Day 3:

Phonetics and the IPA

ANTH/LING 106
Donald Gong
gong@ku.edu
Office Hours: (Blake 419)
Tuesday/Thursday 12:30-1:30pm or by appointment
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Today’s Roadmap
• Homework 2 Review
• Intro to Phonetics
• IPA Chart
• Consonants
▫ Place
▫ Manner
▫ Voicing
Phonetics: Language Sounds

• Phonetics studies the inventory and

structure of language sounds
• Sounds used in human languages
▫ phones
• Nonspeech sounds
▫ Not produced by people: siren, ping
▫ Produced by people: raspberry, burp, growl
Three areas of study
• Articulatory phonetics how speakers
produce sounds
• Auditory phonetics how listeners perceive
sounds
• Acoustic phonetics the physical properties
of speech sounds
We will focus on:
Articulatory Phonetics

• Studies speech sounds according to their

articulatory properties

• Uses a precise writing system, the IPA, which

relies on these articulatory properties
Articulatory Phonetics
• Investigates the anatomy of the vocal tract
The Vocal Tract
1. Air in the lungs is
pushed upwards towards
the larynx (voice box)

2. In the larynx, the vocal

folds may or may not
vibrate. If they vibrate,
they produce voiced
sounds; if they don’t, the
sounds produced will be
voiceless.
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The Vocal Tract

3. The air passes through the
opening between the vocal
folds, which is called the
glottis.

4. Air continues up the pharynx

and exits the vocal tract via the
oral cavity (mouth) or the
nasal cavity (nose).

5. As the air exits the oral or

nasal cavity, the articulators
(lips, tongue, nasal cavity, etc.)
filter the sounds.
International Phonetic Alphabet
Why?
• Very precise: 1 symbol = 1 sound

• Universal: Based on recommendations from an

international committee of phoneticians

• How to recognize when something is in IPA:

-symbols enclosed in square brackets
phone [fon]
phonetics [fǝnɛɾɪks]
Consonants and Vowels:
Opposite sides of a spectrum
• Consonants have a narrow or complete closure
of the vocal tract

• Vowels are produced with little obstruction.

They are more sonorous than consonants

• Two different charts for Consonants & Vowels

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Intro to IPA

• The entire IPA chart is based on articulation

• Consonants range from completely closed to

almost as open as vowels: y-axis

• Also range from made by the lips to made in the

throat: x-axis
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How to read the IPA Chart:

Like a mouth!
Lips Mouth from front to back Throat

Closure full

Closure
Minimal
Consonants
• Consonants are distinguished by 3 phonetic
features:
▫ voicing: voiced vs. voiceless – [b] vs. [p]
Shown in pairs- voiced on right, voiceless on left

▫ place of articulation: the place of closure or

constriction – [b] vs. [d]
Shown on x-axis

▫ manner of articulation: the type of

closure/constriction – [b] vs. [m]
Shown on y-axis
Voicing
• Voicing is produced in the larynx, a box of cartilage
and muscle that sits on top of the trachea
The Vocal Cords
• The vocal cords regulate the passage of air to the
lungs
• The space between the vocal cords is the glottis
• The glottis has three glottal states:
▫ voiceless - the vocal cords are pulled apart
▫ voiced - the vocal cords are close together and vibrating.
This produces voicing, which can be felt by touching the
voice box with your finger while speaking
▫ whisper - the front of the cords are closed while the
back is open
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Voicing

• Are the vocal folds (or vocal cords) vibrating or

not?

▫ If so, the sound is _______________.

▫ If not, the sound is_______________.

