Chapter 3: Sounds and sound systems Flashcards
Sounds and letters?
(pictures in notes)
- due the Roman influence (lose of the “k”)
- early states of Old English
- -> beginning
- in the writing system –> still use the long forms instead of the short forms
Is the English spelling system arbitrary?
(pictures in notes)
- historical reasons –> “the Great English Vowel Shift” happened at the beginning of Early English (Shakespeare time)
- not arbitrary in all reasons
What is “the international phonetic alphabet”?
(pictures in notes)
= represents how words + sentences are pronounced
- 12 vowels
- universal use all over the world
- manner of articulation
- place of articulation
- voicing (soft/hard)
What does the “oral tract” do when we are talking?
(pictures in notes)
voicing:
- through air pressure –> vocal courts open –> evokes vibration
- consequence: produce a voiced speech sound
Consonants
- manner
- place
- voicing
vowels
- height
- place
- roudness
- tenseness
What is a Diphtong and a schwa?
- Diphthong (Sound consisting of 2 vowels):
° (ai) Eis, reiten, Brei
° (oi) heute, Euter
° (av) braun, Auto, Bau - schwa (reduced vowel):
° (e) etwas
English-German speech sounds
Englisch German
„p“op Galo“pp“
„C“old „k“alt
What is an “Auslautverhärtung”?
= when a consonant comes at the end of the sentence; doesn’t exists in English –> it’s not devoiced
What is a phoneme?
= category that represents a image in our mind –> isn’t always pronounced
= basic speech sound
- Phonemes occur in contrastive distribution:
° heat - hit
° fan - van
° tip - dip
–> minimal pair
Examples:
- top (produced with air) vs. stop (without air)
- light (soft “l”) vs. call (dark “l”)
- -> at the beginning of a word or a stressed syllable
- -> “t”
What is an allophone?
= describes phonemes whose sound changes depending on the letters that surround it
= different speech sound bc. of the context
- allophones occur in complementary distribution (occurrence is predictable from the context)
