Phonetics
This article's lead section may be too long. (December 2023) |
Part of a series on | ||||||
Phonetics | ||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Part of the Linguistics Series | ||||||
Subdisciplines | ||||||
Articulation | ||||||
|
||||||
Acoustics | ||||||
|
||||||
Perception | ||||||
|
||||||
Linguistics portal | ||||||
Part of a series on |
Linguistics |
---|
Portal |
Phonetics is a branch of linguistics that studies how humans produce and perceive sounds or in the case of sign languages, the equivalent aspects of sign.[1] Linguists who specialize in studying the physical properties of speech are phoneticians. The field of phonetics is traditionally divided into three sub-disciplines based on the research questions involved such as how humans plan and execute movements to produce speech (articulatory phonetics), how various movements affect the properties of the resulting sound (acoustic phonetics) or how humans convert sound waves to linguistic information (auditory phonetics). Traditionally, the minimal linguistic unit of phonetics is the phone—a speech sound in a language which differs from the phonological unit of phoneme; the phoneme is an abstract categorization of phones and it is also defined as the smallest unit that discerns meaning between sounds in any given language.[2]
Phonetics deals with two aspects of human speech: production—the ways humans make sounds—and perception—the way speech is understood. The
Language production consists of several interdependent processes which transform a non-linguistic message into a spoken or signed linguistic signal. After identifying a message to be linguistically encoded, a speaker must select the individual words—known as lexical items—to represent that message in a process called lexical selection. During phonological encoding, the mental representation of the words are assigned their phonological content as a sequence of phonemes to be produced. The phonemes are specified for articulatory features which denote particular goals such as closed lips or the tongue in a particular location. These phonemes are then coordinated into a sequence of muscle commands that can be sent to the muscles and when these commands are executed properly the intended sounds are produced.
These movements disrupt and modify an airstream which results in a sound wave. The modification is done by the articulators, with different places and manners of articulation producing different acoustic results. For example, the words tack and sack both begin with alveolar sounds in English, but differ in how far the tongue is from the alveolar ridge. This difference has large effects on the air stream and thus the sound that is produced. Similarly, the direction and source of the airstream can affect the sound. The most common airstream mechanism is pulmonic—using the lungs—but the glottis and tongue can also be used to produce airstreams.
Language perception is the process by which a linguistic signal is decoded and understood by a listener. In order to perceive speech the continuous acoustic signal must be converted into discrete linguistic units such as
Modern phonetics has three branches:
- Articulatory phonetics, which addresses the way sounds are made with the articulators.
- Acoustic phonetics, which addresses the acoustic results of different articulations.
- Auditory phonetics, which addresses the way listeners perceive and understand linguistic signals.
History
Antiquity
The first known phonetic studies were carried out as early as the 6th century BCE by Sanskrit grammarians.[3] The Hindu scholar Pāṇini is among the most well known of these early investigators. His four-part grammar, written around 350 BCE, is influential in modern linguistics and still represents "the most complete generative grammar of any language yet written".[4] His grammar formed the basis of modern linguistics and described several important phonetic principles, including voicing. This early account described resonance as being produced either by tone, when vocal folds are closed, or noise, when vocal folds are open. The phonetic principles in the grammar are considered "primitives" in that they are the basis for his theoretical analysis rather than the objects of theoretical analysis themselves, and the principles can be inferred from his system of phonology.[5]
The Sanskrit study of phonetics is called Shiksha. The Taittiriya Upanishad, dated to 1 millennium BC defines Shiksha as follows -
Om! We will explain the Shiksha.
Sounds and accentuation, Quantity (of vowels) and the expression (of consonants),
Balancing (Saman) and connection (of sounds), So much about the study of Shiksha. || 1 |
Taittiriya Upanishad 1.2, Shikshavalli, translated by Paul Deussen[6].
