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An important part of phonetics is describing what speech sounds are like and how they are made.
Human beings are able to make a vast variety of sounds with their vocal apparatus, of which they use
no more than a small number of the possible available sounds in their language.
Phonology: the study of the selection and patterns of sounds in a single language. (phonologist)
Phonetics: the study of sounds in language in general. (Phonetician)
Linguistics: the science that is concerned with the general study of language.
Phonology and phonetics are components of linguistics
Linguist: a specialist in linguistics
Speech chain
1. Formulation in brain of speaker (psycholinguistics)
2. Articulatory mechanism of speaker (articulatory phonetics)
a. Feedback line (audio-feedback)
3. Disturbances in air molecules producing the speech signal (acoustic phonetics)
4. Reception of signal by listener (auditory phonetics)
5. Interpretation in brain of listener (psycholinguistics)
Audio-feedback: the constantly monitoring of our own speech by listening to our performance.
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The rules for syllable structure are not exactly the same for Dutch and English,
inasmuch as there are different restrictions on the possible consonant clusters:
combinations of consonants
Only in English: initial cluster /hj/ and syllable-final clusters: /dz, bz, gz, vz,
ndz/
Only in Dutch: initial cluster /kn/
Both English and Dutch have closed syllables syllables ending in one or more
consonants and open syllables syllables ending in a vowel.
Chapter 3: Transcription
3.1 Phonemic and Phonetic transcription
Phonetic transcription: a transcription which can, potentially, indicate the minute articulatory detail
of any particular sound.
Tong-r: [r]
Huig-r [R]
Phonemic transcription: confined to representing phonemes and showing the distinctive contrasts.
Tong-r or huig-r are both represented by the phoneme /r/
Transcriptions
Broad: showing only a very small proportion of the phonetic variation that occurs what is
most important in the particular context.
Narrow: showing a great deal of minor allophonic variation
o More elaborate symbols and additional small marks: diacritics
When even a single diacritic is shown, the transcription must be enclosed in
square brackets.
3.2 Stress
Word in citation form: spoken in isolation, as opposed to occurring in connected speech
Has at least one stressed syllable: one syllable which has more prominence than the others.
o Word stress: stress in the isolated word.
o Can partly be related to the energy with which a syllable is articulated.
o Indicated by placing a mark [] before the syllable concerned.
Sentence stress: stress in connected speech.
Lexical words (nouns, adjectives, adverbs and main verbs) are most likely to be stressed.
Grammatical words (determiners, conjunctions, pronouns, prepositions, auxiliary verbs) are
less likely to be stressed.
o Demonstratives and wh-interrogatives are stressed with any frequency
When wh-words and that are used as relatives, they are normally
unstressed.
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o Were
o Theyre
Have
o Ive
o Youve
o Hes
o Shes
o Its
o Weve
o Theyve
Shall/will
o Ill
o Youll
o Hell
o Shell
o Itll
o Well
o Theyll
Had/would
o Id
o Youd
o Hed
o Shed
o Itd
o Wed
o Theyd
Not
o Arent
o Werent
o Dont
o Shant
o Wont
o Cant
o Mustnt
o Darent
Let
o Lets
There
o Theres
o Therere
o Therell
o Thered
/wi:(r)/
/(r)/
/av/ -> not necessarily used when main verb
/ju:v/
/hiz/ -> cannot be used when main verb
/iz/
/ts/
/wi:v/ -> not necessarily used when main verb
/ev/
/al/
/ju:l/
/hi:l/
/i:l/
/tl /
/wi:l/
/el/
/ad/
/ju:d/
/hi:d/
/i:d/
/itd/
/wi:d/
/ed/
/:nt/
/w:nt/
/dnt/
/:nt/
/wnt/
/k:nt/
/msn t/
/dnt/
/lets/
/z, z, ez/
/r(r), er(r), r(r)/
/l, l/
/d, d/
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WFS of words which begin with h, pronunciation with /h/ is optional. The /h/ is invariably
used following a pause, e.g. at the beginning of a sentence
WFs which include shwa preceding /m, n, l/ are regularly pronounced as syllabic consonants
Have as a main verb is normally pronounced as a SF, but CFs are occasionally used.
