1. Linguistics week 4
Phonetics 2

2. Phonetics: the sounds of language
Not language-specific
Describes sounds produced in any or all languages
Phonology describes the sound patterns in particular languages, like English or Chinese
For example
This is how to make the sound [p]
The consonant cluster /pr/ is OK in English, not in Chinese

3. Phones: sound segments
When we know a language, we can segment an utterance into phones
We can do this even though there is no break between phones
Cat has 3 phones
But we don’t say k—a—t
If we don’t know the language, we can’t do this segmentation
It just sounds like one continuous stream of sound
Actually all language is one continuous stream of sound
The tongue (and other moving parts) move gradually
They don’t jump between positions

4. How many phones? Say them to your neighbor.
Dog?
Rabbit?
Phone
Knot
Comb
China

5. Two kinds of phone: consonants and vowels
Consonants: air flow from lungs is obstructed in some way (p48)
Vowels: the air flows freely
This is why doctors ask for “aaaahhh”
Vowels are often represented in English spelling by a e i o u
But spelling  pronunciation (p40)
Chinese:
The consonants are ㄅㄆㄇㄈ…
The vowels are ㄚㄛㄜㄝ… (but not always)

6. Problems with consonant-vowel distinction
Glides (or semivowels) /j/ and /w/ don’t seem to involve much obstruction
but most linguists think of them as consonants (check page 46, Approximants)
ㄦ causes an obstruction, and is thought of as a consonant by linguists
Some of the ㄅㄆㄇ symbols often represent two phones, one consonant and one vowel
Can you say which?

7. How many vowels? How many consonants?
dog?
rabbit?
phone
knot
comb
China I π
pine
long 餓 他 龍 他們

8. How many words, morphemes, syllables, consonants and vowels in the following? Count semivowels as consonants.
Greenhouse
Red houses
Women 我們
Those sheep 老鼠
老太太 玻璃
John drinks coffee
他不喝咖啡

9. Reading for next time Chapter 5; and Compare KK 音標
with the US system used in our book
(tables on pages 45 &48)
write the differences you find in pencil in your book, if you want to

11. Language presentations
10-15 minutes
Talk about
Where? Who? How many?
Interesting facts about the language
Relationship with other languages
Sounds of the language
Morphology and syntax (= grammar)
You can use wikipedia and ethnologue to help you
BUT you must consult other websites too
You will get a better grade if you
Consult library books about the language, or about linguistics
Tell us which books and websites you used

12. Articulatory phonetics
What does that mean?
What are the other two phases of signal transmission, please?
Classification of sounds in articulatory phonetics
First, we’ll look at consonants

13. Describing (characterizing) consonants
First, airstream:
For all sounds in English and Mandarin, this is pulmonic egressive
Second, place of articulation
Listed in Yule chapter 5
How would you describe the difference between [f], [θ] and [s]?
How about [p], [t] and [k]? (groups?)

14. Third, voicing Voiced and voiceless consonants [v] is voiced
[f] and [v] are both bilabial
So what’s the difference?
[v] is voiced
The vocal folds open and close rapidly
(They vibrate)
[f] is voiceless
No vibration

15. Voiced vs voiceless Of course [v] does not exist in Mandarin
It does in Shanghai (因為 pronounced yinvei!)
Say both, and put your fingers on your larynx
[b] and [p] are voiced and voiceless respectively
[b] doesn’t exist in Mandarin either
In fact, there are very few voiced consonants in Mandarin

16. Manner of articulation
Now, consider the difference between
[t] and [s] (these exist in Mandarin)
[d] and [z] (these don’t)
How about [p] and [m]
or [d] and [n]?

17. Parameters for describing consonants
So far (this is not complete yet) we have
Airstream (usually the same for all consonants)
Place of articulation
Voicing
Manner of articulation
So, [p] is …
egressive pulmonic
bilabial
voiceless
plosive