Ling170D: Phonetics Part 2

How we use the meat in our heads to produce

speech sounds.
sounds

Test on Tuesday,
Tuesday September 15:
•Multiple choice: Correctly match consonants and
vowels in common American English
g words with
descriptions of place and manner of articulation.
•Review from 4:00 to 4:45
Ling170D: Phonetics
THE BIG CONCEPTS
•Becoming conscious of what you do with the meat in 
Becoming conscious of what you do with the meat in
your head all day every day
•Unlearning the spelling instinct:
•Decoupling the sounds of English from their 
written representations
•Understanding language independent phonetic
•Understanding language‐independent phonetic 
transcription: the International Phonetic Alphabet
•Today: Basic Consonant Sounds. Thursday: Basic 
Vowel Sounds
Ling170D: Phonetics
Unlearning the spelling instinct:
U l i h lli i i
•English spelling does not reflect differences between 
sounds that predictably occur in specific
sounds that predictably occur in specific 
environments. Think of the sound indicated by <t> in 
take vs. steak.
•English spelling has no way of consistently 
representing non‐English sounds, e.g. clicks, uvulars, 
pharyngeals, glottalization, etc. etc. 
h l l tt li ti t t
The Human Speech Apparatus
 Manners of Articulation
Stop or Plosive:
Oral and nasal cavities are completely 
closed off No air comes out of the head
closed off. No air comes out of the head 
until the stop/plosive is released
poor – bore – tore  – door – core – gore 

Fricative:
Two parts in the oral cavity are brought 
close enough together to create 
turbulence in the air stream coming out
turbulence in the air stream coming out 
of the lungs, creating ‘white noise.’
four – Thor – sore – hair 

Nasal:
l
Voicing:  The mouth is completely closed off but 
The vocal chords are brought together the velum is lowered, allowing air to 
closely enough to start vibrating against g
come out through the nose.
each other, creating a buzzing sound.  mere – near – hang
poor – bore – swift – swivel
We Need a Better Alphabet
We need an alphabet
that …
•Can be used to represent any
sound in any language, including
any possible sound we might not
yet have encountered
•Allows a one-to-one relationship
between symbols and sounds –
not one-to-many, many-to-one,
etc.
etc
•We’ll be taking a tour through this
vast inventory, concentrating on the
sounds attested in English.
English
•From now on, we’ll represent
phonetic symbols in [square
brackets] and spelled words in
<angled
l d bbrackets>
k or in italics.
l
Feeling Out the Points and Manners
of Articulation: English Sounds

water uh-oh
hang

think this share treasure

 Feeling Out the Points and Manners
of Articulation: English Sounds
Voicing:
g
Say in a continuous loop: ha‐ha‐ha

Here’s what’s happening

Nasal vs. Oral:

Say in a continuous loop: Bob, Mom

Your velum rises and closes off the nasal 
Stop vs. Fricative
cavity when you say Bob. It lowers when 
pin – fin ban – van  
you say Mom
you say Mom
tin – sin too – zoo 
Now hold your nose and try again: Bob, 
Front to Back
mom.
pin – tin 
pin  tin – kin
fall – tall – call  
 Feeling Out the Points and Manners
of Articulation: English Sounds
Try It Out:

Which best describes the sounds hinted at 
by the bolded letters?

Voicing Place of Articulation Manner of Articulation

Voiceless

Fricative
Alveolar

alveolar
Voiced

Dental
Labial

Nasal
Velar
Post‐

Stop
plans
planks
p
planks
planks
planks
 Feeling Out the Points and Manners
of Articulation: English Sounds
Try It Out:

Which best describes the sounds hinted at 
by the bolded letters?

Voicing Place of Articulation Manner of Articulation

Voiceless

Fricative
Alveolar

alveolar
Voiced

Dental
Labial

Nasal
Velar
Post‐

Stop
IPA Symbo

plans
l X X X [ ]
[z]
planks X X X [p]
planks X X X [ŋ]
planks X X X [k]
planks X X X [s]
 Feeling Out the Points and Manners
of Articulation: English Sounds
Try It Out:

Which best describes the sounds hinted at 
by the bolded letters?

Voicing Place of Articulation Manner of Articulation

Voiceless

Fricative
Alveolar

alveolar
Voiced

Dental
Labial

Nasal
Velar
Post‐

Stop
three
there
rinsed
rented
climb
 Feeling Out the Points and Manners
of Articulation: English Sounds
Try It Out:

Which best describes the sounds hinted at 
by the bolded letters?

