Phonetics Flashcards
Dialect
Acrolect - prestigious
Mesolect - between
Basilect - low class
Idiolect - specific way of pronouncing things typical for specific person
variety
= refers to any distinct form of English, we do not have to distinguish between accent and dialect
Prague variety of Czech, London variety of English
phoneme
smallest unit that distinguishes meaning within a specific sound system
allophone
= actual sound uttered by speaker and interpreted as one phoneme despite possible phonic difference
r is different for France or England
articulation
primary articulation = manner, place of articulation, not a lot lip rounding
secondary articulation = there is an additional thing that we perform when articulating the sound, usually it is because of some other sounds that follow, e.g. shoe = labialization
phonemes are divided into:
segmentals = segment = phone = the smallest perceptible sound you can make, typically vowels (a,e,i,o,u) and consonants
suprasegmentals = also called prosody, concerned with characteristics stretching over more than one segment e.g. syllables, sentence/word stress, rhythm, tempo, intonation
minimal pairs
bit X pit, sets of two words in the same language that sound the same except for one sound (vowel, consonant, stress, etc.) and have different meanings, bit X bet X bat
minimal sets
= sets of distinct words in a language which differ in only one or a limited number of phonological elements, if there are two words in the set it is a minimal pair, e.g. pit X sit X kid
weak v. strong forms
= grammatical words like should, could, these words have no stress, and so they are weakened. That weakened form is called “weak form” as opposed to a “strong form”, which is the full form of the word pronounced with stress. The strong form only happens when we pronounce the words alone, or when we emphasize them.
vowel reduction
vowels which are not under stressed are reduced
intelligibility
= the recognition of a word and/or grammatical structure of an utterance., usually refers to speech perception
comprehensibility
= the recognition of a meaning attached to a word or utterance, i.e. an understanding of a possible meaning, usually refers to what is conveyed
who came up with standard lexical sets
J C Wells
Intelligibility Principle
means that “a speaker’s message is actually understood” (Levis 2018: 2).
It consists of the following levels:
a/ identification of the words spoken (easily tested by transcriptcion)
b/ understanding the message
c/ understanding the intent of the message = pragmatic level
Comprehensibility
refers to the “degree of effort involved in understanding the message” (Levis 2018: 3).
These two notions (intelligibility) correlate but are not identical.
They are crucial in the assessment of a particular accent.
Both are compromised by other features, such as noise, a speaking rate, cultural differences, etc.
Intelligibility v. Nativeness Principle
In the nativeness-based approach, there is no need to prioritise which features to teach/learn (learners have to learn everything->perfect imitation),
In the intelligibility-based approach, the goal is “the pursuit of skilled rather than native speech” (Levis 2018: 14).
Error gravity
which segmental and suprasegmental features are the most problematic (i.e. they impede understanding):
Lexical Level
content words are more important than function words
common errors
substitution (target sound does not exist in L2 language, replaced by something close to it: /ð/->/d/ in this)
distortion (target sound is distorted so that it is not easily identifiable, i.e. it is somewhere in between two sounds: /β/ in veer or beer
insertion (also called epenthesis: Japanese strike realised as /suturaiku/)
deletion (watched realised as /wɒtʃ/)
Silent letters
/b/: bomb, plumb(er), comb [əʊ], womb [u:], climb, thumb, dumb, debt, doubt… cf. Fr douter, It dubitare;
/g/: gnaw, gnome, gnash, gnarled…;
/k/: knee, knight, knife, knock, knot…;
/w/: write, wrinkle, wrong….;
/p/: psychology, psalm, pterodactyl…;
/c/: scene, muscle, scissors…;
/h/: heir, honour, honest, herb…; /h/-dropping!
