Lecture 4 - Phonetics: Articulation, Nasality, Vowels, Spectrograms, and Praat (Lecture Notes)

Places of articulation

• Labial (lips) as a primary place of articulation
• Labiodental sounds (labiodental): include sounds like f and v
• Dental/Interdental sounds: produced with the tongue between the teeth; term discussed as interdental
• Alveolar ridge: small bony ridge behind the teeth; common for many English consonants (e.g., /t, d, n, s, z/) and described as the alveolar place
• Postalveolar: just behind the alveolar ridge; described as slightly behind the ridge (in transcriptions you’ll see post-alveolar or sometimes alveolar in various charts)
• Palatal: sounds produced with the body of the tongue raised toward the hard palate
• Velar: sounds produced with the dorsum of the tongue against the soft palate (e.g., k, g)
• Glottal: sounds produced at the vocal folds (glottal stop or /h/ as glottal fricative)
• Pharyngeal (mentioned as a possible placement): more retracted in the throat; not common in English but discussed as a potential place in broader phonetic inventories
• Note on phonetic charts: texts may structure place/m manner/ voicing charts differently; some include alveolar, post-alveolar, and others groupings (individual differences across texts)
• Velum and articulation: the velum (soft palate) is a key landmark for nasal vs oral sounds; the junction where hard palate ends and soft palate begins is important for describing where sounds are made, even though nasal sounds require different tongue positions (see nasalization section)

Manner of articulation

• Major manners: Stops, Nasals, Fricatives, Affricates, and Approximants
• Stops (plosives): complete occlusion of the vocal tract followed by release
• Nasals: complete obstruction of the oral tract but with open nasal passage; sound energy is directed through the nasal cavity
• Fricatives: extreme constriction causing turbulence in the airstream; continuous airflow creates a turbulent sound
• Affricates: combination of a stop followed by a fricative (e.g., /tʃ/, /dʒ/ is often described as affricate-like)
• Approximants: articulators come close without creating a full obstruction; vowel-like consonants
  • Glides (e.g., /w/ as in “we”, /j/ as in “you”)
  • Liquids (laterals like /l/ and rhotics like /r/)
• Central vs lateral approximants: central approximants have a central airflow; lateral approximants have air flowing around the sides of the tongue (as in /l/)
• Obstruents vs sonorants: obstruents include stops, fricatives, and affricates with greater obstruction; sonorants include vowels, liquids, and glides with more bell-like sonority
• Note on English examples: stops, nasals, fricatives, affricates, and approximants are all present; some pharyngeal and glottal variations discussed in broader phonetics

Voicing, aspiration, and obstruents vs sonorants

• Voicing: sounds can be voiced or voiceless; voicing is a key contrast in many manners (e.g., /b/ vs /p/, /d/ vs /t/)
• Obstruents are typically more obstructed; voiced/voiceless distinctions occur across stops, fricatives, and affricates
• Some discussion of aspiration with stops and other contexts (e.g., conversational speech may reduce aspiration in some environments; the lecturer notes a preference not to insert artificial aspiration in the middle of words like “butter” in singing contexts)

Nasalization, velum, and velopharyngeal port

• Nasal sounds require a lowered velum: the velum lowers to open the velopharyngeal port, allowing air to pass through the nasal cavity (e.g., /m/, /n/, /ŋ/)
• Nasals include:
  • /m/: bilabial nasal, voiced
  • /n/: alveolar nasal, voiced
  • /ŋ/: velar nasal, voiced
• Velum states and their effects:
  • Low velum: velopharyngeal port open to the nose; nasal sounds produced; nasal resonance filtered by the nasal cavities
  • Partial nasalization: velum in a mid position; some sound goes through the mouth, some through the nose; reduced energy due to nasal filtering
  • Raised velum: velopharyngeal port closed; sound is oral; near-complete energy remains in the oral cavity
• Demonstrations used in class:
  • Three positions: low velum, mid velum, raised velum; audible differences in nasalized vs oral vowels
  • Partially nasalized vowel as an example of mid velum where some energy leaks to the nasal cavity
• Practical implications:
  • Nasalization reduces overall sound energy because the nasal cavity is a smaller resonating space and acts as a filter
  • People with cleft lip/palate or other nasal/velopharyngeal issues may experience reduced loudness due to nasal energy loss
• Anatomy notes:
  • The tongue anatomy is described with terms like dorsum, tip, blade, and root; the tongue has multiple muscles (8 sets) with various origins and insertions
  • The term “root” is described as imprecise in the lecturer’s view; the tongue mass is produced by many muscles rather than a single origin
• Palatal/velar coordination:
  • The velum interacts with the oral cavity; nasalization changes resonance and energy distribution
  • The velar and alveolar places interact with the tongue dorsum and tip/blade to create various sounds

