ACOUSTIC AND AUDITORY SPEECH MECHANISM

Dr. Elena Shapa Lecture#3 February 14, 2012

Oral vs Written Speech Characteristics

Oral speech is: Spontaneous Needs time Is heard Written speech is: Planned Needs space Is seen

Oral vs Written Syntactic Speech Units

Oral Speech Units are:
TEXT SUPRAPHRASAL UNIT PHRASE SYNTAGM

Written Speech Units are:

TEXT PARAGRAPH SENTENCE CLAUSE PHRASE WORD MORPHEME

PHONETIC WORD SYLLABLE SOUND

Oral Speech Syntactic Units

In oral speech the hierarchy of syntactic units from the largest to the smallest unit is the following:
TEXT SUPRAPHRASAL UNIT SYLLABLE SOUND PHRASE SYNTAGM PHONETIC WORD

A sound may be generally characterized by pitch, loudness, and quality. A syllable is a basic unit of written or spoken language consisting of a single uninterrupted sound formed by a vowel, diphthong, or a syllabic consonant alone, that can be used to make up words. A phonetic word is a unit of spoken language, where primary stress functions as its nucleus (see rhythmic group). A syntagm is a syntactic unit, a part of a phrase which represents a semantic and intonation entity in spoken language. A phrase is a syntactic structure of spoken speech that consists of more than one word but lacks the subject-predicate organization of a clause. A supraphrasal unit comprises a number of utterances independent structurally and semantically, united by one theme.

Units of Phonetics
1. Segmental units are sounds of speech (vowels and consonants) which form the vocalic and consonantal systems 2. Suprasegmental, or prosodic, units are syllables, accentual (rhythmic) units, intonation groups, utterances, which form the subsystem of pitch, stress, rhythm, tempo, pauses.

The Sound Phenomena have Different Aspects:

(a) the articulatory aspect; (b) the acoustic aspect; (c) the auditory (perceptive) aspect; (d) the functional (linguistic, social) aspect phonology.

Speech Chain
Speaker's brain Speaker's vocal tract Transmission of sounds through air Listener's ear Listener's brain

linguistic

articulatory

acoustic

auditory

linguistic

Correlation of Phonetic Terms

articulatory characteristic s vibration of the vocal cords different positions and movements of speech organs the amplitude of vibrations
the period of time during which the sound is pronounced

acoustic properties fundamental frequency formant frequency

auditory (perceptible) qualities melody

linguistic phenomena pitch

quality (timbre)

phoneme

intensity

loudness

stress tempo, rhythm, pauses

duration

length

Levels of the Language Phonetic Structure

segmental phonemes represented by allophones syllabic structure of words accentual structure of words intonational structure of utterances

Articulatory Aspect
All the movements and positions of the speech organs necessary to pronounce a speech sound constitute its articulation.

The Speech Organs

(1) power mechanism; (2) vibration mechanism; (3) resonator mechanism; (4) obstruction mechanism.

Acoustic Aspect
The basic vibrations of the vocal cords over their whole length produce the fundamental tone of voice. The simultaneous vibrations of each part of the vocal cords produce partial tones (overtones) The number of vibrations per second is called frequency. Frequency of basic vibrations of the vocal cords is the fundamental frequency.

Acoustic Aspect (2)

Pitch is the degree of highness or lowness varying with the number of vibrations of a note. Speech melody variations in the pitch of the voice in connected speech. Duration of speech sounds is measured in milliseconds .

Acoustic Properties
Frequency Intensity (decibels (dbs)) Duration (milliseconds (msecs)) (length or quantity of time during which the same vibratory motion is maintained) Voice-tamber or timbre (quantity and intensity of the overtones)

ACOUSTIC PHONETICS
Acoustic phonetics deals with the manner in which the spoken message is encoded in the sound waves. According to the generally accepted source-filter theory of speech acoustics, sound is generated at a source (which for phonated speech is constituted by the vibrating vocal folds) and passed through the vocal tract. The opening and closing of the vocal folds create a succession of condensations and rarefactions of air molecules variations in air pressure and transform kinetic energy into acoustic energy. The sound wave generated at the glottis can be considered, for practical purposes, a complex periodic wave, and as such it contains energy at frequencies that are multiples of the fundamental frequency (harmonics).

Formants
The vocal tract acts as a filter, transmitting more energy at those frequencies that correspond to the resonances of the vocal tract than at other frequencies. Energy concentrations at the resonance frequencies of the vocal tract are referred to as formants. In principle, the source and filter are independent of each other; consider the fact that the same vowel can be sung at different fundamental frequencies (pitches), and different vowels can be produced at the same pitch. The sound wave can be described by specifying its fundamental frequency, amplitude, and spectrum.

Acoustic Aspect
Acoustic phonetics is a study of physical aspects of speech sounds. Speech goes away as the speech sounds come out of your mouth unless you record the speech. Thus, we record speech sounds for analysis. Acoustic phonetics includes study of fundamental frequency (pitch), amplitude/intensity (loudness), duration (length), formant estimates, and other physical aspects of speech sounds.

Functions of Speech Sounds

Constitutive function Distinctive function Recognitive function

Distinctive function
on the level of the word-form (askasked) on the level of the word (dreamerdreamy) on the level of the sentence (It was cold.-It was gold)

Functional Aspect
From the purely linguistic point of view these abstractions are called phonemes and their realizations in different positions are called allophones.

Phonology was founded by the Russian

linguist I.A. Baudouin de Courtenay in the 2nd half of the 19th cent.

Functional Aspect
[t] - occlusive, forelingual, apical, alveolar, aspirated, voiceless fortis consonant Tea slightly palatalized before front vowels Sty unaspirated Little pronounced with lateral plosion before [l] Written pronounced with nasal plosion before [n]

Reference
1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10. Gimson A.C. An Introduction to the Pronunciation of English. London, 1972. Jones D. English Pronouncing Dictionary. 15th ed. CUP, 1997. Leontyeva S.F. A Theoretical Course of English Phonetics. M., 2002 Sokolova M.A., Gintovt K.P. English Phonetics. A Theoretical Course. M., 1996. Vasilyev V.A. English Phonetics. A theoretical course. M., 1970. . . . . ., 2003 . . . ., 1960. . . ( ., ., ., . . ). ., 1992. . . . ., 1990. Gillian Brown. Listening to Spoken English. M., 1984.