Phonetics

Phonetics is the study of speech sounds.

• Acoustic phonetics: Focus on the physical properties of speech sounds
• Auditory phonetics: Focus on how listeners perceive speech sounds
• Articulatory phonetics: Focus on how the vocal tract produces speech sounds

Orthography: Spelling

Phonetic symbols are enclosed in square brackets [ ]

Anatomy of the Vocal Tract

• Glottis: Opening between the vocal cords, located in the voice box / larynx
• Pharynx: Tubular part of the throat above the larynx
• Oral cavity: Mouth. Nasal cavity: Nose and the plumbing that connects it to the throat

Place of Articulation

Where in the vocal tract airflow restriction occurs for a consonant.

• Bilabial: Bring both lips together
• Labiodental: Touch bottom lip to upper teeth
• Interdental: Insert tip of tongue between teeth
• Alveolar: Tongue is raised to the alveolar ridge (bump on roof of mouth behind the teeth)
• Palatal: Front of tongue is raised to the palate
• Velar: Back of tongue is raised to the velum (soft palate)
• Uvular: Back of tongue raised to the uvula (not ordinarily used in English)
• Glottal: Flow of air through the open glottis

Manner of Articulation

How is the airstream affected? Do vocal cords vibrate?

• Voiceless: Sounds where vocal cords are apart / do not vibrate
• Voiced: Sounds where vocal cords are together / vibrate
• Aspirated: Puff of air escapes before glottis closes (uses ʰ diacritic)
• Unaspirated: No puff of air escapes
• Oral sounds: Air can only escape through the oral cavity, not the nose
• Nasal sounds: Velum is lowered; air can escape through the nose

Five Ways of Classifying Consonants

• Stops: Noncontinuants — airstream is completely blocked in the oral cavity
• Fricatives: Continuants — airflow is partly obstructed, causing friction
• Affricates: Noncontinuants — stop closure followed by release causing friction
• Liquids: Continuants — some airflow obstruction, but no friction
• Glides: Continuants — almost no obstruction of airflow, followed by a vowel

Obstruents: Non-nasal stops, fricatives, and affricates — consonants where airstream is fully or nearly fully obstructed

Sonorants: Vowels, nasal stops, liquids, and glides — less airflow obstruction

Consonantals: Vowels, nasal stops, liquids (no glides)

Approximants: Liquids and glides (w, j, r, l) — consonants where no friction occurs

Labials: Bilabials, labiodentals, and labial-velars — involve use of lips

Coronals: Interdentals, alveolars, palatals, affricates, liquids — involve raising the tongue blade

Anteriors: Labials, interdentals, alveolars — consonants using the front part of the mouth

Sibilants: s, z, “sh”, “zh”, “ch”, “dzh”

Other Non-English Ways of Classifying Consonants

• Trills: Rapid vibrations of an articulator (e.g., Spanish rr — alveolar; French R — uvular)
• Flaps: Flick of tongue against alveolar ridge (sounds like a fast d)
• Clicks: Moving air in mouth between articulators (e.g., “tsk”)

Vowels

• Monophthong: Simple vowels consisting of only one vowel sound
• Diphthong: Two vowel sounds bonded together
• Nasalization of vowels — lowered velum
  • e.g., French bõn
  • e.g., feet = fit; bean = bĩn (nasalized ee sound)
  • e.g., bin = bin; bingo = bĩŋo
• Tense vowels: Produced with tense tongue muscles; may occur at ends of words
• Lax vowels: Cannot occur at the ends of English words

Syllabic sounds: Can be the core of a syllable — vowels, liquids, nasals; never obstruents or glides

Prosodic Features

Length, pitch, and stress.

• Stress-timed languages (e.g., English): Syllables of different lengths; intervals between stressed syllables are equal
• Syllable-timed languages (e.g., French): All syllables are of equal length and stress
• Tone languages (e.g., Mandarin): Pitch of a syllable matters for meaning
  • Register tone: Pitch is level across the syllable
  • Contour tone: Pitch changes across the syllable
• Intonation languages: Variation of pitch does not distinguish words