Manners of Articulation 15 tongue and the back part of the alveolar ridge.The higher-pitched sounds with a more obvious hiss,such as those in sigh,shy,are sometimes called sibilants. Approximant (A gesture in which one articulator is close to another,but without the vocal tract being narrowed to such an extent that a turbulent airstream is produced.)In say- ing the first sound in yacht,the front of the tongue is raised toward the palatal area of the roof of the mouth,but it does not come close enough for a fricative sound to be produced.The consonants in the word we (approximation between the lips and in the velar region)and,for some people,in the word raw (approximation in the alveolar region)are also examples of approximants. Lateral(Approximant) (Obstruction of the airstream at a point along the center of the oral tract,with incomplete closure between one or both sides of the tongue and the roof of the mouth.)Say the word lie and note how the tongue touches near the center of the alveolar ridge.Prolong the initial consonant and note how,despite the closure formed by the tongue,air flows out freely,over the side of the tongue. Because there is no stoppage of the air,and not even any fricative noises,these sounds are classified as approximants.The consonants in words such as lie, laugh are alveolar lateral approximants,but they are usually called just alveo- lar laterals,their approximant status being assumed.You may be able to find out which side of the tongue is not in contact with the roof of the mouth by holding the consonant position while you breathe inward.The tongue will feel colder on the side that is not in contact with the roof of the mouth. Additional Consonantal Gestures In this preliminary chapter,it is not necessary to discuss all of the manners of articulation used in the various languages of the world-nor,for that matter, in English.But it might be useful to know the terms trill (sometimes called roll)and tap (sometimes called flap).Tongue-tip trills occur in some forms of Scottish English in words such as rye and raw.Taps,in which the tongue makes a single tap against the alveolar ridge,occur in the middle of a word such as pity in many forms of American English. The production of some sounds involves more than one of these manners of articulation.Say the word cheap and think about how you make the first sound.At the beginning,the tongue comes up to make contact with the back part of the al- veolar ridge to form a stop closure.This contact is then slackened so that there is a fricative at the same place of articulation.This kind of combination of a stop imme- diately followed by a fricative is called an affricate,in this case a palato-alveolar (or post-alveolar)affricate.There is a voiceless affricate at the beginning and end of the word church.The corresponding voiced affricate occurs at the beginning and end of judge.In all these sounds the articulators (tongue tip or blade and alveolar
Manners of Articulation 15 tongue and the back part of the alveolar ridge. The higher-pitched sounds with a more obvious hiss, such as those in sigh, shy, are sometimes called sibilants. Approximant (A gesture in which one articulator is close to another, but without the vocal tract being narrowed to such an extent that a turbulent airstream is produced.) In saying the first sound in yacht, the front of the tongue is raised toward the palatal area of the roof of the mouth, but it does not come close enough for a fricative sound to be produced. The consonants in the word we (approximation between the lips and in the velar region) and, for some people, in the word raw (approximation in the alveolar region) are also examples of approximants. Lateral (Approximant) (Obstruction of the airstream at a point along the center of the oral tract, with incomplete closure between one or both sides of the tongue and the roof of the mouth.) Say the word lie and note how the tongue touches near the center of the alveolar ridge. Prolong the initial consonant and note how, despite the closure formed by the tongue, air flows out freely, over the side of the tongue. Because there is no stoppage of the air, and not even any fricative noises, these sounds are classified as approximants. The consonants in words such as lie, laugh are alveolar lateral approximants, but they are usually called just alveolar laterals, their approximant status being assumed. You may be able to find out which side of the tongue is not in contact with the roof of the mouth by holding the consonant position while you breathe inward. The tongue will feel colder on the