consonants (lectures 1-4)

Question 1

What is phonetics

Answer 1

Study of the physical aspects of human speech- the SOUNDS we make

Question 2

What frequency range can humans detect sounds in?

Answer 2

20 Hz to 20 kHz

Question 3

What is phonology

Answer 3

The study of the patterns of sounds in a language and across languages, and the LAWS governing them
e.g. rules about how sounds are pronounced in context like the /p/ sound in “pat” and “spat”

Question 4

Articulatory phonetics

Answer 4

Study of the organs of speech and the way they move to produce various sounds

Question 5

Acoustic phonetics

Answer 5

Study of sound waves, their properties and the way they are transmitted

Question 6

Auditory phonetics

Answer 6

The study of the perception or decoding of speech sounds by ear and brain

Question 7

Transparent orthography

Answer 7

One-to-one grapheme-phoneme correspondence

Question 8

Opaque orthography

Answer 8

Variable graphemes-to phoneme relationship e.g. both f and ph make same sound

Question 9

Phoneme definition

Answer 9

The smallest linguistic unit that distinguishes meaning

Question 10

Difference between phonemic and phonetic transcription

Answer 10

Phonemic transcription is broad with simplest possible set of symbols, uses slanted brackets //, tends to disregard variation between speakers of the same dialect.

Phonetic transcription is narrow, with more phonetic detail, used for unknown languages, disordered speech etc, uses square brackets []

Question 11

Allophones

Answer 11

Positional variations of phonemes that are produced. E.g. in English, an aspirated p (as in pin) and unaspirated p as in (spin)

Question 12

Articulation definition

Answer 12

Refers to the narrowing of the vocal tract during the production of speech sounds

Question 13

What distinguishes central vs lateral articulation e.g. /t/ vs /l/

Answer 13

Position of tongue in relation to roof of mouth determines whether air goes through sides of tongue (lateral)

Question 14

Active articulator vs passive articulator

Answer 14

Passive is static, active moves towards passive articulator

Question 15

When describing consonants, what does VPM stand for

Answer 15

Voicing state (voiced or voiceless)
Place of articulation (location in the vocal tract where articulation occurs e.g. ‘alveolar’
Manner of articulation (what is the extent of the movement e.g. plosive, fricative, stop

Question 16

Labial consonants

Answer 16

Involves lips e.g.
Bilabial
Labiodental

Question 17

Coronal consonants

Answer 17

Involves tongue tip/blade e.g.
Dental
Alveolar
Postalveolar
Retroflex

Question 18

Dorsal consonants

Answer 18

Involve the tongue front/back e.g.
Palatal
Velar
Uvular

Question 19

Radical consonants

Answer 19

Use tongue root e.g.
Pharyngeal

Question 20

Glottal consonants

Answer 20

Use glottis

(Momentary closure in the vocal folds)

Question 21

which manners of articulation involve complete closures

Answer 21

plosive, nasal, trill, tap or flap

Question 22

which manners of articulation are narrow stricture

Answer 22

fricative and lateral fricative

Question 23

which manners of articulation involve approximation (where the articulators do not actually touch)

Answer 23

approximant and lateral approximant

Question 24

which manner of articulation involves closure and narrow release

Answer 24

Affricates

Question 25

what are obstruents

Answer 25

contact of the articulators and obstruction of the airflow
e.g. plosives, fricatives, affricates

Question 26

what are sonorants

Answer 26

approximation of the articulators and resonance in the vocal tract
e.g. nasals, approximants, lateral approximants

Question 27

what are plosives

Answer 27

Complete closure of the vocal tract that is maintained for a period of time. Oral airflow. Closing phase, hold phase then release phase. Examples = [p,b,t,d]

Question 28

What are nasals

Answer 28

Complete closure of the oral cavity but velum lowered so air escapes through nasal cavity. Classified as stops. Examples [m,n,ŋ]

Question 29

What is a stop?

Answer 29

Where the vocal tract is completely blocked for a time

Question 30

Describe the difference between nasal stops and oral stops

Answer 30

Oral stops are made with velic closure- velum is raised and in contact with rear wall of the pharynx. Air cannot escape through the nasal cavity. i.e. plosives

Nasal stops are made when oral cavity is closed by the velum is lowered to create a gap so air can flow through nasal cavity. i.e. nasals

• [n] nasal stop → velum lowered.
• [d] oral stop/plosive → velum raised.

Question 31

What are trills?

Answer 31

Complete but less forceful closure- repeated vibration of the articulator caused by the airstream.

Question 32

what are the types of trills?

