Theoretical Phonetics Theoretical Phonetics has the following branches: 1. Articulatory, 2. Acoustic, 3. Auditory / Perceptual, 4. Functional /Phonological Phone Definition: It is the smallest identifiable unit found in a stream of speech that is able to be transcribed with an IPA symbol. Phoneme Definition: A phoneme is the smallest contrastive unit in the sound system of a language. Discussion: Phonologists have differing views of the phoneme. Following are the two major views considered here: In the American structuralist tradition, a phoneme is defined according to its allophones and environments. In the Generative tradition, a phoneme is defined as a set of distinctive features. Sounds interact in connected speech If you are saying a word that ends in /s/ or /z/ and this is following a word that begins with /ʃ / or /j/ the final /s/ tends to turn into /ʃ/ whereas the final /z/ tends to turn into /ʒ/. Sounds interact in connected speech This should be clearer in an example, given by Roach (2009, 111). In connected speech ‘this shoe’ might end up being pronounced whereas ‘those years’ might sound When changes like this happen it is as if one sound has become more similar, or has assimilated to another. The phenomenon is called assimilation. Accommodation Accommodation is the process of mutual influence of consonants and vowels. The modification in the articulation of a consonant under the influence of an adjacent vowel is called accommodation. In accommodation the accommodated sound does not change its main phonemic features and is pronounced slightly modified under the influence of a neighboring sound. /əˌkɒm.əˈdeɪ.ʃən/ Accommodation Here are some most common types of accomodation. • Consonants tend to be labialized when followed by a rounded (labialized) vowel: cool, pot, rude. • Vowels are slightly nazalized under the influence of the preceding or following sonorants [m] and [n]: and, nice, men, morning. • Alveolar plosive [t] in the intervocal position before unstressed vowels is replaced by a voiced tap: pretty, better. Assimilation Assimilation is a process of alternation of speech sounds as a result of which one of the sounds becomes fully or partially similar to the adjoining one. Assimilation The influence of the neighbouring sounds in English can act in • progressive, • regressive • or reciprocal (double, mutual) direction. Assimilation 1. When some articulatory features of the following sound are changed under the influence of the preceding sound, which remains unchanged, assimilation is called progressive. e.g. The pronunciation of the plural suffix –s of nouns depends on the quality of a preceding consonant: it is pronounced as [z] after voiced consonants (pens [penz], calls [kO:lz]) and as [s] after voiceless consonants (desks [desks], books [bVks]) Within the words sandwich, grandmother, etc under the influence of [n] the consonant [d] changed into [n] and then disappeared (sandwich ['sændwɪʤ →' 'sænwɪʤ]) 2. When the following sounds influences the articulation of the preceding one assimilation is called regressive. e.g. Within the word width and in the word combination in them, the alveolar [d] and [n] become dental before the interdental [T] and [D]. 3. Reciprocal (mutual, double) assimilation means complex mutual influence of the adjacent sounds. e.g. Within the word tree [tri:] the sonorant [r] is partly devoiced under the influence of the voiceless [t] and the alveolar [t] becomes [post-alveolar before the post-alveolar [r]. Assimilation can affect the place of obstruction and the active organ of speech; the work of the vocal cords; the position of the lips; the position of the soft palate; the manner of the release of plosive consonants. Assimilation 2. When the following sounds influences the articulation of the preceding one assimilation is called regressive. e.g. Within the word width and in the word combination in them, the alveolar [d] and [n] become dental before the interdental [T] and [D]. Assimilation 3. Reciprocal (mutual, double) assimilation means complex mutual influence of the adjacent sounds. e.g. Within the word tree [tri:] the sonorant [r] is partly devoiced under the influence of the voiceless [t] and the alveolar [t] becomes [post-alveolar before the post-alveolar [r]. Assimilation Assimilation can affect 1. the place of obstruction and the active organ of speech; 2. the work of the vocal cords; 3. the position of the lips; 4. the position of the soft palate; 5. the manner of the release of plosive consonants. Let’s get started with reading the textbook… A phone is … A phoneme is … One of many possible sounds A contrastive unit in the sound in the languages of the world. system of a particular language. The smallest identifiable unit A minimal unit that serves to found in a stream of speech. distinguish between meanings of words. Pronounced in a defined