Chapter 6 Phonetics: The Sounds of Language.

Phonetics: we can define the word phonetics as the study of speech sounds. To
describe speech sounds, it is necessary to know what an individual sound is, and
how each sound differs from others. We can segment sentences into words, and
words into sounds.
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Identify of Speech Sounds: The knowledge of a language determinates when
sounds are the same. We know which aspects of pronunciation are important and
which are not. The linguistic knowledge makes it possible to ignore nonlinguistic
differences in speech. Furthermore, we capable of making sounds that we know
are not speech sounds in our language.
Acoustic Phonetics: Focus on physical properties of sounds.
Auditory Phonetics: it is concerned with how listeners perceive these sounds.
Articulatory Phonetics: it is the study of how the vocal tract produces the sounds
of language.
The phonetic Alphabet: letter a can have various sounds in father, wanted, ay.
We find that a combination of letters represents a single sound:
Shoot
Either
Coat
Character
eal
!lacial
Thomas
"ough
Theater
Physics
#ation
plain
$etters with no sound our silent letters:
nemonic
Pterodactyl
Psychology
!ough
%utumn
"rite
&word
$amb
"esign
'ole
ebt
(sland
!host
Corps
#naw
$not
The letter u represents a y sound followed by a u sound:
Cute)))))))))coat
Fume)))))))fool
%se))))))))))%&be$istan
*)The phonetic alphabet symboli+e the sounds of all languages.
,)they use letters and invented symbols.
-)it was developed by the members of the international phonetic association in
*....
/) 0eople who know the (0% would know how to pronounce words.
Consonants: P)pill, b)bill, ')'ill, f)feel, ()(eal, t)till, d)dill, n))il, s)seal, g)gill, h)
heal, l)leaf, r*reef, +)you, w)witch.
1owels: i beet, e bait, u boot, o boat.
Articulatory Phonetics: 0roduction of sounds involves movement of the air. The
speech sounds are produced by pushing lung air through the vocal cords)thin
bands of membrane)up the throat, and into the mouth or nose, and out of the body.
Consonants: are produced with some restriction or closure in the vocal tract that
impedes the flow of the air from the lungs.
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,owels: types of sounds not to the letters that represent them.
Places of articulation: when we classify consonants according to where the vocal
tract the airflow restriction occurs.
!ilabial: when we pronounce 2p, b, and m3 we articulate by bringing both lips
together. (t is voiced. 2p, b, and m3 the airstream stopped at the mouth by the
closure of the lips.
Labiodentals: we also use our lips to pronounce 4f and v56 we articulate these
sounds by touching the bottom lip to the upper teeth. %t the same time, 4f and v5
are libiodental fricatives because the friction is creatived at the lips and teeth,
where a narrow passage permits the air to escape.
Interdentals: when we pronounce the 47 and 856 we use the tip of tongue between
the teeth. 'owever, some people touch behind the teeth for e9ample these sounds
appears in words like: think with 7 and these with 8. %t the same time, 47 and 85 are
interdental fricatives because the friction occurs between the tongue ands teeth.
Al(eolars - t ,d, n, s ,& ,l ,r.: these sounds are produce with the tongue raised in
various ways to the al(eolar ridge &o that the s and + are alveolar fricative
because the friction is created at the alveolar ridge.
*) 4t, d , n, 5 the tongue is raised and touches the ridge, %t the same time, t , d, n are
alveolar stop because the airstream is stopped by the tongue making a closure of
the alveolar ridge.
,) 4s and +5 the sides of the front of the tongue are raised, but the tip is lowered so
that the air escapes.
-) 4l5 The tongue tip is raised while the rest of the tongue is down, the air escape and
it is a lateral sound.
/) 4r5 The tip of the tongue back behind the alveolar ridge /retrofle0 sound1.
Palatals - , , , .: those sounds appear in words measure, cheap, :udge,
yoyo. (t occurs by raising the front part of the tongue palate.4 , 5 are palatal
affricatives with a stop closure.
,elars -$, g, n.: it is produced by raising the back of the tongue to the soft palate
or velum. The initial or final sounds in words: kick, gig, back, bag, bang. 4k,g,n5 are
velar stop because the complete closure at the velum.
%(ulars-r, 2, #.: &ounds produced by raising the back of the tongue to the uvula.
#lottals -h and .: it is in front of the flow of air through the open glottis, and past
the tongue and lips as they prepare to pronounce a vowel sound with 4h5. if the air
is stopped at the glottis by tightly closed vocal cords, the sound upon release of the
cords is a glottal stop. is a glottal stop. The air is stopped at the glottis.
anner of articulation: it is when the vocal cords vibrate or not.
