Introduction to linguistics – The sounds of German

R21118

Dr Nicola McLelland

•How are sounds produced?

•Manner and place of articulation

•The vowel quadrilateral

•Vowel quantity and quality

Lecture 2

Phonetics

• place of articulation: where the articulatory organs are when we make a speech sound (e.g tongue tip at ridge behind teeth)

• manner of articulation: the type of obstruction in the mouth made by the tongue and / or other articulators (complete closure or lesser obstruction?)

• voiced vs. unvoiced:

• oral vs. nasal

How are sounds produced?

voiced vs. unvoiced: When the vocal folds in the larynx are close together, air from the lungs rushing past them causes them to vibrate > voicing (cf. a reed in an oboe etc.)

Voicing

The larynx (=voice box)

with vocal folds (=vocal

cords)*glottis = opening between vocal folds

*epiglottis = “lid” (tongue root) which covers the glottis when we swallow

The nature of voicing

For voiced sounds, the vocal cords are held together by the action of the arytenoid cartilages, but they are held together less tightly than for a glottal stop.

When air is forced up the trachea from the lungs, at a certain pressure it is able to force its way through the vocal cords, pushing them open (2, 3 and 4). Because of the resulting drop in pressure, the vocal cords snap together, at the lower edge first, closing again (6-10). The cycle then begins again.

• A single cycle of opening and closing takes in the region of 1/100th second: so the cycle repeats at rates in the region of 100 times per second

Voicelessness

Vocal cords apart > no obstruction to air flow > no noise produced by larynx (voice-box)

WhisperIf there is a sufficiently high rate of airflow through the open glottis, a quiet disruption of the air, whisper, results. The glottal fricative [h] has whisper phonation, as do whispered vowels.

• all vowel sounds are voiced (except in the case of whispering)

• Consonants can be voiced or unvoiced, e.g. [ b d g ] or [p t k]

Test if a sound is voiced by placing your hand on your larynx to feel the vibrations

Voiced sounds

•

Place of articulation: the vocal tract

• See places of articulation MS word document!

Place of articulation

• We can describe sounds by which articulators are involved, and where

• Create a complete obstruction in the mouth:

• With both lips ….

• With tongue at the alveolar ridge ….

• With tongue at the soft palate (velum) ….

The stops or “plosives”

• Create a complete obstruction in the mouth:

• With both lips …. [p b]

• With tongue at the alveolar ridge …. [t d]

• With tongue at the soft palate (velum) …. [ k g]

The stops or “plosives”

• Create a complete obstruction in the mouth:

• With both lips …. [p b] = bilabial

• With tongue at the alveolar ridge …. [t d] = alveolar

• With tongue at the soft palate (velum) …. [ k g] = velar

The stops or “plosives”

• [b d g p t k] are all oral stops – when the air is released, it comes out of the mouth

• there are also nasal stops, where the obstruction is in the mouth, but the air is released through the nose, by lowering the velum :

• obstruction at the lips ….

• obstruction at the alveolar ridge …

• obstruction at the velum …..

Oral stops and nasal stops

• obstruction at the lips …. [m]

• obstruction at the alveolar ridge …[n]

• obstruction at the velum …..[ŋ]

nasal stops – with velum lowered

• we’ve already described the manner of articulation for stops: there is a complete closure at the mouth, which is then released, allowing air to escape

Manner of articulation

1. Stops

• for fricatives: the articulators are close together, so that they cause interference to the airstream (often a hissy sound) but there is not a complete blockage

• e.g. ….. ?

2. Fricatives

• fricatives: the articulators are close together, so that they cause interference to the airstream (often a hissy sound) but there is not a complete blockage:

• [f v] labiodental (Vater, Vase)

• [s z] alveolar (essen, See)

• [ʃ ʒ] palatal-alveolar (esh) (Schnee,

Journalist)

(Red = voiced)

Fricatives ….

• [ʃ] palatal-alveolar (esh) (Schnee)

• [ç] palatal (ich, Honig)

• [x] velar (Buch)

• [h] glottal fricative (Haus)

•(all voiceless)

Fricatives ….

• When the vocal folds are tightly closed

• eg wha’ a lo’ of bo’les

• In standard German, it occurs in front of any stressed initial vowel

•E.g. [ʔaɪn ʔɑpfəl] ein Apfel

Glottal stop …. ʔ

• See David Brett’s presentation on vowels

The vowels