/l/: balm, psalm, yolk, half, calf…;
/n/: column, autumn, damn, hymn…;
/w/: answer, sword, two…;
/g/: height, right, design, reign, campaign…;
/t/: castle, bustle, hustle…
-pche words
apostrophe /əˈpɒstrəfi/
catastrophe /kəˈtastrəfi/
strophe /ˈstrəʊfi/
three interdependent viewpoints:
articulatory (speech production)
acoustic (transmission of sound)
auditory (perception of sound)
phonological statement vs phonetic statement
PHONETIC STATEMENT: /b/ is a voiced bilabial plosive.
PHONOLOGICAL STATEMENT: there are 6 short vowels in English.
Contrastive distribution
Two phonemes (never allophones) appearing in the same environment and with a change in meaning:
pit and bit – minimal pairs
pit, bit, kit, lit, sit; beat, bean, beam, beef, bees – sets of minimal pairs
Complementary distribution
/l/ - clear [l] light v. dark [ɫ] till – the two allophones are in complementary distribution (i.e. one or the other)
Other examples of complementary distribution:
[p] in spare, supper (after a voiceless alveolar fricative and intervocalically preceding an unstressed vowel) v. [pʰ] in pear (syllable-initial preceding a vowel under stress).
Free variation
The varied quality of /r/, namely e.g. [ɹ] in RP red, [ɾ] in Scottish terrible, [ʁ] in French rouge or in traditional Northumbrian accent. These allophones are in free variation.
Other examples of free variation: /t/-glottaling in right [ɹaɪʔ]; Czech long /a/.
the phonemic principle
Two or more sounds are realisations of the same phoneme if
(a) they are in complementary distribution and;
(b) they are phonetically similar (cf. /h/ and /ŋ/).
two or more sounds are realisations of different phonemes if
(a) they are in contrastive distribution;
(b) they serve to signal a semantic contrast.
Phonemic neutralisation
Two phonemes show overlap in phonetic realisation, i.e. ‘a sound may appear to belong to either of two phonemes’ (Cruttenden 2014: 47)
Examples:
non-aspirated realisation of voiceless plosives after s: /st/ star, /sp/ spar, and /sk/ scar—possible allophones of /d/, /b/, and /g/ respectively?
Archiphoneme
It combines the characteristics of two normally distinct phonemes that cannot be differentiated in certain contexts (environments).
Phonemic merger
Absolute phonemic neutralisation is also called a phonemic merger; i.e. two previously separate phonemes become one.
Example: US English LOT-THOUGHT merger.
English MEET-MEAT merger.
Phonemicisation- phonemic split
Establishment of a new phoneme in a given language (accent).
Also called a phonemic split
Examples:
lowering of EModE blood [ʊ] => [ʌ]-> FOOT-STRUT split
loss of /g/ in –ing endings => new phoneme /ŋ/
TRAP-BATH split in southern varieties of BrE
Phonetic conditioning
Refers to the way in which sounds are influenced by adjacent sounds=>phonemes vary in their realisations according to the phonetic context.
Four main types:
allophonic variation (here dealt with elsewhere);
assimilation;
elision;
liaison.
Assimilation
A phoneme is replaced by another one due to the influence of the preceding/following phoneme.
Types of assimilation:
leading: bad girl in casual speech becomes [bag gɜ:ɫ]; frequent in Italian (Latin octo => It otto)
lagging: on the site [ɒn nəˈsaɪt]
place: woodpecker [ˈwʊbpekə]
manner: till they see [tɪɫ leɪˈsi:]
energy: I have to [aɪˈhaf tə]
Elision
Refers to the deletion of a phoneme.
Examples:
tasteless [ˈteɪsləs];
historically, the silent letters in write, knee, castle, cupboard, chalk, thumb, etc (cf. Session 1).
Liaison (linking)
Refers to the insertion of a phoneme to enable easier articulation of the sequence.
Example:
linking /r/: here is /hɪər ɪz/
intrusive /r/: I saw it [aɪˈsɔ:r ɪt]; the idea of, vodka on ice, etc.