,oiced sounds: the sounds with have vibration for e9ample +++++ with words +eal.
,oiceless sounds: the sounds with not have vibration for e9ample ssss in the
word seal.
)asal and 3ral Sounds:
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&ounds produce with the velum up, blocking the air from escaping through the
nose are oral sounds and the air escapes through oral cavity. When the velum is
not in its raised position air escapes through the nose and the mouth so that those
are nasal sounds.
Stops-p,b,',t,d,n,$,g, , , , .: consonants in which the airstream is completely
blocked in the oral cavity for a short period 2 tens of milliseconds3 %ll others sounds
are continuants.
4ricati(es-f,(,5,6,s,&, , ,0,y,h.: in the production of some continuants, the airflow
is so severely obstructed that it causes friction and the sounds are therefore called
fricatives.
Affricati(es and : are produced by a stop closure followed by a gradual
release of the closure that produces and effect characteristic of a fricative. They
are not continuants because the initial stop closure.
Li2uids l and r : there is an obstruction of the airstream in the mouth , but no
enough to cause a real friction. They are articulate differently, but they are grouped
as a class because they are similar.
#lides -+ and w.: is produced by raising the back of the tongue toward the velum
and rounding the lips.
Appro0i'ants -w, + and r.: These sounds are called articulators appro9imate a
frictional closeness, but not actual friction occurs.
Trill and flaps: r in other language is different in other languages than English ;r<
is trill because it is produced by rapid vibration of an articulator. (t is produced by
vibrating the tongue tip against the alveolar ridge.
The ;r< is called flap when it is produced by a flick of the tongue against the
alveolar ridge.
Clic$s: E9otic sounds are made by moving air in the mouth between various
articulators.
Lip 7ounding: vowels differ as to the lips are rounded or spread. They are
produced with pursed or rounded lips.
8iphthongs: it is a se=uence of two words sounds. The vowels that we have
studied are simple vowels, called 'onophtongs.
)asali&ation of ,owels: vowels, like consonants, can be produced with a raised
velum that prevents the air from escaping through the nose, or with a lowered
velum that permits air to pass through the nasal passage. When the nasal passage
is blocked, oral vowels result6 when the nasal passage is open nasal or nasali+ed
vowels result. #asal vowel occurs before nasal consonants in the same syllable,
and oral vowels occur in other places. To show nasali+ation of a vowel in a
phonetic transcription, an e9tra mark called diacritic the symbol in this case the
tilde is placed over the vowel.
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Tense and La0 ,owels: they generate a tension of the tongue muscles. They are
often a little longer duration. The vowels can be distinguished from the shorter and
less tense vowels by the features tense and la9.
a+or Phonetic Classes
)oncotinuants and Continuants: stop sounds are uncontinuants. There are total
obstructions of the airstream in the oral cavity. They include the nasal stops
2although air flows continuously out the nose3 and the affricates. %ll other
consonants and all vowels are continuants, in which the stream of air flows
continuously out the mouth.
3bstruents and Sonorants: The non)nasal stops, fricatives, affricatives are called
obstruent. The airstream may be fully obstruent, the air flows continuously out the
mouth6 though it is obstructed enough to cause the frictional sound that
characteri+es these consonants. There is complete blockage of the air during the
production of these sounds.
The sounds that are not obstruents are sonorants, sonorants resonante. They are
produced with relatively free airflow through the mouth or nose. #asal stops are
sonorants because, although the air is blocked in the mouth. (t is continuous to
resonant in the nasal cavity. The li=uids r and l, the glides w and : are sonorants
because the air resonates as it flows relatively undisturbed the vocal tract.
Consonantal: $inguistic says that obstruent, li=uids, and nasals all belong to the
subclass of consonants called consonantal.
Subclasses of consonantal sounds
Labial - p, b , ' , f , (.: sounds articulated with lips. They include 2p , b, m3 and
the libiodental 2f and v3.
Coronals -t ,d, n, s ,&, l , r ,6,5, , , , .: sounds articulated by raising the tongue
blade. (t includes the %lveolars t, d, n, s, +. the palatals and , the affricates and
, and the li=uids l and r.
Anteriors- p, b , ' , f , ( ,t ,d, n, s ,&, l , r ,6,5, , , , .: all the anterior sounds
are consonants produced in the front part of the mouth , that is , form of the
alveolar area forward. They include labials, (nterdentals, and %lveolars.
Sibilians s, &, , , , .: consonants characteri+ed by an acoustic rather than an
articulatory property of its members. The friction creatived by &ibilians produces a
hissing sound, which is mi9ture with high)fre=uency sounds.
