ملتقى طلاب وطالبات جامعة الملك فيصل,جامعة الدمام - مذاكرة جماعية الصوتيات والنظام الصوتي # phonetics & phonology

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المناقشات

1

[/COLOR]All the sounds we make when we speak are the result of muscles contracting. In addition, the air coming from the lungs is also very important in producing speech sounds. What is the relation between the air coming from the lungs and the places of articulations?
All the sounds we make when we speak are the result of muscles contracting. The muscles in the chest that we use for breathing produce the flow of air that is needed for almost all speech sounds , muscles in the larynx produce many different modifications in the flow of air from the chest to the mouth .
After passing through the larynx the air goes through what we call the vocal tract , which ends at the mouth and nostrils . here the air from the lungs escapes into the atmosphere

2

The first point at which the flow of air can be modified, as it passes from the lungs, is the larynx(you can feel the front of this, the Adam’s apple, protruding slightly at the front of your throat),, in which are located the vocal folds (or focal cords). How can the focal folds play role in determining whether the sound is voiceless or voiced?
The vocal folds may lie open, in which case the airstream passes through them unimpeded. Sounds which are made when the focal folds are open are called voiceless sounds. Thus, /s/ is a voiceless sound..
The focal folds may be brought together so that they are closed, and no air may flow through them from the lungs. When the air comes from the lungs the buildup of air pressure underneath this closure is sufficient to force that closure open. But the air pressure then drops and the muscular pressure causes the folds to close again. The sequence is then repeated very rapidly and the results in what is called vocal folds vibration this vibration is felt when you put your fingers to your larynx and produce a sound like /z/. Sounds which are produced with this vocal folds vibration are said to be voiced sounds whereas sounds produced without such vibration are said to be voiceless.

3

What is the difference between places of articulations and manner of articulations ?
Place of Articulation: We will refer to the points at which the flow of air can be modified as places of articulation. We have just identified the vocal folds as a place of articulation; since the space between the vocal cords is referred to as the glottis, we will refer to sounds produced at this place of articulation as glottal sounds.
Places of articulation-:
Glottal, Bilabial , Labio-dental , Dental , Alveolar, Palate-alveolar , Palatal, Velar .
Manner of Articulation: For any given sound we will say whether it is voiced or voiceless, and what its place of articulation is. But to distinguish between the full ranges of speech sounds, we will require a third descriptive parameter: manner of articulation. To identify the manner in which a sound is articulated, we will identify three different degrees of constriction (complete closure, close approximation, and open approximation), and thus three different categories of consonant: stops, fricative and approximations.

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What are the affricates ?
That friction occurs during the release phase of the closure . Sounds produced with a constriction of complete closure followed by a release phase in which friction occurs are called affricates. These are: / ʤ/ /tʃ/
The affricate in chip , transcribed as /tʃ/ is a voiceless palate - alveolar affricate
The first sound in joy, transcribed as / ʤ/ is voiced palate - alveolar affricate

5

What is the difference between aspirated and unaspirated sounds ?
The first stop in pit, we said, is a voiceless bilabial stop. So too is the first stop in spit. But the bilabial stop in pit differs phonetically from the bilabial stop in spit: if you hold the palm of your hand up close to your mouth when uttering pit, you will feel a stronger puff of air on releasing the bilabial stop than you will when you utter spit. That stronger puff of air phenomenon is called aspiration: we say that the bilabial stop in pit is an aspirated voiceless stop, whereas the stop in spit is unaspirated

6

The vowel space is represented along two dimensions. What are they?
The first is the high/ low dimension (also referred to as the close/open dimension)
Another feature of vowels is ROUNDING: in English, front vowels are unrounded, i.e the lips are spread (FLEECE , DRESS , TRAP etc.) while back vowels tend to have rounded lips (GOOSE , THOUGHT etc.) In other languages, front vowels can be rounded and back vowels unrounded.

7

Wells uses three key words for the [ɔ:].what are they ?
Wells uses three key words for the [ɔ:]. These are : thought , force and north.

8

In the word seeing, the vowel [i:] is followed by the vowel [I], but the resulting sequence is not a diphthong, because the [i:] and the [I] are not in the same syllable. What do we mean by this ?
[i:] The close front unrounded vowel, or high front unrounded vowel and is not normally pronounced as a pure vowel (it is a slight diphthong).[I] The near-close near-front unrounded vowel, or near-high near-front unrounded vowel.

9

In English, we have different accents. Give examples of the type mentioned in the lectures.
We will begin with two particular accents; the first is Received Pronunciation (RP) :in British society and General American (GA): accents such as the New York City accent& Texas . in peep and pip differ in several respects , one of which is vowel length. In peep it is a long vowel and in pip it is a short vowel.

10

Comment on the following. “Phonology is to do with something more than properties of human speech sounds per se.”
phonology is the study of certain sorts of mental organization. So, phonology is essentially the description of the systems and patterns of speech sounds in a language. On this view, phonology is not the study of human speech sounds per se. although phonetics and phonology are inextricably intertwined .and it is important to learn the basics of speech and how to respond tactful and courteous manner..

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The range of places within a word which a given sound may occur in is called its distribution. Explain ?
Sounds that occur in phonetic environments that are identical are said to be in overlapping distribution. The sounds of [ɪn] from pin and bin are in overlapping distribution because they occur in both words. The same is true for three and through. The sounds of [θr] is in overlapping distribution because they occur in both words as well.

12

A syllable can have three segments in the onset. Explain with examples.
A syllable can have three segments in the onest; Onset consonant, obligatory in some languages, optional or even restricted in others.Nucleussonorant, obligatory in most languages Coda consonant, optional in some languages, highly restricted or prohibited in others.

13

A phoneme can have more than one allophone. Explain with examples.
phonemes are groups of sound - variants : whenever we actually pronounce a sound we use an allophone one of the variants in the group the choice of which variant we use in any context depends on subconscious rule phonemes.
Phonemes = significant ALLOPHONES = non-significant .

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Assimilation is an important phonological process. Explain with examples.
[FONT=Simplified Arabic][SIZE=4]assimilation. When two sound segments occur in sequence some aspect of one segment is taken or copied by the other, the process is known as Assimilation. For example, as a result of this process the vowel /ee/ in the word seen, becomes nasalized as a result of its being followed by the nasal sound /n/ We have another process called elision.