Describe the following:
• /b/• voiced bilabial stop
• /p/• voiceless bilabial stop
• /d/• voiced alveolar stop
• /r/
• (voiced) alveolar (central) approximant
• /l/
• (voiced) alveolar lateral (approximant)
• /f/
• voiceless labiodental fricative
• /z/
• voiced alveolar fricative
• /ʃ/
• voiceless alveopalatal fricative
• /dʒ/
• voiced alveopalatal affricate
Give the IPA for the following:
• voiceless labiodental fricative• [f]• voiced alveolar fricative• [z]• voiced alveolar nasal• [n]• voiced velar nasal• [ŋ]• voiceless alveopalatal fricative• [ʃ]
• voiced alveolar (central) approximant• [r]• voiced alveopalatal fricative• [ʒ]• voiceless alveopalatal affricate• [tʃ]• voiced velar stop/plosive• [g]• (voiceless) glottal stop• [ʔ]
What’s wrong with these?
• ‘shut’ [shut]• [ʃʌt]• ‘swift’ [swift]• [swɪft]• ‘follow’ [falo]• [faloʊ]• ‘frog’ [frog]• [frag]
What’s wrong with these?• ‘left’ [left]• [lɛft]• ‘child’ [tʃild]• [tʃaɪld]• ‘theme’ [ðim]• [θim]• ‘voice’ [vois]• [vɔɪs]• ‘rang’ [raŋ]• [reŋ]• ‘health’ [helθ]• [hɛlθ]
Postvocalic Cs
• How can we tell whether final C is voiced?
• Often no final release• Duration is often too short to tell
whether cords are vibrating during • Length of preceding vowel is key
– bead vs beat, bid vs bit, fade vs fate, said vs set, sad vs sat, bug vs buck, lewd vs loot, code vs coat, (hog vs hawk)
– Example
Nasal plosion
• Stop followed by a homorganic nasal– ‘sudden’ [sʌdn>]– ‘kitten’ Q: [kɪtn] but not [kɪʔn]
• Occurs only if there is no glottal stop or if the glottal stop is released after the alveolar closure has been made and before the velum is lowered
Lateral plosion
• Alveolar stop before the lateral [l]– air pressure built up during the stop can
be released by lowering the sides of the tongue ‘middle’ [mɪdl >]
Tap/flap
• In American English, the alveolar C between Vs is not really a stop, but a quick tap of the tongue blade against the alveolar ridge
• Q: how can we tell what the speaker has said?– ‘latter’ vs ‘ladder’
Fricatives
• Partial obstruction of airflow• Fricatives + Stops form a natural
class called ‘obstruents’
Post-vocalic
• +/- voice info carried on preceding vowel– long vowel = voiced post-vocalic fricative– short vowel = voiceless post-vocalic fricative– Point: voicing info carried on the longest,
most salient segments
• Fortis (-voice) held longer than lenis• Lenis (+voice) are not actually voiced
throughout
Fricatives: articulatory gestures
• Primary gestures: close approximation of articulators
• Secondary: lip rounding (labialization), if applicable, e.g., ‘same’ vs ‘shame’– changes shape, length of the chamber,
creates room in front of the teeth–dramatic acoustic effect
– ‘strong’: [stɹɔŋ] or [ʃtɹɔŋ]• rounding due to anticipation of upcoming [ɹ]
Affricates
• More than just a stop + a homorganic fricative
• Issue of timing between the stop and succeeding vowel– different kind of (gradual) release
Other (non-affricate) combos
• [ps] and [ks]: why aren’t they affricates?– not homorganic
• [tθ] and [ts]– cannot occur everywhere
• [tʃ] and [dʒ] are the only two that can occur anywhere and are homorganic (very close), so they get special phonological status in English
Nasals
• Velar opening is key– allows air into the nasal cavity
• Timing: N + V– velum lowered– occlusion– vocal cord vibration
• Timing: V + N – [an] (Engl.) occlusion vs [a] (French) no occlusion– voicing for vowel – velum lowered– occlusion
N + Fricative
• Move from occlusion to non-occlusion, often causes insertion of stop in between– [sʌMmθɪŋ][sʌmpθɪŋ]– [sɪ Mns][sɪ Mnts]
Final N can be syllabic
• Like [r, l]• Marked with vertical line under the N– [sʌdn>]
• Syllabicity can be in phrase:– ‘milk and cookies’ [mɪlkŋ>kʊkiz]
The velar nasal
• Cannot occur word-initially• Usually not syllabic• Can only be preceded by [ɪ,ɛ,æ,ʌ,ɑ]
Approximants
• Glides, lateral and rhotic– [j], [w], [l], [r]
• Vowel-like– no occlusion, – active articulator approaches passive
articulator– approach changes the shape of the
chamber– can occur in consonant clusters with stops
Lateral [l]
• [l] and [r] – can be curled or bunched– light or dark• light: pre-vocalic: ‘light’, ‘right’• dark: post-vocalic: ‘pull’ ‘for’
– no contact with alveolar ridge– patterns like a diphthong: ‘feel’–velarized
– voiceless when they follow a voiceless stop• ‘clear’ and ‘creep’ [kl Qiɚ] and [kɹ Qi:p]
Glides: [j] and [w]• [j]: place of articulation?
– hard palate: voiced palatal glide• [w]: place of articulation?
– lips and velum: voiced labio-velar glide• Shortened versions of vowels
– [j] corresponds to [i]– [w] corresponds to [u]
Voiceless glottal fricative: [h]
• Open vocal tract• Set up for the vowel that follows
– compare ‘has’ ‘hut’ and ‘heat’
• Has the same status in all languages– Should it be categorized as a glide?
• No, because it’s voiceless (can’t be a semi-V)– L: voiceless counterpart of surrounding sounds
• Turbulence comes from entire vocal tract, with most turbulence coming from point of articulation of following vowel
More on [h]• Usually occurs at the beginning of words in
English– seldom between Vs within a word (mostly with
prefixed words)– never at the end of words– never in clusters
• If [h] occurs between vowels in an utterance, articulatory movement is continuous– [h] is realized as a weakening (not necessarily
complete devoicing): ‘the head’ vs ‘at home’• Some dialects distinguish between ‘witch’ [wɪtʃ]
and ‘which’ [hwɪtʃ], but that distinction appears to be disappearing
Overlapping gestures
• Anticipatory coarticulation– stops are slightly rounded when they
occur in clusters with [w] and [ɹ]• ‘kick’ ‘quick’; ‘tea’ ‘tree’• [s] can become [ʃ] when followed by [tɹ]:
why?
• Movement towards a target– series of movements towards targets
• Certain aspects of active articulator movement or placement are crucial (‘specified’)