Introduction to Linguistics Session 2: Speech sounds: Phonetics and phonology

Objectives
 have a general idea about phonetics and phonology.
 Key areas:
 consonants vs. vowels 辅音 vs.元音
 criteria of vowel description 元音的描述
 allophone 音位变体
 assimilation 同化
 distinctive features 区别特征
 suprasegmentals 超音段

Phonetics
the science of speech sounds, studies how speech sounds are produced, transmitted, and
perceived.
Three sub-fields of phonetics:
 Articulatory phonetics 发音语音学
- the study of the production of speech sounds 研究语音的产生
 Acoustic phonetics 声学语音学
- the study of the physical properties of the sounds produced in speech 研究语音的物理特
性
 Auditory phonetics 听觉语音学
- the study of the perception of speech sounds 研究语音的感知

Phonology
 the study of the sound patterns and sound systems of language
 how sounds are organised or put together in one language (phonological structure)
 how variations occur in one language
 compare the properties of sound systems in different languages
 The vocal tract 声道
① oral cavity - mouth
② nasal cavity - nose
③ pharyngeal /fə'rɪn(d)ʒɪəl/ cavity - throat
 vocal cords / folds
 apart
 air can pass easily
 produce voiceless sounds 清辅音
 [p, s, t]
 close together
 airstream causes them to vibrate
 produce voiced sounds 浊辅音
 [b, z, d]
 totally closed
 no air can pass;
 glottal stop [ʔ]
 What can you do, Let me know, can't, important, that boy, uh-uh, button
/bʌtn̩/ [bʌʔn̩], kitten /kɪtn̩/ [kɪʔn̩], fountain
 International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA)
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 Introduction to Linguistics Session 2: Speech sounds: Phonetics and phonology

 a standardised and internationally accepted system of phonetic transcription

 a set of standard phonetic symbols in the form of a chart (the IPA chart)
 basic principle: use one letter to represent one speech sound
 phonetic transcription
 What does it mean?
 It is a set of symbols people use to record the sounds of the writing system of
the language.
 Why do we need phonetic transcription?
 There are many accents of English used by people from different regions.
 The divergence between spelling and pronunciation becomes greater.

Classification of English speech sounds

 vowels 元音 （[i:], [a:], [e], etc.)
 A vowel is produced with the vibration of the two vocal cords but with no closure or
obstruction when the air stream passes through the mouth.
 consonants 辅音 ([m], [s], [p], etc.)
 A consonant is a sound produced by an obstruction or blocking of the airflow
coming out from the two lungs and then going out through the oral or nasal cavity.

English consonants
 In the production of consonants, at least two articulators 发音器官 are involved.
 the initial sound in bad involves both lips 双唇 and the final segment involves the
blade (or the tip) of the tongue 舌叶或舌尖 and the alveolar ridge 齿龈.
 Classification of consonants:
1. Voicing (the state of vocal cords: whether they vibrate or not)
 Voiceless consonants 清辅音
 those that are produced when the vocal cords are apart and the air flow passes
freely through the vocal tract.
 Voiced consonants 浊辅音
 those that are produced when the vocal cords are together and the air stream
forces its way through the two vocal cords and cause them to vibrate.
 The binary system of description
[- voiced]: [p] [s] [t] [k] [h]
[+voiced]: [b] [d] [g] [m] [l]
2. Places of articulation 发音部位
 refers to the point where a consonant is made
 Bilabials /ˌbaɪˈleɪbiəl / 双唇音
 made with the two lips
 [p], [b], [m]; pill, bill, mill
 [w], we: labial-velar /ˈleɪbiəl ˈvi:lə(r) / approximant 唇软腭近音
 Labiodentals /.leɪbiəʊ'dent(ə)l / 唇齿音
 made with the lower lip and the upper front teeth
 [f], [v]; feel, veal
 Dental 齿音
 made by the tongue tip or blade and the upper front teeth
 [θ], [ð]; thing, this
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 Introduction to Linguistics Session 2: Speech sounds: Phonetics and phonology

