Spoken language phonetics: Vowel articulation, transcription LING 200 Spring 2006

Homework #2 Due Thurs. Apr 13 at the beginning of section Ch. 6 problems (5) a-g, j (6)-(7) (9) (10) a, c, e (11)-(12)

Announcements Quiz on Ch. 6 extended to 2:30 pm today (**just this once**) Quiz on Ch. 7 (minus first section, ‘The Pronunciation of Morphemes’) opens Sunday (4-9) 10 am, closes Wed (4-12) noon Clickers should be in book store today extra credit?

A FAQ Which phonetic symbols do we have to memorize in this class? Answer: those used for English

Manner of articulation (degree of occlusion) How close are lower and upper articulator? Relatively close: consonants Relatively far apart: vowels

Vowels Some dimensions of vowel systems Height: high, mid, low Backness: front, central, back Labiality (lip rounding): rounded, unrounded some descriptive parameters backness = backness of highest point of tongue (roughly)

Vowel backness x height

The Human Language Evolves. “With and Without Words” Clip on vowel systems

(place of articulation) A five vowel inventory e.g. Spanish (place of articulation) front central back vowel height high i u mid e o low A

Spanish vowels front central back high [misA] ‘Mass’ [musA] ‘muse’ mid [mesA] ‘table’ [moskA] ‘housefly’ low [mAsA] ‘dough’

Lip rounding (place of articulation) front unrounded central back vowel height (degree of occlusion) high i u mid e o low A

Phonetic description of vowels (height – backness – rounding) [i] = high front unrounded vowel [e] = mid front unrounded vowel [o] = mid back rounded vowel [u] = high back rounded vowel [A] = low central (-back) unrounded vowel cf. [a] = low front unrounded vowel

IPA vowel chart

Another five vowel inventory Mandarin (Chinese) [y] = high front rounded vowel [] = mid back unrounded vowel front unrnd rnd back high i y u mid  low A

Mandarin vowel quality front back unrnd rnd high [l] ‘advantage’ [ly] ‘green’ [lû] ‘road’ mid [l] ‘happy’ low [lA] ‘spicy’ [  ] = high falling tone

Long vs. short vowels Vowel “quality” height: high vs. mid vs. low backness: front vs. central vs. back rounding: rounded vs. unrounded Vowel “quantity”: long vs. short

Danish front vowel qualities

Danish vowel length contrasts

English vowels English, a Germanic language Proto-Germanic West North East Faroese Icelandic Norwegian Swedish Danish Gothic German Afrikaans Dutch Frisian English

Proto-Germanic Vowels i i: u u: e e: o: A As reconstructed by Joe Voyles (and others)

Middle English vowels < The English Language

Middle English long and short vowels minus the diphthongs i: u: I U e:  o: E: E :  a A:

Modern English Historical length > ‘tense’/ ‘lax’ contrast Long vowels > ‘tense’ Short vowels > ‘lax’

Western North America front central back high i u lower-high   mid Basic set of contrasts in stressed syllables front central back unrounded rounded high i u lower-high   mid higher-mid e o lower-mid E  low  A Fromkin et al. say that i-I, u-U, e-E, o- ( not on this slide) are tense-lax pairs, where the lax member of each pair is shorter. This really isn’t true of the relation between o and . Notice too that they don’t classify the other vowels in terms of tense and lax.

Western North America front central back high heed who’d lower-high contrasts in stressed syllables front central back unrounded rounded high heed who’d lower-high hid hood mid higher-mid hayed hoed lower-mid head HUD low had hod, hawed

Acoustic plot of vowel quality a female speaker from southern California Notice: relative positions of e and I, rather central u and U, ^ and A in basically central-back relation

Further east in North America contrasts in stressed syllables front central back unrounded rounded high i u lower-high   mid higher-mid e o lower-mid E   low  A

Further east in North America contrasts in stressed syllables front central back unrounded rounded high heed who’d lower-high hid hood mid higher-mid hayed hoed lower-mid head HUD hawed low had hod

[] vs. [] cot vs. caught Polly vs. Paulie Don vs. dawn A female speaker from New York City cot vs. caught Polly vs. Paulie Don vs. dawn coffee vs. cough body vs. bawdy

Acoustic plot of vowel quality a male speaker from southern New Jersey Notice: positions of I-e, central /u/, relation between ^, A, and O (A more central than back in this variety)

[] in Western N. America In Western North America, [] only before [r]: [mr] more [mor] mower ([r] = syllabic [r]) [mAr] mar

English vowels: rhotic nuclei A basic set of [Vr] combinations in North American English front central back high [ur] [r] mid [Er] [r] = [r] [r] low [Ar]

English vowels: rhotic nuclei A basic set of [Vr] combinations in North American English front central back high boor beer mid bear burr bore low bar some varieties have more vowel quality distinctions before [r]: Mary [e], merry [E], marry []

More on [r] Continuation of clip from The Human Language Evolves. “With and Without Words”

Diphthongs 2 vowel qualities [w]/[w] = []: [hwd] how’d [j] = []: [hjd] hide [j] = []: [tjd] toyed For many native speakers of English, [e], [o] are diphthongs [ej] = [eI] [hed] ([hejd]) hayed [ow] = [oU] [hod] ([howd]) hoed

Unstressed vowels Stressed and unstressed syllables verbs: nouns: to [riEkt] a [ríEkt] reject to [protEst] a [prótEst] protest to [prótEst] (‘stage a protest’) Stress can alternatively be transcribed (IPA method) [riEkt]

English unstressed vowels [] only occurs in unstressed syllables unstressed [] cf. stressed [] hiccup [hkp] cup [kp] wicked [wkd] cud [kd] racket [rkt] cut [kt]

English unstressed vowels [] + nasals, liquids For many speakers, [r] [pkr] picker [l] = [l] [pkl] [pkl pickle [n] = [n] [Tkn] [Tkn] thicken [m] = [m] [rDm] [rDm] rhythm [ ] = syllabic

Transcription practice scrimmage schism asthma azalea mayonnaise

Transcription practice scrimmage [skrIm] schism [skIzm] asthma [zm] azalea [zelj] mayonnaise [mnez]

More transcription practice kook cucumber mortgage grammar language

kook [kuk] cucumber [kjukmbr] mortgage [mrg] grammar [græmr] language [leNgw]