Allophonic variants for English Consonants (Part 2)

• Devoicing of the voiced fricatives

Just like voiced plosives, when voiced fricatives (/v, ð, z, ʒ/) are in final position and followed by silence, they normally lose their voicing. Examples:

"your eyes" [jɔ:r' aɪz̥]   ;    "and breathe" [ənd ' bri:ð̥]

• Devoicing of the voiced affricate

Like voiced plosives and fricatives, when the voiced affricate /ʤ/ is in final positiond and followed by silence, it normally loses its devoicing.  

• Allophones of nasal consonants

Variation of place of the alveolar nasal /n/

The alveolar nasal /n/ is affected by the consonant that follows it; it tends to take the place of articulation of the consonant that follows it. We have the following three allophones for this consonant:

/n/ followed by bilabial consonant: it becomes bilabial. Example: "in part" [ɪm ' pʰɑ·t]

/n/ followed by a velar consonant: it becomes velar. Example: "in coma" [ɪŋ ' kʰəʊmə]

/n/ followed by a dental consonant: it becomes dental. Example: "in theory" [in̪ ' θɪərɪ]

Syllabic n

Syllabic consonants occur only in unstressed syllables. In English, when the unstressed vowel schwa /ə/ is followed by /n/ in the same syllable, the vowel schwa is not heard, and the nasal consonant becomes syllabic. The symbol for this allophone of /n/ is [n̩]

Examples: "heaven" [' hevn̩] ;    "mission" [ ' mɪʃn̩]

• Allophones of the lateral consonant /l/

The lateral phoneme in English has the following allophones:

Clear and Dark l

The /l/ in words like "lost" and "feel" sound different. The /l/ at the beginning of these words and the /l/ at the end of these words have a different sound. This is because the lateral phoneme is clear (alveolar) when followed by vocoid (vowel or /j/), and it is dark (velarized) in any other position. A clear l is represented with the symbol [l] and a dark l is represented with [ɬ]

Examples: "lost" [lɒst]   ;    "feel" [fi:ɬ]

Syllabic l

Syllabic consonants occur only in unstressed syllables. In English, when the unstressed vowel schwa is followed by /l in the same syllable, the vowel is not heard, and the lateral consonat becomes syllabic. The symbol for this allophone of /l/ is [l̩]

Examples: "Cattle" [kʰætɫ̩]   ;   "middle" [mɪ̃dɫ̩]

Devoicing of l

The lateral consonant is devoiced following a voiceless plosive in initial stressed position. This devoiced allophone of the lateral consonant is represented with the symbol [l̥]

Example: "clue"  [kl̥u:]

• Allophones of approximant consonants

Devoicing of approximants 

The approximants /r, j, w/ are devoiced following a voiceless plosive in initial stressed position. These devoiced approximants are represented with the symbols [ɹ̥, j̊, w̥]

Examples: "try" [tɹ̥ɑɪ]   ;   "queen" [kw̥i:n]

And that's it! This is all you need to know about the allophones. I hope this was easy for you! :-)

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Allophonic variants for English Consonants (Part 1)

Allophones of Plosive Consonants

Plosives take more effort to articulate than other classes of consonants. This is because in the pronunciation of a plosive there is a complete obstruction. Their allophones can be classified in the following categories: 

• Aspirated and Unaspirated Voicless Plosives

Voiceless plosives are /p, t, k/

Aspiration is an interval of air heard between the end of the plosive and the following vowel. It is represented by the symbol [ʰ]

Only voiceless plosives may be aspirated. Aspiration may be strong or weak, depending on the context. 

Strong aspiration: voiceless plosives are strongly aspirated in initial stressed position. 

Example: pen, potato; [pʰen], [pə'tʰeɪtəʊ]

There're some exceptions we must consider:

(1) When /p, t, k/ are preceded by /s/. For example: pain vs Spain; [pʰəɪn], [spəɪn].

(2) When they are followed by /l, r, w, j/. In this case, /l, r, w, j/ are devoiced. For example: play, cry, tune.

