Phonetics & Phonology I

Introduction
The levels of language

Phonetics is the study of the sounds of human speech; their articulation

(articulatory phonetics), their transmission from speaker to hearer, physical
properties of speech sounds: frequency, duration... (acoustic phonetics), their
audition or perception by the hearer (auditory phonetics).

It’s an empirical science: based on the observation of facts. It is not

considered to be part of linguistics.

Used in teaching diction, teaching the pronunciation of foreign

languages, helping deaf-mutes and the deaf to identify and reproduce sounds…

It is concerned with the abstract set of sounds in a language that allows

us to distinguish meaning in the actual physical sounds we say and hear.

Three main branches:

1. Articulatory phonetics which studies the way speech sounds are
made.
2. Acoustic phonetics which studies the physical properties of speech
sounds, as transmitted between mouth and ear.
3. Auditory phonetics which studies the perceptual response to
speech sounds, as mediated by ear, auditory nerve and brain.

Phonology is a branch of linguistics that studies the sound systems of

languages Different languages allow different combinations of sounds. Closely
related to semantics, the science of meaning (changing a phoneme can change a
word).

Phonology has two goals:

1. To write descriptions of the sound patterns of particular languages.
2. To make general statements about the nature of the sound systems of
the languages of the world and establish universals.

The phoneme (used in phonological or broad transcription)

It’s the basic unit of phonology. The minimal distinctive unit of
phonology which serves to distinguish meaning. They are not sounds, but
linguistic abstractions.
 They can be the same but the way in which we articulate them might be
different. Example: lake – all. These are 2 different allophones for 1 same
phoneme.
Lake: L + vocal. All: Vocal + L.
Pin & Bin: 2 different phonemes.
If we change them, the meaning of the word changes. The context, though, will
remain the same, so they are contrastive. Parallel distribution.
What is a minimal pair?
A pair of words that are exactly the same except for one segment/phoneme, so
there are 2 different phonemes.  hat – had.
What are near minimal pairs?
They are pairs of words with more than one segment that is missing but the
context they appear in is the same. Example: mission – vision.

Phonology – Phoneme – Linguistics - //

Phonetics – Allophones – Not linguistics - []

Phone: any speech sound uttered by a speaker.

Allophone: a phoneme sub-type, it does not serve to distinguish
meaning. Allophones can appear in complementary distribution or in free
variation. They appear in different context. Allophone is the exact pronunciation.
The
y are non-contrastive.
Spot & Pot: “p” are different allophones, but the same phoneme.
Difference between allophone and a phone:
A phone is any unit of sound in English. It need not change the meaning
of a word if replaced. An allophone is a variety of a phoneme, pronounced
slightly different to other varieties but having the same outcome and
representing the same thing.
- Substituting one phoneme for another will result in a word with
different meaning.
- Substituting allophones only results in a different pronunciation of
the same word.
Phonemes are in the mind. Allophones in the mouth.
The basic knowledge of phonology are unit (the phoneme), realization (the
allophones) and distribution (the positions of allophones in the speech chain).
Complementary distribution (when it depends on the context):
“l” in the words lead and ball are allophones of the /l/ phoneme.
Clear “l” occurs before vowels (lead).
Dark “l” occurs after vowels (ball).
Complementary distribution is not a guarantee that 2 allophones belong to the
same phoneme.
THIS IS THE END OF UNIT 1 WITH EVA CERVIÑO.
Segmentation
- Monoponematic: one phoneme.
- Biphonematic: two phonemes. /tʃ/ and /dʒ/ They’re not split because
they’re distinguishable from one another.

Notes:
 whenever there’s an “s” before a “t”, the “t” is not aspirated.
 Happy vowel “I” at the end of a word and unstressed should be written
“i”.
 “s”  unvoiced. “z”  voiced.
 /dʒ/ = j.
 /j/ = y.

Neutralization
Neutralization is when two sounds can distinguish meaning in at least
one phonological context (for instance word-initially) but sound the same in
another phonological context (for instance intervocalically), because in the
neutralization context sound A is turned into sound B, or sound B is turned into
sound A, or both sound A and sound B are turned into a third sound C.

In time and dime, the distinctive sound occurs in a word-initial context.

At the beginning of a word.

How about the position between two vowels? Like in latter and ladder?

