2. Phonetics, part III: Suprasegmentals October 18, 2010

3. The Plan for Today 1.Run through the rest of the phonetics practice exercises. 2.Discuss suprasegmentals. 3.The plan for the future: More phonetics practice on Wednesday and Friday. Homework #2 due next Monday. Mid-term on the Friday after that! (Oct. 29th)

4. Oh by the way… The textbook mentions the existence of a mid-low, back, rounded vowel… “Open O”: [ ] Compare: Calgary Chicago New York Saskatoon Source: http://accent.gmu.edu Also check out: Calgary:Oxford, England:

5. Basic Distinction #1 Last time, we discussed the difference between vowels and consonants. Consonants: 1. Voicing 2. Place of Articulation 3. Manner of Articulation Vowels: 1. High/mid/low 2. Front/central/back 3. Rounded/unrounded 4. Tense/lax

6. Basic Distinction #2 Consonants and vowels together make up the class of segments in phonetics. Each segment is a configuration of articulations… ordered in time in an utterance. Languages also have phonetic features which can span across multiple segments. = suprasegmental features supra = “above” the segment. One basic example: Languages organize strings of segments into syllables.

7. Syllabicity Syllables are hard to define phonetically… But native speakers have an intuitive sense of what does and does not constitute a syllable. Normally, syllables will have: consonants (optionally) at beginning and end; a vowel in the middle. However, in English, nasals (/m/, /n/) and liquids (/l/, /r/) can form the “peak” of a syllable. = syllabic consonants.

8. Syllabic Examples Syllabic consonants are transcribed with a small vertical dash underneath them. Examples: ‘chasm’ ‘ribbon’ ‘eagle’ ‘feature’

9. Suprasegmentals Other suprasegmental features include: 1.Stress 2.Length 3.Tone 4.Intonation These suprasegmental features are always defined in a relative manner. Some segments are longer than others, Some syllables are more stressed than others, etc.

10. 1. Stress Stress makes a syllable sound more prominent. (due to increased articulatory effort) Stress may be denoted by an accent over the vowel in the stressed syllable. Examples of stress contrasts: “contrast” (N) (V) “insult” (N) (V)

11. 2. Length Languages can distinguish segments on the basis of length. = some segments simply last longer than others. Italian contrasts both long and short vowels and consonants.

12. Danish Vowels Danish contrasts long and short vowels.

13. 3. Tone In tone languages, speakers change the rate at which their vocal folds vibrate to signal important differences in meaning. Note: we hear the rate of vocal fold vibration as the “pitch” of a speaker’s voice. In tone languages, each syllable is produced with a characteristic tone. 1.Register tone languages Pitch must hit a certain level on any given syllable. 2.Contour tone languages Pitch changes on a single syllable may form a complex pattern.

14. Ibibio Tones Ibibio is a register tone language spoken in southern Nigeria

15. Mandarin Tone ma1: mother ma2: hemp ma3: horse ma4: to scold Mandarin (Chinese) is a classic example of a contour tone language.

16. Mandarin Sentences ma1-ma0 ma4 ma3. “Mother scolds the horse.” ma3 ma4 ma1-ma0. “The horse scolds mother.”

17. Intonation English is not a tone language like Chinese or Ibibio… but it has something called “intonation” English intonation: 1.High and Low accents attach to stressed syllables (transcribed with H* or L*) 2.High and Low tones appear at the ends of phrases and utterances. (transcribed with H% or L%) The important difference: English “tones” are specified by context, not by the lexicon.

18. Intonation Examples In English intonation, statements usually have: A high accented syllable (H*) within the sentence. A low tone (L%) at the end of the sentence. H*L% Manny came with Anna. Meanwhile, questions usually have: A low accented syllable (L*) within the sentence. A high tone (H%) at the end of the sentence. L* H% Manny came with Anna?