The origin of phonetics. Subject of phonetics. Segmental and suprasegmental phonetics. Methods of phonetic investigation

1. The origin of phonetics. Subject of phonetics. Segmental and suprasegmental phonetics. Methods of phonetic investigation.

The birthplace of phonetics is considered to be Ancient India. The idea of studying sounds was brought about by the need to understand Veda (1500 BC), i.e. sacred songs (brahmans) sang during religious ceremonies. Correct reading of brahmans was crucial for priests, as those texts were believed to have come from gods and, consequently, could not be mispronounced in any way. The first description of a language was suggested by Panini (Ancient India, 300 or 400 BC) Panini’s grammar was mainly focused on phonetics and morphology of Sanskrit. It included a most detailed and accurate description of sound physiology and articulation.

The term «phonetics» is originated from the Greek word «phonetikos» which means «vocalic», «related to sounds».

At the early period of its development the aim of phonetics as a science was to study individual speech sounds => Today phonetics is understood as a branch of linguistics concerned with the study of speech in human communication.  It studies not only individual speech sounds and their behavior in the flow of speech, but the whole sound matter of a language: sounds, syllables, stress and intonation.

There are two basic levels of phonetic studies:

- segmental phonetics (it studies individual speech sounds)

- suprasegmental phonetics (it studies sound sequences)

Together, segmental and suprasegmental phonetics study the sound matter of a language, i.e. sounds, syllables, stress and intonation.

A human ear recognizes only those parts of speech that have distinctive features – The features of sound that differentiate meaning are called distinctive features. They are not the same in different languages. For example, in Russian palatalization (softening a consonant) can change the meaning of a word ([мел] - [мел’] [быт] - [быт’]). In English palatalization depends on the quality of the following vowel (e.g. light [l] before front vowels)

The major methods of phonetics investigation are the following:

• Phonetic observation. It is understood as listening to the test material, thus being an auditory method. Auditory phonetic observation suggests surveying vicious groups of informants, phoneticians whose ear is phonetically trained and naïve native speakers. The aim of this method is to find out what features in the speech flow are registered by the hearers’ brain as relevant for identifying meaning and which ones are ignored as irrelevant.
• Instrumental analysis originally applied in physiology and physics were introduced into phonetics in the middle of the 20th century. Instrumental analysis requires special equipment to register physiological and acoustic features of sounds and their sequences. Instrumental analysis was contrasted to auditory observation as a more objective method of study.
• Statistical methods in linguistics originate from mathematical statistics. They are applied to confirm the results obtained by other methods.

 

 

2. The branches of phonetics. Application of phonetics

Speech is a very complicated phenomenon, each of its aspects being a separate subject for investigation

1. Articulatory phonetics studies the physiology of speech and the mechanism of sound production. It studies the movements of the speech organs and their coordination in the production of the sounds. So, articulatory phonetics deals with the work of speech apparatus, its organs and their functioning
2. Acoustic phonetics studies the physical features of sounds. It studies the way in which the air vibrates between the speaker’s mouth and the listener’s ear.
3. Auditory phonetics
4. Functional phonetics studies phonetics units as elements of a system in terms of their functions, mutual relations and rules of realization

Applications of phonetics

As a linguistic science, phonetics is naturally connected with other linguistic disciplines, such as grammar, lexicology, stylistics, dialectology and sociolinguistic. Also, phonetics is related to a number of non-linguistic sciences which study the processes of speech production and speech perception.

Here are just a few spheres phonetic investigation results are applied in:

- Communication engineering

- Medicine (speech pathology)

- Psychology

- Psycholinguistics

- Sociolinguistics

- Oratory

- Foreign language teaching

 

3. Articulatory characteristics of speech sounds: place, organs and manner of articulation, the work of the vocal cords. Coarticulation. Types of assimilation.

 

Articulatory phonetics is a branch of linguistics which studies the progress of sound production. All speech sounds are produced by means of the speech apparatus. The speech apparatus is principally the same with all people and consist of 3 parts: the lungs (respiratory apparatus), the larynx (which contains the vocal cords) and organs of articulation located in mouth and nasal cavities.

The air stream released by the lungs goes through the wind-pipe and comes to the larynx, which contains the vocal cords. The vocal cords are two elastic folds which may be kept apart or brought together. The opening between them is called the glottis. If the tense vocal cords are brought together, the air stream forcing an opening makes them vibrate and we hear some voice. Such sounds are called voiced. Voiceless sounds are made with the vocal cords kept apart. There is one more state of the vocal cords – the glottal stop. When the vocal cords are brought close together and then opened suddenly by the air stream there comes a sort of coughing noise, a kind of the 'click' of the vocal cords. This sound is called the glottal stop.

