Spoken language phonetics: Consonant articulation and transcription LING 200 Spring 2006

Announcements, reminders Quiz re Ch. 1-2: question 9 dropped, results have been recalculated Homework #1 (transcription related) due tomorrow at the beginning of section Quiz re Ch. 6 currently open; closes Fri noon Turning Point Automated Response System: receiver here; book store receiving new shipment of clickers Friday

Phonetic transcription a mystery language ‘driftwood’ ‘cane’ ‘footwear’ ‘grease’ ‘straight up’ ‘your collarbone’

Organization of today’s lecture Articulation of speech sounds Transcription of speech sounds Consonant inventories

Vocal tract structures relevant for speech nasal cavity pharynx oral cavity

Vocal tract structures relevant for speech Upper articulator Lower articulator

Major structures structure (noun) adjectival descriptor lips labial teeth dental alveolar ridge alveolar hard palate palatal soft palate = velum velar nasal cavity nasal larynx laryngeal glottis glottal

Place of articulation some places of articulation upper articulator lower articulator

Some places of articulation in English lower articulator upper articulator example (bi-) labial bill (apico-) alveolar dill (dorso-) velar gill

Manner of articulation (degree of occlusion) How close are lower and upper articulator? Relatively close, narrowed or constricted (‘occluded’) airflow: consonants Relatively far apart, unconstricted airflow: vowels

Manner of articulation Consonant subclasses Stops: complete occlusion of airflow bill, dill, gill Fricatives: air pressure build-up behind occlusion; turbulent airflow Liquids and glides: no pressure build-up

English fricatives Fricative: produced with turbulent airflow, pressure build-up behind occlusion place of articulation example labiodental fin interdental thin alveolar sin palatal (palato-alveolar) shin laryngeal hinder

Affricates = stop released into fricative of ‘same’ place of articulation place example palatal (palato-alveolar) chin

Liquids and glides = Approximants: No pressure build-up, non-turbulent airflow place example liquids alveolar lip retroflex* rip glides palatal yip labial (labio-velar) whip *Fromkin et al. sometimes refer to the place of this sound sometimes as alveolar, sometimes retroflex.

Place x manner of articulation labial labio-dental inter-dental alveolar retroflex palatal velar glottal stop bin din again fricative Vinnie then zing vision him approx-imant win Lynn rim yen

State of the glottis (laryngeal setting)

The larynx and vocal cords Clip from The Human Language vol. 3: The Human Language Evolves. “With and without words” rear of body

States of the glottis in English voiced: vocal cords close, vibrate when air passes through glottis voiceless: vocal cords apart, do not vibrate Some voiced and voiceless fricatives voiceless voiced labio-dental fox vixen inter-dental thin then alveolar sip zip palatal Aleutian illusion

Other consonant parameters: oral vs. nasal

Oral vs. nasal Velum raised Air flows into oral cavity only oral sound Velum lowered (resting position) Air flows into oral and nasal cavities nasal sound

English oral vs. nasal stops Stop: produced with complete occlusion in oral cavity (oral) stop nasal (stop) bilabial pin bin Kim alveolar tin din kin velar kin again king

Other consonant parameters: lateral What part of the tongue (lower articulator) approaches the upper articulator? Only tip: air flows around side(s) of tongue (‘lateral’) Air flows over all tongue surface (‘central’) English: lip (lateral) vs. rip (central)

Phonetic description Consonants State of glottis voiceless Place of articulation bilabial Manner of articulation stop

Phonetic transcription Alphabetic and other symbols which abbreviate phonetic descriptions E.g. voiceless bilabial stop = [p] Phonetic transcription in square brackets Different systems of phonetic transcription International Phonetic Association ‘Americanist’/U.S.

Phonetic transcription A more consistent way of representing sound than most writing systems e.g. English <c>: [k] [kræbi] <crabby> [s] [pnsl] <pencil> A universal framework for the description of spoken languages Many languages lack writing systems

Consonant chart for English Cf. Table 6.4 bi-labial labio-dental inter-dental alveo-lar palatal velar glottal stops p b t d k g affricates tS dZ fricatives f v   s z S Z h nasals m n N approximant w () r* j lateral l *American English [r] is actually retroflex.

Witsuwit’en Athabaskan family apx. 180 speakers

Some Witsuwit’en speakers Mabel Forsythe Lillian Morris, Peter John

Some Witsuwit’en sounds Ejective stops and affricates: transcribed [C’] How to make a (canonical) ejective: 0. Make a velar stop. Make a glottal stop.

Ejective stops [t’] = ejective alveolar stop [nt’q] ‘your collarbone’ Compare [t] = voiceless alveolar stop [ntq] ‘up’ Waveforms: [n t ’  q] [n t  q]

Ejective affricates [ts’] = ejective alveolar affricate [pts’q] ‘his little finger’ Compare [ts] = voiceless alveolar affricate [ptsq] ‘his outer ear’ [p t s ’  q] [p t s  q]

Uvular place of articulation [q] = voiceless uvular stop [qis] ‘Chinook salmon’ [ntq] ‘up’ [q’] = voiceless uvular ejective [q’X] ‘backwards’ [X] = voiceless uvular fricative [XE] ‘grease’

Lateral fricative and affricates [] = voiceless lateral fricative [jl] ‘it’s white; goat’ [aqhE] ‘dogs’ [t] = voiceless lateral affricate [stet] ‘it’s licking me’ [t’] = ejective lateral affricate [st’et] ‘he farted’

Witsuwit’en consonant chart labial alveolar palatal labio-velar uvular glottal stops p p’ t th t’ c ch c’ kw kwh kw’ q qh q’  affricates ts tsh ts’ lateral t th t’ fricatives s z ç xw  h  nasals m n approximants j w  l

Summary Describing consonants place of articulation manner of articulation (degree of occlusion) state of glottis nasal/oral lateral/central Phonetic transcription Consonant charts

Question Describe one of the consonants you know (in one of the languages you know) that is different from one of the consonants of English. Be sure to name the language.

Next time Vowels