Phonetics:

The Sounds of Language

Sound Segments Identity of Speech Sounds

 Knowing a language includes knowing the  Our linguistic knowledge allows us to

sounds of that language ignore nonlinguistic differences in speech
(such as individual pitch levels, rates of
 Phonetics is the study of speech sounds speed, coughs)

 We are able to segment a continuous  We are capable of making sounds that are
stream of speech into distinct parts and not speech sounds in English but are in
recognize the parts in other words other languages

 Everyone who knows a language knows  The click tsk that signals disapproval in
how to segment sentences into words and English is a speech sound in languages such
words into sound as Xhosa and Zulu where it is combined
with other sounds just like t or k is in
English

The science of phonetics aims to describe all the

sounds of all the world’s languages

Acoustic phonetics: focuses on the physical

properties of the sounds of language

Auditory phonetics: focuses on how listeners

perceive the sounds of language

Articulatory phonetics: focuses on how the vocal

tract produces the sounds of language

The Phonetic Alphabet

Spelling, or orthography, does not consistently represent the sounds of language

Some problems with ordinary spelling:

1. The same sound may be represented by many letters or combination of letters:

he people key
believe seize machine
Caesar seas
see amoeba

2. The same letter may represent a variety of sounds:

father village badly made many

3. A combination of letters may represent a single sound

shoot character Thomas either physics rough coat deal
4. A single letter may represent a combination of sounds
xerox

4. Some letters in a word may not be pronounced at all

autumn sword resign pterodactyl lamb corps psychology write knot

5. There may be no letter to represent a sound that occurs in a word

cute use

 In 1888 the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA) was invented in order to have a system in which
there was a one- to-one correspondence between each sound in language and each phonetic symbol

 Someone who knows the IPA knows how to pronounce any word in any language

Dialectal and individual differences affect pronunciation, but the sounds of English are:

 Using IPA symbols, we can now represent the pronunciation of words unambiguously:

Articulatory Phonetics

Most speech sounds are produced by pushing air through the vocal cords
  Glottis = the opening between the vocal cords

 Larynx = ‘voice box’

 Pharynx = tubular part of the throat above the larynx

 Oral cavity = mouth

 Nasal cavity = nose and the passages connecting it to the throat and sinuses

Consonants: Place of Articulation

 Consonants are sounds produced with some – [s, z]: produced with the sides of the front
restriction or closure in the vocal tract of the tongue raised but the tip lowered to
allow air to escape
 Consonants are classified based in part on
where in the vocal tract the airflow is being – [l]: the tongue tip is raised while the rest of
restricted (the place of articulation) the tongue remains down so air can escape
over the sides of the tongue (thus [l] is a
 The major places of articulation are: lateral sound)
 bilabial, labiodental, interdental, alveolar,
palatal, velar, uvular, and glottal – [r]: air escapes through the central part of
the mouth; either the tip of the tongue is
curled back behind the alveolar ridge or the
 Bilabials: [p] [b] [m]  Produced by top of the tongue is bunched up behind the
bringing both lips together alveolar ridge

 Labiodentals: [f] [v]  Produced by

touching the bottom lip to the upper teeth  Palatals: [ʃ] [ʒ] [ʧ] [ʤ][ʝ] Produced by
raising the front part of the tongue to the
 Interdentals [θ] [ð]  Produced by palate
putting the tip of the tongue between the
teeth  Velars: [k] [g] Produced by raising the
back of the tongue to the soft palate or
 Alveolars: [t] [d] [n] [s] [z] [l] [r] velum

All of these are produced by raising the tongue to  Uvulars: [ʀ] [q] [ɢ] Produced by raising
the alveolar ridge in some way the back of the tongue to the uvula

– [t, d, n]: produced by the tip of the tongue  Glottals: [h] [Ɂ]  Produced by restricting
touching the alveolar ridge (or just in front the airflow through the open glottis ([h]) or
of it) by stopping the air completely at the glottis
(a glottal stop: [Ɂ])

Consonants: Manner of Articulation

The manner of articulation is the way the airstream is affected as it flows from the lungs and out of the mouth
and nose

Voiceless sounds are those produced with the vocal cords apart so the air flows freely through the glottis
Voiced sounds are those produced when the vocal cords are together and vibrate as air passes through

The voiced/voiceless distinction is important in English because it helps us distinguish words like:
rope/robe fine/vine seal/zeal
[rop]/[rob] [faɪn]/[vaɪn] [sil]/[zil]

But some voiceless sounds can be further distinguished as aspirated or unaspirated aspirated unaspirated

h
pool [p ul] spool [spul]
h
tale [t el] stale [stel]
h
kale [k el] scale [skel]
Consonants: Manner of Articulation
Oral sounds are those produced with the velum raised to prevent air from escaping out the nose

Nasal sounds are those produced with the velum lowered to allow air to escape out the nose

So far we have three ways of classifying sounds based on phonetic features: by voicing, by place of
articulation, and by nasalization

[p] is a voiceless, bilabial, oral sound

[n] is a voiced, alveolar, nasal sound

Stops: [p] [b] [m] [t] [d] [n] [k] [g] [ŋ] [ʧ][ʤ] [Ɂ]
Produced by completely stopping the air flow in the oral cavity for a fraction of a second

All other sounds are continuants, meaning that the airflow is continuous through the oral cavity

