Lecture 3 Phonetics 语音学

3.1 Speech production and perception 言语产生和言语感知 3.2 Speech organs 言语器官 3.3 The International Phonetic Alphabet 国际音标 3.4 Consonants 辅音 3.5 Vowels 元音 3.6 Coarticulation and phonetic transcription 协同发音和标音法

3.1 Speech production and perception

Branches of phonetics Articulatory Phonetics is the study of the production of speech sounds. Acoustic Phonetics is the study of the physical properties of speech sounds. Perceptual or Auditory Phonetics is concerned with the perception of speech sounds.

Phonology is the study of the sound patterns and sound systems of languages. It aims to ‘discover the principles that govern the way sounds are organized in languages, and to explain the variations that occur’. In phonology we normally begin by analyzing an individual language, say English, in order to determine its phonological structure, i.e. which sound units are used and how they are put together. Then we compare the properties of sound systems in different languages in order to make hypotheses about the rules that underlie the use of sounds in them, and ultimately we aim to discover the rules that underlie the sound patterns of all languages.

3.2 Speech organs 3.2.1 The process of producing a sound 3.2.2 Producer of voice 3.2.3 The vocal tract

The organs of speech

The larynx Ventricular folds glottis Vocal cords

Vocal cords vocal cords glottis

Vocal cords closed

The mouth nasal cavity hard palate硬腭 齿龈alveolar ridge soft palate (velum) 软腭 upper teeth upper lip uvula小舌 lower lip Tongue lower teeth back 舌背 (dorsal) front舌中 blade舌面 (coronal) 下颌 mandible tip 舌尖 root舌根 (radical)

3.3 The International phonetic Alphabet 国际音标 3.3.1 Segments and divergences 3.3.2 The IPA

3.3.1 Segments and divergences When we produce the word “fish” slowly, we can perceive the different segments (音段) in this word, /f/, /i/ and /ʃ/. The reason for the divergence is that there are more sounds in English than the letters can represent. For this reason, we have to turn to phonetic transcription to make sure of the correct pronunciation of a word. g h o t i / f I ʃ / nation enough women

The IPA In 1886, the Phonetic Teachers’ Association was inaugurated by a small group of language teachers in France who had found the practice of phonetics useful in their teaching and wished to popularize their methods. It was changed to its present title of the International Phonetic Association (IPA) in 1897.

One of the first activities of the Association was to produce a journal in which the contents were printed entirely in phonetic transcription. The idea of establishing a phonetic alphabet was first proposed by the Danish grammarian and phonetician Otto Jespersen (1860-1943) in 1886, and the first version of the International Phonetic Alphabet (the IPA chart) was published in August 1888.

Its main principles were that there should be a separate letter for each distinctive sound, and that the same symbol should be used for that sound in any language in which it appears. The alphabet was to consist of as many Roman alphabet letters as possible, using new letters and diacritics only when absolutely necessary. These principles continue to be followed today.

CONSONANTS(PULMONIC) （肺闭塞音）

CONSONANTS(NON-PULMONIC) (非肺闭塞音)

Other symbols

Diacritics (变音符)

Suprasegmentals (超语段)

Tones and word accents (声调和语调)

3.4 Consonants 辅音 3.4.1 Consonants and vowels 3.4.2 Manners of articulation 3.4.3 Places of articulation 3.4.4 The consonants of English

3.4.1 Consonants and vowels consonants: obstruction of airstream in the process of production vowels: no such obstruction formed semi-vowels: /h/, /w/, /j/, viewed as consonants today

In the production of consonants at least two articulators are involved. bad /bd/

In the description of English consonants, we try to describe two things: 1) the different parts of vocal organs involved in the production of an obstruction, which are called places of articulation (发音部位); 2) the actual relationship between the different parts of vocal organs and the way in which the air passes through the vocal tract, which are called manners of articulation (发音方式).

3.4.2 Manners of articulation 发音方式 Manners of articulation refers to the way in which articulation can be accomplished. The articulators may close off the oral tract narrow the space considerably modify the shape of the tract

Stop 塞音 [p, b, t, d, k, g] Nasal 鼻音 [m, n, ŋ]

Fricative 摩擦音 [f, v, θ, ð, s, z, ʃ, ʒ, h] Approximant 无摩擦延续音 [w, ɹ, j] Lateral 边音 [l] Trill 颤音 alveolar trills 大舌音 uvula trills 小舌音 Tap / flap 闪音 [t] in city [sɪɾɪ] and letter [leɾɚ] Affricate 塞擦音 “ch[ʧ]” of church ，j[ʤ]” of jet

3.4.3 Places of articulation 发音部位 Places of articulation refers to the different parts of speech organs that are involved in producing an obstruction. In English, 11 places of articulation are distinguished.

