LING 200 - Reading Quiz 3 Notes

Airstream Mechanisms

Two airstream mechanisms are not used in human languages: pulmonic ingressive and velaric egressive.

Step 0: Tongue tip raised to upper teeth to form a dental closure.
Step 1: Back of tongue raised toward soft palate to form a velar closure.
Step 2: Tongue body lowered in the center.
Step 3: Dental closure released.
Step 4: Velar closure released.
The release of the front closure (dental, bilabial, alveolar, etc.) creates the distinctive "popping" sound of a click.
All clicks have a velar closure; if the velar closure were released first, all clicks would sound similar.

Step 1: Make a closure at the velum and the larynx (glottis) simultaneously.
Step 2: Raise the larynx.
Step 3: Release the velar closure.
Step 4: Open the larynx.
Raising the larynx compresses air within the trapped space, increasing air pressure.
Crucially, the oral closure (velar closure in this example) must be released before the glottal closure.
If the glottal closure is opened first, air flows back into the trachea/lungs, resulting in a quiet glottal stop.
Releasing the oral closure first causes air to rush out with a distinctive "popping" sound.
Releasing the back closure (velar for clicks, glottal for ejectives/implosives) before the front one would cause ejectives of all places of articulation to sound the same as each other.
The location of the first released closure gives the ejective, implosive, or click its "place" characteristics.

Ejective stops (e.g., / p’ / or / k’ /) are produced by a glottalic airstream mechanism, with egressive airflow.
Clicks are velaric ingressive consonants.
In pulmonic sounds, the airstream is initiated by the lungs.
Glottalic ingressive sounds are known as implosives.

Laminal post-alveolar is equivalent to palato-alveolar (e.g., [ ʃ ʒ ]).
Apical post-alveolar is equivalent to retroflex (e.g., [ ʂ ʐ ]).
Retroflex sounds are apical, with the tongue tip curled back behind the alveolar ridge.

The consonant in the middle of "uh-oh!" or "unh-unh" is a glottal stop.
Obstruents include plosives, affricates, and fricatives.
In American and Canadian English, an alveolar stop becomes a voiced tap [or flap] between two vowels, the second of which is unstressed (e.g., voting, writing, sliding).
A brief period of voicelessness after the release of a stop and before the start of voicing in a following vowel is known as aspiration.
An affricate combines a stop followed by a fricative at the same place of articulation.

"Tap" and "flap" are both acceptable terms for the sound in #3.
Aspiration is the appropriate term in #4. Aspirated stops can be called "aspirates".
Voice Onset Time (VOT) is a measurable quantity used to determine if a plosive is aspirated.
Aspirated plosives have a high, positive VOT value.
Unaspirated plosives have a low VOT value (close to zero).
Voiced plosives have negative VOT (voicing starts before the release).

The apostrophe-like symbol for ejectives is different from the primary stress diacritic [ ˈ ].
For the voiced post-alveolar affricate, either the ligature symbol [ ʤ ], or the sequence [ d ] + [ ʒ ] with a superscript tie [ d͡ʒ ] is acceptable. [ dʒ ] without the tie is also often used.
The IPA symbol [ ʀ ] is not the same as a capital "R".
[ ʀ ] and [ ʁ ] are distinct symbols.
Voicelessness and voicing diacritics are superfluous when the symbol already indicates voicing (e.g., [ ɬ ] already implies voicelessness).
Diacritics like [ ̥] and [ ̬] are generally only used if there isn't a dedicated IPA symbol for the sound. For example, [ n̥] represents a voiceless alveolar nasal stop, because the base symbol [ n ] is voiced and has no explicit symbol for its voiceless equivalent.