Phonetics

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Phonetics

• I . Definition
• II .Consonants
• A. Definition
• B. Voicing
• C. Place of Articulation
• D. Manner of Articulation
• E. Computer Software
• III. Vowels
• IV. Position of the Tongue, Lips Degree of
  Muscle Tension
• V. Phonetic Symbols
• VI. English and Mandarin Sounds
• VII. Uses of MPS

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Definition

• Phonetics The study of speech sounds (Yule 41)
• Articulatory phonetics how speech sounds are
  made
• Acoustic phonetics physical properties of
  speech
• Auditory phonetics perception of speech sounds
• Forensic phonetics in legal cases involving
  speaker identification and the analysis of
  recorded utterances
• Q Why do we have many different individual
  sounds?

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Distinguish between Words

1. low, row
2. ban, pan
3. bat, bad
4. bit, but
5. lan(?), lang(?)

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Consonants (1)

• Definition the air coming up out of the lungs is
  blocked somewhere in the vocal tract(place), or
  squeezed thru a small hole formed for med at
  some place in the vocal tract.
• e.g. blocked completely /p/
• squeezed /f/
• combo /tS/

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Consonants (2)

• Voicing
• Voiced (v) If the vocal cards are together, the
  airstreams forces it way through and causes them
  to vibrate.
• Voiceless (-v) When the vocal cards are spread
  apart, the air from the lungs passes between them
  unimpeded

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Consonants (3)

• Place of Articulation (Nash 39) Where a speech
  sound is made?
• Bilabials p, b, m
• Labiodentals f, v
• Dental Q, ð
• Alveolar t, d, n, s, z, l
• Retroflex r
• Palato-alveolar S, Z
• Palatals tS, dZ
• Velars k, g, ?
• Glottal h

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Consonants (4)

• Manner of articulation (Nash 40)How a speech
  sound is made?
• Stop p, b, t, d, k, g
• Nasal m, n, ?
• Fricative f, v, Q, ð, s, z, S, Z, h
• Affricative tS, dZ
• Approximants
• Glide w, j, r
• Liquid l
• Tap t, d

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Place and Manners of Articulation

• Label Place Manner Examples
• alveolar stop top,
  dog
• labiodental fricative food,
  Vivian
• dental fricative
  thanks, then ?-v, ðv
• bilabial stop
  play, baby
• palato-alveolar fricative she, genre
• palatal affricate
  church, judge
• velar stop
  kite, gorgeous

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Accent Coach

• Consonants lesson (see tongue positions)
• English vowels
• Vowel lessons
• Vowel review

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Vowels

• Definition vowels are formed by shaping the air
  in the vocal tract, rather than by blocking or
  squeezing it in some way. (Nash 42)
• Position of the tongue (Nash 46Yule 48)
• Degree of muscle tension
• Position of the lips
• Diphthongs vowels which move from one vowel
  towards another in one syllable.

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Vowel Chart

• h
• f c b m
  (Nash 46 Yule 48)
• l
• (This grid abstract representation of position
  of tongue inside your mouth)
  

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Position of the Tongue (1)

• Front vowels
• heat /hit/ high
• hit /hIt/
• hate /het/ mid
• head /h?d/
• had /hæd/ low

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Position of the Tongue (2)

• Central vowels
• high
• mid
• low

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Position of the Tongue (3)

• Back vowels
• fool /ful/ high
• full /f?l/
• foe /fo/ mid
• fall /fOl/
• far /f?r/ low

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Degree of muscle tension

• e.g. tense vs. lax
• i I
• u U
• e ?
• o O
• /æ, K, V, A/ all lax

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Position of the lips

• e.g. rounded vs. unrounded
• u, U, o, O i, I, e, ? , æ, etc.
• Mandarin /yü/ (?)? or ?(lü)
• high, front, rounded---equivalent to /i/
  rounded

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Diphthongs

• Combination of vowels start with one vowel, and
  then move to another vowel within one syllable
• e.g. /aI/ (ay), /au/ (aw), /OI/ (oy), /eI/ (ei)
  and more
• Diphthongization the process of making
  diphthongs happen with a wide rang of vowel
  sounds and is more common in some varieties of
  Eng. (e.g., Southern British).

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Phonetic Symbols (1)

• Shorthand descriptions of the distinctive
  features of individual speech sounds
• /b/
• consonantal
• - vocalic
• bilabial
• stop
• voiced

• /p/
• consonantal
• - vocalic
• bilabial
• stop
• - voiced

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Phonetic Symbols (2)

• /m/
• consonantal
• - vocalic
• bilabial
• nasal

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Phonetic Symbols (3)

• /f/
• consonantal
• - vocalic
• labiodental
• fricative
• - voiced

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Phonetic Symbols (4)

• /j/
• - consonantal
• - vocalic
• palatal
• voiced
• - rounded

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Phonetic Symbols (5)

• /w/
• - consonantal
• - vocalic
• velar
• bilabial
• voiced

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Phonetic Symbols (6)

• /æ/
• - consonantal
• vocalic
• front
• low
• lax
• - rounded

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Phonetic Symbols (7)

• /y/ ? /i/
• - consonantal - consonantal
• vocalic vocalic
• high high
• front front
• rounded - rounded
• tense tense

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Phonetic Symbols (8)

• /?/
• consonantal
• - vocalic
• velar
• nasal
• voiced

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Phonetic Symbols (9)

• ?/p / ?/p/ ?/z/
• consonantal consonantal consonantal
• -vocalic -vocalic -vocalic
• bilabial bilabial retroflex
• stop stop fricative
• -aspirated aspirated voiced

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English Mandarin Sounds

• See Nash p. 45, 42 for consonants (add
  semi-vowels /w/ /j/ to Mandarin)
• See Nash p. 46 for vowels.
• Difference in description of consonants
• - v vs. - aspirated (BUT ? is v)
• ???? called Mandarin Phonetic Symbols, but not
  completely phonetic
• Dont follow principle of having one symbol
  represents one sound, and only one sound

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???? not phonetic symbols

• ??n ??n ??? ??? each v c ? one symbol for
  two sounds
• ? u, wu, w
• ??? /wu/
• ? /we/?? /w?? /
• ? /lu??/
• ? i, j
• ? /i/
• ? /je/

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Uses of MPS

• MPS work fine for helping children learn to read
  or foreigners learn Mandarin
• But misleading for linguistic analysis and can
  lead to confusion
• Example claim that /?/ is not a Mandarin sound
• Not real phonetic symbols
• Thats why you see other phonetic symbols (IPA
  based) in Nash.