Consonants & Vowels Flashcards
Articulatory Phonetics
- Production of sounds
- Speech organs
Acoustic Phonetics
- Transmission of sounds
- Physical qualities: e.g. volume, duration, frequency
Auditive Phonetics
- Perception of sounds; intake through the ear
- Processing in the brain
What is a phoneme?
- “smallest meaning-distinguishing units of a language”
- Notation: slashes //; e.g., /pɪt/
How do I know if it distinguishes meaning? (phoneme)
- Minimal pair test
e.g. bit-pit; dog-dock
What is an Allophone?
- Different realizations of the same phoneme
- Notation: angled brackets [ ]; e.g. [ɫ]
What is a Grapheme?
- Smallest functional unit of a writing system
- Notation: angled brackets < >; e.g., <pit></pit>
- Pronunciation: as the letters of the alphabet (e.g. /pi:/)
Consonants
- Obstruction of the air stream
- Noise element
- Cannot be the centre of a syllable (exceptions)
Vowels
- Air stream is not obstructed
- Harmonic vibrations
- can be the centre of a syllable
Description of consonants - Distinctive features
- Place of articulation
- Manner of articulation
- voicing
Which of the English phonemes do not occur in German? (no German sounds)
- /θ, ð/
- /ʒ, dʒ/
- /w, r/ > appear with a different sound
Consonants - Places of Articulation
Describes the exact place where the airstream is obstructed.
Places of Articulation - Name all of them (8)
a. bilabial
b. labiodental
c. dental
d. alveolar
e. post-alveolar
f. palatal
g. velar
h. glottal
Manner of Articulation
Describes the type or degree of closure of the speech organs, i.e. how the airstream is modified in the vocal tract
Manner of Articulation - Name all of them (6)
- plosive
- fricative
- affricate
- nasal
- lateral
- approximant
State of glottis
voiced
voiceless
Voiced
Vibration of the vocal folds (vocal folds are close together)
Voiceless
No vibration of vocal folds (vocal folds are far apart)
/d/
plosive, alveolar, voiced
e.g.: dog
/p/
plosive, bilabial, voiceless
e.g.: pull
/b/
plosive, bilabial, voiced
e.g.: burn
/t/
plosive, alveolar, voiceless
e.g.: take
/k/
plosive, velar, voiceless
e.g.: king
/g/
plosive, velar, voiced
e.g.: get
/f/
fricative, labiodental, voiceless
e.g.: fish
/v/
fricative, labiodental, voiced
e.g.: vain
/θ/
fricative, dental, voiceless
e.g.: thin
/ð/
fricative, dental, voiced
e.g.: there
/s/
fricative, alveolar, voiceless
e.g.: sin
/z/
fricative, alveolar, voiced
e.g.: zoo
/ʃ/
fricative, postalveolar, voiceless
e.g.: shine
/ʒ/
fricative, postalveolar, voiced
e.g.: rouge
/h/
fricative, glottal, voiceless
e.g.: high
/tʃ/
affricate, postalveolar, voiceless
e.g.: chair
/dʒ/
affricate, postalveolar, voiced
e.g.: job/bridge
/m/
nasal, bilabial, voiced
e.g.: mouse
/n/
nasal, alveolar, voiced
e.g.: noise/nose
/ŋ/
nasal, velar, voiced
e.g.: king
/l/
lateral, alveolar, voiced
e.g.: long
/w/
approximant, bilabial, voiced
e.g.: warn
/r/
approximant, postalveolar, voiced
e.g.: red
/j/
approximant, palatal, voiced
e.g.: yes
Vowels -distinctive features
- Vowel quality (position of the tongue in the mouth; openness of the mouth)
- Vowel quantity (length (long/short) ; duration)
- Monophthongs/Diphthongs
Lexical sets
Vowels can be described using lexical sets (Wells, 1982)
- each word (lexical set) stands for a vowel and a specific sound environment
- pronounciation of the vowel can differ in different accents
- lexical sets ensure clarity in communication across different accents
Monophthong
No change in quality during articulation
e.g.: /fɪt/ (fit)
/ʃuːt/ (shoot)
/iː/
front, closed, long
monophthong
e.g.: seat
/ɪ/
front, between closed and half-closed, short
monophthong
e.g.: sit
/ʊ/
back, between closed and half-closed, short
monophthong
e.g.: foot, put
/uː/
back, closed, long
monophthong
e.g.: food, boot
/e/
front, half-closed ; half-open, short
monophthong
e.g.: set, pet
/ɜ:/
central, half-closed, long
monophthong
e.g.: bird, heard
/ə/
central, half-open, short
monophthong
e.g.: mother
/ɔ:/
back, between half-closed and half-open, long
monophthong
e.g.: law
/æ/
front, open, short
monophthong
e.g.: sat, pat
/ʌ/
central, open, short
monophthong
e.g.: some, cut
/ɑ:/
back, open, long
monophthong
e.g.: father
/ɒ/
back, open, short
monophthong
e.g. dog
Diphthong
Change of quality within one syllable
> both elements merge
/meɪk/ (make)
/ðeə/ (there)
- Closing Diphthong
- Centring Diphthong
/eɪ/
front, between half-open and half-closed > front, closed, long
closing diphthong
e.g.: mate, they, place
/ʊə/
back, closed > central, long
centring diphthong
e.g.: sure, poor
> strong tendency to replace diphthong with the long monophthong /ɔ:/
/əʊ/
central, between half-closed and half-open > back, closed, long
closing diphthong
e.g.: home, so
/aɪ/
central, open > front, closed, long
closing diphthong
e.g.: my, time
/aʊ/
back, open > back, closed, long
closing diphthong
e.g.: house, town
/ɔɪ/
back, half-open > front, closed, long
closing diphthong
e.g.: boy, oil
/ɪə/
front, closed > central, long
centring diphthong
e.g.: here, dear
/eə/
front, half-open > central, long
centring diphthong
e.g.: there, air
Closing Diphthong
> end in /ɪ, ʊ/
Centring Diphthong
> end in /ə/
Lexical Morphemes
Carry an independent meaning
e.g.: {-er} {un-} {dog}
Grammatical Morphemes
Express grammatical relations
e.g.: {the} {-ed} {-s}
Free lexical Morpheme
- can stand alone
- content words
e.g.: {fair} {dog}
Bound lexical Morpheme
- bound to a word
- derivational morpheme
- indicates where it is bound (prefix or suffix)
e.g.: {un-} {-er} {-ly}
Free grammatical Morpheme
- function word
e.g.: {the} {but}
Bound grammatical Morpheme
- inflectional morpheme
e.g.: {-s} in dogs
Minimal Pair
Words that differ/are distinguished in just one sound in the same position
e.g.: /b,ɪ,t/ /hɪt/ differ in one phoneme
Plosive
Blocking the airstream completely, releasing air in a burst (explosive)
Fricative
Restricting the airstream at different places (friction)
Affricate
Moving from plosive to fricative (explosion then friction)
Nasal
Airstream is not moving out of your mouth but out of your nose
Lateral
Airstream passes trough the sides of your tongue
Approximant
Least consonant like sounds, approximating vowels
Final Obstruent Devoicing/Auslautverhärtung
- Obstruent = collective term for plosives, fricatives and affricates
- in English: Syllable-final obstruents constitute minimal pairs
> it can help to lengthen the preceding vowel when pronouncing the word
