Dimensions of Articulation January 20, 2014

This Week Have a go at: Chapter 1, Exercise D Chapter 1, Exercise E Chapter 1, Exercise F Note: this is a graded homework exercise. Also: I will be here on Friday; Jacqueline will lead you through some practice transcriptions on Monday of next week.

Vowel Systems before, part 1  Rhotic dialects vary in the number of vowel distinctions that can be made before. System 1: five vowels fearCoorsweary farefourwarylorry farsorry  No distinctions between: Also: no or ‘fur’

Vowel Systems before, part 2  System 2: four vowels fearweary farefour, Coorswarylorry farsorry Also missing distinction: Only four vowel phonemes: /i//o/ /e//a/

Vowel Systems before, part 3  (Canadian) System 3: five (?) + three vowels fearCoorsweary farefourwarylorry, sorry far  (Canadian) System 4: five (?) + two (?) vowels fearCoorsweary, wary farefourlorry, sorry far

Vowel Systems before, part 4  System 5: lots of vowels before fearCoorswearylurid farefourMarylorry farmerryMurray marrysorry

Canadian Raising Another characteristic of Canadian English is the “raising” of the first part of the diphthongs and. In both cases, [a]  “Raising” because low  mid This happens only in certain sound environments: “out” “loud” “write” “ride” “pipe” “bribe” “like”

Canadian Raising (Canadian) Jon(American) Steve “house” “howl” “bike” “bile” For fun: switch Jon’s vowels in “bike” and “bile” Also compare: (Canadian) Aaron: (American) Steve: And, lastly, (Canadian?) Amber:

Consonants To understand the Canadian Raising pattern, it helps to know more about the way consonants are produced. Consonants productions may be characterized along a series of articulatory dimensions. The first dimension to consider is: airstream mechanism. Most speech sounds use a pulmonic egressive airstream mechanism. = air is pushed out of the lungs it’s possible to produce pulmonic ingressive sounds; give it a try.

Mid-Sagittal Diagram

Dimension 2: Phonation On the way out of the lungs Air passes through the trachea Reaches the larynx The larynx consists of two “vocal folds” which may be opened and closed. If the vocal folds are: 1. open: air passes cleanly through (voiceless sound) 2. closed: air does not pass through (no sound) 3. lightly brought together: vocal folds vibrate in passing air (= voiced sound)

Voicing, Schematized Voiceless (folds open)Voiced (folds together)

Laryngoscopy Source:

Voicing, in Reality

Some Voicing Distinctions Among English consonants: VoicelessVoicedVoicelessVoiced [f][v][p][b] [t][d] [s][z][k][g]

Voicing Allophony  Vowels are longer before voiced consonants than voiceless consonants.  Length is denoted with the [:] diacritic. ‘feed’[fi:d]vs.‘feet’[fit]  Note that Canadian Raising occurs before voiceless consonants.  voiceless:‘out’‘write’  voiced:‘bribe’‘ride’

Layers Canadian Raising occurs when and are followed by a voiceless consonant. The voiceless consonant does not need to be at the end of a word. Interesting examples: ‘rider’ ‘writer’ Note: flap is voiced. The voiceless consonant which induces Canadian Raising does not need to be voiceless on the phonetic “surface”! The technical term for this is phonological opacity.

More Voicing Allophony Consonants at the ends of words are sometimes devoiced. Voicelessness is denoted with the [ ] diacritic. ‘lose’‘peas’ Also: ‘languages’ example from homework #1. You can sometimes get contrasts in English like: ‘peace’‘peas’ /l/ and can be (partially) voiceless in English when they follow an aspirated consonant: ‘play’

Aspiration Allophony  /p/, /t/, and /k/ are aspirated if: 1.They are at the beginning of a stressed syllable. 2.They are not preceded by /s/. Ex: