Phonetics Unit 2

Syllable Division Steps

1. transcribe

2. derivational morphemes (pre/suffix)

3. rhotic quasi

4. syllabification rules

• nucleus rule

• onset rule

• complex onset rule

• coda rule

• complex coda rule

Elision

In connected speech, some phonemes or even entire syllables are omitted

•Examples –what sounds are omitted?

•Probably, Don’t know, Grandma

•Christmas, Handsome, in and out

•Other examples?

Epethesis

Phonemes get inserted to help transition between two sounds

Examples:

•Strengths, tense, hamster

•Some argue a glide is added in things like: “to

each” or “go in”

•Can also do this stylistically –“give me a

break”

•Very common in children learning a lanugage

and in English language learners if a consonant

cluster isn’t allowed in the first language

Metathesis

The order of sounds is switched

•Can be a slip of the tongue in fast speech,

a dialectical feature, or a feature of child

speech to reduce difficulty of articulation

Examples:

•Ask /æks/

•Comfortable /kʌmpftɚbəl/

•Introduce /ɪntɚdus/

•Lots of cute child examples –pasghetti,

aminal

Vowel Reduction

In connected speech, vowels in unstressed syllables are produced more in the center of the vowel quadrilateral

•Function words (in, and, or, you, etc.) are

usually unstressed in connected speech and

the vowels get reduced

•Do you want to go? [dʒəwanəgoʊ]

•This is why we use /ə, ɚ, ɨ / in transcriptions

•Sometimes dipthongs are reduced or

monopthongized to

•“I can go”

Suprasegmental

Aspects of speech production that are above the boundaries of a single sound

-relates to syllables, words, and phrases

Typically includes: stress, timing, intonation (pitch)

Intonation

Sentence level stress, the melody of speech, how certain words are stressed/changed in pitch

Intonation Contour

• Focusing:

“Amy’s going to Florida on Wednesday.”

Where is she going? She’s going to Florida.

Who’s going? Amy’s going.

When is she going? She’s going on Wednesday.

• Grammatical:

1. Declarative

– fall at end

2. Wh-Question

– fall at end

3. Yes/No Questions (and

statements functioning as

yes/no questions)

– rise at end

4. Lists

Rise on initial items; Fall on

the last item to signal when

you are done

• Affective:

Same words can mean different things depending

on the intonation pattern.

Coarticulation/assimilation

Coarticulation- the influence sounds have on one another when linked together to make words, phrases, sentences.

Assimilation- 2 sounds become more similar to one another

anticipatory/regressive-a later sound influences an earlier sound

progressive/perservative-an earlier sound influences a later sound

Hyper vs Hypo Speech

Hyper-

• “strong” form of speech

• Careful speech

• Citation forms

• Less coarticulation

Hypo-

• “weak” form of speech

• Occurs in fast, connected

• More coarticulation

Connected vs Citation Speech

Connected-speech that occurs beyond the single word level, as we combine words to produce phrases and sentences

• Words produced in running

speech

• Coarticulationis more likely

Citation-

• Isolated and deliberate

production of a word in

isolation

• No (or less) coarticulation

extra notes

lexical stress=word stress

vowels mastered earlier than consonants

if given many words to find phonological process, look at big picture if stuck between 2 options (ex. fronting and alveolar assimilation)

Syllable Level Processing

Weak syllable deletion: deletion of an unstressed syllable, EX. tomato (first syllable omitted)

Final consonant deletion: Deletion of the final sound(consonant) in a word. EX. Cup (p deleted), Milk (lk deleted)

Reduplication: Repetition of a complete or incomplete syllable EX. water (total = wawa, partial = wawi)

• Total: Multisyllabic word with two identical syllables

• Partial: Multisyllabic word with two similar syllables

Cluster reduction: Reduction of a consonant cluster to a single sounds

Substitution Processing

Stopping: Substitution of a stop for a fricative or affricate

Fronting: Substitution of a velar, palatal, or post-alveolar sound with a more front place of articulation (usually alveolar)

Deaffrication: Substitution of a fricative for an affricate

Liquid gliding: Substitution of a glide (w, j) for a pre-vocalic (onset) liquid (l, ɹ)

Vocalization: Substitution of a vowel for a syllabic or post-vocalic (coda) liquid (l, ɹ)

Assimilation Processing

Labial-a non-labial consonant becomes labial when in the environment of a labial consonant

Alveolar-a non-alveolar consonant becomes alveolar when in the environment of an alveolar consonant

Velar-a non-velar consonant becomes velar when in the environment of a velar consonant

Pre-vocalic prevoicing-a prevocalic (before a vowel) voiceless sound becomes voiced

Post-vocalic devoicing-a voiced obstruent following a vowel becomes voiceless

Coalescence-features of two neighboring segments combine to form one new sound (usually affects consonant clusters)

partial- a sound takes on features of neighboring sound

total-complete substitution of neighboring sounds

prevocalic vs postvocalic

prevocalic-before vowel

postvocalic-after vowel

Prevocalic means the sound comes before the vowel (e.g., red), while postvocalic means it comes after the vowel (e.g., car)

Speech Sound Disorders: Artic/Phon

Speech Sound Disorder (SSD)- umbrella term referring to any difficulty or combination of difficulties with perception, motor production, or phonological representation of speech sounds and speech segments—including phonotactic rules governing permissible speech sound sequences in a language.

