1. Some Speech Basics Phonetic Transcription, Context-dependent variation, and Intonation
Jennifer J. Venditti
Postdoctoral Research Associate
Columbia Computer Science
12 September 2002

2. 1. Phonetic Transcription

3. Spelling vs. Sounds same spelling = different sounds
o comb, tomb, bomb oo blood, food, good
c court, center, cheese s reason, surreal, shy
same sound = different spellings
[i] sea, see, scene, receive, thief [s] cereal, same, miss
[u] true, few, choose, lieu, do [ay] prime, buy, rhyme, lie
combination of letters = single sound
ch child, beach th that, bathe
oo good, foot gh laugh
single letter = combination of sounds
x exit, Texas u use, music
‘silent’ letters
k knife, know p psycho, pterodactyl
e moose, bone gh through

4. Figures 4.1 and 4.2:
Jurafsky & Martin (2000),
pages

5. On-line pronunciation dictionaries
phoneset
derived from:
number of wordforms
English
variety
LDC PRONLEX
ARPAbet
90,694
American
CMUdict
100,000
CELEX
IPA
160,595
British
Source: Jurafsky & Martin (2000), page 121.

6. Places of articulation
alveolar
post-alveolar/palatal
dental
velar
uvular
labial
pharyngeal
laryngeal/glottal

7. Vocal fold vibration
[UCLA Phonetics Lab demo]

8. Articulatory parameters for English consonants (in ARPAbet)
PLACE OF ARTICULATION
bilabial
labio-dental
inter-dental
alveolar
palatal
velar
glottal
stop p b t d k g q
fric. f v th dh s z sh zh h
affric. ch jh
nasal m n ng
approx w
l/r y
flap dx
MANNER OF ARTICULATION
VOICING:
voiceless
voiced

9. American English vowel space
FRONT
BACK
HIGH
LOW iy ih eh ae aa ao uw uh ah ax ix ux ey ow aw oy ay

10. [iy] vs. [uw]
(From a lecture given by Rochelle Newman)

11. [ae] vs. [aa]
(From a lecture given by Rochelle Newman)

12. Acoustic landmarks [p] [t] [ix] [ih] [ax] [ae] [iy] [sh] [s] [n] [l]
“Patricia and Patsy and Sally”

13. Articulators in action
(Sample from the Queen’s University / ATR Labs
X-ray Film Database)
“Why did Ken set the soggy net on top of his deck?”

14. Exercise (1) Write your name in: (a) IPA. (b) ARPAbet (if possible).
Choose one of the following triplets and transcribe each word in both IPA and ARPAbet.
cone, tomb, bottom
blood, fool, hook
court, race, cheese
reason, surreal, cash
thing, these, other
laugh, through, ghoul

15. Figures 4.1 and 4.2:
Jurafsky & Martin (2000),
pages

16. IPA consonants
(Distributed by the International Phonetics Association.)

17. IPA vowels
(Distributed by the International Phonetics Association.)

18. Context-dependent phonetic variation

19. Context-dependent variation
What we would consider a single ‘sound’ can be pronounced differently depending on the phonetic context. For example, the phoneme /t/:
Figure 4.8: Jurafsky & Martin (2000), page 104.

20. Another regular alternation
I can ask [ay k ae n ae s k]
I can see [ay k ae n s iy]
I can bake [ay k ae m b ey k]
I can play [ay k ae m p l ey]
I can go [ay k ae ng g ow]
I can carry [ay k ae ng k ae r iy]
n  m / __ [+labial stop]
n  ng / __ [+velar stop]
(inopportune [n], insatiable [n], impervious [m],
immortal [m], incoherent [ng], ingratitude [ng])

21. English plurals hiccup [p]  hiccups flood [d]  floods
sock [k]  socks scab [b]  scabs
habit [t]  habits frog [g]  frogs
spoof [f]  spoofs comb [m]  combs
hearth [th]  hearths grave [v]  graves
lathe [dh]  lathes
beach [ch]  beaches fool [l]  fools
dish [sh]  dishes sewer [r]  sewers
judge [jh]  judges pies [ay]  pies
race [s]  races curfew [uw]  curfews
axe [s]  axes sofa [ax]  sofas
raise [z]  raises

