Unit 3 Phonetics Exam

speech sound acquisition (ages)

6 years- th

5 years- r, zh, th (voiced)

4 years- l, j, ch, s, v, z

2-3 years- p,b,m,d,n,h,t,k,g,w,ng,f,y

3 acoustic characteristics of sound

time- duration of sound, measured in msec or sec: 1 sec= 1,000 ms

frequency- number of cycles of vibration, measured in HZ: cycles per sec, pitch: perception of frequency

intensity- magnitude of energy associated with a sound, measured in dB, loudness: perception of intensity

front vowels on spectrogram

front vowels have higher F2 values than back vowels

back vowels on spectrogram

back vowels have lower F2 values than front vowels

diphthongs on spectrogram

formants move as vocal tract shape changes

vowel acoustic characterisitcs

always voiced

relatively unobstructed vocal tract

resonances determined by tongue position

consonant acoustic characteristics

can be voiced or voiceless

relatively obstructed vocal tract

resonances determined by: sound source, how airflow is modified, and point of obstruction

voice bar on spectrogram

bottom dark region

clinical application of speech acoustics

Habitual pitch/Speaking Fundamental Frequency (SFF)
Acoustic analysis → evaluate effect of speech intervention
on transgender speech
• Verify presence/absence of speech sounds, phonological
processes (e.g., vowel reduction), and hypernasality
– E.g. D/deaf & Hard of Hearing, Craniofacial
Abnormalities
• Evaluation of individuals with neurological disease and development of speech production
– E.g. ALS, Parkinson’s Disease

suprasegmental aspects of speech

• Stress, timing, and intonation variations in speech that go
  beyond/transcend boundaries of individual speech sounds

•  Stress: Word and sentence stress

•  Intonation: Voice pitch variations

• Tempo: Durational aspect of connected speech

citation form vs connected speech

Isolated vs. connected
• Citation form
– pronounced carefully as a single item
– “him” in isolation: /hɪm/
• Connected speech results from joining two or more words
together in the creation of an utterance
– “him” in “I caught him” /aɪkɔtəm/: /əm/
• Phonemes may be altered or eliminated when words are
strung together in an utterance

phonemes in connected speech

Coarticulation: Overlapping of articulators during speech
production
– “Where did you go?”: /wɛɹdʒəɡoʊ/
• Coarticulation → time-efficient process
– In “soon,” /s/ is rounded in anticipation of the rounded
vowel [sw]
• Assimilation →phonemes taking on the character of
neighboring sounds:

assimilation

modifications of a phoneme due to influence of neighboring sounds

elision

delete of a phoneme

epenthesis

insertion of an additional phoneme

metathesis

transposition of phonemes

vowel reduction

reduction of a full vowel to a schwa

regressive assimilation

later sound affects an earlier sound

progressive assimilation

earlier sound affects a later sound

word stress

Stress is suprasegmental because entire syllables are
stressed, not just individual phonemes
• Stressed syllables tend to be louder, longer in duration,
and higher in pitch
• There can be more than one level of stress: Primary (ˈ) versus
secondary (ˌ)
– ˌmainˈtain
– ˌtranˈscend
– ˌplanˈtation
– ˌreimˈburse

sentence stress

Certain words in a sentence receive emphasis depending
on (1) level of importance of the word in the sentence and
(2) speaker’s intent of the message being conveyed
– Donna ˈdrove to school.
– ˈDonna drove to school.
• Content words (nouns, verbs, adjectives, adverbs) tend to
receive stress more often than function words (pronouns,
articles, prepositions, conjunctions)
• New information tend to receive stress more often than
given information

intonation

Modification of voice pitch
• Functions
– Linguistic: Indicating the type of utterance (statement,
questions, exclamation, etc.)
– Non-linguistic: Indicating a speaker’s mood
• Intonation phrase
– Made up of all changes in fundamental frequency spanning
the length of a meaningful utterance
– Could be a sentence, a phrase, or a word
• Tonic syllable: Syllable receiving the greatest pitch change in an intonational phrase

falling vs rising intonation

Falling intonation is typically used in statements,
commands, and wh-questions
– “It’s time to go.”
– “What’s your favorite color?”
• Rising intonational is typically used in yes/no questions,
tag questions, and incomplete thoughts, indicating some
uncertainty on a speaker’s part
– “Are you coming?”
– “His name is Richard, isn’t it?”

tempo

durational aspect of speech

Length of phonemes varies depending on
– Phoneme type: Diphthongs > vowels > consonants
– Stress: Stressed syllables > unstressed syllables
– Context: Vowel is longer before a voiced consonant;
Vowels tend to be longer in open (versus closed) syllables

tempo: pauses and juncture

Pauses may indicate
– Speaker is taking a breath
– Hesitations
– Presence of a new thought or emphasis
• Juncture indicates the way in which syllables and words
are linked together in connected speech
– External juncture (short [ ǀ ] or long [ ǁ ]) is a pause that
connects two intonational phrases
– Open internal juncture [+]: “I scream” [aɪ+skrim]
– Close internal juncture: “ice cream” [aɪskrim]