Weak aspiration: voiceless plosives are weakly aspirated in unstressed syllables and in final position. For example: pot, tomorrow; [pʰɒt], [tə'mɒrəʊ]

• Devoicing of voiced plosives

Voiced plosives are /b, d, g/. When these voiced consonants are in final position and followed by silence, they normally lose their voicing, so they become devoiced.

For instance, the phrase "a black bag" sounds something like "a black bak"; that is, the vioced velar plosive /g/ sounds like a voiceless velar /k/. As /g/ has lost its voicing, so it has been devoiced. The symbol used to indicate devoicing is [º]

Examples: "my bag"  ---> [maɪ'bæɡ̊]

"this boy" ---> [ð̥ɪs b̥ɔɪ]

"She’s so good" ---> [ʃiːz̥ səʊ ɡʊd̥]

• Non-audible Release of Plosives

A plosive consonant is articulated in three stages:

Closure stage: the articulators are approaching
Stop stage: the articulators form a complete obstruction
Release stage: the air is let out abruptly

The third stage (the release) may be realized in different ways, depending on the consonant that follows:

• Audible release of plosives

This happens when the plosive is fully articulated and the sound is heard without any problem. The three stages of the articulation of the plosive are realized (closure, stop and release).

• Unreleased plosives

When a plosive (/p, t, k, b, d, g/) is followed by another plosive or an affricate (/ʧ, ʤ/) the first plosive is unreleased. This means that you don't hear the release of the first plosive.

• Nasal release of plosives

It takes place when the plosive is followed by a homorganic nasal consonant. Homorganic means that they share the same place of articulation.

• Lateral release of plosives

The release of the plosive is produced laterally when /t/ or /d/ are followed by /l/. 

Other variants in British and American English are: glottal stop and tap.

1. Glottal stop

The glottal stop is represented by the symbol [ʔ]

Voiceless oral plosives may be replaced by [ʔ] in final position in the syllable.

Example:

"A better bit of butter" [ə' beʔə ' bɪʔəv ' bʌʔə]

     2. Tap

In American English, the alveolar plosives /t. d/ are replaced by an alveolar tap [ɾ] when they are between vowels, the first vowel being normally stressed. Here some examples:

"lady" ['leɪɾɪ] ;  "rider" ['raɪɾər"]

This was the last thing of this post. In the next one I will continue with the second part of allophonic variants for English consonants. :-)

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Dipthongs and Glides

Hi! This post is devoted to dipthongs and glides, an independent group of vowels.

A diphtong refers to two adjacent vowel sounds occurring within the same syllable. 

Diphthongs contrast with monophthongs, where the tongue or other speech organs do not move significantly and the syllable contains only a single vowel sound. For instance, in English, the word ah is spoken as a monophthong /ɑː/, while the word ow is spoken as a diphthong /aʊ/. Where two adjacent vowel sounds occur in different syllables—for example, in the English word re-elect—the result is described as hiatus, not as a diphthong.

Diphthongs often form when separate vowels are run together in rapid speech during a conversation. However, there are also unitary diphthongs, as in the English examples above, which are heard by listeners as single-vowel sounds (phonemes)

For the production of a diphthong there is a glide or a movement from one more open vowel position to another closer one within the same syllable.

There are 8 diphthongs: 5 closing diphthongs and 3 centring diphthongs.


1. Closing Diphtongs

    - Closing diphthongs towards /ɪ/ → /eɪ, aɪ, ɔɪ/
    - Closing diphthongs towards /ʊ/ → /aʊ, әʊ/


2. Centring Diphtons

    - Glide towards /ә/ → /ɪә, eә, ʊә/

For a central diphthong there is a glide movement from a front or back position to a central one.


TRIPHTHONGS

Triphthongs in English are produced with closing diphthongs + schwa (ә)

  - /eɪә, aɪә, ɔɪә/ → player, fire, loyal.
  - /aʊә, әʊә/ → flower, lower.


In the next post, Laura is going to talk about Allophones. If you have any doubt or suggestion, please comment!

Phonemes for English vowels

Hey there! In this post we're going to see the phonemes for vowels.

In English there are 12 pure vowels:

      1. /i:/ (sea, seen, cheese, leave, receive, believe)

      This vowel is very similar to the spanish “i” but in english is more spread.