These two sound identical in North American English.

Both /t/ and /d/ undergo a phonological process that turn the
underlying sound into a flap, [ɾ]. In an intervocalic context you cannot hear the
difference between [t] and [d], and therefore they can never distinguish
meaning in that context. Intervocalically, the distinction between /t/ and /d/ is
neutralized.

I and i: get neutralized if they are at the end of the word.

Phonotactics: it deals not only with the way consonants combine

but also with the position consonants and vowels may occupy in the
syllable or word. For example, “h” is possible at the beginning of syllables in
English, as in the words have and behind, but not at the end. In Romanian, it can
be at the beginning or at the end.

Syllable: unit of sound consisting of a vowel and optional consonants

before or after the vowel.

 Suprasegmental unit
 Elements:
o The onset (one or more consonants)
o The rhyme: it consists of
 A vowel, which is treated as the nucleus
 Any following consonant(s), described as the coda
 Open vs closed syllables
o Open ending without coda: me, to
o Closed ending with coda: up, cup, hat
 Consonant clusters (meaning there’s more than one consonant)

Homophones: pronounced exactly the same.

Homographs: written exactly the same.

2. The Organs of Speech

The speech organs are the lungs, the larynx, and the supraglottal cavities.
2.1 Physiology of speech production
There are three stages in the production of speech sounds: Initiation, phonation
and articulation.
Initiation: the lungs
Initiation of the production of sounds. We make sounds while expelling air, not
breathing in. 3 sources of air pressure. Air-stream mechanism:
1.1 Pulmonic eggresive: the air is expelled from the lungs and gets out
through the mouth. Most speech sounds are produced with this ASM (Air-
stream mechanism).
1.2 Ingressive: not normally used. Produced when gasping and expressing
sympathy or pain. Air flows into the mouth.
1.3 Velaric ingressive or clicks: like kissing or sucking. Tongue against
velum and frontier point of contact. Air rushes in to fill the vacuum. Only stops
and fricatives.

Phonation: the larynx

The larynx is a hard casing that protects the vocal cords.
The vocal cords are two bands of elastic tissue joint at front by the thyroid
cartilage and connected to the back by the arytenoid cartilage that can be made
to move apart. The space between the vocal cords is the glottis.
In speech, the vocal cords adopt 3 main positions:
 Wide open and not vibrating: voiceless sounds.
 Close together and vibrating: voiced sounds.
 Tightly shut and sudden release: glottal stop.
The glottal stop (this is so british)
Words that produce a glottal stop: better, water, letter, … The glottal stop
appears between vowels. Also, in some cases as in “Britain”, for example, it
would sound like “brI?n”.
The vocal cords are involved in the regulation of the following aspects related to
the acoustic characteristics of sounds (acoustic phonetics):
 Frequency: variation of speed of vocal cords.
 Pitch: regulated air pressure from the lungs.
 Loudness: amplitude of vibration.
 Intensity: power transmitted along a sound wave.
Related to the vocal cords, we have modes of vibration:
 Normal voice
 Creaky voice
 Breathy voice
 Whispery voice
 Harsh voice

Articulation
It refers to the way in which we articulate sounds. The last stage.
 The pharynx
 The nasal cavity: the nose
  The oral cavity: the mouth (the palate, the uvula, the alveolar ridge, the
lips, the teeth, and the tongue)
In order to produce velar sounds, the tongue moves to the velum.
2) Oral cavity (velum raised)

Pharynx (the passage way that splits in two)

3) Nasal cavity (velum lowered)

Active articulators: the ones that move. Lips, tongue, and vocal cords.
Passive articulators: the ones that do not move. Teeth, alveolar ridge, hard
palate, velum, uvula, and the pharynx walls.
The tongue can be divided in 4 parts:

