e-content submission to inflibnetepgp.inflibnet.ac.in/epgpdata/uploads/epgp_content/...voiceless...
Post on 06-Mar-2021
2 Views
Preview:
TRANSCRIPT
1
e-Content Submission to INFLIBNET
Subject name:
Linguistics
Paper name:
Introduction to Phonetics and Phonology
Principle Investigator
Prof. Pramod Pandey
Centre for Linguistics, SLL&CS, Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi 110067
Phone: 011-26704226 (O), M- 9810979446
Email: pkspandey@yahoo.com
Paper Coordinator Prof. Pramod Pandey
Module name & Number
Lings_P2_M4
Multiple Articulations
Content Writer (CW) Name
Pramod Pandey
Email id pkspandey@yahoo.com
Phone 011-26741258, -9810979446
Reviewer
Prof Hemalatha Nagarajan
English and Foreign Languages University, Hyderabad 500007
2
Objective:
To introduce students to speech sounds that involve multiple articulations, in addition to primary articulation discussed in detail so far.
Contents: 1 Introduction
2 Secondary Articulation
3 Double Articulation
4 Co-articulation
5 Segmental Analysis Vs Parametric Analysis
1 Introduction
In the description of the articulation of segmental speech sounds, we have
focused on the most prominent position of the articulators, known as Primary
Articulation. There are many segmental speech sounds in whose production the
articulators take more than one position. In this module, we take a look at speech
sounds that involve multiple articulations in the vocal tract. These are of three
types mainly: Secondary Articulation, Double Articulation and Coarticulation.
Following an account of these articulation types, we briefly discuss the
Parametric approach vis-à-vis the Segmental approach to phonetic analysis.
3
Figure -1: Speech organs
http://media-3.web.britannica.com/eb-media/47/4347-004-A834AD06.jpg
For a discussion on multiple articulation see:
http://www.phon.ox.ac.uk/jcoleman/MULTART.htm
2 Secondary Articulation
2.1 The term Secondary Articulation refers to articulations that involve a more
open constriction in the vocal tract in addition to a simultaneous greater
constriction in the production of a speech sound. In this case, the articulation
that involves greater constriction is known as Primary Articulation and the
articulation that involves a more open constriction is known as Secondary
Articulation. The terms signify only the constriction of the articulators and do
not imply any significance to them. That is, a secondary articulation is as
significant as the primary articulation in the production of a speech sound in so
far as it distinguishes it from another sound.
Four main types of secondary articulation are found in the production of speech
sounds in world languages. These are Labialization, Palatalization, Velarization,
4
and Pharyngealization. Their presence gives rise to a larger number of speech
sounds that are produced by the main articulation, just as laryngeal features (e.g.
voicing and aspiration) give rise to
2.2 Labialization. Labialization is the state of the production of a speech sound
with the addition of lip rounding. The process refers to a [w] like addition to a
segment and not merely lip-rounding. For segments tend to be produced with
lips rounded when followed by a rounded vowel [u] or [o]. Most segments are
affected by their environment. Lip rounding of a consonant because of a
following rounded vowel is better described as co-articulation, about which we
discuss in a following section. Labialized segments are symbolized with the
diacritic [ʷ], e.g. [kʷ], ‘labialized voiceless velar plosive’ and [tʷ], ‘labialized
voiceless alveolar plosive’. Some African languages like Twi and Tashlhit Berber
are known to have contrastive labialized sounds, that is, words with both
labialized and non-labialized sounds that differ only because of the difference in
them. Among Indic languages, Khezha, spoken in Nagaland, has contrastive
labialized segments.
2.3 Palatalization: Palatalization is the state of the production of a speech sound
by additionally raising the front of the tongue that is perceived like the palatal
approximant. A palatalized consonant is perceived as the addition of a short [j]
following a consonant. It is represented in IPA as [ʲ], e.g. [bʲ], ‘palatalized voiced
bilabial plosive’ and [kʰʲ], ‘palatalized, aspirated voiceless velar plosive’.
Palatalization may be purely coarticulatory for consonants before a front vowel.
The degree of coarticulatory palatalization may vary from slight to prominent.