side that is not in contact with the roof of the mouth. Additional Consonantal Gestures In this preliminary chapter, it is not necessary to discuss all of the manners of articulation used in the various languages of the world—nor, for that matter, in English. But it might be useful to know the terms trill (sometimes called roll) and tap (sometimes called flap). Tongue-tip trills occur in some forms of Scottish English in words such as rye and raw. Taps, in which the tongue makes a single tap against the alveolar ridge, occur in the middle of a word such as pity in many forms of American English. The production of some sounds involves more than one of these manners of articulation. Say the word cheap and think about how you make the first sound. At the beginning, the tongue comes up to make contact with the back part of the alveolar ridge to form a stop closure. This contact is then slackened so that there is a fricative at the same place of articulation. This kind of combination of a stop immediately followed by a fricative is called an affricate, in this case a palato-alveolar (or post-alveolar) affricate. There is a voiceless affricate at the beginning and end of the word church. The corresponding voiced affricate occurs at the beginning and end of judge. In all these sounds the articulators (tongue tip or blade and alveolar 31269_01_Ch01_pp001-032 pp2.indd Sec2:15 10/29/09 4:57:15 PM Copyright 2010 Cengage Learning, Inc. All Rights Reserved. May not be copied, scanned, or duplicated, in whole or in part
16 CHAPTER 1 Articulation and Acoustics Figure 1.8 The positions of the vocal organs in the bilabial stop in buy. Figure 1.9 The positions of the vocal organs in the bilabial nasal(stop)in my. ridge)come together for the stop and then,instead of coming fully apart,separate only slightly,so that a fricative is made at approximately the same place of articula- tion.Try to feel these movements in your own pronunciation of these words. Words in English that start with a vowel in the spelling (like eek,oak,ark, etc.)are pronounced with a glottal stop at the beginning of the vowel.This "glottal catch"sound isn't written in these words and is easy to overlook;but in a sequence of two words in which the first word ends with a vowel and the sec- ond starts with a vowel,the glottal stop is sometimes obvious.For example,the phrase flee east is different from the word fleeced in that the first has a glottal stop at the beginning of east
16 CHAPTER 1 Articulation and Acoustics ridge) come together for the stop and then, instead of coming fully apart, separate only slightly, so that a fricative is made at approximately the same place of articulation. Try to feel these movements in your own pronunciation of these words. Words in English that start with a vowel in the spelling (like eek, oak, ark, etc.) are pronounced with a glottal stop at the beginning of the vowel. This “glottal catch” sound isn’t written in these words and is easy to overlook; but in a sequence of two words in which the first word ends with a vowel and the second starts with a vowel, the glottal stop is sometimes obvious. For example, the phrase flee east is different from the word fleeced in that the first has a glottal stop at the beginning of east. Figure 1.8 The positions of the vocal organs in the bilabial stop in buy. Figure 1.9 The positions of the vocal organs in the bilabial nasal (stop) in my. 31269_01_Ch01_pp001-032 pp2.indd Sec2:16 10/29/09 4:57:15 PM Copyright 2010 Cengage Learning, Inc. All Rights Reserved. May not be copied, scanned, or duplicated, in whole or in part
The Waveforms of Consonants 17 Figure 1.10 The positions of the vocal organs in the palato-alveolar(post-alveolar) fricative in shy. To summarize,the consonants we have been discussing so far may be described in terms of five factors: 1.state of the vocal folds (voiced or voiceless); 2.place of articulation; 3.central or lateral articulation; 4.soft palate raised to form a velic closure (oral sounds)or lowered (nasal sounds);and 5.manner of articulatory action. Thus,the consonant at the beginning of the word sing is a (1)voiceless, (2)alveolar,(3)central,(4)oral,(5)fricative;and the consonant at the end of sing is a(1)voiced,(2)velar,(3)central,(4)nasal,(5)stop. On most occasions,it is not necessary to state all five points.Unless a spe- cific statement to the contrary is made,consonants are usually presumed to be central,not lateral,and oral rather than nasal.Consequently,points (3)and(4) may often be left out,so the consonant at the beginning of sing is simply called a voiceless alveolar fricative.When describing nasals,point(4)has to be specifically mentioned and point(5)can be left out,so the consonant at the end of sing is simply called a voiced velar nasal. THE WAVEFORMS OF CONSONANTS At this stage,we will not go too deeply into the acoustics of consonants,simply noting a few distinctive points about their waveforms.The places of articulation are not obvious in any waveform,but the differences in some of the principal
