LING 313 Quiz #3

Explain the types of strictures/constrictions

Stop sounds

stop sounds involve a complete obstruction of the airflow in the vocal tract

the blockage can be sustained for a longer stretch of time

gemination

prolonged stop

What types of sounds count as stops

Plulmonic Oral stops

Pulmonic Nasal Stops

All non-pulmonic stops

• ejectives

• implosives

• clicks

Explain Pulmonic Oral Stops

Tap vs Flap

Tap: The tongue strikes its point of contact directly in an up-and-down motion, acting like a very brief stop.

Flap: The tongue starts retracted (often curled or pulled back) and strikes the ridge in passing with a forward or sweeping motion.

Labials

almost all languages have bilabial pulmonic stops

Labio Dental Stops

not in the ipa

hard to make these sounds - with teeth and lips

rumoured to exist in a few Bantu languages but most people cannot make a complete occlusion between their lower lip and upper teeth

Linguo Labial Stops

requires a lot of effort

lips and tongue sounds

need to significantly protrude the tongue to make sure you have a full seal

occur in Vao and V’enen Taut (Austroneisan languages)

linguo dental

its possible but complete obstruction is not easy

What are Coronals

sounds that are produced by closing the tongue tip or blade against a location on the upper front surface of the hard palate

• flexible moveable part

Coronal Stop types

many languages have more complex sets of coronal stops with the location of contact on the upper surface can be different

• dental, alveolar, post-alveolar (3 regions, languages tend to pick only 1)

the part of the tongue that makes the contact in Coronals

can be different

tip or blade

shape of the tongue profile in coronals

flat, domed, tip turned up can be different

Apical Stops

coronal stops made by the tip of the tongue

• extra classification under coronal

Laminal Stops

coronal stops made by the blade of the tongue

• extra classification under coronal

Palatogrpahy

how we can see where the constrictions are being made

• protrude the tongue, paint the tongue w activated charcol, make sound and check with a mirror where the contact was made

laminal dental (coronal)

• broad contact all along the inside the suface of the upper teeth and beyond

Laminal post-alveolar

• broad contact well behind the upper teeth

• more behind → post alveolar

apical alveolar

• narrow contact just behind the upper teeth

• more alveloar bc more contact with the teeth

retroflexsion contact point

contact between the alveolar ridge and the hard palate

• the degree varies for retroflex

• typically think of retroflexsion as a curled tongue but that is not always the case

Dorsal Stops

dorsal stops involve the tongue body either front or back

for most languages this is in the velar region but languages also have palatal and uvular stops

Palatal stops

constriction happens at the hard palate

Uvular stops

these are common in many languages of the americas, semitic languages, and causacsion languages

Glottal Stops

produced by closing the vocal folds firmly together

closure in continueous speech can often be incomplete just a tightening may indicate a glottal stop

Nasals explain

closure remains the same as in stops

• but the air is now allowed to flow through the nasal passage by lowering the velum

• the oral cavity then forms a side cavity

Where is there no nasal sounds (place)

Pharyngeal and gottal PoA

How many nasal sounds is typical for a language

2 nasal sounds

usually (m, n, Ng)

Fricatives

can happen at all PoA

• and voiced or unvoiced

• 9 in English

• 
  

Constriction characteristics in Fricatives

Sublingual Cavity

for fricatives

how much pocket of air is right below the tongue blade

Fricatives

typologically speaking languages generally have either bilabial or labiodental fricatives ‘

english have [f]

approximates

made with a relatively open vocal tract

these are quite similar to vowels and in many languages there is variation between approximant consonats and vowels

vowel vs approximant

question can often be a matter of phonology and not phonetics

often unlike vowels approximates are not syllable nucleus

Laterals explain

tongue makes a constriction in the center bue the tongue is open Laterally

• the tongue is lowered on at one or both sides to let air pass

location of laterals

location of the central constrcition can vary between dental and velar positions

lateral fricative

when lateral opening is narrow enough to create turbulece

lateral approximate

when lateral opening is wider

a stop closure can be released by lowering one side of the tongue

Medial bracing

alveolar ridge; and side of the tongue

trills

are aerodynamic

• vibrations of one articulator against another within the oral cavity

trills involve a series of occlusions with seperate muscle contractions for each

the lips, tongue tip and uvula can all be set in vibration if the articulator positions and the airflow conditions are right

Trills Frequency

tongue trills are quite common /r/

bilabial and uvular trills are comparatively rate /B, R/

trills often do not have multiple contacts (as in their canocical form) in casual speech

Taps and Flaps

these sounds are made with quick movements of the articulators to a contact position

Taps vs Flaps

while many use these two terms interchangeable they are technically different

Tap: movement is directly up and down “potty”

Flap: more of a passing movement from behind “party”

non pulmonic sounds

clicks

implosives → control and mvoe the larynx high

ejectives

Vowel chart shape explain

more gradient and less categorical than consonants

mimicks the tongue/oral cavity

Articulatory reference points for vowels

tongue height, backness, and lip position

How do we actually describe vowels

So although we describe vowels using tongue height, backness, and lip rounding, linguists usually don’t determine the vowel by literally measuring where the tongue is.

• Auditory evaluation → listen to the vowel and judge what IPA vowel it sounds closest to.

• Acoustic measurement → analyze the sound wave, especially its formant frequencies.

What is the vowel chart based off of

Daniel Jones concept of cardinal vowels

Position #1

tongue body as high and forward in the mouth as possible

Position #5

tongue as low and as far back as possible; jaw wide open

Position #8

tongue as high and back in the mouth as possible lips tightly pursed

Primary Cardinal Vowels

Secondary Cardinal Vowels

Cardinal Vowels bais

biased towards french

• system chosen for the cardinal voewls were influenced by the contemporary french vowel system

How is the cardinal vowel system used

primary means to transcribe/describe vowels before modern computers came into being

vowels from a new languages were described in reference to the cardinal vowels

• ex: a vowel between CV1 and CV2

• a vowel a little lower and more retracted than CV2 etc

CV not the vowels of any language but reference points for the comparison of vowel qualities of particular languages

Limitations of the cardinal vowels

central vowels are missing (except for the two high ones)

especially low central vowels

other phonologically contrastive vowels are attested in world languages and it’s useful to have symbols for them

Modifications IPA Vowel Chart

More modefications

What do the vowel symbols refer to

refer to articulatory positions (high, low, front, back)

auditory impressions are laregly based on acoustic characteristics

acoustic descriptions allow us to quantify intermediate soudns

Nasal vowels

mostly oral but they may be nasalized

nasalization commonly occurs in vowels next to nasal consonants but can be a contrastive property of vowel systems

types of vowels length