LINA01H3 Lecture Notes - Lecture 2: International Phonetic Alphabet, Articulatory Phonetics, Acoustic Phonetics
Lecture 2
Phonetics: the sounds of language (part I)
Phonetics: the study of sounds
Facts:
a. humans can communicate by using a wide range of modalities (gestures, sign languages,
writing, etc), nevertheless, speech has a particular importance in natural languages
b. humans spoke long before they started to write, and this is reflected in their anatomical
specialization (as mentioned in Lecture 1)
c. moreover, humans also appear to have specialized neural mechanisms for the
perception of speech sounds
Phonetics: the subfield of linguistics that studies the inventory and the structure of the sounds
of speech
There are two basic ways of analyzing the speech sounds (or phones, from Greek phōnē sound,
oie:
• Articulatory phonetics: physiological mechanisms of speech production (what organs are
involved, where specifically sounds are produced).
• Acoustic phonetics: measuring and analyzing the physical properties of the sound waves
produced in speech
Is there a one-to-one correspondence between sounds and spelling in English?
How to represent sounds?
• the alphabets created for writing systems of various languages are not unambiguous:
• take some simple example from English, where the same graphic representation (ough) is
used for different pronunciations:
a. rough: two sounds
b. through: only one sound; not similar to any of the two sounds above
c. though: two sounds; yet distinct from the sound combinations above
Phonetic transcription
• Efforts have been made to devise a universal system for transcribing the sounds of speech
• the most well-known is the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA, evolving from 1888)
• its purpose is to represent each sound of human speech with a single symbol (one-to-one
correspondence)
• it does not represent the spelling system of a particular language
What is IPA?
- A system of phonetic notation giving a standardized representation of speech sounds
find more resources at oneclass.com
find more resources at oneclass.com
What is the purpose of the IPA?
- to represent each sound of human speech with a single symbol (one-to-one
correspondence)
Therefore:
• One symbol represents one sound
• Applicable to all languages
Why do we need the IPA?
- Same spelling for different sounds
a. Is the u i put pooued diffeet fo ut? O the oo i foot s. food?
b. lette : ite, li, ello, oea
- Combination of letters representing one sound
shark, church, etc.
- Silent letters
• Pole: Lak of a oe‐to‐oe oespodee etee lettes ad souds
How many sound in:
Box
Late
Pushed
Above
Walked
Knee
• Although the number of human language sounds is quite big, the sounds (phones) are
basically of three major types/classes:
1. Vowels
2. consonants
3. glides
Class of sounds: grouping of sounds based on shared phonetic characteristics (to be discussed
later)
The IPA consonants
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find more resources at oneclass.com
The English Consonants
IPA symbols for transcription
[p] = pat [k] = car [v] = van
[g] = guard [h] = hat [b] = bat
[m] = mom [ŋ] = ring [t] = tap
[f] = foot [n] = null [d] = dam
[s] = sap [r] = ring [θ] = thik
[ð] = this [l] = leaf [w] = with
[ʃ ] = shine [j] = yes [z] = zip
[ʒ ] = vision [ʧ] = touch [ʤ] = judge
Constant articulation
• the phones found in each of the three major classes can be further distinguished based
on their articulation properties
• we will start the description of the sounds (in English) by analyzing the consonants first.
• then the glides will be described, and next week, the vowels
Constant articulation
- the placement of the tongue and the positioning of the lips are the crucial factors
The tongue
- the primary articulating organ
- extremely mobile: can be raised, lowered, thrust forward, retracted, rolled back
- its sides can also be raised or lowered
- has five areas
find more resources at oneclass.com
find more resources at oneclass.com
Document Summary
Phonetics: the subfield of linguistics that studies the inventory and the structure of the sounds of speech. A system of phonetic notation giving a standardized representation of speech sounds. What is the purpose of the ipa? to represent each sound of human speech with a single symbol (one-to-one correspondence) Therefore: one symbol represents one sound, applicable to all languages. O(cid:396) the (cid:862)oo(cid:863) i(cid:374) (cid:862)foot(cid:863) (cid:448)s. (cid:862)food(cid:863): lette(cid:396) (cid:858)(cid:272)(cid:859): (cid:272)ite, (cid:272)li(cid:373)(cid:271), (cid:272)ello, o(cid:272)ea(cid:374) Combination of letters representing one sound shark, church, etc. P(cid:396)o(cid:271)le(cid:373): la(cid:272)k of a o(cid:374)e to o(cid:374)e (cid:272)o(cid:396)(cid:396)espo(cid:374)de(cid:374)(cid:272)e (cid:271)et(cid:449)ee(cid:374) lette(cid:396)s a(cid:374)d sou(cid:374)ds. Knee: although the number of human language sounds is quite big, the sounds (phones) are basically of three major types/classes, vowels, consonants, glides. Class of sounds: grouping of sounds based on shared phonetic characteristics (to be discussed later) Constant articulation the placement of the tongue and the positioning of the lips are the crucial factors.
