CONSONANTS (ordered by manner of articulation) Chapters 4, 6, 7. The larynx s structure is made of cartilage.

Transcription

1 Chapters 4, 6, 7 The larynx s structure is made of cartilage. Inside it are the vocal folds (or vocal cords). The glottis is the opening between the vocal folds. Normal Larynx Video (Windows Media Video.wmv) Four positions: 1) wide apart (p, f, s) 2) narrow glottis (h) 3) position for vocal fold vibration (voiced sounds) 4) tightly closed (>( CONSONANTS (ordered by manner of articulation) Three parameters: 1) manner of articulation ( how the stricture is realised) 2) place of articulation ( where the stricture obtains) 3) voicing (or fortis vs. lenis) 1

2 PLOSIVES (or STOPS) 3 stages: 1) closing stage 2) compression stage 3) release stage (explosion released stop; no explosion unreleased stop) VOT (Voice Onset Time) = when the vocal folds start vibrating VOT < 0 (voicing begins at stage 2) VOT = 0 (voicing begins at stage 3) VOT > 0 (voicing begins after stage 3) VOICED OR LENIS: /b/ (bilabial), /d/ (alveolar (but dental in Italian!)), /g/ (velar) initial: medial: final: final clusters: band [b8qnd8] (partially voiced, VOT<0) rubber [»r b ] (fully voiced, VOT<0) rib [rib8] (fully devoiced; also possible with no audible release: [rib ]) rubbed [r b d8] (no audible release in stop clusters) For those of you who know some German: devoicing also takes place in German, e.g. Berg 'mountain' (as in the Italian city name Bergamo) [berk] The transcriptions given above are phonetic transcriptions rather than phonemic transcriptions, i.e. additional details are offered through the use of diacritics (such as voicing). Compare: /rib/ (phonemic transcription, between slashes) [rib8] (phonetic transcription, in square brackets) Phonemic transcriptions provide a minimal (distinctive) amount of information while phonetic transcriptions add details to the minimal (i.e. phonemic) transcription. 2

3 VOICELESS OR FORTIS: /p/ (bilabial), /t/ (alveolar (dental in Italian!)), /k/ (velar) initial: initial clusters: pill [p h I ] ( aspirated ; VOT>0) 1) plosive + approximant play [pl ei], pray [pr ei], puke [pæ*u>k], twist [tw8ist] (aspiration as devoicing of the following consonant) 2) /s/ + plosive spin [spin] (no aspiration, i.e. the plosive is unaspirated and perceived as /b/ by native speakers in the example at hand; VOT=0, i.e. unlike voiced plosives in initial and medial positions, there is no voicing in the pre-release stage (remember that VOT<0 for voiced plosives in initial and medial positions))* final: final cluster: lip [lip ] (often with no audible release; see below for other possible pronunciations) wiped [waip t] LENIS VS. FORTIS consonants Those English consonants which are usually voiced tend to be articulated with relatively weak energy (lenis), whereas those which are always voiceless are relatively strong (fortis). Indeed, socalled voiced consonants may have very little voicing (cf. -b8) so that the energy of articulation becomes a significant factor in distinguishing the voiced and voiceless series. Since voicing depends on the phonological contexts, some linguists prefer the terms lenis and fortis in place of, respectively, voiced and voiceless. *Note (you can skip this note). Should we transcribe spin as [sbin] given that /p/ is perceived as /b/? There is no definitive answer to this question. There are both reasons for and reasons against this: For: Against: 1) /p/ is unaspirated (like /b/) 2) /p/ is perceived as /b/. If a recording of a word beginning with one of /sp/, /st/, /sk/ is heard with the /s/ removed, an initial /b/, /d/, /g/ is heard by English speakers. 1) /p/ has no voicing in the compression stage (unlike /b/ in initial and medial positions and like /p/ in all other positions) 2) /p/ is fortis (unlike lenis /b/) 3) the fundamental frequency of the following vowel equates with /p/ rather than /b/ (but of course this is a matter of acoustic analysis not of perceptual (or auditory) phonetics, see Reason For no. 2 above) 3

