Phonetic : The Sound of

Language

Dewi Novita Yusri

1200888203031

What is Phonetics ?

Phonetics According to some experts explain

phonetics are as follows: • Phonetics (Crystal,1985) is the study

of human speech sound.• Phonetics (Yule,2006:30) is the

general study of characteristics of speech sound.

• Phonetics ( Todd,1995:13) is the study of production transmission and reception of speech sound.

• Phonetics ( Fromkin,2005:230) is the study of speech sound.

Then based on the above definition is phonetics is the study of the characteristic of speech sounds and the way the human make the transmit and receive sound.

Some phrases and sentences that are clearly distinct when printed may be ambiguous when spoken. Read the following pairs aloud and see why we might misinterpret what we hear:

Grade A Gray dayI scream Ice creamThe sun’s rays meet The sons raise meat

Phonetics

Acoustic Phonetics

Perceptual (Auditory) Phonetics

Articulatory

Phonetics

Acoustic Phonetics

Is how speech sounds are

transmitted from producer to perceiver.

Perceptual (Auditory) Phonetics

Is how listeners understand which speech sounds are being produced.

Articulatory Phonetics

Is how speech sounds are produced (by the tongue, lip, vocal folds, etc.)

The Phonetics Alphabet

Orthography is the discrepancy between spelling and sound gave rise to movement of 'spelling formers' .

it is easy to understand why spelling reformers believe there is a need for a phonetic alphabet :

1. Several letters may repsent a single sound to too two through

threw clue shoe

2. Single letter represent multiple sounds :

3. Combination of letters may represent a single sound :

shoot Character Thomas Physics

either Deal Rough Nation

coat glacial Theater Plain

dame dad father callmany

4. Some letters have no sound in certain words (silent letters) :

5. no letter to represent sounds :• cute (sounds like kyute; compare: coot)• fume (sounds like fyume; compare: fool)• use (sounds like yuse; compare:

Uzbekistan)

Mnemonic autumn Resign Ghost

pterodactyl write Hole Corps

psychology sword Debt Gnaw

Bough lamb Island Knot

Internasional Phonetic Alphabet

• IPA developed a phonetic alphabet to symbolize the sounds of all languages.

• Use square bracket [ ] in phonetic symbols to distinguish them from ordinary letter

• The symbol [ə] in sofa is used to represent vowels and syllable that are not emphasized and short duration

• Other example :about, reader, etc.

Place of ArticulationWhere in the vocal tract the airflow

restriction occurs. There are eight major place of articulation, they are:1. Bilabialsby bringing both lips together. Ex : [p, b, m]

2. Labiodentalsby touching the bottom lip to the upper teeth. Ex : [f, v]

3. Interdentalsby inserting the tip of the tongue between the teeth. Ex : [θ] [ð]

4. Alveolarsthe tongue raised in various ways to the alveolar ridge. Ex :[t], [d], [n], [s], [z], [1], [r]

5. Palatals by raising the front part of the tongue to the palate. Ex : [] [ʒ] [tʃ] [dʒ] [j]

6. Velarsby raising the back of the tongue to the soft palate or velum. Ex : [k] [g] [n]

7. Uvularsby raising the back of the tongue to the uvula. Ex : [] [ʒ] [tʃ] [dʒ] [j]

8. GlottalsIf the air is stopped completely at the glottis by tightly closed vocal cords. Ex : [h] [ʔ]

Manner of Articulation

The difference between the intial sound of the English word touch and such are both voiceless, and they are both produced with the air flow being impeded at the alveolar ridge :

1. Stop/PlosiveCompletely stoppedEx : [p] [b] [t] [d] [k] [g] [?]

2. FricativeCompletely blokedEx :[f] [v] [θ] [ð] [s] [z]

3. Affricate produced by a stop closure followed

immediately by a gradual release of the closure' ssthat produces an effect characteristic of a fricative. The palatal sounds that begin and end the words church and judge are voiceless and voiced affricates, respectively. Affricates are not continuants because of the initial stop closure. Ex :

4. NasalBlocked completely somewhere in the mouth. Ex :[m] [n] [ñ] and [ƞ]

5. Liquidsome obstruction of the airstream in the mouth, but not enough to cause any real constriction or friction. Ex : [l] [r]

6. Glides Speech sound that are on the border line between vowels and consonants. Example : [W], [J]

1. Voiced Sounds [b,d,g,v,ð, z,ʒ, ʤ, m, n, ƞ, l, r, w, j] If the vocal cords are together, the are airstream. Force its way through and cause them to vibrates.