Modern
Advancements in phonetics after Pāṇini and his contemporaries were limited until the modern era, save some limited investigations by Greek and Roman grammarians. In the millennia between Indic grammarians and modern phonetics, the focus shifted from the difference between spoken and written language, which was the driving force behind Pāṇini's account, and began to focus on the physical properties of speech alone. Sustained interest in phonetics began again around 1800 CE with the term "phonetics" being first used in the present sense in 1841.
Before the widespread availability of audio recording equipment, phoneticians relied heavily on a tradition of practical phonetics to ensure that transcriptions and findings were able to be consistent across phoneticians. This training involved both ear training—the recognition of speech sounds—as well as production training—the ability to produce sounds. Phoneticians were expected to learn to recognize by ear the various sounds on the
Production
Language production consists of several interdependent processes which transform a nonlinguistic message into a spoken or signed linguistic signal. Linguists debate whether the process of language production occurs in a series of stages (serial processing) or whether production processes occur in parallel. After identifying a message to be linguistically encoded, a speaker must select the individual words—known as lexical items—to represent that message in a process called lexical selection. The words are selected based on their meaning, which in linguistics is called semantic information. Lexical selection activates the word's lemma, which contains both semantic and grammatical information about the word.[11][a]
After an utterance has been planned,[b] it then goes through phonological encoding. In this stage of language production, the mental representation of the words are assigned their phonological content as a sequence of phonemes to be produced. The phonemes are specified for articulatory features which denote particular goals such as closed lips or the tongue in a particular location. These phonemes are then coordinated into a sequence of muscle commands that can be sent to the muscles, and when these commands are executed properly the intended sounds are produced.[13] Thus the process of production from message to sound can be summarized as the following sequence:[c]
- Message planning
- Lemma selection
- Retrieval and assignment of phonological word forms
- Articulatory specification
- Muscle commands
- Articulation
- Speech sounds
Place of articulation
Sounds which are made by a full or partial constriction of the vocal tract are called
Sounds are partly categorized by the location of a constriction as well as the part of the body doing the constricting. For example, in English the words fought and thought are a
Constrictions made with the tongue can be made in several parts of the vocal tract, broadly classified into coronal, dorsal and radical places of articulation.
Labial
Articulations involving the lips can be made in three different ways: with both lips (bilabial), with one lip and the teeth, so they have the lower lip as the active articulator and the upper teeth as the passive articulator[16] (labiodental), and with the tongue and the upper lip (linguolabial).[17] Depending on the definition used, some or all of these kinds of articulations may be categorized into the class of labial articulations. Bilabial consonants are made with both lips. In producing these sounds the lower lip moves farthest to meet the upper lip, which also moves down slightly,[18] though in some cases the force from air moving through the aperture (opening between the lips) may cause the lips to separate faster than they can come together.[19] Unlike most other articulations, both articulators are made from soft tissue, and so bilabial stops are more likely to be produced with incomplete closures than articulations involving hard surfaces like the teeth or palate. Bilabial stops are also unusual in that an articulator in the upper section of the vocal tract actively moves downwards, as the upper lip shows some active downward movement.[20] Linguolabial consonants are made with the blade of the tongue approaching or contacting the upper lip. Like in bilabial articulations, the upper lip moves slightly towards the more active articulator. Articulations in this group do not have their own symbols in the International Phonetic Alphabet, rather, they are formed by combining an apical symbol with a diacritic implicitly placing them in the coronal category.[21][22] They exist in a number of languages indigenous to Vanuatu such as Tangoa.