Bilabial双唇音 [p, b, m] ([w]) Labiodental 唇齿音 [f, v] Dental 齿间音 [, ð] Alveolar 齿龈音 [t, d, n, s, z, ɹ, l] Postalveolar 后齿龈音 [ʃ, ʒ, ʧ, ʤ ] Retroflex 卷舌音 [r] in AmE, zh, ch, sh, r in Chinese Palatal 硬腭音 [j] Velar 软腭音 [k, g, ŋ] Uvular 小舌音 French [r] Pharyngeal 喉音 Arabic [ħ, ʕ] Glottal 声门音 [h], [ʔ]

The consonants in English [b] voiced bilabial stop [p] voiceless bilabial stop [t] voiceless alveolar stop [d] voiced alveolar stop [k] voiceless velar stop [g] voiced velar stop [m] bilabial nasal [n] alveolar nasal [ŋ] velar nasal [f] voiceless labio-dental fricative [v] voiced labio-dental fricative [ ] voiceless dental fricative [ ] voiced dental fricative [s] voiceless alveolar fricative [z] voiced alveolar fricative [ʃ] voiceless postalveolar fricative [ʒ] voiced postalveolar fricative [w] bilabial approximant [ɹ] alveolar approximant [j] palata approximant [l] alveolar lateral [ʧ, ʤ] voiceless/voiced affricate

3.5 Vowels 元音 3.5.1 The theory of cardinal vowels 3.5.2 The vowels of RP

The theory of cardinal vowels The cardinal vowels, as exhibited by the vowel diagram in the IPA chart, are a set of vowel qualities arbitrarily defined, fixed and unchanging, intended to provide a frame of reference for the description of the actual vowels of existing languages.

Daniel Jones (1881-1967) According to him, the cardinal vowels are a set of arbitrary reference points based on a combination of articulatory and auditory judgments to provide a precise description of vowels in languages.

Pure / monophthong vowels vs. vowel glides Pure vowels: vowels where the quality remains constant throughout the articulation. Vowel glides: vowels where there is an audible change of quality in the articulation.

Diphthongs vs. triphthongs If a single movement of the tongue is involved, the glides are called diphthongs.

A double movement produces a triphthong, which is ‘a glide from one vowel to another and then to a third, all produced rapidly and without interruption’.

Important points First, the difference in quality of some of the vowels may depend heavily on the speaker’s accent and personal preference, but such a difference will not cause a difference in meaning. Second, the difference between the two vowels in beat and bid is more of quality than of length. And the idea of tenseness is introduced to account for this difference.

Vowels in RP (Wells, 2000)

English vowels in the CV chart

GA and RP pure sounds Source: Roca & Johnson, 1999: 190. Note that where symbols appear in pairs, the one to the right represents the GA counterpart.)　

Description of English vowels the height of tongue raising (high, mid, low) or the way lips are rounded (close, mid, open) the position of the highest part of the tongue （front, central, back） the length or tenseness of the vowel (tense vs. lax or long vs. short) lip-rounding (rounded vs. unrounded / spread)

Pure vowels in English [i] high front tense unrounded vowel [] high front lax unrounded vowel [] mid front lax unrounded vowel [] low front lax unrounded vowel [ә] central lax unrounded vowel [ә] central tense unrounded vowel [] high back tense rounded vowel [] high back lax rounded vowel [] mid central lax rounded vowel [] low central tense rounded vowel [] low back lax rounded vowel [] mid back tense rounded vowel

Exercise: 1. Give the IPA symbols for the sounds that correspond to the descriptions below: 1) voiceless postalveolar fricative 2) voiced alveolar fricative 3) voiced affricate 4) voiced velar stop 5) voiceless dental fricative 6) bilabial nasal 7) voiceless alveolar stop 8) voiceless bilabial stop 9) alveolar lateral 10) voiced labio-dental fricative 11) high-mid front unrounded vowel 12) high back rounded vowel 13) low front unrounded vowel 14) mid back rounded vowel

2. Define the following terms: phonetics, articulatory phonetics, speech organs, voicing, consonant, vowel, International Phonetic Alphabet, place of articulation, manner of articulation, cardinal vowels, vowel glide

3. Discuss the following questions: What organs are involved in speech production? Why did George Bernard Shaw say he could spell the word fish as ghoti? How is the description of consonants different from that of vowels?