Sound segments

The study of speech sounds is called phonetics. To describe speech sounds, it is necessary to
know what an individual sound is, and how each sound differs from all others.
You can segment that continuous sound into individual pieces because you know English.
Word boundary misperceptions have changed the forms of words historically.
Some phrases and sentences that are clearly distinct when printed may be ambiguous when
spoken.
If you know a language, you have no difficulty segmenting the continuous sounds of speech.
1. Speech sounds
English speech sounds are pulnomic egressive
[In human speech, egressive sounds are sounds in which the air stream is created by pushing air out through
the mouth or nose. The three types of egressive sounds are pulmonic egressive (from the lungs), glottalic
egressive (from the glottis), and lingual (velaric) egressive (from the tongue). The opposite of an egressive
sound is an ingressive sound, in which the airstream flows inward through the mouth or nose.

Pulmonic egressive sounds are those in which the air stream is created by the lungs, ribs, and diaphragm. The
majority of sounds in most languages, such as vowels, are both pulmonic and egressive. Pulmonic egressive
sounds are found in all spoken languages.

Glottalic egressive sounds are known as ejectives.

The lingual egressive, also known as velaric egressive, involves a double closure similar to that of the lingual
ingressive sounds known as clicks, but with airflow in the opposite direction. With the velum closed, the
speaker forces air out of the mouth using either the tongue or cheeks, as in the French expression of dismissal.
While not known to be used for normal vocabulary in any human language, apart from the extinct Australian
ritual language Damin, a variation of this airstream mechanism is known to musicians as part of circular
breathing.]

Our knowledge of a language determines when we judge physically different sounds to be

