. This variation depends both on the regional origin of the speaker and on his social class and age group. The number of vowels and their positions on the vowel chart differs considerably from one English variety to another. Of the English varieties, the RP vowel system is particularly rich (see Figure 5.3), though the diphthongs have tended towards symplification. Conservative RP is thus said to have 21 vowel sounds (12 monophthongs and 9 diphthongs). In more recent RP, speakers tend to reduce the diphthongs [O@] and [U@] to [O:] and [e@] to [E:], so that the newer form of RP only has 19 vowels sounds.
i: I @ 3: V & U
u:
O:
Q A:
4.1. RP front vowels [i:] high, long, tense, unrounded (e.g., in see). [I] high, more central and lower than [i:]; short, lax, unrounded (e.g., in bit). [E] low-mid, short, lax, unrounded (e.g., in check). [] low, short, lax, unrounded (e.g., in cat).
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4.2. RP back vowels [u:] high, long, tense, rounded (e.g., in boot). [U] high, more central and lower than [u:]; short, lax, rounded (e.g., in put). [O:] low-mid, long, tense, rounded (e.g., in taught). [Q] low, short, lax, rounded (e.g., in got). [A:] low, long, tense, unrounded (e.g., in father).
4.3. RP central vowels [V] low-mid, short, lax, unrounded (e.g., in cut); it is closer to the IPA vowel [6] than to the cardinal [V]. [@] mid, short, lax, unrounded (e.g., in about, verandah always in unstressed syllables). [3:] mid, long, tense, unrounded (e.g., in fur, bird, in nonrhotic varieties of English); in North American English (which a rhotic variety of English) a [@] is often used followed by an r sound, represented as [].
4.4. RP centring diphthongs [I@] e.g., in fear. [e@] traditional RP (e.g., in fair); nowadays reduced to [E:]. [O@] traditional RP (e.g., in oar); nowadays reduced to [O:]. [U@] traditional RP (e.g., in poor or tour); nowadays reduced to [O:].
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4.5. RP diphthongs falling to [I] and to [U] [aI] e.g., in pie. [OI] e.g., in coin. [eI] e.g., in play. [aU] e.g., in cow. [@U] e.g., in know.
5. Questions and exercises 1. Which are the main criteria used to classify vowels? 2. What is the difference between high and low vowels? 3. What is the difference between front and back vowels? 4. What is the difference between rounded and unrounded vowels? 5. What is the cardinal vowel chart? 6. Which cardinal vowels do you know? 7. Which are the other criteria used to classify vowels? 8. How can vowels be classified according to length? 9. How is a tense vowel articulated? 10. What is Adanced Tongue Root? 11. What is the difference between a monophthong and a diphthong? 12. Are there any triphthongs in English? 13. What kind of diphthongs do you know? 14. How is a nasalised vowel articulated? 15. Are there nasalised vowels in English? 16. Which are the vowel sounds of RP English? 17. Indicate the symbols representing the vowel sounds described below:
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a) low back round vowel; b) mid central unstressed short vowel; c) high back short vowel; d) high front long vowel; e) mid back round vowel; f) high central unround vowel; g) mid front unround vowel; h) low front unround vowel; i) low-mid central stressed vowel; j) central to high back diphthong; k) mid back to central diphthong; l) low front to high front diphthong. 18. For each of the following symbols, find an adequate description in words. Example: [e] = high-mid front unround vowel a) [] [] i) [] [] q) [] r) [] s) [] j) [] k) [] l) [] m) [] n) [ ] o) [ ] p) b) [] c) [] d) [ ] e) [] f) [] g) [ ] h)
19. Identify the difference in articulation between the following sounds, grouped in two sets. Example: The vowels in the set [ ] are mid non-central, while the vowels in [ ] are mid central. a) [ ] vs. [ ] c) [ ] vs. [ ] forms. a) [], b) [], c) [], d) [], e) [], f) [], g) [] h) [], i) [], j) [],
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b) [ ] vs. [ ]
21. Transcribe phonetically the following words in RP. a) question b) threaten c) this d) yelling e) blurry f) congress g) generosity h) phantom i) shiver j) jester k) chopper l) casualties m) womb n) central o) thought p) social.
