Stop Acoustics + Glides December 2, 2015

Down The Stretch They Come Today: Stop and Glide Acoustics Friday: Sonorant Acoustics + USRI evaluations We’ll save the spectrogram reading exercise for next Monday. Production Exercise #4 has been posted! Get your recordings in to me by Friday at 5 pm. Also on Monday: Review session for the final exam. I’ll hand out a study guide on Friday.

Formant Transitions The resonant frequencies of the vocal tract change as stop gestures enter or exit the closure phase. Ex: Formant frequencies usually decrease in making the transition from bilabial stop to vowel (or vice versa)

Formant Transitions: alveolars For other places of articulation, the type of formant transition that appears is more complex. From front vowels into alveolars, F2 tends to slope downward. From back vowels into alveolars, F2 tends to slope upwards.

[hid] [hæd]

Formant Locus Whether in a front vowel or back vowel context... The formant transitions for alveolars tend to point to the same frequency value. (  Hz) This (apparent) frequency value is known as the locus of the formant transition. According to one theory of perception... the locus frequency can be used by listeners to reliably identify place of articulation.

Velar Transitions Velar formant transitions do not always have a reliable locus frequency for F2. Velars exhibit a lot of coarticulation with neighboring vowels. Fronter (more palatal) next to front vowels Locus is high:  Hz Backer (more velar) next to back vowels Locus is lower: < 1500 Hz F2 and F3 often come together in velar transitions “Velar Pinch”

The Velar Pinch [bag][bak]

Fricative Transitions You get transition cues for fricatives at different places of articulation, too.

American : tongue tip between teeth British : tongue tip behind upper teeth has a little bit of a transition cue Transitions

[f] = ? In some dialects of English, may be replaced by [f]. “with” “mouth” Stephen Fry transcription May be distinguished visually: check out the clips. Labio-dental and interdental fricatives are the most confusable consonants in English.

Approximants Approximants = one articulator is close to another, but without producing audible turbulence. They come in two flavors: 1.Glides (English [w], [j]) 2.Liquids (English, [l]) This distinction is also phonological… Glides are essentially high-vowel articulations which are not in a syllabic peak. In English, liquids may form syllables (or syllable peaks).

Glides Each glide corresponds to a different high vowel. VowelGlidePlace [i][j]palatal(front, unrounded) [u][w]labio-velar(back, rounded) [y]labial-palatal(front, rounded) velar (back, unrounded)

Glide Examples French contrasts palatal, labio-palatal and labio-velar glides: Japanese has velar vowels, but not necessarily velar glides...

Glide Acoustics Glides are shorter than vowels They also tend to lack “steady states” and exhibit rapid transitions into (or from) vowels hence: “glides” Also: lower in intensity especially in the higher formants

[j] vs. [i]

[w] vs. [u]

Vowel-Glide-Vowel [iji][uwu]

More Glides [wi:][ju:]

Secondary Articulations A secondary articulation is made by superimposing a glide-like articulation on top of another constriction elsewhere in the vocal tract. Note that secondary articulations are different from double articulations. In double articulations, both constrictions are of equal degree. Ex: labio-velar stops ([kp]) With secondary articulations, there are two constrictions with an unequal degree of closure. primary articulation: more constricted secondary articulation: less constricted

Primary / Secondary One example of a secondary articulation is velarized. Also symbolized: Primary articulation: [l] direct contact with tongue tip Secondary articulation: approximation of velum with back of tongue The other commonly found secondary articulations are: [ w ]labialization [ j ]palatalization pharyngealization

Labialization Examples In labialization, lip rounding (specifically, protrusion) is superimposed on a fricative or stop constriction. Examples from Bura (spoken in Nigeria):

Timing The reason that [k w ] is not transcribed as [kw] has to do with timing. [k w ]: peak of labial protrusion occurs during stop closure [kw]: peak of labial protrusion occurs after stop closure [k] [w][w] [w] velum lips velum lips

[m] vs. [m w ] [m w anta]

By the way... It is hypothesized that Proto-Indo-European had a series of labialized velar stops: /k w /, /k wh /, /g w /, /g w ɦ / Over time, some IE languages maintained the velars, while others maintained the labialization. *g w ou“cow, bull” Germanic: [ku]  “cow” Latin: [bous]  “bovine” *k w ek w lo“wheel” Old English: [hweol]  “wheel” Greek: [kuklos]  “cycle”

Palatalization Consonants are palatalized by making a secondary [j] constriction. Russian has contrastive palatalized consonants.

[p] vs. [p j ] vs. [pj] “sweat” (male name)“drink”

Post-vocalic Position [tot h ] The acoustic effects of secondary articulations operate in reverse, when they appear after a vowel.

Pharyngealization Consonants are pharyngealized by superimposing a pharynx narrowing gesture on the regular consonant articulation. Mid-sagittal diagrams from Arabic:

Arabic Examples Arabic contrasts pharyngealized and non-pharyngealized consonants.

[t] vs. [ti:n] Pharyngeal constrictions raise F1 and lower F2 an -like formant pattern