D_2

Page 1: The Sounds of Language

• Transcription Analysis

  • Familiar words in English can be challenging: tough, bough, cough, and dough all have different pronunciations.

  • A playful poem introduces more complicated words and their pronunciations, such as hiccough, thorough, lough, and through.

  • Warning against confusing words like heard (sounds like bird) with bead; dead (like bed, not deed); and meat with threat.

  • Example of a mispronunciation: "seagh" spelled by a restaurant manager, emphasizing the confusion between sounds and letter representations.

Page 2: Introduction to Phonetics

• Phonetic Alphabet

  • Spoken English does not match written English in spelling and sound.

  • The phonetic alphabet provides a system for representing sounds consistently.

  • Focuses on articulatory phonetics, the study of how speech sounds are produced.

    • Other phonetics areas include:

      • Acoustic Phonetics: physical properties of speech sounds.

      • Auditory Phonetics: perception of speech sounds.

• Voiced vs. Voiceless Sounds

  • Speech sounds are produced by airflow from lungs through trachea to the larynx.

    1. Voiceless: Vocal folds apart, air passes through freely.

    2. Voiced: Vocal folds together, creating vibrations as air passes.

  • Vibration can be felt at the Adam's apple when pronouncing Z (voiced) vs. S (voiceless).

Page 3: Production of Speech Sounds

• Place of Articulation

  • Sounds produced through constriction in the oral cavity with tongue and mouth.

  • Important terms for describing sounds:

    • Bilabials: produced with both lips (e.g., pat, bat).

    • Labiodentals: produced with upper teeth and lower lip (e.g., fat).

    • Dentals: tongue tip behind upper front teeth (e.g., thin).

    • Alveolars: front part of the tongue on alveolar ridge (e.g., top).

Page 4: Types of Consonant Sounds

• Consonant Breakdown

  • Detailed classification of consonant sounds:

    • Bilabials: [p], [b], [m].

    • Labiodentals: [f], [v].

    • Dentals: [θ] (voiceless, thin); [ð] (voiced, then).

    • Alveolars: [t], [d], [s], [z], [n].

      • Examples of voiced & voiceless contrasts in endings (bus vs. buzz).

Page 5: Palatals and Velars

• Palatals: sounds with the tongue on the hard palate (e.g., [ʃ] in shout, [ʧ] in child).

• Velars: back of the tongue with the velum (e.g., [k] in car, [g] in go).

  • Voiced velar [ŋ] appears in words like sing.

Page 6: Glottal Sounds and Consonant Chart

• Glottals: produced in the glottis without tongue/mouth involvement, e.g., [h] in house.

• Consonant Sounds Chart:

  • Summarizes voiced and voiceless sounds, manner of articulation in phonetics.

Page 7: Phonetic Description of Consonants

• Limitations of Consonant Sounds Chart:

• Incomplete representation of English sounds vs. IPA standards.

• Variability in pronunciation also noted.

Page 8: Manner of Articulation

• Describing Sounds:

  • Stops: sounds produced by stopping airflow (e.g., [p], [t], [k]).

  • Fricatives: sounds created by narrow openings (e.g., [f], [s]).

  • Affricates: stop followed by fricative (e.g., [ʧ], [ʤ]).

  • Nasals: airflow through nasal cavity (e.g., [m], [n], [ŋ]).

  • Liquids: voiced sounds like [l], [r].

  • Glides: sounds produced with a gliding motion [w], [j].

Page 9: Interruptions in Phonetic Transcription

• Glottal Stops and Flaps

  • Glottal Stop: represented [ʔ], occurs occasionally in pronunciations.

  • Flaps: produced by quick tongue taps (e.g., in butter, American English example).

Page 10: Vowel Sounds

• Vowels vs. Consonants:

  • Vowels produced with free airflow, all typically voiced.

• Classification: high vs. low position in the mouth, front vs. back position.

Page 11: Diphthongs

• Diphthongs: gliding vowel sounds, such as [aɪ] and [aʊ].

  • Movement between two vowel positions.

Page 12: Individual Variation in Vowel Sounds

• Variation Observed: between accents, may even involve personal pronunciation quirks.

Page 13: Questions for Study

• Questions outlined to understand and practice phonetics and phonology fundamentals.

Page 14: Tasks for Practice

• Several tasks outlined for applying phonetics to new or unusual terms, analyzing sounds.