English Allophony

September 24, 2010

Canadian Raising(Canadian) Jon (American) Steve

“house”

“howl”

“bike”

“bile”

• For fun: switch Jon’s vowels in “bike” and “bile”

• Also compare:

• (Canadian) Aaron:

• (American) Steve:

• And, lastly, (Canadian?) Amber:

Mid-Sagittal Diagram

Dimension 2: Phonation• On the way out of the lungs

• Air passes through the trachea

• Reaches the larynx

• The larynx consists of two “vocal folds” which may be opened and closed. If the vocal folds are:

1. open: air passes cleanly through (voiceless sound)

2. closed: air does not pass through (no sound)

3. lightly brought together: vocal folds vibrate in passing air

(= voiced sound)

Voicing, Schematized

Voiceless (folds open) Voiced (folds together)

Laryngoscopy

Source: http://homepage.mac.com/changcy/endo.htm

Voicing, in Reality

Some Voicing Distinctions• Among English consonants:

Voiceless Voiced Voiceless Voiced

[f] [v] [p] [b]

[t] [d]

[s] [z] [k] [g]

Voicing Allophony Vowels are longer before voiced consonants than voiceless consonants.

Length is denoted with the [:] diacritic.

‘feed’ [fi:d] vs. ‘feet’ [fit]

Note that Canadian Raising occurs before voiceless consonants.

voiceless: ‘out’ ‘write’

voiced: ‘bribe’ ‘ride’

Layers• Canadian Raising occurs when and are followed by a voiceless consonant.

• The voiceless consonant does not need to be at the end of a word.

• Interesting examples:

• ‘rider’

• ‘writer’

• Note: flap is voiced.

• The voiceless consonant which induces Canadian Raising does not need to be voiceless on the phonetic “surface”!

• The technical term for this is phonological opacity.

More Voicing Allophony• Consonants at the ends of words are sometimes devoiced.

• Voicelessness is denoted with the [ ] diacritic.

• ‘lose’ ‘peas’

• Also: ‘languages’ example from homework #1.

• You can sometimes get contrasts in English like:

• ‘peace’ ‘peas’

• /l/, /j/, /w/ and can be (partially) voiceless in English when they follow a voiceless consonant:

• ‘play’

Aspiration Allophony /p/, /t/, and /k/ are aspirated if:

1. They are at the beginning of a stressed syllable.

2. They are not preceded by /s/.

• Ex:

Dimension 3:Place of Articulation

• After the stream of air passes through the larynx…

• speech sounds may be made by constricting the flow of air through the vocal tract.

• The place where such constrictions are made is known as the place of articulation of the sound.

• Constrictions are made by placing an active articulator against (or near to) a passive articulator.

• Generally:

• active articulator = on the bottom

• passive articulator = on the top

Anatomy Lesson #1

Anatomy Lesson #2

English Places of Articulation

Bilabial [p] [b] [m]

Labio-dental [f] [v]

Interdental

Alveolar [t] [d] [s] [n] [z] [l]

Post-alveolar

Palatal [j]

Velar [k] [g]

X-Ray movie revisited• First check out “bogus”

Place Assimilation• Place assimilation occurs when:

• One consonant’s place of articulation becomes identical to that of a neighboring consonant.

• /n/ often takes on the place of articulation of a following consonant.

• ‘unpleasant’

• ‘month’

• ‘engrossed’

• alveolars--except for /s/ and /z/--assimilate to following dentals

Ex: width, tenth, wealth

Front and Back• Velars /k/ and /g/ become fronted when preceding front vowels

the diacritic for “fronter” is

the diacritic for “backer” is

• Examples:

• ‘coo’

• ‘key’

• These diacritics may apply to vowels, as well.

• Ex: ‘spoons’

Dimension 4: Aperture

• The type of sound created by a constriction in the vocal tract depends on how narrow the constriction is.

1. Stop (or plosive):

• Complete closure of the articulators

• The airstream cannot escape through the mouth.