 Alveolars /ælˈvi:ələ(r) / 齿龈音

 made with the tongue tip or blade 舌叶 and the alveolar ridge 齿龈
 voiced: [d], [n], [z], [l], [r]; dip, nip, zip, lip, rip
 voiceless: [t], [s]; tip, sip
 Post-alveolar 后齿龈音
 made with the tongue tip and the back of the alveolar ridge 齿龈
 [ʃ], [ʒ]; brush, pleasure
 Palatals /ˈpælətl / 硬腭音
 made with the front of the tongue and the hard palate
 [j], yet, yes
 Velars / ˈvi:lə(r) / 软腭音
 made with the back of the tongue and the soft palate
 [k], [g], [ŋ]; lock, log, long
 Glottal 声门音
 made with the two pieces of vocal folds pushed towards each other
 glottal fricative: [h], hat, hold
 glottal stop [ʔ]: Let me know, can't, important, that boy
3. Manners of articulation 发音方式
 refers to ways in which articulation can be accomplished
 Stops / plosives 塞音, 爆破音
 complete closure of the articulators involved
 [b], [p], [d], [t], [k], [g]
 Nasal 鼻音
 the air goes out through the nasal cavity
 [m], [n], [ŋ], song / long
 Fricatives 擦音 / 摩擦音
 close approximation of two articulators so that the airstream is particularly
obstructed
 [f], [v], [θ], [ð], [s], [z], [∫], [ʒ], [h]
 Approximant 近音
 an articulation in which one articulator is close to another, but without the
vocal tract being narrowed to such an extent that a turbulent airstream is
produced
 [w], we, weather; [j], yet; semi-vowels (overlap)
 Lateral 边音
 incomplete closure between one or both sides of the tongue and the roof of
the mouth
 [l], lab
 Affricates 塞擦音
 consist of a stop followed immediately afterwards by a fricative at the same
place of articulation
 [ʧ], church; [ʤ], jet

English vowels
 a sound in which there is no obstruction to the flow of air as it passes from the larynx 喉 to
the lips
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 Introduction to Linguistics Session 2: Speech sounds: Phonetics and phonology

 English vowels can be divided into:

 monophthongs or pure / single vowels 单 元 音 / 纯 元 音 : the quality remains
constant throughout the articulation
 vowel glides 滑元音: there is an audible change of quality;
 diphthongs 二合元音 (if a single movement of the tongue is involved): way
[weɪ], tide [taɪd], how [haʊ], toy [tɔɪ], toe [təʊ]
 triphthongs 三 合 元 音 (if a double movement of the tongue is involved):
wire [ˈwaɪə], tower [ˈtaʊə], usu. diphthongs followed by [ə]
 According to which part of the tongue is held highest in the process of production, the
vowels can be distinguished as:
 front vowels, central vowels, back vowels
 According to the openness of the mouth:
 close, semi-close, semi-open, open
 According to the height of the tongue raising:
 rounding, rounded, unrounded
 According to the length of the vowels
 long, short
 four criteria to distinguish between vowels
 the height of tongue raising (high, mid, low)
 the position of the highest part of the tongue (front, central, back)
 the length or tenseness of the vowel (tense vs. lax or long vs. short)
 the degree of lip rounding (rounded, unrounded)
 e.g. we can describe English vowels:
 [i:] high front tense unrounded vowel 高前展唇紧元音
 [ʊ] high back lax rounded vowel 高后圆唇松元音
 [ə] mid central lax unrounded vowel 中央展唇松元音
 [ɒ] low back lax rounded vowel 低后圆唇松元音

From phonetics to phonology

 Coarticulation /kətɪkjʊ'leɪʃn / 协同发音 and phonetic transcriptions 语音转写
 Phonemes 音位
 Allophones 音位变体

