Hair Education Directory Languages Programme Brofessor.

Ahmed Babiker Altahir

Open University of Sudan

Phonetics and Phonolgy

Whats Phonetics?

The word phone is a Greek word. It simply means sound. So, phonetics is concerned with describing the speech sounds that occur in the languages of the world.

Whats Phonetics?

We want to know what these sounds are, how they fall into patterns and what changes might occur

Whats Phonology?

Its the description of the system and patterns of sounds in a single language.

Phonetician and Phonolgist

Are the terms used for linguists who study phonetics and phonology respectively.

Phonetician and Phonolgist

Both phonetics and phonology are important components of linguistics, which is the science that deals with the general study of language. A specialist in linguistics is termed a linguist.

Types of Phonetics?

We can examine speech in various ways: 1. Articulatory phonetics: How sounds are articulated using organs of speech (articulators). 2. Acoustic phonetics: the physical nature of the speech signal. 3. Auditory phonetics how we hear the speech signal.

Types of Phonetics?

4.Experimental phonetics: it measure the salient features of sounds e.g. air pressure, intensity of the muscles of articulators etc. 5. Forensic phonetics: it assists in crime detection by using voiceprint

Types of Phonetics?

Our emphasis will be on articulatory phonetics why? It is the most accessibly and with most applications.

Speech Mechanism

- The vocal organs. The basic, source of power is the respiratory system. Air from the lungs goes up the windpipe (trachea), and into the larynx, where there are two muscular folds called the vocal cords.

The Vocal Crds

Two lip-like structures They assume one of tow positions either 1. They are wide a part Free passage of air. 2. Suffiently together: The pressure of the airstream causes them to vibrate:

The Vocal Crds

If they are open we have voiceless sounds If they are adjusted we have voiced sounds The air passages above the larynx are known as the vocal tract Fig 1

Articulators

The parts of the vocal tract that can be used to form sounds are called articulators. We have the lower surface and the upper surface.

Articulators

The lower surface articulators move towards the upper surface articulators. Try to say the word capital/ & kapital/

Names of Articulators

Upperlip upper teeth (incisors) alveolar ridge, hard palate (bony structure) soft palate (velum) (uvula) Lower surface articulators: Lower lip different parts of the langue Blade front center back root Fig 1-4

Places of Articulation

To form consonanls, the airstream must be obstructed in some way. Where the airstream is obstructed this is the place of articulation two articulators meet.

Speech Sounds

Speech sounds are divided into vowels and consonants Consonants are formed by obstructing the air in some way. The places of obstruction are shown in the digram below Fig 1.5

Places of Articulation

Bilabial, labio dental Dental Alveolar Palato Velar- glottal

Manner of Articulation

The way the airstream is obstructed Stops (Nasal stops & oral stops) Fricatives: (airstream partially obstructed) Affricates (a stop immediately followed by a fricative)

Nasals

The air is stopped in the oral cavity but the uvula is lowered So the air escapes through the nose.

Approximant

One articulator is close to another /w/ /j/ lateral: obstruction at a point along the centre (lateral means side) of the oral tract with in complete closure between one or both sides of the tongue

English Consonants

To summarize English consonants to be described in terms of three factors 1.State of the vocal cords: voiced or voiceless. 2. Place of articulation. 3. Manner of articulation

Articulation of Vowel Sounds

In the production of vowel sounds none of the articulators come very close together and the airstream is unobstructed. Vowels can be described in terms of four factors: 1. The part of the tongue (front, centre or back).

Articulation of Vowel Sounds

2.The height of the body of the tongue (close, close, open or open). 3.The degree of lip (Rounded, Unrounded). rounding

4.Whether the vowel is long or short (Tense or lax)

Vowels & Consonants

Are the segments of which speech is composed. Together they form the syllable which go to make up utterances. Superimposed on the syllable there are other features known as supra segmental. These include variation in stress and pitch. The pitch pattern is known as the intonation.

Consonants Chart

English has 24 consonants. The phontic symbols for these consonants are shown in the chart below Cons. Chart: P 62 (Roach), ladefoged p 33, Collins 78

Vowels Chart

English has 20 vowel sounds. 12 pure vowels and 8 diphthongs: 7 of these pure vowels are short & 5 are long. See the vowel chart: Roach (18-25)

The Phoneme

Each of the sounds of English can be produced in many slightly different ways depending on where it comes in the word

The Phoneme

If we put one of the sounds in place of another, we change the meaning of the word, but if we put those slightly different sounds in place of the other

The Phoneme

We dont change the meaning; for example: keep calm and cool so we find great variety in every sound we have abstract units of speech which are called phonemes; for example.

The Phoneme

The phoneme (sound) /p/ has different pronunciation in the words pit, opt, top. We have in this example three different ways of making /p/, three different realisations of the phoneme.

The Phoneme

One can be substituted for the other without changing the meaning and in such situation we call the different realisations free in variation.

The Phoneme

When we find strict in separation of places we say that they are in complementary distribution. We call these different realizations allophones

The Syllable

So for have been concerned with phonetics the straight forward business of describing the sounds of a languages of describing the sound of a language.

The Syllable

When we talk about how phonemes function in a language and the relationship among the different phonemes, we are in the area of phonology. The possible combination of phonemes is termed phonotactics.

The Syllable

A syllable consists of a center (nucleus) which has no obstruction to airflow and which sounds louder and before and after the nucleus these will be greater obstruction. Minimum syllable will: be a single vowel in isloation: are/a:/,or/ :/err/3:/.

