This document provides an introduction to phonetics and the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA). It discusses the objectives of studying phonetics, which include understanding the relationship between sound and spelling and learning how speech sounds are produced in the vocal tract. The key topics covered are the branches of phonetics, articulatory phonetics and describing language sounds. It also outlines the characteristics of a good phonetic alphabet, describes the categories of consonants and vowels, and provides examples of phonetic transcription and the English consonant and vowel systems using IPA symbols.

1. Phonetics Introduction to Language 2011 Fall Ryan 1

3. Become familiar with International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA )

4. Understand the nature of consonants and vowels

5. Learn where particular sounds occur (physical aspects of the human vocal tract)

6. How sounds change when different sounds surround them

7. Yule: Chapter 3, The Sounds of Language2

8. Phonetics Acoustic phonetics – the physical properties of speech as sound waves in the air Auditory phonetics – the study of the perception of speech sounds, via the ear Articulatory phonetics – the study of how speech sounds are made, or ‘articulated’ 3

9. Articulatory Phonetics Deals with the way in which speech sounds are produced, what parts of the mouth and in what sorts of configurations Phoneticians’ techniques – x-ray photography, palatography (to observe contact btwn the tongue and the roof of the mouth) Most basic tool – impressionistic phonetic transcription: e.g. tomato Webster’s: tə-mā-tōtə-mä-tō Gershwin: tomato tomahto 4

10. SEAGH 5 Imagine a word spelled as CHEF? But pronounced as How would one come to this spelling? sure dead laugh

12. One solution to describe the sounds of a language is to produce a separate alphabet with symbols that represent sound  phonetic alphabet

13. These symbols represent both the consonant and vowel sounds of language6

15. A “Good” Phonetic Alphabet: Characteristics 3. If 2 sounds are very similar and their differences arise only from the context they’re in, those similarities should be represented [k]sounds in keep and cool (place where they’re articulated are dependent on the following vowel) 8

16. The English Alphabet The English alphabet has 26 letters but there are over 40 different speech sounds: 5 vowel and 21 consonant letters of the alphabet About 20 vowel sounds and 24 consonant sounds (depending on dialect) 9

17. A “Good” Phonetic Alphabet: Not English Same sound spelled using different letters: sea, see, scene, receive, thief, amoeba, machine Same letters can stand for different sounds: - sign, pleasure, resign - dough, through, rough, cough, fought, drought 10

18. A “Good” Phonetic Alphabet: Not English Single sound spelled by a combination of letters: lock, that, book Single letter represents a combination of sounds: exit, use Sometimes letters stand for no sound at all: know, doubt, though 11

19. Transcription the conversion of spoken words into written words the process of matching the sounds of human speech to special written symbols using a set of exact rules, so that these sounds can be reproduced later. 12

21. Narrow transcription:

22. seeks to document every possible detail of the segment

23. very often, these details are not discernible to the native speaker

24. Broad transcription:

25. specifies the segments that are contrastive in the language

26. far fewer sounds are documented13

28. Some features of a good phonetic transcription system:

29. Universal: no preference given to any existing spelling system

30. Interpretable: other linguists should be able to interpret it

31. Transparent: one-to-one correspondence between sounds and symbols

32. Comprehensive: symbols for all the sounds in human language

33. The International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA) is the best attempt so far (chart uploaded in Bb)14

34. The Organs of Speech (Yule, page 27) 15

36. Every English segment can be uniquely described in three or four words

37. [p] is the voiceless (bi-)labial (oral) stop

38. [e] is the upper-mid front vowel

41. Description of consonants

42. Voicing: describes the state of the larynx

43. Place of Articulation: describes the location of the obstruction or constriction

44. Manner of Articulation: describes the type of constriction and the passage of airflow

45. e.g. /s/ voiceless alveolar fricative18

47. Bilabial

48. Labiodental

49. Dental

50. Alveolar

51. Palatals

52. Velar

54. Stop

55. Fricative

56. Affricate

57. Nasals

58. Liquids

59. Glides

60. Glottal stops and flaps(Yule pgs. 31-33)

61. IPA Consonants 20

62. English Consonants Yule, pg. 30 21

65. Raising of lowering the body of the tongue

66. Advancing or retracting the body of the tongue

67. Rounding or not rounding the lips

68. A tense or lax gesture of the tongue body

69. Manner: all vowels are articulated in the same way, with the tongue raising or lowering to the target position

71. Vowel Space(Height x Backness Space) The space is typically quadrilateral in shape. (quadra = four; lateral = side) It is also (and primarily) an auditory space. We hear vowels as similar or different from each other depending on their proximity in this space. 25

72. 26 Monophthongs of English You will find that you open your mouth a little wider as you change from [i] to [Ɛ] to [æ] seat set These varying degrees of openness correspond to different degrees of tongue height sat

73. 27 Monophthongs of English Made with the front of the mouth less open because the tongue body is raised, or high Produced with an intermediate tongueheight Pronounced with the front of the mouth open and the tongue lowered.

74. Monophthongs of English 28 boot beat Beat: the body of the tongue is raised and pushed forward so it’s just under the hard palate. Boot: made by raising the body of the tongue in the back of the mouth, toward the velum

75. 29 Monophthongs of English Front: tongue is moved forward or advanced for all front monophthongs Back: tongue is retracted or pulled back for the back monophthongs

76. Lip Rounding Vowel quality also depends on lip position [u] in two  lips are rounded [i] in tea lips are unrounded 30

77. 31 Diphthongs of English Diphthongs: Complex vowel sounds because they are two-part vowel sounds, consisting of a transition from one vowel to the other in the same syllable Try saying eyevery slowly. How do you make this vowel sound? Your tongue starts out in the low back position for [α] Then your tongue moves toward the front position for [I]

78. 32 Diphthongs of English Examples: buy bay bow oh

79. Homework Do Study Questions Chapter 3; Read Chapter 4. 33

80. References Yule, 2010 Fromkin, et. al., 2009 34

81. 35