Labiodental consonants are made by the lower lip rising to the upper teeth. Labiodental consonants are most often fricatives while labiodental nasals are also typologically common.[23] There is debate as to whether true labiodental plosives occur in any natural language,[24] though a number of languages are reported to have labiodental plosives including Zulu,[25] Tonga,[26] and Shubi.[24]
Coronal
Coronal consonants are made with the tip or blade of the tongue and, because of the agility of the front of the tongue, represent a variety not only in place but in the posture of the tongue. The coronal places of articulation represent the areas of the mouth where the tongue contacts or makes a constriction, and include dental, alveolar, and post-alveolar locations. Tongue postures using the tip of the tongue can be
Crosslinguistically, dental consonants and alveolar consonants are frequently contrasted leading to a number of generalizations of crosslinguistic patterns. The different places of articulation tend to also be contrasted in the part of the tongue used to produce them: most languages with dental stops have laminal dentals, while languages with apical stops usually have apical stops. Languages rarely have two consonants in the same place with a contrast in laminality, though
Retroflex consonants have several different definitions depending on whether the position of the tongue or the position on the roof of the mouth is given prominence. In general, they represent a group of articulations in which the tip of the tongue is curled upwards to some degree. In this way, retroflex articulations can occur in several different locations on the roof of the mouth including alveolar, post-alveolar, and palatal regions. If the underside of the tongue tip makes contact with the roof of the mouth, it is sub-apical though apical post-alveolar sounds are also described as retroflex.[34] Typical examples of sub-apical retroflex stops are commonly found in Dravidian languages, and in some languages indigenous to the southwest United States the contrastive difference between dental and alveolar stops is a slight retroflexion of the alveolar stop.[35] Acoustically, retroflexion tends to affect the higher formants.[35]
Articulations taking place just behind the alveolar ridge, known as
Dorsal
Dorsal consonants are those consonants made using the tongue body rather than the tip or blade and are typically produced at the palate, velum or uvula.
Pharyngeal and laryngeal
Consonants made by constrictions of the throat are pharyngeals, and those made by a constriction in the larynx are laryngeal. Laryngeals are made using the vocal folds as the larynx is too far down the throat to reach with the tongue. Pharyngeals however are close enough to the mouth that parts of the tongue can reach them.
Radical consonants either use the root of the tongue or the
Glottal consonants are those produced using the vocal folds in the larynx. Because the vocal folds are the source of phonation and below the oro-nasal vocal tract, a number of glottal consonants are impossible such as a voiced glottal stop. Three glottal consonants are possible, a voiceless glottal stop and two glottal fricatives, and all are attested in natural languages.
The larynx
The larynx, commonly known as the "voice box", is a cartilaginous structure in the trachea responsible for phonation. The vocal folds (chords) are held together so that they vibrate, or held apart so that they do not. The positions of the vocal folds are achieved by movement of the arytenoid cartilages.[48] The intrinsic laryngeal muscles are responsible for moving the arytenoid cartilages as well as modulating the tension of the vocal folds.[49] If the vocal folds are not close or tense enough, they will either vibrate sporadically or not at all. If they vibrate sporadically it will result in either creaky or breathy voice, depending on the degree; if do not vibrate at all, the result will be voicelessness.
In addition to correctly positioning the vocal folds, there must also be air flowing across them or they will not vibrate. The difference in pressure across the glottis required for voicing is estimated at 1 – 2
Lexical access
According to the lexical access model two different stages of cognition are employed; thus, this concept is known as the two-stage theory of lexical access. The first stage, lexical selection, provides information about lexical items required to construct the functional-level representation. These items are retrieved according to their specific semantic and syntactic properties, but phonological forms are not yet made available at this stage. The second stage, retrieval of wordforms, provides information required for building the positional level representation.[52]
Articulatory models
