Introduction to LinguisticsChapter 2: Phonetics

Instructor: LIU Hongyong

Phonetics: the study of speech sounds

Although different languages contain different sounds, the sounds of all the languages of the world constitute a class of sounds that the human vocal tract is able to make. All these sounds are human speech sounds. The study of human speech sounds is called phonetics.

Phonology: the study of sound patterns

When you know a language you know the sounds of that language, and you know how to combine those sounds into words. For example, If you know the sounds /p/, /a:/, /k/, you are able to combine them to form the words park or carp, but you know there is no sound pattern /a:pk/ or /a:kp/ in English.

The study of the way sounds form patterns is called phonology. Phonology aims to discover how speech sounds in a particular language form patterns.

This property is called "duality (in patterning)".

Three branches of phonetics

•Articulatory phonetics: the study of how the vocal tract produces the sounds of language

•Auditory phonetics: the study of the perception of speech sounds

•Acoustic phonetics: the study of the physical properties of the speech sounds

2.2.2

Organs of speech

A. The pharyngeal cavity: 13 windpipe, 12

glottis/vocal cords, 11 pharyngeal cavity

B. The oral cavity: 1/2 lips, 3/4 teeth, 5 teeth

ridge(alveolus), 6 hard palate,7 soft palate (velum), 14 uvula, 8 tip of tongue, 9 blade of tongue, 10 back of tongue

C. Nasal cavity: 15

咽腔

14

15

Vocal folds (cords)

The vocal folds, also known commonly as vocal cords, are composed of two membranes stretched horizontally across the larynx.

A slow-motion animation of the vocal folds vibrating during speech

Voicing: voiced vs. voiceless

Vibration of the vocal cords results in "voicing", which is a feature of all vowels and some consonants. Such consonants are voiced.

When the vocal cords are drawn wide open, letting air go through the glottis without causing vibration, the sounds produced in such a condition are voiceless.

Three nasal consonants in English

bilabial nasal 双唇鼻音 : /m/

alveolar nasal 齿龈鼻音 : /n/

velar nasal 软腭鼻音 : sink, sing, song

Orthographic representation of speech sounds

IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet):A standardized and internationally accepted

system of phonetic transcription.

The basic principle of the IPA is using one letter to represent one sound.

Broad and Narrow Transcription

1. Diacritics（发音符号 /辨音符） : the set of symbols in IPA, which are added to the letter-symbols to represent small distinctions of sounds.

/l/: leaf [li:f], feel [fi:ł] (clear vs. dark)

/p/: pit [phit], spit [spit] (aspirated vs. unaspirated)

Broad and Narrow Transcription

Broad transcription（宽式音标）：The transcription of sounds with letter-symbols

only. / _ /

Narrow transcription（严式音标） :

The transcription of sounds with letter-symbols together with the diacritics. [ _ ]

Classification of English sounds

English speech sounds: Vowels: Speech sounds which are produced

with no obstruction of the vocal tract, so no turbulence or a total stopping of the air can be perceived.

Consonants: Speech sounds which are produced by constricting or obstructing the vocal tract at some place to modulate the flow of air in the vocal tract.

Classification of English consonants

Manner of articulation （发音方式） Place of articulation （发音部位）

Manner of articulation

Place of articulation

The IPA chart sounds

http://hctv.humnet.ucla.edu/departments/linguistics/VowelsandConsonants/course/chapter1/chapter1.html

Classification of English vowels

Vowels can be divided by a number of factors:

The position of the tongue: front, central, back

The openness of the mouth: open, semi-open, semi-close, close

The shape of the lips: rounded, unrounded

The length of the vowels: long, short

IPA vowels

Online phonetics resources

http://www.unc.edu/~jlsmith/pht-url.html