The vowel system and the vowel quadrilateral

• Vowels are characterized by a fairly open vocal tract
• Key dimensions for describing vowels:
  • Height (high to low): how high the tongue is in the mouth
  • Backness (front to back): how far forward or back the tongue is
  • Lip rounding: rounded vs unrounded lips
• Diphthongs: sounds where articulation moves from one vowel position to another within the same syllable; effectively two neighboring vowels in sequence, not necessarily two spelled vowels
  • Example: in the word “bake,” you hear a movement from a high front vowel to a mid/back vowel (represented as a diphthong with tongue movement)
• Front vs back and the movement of the tongue:
  • A very forward position has the tongue pushed forward; a very back position pulls the tongue back
  • The speaker emphasizes that front/back descriptions refer to the body movement of the tongue rather than simple surface landmarks
• The vowel quadrilateral (high/low vs front/back):
  • High front: the highest front position (example often given is /i/)
  • High back: the highest back position (example often given is /u/)
  • Low back: low, back tongue posture (example often given is /ɑ/ or /ɒ/ depending on language)
  • Low front: low, front posture (example often given is /æ/ or similar depending on language)
• The velum and vowel relations:
  • The velum does not determine front/back directly; rather the entire tongue body position defines front/back for vowels
• The speaker refers to a “val quadrilateral” (often called the vowel quadrilateral) as a way to visualize vowel space and to anchor research on extreme positions (high forward, high back, low back, low front)
• Velum and nasal vowels:
  • Vowels can be nasalized when the velum is lowered, yielding nasal vowels; this is a mixed oral-nasal articulation
• Term clarifications:
  • Diphthongs involve a transition between two vowel qualities within a single syllable
  • Vowel quality is about tongue position and resonant character, not about judgments of goodness/badness; researchers use “vowel quality” to refer to the tongue position or energy distribution in the vocal tract
• The concept of tenseness and laxness in vowels:
  • Tensile vowels (tense): typically involve greater tongue constriction and are found at extreme points of the quadrant (e.g., /i/, /u/, /æ/, /ɑ/ in some descriptions)
  • Lax vowels: typically more centralized and closer to reflexive vowel space, such as schwa /ə/ and vowels near the middle of the quadrilateral
• Long vowels: indicated by a length symbol (often written as a small colon or a length mark in transcription); long vowels are those that can stand on their own as a syllable nucleus (e.g., /eɪ/ for “bait” in diphthongs or pure long vowels like /iː/ in some languages)

Phonetic transcription, phonemes, phones, allophones, and diacritics

• Transcription basics:
  • Phonetic transcription uses square brackets [ ] for phones (discrete sounds used in language)
  • Broad transcription (phonemic): general pronunciation, useful for dictionary-like representations; typically uses fewer diacritics
  • Narrow transcription (phonetic): uses diacritics to capture allophonic variation and precise production details
• Phoneme vs phone:
  • Phoneme: a sound category that native speakers perceive as a single unit; substituting different phonemes would change word meaning (e.g., /k/ vs /t/ in a given language can change meaning)
  • Phone: a discrete sound realized in speech; a phoneme can have multiple allophones (phones) that do not change meaning
• Allophones: context-driven variants of a phoneme that do not change meaning
  • Example: aspirated vs unaspirated stops in many contexts (e.g., the difference in English between aspirated /p/ in “pie” vs unaspirated in other contexts; butter example discussed as a preference against artificial mid-word aspiration)
• Diacritics (some common uses):
  • Glottal stop or glottalization
  • Nasalization beside a vowel
  • Other diacritics to indicate subtle articulatory differences in narrow transcription
• Practical notes:
  • In practice, many professionals use broad transcription most of the time and reserve narrow transcription for specialized analyses or clinical cases
• Consonant and vowel inventories mentioned:
  • Consonants: there are typically $24$ symbols in a standard set; some resources highlight $9$ of the $24$ as particularly notable or tricky to learn
  • Vowels: about $13$ basic vowel phonemes are common in many descriptions; diphthongs add more variety
• Practical tip from the lecturer:
  • Some symbols use a connecting arch over two symbols to indicate they form a single phoneme or related affricate representation (e.g., a linked pair indicating an affricate rather than a simple sequence)
• Lexical notes:
  • Butter as an example used to illustrate real-world articulation and the tendency to avoid unnecessary aspiration in non-emphasized positions