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VI. PHONOLOGY
1. Phonetics vs. phonology Unlike phonetics, which deals with the more or less universal features of sounds, phonology studies the relationships and functions of sounds, the way they are organized into patterns and systems and the way they interact with each other. However, there is no clear-cut boundary between the two disciplines of linguistics: in fact, one could not separate the phonetic features of a sound from its phonological environment, nor could one analyze a phonological process without taking into account its phonetic characteristics.
2. Segmental vs. suprasegmental phonology Sounds are not always seen as independent segments, since they are usually organized in higher, more complex structures. If a phonologist regards sounds as individual units (phonological segments), he places his approach within the framework of segmental phonology. If, on the contrary, he looks at sounds as parts of higher units of organization, he does it from the perspective of suprasegmental phonology (also known as prosody). Suprasegmental phonology studies units of speech larger than sounds, e.g., syllables, metrical feet, phonological words, phrases and sentences, and phenomena which characterize them, such as pitch, stress, tone, intonation, rhythm, etc.
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3. Segmental phonology 3.1. Phonemes and their variants If a speaker of English is asked to produce the word cup several times, he will articulate the three sounds [k, V, p] with slight, almost imperceptible differences every time he utters the word (this can easily be proven by means of a simple phonographic recording). However, he will tend to ignore such differences and consider the sounds identical. This is because the speaker will compare, e.g., the types of [k] he articulates with a mental representation of [k] stored in his mind (a common denominator of all the [k] sounds he has ever produced or heard in his language) and decide that they should be treated as the same thing. Indeed, in the mind of the speaker of a certain language there are abstract representations of the sounds used in the respective language, listed up in a sort of catalogue he consults on every occasion a sound is produced. All the possible sounds of a language are referred to such phonological categories, which are not palpable entities, like the speech sounds we ourselves hear or articulate, but rather exist only in our minds. These categories are described by phonologists as invariants or phonemes, as opposed to all their possible concrete phonetic realizations or materializations in the actual speech, which are called variants or phones. By convention, phonemes are transcribed within slashes (in broad transcription) and their variants within square brackets (in narrow transcription). We always strictly refer to the phonemes of one language and not of languages in general, because each language has a different grouping of the sounds into phonemes. A phonological category in a language may be larger than the corresponding category in another
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language. For instance, the English phoneme /p/ is the category to which we refer both aspirated and non-aspirated [p] variants (e.g., the [ph] in pan and the [p] in span). On the contrary, in a language like Thai, [ph] and [p] belong to two different phonemes, one aspirated and the other plain (non-aspirated) (/ph/ and /p/), as, for instance, in /pha/ to split and /pa/ forest. We know they are different because they contrast: when one is replaced by the other in a word (= the substitution or commutation test) there results a different word with another meaning. Such two words are said to make up a minimal pair, that is, a pair of words that differ in just one respect (e.g., English /pn/ pan vs. /bn/ ban, where /p/ and /b/ are different phonemes they contrast in an opposition of voicing). In some cases, certain sounds may have limited occurrence, so there might be no minimal pairs to evince the difference between these sounds. Instead, we could content ourselves with near minimal pairs, where only the immediate phonetic environment of the sounds concerned is identical. For instance, in pressure ["prES@] vs. pleasure ["plEZ@] we can see the contrast between /S/ and /Z/, though the two words also differ by another opposition (between /r/ and /l/). In this case, the immediate phonetic environment is ["E__@] for both /S/ and /Z/. A phoneme, therefore, is an abstract representation of a class of sounds whose members (variants) are highly similar phonetically and never contrast functionally (i.e., never occur in the same environment). Only sounds with a high degree of phonetic similarity qualify as members of the same phoneme (e.g., aspirated and plain [p], which only differ in one phonetic feature: aspiration). If two sounds always occur in different contexts, but do not share enough phonetic features, they cannot be the realizations of the same phoneme. For instance, English /h/ is always syllable-initial, while English /N/ is only syllable-final, but physically they are completely different: one is
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a voiceless glottal fricative and the other a voiced velar nasal stop, so they could not be the variants of the same phoneme. The difference between the English [p] and [ph] and the Thai [p] and [ph] does not lie in the phonetic characteristics of these sounds, i.e., in their physical traits. Both English and Thai use more or less the same plain and aspirated types of voiceless bilabial plosive. We are rather dealing with a difference in the two language systems, in the way the speakers of the two languages group these phones in their minds in one or two categories, i.e., one or two phonemes: /p/ and /ph/. Graphically, this can be illustrated as in Figure 6.1:
English /p/ Thai /p/ /ph/ phonological level (phonemes)
[p]
[ph]
The phonetic and the phonological level coexist, i.e., speakers use concrete sounds in accordance with the abstract role played by these sounds in their language system. The concrete level of representation has been conventionally called by linguists the surface level (= the level of phones, i.e., of sounds as they are actually pronounced), while the abstract level has become known as the underlying level (= the level of phonemes, i.e., of sounds as they are systematically organized in the respective language).
