SPEECH: Speech production 2

Question 1

what do the symbols in IPA correspond to?

Answer 1

specific sounds produced y the human vocal tract

Question 2

what are phonemes?

Answer 2

the smallest units of sound in a a language that can change the meaning of a word

e.g. /b/ and /p/ are phonemes because if you switch them in a word like ‘bat’ to ‘pat’ you get a completely different word with a different meaning

Question 3

why are all words tht are pronounced differently not considered phonemes?

Answer 3

-some variations in pronoun cation can be due to accents or regional dialects
-these differences are captured by IPA symbols and don’t change the meaning of words

e.g. ‘water’ is pronounced differently in an american accent but the variation in pronunciation doeskin create a new phoneme but just a variation within the same phoneme

Question 4

what is articulation in speech?

Answer 4

Articulation refers to the precise formation of speech sounds using the organs of the vocal tract. When we speak, we use different configurations of the tongue, lips, and other speech organs to produce the sounds of speech.

Question 4

what is articulatory phonetics?

Answer 4

aspects of phonetics which looks at how the sounds of speech are made with the organs of the vocal tract

Question 5

what is the articulation features of vowels?
is the vocal tract open or closed?

Answer 5

-Vowels are speech sounds produced with an open vocal tract, allowing air to flow freely.

-vertical tongue position,
-horizontal tongue position,
-lip position; monophthongs & diphthongs

Question 6

what is the articulation features of consonants?
is the vocal tract open or closed?

Answer 6

-Consonants are speech sounds produced with some degree of constriction or closure in the vocal tract

-voicing,
-place of articulation,
-manner of articulation

Question 7

describe the AIRFLOW in vowel and consonant production

Answer 7

• When producing vowels, the airflow from the lungs passes through the mouth with minimal obstruction and without audible friction.
• Unlike consonants, which involve some degree of constriction or closure in the vocal tract, vowels are produced with a relatively open vocal tract, allowing air to flow freely.

Question 8

how do we use the graph to describe vowel articulation?

Answer 8

• Vertical Tongue Position: This refers to the height of the tongue within the oral cavity. Vowels can be described as close (high tongue position), half-way close (mid-height tongue position, including close-mid and open-mid), or open (low tongue position). For example, the vowel /a/ in “father” has a lower tongue/jaw position compared to the vowel /i/ in “sit.”
• Horizontal Tongue Position: This describes the front-to-back positioning of the tongue within the oral cavity. Vowels can be produced with the tongue at the front, in the central, or toward the back of the mouth. For instance, producing the vowel /i/ in “sit” requires the tongue to be positioned at the front, while producing the vowel /u/ in “food” requires the tongue to move toward the back.
• Lip Position: This refers to the shape of the lips during vowel production. Vowels can be produced with spread lips (like smiling) or rounded lips. For example, the vowel /i/ in “sit” requires spread lips, while the vowel /u/ in “food” requires rounded lips.

Question 8

what is the difference between a high, low and mid vowel?

Answer 8

• High vowels, like the “i” in “machine” and the “u” in “rule,” are pronounced with the tongue arched toward the roof of the mouth.
  These vowels have a relatively high tongue position compared to other vowels.
• Low vowels, such as the “a” in “father” or “had,” are produced with the tongue relatively flat and low in the mouth.
  The mouth is open wider for low vowels compared to high vowels.
• Mid vowels, like the “e” in “bed” and the “o” in “pole,” have a tongue position between high and low vowels.
  The tongue is neither raised high nor lowered fully for mid vowels, resulting in a mid-level tongue position.

Question 8

whats the difference between front, back and middle vowels?

Answer 8

• Front vowels are pronounced with the highest part of the tongue pushed forward in the mouth and somewhat arched.
  Examples of front vowels include the “a” in “had,” the “e” in “bed,” and the “i” in “fit.”
  The tongue is positioned towards the front of the mouth for front vowels.
• Back vowels, such as the “u” in “rule” and the “o” in “pole,” are produced with the back part of the tongue raised toward the soft palate (velum).
  These vowels involve the tongue being positioned towards the back of the mouth.
  The highest part of the tongue is directed towards the rear of the oral cavity for back vowels.
• In addition to front and back vowels, there are also middle vowels that fall between these extremes in terms of tongue positioning.
  Middle vowels typically have a neutral or central tongue position, neither fully forward nor fully backward.

Question 9

what is labialization, how can the shape of lips effect vowel articulation?

Answer 9

• The lips may be spread or rounded, in what is called labialization

Question 10

what is a minimal pair?

Answer 10

Minimal pair requires the two consonants to differ on one of the three dimensions only.

So they have to differ only by manner, or voicing, or place.

Question 11

what s a diphthongs?