When producing speech, the articulators move through and contact particular locations in space resulting in changes to the acoustic signal. Some models of speech production take this as the basis for modeling articulation in a coordinate system that may be internal to the body (intrinsic) or external (extrinsic). Intrinsic coordinate systems model the movement of articulators as positions and angles of joints in the body. Intrinsic coordinate models of the jaw often use two to three degrees of freedom representing translation and rotation. These face issues with modeling the tongue which, unlike joints of the jaw and arms, is a muscular hydrostat—like an elephant trunk—which lacks joints.[53] Because of the different physiological structures, movement paths of the jaw are relatively straight lines during speech and mastication, while movements of the tongue follow curves.[54]
Straight-line movements have been used to argue articulations as planned in extrinsic rather than intrinsic space, though extrinsic coordinate systems also include acoustic coordinate spaces, not just physical coordinate spaces.[53] Models that assume movements are planned in extrinsic space run into an inverse problem of explaining the muscle and joint locations which produce the observed path or acoustic signal. The arm, for example, has seven degrees of freedom and 22 muscles, so multiple different joint and muscle configurations can lead to the same final position. For models of planning in extrinsic acoustic space, the same one-to-many mapping problem applies as well, with no unique mapping from physical or acoustic targets to the muscle movements required to achieve them. Concerns about the inverse problem may be exaggerated, however, as speech is a highly learned skill using neurological structures which evolved for the purpose.[55]
The equilibrium-point model proposes a resolution to the inverse problem by arguing that movement targets be represented as the position of the muscle pairs acting on a joint.[d] Importantly, muscles are modeled as springs, and the target is the equilibrium point for the modeled spring-mass system. By using springs, the equilibrium point model can easily account for compensation and response when movements are disrupted. They are considered a coordinate model because they assume that these muscle positions are represented as points in space, equilibrium points, where the spring-like action of the muscles converges.[56][57]
Gestural approaches to speech production propose that articulations are represented as movement patterns rather than particular coordinates to hit. The minimal unit is a gesture that represents a group of "functionally equivalent articulatory movement patterns that are actively controlled with reference to a given speech-relevant goal (e.g., a bilabial closure)."[58] These groups represent coordinative structures or "synergies" which view movements not as individual muscle movements but as task-dependent groupings of muscles which work together as a single unit.[59][60] This reduces the degrees of freedom in articulation planning, a problem especially in intrinsic coordinate models, which allows for any movement that achieves the speech goal, rather than encoding the particular movements in the abstract representation. Coarticulation is well described by gestural models as the articulations at faster speech rates can be explained as composites of the independent gestures at slower speech rates.[61]
Acoustics
Speech sounds are created by the modification of an airstream which results in a sound wave. The modification is done by the articulators, with different places and manners of articulation producing different acoustic results. Because the posture of the vocal tract, not just the position of the tongue can affect the resulting sound, the manner of articulation is important for describing the speech sound. The words tack and sack both begin with alveolar sounds in English, but differ in how far the tongue is from the alveolar ridge. This difference has large effects on the air stream and thus the sound that is produced. Similarly, the direction and source of the airstream can affect the sound. The most common airstream mechanism is pulmonic—using the lungs—but the glottis and tongue can also be used to produce airstreams.
Voicing and phonation types
A major distinction between speech sounds is whether they are voiced. Sounds are voiced when the vocal folds begin to vibrate in the process of phonation. Many sounds can be produced with or without phonation, though physical constraints may make phonation difficult or impossible for some articulations. When articulations are voiced, the main source of noise is the periodic vibration of the vocal folds. Articulations like voiceless plosives have no acoustic source and are noticeable by their silence, but other voiceless sounds like fricatives create their own acoustic source regardless of phonation.
Phonation is controlled by the muscles of the larynx, and languages make use of more acoustic detail than binary voicing. During phonation, the vocal folds vibrate at a certain rate. This vibration results in a periodic acoustic waveform comprising a fundamental frequency and its harmonics. The fundamental frequency of the acoustic wave can be controlled by adjusting the muscles of the larynx, and listeners perceive this fundamental frequency as pitch. Languages use pitch manipulation to convey lexical information in tonal languages, and many languages use pitch to mark prosodic or pragmatic information.
