Sounds of Language: fənɛ́tɪks Intro. to General Linguistics Nina Setyaningsih

Phonetics Phonetics  the study of speech sounds Phones  individual speech sounds, like [b], [k] Phonetician  a linguist who works on phonetics Phone  telephone Don’t ask a phonetician to fix your phone!

Three ways of approaching phonetics: 1. Articulatory Phonetics: Physiological mechanism of speech production  how you make/articulate speech sounds using your mouth, tongue, lips, and throat 2. Acoustic Phonetics: The acoustic structure of the sound waves that travel between a speaker and a hearer 3. Auditory Phonetics: Perception of the sounds by the brain  what you do to speech sounds when they reach your ears

Vocal Tract

Speech production The production of any speech sound involves the movement of air. Most speech sounds are produced by pushing lung air through the opening between the vocal cords – the glottis, located in the larynx (voice box) – through the tube in the throat (pharynx), out of the oral cavity through the mouth and sometimes also through the nasal cavity and out the nose.

Classes of Sounds Consonants are always produced with some closure to the vocal tract. The nature and location of this closure determines what type of consonant that is produced. Vowels are produced mainly when the airflow from the lungs to the lips is relatively unrestricted.

In the description of speech sounds, three functions need to be specified: Voicing – whether the sound is voiced or voiceless (whether the vocal cords vibrate or not) Place of articulation – where in the mouth the obstruction occurs Manner of articulation – what kind of obstruction occurs

English Consonants Chart

Manners of Articulation Stops: completely stop the airflow [p, t] Fricatives: constrict the airflow to create friction [f, v, s, , , , ] Nasals: let air flow only through your nose [m, n, ] Approximants: constrict airflow only a little bit [w, j] Affricates: make a stop and then a fricative [t, d]

Place of Articulation Bilabials: bringing the lips together – [p, b], [m] Labiodentals: touching the lower lip against the upper teeth – [f, v] Interdentals: sticking the tongue tip between the teeth – [, ] Alveolars: the front of the tongue and the bony (alveolar) ridge behind the teeth – [t, d, z, n, l]

Palatals: bringing the tongue close to the hard palate (the hard surface surrounded on three sides by your upper teeth) - [, , t, d, j] Velars: raising the back of the tongue to the velum or soft palate [k, g, ] Glottals: the sound of [h] is from the flow of air through the open glottis, pass the tongue and lips. If the sound is stopped completely at the glottis, the resulting sound is [ʔ]

English Vowels Chart

Vocalizing Vowels There are several ways in which speakers can change the shape of the vocal tract and thus change vowel quality. They do this by: Raising or lowering the body of the tongue – high, mid, low Advancing or retracing the body of the tongue – front, central, back Rounding or not rounding the lips Making these movements with a tense of a lax gesture

American English Vowels

Tense & Lax Vowels

Your full name, please A full description of a speech sound describes at least the state of the vocal folds, the manner of articulation, and the place of articulation. [p] = voiceless bilabial stop In vowels, the sounds are described by the tongue height, part of the tongue involved, and the lip rounding/unrounding [i] = high front unrounded

Diphtongs Diphthongs: Vowels that change in quality as they are produced [aɪ] as in bite, sight, by, buy, die, dye, choir, liar, island, height, sign [aʊ] in about, brown, doubt, coward, sauerkraut [ɔɪ] in boy, oil

Write the following phonetic transcription in regular English spelling. nom tʃamski ɪz e lɪngwɪst hu titʃəz æt ɛm aɪ ti fənɛtɪks ɪz ðə stʌdi əv spitʃ saʊndz sʌm pipəl θɪŋk fənɛtɪks ɪz vɛri ɪntərɛstɪŋ

Write the following words in phonetic transcription. books walked thank then sheep