The Waveforms of Consonants 17 To summarize, the consonants we have been discussing so far may be described in terms of five factors: 1. state of the vocal folds (voiced or voiceless); 2. place of articulation; 3. central or lateral articulation; 4. soft palate raised to form a velic closure (oral sounds) or lowered (nasal sounds); and 5. manner of articulatory action. Thus, the consonant at the beginning of the word sing is a (1) voiceless, (2) alveolar, (3) central, (4) oral, (5) fricative; and the consonant at the end of sing is a (1) voiced, (2) velar, (3) central, (4) nasal, (5) stop. On most occasions, it is not necessary to state all five points. Unless a specific statement to the contrary is made, consonants are usually presumed to be central, not lateral, and oral rather than nasal. Consequently, points (3) and (4) may often be left out, so the consonant at the beginning of sing is simply called a voiceless alveolar fricative. When describing nasals, point (4) has to be specifically mentioned and point (5) can be left out, so the consonant at the end of sing is simply called a voiced velar nasal. THE WAVEFORMS OF CONSONANTS At this stage, we will not go too deeply into the acoustics of consonants, simply noting a few distinctive points about their waveforms. The places of articulation are not obvious in any waveform, but the differences in some of the principal Figure 1.10 The positions of the vocal organs in the palato-alveolar (post-alveolar) fricative in shy. 31269_01_Ch01_pp001-032 pp2.indd Sec2:17 10/29/09 4:57:16 PM Copyright 2010 Cengage Learning, Inc. All Rights Reserved. May not be copied, scanned, or duplicated, in whole or in part
18 CHAPTER 1 Articulation and Acoustics manners of articulation-stop,nasal,fricative,and approximant-are usually apparent.Furthermore,as already pointed out,you can also see the differences between voiced and voiceless sounds. The top half of Figure 1.11 shows the waveform of the phrase My two boys know how to fish,labeled roughly in ordinary spelling.The lower part shows the same waveform with labels pointing out the different manners of articulation.The time scale at the bottom shows that this phrase took about two and a half seconds. Looking mainly at the labeled version in the lower part of the figure,you can see in the waveform where the lips open after the nasal consonant in my so that the amplitude gets larger for the vowel.The vowel is ended by the voiceless stop consonant at the beginning of two,for which there is a very short silence followed by a burst of noise as the stop closure is released.This burst is why the oral stop consonants are called "plosives"in the International Phonetic Alphabet chart.The vowel in two is followed by the voiced stop at the beginning of boys. The voicing for the stop makes this closure different from the one at the begin- ning of two,producing small voicing vibrations instead of a flat line.After the vowel in boys,there is a fricative with a more nearly random waveform pattern, although there are some voicing vibrations intermingled with the noise. The waveform of the [n in know is very like that of the m at the begin- ning of the utterance.It shows regular glottal pulses,but they are smaller (have Figure 1.11 The waveform of the phrase My two boys know how to fish m y t two bl o y s knowhow to fish closure fricative burst vowel nasal vowel vowel nasal vowel vowel fricative fricative closure closure vowel 0 1.0 2.0 seconds
18 CHAPTER 1 Articulation and Acoustics manners of articulation—stop, nasal, fricative, and approximant—are usually apparent. Furthermore, as already pointed out, you can also see the differences between voiced and voiceless sounds. The top half of Figure 1.11 shows the waveform of the phrase My two boys know how to fish, labeled roughly in ordinary spelling. The lower part shows the same waveform with labels pointing out the different manners of articulation. The time scale at the bottom shows that this phrase took about two and a half seconds. Looking mainly at the labeled version in the lower part of the figure, you can see in the waveform where the lips open after the nasal