II. Speech sounds

Speech production and perception transmitted Speech production (move the organs) >>>>>>>>>>>> speech perception (hearing the sounds)

---Articulatory phonetics: the study of the production of speech sounds

---Acoustic phonetics: the study of the physical properties of the sounds produced in speech

---Auditory phonetics: the study of the perception of speech sounds.

Speech organs Lungs, trachea([ 动 ] 气管 ), throat, nose, mouth. Mouth: tongue, palate([ 解 ] 上腭 ) Throat: pharynx([ 解 ] 咽 ), larynx([ 解 ] 喉 ), vocal f

olds (vocal cords[ 解 ] 声带 ) Airstream(lung)>>Bronchioles([ 解 ] 细支气管 ) & br

onchi([ 医 ] 支气管 )>>trachea>>pulmonic sound ( 肺闭塞音 )

The vocal folds apart—voiceless [p,s,t] The vocal folds close together—voiced [b,z,d] The vocal folds totally closed [?]

mouth Upper lip Upper teeth Alveolar( 齿槽 )ridge Hard palate Soft palate (velum 【解剖学】 软腭 ) Uvula([ 解 ] 小舌 ) Lower lip Lower teeth Tongue Mandible( 下颚 , 下颚

骨 ) Tongue: tip, blade, front, back, root

consonants Sounds produced by constricting or obstructing the

vocal tract at some place to divert, impede, or completely shut off the flow of air in the oral cavity

Factors to distinguish between consonants

--manners of articulation: The actual relationship between articulators and the way in which the air passes through certain parts of the vocal tract

--places of articulation: Where in the vocal tract there is approximation, narrowing, or the obstruction of air.

manners of articulation: Stop ( 爆破音 plosive): [p, b; t, d; k, g] [m,

n] Fricative( 摩擦音 ): [f,v; s,z] this, through, sh

are, genre Median approximation: [w, j] Lateral ( 边音，旁流音 approximant): [l] Affricate( 塞擦音 ): church

places of articulation: Bilabial( 双唇音 ):[p,b,m] Labiodental( 唇齿音 ): this, through Alveolar( 齿槽音 ): [t,d; n, s,z; l] Postal veolar ( 后齿龈音 ):share, genre Retroflex( 卷舌音 ): [r] Palatal( 上腭音 ): [j] Velar([ 语 ] 软颚音 ): [k,g] Uvular( 小舌音 ): richtich The consonants of English:

[p] voiceless bilabial stop

vowels The sound produced without any obstruction so the tu

rbulence or a total stopping of the air can be perceived

--Semi-vowels, or semi-consonants [w,j] The criteria of vowel description

--The part of the tongue that is raised (front, center, back)

--The extent to which the tongue raises in the direction of the palate (high, mid, low)

--The opening made at the lips(rounding, unrounding of the lips)

vowels The theory of cardinal vowels: 8 vowels Secondary: another 8 vowels Vowel glides Pure or monophthong( 单元音 ):the quality of the vow

el remain constant throughout the articulation Diphthong( 双重元音 ): a single movement of the tong

ue is involved in the production of a vowel [ai] Triphthong: a double movement of the tongue involved

in the production of a vowel [tower]

Phonetics and Pronunciation IPA:International Phonetic Alphabet RP:Received Pronunciation Tense vowel—lax vowel [i:, i] Thus, a vowel can be described as: [i:] high, front, tense, unrounded vowel [u:] high, front, tense, rounded vowel

Coarticulation and transcrition When simultaneous or overlapping articulation ar

e involved, there is coarticulation--Lamb (a sound becomes more like the following so

und—anticipatory coarticulation)--Map (a sound becomes more like the preceding so

und—perseverative coarticulation) Transcription: --narrow transcription (the use of more specific sym

bols to show more phonetic details)--Broad transcrption (the use of a simple set of symb

ols in our description of a sound) Peak---speak

Suprasegmental features 超语段特征 --those aspects of speech that involve more

than single sound segments

Syllable Stress Tone intonation

Syllable Monosyllabic (mean, dog, cat) Polysyllabic (interesting, excellent) Syllabic structure syllable onset rhyme(nucleus) coda (onset) Rhyme(Coda) cat clean crisp Open syllable (a syllable without coda) Closed syllable (a syllable with coda) ( ( (C) C) C ) V ( ( ( ( C) C) C) C) sixths string (C)V (C ) mang, man

Sinority scale

What governs the arrangement of different classes of sounds in the syllable.

