Introduction to Linguistics Sound System and Word Formation Class 3

a. A little more phonetics

b. Prosody Continued

Exercises / Revision on Phonetics and Phonology

Dylan Glynn www.dsglynn.univ-paris8.fr

dglynn@univ-paris8.fr

Phonetics a return to sounds....

Revision

Distinctive feature

Place of articulation & manner of articulation

features –

place - bilabial, labiodental, interdental, alveolar, palatal, palatal-alveolar, velar, glottal

manner - plosive, fricative, nasal, lateral, glide, palatalization, clicks...

voice, tense, tone,

Place of articulation

həpɑ, hətɑ, həkɑ

Ling 201, Sec. C. Fall 2009 (Masashi Hashimoto) Unit 5: Phonetics & Phonology

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3.1 Place of articulation

Bilabial Labio-

dental Inter-dental

Alveolar Palatal Velar Glottal

Stop p b t d k g Fricative f v θ ð s z ʃ ʒ h Affricate ʧ ʤ Nasal m n ŋ Lateral l Rhotic r Glide w j Unshaded = voiceless, shaded = voiced. (This table is nice to remember.)

Ling 201, Sec. C. Fall 2009 (Masashi Hashimoto) Unit 5: Phonetics & Phonology

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3.2 Manner of articulation Stop No air comes out of the mouth (or nose) at first, because the tongue or lips are fully closed and block it; then the tongue or lips open up and air comes out (sometimes in a strong burst). Test: Put your mouth in position to start saying the sound. Try to exhale. If you can’t

make air leave your lungs because your vocal tract is completely closed, it’s a stop.

Examples: Fricative The tongue or lips come very close to each other (or to the teeth, or roof of the mouth) and make a very small opening, which air hisses through, making a friction-like sound. Test: Make the sound for a while, and put your hand in front of your mouth. If you

hear continuous hissing, and/or can feel air quickly leaving your mouth, it’s a fricative.

Examples: Affricate The mouth is closed at first, as in a stop; then it opens a little bit into position for a fricative. Test: If the sound has two parts, and the first part passes the stop test and the second

part passes the fricative test, it’s an affricate. Examples: Nasal No air comes out the mouth; instead, air comes out through the nose. Test: Rest your fingers on the bridge of your nose and make the sound; if your nose

vibrates, it’s a nasal. Also, hold your nose and make the sound. If your mouth bizarrely fills up with air and/or you can’t hold the sound for long, it’s a nasal.

Examples: Lateral, rhotic, glide These are all articulations where your tongue makes little or no contact with the roof of your mouth, allowing lots of air to flow out of the mouth. Test: Is the airflow constricted in your mouth? Examples:

Manner of articulation

həәdɛ, həәnɛ, həәsɛ

More distinctive features – Labial - Labialdental Ewe (Niger-Cogno)

More distinctive features - Palatalisation

Russian (Indo-European) vytj ‘to howl’ vjitj ‘to weave’ sok ‘juice’ sjok ‘he lashed’ zof ‘call’ zjok ‘yawn’

More distinctive features – Laterals Zulu (Niger-Congo)

More distinctive features – Tone Thai (Tai–Kadai)

Spectrogram A visualisation of amplitude of frequencies over time Although these are difficult to use and you will work with them later in yr studies, let us a quick look at them now.

Homework 1. Download Wave Surfer 2. In a langauge you speak (any langauge), think of a minimal pair (a word which is distinguished by a single feature of one of its phonemes). If you can’t think of a minimal pair, just any two phonemes that are distinguished by a single feature 3. Record yourself producing the two phonemes with Wave Surfer 4. Look to see if you can see a difference in the spectrogram. Save the file.

Prosody – Recap!

Prosody - Rhythm, Stress and Intonation

Joshua Steele (1779) Prosodia Rationalis

Rhythm – speed structure (vitesse) Stress – volume structure (intensité / niveau sonore) Intonation – pitch structure (tonalité / hauteur) These structures in langauge are more complex in English than in French

Rhythm Syllable-timed languages – Japanese, French, Finnish, Hungarian, Icelandic, Polish, Cantonese, Mandarin, Georgian, Welsh, Italian, Slovene, Spanish Stress-timed languages – Arabic, Persian, English, Dutch, Thai, German, Russian, Danish, Swedish, Norwegian, Faroese, Dutch, European Portuguese,

Rhythm and Metre In French, each syllable is more or less the same length (duration of pronunciation) In English, the length (duration of pronunciation) varies according to the metre Iambic pentameter × / × / × / / × × / × To be or not to be, | that is the question

Stress and Reduction They are independent phenomena, but you only reduce unstressed syllables Stress and reduction are needed for two reasons 1. If you don’t know where the stress is, you don’t know where the reduction is, then you can’t pronounce the word 2. If you don’t reduce and stress syllables in words correctly, then it is impossible to produce the metre, pronounce the sentence correctly So, just like in French, each word has a gender In English, each word has a stress and reduction pattern