Third person forms of have and be follow regular rules for pronunciation of s or s.
o Following /b, d, g, v, , m, n, , l/ and all vowels s /z/
o Following /p, t, k, f, / s /s/
o Following /s, z, , , t, d/ is /z/, has /z/
Some common grammatical words do not have a regular WF
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Palato-alveolar: tongue rising towards the alveolar ridge and the frontmost
part of the hard palate E /, , , d/
o Soft palate (velum)
Velic closure: soft palate raised against the back wall of the pharynx
Part of the articulation of all non-nasal sounds
Velar closure: tongue articulating against the soft palate [k, g, ]
[k, g] have a velic and a velar closure.
o Uvula: a hanging lump of tissue at the back of the mouth
Uvular trill [R]
D /r/: uvular sound with the airstream channelled between the uvula and the
back of the tongue
o Tongue
Tongue-body consists almost entirely of muscle
Parts of the tongue: blade tip front back root
o Tip: apex apical
o Blade: lamina laminal
o Root: radix radical
Dorsum: whole of the upper surface of the tongue is covered with a mucous
membrane containing the taste nerve endings and the salvia-producing
glands. (front and back)
Tip of tongue is very sensitive and the tongue has an ability to detect
movement (kinaesthetic sense) diminished near end of tongue
The tongue can assume a variety of shapes
Groove along the septum (mid-line) of tongue [s, z]
/l/: the sides of the tongue are pressed
Nasal cavity (space inside the nose i.e. the nose)
The epiglottis: diverts the chewed-up food away from the vocal folds and the trachea.
Soft palate: can be raised to form a closure against the back of the pharynx.
With the soft palate raised, people can make an oral sound.
With the soft palate lowered, people can make a nasal sound. /m, n, /
Articulations:
/n/: Voiced, soft palate lowered, tip/blade touching alveolar ridge
/d/: voiced, velic closure, tip/blade touching alveolar ridge
/g/: voiced, velic closure, velar closure
//: voiced, velar closure, no velic closure
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consonants
p
t
k
descriptive label
fortis bilabial plosive
fortis alveolar plosive
fortis velar plosive
fortis palato-alveolar affricate
fortis labio-dental fricative
fortis dental fricative
fortis alveolar fricative
fortis palato-alveolar fricative
consonants
h
m
n
l
r
w
j
descriptive label
glottal fricative
bilabial nasal
alveolar nasal
velar nasal
lateral approximant
post-alveolar approximant
labial-velar approximant
palatal approximant
consonants
b
d
g
descriptive label
lenis bilabial plosive
lenis alveolar plosive
lenis velar plosive
lenis palato-alveolar affricate
lenis labio-dental fricative
lenis dental fricative
lenis alveolar fricative
lenis palato-alveolar fricative
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Velar
Glottal
-
A: back of tongue
P: Velum
A: Glottis
P: -
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More signals for the fortis/lenis contrast in English than in Dutch, particularly plosives.
Oppositions in Dutch less clear in the fricative series
Dutch has no word-final fortis/lenis contrasts, whereas in English the fortis/lenis contrast can
occur in final position
Very often, Dutch loses a fortis/lenis contrast as a result of assimilation
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Even if lenis consonants are devoiced, we can still hear a clear contrast.
The nasals /m, n, /, lateral /l/ and approximants /w, j, r/ do not undergo devoicing in the manner
described following or preceding pause.
If a pair of lenis consonants occurs before silence or a voiceless sound, the first typically has partial
devoicing and the second is completely voiceless.
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9.4 neutralisation
Sometimes 2 phonemes may show overlap in phonetic realisation. D /m/ and D /n/: when they occur
before a labio-dental, their realisation may be a labio-dental nasal []. Because it can belong to both
the phoneme /m/ as /n/, we can assign it to either. The opposition between /m/ and /n/ has than
undergone a phoneme neutralisation.
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This neutralisation appears also with the realisation of stops in syllable-initial clusters after
E/s/. /p, t, k/ almost become /b, d, g/
It appears to with city, coffee and caddie: there comes an happy i.
10.2 Voiced
Voicing: Placed together leaving a small aperture.
Because of the repeated rapid contact (vibration) and parting of the
vocal folds, the airstream escapes in a series of very high-speed puffs,
producing the effect of a buzz (glottal tone/voice)
Man: 130 puffs per second
Woman: 230 puffs per second
o The higher the frequency, the higher is the perceived pitch
Can be changed by:
Changes in the tension of the vocal folds
Differences in the force of the airstream produced by the lungs
10.3 Voiceless
Voiceless: Set wide apart.