-
The role of the tongue
Clear “l” occurs before vowels (lead): the tip of the tongue touches the
alveolar ridge.
Dark “l” occurs after vowels (ball): back of the tongue raised towards
the velum.
The lips
- Rounded.
- Unrounded.
Coarticulation
Sounds are not normally produced in isolation.
In speech production, the movement of the different articulators
overlap in time and interact with each other. As a consequence, the
 vocal tract configuration at any point in time is always influenced by
more than one segment.
Examples (the following sound influences the place of articulation):
1. Ten pounds /tem poundz/
2. Ten cars /teN kA /
3. Ten nights /ten naIts/
1. From alveolar to bilabial
2. From alveolar to velar
3. It stays alveolar
The Phonetic Settings
The phonetic settings of a given language determine the voice quality or the
timber that underlies the production of the chain of segments in speech.
The articulatory settings of a language may be defined as the tendency of
the vocal organs towards adopting a particular state.
- Lingual settings: dentalization, alveoralization, palatalization,
velarization, pharyngealization.
- Lip settings: lip rounded and lip spreading.
- Velopharyngeal setting: nasalisation, denasalisation.
- Phonetic settings: whispery voice, creaky voice, and breathy
voice.
They can be grouped into:
1. Supralaryngeal: lip rounding (French), spread lips (Russian),
whisper, nasalisation, raised larynx, lowered larynx (Japanese),
retroflex articulation, (Pakistan AmE, IrishE) dentalised voice and
velarised voice.
2. Laryngeal settings: creaky, breathy and harsh voice.

Differences between vowels & consonants

Described in auditory terms.
Produced on an unobstructed flow of
air.
Constitute the peak of stress. They
form the nucleus of a syllable.
Relatively long.
Voiced.
More audible than consonants.
Less numerous than consonants in a
phonological system.
Bear pitch change and the frequency
of vibration of the vocal cords is
higher than in consonants.
Can form a syllable without
consonants.
Described in articulatory terms.
Produced on an obstructed flow of
air.
They are marginal in the syllable.
Relatively short.
Voiced and unvoiced.
Less audible than vowels.
More numerous than vowels in a
phonological system.
They have vocal cord vibration if
voiced, but this is lower than in
vowels.
Cannot usually form a syllable on
their own.

The sonority scale (from least to most sonorous):

  Plosives
 Affricates
 Fricatives
 Nasals
 Liquids
 Glides
 Vowels

1. Place of articulation: bi-labial, labio-dental...

2. Manner of articulation: the degree of obstruction to the airflow
3. Voicing

Unit 3
The Classification of Vowels

PART OF THE TONGUE WHICH IS RAISED: Back or front

• Back: back of the tongue raised. (Back vowels are generally rounded).
• Front: front of the tongue raised towards the roof of the mouth.
• There are also central vowels: vowels pronounced with the center of the tongue
raised.

HEIGHT: Closed or open (high or low)

• Close: tongue held close to the roof of the mouth, so that the area of the oral
cavity is narrowed.
• Open: tongue held away from the roof of the mouth, so that the area of the oral
cavity is large.
POSITION OF THE LIPS: Rounded or Unrounded (labialized or non-labialized)
• Rounded vowels: back vowels.
• Unrounded vowels: front vowels.

FROM HERE WE HAVEN’T DONE IT WITH EVA CERVIÑO

Use of the organs in the supralaryngeal or supraglottal vocal tract or
cavities. These cavities act as resonators for the sound generated by the larynx.
Organs involved: the supraglottal cavities (mouth, nasal cavity, pharynx).
They act as resonators for the laryngeal tone, rather like the body of a guitar.
Note the importance of the tongue, lips, and velum.
The quality of the vowel is produced depending on the position of the tongue in
our oral cavity. Formants are the resonances.
1. Formant 1: height.
2. Formant 2: frontness/centralness/backness.
3. Formant 3: lip-rounding.

Difference between velar closure and velic closure:

 Velar closure: the back of the tongue touches the velum. Consequently,
the air is obstructed and the pressure reduces (oral + nasal sound).
 Velic closure: the velum raises and touches the back wall of the
pharynx permitting air escape via oral cavity only. So, the air is forced to
escape through the oral cavity.
Summary:
- Velic closure: raising of the velum to touch the pharynx.
- Velar closure: raising of the back part of the tongue to touch the velum.
- The resonances set up in the vocal tract are called formants.
- The palate is a passive articulator.
- The lips and the vocal cords are active articulators.
- The opening between the vocal cords: the glottis.
- Clicks are produced by the mouth air velaric mechanism.
- The appendage attached to the soft palate (velum) is called the uvula.
- The roof of the mouth is divided into the hard palate, the soft palate, and
the alveolar reach.
- If there is a groove down the middle of the tongue, we say that it is
sulcalized.