Kazan School of Linguistics
Jan Baudoin de Courtenay (d. 1929), Mikolaj Kruszewski (d. 1887)
physiophonetic v. psychophonetic alternations
American anthropological linguistics
Edward Sapir (d. 1939)
anthropological focus on native American languages
important v. unimportant sound-units in language
the Prague Linguistic Circle
Nikolay Trubetzkoy, Roman Jakobson, Vilém Mathesius, Josef Vachek
Phoneme first thoroughly described
Cours de linguistique générale
de Saussure (d. 1913)
(phoneme implicitly present in the langue v. parole distinction)
Structuralists
focus on synchrony, on functional relationships between elements within language
Trubetzkoy’s Grundzüge der Phonologie (posthumously 1939)
first explicit theoretical account of phoneme
clear separation of phonetics and phonology (with heavy focus on the latter)
system of phonological oppositions=>it is the difference between /t/ and /d/ in tear v. dear that is worth
scientific interest, not the actual quality of the two sounds
Jakobson
the distinctive feature theory
PLC: centre v. periphery
- level of integration into the phonemic system
- high/low functional load
Generative phonology
Noam Chomsky and Morris Halle: The Sound Pattern of English (1968)
Aim: to create and analyse phonological rules that map an underlying (abstract) representation onto a surface (sound) representation.
prosodeme
a phoneme stretching over more than one segment of sound; e.g. yes pronounced with different pitch patterns.
toneme
=tonal phoneme): in tonal languages like Chinese, the only distinctive element is the different tone.
French Words
amateur /ˈamətə(r)/ /ˈamətʃə(r)/
amiable /ˈeɪmiəbl/
amicable /ˈamɪkəbl/
ancient /ˈeɪnʃənt/
baton /ˈbatɒn/
choir /ˈkwaɪə(r)/
lapel /ləˈpɛl/
lieutenant GB /lɛfˈtɛnənt/ US /luː ˈtenənt/
garage GB /ˈɡarɑː ʒ/ /ˈɡarɑː dʒ/ /ˈɡarɪdʒ/ US /ɡəˈrɑː ʒ/
massage GB /ˈmasɑː ʒ/ US /məˈsɑː ʒ/
mayor GB /mɛ:(r)/ US /ˈmeɪər/
ballet /ˈbaleɪ/
beret /ˈbereɪ/
chalet /ˈʃaleɪ/
fiancé, fiancée /fiˈɒnseɪ/
nihilism /ˈnaɪɪlɪzəm/
annihilate /əˈnaɪəleɪt/
naïve /naɪˈiː v/
viscount /ˈvaɪkaʊnt/
Greek singular/plural -is/-es
thesis v. theses /ˈθiː sɪs/ v. /ˈθiː siː z/
hypothesis v. hypotheses /haɪˈpɒθəsɪs/ v. /haɪˈpɒθəsiː z/
analysis v. analyses /əˈnaləsɪs/ v. /əˈnaləsiː z/
Speech production
Three levels of description:
- articulatory level (head);
- phonatory level (throat);
- respiratory level (chest).
Respiratory level
Speech sounds are:
- egressive (breathing out) v. ingressive (breathing in);
- pulmonic (air pressure from lungs) v. non-pulmonic (ejectives, implosives, clicks)
Speech disorders (impairments)
Apraxia of speech:
- motor speech disorder caused by damage to the parts of the brain related to speech (stroke, progressive illness);
Aphasia:
- caused by damage to the left hemisphere of the brain; language skills as such are affected (the patient is unable to formulate and comprehend language in all the forms)
Dysarthria:
- speech disorder caused by weak muscles (mouth, face, respiratory) which results in articulatory problems (stroke, Parkinson’s disease, ALS)
Cluttering: speech disorder characterised by a rapid rate, wrong rhythm, wrong syntactical and grammatical phrases.
Stuttering: speech disorder caused by involuntary repetitions of sounds as well as a high number of involuntary pauses (blocks). Synonym: stammer.
