Spoken language phonetics: Consonant articulation and transcription

LING 200 Spring 2006 Announcements, reminders

• Quiz re Ch. 1-2: question 9 dropped, results have been recalculated • Homework #1 (transcription related) due tomorrow at the beginning of section • Quiz re Ch. 6 currently open; closes Fri noon • Turning Point Automated Response System: receiver here; book store receiving new shipment of clickers Friday Phonetic transcription a mystery language 1. ‘driftwood’ 2. ‘cane’ 3. ‘footwear’ 4. ‘grease’ 5. ‘straight up’ 6. ‘your collarbone’ Organization of today’s lecture

• Articulation of speech sounds • Transcription of speech sounds • Consonant inventories Vocal tract structures nasal cavity relevant for speech pharynx

oral cavity Vocal tract structures relevant for speech

•Upper articulator •Lower articulator Major structures structure (noun) adjectival descriptor lips labial teeth dental alveolar ridge alveolar hard palate palatal soft palate = velum velar nasal cavity nasal larynx laryngeal glottis glottal Place of articulation

some places of articulation upper articulator lower articulator Some places of articulation in English lower upper example articulator articulator (bi-) labial bill (apico-) alveolar dill (dorso-) velar gill Manner of articulation (degree of occlusion) • How close are lower and upper articulator? –Relatively close, narrowed or constricted (‘occluded’) airflow: consonants –Relatively far apart, unconstricted airflow: vowels Manner of articulation

• Consonant subclasses –Stops: complete occlusion of airflow –bill, dill, gill –Fricatives: air pressure build-up behind occlusion; turbulent airflow –Liquids and glides: no pressure build-up English fricatives

Fricative: produced with turbulent airflow, pressure build-up behind occlusion

place of articulation example labiodental fin interdental thin alveolar sin palatal (palato-alveolar) shin laryngeal hinder Affricates •= stop released into fricative of ‘same’ place of articulation

place example palatal (palato-alveolar) chin Liquids and glides

= Approximants: No pressure build-up, non-turbulent airflow place example liquids alveolar lip retroflex* rip glides palatal yip labial (labio-velar) whip

*Fromkin et al. sometimes refer to the place of this sound sometimes as alveolar, sometimes retroflex. Place x manner of articulation

labial labio- inter- alveolar retroflex palatal velar glottal dental dental stop bin din again fricative Vinnie then zing vision him approx- win Lynn rim yen win imant State of the glottis (laryngeal setting) The larynx and vocal cords

Clip from The Human Language vol. 3: The Human Language Evolves. “With and without words” rear of body States of the glottis in English • voiced: vocal cords close, vibrate when air passes through glottis • voiceless: vocal cords apart, do not vibrate • Some voiced and voiceless fricatives

voiceless voiced labio-dental fox vixen inter-dental thin then alveolar sip zip palatal Aleutian illusion Other consonant parameters: oral vs. nasal Oral vs. nasal

•Velum raised – Air flows into oral cavity only ¾oral sound • Velum lowered (resting position) – Air flows into oral and nasal cavities ¾nasal sound English oral vs. nasal stops

Stop: produced with complete occlusion in oral cavity

(oral) stop nasal (stop) bilabial pin bin Kim alveolar tin din kin velar kin again king Other consonant parameters: lateral

•What part of the tongue (lower articulator) approaches the upper articulator? •Only tip: air flows around side(s) of tongue (‘lateral’) •Air flows over all tongue surface (‘central’) •English: lip (lateral) vs. rip (central) Phonetic description

• Consonants –State of glottis voiceless –Place of articulation bilabial –Manner of articulation stop Phonetic transcription

• Alphabetic and other symbols which abbreviate phonetic descriptions – E.g. voiceless bilabial stop = [p] • Phonetic transcription in square brackets • Different systems of phonetic transcription – International Phonetic Association – ‘Americanist’/U.S. Phonetic transcription

• A more consistent way of representing sound than most writing systems –e.g. English : [k] [kræbi] [s] [pnsl] • A universal framework for the description of spoken languages • Many languages lack writing systems Consonant chart for English Cf. Table 6.4 bi- labio- inter- alveo- palatal velar glottal labial dental dental lar stops p b t d k g affricates t d fricatives f v  s z  h nasals m n  approximant w () r* j

lateral l

*American English [r] is actually retroflex. Bear Lake Witsuwit’en

• Athabaskan family Kispiox River Takla Lake Babine River Takla Landing

Fort Babine New Hazelton • apx. 180 speakers Bulkley River

Skeena River Moricetown Babine Lake Smithers

Telkwa

Broman Lake Houston

Morice River Burns Lake

Fran ois Lake

Morice Lake Ootsa Lake Grassy Plains

Tahtsa Lake

Whitesail Lake Some Witsuwit’en speakers

Mabel Forsythe

Lillian Morris, Peter John Some Witsuwit’en sounds Ejective stops and affricates: transcribed [C’] How to make a (canonical) ejective: 0. Make a velar stop.

Make a glottal stop. Ejective stops • [t’] = ejective alveolar stop –[nt’q] ‘your collarbone’ • Compare [t] = voiceless alveolar stop –[ntq] ‘up’ • Waveforms: [n t ’  q] [n t  q]

0.2634 0.282

0 0

-0.3981 -0.3981 0 0.939937 0 0.907 Time (s) Time (s) Ejective affricates • [ts’] = ejective alveolar affricate –[pts’q] ‘his little finger’ • Compare [ts] = voiceless alveolar affricate –[ptsq] ‘his outer ear’ [p t s ’  q] [p t s  q]

0.3173 0.2645

0 0

-0.3981 -0.3981 0 0.785312 0 0.898937 Time (s) Time (s) Uvular place of articulation

•[q] = voiceless uvular stop –[qis] ‘Chinook salmon’ –[ntq] ‘up’ •[q’] = voiceless uvular ejective –[q’] ‘backwards’ •[] = voiceless uvular fricative –[] ‘grease’ Lateral fricative and affricates

•[] = voiceless lateral fricative –[jl] ‘it’s white; goat’ –[aqh] ‘dogs’ •[t] = voiceless lateral affricate –[stet] ‘it’s licking me’ •[t’] = ejective lateral affricate –[st’et] ‘he farted’ Witsuwit’en consonant chart

labial alveolar palatal labio-velar uvular glottal stops p p’ t th t’ c ch c’ kw kwh kw’ q qh q’  affricates ts tsh ts’ lateral t th t’ fricatives s z ç xw  h lateral  nasals m n approxim j w  ants lateral l Summary • Describing consonants –place of articulation –manner of articulation (degree of occlusion) –state of glottis –nasal/oral –lateral/central • Phonetic transcription • Consonant charts Question

• Describe one of the consonants you know (in one of the languages you know) that is different from one of the consonants of English. Be sure to name the language. Next time

• Vowels