Phonetics ~ Class 7

CD 233

Lisa Lavoie

Today’s learning objectives

Correct any misconceptions from HW

Summarize the Source-Filter Theory

Explore different types of sources, airstreams

Discover how vowels are formed

Investigate nasalization

Homework on Pinker Video

Language is unlimited Example of world’s longest sentence The rules are recursive so they can build

Arbitrariness of the sign Onomatopoeia is the exception

What else was troublesome?

Discuss disorders w/r/t Pinker

Are your vocal folds vibrating?

When vocal folds vibrate during production of a sound, we say the sound is voiced

Put your palm on your throat and speak

Do you feel a buzz?

The buzz comes from vibrating vocal folds

Buzz like a bee, hiss like a snake; say “aah” then whisper it

The Source-Filter Theory

The Source-Filter theory of speech production says it is a 2-stage process

1) Generate a sound source

2) Filter it through the shaped vocal tract

A client’s speech issue can often be isolated to the source or the filter

Think of the play-doh factory

And pasta machines

What’s the dough?

The dough represents the source

You can have a sticky source, a crumbly source, a smooth source, an interrupted source, thick, thin

The filter plate represents the oral tract that shapes the source

You can make all kinds of funny shapes

How does the raw source sound?

http://sail.usc.edu/~lgoldste/General_Phonetics/Source_Filter/MATLAB_demo/source100.wav http://www.asel.udel.edu/speech/tutorials/production/lsrc.wav http://sail.usc.edu/~lgoldste/General_Phonetics/Source_Filter/glottograph.aiff

Some other kinds of sources

The adults in Peanuts … http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ss2hULhXf04&feature=related

Electrolarynx - Storycorps from NPR h

ttp://www.npr.org/player/v2/mediaPlayer.html?action=1&t=1&islist=false&id=145459323&m=145500289

Esophageal speech http://www.webwhispers.org/library/EsophagealSpeech.asp

Whispered speech

What is speech, physically?

Speech consists of variations in air pressure created by our vocal apparatus Hums, whistles, pops, silences, hisses, crackles

Usually lungs are the power, providing the source, or the basic air pressure patterns

Then the source is filtered (adjusted) as it passes through the vocal tract

Power – Source – Filter

Individual vocal tract characteristics

The characteristics of a person’s vocal tract lead to the person’s distinctive sound Length of trachea from lungs to larynx Length of oral cavity from larynx to lips Proportion of the lengths above Elasticity of the vocal tract and the vocal folds Symmetry of the vocal folds Thickness of skin, cartilage

Speech is an add-on

Speech is not the primary function of any parts of the vocal tract

All parts are used for other life-supporting purposes

Breathing

Eating and drinking

Three vital functions of larynx

Airway protection Prevents aspirating food into the lungs

RespirationPhonation

More detailed anatomy

Filter

Source

Power

The glottis

The space between the vocal folds

Sometimes closed, as in a glottal stop

Sometimes open, as in breathing

Sometimes it oscillates open and closed, as in phonation

Drawings of vocal folds

Cartoons of phonation

View from the side http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JzyHKYQzPBk&feature=related

Vocal folds opening and closing https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=

Aoa_N1vQS4M

Photos of vocal folds

Phonation Breathing

To phonate with standard “pulmonic egressive” airstream You need to inhale air into your lungs to build up

pressure there Vocal folds must be in the right position Pressure builds up below vocal folds (vf), blowing

them apart Once the pressure is released, vf come back together

(elasticity + Bernoulli effect) That’s one glottal cycle There are other airstream types in other languages

Phonation in the flesh

Trans-nasal fiberoptic endoscopy

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hfOZxJnY4c8

Glottis opens and closes periodically, chopping up the air ow, creating glottal pulsesfl

Each cycle of vocal folds opening and closing is called a glottal cycle

Typically from 50-500 Hz (cycles per second) depending on the speaker

Mucosalwave

The vocal folds “wave” as they separate and come back together; bottom is first to open and first to close

Injuries to the vocal folds

Anatomical video and explanation by doctor https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YFs4etPQd7M

Laryngitis patient education https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I1jNSULtVHc

Laryngeal (or glottal) states

State of glottis: The sound produced:

Open Voiceless sounds

Vocal folds vibrating weakly and inefficiently (lots of air lost)

Breathy voicing (also called murmur)

Vocal fold vibrating normally Modal voicing (normal)

Vocal folds vibrating tensely Creaky voicing (glottal fry)

Closed A glottal stop

Schematic glottal states

For /h/

Glottal stop

Allows vocalFolds to vibrate

For voiceless sounds

Anatomical glottal states

Voice quality variations

Breathy or murmured http://www.phonetics.ucla.edu/index/sounds.html Gujarati languages has nice minimal pairs

Creaky (in American English) Listen to examples and try to produce http://dialectblog.com/2011/04/29/the-rise-of-creaky-voice/

Airstream mechanisms

It’s not all just pulmonic egressive!