      2. /ɪ/ (sit, lip, tip, with, rich)

      This vowel is between the spanish “i” and “e”. More open and the lips are not spread.

      3. /e/ (set, bed, head, let, sent)

      Very similar to the spanish “e”.

      4. /æ/ (sat, cat, map, land, hand)

      More open than the “e”.

      5. /ʌ/ (cut, come, none, nothing, tongue)

      More closed than the spanish “a”.

      6. /a:/ (bath, pass, car, park, march)

      Long vowel, very open vowel, more than the spanish “a”.

      7. /ɒ/ (dog, top, lot, gone, what, wash, watch)

      Short “o”, very open. Almost open than the long “a”.

      8. /ɔ:/ (saw, jaw, door, more, horse)

      Longer than the /ɒ/. Closure of the mouth.

      9. /ʊ/ (put, could, would, book, good)

      More open than the spanish “u”. More similar than the open “u”.

     10. /u:/ (soon, moon, fool, do)

     Very similar to the spanish “u”.

     11. /ɜ:/ (girl, bird, turn, heard, word, work)

     The lips are neutrally open.

     12. /ә/ (famous, suspicious, mother, driver)

     If the syllable is unstressed, the word will have schwa.

Hope you find this useful and that it helps you with the study of phonetics! ;)

Phonemes for English consonants

Welcome to my new post!

Today we're going to learn about phonemes in English. 

A phoneme is the smallest contrastive unit in the sound system of a language. When sounds appear in the same enviroment (in the same place of the word and between the same sounds) and they make a difference in meaning they are different phonemes. Phonemes are a mental representation of sounds. They are very much like a concept or idea, not the actual pronunciation of a sound. 

An example could be the final sounds in words like bath and bat. The transcription of the word "bath" is /bæθ/ and the trascription of the word "bat" is /bæt/. If we change the /θ/ sound in the word "bath" for a /t/ sound the meaning change to "bat". This means that they are different phonemes.    

In English there are 24 phonemes for consonants and 12 for pure vowels. Today we are going to see the phonemes for consonants. 

1. /p/ (pain, pill, put, top, hip)
2. /t/ (tea, take, tone, late, sent)
3. /k/ (come, king, cut, look, duck)
4. /b/ (big, bee, banana, bat, be)
5. /d/ (do, dog, date, dear, road)
6. /g/ (gap, girl, goat, bag, league)
7. /m/ (make, smoke, climb, name, move)
8. /n/ (nose, none, nurse, name, soon)
9. /ŋ/ (wrong, think, finger, sing, rang)
10. /f/ (feet, father, photo, off, rough)
11. /v/ (vain, voice, vine, give, of)
12. /θ/ (thief, thick, thought, bath, beath)
13. /ð/ (this, they, there, bathe, breathe)
14. /s/ (son, sit, soap, ice, cinema)
15. /z/ (zoo, zero, easy, busy, gaze)
16. /ʃ/ (she, shoes, sugar, finish, rush)
17. /ʒ/ (beige, pleasure, casual, confusion, vision)
18. /l/ (late, let, loud, bell, belt)
19. /w/ (wet, wine, what, wave, we)
20. /j/ (you, yes, yellow, young, year)
21. /r/ (rest, read, red, try, arrive)
22. /h/ (he, hate, here, ahead, ham)
23. /tʃ/ (chair, church, choke, watch, cheap)
24. /dʒ/ (joy, June, change, Jane, jeep)

In the next post we are going to see the phonemes for the vowels. I hope you find this useful. J

Description of the sound waves

Sound waves exist as variations of pressure in a medium such as air. They are created by the vibration of an object, which causes the air surrounding it to vibrate. The vibrating air then causes the human eardrum to vibrate, which the brain interprets as sound. Sound waves travel through air in much the same way as water waves travel through water. In fact, since water waves are easy to see and understand, they are often used as an analogy to illustrate how sound waves behave.

Sound waves can also be shown in a standard x vs y graph, as shown here. 

This allows us to visualise and work with waves from a mathematical point of view. The resulting curves are known as the "waveform" (i.e. the form of the wave.)

