The Sounds of Language

Phonology, Phonetics & Phonemics… Phonology, Phonetics & Phonemics… Producing and writing speech sounds... Producing and writing speech sounds... Consonants, vowels & sound charts… Consonants, vowels & sound charts… Phonemic analysis... Phonemic analysis... Etics and Emics… Etics and Emics… Applications…. Applications….

Phonetics Acoustic Acoustic – physical properties of sound, sound waves, Auditory Auditory – perception of sounds, psychological “reality” Articulatory Articulatory – pronunciation of sounds, articulation – also known as descriptive phonetics.

Producing Speech Sounds larynx & vocal cords larynx & vocal cords larynx & vocal cords larynx & vocal cords – voicing lungs velum (soft palate) mouth closed: [m, n] mouth open = [õ  ] oral & nasal cavities

Writing Speech Sounds Spelling vs phonetic transcription Spelling vs phonetic transcription –cat (English) –ciel (French) –cizi (Czech) –“ghoti” Phonetic charts Phonetic charts –I.P.A. –Pike.

Consonants Point of Articulation (Place in vocal tract) Point of Articulation (Place in vocal tract) Manner of Articulation Manner of Articulation Voice Voice

Consonants: Place From front to back: From front to back: bilabial [p, b, m] labiodental [f, v] (inter)dental [ ,  ] alveolar [t, d, s, z, n, l] alveopalatal (palatal-alveolar; postalveolar) [ , , ñ].

Consonants: Place (continued) Front to back velar [k, g, x, ,  ] uvular [  ] (French ‘r’) pharyngeal [  (Arabic ‘ain’)] glottal [ , h]. retroflex [ ,  ]

Consonants: Manner Stops (plosives) [t, d], [!,  ] Stops (plosives) [t, d], [!,  ] Aspirated: [t h, d h ] Fricatives [s, z] Fricatives [s, z] Affricates [ ʧ, ʤ ] Affricates [ ʧ, ʤ ] Taps & Trills Taps & Trills – Taps / flaps [  ] – Trills [ r ] Nasals [ n ] Nasals [ n ] Approximants [ l, , j, w ]. Approximants [ l, , j, w ].

A Word About Approximants Sometimes called liquids & glides Sometimes called liquids & glides Variously charted in different systems Variously charted in different systems IPA calls them approximants [ w, j,  ] IPA calls them approximants [ w, j,  ] – And lateral approximants [ l ] Pike calls some of them frictionless laterals [ l ] Pike calls some of them frictionless laterals [ l ] – He calls some of them semivowels [w, y] – And he calls some of them vowels [ r ].

Consonants: Review Consonants: Review different languages may use different sounds

Phonetic Charting Mapping the sounds of a language Mapping the sounds of a language – Helps you to analyze and pronounce sounds... – Helps you to analyze sound systems... and to see patterns and to see patterns – Guides you in understanding accents….

Charting and Sounds Shinzwani [  ] Shinzwani [  ] – voiceless – retroflex – stop Czech [ ř ] Czech [ ř ] – voiced – alveolar – fricative – AND trill.

Charting and Accents: 1 How would you pronounce Shinzwani [  ona]? How would you pronounce Shinzwani [  ona]? – Why did you make the choice you made? Place? Place? Manner?. Manner?.

Vowels: Place part of tongue raised part of tongue raised – front, center, back height of tongue height of tongue – high, mid, low iu eo a

Vowels: Manner rounded rounded [u, o] - back (e.g. most English back vowels) [y, ø] - front (e.g., French, German, Danish) unrounded unrounded [ i, e] - front (e.g. all English front vowels) [ ,  ] - back (e.g., Turkish, Native American languages) tense/lax (close/open) tense/lax (close/open) – [i] vs [ I ].

Charting Vowels Charting Vowels

Diphthongs to front [ii] seen [ai] sign [  i] boid to center [i  ] beer [e  ] bear [a  ] bar [  ] bore to back [uu] sue [ou] hoe [au] how.

Suprasegmentals Additional pronunciation Additional pronunciation – [o] as segment Marked with diacritics Marked with diacritics – [  ] as suprasegmental (nasalization) [o  ] = nasalized segment. [o  ] = nasalized segment.

Phones and Phonemes phone phone – smallest identifiable unit of sound in a language – more easily identified by outsiders phoneme phoneme – smallest contrastive unit of sound in a language – heard as a single sound by insiders – Contrasts are not predictable.

Phonology Sounds and their arrangements Sounds and their arrangements – Phonetics & Phonemics Phonetics: Phonetics: – identify & describe sounds in detail (phones) Phonemics Phonemics – analyze arrangements of sounds – identify groupings of sounds (phonemes) Examples: Examples: – English “pill” vs “spill -- [p h ] + [p] = /p/ – Hindi “p h  l” (fruit) vs “p  l” (minute) -- [p h ] + [p] = /p h / + /p/.

Identifying Phonemes Minimal pairs Minimal pairs – reveal contrasts in sounds ‘pin’ ‘tin’ ‘kin’ ‘bin’ ‘din’ ‘gin’ ‘pin’ ‘tin’ ‘kin’ ‘bin’ ‘din’ ‘gin’ Examples for practice (W/R p. 48) Examples for practice (W/R p. 48) – 3.2a Shinzwani – 3.2b Hindi – 3.2c Czech – 3.2d French – 3.2e Chatino.

Variations a phoneme can be a single sound/phone a phoneme can be a single sound/phone or it can be a group of sounds/phones or it can be a group of sounds/phones – members of a group are usually similar they are close on the phonetic chart they are close on the phonetic chart they sound like ‘variations’ of one another they sound like ‘variations’ of one another – members of a group are non-contrastive they don’t mark differences in meaning they don’t mark differences in meaning – when such variations exist, they are called:

are heard as ‘the same sound’ by native speakers are heard as ‘the same sound’ by native speakers are usually ‘complementary’ to one another are usually ‘complementary’ to one another – we say they are in ‘complementary distribution’ because the variation is usually ‘conditioned’ by neighboring sounds, because the variation is usually ‘conditioned’ by neighboring sounds, – we can also call this ‘conditioned variation.’

Allophone Conditioning is usually is usually – patterned – predictable – discoverable – describable.

Phonemes vs. Allophones: Review allophones allophones – non-contrastive – predictable distribution [p  n] and [sp  n] [p  n] and [sp  n] phonemes phonemes – contrastive – non-predictable distribution [p  n] vs [t  n]. [p  n] vs [t  n].

Etics vs. Emics Ken Pike, 1950s Ken Pike, 1950s A core concept in anthropology A core concept in anthropology Etics Etics – outside, cross-cultural /comparative – absolute, objective – a step to emic analysis Emics Emics – inside, culture-specific – relative, subjective – a goal of emic analysis.

Doing Phonological Research Descriptive v prescriptive approaches Descriptive v prescriptive approaches – Transcription v spelling Avoid using your own categories Avoid using your own categories – Find out how the system operates on its own terms Describe the patterns you find Describe the patterns you find – Identify the units – Identify relationships between the units.

Comparative Phonology How many phonemes in a language? How many phonemes in a language? – From a few dozen to 100+ – average figures: vowels: 8.7 vowels: 8.7 – English has 14 consonants: 22.8 consonants: 22.8 – English has 24