Articulation
What is articulatory phonetics the study of?
Articulatory phonetics is the study of 1) how speech sounds are made / articulated 2) how speech sounds are described and classified.
In English, where do alveolar stops become flaps and give one example?
Between two vowels or vowel-like consonants
The following syllable is unstressed
Pretty, butter, rider, latter, data
What are the three properties of vowels?
Tongue height, backness and lip rounding
In Mandarin Chinese, the first two alphabets ㄅ and ㄆ transcribe to the voiceless stop /p/. Unlike ㄅ, ㄆ is produced with a burst of fricational air before the following vowel. However, a bilingual child mistakes these phonemes for allophones and never produces the burst of air. How can we transcribe the child’s production of ㄆ?
/p̚/
Name the 3 physiological systems underlying speech as well as their major constituent organs, and describe how they contribute to speech production.
Respiratory system: trachea, lungs, diaphragm, external intercostal muscles
The respiratory system produces the preparatory breath, which provides the air supply for phonation.
Phonatory / laryngeal system: the larynx and vocal folds
As air passes through the glottis, the vocal folds adduct and abduct at varying degrees to vibrate and phonate (generate sound).
Articulatory / supralaryngeal system: the pharynx, oral cavity, nasal cavity, and articulators
The vocal tract shape changes, and the articulators constrict, manipulating and modifying sound into speech.
What are the three major points of constriction in the vocal tract for the articulation of /r/?
Lip rounding. Anterior tongue constriction approximates the palate, and tongue root constriction narrows pharyngeal cavity.
What are the acoustic differences between stressed and unstressed syllables?
Higher in pitch, longer, louder
A Harry Potter fan realized that the vowel æ is longer in length in “acrid” than in “Hagrid.” Describe the phonetic context that gives rise to difference in vowel length.
Vowel length is increased when a vowel is followed by a voiceless obstruent. Hence, the voiceless /k/ in “acrid” causes the preceding æ vowel to sound longer.
Contrast the general location of the passive and active articulators.
The active articulators can mainly be found on the lower half of the face.
The passive articulators are mainly on the upper portion of the face.
Provide the three part articulatory description for /θ/
VF are are apart and therefore not vibrating
Theta is an interdental, therefore the tip of the tongue is between the teeth
Velum is raised, allowing air to flow in the oral cavity
Transcribe “murmur”
/mɝmɚ/
The lingual frenulum is a membrane that connects the tongue to the floor of the mouth and restricts tongue tip movement. A child is born with an extremely short lingual frenulum, and their tongue tip therefore struggles to rise beyond the upper front teeth. How can we transcribe this child’s production of “sixth”?
/sɪks̪θ/
Transcribe the word “stealthy”
stɛlθi
Difference between offgliding and ongliding diphthongs?
Offgliding diphthong has the high vowel at the end of the diphthong and ongliding at the beginning of the diphthong.
A cleft palate is a congenital condition where the palate does not seal, causing the nasal cavity to remain open AT ALL TIMES. Transcribe how a child with a cleft palate produces the word “book”.
/mʊŋ/
Transcribe the word “train” with diacritics (hint: note the airflow and lip rounding when producing /t/; note the voicing of /r/).
/tʷʰr̥ẽn/