For the vocal folds to vibrate, they must be in the proper position and there must be air flowing through the glottis.[50] Phonation types are modeled on a continuum of glottal states from completely open (voiceless) to completely closed (glottal stop). The optimal position for vibration, and the phonation type most used in speech, modal voice, exists in the middle of these two extremes. If the glottis is slightly wider, breathy voice occurs, while bringing the vocal folds closer together results in creaky voice.[62]
The normal phonation pattern used in typical speech is modal voice, where the vocal folds are held close together with moderate tension. The vocal folds vibrate as a single unit periodically and efficiently with a full glottal closure and no aspiration.[63] If they are pulled farther apart, they do not vibrate and so produce voiceless phones. If they are held firmly together they produce a glottal stop.[62]
If the vocal folds are held slightly further apart than in modal voicing, they produce phonation types like breathy voice (or murmur) and whispery voice. The tension across the vocal ligaments (vocal cords) is less than in modal voicing allowing for air to flow more freely. Both breathy voice and whispery voice exist on a continuum loosely characterized as going from the more periodic waveform of breathy voice to the more noisy waveform of whispery voice. Acoustically, both tend to dampen the first formant with whispery voice showing more extreme deviations. [64]
Holding the vocal folds more tightly together results in a creaky voice. The tension across the vocal folds is less than in modal voice, but they are held tightly together resulting in only the ligaments of the vocal folds vibrating.[e] The pulses are highly irregular, with low pitch and frequency amplitude.[65]
Some languages do not maintain a voicing distinction for some consonants,
There are several ways to determine if a segment is voiced or not, the simplest being to feel the larynx during speech and note when vibrations are felt. More precise measurements can be obtained through acoustic analysis of a spectrogram or spectral slice. In a spectrographic analysis, voiced segments show a voicing bar, a region of high acoustic energy, in the low frequencies of voiced segments.[66] In examining a spectral splice, the acoustic spectrum at a given point in time a model of the vowel pronounced reverses the filtering of the mouth producing the spectrum of the glottis. A computational model of the unfiltered glottal signal is then fitted to the inverse filtered acoustic signal to determine the characteristics of the glottis.[67] Visual analysis is also available using specialized medical equipment such as ultrasound and endoscopy.[66][h]
Vowels
IPA: Vowels | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Legend: unrounded • rounded |
Vowels are broadly categorized by the area of the mouth in which they are produced, but because they are produced without a constriction in the vocal tract their precise description relies on measuring acoustic correlates of tongue position. The location of the tongue during vowel production changes the frequencies at which the cavity resonates, and it is these resonances—known as
Vowel height traditionally refers to the highest point of the tongue during articulation.[68] The height parameter is divided into four primary levels: high (close), close-mid, open-mid, and low (open). Vowels whose height are in the middle are referred to as mid. Slightly opened close vowels and slightly closed open vowels are referred to as near-close and near-open respectively. The lowest vowels are not just articulated with a lowered tongue, but also by lowering the jaw.[69]
While the IPA implies that there are seven levels of vowel height, it is unlikely that a given language can minimally contrast all seven levels. Chomsky and Halle suggest that there are only three levels,[70] although four levels of vowel height seem to be needed to describe Danish and it's possible that some languages might even need five.[71]
Vowel backness is dividing into three levels: front, central and back. Languages usually do not minimally contrast more than two levels of vowel backness. Some languages claimed to have a three-way backness distinction include Nimboran and Norwegian.[72]
In most languages, the lips during vowel production can be classified as either rounded or unrounded (spread), although other types of lip positions, such as compression and protrusion, have been described. Lip position is correlated with height and backness: front and low vowels tend to be unrounded whereas back and high vowels are usually rounded.[73] Paired vowels on the IPA chart have the spread vowel on the left and the rounded vowel on the right.[74]
Together with the universal vowel features described above, some languages have additional features such as
Manner of articulation
Knowing the place of articulation is not enough to fully describe a consonant, the way in which the stricture happens is equally important. Manners of articulation describe how exactly the active articulator modifies, narrows or closes off the vocal tract.[76]
Nasals (sometimes referred to as nasal stops) are consonants in which there's a closure in the oral cavity and the velum is lowered, allowing air to flow through the nose.[80]
In an
Laterals are consonants in which the airstream is obstructed along the center of the vocal tract, allowing the airstream to flow freely on one or both sides.[79] Laterals have also been defined as consonants in which the tongue is contracted in such a way that the airstream is greater around the sides than over the center of the tongue.[81] The first definition does not allow for air to flow over the tongue.