Articulation disorder

• the focus is on errors (e.g., distortions and substitutions) in production of individual speech sounds

Phonological disorder

• the focus is on predictable, rule-based errors (e.g., fronting, stopping, and final consonant deletion) that affect more than one sound.

Norms

How they are used: Speech Language Pathologists can compare a child’s production with these averages

3 Stage System Norms:

Late sounds:

s, z, ʃ, ʒ, θ, ð, l, ɹ

Middle sounds:

t, k, g, ŋ, f, v, tʃ, dʒ

Early sounds:

p, b, m, d, n, h, w, j

Norms:

6 years: θ

5 years: ð, ʒ, ɹ

4 years: v, s, z, ʃ, dʒ, l

3 years: t, k, g, ŋ, f, j

2 years:  p, b, m, d, n, h, w

SLP reasons for assessment and eval

What they assess

Reasons: When there are concerns about a child’s speech, SLPs conduct a full assessment to determine if errors are typical for the child’s age or if they reflect a disorder.

Purposes:

• The acquisition of speech sounds is a developmental process, and children often demonstrate "typical" errors and phonological patterns during this acquisition period. Developmentally appropriate errors and patterns are taken into consideration during assessment for speech sound disorders in order to differentiate typical errors from those that are unusual or not age appropriate.

What they assess/evaluate

-Speech sound error patterns

-Accurate sound productions in various word positions, sound -combinations, and syllable shapes

-Speech sound errors and error types

Describe key developments in perception that occur in the first year of life. 

1. First Week: Can discriminate native language utterances from nonnative language utterances

2. Young Infants (1-4 months): Can discriminate between:

• Some stop consonants

• /ɹa/and /la/

• Many vowels

• Some fricatives

3. 6-8 months: Infants can discriminate between most sounds in any language

4. 8-12 months: 

• Infants start to lose this ability

• They start to tune in more to the sounds that are important for their language

• By a year, many infants can no longer perceive many of the subtle distinctions in sounds that are not relevant for their language

5 main stages of prelinguistic development

1. Phonation- (birth – 2 months), reflexive sounds, crying, fussing, sneezing, burping.

2. Coo-Goo- (2 – 4 months), Back quasi vowels with something that sounds like a velar

3. Vocal Play- (3-8 months), Play with sound, raspberries, shouts, squeals, giggles, etc.

4. Canonical Babbling- (5-10 months), Starts with bababa, gagaga, etc. Then becomes more variable: badagodoba

5. Jargon- (10+ months), Strings of babbled vocalizations with adult-like intonation, rhythm, and pausing.

Define the term “phonological process” and explain why they can be considered “natural.”

Definition- Children in the process of learning the sound system substitute sounds they have already learned to produce or simplify production, AKA phonological patterns

Natural because it’s a normal way to produce speech sounds in typically developing children, until they hit the normal age of mastery

INCLUDES

 -Phonological retrieval- the ability to retrieve phonological information from long-term memory.

-Phonological awareness- the awareness of the sound structure of a language and the ability to consciously analyze and manipulate this structure.

-Phonological working memory- involves storing phoneme information in a temporary, short-term memory store.

Describe three phonological processes that do not typically occur in typical development and are more likely to occur with speech sound disorders.

Backing- replacement of anterior sounds (alveolar, post alveolar) with a velar sound

Initial Consonant Deletion-initial consonant or an entire initial consonant cluster is omitted, resulting in a word that starts with a vowel

Glottal Replacement-replacement of a sound with a glottal stop

Functional vs Organic

Functional: No known cause, articulation and phonology

Organic: Known cause, like a cleft, sensory/perceptual, motor/neurological, structural abnormalities

Regressive: /kæb/ -> [pæb]

The /b/ in this word is causing the /k/ to change to a fronted [p]. Since the /b/ occurs later in the word and is influencing the change, this would be an example of regressive assimilation.

Progressive: /bʊk/ -> [bʊp] 

The /b/ at the beginning of the word is causing the /k/ to change to a fronted sound [p]. Since the /b/ occurs earlier in the word and is influencing the change, this would be an example of progressive assimilation.

SLANDL Study paper notes