Aufbauseminar AS English Linguistics II

Class 2: Phonetics and phonology

Laura Becker

08/05/19

Phonetics and phonology

What is phonetics?Phonetics is concerned with the physical sounds that produce speech. Sound is viewed ascontinuous.

acoustic phonetics:physical properties of the sound waves produced (spectogram, formants, etc.)

articulatory phonetics:physiological mechanisms of speech production (position of lips, teeth, tongue, palate,velum, pharynx and larynx)

What is phonology?Phonology is concerned with the abstract representation (rules, mental representation) of thesounds that produce speech. Therefore, sound has to be broken down into segments.

“A phonological representation of an utterance reduces this great mass of phoneticinformation to a cognitively based minimum, a sequence of discrete segments.”

(Odden 2005: 15)

+ However, making a clear-cut distinction between phonetics and phonology is not alwayseasy.

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Phonetic transcription

In order to represent sound waves for linguistic analysis, we need to convert thecontinuous stream of speech sound into discrete units.

+ This is what (phonetic) transcription does.

Instead of representing all information that the speech sound contains, it focuseson the linguistically important details.

→ /ɡraʊnd/

“Phonology then can be defined as the study of higher-level patterns oflanguage sound, conceived in terms of discrete mental symbols, whereasphonetics can be defined as the study of how those mental symbols aremanifested as continuous muscular contractions and acoustic waveforms.”(Odden 2005: 15)

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Basic phonetic units: sounds

Sounds“A “sound” is a complex pattern of rapid variations in air pressure, travelingfrom a sound source and striking the ear, which causes a series of neural signals tobe received in the brain: this is true of speech, music and random noises.” (Odden2005: 4)

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Basic phonetic units: sounds

Main distinction between different types of sounds:

sounds

vowelsairstream passes without obstacles

central function for syllable

consonantsairstream does not fully passmarginal function for syllable

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Basic phonetic units: sounds

Main distinction between different types of sounds:

sounds

vowelsairstream passes without obstacles

central function for syllable

consonantsairstream does not fully passmarginal function for syllable

glides/approximantsarticulation similar to vowels, but shorter,

greater degree of constriction,less central function for syllable

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Basic articulatory distinctions

These distinctions describe the modifications of the air stream producing the sound.

oral vs. nasal vs. nazalized:

air stream directed through the mouth, the nose, or both

voiced vs. voiceless:

vocal cords are opened, vocal cords are close together and vibrate

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Vowels

Vowels can be distinguished based on:

the place of the tongue bodythe lip rounding:

rounded [u, ʊ, o, ɒ, ɔ]unrounded [i, ɪ, e, ɛ, æ, ɑ, ʌ, ɜ, (ə)]

the length of articulation

In addition, English vowels can be divided into two main types:

vowels

monophthongsno noticeable change in quality

during articulation

diphthongschange in quality

within a single syllable

Do the following English words contain monophthongs or diphthongs?

buy, cut, play, pit, set, cat, boy, dog, but, put, suppose, now, go, loose, heat

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Vowels. Place of articulation

The place of the tongue body can be described in two dimensions, along a high–lowaxis, and a front–back axis:

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Consonants

Consonants can be distinguished based on:

the place of articulation

the manner of articulation

aspiration

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Consonants. Place of articulation

place articulators sound

bilabial

labio-dental

dental

alveolar

post-alveolar

palato-alveolar

palatal

velar

glottal

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Consonants. Place of articulation

place articulators sound

bilabial lips [p,b,m, w]

labio-dental lower lip and upper teeth [f,v]

dental tongue and upper teeth [θ,ð]

alveolar tip and rims of the tongue and upper alve-olar ridge and side teeth

[t,d,s,z,n,l]

post-alveolar tip, blade, and rims of the tongue and rearpart of upper alveolar ridge

[ɹ]

palato-alveolar tip, blade, and rims of the tongue and up-per alveolar ridge and side teeth

[ʃ,ʒ, tʃ, dʒ]

palatal body of the tongue raised against the hardpalate

[j]

velar tongue and soft palate [k, g, ŋ]

glottal vocal cords [ʔ, h]

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Consonants. Manner of articulation

manner description example

articulatory organs form obstruction; airstream is held up; sudden release of air

articulatory organs brought so close togetherthat friction of air stream occurs

plosive with friction during release stage

partial closure so that air stream can escape onone or both sides of obstruction

contraction of tongue; air stream can escapewithout friction

air stream released through nose; articulatoryorgans form obstruction

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Consonants. Manner of articulation

manner description example

plosive articulatory organs form obstruction; airstream is held up; sudden release of air

[p,t,k,ʔ,b,d,g]

fricative articulatory organs brought so close togetherthat friction of air stream occurs

[f,v,θ,ð,s,z,ʃ,ʒ,h]

affricate plosive with friction during release stage [tʃ,dʒ]

lateral partial closure so that air stream can escape onone or both sides of obstruction

[l]

approximant/glide

contraction of tongue; air stream can escapewithout friction

[ɹ,w,j]

nasal air stream released through nose; articulatoryorgans form obstruction

[n,m,ŋ]

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The sound inventory in English and German

Which sounds (phonemes) do we find in English but not German, and vice versa?