Coarticulation /kətɪkjʊ'leɪʃn / 协同发音

 Speech is a continuous process, so the vocal organs do not move from one sound segment to
the next in a series of separate steps. Rather, sounds continually show the influence of their
neighours.
 e.g. map: the nasal consonant [m] + oral vowel [æ]; some of the nasality is carried
forward so that the vowel begins with a certain level of nasal quality.
 lamb: [æ] + [m]; during the articulation of [æ], the velum 软腭 will begin to lower
itself so that it is ready for the following nasal.
 When such simultaneous or overlapping articulations are involved, we call the process
coarticulation.
 Two types of coarticulation:
 Anticipatory coarticulation 前期协同发音: lamb;
 Perseverative /pɜ:ˌsevə‘reɪtiv/ coarticulation 后期协同发音: map
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 Introduction to Linguistics Session 2: Speech sounds: Phonetics and phonology

 the former are more common than the latter

 Nasalization 鼻音化
 lamb, a phenomenon where the vowel [æ] has some quality of the following nasal
 to indicate that a vowel has been nasalized, we add a diacritic to the top of the
symbol [æ], as
 Aspirated 送气音 vs. unaspirated
 [p] is aspirated in peak and unaspirated in speak
 the aspirated voiceless bilabial stop is indicated by the diacritic h, as , whereas the
unaspirated counterpart is transcribed as [p].
 When we use a simple set of symbols in our transcription, it is called a broad transcription
宽式转写
 The use of more specific symbols to show more phonetic detail is referred to as a narrow
transcription 严式转写

phonemes 音位
 Crystal (1997: 162)
 phonological analysis relies on the principle that certain sounds cause changes in the
meaning of a word or phrase, whereas other sounds do not
 Minimal pair
 two words in a language which differ from each other by only one distinctive sound
(one phoneme) and which also differ in meaning
 e.g. [t] and [d]; tin / din, tie / die
 e.g. [i:] and [i]: beat / bit, bead / bid
 table of some minimal pairs (next slide)
 Phoneme
 a unit of explicit contrast (e.g. the above-mentioned units)
 If two sounds in a language make a contrast between two different words, they are
said to be different phonemes.
 It is the smallest phonological unit that distinguishes meaning.
 By convention, phonemic transcription are placed between slant lines (/ /), while phonetic
transcriptions are placed between square brackets ([ ]).

Allophones 音位变体
 [p, ] are two different phones 音子 and are variants of the phoneme /p/.
 Such variants of a phoneme are called allophones of the same phoneme.
 In this case, the allophones are said to be in complementary distribution 互 补 分 布
because they never occur in the same context
 peak vs. speak, here [p] occurs after [s] (or /p/ is unaspirated after /s/ but aspirated in
other places)
 This phenomenon of variation in different positions is called allophony 音位变体现象 or
allophonic variation 同音位变体.
 the phoneme /l/: velarization 软腭化
 lead vs. deal (in the case of deal, the tongue is curled a little backwards towards the
velum 软腭 (velarization))
 [l] (“clear l” as in lead), (“dark l” as in deal)
 rule: the phoneme /l/ is pronounced as [l] before a vowel and as after a vowel.
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 Introduction to Linguistics Session 2: Speech sounds: Phonetics and phonology

 Phonetic similarity: the allophones of a phoneme must bear some phonetic resemblance.
 e.g. [p, ] belong to the phoneme /p/, and [l, ] belong to the phoneme /l/
 [p, ] are both voiceless bilabial stops differing only in aspiration; [l, ] are both
lateral approximants.
 Free variants 自由变体 and free variation 自由变体现象
 apart from complementary distribution, a phoneme may sometimes have free
variants.
 e.g. the final consonant of cup may not be released by some speakers so there is no
audible sound at the end of this word.
 In this case, it is the same word pronounced in two different ways. The difference
may be caused by dialect, habit, or individual preference, instead of any distribution
rule.

