第3章　语　音

Study questions

1What is the difference between acoustic phonetics and articulatory phonetics?

Key: (1) Acoustic Phonetics: a study of how speech sounds are transmitted: when sound travels through the air from the speaker’s mouth to the hearer’s ear it does so in the form of vibrations in the air;

(2) Articulatory Phonetics: describes how vowels and consonants are produced or ‘articulated’ in various parts of the mouth and throat.

2Which of the following words normally end with voiceless (−V) sounds and which end with voiced sounds (+V) sounds?

Key: (a) +V

(b) −V

(c) +V

(d) +V

(e) −V

(f) −V

(g) −V

(h) +V

(i) +V

3Try to pronounce the initial sounds of the following words and identify the place of articulation of each one (e.g. bilabial, alveolar, etc.).

Key:

4Identify the manner of articulation of the initial sounds in the following words (stop, fricative, etc.).

Key:

5Which written English words are usually pronounced as they are transcribed here?

Key:

6Using symbols introduced in this chapter, write a basic phonetic transcription of the most common pronunciation of the following words.

Key:

Tasks

B. Using a dictionary if necessary, try to decide how each of the following words is usually pronounced. Then, put the words in five lists as illustrations of each of the sounds [eɪ], [i], [f], [k] and [ʃ]. Some words will be in more than one list.

air, belief, critique, crockery, Danish, gauge, giraffe, headache, keys, meat, mission, nation, ocean, pear, people, philosopher, queen, receipt, scene, Sikh, sugar, tough, weight

Key: [e] air, Danish, gauge, headache, nation, pear, weight

[i] belief, critique, keys, meat, people, queen, receipt, scene, Sikh

[f] belief, giraffe, philosopher, tough

[k] critique, crockery, headache, keys, queen, Sikh

[ʃ] Danish, mission, nation, ocean, sugar

C. We can create a definition for each consonant (e.g. [k]) by using the distinction between voiced and voiceless plus the terms for place (i.e. velar) and manner of articulation (i.e. fricative). So we say that [k] is a voiceless velar fricative. Write similar definitions for the initial sounds in the normal pronunciation of the following words.

fan, lunch, goal, jail, mist, shop, sun, tall, yellow, zoo

Are there any definitions in which the voiced/voiceless distinction is actually unnecessary and could be omitted?

Key: fan: voiceless labiodental fricative

lunch: (voiced) alveolar liquid

goal: voiced velar stop

jail: voiced palatal affricate

mist: (voiced) bilabial nasal

shop: voiceless palatal fricative

sun: voiceless alveolar fricative

tall: voiceless alveolar stop

yellow: (voiced) palatal glide

zoo: voiced alveolar fricative

In cases where there is no voiceless sound in contrast, the (voiced) feature, shown in brackets, could be omitted.

D. The terms “obstruent” and “sonorant” are sometimes used in descriptions of how consonants are pronounced. Among the types of consonants already described (affricates, fricatives, glides, liquids, nasals, stops), which are obstruents, which are sonorants, and why?

Key: (1) The obstruents are the stops, the fricatives, and the affricates;

(2) The sonorants are the vowels, liquids, glides, and nasals.

Obstruents are prototypically voiceless, though voiced obstruents are common. This contrasts with sonorants, which are rarely voiceless.

E. (I) How would you make a retroflex sound?

Key: Retroflex sounds are made with the tongue tip curled back. In some languages, retroflexes are so extreme that the tongue tip touches the hard palate or contact is made by the underside of the tongue tip.

(II) How are retroflex sounds identified in phonetic transcription?

Key: In the International Phonetic Alphabet, retroflex consonants are indicated with a hook in the bottom right, such as [ʂ ʐ ʈ ɖ ɳ ɭ ɽ ɻ]

(III) With which varieties of English are retroflex sounds generally associated?

Key: Retroflex sounds need to be distinguished from other consonants made in the same parts of the mouth (postalveolar, alveolar, or palatal):

(1) The palato-alveolar sounds (e.g. [ʃ ʒ]), such as the sh, ch and zh occurring in English words like ship, chip and vision

(2) The alveolo-palatal sounds (e.g. [ɕ ʑ]), such as the q, j and x occurring in Mandarin Chinese

(3) The dorsal palatal consonants (e.g. [ç ʝ ɲ]), such as the ch [ç] in German ich or the ñ [ɲ] in Spanish año

(4) The grooved alveolar consonants (e.g. [s z]), such as the s and z occurring in English words like sip and zip

The first three types of sounds above have a convex tongue shape, which gives them an additional secondary articulation of palatalization. The last type has a groove running down the center line of the tongue, which gives it a strongly hissing quality. The retroflex sounds, however, have a flat or concave shape, with no associated palatalization, and no groove running down the tongue. The term “retroflex”, in fact, literally means “bent back” (concave), although consonants with a flat tongue shape are commonly considered retroflex as well.

F. What is forensic phonetics?

Key: Forensic phonetics is the application of expertise in phonetics to assist in legal and law enforcement contexts, and the extension of research on phonetics to topics relevant to the legal system.