In waveforms of speech, the x-axis represents time and is usually scaled in seconds or milliseconds, while the y-axis shows amplitude, a representation of loudness.

In the next image, it is shown three different sound waves, each with a different frequency. As you can see, the more cycles on the wave, the higher the frequency. All three waves seem to have pretty much the same amplitude, because the displacement from the zero line (not shown, but inferable) is very similar.

Finally, we can conclude this section with the different types of sound waves. 

• Not all waves are periodic
• A sound wave that does not have a regular pattern is termed aperiodic
• An aperiodic sound results from random, irregular vibration: noise
• Voiceless sounds have aperiodic waveforms
• Some speech sounds employ voicing and noise together: mixed waves

In the next post we will start studying the phonemes. :-)

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How to describe vowel sounds

Hi there! In this post you are going to learn a little more about vowel sounds.

Vowel sounds are pronounced with an open vocal tract so that there is no build-up of air pressure at any point above the glottis. This contrasts with consonants because there is a constriction or closure at some point along the vocal tract. A vowel is also understood to be syllabic: an equivalent open but non-syllabic sound is called a semivowel.

The articulatory features that distinguish different vowel sounds are said to determine the vowel's quality. Daniel Jones developed the cardinal vowel system to describe vowels depending on the height (vertical dimension), backness (horizontal dimension) and roundedness (lip position).

The height is the vertical position of the tongue relative to either the roof of the mouth or the aperture of the jaw. In closed vowels, the tongue is positioned high in the mouth, whereas in open vowels, the tongue is positioned low in the mouth. The International Phonetic Alphabet identifies seven different vowel heights:

     - Close vowel (high vowel)

     - Near-close vowel

     - Close-mid vowel

     - Mid vowel

     - Open-mid vowel

     - Near-open vowel

     - Open vowel (low vowel)

The backness is the the position of the tongue during the articulation of a vowel relative to the back of the mouth. In front vowels, the tongue is positioned forward in the mouth, whereas in back vowels, the tongue is positioned towards the back of the mouth. The International Phonetic Alphabet identifies five different degrees of vowel backness:

      - Front vowel

      - Near front vowel

      - Central vowel

      - Near back vowel

      - Back vowel

The roundedness refers to whether the lips are rounded or not. In most languages, roundedness is a reinforcing feature of mid to high back vowels, and is not distinctive. Usually, the higher back vowel is the more intense rounded.

But these are not the only ones features, there are however still more possible features of vowel quality, such as the velum position (nasalization), type of vocal fold vibration (phonation), and tongue root position.

Nasalization refers to whether some of the air escapes through the nose. In nasal vowels, the velum is lowered, and some air travels through the nasal cavity as well as the mouth. An oral vowel is a vowel in which all air escapes through the mouth. 

Phonation describes whether the vocal cords are vibrating during the articulation of a vowel. Most languages only have voiced vowels, but several Native American languages contrast voiced and devoiced vowels. Vowels are devoiced in whispered speech.

And the last one, Tongue Root Retraction. The contrast between advanced and retracted tongue root resembles the tense/lax contrast acoustically, but they are articulated differently. Advance tongue root vowels involve noticeable tension in the vocal tract.

And that's it! If you have any doubt, please comment! ;)

How to describe consonant sounds

Hi! María here!

This post is to show you how can be described consonant sounds. 
Consonant sounds are distinguished in terms of place of articulation, manner of articulation and voicing. It seems difficult but don’t worry, it’s very simple. 

The articulation of consonants implies some kind of obstruction of the air passage. The place of articulation is the meeting point between an active and a passive articulator (the articulators which make the obstruction). The active articulator usually moves in order to make the constriction and the passive articulator just sits there and gets approached. In this image we can see the articulators:

In English we find eight places of articulation: bilabial, labiodental, dental, alveolar, post-alveolar, palatal, velar and glottal.

