Module 6

Broad transcription

transcribing the segmental features of words - strings of vowels and consonants phonemes. Enclose your transcription in virgules/slashes / /.

Narrow transcription

transcribing the suprasegmental features of speech - those that

express intonation, emotion, stress, pausing, etc.

diacritics

phonetic marks used in transcription to indicate the changes in production of segmental features (ie., stress, phrasing, intonation);

modifying speech sounds lie, fronting/backing, nasalizing, rounding/unrounding, using syllabic consonants, distorting production, using other phonemic variations).

Enclose your transcription in brackets [ ]

allophonic variations

suprasegmental changes in phonemes.

They indicate finer, more detailed system of transcription than just our set of phonemic symbols.

Phone

a speech sound of our language.

For example, the /k/ is a phone. When we are talking about a specific word that contains a /k/ sound, then we refer to the /k/ as a 'phoneme'.

But, let's take a closer look at the /k/. It is typically produced in the velar area of the mouth.

However, this is not always the case for every word that has the /k/ sound. The /k/ in the word

'key' and in 'coo' is an 'allophonic variation' of the /k/ phoneme. The vowel following the /k/ sound influences how we actually produce this particular /k/ in 'key' compare to the /k/ in 'coo'

The way these two /k/ sounds are produced are actually allophonic variations of the /k/

phoneme. To identify this difference, we have to use a special mark which is called a 'diacritic'.

4 types of diacritics:

Prosody Variations (stress, timing, juncture):

1. Primary stress

2. contrastive stress

3. lengthening:

4. falling terminal juncture

5. rising terminal juncture

Allophonic Variations:

6. Nasalized

7. Denasalized

8. d e n t a l i z e d c o n s o n a n t

9. lateralized consonant

10. derhotacized consonant

Sound Source Variations:

11. breathy voice • •

12. glottalized- creaky voice

13. whistled

Others:

14. synchronic tie

15. syllabic consonant

Primary/lexical stress

tiny 1 goes above the nucleus of the word that gets primary stress

• highest degree of stress (higher in vocal pitch, longer in duration, increased intensity) - compared to other syllables in a word

nouns vs verbs in stress

noun - usually first syllable gets stress

verbs - usually second syllable gets stress

contrastive (sentence) stress

• tiny 1 at beginning of word that get primary emphasis in the utterance

lengthening

: colon goes to the right of the vowel that is lengthened

• 2 sets for extreme lengthened sound

falling terminal juncture

• punctuation for a declarative statement

• when pitch of your voice goes down, look like downward pointing arrow

• at the end of WH questions ex: where are my jeans ?

Rising terminal juncture

• punctuation for a question, when the pitch of your voice goes up; looks like arrow pointing upward

• the rise in pitch of your voice usually occurs at the end of yes/no questions

• ex: have you seen my jeans?

nasality/hypernasality

“horizontal worm” above vowel(s) in the word

• the velopharyngeal port is open creating resonance in the nasal cavity.

• naturally occurs in m,n,eng —> surrounding vowels due to co articulation

  velar incompentancy:

• someone who can’t close the velopharyngeal port quickly enough especially in the context of other nasal sounds

velar insufficiency:

• people who can’t completely close the VP. they will sound somewhat nasal on all voiced sounds

• don’t need to mark already nasalized consonants

denasal/hyponasality

“horizontal worm” with a lone through it - goes ABOVE the /m n eng/

• sounds that should be nasalized but are not / produced without and appropriate degree of nasality

• cause by the vP staying closed during production of nasal sounds

dentalized

• looks like tooth and goes under the phoneme

• tongue us either touching or between teeth on speech sounds that are not typically produced at this point in articulation

• when a sound is transformed into a theta or eth

lateralized

• “frowning mouth” that goes UNDER the phoneme

• distortion error in manner of production

• air stream is directed over the sides of the tongue rather than centrally

• sounds are “wet” or “slushy”

derhotacized

• looks like a “smiling mouth” UNDER the phoneme

• r consonant or r-colored vowel (reversed hooked epsilon and shwar) that is lacking in “r-ness”

• distortion error - somewhere between the correct production and that of another idetifiable phoneme

• may sound close to but is not a genuine /w/ schwa or carat

breathy

• two small dots UNDER the vowel

• caused by incomplete closure of the vocal folds

• under each vowel of an utterance

glottalized or creaky voice

• a small dot that goes UNDER the vowel

• caused by irregularity in the laryngeal vibratory patten

• often an entire utterance (mark each vowel)

whistle

“upside down W”

• commonly heard on /s/ and esh

• sounds like normal whistling

synchronic tie

looks like and arch OVER the two sounds that indicate that these two sounds were said as one.