4 Table based on Gimson, p.153: _ 0 + pre-release release post-release VOT l i d final devoiced [d8] l i d medially fully voiced [d] d n partially voiced [d8] (negative VOT) s t n unaspirated [t] (zero VOT) t n aspirated [t h ] (positive VOT) NB Underlying indicates voicing /p, t, k/ and, to some minor extent, /ts/ can be reinforced (see Roach, pp.55-56) or replaced by a voiceless glottal stop /// (usually in syllable-final position, especially word-finally) (see Gimson, pp for details). Examples: actor [»Q/kt ], bottle [»bå/ `], got [gå/], what [wå/] Important: intervocalic /t/ in AmE (e.g. water, bitter) is usually pronounced [R]. [R] is an alveolar flap (or tap), not a plosive. [R] is similar to [d] but is more rapid and has more force (a good approximation of this sound can be achieved if you say the /r/ in an Italian word like carta rapidly, i.e. if you don t roll the /r/). Some American speakers do use [d] rather than [R]. [R] is also transcribed as [t ] (see Wells s Pronunciation Dictionary). The diacritic [ ] indicates voicing, i.e. it is the opposite of [ ], which indicates lacks of voicing. Aspiration is predictable, occurring word or syllable initially before a stressed vowel (in polysyllabic words, a weakly stressed syllable implies weaker aspiration). Since it is predictable it is not usually given in phonological (or quasi-phonological) transcriptions. 4

5 Initial (i.e. both word initial and syllable initial) voiced and voiceless plosives are both voiceless (although, acoustically, the voiced or lenis ones are only partially devoiced). Still, we can distinguish between the two because of lack vs. presence of aspiration. But what about final plosives? Since the final /b/ in rib and the final /p/ in rip are both devoiced, how can we distinguish between the two words? We could rely on the context and/or on the lenis vs. fortis distinction (i.e. final /p/ is stronger than final /b/, see above). But the latter distinction does not help for example when the plosives are unreleased, of course. Luckily, there is an important difference which has to do with the length of the preceding vowel (i.e. so called pre-fortis clipping). Therefore, we can distinguish between the two words rib and rip even if they are uttered out of the blue: word initially: post [p h U&st] boast [b8 U&st] word finally: league [li g*] vs. leak [li>k], cap [k h Q&p] vs. cab [k h Qb8]* The diacritic [> ] indicates that the preceding sound is not as long as that followed by [ ]. The diacritic [ & ] is used when the reduction in length involves a sound that is not followed by [ ]. * Note. Alternative transcriptions for cap and cab are [k h Q&/(p)], [k h Q&p ], [k h Qb8 ], etc. Stressed syllables in English are always the same length: cap [kq&p] (i.e. the vowel is shorter than that in cab but the final consonant is longer than that in cab) cab [kqb&] (i.e. the vowel is longer than that in cab but the final consonant is shorter than that in cab) silent <b>: limb, lamb, bomb, thumb, comb, debt, subtle, doubt 5

6 Dental stops in English We said that /d/ is an alveolar plosive in English. However, if a dental stop follows, then /d/ has a dental articulation (this is called regressive assimilation (of place of articulation)): wide [d] vs. width [d5t] Nasal and lateral release Nasal release: when a nasal follows a homorganic plosive, the plosive is released directly into the nasal. This happens with the combinations [tn] and [dn]. Examples: Britain, fitness, Whitney, kidney, goodnight Lateral release: when a lateral follows a homorganic plosive, the plosive is released directly into the lateral. This happens with the combinations [tl] and [dl]. Examples: sadly, fiddler, butler, cutlass, atlas The glottal stop [/] Apart from the cases mentioned above, [/] is used when the initial sound is a vowel: She s [/] awfully good. Some useful terms We say that the initial phoneme /b/ in boast has two allophones: it can be realised as a fully voiced sound (i.e. [b Ust] in a phonetic transcription) or as a (partially) devoiced sound (i.e. [b8 Ust] in a phonetic transcription). The two allophones are in parallel distribution (i.e. one can be used in place of the other). We also say that /t/ has two allophones, an aspirated sound (as in time) and an unaspirated or unreleased one (as in eat). However, we notice that the former is only found word or syllable initially and the latter is only found word or syllable finally. That is, the two allophones are in complementary distribution (i.e. one cannot be used in place of the other). 6

