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Plosives Vowels: No Obstruction of Airstream in the Vocal Tract BUT: Matter of Degree (Hardly Any Obstruction in the 3

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Plosives Vowels: No Obstruction of Airstream in the Vocal Tract BUT: Matter of Degree (Hardly Any Obstruction in the 3 Semester Outline Introduction to English Phonology and Phonetics 1. Phonetics and phonology: basics (& introducing transcription) 2. English consonants Dr. Nadja Nesselhauf 3. English vowels 4. Beyond the phoneme (connected speech, suprasegmentals etc.) 5. Accents of English English Consonants: Outline Vowels vs. Consonants Phonetic distinction: 1. Preliminaries (vowels & cons., fortis & lenis) Consonants: obstruction of airstream in the vocal tract 2. Plosives Vowels: no obstruction of airstream in the vocal tract BUT: matter of degree (hardly any obstruction in the 3. Fricatives articulation of approximants / v/ / q/ / i/) 4. Affricates Phonological distinction: Consonants: sounds that typically occur at the margins 5. Lateral and approximants (onsets and codas) of syllables Vowels: sounds that are typically central in a syllable 6. Nasals (occurring at the peak or nucleus) 1 The Syllable Vowels vs. Consonants Phonetic distinction: Consonants: obstruction of airstream in the vocal tract Syllable Vowels: no obstruction of airstream in the vocal tract BUT: matter of degree (hardly any obstruction in the articulation of approximants / v/ / q/ / i/) Onset Rhyme Phonological distinction: Consonants: sounds that typically occur at the margins Nucleus or Peak Coda (onsets and codas) of syllables Vowels: sounds that are typically central in a syllable (occurring at the peak or nucleus) e.g. P I N DR U NK English Consonants: Classification English Consonants: Fortis vs. Lenis Source: Sauer 2001, 15 Sauer Source: 2001, Fortis sounds: Lenis sounds: articulation with more muscular with less muscular effort effort and greater breath force and less breath force voiceless in all positions may be voiced fortis plosives are aspirated in are unaspirated syllable-initial position vowels are shortened before a vowels have full length fortis consonant before a final lenis cons. 2 English Consonants: Outline English Consonants: Plosives 1. Preliminaries (vowels & cons., fortis & lenis) Stages in the articulation of a plosive: 2. Plosives 1. the approach stage: the articulators come 3. Fricatives together and form the closure 4. Affricates 2. the hold stage: air is compressed behind the closure 5. Lateral and approximants 3. the release stage: the articulators part and the 6. Nasals compressed air is released rapidly English Consonants: Plosives English Consonants: Plosives Stages in the articulation of a plosive: English /p/ and /b/ (hold stage) APPROACH HOLD RELEASE Source: Collins/Mees 2003, 79 3 English Consonants: Plosives English Consonants: Plosives (hold stage) English /k/ and /g/ Question: What sounds (hold stage) are produced here? Source: Collins/Mees 2003, 79 Source: Collins/Mees 2003, 79 Plosives: Allophonic Variation Notation of contexts (Sauer) / in the context of __ space for symbol 1. types of release V vowel C consonant 2. degrees of devoicing FC fortis consonant LC lenis consonant # word boundary 3. degrees of aspiration ! stressed syllable . unstressed syllable ~ usually 4. places of articulation v voiced sound 4 Plosives: Allophonic Variation Plosives: Allophonic Variation Allophones of release (all plosives): Allophones of voice (lenis plosives): oral / __ ~ (put ) fully voiced / v __ v (lobby ) nasal / __ homorganic nasal (button ) part. devoiced / # __ (bus ) lateral / __ lateral (middle ) devoiced / __ # (cab ) none / __ plosive, affricate (wept ) Phonetic notation for devoicing: [afi] Contrasting German and English Contrasting German and English Auslautverhärtung (“final devoicing”) in German: Lenis plosives / __ # Lenis obstruents (i.e. plosives, fricatives, affricates) regularly become fortis in a syllable-final position English: devoiced, but still lenis in German (but not in English) e.g. Rad ( vs. Räder) : German: devoiced and fortis final plosive fortis [≤`9s ] Los (vs. Lose ) → “Auslautverhärtung ” final fricative fortis [r] Rad – Rat, Bund – bunt BUT: bud vs. but , had vs. hat 5 Plosives: Allophonic Variation Contrasting German and English Hermann the German and his English landlady Meg (adapted from: Eckert & Barry 2005, The Phonetics and Phonology of Aspiration = delayed voice onset time (VOT) English Pronunciation, 50f.) Source: Collins/Mees 2003, 82 2003, Collins/Mees Source: H: I would like a cup of tea. Is this your muck ? M: I beg your pardon? H: Is it ok if I use yours? I can‘t find my muck just now. M: Well, it‘s all over the place… oh sorry, Herman, you mean mug, don‘t you? H: Do I? Eh, could you pass me the slice of cheese that I put in your paperback ? M: What??? Listen, if you need a bookmark I‘d be really grateful if you‘d use a piece of paper and not