Introduction to Articulatory Phonetics

1

• Lecture 2
• Introduction to Articulatory Phonetics

2
Articulation

• Say Peter Piper picked a peck of pickled
  peppers
• while breathing out
• while breathing in
• Which is easier?
• Most speech sounds start in outgoing breath from
  the lungs
• The sounds ride on the pulmonic airstream
  mechanism vocal tract diagram to label

3
The Classification of Speech Sounds

• Based on
• Voicing
• Place of Articulation
• Manner of Articulation

4
Voicing

• The primary division in the classification of
  sounds is voiced vs. voiceless
• Voiceless - vocal folds are apart and relaxed
• Voiced - vocal folds come together and vibrate as
  air comes up from lungs
• Speech Segment Voicing

5
Voiced Segments in English
voice
-voice
cons
p,t,k,f,T,s,S
-consonant
b,d,g,v,D,z,Z m,n,N,r,l,w,y
i,A,u, etc.
6
Place of Articulation

• Generalized Place of Articulation
• Detailed Place of Articulation

7
Generalized Place of Articulation

• Based on Primary, Active Articulators
• lips (LABIAL)
• tongue blade (CORONAL)
• tongue back (DORSAL)

8
Generalized Place of Articulation

• Classification
• LABIAL
• p, b, m
• DORSAL
• k, g, N
• CORONAL
• T,D,t,d,
• s,z,S,Z,n,l

9
Detailed Place of Articulationfor English
Consonants

• Bilabial Labio Dental Alveolar Post Palatal
  Velar Glottal Dental
  Alv

10
Manner of Articulationfor English Consonants

• Plosive (stop)
• Fricative
• Nasal
• Liquid
• lateral
• rhotic

11
Plosive (Stop)

• Characterized by complete closure of vocal tract
• followed by release (pre-vocalically)
• (put hand in front of mouth to feel burst in
  pill)
• A stop cannot be prolonged (as opposed to other
  consonants) cf. happen, ever, owing
• (fill in plosives in manner of articulation
  chart)

12
Fricative

• partial vocal tract obstruction
• gives turbulent airflow
• (cf. the narrowing of a wide river makes
  whitewater)
• (fill in chart)

13
Nasal

• stoppage in oral cavity
• velum lowers allowing air flow thru nasal cavity
• (hold nose and try saying day then nay)
• (fill in chart)

14
Liquids (Approximants)

• part of oral cavity is occluded
• lateral (English /l/)
• tongue center touches alveolar ridge
• tongue sides do not touch allowing air to pass
  freely
• rhotic (English /?/)
• sides of tongue touch back teeth
• tongue center does not touch allowing air to
  pass (fill in chart)

15
The Consonant Chart

• represents place of articulation on the
  horizontal axis
• leftmost column corresponds to front of vocal
  tract
• rightmost column to back of vocal tract
• represents manner of articulation on the vertical
  axis
• top row corresponds to most closed articulation
  (stop)
• bottom row to most open articulation (approximant)

16
Practice

• Dictation
• parameter quiz
• Homework
• Label vocal tract diagram
• identify consonants from vocal tract display

17
Vowel Intro

• Vowels are described mainly in acoustic and
  auditory terms
• we hear some vowels as higher than others
• some as more front than others
• the notion of height corresponds somewhat with
  tongue height
• the notion of fronting corresponds somewhat
  with forward tongue position

18
English Vowels

• Vowel Chart

i
i
e
u
E
A
A
wksht 2 Vowel Classification
19
English Vowel Chart

• Front Mid Back

i
u
High
I
U
o
eI
?
Mid
E
?
Q
A
Low
rounded
20
Spanish Vowel Chart

• Front Mid Back

i
u
High
o
Mid
e
Low
a
rounded
21
How likely is this language?

• Front Mid Back

High
y
?
eI
?
o
Mid
?
e
a
Low
rounded unrounded
22
Principle of Sufficient Perceptual Separation

• The sounds of a language are kept acoustically
  distinct so the listener can distinguish one
  sound from another
• central vowels are minimized
• front vowels are usually unrounded
• back vowels are usually rounded