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3.2. Distribution Variants (or phones) can be of different types, depending on their distribution (= their occurrence in different environments or contexts). For example, the aspirated and the non-aspirated [p] in English never appear in the same environment: [ph] only shows up unless preceded by [s], whereas [p] is always preceded by [s]. Such conditioned variants (or allophones) are in complementary distribution. The occurrence of allophones is said to be predictable, because in a certain environment only one variant of the phoneme is expected to appear (they are context-bound). On the contrary, the occurrence of phonemes is described as unpredictable (phonemes have contrastive distribution in the same context: e.g., /p b k r m/, etc. in initial position before /n/ - in pan, ban, can, man etc.). Sometimes, variation is not related to positioning, being rather unpredictable, yet not phonemic: this is the case of free variants. Free variation is the different realization of one phoneme in various dialects of the same language or in one persons speech, in different situations. Free variants are context-free and are not supposed to lead to meaning contrasts: e.g., Northern English English [mUd] mud vs. Southern English English [mVd] (regional variants); [pli:] please vs. [pli:z] (uttered by a lisping person).
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4. Questions 1. What is the difference between segmental and suprasegmental phonology? 2. What are phonemes? 3. What are (allo) phones / variants? 4. What is the relationship between two phonemes that can occur in the same environment? 5. What is a minimal pair? 6. What is a near minimal pair? 7. What is the surface level of representation? 8. What is the underlying level of representation? 9. Which types of speech sound distribution do you know? 10. When are two sounds in contrastive distribution? 11. When are two sounds in complementary distribution? 12. When are two sounds in free variation? 13. When is the occurrence of a sound predictable?
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When they contrast in a minimal pair, phonemes oppose each other in terms of one or more distinctive features (= phonological properties): e.g., in /bIt/ vs. /pIt/, /b/ is voiced and /p/ is not; in /mi:t/ vs. /bi:t/, /m/ is nasal and /b/ is not; in /vn/ vs. /bn/, /v/ is continuant, while /b/ is not; in /bEt/ vs. /wEt/, /b/ is a consonant, while /w/ is not, etc. Thus, by contrasting /b/ with other sounds we can learn more about what /b/ is and what it is not. In fact, we can arrive at a list of inherent features which characterize this sound, which we might consider equal to the phoneme /b/. This means that we can regard /b/ as a unit (a phoneme) decomposable into smaller constitutive elements (its distinctive features). Based on their constitutive features, phonemes are more or less alike, i.e., they share more or less properties. The more properties two phonemes share, the higher the chance for them to belong to the same class of sounds. Thus, /b/, /p/, /m/ and /v/ are all consonants, therefore they can all be represented as [+consonantal]; /w/, however, is a glide (it only resembles consonants in its behavior) and like vowels it can be described as [consonantal]. Secondly, /b/, /p/ and /m/ are all non-continuant sounds (they are stops), so they can all be characterised as [continuant]; /v/ and /w/, on the other hand, are [+continuant] (in the articulation of
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fricatives, glides, and a few other sounds the air is released continuously, without complete obstruction). Thirdly, /m/ is [+nasal] because it is articulated with a raised velum, while /b/, /p/, /v/ and /w/ are oral sounds, therefore [nasal]. Similarly, in the articulation of /p/ the vocal cords do not vibrate (so /p/ is to be described as [voice]), but /b/, /m/, /v/ and /w/ are voiced, therefore [+voice]. Finally, /b/, /p/, /m/, /v/ and /w/ are articulated by means of lip movement, so they all belong to the class of [labial] sounds. At the same time, /w/ also belongs to the [dorsal] class (it is a labio-velar). Sounds, therefore, can be grouped in several ways according to their features. Phonologists, starting from the discoveries of phoneticians, have tried not to simply list up sound features at random, but rather to associate them in categories (clusters) that are relevant for the hierarchy in which the phonological system of a human language is organized. Thus they have come to rank features according to the role they play in the system. Since one of the most important oppositions in the phonological system is that of vowels