consonant in my so that the amplitude gets larger for the vowel. The vowel is ended by the voiceless stop consonant at the beginning of two, for which there is a very short silence followed by a burst of noise as the stop closure is released. This burst is why the oral stop consonants are called “plosives” in the International Phonetic Alphabet chart. The vowel in two is followed by the voiced stop at the beginning of boys. The voicing for the stop makes this closure different from the one at the beginning of two, producing small voicing vibrations instead of a flat line. After the vowel in boys, there is a fricative with a more nearly random waveform pattern, although there are some voicing vibrations intermingled with the noise. The waveform of the [ n ] in know is very like that of the [ m ] at the beginning of the utterance. It shows regular glottal pulses, but they are smaller (have nasal vowel nasal vowel vowel vowel closure closure closure m y two b o y s knowhow to fish burst burst vowel vowel fricative fricative fricative h v 0 1.0 2.0 seconds Figure 1.11 The waveform of the phrase My two boys know how to fish. 31269_01_Ch01_pp001-032 pp2.indd Sec2:18 10/29/09 4:57:16 PM Copyright 2010 Cengage Learning, Inc. All Rights Reserved. May not be copied, scanned, or duplicated, in whole or in part
The Articulation of Vowel Sounds 19 less amplitude)than those in the following vowel.The [h that follows this vowel is very short,with hardly any voiceless interval.After the vowel in how,there are some further very short actions.There is hardly any closure for the [t ]and the vowel in to has only a few vocal fold pulses,making it much shorter than any of the other vowels in the sentence.The fricative [f at the beginning of fish is a little less loud (has a slightly smaller amplitude)than the fricative at the end of this word. THE ARTICULATION OF VOWEL SOUNDS In the production of vowel sounds,the articulators do not come very close to- gether,and the passage of the airstream is relatively unobstructed.We can describe vowel sounds roughly in terms of the position of the highest point of the tongue and the position of the lips.(As we will see later,more accurate descriptions can be made in acoustic terms.)Figure 1.12 shows the articulatory position for the vowels in heed,hid,head,had,father,good,food.Of course,in saying these words,the tongue and lips are in continuous motion throughout the vowels,as we saw in the x-ray movie in demonstration 1.1 on the CD.The positions shown in the figure are best considered as the targets of the gestures for the vowels. Figure 1.12 The positions of the vocal organs for the vowels in the words 1 heed,2 hid, 3 head,4 had,5 father,6 good,7 food.The lip positions for vowels 2,3,and 4 are between those shown for 1 and 5.The lip position for vowel 6 is between those shown for 1 and 7
The Articulation of Vowel Sounds 19 less amplitude) than those in the following vowel. The [h] that follows this vowel is very short, with hardly any voiceless interval. After the vowel in how, there are some further very short actions. There is hardly any closure for the [t], and the vowel in to has only a few vocal fold pulses, making it much shorter than any of the other vowels in the sentence. The fricative [f] at the beginning of fish is a little less loud (has a slightly smaller amplitude) than the fricative at the end of this word. THE ARTICULATION OF VOWEL SOUNDS In the production of vowel sounds, the articulators do not come very close together, and the passage of the airstream is relatively unobstructed. We can describe vowel sounds roughly in terms of the position of the highest point of the tongue and the position of the lips. (As we will see later, more accurate descriptions can be made in acoustic terms.) Figure 1.12 shows the articulatory position for the vowels in heed, hid, head, had, father, good, food. Of course, in saying these words, the tongue and lips are in continuous motion throughout the vowels, as we saw in the x-ray movie in demonstration 1.1 on the CD. The positions shown in the figure are best considered as the targets of the gestures for the vowels. Figure 1.12 The positions of the vocal organs for the vowels in the words 1 heed, 2 hid, 3 head, 4 had, 5 father, 6 good, 7 food. The lip positions for vowels 2, 3, and 4 are between those shown for 1 and 5. The lip position for vowel 6 is between those shown for 1 and 7. 31269_01_Ch01_pp001-032 pp2.indd Sec2:19 10/29/09 4:57:16 PM Copyright 2010 Cengage Learning, Inc. All Rights Reserved. May not be copied, scanned, or duplicated, in whole or in part