Some Speech Basics Phonetic Transcription, Context-dependent variation, and Intonation

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Some Speech BasicsPhonetic Transcription,Contex
t-dependent variation,and Intonation

• Jennifer J. Venditti
• Postdoctoral Research Associate
• Columbia Computer Science
• 12 September 2002

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1. Phonetic Transcription
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Spelling vs. Sounds

• same spelling different sounds
• o comb, tomb, bomb oo blood, food, good
• c court, center, cheese s reason, surreal,
  shy
• same sound different spellings
• i sea, see, scene, receive, thief s
  cereal, same, miss
• u true, few, choose, lieu, do ay prime, buy,
  rhyme, lie
• combination of letters single sound
• ch child, beach th that, bathe
• oo good, foot gh laugh
• single letter combination of sounds
• x exit, Texas u use, music
• silent letters
• k knife, know p psycho, pterodactyl
• e moose, bone gh through

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Figures 4.1 and 4.2 Jurafsky Martin
(2000), pages 94-95.
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On-line pronunciation dictionaries
phoneset derived from number of wordforms English variety
LDC PRONLEX ARPAbet 90,694 American
CMUdict ARPAbet 100,000 American
CELEX IPA 160,595 British
Source Jurafsky Martin (2000), page 121.
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Places of articulation
http//www.chass.utoronto.ca/danhall/phonetics/sa
mmy.html
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Vocal fold vibration
UCLA Phonetics Lab demo
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Articulatory parameters for English consonants
(in ARPAbet)
PLACE OF ARTICULATION PLACE OF ARTICULATION PLACE OF ARTICULATION PLACE OF ARTICULATION PLACE OF ARTICULATION PLACE OF ARTICULATION PLACE OF ARTICULATION PLACE OF ARTICULATION PLACE OF ARTICULATION PLACE OF ARTICULATION PLACE OF ARTICULATION PLACE OF ARTICULATION PLACE OF ARTICULATION PLACE OF ARTICULATION PLACE OF ARTICULATION
bilabial bilabial labio-dental labio-dental inter-dental inter-dental alveolar alveolar palatal palatal velar velar glottal glottal
stop p b t d k g q
fric. f v th dh s z sh zh h
affric. ch jh
nasal m n ng
approx w l/r y
flap dx
MANNER OF ARTICULATION
VOICING
voiceless voiced
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American English vowel space
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iy vs. uw
(From a lecture given by Rochelle Newman)
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ae vs. aa
(From a lecture given by Rochelle Newman)
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Acoustic landmarks
Patricia and Patsy and Sally
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Articulators in action
(Sample from the Queens University / ATR Labs
X-ray Film Database)
Why did Ken set the soggy net on top of his
deck?
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Exercise (1)

• Write your name in
• (a) IPA.
• (b) ARPAbet (if possible).
• Choose one of the following triplets and
  transcribe each word in both IPA and ARPAbet.
• cone, tomb, bottom
• blood, fool, hook
• court, race, cheese
• reason, surreal, cash
• thing, these, other
• laugh, through, ghoul

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Figures 4.1 and 4.2 Jurafsky Martin
(2000), pages 94-95.
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IPA consonants
(Distributed by the International Phonetics
Association.)
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IPA vowels
(Distributed by the International Phonetics
Association.)
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Context-dependent phonetic variation
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Context-dependent variation

• What we would consider a single sound can be
  pronounced differently depending on the phonetic
  context. For example, the phoneme /t/

Figure 4.8 Jurafsky Martin (2000), page 104.
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Another regular alternation

• I can ask ay k ae n ae s k
• I can see ay k ae n s iy
• I can bake ay k ae m b ey k
• I can play ay k ae m p l ey
• I can go ay k ae ng g ow
• I can carry ay k ae ng k ae r iy

n ? m / __ labial stop n ? ng / __ velar
stop
(inopportune n, insatiable n, impervious m,
immortal m, incoherent ng, ingratitude ng)
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English plurals

• hiccup p ? hiccups flood d ? floods
• sock k ? socks scab b ? scabs
• habit t ? habits frog g ? frogs
• spoof f ? spoofs comb m ? combs
• hearth th ? hearths grave v ? graves
• lathe dh ? lathes
• beach ch ? beaches fool l ? fools
• dish sh ? dishes sewer r ? sewers
• judge jh ? judges pies ay ? pies
• race s ? races curfew uw ? curfews
• axe s ? axes sofa ax ? sofas
• raise z ? raises

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Phonological rules for Engl. plurals

• Assume that the lexical form of plural is /z/.
• Insertion ? ? ix / sibilant __ z
• Devoicing z ? s / -voice __

busPL capePL henPL /b ah s
z/ /k ey p z/ /h eh n z/ insertion b ah s ix
z -- -- devoicing -- k ey p s -- b ah s
ix z k ey p s h eh n z
/b ah s z/ /k ey p z/ /h eh n
z/ devoicing b ah s s k ey p
s -- insertion -- -- -- b ah s s k ey
p s h eh n z