Consonants and Vowels Flashcards
Double articulations
Sound is produced with a double articulation if it has 2 simultaneous constrictions
Different places, but the same manner (of the same width)
Common in languages, e.g., English – [w] in wet
What are the double articulations on the IPA?
IPA: Sounds produced using double articulations can be found under Other Symbols
[w] voiced labial-velar approximant
[ʍ] voiceless labial-velar fricative
[ɥ] voiced labial-palatal approximant
What are secondary articulations?
A sound is produced with two simultaneous constrictions, but the primary one is higher on the scale of articulatory strength (degree of constriction) than the secondary one
The articulation that is stronger - primary articulation
Weaker articulation - secondary articulation
Types of secondary articulation
Labialisation [ʷ] – addition of lip rounding to an articulation
Often context-driven
English: soon vs. seen (coarticulation – later in the course)
Palatalisation [ʲ] – raising of the front of the tongue (addition of an [i]-like tongue posture)
Velarisation [ˠ] – raising of the back of the tongue
The IPA has a special symbol for velarised alveolar lateral approximant [ɫ]
Pharyngealisation [ˤ] – narrowing of the pharynx by pulling the root of the tongue backwards
Variation in plosive production
The release can be made slower, so a slight amount of fricative noise is produced - affricated plosives
Common in e.g. Liverpool English: tea [tsiː]
Unreleased and unexploded plosives
Unreleased or unexploded plosives: e.g., ma instead of map
The third phase (release) is omitted
Common in English: map [mæp̚ ], stop [stɒp̚ ]
Incomplete plosives – the release is not heard because of another articulatory closure elsewhere, e.g. act [æk̚t] – in English we often produce the ‘t’ and not the ‘k’ as much
E.g. compare: English apt [æp̚t] vs. French apte [æpt]
Implosives
What airstream does this use?
What is an example?
Implosives Glottalic (comes from the movement of the larynx) Ingressive Airstream Ex
Non pulmonic bilabial consonant
Ejectives
What is the process?
Which languages is this sound common in?
What is an example?
VFs clamped shut
Larynx jerked upward using extrinsic laryngeal muscles
Air compressed, rushes out of mouth
makes sounds relatively loud
airstream lasts short time
Native American languages; African and Asian languages
Ex
Non-pulmonic bilabial ejective
Cardinal Vowels
Why are they harder to describe than consonants?
Straightforward to describe for consonants
Vowels are harder: no contact or near-contact between articulators, vowel space is comparatively large part of oral cavity
It is difficult to be sure exactly where the articulators are
Vowels by articulation
Among various parameters, only tongue height and position, and possibly lip rounding, are essential for denoting basic vowel locations
We can also describe vowels by perception
Vowels by perception
How many primary and secondary vowels are there?
What is it important to remember?
Which vowels was the system developed from?
In order to describe vowels accurately, a system called the cardinal vowels has been developed by Daniel Jones
There are two sets: primary (8) and secondary (8+6=14)
Cardinal vowels are extreme values and are not necessarily similar to the vowels of English or any other language
You can use the cardinal vowels a bit like a map to describe vowels accurately, with the CVs like points on a compass
Developed by the use of 2 anchor vowels: [i] and [ɑ]
Secondary Cardinal vowels
What distinguishes them from the primary CVs?
All secondary vowels have exactly the same tongue position as the primary cardinal vowels but they have different lip position
Stops
What are the stages?
The approach - two articulators are being brought together
The closure phase - when they are held together
The release/opening phase - when they move apart again
What is the difference between an oral and nasal stop?
What happens in a nasally released stop?
In an oral stop, the velum is raised throughout, blocking off the nasal cavity
In a nasal stop, the velum is lowered throughout
In a nasally released stop, the velum is lowered just for the release phase
What’s the difference between phonetics and phonology?
How does this apply in clinic?
Phonetics – the scientific study of speech production, transmission and perception (incl. methods of description, classification, transcription)
Phonetic approach is independent of specific language use
Phonology is language-specific and concerned with function
Phonology – the study of speech sounds as contrastively used to distinguish meaning in a language
Concerned with how these sounds pattern in a particular language
In clinic, clients may present with phonetic problems, phonological problems, or both - treatment may well differ depending on this difference
Describe the phonological system
a list of the contrastive sounds used in the language (phonemes)
the ranges of variants each phoneme has and where these are found (allophones)
Describe the phonological structure
where in a syllable a sound can occur
into what combinations of sounds each sound can enter
Define contrastive sounds
Sounds are contrastive if they distinguish words with different meanings:
pan – tan
What are minimal pairs?
two words which have different meanings and differ in only one sound occurring in the same environment:
pin vs. bin, post vs. toast
they help to establish phonemes
/p/ and /b/ have contrastive distribution
What is a phoneme?
A perceptually distinct unit of sound in a language that distinguishes one sound from another.
Define phonemes, phones and allophones
Phonemes are perceptually distinct units of sound within a language that distinguish one word from another (they are abstract)
Phones is any distinct speech sound, it does not have to be critical to the meaning of the word (they are concrete)
Allophones: any of the various phonetic realisations of a phoneme in a language that does not contribute to meaning e.g., aspirated and unaspirated /p/
Allophones
Phonemes have different phonetic realisations depending on the phonetic environment in which they occur
Example: two kinds of [p] in English
aspirated: [phɑːk] park
unaspirated: [spɑːk] spark
these differences are not contrastive (no minimal pairs)
[ph] and [p] are 2 allophones of the phoneme /p/
They occur in mutually exclusive environments – they are in complementary distribution
Complementary Distribution
These allophones never occur in the same environment
word-initial /p/ (before a vowel) is aspirated [ph]
/p/ after /s/ is unaspirated [p]
Complementary and contrastive distribution vary by the language
Allophones in Free Variation
A single sound can have two different variant pronunciations in the same word
e.g., released vs. unreleased final plosives
stop [ stɒp̚ ]; [ ̚ ] = unreleased
These two sounds are allophones of /p/, but in free variation
May be a stylistic option (formality, regionality)
Phonemic transcription
Phonemes are conventionally transcribed using slash brackets, e.g. /t/
For a phonemic transcription:
we have to know what the phonemes of the language/dialect/accent are
no phonetic details of how the phonemes are realised
Generally does not use diacritics
Phonetic transcription
For actual pronunciations or allophones we use square brackets:[th], [tw], [ts], [t̚], [ʔ], [ɾ] are allophones of /t/
If diacritics are used, you are doing a phonetic transcription
i.e., you are showing exactly how an utterance is articulated
Phonetic transcription represents as much detail as the transcriber can or wants to include
Also called allophonic transcription
English consonants
British pronounciation
Standard form of British English
Principal medium of broadcasting and teaching in Britain; also basis for TEFL, dictionaries and grammars of English
Received Pronunciation (RP)
BBC English
Standard Southern British English (SSBE)