the same.
Our linguistic knowledge makes it possible to ignore nonlinguistic differences in speech.
Furthermore, we are capable of making sounds that we know are not speech sounds in our
language.
The science of phonetics attempts to describe all of the sounds used in all languages of the
world. Acoustic phonetics focuses on the physical properties of sounds; auditory phonetics
is concerned with how listeners perceive these sounds; and articulatory phonetics is the
study of how the vocal tract produces the sounds of language.
Orthography, or "spelling". Phonetics is a science-we must devise a way for the same sound
to be spelled with the same letter every time, and for the same letter to stand for the same
sound every time.
Some letters have no sound at all in certain words (so-called silent letters)
Phonetic alphabet- a one-sound-to-one symbol correspondence.
IPA- phonetic symbols in square brackets [ ] to distinguish them from ordinary
letters (Tìm bảng IPA)
Phonetic transcription gives us the actual pronunciation because one letter represents one
sound.
A schwa - vowels in syllables that are not emphasized in speaking and whose duration is very
short.
2. Articulatory Phonetics
The production of any sound involves the movement of air.
The opening between the vocal cords is the glottis and is located in the voice box or larynx.
The tubular part of the throat above the larynx is the pharynx. What sensible people call "the
mouth," linguists call the oral cavity to distinguish it from the nasal cavity, which is the nose
and the plumbing that connects it to the throat. Finally, we have the tongue and the lips, both
of which are capable of rapid movement and shape changing. All of these together make up
the vocal tract. By moving the different parts of the vocal tract, we change its shape, which
results in the different sounds of language.
3. Consonants
Consonants are produced with some restriction or closure in the vocal tract that impedes the
flow of air from the lungs.
3.1 Place of articulation
Where in the vocal tract the airflow restriction occurs, called the place of articulation.
Movement of the tongue and lips creates the constriction, reshaping the oral cavity in
various ways to produce the various sounds.
Bilabials [p] [b] [m] bring both lips together.
Labiodentals [f] [v] touching the bottom lip to the upper teeth.
Interdentals [âm th] [âm đ] inserting the tip of the tongue between the teeth.
Alveolars [t] [d] [n] [s] [z] [l] [r] the tongue raised in various ways to the alveolar ridge.
Palatals [s dài] [z dài] [âm ch] [âm dz dài] [j] the constriction occurs by raising the
front part of the tongue to the palate.
Velars [k] [g] [âm ng] raising the back of the tongue to the soft palate or velum.
Uvulars [R] [q] [G] raising the back of the tongue to the uvula.
Glottals [h] [?] from the flow of air through the open glottis and past the tongue and lips
as they prepare to pronounce a vowel sound, If the air is stopped completely at the glottis
by tightly closed vocal cords, the sound upon release of the cords is a glottal stop [?]
3.2 Manner of articulation
Speech sounds also vary in the way the airstream is affected as it flows from the lungs
up and out of the mouth and nose. It may be blocked or partially blocked; the vocal
cords may vibrate or not vibrate. We refer to this as the manner of articulation.
3.2.1 Voiced and voiceless sounds
Sounds are voiceless when the vocal cords are apart so that air flows freely through
the glottis into the oral cavity.
If the vocal cords are together, the airstream forces its way through and causes them
to vibrate. Such sounds are voiced.
Voiceless sounds fall into two classes depending on the timing of the vocal cord
closure. (1) p aspirated because a brief puff of air escapes before the glottis closes.
(2) the vocal cords start vibrating as soon as the lips open. That p is unaspirated.
3.2.2 Nasal and oral sounds
Sounds produced with the velum up, blocking the air from escaping through the
nose, are oral sounds.
When the velum is lowered, air escapes through both the nose and the mouth.
Sounds produced this way are nasal sounds.
Phonetic features-nasal and voiced
FOUR ways of classifying consonants: by voicing, by place of articulation, and by
nasalization, and manner of articulation
Stops [p] [b] [m] [t] [d] [n] [k] [g] [âm ng] [âm ch] [âm dz dài] [?] Stops are
consonants in which the airstream is completely blocked in the oral cavity for a
short period. All other sounds are continuants.
Fricatives [f] [v] [âm th] [âm đ] [s] [z] [âm s dài] [âm z dài] [x] [y] [h] the
airflow is so severely obstructed that it causes friction
Affricates [âm ch] [âm dz dài] These sounds are produced by a stop closure
followed immediately by a gradual release of the closure that produces an effect
characteristic of a fricative. Non-continuants
Liquids [l] [r] there is some obstruction of the airstream in the mouth, but not
enough to cause any real constriction or friction.
 Glides [j] [w] produced with little obstruction of the airstream. They are always
followed directly by a vowel and do not occur at the ends of words.
Approximants The sounds [w], [j], [r] in English, and [l]
Trills – /r/ in Thai and flaps- flap t= soft d
Clicks
[p]/ [b] [m] bilabial stops
[t]/ [d] [n] alveolar stops [s] / [z] alveolar fricatives
[k]/ [g] [ŋ] velar stops
[ʔ] glottal stops [h] glottal fricative
[f] / [v] labiodental fricatives
[θ] / [ð] interdental fricatives
[ʃ] / [ʒ] palatal fricatives [tʃ] / [dʒ] palatal affricates
Liquids [l] lateral approximant [r] central approximant /
Glides [j] palatal central approximant [w] labiovelar central approximant
/m/, /n/, /ŋ/ are nasalized consonants
4. Vowels
Vowels are produced with little restriction of the airflow from the lungs out through the
mouth and/or the nose. The quality of a vowel depends on the shape of the vocal tract as the
air passes through. Vowel sounds carry pitch and loudness. Vowels can stand alone.
We classify vowels according to three questions:
1. How high or low in the mouth is the tongue?
2. How forward or backward in the mouth is the tongue?
3. Are the lips rounded (pursed) or spread?
Classified according to
1. Height of tongue
2. Part of tongue
3. Degree of lip rounding
4. Degree of muscular tension
Vowels are generally described in terms of  the place of the highest point of the tongue
(distinction is made between front, central and back vowels whereas the degree of closeness of the
highest point of the tongue towards the palate results in a distinction between close, close-mid (half-
close), open-mid (half-open) and open vowels)  the degree of lip rounding (a distinction between
rounded, neutral and spread),  length (long and short vowels)

4.1 Tongue Position

 4.2 L
i
p

rounding
Vowels also differ as to whether the lips are rounded or spread. The back vowels [u],
[ʊ], [o], and [ɔ] in boot, put, boat, and bawd are the only rounded vowels.