vs. consonants, the feature [consonantal], for instance, which distinguishes between the two classes of sounds, has been given pride of place. Another feature illustrated above, [nasal], is hierarchically subordinated to [consonantal], since it is used to subdivide some consonants (or vowels) into nasal and oral. The same is true about the features [voice] or [continuant]. Features like [labial] and [dorsal], which strictly refer to the place of articulation of a consonant, are commonly subordinated to other features characteristic of consonants. The feature hierarchy depends on the natural grouping of sounds into classes, which make up the (segmental) phonological system: e.g., obstruents, sonorants, stops, nasals, etc. Sounds are grouped according to their articulatory characteristics, but also depending on the way they behave in phonological processes. For
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example, alveolar and dental sounds can suffer a phenomenon called palatalization (a type of assimilation) by which they turn into alveopalatals or palatals (e.g., in the pronunciation ki[S]you of kiss you see also Section IV.3.1). Besides, these places of articulation are, of course contiguous and the position of the tongue is not very dissimilar in the articulation of these sounds. For these reasons they are grouped together under the label [coronal]. The most widely known system of phonological properties is the one proposed in Chomsky and Halles work (1968) The Sound Pattern of English (in short SPE), taken over and amended by numerous phonologists who followed in their foot steps. For example, in the SPE model segments were viewed as consisting simply of a list of binary features (= with two possible values: + or ), as illustrated above by [+nasal]/[nasal], [+voice]/[voice], etc. Later on, as already emphasized, linguists understood that phonological features are hierarchically ordered in the system. Phonologists have also insisted on the avoidance of redundancy in feature specification, stating that some features are simply implied by others and should not be mentioned. For instance, since all sonorant sounds are voiced, it would usually be superfluous to describe a sound as [+voice] once it has already been described as [+sonorant]. However, there are situations where the sonorant is devoiced (e.g., if followed by a voiceless sound), and in such cases the [voice] specification will indeed be necessary. In the SPE model, the features characterizing a segment were organized into a feature matrix representation in which they were listed along with their value (either + or ) for the respective segment. For example, in the spirit but not exactly the letter of the SPE, the feature matrix for the English consonant /b/ could be described as containing the following properties:
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/b/
1. Major class features Already in the SPE approach features were grouped according to their higher or lower degree of general applicability. Those features which apply to all sounds are those which distinguish the so-called major classes of speech sounds: obstruents, sonorant consonants, glides, and vowels. Vowels can be described as [+syllabic], because they characteristically occur in syllable nucleuses (= centers). Other sounds also become [+syll] when they behave in the same way as vowels. They are mainly syllabic sonorant consonants, like those in button [bt] or bottle [b t]) (in English, generally in word-final unstressed syllables). In order to distinguish obstruents, liquids and nasals from vowels and glides, the feature [consonantal] was introduced: [+cons] sounds are articulated with a high degree of stricture. The third major class feature, [sonorant], is the one which allows us to distinguish vowels, glides, liquids and nasals [+son] from obstruents (oral stops, fricatives and affricates: [son]). Sonorants are produced with a higher degree of sonority and they display a clear
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formant pattern in the acoustic spectrum they have relatively more periodic acoustic energy. By combining the three features we can characterize each major class of segments in a particular way. A feature which has also been introduced as a major class feature is [approximant] (= frictionless continuant), used to individualize liquids and glides ([+approximant]) from nasals.
vowels [syll] [cons] [son] [approx] + + + glides + + sonorant consonants liquids nasals + + + + + obstruents +
2. Consonantal features Because of the numerous differences between the articulation of consonants and that of vowels, their features are usually presented in separate lists. We will start with consonants.
