The Transcription of Speech

1
Lecture 3

• The Transcription of Speech
• The Phoneme
• Phonemic AnalysisNatural Classes of Sounds

2
The transcription of speech

• The Basis for the transcription of speech sounds
• Different Types of Transcription
• Determining the significant sounds (phonemes) of
  a language
• Phonemic Phonetic Transcription

3
The Status of Phonemic Transcription in Current
Practice

• The Phoneme as a phonological concept died out
  with arguments like Chomskys over the bomb/balm
  data (see lecture 1)
• But the phoneme is still used in transcribing
  speech because it is quicker and more concise
  than a feature matrix
• So it is still important to know why a particular
  symbol is chosen to represent a particular sound

4
Some Sounds Differ according to their Environment

• kip keep there is usually no puff of air
  (aspiration) with the p
• pik peek there is always aspiration with the
  p
• Q Is the difference between these two ps
  significant? week3pp 1-2

5
What are the basic or significant sounds of
English?

• The significant sounds differentiate meaning
• 1. aI wAnt D? bIl
• 2. aI wAnt D? pIl (p with aspiration)
• 3. aI wAnt D? pIl (p without aspiration)
• (1) and (2) differ in meaning
• (3) is not significant for meaning because p
  never occurs in this position in English.
• (1) and (2) are contrastive.
• So, p and b represent different phonemes in
  English

6
The Phoneme

• A phoneme is a speech sound that is capable of
  differentiating meaning.
• The sequence
• pill bill till dill kill gill
• indicates that p,b,t,d,k,g are phonemes in
  English

7
Variation within a Phoneme

• Question What about p and pH (aspirated
  p)?
• Do they represent different phonemes in English?
• Problem 4 in Hindi p and pH are
  contrastive
• Answer They do not.
• p and pH are allophones of the phoneme p
• p and pH are in complementary distribution
• where p occurs, pH does not
• where pH occurs, p does not
• contextual variants

8
Phonemic Notation

• /p/ phoneme
• pH p p allophones
• for p lips remain closed

9
How do we determine the significant sounds of a
language?

• 1. aI wAnt D? bIl
• 2. aI wAnt D? pHIl
• Significance is determined by contrast, as in
• bIl versus pHIl
• bIl and pHIl are contrastive or minimal
  pairs

10
The significant sounds are found by testing
minimal pairs

• pHIl
• bIl dIl tHIl kHIl
• gIl fIl vIl 1 mIl
• wIl Til2 Dil3 sIl
• zIl4 nIl lIl ?Il
• Sil tSIl Nil5 dZIl
• Zil 6 hIl
• pHil contrasts with bil, and pHil contrasts with
  dil, etc.

• 11111pHaIl vaIl
• 2 pHIn Tin
• 3pHaI DaI
• 4pHA? zA?
• 5?Ip ?ing
• 6No contrast for Z vs. p
• but Z and p are not phonetically similar so
  we assume they are separate phonemes.

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Phonetic Transcription Which Alphabet?

• We need unambiguous representation of sound
• How about the English spelling system?
• Same sound, many symbols to,too,two
• Many sounds, one symbol dad, father, call, sofa
• Many symbols, one sound tough, physics
• One symbol, more than one sound exit
• Symbols, but no sound pneumonia

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Phonetic Transcription

• Conclusion We need a phonetic alphabet
• with ONE SYMBOL for ONE SOUND
• Two systems used by linguists
• American
• IPA

13
American Transcriptions, z, c, j, y

• arose from need to transcribe indigenous
  languages of North America
• a practical system for publication
• (typographically easy)
• aims at phonemic transcription
• with phonetic detail consigned to discussion
  notes
• intended for American languages only

14
International Phonetic Association/Alphabet

• founded in France in 1886
• an organization for teachers of language
• originally
• aims at a system that will represent all
  languages

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The International Phonetic AlphabetPrinciples of
the IPA

• a separate letter for each distinctive sound
• universal use of one symbol for the same sound
  across languages
• use of ordinary letters of roman alphabet where
  possible
• alphabet should accord with phonemic principle
  and cardinal vowel system
• diacritic marks only for
• suprasegmentals
• non-meaningful distinctions
• minute shades of sound for scientific purposes

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IPA Non-roman Consonant Symbols

• N eng
• T theta
• D eth
• S esh
• Z yogh
• ? turned r
• R fishhook r
• Pullum Ladusaw. Phonetic Symbol Guide. U of
  Chicago Press.

17
IPA non-Roman Vowel Symbols

• E epsilon
• Q ash
• U upsilon
• ? open o
• A script a
• ? turned v
• ? schwa

18
Notational Conventions in Transcription

• / / encloses phonemic transcriptions
• encloses phonetic transcriptions
• denotes a word boundary
• denotes a morpheme boundary
• V stands for any vowel
• C stands for any consonant
• C0 stands for a sequence of zero or more
  consonants

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Transcription Types

• Phonemic Transcription
• ? bEt? pA?t
• Broad Phonetic Transcription
• ? bER? pA?t
• Narrow Phonetic Transcription
• ? bE3R? pHA4?t

20
Relations between Speech Sounds

• Relation Element Example
• contrast phoneme /p/ vs. /b/
• complementary allophone p vs. pH
• distribution
• free variation phoneme/allophone
• p vs. pH
• E vs. i
• week 3 Free Variation

21
New Symbols to Capture Variation

• Symbol Name Articulation
• ? fishhook r flap
• ? glottal stop glottal stop
• ? tilde l velarized l
• l? under-ring devoicing
• n syllabicity mark same as n

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Doing Phonemic Analysis

• Determining the relationship of 2 sounds
• Are there minimal pairs pat vs. bat
• if yes, then the relation is contrast
• If no, do the sounds differ predictably
• pHat vs. tap
• if yes, then the relation is complementary
  distribution. Determine the basic allophone.
• If no, the sounds must be in free variation.
• week 3Phonemic Analysis Problems

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The Elsewhere Condition

• a principle governing two overlapping rules which
  dictates that the more specific rule should be
  tried first followed by the more general rule
• EXAMPLE In Burmese,
• - nasals are voiceless after /h/,
• - elsewhere they are voiced.

24
The Notion of a Natural Class

• Speech sounds can be described by articulatory
  features
• t - a voiceless alveolar stop
• m - a voiced bilabial nasal
• Sounds can be grouped by features
• Voiced stops b,d,g
• Labials p,f,b,v,m,w
• We call such a grouping a natural class of sounds

25
Natural Classes of Sounds

• Capture generalizations about
• the sound systems of a language
• e.g. English plural s vs. z relies on
  voicing
• dialect variation
• the pronunciation of borrowed words
• first language acquisition
• processes of sound change
• worksheet Natural Classes