Phonetics: Understanding Consonants and Vowels in Human Language, Study notes of Linguistics

Download Phonetics: Understanding Consonants and Vowels in Human Language and more Study notes Linguistics in PDF only on Docsity! -1- Sounds in Human Language Do NOT trust English spelling. It is often very misleading. Bernard Shaw on English spelling: Q: How is the word ‘ghoti’ pronounced in English? A: ‘fish’ gh in ‘laugh’, ‘tough’, etc. o in ‘women’ ti in ‘nation’, ‘creation’, etc. Two Basic Areas in Phonetics 1. Acoustic Phonetics: Studies acoustic/physical/perceptual properties of sounds used in human language. 2. Articulatory Phonetics: Studies the mechanism of sound productions in human language. It turns out that (almost) all the relevant properties that govern sound organization in language come from the articulatory domain. Hence, we only cover 2 in this class. Only the sounds made between your lungs and lips are used in language. Basics: -2- 1. Air is coming out of your lungs. It is called ‘egressive pulmonic airstream’. Note: Some languages (very few) use ingressive airstream. You can talk, after all, even when you are sucking air in! 2. If airstream comes out undisturbed, it is just breathing. Humans make a variety of ways to disturb this airstream, which lead to different sounds. 3. The airpassage above the larynx (Adam’s apple area) is the place where this disturbance takes place. This part of the body is called ‘vocal tract’. -5- 3. Manners of Ariticulation A: Stops: Complete closure at some point of the vocal tract. The airstream is blocked, and when it is released, it often ‘puffs’ out. [p], [b], [m], [t], [d], [n], [k], [g], [õ] B: Fricatives: Near-complete closure is made so that the airstream is obstructed from flowing freely, causing friction. [f], [v], [2], [*], [s], [z], [•], [¥] C: Affricates: Complete closure followed by gradual release of the airstream (i.e., stop + fricative). [t•], [d¥] D: Liquids: Some disturbance in the airstream, but not much to cause constriction or friction. [l], [r] E: Glides: Even less disturbance. In this sense, their sound quality is a lot like vowels (that’s why they are sometimes called ‘semin-vowels’), but unlike vowels, they cannot be the center of a syllable. [y], [w] 4. Voicing Whether the vocal cord is vibrated or not. -6- Voiced: [b], [m], [v], [*], [d], [n], [z], [l], [r], [¥], [d¥], [j], [g], [õ], [w] Voiceless: all the other consonants 5. Nasality When the uvula is raised and blocks the entrance to the nasal cavity, the airstream goes through the oral cavity only. When it is not raised and some part of the vocal tract is closed, the airstream goes through the nasal cavity. Nasal: [n], [m], [õ] Oral: all the other consonants Vowels 1. Parameters of Vowel Categorization A: How high is the tongue? High/Mid/Low B: What part of the tongue? Front/Central/Back C: What shape of the lips? Rounded/Unrounded With English vowels, C doesn’t mean much because high back and mid back vowels are automatically rounded, and no other vowels are rounded. -7- Yellow parts are rounded. High and mid vowels have two vowels each. How do we distinguish them? Tense vs. Lax Tense Vowels: [i], [u], [e], [o] Lax Vowels: [I], [U], [e], []]