1 Linguistics week 6 Phonetics 4

2 Parameters for describing consonants So far (this is not complete yet) we have – Airstream (usually the same for all consonants) – Place of articulation – Voicing – Manner of articulation So, [p] is … – egressive pulmonic – bilabial – voiceless – plosive This was what I was expecting in the quiz!

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4 Affricates in Mandarin /ts ʰ / and /ts/ /t ʂʰ / and /t ʂ / /t ɕʰ / and /t ɕ / – Can you guess what they are? – What is the ʰ ? ㄘ and ㄗ ㄔ and ㄓ (retroflex affricate) ㄐ and ㄑ (alveolo-palatal affricate)

5 Aspiration Aspirated and unaspirated consonants – ㄅ is unaspirated [p] »Voicing for the next sound (a vowel) begins immediately after plosion – ㄆ is aspirated [p h ] (puff of air) »Vocal folds remain open briefly, after the stop is released English: spit vs pit (aspiration difference) Aspiration is much less important in English than in Chinese – Can you explain why?

6 Because aspiration in Mandarin is phonemic (also, tone in Mandarin is phonemic) p ʰ and p are two different phones; two different sounds but in Mandarin they are different phonemes – /p ʰ a/ ( ㄆㄚ ) and /pa/ ( ㄅㄚ ) represent different meanings – in English p ʰ and p do not help to distinguish meaning – There are no minimal pairs like p ʰ a and pa

7 IPA: approximants (all voiced) An approximant – occurs as a consonant in syllabic patterning (CVC) – but, it’s like a vowel, because the articulators usually don’t touch. 2 common realizations of /r/ (in addition to the trills described earlier) – [ ɻ ] retroflex approximant of Mandarin – [ ɹ ] alveolar approximant of English A palatal approximant [j], often corresponding to the English spelling “y” A labial (=with rounded lips) velar approximant [w] Then there is a lateral approximant [l] – Lateral = “side”, that is where the obstruction is

8 Mandarin sounds PA_NPA_4.htm PA_NPA_4.htm

9 Vowels vs consonants Consonants – There is some obstruction in the vocal tract (=the mouth or throat) Vowels – There is no such obstruction (the air flows freely)

10 Regional accent variation English accents – The consonants are generally the same – The vowels are often very different Mandarin Chinese accents – Pronunciation of consonants often varies widely according to region

11 Describing vowels Say [i] followed by [æ] (like cat) – Think about where your tongue is – Look in a mirror – What changes? What can you say about the position of the tongue in the two cases? This is one of the parameters of vowel description

12 Another parameter Now compare [ ɑ ] (father) with [æ] (like cat) You can also try comparing the vowels in ㄢ and ㄤ Notice any difference? This is the second distinguishing parameter (factor)

13 The third parameter Compare 四 with 速 Or more straightforwardly, compare ㄧ with ㄩ – The difference should be quickly apparent

14 So, the 3 parameters are…

15 The IPA vowel chart This is a stylized representation of the inside of the mouth It shows –the cardinal vowels marked by black dots –and the approximate position of vowels common in many languages The next slide shows the position of English vowels on the same kind of chart

16 BritishAmerican

17 This week’s homework Sound description, recording and animation. Take a look at s/about.html# and click on “English library”. s/about.html# Read about vowels again (page 48ff). What are the parameters for describing vowels (like voicing, airstream etc with consonants)?

18 Diphthongs Yule describes these as a vowel + an approximant (p49) so /bajt/; /bawt/ We can also say there are two vowels involved – an initial vowel, in “bite” or ㄞ = a – a target vowel, in “bite” or ㄞ = I – the tongue moves towards I – but doesn’t actually reach its target – Check the cool website for a democool website

19 Midterm exam On 20 th November, there is a midterm exam. You can expect questions on: – Anything I talked about in class – Anything on these slides – Anything from the web resources I referred you to – Anything from Yule, in the sections related to what we covered in class For some questions, you will write a short answer of a few words, maybe a number, maybe a symbol For other questions, you will write a short paragraph. You will get a half credit for anything you write in Chinese