Remember: You can put the tip of your fingers

on your Adam’s apple to feel the vibration of the
vocal folds or its lack thereof.
Voiced and Voiceless Phones
• Feel the contrast between voiced and voiceless
sounds in the following pairs:

voiced voiceless
b p
v f
ð θ
d t
z s
ʒ ʃ
dʒ tʃ
g k
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Voiced Vs. Unvoiced: [ð] & [θ]

• Find the word(s) with the sound [θ]:

this bath

shin fin
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Voiced Vs. Unvoiced: [ð] & [θ]

• Find the word(s) with the sound [ð]:

thin shoot

fan that
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Voiced Vs. Unvoiced: [ʃ] & [ʒ]

• Find the word(s) with the sound [ʒ]:

fish three

mirage pleasure
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Voiced Vs. Unvoiced: [ʃ] & [ʒ]

• Find the word(s) with the sound [ʃ]:

kiss ship

genre tenth
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Voiced Vs. Unvoiced: [tʃ] & [dʒ]

• Find the word(s) with the sound [tʃ]:

chips jeep

cheap sheep
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Voiced Vs. Unvoiced 3

• Find the word(s) with the sound [dʒ]:

pitch chair

push jar
Place of Articulation
• The place of articulation is produce by the places
in the vocal tract where a constriction can take
place
Places of Articulation
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Place of Articulation

• Bilabial:
▫ [ ] as in pie

▫ [ ] as in boot

▫ [ ] as in mouse

▫ [ ] as in witch
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Place of Articulation

• Labiodental:

▫[ ] as in fork

▫ [ ] as in vote
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Place of Articulation
• Interdental:

▫ [ ] as in thumb

▫[ ] as in feather
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Place of Articulation
• Alveolar:
▫ [ ] as in tie.

▫[ ] as in doe.

▫ [ ] as in nose

▫[ ] as in sack.
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Place of Articulation

Alveolar cont’d:
▫ [ ] as in zipper

▫ [ ] as in lice.

▫ [ ] as in raccoon.
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Place of Articulation

• Palatal:
▫ [ ] as in ship

▫[ ] as in measure

▫[ ] as in chimp
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Place of Articulation

• Palatal (cont’d):

▫[ ] as in jeep

▫[ ] as in Yoda
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Place of Articulation
• Velar:
▫[ ] as in crown

▫[ ] as in goose.

▫[ ] as in ring

▫[ ] as in witch.
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Place of Articulation

Glottal:

▫[ ] as in hat.

▫[ ] as in kitten.
 Manner of Articulation
The type of closure/constriction:
• Stop – complete closure that stops the airflow, as in bin
• Nasal – lower velum allowing air to pass through the nose
• Fricative – continuous airflow with an audible noise
• Affricate – closure followed by frication (= stop +
fricative)
• Liquid – air passes freely through the center of the mouth
▫ Laterals - around side of tongue, as in light
▫ Rhotic - bunching tongue in back of mouth, as in right
▫ Retroflex - curling back tongue tip, as in right

• Glide – minimal constriction corresponding to a vowel

(thus also called "semi-vowel"), as in yes, way
• Flap – tongue tip strikes the alveolar ridge as it passes
across it, as in writer, rider
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Manner of Articulation

• Oral Stops: complete obstruction, velum raised

▫ [p] as in pie

▫ [b] as in boot

▫ [t] as in tie

▫ [d] as in deer/doe
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Manner of Articulation
• Oral Stops (Continued):

▫ [k] as in crown/king

▫ [g] as in goose

▫ [ʔ] as in kitten
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Manner Of Articulation
• Nasal Stops: complete obstruction, velum
lowered

▫ [m] as in mouse

▫ [n] as in nose

▫ [ŋ] as in ring
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Manner Of Articulation
• Fricatives: major obstruction
▫ [f] as in fork

▫ [v] as in vote

▫ [θ] as in thumb

▫ [ð] as in feather
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Manner Of Articulation
• Fricatives (Continued):
▫ [s] as in sack

▫ [z] as in zipper

▫ [ʃ] as in ship

▫ [ʒ] as in measure
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Manner Of Articulation
• Fricatives (continued)

• [h] as in hat
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Manner Of Articulation
• Affricates: stop + fricative

• [tʃ] as in chimpanzee

• [dʒ] as in jeep
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Manner Of Articulation
• Liquids: minor obstruction

▫ [l] as in lice

▫ [r] as in raccoon
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Manner Of Articulation
• Glides: little obstruction

▫ [j] as in Yoda

▫ [w] as in witch
Classifying Consonants
• We use voicing, place of articulation and manner
of articulation to classify consonants:
Voicing Place Manner
e.g. voiced bilabial stop [b], ball
voiceless alveolar fricative [s], see
voiced alveolar nasal [n], nose