1. Linguistics week 6
Phonetics 4

2. Parameters for describing consonants
So far (this is not complete yet) we have
Airstream (usually the same for all consonants)
Place of articulation
Voicing
Manner of articulation
So, [p] is …
egressive pulmonic
bilabial
voiceless
plosive
This was what I was expecting in the quiz!

4. Affricates in Mandarin
/tsʰ/ and /ts/
/tʂʰ/ and /tʂ/
/tɕʰ/ and /tɕ/
Can you guess what they are?
What is the ʰ?
Why have I suddenly started using /asd/ instead of [asd]? (slant brackets instead of square brackets)
ㄘ and ㄗ
ㄔ and ㄓ(retroflex affricate)
ㄐ and ㄑ(alveolo-palatal affricate)

5. Aspiration Aspirated and unaspirated consonants
ㄅ is unaspirated [p]
Voicing for the next sound (a vowel) begins immediately after plosion
ㄆ is aspirated [ph] (puff of air)
Vocal folds remain open briefly, after the stop is released
English: spit vs pit (aspiration difference)
Compare pit vs bit
That is a voicing difference
Aspiration is much less important in English than in Chinese
Can you explain why?

6. Because aspiration in Mandarin is phonemic
pʰ and p are two different phones; two different sounds
but in Mandarin they are different phonemes
/pʰa/ (ㄆㄚ) and /pa/ (ㄅㄚ) represent different meanings
in English pʰ and p do not help to distinguish meaning
There are no minimal pairs like pʰa and pa
Slant brackets are used for phonemic transcriptions //
Square brackets are used for phonetic transcriptions []
This is an important point
We will return to it later

7. Mandarin sounds

8. This week
Sound description, recording and animation. Take a look at and click on “English library”.
Read about vowels, pp What are the parameters for describing vowels (like voicing, airstream etc with consonants)?

9. Vowels vs consonants Consonants Vowels
There is some obstruction in the vocal tract (=the mouth or throat)
Vowels
There is no such obstruction (the air flows freely)

10. Regional accent variation
English accents
The consonants are generally the same
The vowels are often very different
Mandarin Chinese accents
Pronunciation of consonants often varies widely according to region

11. Describing vowels Say [i] followed by [æ] (like cat)
Think about where your tongue is
Look in a mirror
What changes? What can you say about the position of the tongue in the two cases?
This is one of the parameters of vowel description

12. Another parameter Now compare [ɑ] (father) with [æ] (like cat)
You can also try comparing the vowels in ㄢ and ㄤ
Notice any difference?
This is the second distinguishing parameter (factor)

13. The third parameter Fromkin (p254) invites you to compare 四 with 速
Or more straightforwardly, compare ㄧ with ㄩ
The difference should be quickly apparent

14. So, the 3 parameters are…

15. The IPA vowel chart
This is a stylized representation of the inside of the mouth
It shows
the cardinal vowels
marked by black dots
and the approximate position of vowels common in many languages
The next slide shows the position of English vowels on the same kind of chart

16. British American

17. Links for vowel sounds General American (GenAm)
British “Received Pronunciation” (RP)
Cardinal vowels (those shown on the IPA chart) and diphthongs of RP and GenAm
This is one of the best designed web interfaces I have ever seen, by the way!

18. Diphthongs
Fromkin describes these as a vowel + a glide (p255) so /bajt/; /bawt/
Most other writers say there are two vowels involved
an initial vowel, in “bite” or ㄞ = a
a target vowel, in “bite” or ㄞ = I
the tongue moves towards I
but doesn’t actually reach its target
Check the cool website for a demo

19. Tense vs lax vowels: Fromkin
British vowels are short /I/ or long /i:/
Some people write the transcription with the colon (:)
American vowels are generally described as either tense or lax
See p255
Some of the tense vowels correspond to diphthongs in British pronunciation
/lod/  /ləʊd/; /led/  /leId
This means that /e/ is available to transcribe American /ɛ/
so, “led” is /lɛd/ in American transcription, but /led/ in British transcription
And /led/ would be spelled “laid” to an American linguist
A question for you to consider:
We talked about 3 parameters for describing vowels. Why don’t we have a 4th parameter “length” or “tenseness” or “laxness”?

20. Quizzes, exams etc etc
In week 10, there is an 80 minute midterm exam. You can expect questions on:
Anything I talked about in class
Anything on these slides
Anything from the web resources I referred you to
Anything from Fromkin, in the sections related to what we covered in class
For some questions, you will write a short answer of a few words, maybe a number, maybe a symbol
For other questions, you will write a short paragraph.
You will get a half credit for anything you write in Chinese

21. Quizzes, exams etc etc The quiz last time was slightly disappointing
So, next week there will be another quiz
All consonants (including approximants/glides and affricates) found in English and Mandarin
Vowels of American English, classified according to Figure 6.5 in Fromkin
If I ask for a symbol, write only one symbol
If I ask for the 3 or 4 parameters which define a sound, write the term for each of the 3 or 4 parameters!