1. English Variety + Allophony
September 16, 2015

2. For Friday
Please take a stab at the following exercises from Chapter 2 of A Course in Phonetics before Wednesday:
A 1-10
B 11-20
D 31-40
(American speaker)
(phonemic transcriptions)
Here’s the online link:
This will be a practice transcription exercise that we will go over together in class.

3. A Word of Caution
The vowel system of English can vary greatly from one dialect to another.
Ex: the vowels of Canadian English have shifted away from their American counterparts…
(for some, but not all, speakers)
Shift #1: 
Unshifted:
Unshifted:
Shift #2: 
There are also new shifts underway!
Shift #3:  “head”
Shift #4:  “hid”
Shift #5:  “hood” 3

4. /u/-fronting
The final element of the shift involves the “fronting” of the vowel /u/.
Compare:
Los Angeles
Saskatoon
Note that not every Canadian does this.
Calgary
Also note that North American vowel systems are diverging:
Chicago
New York City
Source:

5. What’s Going On?
Vowel articulations can be characterized along four dimensions:
Height (of tongue body)
high, mid, low
Front-back (of tongue body)
front, central, back
Roundedness (of lips)
rounded vs. unrounded
“Tenseness”
tense/lax

6. Corner Vowels

7. X-Ray Videos

8. The (American) Vowel Space

11. Further Observations In the Canadian vowel shift:
However, this rule only applies to native
For borrowed words, 
[a] or [æ]
For example:
pasta
Mazda
gracias
garage
Also note: William Shatner.

12. Moral of the Story #2 Phonology is important.
Sounds exhibit patterns in a language.
Remember:
Specific allophones of a phoneme often emerge in specific phonetic contexts.
Ex: the flap in English.
appears when /t/ or /d/ precede an unstressed syllable
metal metallic
The production of specific allophones is often specified by phonological rule.

13. Rhotic vs. Non-Rhotic
Note: English is divided up between “rhotic” dialects and “non-rhotic” dialects
rhotic: appears everywhere
non-rhotic: disappears, sometimes
Rhotic dialects:
Canadian English, General American, Irish English, Scots English…
Non-Rhotic dialects:
English English, Australian English, some areas of the American East Coast…

14. Overheard in New York
Old lady with heavy accent, pointing to a closed store:
What’s that?
Young lady: I’m not sure.
Old lady: Is that a pahwn shop?
Young lady (startled): No, that looks like a pawn shop…
Old lady: That’s what I said--a pahwn shop.
Young lady (relieved): Ohhh, I thought you said ‘porn shop’!
Old lady: No, I said, ‘pahwn’, not ‘pahwn.’
Young lady: Oh, you say them exactly the same!
Source:

15. Overheard in New York Old lady: I do? Young lady: Yeah! Saw ‘aw.’
Old lady: Ahw.
Young lady: Now say ‘or.’
Young lady: No, it’s orrr. With an R.
Old lady: That’s what I said -- ‘ahw’.
Source:

16. Vowel Systems before , part 1
Rhotic dialects vary in the number of vowel distinctions that can be made before
System 1: five vowels
fear Coors weary
fare four wary lorry
far sorry
No distinctions between:
Also: no or
‘fur’

17. Vowel Systems before , part 2
 System 2: four vowels
fear weary
fare four, Coors wary lorry
far sorry
Also missing distinction:
Only four vowel phonemes:
/i/ /o/
/e/ /a/

18. Vowel Systems before , part 3
 (Canadian) System 3: five (?) + three vowels
fear Coors weary
fare four wary lorry, sorry
far
 (Canadian) System 4: five (?) + two (?) vowels
fear Coors weary, wary
fare four lorry, sorry
far

19. Vowel Systems before , part 4
 System 5: lots of vowels before
fear Coors weary lurid
fare four Mary lorry
far merry Murray
marry sorry

20. Canadian Raising
Another characteristic of Canadian English is the “raising” of the first part of the diphthongs and
In both cases, [a] 
“Raising” because low  mid
This happens only in certain sound environments:
“out” “loud”
“write” “ride”
“pipe” “bribe”
“like”

21. Canadian Raising (Canadian) Jon (American) Steve “house” “howl” “bike”
“bile”
For fun: switch Jon’s vowels in “bike” and “bile”
Also compare:
(Canadian) Aaron:
(American) Steve:
And, lastly, (Canadian?) Amber:

22. Consonants
To understand the Canadian Raising pattern, it helps to know more about the way consonants are produced.
Consonants productions may be characterized along a series of articulatory dimensions.
The first dimension to consider is: airstream mechanism.
Most speech sounds use a pulmonic egressive airstream mechanism.
= air is pushed out of the lungs
it’s possible to produce pulmonic ingressive sounds; give it a try.

23. Mid-Sagittal Diagram

24. Dimension 2: Phonation On the way out of the lungs
Air passes through the trachea
Reaches the larynx
The larynx consists of two “vocal folds” which may be opened and closed. If the vocal folds are:
1. open: air passes cleanly through (voiceless sound)
2. closed: air does not pass through (no sound)
3. lightly brought together: vocal folds vibrate in passing air
(= voiced sound)

25. Voicing, Schematized
Voiceless (folds open) Voiced (folds together)

26. Some Voicing Distinctions
Among English consonants:
Voiceless Voiced Voiceless Voiced
[f] [v] [p] [b]
[t] [d]
[s] [z] [k] [g]

27. More Voicing Allophony
Consonants at the ends of words are sometimes devoiced.
Voicelessness is denoted with the [ ] diacritic.
‘lose’ ‘peas’
Also: ‘languages’ example from homework #1.
You can sometimes get contrasts in English like:
‘peace’ ‘peas’
/l/ and can be (partially) voiceless in English when they follow an aspirated consonant:
‘play’