Prosodic features9 $ength, pitch, and the comple9 features stress are prosodies,
or suprasegmental features. They are features over and about segmental values of
voicing or place of articulation6 the prosodic term comes from poetry. (t refers to
metrical structure of the verse.
Tone: when we pronounce the syllable high or low.
Intonation: when we rising and descent the pronunciation in a sentence.
Chapter : Phonology: The Sounds Patterns of Language
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Phonology: The study of the way speech sounds from patterns. What sounds are
in your languages and which are foreign.
The Pronunciation of orphe'es
*. The Pronunciation of Plurals: Which adds s or es, is misleading. >ut we can say
that plurals are a variant of any morpheme is known to occur 2the term for a variant
is allomorph3. These rules are to assume that the basic or underlying form of the
plural morpheme is &, with the meaning plural. This is the default pronunciation.
The ruler tell us when default does not apply:
*)(nsert 4?5 before the plural morpheme4+5 when a regular noun ends in a sibilant,
giving 4?+5
,)Change the plural morpheme 4+5 to a voiceless 4s5 when preceded by a voiceless
sound
0honologicals rules determinate the phonetic form of plural morpheme and other
morphemes of the language are 'orphophone'ic rules. The ne9t rules are
morphophonemic:
*)(nsert a 4?5 before the past tense morpheme when a regular verb ends in a non)
nasal alveolar stop giving 4?d5
,)Change the past)tense morpheme to a voiceless4t5 when a voiceless sound
precedes it
-)4t5 or 4d5 a shwa plus 4d5 is added, reminding us of the insertion of the shwa to
form the plural of nouns that end in a silibiant, 4d5 is the basic form of past)tense
morpheme , and the rulers for past)tense formation of regular verbs is much like
the rulers for the plural formation of regular nouns. The rule that changes the
pronunciation of nasal consonants is called the ho'organic nasal rule.
Phone'es: The basic form of a sound.
Allophone: The association of each phoneme with one or more sounds.
,owel )asali&ation in ;nglish as an illustration of Allophones: !eneral
phonological rule that determines the conte9t in which vowels are nasali+ed.
E9amples: bean 4bin5, roam 4rom5, bead 4bid5, and robe 4rob5. % vowel becomes
nasali+ed before a nasal segment 2within the same syllable3.The nonwords show
us that nasali+ed vowels do not occur finally or non)nasal consonants, or do oral
vowels occur before nasal consonants.
Allophones t: it is pronounce with three allophones 4 t
h
5 occur before a stressed
vowel , 4t5, it is unaspirated and occurs before 4s5 and 4 5 it occur before a stressed
vowel and unstressed vowel.
ini'al Pairs in ASL: There are minimal pairs in sign language as in other
languages.
Co'ple'entary 8istribution: The phones are said to complement each other or
to be in co'ple'entary distribution. The allophones of a phoneme are in
complementary distribution and never occurring in identical environments. (t is a
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fundamental concept of phonology. (t is determined by preceding letter 2cursive3.
When the sounds are in complementary distribution, they do not contrast with each
other. The replacement of one sound for the other will not change the meaning of
the word, although it may not sound like typical English.
8istincti(e 4eatures of Phone'es: when a feature distinguishes one phoneme
from another6 or one word from another, it is a distinctive feature or phonetic
feature.
4eatures ,alues: if the word is plus 2@3 or minus 2)3 nasal or if they plus 2@3 or
minus 2)3 voiced or voiceless.
)ondistincti(e 4eatures: The nasality is a distinctive feature of English, but it is
#ondistinctive feature for English vowels. An the other hands, the nasality feature
value of vowels in bean, mean, comb and sing is predictable because they occur
before nasal consonants. When a feature value is predictable by rule for certain
sounds, the features is a #ondistinctive or redundant or predictable feature in
English vowels, but nonredundant 2distinctive or phonemic3 feature for English
consonants.
Phone'ic Patterns ay ,ary Across Languages: The phonetic facts alone do
not reveal what is distinctive or phonemic:*)The phonetic representation of
utterances shows what speaker know about the pronunciation of the sounds. ,)
The phonemic representation of utterances shows what speakers know about the
patterning of sounds.
)atural Classes of Speech Sounds: "ulers that determined which vowels are
nasali+ed, voiceless, stops aspirated for e9ample many languages have a rule that
nasali+es vowels before nasal consonants: ;#asali+e a vowel when it precedes a
nasal consonant in the same syllable<. The natural classes of sound are a group
of sounds describe by a small number of distinctive features such as: minus 2)3
voiced 2)3 continuant but 2@3 labial. %ll language has rulers such as:
*)#asali+e vowels before p,i or +.
