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