Introduction to

Linguistics

Phonetics

What is Phonetics

Phonetics is the study of the sounds of

speech

Articulatory Phonetics – studies the

production of speech sounds

Acoustic Phoentics – studies the

transmission and the physical properties of

speech sounds

Auditory Phoentics – studies the perception

of speech sounds

Vocal tract



Air-stream mechanics



3 stages of voice production



1/ initiation



2/ phonation



3/ articulation

Initiation

Pulmonic initiation: the airstream is created in the

lungs

There are languages in which sounds may be

produced with the velaric initiation: clicks (e.g.

Khosian lg. Kenya)

Glottalic initiation: the airstream is initiated in the

glottis (lg. Xhosa)

Sounds may be egressive (outflowing) when we exhale

or ingressive (inflowing) when we inhale

All English sounds are egressive

Phonation

When the airstream is initiated in the lungs, it flows through

the trachea to larynx. Vocal cords form the GLOTTIS which is

situated inside the larynx.

This is where the airstream turns into VOICE– (vocal cords)

Voiceless sounds: vocal cords are open, they don’t vibrate,

Voiced sounds: vocal cords are close together, the passing

air sets them in motion, they vibrate

Glottal stop: complete closure of the vocal cords: clock,

button

Articulation

After the air passes through the larynx,

it can be modified by the movement of

different articulators

Q: Which articulators are passive? Which are

active?

IPA



How can we represent speech sounds?



In everyday life we do it by using

letters of the alphabet in out native

languages



Can we use any of the native alphabets

to represent every speech sound?



Consider the first sound in [shoe]. How

is it spelled in English, Polish and

Ukrainian and Russian?

IPA



Naturally, none of the alphabets devised for

natural languages allows us to present each

and every speech sound.



That is why, an artificial alphabet for

representing speech sound was devised.



This alphabet is known as the

International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA)

[2005 IPA pdf]

Speech sounds



Pulmonic

http://teaching.ncl.ac.uk/ipa/consonants-

pulmonic.html#



Clicks:

http://www.linguistics.ucla.edu/people/grads/yutanaka/

teaching/ling103/soundcharts/consnonpul.html

Describing speech sounds



We use a set of parameters to describe

consonants and vowels



Based on what you know so far, think

what these parameters can be

Consonants



Three parameters



Place of articualtion – where the

airstream is modified



Manner of articulation – how the

airstream is modified



Voiceness – wherther the sound is

voiced or voicelss

Place of articulation

BILABIAL (both lips create an obstruction to the airstream)

LABIODENTAL (the lower lip and the upper teeth come

tohether)

INTERDENTAL (the tip of the tongue is placed between the

upper and lower front teeth)

ALVEOLAR (the tip of the tongue touches the alveolar ridge)

PALATO-ALVEOLAR OR POST-ALVEOLAR OR ALVEALO-

PALATAL (the blade of the tongue is placed at the junction of

the alveolar ridge and the hard palate.

Place of articulation

RETROFLEX (the tip of the tongue is curled back to the

post-alveolar area)

PALATAL (the front of the tongue articulates against

the hard palate)

VELAR (the back of the tongue articulates with the

velum – soft palate)

LABIO-VELAR (lips are rounded and the back of the

tongue moves closer to the velum (soft palate)

GLOTTAL

Manner of articulation



Plosive - are consonants that are made up by

completely blocking the airflow. The production of

plosives involves three stages: 1) a direct contact

between the active and the passive articulator

forming a complete obstruction to the airflow; 2) the

compression of air behind the obstruction; and 3) the

release of the compressed air in the form of a

“explosion” (hence the term plosive).



Fricative - are consonants that are produced by

impeding, but not completely blocking the airflow,

i.e., there is a narrow gap between the active and

the passive articulator along which the airflow can

leave the oral cavity.

Manner of Articulation



Lateral – are consonants produced with the air

escaping on both sides of the tongue



Thrill - are consonants produced with vibration

between articulators

Manner of Articulation



Affricate - The tip of the tongue touches the back

part of the teeth ridge, the front part of the tongue is

raised towards the hard palate. The air is trapped for

a short time because of a complete obstruction

between the tip of the tongue and the teeth ridge,

then the obstruction is released slowly and the

friction is heard



Nasal - are consonants which, like plosives, are

produced by completely blocking the airstream. But

there is an important difference: The airflow escapes

through the nasal cavity (hence the term nasals).



Approximant – consonants produced with the

articulators approaching each other enough to create

a passage small enough to create a turbulent airflow

Vowels



Four parameters



Vertical position of the tongue



Horizontal position of the tongue



Tense vs. Lax



Lip rounding

Vowels

Vowels



Depending on the vertical position of the tongue,

vowels can be classified into high, low, and mid vowels:



1) When the front or the back of the tongue is raised

towards the roof of the mouth, the vowel is called high,

this is the case, e.g., in pill, meet, look, or soon.



2) When the front or the back of the tongue is as low as

possible, the vowel is called low, as,e.g., in land, star, or

dog.



3) When the tongue occupies the position intermediate

between the high and the low one, the vowel is called

mid, e.g. in get, or the unstressed [ə] in about.

Vowels



Depending on the part of the tongue moves

(horizontal position) vowels are classified into front,

back and central vowels:



1) When the front part of the tongue is raised towards

the hard palate, the vowel is called front, e.g. in

meet, get, or land.



2) When the back part of the tongue is raised towards

the soft palate, the vowel is called back, as in star,

dog, law, or soon.



3) When the front part of the tongue is raised towards

the back part of the hard palate, the vowel is called

central, e.g. in about, much, or nurse.



Q: Does the lenght of the vowel really

make a difference?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?

v=JAFQFvSPhQ8



e.g. English -yes



e.g. Italian, Ukrainian, Polish – no



There exist cross-linguistic diferences

between lgs. with respect to the effects of

the lenght of the vowels

Exercise 1

For each group of sounds listed, state the

phonetic feature(s) they all share.

Example: [p] [b] [m] Features: bilabial, stop,

consonant

a. [g] [p] [t] [d] [k] [b]

b. [u] [ʊ] [o] [ɔ]

c. [i] [ɪ] [e] [ɛ] [æ]

d. [t] [s] [ʃ] [p] [k] [tʃ] [f] [h]

e. [v] [z] [ʒ] [dʒ] [n] [g] [d] [b] [l] [r][w] [j]

f. [t] [d] [s] [ʃ] [n] [tʃ] [dʒ]

Exercise 2

What phonetic property or feature distinguishes

the sets of sounds in column A from those in

column B?

a. [i] [ɪ]

[u] [ʊ]

b. [p] [t] [k] [s] [f]

[b] [d] [g] [z]

[v]

c. [p] [b] [m]

[t] [d] [n] [k]

[g] [ŋ]

d. [i] [ɪ] [u] [ʊ]

[e] [ɛ] [o] [ɔ]

[æ] [a]

e. [f] [v] [s] [z]

[ʃ] [ʒ] [tʃ] [dʒ]

f. [i] [ɪ] [e] [ə] [ɛ] [æ]

[u] [ʊ] [o] [ɔ] [a]