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ING507 Linguistics The Nature of Language LECTURE 4: THE SOUNDS OF LANGUAGE

2The sounds of language

I take it you already know

Of tough and bough and cough and dough?

Others may stumble but not you

On hiccough, thorough, lough and through.

Well done! And now you wish, perhaps,

To learn of less familiar traps?

Beware of heard, a dreadful word,

That looks like beard and sounds like bird.

And dead: it’s said like bed, not bead –

For goodness sake don’t call it “deed”!

Watch out for meat and great and threat

(They rhyme with suite and straight and debt). T. S.W. quoted in Mackay (1970)

3The sounds of language (cont’d)

The sounds of spoken English do not match up with the letters of written English (i.e. there is no one sound - one symbol principle).

If we cannot use the letters of the alphabet in a consistent way to represent the sounds we produce, how can we describe the sounds of a language like English?

One solution is to produce a separate alphabet with symbols that represent sounds. Such a set of symbols does exist and is called the phonetic alphabet.

We will look at how these symbols are used to represent both the consonant and vowel sounds of English words.

4Phonetics

Phonetics is defined as the study of the characteristics of speech sounds. It provides methods for their description, classification and transcription.

Our main interest will be in articulatory phonetics, which is the study of how speech sounds are made, or articulated.

Other areas of study are acoustic phonetics, which deals with the physical properties of speech as sound waves in the air, and auditory phonetics (or perceptual phonetics) which deals with the perception, via the ear, of speech sounds.

5Voiced and voiceless sounds

Speech sounds are produced using the fairly complex oral equipment that humans have.

We start with the air pushed out by the lungs up through the trachea (or windpipe) to the larynx. Inside the larynx are your vocal folds (or vocal cords), which take two basic positions. When the vocal folds are spread apart, the air from the lungs passes

between them unimpeded. Sounds produced in this way are described as voiceless.

When the vocal folds are drawn together, the air from the lungs repeatedly pushes them apart as it passes through, creating a vibration effect. Sounds produced in this way are voiced.

6How to make speech sounds?

s

7Voiced and voiceless sounds (cont’d)

The distinction can be felt physically if you:

(i) place a fingertip on top of your Adam’s apple (i.e. the part of your larynx you can feel in your neck below your chin)

(ii) then produce sounds such as Z-Z-Z-Z or V-V-V-V. Since these are voiced sounds, you should be able to feel some vibration.

(iii) Keeping your fingertip in the same position, now make the sounds S-S-S-S or F-F-F-F. Because these are voiceless sounds, there should be no vibration.

8Place of articulation

Most consonant sounds are produced by using the tongue and other parts of the mouth to constrict the shape of the oral cavity through which the air is passing.

The terms used to describe many sounds are those which denote the place of articulation of the sound: that is, the location inside the mouth at which the constriction takes place.

If you crack a head right down the middle, you will be able to see which parts of the oral cavity are crucially involved in speech production.

9Place of articulation (cont’d): Consonants

We begin using the symbols of the phonetic alphabet for specific sounds. These symbols will be within square brackets [ ].

Bilabial sounds: These are sounds produced using both upper and lower lips. The initial sounds in the words pan, ban and man are all bilabials. pan [p] - ___________

ban [b] - ___________

man [m] - ___________

Are there any other sounds that are bilabial in English?

___________________________________.

10Place of articulation (cont’d)

Labiodental sounds: These are sounds made with the upper teeth and the lower lip. The initial sounds of the words fan and van and the final sounds in the words safe and save are labiodentals. fan [f] - ____________

van [v] - ____________

Note that the final sound in the word cough, and the initial sound in photo, despite the spelling differences, are both pronounced as [f].

Interdental sounds: These sounds are formed with the tongue tip between the teeth. The first sound of thin and the last sound of bath are both interdentals. The initial sounds of the and thus are interdent. thin [θ] - ____________ / the [ð] - ___________

bath [θ] thus [ð]

11Place of articulation (cont’d)

Alveolar sounds: These are sounds made with the front part of the tongue touching the alveolar ridge, which is the rough, bony ridge behind and above the upper teeth.

The initial sounds in tip, dip, sip, zip and nut are all alveolars. tip [t] - ______________ / dip [d] - _______________ / ride [r] - _________

sip [s] - ______________ / zip [z] - ________________

nut [n] - _____________ / lip [l] - ________________

Alveo-palatal (palatal) sounds: Sounds produced with the tongue and the palate (i.e. the roof of mouth) are called alveo-palatals. shout [ʃ] - ______________ / treasure [ʒ] - _________ / yes [j] -

_________

child [ʧ] - ______________ / joke [ʤ] - _____________

12Place of articulation (cont’d)

Velar sounds: Sounds produced with the back of the tongue against the velum (i.e. soft palate) are called velars. The initial sounds in kid and car, go and gun, and the final sound in sing are velar. go [g] - ______________ / car [k] - _______________

sing [ŋ] - ______________ / tongue [ŋ] - _____________

Glottal sounds: The glottis (the space between vocal folds) is open. No active use of the tongue and other parts of the mouth house [h] - ______________ / who [h] - _______________

13English consonant chart

Having described in some detail the place of articulation of English consonant sounds, we can summarize the basic information in the chart.

