Unit 1. Phonetics I revision PDF

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English Phonetics and Phonology II – Unit 1 UNIT 1. PHONETICS I REVISION Phonetics vs. Phonology Phonetics is a science which studies the sounds of human speech: - Articulatory Phonetics: Their articulation. - Acoustic Phonetics: Their transmission from speaker to hearer: physical properties of spee...

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English Phonetics and Phonology II – Unit 1

UNIT 1. PHONETICS I REVISION Phonetics vs. Phonology Phonetics is a science which studies the sounds of human speech: - Articulatory Phonetics: Their articulation. - Acoustic Phonetics: Their transmission from speaker to hearer: physical properties of speech sounds: frequency, duration… - Auditory Phonetics: Their audition or perception by the hearer. It’s also an empirical science based on the observation of facts and it is not considered to be part of linguistics. Phonology is a branch of linguistics which studies the sound systems of languages. - Writes descriptions of the sound patterns of particular languages - Makes general statements about the nature of the sound systems of the languages of the world. Phoneme vs. Allophone Phoneme is the basic unit of phonology. It’s contrastive and distinctive and meaningful. The context doesn’t influence the sound. Is the smallest contrastive unit: they distinguish meaning. Seat /si:t/ vs. sheet /ʃiːt/ bite /baɪt/ vs. might /maɪt/ Contrasting pairs like seat and sheet are called minimal pairs and are established by the commutation test: if by substituting one sound segment for another, a different word is produced, then those segments are phonemes. MINIMAL PAIRS /bleɪm/ (blame) /kleɪm/ (clame) b – k are phonemes. Phonemes can be contrastive or distinctive, they have a semantic value and they are abstract because the context doesn’t influence it. NEAR MINIMAL PAIRS /mɪʃən/ /vɪʒən/ Allophone is the opposite of phoneme. Allophones are similar sounds which are not contrastive in a language. They are concrete realizations of phonemes, non-contrastive and contextually dependent. There are 3 types of allophonic distribution: - Complementary distribution. Two allophones appear in different context. [pʰɒt] / [spɒt] - Free variation, which is the opposite. In one context, two different allophones. [betə] / [beʔə] - Neutralization. Loss of a phonological opposition (in a given context). English sound system *Look pictures: vowels, diphthongs and consonants. Last year!

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English Phonetics and Phonology II – Unit 1 English morphophonemic alternations -

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The simple past/past-participle suffix allomorphy [t] after voiceless C  talked /tɔːkt/ [d] after voiced C or V  lived /lɪvd/ [Id] after [d] or [t]  needed /ni:dɪd/ The regular-plural/ ‘s genitive / 3rd p.s. suffix allomorphy [s] after voiceless C  talks /tɔ:ks/ [z] after voiced C or V  lives /lɪvz/ [IZ] after silibant*  catches /kæt󰋦ʃɪz/ *Silibant C: Made by directing the air through a narrow channel in the vocal tract towards the sharp edge of the teeth: fricatives and affricates.

Allophonic alternations in English 2 types of phonetic transcription: · Broad / phonological / phonemic: We transcribe only the phonemes of a language. It provides an overall picture of the phonological system of a language and indicates what distinctions are made. · Narrow / allophonic: We indicate sounds with a lot of phonetic detail. It gives more precise information about the articulation of the sounds  Here we indicate all the allophonic alternations. The semi-narrow transcription only focuses in some of them.

