LG204 background.pdf
LG204 background.pdf
LG204 background.pdf
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<strong>LG204</strong>-5-FY ENGLISH PHONETICS AND PHONOLOGY Background<br />
narrow gap for the air to escape, resembling a fricative. Crucially, the two elements<br />
of the affricate are articulated at the same point in the mouth.<br />
Try the palato-alveolar affricate [] to see what happens.<br />
Place of articulation<br />
As I’ve said, obstructions can be made between articulators at any point in the oral<br />
cavity. It’s most likely that the contact will be made between two articulators that are<br />
reasonably near to each other. One of these is described as ‘active’ in that it moves<br />
and the other is described as ‘passive’ and remains static. When we are discussing the<br />
phonetic description of an articulation, we tend to describe it by means of both<br />
articulators involved or, if the active articulator is the tongue, in terms of the passive<br />
articulator. When we come to phonological description, we use the active articulator<br />
to characterise place, but that’s for later.<br />
Parts of the tongue: the flexible part that can protrude out of the mouth is known as<br />
the blade and the bit round the end is the tip. These two are indissoluble as we shall<br />
see later. The more fleshy, less flexible bit is the body of the tongue and it is divided<br />
into two sections for descriptive purposes: the front and the back. The part of the<br />
tongue which adjoins the larynx is known as the tongue root. This area isn’t used in<br />
the articulation of English consonants although other languages do have sounds using<br />
this as an active articulator.<br />
Bearing this in mind, we’ll start to see at what point these obstructions are, indeed<br />
made. I shall only discuss those places and combinations of manner and place that are<br />
relevant to English<br />
1. Bilabial: an obstruction made with the two lips.<br />
2. Labio-dental: the upper teeth and the lower lip<br />
3. Dental: the blade of the tongue and the upper teeth. This could also be called<br />
lingua-dental, but since the tongue is responsible for most obstructions, we<br />
tend to omit it from descriptions unless a particular tongue area making<br />
contact with part of the oral structure that isn’t immediately adjacent to it.<br />
4. Alveolar: the tip of the tongue and the alveolar ridge (tooth ridge – so called<br />
because it contains the tooth sockets or alveoli).<br />
5. Palato-alveolar: the blade of the tongue and the area of the palate which is<br />
partially the back part of the alveolar ridge<br />
6. Retroflex: the tip of the tongue and the palato-alveolar area (as above)<br />
7. Palatal: the front of the tongue and the hard palate<br />
8. Velar: the back of the tongue and velum or soft palate<br />
Voicing<br />
A third phonetic parameter required to provide a complete set of the obstruent sounds<br />
of English is ‘voice’. The term ‘voicing’ or ‘voice’ characterises the vibration of the<br />
vocal folds or vocal cords. These are located in the larynx (voice box or Adam’s<br />
apple). The larynx is a cartilage box located at the top of the trachea (or windpipe),<br />
through which the air has to pass on its way to the mouth and to the exterior. In the<br />
middle of this box is a hole, known as the glottis and the glottis is bounded by two<br />
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