Vowel and consonants beyond English

Vowel and consonants
beyond English
LIGN 210
Spring Quarter 2009
Flapping
In American English, [t] is pronounced as an
alveolar tap [ɾ] when found between a stressed
vowel and an unstressed vowel, e.g. city, potato,
Ottawa.
Nasal + stop sequences can also be pronounced
like flaps if the stress conditions are also met, e.g.
winter.
A flap (or tap) is a single flick of the tongue against
the alveolar ridge; this is a very short, ballistic
movement (i.e. this is not a controlled closure, but
really a short tap).
*In many American publications D is used instead of [ɾ]
Trills
Trills involve the vibration of an articulator (lips,
tongue tip, or uvula) by a current of air
Trills can only be produced under the right
aerodynamic conditions
Although they can be sustained, they typically
have no more than 2-5 periods
[ʙ] = voiced bilabial trill (Kele)
[r] = voiced alveolar trill (Spanish ‘double r’)
[ʀ] = voiced uvular trill (Swedish, some varieties of
French and German)
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What we will talk about
Taps, Flaps and Trills
Types of consonants attested in each place
of articulation
Double and secondary articulations
Vowels beyond English
A flap (from Catford 1994)
Taps and Flaps
Tap – the tip of the tongue hits the roof of the
mouth once (the movement is up-down) e.g. very
Flap – the tip of the tongue is curled up like a
retroflex before hitting the roof of the mouth (the
movement is back-to-front), e.g. dirty
[ɾ] = voiced alveolar tap
[ɻ ] = voiced retroflex flap
Tap and trill example
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Rhotic consonants
Dental/alveolar trill [r] Spanish
Dental/alveolar tap/flap [ɾ] Spanish
Dental/alveolar approximant [ɹ] English
Alveolar (laminal) fricative trill [r̝] Czech
Dental/alveolar lateral tap/flap [ɺ] Japanese
Retroflex tap/flap [ɽ] Tamil
Retroflex approximant [ɻ] English
Uvular trill [ʀ] French
Uvular approximant [ʁ] French
It is not clear what makes rhotics a category
Laterals and Place of Articulation
Laterals may be produced at various places of
articulation: dental, alveolar, retroflex, palatal, or
velar:
[l̪] = voiced dental lateral approximant (Malayalam)
[l] = voiced alveolar lateral approximant (English)
[ɭ] = voiced retroflex lateral approximant (Malayalam)
[ʎ] = voiced palatal lateral approximant (Italian, Spanish,
Greek)
[ʟ] = voiced velar lateral approximant (Melpa - Papua
New Guinea)
Labials - Bilabials
English has only bilabial stops [m p b].
Bilabial fricatives are also possible.
Spanish has a voiced bilabial fricative [β]:
cabo [kaβo]
Japanese has a voiceless bilabial fricative [ɸ].
Ewe (spoken in Ghana and Togo) has both
voiceless and voiced bilabial fricatives: [ɸ]
and [β].
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Laterals and Manner of Articulation
English has only one lateral, the alveolar lateral
approximant [l].
Laterals can also be stops, fricatives or flaps
[ɬ] = voiceless alveolar lateral fricative
[ɮ] = voiced alveolar lateral fricative
Welsh has a voiceless alveolar lateral fricative: [ɬ].
Zulu has [l] [ɬ] and [ɮ].
It is also possible to make a voiced alveolar (or
retroflex) lateral flap, [ɺ], as in Japanese.
Types of consonants attested in each
place of articulation
Labials - Labiodentals
English has labiodental fricatives: [f v].
It also has a labiodental nasal, [ɱ], as an
alternate of /m/ in words like ‘infamous’.
German has a voiceless labial affricate, [pf], as in
the word for horse ‘pferd’.
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Coronals – Alveolars
English has alveolar stops: [t d n].
It is also possible to have alveolar affricates.
German has a voiceless alveolar affricate [ts].
Canadian French and Greek have both voiced and
voiceless alveolar affricates [ts] and [dz]; e.g.
(GR) [tsai] tea, [dzaci] fireplace.
Coronals - Postalveolar
English has postalveolar fricatives and
affricates: [ʃ ʒtʃ dʒ].
