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PHONETICS I

Suggested further reading:

-Gimson’s Pronunciation of English. London: Edward Arnold. Fifth edition or later.

-W. Sobkowiak (2001) English Phonetics for Poles. Poznań: Wydawnictwo Poznańskie.

(1) The Speech Chain

Speaker >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> Acoustic signal >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> Listener

(production) (perception)

linguistic knowledge (lexical representation)

neural impulses (instructions to the muscles)

articulator movements

speech waves (acoustic signal)

acoustic wave

movements in the auditory periphery

nerve impulses

lexical access

(2) Types of phonetics

Articulatory >>>>>>>> Acoustic >>>>>>>>>>>> Auditory

(3) ARTICULATORY PHONETICS

(4) Organs of speech:

- lips: rounded, open, spread; labial

- tongue: apex/tip of the tongue, blade, body of

the tongue, root/back of the tongue; apical,

lingual

- teeth: dental

- alveolar ridge; alveolar

- hard palate; palatal

- soft palate/ velum; velar

- uvula; uvular

- pharynx; pharyngeal

- larynx; laryngeal

- glottis; glottal

- lungs; pulmonic

(5) The vocal tract:

a) active articulators: lips, tongue tip/blade/body/root, velum, vocal cords?

b) passive articulators (places of articulation): teeth, alveolar ridge, hard palate, soft palate,

pharynx?

Q: What do we do when we speak? Predictions given the nature of the playground (vocal tract)?

Source and Filter:...

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Consonants CONSONANT CLASSIFICATION (Voice – Place - Manner)

(6) Voice (Source)

Note the scale:

(7) Place (WHERE?)

(8) Place of articulation (English)

bilabial [p, b, m, w], labio-dental [f, v], apico-dental [, ], alveolar [t, d, s, z, n, l],

post-alveolar [, , t, d, r], palatal [j], velar [k, g, ], glottal [h].

(9) Place of articulation (Polish)

bilabial [p, b, m, w], labio-dental [f, v], dental [n, s, z, t, d, ts, dz], alveolar [l],

post-alveolar [r, , , t , d ], palatal? [, j, , , t, d], velar [w, x, k, g]

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(10) Definitions of articulators

(11) Manner of articulation (HOW?)

(12) Manner in terms of type of closure

CLOSED

a. complete – plosives, affricates, and nasals?

b. intermittent – trills/rolls (Polish r), taps (English r)

c. partial – laterals – airstream allowed to escape on one or both sides of the closure

d. narrowing with noise component – fricatives [f, v, , , s, z, , ] e. narrowing without noise component – approximants – the frictionless continuant [r],

as well as [w,j]

f. open – vowels

OPEN

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Vowels

(13) Quadrilateral representation of vowels (articulatory). Cardinal Vowel Diagram (Daniel Jones)

(14) English and (Polish) vowels

(15) English diphthongs

(16) Summary: Articulatory description: a) the action of the vocal folds, b) the position of velum,

c) disposition of various movable organs in the mouth

vowels

fricatives

stops & affricates

- -

raised (oral) manner

air - -

energy larynx velum

lowered (nasal) place

labial dental alveolar palatal velar

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(i)