2.1. Voice Although it is a general feature which applies to all classes of sounds, [voice] is mostly used to distinguish between voiceless and voiced obstruents. As already stated, [+voice] sounds are produced with vocal cord vibration. They typically include the vowels, as well as the glides, sonorants and voiced obstruents. However, there are languages which sometimes make use of voiceless vowels or voiceless sonorants.
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There are five manner features to be discussed here: [continuant], [delayed release], [strident], [nasal], and [lateral]. To account for manner of articulation differences between sounds, e.g., in the obstruent series //, //, and /s/, new features were introduced instead of the phonetic labels [stop], [fricative] and [affricate], namely [continuant] and [delayed release], which refer to the degree of aperture in the oral tract and to the duration of the sound, respectively. Thus, a stop, which is pronounced with a complete obstruction of the airflow, can be described as [cont, del rel], a fricative (which is articulated with incomplete stricture) as [+cont, del rel], and an affricate (which starts as a stop and ends as a fricative and takes longer than the other obstruents) as [cont, +del rel]. The feature [delayed release] is strictly relevant in describing the difference between the articulation of a stop and that of an affricate, whereas [continuant] applies to all sounds: [+cont] sounds are those in the articulation of which there is a free airflow through the oral tract: vowels, glides, liquids and fricative obstruents. One more feature ([strident]) was introduced in the list of manner features to pinpoint the difference between relatively turbulent [+strid] sounds (those fricatives and affricates whose articulation involve a complex kind of constriction, resulting in continuous noisy or hissing airflow): e.g., / ts dz / and those sounds (fricatives only) which have less high-frequency noise: e.g., [strid] / h/. The following two features are mainly used to distinguish sonorants. Above we mentioned the feature [nasal]. [+nas] sounds are
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those articulated with lowered velum, so that the airflow can pass both through the oral cavity and through the nose. In English and Romanian, for instance, [nasal] is only distinctive for consonants, but there are other languages in which it can also distinguish vowels, e.g., French. The feature [lateral] is used to separate l-sounds from other liquids (and also from the rest of the sounds). It refers to the lateral release of the airflow i.e., by the sides of the tongue.
2.3. Place features The numerous articulatory labels used by phoneticians were replaced in the SPE model by only two binary features, [anterior] and [coronal]. Chomsky and Halle described as [+ant] those sounds which are produced no further back in the oral tract than the alveolar ridge (labials, alveolars and dentals), while [+cor] was introduced to refer to sounds produced in the area delimited by the teeth and the hard palate (alveolars, dentals and alveo-palatals). This caused palatals, velars, uvulars, pharyngeals and glottals to be characterized together as [ant, cor]. Later on, due to the similarities noticed in the phonological behavior of alveolars and palatals (see above), the latter were also included in the group of [+coronal] sounds. They were distinguished by means of the vowel-specific features [high], [low] and [back]. Instead of using the two binary features in the SPE approach, it has been assumed that it would be more adequate and more economical to base the classification on the active articulators. Thus the features [labial] (= with the lips), [coronal] (= with the crown / blade of the tongue), [dorsal] (= with the tongue-body (dorsum)) and [guttural] (= with the tongue root) came to be employed as unary (= single-value) features. Place features are now unary because phonologists have come to the conclusion that there is no point in
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specifying a sound for anything but its own place of articulation (e.g., in the old system of notation, /b/ would have been [+anterior] but also [coronal]). Unary place of articulation features can also co-occur: e.g., /w/, which has double articulation, can be described as both [labial] and [dorsal]. The feature [anterior] has not been altogether abandoned, however, but now it is used exclusively to subcategorize the class of coronals. dental alveolar alveo-palatal + + retroflex palatal
[ant]
Another feature originally proposed in SPE which has proved to be useful in distinguishing coronals is [distributed]. Tongue-blade (laminal) sounds and non-retroflex sounds are thus considered to be [+distr], whereas tongue-tip (apical) sounds and retroflex sounds are described as [distr]. This feature is particularly useful for stops, since for fricatives [strident] (already) is sufficient to characterize the oppositions found in language.