The most important organ of speech is the tongue. Phoneticians divide the tongue into four sections, the part which lies opposite the soft palate is called the back of the tongue; the part facing the hard palate is called the front; the one lying under the teeth ridge is known as the blade and its extremity the tip. The central part of the tongue is the area where the front and back meet. The tongue may lie flat or move in the horizontal or vertical directions.

The lips can take up various positions as well. They can be brought firmly together or kept apart neutral, rounded, or protruded forward.

All the organs of speech can be divided into two groups:

1) Active organs of speech, movable and taking an active part in the sound formation:

(a) the vocal cords, which produce voice;

(b) the tongue, which is the most flexible, movable organ;

(c) the lips affecting very considerably the shape of the mouth cavity;

(d) the soft palate with the uvula, directing the stream of air either to the mouth or to the nasal cavity; (e) the back wall of the pharynx contracted for some sounds;

(f) the lower jaw, which movement controls the gap between the teeth and also the disposition of the lips;

(g) the lungs providing air for sounds;

2) Passive organs of speech:

(a) the teeth,

(b) the teeth ridge,

(c) the hard palate and

(d) the walls of the resonators.

 

In the process of speech production any sound goes through three phases of articulation:

− excursion, i.e. the moment when the speech organs get set to the position necessary to articulate a sound;

- exposure, i.e. the period of time when the speech organs stay in a certain articulatory position;

− recursion, i.e. the moment when the speech organs either return to the state of rest or get ready to articulate another sound.

Speech sounds influence each other in speech flow, thus becoming pronounced in a different way. These modifications of speech sounds are observed both within words and at word boundaries. Such intercourse between sounds in connected speech is termed «coaticulation». Coarticulation results in assimilation, when one of the sounds becomes fully or partially similar to the adjoining sound.

There are 3 types of assimilation:

1. Direction. The influence of the neighboring sounds in English can act in:

- progressive direction. When some articulatory features of the following sound are changed under the influence of the preceding sound, which remains unchanged, assimilation is called progressive

- regressive direction.  When the following sound influences the articulation of the preceding one assimilation is called regressive.

- double direction. It means complex mutual influence of the sounds.

2. Degree of completeness. According to its degree, assimilation can be:

- complete (in the case when the two adjoining sounds become alike or merge into one (less shy))

- incomplete (when the likeness of the adjoining sounds is partial (For example, the voiced sounds [w, l, r] are partly devoiced when preceded by the voiceless [p,t, k, s, f, Ố) within words: sweet, place, try))

3. Degree of stability. Many assimilatory phenomena have become obligatory in modern English. Changes which have taken place over a period of time within words are called historical. Besides there are a lot of widely spread but non-obligatory cases of assimilation which can be traced mainly at word boundaries

Here are some more examples of sound changes which can result from coarticulation process:

- labialization

- nasalization

- loss of plosion

- palatalization

- velarization

 

Articulatory characteristics of sounds:

1) The place of articulation where organs of sounds can come close to each other

2) Organs of articulation

3) The manner of articulation is determined by the of obstruction

4) The position of the soft palate nasal\oral

 

1) - labial [m] [b] [p] -labio-dental- [v] [f] -inter dental[ θ ] [ ð ] - alveolar [t] [d] [s] [z] [n] [l] -post-alveolar [r] -palatal [j] -velar[g] [k] [ ŋ] -glottal [h]	2) -labial [m] [b] [p] [v] [z] -lingual a) forelingual [t] [d] [s] [z] [ θ ] [ ð ][n] [r] [l] [∫][3 ][ d3] [ t∫ ] b) medialingual [j] c) backlingual [g] [k] [ŋ] - glottal [h]
3) - plosive(взрывной) [p] [b] [t] [d] [k] [g] -fricative [f] [v][ θ ] [ ð ] [s] [z] [h] [∫][3] -affricative [d3] [ t∫ ] - approximants [w] [l] [r] [j]	4) -oral (all the other sounds) -nasal [m] [n] [ŋ]

 

4. Articulatory settings. Articulatory settings in English and Russian: comparison and contrast. Problems of foreign language acquisition.

Although the speech apparatus is the same with all humans, speakers do not use the full of its potential. Every language suggests certain manner of articulation, i.e. certain positions and movements of speech organs used by speakers of this language and tightly connected with its phonetic system. Here we can speak about articulatory settings of a language.

The articulatory settings of a language can be described through the following characteristics:

– activity,  
– localization, (eng- back, rus- front) 
– typical movements of speech organs. (the tongue - the most active; eng- move from the lower jaw upper alvelour; rus- между зубами)

 
As for localization, the Russian articulatory settings are the following:

1. The tip of the tongue is positioned against the lower teeth.  
2. The middle part of the tongue is a little raised and advanced forward.  
3. The lips are a bit protruded.