• /ts/ for t esh and /dz/ for d ezh

syllabic consonant or syllabics

small ‘tic’ ‘ mark that goes UNDER these phonemes if used as a syllabic consonant:

[m, n, l, eng, r]

• some consonants can serve as the nucleus of a syllable - you don’t use the vowel in syllabic words

prosody

all the linguistic properties that exceed the segment level

1. Intonation (pitch, stress, rhythm)

2. Loudness variations

3. Timing (pausing)

suprasegmentals

includes both linguistic prosody and paralinguistic (non grammatical) influences

• The features of speech that affect an utterance beyond the phonetic and allophonic features

• Prosody

paralinguistic (in suprasegmentals)

Paralinguistics

1. Vocal quality

hoarse, breathy, hyper or hyponasal

2. Speaking style (vocal adjustments)

may change according to setting

3. Emotion

sad, angry, fear, joy

components of suprasegmentals

Pitch

• Perceptual property

• Varies along perceptual dimension of high to low

• Closely related to the frequency of vocal fold vibration during phonation

Loudness

• Perceived magnitude or strength of the speech signal

• Varies along continuum of weak (soft) to strong (loud)

• Acoustic property of intensity

duration

• Length of the speech unit

• Differences influence perception of rhythm or tempo of speech

syllables and stress

• A syllable contains a vowel with or without surrounding consonants

• 1 syllable words – a, it, to, run, stop, scrap

• Multi-syllable words – how many syllables in each?

  • Masquerade, Dictionary, Multiplication, Halloween

• A syllable can best be defined by its internal structure: onset + rhyme

• Onset – consists of all the consonants that precede a vowel (fun, stop, splash, sunshine)

  • Some syllables have no onset (i.e. they begin with vowels – each, up, under (first syllable in under)

• Rhyme – consists of the nucleus + coda

  • Nucleus – vowel

  • Coda – consonant(s) & is optional

    • Some syllables have no coda (no, see, coda)

types of syllables

• Syllabic consonants – when a syllable has no vowel and the consonant assumes the nucleus role

  • Ex. muscle, button, table

• Open syllables – end with a vowel (no coda) – ex. three, maybe

• Closed syllables – syllables with a coda (end with a consonant)

degrees of stress

• IPA recognizes primary, secondary, and tertiary stress

• Two different ways of notating these levels of stress:

• Traditional:  [ ˈjɛ ˌlo] superior vertical stroke  primary stress and lower vertical stroke secondary stress

• Newer (Shriberg and Kent and Pepperfont):

[jɛ  lo ] small numbers 1 and 2 above the vowels

listening for stress

Some general rules

• Monosyllabic words:   always stressed

Ex.  CUP, STEAK, ROUND

• These vowels always appear in Unstressed Syllables:  /ə ɚ/
  Both syllables receive primary stress = spondaic stress (usually compound words)

• ex. HOTDOG, BASEBALL, GREENHOUSE

intonation

• Intonation – pattern or melody of pitch changes in an utterance

1. Rhythm - helps us process the info

2. Pitch changes - how we identify linguistic units

stress

stress perception is related to…

• degree of prominence or emphasis associated with a particular syllable in a word or with a word in a phrase, clause, or sentence

Stress perception is related to:

1. Fundamental frequency (increased stress – elevated pitch)

2. Intensity (increased stress – increased intensity)

3. Duration (increased stress – longer duration)

• Stress can alter vowel and consonant articulation.

• Stressed syllables – articulatory movements are larger.

• Stressed syllables have longer durations.

lexical stress

• Stress pattern intrinsic to a word.

• Noun vs. Verb forms

• Record, object, project, address

• Stress placed on the first syllable – noun

• Stress placed on the second syllable – verb

rhythm

• distribution of events over time

Timing

• Tempo – the speed at which a piece is or should be played

• Juncture (pause) – the sound of silence

• Boundary or edge effects – phonologic or phonetic characteristics that appear at the margins of the linguistic unit, especially a phrase

Paralinguistics

the study of how we convey meaning beyond the literal words used in spoken communication

• Emotional state - expressed in our voices

• Vocal Quality- main factor in how we identify a person’s voice

Prosodic Variations

Motherese/ Fatherese/ Parentese – infant-directed speech

• Higher pitch

• Exaggerated intonation

• Increased repetition

  Clear Speech – when you want to be understood in less than favorable listening situations

• Characterized by greater pitch variation and slower rate

• Accompanied by changes in articulatory properties such as stronger releases for stop consonants & increasing movements for vowels

• Contrasted with conversational speech

• “Therapy Voice”

• Situational differences

Clinical Aspects

Clinically assessing suprasegmentals

1. Prosody Profile (PROP)

2. Prosody Voice Screening Profile (PVSP)

Coarticulation

the production of a sound is influenced by all the other sounds around it

• Each sound slightly changes according to its environment.  

• Sounds take on qualities of other sounds that precede or follow them

• Articulators either anticipate the next sound or carryover qualities from the previous sound

• Before you make a sound, your tongue has moved up for the /t/

• As you say the /t/, your tongue is moving into place for the vowel

• As you say the diphthong, your tongue is moving forward for the /z/

characteristics of vowel in stressed syllable

• louder, has more intensity

• higher in pitch

• longer in duration

• more effort to produce vowel