Stress and Reduction Sometimes it is obvious, but sometimes it is not

Stress and Reduction – Effects on Pronunciation A stressed syllable is emphasised, spoken louder than the other syllables In English, only long syllables are stressed A reduced syllable is one where the vowel is a schwa or, depending on the speed of speech, is deleted entirely Stress / x x / x x / x x x x x / x equal equality equalise equalisation Reduction O o o O o O O o O O o O O o

Stress – Effects on Rhythm o o / o / o o / The beautiful Mountain appeared transfixed in the distance. o / o o o / / o o / The river ran through the valley down to the sea

Stress – Effects on Meaning (Topicalisation) / o o o o o o Can you come to help next Tuesday? Est-ce que c’est vraiment possible que... ? o / o o o o o Can you come to help next Tuesday? C’est toi qui peut venir ou.... ? o o o o / o o Can you come to help next Tuesday? Tu peux nous nous aider... ? o o o o o / o Can you come to help next Tuesday? C’est mardi prochain que... ? o o o o o o / Can you come to help next Tuesday? C’est mardi ou un autre jour que... ?

Basic Stress Rules 1. Two syllable words: The stress is on the first syllable, 2. Three syllable words The stress is on the first syllable 3. Long words The stress is on the 3rd last syllable These three rules on their own don’t work too well. There are loads of exception rules

1. Two syllable words: Normally, Germanic languages have the stress on the first syllable. kettle, roaming, happy, cardboard, closer, blackbird, causal There are two exceptions to this, but they are far from water proof. 1: “French” words guitar, cigar, police, descend, retire, grenade 2. Compounds with Germanic roots again, about, betroth, beget, bemoan, begin

2. Three syllable words: Again, normally, Germanic languages have the stress on the first syllable. terrible, infinite, massively... But in “Italian” words (which are, in fact, rarely Italian), it is in the middle banana, spaghetti, focaccia... but then, the French words also come back... important, absolute...

2. Long words Long words take what the antepenultimate stress (third last) ridiculous, uncontrollable, terrible, ubiquitous, photographer Exception 1: suffixes -ic, -ity, -tion, -gious forces the stress to fall before the suffix serendipity, television, Islamic, contagious, outrageous Exception 2: Suffixes: -ain, -ee, -eer, -ese, -ette, -esque entertain, refugee, mountaineer, Portuguese, cigarette, picturesque

Exercise With your neighbour, write down Three 2-syllable words Three 3-syllable words Three long words 1. Put a mark of the stressed syllable 2. Put a line through the unstressed syllable.

See ya later!

ya is not slang!

is not familiar language is not because you speak quickly

The queen would say ya speaking carefully and slowly it is grammar!

Weak-Strong Words 35 words in English that have two pronunciations A normal – neutral pronunciation, called “weak” and A marked – empathic pronunciation, called “strong” a, am, an, and, are, as, at, be, been, but, can, could, do, does, for, from, had, has, have, he, her, him, his, just, me, must, of, shall, she, should, some, than, that (conjunction), the, them, there, to, us, was, we, were, who, would, you

Weak-Strong Words

But strong form: /bʌt/ weak form: /bət/

Tell him to go strong forms /hɪm/ /tu:/ weak form: /tel əm tə gəʊ/

I would like some fish and chips /aɪ wʊd laɪk sʌm fɪʃ ænd tʃɪps/ /ɑɪd laɪk səm fɪʃ ən tʃɪps/

Adjective – Compound Disambiguation Stress is not just pronunciation, it is meaning too! All black birds are black but some blackbirds are white!

This is a blackbird

Another Example The sour cream is fresh, but the fresh cream is sour. La crême épaisse est bonne, mais la crême fraîche a tourné.

Exercise - Compounds vs. adjectives In pairs, try to imitate the stress patterns in the following alternations

GREENhouse – green HOUSE

BLACKboard – black BOARD

DARKroom – dark ROOM

EVEning dress – evening SKY

WALKing stick – walking PEOPLE

MOBile phone – mobile PERson

STONE Age – stone BUILDing

HOT dog – hot TEA

PAPer knife – paper BAG

ENGLish teacher – English TEACHer

FRENCH student – French STUDent

Intonation Remember that there are three elements to prosody Rhythm, Stress and Intonation Intonation is the pitch or melody of speaking It is important in French too, though less complex

What is the difference in meaning between? Maintenant, vous avez l’information and Maintenant, vous avez l’information

What about.... ? a l lez! and a l lez!

Next week we will work on English Intonation Reading There is some reading for phonetics and phonology on line HOMEWORK – Wave Surfer and Spectogram