Answer 32

Bilabial - ʙ (‘brrrr’ noise)
Alveolar- r (‘rrr’ in spanish like ‘perro’)
Uvular- ʀ (french r-sound e.g in song rien de rien

Question 33

what are taps and flaps

Answer 33

taps and flaps are very similar to plosives but with a very short amount of time during which the contact is maintained (around 20 ms)
e.g. alveolar [r] in spanish pero (‘but)
tap= direct contact of the articulators (for very short amount of time)
flap= contact in motion or tangential contact

Question 34

what are fricatives?

Answer 34

Very narrow opening between the articulators leading to frication and turbulent airflow (‘hissy’ noise) e.g. labiodental [f,v]. dental [θ, ð]

Question 35

explain the difference between ordinal/central fricatives and lateral fricatives.

Answer 35

Ordinal fricatives= turbulent airflow through narrow channel in the centre of the oral cavity

Lateral fricatives= midline of the oral cavity blocked by complete closure so turbulent airflow along the sides of the tongue

Question 36

what are approximants

Answer 36

approximation of the articulators without obstruction of the airflow. Approximants are sonorants and do not have a stricture narrow enough to cause turbulence.
e.g. semivowels like the y sound in ‘yes’ [j] a palatal central approxiant and the w sound in ‘war’ [w] is a labial-velar approximant

Question 37

what is a lateral approximant?

Answer 37

Midline of the oral cavity blocked by complete closure, air released along one or both sides of tongue.

Question 38

what are affricates?

Answer 38

Similar to plosives but with release into a narrow structure due to lower parting of the articulators during the release phase. During the slower release, the air rushing between the two articulators makes a hissing sound. A combination of plosives and fricatives. eg.[t͡ʃ, d͡ʒ] as in church and judge

Question 39

What are rhotics.?

Answer 39

All types of r-like sounds [r,ɾ,ɹ,ʁ,ʀ,ɽ]

Question 40

What are liquids?

Answer 40

Lateral approximants and rhotics [l, ɭ, ʎ, ʟ, r, ɾ, ɹ, ɻ, ʀ, ʁ, ɽ]

Question 41

What is the speech chain?

Answer 41

1. Brain Sends signals to muscles, when it reaches muscles and muscles move this becomes articulatory phonetics

2.Sound waves travel to our ears and other peoples ears (what we and others hear) acoustic phonetics

3. Perceive your own speech and potentially correct pronunciation - auditory phonetics

Question 42

What is the vocal tract?

Answer 42

A container of air that starts from the top of the vocal folds and goes all the way to the edge of the lips. Includes the oral and nasal cavity

Question 43

Give three homorganic pairs of plosives and nasals in English (same place of articulation but different manners of articulation)

Answer 43

Bilabial : [b,m]
Alveolar: [d, n]
Velar: [g, ŋ]

Question 44

What are the different types of complex articulations?

Answer 44

Simultaneous
complex articulation (including double articulation and secondary articulation)

Transitional/Sequential
complex articulation

Question 45

What is simultaneous complex articulation?

Answer 45

Producing a sound with two constrictions occurring simultaneously/ together.

Question 46

What is double articulation?

Answer 46

both constrictions with same degree of stricture (e.g. both are
complete closures, both are approximations)
e.g. voiced labial-velar approximant [w]

In the PIA chart, double articulations can be two symbols joined by a tie bar

Question 47

What is secondary articulation?

Answer 47

Two constrictions during the production of single
consonant that differ in width, i.e. One of the constrictions is more open than the other one.

Secondary articulation is usually named by the secondary articulation
e.g. nasalisation [ã], palatalisation [kʲ]

e.g. velarised alveolar lateral approximant [ɫ] or dark /l/, a variant of
/l/
or voiceless post-alveolar fricative is labialised [ʃʷ]

Question 48

Secondary articulation can occur because of adjacent segments. Some are instances of coarticulation. What is co-articulation?

Answer 48

Coarticulation: speech sound is influenced by an adjacent speech sound, to be more like the adjacent sound

Question 49

What is transitional/ sequential articulation?

Answer 49

separate successive articulations producing one sound
e.g. affricates like English: rich/rɪʧ/; ridge/rɪːʤ/

Question 50

How can stops vary?

Answer 50

Variation in the closure phase- Complete closure may not be attained → fricative like Liverpool - week [wiːx]

Variation in the hold phase- Consonants can be produced for a longer or shorter period of time (geminates)
* Italian: sono [sɔno] ‘I am’
, sonno [sɔnːo] / [sɔnno] ‘sleep’

Variation in the release phase- The release can be made slower → affricated stop (much like an affricate)
e.g., Liverpool English: ‘two’
* Variation in the release phase