1. English Allophony
September 24, 2010

2. Canadian Raising (Canadian) Jon (American) Steve “house” “howl” “bike”
“bile”
For fun: switch Jon’s vowels in “bike” and “bile”
Also compare:
(Canadian) Aaron:
(American) Steve:
And, lastly, (Canadian?) Amber:

3. Mid-Sagittal Diagram

4. Dimension 2: Phonation On the way out of the lungs
Air passes through the trachea
Reaches the larynx
The larynx consists of two “vocal folds” which may be opened and closed. If the vocal folds are:
1. open: air passes cleanly through (voiceless sound)
2. closed: air does not pass through (no sound)
3. lightly brought together: vocal folds vibrate in passing air
(= voiced sound)

5. Voicing, Schematized
Voiceless (folds open) Voiced (folds together)

6. Laryngoscopy
Source:

7. Voicing, in Reality

8. Some Voicing Distinctions
Among English consonants:
Voiceless Voiced Voiceless Voiced
[f] [v] [p] [b]
[t] [d]
[s] [z] [k] [g]

9. Voicing Allophony
Vowels are longer before voiced consonants than voiceless consonants.
Length is denoted with the [:] diacritic.
‘feed’ [fi:d] vs. ‘feet’ [fit]
Note that Canadian Raising occurs before voiceless consonants.
voiceless: ‘out’ ‘write’
voiced: ‘bribe’ ‘ride’

10. Layers
Canadian Raising occurs when and are followed by a voiceless consonant.
The voiceless consonant does not need to be at the end of a word.
Interesting examples:
‘rider’
‘writer’
Note: flap is voiced.
The voiceless consonant which induces Canadian Raising does not need to be voiceless on the phonetic “surface”!
The technical term for this is phonological opacity.

11. More Voicing Allophony
Consonants at the ends of words are sometimes devoiced.
Voicelessness is denoted with the [ ] diacritic.
‘lose’ ‘peas’
Also: ‘languages’ example from homework #1.
You can sometimes get contrasts in English like:
‘peace’ ‘peas’
/l/, /j/, /w/ and can be (partially) voiceless in English when they follow a voiceless consonant:
‘play’

12. Aspiration Allophony /p/, /t/, and /k/ are aspirated if:
They are at the beginning of a stressed syllable.
They are not preceded by /s/.
Ex:

13. Dimension 3: Place of Articulation
After the stream of air passes through the larynx…
speech sounds may be made by constricting the flow of air through the vocal tract.
The place where such constrictions are made is known as the place of articulation of the sound.
Constrictions are made by placing an active articulator against (or near to) a passive articulator.
Generally:
active articulator = on the bottom
passive articulator = on the top

14. Anatomy Lesson #1

15. Anatomy Lesson #2

16. English Places of Articulation
Bilabial [p] [b] [m]
Labio-dental [f] [v]
Interdental
Alveolar [t] [d] [s] [n] [z] [l]
Post-alveolar
Palatal [j]
Velar [k] [g]

17. X-Ray movie revisited
First check out “bogus”

18. Place Assimilation Place assimilation occurs when:
One consonant’s place of articulation becomes identical to that of a neighboring consonant.
/n/ often takes on the place of articulation of a following consonant.
‘unpleasant’
‘month’
‘engrossed’
alveolars--except for /s/ and /z/--assimilate to following dentals
Ex: width, tenth, wealth

19. Front and Back
Velars /k/ and /g/ become fronted when preceding front vowels
the diacritic for “fronter” is
the diacritic for “backer” is
Examples:
‘coo’
‘key’
These diacritics may apply to vowels, as well.
Ex: ‘spoons’

20. Dimension 4: Aperture
The type of sound created by a constriction in the vocal tract depends on how narrow the constriction is.
Stop (or plosive):
Complete closure of the articulators
The airstream cannot escape through the mouth.
Fricative:
Close approximation of two articulators
The airstream is partially obstructed
Turbulent airflow is produced.

