Phonetics & Phonology I (Phonetics vs Phonology, Consonants, Vowels) Flashcards
Phonetics
- speech sounds as such
- substance of sounds (articulatory, acoustic, auditory aspects)
- not language-specific
- concrete, physical
- [phone] = the smallest discrete segment of sound in human speech
Phonology
- speech sounds as part of the sound system of a given language
- function of sounds (meaning differentiation)
- language-specific
- abstract, mental
- /phoneme/ = the smallest unit of a language that distinguishes meaning
Phonetics transcription
- representation of the sounds of oral language by a fixed set of symbols
- International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA)
- languages may show considerable discrepancies between spelling and pronunciation
- English orthography reflects origin of a word and its pronunciation towards the end of the Middle Ages closer than its present-day pronunciation e.g. knight [naɪt]
- narrow (phonetic) transcription, broad (phonemic) transcription, broad (phonetic) transcription
Minimal Pair
a pair of words that differ in meaning and only one sound (kid – kit)
Allophone
- one variant in a set of phones realising the same phone
- conditioned by and predictable from phonetic context
Allophones in complementary distribution
allophones that cannot replace each other because their occurrence is conditioned by surrounding sounds - e.g. cool and look
Allophones in free variation
allophones that can replace each other in the same environment - e.g. Britain, bottle: the phoneme /t/ can be realised by the phones [t] or [ʔ]
Classifying (English) Consonants
a) Place of Articulation (Where is the airflow obstructed? Which articulators are involved?)
b) Manner of Articulation (How is the airstream modified?)
c) Intensity of Articulation (breath force, muscular tension: lenis/fortis)
Bilabial
sounds produced with both lips
/p/, /b/, /m/
Labiodental
sounds produced by moving the lower lip against the upper teeth
/f/, /v/
(Inter)dental sounds
(Inter)dental sounds produced with the tongue tip and rims between the upper and lower teeth
/θ/, /ð/
Alveolar
sounds produced with the tongue tip coming near or touching the alveolar ridge
/t/, /d/, /n/, /s/, /z/, /l/
Postalveolar
sounds produced with the tongue tip approaching or touching the rear of the alveolar ridge or the area just behind it
/r/
Palatoalveolar
sounds produced with the tongue tip touching the alveolar ridge and with a simultaneous raising of the blade towards the hard palate
/tʃ/, /dʒ/, /ʃ/, /ʒ/
Velar
sounds produced by placing the back of the tongue against or near the velum
/k/, /g/, /ŋ/, /w/
Palatal
sounds produced with the body of the tongue coming near or touching the (hard) palate
/j/
Glottal
sounds produced in the larynx when air passes through the glottis
/h/
Plosives
“stops”; sounds produced with a momentary complete closure at some point in the vocal tract, - building up air pressure which is then released explosively
/p/, /b/, /t/, /d/, /k/, /g/
Affricates
consist of two elements: a plosive released slowly enough to be followed by a fricative
/tʃ/, /dʒ/
Nasals
sounds produced with a complete closure in the vocal tract, but the lowering of the velum allows the air to escape through the nose
/m/, /n/, /ŋ/
Fricatives
sounds produced by forcing air through a narrow gap between two articulators, leading to audible - friction
/f/, /v/, /θ/, /ð/, /s/, /z/, /ʃ/, /ʒ/, /h/
Laterals
sounds produced with air escaping along the lowered sides of the tongue, around a partial closure in the middle of the mouth
/l/
Approximants
sounds produced with articulators approaching each other but not narrowly enough to create friction
/r/, /j/, /w/
Vowels - Manner of Articulation
closeness/openness: How wide is the gap between the tongue and the palate?
frontness/backness: Which part of the tongue is raised highest? (shape of lips: spread, neutral, rounded)
Monophthongs - Lax and Tense
- vowels differ in their intensity of articulation → breath force
- /ɪ, e, ə, æ, ʌ, ɒ, ʊ/ are produced with less energy → lax = short
- /iː, ɜː, ɑː, ɔː, uː/ are produced with more energy → tense = long
Monophthongs ./ə/ schwa (Hebrew ‘emptiness’)
- a short mid central vowel, occurs solely in unstressed syllables e.g. support /səˈpɔːt/ occur /əˈkɜː/
- the most frequent sound in English
Diphthongs
- change their quality towards another vowel
- the tongue (and the lower jaw and the lips) move(s) during articulation
- 8 diphthongs in RP
- treated as single phonemes
- centring diphthongs (move towards schwa)
- closing diphthongs (move towards a closer vowel)
Triphthongs as vowel sequences
- sequences of vowels that are usually treated as diphthongs followed by a schwa → not as distinct phonemes
- 5 triphthongs in RP (all with closing diphthongs)
- e.g. /eɪə/ as in player
articulatory phonetics
physiological mechanism of sound production by means of speech organs
acoustic phonetics
physical properties of speech sounds (e.g. how air vibrates as sounds are transmitted from speaker to listener)
auditory phonetics
perception and processing of speech sounds by the listener (from ear to brain)
segmental phonology
pronunciation system of a language at the level of individual sounds, their functions and constraints on their combination
suprasegmental phonology
features of a given sound system that cannot be segmented because they extend over multiple sounds (e.g. stress, intonation)
Articulation
sounds can be made with lesser or greater breath force and muscular tension:
lenis ‘soft’
fortis ‘strong’
Semi Vowls
/j/ /w/
- little obstruction of aire; always occur at the margins of syllables
Classifying (English) Vowels
- manner of articulation:
closeness/openess
frontness/backness - intensity & duration of articulation
lax & short - tense & long - pitch