28. Aspiration Allophony /p/, /t/, and /k/ are aspirated if:
They are at the beginning of a stressed syllable.
They are not preceded by /s/.
Ex:

29. Dimension 3: Place of Articulation
After the stream of air passes through the larynx…
speech sounds may be made by constricting the flow of air through the vocal tract.
The place where such constrictions are made is known as the place of articulation of the sound.
Constrictions are made by placing an active articulator against (or near to) a passive articulator.
Generally:
active articulator = on the bottom
passive articulator = on the top

30. Anatomy Lesson #1

31. Anatomy Lesson #2

32. English Places of Articulation
Bilabial [p] [b] [m]
Labio-dental [f] [v]
Interdental
Alveolar [t] [d] [s] [n] [l]
Post-alveolar
Palatal [j]
Velar [k] [g]

33. X-Ray movie revisited
First check out “bogus”

34. Place Assimilation Place assimilation occurs when:
One consonant’s place of articulation becomes identical to that of a neighboring consonant.
/n/ often takes on the place of articulation of a following consonant.
‘unpleasant’
‘month’
‘engrossed’
alveolars--except for /s/ and /z/--assimilate to following dentals
Ex: width, tenth, wealth

35. Front and Back
Velars /k/ and /g/ become fronted when preceding front vowels
the diacritic for “fronter” is
the diacritic for “backer” is
Examples:
‘coo’
‘key’
These diacritics may apply to vowels, as well.
Ex: ‘spoons’

36. Dimension 4: Aperture
The type of sound created by a constriction in the vocal tract depends on how narrow the constriction is.
Stop (or plosive):
Complete closure of the articulators
The airstream cannot escape through the mouth.
Fricative:
Close approximation of two articulators
The airstream is partially obstructed
Turbulent airflow is produced.

37. English Stops Voiceless Voiced Bilabial [p] [b] Alveolar [t] [d]
Velar [k] [g]
Note--stops that:
Follow a vowel involve a closing gesture
Precede a vowel involve an opening gesture
 Stops at the end of words may be unreleased.
Example: “chocolate pudding”

38. English Fricatives Voiceless Voiced Labio-dental [f] [v] Interdental
Alveolar [s] [z]
Post-alveolar
Glottal [h]

39. Dimension 4: Aperture, continued
Approximant:
a gesture in which one articulator is close to another
but without turbulent airflow being produced.
4. Affricate
combination of stop + fricative

40. More English Consonants
Approximants:
labio-velar, voiced: [w]
palatal, voiced: [j]
Some dialects of English also distinguish:
‘witch’ [w] vs. ‘which’
= voiceless, labio-velar approximant
Affricates --
Voiced: Voiceless:

41. Really Narrow
The stops, /t/ and /d/, have a post-alveolar place of articulation in affricates:
An interesting question:
How do you say “tree” and “draw”?
/t/ and /d/ can become affricates before /r/:
‘tree’
‘draw’

42. Dimension 5: Retroflexion
A retroflex sound involves the curling back of the tip of the tongue.
generally in the post-alveolar region.
There is only one retroflex sound in English, and it’s an approximant:
In other languages, stops and fricatives can be retroflex, too.

43. Dimension 6: Nasality
The back of the soft palate may be lowered or raised.
This may allow air to pass through the nose during speech.
Air passes through the nose during the production of nasal consonants…
…but it does not pass through the mouth in “nasal stops”
bilabial [m]
alveolar [n]
velar

44. One Last Time

45. Nasalization Vowels often become nasalized before nasal consonants.
The diacritic for nasalization is:
Examples:
‘can’ vs. ‘cat’
‘Ben’ vs. ‘bed’
Before other consonants, /n/ can drop out completely…
and leave the nasalization behind:
‘can’t’ vs. ‘cat’
‘Winters’

46. Dimension 7: Laterality
Lateral approximant:
Obstruction of the airstream at a point along the center of the oral tract
With incomplete closure between one or both sides of the tongue and the roof of the mouth.
alveolar lateral: [l] “clear l”
velarized alveolar lateral: “dark l”
velarized = back of tongue is raised towards velum
Note: consonants which are not lateral are “central”.
Check out “oil” video

47. /l/ options
Dialectologically, /l/ is the most interesting consonant in English.
Dialect Type A:
“clear” /l/ syllable-initially: ‘leaf’
“dark” /l/ syllable finally: ‘feel’
Dialect Type B:
“clear” /l/ before front vowels: ‘leak’
“dark” /l/ everywhere else: ‘lock’
Others have “dark” /l/ pretty much everywhere.
(and maybe even lose the alveolar closure!)

48. Consonant Dimensions: Summary
[t] [j]
Airstream Mechanism pulmonic egressive p.e.
Phonation Type voiceless voiced
Place of Articulation alveolar palatal
Aperture stop approx.
Retroflexion non-retroflex non-retro
Nasality oral oral
Laterality central central

49. Manner of Articulation
Phoneticians usually combine dimensions 4-7 under the rubric of manner of articulation.
Example manners of articulation:
[t] = (oral) stop
[n] = nasal stop
[v] = fricative
[w] = approximant
[l] = lateral approximant
= retroflex approximant
= affricate

50. Notes Consonant sounds are generally assumed to be: pulmonic egressive
oral
central
…unless stated otherwise
Big picture thought:
Through combinatorics, language makes a large number of distinctions out of a minimal number of articulatory gestures.

51. English Consonant Chart

53. The Canadian Shift, DiagrammedX 53