1. Bilabial: it's done by bringing both lips together . 
2. Labiodental: it's is done with the lower lip and the upper teeth. 
3. Dental: it's done with the tongue and the upper teeth. 
4. Alveolar: it's done with the tongue and the alveolar ridge. 
5. Post-alveolar: it's done with the blade of the tongue and the back of the alveolar ridge. 
6. Palatal: it's done with the front of the tongue and the hard palate. 
7. Velar: it's done with the back of the tongue and the soft palate. 
8. Glottal: it's done with the vocal folds open.

The manner of articulation is the degree of the airstream's obstruction and the type of closure made by the articulators. In English there are seven manners of articulation: plosive, nasal, fricative, approximant, lateral, tap and affricate.

1. Plosive: it's made when the articulators are tight united producing a complete obstruction of the airstream. When the air finally separates the articulators a small explosion is produced. 
2. Nasal: it's made when there is a complete obstruction of the airstream in the oral cavity and the air goes to the nasal cavity because the soft palate (or velum) is down. 
3. Fricative: it's made by a narrowing of the vocal tract, so that a turbulent airflow is produced.
4. Aproximant: it's made by one articulator approaching another, but with less constriction than in a fricative. 
5. Lateral: it's made by an obstruction in the center of the oral tract, with incomplete closure between both sides of the tongue and the roof of the mouth so the air can pass through them.
6. Tap: it's made by a single tap of the tongue against the alveolar ridge. 
7. Affricate: it's made by the combination of a plosive with a fricative.

Finally the voicing allows us to distinguish between voiced and voiceless sounds. This is easy to test by putting your finger on your throat. If you feel a vibration the sound is voiced. If you don't feel the vibration (just a short explosion of air as you pronounce) the sound is voiceless.

In the next post we are goint to learn to describe vocal sounds with Ana.
Thank you for your attention! J

Acoustics phonetics and auditory phonetics✩

Hi there! I'm going to talk about acoustics phonetics and auditory phonetics.

• Firstly, what is acoustics phonetics?

As a result of the functioning of the mechanisms in the production of the speech, a sound wave is produced, which is transmitted through the source to the receiver. This sound wave carries all the information which is required, so the reciever can interprete the message. Sound waves exist as variations of pressure in a medium such as air and they are created by the vibration of an object, which causes the air surrounding it to vibrate. Acoustics phonetics investigates the properties of the sound wave, its duration, its fundamental frequency, or other properties of its frequency spectrum, and the relationship of these properties to other branches of phonetics (as articulatory or auditory phonetics.)

• Secondly, we're going to talk about auditory phonetics. 

If articulatory phonetics studies the way in which speech sounds are produced, auditory phonetics focuses on the perception of sounds or the way in which sounds are heard and interpreted. Before the sounds we perceive are processed and interpreted by the brain, the first anatomical organ they encounter is the ear.

The first phase starts in the outer ear, which is mainly represented by the auricle (or the pinna) and the auditory meatus (or the outer ear canal.) The outer ear canal is a tubular structure playing a double role: it protects the next segments of the ear – particularly the middle ear – and it also functions as a resonator for the sound waves that enter our auditory system.

The second phase corresponds with the middle ear, which is a cavity within the skull including a number of little anatomical structures that have an important role in audition. One of them is the eardrum. This is a diaphragm or membrane to which sound waves are directed from outside and which vibrates, acting as both a filter and a transmitter of the incoming sounds. The middle ear also contains a few tiny bones, best known as the ossicles: the mallet, the anvil and the stirrup (also called malleus, incus and stapes).  The pressure of the air entering our auditory system is converted by the vibration of the membrane (the eardrum) and the elaborate movement of the little bones that act as some sort of lever system into mechanical movement which is further conveyed to the oval window, a structure placed at the interface of the middle and inner ear. It is in the middle ear too, that a narrow duct or tube opens. Known as the Eustachian tube, it connects the middle ear to the pharynx.

The next phase is the inner ear, the main element of which is the cochlea, a cavity filled with liquid. The inner ear also includes the vestibule of the ear and the semicircular canals. Inside the cochlea there are two membranes: the vestibular membrane and the basilar membrane. It is the latter that plays a central role in the act of audition. Also essential in the process of hearing is the so-called organ of Corti, which is a group of cells, a highly sensitive structure because it includes many ciliate cells that detect the slightest vibrating movement, convert these vibrations into neural signals that are transmitted via the auditory nerves to the central receptor and controller of the entire process, the brain.