Assimilation 同化现象
 Example 1: nasalization 鼻音化
 the vowel in the second word of each pair is “nasalized” because of the influence of
the following nasal consonant
 Example 2: dentalization 齿音化
 the nasal /n/ is “dentalized” before a dental fricative
 Example 3: velarization 软腭化
 the alveolar nasal /n/ becomes the velar nasal [ŋ] before the velar stop [k].
 Nasalization, dentalization, and velarization are all instances of assimilation, a process by
which one sound takes on some or all the characteristics of a neighboring sound.
 If a following sound is influencing a preceding sound, we call it regressive assimilation 逆
同化. The converse process, in which a preceding sound is influencing a following sound, is
known as progressive assimilation 顺 同 化 . All the above examples are instances of
regressive assimilation. (e.g. can, tenth, and sink)
 Assimilation can occur across syllable or word boundaries.
 Assimilation of fricatives and affricates in voicing:
 five past
 love to
 has to
 as can be shown
 lose five-nil
 edge to edge
 Devoicing 清 音 化 , a process by which voiced sounds become voiceless, in such
contexts does not occur with other sounds, such as stops and vowels (Spencer, 1996:
46-49).
 These changes exhibit phonological processes 音系过程 in which a target or affected
segment 目标音段或承事音段 undergoes a structural change in certain environments or
contexts. An arrow is used to represent the process.

Epenthesis 增音
Example
a hotel, a boy, a use, a wagon, a big man, a yellow rug, a white house
an apple, an honour, an orange curtain, an old lady
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 Introduction to Linguistics Session 2: Speech sounds: Phonetics and phonology

 Grammatical rule: use an when the following word begins with a vowel sound
 Phonological representation: we should notice that it is the lack of a consonant between
vowels that requires the nasal [n] to be added to the article a. In other words, we treat the
change of a to an as an insertion of a nasal sound.
 Epenthesis (Insertion) rule:
Example of plurals

 The [s] appears after voiceless consonant except

 The [z] appears after a vowel or a voiced consonant other than
 The [əz] appears after sibilants 咝音:
 Note: The [z] is the basic form because it occurs in the most cases, and the other two
forms are derived from it.
 [s] is a matter of devoicing and [əz] is a case of epenthesis.
 The basic form is known as the underlying form 底 层 形 式 or underlying
representation (UR) 底层表达式.
 The derived form is the surface form 表层形式 or surface representation (SR) 表层表
达式.

the Elsewhere Condition 剩余位置条件

 Rule ordering 规则序次: (Hu 2011: 38-39)

 Basically shows that the epenthesis rule needs to be applied before devoicing. Thus:
 The Elsewhere Condition: The more specific rule applies first. 较为特殊的规则应用在先。

Distinctive features 区别特征

 a means of working out a set of phonological contrasts or oppositions to capture particular
aspects of language sounds, first suggested by Roman Jacobson (1896 – 1982) in the 1940s
and then developed by numerous other people
 Some of the major distinctions include [consonantal] 辅音, [sonorant] 响音, [nasal] 鼻音
and [voice] 带音.
 The feature [consonantal] can distinguish between consonants and vowels, so all consonants
are [+consonantal] and all vowels [-consonantal].
 The feature [sonorant] 响音 distinguishes between what we call obstruents 阻塞音 (stops 塞
音, fricatives 擦音 and affricates 塞擦音) and sonorants 响音 (all other consonants and
vowels), with obstruents being [-sonorant] and others [+sonorant].
 stops: [p, b, t, d, k, g]; fricatives: [f, v, θ, ð, s, z, ∫, ʒ, h]; affricates: [ʧ, ʤ]
 Sonorants: consonants such as [m, n, l, w, j] and vowels
 [nasal] and [voiced] distinguish nasal (including nasalized) sounds and voiced sounds
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 Introduction to Linguistics Session 2: Speech sounds: Phonetics and phonology

respectively
 These are known as binary features 二 分 特 征 because we can group them into two
categories: one with this feature and the other without.
 Binary features have two values or specifications denoted by ‘+’ and ‘-’, so voiced
obstruents are marked [+voiced] and voiceless obstruents are marked [-voiced].
 The place features are not binary features; they are divided up into four values: [PLACE:
Labial] 唇, [PLACE: Coronal] 舌冠, [PLACE: Dorsal] 舌背, [PLACE: Radical] 舌根
 They are often written in shorthand forms as [Labial] p, [Coronal] p, [Dorsal] p,
[Radical] p.

