Production of Speech
Vowels & Consonants
ENGL2004: Week 2
Analysis of English Pronunciation
Max Diaz:
[email protected] Recap of Week 1
> Difficulties in English pronunciation involve:
• Disparity between sounds and spelling
• Factors beyond individual sounds
• e.g. stress, accents, etc.
> The English spelling system is inconsistent: one sound
represented by many different letters
> IPA can be used to represent individual sounds more
consistently.
Phonetics
> Study of the sounds of human language
• Articulatory phonetics
• The physiological mechanisms of speech production
• Acoustic phonetics
• The physical properties of sound waves in the message
• Auditory phonetics
• The perception of speech by the hearer
Phonetic transcription
> Because writing pervades our lives, we often are influenced
by orthography when thinking about the sounds of words
• Tendency to equate graphemes (letters) with number of
sounds
• <pan> <form> <print> <spirit>
• <should> <choose> <awesome> <knowledge>
> Many discrepancies exist between spelling and sounds
Phonetic transcription
> Same sound represented by different letters
• Each, bleed, either, achieve, scene, busy
• Shop, ocean, machine, sure, conscience
> Same letter representing different sounds
• Gate, any, father, above
> One sound represented by combination of letters
• Thin, rough, attempt, pharmacy
> Single letter representing more than one sound
• Exit, union, human
Articulation of English sounds
> The vocal tract
• Air comes from our lungs, through the larynx (which house the
vocal cords), and shaped into specific sounds at the vocal tract
• Typically, the lower articulators move toward the upper
articulators
• Lower lip, lower teeth, the tongue
• Upper lip, upper teeth, upper surface of mouth, pharyngeal
wall
Articulation of English sounds
Voicing
> The larynx is a series of cartilage held together by ligaments
• Houses the vocal folds/cords (also known as the glottis)
> When the cords are open, air passes through glottis
• Voiceless
> When cords are brough together, the air creates vibration
• Voiced
Voicing
> Based on the Bernoulli principle
• When cords are close together, passing air creates suction effect
• This closes the gap between cords
• When cords are together, there is no suction, and the cords
move apart
• When they are apart, the process repeats
> <sip> vs <zip>
> <cheap> vs <jeep>
Places of articulation
> Where the consonantal obstruction occurs in the vocal tract by
placement of the articulators
• Bilabial: /p, b, m/ • Labio-dental: /f, v/
• Interdental: /θ, ð/ • Alveolar: /t, d, s, z, n, l/
• Palato-alveolar: /ʃ, ʒ, t∫, dʒ/
• Retroflex: /r/ • Palatal: /j/
• Velar: /k, g, ŋ/ • Glottal: /h, ʔ/
• Labio-velar: /w, ʍ/
Manners of articulation
> Degree and nature of obstruction in the vocal tract
• Stop: Complete closure (/p, b, t, d, k, g/)
• Fricative: Small opening between articulators with audible
friction (/f, v, θ, ð, s, z, ʃ, ʒ, h/)
• More intense/acoustically energetic fricatives (alveolars
and palato-alveolars) are called sibilants
• Affricate: Gradual release of closer, creating friction; start
like stops, end like fricatives (/t∫, dʒ/)
Manners of articulation
> Approximant: Have greater opening in vocal tract than fricatives
and do not create friction (/l, r, j, w/)
• Fricatives + approximants = continuants
• /l, r/ are also liquids: vowel-like/have voicing energy with greater
constriction than vowels
• Lateral /l/ created by making closure at alveolar ridge with
tongue tip while air escapes at sides of tongue
• /j, w/ called glides or semi-vowels (vowel-like sounds that can
function like consonants)
Manners of articulation
> Nasals: Production requires air to escape through the
oral AND nasal cavity (velum is lowered and
velopharyngeal passage is open) (/m, n, ŋ/)
• Other sound called orals
• Approximants + nasals = sonorants (relatively
unobstructed flow of air)