Polish has alveolo-palatal fricatives:
[ɕ] = voiceless alveolo-palatal fricative
[ʑ] = voiced alveolo-palatal fricative
The alveolo-palatal consonants have greater raising
of the front of the tongue than the postalveolars.
Coronals – Palatals
English has only one palatal, the approximant [ j ].
Other languages have palatal stops, fricatives, nasals and
liquids.
Akan, Greek, and Hungarian have voiceless and voiced
palatal stops: [c ɟ].
German has a voiceless palatal fricative: [ç].
Greek has both voiceless and voiced palatal fricatives
and a lateral: [ç ʝʎ].
Italian, Spanish, French, Hungarian, and Greek have a
palatal nasal: [ɲ].
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Coronals – Alveolars
Consonants can be articulated forward of the
alveolar ridge (dental) or further back (behind the
center of the alveolar ridge).
Spanish has dental stops: [t̪ d̪ n̪].
Hindi and Sindhi have retracted alveolar
affricates: [t̠ʃ] [t̠ʃ h ] [d̠ʒ] and [d̠ʒ h ] (these are
similar to the English postalveolar affricates).
Coronals - Retroflex
Retroflex sounds are produced with the tip of the
tongue curled up and back to touch the area behind
the alveolar ridge.
Retroflex stops, fricatives, and nasals are found in
many languages of India, such as Malayalam.
Some Dravidian languages of South India, like
Malayalam, contrast dental, alveolar, and retroflex
stops.
Link to movie
The Articulation of Palatals
From Ladefoged, 2001
Hungarian palatals
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Variation in dental/alveolar articulations
From Catford 1994
Nunggubuyu Coronals
From
Ladefoged,
2001
Retroflex vs. Rectracted Alveolar
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From
Ladefoged,
2001
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How many coronals can a language have?
Most often, two to three coronal places of articulation are
used by a given language; e.g. some Dravidian languages of
South India, like Malayalam, contrast dental, alveolar, and
retroflex stops.
Toda, a Dravidian language, has a four way coronal
fricative contrast: laminal alveolar [s̻], apical post-alveolar
[s̺], laminal post-alveolar [ʃ], and retroflex [ʂ]
Some Australian aboriginal languages, such as Nunngubuyu,
contrast dental, alveolar, and retroflex stops, [t̪ t ʈ], and also
have a retracted alveolar affricate: [t̠ ʃ ].
Dental vs. Alveolar
Palatogram linguagram
Toda fricatives i
Laminal alveolar Apical post-alveolar
From Ladefoged and Maddieson 1996
From Ladefoged,
2001
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Toda fricatives ii
Laminal post-alveolar Retroflex
(sub-apical palatal)
Dorsals - Uvulars
Uvular stops are found in Quechua and in
Inuktitut.
[q] = voiceless uvular stop
[G] = voiced uvular stop
[ɴ] = voiced uvular nasal (stop)
Uvular fricatives are found in French:
[ʁ̥] = voiceless uvular fricative, e.g. lettre [lεtʁ̥].
[ʁ] = voiced uvular fricative, e.g. rose [ʁoz].
Double articulations
Double articulations involve two simultaneous
articulations of the same degree of stricture, as in
[w], the labial-velar approximant
Double stops and nasals: [k͡p], [g͡b], [ŋ͡m]
Clicks are also double articulations, involving
(usually) a dorsal and a coronal constriction
The two articulations are not exactly
simultaneous, but show a small phase difference,
and slightly longer duration than single
consonants (but much shorter duration than
clusters)
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Dorsals – Velar
English has the stops [k g N].
Fricatives are also possible in the velar place of
articulation.
German has a voiceless velar fricative: [x].
Spanish has a voiced velar fricative: [γ]; e.g.
[paγaɾ] to pay.
Greek has both [x] and [γ]; e.g. [xarti] paper,
[γata] cat.
Link to Malayalam
Dorsals – Pharyngeal, Epiglotall, Glottal
Pharyngeal sounds are found in Arabic, some
northwest Native American languages, and in the
languages of the Caucasus, such as Chechen.