Answer 11

-Diphthongs are gliding vowels where there’s a continuous transition from one vowel position to another during articulation.

-They are quite common in English and are characterized by their dynamic vowel quality.

-Examples of diphthongs in English include “ice” (/aɪs/) and “pace” (/peɪs/).

Question 12

what is a pure vowel or monophthongs?

Answer 12

-Pure vowels, also known as monophthongs, are steady-state vowels where the tongue and lips maintain a fixed position throughout the articulation.

• They do not involve a glide or transition from one vowel position to another.
• Examples of pure vowels in English include the vowel sound in “bat” (/bæt/) and the vowel sound in “too” (/tuː/).

Question 13

what are minimal pairs important?

Answer 13

If the auditory system is impaired, the perceived difference between minimal pairs may be less significant, potentially causing confusion in speech perception.

Question 14

whats the difference between voiced and unvoiced sounds?

Answer 14

Voiced:Voiced sounds are sounds that involve vocal fold vibrations when they are produced. Examples of voiced sounds are /b,d,v,m/.

Voiceless:Voiceless sounds are sounds that are produced with no vocal fold vibration. Examples of voiceless sounds in English are /s,t,p,f/.

Question 15

what is the velum?

Answer 15

The velum (the soft palate) is the muscular, back, soft portion of the palate. It performs two important roles in speech:The tongue body hits it in order to make the sounds[k], [ɡ], and [ŋ]. It acts as the “gatekeeper” to the nasal cavity. Normally during speech, the velum is in its raised position, blocking off airflow through the nose.

Question 16

what is the palate (or the hard palate)?

Answer 16

The palate (or the hard palate) is the bony, hard, front portion of the roof of the mouth.

Question 17

what is the alveolar ridge?

Answer 17

The alveolar ridge isa small protuberance just behind the upper front teeththat can easily be felt with the tongue.

Question 18

what is a place of articulation that is not used in the English language?

Answer 18

uvula

Question 19

what are some consonant places of articulation?

Answer 19

• Bilabial:the upper and lower lips come into contact, /p,b,m/
• Labiodental: lower lip (labial) and upper teeth (dental) coming into contact, /f,v/.
• Dental:the tongue tip (active articulator) making contact with the upper teeth, /θ, ð/.
• Alveolar:the front portion of the tongue making contact with the alveolar ridge, /t,d,n,l,s/.
• Postalveolar: the blade of the tongue comes into contact with the post-alveolar region of your mouth, /ʃ, ʒ/.
• Palatal:the tongue body raises up towards the hard-palate in your mouth (the dome shaped roof of your mouth), /j/ (yes).
• Velar:the back of the tongue (tongue dorsum) raises towards the soft palate, /k,gŋ/.

Question 20

what are some consonant manners of articulation?

Answer 20

• Nasal: formed by letting air flow through your nose instead of your mouth, /m/ (man), /n/ (new), /ŋ/ (going)
• Plosive/stop: formed by completely stopping airflow, /p, t, k/ (purse, back, kick), /b, d, g/ (bag, dog, great)
• Fricative: squeeze air through a small gap in your mouth, /f, v/ (face, vine), /θ, ð/ (bath, rather), /s, z/ (suit, jazz), /∫, ʒ/ (shine, vision), /h/ (hat)
• Affricative: start with a stop sound, building up the air behind an articulator and release through a narrow gap, /tʃ/ (chick); /dʒ/ (jam)
• Lateral/liquid: tongue blocks the middle of the mouth and air passes through the sides, /l/ (luck)
• Approximant/glide: two articulators come close but not enough to create air turbulence, /w/ (wet), /j/ (yes), /ɹ/ (right)

Question 21

is the following voiced or unvoiced, what is the manner and place of articulation?
/p/

Answer 21

The /p/ is an unvoiced bilabial stop or plosive

Bilabial sounds are produced when the lips are brought together e.g. /p/ (unvoiced) as in pay or /b/ and /m/ bay, may (voiced)

A stop or plosive is made by briefly stopping the airflow so it builds in pressure before releasing it

Question 22

is the following voiced or unvoiced, what is the manner and place of articulation? /v/ and /p/

Answer 22

A /v/ is a voiced labiodental fricative, an /f/ is an unvoiced example Labiodental sounds are made when the lower lip is raised towards the upper front teeth e.g. /f/ safe (unvoiced) and /v/ save (voiced) A fricative is made by pushing air through a narrow gap, causing turbulence

Question 23

is the following voiced or unvoiced, what is the manner and place of articulation? /ϴ/ (as in thaw) /đ/ (as in there)