Pulmonic ingressive (lungs, diaphragm)

Glottalic egressive (ejectives)

Glottalic ingressive (implosives)

Velaric or lingual ingressive (clicks)

Listen to and try to make these

Anjelah Johnson

Gorgeous skill in voice quality, phonation type

Listen for California “ing”

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rzHihzsdTAE (nail salon)

Clicks in South Africa

Xhosa lesson on Youtubehttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=31zzMb3U0iY&feature=related

Miriam Makeba: Click Songhttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2Mwh9z58iAU

Problems with the source, I

Cannot coordinate speech breathing and airstream (deaf)

Weakened respiratory system (various)

Muscles can’t pull air in/out of lungs (CP)

Difficult to keep air pressure in trachea (PD)

Not smooth enough airflow (cerebellar disease)

Problems with the source, II

Can’t control loudnessCan’t control breathinessVocal folds act independently, not

vibrating in concertToo nasal (cleft palate)Can’t control pitch, details next

Why can’t control pitch?

Vocal folds paralyzed (Parkinson’s)

Vocal folds injured (intubation)

Too much mucus (ALS)

Vocal folds swollen (overuse)

Tumor, cyst or polyp on vocal folds http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YFs4etPQd7M

Moving on to the FILTER

We’ll explore how vowels are formed

And perhaps make it to nasalization

Forming vowels

For each vowel, we have a distinctive vocal tract configuration

That configuration filters the source to create the intended vowel

MRI of vocal tract

Observe the tube shape

And the widths of the tube in various locations

Adjustable!

X-rays

Various

vowels

Arai’s models

http://www.splab.net/Vocal_Tract_Model/index-e.htm

Duck call source, clear filters

Exploratorium exhibit

http://www.exploratorium.edu/exhibits/vocal_vowels/vocal_vowels.html

Watch cinegradiographs

Cineradiographs of musicians http://blog.davidhthomas.net/2011/08/x-ray-

video-of-dancing-tongue-in-clarinetists-mouth-not-what-you-expect/

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tpOwuAMqFTA

What information does this provide?

Trumpet-playing boy for fun

Little Bobby Harrison

On “Australia’s Got Talent”

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jXHrv6s3pQE

How about nasality?

Air flows through the nasal cavity to create nasal sounds

Palate image

Hard palate is made of bone

Soft palate (velum) is made of muscles

Uvula is tiny fleshy “punching bag” at back of velumKnown in Japanese as the penis of

the throat

How the velum works in speech

When we are breathing (but not mouth breathing), the velum is down and open so air enters through the nose and gets warmed, humidified

When we get ready to speak, the velum comes up and closes off the nasal cavity

Nasal sounds, m, n, ng, require an open velum and this happens quickly so we don’t really feel it

What else is the velum good for?

Soft palate is essential for survival

Opens for breathing, yawning

Closes off for eating

Can be called velum, soft palate, velopharyngeal port

When is my velum open?

Besides when you breathe normally, you are keeping your velum open when you: Snort beverages out your nose while

laughing Put spaghetti in your mouth and pull it out

through your nose

Airflow

Velum is open/down here

Nasality and the velum

Our velum, or soft palate, controls airflow into the nasal cavity

When the velum is closed, no air flows through the nasal cavity (sound is oral)

When the velum is open, air flows through the nasal cavity (sound is nasal)

Velum and lifting it videos

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ahPHt_NCf-I

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XXgnPbFhDxg

Test yourself for nasal airflow!