In Kashmiri, palatalization is contrastive as in the following examples: /kul/
‘tree’, /kulʲ/ ‘trees’; /nor/ ‘cuff’, /nərʲ/ ‘cuffs’. Phonetically, coarticulatory
palatalization is considerably pronounced in the vowel of the preceding syllable,
e.g. [kuᶦlʲ], [nəᶦrʲ].
2.4 Velarization
5
Velarization involves a simultaneous raising of the back of the tongue when
producing a sound with another primary articulation. The diacritic mark for
velarization is [ˠ] added following the primary articulation, e.g. [tˠ] ‘voiceless,
velarized alveolar plosive’.
Predictable velarization
In most varieties of native English, such as Standard American English or British
R. P. the alveolar lateral /l/ is pronounced as a velarized [lˠ] at the end of words
or before a consonant, e.g. [mɪlˠ] ‘mill’ and [bɪlˠdɪŋ] ‘building’. In Arabic, /l/ is
velarized before a group of consonants such as [k l q], but not beofe others such
as [s ʃ]. A velarized lateral is informally called a ‘dark [l]’ and non-velarized /l/ is
called a ‘clear [l]’. Among Indic languages, the Dravidian language Koya, the
alveolar lateral is velarized before a consonant other than a velar stop and at the
end of words, e.g. /pa:lde/ > [pa:lˠde] ‘prostitue’, /nulle/ > [nu lˠle] ‘mosquito’,
/kəttul/ > [kəttul lˠ] ‘cot’. The lateral is slightly spirantized before a velar stop -
[ɮˠ], e.g. /palku/ [pa ɮˠku] ‘teeth’, /nalke/ > [naɮˠke] ‘tongue’. In all these
languages, velarized consonants occur as non-contrastive sounds, as variants of
sounds that have only primary articulation.
Contrastive velarization
Velarization is contrastive in Russian, e.g. [dal] ‘distance’ vs. [dalˠ] ‘gave’.
2.5 Pharyngealization takes place when the root of the tongue or the epiglottis is
raised to create a narrow aperture with the pharyngeal wall while producing a
consonant or a vowel. Pharyngealized sounds are symbolized with the addition
of a diacritic superscript of the shape of an inverted question mark [ˤ]. When
used as an independent IPA symbol [ʕ], it stands for a voiced pharyngeal
consonant. Pharyngealized sounds are common in Arabic , e.g. /sˤa:r/ ‘became’ vs
/sa:r/ ‘walked’ and /tˤi:n/ ‘mud’ vs /ti:n/ ‘frog’. Although pharyngealization in
consonants is simultaneous with the primary articulation, its effect spreads onto
the following vowel and sometimes on the preceding vowel as well.
Pharyngealized vowels are found in some languages in different parts of the
world. For a detailed discussion on pharyngeals and pharyngealization, see
6
http://www.ncl.ac.uk/linguistics/assets/documents/PharyngealsMaddieson.pdf
Pharyngealized sounds are almost like the ATR vowels, but with greater
constriction.
Languages do not have velarization and pharyngealization as contrastive
secondary articulations. When it is not certain whether a sound is
pharyngealized or velarized, the diacritic [ ], called ‘tilde’ is used as an inscript
with it, e.g. [t d ].
3 Double Articulation
Double articulation involves two strictures formed simultaneously in the vocal
tract to produce a sound of the same manner of articulation, e.g. [ʍ]- a ‘voiceless
labial-velar approximant’. The sound is produced with the lips coming together
as well as the back of the tongue raised against the velum, both in a contact of
open approximation, allowing the air-stream to pass freely and without any
friction between the two strictures. Unlike in secondary articulation where a
primary articulation is modified with another stricture, in double articulation,
both the strictures are of equal importance. Examples of other double
articulations are [ɥ], a ‘voiceless labial-palatal approximant’ and [ʑ], a ‘voiced
alveo-palatal fricative’.
The IPA symbols for double articulations are of two types- single symbols such
as above, and symbols made of two symbols connected with a tie-bar above
them, e.g. [k p] and [ b], voiceless and voiced velar-labial plosives. he tie-bar
diacritic can also be a subscript, e.g. [k ]. Such consonants with double
articulations are common in many Africa languages, such as Igbo, in which the
name of the language itself has double- articulated consonant [ b]. he diacritic
tie-bar in IPA is used for both double-articulation consonants and affricates, e.g.