a slice of cheese. Not in my books anyway. PA: passive articulator H: Who‘s talking about books? I said pa-per-back. AA: active articulator VF: vocal folds Plosives: Allophonic Variation Plosives: Allophonic Variation Allophones of aspiration (fortis plosives): Task: Say the following words holding your hand in front of fully aspirated / __ !V(push ) your mouth: … and devoicing following sound / __ !l, r, j, w ( please ) sting part. aspirated / __ .V(supper ) pain not asp. (exception to above!) /s __ ( spin, spleen, Easter ) rapp er /__ # discussion Notation: [ jg] etc. Do you feel a puff of air coming out of your mouth (yes, no, a slight one)? / Should you feel one? 6 Plosives: Allophonic Variation Plosives: Allophonic Variation Place of articulation – ex: phonemes /t, d/: T-flapping in General American [π]: /t/ → flap / V __ .V (better ) dental / __ C, S/ (eighth, width ) / r __ .V (party ) postalveolar / __ r/ (tray, drive ) / __ kÿÿ, qÿ, lÿ (bottle, shutter, bottom ) (cf. “Assimilation”, Part IV) flap → Ø / n __ .V (winter ) Plosives: Allophonic Variation Source: Fromkin/Rodman 1998, 289 1998, Fromkin/Rodman Source: D-flapping in GA in the same contexts as t-flapping (cf. ladder, weirdo, saddle ) -> NEUTRALISATION of the contrast /t-d/ in the relevant contexts -> homophones such as shutter – shudder, writing - riding etc. 7 English Consonants: Plosives The pronunciation of the (regular) past tense / past participle morpheme : /Hc / / d,t __ (ended ) {p.t.}, {p.p.} /s/ / FC __ (laughed ) /c/ / ~ (sobbed ) Source: Fromkin/Rodman 1998, 295 Transcription Practice Plosives: Glottal Stop Please transcribe the following past tense forms: Glottal stop [ >]: articulation looked decided kissed allowed hummed dreamt Source: Collins/Mees 2003, 29 8 Plosives: Glottal Stop Plosives: Glottal Stop Source: Collins/Mees 2003, 145 2003, Collins/Mees Source: Glottal Stop [ >]: Glottal Stop [ >]: - not a phoneme in RP or GA Some British - serves to reinforce fortis plosives: ( lap ) accents replace Source: Collins/Mees 2003, 82 2003, Collins/Mees Source: /t/ with [ >] in medial and final positions (‘a bit of butter ’) English Consonants: Outline Contrasting German and English German: glottal onset (= glottal stop before 1. Preliminaries (vowels & cons., fortis & lenis) vowels) much more frequent than in English; cf. >Alle >Autos >ärgern mich 2. Plosives In English glottal onset mainly reserved for 3. Fricatives emphasised words ( I‘m >ALWAYS angry at Ann ) 4. Affricates -> Tendency of German-speaking learners of 5. Lateral and approximants English to insert a glottal stop at the beginning of all words which begin with a vowel (cf. also 6. Nasals phrasal verbs: go in , put off) 9 English Consonants: Fricatives English Consonants: Fortis vs. Lenis English fricative phonemes: Fortis sounds: Lenis sounds: articulation with more muscular with less muscular effort labio-dental / e,u/ effort and greater breath force and less breath force voiceless in all positions may be voiced dental / S,C/ (seal )(zeal ) alveolar / r,y/ --- --- palato-alveolar / R,Y/ vowels are shortened before a vowels have full length fortis consonant before a final lenis cons. glottal / g/ (safe )(save ) Contrasting English and German Fricatives /f,v/ German: Source: Collins/MeesSource: 2008, 88 <v>, <w> → /v/ (Vase , Wind ) English: <v> → /v/ (vase ) <w> → /w/ (wind ) → both a general use of /v/ and hypercorrective use of /w/ occur among German learners 10 /v/ vs. /w/ Fricatives Task: Read the following sentences aloud to 86 2003, Collins/Mees Source: your neighbour and have her/him check Question: which whether all the <v>s are pronounced as fricatives /v/ and all the <w>s as /w/. are produced here? This is the worst university building I‘ve ever walked into. But at least in winter, it‘s very warm. Fricatives / SSS,CCC/ Pronouncing the Grapheme <th> Source: Collins/Mees 2003, 86 2003, Collins/Mees Source: I word-initially: /S/ in lexical words (think, theatre, thunder ) /C/ in function words ( they, the, that, their ) II word-medially: /S/ usu. in words from Greek/Latin ( author, method, lethal ) /C/ usu. in Germanic words ( father, leather, mother, other; BUT: rhythm ) III word-finally: /S/ often if spelled <th> (both, path, mouth, breath ) /C/ often if spelled <the> ( breathe, clothe; BUT: smooth ) 11 /SSS/ or / CCC/? Fricatives /s,z/ Source: Collins/Mees 2003, 86 2003, Collins/Mees Source: Task: Read the following sentence and indicate how the grapheme <th> is pronounced in each instance: Then, the eldest brother thought they were both trying to attract their father‘s sympathy. English Consonants: Fricatives Pronouncing the Grapheme <s> I word-initially: /e,u/ slit fricatives (tongue is /s/ almost always (otherwise <z>) ( sing, sand ) exceptions: sure, sugar /S,C/ relatively flat) II word-medially: /z/ mostly, esp. between vowels & esp. in Germanic words ( busy, ---------------------------------------------------
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