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Linguistics week 6

Phonetics 4

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Parameters for describing consonants

So far (this is not complete yet) we have– Airstream (usually the same for all consonants)– Place of articulation– Voicing– Manner of articulation

So, [p] is …– egressive pulmonic– bilabial– voiceless– plosive

This was what I was expecting in the quiz!

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Affricates in Mandarin /tsʰ/ and /ts/ /tʂʰ/ and /tʂ/ /tɕʰ/ and /tɕ/

– Can you guess what they are?– What is the ʰ?

ㄘ and ㄗ ㄔ and ㄓ (retroflex affricate) ㄐ and ㄑ (alveolo-palatal affricate)

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Aspiration Aspirated and unaspirated consonants

– ㄅ is unaspirated [p]» Voicing for the next sound (a vowel) begins immediately

after plosion

– ㄆ is aspirated [ph] (puff of air)» Vocal folds remain open briefly, after the stop is release

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English: spit vs pit (aspiration difference) Aspiration is much less important in English than

in Chinese– Can you explain why?

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Because aspiration in Mandarin is phonemic (also, tone in Mandarin is phonemic)

pʰ and p are two different phones; two different sounds

but in Mandarin they are different phonemes– /pʰa/ (ㄆㄚ ) and /pa/ ( ㄅㄚ ) represent different mean

ings– in English pʰ and p do not help to distinguish meaning– There are no minimal pairs like pʰa and pa

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IPA: approximants (all voiced) An approximant

– occurs as a consonant in syllabic patterning (CVC)– but, it’s like a vowel, because the articulators usually don’t touch.

2 common realizations of /r/ (in addition to the trills described earlier)

– [ɻ] retroflex approximant of Mandarin– [ɹ] alveolar approximant of English

A palatal approximant [j], often corresponding to the English spelling “y”

A labial (=with rounded lips) velar approximant [w] Then there is a lateral approximant [l]

– Lateral = “side”, that is where the obstruction is

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Mandarin sounds

http://www.wfu.edu/~moran/Cathay_Cafe/IPA_NPA_4.htm

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Vowels vs consonants

Consonants– There is some obstruction in the vocal tract

(=the mouth or throat) Vowels

– There is no such obstruction (the air flows freely)

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Regional accent variation

English accents– The consonants are generally the same– The vowels are often very different

Mandarin Chinese accents– Pronunciation of consonants often varies

widely according to region

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Describing vowels

Say [i] followed by [æ] (like cat)– Think about where your tongue is– Look in a mirror– What changes? What can you say about the

position of the tongue in the two cases? This is one of the parameters of vowel

description

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Another parameter

Now compare [ɑ] (father) with [æ] (like cat)

You can also try comparing the vowels in ㄢ and ㄤ

Notice any difference? This is the second distinguishing parameter

(factor)

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The third parameter

Compare 四 with 速 Or more straightforwardly, compare ㄧ wi

th ㄩ– The difference should be quickly apparent

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So, the 3 parameters are…

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The IPA vowel chart

• This is a stylized representation of the inside of the mouth

• It shows – the cardinal vowels

• marked by black dots

– and the approximate position of vowels common in many languages

• The next slide shows the position of English vowels on the same kind of chart

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British American

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This week’s homework

• Sound description, recording and animation. Take a look at http://www.uiowa.edu/~acadtech/phonetics/about.html# and click on “English library”.

• Read about vowels again (page 48ff). What are the parameters for describing vowels (like voicing, airstream etc with consonants)?

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Diphthongs Yule describes these as a vowel + an approximant

(p49) so /bajt/; /bawt/ We can also say there are two vowels involved

– an initial vowel, in “bite” or ㄞ = a– a target vowel, in “bite” or ㄞ = I– the tongue moves towards I– but doesn’t actually reach its target– Check the cool website for a demo

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Midterm exam On 20th November, there is a midterm exam. You can

expect questions on:– Anything I talked about in class– Anything on these slides– Anything from the web resources I referred you to– Anything from Yule, in the sections related to what we covered in

class For some questions, you will write a short answer of a few

words, maybe a number, maybe a symbol For other questions, you will write a short paragraph. You will get a half credit for anything you write in

Chinese