Linguistics and Speech Perception: IPA, Phonemes, and Dialect Variation

Why do linguists need the IPA?

a universal, unambiguous system where each symbol corresponds to exactly one sound

What are the three articulatory features used to describe consonants?

Place of articulation, manner of articulation, and voicing.

What is a phoneme?

A sound category that distinguishes meaning in a language.

What is an allophone?

A predictable variant of a phoneme that does not change meaning.

What is the difference between a phoneme and an allophone?

A phoneme changes meaning when swapped; an allophone does not.

Can you give an example of phoneme and allophone?

[t] and [tʰ] are allophones of /t/ in English, but separate phonemes in Thai.

Is there a rule for aspiration in English?

Yes, voiceless stops are aspirated word-initially in stressed syllables and not aspirated after /s/.

What manner of articulation do [t], [d], [p], [g], [k] share?

They are all stops (plosives).

What does the sinewave speech demo suggest?

Your brain actively interprets ambiguous acoustic signals as speech based on context.

Are there pauses between words in normal speech?

No, continuous speech rarely has clear pauses.

Why is speech perception challenging?

The acoustic signal is continuous, sounds vary by speaker, and coarticulation blends sounds.

What is Voice Onset Time (VOT)?

The delay between releasing a stop and the start of voicing.

What does it mean to perceive categories in speech?

Listeners hear a sharp boundary between sounds rather than a continuum.

What does Dupoux et al. (1999) suggest about phonotactic constraints?

Listeners 'repair' illegal sound sequences based on their language's phonotactics.

What methodology did Dupoux et al. (1999) use?

They tested speakers with AX discrimination tasks and identification tasks.

What is the auditory illusion where people 'hear' a missing phoneme?

The phoneme restoration effect.

What is the McGurk effect?

A perceptual illusion where conflicting visual and auditory cues produce a third perceived sound.

What is the cot-caught merger?

/ɑ/ and /ɔ/ are pronounced the same.

What is the pin-pen merger?

/ɪ/ and /ɛ/ merge before nasals.

What is postvocalic r-deletion?

/r/ is dropped after vowels in some dialects.

What is perceptual dialectology?

The study of how non-linguists perceive dialect differences.

What did Dennis Preston's Michigan vs. Alabama study show?

People's perceptions of dialects are regionally biased and influenced by stereotypes.