Voicing Place of Articulation Manner of Articulation

Voiceless

Fricative
Alveolar

alveolar
Voiced

Dental
Labial

Nasal
Velar
Post‐

Stop
three X X X [θ]
there X X X [ð]
rinsed X X X [t]
rented X X X [d]
climb Gotcha!
 Feeling Out the Points and Manners
of Articulation: English Sounds
Okay. So much for the tidy part.
Linguists use competing but interchangeable symbols
and terms to represent a number of sounds:

The postalveolar fricatives [ʃ] and [Ʒ], as in share and measure

•Also called alveopalatal
•Also represented as [š] and [ž] respectively
d h ’ll l h l l
•Hudson uses this notation. I’ll mostly use the classical IPA. 

English also has a class of sounds that combine the articulations of stops and 
fricatives: the affricates. IPA notation treats these as two separate sounds. 
p

Stop  Fricative  Affricate IPA Representation Otherwise

too  shoe  chew [tʃ] [č]
do
do  measure
measure  judge [dƷ] [ ǰ]
[ j]
Feeling Out the Points and Manners
of Articulation: Non-
Non-English Sounds
 Feeling Out the Points and Manners
of Articulation: The Vowels

Think of the space inside your mouth as a sort of trapezoid. Most of the
sound of a vowel depends on where in this trapezoidal space the highest
point of your tongue finds itself.
 Feeling Out the Points and Manners
of Articulation: The Vowels
On the vertical axis, we 
also use these terms:
also use these terms:

High, tense
High, lax
Mid, tense

Mid, lax

Low

Think of the space inside your mouth as a sort of trapezoid. Most of the
sound of a vowel depends on where in this trapezoidal space the highest
point of your tongue finds itself.
 Feeling Out the Points and Manners
of Articulation: The Vowels
Most varieties of English only use a fraction of vowel space…

High, tense
High, lax
Mid, tense

Mid, lax

Low
 Feeling Out the Points and Manners
of Articulation: The Vowels
Most varieties of English only use a fraction of vowel space…
FFront Vowels, Close (High) to Open (Low):
tV l Cl (Hi h) t O (L )
[i] see, beat, teen
[ I] sip, bin, tin
[e] say, bait, taint Our Lonely Central Vowel
[ε] said, bet, ten
[æ] sad, bat, tan
sad, bat, tan
Back Vowels, Close (High) to Open (Low):
[u] soon, boot, too
[ʊ] f t b k t k
foot, book, took
[o] so, boat, tone For many of you, especially if you
grew up West of the Mississippi or
[ɔ] saw, bought, collar south of St. Louis,, these two vowels
[ɑ] sod, pot, caller are indistinct.
 Feeling Out the Points and Manners
of Articulation: The Vowels
Veritcal Axis: Horizontal Axis:
Horizontal Axis: Lips
Tongue Height

Open‐Mid / 
Close‐Mid / 
Close‐Lax  / 

Unrounded
High‐TTense

ense 

Rounded
High‐LLax

Mid‐Laax
Close  / 

Open // 

Centraal
Mid‐Te

Front

Back
Low
three
true
since
cabin
pain
uncle
l
sent
 Feeling Out the Points and Manners
of Articulation: The Vowels
Veritcal Axis: Horizontal Axis:
Horizontal Axis: Lips
Tongue Height

Open‐Mid / 
Close‐Mid / 
Close‐Lax  / 

Unrounded
High‐TTense

ense 

Rounded
High‐LLax

Mid‐Laax
Close  / 

Open // 

Centraal
Mid‐Te

Front

Back
Low
three X X X
true X X X
since X X X
cabin X X X
pain X X X
uncle
l X X X
sent X X X
 Feeling Out the Points and Manners
of Articulation: The Approximants
These are sounds that get in the way of the air coming 
out of the lungs, but not enough to cause trouble…
Lateral approximants:     [l]  leave, yellow, evil
Retroflex approximants: 
fl i []
[r] red, Mary, ever
d
‘Retroflex’ describes the tip of the tongue, which is 
p p g
bent backwards  to point up almost straight to the 
hard palate.
In American English, the retroflex approximant 
functions as a vowel: bird ever vertical
functions as a vowel: bird, ever, vertical
Glide approximants: [w]  way, sewer, few
[j] yes, payer, say