Trills are consonants in which the tongue or lips are set in motion by the airstream.[82] The stricture is formed in such a way that the airstream causes a repeating pattern of opening and closing of the soft articulator(s).[83] Apical trills typically consist of two or three periods of vibration.[84]
During a
Pulmonary and subglottal system
The lungs drive nearly all speech production, and their importance in phonetics is due to their creation of pressure for pulmonic sounds. The most common kinds of sound across languages are pulmonic egress, where air is exhaled from the lungs.
The lungs are used to maintain two kinds of pressure simultaneously in order to produce and modify phonation. To produce phonation at all, the lungs must maintain a pressure of 3–5 cm H2O higher than the pressure above the glottis. However small and fast adjustments are made to the subglottal pressure to modify speech for suprasegmental features like stress. A number of thoracic muscles are used to make these adjustments. Because the lungs and thorax stretch during inhalation, the elastic forces of the lungs alone can produce pressure differentials sufficient for phonation at lung volumes above 50 percent of vital capacity.
During speech, the respiratory cycle is modified to accommodate both linguistic and biological needs. Exhalation, usually about 60 percent of the respiratory cycle at rest, is increased to about 90 percent of the respiratory cycle. Because metabolic needs are relatively stable, the total volume of air moved in most cases of speech remains about the same as quiet tidal breathing.[93] Increases in speech intensity of 18 dB (a loud conversation) has relatively little impact on the volume of air moved. Because their respiratory systems are not as developed as adults, children tend to use a larger proportion of their vital capacity compared to adults, with more deep inhales.[94]
Source–filter theory
This section needs expansion. You can help by adding to it. (February 2020) |
The source–filter model of speech is a theory of speech production which explains the link between vocal tract posture and the acoustic consequences. Under this model, the vocal tract can be modeled as a noise source coupled onto an acoustic filter.[95] The noise source in many cases is the larynx during the process of voicing, though other noise sources can be modeled in the same way. The shape of the supraglottal vocal tract acts as the filter, and different configurations of the articulators result in different acoustic patterns. These changes are predictable. The vocal tract can be modeled as a sequence of tubes, closed at one end, with varying diameters, and by using equations for acoustic resonance the acoustic effect of an articulatory posture can be derived.[96] The process of inverse filtering uses this principle to analyze the source spectrum produced by the vocal folds during voicing. By taking the inverse of a predicted filter, the acoustic effect of the supraglottal vocal tract can be undone giving the acoustic spectrum produced by the vocal folds.[97] This allows quantitative study of the various phonation types.
Perception
Language perception is the process by which a linguistic signal is decoded and understood by a listener.
While listeners can use a variety of information to segment the speech signal, the relationship between acoustic signal and category perception is not a perfect mapping. Because of coarticulation, noisy environments, and individual differences, there is a high degree of acoustic variability within categories.[101] Known as the problem of perceptual invariance, listeners are able to reliably perceive categories despite the variability in acoustic instantiation.[102] In order to do this, listeners rapidly accommodate to new speakers and will shift their boundaries between categories to match the acoustic distinctions their conversational partner is making.[103]
Audition
Audition, the process of hearing sounds, is the first stage of perceiving speech. Articulators cause systematic changes in air pressure which travel as sound waves to the listener's ear. The sound waves then hit the listener's
The differential vibration of the basilar causes the
Prosody
Besides consonants and vowels, phonetics also describes the properties of speech that are not localized to segments but greater units of speech, such as syllables and phrases. Prosody includes auditory characteristics such as pitch, speech rate, duration, and loudness. Languages use these properties to different degrees to implement stress, pitch accents, and intonation — for example, stress in English and Spanish is correlated with changes in pitch and duration, whereas stress in Welsh is more consistently correlated with pitch than duration and stress in Thai is only correlated with duration.[108]
Theories of speech perception
Early theories of speech perception such as
Successor theories of speech perception place the focus on acoustic cues to sound categories and can be grouped into two broad categories: abstractionist theories and episodic theories.