Is air exiting through the nose? Feel it (nostril test, nose test) Finger under nostrils or pinch bridge of nose,

alternate ‘nnn’ and ‘sss’ Alternate “big bid,” “big bin,” “ten men” If nose is pinched shut, is the sound normal? If

not, it’s a nasal

Learning to control velum

If air escapes nose while singing, velum is not fully closed You can practice controlling the velum by opening and closing it Hold your nose and sing into your nose Then while still holding your nose, take the sound out of your

nose Practice a lot for finer velum control In the realm of singing, there are lots of ideas on how to control

your velum better

Source and filter in speech

The Source What comes from the glottis—variously called: the

glottal source, voicing, phonation, airflow, airstream, fundamental frequency, “the source”

The Filter How the source is filtered or shaped by the vocal

tract to create speech sounds Does air exit through nose, where is tongue, how

narrow/wide are constrictions in vocal tract

Today’s goals

Recap source & filter

Explore nasality and the velum

Explore consonant articulation

Admire the design of consonant chart

Watch x-ray movies of musicians

How we use the filter

The filter or resonator is the upper vocal tract, from the vocal folds up and out your mouth and nose

We adjust the filter to articulate, create different speech sounds Vowels by configuring our vocal tract to filter the

source, exx. /i a u/ Consonants by creating constrictions in the oral or

pharyngeal cavities to stopping or alter the source

Movies of articulation

Watch the velum moving up and down Try to tie it mentally to nasal or oral sounds MRI - five frames per second http://www.youtube.com/watch?

v=uTOhDqhCKQs X-ray movie again http://www.phonetics.ucla.edu/course/transcrip

tion%20exercises/moviepage.htm

Consonant articulation

Experiment with some consonants As you make p, f, theta, t, g, h, s, esh, r, l

What’s moving? What’s staying put? Is there any contact between articulators? Where is the contact? How big is the contact? Is the air stopped or just constricted?

Consonant articulation

Here’s an articulating head diagram…

http://www.sil.org/mexico/ling/glosario/E005bi-OrgansArt.htm

Please stop me and ask questions or make comments

Descriptors of a consonant

Manner

Place

Voicing

Nasality

Places of articulation

Bilabial

Labiodental

Interdental

Alveolar

Palatal

Velar

Glottal

How about in other languages?

Manners of articulation

Stop

Fricative

Affricate

Liquid

Glide

How about in other languages?

Think about kids acquiring …

Difficulties?

Any especially hard manners?

Any especially hard places?

How about voicing and nasality?

Interactive articulation site

THIS HAS MOVED!! It’s an app

http://www.uiowa.edu/%7Eacadtech/phonetics/

Problems with the filter, I

Articulatory undershoot – not reaching appropriate targets for each segment

Vowels are centralized; not distinct enough Dysarthric speakers have reduced V space Reduced V space when recovering from head

injury Deaf speakers have reduced vowel space

Problems with the filter, II

Can’t achieve precise tongue placement (dysarthrias)

Consonant closures wrong place (kids, deaf)

Inadequate stop closures (Broca’s, MS, PD)

The genius of the chart

Much like the periodic table of the elements http://www.sparknotes.com/chemistry/fundamental

s/periodictable/section2.rhtml

The consonant chart has rhyme and reason Columns basically represent place of

articulation Rows basically represent manner of

articulation

IPA consonant chart

Transcribing an Irish CEO

Cornell Center for Hospitality Research

Gerald Lawless, CEO of Jumeirah Hotels

http://www.cornell.edu/video/?videoID=1021&startSecs=0&endSecs=570 1:46 to 2:12 in particular

Video (total laryngectomee education) http://www.youtube.com/watch?

v=LYrIVn4elQY

How do we get “speech ready”?

First just breathe in and out normally

Now, poise yourself to start speaking

What do you notice about your anatomy?

Video clips on regional vocabulary

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wYmrg3owTRE&feature=related Hugh Laurie and Ellen on British/US slang Note especially the confusion between palatal

fricative and affricate

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qXGuCaApR7U From “American Tongues,” clips posted on

YouTube

Jackie Chan

With Ellen DeGeneres http://www.youtube.com/watch?

v=YiRS0Fg6ViY

Words with variant US pronunciations

Pasta

Nuclear

Costume

Moisture

Species

With

Dwarf/Dwarves

Often

Absorb

Youths

Congratulate

Newspaper

Deviated septum

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nasal_septum_deviation

Transcribing a German professor

Presentation on age and emotional processing

Corinna Loeckenhoff

http://www.cornell.edu/video/?videoID=1115

Listen to the very beginning

Articulation

How speech is actually producedTo score a sound, must figure out:

How it is being articulated Whether it’s within acceptable limits Whether it becomes another sound Whether it calls attention to the speaker

Recap scoring in clinical phonetics

2 way

5 way

Infinite scoring

More exotic sound examples

Sounds of the World’s Languages http://www.phonetics.ucla.edu/index/sounds

.html

Other places of articulation Malayalam has many nasals http://phonetics.ucla.edu/course/chapter7/m

alayalam/malayalam.html

Other manners of articulation