Fortis stops and fortis fricatives are always voiceless. Lenis stops and fricatives are potentially voiced
but vary according to context.
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Glottal stop: held completely together leaving no space between. The airstream coming from the
lungs is temporarily blocked. On the release of the closure, the blocked air rushes out, giving rise to
plosion.
In many languages the glottal stop is a phoneme, but not in English and Dutch. In Dutch the glottal
stop is regularly heard before a stressed syllable beginning with a vowel.
[] in English
Occurs before many initial vowels
Reinforcement to fortis stop consonants in many context
In certain English dialects it occurs as a replacement for /t/, and in certain context for /p,k/
The glottal stop cannot have a voiced counterpart, since the vocal folds are tight together for the
articulation and so cannot vibrate.
10.6 Whisper
Whisper: The vocal folds are brought together, without vibrating; Theres a gap between the
arytenoids. An airstream passes through this gap at fairly high velocity, giving rise to air turbulence
and friction noise at this point.
Stage whisper: produced by increasing further the force of the airstream and applying some
constriction to the pharynx.
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If preceded by silence or voiceless sounds, English stops have initial devoicing; the
voice does not usually begin until well into the hold stage.
o Between vowels (or other voiced sounds), voice will continue through all stages.
o Preceding silence or voiceless sounds, English stops have final devoicing in the hold
and release stages, and are frequently completely devoiced. The vowel preceding a
final lenis is always lengthened.
- Aspiration [] (lack of aspiration: []
o Heard in English initial fortis plosives /p, t, k/, where these occur in stressed syllables.
o Brief period of voicelessness after the release of the stop.
o In clusters preceded by /s/ aspiration is minimal.
o Where the approximants follow a fortis plosive as part of an initial cluster in a
stressed syllable, there is little or no aspiration; instead they are devoiced and have
added friction,
This devoicing is not found where /s/ is the first element in a threeconsonant cluster.
- Pre-glottalisation (glottal reinforcement)
o The addition of a reinforcing glottal stop at or before the hold stage of syllable-final
fortis stops.
o The sequence is normally as follows:
Vocal fold vibration for preceding vowel ceases
Vocal folds close tightly together just before the hold stage of the stop
(sometimes during the hold stage)
Vocal folds part and relax
Oral closure is inaudibly released.
o Effect: cutting off sharply the voicing of the preceding vowel (slight creaky voice
quality in final part of the vowel -> vowel is shortened)
o Found in the following contexts
Syllable-final fortis stops are regularly pre-glottalised before another
consonant
/t/ has optional glottalisation in all contexts except syllable-initial
In the following contexts, non-glottalised forms are also frequent:
Before pause
Before /h/
Word-finally preceding a vowel
Pre-glottalised forms are never used:
With any lenis consonant
With any consonant other than a stop
Word-medially between vowels (except /t/)
Preceding syllabic dark [ l ]
Glottal replacement:
- Sometimes in the case of /t/, there may be complete replacement by [] before another
consonant or before syllabic /n /
- Sometimes /p, k/ can be completely replaced by a glottal when followed by a homorganic
stop or nasal
- /t/ is never replaced by a glottal.
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In a sequence of three stops, the central consonant lacks both audible approach and release
stages. Such a stop is always alveolar and in the case of (voiceless) /t/ is realised merely by a
period of silence.
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Description: the place and manner of articulation is similar to that of the corresponding stops
/b, d, g/, but the soft palate is also lowered, adding the resonance of the nasal cavity. The
vocal folds vibrate throughout.
Distribution: // occurs only syllable-finally following checked vowels
Main allophonic variation
o /m, n/
Following /s/ in initial clusters: partially devoiced [m , n ]
Before /j/ and //: palatalised [m, n]
before /f, v/: may be realised as a labio-dental nasal []
o /n/
Before and following dentals: dental [n ]
Before /t, d, , /: palate alveolar [n ]
o //
After front vowels: advanced []
After velars: retracted []
Nasalisation: the soft palate anticipates the action of the other articulators. Consequently,
there is a tendency for vowels to be somewhat nasalised preceding nasals: lamb [l m]
17.2 Approximants
Lateral (approximant)
- Description: The tip and blade of the tongue form a central closure with the alveolar ridge
while the sides of the tongue remain lowered. The airstream escapes over the lowered sides
- Main allophonic variation
o Before vowel and /j/: clear [l]
Tongue shape is slightly palatalised, so that the upper surface is convex. This
gives a close front vowel [i]-type resonance to the lateral articulation.
o Before consonants and pause: dark []
The articulation is slightly velarized, giving a back-central vowel []-type
resonance
Often a syllable bearer, when it will be of longer duration.