Spectrograms and reading speech sounds

• Spectrogram basics:
  • Time is on the horizontal axis; frequency is on the vertical axis; high frequencies appear at the top, low frequencies at the bottom
• Stops on a spectrogram:
  • Stops show a brief silent interval (complete occlusion) followed by a burst; a strong vertical burst often marks the release
  • The onset of a stop can be identified by a clear interruption and a rapid burst after the occlusion
• Fricatives and voicing:
  • Fricatives show continuous noise due to turbulence at the constriction
  • Voiced fricatives show clearer formant energy; voiceless fricatives show less energy in the voice bands
• Nasal spectrogram signature:
  • Nasals show a characteristic nasal resonance with energy spread and formant patterns; the velum being lowered changes the resonance
• Example sound analysis:
  • Word conceptualizing: you can see approximate stops and transitions; a nasal at the end (the nasal /ŋ/ or similar) shows decreased energy at the end due to nasal resonance filtering
• Forensic and research context:
  • Spectrograms have applications in research and forensics; there have been real-world instances where experts used spectrographic analysis for investigations (e.g., post-9/11 interests and cases involving languages like Farsi)
  • The field includes trained professionals who read spectrograms; there are debates about the certainty and reliability of spectrograms in forensics; the speaker notes a conservative stance on professional expertise for such analyses
• Practical practice in class:
  • The class uses spectrograms to identify: stops, nasals, fricatives, and formant structures; they compare voiced vs voiceless segments and observe energy distributions

Sounds like things: glottals, pharyngeals, and other placements mentioned

• Pharyngeal constrictors: used in some languages or sounds; discussion of throat constriction during articulation
• Glottal sounds: produced at the vocal folds; h is at the larynx; glottal stops can be used as a pause or a substitute in some contexts
• Diverted vs obstructed sounds:
  • Obstructed: more obstruction in the vocal tract (e.g., certain fricatives and affricates)
  • Diverted: sounds that may be diverted toward the nasal cavity (nasal resonance) or otherwise altered by velopharyngeal adjustments

Practical notes about tools and resources

• Praat software:
  • Download from two windows; official site is often praat.org
  • Praat is widely used by speech scientists; it is free and robust for acoustic analysis and spectrogram visualization
  • The lecturer warns against downloading Praat from unofficial sites due to trust concerns; official site is the recommended source
• Translation of classroom demonstrations:
  • Hands-on demonstrations with velum height, nasalization, and oral-vs-nasal transitions help clients (e.g., in speech therapy) visualize articulation and plan therapy
• In-class examples and real-world relevance:
  • Reading spectrograms can support clinical work (e.g., advising patients with velopharyngeal issues) and research
  • The material connects to foundational principles in phonetics and phonology, including how speech sounds are produced, perceived, and analyzed

Quick reference notes

• Stops: complete food occlusion; energy stops and bursts visible on spectrograms; example context features in words like conceptualizing (with an initial burst around /k/ and /p/ like transitions)
• Nasals: nasal cavity involvement; energy passes through nose; lowered velum; specific nasal places: /m/ (bilabial), /n/ (alveolar), /ŋ/ (velar)
• Velum states:
  • Low velum: nasalization; open velopharyngeal port
  • Mid velum: partial nasalization
  • Raised velum: complete oral resonance; velopharyngeal port closed
• Vowels: height, backness, rounding; diphthongs involve movement; vowel quality describes tongue position and energy distribution
• Transcription basics: phones vs phonemes; broad vs narrow transcription; use of diacritics in narrow transcription
• Energy considerations: nasalization reduces energy due to the nasal filter
• IPA basics and common consonant/vowel inventories: typical references include 24 consonant symbols and 13 vowel phonemes in standard inventories
• Teaching tips: use of visual aids like the vowel quadrilateral; the dorsum, tip, blade, and (less preferred) root terminology; anatomical gestures to aid motor planning (e.g., using hands for velum and tongue positions)
• Ethical and professional note: spectrograms و forensic uses require careful expertise; not every claim or reading is definitive; rely on training and established methods

Praat download and setup reminder

• Action item: download Praat from $exttt{praat.org}$ (official site)
• Expect two windows on startup; the left window is the program interface; the right window shows analysis results
• Reminder: avoid untrusted sources for download; practice with official version to ensure reliability and accuracy in spectrogram analysis