Sinority scale: vowel > approximants > nasals > fricatives > stops

Clasp lcaps

Syllabification and the maximal onset principle The Maximal Onset Principle: the requirem

ent that when there is a choice as to where to place a consonant, it is put into the onset rather than the coda.

coun-try princ-

iple.

Stress:the degree of force used in producing a syllable

At the word level, it only applies to words with at least two syllables (word, happy)

At the sentence level, a monosyllabic word may be said to be stressed relative to other words in the sentence. ( He went there)

Stress in English may change meanings ( produce / produce, black board / blackboard, black bird / blackbird)

Primary stresses (the more stressed syllable) secondary stresses (the less stressed syllable)

--Phenomenal transportation Sentence stress

--John flew to New York yesterday.

--John flew to New York yesterday.

--John flew to New York yesterday.

--John flew to New York yesterday.

Phonological study Phonology is the study of the sound system

of languages. It is concerned with the linguistic patterns of sounds in human languages, with its primary aim being to discover the principles that govern the way sounds are organized in languages, and to explain the variations that occur.

Minimal pairs The pair of sounds where the replacement

of one by another would produce a change in meaning of the word concerned.

Pit / put, bit /pit, bit/ but By using the minimal pair test, we can

identify some important units in a language which can signify a difference in meaning, thus they are recognized as the phonemes, that is, the unit of explicit sound contrast..

The phoneme theory The word phoneme refers to a unit of

explicit sound contrast, therefore, the existence of a minimal pair automatically grants phonemic status to the sounds responsible for the contrast.

BY selecting one type of sound instead of another we can distinguish one word from another.

Language differ in the selection of contrastive sounds: speak / peak, dada /date

Allophones (the variants of a phoneme)

Speak / peak (allophones of the same phoneme /p/. Allophones should be in complementary distribution.

The phenomenon of variation in the pronunciation of phonemes in different positions is called allophony or allophonic variation. (deal /lead)

allophones Not all the phones in complementary

distribution are allophones of the same phoneme. There are restriction: the phones must be phonetically similar and in complementary distribution.

Phonetic similarity: speak/ peak, voiceless bilabial stops (aspiration); deal / lead, lateral approximants (place of articulation)

Free variants ( dialect, habit, individual preference)

Phonological processes Assimilation (a process by which one sound beco

mes more like the neighboring one) Nasalization (cap / can ) Dentalization (tent / tenth) Velarization (since/ sink) Devoicing (five past, love to) Regressive assimilation (a following sound influe

nces the preceding one) Progressive assimilation ( a preceding sound influ

ences the following one)

Phonological process A process in which a target or affected segment

undergoes a structural change in certain environment or context.

Any phonological process must have three aspects to it (1) a set of sounds to undergo the process; (2) a set of sounds produced by the process); (3) a set of situation in which the process applies

Voiced fricative voiceless / ___voiceless /v/ [f]: a voiced fricative is transformed into

the corresponding voiceless sound when it appears before a voiceless sound.

Epenthesis: a an: an hour, an apple

Plural forms of English nouns Sibilants: see, zero, share, genre, chair, jum

p /s/ appears after voiceless sounds /z/ appears after voiced sounds /ez/ appears after sibilants /z/ is the basic form, thus, underlying for

m or underlying representation, whereas /s/ and /ez/ are the derived form, thus surface form or surface representation.

Rule ordering z s / [-voice, C] ____ (devoicing) o e / sibilant ____z (epenthesis) si:t +z bed+z keis+z s N/A s devoicing N/A N/A N/A epenthesis si:ts bedz keiss

N/A N/A e epenthesis s N/A N/A devoicing si:ts bedz keises

Distinctive features Distinctive features refer to those features

which can distinguish one phoneme from another.

Many of the distinctive features are binary features. [-voiced] [+voiced]

/p/ [-voiced] /b/ [+voiced]