Chapter 2

Human language displays a wide variety of sounds, but humans are not capable of producing all the sounds with the vocal tract in speech. The class of possible speech sounds is not only finite, but also universal. Any human is able to pronounce these sounds, regardless of his racial or cultural background.

Phonetics is the scientific study of speech and is concerned with defining and classifying speech sounds according to how and where they are produced. A complex set of physical operations takes place when a spoken message goes from a speaker to a hearer.

Phonetics studies the above facets of speech. However, the neurological facets of production and reception are often considered falling outside the scope of phonetics proper. Generally, the study of phonetics is composed of three fields: articulatory phonetics acoustic phonetics auditory phonetics.

Articulatory phonetics deals with the identification and classification of individual sounds. Acoustic phonetics focuses on the analysis and measurement of sound waves. Auditory phonetics is concerned with the perception of speech.

A wide range of physical activity is involved in the production of the speech sounds. Vocal organs play a vital part. Vocal organs refer to all the parts of the human body that are related to speech production.

Most speech in natural language involves a pulmonic egressive airstream, which flows upwards from the lungs, through the larynx ( 喉） and then into the pharynx ( 咽 ), oral and/or nasal cavities. phonation ( 发音 ): the range of modifications to the airflow as it passes through the glottis ( 声门 ) within the larynx.

Voice: voiced and voiceless With voicelessness the glottis is open, resulting from abduction of the vocal folds. Voiced phonation is produced through the vibration of the vocal folds and with the cooperation of both muscular and aerodynamic forces.

Phoneticians and linguists often employ two parameters to examine how sounds are articulated: manner of articulation place of articulation

When the articulators are brought close together and the airflow in the oral cavity is completely blocked, the resultant articulation is a stop ( 塞音 ). Stops: oral stops (plosives), and nasal stops (nasals). Plosives: a complete closure. Nasal stops: air can escape freely through the nasal cavity.

Fricative ( 摩擦音 ): Affricative ( 塞擦音 ):

Approximant ( 无擦通音 ): central [r]) or lateral [l] Trill ( 颤音 ): 'r' in certain regional accents Tap ( 一次接触音 ): It is used for 't' in words like 'better’.

The place of articulation is another way to observe how sounds are articulated. Bilabials Dentals Post-alveolars ( 后齿龈音 )

Retroflex ( 卷舌音 ) 'r' in words like 'red'. Uvular ( 小舌音 ) Glottals ( 喉音 ) [h]

Labiodentals ( 唇齿音 ) For example, in English the [f] in fat and the [v] in vat are labiodental fricatives. Alveolars ( 齿龈音 ) [t, d] Palatal ( 硬腭音 ) English has only one palatal sound, [j], as in 'yes' and 'yet'.

Velar ( 软颚音 ) [k] [g] Pharyngeal ( 咽音 ) Pharyngeal consonants are not common.

Vowels are more difficult than consonants to describe articulatorily. A. (1) the distance between the top of the tongue and the roof of the mouth and (2) the retraction and extension of the tongue. B. rounding of the lips.

Vowels may be subdivided into monophthongs and diphthongs ( 双元音 ).

English has many vowel sounds. According to Roach (1991), there are: seven short vowels five long vowels eight diphthongs five triphthongs English is said to have 24 consonants

English has six plosive consonants: /p/, /t/, /k/, /b/, /d/, /g/. nine fricatives. two affricates: three nasals: three approximants: r, j, w. one lateral consonant: l

The best-known system, the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA), has been developing since IPA transcription uses symbols to write the sound in whichever language it is heard.

Phonology is the study of the sound patterns in human language. Phoneme is the minimum phonemic unit that is not further analyzable into smaller units. However, a phoneme is the abstract set of units as the basis of our speech. There are many slightly different ways in which we make the sounds that represent these phonemes.

Allophone 音位变体： the phonetic variants of a phoneme In phonemic analysis, we may come across sounds that do not change the meaning when we make a substitution. For example, the consonants at the beginning of "shoe" and "she" have very different sound qualities. For "shoe", the lips are rounded, for "she", the lips are spread. If we now substitute one of these sounds for the other, we do not get a change of meaning.

Traditionally, the term 'phoneme' is used to refer to a speech sound that, when substituted for another, brings out a change in meaning. For example, 'tip', /t, i, p/. 'lip', /l, i, p/.

A pair of phonemes is also known as a minimal pair. deed and seed deed and deaf

Every language has a limited number of phonological oppositions Distinctive features are often shown in the form of a binary opposition. The features can be shown either present [+] or absent [-]. Tongue body features Tongue body features [high], [low], and [back].

The Features Rounded The Features Rounded

The Features High and Back in Consonants The Features High and Back in Consonants Manner Features Manner Features [+interrupted] and [-interrupted]

It is not difficult to show that speakers have knowledge of such sequential rules. The sequence of of k, b, l, I Blik Klib Bilk Kilb but *[lbki], *[bkil], *[ilkb]

Complementary distribution refers to the case in which one of two or more sounds occur in a context to the exclusion of other sound(s). [h] and I [h] never in word-final position never in word-initial position

When occurring after a word (or syllable) initial [s], the voiceless stops are shown in the following:

Structurally, the syllable may be divided into three parts: the onset, the peak, and the coda.

Stress is generally defined as syllable prominence. Message Massage

Pitch is a suprasegmental quality which extends over individual segments and longer stretches of speech. Falling pitch is more common in language than rising pitch. (1) John's going to tonight's party. (↘) (2) John's going to tonight's party? (↗)

Intonation refers to the pitch differences that extend over phonetic units larger than the syllable. Tone refers to pitch variations. In some languages, the same sequence of segments may have different meanings if uttered at different relative pitches. Putonghua

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