Subdisciplines
Acoustic phonetics
Acoustic phonetics deals with the
Articulatory phonetics
Articulatory phonetics deals with the ways in which speech sounds are made.
Auditory phonetics
Auditory phonetics studies how humans perceive speech sounds. Due to the anatomical features of the auditory system distorting the speech signal, humans do not experience speech sounds as perfect acoustic records. For example, the auditory impressions of volume, measured in decibels (dB), does not linearly match the difference in sound pressure.[115]
The mismatch between acoustic analyses and what the listener hears is especially noticeable in speech sounds that have a lot of high-frequency energy, such as certain fricatives. To reconcile this mismatch, functional models of the auditory system have been developed.[116]
Describing sounds
Human languages use many different sounds and in order to compare them linguists must be able to describe sounds in a way that is language independent. Speech sounds can be described in a number of ways. Most commonly speech sounds are referred to by the mouth movements needed to produce them.
Consonants are speech sounds that are articulated with a complete or partial closure of the vocal tract. They are generally produced by the modification of an airstream exhaled from the lungs. The respiratory organs used to create and modify airflow are divided into three regions: the vocal tract (supralaryngeal), the larynx, and the subglottal system. The airstream can be either egressive (out of the vocal tract) or ingressive (into the vocal tract). In pulmonic sounds, the airstream is produced by the lungs in the subglottal system and passes through the larynx and vocal tract. Glottalic sounds use an airstream created by movements of the larynx without airflow from the lungs. Click consonants are articulated through the rarefaction of air using the tongue, followed by releasing the forward closure of the tongue.
Vowels are syllabic speech sounds that are pronounced without any obstruction in the vocal tract.[117] Unlike consonants, which usually have definite places of articulation, vowels are defined in relation to a set of reference vowels called cardinal vowels. Three properties are needed to define vowels: tongue height, tongue backness, and lip roundedness. Vowels that are articulated with a stable quality are called monophthongs; a combination of two separate vowels in the same syllable is a diphthong.[118] In the IPA, the vowels are represented on a trapezoid shape representing the human mouth: the vertical axis representing the mouth from floor to roof and the horizontal axis represents the front-back dimension.[119]
Transcription
While no sign language has a standardized writing system, linguists have developed their own notation systems that describe the handshape, location and movement. The Hamburg Notation System (HamNoSys) is similar to the IPA in that it allows for varying levels of detail. Some notation systems such as KOMVA and the Stokoe system were designed for use in dictionaries; they also make use of alphabetic letters in the local language for handshapes whereas HamNoSys represents the handshape directly. SignWriting aims to be an easy-to-learn writing system for sign languages, although it has not been officially adopted by any deaf community yet.[124]
Sign languages
Unlike spoken languages, words in
Unlike spoken languages, sign languages have two identical articulators: the hands. Signers may use whichever hand they prefer with no disruption in communication. Due to universal neurological limitations, two-handed signs generally have the same kind of articulation in both hands; this is referred to as the Symmetry Condition.
See also
References
Notes
- ^ Linguists debate whether these stages can interact or whether they occur serially (compare Dell & Reich (1981) and Motley, Camden & Baars (1982)). For ease of description, the language production process is described as a series of independent stages, though recent evidence shows this is inaccurate.[12] For further descriptions of interactive activation models see Jaeger, Furth & Hilliard (2012).
- ^ or after part of an utterance has been planned; see Gleitman et al. (2007) for evidence of production before a message has been completely planned
- ^ adapted from Sedivy (2019, p. 411) and Boersma (1998, p. 11)
- ^ See Feldman (1966) for the original proposal.
- ^ See #The larynx for further information on the anatomy of phonation.
- ^ Hawaiian, for example, does not contrast voiced and voiceless plosives.
- ^ There are languages, like Japanese, where vowels are produced as voiceless in certain contexts.