Suprasegmentals 超音段
 Suprasegmental features 超音段特征 are those aspects of speech that involve more than single
sound segments.
 The major suprasegmentals are syllable 音节, stress 重音, and intonation 语调.
 Syllable: an important unit in the study of suprasegmentals.
 usually, a syllable = a consonant + a vowel
 A word may be
 monosyllabic (with one syllable, like cat and dog),
 polysyllabic (with more than one syllable, like transplant or festival).
 A syllable must have a nucleus 节核 or peak 韵峰, which is often the task of a vowel
 However, sometimes it is also possible for a consonant to play the part of a nucleus.
 we can divide a syllable into two parts:
 the onset 节首 and Rhyme (or Rime) 韵基
 the vowel within the rhyme is the nucleus 节 核 , with the consonant(s) after it
termed the coda 节尾
 All syllables must have a nucleus but not all syllables contain an onset and a coda.
 A syllable which has no coda is called an open syllable 开音节 (e.g. bar and tie) while a
syllable with coda is a closed syllable 闭音节 (e.g. hard and tied).
 Maximal Onset Principle (MOP) 节首最大原则
 A rule in terms of the division of syllables in polysyllabic words
 When there is a choice as to where to place a consonant, it is put into the onset
rather than the coda (Radford, et al. 1999: 91-92)
 e.g. telling, two syllables, [te] and [lɪŋ]
 This explains why /l/ in telling is pronounced as [l], not
 stress
 It refers to the degree of force used in producing a syllable.
 When a syllable is produced with more force and therefore more “prominent”, it is a
stressed syllable in contrast to a less prominent, “unstressed” syllable.
 stress is a relative notion because the criterion for stressed and unstressed
syllables is whether it is more prominent.
 In transcription, a raised vertical line is often used just before the syllable it relates to.
 At the word level, it only applies to words with at least two syllables.
 At the sentence level, a monosyllabic word may be said to be stressed relative to other
words in the sentence.
 The stress pattern in English changes over history and exhibits regional or dialectal
differences
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 Introduction to Linguistics Session 2: Speech sounds: Phonetics and phonology

 RP vs. GA
 Speakers of RP (Received Pronunciation) 标准英语 and those of GA (General
American) 通 用 美 音 differ in their preferences in the stress pattern of these
words:
 Verb vs. Noun
 as can be seen, stress is sometimes placed on a different syllable for different
grammatical function a word plays.
 For long words, there are often two stressed syllables, one being more stressed than the
other.
 The more stressed syllable is the primary stress 主重音, preceded by , while the less
stressed syllable is known as the secondary stress 次 重 音 , which is indicated by a
preceding symbol .
 e.g. epiphenomenal 附带现象 [ˌ epɪfə'nɒmɪnəl]
 Sentence stress
 In general situations, lexical words are normally stressed while grammatical
words are unstressed.
 Nevertheless, sentence stress is often used to express emphasis, surprise etc. so
that in principle stress may fall on any word or any syllable.
 John bought a red bicycle.
 JOHN bought a red bicycle.
 John BOUGHT a red bicycle.
 John bought a RED bicycle.
 John bought a red BICYCLE.

 Intonation
 Intonation involves the occurrence of recurring fall-rise patterns, each of which is used
with a set of relatively consistent meanings, either on single words or on groups of
words of varying length.
 e.g. the fall-rise tone in English typically involves the meaning of a contrast within a
limited set of items stated explicitly or implicitly.
 Isn’t her name Mary? No / ˇJenny
 ˇI didn’t do it
 “/” indicates an intonation-group boundary and the “ˇ” mark indicates a fall-rise tone
spread over all syllables before the next boundary.