Lisp: speech impairment caused by erratic tongue placement, which results in the inability to produce sibilants:
Cleft palate (cleft lip): speech impairment caused by incomplete joining/closure of the palate (upper lip); the soft palate is not able to close against the back of the mouth-> excessive nasality, problems with certain palatal/velar stops
English varieties
Cockney
- the accent of urban working-class Londoners
Estuary English (EE)
- British English accent linked with the region along the River Thames and its estuary (the Home Counties).
- Often defined as halfway between southern RP and Cockney.
coalescence
alveolar plosives /t/ and /d/ merge with the following palatal approximant /j/ to make affricates /tʃ/ and /dʒ/; e.g. don’t you /dəʊntʃu/, would you /wʊdʒu/.
East Midlands
short BATH /a/
raised STRUT /ʊ/ (or fudge /ɤ/)
West Midlands
Most speakers have short BATH and raised STRUT.
-ing endings realised as /ɪŋg/ rather than /ɪŋ/.
KIT vowel realised like short FLEECE vowel.
Raised onsets (first elements) in FACE and GOAT: /ʌɪ/ and /ʌʊ/ respectively.
Lip-rounding of PRICE onset: /ɒɪ/.
East Anglia
absence of /h/-dropping (older speakers)
yod-dropping: news /nu:z/, few /fu:/
unstressed KIT realised as /ə/, e.g. walking, David, wanted, horses, etc.
common errors
-cester
Leicester /ˈlɛstə(r)/, Worcester /ˈwʊstə(r)/, Gloucester /ˈɡlɒstə(r)/
-borough, -burgh
Middlesbrough /ˈmɪdlzbrə/, Marlborough /ˈmɔː lbrə/, Edinburgh /ˈɛdɪnbrə/, Pittsburgh /ˈpɪtsbɜː ɡ/
-shire
Leicestershire /ˈlɛstəʃə(r)/, Warwickshire /ˈwɒrɪkʃə(r)/
-quay
Torquay /ˌtɔː ˈkiː /
-wich
Norwich /ˈnɒrɪtʃ/, Greenwich /ˈɡrɛnɪtʃ/…BUT: Ipswich /ˈɪpswɪtʃ/
other: Cambridge /ˈkeɪmbrɪdʒ/, Reading / ˈrɛdɪŋ /, Tyne and Wear /ˌtaɪn ənˈwɪə(r)/, Arkansas /ˈɑː kənsɔː /
practice
shirts /ʃɜː ts/
blouses GB /blaʊzɪz/ or /blaʊzəz/ US /blaʊsɪz/ or /blaʊsəz/
collar GB /ˈkɒlə/ US /ˈkɑː lər/
button /ˈbʌtn/
there GB /ðeə/ or /ðɛ:/ US /ðer/
thorns GB /θɔː nz/ US /θɔː rnz/
chips /tʃɪps/
joke /dʒəʊk/
sure GB /ʃʊə/ or /ʃɔː / US /ʃʊr/
grabs GB /ɡræbz/ or /ɡrabz/ US /ɡræbz/
knives GB /naɪvz/ or /nʌɪvz/ US /naɪvz/
garage GB /ˈɡærɑː ʒ/ /ˈɡærɪdʒ/ US /ɡəˈrɑː ʒ/ or /ɡəˈrɑː dʒ/
feed /fi:d/
grass GB /ɡrɑːs/ or /gras/ US /ɡræs/
Scouse
Salient features
NURSE vowel homophonous with SQUARE, e.g. shirt /ɛ:/;
NEAR more open second element /iɛ/;
-ng realised as /ng/, e.g. along, coming ;
fricatised /k/ in syllable final (unstressed) positions realised as /x/, e.g. book, clock, chicken.
pre-vocal /r/ realised as [ɾ], e.g. very, carry.
High rising terminal (HRT) intonation.
