Place of Articulation

January 29, 2014

The Agenda •  Due at 5 pm tonight: backwards name exercise!

•  For Friday, there will be a transcription exercise on place of articulation.

•  Hungarian and Bengali

•  For Monday: provide both narrow + broad transcriptions of either American or British English sentences.

•  Your choice!

•  This is a graded homework exercise.

Moving On •  Hitherto: rapidly running through the vocal tract

•  for English only

•  From here on out:

•  go back through the whole process in slow motion

•  building up our understanding of how speech sounds are made in the process…

•  for all the languages of the world.

•  Goal: get from what we know about articulation to acoustics

•  i.e., how speech sounds are transmitted through the air

Just So You Know •  This (and most future lectures) will include sound samples from many different languages from around the world.

•  Sound files may be found at:

http://www.phonetics.ucla.edu/index/sounds.html

http://www.phonetics.ucla.edu/course/contents.html

•  And also on the Course in Phonetics CD

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

Back to the Big Picture •  Through combinatorics…

•  languages can make a large number of distinctions out of a small number of articulatory dimensions

•  However--consider the gaps in the IPA chart

•  Not all combinations of gestures are possible

•  Not all combinations of gestures are likely

•  Why?

•  The dimensions interact

•  They’re based on physical realities

•  i.e., they are not abstract

Another Perspective •  Note: all speech sounds involve the flow of air.

•  Articulation and acoustics are linked through aerodynamics

•  = the study of the flow of air (in speech sounds)

•  Aerodynamics can also limit the combinatorial possibilities of speech.

An Aerodynamic Exception •  Stops

•  Stop the flow of air through the articulatory tract

•  How is this done?

•  By making an airtight seal between articulators

•  Are there some places in the articulatory tract where this is easier than others?

•  Try the tongue experiment.

•  An easy place: between the lips

•  A difficult (impossible?) place: between the teeth and lips

IPA Chart:Stops

•  You are already familiar with Bilabial, Alveolar, Velar

•  = the 3 most common places of articulation for stops

•  UPSID Database (in Maddieson’s Patterns of Sounds, 1984)

•  surveys 317 languages

•  314 have bilabial stops (Wichita, Hupa, Aleut)

•  316 have alveolar/dental stops (Hawaiian)

•  315 have velar stops (Hupa, Kirghiz)

Bilabials-Alveolars-Velars

Palatals

Palatal Stops

•  Peter says:

•  59 languages in UPSID database have palatal stops

•  Palatals vs. Velars in Ngwo (spoken in Cameroon)

Also: Palatal Nasals •  symbol:

•  not to be confused with the velar nasal:

•  PL:

•  Examples from Hungarian →

Uvulars

Uvular Stops

•  Peter says: •  47 languages in UPSID database have uvular stops

•  Uvular nasal:

•  Peter, again:

•  Japanese: ‘Japan’

Quechua Contrasts

•  Quechua is spoken primarily in Bolivia and Peru.

Pharyngeals

Epiglottals, Glottals

•  There are no pharyngeal stops.

•  However, there is an epiglottal stop:

•  Peter says:

•  Check out Stefan’s epiglottis •  There are also glottal stops:

•  As in English: “uh-oh”, “bottle”, “kitten”

•  More on these later

Epiglottals in Agul •  Agul is spoken in Dagestan, near the Caspian Sea, in Russia

•  Note: no nasal pharyngeals, epiglottals, or glottals.

•  Why?

Back to the Coronals

Back to the Coronals •  Two parameters to consider here:

•  The active articulator

1.  The tongue tip (apical)

2.  The tongue blade (laminal)

•  The passive articulator or target

1.  The upper lip (linguo-labial)

2.  Between the teeth (interdental)

3.  The upper teeth (dental)

4.  The alveolar ridge (alveolar)

5.  Behind the alveolar ridge (post-alveolar)

Coronal Basics •  Coronal stops are usually dental or alveolar.

•  Dental stops are usually laminal

•  produced with the blade of the tongue

•  as is typical in, e.g., French, Spanish

•  Alveolar stops are usually apical

•  pronounced with the tip of the tongue

•  as is typical in English

•  Dental ~ Alveolar contrasts are rare, but they do exist.

Laminal Dentals

•  check out the labio-dental flap file

Apical Alveolars

Yanyuwa Coronal Contrast

•  Yanyuwa is spoken in the Northern Territory of Australia

•  UPSID data--

Languages with the following number of stop place contrasts:

2 -- 2 3 -- 171 4 -- 103

5 -- 35 6 -- 6 <-- 5 of these languages are from Australia!

•  Yanyuwa has 7 stop place contrasts!

Retroflex Stops •  Retroflex stops are produced in the post-alveolar region, by curling the tip of the tongue back.

•  Common in south Asian languages.

• Peter says:

Sindhi place contrasts

Malayalam Place Contrasts

Palatography +

Linguography

Yanyuwa, again