Fricatives: [f] [v] [θ] [ð] [s] [z] [ʃ] [ʒ] [x] [ɣ] [h]
Produced by severely obstructing the airflow so as to cause friction

Affricates: [ʧ] [ʤ]

Produced by a stop closure that is released with a lot of friction

Liquids: [l] [r]

Produced by causing some obstruction of the airstream in the mouth, but not enough to cause any real friction

Glides: [j] [w]

Produced with very little obstruction of the airstream and are always followed by a vowel

Approximants: [w] [j] [r] [l]

Sometimes liquids and glides are put together into one category because the articulators approximate a
frictional closeness but do not actually cause friction

Trills and flaps: [r]* [ɾ]

Trills are produced by rapidly vibrating an articulator
Flaps are produced by a flick of the tongue against the alveolar ridge
Clicks:
Produced by moving air in the mouth between various articulators
The disapproving sound tsk in English is a consonant in Zulu and some other southern African languages
The lateral click used to encourage a horse in English is a consonant in Xhosa

*The textbook uses [r] to represent the central liquid as in the word ready rather than as a trill
 Vow
els
 Vowels are classified by how high or low the tongue is, if the tongue is in the front or back of the
mouth, and whether or not the lips are rounded

 High vowels: [i] [ɪ] [u] [ʊ]  Central vowels: [ə] [ʌ]
 Mid vowels: [e] [ɛ] [o] [ə] [ʌ] [ɔ]  Back vowels: [u] [ɔ] [o] [æ] [a]
 Low vowels: [æ] [a]  Round vowels: [u] [ʊ] [o] [ɔ]  Produced
 Front vowels: [i] [ɪ] [e] [ɛ] [æ] by rounding the lips

 English has only back round vowels, but other languages such as French and Swedish have front round
vowels

Diphthongs: [aɪ] [aʊ] [ɔɪ]

o A sequence of two vowel sounds (as
opposed to the monophthongs we have
looked at so far)

Nasalization:
o Vowels can also be pronounced with a
lowered velum, allowing air to pass through Tense vowels:
the nose o Are produced with greater tension in the
o In English, speakers nasalize vowels before tongue
a nasal sound, such as in the words o May occur at the end of words
beam, bean, and bingo
Lax vowels:
o The nasalization is represented by a o Are produced with less tongue tension
diacritic, an extra mark placed with the o May not occur at the end of words
symbol:
Major Phonetic Classes

 Non continuants: the airstream is totally

obstructed in the oral cavity  Obstruents: the airstream has partial or full
 Stops and affricates obstruction
 Non-nasal stops, fricatives, and
 Continuants: the airstream flows affricates
continuously out of the mouth
 All other consonants and vowels  Sonorants: air resonates in the nasal or oral
cavities
 Vowels, nasal stops, liquids, and glides

Major Phonetic Classes: Consonantal

Consonantal: there is some restriction of the airflow during articulation
 All consonants except glides

Consonantal sounds can be further subdivided:

– Labials: [p] [b] [m] [f] [v] [w] [ʍ]

 Articulated with the lips

– Coronals: [θ] [ð] [t] [d] [n] [s] [z] [ʃ] [ʒ] [ʧ][ʤ] [l] [r]
 Articulated by raising the tongue blade

– Anteriors: [p] [b] [m] [f] [v] [θ] [ð] [t] [d] [n] [s] [z]
 Produced in the front part of the mouth (from the alveolar area forward)

– Sibilants: [s] [z] ] [ʃ] [ʒ] [ʧ][ʤ]

 Produced with a lot of friction that causes a hissing sound, which is a mixture of high-‐frequency
sounds

Syllabic Sounds: sounds that can function as the core of a syllable

 Vowels, liquids, and nasals

Prosodic Features
o Prosodic, or suprasegmental features of sounds, such as length, stress and pitch, are features above
the segmental values such as place and manner of articulation

o Length: in some languages, such as Japanese, the length of a consonant or a vowel can change the
meaning of a word:
biru [biru] “building” biiru [biːru] “beer”
saki [saki] “ahead” sakki [sakːi] “before”

o Stress: stressed syllables are louder, slightly higher in pitch, and somewhat longer than unstressed
syllables
The noun digest has the stress on the first syllable

The verb digest has the stress on the second syllable

o English is a stress-timed language, meaning that at least one syllable is stressed in an English word
o French functions differently, so when English speakers learn French they put stress on certain
syllables which contributes to their foreign accent

Tone and Intonation

Tone languages are languages that use pitch to contrast the meaning of words

For example, in Thai, the string of sounds [naː] can be said with 5 different pitches and can thus have 5 different
meanings:

Intonation languages (like English) have varied pitch contour across an utterance, but pitch is not used to
distinguish words

However, intonation may affect the meaning of a whole sentence:

John is here said with falling intonation is a statement

John is here said with rising intonation is a question

Phonetics of Signed Languages

Signs can be broken down into segmental features similar to the phonetic features of speech sounds (such as
place and manner of articulation)
And just like spoken languages, signed languages of the world vary in these features

Signs are formed by three major features:

1. The configuration of the hand (handshape)
2. The movement of the hand and arm towards or away from the body
3. The location of the hand in signing space

o The configuration of the hand (handshape)

o The movement of the hand and arm
o The location of the hand in signing space