Assignment:
Part One:
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 Introduction to Linguistics Session 2: Speech sounds: Phonetics and phonology

1. Provide definition or explanation for the following terms:

 phonetics

 articulatory phonetics

 phonology

 speech organs

 voicing

 IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet)

 consonant

 vowel

 manner of articulation

 place of articulation

 cardinal vowels

 semi-vowel

 vowel glide

 coarticulation

 phoneme

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 Introduction to Linguistics Session 2: Speech sounds: Phonetics and phonology

 allophone

 assimilation

 Elsewhere Condition

 distinctive features

 syllable

 Maximal Onset Principle

 Stress

 intonation

 tone

2. Give the description of the following sound segments in English.

1) [ð] 2) [∫] 3) [ŋ] 4) [d] 5) [p]

6) [k] 7) [l] 8) [i] 9) [u:] 10) [ɒ]

3. Give the IPA symbols for the sounds that correspond to the description s below.
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 Introduction to Linguistics Session 2: Speech sounds: Phonetics and phonology

1) voiceless labiodental fricative 2) voiced postalveolar fricative

3) palatal approximant 4) voiceless glottal fricative

5) voiceless alveolar stop 6) high-mid front unrounded vowel

7) low front rounded vowel 8) low-mid back rounded vowel

9) high back rounded tense vowel

Part Two:
Choose the best answer.
1. Pitch variation is known as __________ when its patterns are imposed on sentences.
A. intonation B. tone C. pronunciation D. voice
2. Conventionally a __________ is put in slashes (/ /).
A. allophone B. phone C. phoneme D. morpheme
3. An aspirated p, an unaspirated p and an unreleased p are __________ of the p phoneme.
A. analogues B. tagmemes C. morphemes D. allophones
4. The opening between the vocal cords is sometimes referred to as __________.
A. glottis B. vocal cavity C. pharynx D. uvula
5. A phoneme is a group of similar sounds called __________.
A. minimal pairs B. allomorphs C. phones D. allophones
6. Which branch of phonetics concerns the production of speech sounds?
A. Acoustic phonetics B. Articulatory phonetics
C. Auditory phonetics D. None of the above
7. Which one is different from the others according to places of articulation?
A. [n] B. [m] C. [b] D. [p]
8. Which vowel is different from the others according to the characteristics of vowels?
A. [i:] B. [u] C. [e] D. [i]
9. What kind of sounds can we make when the vocal cords are vibrating?
A. Voiceless B. Voiced C. Glottal stop D. Consonant
True or false.
10. Suprasegmental phonology refers to the study of phonological properties of units larger than
the segment-phoneme, such as syllable, word and sentence.
11. The air stream provided by the lungs has to undergo a number of modification to acquire the
quality of a speech sound.
12. Two sounds are in free variation when they occur in the same environment and do not contrast,
namely, the substitution of one for the other does not produce a different word, but merely a
different pronunciation.
13. [p] is a voiced bilabial stop.
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 Introduction to Linguistics Session 2: Speech sounds: Phonetics and phonology

14. Acoustic phonetics is concerned with the perception of speech sounds.

15. All syllables must have a nucleus but not all syllables contain an onset and a coda.
16. When pure vowels or monophthongs are pronounced, no vowel glides take place.
17. According to the length or tenseness of the pronunciation, vowels can be divided into tense vs.
lax or long vs. short.
18. Received Pronunciation is the pronunciation accepted by most people.
19. The maximal onset principle states that when there is a choice as to where to place a consonant,
it is put into the coda rather than the onset.
Fill in the blanks.
20. Consonant sounds can be either __________ or __________, while all vowel sounds are
__________.
21. Consonant sounds can also be made when two organs of speech in the mouth are brought close
together so that the air is pushed out between them, causing __________.
22. The qualities of vowels depend upon the position of the __________ and the lips.
23. One element in the description of vowels is the part of the tongue which is at the highest point
in the mouth. A second element is the __________ to which that part of the tongue is raised.
24. Consonants differ from vowels in that the latter are produced without __________.
25. In phonological analysis the words fail / veil are distinguishable simply because of the two
phonemes /f/ - /v/. This is an example for illustrating __________.
26. In English there are a number of __________, which are produced by moving from one vowel
position to another through intervening positions.
27. __________ refers to the phenomenon of sounds continually show the influence of their
neighbors.
28. __________ is the smallest linguistic unit.
29. Speech takes place when the organs of speech move to produce patterns of sound. These
movements have an effect on the __________ coming from the lungs.

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