1. ASPIRATION The English voiceless oral stops /p, t, k/, unless preceded by /s/, are aspirated before vowels in the following contexts: - At the beginning of a stressed syllable [pʰɒt] - Word-initially in unstressed syllables (but it is weaker in this context): [tʰəˈmɔːrəʊ] In word-final position, oral stops can be unreleased (realized without explosion) or released (in carefully articulated speech or emphatic speech). [ɑ:skʰ] vs. [ɑːsk] Aspiration is a delay in the beginning of vowel cords vibration. 1. When a voiceless unaspirated plosive is followed by a vowel, the time when the vocal folds begin vibrating for the verb will coincide almost exactly with the time when the plosive is released. 2. After a voiceless aspirated stop, however, the vocal folds will not begin vibrating until well after the plosive is released. There is a period of time when the VT is producing neither the plosive nor the following vowel  this is puff of air. The time between the release of the plosive and the beginning of vowel folds vibration is called Voice Onset Time (VOT). It happens in word-initial (stressed or unstressed syllable), beginning of stressed syllable and word-final, especially after /s/. [pʰ] pill, till, kill potato [pʰəˈtʰeɪtəʊ] [p] spill, still, skill /p, t, k/ may also be aspirated word-finally, particularly if preceded by /s/: [tʰɑ:skʰ]

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English Phonetics and Phonology II – Unit 1

2. DEVOICING of approximants and voiced obstruents under-ring symbol - Voiceless obstruents + approximants /l, r, j, w/ (provided that they belong to the same syllable onset) [p li:d] [pr eɪ]

[tju:n]

[twɪn] **[s] + voiceless obs. + [r, l, j, w]  NO devoicing

- Of voiced obstruents (plosives, fricatives and affricates) in final position. [sæd ]

[fr i:z ]

[li:v ]

Bad vs. bat are distinct. Voiced obstruents are devoiced to some extent in final position in English, especially when phrase-final or when followed by a voiceless consonant: [bæd ] --- bad cat [bæd kʰæt] However, the most salient distinction between bad and bat is not the voicing of the final consonant but rather the duration of the vowel and the glottalization of final /t/: Bad is pronounced [bæd ] while bat is [bæ˞(t)] Fortis  voiceless / Lenis  voiced Pre-fortis before voiceless sounds Vowel or diphthong + voiceless sound  the vowel is shorter /bi:t/ vs. /bi:d/ 3. VELARIZATION OF /l/: [ɫ] - “Dark” velarized /l/ ([ɫ]) occurs in syllable codas. [smɔ:ɫ], [teɪɫ] - “Clear” /l/ always in onsets. [leɪk] - Syllabic laterals are usually velarized [lɪtɫ] - Vocalized /l/: [o] results if in the articulation of [ɫ] the tongue tip contact is lost. There’s no obstruction to the airflow. A vocalic sound is produced. Allophones of /l/  [l], [ɫ], [o] child [t󰋦ʃaɪod] always [ɔ:ɫweɪz], [ɔ:weɪz] In the clear [l], the tip of the tongue touches the alveolar ridge. And in the dark [ɫ], the back of the tongue touches the velum after a vowel and a syllabic l.

4. TAPPING OF ALVEOLAR STOPS [ɾ] / [ t] In Rhotic varieties the /r/ after vowels is produced: car /kɑ:r/ In non-rhotic varieties the /r/ is omitted: /kɑ:/ Rhotic use to produce a tap* instead of a /t/ or /d/ in these different situations: - Stressed V + /t/ + unstressed V [sɪti] - Unstressed V + /t/ + unstressed V [sɪmˈplɪsɪti] - Stressed V + /r, n/ + /t/ + unstressed V party [pɑ:ti] * A tap or flap is produced with a single contraction of the muscles so that one articulator (tongue tip) briefly strikes the other (alveolar ridge).

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English Phonetics and Phonology II – Unit 1 5. GLOTTALIZATION

- [ʔ] results from the obstruction of the airstream produced by the closure of the vocal folds and the sudden release of the air when the vocal folds separate. It is voiceless. - Pre-glottalization of vowels and consonants is a regular phenomenon in Britain English. Also known as glottal reinforcement. Before vowels or consonants in initial position, we tend to vocalize. The glottal stop is used: - to avoid hiatus: It sometimes appears where a linking r should appear: The door is open [ðə dɔ:ʔ ɪz əʊpən] - Glottal reinforcement / “hard attack” of /p/, /t/ and /k/. April [eɪʔprəl] attack [əʔæk] occult [əʔkʌlt] - Before any word-initial stressed vowel, particularly if the word is emphasized: I didn’t [ʔaɪ dɪdnt]