Yorkshire accent (Tyke)
Monophthongs
GOAT /ɔ:/;
FACE /e:/.
In some parts, final KIT /ɛ/, e.g. city, many.
-ight endings may retain the original /i:t əɪt/ pronunciation, most typically right.
The definite article the is very often reduced to mere t, e.g. I love t’ book.
Geordie
Northumbrian burr, i.e. uvular fricative [ʁ], used to be very prominent, now only in older male speakers from rural parts of the region.
Modern FACE and GOAT are /e:/ and /ɔ:/; traditional speakers retain /ɪə/ and /ʊə/ respectively.
Traditionally MOUTH was /u:/; now only in stereotypical words like Toon (=town).
Non-rhotic and no /h/-dropping (unique among large conurbations)
Clear /l/ in all positions.
I was looking for my glasses.
GB: aɪ (ʌɪ/ʌ/a) wəz ˈlʊkɪŋ fə maɪ (mʌɪ) ˈglɑː sɪz (ˈglɑː səz/ˈglasɪz/ˈglasəz)
US: aɪ (a) wəz ˈlʊkɪŋ fər maɪ ˈglæsɪz
Richard’s being looked for by the police.
GB: ˈrɪtʃədz bi:ɪŋ ˈlʊkt fɔ: baɪ (bʌɪ) ðə pəˈli:s
US: ˈrɪtʃərdz bi:ɪŋ ˈlʊkt fɔ:r baɪ ðə pəˈli:s
good for nothing
GB: gʊd fə ˈnʌθɪŋ
US: gʊd fər ˈnʌθɪŋ
a jack of all trades
GB: ə ˈdʒak (ˈdʒæk) əv ɔ:l ˈtreɪdz
US: ə ˈdʒæk əv ɔ:l ˈtreɪdzbutton
You like it, don’t you?
GB: ju (jə) ˈlaik (ˈlʌɪk) ɪt ˈdəunt ju (ˈdəʊntʃu)
US: ju (jə) ˈlaik ɪt ˈdəunt ju (ˈdəʊntʃu)
Glottalisation
addition of the glottal stop; e.g. put (see below)
Most common is t = t-glottaling (but in Cockney all are common)
/g/-dropping
alveolar [n] instead of velar(-nasal) [ŋ] in –ing endings; e.g. doin’
/th/-fronting
Dental fricatives replaced by labio-dental ones; thus /ð/ and /θ/ are replaced by /f/ and /v/ respectively.
nothing, brother, southern, etc.
/h/-dropping
Refers to the omission of /h/ in word-initial positions.
Stigmatised due to influence of spelling.
hypercorrection (hour, honest as well as horange)
/l/-vocalisation
/l/-vocalisation
Dark /l/ [ɫ] is not released laterally (sides of tongue) and becomes a rounded vowel.
The vowel is somewhere between [o] and [ʊ], sometimes this symbol is chosen [ɤ].
/r/-dropping
In the past, stigmatised for the lack of accordance with spelling.
rhymes such as morn / dawn considered vulgar
labio-dental /r/
Linking /r/ supported by spelling (e.g. here is).
yod-dropping
Yod can be dropped in tune, student, duke, reduce, new, numerous, suit, solution; in RP all of them are /j/-full apart from the last two; in US English all of them /j/-less.
Yod-dropping frequent in Cockney, East Anglia (GB) and US English
yod-coalescence
yod-coalescence
Alternatively, yod can coalesce (merge) with the preceding plosives and fricatives to produce palatalised consonants:
within one word: tune, duke, issue;
across word boundaries: could you, don’t you, this year.
whale-wale merger
In the past, two different phonemes /hw/ v. /w/ (phonetically [ʍ] v. [w]
Now rare in RP, but the standard form in Scottish English.
