2. Nasals + Liquids + Everything Else December 4, 2015

3. The Daily Heads Up I have review sheets! I also have some spectrograms for you to decipher! Production Exercise #4 is due tonight at 5 pm! Final Exam: Saturday, December 12 th 8-10 am (!) Kinesiology B 126 Guess what? There is a production component to the final exam. The production exam will be e-mailed to everyone by the end of Monday.

4. Nasal Acoustics The acoustics of nasal stops are quite complex. Here’s the general pattern of what to look for in a spectrogram for nasals: 1.Periodic voicing. 2.Overall amplitude lower than in vowels. 3.Low frequency first formant. 4.Higher formants have low intensity. 5.Formants have broad “bandwidths”. Let’s account for each of these acoustic characteristics in turn.

5. Decreased Overall Amplitude [m]

6. Damping The decreased overall amplitude of nasals is due to several factors, including damping. Recall that resonance occurs when: a sound wave travels through an object that sound wave is reflected......and reinforced, on a periodic basis The periodic reinforcement sets up alternating patterns of high and low air pressure = a standing wave

7. Resonance in a closed tube

8. Damping, schematized In a closed tube: With only one pressure pulse from the loudspeaker, the wave will eventually dampen and die out Why? The walls of the tube absorb some of the acoustic energy, with each reflection of the standing wave.

9. Damping Comparison A heavily damped wave wil die out more quickly... Than a lightly damped wave:

10. Damping Factors The amount of damping in a tube is a function of: The volume of the tube The surface area of the tube The material of which the tube is made More volume, more surface area = more damping Think about the resonant characteristics of: a Home Depot a post-modern restaurant a movie theater an anechoic chamber

11. An Anechoic Chamber

12. Inside Your Nose In nasals, air flows through the nasal cavities. The resonating “filter” of nasal sounds therefore has: increased volume increased surface area  increased damping Damping decreases amplitude… And spreads energy across a wider range of frequencies. = increased bandwidth

13. Bandwidth in Spectrograms The formants in nasals have increased bandwidth, in comparison to the formants in vowels. F3 of [m] F3 of

14. Nasal Plosion One last, random thing about nasals-- It is possible to “release” an oral stop closure by opening up the velo-pharyngeal port. The release burst caused thereby is referred to as nasal plosion. Peter says hidden, sadden, sudden, leaden with nasal plosion without nasal plosion Nasal plosion occurs in “pre-stopped” nasals in Russian: [dno]“bottom”[dna]“of the day”

15. Laterals Laterals are produced by constricting the sides of the tongue towards the center of the mouth. Ex: [l], a lateral approximant Laterals can also be formed by constricting on one side of the mouth only…

16. Lateral Palatography

17. Lateral Places The IPA includes symbols for lateral approximants at four different places of articulation Peter says: There are also two symbols for lateral fricatives. They are voiceless and voiced alveolars.

18. Lateral Approximant Contrasts Italian contrasts alveolar and palatal laterals.

19. Retroflex Laterals Toda contrasts dental and retroflex laterals. Toda is spoken in southern India. In syllable-final position, Korean laterals are typically retroflex.

20. Other Laterals Mid-Waghi contrasts dental, alveolar and velar laterals. Mid-Waghi is spoken in the highlands of New Guinea. Zulu contrasts alveolar lateral approximants and fricatives. Zulu is spoken in South Africa.

21. Lateral Acoustics Laterals have resonances like vowels… Mid-Waghi:[alala] but are weaker in intensity.

22. [l] vs. [n] Laterals are usually more intense than nasals less volume, less surface area = less damping  break between vowels and laterals is less clear [ ] [ n ]

23. [l] vs. [l] and are primarily distinguished by F3 much lower in Also: [l] usually has lower F2 in English [ ]

24. Dark vs. Clear /l/ [alala] /l/ often has low F2 in English because it is velarized.

25. Velarization in English Different dialects: 1.[l] is velarized only in syllable-final position. 2.[l] is velarized everywhere except before front vowels. 3.[l] is velarized everywhere

26. Velarization in English Note: velarization of [l] leads to low F1 and low F2.  closely resembles [o]. Leading to dialect Option 4: The [l] disappears and the velarization is left behind. The Columbus, Ohio “[o:]dies” station Coldplay (Devon accent):

27. A Note About F3 What about F3 distinctions? They’re unusual. For auditory reasons: sensitivity to frequency distinctions drops off in the higher frequency regions. However: English has very low F3.

28. English English is distinctive because it has a very low F3.

29. And Again

30. Toothpick Time typically combines three different approximant constrictions: 1.Post-alveolar (retroflex) 2.Lip rounding (labialization) 3.Pharyngeal constriction (pharyngealization) Hence, might be a better transcription. English speakers make the retroflex constriction in two different ways: 1.Tongue bunching 2.Tongue curling  The articulation of is very complex.

31. Bunching and Curling

32. Back to the videotape…

33. Rhoticized Vowels Retroflexion is a feature which may be superimposed on other vowel articulations. These vowels are said to be rhoticized. Rhoticized vowels are contrastive in Badaga, a language spoken in southern India.

34. Retroflex Vowel Spectrograms [be]

35. Rhoticized vowels in English Vowels before in Canadian + American English are consistently rhoticized. Check out Bruce + Peter’s productions of “hard”. Recall that there is a reduced set of vowel contrasts in this environment: Also note that there are alternative transcriptions for syllabic. Namely:

36. The Remainders There are a handful of approximants in the IPA which are not considered glides, because they don’t correspond to high vowel articulations. These approximants correspond to flaps at the same places of articulation. An alveolar lateral flap is also possible:

37. Taps and Flaps There is a technical distinction made between taps and flaps. Tap: strictly up and down movement, with brief contact between articulators. Spanish: “expensive” Flap: brief contact during backwards or forwards movement of an active articulator. N.A. English:“ladder” or “latter” Note: Deadheaded Ed had edited it.

38. Tap and Trill Acoustics [pero]‘dog’ From Spanish: ‘but’