So, that's it! However, the way in which the human brain processes auditory information and, in general, the mental processes linked to speech perception and production are still largely unknown.

In the next post, Maria will show us how to describe consonant sounds. :-) 

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Articulatory Phonetics

Hi! It’s Ana, and I’m going to talk about the source: The Articulatory Phonetics.

The Articulatory Phonetics concerns the production of the speech sounds. It is a process in which a linguistic message, thought previously by the speaker, is perceived by the human auditory system as sound.

When two people are talking to each other, a great deal of activity of many different kinds is going on in both of them. The most vital part of this is taking place in their brains because this is where they have stored away all the knowledge about the language they are using.

The whole time anyone is speaking, his brain is busy putting into language form whatever he wants to say, that it is choosing words and putting them in the appropriate order, inserting the grammatical elements and form words. In addition to this, his brain is sending out a continuous flow of operating instructions which go to many different muscles involved in making the skilled movements of speech. These instructions go in the shape of nerve impulses to the breathing muscles in the chest and trunk, the muscles of the larynx which take part in the articulation of speech sounds.

The resulting movements of the various parts of the speech mechanism generate the sound waves of speech which flow out in all directions from the speaker, through the vocal tract, to the ears of the listener as acoustic energy.

The vocal tract includes three main components:

1.     air cavities

2.     pistons

3.     air valves

The main air cavities present in the articulatory system are the supraglottal cavity and the subglottal cavity. They are so-named because the glottis, the openable space between the vocal folds internal to the larynx, separates the two cavities. The supraglottal cavity or the orinasal cavity is divided into an oral subcavity and a nasal subcavity. The subglottal cavity consists of the trachea and the lungs.

Pistons are initiators. They are used to initiate a change in the volumes of air cavities, and are the corresponding air pressure of the cavity. The three pistons present in the articulatory system are the larynx, the tongue body, and the physiological structures used to manipulate lung volume. The lung pistons are used to initiate a pulmonic airstream. The larynx is used to initiate the glottalic airstream mechanism by changing the volume of the supraglottal and subglottal cavities via vertical movement of the larynx.

Valves regulate airflow between cavities. Airflow occurs when an air valve is open and there is a pressure difference between in the connecting cavities. When an air valve is closed, there is no airflow. The air valves are the vocal folds (the glottis, the velopharyngeal port, the tongue and the lips. Like the pistons, the air valves are also controlled by various muscles.

To produce any kind of sound, there must be movement of air. The movement of air must pass through the vocal chords, up through the throat and, into the mouth or nose to then leave the body.

In the next post Laura is going to introduce us to the next branches of Phonetics. 

Introduction

Welcome to our first post!!!

I’m María and this is going to be an introduction to phonetics.

First of all, it’s very important to find a definition for our object of study. So… what is phonetics? Well, phonetics is the study of human speech sounds and is divided in three branches: articulatory phonetics, acoustic phonetics and auditory phonetics. To understand well these branches we have to look at the communication scheme:

 In the first step (the source) we find articulatory phonetics, because this branch studies how speech sounds are produced. In the second step (the channel) we find acoustics phonetics, which studies sound waves. And finally, in the last step (the receiver) we find auditory phonetics, which studies how speech sounds are perceived. Easy, isn't it?

Phonetics is therefore interdisciplinary, because to study all these aspects of human speech is necessary to be closely related to disciplines as physiology or acoustics for example.

There are also numerous areas in which phonetic provides its contents, as in speech therapy (a medical specialty that deals with problems related to voice) or in forensic phonetics (the use of phonetic knowledge in criminal cases).

 The object of study of phonetics is the spoken language, but our image of the language is based on writing, although we know that the spoken language is prior to writing (in history and in the development of a child). You have to study in detail the relationship between spelling and sound because a letter can be related with two or more sounds and a sound can be related with two or more letters. To solve this problem we use phonetics alphabets as IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet).

In the next post we are going to see in detail the first branch of phonetics with Ana.

I hope you find this useful. J