7 FRICATIVES: air escapes through a small passage and makes a hissing sound AFFRICATES: they begin as plosives and end as fricatives they must be homorganic they are regarded as a single phoneme Both fricatives and affricates behave like plosives in terms of voicing and shortening of the preceding vowel. Fricatives <ph>: Stephen, nephew labiodental / /, / / dental / /, / / (phonetically more like a lenis dental plosive) The tongue tip does not necessarily protrude between the teeth (although this is common in AmE). alveolar / /, / / The air escapes through a narrow passage along the centre of the tongue; the passage is said to be. palato-alveolar (post-alveolar) / /, / / (it has a limited distribution, e.g. measure, usual) The passage is a little wider and is called. Both involve some rounding. glottal / / Phonetically, it is a voiceless vowel with the quality of the voiced vowel that follows it; phonologically, it is a consonant. When it occurs between voiced sounds (e.g. ahead, greenhouse), it is usually pronounced with voicing (this is called breathy voice). Remember that it is often not pronounced in unstressed words such as he, her, him, his, and auxiliary have. initial <s> + nasal or approximant (e.g. /m/, /n/, /l/, /r/, /w/) is NOT pronounced /z/. It is pronounced /s/. Examples: smoke, swatch, swear, sweet, sweep, smile, snake, slow 7

8 Two more fricatives 1) Some speakers (e.g. Scottish English, Irish English and American English speakers) distinguish between the initial sounds of the following words: initial [w] initial [ ] (i.e. voiced labiovelar approximant) (i.e. voiceless labiovelar fricative) witch wail Wye wear which whale why where Although initial [ ] is usually transcribed as [hw], [ ] should actually be classified as a phoneme for those speakers who use it. 2) The initial sound in huge, human, huge is usually transcribed as [hj]. In fact, it is a voiceless palatal fricative, i.e. [C] (cf. the final sound in German ich). Affricates / / (it is slightly aspirated in the positions were plosives are), / / They often have rounded lips. Affricates arising in connected speech (this phenomenon is known as coalescence): don t you [»d UntSu ] would you [»wudzu ] do you [dzu ] miss you [»mi(s)su ] bless you [»ble(s)su ] as yet [»Zet] 8

9 NASALS /m/ /n/ /N/ /N/ never occurs initially /N/ never occurs with /g/ at the end of a morpheme in RP sing [sin] singer [»sin ] vs. finger [»fing ] singing [»sinin] An important exception: comparatives and superlatives long [lån] longish [»lånis] longer [»lång ] longest [»långist] Dental variant: ten [n] vs. tenth [n5t] Nasal release: see above 9

10 APPROXIMANTS 1) Lateral /l/: complete closure between the centre of the tongue and the alveolar ridge (air escapes along the sides of the tongue) /l/ has two allophones in complementary distribution: clear [l] and dark (or velarised) [ ]. Dark [ ] is only found syllable finally in RP. Note that when an affix beginning with a vowel is added or the next word begins with a vowel (e.g. fiddling, fiddle it, finally, parcel of books), the lateral may become clear (in which case it is usually non-syllabic). In Estuary English [ ] is realised as an [ö], i.e. a centralised [o] (e.g. ball, table, sell, fall). In GenAm, Standard Scottish English, Australian and New Zealand English, large parts of the north of England and North Wales, [ ] may occur in all positions. Examples: lull [l ], hill, ball Lateral release: see above. Voiceless /l/, i.e. [l ]: see above. 2) /r/ is a post-alveolar approximant, i.e. [ ] (but spelt as [r] for the sake of simplicity). The tip of the tongue does not make contact with any part of the roof of the mouth; the tongue is slightly curled backwards; the lips are slightly rounded. Note that /r/ is actually a voiceless fricative in words like pray. /r/ occurs only before vowels in non-rhotic accents. Note. Italian /r/ can be either a lingual trill, [r], i.e. a rapid succession of taps by the tip of the tongue on the alveolar ridge, or a tap (or flap), [R]. In some English dialects the degree of retroflexion of the tongue for [ ] may be greater than in RP, as in the speech of the south-west of England and in some varieties of American English. This is indicated by the symbol [ ]. 3) The voiced palatal approximant / / and the voiced labiovelar approximant / / are phonetically vowels but consonants phonologically (i.e. they are followed by vowels). Their behaviour as consonants can be observed when they are preceded by the definite and indefinite article (e.g. a way, a year, the way, the year). They are slightly fricative when they are preceded by /p/, /t/, /k/ at the beginning of a syllable (e.g. pure, tune, cure, twin, quit, see also above). 10

11 5 The phoneme How many different sounds are there in English? bed vs. bad d Q ` What is the definition of phoneme? Phonemes are abstract entities (they make up the phonemic system of a language). Broad (phonemic) vs. narrow (phonetic) transcription There may be variation in the use of symbols. 11