Phonetics (II)

Airstream Mechanisms
 Most speech sounds are produced by pushing air

through the vocal cords.
 Non-pulmonic:
 Ejectives: air is "popped" out of the mouth
• E.g., American Indian and African languages
 Clicks: air is “sucked” into the mouth
• E.g., Southern Bantu languages such as Xhosa and Zulu
(in south Africa)
 Implosives: air is drawn from the mouth into the throat
• E.g., American Indian languages and throughout Africa,
India, and Pakistan
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Let’s hear!
http://www.paulmeier.com/nonpulmonics
KK (Kenyon & Knott)
Phonetic Symbols
 The KK system is based on the IPA, but there are some
differences.
 For example:
KK IPA
[r] [ɹ]
[p,t,k] [pʰ tʰ kʰ]
[aɪ,ɔɪ] [aj, ɔj]
[au] [aw]
 KK provides a phonemic transcription rather than a phonetic
one, so it is not a true phonetic writing system.
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Each IPA symbol represents one sound
 Some English letters actually represent two segments, and

some combinations of letters represent one sound.
jam [dʒ]sheep [ʃ]
 Some symbols in KK really represent two segments.
KK IPA
day [de] [dej]
toe [to] [tʰow]
 Several symbols in 注音符號 really represent two

segments:
ㄤ [aŋ] ㄠ [aw] ㄟ [ej] ㄡ [ow]

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Voice-Onset-Time (VOT):
Acoustic cue to distinguish voiced vs.
voiceless word initial stop
 The interval of time
between the release of
air pressure in the
production of word-
initial stops and the
onset of vocal cord
vibration associated
with the voicing of the
following vowel.
VOT of [b], [p], [pʰ]
Cross-linguistic Differences
 Mandarin only uses aspiration, not voicing:
 ㄅ [p] ㄆ [ph]
 ㄉ [t] ㄊ [th]
 ㄍ [k] ㄎ [kh]
 English uses voicing and aspiration together:
 b [b] p [ph]
 d [d] t [th]
 g [g] k [kh]
 Other languages like French and Spanish only use voicing:
 b [b] p [p]
 Still other languages, like Taiwanese, use voicing and
aspiration separately:
 [bi53] [pi53] [ph i53] 米比粑／
疤
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Is sound (or segment)
the smallest unit of
language?
See the following examples…
 bad vs. pad
 Slip of tongue
Intended utterance Actual utterance
Is Pat a girl? Is bat a curl?
He is a vile person. He is a file person.
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What is the smallest unit of
language?
Distinctive Feature!
Distinctive Features
 Distinctive features are phonetic properties of
phonemes that account for their ability to
contrast meanings of words.
[p] [b] [m]

+ bilabial + bilabial + bilabial
+ stop + stop + stop
- voiced + voiced + voiced
- nasal - nasal + nasal
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Pronunciation of Vowels
 Tongue height:
 how high the tongue body is
 Tongue advancement:
 how far front/back the tongue body is
 Lip rounding:
 whether or not the lips are rounded
 Tensenesss:
 how far the tongue body is from the "lazy
center" of the mouth
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Vowels
Tongue height: how high the tongue body is
 high vowels: [i], [ɪ], [u], [ʊ]

 mid vowels: [e], [ɛ], [o], [ɔ], [ə], [ʌ]
 low vowels: [æ], [a]
112/12/05 14
Vowels
Tongue advancement: how far back the
tongue body is
 front vowels: [i], [ɪ], [e], [ɛ], [æ]

 central vowels: [ə], [ʌ]
 back vowels: [u], [ʊ],[o], [ɔ], [a]
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Vowels
Lip rounding: whether or not the lips are
rounded
 rounded vowels: [u], [ʊ],[o], [ɔ]

 unrounded vowels: the rest of the
vowels
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Vowels
Tenseness: how far the tongue body is from
the "lazy center" of the mouth
 tense vowels (long vowels): [i], [e], [u], [o]

 lax vowels (short vowels): the rest of the
vowels
 The laxest, "laziest" vowel is [ə]: schwa
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English Vowels
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IPA Vowels
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Let’s hear!
http://www.paulmeier.com/vowels/
You try it!
 How would you describe the following
English vowels?
(height, advancement, rounding, tenseness)
1. [i]: high front unrounded tense vowel

