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Lesson 2 - ITL

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Prof.

Daniela Silva Paredes

daniela.silva@mail.udp.cl

1-2024

Introduction
to Linguistics
Today’s • What is Linguistics?

Lesson • Levels of Linguistic Analysis

• Phonology & Phonetics


• Articulators
• Vowels and consonants
• Minimal Pairs
• Phonemes
• Allophones
Both phonetics and phonology focus on
speech.

Phonology They approach their subject from


different perspectives.

and
Phonetics Phonetics is interested in physical,
‘superficial' properties of speech.

Phonology is interested in the ‘abstract’


(cognitive) properties of speech.
Phonology & Phonetics

Also,…
• Phonetics: the science of speech sound or the
study of sound in human language

• Phonology: studies the selection and patterns of


sounds in a specific language, that is, how
sounds pattern and function in it.
What the sounds of a language are The rules for combining sounds: Variations in pronunciation:

• For instance, in the description of • In any given language, certain • For example, there is a very
the phonology of English we can combinations of sounds are general rule of English phonology
say that it lacks a particular allowed, but other combinations which dictates that the plural
vowel that is present in other are systematically impossible. For suffix on nouns will be
languages such as French, example, in English, while there pronounced as [z], represented in
German and Norwegian > /œ/ are words that begin with sn- like spelling as es, when the
snake, snip and snort, there are preceding consonant is one of a
no words beginning with bn. certain set of consonants
Thus, bnick, bnark, bniddle are including [ʃ] (spelled sh) as in
not words of English. bushes, [ʧ] (spelled as ch) as in
churches, and [ʤ] (spelled j, ge,
dge) as in cages.

Phonology
Phonetics
• Phonetics, on the other hand, is about the concrete,
instrumentally measurable physical properties and production
of these cognitive speech sounds.
• Three basic aspects of speech sounds that are studied in
phonetics are:
• Acoustics, which is the study of the properties of the
physical sound wave that we hear,
• Auditory, which is the study of the way sounds are perceived
• Articulation, which is the study of how to modify the shape of
the vocal tract, thereby producing a certain acoustic output
(sound).
Articulatory phonetics
• It describes how sounds are made or articulated.

• It is concerned with the movements made by the tongue and lips and a certain
amount about the anatomy of the inside of the mouth and throat – the vocal tract.

• We are familiar with this, but we haven't paid attention to it or don't know the
right words to refer to it.

• This knowledge is summarised in the IPA chart.


Articulatory Phonetics
Speech Anatomy Tongue position differences between /i:/ and /ɪ/
The Production of Speech
Sounds
What parts of our body are involved in the production of speech sounds?
The Production of Speech Sounds
• Lungs

• The larynx or voice box (Adam's


apple) houses the vocal folds or cords

• Vocal folds or cords voice sounds and


make them voiceless

• Touch your larynx and say 'Aah!' and


then say 'Shh!'
Articulators
• Oral cavity: the part comprising the mouth
• Nasal cavity: the part that leads to the nostrils
• Muscles in the chest that we use for breathing produce the
flow of air that is needed for almost all speech sounds
• Muscles in the larynx produce many different modifications in
the flow of air from the chest to the mouth
• After passing through the larynx the air goes through what
we call the vocal tract which ends at the mouth and nostrils
• These different parts are called the articulators.
Articulators

1. Pharynx
2. Soft palate or velum
3. Hard palate
4. Alveolar ridge
5. Tongue
6. Teeth
7. Lips
Pharynx

Ø It is a tube which begins just above the


larynx.
Ø At its top it is divided into two: one part
being the back of the oral cavity and the
other being the beginning of the way
through the nasal cavity.
Softa Palate or Velum
Ø It allows air to pass through
the nose and through the
mouth.
Ø It is often raised in speech
so that air cannot escape
through the nose.
Ø It can be touched by the
tongue.
Soft Palate

Ø When we make the sounds /k/ /g/ the


tongue is in contact with the lower
side of the soft palate.
Hard Palate

Ø It is often called 'the roof of the


mouth’.
Ø You can feel its smooth curved
surface with your tongue.
Ø A consonant made with the tongue
close to the hard palate is called
palatal.
Hard Palate
• E.g. The sound /j/ in ‘yes’.
Alveolar Ridge
Ø It is between the top front teeth and the
hard palate.
Ø You can feel its shape with your tongue.
Ø Sounds made with the tongue touching
here are called alveolar.
Ø E.g. /t/, /d/, /n/
Alveolar Ridge
• Example: /t/, /d/, /n/
Tongue
Ø It is a very important
articulator
Ø It can be moved into many
different places and
shapes.
Ø The tongue can be divided
into different parts
Teeth (upper and lower)
Ø We usually pay more attention to teeth
when discussing articulators
Ø But the tongue is in contact with the
upper side teeth for most speech sounds.
Ø Sounds made with the tongue touching
the front teeth are called dental.

ØE.g. θ and ð
Teeth
• Example: /θ/ and /ð/
Lips
Ø They are important in speech.
Ø They can be pressed together
Ø When we produce the sound /p/, /b/, /m/
Ø brought into contact with the teeth
Ø As in /f/, /v/
Ø Rounded to produce the lip-shape for vowels
like /u:/.
Lips and teeth

• Examples: /f/ and /v/


Vowels and Consonants
Phonemes and allophones
Speech Sounds

• Within linguistics, speech sounds are


commonly known as phonemes.

• Phonemes fall into two groups:


VOWELS and CONSONANTS.
• i.e., every human speech sound is
either a vowel or a consonant.
English IPA Consonants
English
Vowels
Minimal Pairs

• In all languages, there are certain variations in sound which are


significant because they can change the meanings of words.
• For example, if we take the word man, and replace the first sound by [p],
we get a new word pan.
• Two words of this kind distinguished by a single sound are called a
minimal pair.
Minimal Pairs
Phonemes
/ʃ/ /iː/ /p/
• Note that the number of letters a word has
does not necessarily correlate with the
number of phonemes it has.

• To identify phonemes, we place phonemic


symbols between slant brackets / /
Phonemes > Allophones
• Each phoneme is composed of a
number of different sounds.
• These variants are called
allophones.
• The allophones of a phoneme exist
in reality as concrete entities.
• What we produce when we speak
a language are allophones of a
phoneme.
Allophones
• The allophone is a different pronunciation of a sound that doesn’t change a word’s
meaning

• Example: English /t/ can be realised as


• Alveolar [t] in butter.
• Glottal [ʔ] in butter.
• Flap [ɾ] in butter.
Allophones
• Allophones are real – they can be
recorded, stored and reproduced, and
analysed in acoustic or articulatory terms.
• Phonemes are abstract units and exist only
in the mind of the speaker/listener.
• The phoneme is an abstraction that is
realised (in the sense of ‘made real’) as a
particular allophone.
Revision 1.
2.
Phonetics and Phonology
Organs involved in the production of speech
sounds
1. In pairs or small groups, go through 3. Articulators: what are they?
the concepts studied today.
4. Name the articulators
2. Explain to each other what you 5. Segments
understand by each of these
6. Vowels and consonants
concepts.
7. Minimal Pairs
3. Make sure you all agree on what
8. Phonemes
these concepts refer to.
9. Allophones

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