[p f]. Double articulations, however, are distinguished from affricates on the basis
of (a) whether or not the two articulations are of the same manner or different
and whether the two articulations are simultaneous or sequential. Affricates
involve a combination of a plosive and a fricative as manners of articulations
which occur sequentially; the fricative articulation follows the plosive.
7
Exercise:
Is the diacritic tie-bar used for double articulations and affricates always a s uperscript? Find out.
Consonants with double articulation belong to one of the manner types- plosive,
fricative and approximant. There are no known cases of approximants for the
other manners of articulation.
4 Coarticulation
One of the most prominent phenomena to receive the attention of phoneticians
and phonologists is Coarticulation, the variation in the articulation of speech
sounds on account of differences in contexts. More precisely, Coarticulation is
“the overlapping of adjacent articulations” (Ladefoged 1993: 55).
We are all familiar with the difficulty in pronouncing certain combinations of
sounds, called by the name “tongue twisters”. Some of the well-known tongue
twisters in English are the following sentences:
She sells sea-shells on the seashore.
If Peter Piper picked a peck of pickled peppers, where’s the peck of pickled peppers Peter Piper picked?
Most languages have tongue twisters. For example, speakers of Hindi find the
sentence Kacchā pāpaD, pakkā pāpaD ‘raw pāpaD, cooked pāpaD’ a tongue
twister. Are there tongue twisters in your language, too?
Figure -2: Einstein with tongue out
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/thumb/msid-45079926,width-280,height-130.cms
8
Did you know?
i. The most difficult tongue twister according to the Guiness Book of World Records is the sentence “ he sixth sick sheikh’s sixth sheep’s sick.”
ii. The second Sunday in every November is the International tongue Twister Day?
As stated in the blog http://mentalfloss.com/article/12800/how-do-tongue-
twisters-twist-tongue, MRI scans of articulations of tongue-twisters vis-à-vis
normal sentences showed that “…tongue twisters cause problems in the
planning, control and/or representation of internal speech by creating a
bottleneck in phonological (relating to the pattern of sounds) or articulatory
processing that requires additional time and effort to parse the sounds and
resolve the confusion.”
Coarticulation is of interest in phonetics and phonology not only because of the
significance of the phenomenon from the point of view of articulation, but also
the planning and processing of speech. It arises mainly because (see
http://www.phon.ox.ac.uk/jcoleman/MULTART.htm) “…the different speech
production processes, and the different articulators involved, combine with one
another with different timing patterns. For example, vowels become nasalized
when followed (or preceded) by a nasal consonant (compare English “pit” and
“pin”) because the timing of the lowering of the velum is not perfectly
synchronized with the tongue movement for the alveolar consonant.”
Watch the following video for the variation in the pronunciation of /l/ in English:
www.youtube.com/watch?v=WSv79H3Thvg
9
Coarticulation is very similar to the well-known phenomenon of Assimilation. In
both, a sound is replaced by another sound on account of its occurrence in a
given context. For instance, the sound /p/ is always pronounced [b] before
nasals in Tamil, e.g. [pʊli] ‘tiger’ and [p :mbɯ] ‘snake’. In Tamil, two consonants
that occur adjacently agree in voicing. Here [p] assimilates the feature ‘voice’ of
the preceding nasal consonant. In addition, in the word [p :mbɯ], the preceding
vowel assimilates the ‘nasal’ feature of the following consonant. Nasal vowels are
not contrastive in Tamil, but result from assimilation.
Coarticulation is often distinguished from assimilation on the grounds of a
difference in being planned and physiologically conditioned. Assimilation is
assumed to be a result of planning before articulation, while coarticulation is
assumed to be taking place in the process of producing sounds requiring
different articulatory movements. The issue, however, is in the need of further
investigation. It is quite likely that all aspects of articulation are a result of the
motor programme for speech.
Languages and dialects vary in the way coarticulation is effected in them.
