Clicks + Trills February 5, 2014

Announcements and Such 1.I’m in the midst of grading Production Exercise #1. You should hear something about it by tonight. 2.Production Exercise #2 (on place of articulation and airstream mechanisms) will be posted after you get comments back on Production Exercise #1. 3. We should check out Miriam Makeba’s “Click Song”...

Click Examples Clicks can be made at five different places of articulation. Languages which use clicks as contrastive sounds are exclusively found in southern and central Africa. Particularly in the Khoisan languages

!Xoo Examples !Xoo (spoken in Botswana) contrasts clicks at all five places of articulation Note that !Xoo is also a tone language. By convention, a [k] appears before all click sounds, to represent the velar closure.

Click Places

Click Cues All clicks are very high in acoustic intensity i.e., loud Alveolar and palatal clicks have a transient (short) release Dental and bilabial clicks have an affricated release Lateral clicks are somewhere in between

Clicks in connected speech If you listen to clicks as they are produced in a long sequence of connected speech, you may experience a phenomenon known as perceptual streaming. Sound file source:

Deep Thought Questions #1: Is it possible to make a voiced click? Yes. #2: Is it possible to make an aspirated click? Sort of. #3: Is it possible to make a nasal click? Yes. #4: Is it possible to make an ejective click? Sort of. Accompanying articulations may be made in conjunction with the click’s velar closure.

Zulu Clicks Zulu is spoken in South Africa.

Zhu|hoasi Clicks Zhu|hoasi is spoken in Namibia and Botswana.

Airstream Summary AirflowPulmonicGlottalicVelaric OUTfricatives,ejectivesunattested (egressive)vowels, stops, etc. IN(Tsou)implosivesclicks (ingressive)

Back to Aerodynamics Aerodynamic method #1: Stops A.start air flow Remember: Boyle’s Law And: Air flows from high to low pressure B.stop air flow Just bring two articulators together. C.release air flow Just relax! Not an explosion Air pressure differences do the work Release burst example: Bengali exercises

Another Aerodynamic Method What kind of sound is this? A Trill. A Bilabial Trill: Examples from Kele and Titan (Island of Manus, north of New Guinea)

How Fast? Any volunteers? Take a look at the waveform (Note: period vs. frequency) Do we close and relax our lips each time we do this? No? When air blows the lips apart, why don’t they stay apart?

Bernoulli Effect In a flowing stream of particles: the pressure exerted by the particles is inversely proportional to their velocity Pressure = constant velocity P = k / v  the higher the velocity, the lower the pressure  the lower the velocity, the higher the pressure Daniel Bernoulli ( )

Bernoulli Examples Airplane wing Frisbee Shower Curtain Pieces of paper Bilabial trills!

A Trilling Schematic Lips are closed adducted = brought together F ad = adductive force upper lip lower lip inside of mouth outside of mouth F ad

Trilling: Stage 1 Pressure builds up inside mouth from compression of lungs P in = Air Pressure inside mouth Outside pressure remains constant P out = Air Pressure outside mouth P in P out = k F ad

Trilling: Stage 1 Pressure differential between inside and outside builds up This exerts force against the lips P in P out = k F ad  P = (P in - P out )

Trilling: Stage 2 Pressure differential blows open lips Air rushes from high to low pressure P in P out = k F ad air

Trilling: Stage 2 The opening of the lips means: 1.  P decreases slightly 2. High velocity of air flowing between lips 3. Air pressure decreases between lips (Bernoulli Effect) P in P out = k F ad P bl

Trilling: Stage 3 Lips get sucked back together P in P out = k F ad

Trilling: Back to Stage 1 If air is still flowing out of lungs, pressure will rise again within mouth Process will repeat itself as long as air is pushed up from lungs and lips are held lightly against each other P in P out = k F ad

Trilling: Back to Stage 1 Air rushes through the lips in a series of short, regular bursts P in F ad