Introduction phonetics

FOUNDATIONS OF LANGUAGE STRUCTURE -

IntroductionJANUARY 15, 2013

MISS MCLEARY

Introduction Class rules Register Overview of course assessment

Preliminaries

Phonetics is the study of speech sounds; how they are produced in the vocal tract (articulatory phonetics), their physical properties (acoustic phonetics), and how they are perceived (auditory phonetics). Language files

Phonetics is the study of the production, perception and analysis of speech sounds. (Kuiper and Scott Allan 1996)

What is phonetics?

Acoustic Phonetics – is the study of the transmission of the physical properties of speech sounds (such as intensity, frequency and duration)

It has to rely heavily on the use of sophisticated instruments that perform analyses of sound vibration.

A spectrograph is used.

Branches of Phonetics

Auditory phonetics is the study of the perception of speech sounds.

Articulatory phonetics is the study of the production of speech sounds.

It involves the study of how phones are produced by speakers and the description and classification of those sounds according to their properties.

How many sounds have each of the following English words?

fill feel tree bitter thesis sing drunk single marry Mary jungle meander

Activity 1

Articulatory Phonetics

The voice is articulated by the lips and the tongue....man speaks by means of the air which he inhales into his entire body cavities. When the air is expelled through the empty space it produces a sound, because of the resonances in the skull.

The tongue articulates by its strokes; it gathers the air in the throat and pushes it against the palate and the teeth, thereby giving the sound a definite shape. If the tongue would not articulate each time, by means of its strokes, man would not speak clearly and would only be able to produce a few sounds. HIPPOCRATES (460-377 B.C.E.)

The Organs of Speech

The production of any speech sound involves the movement of air. Most speech sounds are produced by pushing lung air through the vocal cords – thin bands of membrane – up the throat, and into the mouth or nose, and finally out the body. A brief anatomy lesson is in order.

Aticulatory Phonetics

There are three basic components of the human anatomy that that are involved in the production of speech. See handout. One is the larynx, which contains the vocal folds and the glottis; another is the vocal tract above the larynx, which is composed of the oral and nasal cavities. The third is the subglottal system, which is the part of the respiratory system located below the larynx.

The production of speech sounds involves many articulators.

Upper and lower lips. These are used in the production of labial sounds.

Upper and lower teeth

Production of speech sounds

The roof of the mouth: if you run the tip of your tongue backwards from your upper front teeth you should feel:

The alveolar ridge: a hump directly behind the teeth.

The hard palate: running your tongue tip back from the alveolar ridge you should feel a bony structure, which may rise up quite steeply before it levels out. This is the hard palate.

Speech organs

The soft palate or velum, and uvula: as you continue to run your tongue tip along the hard palate you should detect a change from the bony hard palate to the soft velum which ends in the uvula.

The velum is the muscle which can be raised against the back wall of the pharynx to create an airtight seal between oral and nasal cavities.

The velum

When the velum is closed air from the lungs is directed out through the oral cavity.

During normal breathing the velum is in the lowered position and with the lips forming a seal, air is forced through the nasal cavity.

The velum

This is a complex muscle, whose flexibility allows it to be moved into a number of different positions and shapes.

Tip or point Blade – this lies below the alveolar ridge. Front – this is the middle section which lies

below the hard palate.

The tongue

Back – this section lies opposites the velum and the uvula.

Root – a relatively vertical section which faces backwards towards the back of the pharynx.

The epiglottis is the organ primarily responsible for preventing foreign bodies (solids and liquids) from entering the lungs when we swallow.

The tongue

The upper and lower jaws: these bones contain the teeth.

The larynx and the vocal cords – the larynx is positioned at the top of trachea (windpipe).

It is a box-like construction consisting of cartilage.

The protuberance known as the Adam’s apple is at the top of the larynx. (voicebox)

Speech Organs

The vocal cords are located inside the larynx just below the Adam’s apple.

The pharynx – this is the part of the oral tract above the larynx behind the uvula. It is commonly known as the throat.

The glottis – this is the space between the vocal folds.