Introduction to Phonetics

SPAU 3343, Spring 2005

Friday: 1:00-3:45 CJ 1.08 (Callier South)

Instructor: William F. Katz (x 3188), wkatz@utdallas.edu
Office hours: F 12:30 – 1:00, 3:45-4:30 and by appt.
TA: June Levitt junelev@utdallas.edu

This course provides an overview of modern phonetics. We will cover articulatory, acoustic, and
linguistic phonetic theories. Students will also acquire basic transcription skills, with particular attention
paid to the language of disordered individuals.

******** COURSE OUTLINE *******

Texts: Ladefoged:

I. Anatomy of the speech production mechanism; Ch. 1

articulatory phonetics

II. I.P.A.; Transcription Ch. 2

III. Consonants: place, manner, & voicing Ch. 3 (pg. 43-56), 6, 7

IV. Vowels and the vowel space Ch. 2, 4

V. Phonological rules and allophones Ch. 3 (pg. 56-60)

à (MIDTERM)

VI. Stress and intonation Ch. 5

VII. Acoustic properties of vowels Ch. 8, 9

VIII. Linguistic phonetics Ch. 10, 11

• Tentative date for midterm exam: 3/5/05

• Tentative date for final Exam: Fri 4/29/05

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 COURSE REQUIREMENTS

1. Selected readings from the required texts:

• Ladefoged, P., A Course in Phonetics, 4th Edition, 2001.

• I Optional software: “Phonetic transcription of American English” (2 volume CD set) P.

Hoffman & H. Buckingham, 2000. Louisiana State University. I will arrange for copies to be
purchased in class direct from LSU source.

2. Short problem sets from text.

3. In-class quizzes and transcription practice.

4. Weekly lab exercises.

5. In-class midterm and (cumulative) final.

6. Final paper including transcription/analysis of a small speech corpus. To be turned in on (or before)
the last day of lecture, 4/22/05.

Grading: 25% quizzes/homework/labwork; 25% midterm; 25% final, 25% final paper. Class
participation is noted and encouraged.

ü NOTE: Please visit our class website:

http://www.utdallas.edu/~wkatz/phonetics_course/phonetics_course.html

Use of the web page is not required, but it is strongly encouraged!

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 SPAU 3343 Phonetics/ Schedule for Spring 2005
Reading assignment
Lab
Date Lecture HW = Homework Lab
Materials
HO = Handout
Introduction. Review syllabus. “Mini-lecture” Chap. 1 No lab
1/14
HO-initial set
Chap. 1 No lab
Source-filter theory/ Feature theory/ Place, HW1 (assign)
1/21
manner of consonants. Begin vowel features. pg 16-21, A-E

Continue with consonant and vowel features. Chap. 1 & 2, 4 (part 1) (Lab 1) Lab 1 PPT
HW 2 (assign) Intonation
pg 32-33 A practice.
1/28
VPM practice.
HW 1 (collect) Broad
transcription.
Chap. 1 & 2 Lab 1 PPT
Concepts of phoneme and allophone. Cover last HW 3 (assign) (Lab 2) Quiz 1 Lab 2 PPT
points in chapters 1-3. pg 61,62 A, “fill in the (10 intonation
2/4 blanks” problems).
Broad
HW 2 (collect) transcription
HW 1 (return)
Chap 6. Airstream mechanisms. In-class demo Chap. 6 (Lab 3) Quiz 2 Lab 2 PPT
and discussion of these sounds. HW assign– pg 134-135, (5 real words Lab 3 PPT
E, “fill in the blanks” transcription).
2/11 Broad
HW 3 (collect)
HW 2 (return) transcription

Chap. 7 (Lab 4) Quiz 3 (5 Lab 3 PPT

Grade hmwk #4 in class. Chap 7: Place and HW 3 (return) non-words
2/18 manner of languages other than English. transcription).
Broad
transcription
Chap. 3 No lab
Chap 3. HO-Summary of 12
2/25 12 Phonological rules of GAE phono.
Rules and
12 Phono. Work sheet
Review
3/04 [Break]
2:00 – 3:15 Midterm Exam

3/11 Spring Break

Midterm (return & Accent-

Return Mid-term (then collect) collect) American Tongues Dialect PPT
Final Project Q & A Project tapes (assign) Video HO-In-class
Narrow Transcription video
3/18 Looking back Mid-
term PPT Video tape
Lab 5 PPT

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 Chap. 5 (Lab 5) Lab 4 PPT
Chap 5: Intonation contour, tonic stress, Project tapes (collect) Intonation contour
3/25 primary/secondary stress. Strong and weak HO-Practice with Narrow
forms, citation form/ assimilation suprasegmentals. transcription

Chap. 8 (Lab 6) Lab 5 PPT

Chap 8: Acoustic phonetics. Nature of sound, Acoustics HW Narrow
wave theory, harmonics and formants. Brief (assign) transcription
4/1
presentation of BLISS speech-analysis software. Project tapes (return)
HO- “Articulatory
Factors affecting…”
Chap. 9 (Lab 7) Phono.
Chap 8 cont’d: Spectrogram. Brief history. Acoustics HW Quiz 4 Rules
Axes, length of material in. How to interpret (collect) (Primary stress review
vowels/diphthongs, followed by consonants. Mystery spec. Broad & Narrow
(assign) transcriptions) Lab 6 PPT
Chap 9 (briefly): Vowel reduction, unstressed HO- “Spectrogram
4/8
syllables, cardinal vowels, secondary Tidbits” Narrow
articulations affecting other languages HO-“Examples of transcriptions
rule sum. for foreign
talkers” and “Tools
for transcribing Am.
English accents”
Chap. 10 (Lab 8) Phono
Chap 10: Syllables and suprasegmentals. Mystery spec. Quiz 5 Rules
Onset, rhyme, nucleus, coda. Ambisyllabicity. (collect) (Narrow review
Syllable- vs. stress-timed languages. Acoustics HW transcriptions,
Sonority/prominence. Stress, length, geminate (return) Intonation contour, Lab 6 PPT
4/15 consonants, extra-long vowels. Phonemic tone. HO-“Mary passage” tonic stress and
secondary stress
marks)

Narrow
transcriptions
Chap. 11 Review for Final Final
Chap 11: Coarticulation/ motor with June review PPT
4/22 equivalence/coordinative structures/ Ease of
articulation vs. perceptual distinctiveness. Project is due!
Q & A with Dr. Katz

4/29 Final Exam