1. Spoken language phonetics: Transcription, articulation, consonants
LING 200
Winter 2009

2. Plan for today Phonetic transcription Phonetics
Articulation of speech sounds
Description of consonants

3. First, some amazing things about language

4. What is a phonetic transcription?
Way of writing languages that
have no writing system or
have writing systems that don’t represent sounds consistently
Spoken vs. signed languages

5. A language with no writing system
Witsuwit’en
‘driftwood’
‘cane’
‘footwear’
[təz]
[thʌz]
[qhɛ]
no writing system until recently; one developed in the 70s based on phonetic transcription
Notice
some familiar symbols (but may have new values)
some unfamiliar symbols

6. A language that doesn’t represent sound consistently
English
Different letters but same sound
she, tree, ski, believe, receive, amoeba
Same letter but different sounds
red, she, the, get

7. Why phonetic transcription needed
Allows us to “freeze” language and talk about
structure
how structure learned
how structure may vary between speakers
how structure may change over time
Provides a universal framework for the description of spoken languages

8. What is phonetics? Articulatory phonetics how sounds are produced
Acoustic phonetics
acoustic properties of sounds
Auditory phonetics
how sounds are perceived
All branches use phonetic transcription

9. Articulatory phonetics Some of the vocal tract structures relevant for speech
nasal cavity
pharynx
oral cavity

10. A clip from The Human Language Evolves (Human Language, vol
“6 dancers”
“the lips”
“3 different parts of the tongue”
“the soft palate”
“the larynx”

11. More vocal tract structures relevant for speech
Distinct sound results from location, degree of constriction in vocal tract

12. Phonetic description =Description of speech sounds
For consonants, mainly:
State of glottis
Place of articulation
Manner of articulation
This is just a first pass at some of the parameters that need to be mentioned when describing consonants.
Even for English we need more detailed descriptions (need to mention more parameters) when describing consonants.

13. Some places of articulation
upper articulator
lower articulator
“3 different parts of the tongue”
tip(3)/blade(6)
body(front-7/back-8)
root

14. Some structures in vocal tract
descriptive term
lips
labial
teeth
dental
alveolar ridge
alveolar
hard palate
palatal
soft palate = velum
velar

15. Some places of articulation in English
lower articulator
upper articulator
example
(bi-)
labial
bill
(apico-)
alveolar
dill
(dorso-)
velar
gill
For some places of articulation, there is a default value for the lower articulator and it’s typically not mentioned in such cases
see slide 13

16. Manner of articulation
= “degree of occlusion”
How close are lower and upper articulator?
Relatively close, narrowed or constricted (‘occluded’) airflow: consonants
Relatively far apart, unconstricted airflow: vowels

17. Some consonant manners of articulation
Stops: complete occlusion of airflow
bill, dill, gill
Fricatives: air pressure build-up behind occlusion; turbulent airflow
Liquids and glides: no pressure build-up

18. Some English fricatives
place of articulation
example
labiodental
fin
interdental
thin
alveolar
sin
palatal (palato-alveolar)
shin
laryngeal
hinder

19. Liquids and glides
= Approximants: No pressure build-up, non-turbulent airflow
place
example
liquids
alveolar
lip
retroflex*
rip
glides
palatal
yip
labial (actually labio-velar)
whip
*See slide 13

20. State of the glottis

21. The larynx and vocal cords
vocal cords are muscles and ligaments on cartilage

22. Some states of the glottis in English
voiced: vocal cords are close, vibrate when air passes through glottis
voiceless: vocal cords apart, do not vibrate
Some voiced and voiceless fricatives
voiceless
voiced
fooey
voodoo
thin
then
sip
zip
Aleutian
illusion

23. Back to phonetic transcription
Transcription symbols abbreviate phonetic descriptions
E.g. [p] = voiceless bilabial stop
Phonetic transcription in square brackets
International Phonetic Association (
interactive chart:

24. Summary Phonetic description of consonants place of articulation
manner of articulation (degree of occlusion)
state of glottis
Phonetic transcription

25. Question
Think of some consonant in a language you know that is not one of the speech sounds of English. Be sure to name the language.
Describe that consonant using whatever terms you like.
(Write your TA’s name on your paper and hand to your TA.)