Classifying sounds

Question 1

Phonology=

Answer 1

how sounds are organised in a particular language
(more to do with systems/patterns)

Question 2

phoneme=

Answer 2

minimal contrastive unit

Question 3

allophone=

Answer 3

phonetically similar, predictable, ways of producing a phoneme
(i.e. /p/ is [pʰ] in <pin>)</pin>

Question 4

phone=

Answer 4

a speech sound, that does not rely on being classified as a phoneme or allophone

Question 5

segment=

Answer 5

a minimal chunk of speech (can be phones or morphs)

Question 6

criteria for phonemes (2)

Answer 6

• must be in CONTRASTIVE distribution (aka sam phonetic contexts)
  -demonstrated via minimal pairs (‘den’ ‘then’)

Question 7

methods of transcribing speech> (4)

Answer 7

• India & Pāṇini
  -Quieyun & middle chinese
  -Arabic & sibawayh
  -Western europe & IPA

Question 8

India & Pāṇini- what is it?> (5)

Answer 8

• is a systematic minimalistic description of sanskrit grammar (with p/p, semantics), that:
  >aimed for oral recital
  -provided inspo for ling work in 18th c western europe (IPA)

Question 9

Quieyun & middle chinese- what is it?>

Answer 9

• Quieyun as a phonological framework for rhyming based on middle chinese
  -based on literary dialect of ‘lyoyang & nanjing’ (601CE)
• aim to provide a framework so writers could prodcue correct rhymes in literature

Question 10

India & Pāṇini- features

Answer 10

-consisted of ‘shiva sutras’–> (14) verses which group sanskirt phonemes to roguhly vowels/consoanants/syllables
- had wide ranging lingusitic descriptions

Question 11

Quieyun & middel chinese- features>

Answer 11

• based around syllable structure and tones
• allows description of chinese lang syllables in terms of ‘initials’ and ‘finals’
• incorporates tone as a fundametnal part of phonology

Question 12

arabic & sibawayh- what is it?>

Answer 12

-treatise on arabic known as ‘al-Kitāb’ (780CE)
- based on qur’am poetry
-sibaway as L2 speaker of arabic from iran who produced text to assist in learning ‘correct’ Arabic

Question 13

arabic & sibawayh- features>

Answer 13

consisted of:
-grammar, phonetics & phonology
-concepts similar to phonemes
-descriptions of places of articulation

Question 14

IPA- what is it?>

Answer 14

• widely used & international description
• aims to represent all sounds in all langs
• origins in western europe
• most suitable for western european langs (OTHER column encompasses a lot of langs> not typologically diverse)

Question 15

limitations of IPA> (5)

Answer 15

IPA as theoretical model of what is and not relevanrt in speech
>(1)-IPA forces us to choose which bits are relevant (doesnt include socioling info, speech rates, voice quality, pitch)
>(2) is speech discrete? (speech as continuous; overlap but IPA doesnt allow for
>(3) are consonants & vowels really separate? (lots of exceptions ‘syllabic consonants’)
>(4) inaccuracy of link between production with auditory characteristics (i.e. vowel quadrilateral doesnt fully align with tongue; more complex than height, front, rounding)
>(5) suprasegmentals vs ‘segmentals’ (designed from western perspective, not for those with tone for phonology; suprasegmentals are sidelined)

Question 16

IPA assumptions>

Answer 16

• some speech info considered relevant, some is not
• sounds can be divided into discrete segments
• sounds can be divided into vowels & consonants
• production aligns with auditory characteristics
• suprasegmentals apsect of speech can be represented independently of segments

Question 17

acoustics=

Answer 17

a record of how sounds spread across time

Question 18

wavelength=

Answer 18

length of a wave cycle

Question 19

frequency=

Answer 19

no of wavelength per second

Question 20

how to wavelengths and frequency relate to Hz?>

Answer 20

when 1 wavelength in 1s, frequency=1Hz

Question 21

links of amplitude to hearing>

Answer 21

higher amplitude=higher hearing

Question 22

links of frequency to hearing>

Answer 22

higher frequency=higher pitch

Question 23

periodic waves=

Answer 23

waves which have a repeating pattern (associated with voicing-[voiced sounds])

Question 24

aperiodic waves=

Answer 24

waves with NO repeating pattern (voicelessness)

Question 25

what is the process of ‘fourier’ transformation>

Answer 25

breaking down of complex wave> component frequencies we can analyse

Question 26

speech as a complex wave>

Answer 26

• speech waveforms don’t look like the neat diagrams
• speech as a complex wave made up of lots of constituent frequencies

Question 27

difference between waveform & spectrogram>

Answer 27

spectrogram gives more info about the constituent frequencies in the complex wave of speech
- shows ‘time’ & ‘frequency’ & darker areas show ‘amplitude’

Question 28

how to conceptualise spectrogram>

Answer 28

• Spectrogram like a series of SLICES in time, stacked together like a pile of books
• Each slice gives info about different frequencies in the complex wave at a particular TIME POINT
• At these TP the complex wave has lots of energy at these frequencies

Question 29

summary of acoustic intro>

Answer 29

• amplitude higher–>louder
• frequency higher–>higher pitch
• frequency= no of wave cycles per second
• speech is made up of lots of waves with different frequencies
• can see info of these on spectrogram

Question 30

speech chain>

Answer 30

-1- when someone speaks they are using their vocal muscles
-2- sound transmitted through air
-3- goes>ear of listener & processed in their brain

conversely:
- when someone is speaking they can hear themselves–>this is processed in their brain–>gives feedback to mouth

Question 31

in phonetics can study each aspect of speech chain via:

Answer 31

• articulatory phonetics
• acoustic phonetics
• phonetic transcription
• speech perception
• auditory phonetics