Phonetic conditioning effect on preceding front vowels, which are
centralised and lowered in this context
The fronting glides /e, a, / have the terminal []-element obscured
or []-like
o In initial clusters following /p, k/ in a stressed syllable: voiceless fricative [l ]
Corresponds to the aspiration of the fortis plosives found in other contexts.
Similar devoicing and slight friction is found in syllabic /l/
o Adjacent to nasals, /l/ is nasalised [l]
o Before rounded vowels and /w/: labialised [l]
o Before and after dentals: dental [l ]
Palatal approximant /j/
- Description: A rapid vowel-like glide on to a vowel of longer duration. The tongue movement
is from a fairly close front vowel to a more open vowel. The tongue is raised toward the hard
palate, to approximately the position for an [i] or []-type vowel.
- Allophonic variation
o In syllable-initial clusters following /p, t, k/, /j/ is devoiced and fricative [j]
Completely voiceless palatal fricative: []
/t/ friction is usually pre-palatal []
o The sequence /hj/ is frequently realised as a weak palatal fricative []
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The sequences /tj, dj/ are often realised as the corresponding palato-alveolar
affricates /t, d/ (also in assimilated forms)
Labial-velar approximant /w/
- Crescendo glide on to another vowel of greater prominence
- The tongue movement is from an [u] or []-like vowel accompanied by strong lip-rounding
- Consonants preceding /w/ are strongly labialised.
- Main allophonic variation
o Following the fortis plosives /t, k/: partially devoiced [w ]
o Initial clusters with /t, k/ in stressed syllables: voiceless labial-velar fricative []
Post-alveolar approximant /r/
- Description: the tip of the tongue moves towards the rear of the alveolar ridge, producing a
stricture of open approximation. The main body of the tongue has lateral bunching, i.e. the
sides are expanded and raised so as to come into close contact with the back teeth and the
rear edges of the palate.
- Main allophonic variation
o Idiolectal: intervocalic position after checked vowels -> alveolar tap []
o Contextual: in initial clusters, in stressed syllables, following fortis plosives /p, k/ ->
completely voiceless post-alveolar fricative []
In unstressed syllables and after fricatives: partly devoiced post-alveolar
fricative
- Distribution
o Rhotic accents: the /r/ is pronounced in all contexts
o Non-rhotic dialects: /r/ is never pronounced before a consonant or pause
Typically pronounced across word boundaries (linking-r)
Intrusive-r: hearing a linking-r when there is no r in the spelling
After vowels /:, :, / and diphthongs terminating in
o Rule in RP and other non-rhotic accents: only pronounce /r/ if there is a following
vowel.
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Some reminders
1. // always occurs in unstressed syllables. In stressed syllables you will generally find // or
/:/
2. RP: /r/ only occurs before a vowel. To indicate the possibility of linking-r, you should
transcribe it between words with a full-size letter.
3. The happy words should have an // on the end like the convention.
4. <ed>
a. Following fortis consonants (except /t/): ed -> /t/
b. Following /t/ or /d/: ed -> /d/
c. Following all other consonants or vowels: ed -> /d/
5. Several verbs ending in n or l have 2 pronunciations and spelling forms. In RP, the
pronunciation with /t/ is far more common.
6. Certain adjectives have forms with /d/
7. If transcribing from speech, you must show all assimilations and elisions you can hear. When
transcribing from a written text, it adds interest to show assimilations and elisions where
these are possible.
8. How you should transcript s:
a. Following the fortis consonants /p, t, k, f, /: s /s/
b. Following /s, z, , , , /: s /z/
c. In all other cases: s /z/
/ktn /
/rm /
/bek/
/btl /
/lgwd/
/trnslen /
/brkil/
/dafrm/
/trk/ or /trek/
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Oesophagus
Phonation
Alveolar
Velum
Velar
Velic
/i:sfgs/
/fnen /
/lvl/
/vi:lm/
/vi:l/
/vi:lk/
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