Week 3 - Vowels Flashcards
What are the Properties of Vowel distinction?
- TONGUE CONFIG (shape)
> Height +
> Backness of salient point
- LIP CONFIG
> Unrounded
> Rounded
> Intermediate
- NASALITY
- PHONATION TYPE
- LENGTH (long vs short)
- COMPLEX ARTICULATIONS
> DipthongsTongue Configuration
Mapping the HIGHEST POINT of the TONGUE characterises the = PLACE of articulation
VOWEL SPACE: the range of possible articulations (idealised in /Vowel Quadrilateral/
CARDINAL VOWELS
C.V. System by DANIEL JONES as set of REFERENCE POINTS evenly spaced around PERIPHERY of VOWEL SPACES. (comb. art. and aud.)
1 is highest+frontest without any turbulence/frication
etc.
1 8
2 7
3 6
4 5
Auditory Component of the Cardinal Vowel System
remember PERCEPTUALLY EQUIDISTANT
Intervening POINTS along Ftest and Bkest lines SPECIFIED AUDITORIALY
> points @ which vowels sound equally diff from eachother based on general auditory impression
= PERCEPTUALLY EQUIDISTANT
1 as diff from 2 as diff from 3 etc
- PURE AUDITORY not v usefull unless SOME relatively FIXED REFn points
IPA system of vowel description:
reference points
IPA follows general tradition of cardinal vowels by defining ref points.
- Provides SYMBOLS
- cover most vowel distinctions
- DIACRITICS = greater precision
ACOUSTIC Description of Vowels
- Each artic. config. for a vowel = RESONANCE PROPERTIES that prod. DISTINCTIVE QUALITY of the vowel
(use of formants on spectograms and such)
FORMANTS definition
Freq. bands where resonance = most intence (DARK on spectograms)
FIRST FORMANT (F1) = LOWEST central frequency
F2
F3
Formants relationship with articulatory parameters
F1 + F2 correspond /fairly/ well to height and front/back
F1 = HEIGHT OF TONGUE F2 = FRONTESS/BACKNESS
- LIP ROUNDING correlates with LOWER FREQ. for HIGHER FORMANTS
> F3 - Front Vowels
> F2 - Back Vowels
F1
HEIGHT OF TONGUE
SWAPPY SWAP LxH HxL
lower F1 ≈ tongue higher
higher F1 ≈ tongue lower
F2
FRONTESS/BACKNESS
Low is sad and back
High is happy and forward
lower F2 ≈ backer
higher F2 ≈ fronter
Inferring place of articulation from formant
frequencies
Comparison of average values for F1 and F2 for the Aus and NZ English vowel as in ʼbitʼ
- Higher F1 means NZ ‘bit’ vowel is slightly lower.
- Lower F2 means it’s considerably backer.
- Consistent with auditory & articulatory evidence: NZ [ɨ] vs Aus [ɪ].
Vowel Length
eg [i:] in ‘seat’ is longer than [ɪ] in ‘sit’ n
- (as well as having a different place/quality)
IPA diacritics GOOD for making number of distinctions in length
broad trans, often sufficient:
[i] [i:]
Dipthongs
ARTIC TARGET = TRANSITION btwn 2 ARTICULATORY SETTINGS
“bite” and “lie” =
near [a] –> near [ɪ]
SO: broad: [aɪ] (single phoneme)
Start + End points dont necessarily coincide w monopthongs of lang/dialect
Average AusEng dipthongs
converge on High front: bay, bye, boy
Unrounded–>Rounded: how, no
Classification of dipthongs
BASED ON:
- initial+final targets
- relative focus on 1 target vs another
- LONGER, SYLLABIC COMPONENT
- SHORTER, NON-SYLL COMPONENT [V̯]
> ON-glide if PRECEDES
> OFF-glide if FOLLOWS
Some US: semi-vowels for off-glides ([ej]/[ey] not [eɪ]
- Direction of Transition (Fronting, Backing, Centring)
