1. Phonetics: consonants
Raung-fu Chung
Southern Taiwan University

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

3. 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.

4. 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

5. 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

6. 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

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

8. 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]

9. 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]

10. 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]

11. 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]
[]
[]
[]
[]

12. 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.

13. VOT: properties of stop consonants

14. English VOT

15. Our studies: NSE VOT

16. NSE in columns

17. Hakka VOT: P ph t th k kh ts tsh
VOT(ms)

18. Hakka: aspirated vs. unaspirated

19. SM VOT

20. Students from different countries for Chinese VOT:

21. Stop: energy and place

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

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

24. Peaks of noises in LPC:

26. More on frictions:

27. Nasals:

28. Syllabic nasals:
[m] [n] [ ]

29. Nasal + vowel: transition

30. Place reflected in transition:

31. Place matters:

32. Vowels + nasal= transition and place

33. Also place matters:

34. Nasalized vowels: nasal murmur

35. Nasalized vowels and nasal murmur

36. Freanch:/  / and //

37. Southern Min nasal murmurs

38. SM: ne
Nasal murmur

39. Nasalized by degrees?

40. SM nasalized vs. oral vowels in chart

41. 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

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

43. 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.

44. 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.

45. 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.

46. 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/

47. 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

48. 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.

49. 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.

50. Summary:

51. Implications?

52. Case study 2: Mandarin fricatives

53. A peak comparison: American English and American Chinese

54. Korean vs. Korean Chinese

55. Questions?