Lecture 3 Speech Sounds and Their Systems

Phonetics 语音学

natural sounds speech sounds no systematic meaning a code system.

Definition of Phonetics Phonetics is the science of speech sounds, which aims to provide the set of features or properties that can be used to describe and distinguish all the sounds used in human language.

articulation  Man’s selection of a sound language came too late that there have hardly been any human organs evolving specifically for verbal articulation except the vocal cords – thin bands of muscle in the larynx at the upper end of a person’s windpipe that can be made to move rapidly by the passing of air and thus produce sound. Other organs involved in the production of speech evolved originally for the basic biological needs of breathing and eating, though phoneticians also call them speech organs.

 The principal cavities or resonators: -the pharyngeal cavity -the oral cavity -the nasal cavity (-the labial cavity)  The vocal tract: - the long tubular structure formed by the first three cavities.

The Speech Organs  Pharynx  Oral Cavity  Nasal Cavity  Uvula  Tongue (tip/blade/front/ middle/back/root)  Hard Palate  Soft Palate (Velum)  Alveolar Ridge (teeth- ridge)  Teeth (upper &lower)  Lips (upper &lower)  Epiglottis

Diagram of the speech organs

The Vocal Folds or Vocal Cords

The process of producing speech The air breathed in → lungs → the air pressed out → mouth cavity ↗ windpipe (trachea) → larynx → pharynx → ↘ nasal cavity

Read the following twister  I take it you already know  Of tough and bough and cough and dough?  Others may stumble but not you  On hiccough, thorough, lough and through.  Well done! And now you wish, perhaps,  To learn of less familiar traps?

II take it you already know OOf tough and bough and cough and dough?  [tΛf] [bau] [k ɔ f] [də ʊ ] OOthers may stumble but not you OOn hiccough, thorough, lough and through. 'h ɪ k Λ p] [' Ѳ Λ rə] [l ɔ k] [ Ѳ ru:] WWell done! And now you wish, perhaps, TTo learn of less familiar traps? IInternational Phonetic Alphabet (IPA)

 I take it you already know  Of tough and bough and cough and dough?  坚韧 大树枝 咳嗽 生面团  Others may stumble but not you  On hiccough, thorough, lough and through.  打嗝 彻底的 湖；海湾 通过  Well done! And now you wish, perhaps,  To learn of less familiar traps?

 Beware of heard, a dreadful word,  That looks like beard and sounds  like bird.  And dead: it’s said like bed, not bead –  For goodness sake don’t call it “deed”!  Watch out for meat and great and threat  (They rhyme with suite and straight and debt).

Definition of Consonants &Vowels Consonants: the sounds in the production of which there is an obstruction of the air- stream at some point of the vocal tract. Vowels: the sounds in the production of which no articulators come very close together and the air-stream passes through the vocal tract without obstruction.

Consonants The place of articulation the manner of articulation.

The place of articulation  Bilabial 双唇音 e.g. [p], [m].  Labio-dental 唇齿音 e.g. [f].  Dental 齿音 e.g.[ð]  Alveolar 齿龈音 e.g. [t]  Palatal 腭音 e.g..[j].  Palato-alveolar 腭龈音 e.g. [ ʃ ]  Velar 软腭音 e.g. [k].  Glottal 声门音，喉音 e.g. [h]  Retroflex 卷舌音.  Uvular, 小舌音  Pharyngeal 咽音

The manner of articulation.  Plosive 爆破音 e.g. [p],[d]. It belongs to a broader category called “stop” （塞音：包括吸 塞音（ suction stop ）和挤压塞音 (pressure stop) ）  Nasal 鼻音 e.g. [m].  Affricate, 塞擦音 e.g. [t ʃ ].  Liquid 流音 e.g. [l], [r]. [l]  Fricative 擦音 e.g. [f], [z]. （ Some fricatives are also called sibilants （丝音） e.g. [s], [ ʃ ] ）  Glide 滑音 e.g. [h], [w].

Give the IPA symbol for each of the consonants described below  1) voiced bilabial plosive  2) voiceless alveolar  plosive  3) voiceless dental  fricative  4) voiced bilabial nasal  5) voiceless labio-dental  fricative bb tt ѲѲ mm ff

Vowels

A Diagram of English Vowels

monophthong e.g. [ u ] diphthong e.g. [ au ] [ u ə] triphthong e.g. [ au ə]

Phonology 音系学

Conceptual preparation It is a big pig. It is a pig big. She bought a pair of shoes. /b/ /p/ /p/ /b/ phonemes /∫/ /∫ w / allophones

DEFINITION  Phoneme: the smallest unit of sound in a language which can distinguish two words.  Allophone: the phonetic variant of a phoneme, which can be substituted for another without bringing about a change of meaning.

statistics  The distinctive sounds of human languages are very limited in number, varying from 11 to 64.  English has about 40 phonemes (14-15 vowels, 24 consonants, and 4 diphthongs). Not all phonemes are utilized in the same way, 9 most frequently occurring phonemes comprise almost 51% of all sounds in English. They are [n, t, r, s, d, l, i, e, ae].

Definition  Phonology is the studies of the structure and systematic patterning of sounds in human language.  The word phonology is used in two ways, either as the study of sound patterns in language or as the sound pattern of a language.

Stress and pitch [,u:n I 'v ɜ :sət I ]

suprasegmentals  stress  pitch  tone  Intonation They relate to aspects of pronunciation that go beyond the production of individual segments.

Read it!  The story in Pinyin:  shíshì shīshì shīshì, shì shī, shì shí shí shī 。 shì shíshí shì shì shì shī 。 shíshí, shì shí shī shì shì 。 shìshí, shì shīshì shì shì 。  shì shì shì shí shī, shì shí shí shĭ shì, shĭ shì shí shī shìshì 。 shì shí shì shí shī shī, shì shíshì 。 shíshì shī, shì shĭ shì shì shíshì 。 shíshì shì, shì shĭ shì shí shí shī shī 。 shí shí, shĭ shí shì shí shī shī shí shí shí shī shī 。 shì shì shì shì 。

Read again  The story in Chinese characters:  石室诗士施氏，嗜狮，誓食十狮。氏时时 适市视狮。十时，适十狮适市。是时，适 施氏适市。氏视是十狮，恃十石矢势，使 是十狮逝世。氏拾是十狮尸，适石室。石 室湿，氏使侍拭石室。石室拭，氏始试食 十狮尸。食时，始识是十狮尸实十石狮尸。 试释是事。

questions  Words with the same form but different meanings are called homonyms; words with the same pronunciation but different meanings are called homophones. How many homonyms and homophones have you identified in this story? Is a tone language richer in homonyms and homophones than non-tone languages? Cite examples to support your opinion.

 What phonetic discrepancies may you and your partners see between spoken Chinese and classical written Chinese ( 文 言文 ) ？  Discuss how to translate the story into English.

A translation from internet (revised) (Once upon a time,) there was a poetic scholar whose name is Mr. Shi, who took delight in lion. He vowed to eat 10 lions. He frequently traveled to towns to see whether there were lions. One day, at 10 o'clock, 10 lions happened to travel to the town. At the same moment, Mr. Shi arrived at the town too. Mr. Shi saw these 10 lions and killed them by casting ten stones. He then picked up those dead bodies, and transported them back to the stone house. When he arrived at home, he found that his house was wet. He ordered his servants to wipe the stone house. after the stone house was wiped, he tried to eat the lions, only to find out that those lions were actually made of stones, This is my attempt to explain this weird story.

So much for today.