,)#asali+e vowels before m, n, .
The 7ulers of Phonology: 0honological rulers are relative with the phonemic
representation 2the part of the speakerBs knowledge of the language3. The phonetic
representation includes the nonpredictable, distinctive features of the phonemes in
a word.
Assi'ilation 7ules: The vowel nasali+ation rule is an assimilation rule, or a rule
that makes neighboring segments more similar by duplicating a phonetic property.
%ssimilation rules stem from articulatory process that increases the ease of
articulation.
The phonological rulers that we have discussing6 we stated the vowel nasali+ation
rulers as:
*)#asali+e vowels when they occur before nasal consonants 2within the same
syllable3. This ruler specifies the class of sounds affected by the rule: vowels.
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,)it states what the phonetic change will occur by applying the rule: ;Change
phonetic oral vowels to phonetic nasal vowels<. %nd it specifies the conte9t of
phonological environment and before nasal consonants within the same syllable.
-)% vowel becomes nasali+ed before a nasal segment, possible followed by one or
two consonants, within a syllable.
8issi'ilation 7ulers: "ulers in which a segment become less similar to other
segments. (n the same words, sometimes we articulate dissimilar sounds.
4eature <Changing 7ules: &ome feature) changing rulers are assimilation,
dissimilation. The rule in English that aspirates voiceless stops at the beginning of
a syllable simply adds #ondistinctive feature.
Seg'ent insertation and 8eletion 7ules: "ules that add or delete entire
segment. The process of inserting a consonant or vowel is called epenthesis. The
ruler for forming plurals, possessive and third person singular for e9ample: (nsert a
4?5 before the past tense morpheme when a regular verb ends in a non)nasal
alveolar stop giving 4?d5, and, (nsert 4?5 before the plural morpheme4+5 when a
regular noun ends in a sibilant, giving 4?+5
o(e'ent /etathesis1 7ules: "ules that reorder se=uences of phonemes.
These rules are applied in phonemic representation of words and phrases. The
English flap rule illustrates an important phonological process called neutrali+ation6
the voicing contrast between t and d is neutrali+ed in the specified environment.
That is t never contrast with d in the environment between a stressed and
unstressed vowel.
The 4unction of Phonological 7ules: (t is to provide the phonetic formation
necessary for the pronunciation of utterances. The application of rules in this way
is called a derivation. (t shows how plurals are derivated.
Slips of the tongue: ;(idence for Phonological 7ules: &lips of the tongue, or
speech errors, in which we deviate in some way from the intended utterance, show
phonological rules in action.
Prosodic Phonology: Words composed of * or , syllables. % syllable is a
phonological unit composed of * or more phonemes. Every syllable has a nucleus,
which is usually a vowel 2nasal)li=uid syllable3 the nucleus precedes by * or more
phonemes called the syllable coda.
"ord stress: stress is a property of the syllable rather than a segment6 it is a
prosodic or suprasegmental feature. To produce a stressed syllable, one may
change the pitch 2usually by raising it3, make the syllable louder, or make it longer.
Sentences and Phases stress: when words are combined into phrases and
sentences, one syllable receives greater stress than others. There is only one
primary stress in a word spoken in isolation, the only one vowel in the phrase or
sentences receive the primary stress or accent.
Intonation: it reflects syntactic or semantic differences. We refer to these relativesC
pitches as contrasting tones in sentences or phrases.
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Se2uential Constraints of Phone'es /Phonotactic Constrains1: The limitations
on se=uences of segments. They have as basis the syllable, rather than the word.
That is. Anly the clusters that can begin a syllable can begin a word, and only a
cluster that can end a syllable can end a word.
Le0ical #raps: % possible word contains phonemes in se=uences that obey the
0honotactic constraints of the language, so that, we can say a word is the union of
a possible word with a meaning. 0ossible words without meaning are called
nonsense words and are also referred to as accidental graps in the le9icon, or
le0ical graps.
"hy do phonological rules e0ist=: The phonologists believe that phonological
rules e9ist to ensure that the surface or phonetic forms of the words do not violate
0honotactic constraints. &ome general constraints in English:
%) Abstruent se=uences may not differ with respect to their voice feature at the end of
the word.
>) &e=uences of obstruent that differ at most with respect to voicing are not permitted
within English words.
The phonological rules e9ist because languages have general principles those
constraints possible se=uences of sounds. The rules specify minimal modifications
of underlying forms that bring them in line with the surface constraints.
3pti'ality theory: The higher the constraint is ranked, the more influence it e9erts
on the language.

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