Phonetics:
The Sounds of Language
01:615:201!
Introduction to Linguistic
Theory!
!
Adam Szczegielniak"
Copyright in part : Cengage learning
Sound Segments
• Knowing a language includes knowing the sounds of that
language
• Phonetics is the study of speech sounds
• We are able to segment a continuous stream of speech
into distinct parts and recognize the parts in other words
• Everyone who knows a language knows how to segment
sentences into words and words into sounds
Identity of Speech Sounds
• Our linguistic knowledge allows us to ignore
nonlinguistic differences in speech (such as
individual pitch levels, rates of speed, coughs)
• We are capable of making sounds that are not
speech sounds in English but are in other
languages
– The click tsk that signals disapproval in English is a
speech sound in languages such as Xhosa and Zulu
where it is combined with other sounds just like t or k
is in English
Identity of Speech Sounds
• The science of phonetics aims to describe all the
sounds of all the world’s languages
– Acoustic phonetics: focuses on the physical
properties of the sounds of language
– Auditory phonetics: focuses on how listeners
perceive the sounds of language
– Articulatory phonetics: focuses on how the vocal
tract produces the sounds of language
The Phonetic Alphabet
• Spelling, or orthography, does not consistently represent the
sounds of language
• Some problems with ordinary spelling:
– 1. The same sound may be represented by many letters or combination
of letters:
he people key
believe seize machine
Caesar seas
see amoeba
– 2. The same letter may represent a variety of sounds:
father village
badly made
many
The Phonetic Alphabet
– 3. A combination of letters may represent a
single sound
shoot character Thomas
either physics rough
coat deal
– 4. A single letter may represent a combination
of sounds
xerox
The Phonetic Alphabet
– 4. Some letters in a word may not be
pronounced at all
autumn sword resign
pterodactyl lamb corps
psychology write knot
– 5. There may be no letter to represent a
sound that occurs in a word
cute
use
The Phonetic Alphabet
• In 1888 the International Phonetic
Alphabet (IPA) was invented in order to
have a system in which there was a one-
to-one correspondence between each
sound in language and each phonetic
symbol
• Someone who knows the IPA knows how
to pronounce any word in any language
The Phonetic Alphabet
• Dialectal and individual differences affect
pronunciation, but the sounds of English
are:
The Phonetic Alphabet
• Using IPA symbols, we can now represent
the pronunciation of words
unambiguously:
Articulatory Phonetics
• Most speech sounds are produced by pushing air
through the vocal cords
– Glottis = the opening between the vocal cords
– Larynx = ‘voice box’
– Pharynx = tubular part of the throat above the larynx
– Oral cavity = mouth
– Nasal cavity = nose and the passages connecting it to the throat
and sinuses
Consonants: Place of Articulation
• Consonants are sounds produced with some
restriction or closure in the vocal tract
• Consonants are classified based in part on
where in the vocal tract the airflow is being
restricted (the place of articulation)
• The major places of articulation are:
bilabial, labiodental, interdental, alveolar, palatal,
velar, uvular, and glottal
Consonants: Place of Articulation
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Consonants: Place of Articulation
• Alveolars: [t] [d] [n] [s] [z] [l] [r]
– All of these are produced by raising the tongue to the alveolar
ridge in some way
• [t, d, n]: produced by the tip of the tongue touching the alveolar
ridge (or just in front of it)
• [s, z]: produced with the sides of the front of the tongue raised but
the tip lowered to allow air to escape
• [l]: the tongue tip is raised while the rest of the tongue remains down
so air can escape over the sides of the tongue (thus [l] is a lateral
sound)
• [r]: air escapes through the central part of the mouth; either the tip
of the tongue is curled back behind the alveolar ridge or the top of
the tongue is bunched up behind the alveolar ridge
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Consonants: Manner of Articulation
• The manner of articulation is the way the
airstream is affected as it flows from the lungs
and out of the mouth and nose
• Voiceless sounds are those produced with the
vocal cords apart so the air flows freely through
the glottis
• Voiced sounds are those produced when the
vocal cords are together and vibrate as air
passes through
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Consonants: Manner of Articulation
• Oral sounds are those produced with the velum raised
to prevent air from escaping out the nose
• Nasal sounds are those produced with the velum
lowered to allow air to escape out the nose
• So far we have three ways of classifying sounds based
on phonetic features: by voicing, by place of
articulation, and by nasalization
– [p] is a voiceless, bilabial, oral sound
– [n] is a voiced, alveolar, nasal sound
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*The textbook uses [r] to represent the central liquid as in the word ready rather than as
a trill
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Vowels
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Vowels
• Tense vowels:
– Are produced with
greater tension in the
tongue
– May occur at the end of
words
• Lax vowels:
– Are produced with less
tongue tension
– May not occur at the end
of words
Vowels
Major Phonetic Classes
• Noncontinuants: the airstream is totally obstructed in
the oral cavity
– Stops and affricates
• Continuants: the airstream flows continuously out of the
mouth
– All other consonants and vowels
• Obstruents: the airstream has partial or full obstruction
– Non-nasal stops, fricatives, and affricates
• Sonorants: air resonates in the nasal or oral cavities
– Vowels, nasal stops, liquids, and glides
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Prosodic Features
• Stress: stressed syllables are louder, slightly
higher in pitch, and somewhat longer than
unstressed syllables
– The noun digest has the stress on the first syllable
– The verb digest has the stress on the second syllable
– English is a stress-timed language, meaning that at
least one syllable is stressed in an English word
• French functions differently, so when English speakers learn
French they put stress on certain syllables which contributes
to their foreign accent
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Tone and Intonation
• Intonation languages (like English) have
varied pitch contour across an utterance,
but pitch is not used to distinguish words
– However, intonation may affect the meaning of a
whole sentence:
• John is here said with falling intonation is a statement
• John is here said with rising intonation is a question
Phonetics of Signed Languages
• Signs can be broken down into segmental
features similar to the phonetic features of
speech sounds (such as place and manner of
articulation)
– And just like spoken languages, signed languages of
the world vary in these features
– Signs are formed by three major features:
• 1. The configuration of the hand (handshape)
• 2. The movement of the hand and arm towards or away from
the body
• 3. The location of the hand in signing space
Phonetics of Signed Languages
• The configuration of the hand (handshape)
• The movement of the hand and arm
• The location of the hand in signing space
