Phonetics and the International Phonetic Alphabet

Pronunciation Challenge: How to pronounce "ghoti" (encouragement to write it out phonetically)

Housekeeping:
- D04 worksheet due last Friday, 11:59 PM ET
- RQ4 due before class today, 11:59 AM ET
- RQ5 due Wednesday, 11:59 PM ET
- D05 worksheet due Friday, 11:59 PM ET

The human mind is essential in the creation of language.
Linguistics employs scientific methods to analyze hidden mental rules and structures underlying language.

Language is integral in thinking and communication, reflecting individual identities and establishing social connections.
Linguistic discrimination, where some ways of speaking are labeled as incorrect, leads to divisions related to race, gender, region, and class.
Linguists advocate for the validity of all natural language varieties.

Language as a hierarchical structure composed of smaller units:
- Sounds/Signs
- Morphemes/Words
- Sentences
- Meaning
Linguists study properties of the human mind through language by delineating it into subcomponents.

Focus on linguistic sounds/signs in different languages through:
- Phonetics: Examining physical properties of speech sounds, production, and perception.
- Phonology: Distribution and interaction of sounds in a language.
- Speech Perception: How sounds of a language are heard, interpreted, and understood.

Phonetics involves the study of physical speech sounds and their features.
Subdomains of Phonetics:
- Articulatory Phonetics: Focuses on how the speaker produces sounds.
- Acoustic Phonetics: Examines the acoustic characteristics of sounds.
Speech Sounds: The smallest units (phones/phonemes) of language; in signed languages, it studies minimal units comprising signs.

Segmental Sounds: Discrete units like consonants and vowels.
Suprasegmental Sounds: Properties not easily represented as discrete units, such as stress, tone, and intonation.

A standardized system is crucial for cross-linguistic comparisons of speech sounds, as specific spelling conventions can yield confusion.
Spelling issues include:
- Multiple symbols for one sound (example: "fun" vs. "laugh").
- Symbols representing different sounds (example: "through" vs. "tough").

The International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA) is a standardized set of symbols representing sounds from spoken languages.
Organized by physical articulations involved in producing sounds.

First Distinction: Consonants vs. Vowels based on airflow obstruction.
- Vowel: Airflow unobstructed (No).
- Consonant: Airflow obstructed (Yes).

Concept: The status of vocal cords (voiced/voiceless):
- Voiced: Vocal cords adducted (close together); sound vibrates (e.g., [z], [v]).
- Voiceless: Vocal cords abducted (held apart); sound passes freely (e.g., [s], [f]).

Place of Articulation: Where in the vocal tract the constriction occurs.
- Types:
- Bilabial: Sounds produced with lips (e.g., [p], [b], [m]).
- Labiodental: Upper teeth and lower lip (e.g., [f], [v]).
- Alveolar: Tongue at the alveolar ridge (e.g., [t], [d], [n]).
- Velar: Back of the tongue against the velum (e.g., [k], [g]).
Manner of Articulation: How narrow the constriction is in airflow.
- Types include stops, fricatives, affricates, nasals, glides, and liquids.

IPA Representation:
- Manner defined by rows across the IPA chart representing different constriction methods.
- Hierarchical structure based on sonority levels, reflecting airflow obstruction.

Defined as consonants that begin as stops and release as fricatives.
- Examples: [ʧ] (as in "choke") and [ʤ] (as in "judge").

Pulmonic Consonants: Produced by air pushed from lungs (egressive air).
Non-Pulmonic Consonants:
- Glottalic: Air initiated at the vocal cords (ejectives and implosives).
- Velaric: Air movement controlled by the tongue (click sounds).

Final Thought: Cells shaded gray in IPA charts indicate impossible sounds, while empty cells are potential sounds not discovered as contrastive phonemes in languages.