Phonetics and Phonology Flashcards
Preliminaries: Spelling vs. pronunciation
No one-to-one correspondence of sound and orthographic symbol (=letter) in Present Day English (One sound, many spellings / one spelling, many sounds)
graphemes
letters in spelling, writing,… (presented in brackets)
phonemes
used in transcription (presented in […] (phones) or in /…/ brackets)
Phonetics
Study of the human sound system
Acoustics
Study of sounds in general
Phonology
study of the phonetic inventory and its possible combinations in certain dialects/language/sociolect/variety
Subfields of Phonetics
Articulatory phonetics (investigates how speech sounds are produced, articulated; describes human sounds and how they are produced by the so called "articulators" ) Acoustic phonetics (describes physical properties of the speech sounds themself) Auditory phonetics (investigates how speech sounds are perceived and heard)
IPA
International Phonetic Alphabet; conventionalized way of writing sounds, based roughly on latin spelling system with some exceptions;
English has 24 consonants
RP
Received Pronounciation; British Sound System, Oxford English, Eton English, BBC English, London Area, spoken by very few
GA
General American; American Sound System, East Coast English, CNN English, Television English; Rhotic (= /r/ is always pronounced), t voicing (t > d), /a:/ > /æ/, /ᴐ/ > /ᴧ/
Articulatory Phonetics: Speech System
lungs + larynx + vocal tract
Articulatory Phonetics: Type of speech mechanism
Lungs = Eggressive pulmonic air stream mechanism
Larynx = Vocal folds/glottis
Vocal tract = Air strream modifiers = “articulators” (active = movable, passive = non-movable)
Articulatory Phonetics: Difference between Vowels and Consonants
Vowels = (almost) no obstruction to airflow Consonants = obstruction of airflow
Articulatory Phonetics: Difference between Voiced and Unvoiced Sounds
Voiced = Vocal folds are moving => vibrate Unvoiced = Vocal folds are not moving/vibrating
Articulatory Phonetics: Classification of Consonants
Voice (voiced/unvoiced?)
Place of Articulation (which articulators are used?)
Manner of Articulation (way of sound production)
Articulatory Phonetics: Voiced/Unvoiced Consonants
Voiced and unvoiced consonants often come in pairs
Articulatory Phonetics: Place of Articulation Overview (C)
Bilabial (both lips are used)
Labiodental (lips and teeth are used)
Dental (tongue and teeth are used)
Alveolar (tongue touches alveolar ridge)
Palato-Alveolar (mixture between alveolar and palatal)
Palatal (tongue is near the palate, hard place of mouth)
Velar (tongue is near the velum, soft place of mouth)
Glottal (using the glottis, open space between vocal folds)
Articulatory Phonetics: Manner of Articulation Overview (C)
Approximants (Lateral approximants & semi-vowels / glides / central vowels) Nasals Affricates Fricatives Plosives/Stops
Articulatory Phonetics: Classification of Vowels
Height of tongue (High/closed - Mid - Low/open)
Position of tongue in mouth (Front - Central - Back)
Position of lips (Rounded - Unrounded)
Length of Vowel (Long - Short)
Articulatory Phonetics: Vowel Quadrangle
Depiction of the position of the tongue in mouth at a particular vowel.
Articulatory Phonetics: Monophthongs
Also called “Simple Vowels”. Quality of sound remains mostly constant when pronouncing this kind of vowel
Articulatory Phonetics: Diphthongs
Quality of sound changes from one vowel to another => position of tongue moves during pronounciation of the sound => in IPA = 2 symbols, but counts as one phoneme. 2 (/3) kinds of Diphthongs: Closing Diphthongs (rising to i/u) (ou & au = only GA) Centering Diphthongs (moving to schwa)
Articulatory Phonetics: Lack of Dipthongs
Some languages have fewer diphthongs than RP, f.e. the Scottish language.