2. Fricative:

• Close approximation of two articulators

• The airstream is partially obstructed

• Turbulent airflow is produced.

English StopsVoiceless Voiced

Bilabial [p] [b]

Alveolar [t] [d]

Velar [k] [g]

• Note--stops that:

• Follow a vowel involve a closing gesture

• Precede a vowel involve an opening gesture

• Stops at the end of words may be unreleased.

• Example: “chocolate pudding”

English FricativesVoiceless Voiced

Labio-dental [f] [v]

Interdental

Alveolar [s] [z]

Post-alveolar

Glottal [h]

Dimension 4:Aperture, continued

3. Approximant:

• a gesture in which one articulator is close to another

• but without turbulent airflow being produced.

4. Affricate

• combination of stop + fricative

More English Consonants• Approximants:

labio-velar, voiced: [w]

palatal, voiced: [j]

• Some dialects of English also distinguish:

• ‘witch’ [w] vs. ‘which’

• = voiceless, labio-velar approximant

• Affricates --

• Voiced: Voiceless:

Really Narrow The stops, /t/ and /d/, have a post-alveolar place of articulation in affricates:

• An interesting question:

• How do you say “tree” and “draw”?

• /t/ and /d/ can become affricates before /r/:

• ‘tree’

• ‘draw’

Dimension 5: Retroflexion• A retroflex sound involves the curling back of the tip

of the tongue.

• generally in the post-alveolar region.

• There is only one retroflex sound in English, and it’s an approximant:

• In other languages, stops and fricatives can be retroflex, too.

Dimension 6: Nasality• The back of the soft palate may be lowered or raised.

• This may allow air to pass through the nose during speech.

• Air passes through the nose during the production of nasal consonants…

• …but it does not pass through the mouth in “nasal stops”

bilabial [m]

alveolar [n]

velar

One Last Time

Nasalization Vowels often become nasalized before nasal consonants.

The diacritic for nasalization is:

• Examples:

‘can’ vs. ‘cat’

‘Ben’ vs. ‘bed’

• Before other consonants, /n/ can drop out completely…

and leave the nasalization behind:

‘can’t’ vs. ‘cat’

‘Winters’

Dimension 7: Laterality• Lateral approximant:

• Obstruction of the airstream at a point along the center of the oral tract

• With incomplete closure between one or both sides of the tongue and the roof of the mouth.

• alveolar lateral: [l] “clear l”

• velarized alveolar lateral: “dark l”

• velarized = back of tongue is raised towards velum

• Note: consonants which are not lateral are “central”.

• Check out “oil” video

/l/ options• Dialectologically, /l/ is the most interesting consonant in English.

• Dialect Type A:

• “clear” /l/ syllable-initially: ‘leaf’

• “dark” /l/ syllable finally: ‘feel’

• Dialect Type B:

• “clear” /l/ before front vowels: ‘leak’

• “dark” /l/ everywhere else: ‘lock’

• Others have “dark” /l/ pretty much everywhere.

• (and maybe even lose the alveolar closure!)

Consonant Dimensions: Summary

[t] [j]

1. Airstream Mechanism pulmonic egressive p.e.

2. Phonation Type voiceless voiced

3. Place of Articulation alveolar palatal

4. Aperture stop approx.

5. Retroflexion non-retroflex non-retro

6. Nasality oral oral

7. Laterality central central

Manner of Articulation• Phoneticians usually combine dimensions 4-7 under the rubric of manner of articulation.

• Example manners of articulation:

• [t] = (oral) stop

• [n] = nasal stop

• [v] = fricative

• [w] = approximant

• [l] = lateral approximant

• = retroflex approximant

• = affricate

Notes• Consonant sounds are generally assumed to be:

pulmonic egressive

oral

central

…unless stated otherwise

• Big picture thought:

• Through combinatorics, language makes a large number of distinctions out of a minimal number of articulatory gestures.

English Consonant Chart

For Monday• Have a go at:

• Chapter 2, Exercise H

• (I will post this to the course web page later today.)

• Note: this is a practice homework exercise that we will discuss together in class.