Which sounds (phonemes) do we find in both languages?

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The sound inventory in English and German

Consonants

English German

/p,b,t,d,k,g//f,v,s,z,ʃ,ʒ,h/

/m,n,ŋ//tʃ, dʒ/

/l//ɹ/ (/r/)

/ʁ/ (/r/)/j/

/θ,ð//w/

/ç,x//pf,ts/

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The sound inventory in English and German

Vowels

sound English German

/iː/ bee Biene/ɪ/ middle Mitte/eː/ Beeren/ɛː/ Bären/e/ bed/ɛ/ Bett/æ/ bank/a/ Bank/ɑː/ park/aː/ Tag/ʌ/ hut/ɒ/ lot

sound English German

/ɔ/ Tochter/ɔː/ Cornwall/oː/ Sohn/ʊ/ foot kurz/uː food pusten/ə/ about alle/ɜː/ heard/øː/ böse/œ/ öffnen/yː/ süß/y/ Fülle

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The sound inventory in English and German

Diphthongs

sound English German

/aɪ/ ride/ai/ reiten/aʊ/ house/au/ Haus/ɔɪ/ employ täuschen/eə/ there/eɪ/ train/ʊə/ poor/əʊ/ low (although US: /loʊ/)/ɪə/ here

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Phonemes and allophones

Are the following segments pronounced in the same way?a. winb. wing

a. one time

b. one thing

+ Sounds which lead to a difference in meaning are called phonemes.

+ Sounds which do not lead to a difference in meaning but which are phoneticvariants are called allophones.

Minimal pairs are words that differ in one sound; since this difference leads todistinct meanings, they can be used to detect phonemes.

Allophones are in complementary distribution if two variants systematicallyoccur in two different contexts.

+ plosives in English+ /l/ in English+ /x/ in German

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Allophonic variation in English

Aspiration of the phonemes /p/ /t/ /k/:

allophonecontext example

[pʰ] [t]ʰ [kʰ] initial position in accented syllables(strong aspiration)

[pʰiːtʃ] [tʰiːtʃ] [kʰiː]

[p] [t] [k] in all other positions(no or weak aspiration)

[spiːk] [rɪˈspekt]

Clear and dark /l/:

allophonecontext example

[l] before vowels and /j/ [ˈlæŋgwɪdʒ] [ˈɪŋglɪʃ]

[ł] before consonants [bʌłk]at the ends of words [wɪł]

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Allophonic variation in German

Place of articulation of /x/

allophonecontext example

[ç] after front vowels ich, Wächter,wöchentlich

[x] after back vowels Buch, acht, Woche

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Rule-governed differences between English and German

What are the restrictions for [s] and [z]?

seal, zeal, kissing, rising, kiss, rise

in English, both [s] and [z] can occur word (and syllable) initially

in (Standard) German, [s] never occurs word initially

in English, both [s] and [z] can occur in a word final position

in German, only [s] can occur word finally

language word initial intervocalic word final

English /s/ seal /s/ kissing /s/ kiss/z/ zeal /z/ rising /z/ rise

German /s/ reißen /s/ Kuss/z/ sehen /z/ reisen

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Final devoicing

Can you formulate the rule that describes the following phonological changes?

Tag /taːk/ vs. Tage /taːgə/Feld /fɛlt/ vs. Felder /fɛldɐ/Sieb /ziːp/ vs. Siebe /ziːbə/Boot /boːt/ vs. Boote /boːtə/

Phonological rules are usually expressed in the following way:

(1) A → B / X _Y(Segment A is becomes B in the context of X and Y.)

…Back to final devoicing in German:

(2)

+consonant+stop

+voiced

→

+consonant+stop

-voiced

/ #

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Syllables

What is a syllable?A syllable is a highly perceptible phonological unit.

How many syllables doe the following words have?

applaud, decline, exit, improvise

The structure of a syllable

syllable

onsettʰ

rhyme

nucleus/peakiː

codatʃ

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Restrictions on syllables in English

A basic syllable can have maximally two onset and two coda segments (consonants)in English:

syllable

onset

Ct

bg

Cɹ

lɹ

rhyme

nucleus

Veɪɒaɪæ

coda

Cdpnn

C

tdt

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Restrictions on syllables in English

Can you formulate the rules that determine which types of consonants areallowed in the onset and coda?

(3) The sonority scaleobstruent < fricative <nasal < liquid < glide < vowel

+ In basic syllables, sonority rises before the nucleus and declines after it.

How do we account for the following syllable structures?

text, stress, scream, split, ranks, twelfth, attached

English allows for /s/ to precede a complex onset of two consonants.

English allows for certain coronal voiceless consonants to follw a complex coda(/s,θ,t/).

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References

Odden, David Arnold (2005). Introducing Phonology. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

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