The Syllable

These are preceded and followed by silence if a consonant (s) precedes the centre of the syllable, that cunsonant is called onset for example : bar/ba:/key/ki:/more/m :/

The Syllable

Syllables may have no onset have a coda: the consonants that come after the peak (nucleus) am/m/ought/ :t/ease/i:z/

The Syllable

Some syllables have onset and coda: run/rn/sat/st fill/fil/ If there is no onset or coda, we say zero onset and zero coda respectively.

The Structure of the English Syllable

A syllable may begin with more than one consonant, we call them consonant cluster.

The Structure of the English Syllable

Initial two consonant clusters: In English there are two sorts: 1. One composed of /s/ followed by any one of the 10 (ten) consonants: p, t, k, f, m, n, l, w, j, r. The /s/ in these cluster is called pre-initial the other consonant, the initial consonant.

The Structure of the English Syllable

2. The other sort begins with one of these (15) fifteen consonants followed by one of the set /l, r, w, j/ (p, t, k, b, d, g, s )

The Structure of the English Syllable

We call the first one initial and the second one post initial. This reveals that there are some restrictions on which consonants can occur together

The Structure of the English Syllable

Three consonant cluster. There is a clear relationship between three consonant clusters and the preceding and twoconsonant clusters. The /s/ is invisibly. The pre-initial consonant,

The Structure of the English Syllable

the consonant that follows the /s/ (one of the ten) is the initial and the consonant that comes after the initial must be one of the four (l, r, w, j) is the post initial. In fact the number of possible initial

The Structure of the English Syllable

here consonant cluster is very small they are: splay, spray, spew, string, stew, sclerosis, screen, squak and skewer

Final Consonant Clusters

Here we can have up to four consonant clusters at the end of the word. Any consonant may be final except /h, r, w, j/

Consonant Final Cluster

Again, there are two sorts of tow consonant final cluster: 1. The pre-finals form a small set /m, n,y, l, s/

Consonant Final Cluster

2. The post final consonant also form a small set /s, z, t, d, o/ These post final consonants are separate morphemes.

Consonant Cluster

Final Three

1. The first is pre-final, plus final, plus post final. See the table below
Pre h e b b tw e L b n L Final P K d f Post final t S Z Q

Consonant Cluster

Final Three

2. The second type shows that more than one post final consonant Can occur in a final cluster final plus post final I plus post final 2

Final Consonant Clusters

Post-final 2 is again one of the set /s, z, t, d, / this situation occurs when there is no pre-final consonant
Pre f i n I e x f k p Final s s Post final 2 s t t

Four Consonant Clusters

When one of the pre-final consonants precedes the final in the three consonant clusters we have four consonant cluster

Four Consonant Clusters

Then it is analysed as follows

Pre-Final t w e p r l m Final f p Post Final Q t Post final 2 s s

Four Consonant Cluster

To sum up: we may describe the English syllable as having the following maximum phonological structure

Four Consonant Cluster

Pre-initial-post-initial Onset

Peak Vowel

Pre Final-Final-Post F 1-Post F 2 Post F 3

Coda

Notice that there must be a vowel in the centre of the syllable or one of the syllabic consonants /m, n, l/ Initial V, cv, vc, ccv, cccv V, vc, vcc, vccc, vcccc Final

Stress in Single Words

Some syllables are louder, more prominent than others and that is exactly stress: Ifa: fa. ouan: pteitou baut rileifn, risi:v phps

Levels of Stress

Emphatic stress: In single words like silence/sailans: marked by two vertical lines primary stress: the strong type resulting from pitchor tone: secondary stress. Weaker, than primary it comes in words.

Levels of Stress

With more than three syllables like I-foutgrfik,/ np l o3i In transcription it is represented with a low mark below the stressed syllable.

Levels of Stress

Unstressed syllables: absence of stress weak stress: Qn orap booki

Placement of Stress

English is not one of those languages where word stress is fixed or predictable.

Placement of Stress

Compare for example French the last syllables is always stressed, polish, the penultimate syllable (before the last) is stressed Czech, the first syllable is stressed.

Placement of Stress

So it is best to treat stress placement as a property of the individual word itself is learned when the word it selt and its spelling are learned.

Planning of Stress

The factors that make stress: 1. loudness 2. length 3. Pitch (frequency of vibrations of the vocal cords ) 4. quality Factors 2 length and 3 pitch produce the strongest effect

Suprasegmental Factors

These aspects of speech involve more than single consonants or vowels: The principal features are: stress, length, tone and intonation

Suprasegmental Factors

Length:
Variation in length of vowels may be used contrastively. In Arabic, the difference between (bit/ & bi:t/is clear)

Suprasegmental Factors

Pitch:
The most important factor that determines the pitch of the voice is the tension of the vocal cords. If the vocal cords are stretched the pitch will go up. Variation in pitch may convey different information.

Suprasegmental Factors

The pitch of the voice determines intonation. We describe pitch in terms of high and low.

Suprasegmental Factors

Speakers may use a falling tone or a rising tone, a movement from a lower pitch to a higher one saying yes in definite manner, we use a falling tone, but saying yes in, a questioning manner we use a rising tone

DIPHTHONG

centring

closing

ending in I ending in eI I e

ending in

The centring ditphongs glide towards the (schwa) vowel, as the symbols indicate.

Place of articulation
Manner of articulation
Bilabial Labiodental Dental Alveolar Plaatoalveolar (Postalveolar) Palatal Velar Glottal

Plosive Fricative Affricate Nasal Lateral Approximant

Pb fv

t d sz 3 t d3

kg

n I

TJ