Finally, the typical movements of the speech organs are the following:

1. The tongue moves forward towards the lower teeth, touching them with the tip.

2. The tongue-tip moves upward towards the hard palate .

3. Light, smooth movements: from position 1 to the vocalic position (dental consonants + front vowels); from position 2 to the vocalic position (palatal consonants + front vowels). 
 
Articulation settings: 
1) Statics - neutral position of speech organs ( when the speaker is silent) 
2) Dynamics - position of articulation in sound to sound 

 
The Russian articulatory settings: 
1) The front of the tongue is raised towards the hard palate 
2) The tip of tongue is toward and it touched the lower teeth 
3) The lips are slightly rounded 
 
The English articulatory settings:

1) Energetic, forceful articulation

2) The tip of the tongue tends to be back-retracted

3) The lips are spread and pressed against the upper teeth

4) The tip of the tongue is positioned against the lower alveoli and doesn’t touch it

Problems of foreign language acquisition.

The  articulatory settings of a language together with its prosody (rhythm and intonation) comprise  the phonetic settings of a language. Thus, «good» pronunciation presupposes the right use of both articulatory and prosodic settings. The differences between sounds which do not exist (are not meaningful)  in the native language (e.g. long/short vowels in Russian) are not perceived by the learners unless specially worked through.  The sound characteristics which do not distinguish meaning remain “unheard” by learners.

Thus, teaching pronunciation appears to be quite a problem. The question is how to teach students new phonetic settings (the one of the TL). Here are a few basic strategies applied in teaching pronunciation today: 

−  imitation;

−  contrasting the SL and TL positions of speech organs;

−  familiarizing learners with the new phonetic settings (building the phonetic system of the TL) by focusing on the crucial differences between the systems and contrasting the distinctive features of  sounds, rhythm and intonation of the two systems. 

5. Phonology: the phoneme and allophone. Complementary and parallel distribution. Distinctive features of phonemes.

 
The phoneme and allophone. 
Phonemic means "relevant to differentiate meanings of words " 
Kate-skate           pie-spy      take-stake 
[keit-skate]         [pai-spai]   [teik-steik]

 
These aspirated and non-aspirated realizations are allophones of one phoneme. They appear before in different phonetics contexts: 
-aspirated consonants appear before stressed vowels unless they are preceded by [s] 
-non-aspirated realizations appear when [p] [t] [k] are preceded by [s]

 
These two allophones are in complementary distribution: they complement each other and belong to the set of allophones of one phoneme. 
Although all the allophones are phonetically different, they are not phonologically relevant as they do not differentiate words. 
However, for the native speakers of Hindi or Korean the aspirated and non-aspirated plosives are different phonemes because they can appear in the same phonetic context and differentiate the meanings of words; in Korean they even distinguish non-aspirated, weakly aspirated and strongly aspirated voiceless consonants. Thus in Hindi and Korean [ph] and [p] are different phonemes because they occur in the same context and change the meaning of words:

e.g. Hindi: [pal] = nurture, [phal] =knife blade; [tal] =beat, [thal] =platter.

Conversely, in English and in Russian /r/ and /1/ are different phonemes as they can appear in the same phonetic context and cause semantic difference:

English: right, light— [rait], [lait];

Russian: ром — лом.

In Korean /r/ and /1/ are allophones of the same phoneme: /1/ appears at the beginning and at the end of the syllable, while /r/ is realized between vowels:

Korean: [mal] horse, [mare] at the horse; [mul] water, [mure] at the water.

This is the way Korean girls sang the once popular song in Russian: Мирион, мирион арих лоз...

Another example: in English the dental voiced fricative /ð/ and the alveolar voiced plosive /d/ are different phonemes: they appear in the same phonetic context and by replacing one for the other we get a different word, i.e. bring about a semantic contrast:

English: [dei] day, [ðei] they. 
From the point of view of distribution the English sounds /ð/ and /d/ have parallel distribution: both can occur at the beginning, at the end of a word or a syllable and between vowels: this, mother, booth, day, today, Ted.

By contrast, in Castillian Spanish the dental plosive [d] and the dental fricative [ð] are allophones of the phoneme /d/, as they appear in different phonetic contexts (complementary distribution): the dental fricative is used only between vowels: [naða] nothing, [predo] meadow. In all other contexts the plosive /d/ is used: [dias] days, [andar] to go.

Thus we can conclude that two or more sounds are allophones if they are in complementary distribution and if they are phonetically similar.  
Two or more sounds are realizations of different phonemes if they are in parallel distribution and they serve to differentiate words.