Answer 23

A /ϴ/ (as in thaw) is a voiced dental fricative, a /đ/ (as in there) is voiced. Dental sounds are produced by touching the upper front teeth with the tip of the tongue e.g. /ϴ/ thaw (unvoiced) and /đ/ there (voiced) A fricative is made by pushing air through a narrow gap, causing turbulence

Question 24

is the following voiced or unvoiced, what is the manner and place of articulation? /n/ (as in nook) and /t/ (as in too)

Answer 24

A /n/ (as in nook) is a voiced alveolar nasal, a /t/ (as in too) is unvoiced Alveolar sounds are made by raising the tip of the tongue towards the ridge that is right behind the upper front teeth, called the alveolar ridge e.g. /t/, /s/ too, sue (unvoiced) and /d/, /z/, /n/, /l/, /r/ do, zoo, nook, look, rook (voiced) A nasal is made by pushing air through the nose

Question 25

is the following voiced or unvoiced, what is the manner and place of articulation? /ʧ/ (as in cheer) and /ʤ/ (as in jeer)?

Answer 25

A /ʧ/ (as in cheer) is an unvoiced palatal-alveolar affricate, a /ʤ/ (as in jeer) is voiced. Palatoalveolar sounds are made by raising the blade of the tongue towards the part of the palate just behind the alveolar ridge e.g. /ʤ/ jeer (voiced); /ӡ/ measure (voiced); /ʧ/ cheer (unvoiced); /ʃ/ shore (unvoiced) An affricate is a consonant that begins as a stop and releases as a fricative

Question 26

is the following voiced or unvoiced, what is the manner and place of articulation? /g/ and /k/ as in back?

Answer 26

A /g/ is a voiced velar stop or plosive (as in bag) is voiced, a /k/ as in back) Velar sounds are made by raising the back of the tongue towards the soft palate, called the velum e.g. /k/ back (unvoiced) and /g/, /ŋ/ (voiced) bag, bang; /w/ is a velar with lip rounding A stop or plosive is made by briefly stopping the airflow so it builds in pressure before releasing it

Question 27

is the following voiced or unvoiced, what is the manner and place of articulation? /j/

Answer 27

A /j/ is a voiced palatal approximant (as in yes) Palatal sounds are very similar to palatoalveolar ones, they are just produced further back towards the velum e.g. /j/ as in yes, yellow, beauty, new (voiced) An approximant is when air flows smoothly through the vocal folds so that very little turbulence is created

Question 28

whats the difference between a contrastive and non contrastive minimal pair?

Answer 28

contrastive minimal pair: -words: 'pin' and 'bin' -changing the initially sounds makes the words linguistically meaningful different therefore the phonetic difference /p/ vs /b/ creates a contrastive minimal pair non contrastive minimal pair: -words: 'pat' and 'pat' (pronounced with different accents) - The pronunciation of the word "pat" with different accents results in variations in the vowel sound ([æ] vs. [a]) -Despite the phonetic difference in pronunciation ([æ] vs. [a]), both variations still represent the same word "pat," therefore, the phonetic difference does not create a meaningful difference in the words; they do not form a contrastive minimal pair. Instead, they represent variations in pronunciation due to accents.

Question 29

if 2 phonetics are phonemes in 1 language, does that mean they are in every language?

Answer 29

That said, two phonetics may be two phonemes in one language, but can be one phoneme in another language (if they don’t make linguistic difference).

Question 30

whats the difference between phonetics and phonemes?

Answer 30

- Phonetics is the term for the description and classification of speech sounds, particularly how sounds are produced, transmitted and received. - A phoneme is the smallest phonetic unit of the sound in a language. Therefore, it is capable of distinguishing meaning of words.

Question 31

whats the difference between a minimal pair and a contrastive minimal pair?

Answer 31

-a minimal pair is 2 words that are identical except for 1 phoneme sound and this can lead to a difference in sound due to pronunciation but not necessarily meaning (like phonemes) -Minimal pair requires the two consonants to differ on one of the three dimensions only: manner, voice or place of articulation BUT a contrastive minimal pair is a type of minimal pair where the difference in sound leads to a difference in meaning and these show how changing a single phoneme can create 2 words which are different in meaning

Question 32

are /n/ and /l/ minimal pairs? use PVM chart

Answer 32

/n/ and /l/ ARE a minimal pair, because they are articulated at the same place (alveolar) and they are both voiced consonants. They only differ by their manner of articulation (/n/ is nasal, /l/ is lateral).

Question 33

are /s/ and /v/ minimal pairs? use PVM chart

Answer 33

/s/ and /v/ are NOT a minimal pair. They are both fricative, but they are not articulated at the same place (/s/ at alveolar, /v/ at labiodental), and not with the same voicing features (/s/ is voiceless, no vocal fold vibration; /v/ is voiced, you have to vibrate vocal folds to produce this consonant).