Chapter 3 The Sounds Of Language

Accent vs. Dialect Do you have an accent? What is the difference between an accent and a dialect? Accent: Manner of pronunciation, typically associated with a particular nation, locality, or social class. Dialect: Manner of speech which differs in structure, grammar, pronunciation, and vocabulary Different dialects are mutually comprehensible; different languages are not. http://youtu.be/3UgpfSp2t6k

American Dialects http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2013/12/20/sunday-review/dialect-quiz-map.html

English is not spelled how it sounds Heard looks like Beard but sounds like Bird Dead looks like Bead but sounds like Bed Meat looks like Great but sounds like Sweet Moth looks like Mother but sounds like Cloth Dear looks like Pear but sounds like Beer

Phonetics Our Concern Auditory Phonetics Acoustic Phonetics - How sounds are made How sounds are transmitted (Decibel etc.) How sounds are heard

Production of Speech Sounds Voiced or Voiceless - Whether they make the vocal cords vibrate or not Place of articulation - WHERE the sound is produced Manner of articulation – HOW the sound is produced

Voiced and Voiceless Sounds Voiced Sounds Voiceless Sounds Vocal folds are drawn together. As air passes through trachea, creates vibrating sounds: All vowels and diphthongs are voiced: a, e, i, o, u, and y (as in ‘pity’) Consonants: b, d, v, l, r, z, j, and th (as in ‘them’) Vocal folds are spread apart. Air passes out without restriction: Consonants like: p, t, k, s, sh, ch, th (as in ‘thing’)

Places of Articulation

Manner of Articulation How a sound is made Important for explaining how to make sounds For example, [d] and [z] are made in the same place of articulation, the alveolar ridge, but they have different manners of articulation.

Stops stop airflow, release [b] [t] [d] [k] [g] Bilabial Alveolar Velar Voiceless Voiced Pin Bin Tin Dig Camera Sing Also called ‘plosives’ Produced by a form of brief stopping of the airstream

Fricatives restricted airflow [θ] [ð] [s] [z] [ʃ] [ʒ] [h] Labiodental Dental Alveolar Palatal Glottal Voiceless Voiced voiced Safe Save Bath Bathe Sink Zoom Shop Casual Who Produced by almost blocking the airstream (air pushes through a very narrow opening) Fish begins and ends with fricatives [f] and [ʃ] Those begins and ends with fricatives [ð ] and [z]

Affricates stop + restricted airflow Palatal Voiceless Voiced Chip Jam Produced by a combination of a brief stopping of airstream with an obstructed release, causing some friction cheap and jeep have affricate sounds [tʃ] and [dʒ]

Nasals lowered velum, air through nose [ŋ] Bilabial Alveolar Velar Voiced Man Not Ring Produced when the vellum is lowered and the airstream is allowed to flow out through the nose morning, knitting and name begin and end with nasals

Liquids air flows around sides of tongue [ɹ] Alveolar Voiced Lad Red The [l] sound as in led is formed by letting the airstream flow around the sides of the tongue as the tip of the tongue makes contact with the middle of the alveolar ridge. The [ɹ] sound as in red is formed with the tip of the tongue raised and curled back near the alveolar ridge.

Glides tongue in motion, "semi-vowels”) [j] [h] Bilabial Palatal Glottal Voiced Voiceless Wait Gem Hand Produced with the tongue in motion or ‘gliding’ to or from the position of a vowel They are sometimes called semi-vowels or approximants we, wet, you, yes, hi and hello

Glottal Stop and the Flap Produced when the space between the vocal cords (glottis) is closed completely (very briefly) and then released Uh oh! [ʌ ʔ ow] The flap: [ɾ] Butter or Manhattan

VOWELS Food/Boot Feed Book Fit Above (Schwa- Un-stressed syllable) Note Fade Fed Above Fought Fad Father hot

Vowels: Diphthongs and R-controlled Sound made by combining two vowels, when the sound starts as one vowel sound and ends as another [aɪ] = fight [aʊ] = foul [eɪ] = fate [oʊ] = foe [ɔɪ] = foil [ɚ] = fighter (used in unstressed syllables) [ɝ] = first (used in stressed syllables) ex. girl, world, third, hurl, sure “sound of the angry dog”

caught/cot Individual Variation Do you pronounce these the same or differently? caught/cot

Yankee or Dixie? How much of each are you? Y’all Car-ml Pajamas, like in Job Route, like in Rout Caught = [kawt] Aunt = *Ain’t You (se) guys Car-a-mel Pajamas, like in Jam Route, like in Root Cot = caught Aunt = Ant

Phone The basic unit of phonetics is called a phone. Any human speech sound is a phone. Phones are often expressed by placing brackets around an IPA transcription, like [dæns] for the American pronunciation of dance.

Phonology The study of systems and patterns of speech sounds in languages The basic unit in phonology is the phoneme, which is any sound in language that distinguishes meaning (ex: in rat and mat, /r/ and /m/ are phonemes that change the meanings of the words) Phonemes are often expressed by placing slashes around the IPA transcription: /b/

Phone Phoneme Any possible human speech sound in any language The smallest identifiable unit in speech Transcribed within brackets [b] [o] A contrastive unit in the sound system of a specific language A minimal unit that serves to distinguish between word meanings Transcribed within slashes /b/ /o/

IPA: International Phonetic Alphabet universal system to transcribe the sounds of speech used since 1888 represents each sound with a single symbol symbols are enclosed in square brackets [ ] enables linguists to transcribe languages accurately

IPA: International Phonetic Alphabet Transcribe SOUNDS, not letters! Annie How many letters? How many sounds? [ æ n i ] The complete IPA is available as a word file on our class website.

IPA: International Phonetic Alphabet SYMBOL WORD EXAMPLE IPA TRANSCRIPTION [i] fee [ f i ] [I] fit [ f I t ] [ej] fate [ f ej t] [ɛ] let [ l ɛ t ] [æ] bat [ b æ t ] [u] boot [ b u t ] [ʊ] book [ b ʊ k ]

IPA: International Phonetic Alphabet SYMBOL WORD EXAMPLE TRANSCRIPTION [ p ] spit [ s p I t ] [ b ] bib [ b I b] [ t ] stuck [ s t ʌ k] [ d ] dip [ d I p ] [ k ] skip [ s k I p ] [ g ] get [ g ɛ t ]

IPA: International Phonetic Alphabet SYMBOL WORD EXAMPLE TRANSCRIPTION [ θ ] theta thick [ θ I k ] [ ð ] eth though [ ð o w ] [ə] schwa the [ð ə] [ ɾ ] flap hitting [h I ɾ I ŋ] [ ŋ ] sang [ s æ ŋ ] [ t ʃ ] chip [ tʃ I p] [ dʒ ] judge [dʒ ʌ dʒ]

PHONETICS & PHONOLOGY

Phonetics The general study of the characteristics of speech sounds This includes whether sounds are voiced or voiceless sounds as well as their manner and place of articulation The International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA) is used to help accurately describe sounds

Phonology The study of systems and patterns of speech sounds in languages The basic unit in phonology is the phoneme, which is any sound in language that distinguishes meaning (ex: in rat and mat, /r/ and /m/ are the phonemes which change the meanings of the words) Phonemes are often expressed by placing slashes around the IPA transcription: /b/