Phonetic similarity is a relevant condition for the case of/h/ and /η/ which have complementary distribution because /h/ occurs only at the beginning of a word, in syllable onset; /η/ can occur only at the end of a word, in syllable coda, but because of their phonetic dissimilarity they cannot be allophones of one phoneme.

In phonology the basic method of establishing the phonemic status of a sound is the method of finding minimal pairs. The method suggests finding at least one pair of words which are different in that sound: pit — bit, man — men, stick — sticks. When 2 words are identical except for 1 sound which makes a contrast in the meaning of words, they are said to form a minimal pair, and the 2 sounds are different phonemes. The 2 phonemes are distinguished by at least one distinctive (phonemic) feature. 
Sounds are then grouped into classes according to the features which are distinctive (phonemic) for the particular language.

In English the following features are distinctive for consonants:

1. the place of articulation
2. the manner of articulation
3. force of articulation
4. the position of the soft palate

 

The manner of articulation is determined by the type of obstruction and the manner of noise production.  
-plosives 
-fricative 
-affricates- complex consonants: they starts being articulated as plosives or occlusive and end as fricatives. The transition from occlusion to constriction is not noticeable 
-nasal 
-approximants take the intermediate position between vowels and consonants as they resemble vowels by the weaker air stream, but on the other hand, they are articulated with quite a significant force of articulation to overcome the obstruction in the mouth cavity( there 4 approximates: central app. [w] [r] [∫]; lateral app.: [l]

Force of Articulation

According to the data of instrumental analysis, consonants are fully voiced only in a formal setting, when the speech tempo is slow and the vocal cords vibrate all through the time of the sound production. On the other hand, in informal communication, when the speech is fast and careless, the vocal cords might not vibrate at all while producing such “voiced” plosives as [b], [d] or [ɡ].

Here the question arises: how are they then be distinguished from the corresponding voiceless plosives [p], [t] or [k]? How do hearers recognize them as such? What is the feature that differentiates meaning?

Researchers suppose that it is aspiration when the consonants are used in the initial position and the length of the preceding vowel when the consonants are in the final position.

e.g. such words as pay-bay, tie-die, Kate-gate are perceived as different not just because  [p], [t] and [k] are voiceless and [b], [d] and [ɡ] are voiced, but because [p], [t] and [k] are pronounced with aspiration. In contrast to English, initial [б, д, г] are always fully voiced in Russian and Romanic languages.

Now let’s consider the quality of consonants in the final position. The difference in meaning between the words  coat-code, leak-league is conditioned by the difference in the length of the preceding vowel ([t] and [k] significantly shorten preceding vowels). Similarly, the final [v], [ð], [z], [ʒ] can get completely devoiced in informal communication, when the speech tempo is fast. Thus, such word as eyes-ice, leave-leaf will be perceived as different only due to the length of the preceding vowel.

Many phoneticians consider English voiceless consonants to be produced with greater force of articulation compared to the voiced ones. Consequently, they find it more logical to differentiate English consonants not as voiced and voiceless, but as fortis (strong) and lenis (weak). This is the classification accepted now. As a rule, fortis consonants are also characterized by greater length. E.g. experiment: when the beginning of ([p], [t] and [k] was erased from the recording, native speakers of English got to identify them as [b], [d] and [ɡ].

The position of the soft palate.

English consonants are classified as either oral or nasal according to this feature.

 
6. The vowel system of English: principles of classification, distinctive features of English vowels. The vowel system of English and Russian: comparison and contrast. Articulation of similar consonants in the English and Russian languages.

The vowel system of English

There are 20 vowel sounds which have a distinctive function in Standard British English. The basic classifying features of English vowels are quality, length and position of the lips, among which quality is the only phonemic one. 
The basic classifying features: 
1) quality 
2) length 
3) position of the lips 

Vowel quality depends on the height and the front-back position of the tongue; according to the vertical position of the tongue, vowels can be close([i:] [u:]), open([o] [a:] [æ]) or mid-open (mid-high[i] [u] and mid-low[e] [ə:] [Λ] [o:]); according to the horizontal position of the tongue, they are classified into front([i:] [i] [e] [æ]), back ([u;] [u] [o:] [o] [a:]) and central ([Λ] [ə:] ). Also, vowel quality includes stability of articulation: if the vowel quality throughout its production is homogeneous it is a monophthongs([i] [e] [a:] [æ] [o] [o:] [Λ] [ə][ ə:] [u]); a change in quality results in a diphthong([ei] [ai] [oi] [au] [əu] [i ə] [u ə] [eə]); however, most of the long vowels are in between, and they are called diphthongoids([i:] [u:]).