Topic 1: Phonetics Raung-fu Chung Southern Taiwan University

What is phoentics? Phonetics is a science to study sound structure of human beings.

Nature of sounds Sounds are waveforms, which is continuous without any pauses. For instance, Lukai: akanasukuvevaa akan asukuvevaa 指東西吃 - 第二人 稱單數 附著 - 所有附著 - 助詞這 ( 過去 ) 早上

Segmentation: 1. While sounds are continuous, they can be segmented and represented by a system of symbols. 2. IPA (International Phonetic Association or International Phonetic Alphabets) 3. Sound and spelling: English, Malay, Korean, Japanese

Phonetics: 1.Articulatory phonetics 2.Auditory phonetics 3.Acoustic phonetics

Speech organs: Nasal cavity Tongue body Oral cavity larynx lungs supralarynx larynx

Phonation:

Place of articulation: 1. lips 2. coronal 3. Dorsal

Manner of articulation: 1.Voiced vs. voiceless 2.Stop (noncontinuent) 3.Fricative 4.Affricate 5.Nasal

Sound categories: Vowels vs. consonants a. oral cavity: with or without friction b. waveforms: periodical vs. aperiodical c. resonants: with or without formants

Sound Waves: English heed [hid] Aperiodical & periodical waves Aperiodical waves Periodical waves

Periodical vs. aperiodical

More articulators Hard palate Soft palate velum uvular

Passive articulators:

Now we are ready for the sound descriptions

Consonants: bilabial stops 1.Place of articulation: bilabial 2.Manner of articulation: stops

Characteristics of stop consonants Three steps in manner of articulation 1. inhaling: 2. stop the airstream somewhere in the oral or nasal cavity: 3. release of the airstream:

Consonants: bilabial stops 1.targets: /b, p, p h, m/ 2.Place: bilabials 3.Manners: stops b p p h m place[labial]     manner[continuent]    

Voiced: /b/ vs. /p/ /b/: voiced, vocal cords birate in sound production /p/: voiceless b p place[labial]   manner[continuent]   [voiced]  

Aspiration: /p/: unaspirated /ph/: aspirated b pph Place[labial]   Manner[continuent]   

Vowels:

Vowel quality: formants

Formant tracing: Chinese [shi]

What is a formant? Ladefoged: A group of overtones corresponding to a resonating frequency of the air in the vocal tract. [P.293] Laver: They (formants) represent the acoustic consequences of the changing shapes of the mouth and pharynx in terms of the varying frequency-values of the resonances of the vocal tract. [P.103) Pickett: In speech, the resonances of the vocal tract are called formants.[P.23]

Vocal tract and its type in vowels: Pickett 1999:41

Vocal tract as a tube:

Vocal tract shapes for vowels:

Know further? 1.The length from the lips to glottis is about 17 cm 2.The lowest frequency at which such a tube resonates will have a wavelength ( ) 4 times the length of the tube: = 4 x 17 cm = 68 cm 3. The formula for the frequencies of the vocal tract resonance are: F1= c/ ( =4 l, where 1= the length of the tube=17cm) c=34400cm (a constant number for the velocity in the open air) F2=3c/ F3=5c/

Formants of English vowels (Olive 1993)

Formants of a student’s English vowels

F1 & F2: a vowel chart

English vowel chart:

Vowels in other languages Southern Min (12 males)

Mandarin Chinese

French:

Southern Min and Hakka: male and female

French:

Hakka: 30 speakers

Hakka: average of 30 speakers

VOT: properties of stop consonants

English VOT

Our studies: NSE VOT

NSE in columns

Hakka VOT: P ph t th k kh ts tsh VOT(ms)

Hakka: aspirated vs. unaspirated

SM VOT

Students from different countries for Chinese VOT:

Stop: energy and place

Fricatives: friction noises a. 私 [s  ] b. 詩 [  ] c. 西 [  i] d. she

Noise frequencies: Languages[s] [][][][][][] English Polish Mandarin Hakka

Peaks of noises in LPC:

More on frictions:

Nasals:

Syllabic nasals: [m] [n] [  ]

Nasal + vowel: transition

Place reflected in transition:

Place matters:

Vowels + nasal= transition and place

Also place matters:

Nasalized vowels: nasal murmur / e  / / e / Nasal murmur

Nasalized vowels and nasal murmur

Freanch:/  / and /  /

Southern Min nasal murmurs

SM: ne  Nasal murmur

Nasalized by degrees?

SM nasalized vs. oral vowels in chart

Now: What can we do with phonetics? 1. one language, different speakers 2. across language: Mandarin vs. English Mandarin vs. Southern Min English vs. other languages Mandarin vs. other languages 3. acoustic phonetic studies

Case 1: VOT in EFL Topic: INTERLANGUAGE PRODUCTION OF ENGLISH STOP CONSONANTS: A VOT ANALYSIS

Methodology: Subjects: 20 EFL students –H EFL 5 girls (the age of 13 to 16) 5 boys (the age of 13 to 16) In the HEFL group, 9 subjects passed the basic of GEPT and the other passed Cave. 6 subjects came from the same public junior high school, 3 subjects came from Kaohsiung, and the other came from Yunlin.

–L EFL 5 girls (the age of 15 to 16) 5 boys (the age of 15 to 16) There is no one passing the GEPT. 9 subjects came from the same public high school in Yunlin County and the other came from a public vocational school in Yunlin County.

6 NSEs (Native speaker of American English) –3 females (the age of 19 to 24) –3 males (the age of 19 to 24) 3 subjects came from Utah, 2 subjects came from Ohio, and 1 subject came from Washington D.C. They live in Taiwan for 5 months to 19 months, and the mean period is 9.4 months. They are missionaries. They speak Mandarin.

Instruments: Fill in a questionnaire –About subjects linguistic and education background. Reading Lists –English list 27 words –Mandarin list 16 words –/ ph, th, kh, p, t, k/ /i, u, a/ –Southern Min list 24 words –/ph, th, kh, p, t, k, b, g/ /i, u, a/

Sound Record program –Computer Praat –The program written by Paul Boersma and David Weenink Data Analysis: Get the VOT –Fetching the syllables –Storing to a new “WAV” file –Measuring VOT by Praat Make Worksheets –Using Excel program mean values standard deviations (SD) graphical representation The VOT values –SPSS 1. ANOVA tests

Results: 1. VOT production by the NSE group –The VOT values average 12.3, 22.2, and 36.0 msec for /p/, /t/, and /k/. –The VOT for /b, d, g/ and /p, t, k/ are similar. 2. VOT production in Mandarin by the EFL group –/p, t, k/ are short VOT value. –/p h, t h, k h / are long VOT value –/th/ is shorter than /ph/ –HEFL group in /p, t, k/ have shorter VOT values than LEFL group in Mandarin.

3. VOT production in Southern Min by EFL group –EFL, in Southern Min, are produced with short lag with voiceless unaspirated. –Aspirated ones are produced with long lag. –There are less obvious between labial and alveolar stop in Southern Min. –Fast speech rate may get lower VOT value. 4. EFL student’s VOT production in English –/b/ and /g/ with negative VOT values in English –In HEFL group, voiced and voiceless unaspirated with shorter VOT values than LEFL. –Voiceless aspirated stops consistently with higher VOT values by HEFL than LEFL.

Summary:

Implications?

Case study 2: Mandarin fricatives

A peak comparison: American English and American Chinese

Korean vs. Korean Chinese

Questions?