21. English Stops Voiceless Voiced Bilabial [p] [b] Alveolar [t] [d]
Velar [k] [g]
Note--stops that:
Follow a vowel involve a closing gesture
Precede a vowel involve an opening gesture
 Stops at the end of words may be unreleased.
Example: “chocolate pudding”

22. English Fricatives Voiceless Voiced Labio-dental [f] [v] Interdental
Alveolar [s] [z]
Post-alveolar
Glottal [h]

23. Dimension 4: Aperture, continued
Approximant:
a gesture in which one articulator is close to another
but without turbulent airflow being produced.
4. Affricate
combination of stop + fricative

24. More English Consonants
Approximants:
labio-velar, voiced: [w]
palatal, voiced: [j]
Some dialects of English also distinguish:
‘witch’ [w] vs. ‘which’
= voiceless, labio-velar approximant
Affricates --
Voiced: Voiceless:

25. Really Narrow
The stops, /t/ and /d/, have a post-alveolar place of articulation in affricates:
An interesting question:
How do you say “tree” and “draw”?
/t/ and /d/ can become affricates before /r/:
‘tree’
‘draw’

26. Dimension 5: Retroflexion
A retroflex sound involves the curling back of the tip of the tongue.
generally in the post-alveolar region.
There is only one retroflex sound in English, and it’s an approximant:
In other languages, stops and fricatives can be retroflex, too.

27. Dimension 6: Nasality
The back of the soft palate may be lowered or raised.
This may allow air to pass through the nose during speech.
Air passes through the nose during the production of nasal consonants…
…but it does not pass through the mouth in “nasal stops”
bilabial [m]
alveolar [n]
velar

28. One Last Time

29. Nasalization Vowels often become nasalized before nasal consonants.
The diacritic for nasalization is:
Examples:
‘can’ vs. ‘cat’
‘Ben’ vs. ‘bed’
Before other consonants, /n/ can drop out completely…
and leave the nasalization behind:
‘can’t’ vs. ‘cat’
‘Winters’

30. Dimension 7: Laterality
Lateral approximant:
Obstruction of the airstream at a point along the center of the oral tract
With incomplete closure between one or both sides of the tongue and the roof of the mouth.
alveolar lateral: [l] “clear l”
velarized alveolar lateral: “dark l”
velarized = back of tongue is raised towards velum
Note: consonants which are not lateral are “central”.
Check out “oil” video

31. /l/ options
Dialectologically, /l/ is the most interesting consonant in English.
Dialect Type A:
“clear” /l/ syllable-initially: ‘leaf’
“dark” /l/ syllable finally: ‘feel’
Dialect Type B:
“clear” /l/ before front vowels: ‘leak’
“dark” /l/ everywhere else: ‘lock’
Others have “dark” /l/ pretty much everywhere.
(and maybe even lose the alveolar closure!)

32. Consonant Dimensions: Summary
[t] [j]
Airstream Mechanism pulmonic egressive p.e.
Phonation Type voiceless voiced
Place of Articulation alveolar palatal
Aperture stop approx.
Retroflexion non-retroflex non-retro
Nasality oral oral
Laterality central central

33. Manner of Articulation
Phoneticians usually combine dimensions 4-7 under the rubric of manner of articulation.
Example manners of articulation:
[t] = (oral) stop
[n] = nasal stop
[v] = fricative
[w] = approximant
[l] = lateral approximant
= retroflex approximant
= affricate

34. Notes Consonant sounds are generally assumed to be: pulmonic egressive
oral
central
…unless stated otherwise
Big picture thought:
Through combinatorics, language makes a large number of distinctions out of a minimal number of articulatory gestures.

35. English Consonant Chart

36. For Monday Have a go at: Chapter 2, Exercise H
(I will post this to the course web page later today.)
Note: this is a practice homework exercise that we will discuss together in class.