[ħ] = voiceless pharyngeal fricative
[ʕ] = voiced pharyngeal fricative (or approximant)
Epiglottal sounds are found in the languages of
the Caucasus: voiceless [ʜ] and voiced [ʢ]
fricative/approximants, and a plosive [ʡ]
Glottal fricatives are either voiced [ɦ] or
voiceless [h]; glottal stops are also possible [ʔ]
Labial-velar timing
Coordination of
tongue and lip
gestures during the
production of
voiceless and
voiced labial-velar
stops in Ewe
From Ladefoged and Maddieson 1996
Vertical displacement (normalized scale)
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Secondary articulations
A secondary articulation is an added constriction that
is wider (typically an approximant) than the primary
constriction involved in the production of a sound
A secondary articulation is considered to be
simultaneous with the primary articulation, though
Ladefoged and Maddieson (1996) show that some
secondary articulations may be timed earlier with
respect to the primary articulation (e.g. velarization),
while others are timed late (e.g. palatalization)
How many vowels are there?
No one knows exactly.
We do know, however, that human ears can
distinguish about 40 vowel heights and 5 to 30
degrees of backness (depending on vowel height).
It is unlikely, however, that a language which uses
such fine vowel distinctions will be found.
So, slight differences in vowel quality may not be
used contrastively in a language, but they are salient
enough to distinguish accents.
Length
Languages distinguish vowels not only in quality
but in quantity, too.
Languages that use quantity usually distinguish
long and short vowels
Note that this distinction is not necessarily the
same as the tense/lax distinction of English).
A few languages, like Esthonian, are said to have
three vowel lengths: short, long, and superlong.
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Types of secondary articulations
Typical secondary articulations:
Palatalization (raising and fronting of tongue) [pj ]
Velarization (raising the back of the tongue) [lγ ]
Pharyngealization (narrowing of the pharynx) [tʕ ]
Since coloring previously attributed to velarization
turned out to be articulatory more akin to
pharyngealization, it is now possible to notate such
sounds with a tilde through the sound: [ɫ]
Labialization (lip rounding) [tw ]
Labialization (lip rounding) may occur with
palatalization; e.g. Twi [twi] (a language of Ghana)
How many vowels do languages have?
The number of vowels differs greatly among languages.
The accepted minimum is three vowels, typically [i a u]
However, Kabardian, a language of the Caucasus, is said
to have only two vowels, [ɑ] and [i]
But phonetic studies (e.g. Choi 1989, JASA) suggest
three vowels, [ɑ], [ə] and [i], on the basis of both
durational differences ([ɑ] > [ ə] >[i] by 35% in each
case), as well as spectral differences which confirm that
the vowels contrast almost exclusively in height.
Arrernte, one of the Australian Aboriginal languages,
also has a two-vowel system [ə] and [a].
The Dutch dialect of Weert is said to have 28 vowels: 12
long, 10 short, and 6 diphthongs.
Nasality
Vowels can be produced with a lowered velum, allowing
air to escape not only through the oral cavity but also
through the nasal cavity.
Such vowels are nasalized.
We show vowel nasalization by putting a tilde (~) on top of
the vowel symbol, e.g. [ã].
French and Portuguese are two European languages that
have several nasalized vowels (which contrast with oral
vowels of similar height and backness)
About 25% of the world’s languages use nasalized vowels
contrastively
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Advanced Tongue Root (ATR)
In many African languages (e.g. Wolof, Akan, Igbo),
vowels are distinguished by drawing the root of the
tongue forward and/or lowering the larynx, increasing the
size of the pharynx; these articulatory gestures are known
as advanced tongue root (ATR).
ATR vowels show different acoustic characteristics from
non ATR vowels due to the enlarged larynx (they are
raised and fronted)
Advanced Tongue Root - Akan
+ATR and –ATR vowels of the Akyem dialect of Akan (Lindau 1975); from
Ladefoged and Maddieson 1996
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Advanced Tongue Root - Igbo
X-ray outlines of the position of the tongue:
Ladefoged & Maddieson, 1996
ATR and tenseness
The ATR distinction is
similar (but not the
same as) to the
tense/lax distinction:
tense vowels tend to
have more advanced
tongue root than lax
vowels
English vowels (Perkell, 1969)
German vowels
(Bolla & Valaczkai 1986)
From L&M 1996
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