Lecture 2: The sounds of language

Physiological adaptation:

• upright teeth

• flexible lips

• relatively small mouth that can be opened and closed rapidly

• flexible tongue

• larynx (voice bar) containing vocal cords

• pharynx (the tube that goes from the back of your mouth to the place where it divides for food and air)

• brain literisation (nie rodzimy się z literalised brain, potrzebuje pare lat, ok. 16 roku życia mamy zdolności żeby mówić płynnie w native language) odpowiada za to left hemisphere

Phonetics – the science and study of speech sounds

articulatory phonetics the study of how speech sounds are articulated

acoustic phonetics the study of physical properties of speech as sound waves “in the air”

auditory phonetics the study of how speech sounds are perceived vid the ear

forensic phonetics in legal cases the study of recorded utterances and speaker identification

Segmental features – sounds in words

Words/phrases are continuous sounds – we pause to take a breath, yet speakers of language can separate them into words.

key pout keep out

grade A gray day

I scream ice-cream

The Phonetic Alphabet

• Orthography/Alphabetic Spelling (in English it does not represent sounds in a consistent way)

  • sound can be represented by different letter

Did he believe that Caesar could see the people seize the seas.

• silent letters

bomb, knife, island, sword, psychology, autumn

• no letter to represent sound that occur: cute (kyute)

International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA) 1888

• phonetic symbols that represent fundamental sound of all languages (one to one – sound to sound)

Schwa – not stressed, appeared in unstressed syllables (doctor-)

Articulatory Phonetics (how are sounds produced)

• they are produced by pushing any air through the vocal cords, np. the throat in the mouth and nose and finally out of the body

Vocal tract glottis (the opening between the vocal cords) larynx pharynx mouth cavity (=the mouth) nasal cavity

I Consonants

• are produced with some restriction or closure in the vocal tract that impedes the flow of air from the lungs

• consonants are classified according the place of articulation i.e. according to where the vocal tract airflow occurs (bilabial, dental, alveolar)

• speech sounds also vary in terms of manner of articulation i.e. in terms of what happens to the airflow, whether or not it is obsacted, causes vocal cords vibrates (nasal, fricative, glide)

Aspiration of voiceless sounds

• aspirated sounds – a brief puff of air escapes before the glottis closes

  car //

  pool //

  unaspirated sounds – the vocal cords start vibrating as soon as the lips are open

Nasal and oral sounds

oral sounds – the air escapes through the oral cavity (e.g. /b/)

nasal sounds – the air escapes through the nasal cavity

II Vowels

pronounced with no significant blockage of the air, different parts of the tongue in the mouth take different positions, they may be high or low. Lips may be spread or pursed, the velum may be raised or lowered/

Two groups:

monophthongs (simple vowels)

diphthongs ( a sequence of two sounds vowel + glide)

Lips rounding

rounded (in bore,  in shoot)

unrounded (/in bath,  in sneeze)

Tense and lax vowels

• vowel  has slightly higher position than , (compare  and 

 and are produced with greater tension of the tongue muscles and they are a little longer. They are tense vowels.

Tense vowels Lax vowels

beat bit

 bait bet

boot put

boat bore

Continuants and noncontinuants

• stops sound are noncontinuants (there is a total obstruction of the air in the oral cavity)

• all vowels(and all other consonants) are continuants (the stream of air flows continuously out of the mouth)

hard

^{(podniebienie twarde)}

^{(podniebienie miękkie)}

^{(łuk zębowy) (języczek podniebny)}

^(gardło)

epiglottis

^(krtań)

trachea oesophagus

Obstruents and sonorants

• obstruents (the non-nasal stops, the fricatives and the affricates) – the airflow is fully (as in non-nasal stops) or partially (as in fricatives) obstructed

• sonorants – are sounds that are not obstruents (vowels, liquids, the glides). They are produced with relatively free airflow through the mouth or nose and have greater acoustic energy. Nasal stops are sonorants because although the air is blocked in the mouth it continues to resonate in the nasal cavity.

Suprasegmental/prosodic features of speech sounds

• pitch

• stress

• length

• tone and intonation