22. Phonological rules for Engl. plurals
Assume that the lexical form of plural is /z/.
Insertion:   ix / [+sibilant] ^__ z #
Devoicing: z  s / [-voice] ^__ #
bus+PL cape+PL hen+PL
/b ah s +z/ /k ey p +z/ /h eh n +z/
insertion: b ah s +ix z
devoicing: -- k ey p s --
[b ah s ix z] [k ey p s] [h eh n z]
/b ah s +z/ /k ey p +z/ /h eh n +z/
devoicing: b ah s s k ey p s --
insertion:
*[b ah s s] [k ey p s] [h eh n z]

23. 3. Intonation

24. Intonation makes the difference
A: I’d like to fly to Davenport, Iowa on TWA.
B: TWA doesn’t fly there ...
B1: They fly to Des Moines.
B2: They fly to Des Moines.
A: What types of foods are a good source of vitamins?
B1: Legumes are a good source of vitamins.
B2: Legumes are a good source of vitamins.
A1: I met Mary and Elena’s mother at the mall yesterday.
A2: I met Mary and Elena’s mother at the mall yesterday.

25. Intonation is about ... Pitch Melody, or “tune” Alignment
Prominence and focus
Chunking, or “phrasing”
... and more ...

26. Vocal fold vibration Physical: Fundamental frequency (F0)
 rate of vibration of the vocal folds
Perceptual: Pitch
fundamental freq.
perceived pitch
[UCLA Phonetics Lab demo]

27. Pitch range
Differences can be due to physical size, gender, social identity, excitement level, linguistic, etc ...
[from Prosody on the Web tutorial on pitch]

28. English Pitch Accents * * Lenora works for Lucent.
Certain words in the speech stream can be made structurally and perceptually prominent by the use of pitch accents.
* *
Lenora works for Lucent.
Pitch accents are local pitch movements (e.g. rising, falling) or pitch maxima/minima that accompany these metrically strong syllables.
The intonational “tune” is the melody that is created by sequences of pitch accents over an utterance.

29. Intonational tunes: What do they mean?
Lenora works for Lucent. * *
[Tell me something about the world ...] *
[... Really? I wasn’t aware of that.] *
[... I hope she doesn’t have stock options.] * *
[I’ve told you a million times ...]
[See works by Bolinger, Ladd, Hirschberg ...]

30. Alignment differences cue “assertion” vs. “suggestion”
A: I’d like to fly to Davenport, Iowa on TWA.
B: TWA doesn’t fly there ...
they fly to Des Moines
they fly to Des Moines

31. Alignment with different words
* *
Legumes are a good source of vitamins.
 “broad focus”
A: What types of foods are a good source of vitamins? *
B: LEGUMES are a good source of vitamins.
 “narrow focus”
# Legumes are a good source of VITAMINS.

32. Placement of focal accent
LEGUMES are a good source of vitamins
The rise-fall tune (= “I assert this”) shifts locations.

33. Placement of focal accent
Legumes are a GOOD source of vitamins
The rise-fall tune (= “I assert this”) shifts locations.

34. Placement of focal accent
legumes are a good source of VITAMINS
The rise-fall tune (= “I assert this”) shifts locations.

35. Chunking, or “phrasing”
A1: I met Mary and Elena’s mother at the mall yesterday.
A2: I met Mary and Elena’s mother at the mall yesterday.

36. Phrasing can disambiguate
Mary & Elena’s mother
mall
I met Mary and Elena’s mother at the mall yesterday
One intonation phrase with relatively flat overall pitch range.

37. Phrasing can disambiguate
Elena’s mother
mall
Mary
I met Mary and Elena’s mother at the mall yesterday
Separate phrases, with expanded pitch movements.

38. Lists of numbers, nouns twenty.eight.five ninety.four.three
seventy.three.seven
forty.seven.seven
seventy.seven.seven
coffee cake and cream
chocolate ice cream and cake
fish fingers and bottles
cheese sandwiches and milk
cream buns and chocolate
[from Prosody on the Web tutorial on chunking]

39. Exercise (2) 1. Sketch out an F0 contour of
Does Manitowoc have a bowling alley?
as uttered in the following two contexts:
(a) “I know Green Bay has a bowling alley, but ...”
(b) “I know Manitowoc has a theater, but ...”
2. Complete the sentence:
When Madonna sings the song ...
Describe the prosodic phrasing of your utterance.
3. How can phrasing help disambiguate the utterance:
that’s right at the traffic light