2. Voiceless Sound [p, t, k, f, θ, s, , t, h, ?]when the vocal cords are apart so that air flows freely through the glottis into the oral cavity.

Voiced and Voiceless Sounds

• rope/robe [rop ]/[rob]• Fate/fade [fet]/[fed]• rack/rag [ræk]/[ræg]• wreath/wreathe[riθ]/[ri ð]• fine/vine [fain]/[vain]• peat/beat [pit]/[bit]• seal/zeal [sil]/[zil]• tote/dote [tot]/[ dot]• choke/joke [tok]/[ ʤok]• kale/gale [kel]/[gel]

The voiced/voiceless distinction

Vowels are produced with little restriction of the airflow from the lungs out the mouth and/or the nose. These are the dimensions over which vowels are produced :1. Tongue Position2. Lip Rounding 3. Diphthongs

Phonetic Symbols for American English

Consonants

Tongue Position

• In producing vowel sound [a] the back tongue is low in the mounth.

• The vowel [i] and [u]are produced with slightly lowered tongue position.

• The vowel [æ] in hack [hæk] is produced with the front part of the tongue low in the mouth.

• The vowels [e] and [o] in bait [bet] and boat [bot] are midvowels, produced by raising the tongue to a position midway.

• The vowel [a] the tongue is not strickly high nor low, front or back.

Lip Rounding

Divided into two :Rounded : [u], [u:], [o], [o:]Unrounded : the other sounds

Diphthongs

Vowel is divided into two monophthongs and diphtong.

Vowels, like consonants, can be produced with a raised velum that prevents the air from escaping through the nose, or with a lowered velum that permits air to pass through the nasal passage.

When the nasal passage is blocked, oral vowels result; when the nasal passage is open, nasal (or nasalized) vowels result

Nasalization of Vowels

The first vowel in each pair is generally produced with greater tension of the tongue muscles than its counterpart, and they are often a little longer in duration.

Tense and Lax Vowels

Tense   Lax  i Beat I bitE Bait betu Boot ʋ Puto Boat ɔ boreA Hah ɔr boyai High æ hatAu How ʌ hut    ə about

Tones generally have a lexical function, that is, they make a difference between words.

But in some languages tones may also have a grammatical function, as in Edo spoken in midwestern Nigeria.

The tone on monosyllabic verbs followed by a direct object indicates the tense and transitivity of the verb.

Low tone means present tense, transitive;

High tone means past tense, transitive.

Tone

Language that are not tone languages, such as English, are called Intonation Language.

In Intonation Language, pitch is not used to distinguish word from each other .

Intonation may effect the meaning of whole sentences, so that sentences : “John is here” with falling picth at the end is interprented as a statement, but with rising pitch at the end is interpreted as a.

Intonation

Signed language are governed by a grammatical system

Signs can be broken down into smaller units analogous to the phonetic features

Signed languages distinguish signs according to the place and manner in which the signs are articulated by the hands

The “Phonetics” of Signed Languages

The signs of ASL, for example, are formed by three major features:1. The configuration of the hand (handshape)2. The movement of the hand and

arms toward or away from the body

3. The location of the hands

ASL has over 30 handshapes. But not all signed languages share the same handshapes.

For example, the T handshape of ASL does not occur in the European signed languages. Chinese Sign Language has a handshape formed with an open hand with all fingers extended except the ring finger which ASL doesn’t have it.