way. Pronounced in one or more ways, depending on the number of allophones. [b], [j], [o] /b/, /j/, /o/ Represented between brackets Represented between slashes by convention. by convention. BrE /dɪstrɪˈbjuːʃ(ə)n/, AmE /ˌdɪstrəˈbjuʃ(ə)n/ The possible patterns of sounds are often called their distribution What is ‘distribution’? Is it frequency of occurrence or extent of existence? Is it the result of distributing? Is it some sort of order or arrangement? Is it a method of linguistic analysis? … or perhaps more frequently, are referred to by the term ‘phonotactics’. How would you explain the derivative structure of this term? Does it mean the same as distribution? A more precise statement will be that /nd/ is not allowed at the beginning of words, but is allowed at the end of words. Are we talking about words (that is ‘lexemes’ or in other words ))) word forms paradigms) or about word forms? Even more precise descriptions of English will have to use the notion of syllable when explaining phonotactics. What the hell is a syllable? What is a structure of a syllable? For example, to explain the distribution of the sound // in English, … What the hell is ‘distribution’? What is a ’sound’? Is it a phoneme or phone? … we have to be able to say that it does not appear at the beginning of syllables. How would you explain the structure of the syllable? Different languages might impose different constraints on what sounds can go at the beginning or at the end of syllables. But what exactly is a syllable? OK, ‘onset’ is the technical term for beginning; then ‘coda’ is the technical term for the ending. Is syllable a sum of these? Phonemes???/phones are rarely pronounced in isolation, they usually occur in sequences. Sound sequences are broken up into smaller units known as syllables, which are the minimal units [?] of sounding speech. A syllable may consist of one or a number of phonemes, i.e. it may be formed by any vowel (alone or in combination with consonants) or by a word-final sonorant preceded by a consonant. A speech sound which is capable of forming a syllable is called syllabic. It is the most sonorous sound in the syllable and makes up the peak of prominence (the centre of the syllable, the nucleus). Speech sounds which are not capable of forming syllables are called non-syllabic. The consonants which precede the peak are called the onset and those which follow it are called the coda. J.Kenyon defines the syllable as “one or more speech sounds forming a single uninterrupted unit of utterance, which may be a word (e.g. man), or a commonly recognized subdivision of a word (e.g. [ɪƞ- glɪʃ]) or wordform (e.g. [leɪ-tǝ].” Prof. Lev Vladimirovich Shcherba /1880-1944/ put forward another theory of syllable formation and syllable division, which was further developed by his followers and at present is known as the theory of muscular tension. According to this theory a syllable is an arc of muscular tension, which is weak in the beginning and in the end and strong in the middle. If a syllable consists of a vowel, its strength increases in the beginning, reaches the maximum at the peak and then gradually decreases. Consonants within a syllable are characterized by different distribution of muscular tension. Prof. Shcherba distinguishes the following types of consonants: 1) initially strong and finally weak, as in it, on, us; 2) finally strong and initially weak, as in may, tea, no; 3) double consonants (two similar sounds) which are strong at both ends and weak in the middle, as in good day, misspell, etc. Syllable is a segment of speech (Make your comment on this!!!) that consists of a vowel, with or without one or more accompanying consonant sounds immediately preceding or following—for example, a, I, out, too, cap, snap, check [V, VC, CV, CVC, CCVC]. A syllabic consonant, such as the final /n/ sound in button and widen, also constitutes a syllable.What quality do you think a consonant needs to possess to form a nucleus of a syllable? In phonetics and phonology, Closed (checked) syllables are those that end in a consonant; Open (free) syllables end in a vowel. The role that syllables play in the production of speech is a matter of considerable debate. So too is any more precise definition of the syllable in phonetics and phonologyThe word "blessed. " can be pronounced as a monosyllable or a disyllable /daɪˈsɪl.ə.bəl/. The syllable /ðə ˈsɪləbl/ is a phonetic unit consisting of a sound or a sound sequence pronounced by one articulatory effort which results auditorily in one uninterrupted unit of perception. Every language manifests a particular way of combining its sounds to form meaningful words or parts of words, called syllables. Each language puts certain restrictions on these possible combinations. For example, in English we can't have a word which begins with a consonant sequence bfj, zbf or tzp.