Nasalization of vowels when occurring adjacent to nasals in different varieties of
English is a good example of this. Look at the nasal vowels in British R. P. and
Indian English (with Hindi as the source language)
( /1) Words British R. P. Hindi English
(a) Not [n t] [n :ʈ] On [ n] [ :n]
Any [en :] [ n :] (b) No [nəʊ] [n :]
Any [en :] [ n :] Nod [n d] [n :ɖ] ~ [n :ɖ] Never [nevə] [ne ə ] ~ [n ə ]
The data in ( /1) show that the contexts for nasalization in the two varieties are
common in (a), but not in (b). The word any has both common as well as
different contexts for nasalization in both varieties.
Coarticulation involves overlapping of articulation of adjacent sounds. The
overlapping may be of the following segment on the preceding segment, as for on
10
in the two varieties in ( /1). This is an instance of Regressive (or anticipatory)
coarticulation. The overlapping may be of the preceding segment on the
following segment, as for No in Hindi English, compared to British R. P. This is an
instance of Progressive(or perseverative) coarticulation. The overlapping can be
in both directions, as for any in Hindi English in ( /1). For both types of
overlapping, there are restrictive contexts, as is the case with the pronunciations
of the words not and nod in British R. P.
Exercise
What is the restrictive context for the nasalization in the words
not and nod in British R. P. in ( /1)?
Key: The following consonant is voiceless in not and voiced in nod.
Are secondary articulations, too, coarticulation? Yes, indeed. The coarticulation
in the case of secondary articulation involves the overlap of features of the
adjacent segment(s), such as ‘labiality’ and ‘frontness’ for labialization and
palatalization. The processes of secondary articulation and double articulation
are discussed separately in order to show the difference between them. In
Module 21, we shall take a close look at the features that play a role in
coarticulation.
5 Parametric Phonetics The study of the primary articulation of segmental sounds, which has been the
topic of Modules 1-8, focused on the articulatory postures in the vocal apparatus
in producing a sound. In the present module, we have tried to account for how
certain features of articulation of a segment are influenced by adjacent segments.
The focus however continues to be a single articulatory state in the production of
a segment. Such a view of phonetics is termed as Segmental phonetics. With the
availability of advanced tools for the investigation of articulatory, acoustic and
auditory properties of speech, an alternative view of phonetics has been gaining
ground, known as Parametric phonetics. Parametric phonetics emphasizes the
11
fact that speech is produced by various speech organs whose movement is well
coordinated and continuous in producing a stretch of speech, as can be seen in
Video /1
LIVEVI~2.MP4
Video /1: Live video of movements during speech production (MRI at 20 ms.) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uTOhDqhCKQs&noredirect=1
A parametric phonetic description of the articulation of a stretch of speech aims
at showing how the various organs (in the main lungs, larynx, jaw, velum,
tongue and lips) coordinate in producing a speech sound, as shown in the
following figure for the production of the phrase perfect memory:
Time (Frames)
(a)
12
11/4/2014 Parametric description and long-domain features
(b)
Parametric description and long-domain features www.phon.ox.ac.uk/jcoleman/long-domain.html (doi: 11/4/2014)
“The figures above show the up-and-down movements of small metal pellets placed on several articulators (two on the tongue) during two utterances of the phrase “perfect memory”. The raising of the tongue dorsum is 12abeled K, of the tongue tip T and of the lower lip B. It can be seen that in the upper version, in which the two words are clearly separated, movements K and T are strongly overlapping, whereas B comes later. In the lower version, in which the two words are run together, movements K, T and B are all rather strongly overlapping.” www.phon.ox.ac.uk/jcoleman/long-domain.html (doi: 11/4/2014) The parameters of measurement of speech can be defined at all the three areas of
phonetics- articulatory, acoustic and auditory. We have already looked at the
parameters for articulatory phonetics. At the acoustic level, the parameters that
are important are the ones that play a crucial role in determining the speech
wave form. At the auditory level, the relevant parameters play a crucial role in
determining the signals that match real speech. . There is need however to
consider how a parametric description of speech can be presented in a workable
formalism, just like the formalism developed for segmental phonetics.
6 Summary
13
In this module, we discussed at length the phenomena of multiple articulation
involving three main processes- secondary articulation, double articulation and
coarticulation. We also briefly introduced the emerging area of parametric
phonetics as complementary to segmental phonetics, the subject matter of main
concern in this course.
###
top related