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PHONETICS

See also “Phonology,” “Spelling”& “Writing Systems”

by Don L. F. Nilsenand Alleen Pace Nilsen

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The Tongue: Our Strongest Muscle

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ARTICULATORY PHONETICS (Callary 120)

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PLACE OF ARTICULATIONBILABIALS

LABIO-DENTALS

INTERDENTALS

ALVEOLARS

PALATALS

VELARS

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MANNER OF ARTICULATION

STOPS

FRICATIVES

AFFRICATES

NASALS (NASALIZING)

VOICING

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MANNER OF ARTICULATION EXERCISE

TALKING SOFTLY: Everyone in the class should talk softly as they say something.

WHISPERING: Everyone in the class should whisper as they say something.

NOTE: In talking softly all of the vowels and most of the consonants are voiced, but in whispering none of the vowels or consonants are voiced. When you talk softly in church rather than whispering, your voice will carry throughout the church.

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NASALIZATION: The velic in the back of the throat opens and closes the nasal cavity to allow nasalization or not.

Everyone in the class should keep the velic open as they say something so that all of the sounds will be nasalized.

NOTE: If the velic is defective, or if the palate is defective, then many sounds become nasalized that should not be nasalized. This is why people with a detective palate must have an artificial palate installed.

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DENALIZATION: Everyone in the class should keep the velic closed as they say something so that none of the sounds will be nasalized.

NOTE: People with adenoid problems, or with colds in their noses sound denasalized.

Now everyone in the class should hold their nose as they say something. Is the resulting sound a nasal sound, or a denasalized sound? Explain.

QUESTION: Are the nasal sounds in English stops or continuants?

ANSWER: From the point of view of the mouth, they are stops; however, from the point of view of the nose, they are continuants.

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CHANGE OF PITCH: The “voice box” is also called the “larynx.”

As air passes through the larynx it can be cut off (voiceless), or it can be allowed through (voiceless).

If the air is allowed through, but the vocal folds are held close together the result is a high pitch; if they are held close together the result is a low pitch.

Pitch can be heard only in voiced continuants.

All of our vowels, and most of our consonants are voiced continuants.

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CONTRAST THE SOUNDS & SPELLINGS OF THE FOLLOWING WORDS

psycho-socksthough-thoughteasy-essaypneumonia-newgnew-newknew-newThomas-tankphone-peas

rough-throughbleached-blackenedcheese-cowwhich-whowash-sugarsinger-fingergem-get

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REGIONAL DIALECTSCONTRAST THE FOLLOWING

cot-caughtcot-caught

merry-marry-Marymerry-marry-Mary

mourning-morningmourning-morning

pin-penpin-pen

witch-whichwitch-which

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REGIONAL DIALECTSPRONOUNCE THE FOLLOWING

calf

creek

either

greasy

hog

lot

Mrs.

near

outhouse

roof

schedule

spoon

tomatoes

wash

with

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IDENTIFY THE SOUNDIDENTIFY THE FEATURES

Your teacher will give you three features, and you will give the unique sound that these three features identify.

Your teacher will give you a sound, and you will give the three or more features that will uniquely identify the sound.

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POINTS OF ARTICULATION

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PHONETIC ALPHABET FOR ENGLISH

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PHONETIC SYMBOLS

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AMERICAN VOWELS

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PUNSRichard Lederer in the introduction to his Get Thee to a Punnery said

that puns are “a three-ring circus of words: words clowning, words teetering on tightropes, words swinging from tent-tops, words thrusting their heads into the mouth of lions.”

Tony Tanner said that a pun is like an adulterous bed in which two meanings that should be separated are coupled together.

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Debra Fried defined puns as the weird accidents, amazing flukes and lucky hits that the one-armed bandit of language dishes up.

This last example is a case of once-removed personification, since a “one-armed bandit” is itself a personified reference to a gambling machine.

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SIGN LANGUAGE ARTICULATION

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SIGN LANGUAGE

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SILENT CONSONANTS

For each of the following words with a silent consonant, think of a related word in which the consonant is pronounced. This is not possible for all words.

autumn, bough, corps, debt, ghost, gnaw, hole, island, knot, lamb, mnemonic, pneumonia, psychology, pterodacty, resign, sword, write

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SPELLING OF LONG VOWELSShort vowel sounds are easy to spell in English: “bit,”

“bet,” “bat,” “but,” “bot” (a horse fly)

But long vowels in English are chaotic in their spelling. We might add a “silent” e, or write more than one vowel letter, etc.

Furthermore, our sound system has changed drastically, but our writing system has not, so on first blush, the English spelling system appears to be chaotic.

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spelling inconsistencies

I take it you already know

of tough and bough and cough and dough?

Some may stumble, but not you,

On hiccough, thorough, slough and through.

So now you are ready, perhaps,

To learn of less familiar traps?

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Beware of heard, a dreadful word

That looks like beard and sounds like bird.

And dead, it’s said like bed, not bead;

For goodness’ sake, don’t call it deed!

Watch out for meat and great and threat.

(They rhyme with suite and straight and debt.)

A moth is not a moth in mother,

Nor both in bother, broth in brother.

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“THE WALRUS AND THE CARPENTER”by Lewis Carroll

Write the following in phonetic script:

The time has come the walrus said to talk of many things,

Of shoes and ships and seeling wax, of cabbages and kings,

and why the sea is boiling hot, and whether pigs have wings.

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SIMILARITY THEORY

In this series of jokes, the puns of the first joke represents total similarity (or identity), and the puns in each joke from then on becomes less and less similar. In the last joke, the punning words are so dissimilar that it is a stretch to figure them out at all.

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FORM-MEANING CORRESPONDENCESAntonyms (woman-man)Heteronyms (bow-bow)Homographs (bank-bank [NOTE: These are also Homophones)Homonoids (sex and violins = saxon violence)Homonyms (to-too-two)Hyponyms (metaphor-metaphor)Metanalysis (un naperon => an apron)Polysemes (ring-ring)Synonyms (dog-hound)

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IDENTITYJorge Borges wrote a parody of Cervantes's Don

Quixote. The parody used all of the same words, the same phrases and the same sentences as were in Cervantes’s original.

Borges claimed that his parody was much richer than the original because it contained all of the meaning of the original, plus it had all of the meaning of the parody.

In addition, the parody had the benefit of many years of literary criticism to add to its richness.

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POLYSEMYPOLYSEMY: When a single word has two

different senses.

Q: What did one tonsil say to the other?

A: You'd better get dressed. The doctor's taking us out tonight.

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HOMOGRAPHYHOMOGRAPHY: When two different

words are pronounced and spelled the same.

Q: Why can't the leopard escape from the zoo?

A: Because he is always spotted.

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HOMOPHONYHOMOPHONY: When two different words

are pronounced the same but are spelled differently:

Q: What's black and white and red/read all over?

A: A newspaper.

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HOMONOIDISMHOMONOIDISM: When words are similar but

not the same in sound and spelling:

1st: Knock Knock2nd: Who's there?

1st: Eskimos, Christians, and Italians2nd: Eskimos, Christians, and Italians who?

1st: Eskimos, Christians, and Italians no lies.

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METANALYSISMETANALYSIS: An inaccurate

understanding of where one word or phrase ends and the next one begins

Q: Why does a Frenchman have only one egg for breakfast?

A: Because one egg is an oeuf.

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Phonetics Web Site:Kleptomaniac (Johnny Carson & JackWebb):http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mhLLU0H34ms