IV. THE STRUCTURE OF LANGUAGE :

I. PHONETICS (THE SOUNDS OF LANGUAGE) :

1. SOUND SEGMENTS :

A. Individual sounds vs. continuous speech perception (highly active process)

B. Identity of speech sounds

2. ARTICULATORY PHONETICS (vs. acoustic or auditory) :

A. AIRSTREAM MECHANISMS :

(a) egressive [= out] and pulmonic (lung air) for English

(b) ingressive [= in]: clicks (velaric) ; implosives (glottalic)

B. PHONETIC FEATURES (characteristics or properties of speech sounds) :

(a) VOICED [z] VS. VOICELESS SOUNDS [s] :

vibration [z/b/d/z/g/v] vs. no vibration [s/p/t/c/k/f]

minimal pairs

(b) NASAL [m, n, engma] VS. ORAL SOUNDS :

velum lowered vs. raised

(c) PLACE OF ARTICULATION [for CONSONANTS] :

articulators (tongue or lip)

points of articulation on the horizontal or vertical axis :

(see mid-sagittal view of the vocal tract) 

[+ anterior] or [+ front] feature = made in the front of the palate

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labials [+ labial]: one or both lips [p / b / m = bilabial ; f / v = labiodental]

interdentals / linguadentals : [ ] theta = voiceless (thin ; ether ; bath)

[ ] edh = voiced (then ; either ; bathe)

alveolars : d / n / t / s / z initial sounds in: dip, nip, tip, sip, zip

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[- anterior] or [- front]

velars (> velum): g / k / ng (hag, hack, hang) [+ posterior] or [+ back]

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palatals : [s] = sh [ ] mesher (voiceless)

[+ coronal] [z] [ ] measure (voiced)

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(d) MANNER OF ARTICULATION :

(how the airstream is affected)

(1) stops vs. continuants :

oral stops p t k (voiceless) tap, tat, tack

(= plosives) b d g (voiced) tab, tad, tag

STOPS ----------------------------------------------------------------

nasal stops m n engma tam, tan, tang

(2) aspirated vs. non-aspirated / unaspirated :

automatic (conditioned) variation vs. free variation

┌───────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐

ENVIRONMENT │ │

┌──────────┼──────────────────────┬──────────────────────┬─────────────────┤

│ PHONEME │ INITIAL POSITION │ after [s] │ FINAL POSITION │

│ │ (before vowel) │ (before vowel) │ │

├──────────┼──────────────────────┼──────────────────────┼─────────────────┤

│ /p/ │ [p^h] │ [p⁼] │ [p^h] or [p⁼] │

│ │ │ │ │

│ /t/ │ [t^h] │ [t⁼] │ [t^h] or [t⁼] │

│ │ │ │ │

│ /k/ │ [k^h] │ [k⁼] │ [k^h] or [k⁼] │

│ │ │ │

│(voiceless│ CONDITIONED VARIATION │ FREE VARIATION │

│ stops) │ (automatic variation) │ (optional var.) │ │ │ │ │

└──────────┴─────────────────────────────────────────────┴─────────────────┘

[f] and [v] in Old English : considered variants of a single phoneme

phonetic vs. phonemic

phones vs. phonemes

(3) fricatives [from fricare = friction] = partial obstruction of the airflow :

initial sounds in: fit / sip / ship / thin [voiceless]

vine / zip / then [voiced]

(4) affricates [= combination stop + fricative] :

initial and last sounds in: church [c] or [t ]

judge [j] or [d ]

(e) OBSTRUENT VS. SONORANTS [+ / - obstruent]:

(1) obstruent --® obstruction : non-nasal stops (plosives) [non-continuant]

fricatives [continuant]

affricates [continuant]

(2) sonorant (vowel-like qualities) :

m / n / engma and l / r / yod / w = the most open consonants

nasals orals [= liquids + glides]

SCALE OF SONORITY (sonority = sound power) = ranking of consonants / vowels

[from the least to the most sonorous sounds]

(1) stops ; (2) affricates ; (3) fricatives ; (4) nasals ; (5) liquids and semi-vowels ; (6) vowels

SOUNDS THAT DO NOT NEATLY FIT INTO CATEGORIES :

· liquids : same degree of sonority as semi-vowels

[l] (lateral articulation) and [r] (central articulation)

· the substitution phenomenon (indicates acoustic similarities)

[ ] --® [s] [ ] --® [z]

· speech pathology (misarticulation)

· numerical values assigned to features

semi-vowels or glides : [- consonantal]

[j] = “yod” (palatal glide) ; as in yet

= non-syllabic [i] : (a-i-a)

[w] = labiovelar glide ; as in wet

= non-syllabic [u] (a-u-a)

[h] = voiceless glottal fricative (obstruction occurs at the glottis) :

voiceless counterpart of the following vowel (hat, hut, hit, hot)

not found in the postvocalic position

high frequency energy

[ ] = glottal stop (air totally stopped at the glottis)

ex.: bottle, glottal, Latin (Cockney accent, New Yorkers)

(f) SYLLABIC SOUNDS: (can constitute a separate syllable)

a.  liquids : bottle, medal

b. nasals : mutton, rhythm

(g) VOWELS : (peak of sonority; free air flow)

Similarities between vowels (properties common to all) :

all are voiced

can be sung/maintained

form a syllabic nucleus

Differences between vowels :

vowel length [:] (not phonemic in English)

height (tongue position): high [i] vs. low [a] (vertical axis) [feet / fat]

advancement : front [i] vs. back [u] (horizontal axis) [feed / food]

rounded [u] vs. unrounded [I] [pool / pill]

oral or nasal (diacritic mark = tilde)

[in English : nasalization (lowered velum) occurs before nasal consonants only]

stressed or not

[in English: the schwa [ ] can replace any unstressed vowel]

English inventory of vowels (19?) vs. orthography