2. [ɛ]: mid front unrounded lax vowel
3. [ɔ]: mid back rounded tense vowel
4. [æ]: low front unrounded lax vowel
5. [u]: high back rounded tense vowel
112/12/05 21
Diphthongs
 A diphthong is a sequence of two sounds, vowel
+ glide.
 A diphthong is considered as a single vowel.
 English diphthongs:
 [aj] (KK [aɪ]): like
 [ɔj] (KK [ɔɪ]): boy
 [aw] (KK [aʊ]): flower
112/12/05 22
Nasalization of Vowels
 In English, nasalized vowels occur before nasal
consonants in the same syllable, and oral vowels
occur in all other places.
 Examples: beam, bane, boon, bing
[bĩm] [bẽn] [bũn] [bĩŋ]
..but benign [bɪ‘naj̃n], memorial [mə’mɔɹɪl]
 In French, Polish, Portuguese, nasal vowels occur

without nasal consonants.
 Example: the French word son [sõ] “sound”
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Diacritics
112/12/05 24
Major Phonetic Classes
 Noncontinuants: the airstream is totally obstructed in the oral
cavity
 stops, affricates
 Continuants: the airstream flows continuously out of the

mouth
 All other consonants and vowels
 Obstruents: the airstream has partial or full obstruction

 non-nasal stops, fricatives, affricates
 Sonorants: air resonates in the nasal or oral cavities

 vowels, nasal stops, liquids, 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: bilabials, labiodentals

• Articulated with the lips
 Coronals: alveolars, palatals, affricates, liquids

• Articulated by raising the tongue blade
Major Phonetic Classes:
Consonantal
 Anteriors: labials, interdentals, alveolars
 Produced in the front part of the mouth (from the alveolar
area forward)
 Sibilants: [s] [z] [ʃ] [ʒ] [tʃ] [dʒ]

 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
 liquids, nasals
 Eg., dazzle, [‘dæzl̩ ] or [‘dæzəl]
rhythm [‘rɪðm̩ ] or [‘rɪðəm]
Major Phonetic Classes
(Summary)
 Consonants and vowels
 Voiced and voiceless
 Noncontinuants and Continuants
 Obstruents: oral strops, fricatives, affricates
 Sonorants: vowels, glides, liquids, nasals
 Labials: bilabials, labiodentals
 Coronals: alveolars, palatals, affricates, liquids
 Anteriors: labials, interdentals, alveolars
 Sibilants: [s], [z], [ʃ] [ʒ] [tʃ] [dʒ]
 Syllabic sounds: liquids, nasals
112/12/05 28
You try it!
 What phonetic feature(s) does each of the
following groups of sounds share?
1. [p] [b] [m]  bilabial stop

2. [b] [g] [z] [v] [ʒ]  voiced consonants
3. [t] [d] [s] [ʃ] [n] [tʃ] [dʒ]  coronals
4. [l] [r] [w] [j]  sonorants
5. [i] [ɪ] [e] [ɛ] [æ] front vowels
112/12/05 29

Phonetics (II)

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Airstream Mechanisms

 Most speech sounds are produced by pushing air

 Some English letters actually represent two segments, and

 Several symbols in 注音符號 really represent two

ㄤ [aŋ] ㄠ [aw] ㄟ [ej] ㄡ [ow]

[p] [b] [m]

 high vowels: [i], [ɪ], [u], [ʊ]

 front vowels: [i], [ɪ], [e], [ɛ], [æ]

 rounded vowels: [u], [ʊ],[o], [ɔ]

 tense vowels (long vowels): [i], [e], [u], [o]

1. [i]: high front unrounded tense vowel

 A diphthong is considered as a single vowel.

..but benign [bɪ‘naj̃n], memorial [mə’mɔɹɪl]

 In French, Polish, Portuguese, nasal vowels occur

 Continuants: the airstream flows continuously out of the

 Obstruents: the airstream has partial or full obstruction

 Sonorants: air resonates in the nasal or oral cavities

 Consonantal sounds can be further subdivided:

 Labials: bilabials, labiodentals

 Coronals: alveolars, palatals, affricates, liquids

 Sibilants: [s] [z] [ʃ] [ʒ] [tʃ] [dʒ]

 Syllabic sounds: sounds that can function as the core of a

1. [p] [b] [m]  bilabial stop

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