The glottal stop can be an allophone of /t/  [t] [ɾ]  [ʔ] - Between vowels letter [leʔə] - At the end of a syllable if the preceding sound is a vowel or a sonorant: out [aʊʔ] faint [feɪnʔ] - Before syllabic /n/ and /l/ button [bʌʔn ], little [lɪʔl], brittle [brɪʔl] - In Cockney English /t/ can also replace /f/ and /k/

poker [pəʊʔə] get out [geʔ ʔaʊʔ]

6. LINKING /r/ and INTRUSIVE /r/ It appears in non-rhotic accents of English. A rhotic speaker pronounces the letter R in hard; a non-rhotic speaker does not pronounce it in hard. That is, rhotic speakers pronounce /r/ in all positions, while non-rhotic speakers pronounce /r/ only if it is followed by a vowel sound in the same phrase or prosodic unit. - Linking /r/ is an etymological word-final silent /r/ that is pronounced when a vowel-initial suffix of a word follows across a morpheme or word boundary to break the hiatus: the car is mine [ðə kɑ:r ɪz maɪn] / a bar of soup [ə bɑ:r əv səʊp] - Intrusive /r/ is an unetymological /r/ inserted word-finally to avoid hiatus, particularly after those vowels that typically precede /r/: I saw her [aɪ sɔ: r ə] / the sofa in the catalogue [ðə səʊfər ɪn ðə kætəlɒg]

* Neither linking nor intrusive /r/ appear after high vowels.

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English Phonetics and Phonology II – Unit 1 7. OTHER TYPES OF EPENTHESIS Other cases of insertion - Of oral stops: once [wʌnts], length [lenkθ], something [sʌmpθɪŋ] 8. CONSONANT AND VOWEL ELISION Elision is the omission of one or more sounds (a vowel, a consonant or a whole syllable) in a word or phrase, producing a result that is easier for the speaker to pronounce. The opposite of elision is epenthesis, whereby sounds are inserted into a word to ease pronunciation: - Comfortable /kʌmfərtəbəl/ --> /kʌmftəbəl/ - Fifth /fɪfθ/ --> /fɪθ/ - Him /hɪm/ --> /ɪm/ - Laboratory /læbərətɔ:ri/ --> /ləˈbɔrətri/ - Temperature - Vegetable

/tɛmpərətʃər/ --> /tɛmprətʃə(r)/

/vɛd󰋦 ʒətəbəl/ --> /vɛd󰋦 ʒtəbəl/

Vowel elision occurs as an extreme case of complete vowel reduction in unstressed syllables. - Mainly affects the elision of /ə/ in unstressed syllables, usually in post-tonic position. - /ə/ elision in the context of a following sonorant consonant may result in the syllabicity of the following sonorant: button [bʌʔn ], little [lɪʔl], brittle [brɪʔl] - Sometimes, in faster speech, / / elision results in haplology (loss of a whole syllable): library [laɪbri], probably [prɔ:bli] /ə/ elision: - Never between nasals common [kɒmən] - In unstressed syllables and when the following consonant is more sonorous than the previous one. Sonority levels The more obstruction, the less sonorous 1. Plosives 2. Fricatives 3. Nasals 4. Liquids 5. Glides 6. Vowels +

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English Phonetics and Phonology II – Unit 1 Consonant elision: - Word-final consonant clusters analyst (2nd element is dropped) - Consonant + suffixes  C + -s/-z activists (2nd disappears)  C + -ly/-li firstly /t/ drops - Consonant elision at word boundaries 9. CONTEXTUAL ASSIMILATION While we are producing sounds in connected speech, our speech organs are already preparing for the following one(s), or are still influenced by the articulation of preceding sounds. The influence exerted by one sound upon another is called assimilation. Assimilation is the influence exercised by one sound segment on another so that they become more alike or identical. Or, is the spread of features of a given segment onto a neighbouring segment. Partial: Two letters involved Ten pounds [tem paʊnds] Complete: One letter involved ten months  / temɔnθs/

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