Some Speech Basics Phonetic Transcription, Context-dependent variation, and Intonation Jennifer J. Venditti Postdoctoral Research Associate Columbia Computer Science 12 September 2002

1. Phonetic Transcription

Spelling vs. Sounds same spelling = different sounds o comb, tomb, bomb oo blood, food, good c court, center, cheese s reason, surreal, shy same sound = different spellings [i] sea, see, scene, receive, thief [s] cereal, same, miss [u] true, few, choose, lieu, do [ay] prime, buy, rhyme, lie combination of letters = single sound ch child, beach th that, bathe oo good, foot gh laugh single letter = combination of sounds x exit, Texas u use, music ‘silent’ letters k knife, know p psycho, pterodactyl e moose, bone gh through

Figures 4.1 and 4.2: Jurafsky & Martin (2000), pages 94-95.

On-line pronunciation dictionaries phoneset derived from: number of wordforms English variety LDC PRONLEX ARPAbet 90,694 American CMUdict 100,000 CELEX IPA 160,595 British Source: Jurafsky & Martin (2000), page 121.

Places of articulation alveolar post-alveolar/palatal dental velar uvular labial pharyngeal laryngeal/glottal http://www.chass.utoronto.ca/~danhall/phonetics/sammy.html

Vocal fold vibration [UCLA Phonetics Lab demo]

Articulatory parameters for English consonants (in ARPAbet) PLACE OF ARTICULATION bilabial labio-dental inter-dental alveolar palatal velar glottal stop p b t d k g q fric. f v th dh s z sh zh h affric. ch jh nasal m n ng approx w l/r y flap dx MANNER OF ARTICULATION VOICING: voiceless voiced

American English vowel space FRONT BACK HIGH LOW iy ih eh ae aa ao uw uh ah ax ix ux ey ow aw oy ay

[iy] vs. [uw] (From a lecture given by Rochelle Newman)

[ae] vs. [aa] (From a lecture given by Rochelle Newman)

Acoustic landmarks [p] [t] [ix] [ih] [ax] [ae] [iy] [sh] [s] [n] [l] “Patricia and Patsy and Sally”

Articulators in action (Sample from the Queen’s University / ATR Labs X-ray Film Database) “Why did Ken set the soggy net on top of his deck?”

Exercise (1) Write your name in: (a) IPA. (b) ARPAbet (if possible). Choose one of the following triplets and transcribe each word in both IPA and ARPAbet. cone, tomb, bottom blood, fool, hook court, race, cheese reason, surreal, cash thing, these, other laugh, through, ghoul

Figures 4.1 and 4.2: Jurafsky & Martin (2000), pages 94-95.

IPA consonants (Distributed by the International Phonetics Association.)

IPA vowels (Distributed by the International Phonetics Association.)

Context-dependent phonetic variation

Context-dependent variation What we would consider a single ‘sound’ can be pronounced differently depending on the phonetic context. For example, the phoneme /t/: Figure 4.8: Jurafsky & Martin (2000), page 104.

Another regular alternation I can ask [ay k ae n ae s k] I can see [ay k ae n s iy] I can bake [ay k ae m b ey k] I can play [ay k ae m p l ey] I can go [ay k ae ng g ow] I can carry [ay k ae ng k ae r iy] n  m / __ [+labial stop] n  ng / __ [+velar stop] (inopportune [n], insatiable [n], impervious [m], immortal [m], incoherent [ng], ingratitude [ng])

English plurals hiccup [p]  hiccups flood [d]  floods sock [k]  socks scab [b]  scabs habit [t]  habits frog [g]  frogs spoof [f]  spoofs comb [m]  combs hearth [th]  hearths grave [v]  graves lathe [dh]  lathes beach [ch]  beaches fool [l]  fools dish [sh]  dishes sewer [r]  sewers judge [jh]  judges pies [ay]  pies race [s]  races curfew [uw]  curfews axe [s]  axes sofa [ax]  sofas raise [z]  raises

Phonological rules for Engl. plurals Assume that the lexical form of plural is /z/. Insertion:   ix / [+sibilant] ^__ z # Devoicing: z  s / [-voice] ^__ # bus+PL cape+PL hen+PL /b ah s +z/ /k ey p +z/ /h eh n +z/ insertion: b ah s +ix z -- -- devoicing: -- k ey p s -- [b ah s ix z] [k ey p s] [h eh n z] /b ah s +z/ /k ey p +z/ /h eh n +z/ devoicing: b ah s s k ey p s -- insertion: -- -- -- *[b ah s s] [k ey p s] [h eh n z]