3. Vowel features The following features are mainly relevant in the description of vowels (in terms of height, backness, roundness and length see Chapter V), but they have also been used to distinguish consonants. The feature [+high] applies to those sounds which involve raising the body of the tongue above the so-called neutral position (roughly the position characterizing the articulation of the schwa), e.g., the high vowels, the glides, the velar consonants, etc.
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[+low] applies to sounds in the articulation of which the body of the tongue is lowered from the neutral position, e.g., the low vowels and the pharyngeal and glottal consonants. We use [+back] to refer to sounds produced by retracting the body of the tongue from the neutral position, e.g., the back vowels, the velar, uvular and pharyngeal consonants. The feature [+front] describes those sounds which involve the fronting of the body of the tongue from the neutral position, e.g., the front vowels. This feature is not accepted by all accounts (including the SPE), but it is useful in characterizing central vowels, in combination with the feature [back] (central vowels can thus be defined as [back, front]). [+round] sounds are articulated with rounded protruding lips, e.g., the rounded vowels and the labial-velar glide /w/. In order to distinguish long vowels from short ones, we may use the feature [tense], first proposed in SPE: [+tense] sounds are produced with a lot of muscular effort a considerable tensing of the body of the tongue in comparison to the so-called lax vowels ([tense]), and they imply a greater deviation from the neutral relaxed state of the tongue. This increased muscular effort allows for a longer and more peripheral sound to be articulated (e.g., the vowel [u:] in boom [bu:m]) rather than a shorter and more centralized lax vowel (e.g., [U] in [pUt]) (see Figure 5.3). The feature [tense] seems to apply well in RP: the [tense] vowels of RP form a class (including [I E & @ V Q U]), which is proven by the fact that they cannot occur in final position in a stressed syllable, while the [+tense] vowels of RP can (e.g., [fi:] vs. *[fI]). Similarly, [tense] vowels occur before the velar nasal [N], but [+tense] vowels do not (e.g., [sVN] vs. *[su:N]). An idealized ten-vowel system based on the distinction of tenseness will contain a set of [tense] central vowels ([I E @ O U])
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and one of [+tense] peripheral vowels ([i e A o u]), as in the following representation: There are other vowel systems, however, with a different type of organization of the very same vowels. Many languages do not divide the set of vowels into a tense and a lax subset. Instead, they oppose two subsets according to the position of the tongue-root (and the feature [Advanced Tongue Root]). Some vowels are [+ATR] ([i e 3 o u]), whereas others are [ATR] ([I E a O U]) (see below).
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The feature [ATR] is sometimes used nowadays to describe English vowels instead of the feature [tense], since, as already stated, the advanced position of the tongue root determines the simultaneous raising of the tongue body (which, by definition, characterizes tense vowels). 4. Summing up The features presented in this chapter are phonologically relevant. They can be successfully used to identify natural classes of sounds. For instance, the set of English nasal consonants [ ] share the features [+cons, +son, approx, +nasal] and constitute a natural class because there are no other sounds in this language to fit this description. Similarly, [] and [] are the typical English sounds describable as [+cons, son, cont, +del rel]. From now on, instead of enumerating sounds, we will often refer to them via their feature specifications. As it will soon become obvious, this approach is considerably more economical and allows us to capture interesting generalizations on whole classes of sounds. Tables 7.1 and 7.2 present a summary of the features of various kinds of English sounds. Further on, the main features introduced so far are presented in the shape of a tree.
Table 7.1 Features of English RP vowels Features high low back front round tense 82
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+ + +
+ + -
+ -
+ + -
+ + + + + + -
: + + +
+ + + +
+ + + -
+ -
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+ + -
+ + + + + +
+ + -
+ + + +