14Manner of articulation

We can describe the sounds in terms of how they are articulated. Such a description is necessary if we want to be able to distinguish between the sounds that we have placed in the same category. [d] and [z] are both voiced alveolar sounds. How do they differ?

They differ in the manner they are pronounced.

Stops: These sounds are produced by “stopping” the air stream very briefly then letting it go abruptly. The sounds [p], [b], [t], [d], [k], [g] are all stop sounds. dime [d] – voiced alveolar stop / gun [g] - ______________________

pet [p] - ______________________

15Manner of articulation (cont’d)

Fricatives: These sounds are formed by almost blocking the air stream and having the air push through the very narrow opening. The set of sounds [f], [v], [θ], [ð], [s], [z], [ʃ], [ʒ] are fricatives. ship [ʃ] – voiceless, palatal fricative

pleasure [ʒ] - voiced palatal fricative

thank [θ] - ____________________

zebra [z] - _____________________

Affricates: These sounds are made by a brief stopping of the air stream with an obstructed release which causes some friction. The initial sounds in chin and jeep. chin [ʧ]– voiceless, palatal affricate

jeep [ʤ] - voiced palatal affricate

16Manner of articulation (cont’d)

Nasals: These sounds are made by lowering the velum and the air stream is allowed to flow out through the nose. There are three nasal sounds in English: [m], [n] and [ŋ]. They are all voiced. map [m] – voiced bilabial nasal

night [n] – voiced alveolar nasal

thing [ŋ] – voiced vrlar nasal

Liquids: The initial sounds in lead and read are described as liquids. The [l] sound is called a lateral liquid and is formed by letting the air

stream flow around the sides of the tongue.

The [r] sound is called a ‘retroflex’ and is formed with the tongue tip raised and curled back near the alveolar ridge.

17Manner of articulation (cont’d)

Glides: These sounds are typically produced with the tongue in motion (i.e. gliding) to or from the position of a vowel and are sometimes called semi-vowels. The sounds [w] and [j] are described as glides. They are both voiced. we [w] – voiced bilabial glide

yes [j] – voiced palatal glide

Flaps: If you pronounce the word butter as “budder”, then you are making a flap. It is represented by [D] or sometimes [ɾ]. This sound is produced by the tongue tip tapping the alveolar ridge briefly. No differnce between the words ladder and latter.

What are the two ways to pronounce the word bottle?

18Vowels

The consonant sounds are mostly articulated via closure or obstruction in the vocal tract. Vowel sounds, on the other hand, are produced with a relatively free flow of air.

Are vowels typically voiced or voiceless? _______________

To describe vowel sounds, we consider the way in which the tongue influences the shape through which the airflow must pass.

To talk about a place of articulation, we think of the space inside the mouth as having a front versus a back and a high versus a low area.

19Vowels (cont’d)

j

20Vowels: how do you articulate these sounds?

seat / beat

sit / bit

set / bet

sat / bat

soot / boot

book / put

sort / port

walk / talk

listen / subtle

21Vowels (cont’d)

seat / beat [i] – high, front vowel

sit / bit [ɪ] – high front vowel

set / bet [ɛ] – mid front vowel

sat / bat [æ] – low front vowel

soot / boot [u] – high back vowel

book / put [ʊ] – high back vowel

sort / port [ɔ] – mid back vowel

walk / talk [ɑ] – low back vowel

listen / subtle [ə] – mid central vowel

22Vowels: diphthongs

In addition to single vowel sounds, we produce sounds that consist of a combination of two vowel sounds, known as diphthongs.

When we produce diphthongs, our vocal organs move from one position [a] to another [ɪ] as we produce the sound [aɪ], as in hi or bye. The movement in this diphthong is from low towards high front.

We can use movement from low towards high back, combining [a] and [ʊ] to produce the sound [aʊ], as in cow and bow.

23Vowels: diphthongs (cont’d)

While the vowels [e], [a] and [o] are used as single sounds in other languages, and in some other varieties of English, they are only typically used as the first sounds of diphthongs in American English.

my / pie – [aɪ]

cow / how – [aʊ] Front Central Back

late / say – [eɪ] _____________________________________

throw / crow – [oʊ] High

coy / toy – [ɔɪ] I ʊ

Mid e o

ɔ

Low a

24Vowels: diphthongs (cont’d)

How to articulate these diphthongs?

buy / I / sigh

bough / doubt

bait / eight / great

boat / explode

boy / noise