4.3 Dipthongs
A diphthong is a sequence of two vowel sounds bonded together and simple vowels,
called monophthongs.

Mid vowels can be dipthongs too [ei], [oʊ]

4.4 Nasalization of vowels
When the nasal passage is blocked, oral vowels result; when the nasal passage is open,
nasal (or nasalized) vowels result.
Nasal vowels occur for the most part before nasal consonants in the same syllable, and
oral vowels occur in all other places.
4.5 Tense and lax vowels
Tense vowels with greater tension of the tongue muscles than its counterpart, and tense
vowel is often a little longer in duration.
5. Major phonetic classes
5.1 Noncontinuants and continuants
Stops and affricates belong to the class of noncontinuants. All other consonants, and all
vowels, are continuants.
5.2 Obstruents and sonorants
The non nasal stops, the fricatives, and the affricates form a major class of sounds called
obstruents.

Sounds that are not obstruents are sonorants. Vowels, nasal stops [m], [n], and [ŋ],
liquids [l] and [r], and glides [j] and [w] are all sonorants.
5.2.1 Consonantal sounds
Glides may even be referred to as "semivowels" or "semi-consonants." In
recognition of this fact, linguists place the obstruents, nasal stops, and liquids in a
subclass of consonants called consonantal, from which the glides are excluded.
Consonantal sounds:
Labials: involving the lips, labials-labiodentals
Coronals: raising the tongue blades,………………………
Anteriors: front part of the mouth- Labials-interdentals-alveolar sounds
Sibilants
5.3 Syllabic sounds
Sounds that may function as the core of a syllable possess the feature syllabic. Clearly
vowels are syllabic. Liquids and nasals may also be syllabic (i.e. rhythm and
dazzle).

Syllables ending in a vowel (buoy, sea), are called open syllables, syllables containing a
coda, i.e. ending in a consonant (boys, girl) are called closed syllables.
Vowels have a central function in the syllable, whereas consonants have a marginal
function.

Obstruents and glides are never syllabic sounds because an obstruent or glide is always
accompanied by a vowel that functions as the syllabic core.
6. Prosodic Features
Length, pitch, and stress (or "accent") are prosodic or suprasegmental features. They are
features over and above the segmental values such as place or manner of articulation,
thus the supra- in suprasegmental.
 Speech sounds that are identical in their place or manner features may differ in length
(duration). Tense vowels are slightly longer than lax vowels.
The pitch depends on how fast the vocal cords vibrate.
Certain syllables in a word are louder, slightly higher in pitch, and somewhat longer in
duration than other syllables in the word. They are stressed syllables which have more
prominence, which arises from such factors as loudness, length, pitch and vowel quality.
7. Tone and intonation
Languages that use the pitch of individual vowels or syllables to contrast meanings of
words are called tone languages.
There are two kinds of tones. If the pitch is level across the syllable, we have a register
tone. If the pitch changes across the syllable, whether from high to low or vice versa, we
a contour tone.
Intonation is variation of pitch that does not distinguish words. Pitch change
distinguishes between a falling tone, a rising tone, a falling-rising tone and a rising
reinforcement of a fall. Variations of pitch and the direction of pitch within an utterance
result in its intonation. Stress and pitch change can signal the prominence of a word in a
sentence or mark a primary word accent. Languages that are not tone languages, such as
English or French, are called intonation languages. The pitch contour of an utterance may
affect the meaning of the whole sentence.
4 types of intonation:
* Focus – here we can change meanings by altering what is emphasised in a sentence.
* Attitude – here we can signal our attitude to the utterance or to the listener, or we can
signal our emotional state.
* Grammar – here we can use intonation to mark out particular structures, and to indicate
different types of utterance, such as statements and questions.
* Discourse – here we use intonation to show where we are in our talk, such as whether
we are planning to carry on speaking or are ready to let someone else speak.
8. Phonetic symbols and spelling correspondences
9. The phonetics of Signed languages
ASL is formed by three major features:
1. The configuration of the hand (handshape)
2. The movement of the hand and arms in signing space
3. The location of the hands in signing space
A difference in voicing or tone results in a different word in a spoken language.
Similarly, a change in handshape, movement or location results in a different sign with a
different meaning.