Phonetics: consonants Raung-fu Chung Southern Taiwan University rfchung@mail.nsysu.edu.tw

Consonants: isssues Stops: a. CV transition b. VOT c. Aspiration cues Fricatives Nasals

Consonant：CV transition Stop sound: conveys its quality by its effect on the adjacent vowel. Ex: [b] Closure of the lips causes a lowering of all the formants.

voiced stops: b, d, g bab dad gag Velar formant transitions take longer than alveolar (e.g. [d]) or bilabial sounds (e.g. [b]). bad dad gag Velar consonants

voiceless aspirated stops: p, t, k pin Tim king the lowest frequency and intensity: [p] The highest: [t] Formant transitions after voiceless aspirated stops is not clear

nasal consonants pin Tim king Similar to vowels but fainter Small movement of Fs before alveolar nasal (i.e. [n]) Clear downward of F2 & F3 before bilabial nasal (i.e. [m]) Clear coming together of F2 & F3 before velar nasal (i.e. []) There should be an abrupt change at the time of the formation of articulatory closure Articulatory closure Articulatory closure Articulatory closure

lateral sounds Sample: lash An abrupt change in the formant structure is characteristic of lateral sounds as well as nasals Sample: lash abrupt change

voiceless fricatives lash face vase The highest frequencies: [s] Slightly lower frequency: [  ] Both [s] and [  ] have large acoustic intensity than [f] and [] Middle and lower frequency: [f]

voiced fricatives lash face vase Similar to voiceless fricatives, but have vertical striation (indicates voice) → not evident [v] is fainter than [f] and has a few vertical striations [z] is less intense than [s]

voiced fricatives lash face vase Similar to voiceless fricatives, but have vertical striation (indicates voice) → not evident [v] is fainter than [f] and has a few vertical striations [z] is less intense than [s]

Practice slightly aspiration burst of aspiration for the velar stop Low value: [] instead of [] British accent: no [r]. Has striation, [] rather than [t] upward transition Increased distance between striations: creaky voice burst of aspiration for the velar stop downward for the bilabial nasal for the velar stop [s] [] [d] [g] [] [m] [t] [] [n] [k] [] [k] [b] [e] [] [i] [] [] [] []

Acoustic cue for stops: VOT VOT = voiced onset time VOT: The duration between the release of the closure and the vibration of the vocal fords. It has been identified that the VOT for a voiced stop is short or even minus, while the VOT for a voiceless stop is longer, and the VOT for an aspirated voiceless top is the longest.

VOT: properties of stop consonants

English VOT

Our studies: NSE VOT

NSE in columns

Hakka VOT: P ph t th k kh ts tsh VOT(ms) 12.0 73.4 14.7 74.3 27.8 87.2 64.7 135.2

Hakka: aspirated vs. unaspirated

SM VOT

Students from different countries for Chinese VOT:

Stop: energy and place

Fricatives: friction noises a. 私 [s] b. 詩 [] c. 西 [i] d. she

Noise frequencies: Languages [s] [] [] [] English 4000 2000 Polish 2500 Mandarin 4800 3100 2700 Hakka 5000

Peaks of noises in LPC:

More on frictions:

Nasals:

Syllabic nasals: [m] [n] [ ]

Nasal + vowel: transition

Place reflected in transition:

Place matters:

Vowels + nasal= transition and place

Also place matters:

Nasalized vowels: nasal murmur

Nasalized vowels and nasal murmur

Freanch:/  / and //

Southern Min nasal murmurs

SM: ne Nasal murmur

Nasalized by degrees?

SM nasalized vs. oral vowels in chart

Now: What can we do with phonetics? 1. one language, different speakers 2. across language: Mandarin vs. English Mandarin vs. Southern Min English vs. other languages Mandarin vs. other languages 3. acoustic phonetic studies

Case 1: VOT in EFL Topic: INTERLANGUAGE PRODUCTION OF ENGLISH STOP CONSONANTS: A VOT ANALYSIS

Methodology: Subjects: 20 EFL students H EFL 5 girls (the age of 13 to 16) 5 boys (the age of 13 to 16) In the HEFL group, 9 subjects passed the basic of GEPT and the other passed Cave. 6 subjects came from the same public junior high school, 3 subjects came from Kaohsiung, and the other came from Yunlin.

L EFL 5 girls (the age of 15 to 16) 5 boys (the age of 15 to 16) There is no one passing the GEPT. 9 subjects came from the same public high school in Yunlin County and the other came from a public vocational school in Yunlin County.

6 NSEs (Native speaker of American English) 3 females (the age of 19 to 24) 3 males (the age of 19 to 24) 3 subjects came from Utah, 2 subjects came from Ohio, and 1 subject came from Washington D.C. They live in Taiwan for 5 months to 19 months, and the mean period is 9.4 months. They are missionaries. They speak Mandarin.

Instruments: Fill in a questionnaire About subjects linguistic and education background. Reading Lists English list 27 words Mandarin list 16 words / ph, th, kh, p, t, k/ /i, u, a/ Southern Min list 24 words /ph, th, kh, p, t, k, b, g/ /i, u, a/

Sound Record program Data Analysis: Get the VOT Make Worksheets Computer Praat The program written by Paul Boersma and David Weenink Data Analysis: Get the VOT Fetching the syllables Storing to a new “WAV” file Measuring VOT by Praat Make Worksheets Using Excel program mean values standard deviations (SD) graphical representation The VOT values SPSS 1. ANOVA tests

Results: 1. VOT production by the NSE group The VOT values average 12.3, 22.2, and 36.0 msec for /p/, /t/, and /k/. The VOT for /b, d, g/ and /p, t, k/ are similar. 2. VOT production in Mandarin by the EFL group /p, t, k/ are short VOT value. /p h, t h, k h / are long VOT value /th/ is shorter than /ph/ HEFL group in /p, t, k/ have shorter VOT values than LEFL group in Mandarin.

3. VOT production in Southern Min by EFL group EFL, in Southern Min, are produced with short lag with voiceless unaspirated. Aspirated ones are produced with long lag. There are less obvious between labial and alveolar stop in Southern Min. Fast speech rate may get lower VOT value. 4. EFL student’s VOT production in English /b/ and /g/ with negative VOT values in English In HEFL group, voiced and voiceless unaspirated with shorter VOT values than LEFL. Voiceless aspirated stops consistently with higher VOT values by HEFL than LEFL.

Summary:

Implications?

Case study 2: Mandarin fricatives

A peak comparison: American English and American Chinese

Korean vs. Korean Chinese

Questions?