One-syllable words stress
primary stress if isolated
Two-syllable words stress
Verbs: If the final syllable is strong, then that syllable is stressed even if the first syllable is also strong:
apply /əˈplaɪ/, arrive /əˈraɪv/, attract /əˈtrækt/, rotate /rəʊˈteɪt/
Two-syllable simple adjectives are stressed according to the same rule
lovely /ˈlʌvli/, even /ˈiːvn/, divine /dɪˈvaɪn/, correct /kəˈrekt/
Nouns require a different rule
stress will fall on the first syllable unless the first syllable is weak and the second syllable is strong
photographer (stress)
second syllable
The Great Vowel Shift
1400-1700.
All Middle English long vowels changed as a result - push and drag chain
Three-syllable words (polysyllabic) stress
In simple verbs, if the final syllable is strong, then it will receive primary stress
entertain /ˌentəˈteɪn/, resurrect /ˌrezəˈrekt/
If the last syllable is weak, then it will be unstressed, and stress will be placed on the preceding syllable if that syllable is strong
encounter /ɪnˈkaʊntə/, determine /dɪˈtɜːmɪn/
If both the second and third syllables are weak, then the stress falls on the initial syllable
parody /ˈpærədi/, monitor /ˈmɒnɪtə/
Nouns require a slightly different rule
the general tendency is for stress to fall on the first syllable unless it is weak
quantity /ˈkwɒntəti/, custody /ˈkʌstədi/, emperor /ˈempərə/
In words with a weak first syllable the stress comes on the next syllable
potato /pəˈteɪtəʊ/, disaster /dɪˈzɑːstə/, synopsis /sɪˈnɒpsɪs/
Adjectives have the same rule
Stressed prefixes, sufixes…
Some stress-fixing prefixes, mainly of Latin origin, attract the main stress.
ab- abdicate /ˈæbdɪkeɪt/, abstract /ˈæbstrækt/
Some stress-fixing suffixes.
-ade parade /pəˈreɪd/, charade /ʃəˈreɪd/, promenade /ˌprɒm.əˈnɑːd/
-ee refugee /ˌref.juˈdʒiː/, evacuee /ɪˌvæk.juˈiː/, employee /ɪmˈplɔɪ.iː/
-eer mountaineer /ˌmaʊn.tɪˈnɪə/, volunteer /ˌvɒl.ənˈtɪə/
-ese Portuguese /ˌpɔː.tʃəˈɡiːz/, Japanese /ˌdʒæp.ənˈiːz/
-ette cigarette /ˌsɪɡ.ərˈet/, launderette /ˌlɔːnˈdret/
-esque picturesque /ˌpɪk.tʃərˈesk/
-ine machine /məˈʃiːn/, routine /ruːˈtiːn/, magazine /ˌmæɡ.əˈziːn/
-oon cartoon /kɑːˈtuːn/, balloon /bəˈluːn/, harpoon /hɑːˈpuːn/
Suffixes which attract stress on the syllable immediately preceding it.
–ial, -ian, -ic,-id, -cient, -eous,- ify, -inal, -ious, -ion, -tion, -ity, -itude, -itive, -itant, -logy,-latry, -graphy, -or, -tor, -ual, -ular
continuous (stress)
second syllable
indecency (stress)
second syllable
personell
firstsyllable?
economic
third syllable?
desert rose
ˈdɛzət rəʊz
chicken
ˈʧɪkɪn
fury animals
ˈfjʊəri ˈænɪmᵊlz
history
prej elision
mɪsᵊlˈeɪniəs
miscellaneous
sonority hierarchy
Most sonorous (weakest consonantality) to
least sonorous (strongest consonantality)
low vowels (open vowels) /a ə/
mid vowels /e o/
high vowels (close vowels) / glides (semivowels) /i u j w/ (first two are close vowels, last two are semivowels)
flaps [ɾ]
laterals /l/
nasals /m n ŋ/
voiced fricatives /v ð z/
voiceless fricatives /f θ s/
voiced plosives /b d g/
voiceless plosives /p t k/