- ^ See #Articulatory models for further information on acoustic modeling.
- language modality. The signal can be acoustic for oral speech, visual for signed languages, or tactile for manual-tactile sign languages. For simplicity acoustic speech is described here; for sign language perception specifically, see Sign language#Sign perception.
Citations
- ^ O'Grady 2005, p. 15.
- ^ Lynch, Matthew (2021-04-07). "The Differences Between a Phone, Phoneme And an Allophone". The Edvocate. Retrieved 2023-02-06.
- ^ a b c Caffrey 2017.
- ^ Kiparsky 1993, p. 2918.
- ^ Kiparsky 1993, pp. 2922–3.
- ISBN 978-8120814684.
- ^ Oxford English Dictionary 2018.
- ^ a b Roach 2015.
- ^ Ladefoged 1960, p. 388.
- ^ Ladefoged 1960.
- ^ Dell & O'Seaghdha 1992.
- ^ Sedivy 2019, p. 439.
- ^ Boersma 1998.
- ^ a b Ladefoged 2001, p. 5.
- ^ Ladefoged & Maddieson 1996, p. 9.
- ^ "IPA: Labiodentals". home.cc.umanitoba.ca. Retrieved 2023-02-06.
- ^ Ladefoged & Maddieson 1996, p. 16.
- ^ Maddieson 1993.
- ^ Fujimura 1961.
- ^ Ladefoged & Maddieson 1996, pp. 16–17.
- ^ a b c International Phonetic Association 2015.
- ^ Ladefoged & Maddieson 1996, p. 18.
- ^ Ladefoged & Maddieson 1996, pp. 17–18.
- ^ a b Ladefoged & Maddieson 1996, p. 17.
- ^ Doke 1926.
- ^ Guthrie 1948, p. 61.
- ^ Ladefoged & Maddieson 1996, pp. 19–31.
- ^ a b Ladefoged & Maddieson 1996, p. 28.
- ^ Ladefoged & Maddieson 1996, pp. 19–25.
- ^ Ladefoged & Maddieson 1996, pp. 20, 40–1.
- ^ Scatton 1984, p. 60.
- ^ Ladefoged & Maddieson 1996, p. 23.
- ^ Ladefoged & Maddieson 1996, pp. 23–5.
- ^ Ladefoged & Maddieson 1996, pp. 25, 27–8.
- ^ a b Ladefoged & Maddieson 1996, p. 27.
- ^ Ladefoged & Maddieson 1996, pp. 27–8.
- ^ Ladefoged & Maddieson 1996, p. 32.
- ^ Ladefoged & Maddieson 1996, p. 35.
- ^ Ladefoged & Maddieson 1996, pp. 33–34.
- ^ Keating & Lahiri 1993, p. 89.
- ^ Maddieson 2013.
- ^ Ladefoged & Maddieson 1996, p. 11.
- ^ Lodge 2009, p. 33.
- ^ a b Ladefoged & Maddieson 1996, p. 37.
- ^ a b Ladefoged & Maddieson 1996, p. 38.
- ^ Ladefoged & Maddieson 1996, p. 74.
- ^ Ladefoged & Maddieson 1996, p. 75.
- ^ Ladefoged 2001, p. 123.
- ^ Seikel, Drumright & King 2016, p. 222.
- ^ a b Ohala 1997, p. 1.
- ^ Chomsky & Halle 1968, pp. 300–301.
- ^ Altmann 2002.
- ^ a b Löfqvist 2010, p. 359.
- ^ Munhall, Ostry & Flanagan 1991, p. 299, et seq.
- ^ Löfqvist 2010, p. 360.
- ^ Bizzi et al. 1992.
- ^ Löfqvist 2010, p. 361.
- ^ Saltzman & Munhall 1989.
- ^ Mattingly 1990.
- ^ Löfqvist 2010, pp. 362–4.
- ^ Löfqvist 2010, p. 364.
- ^ a b Gordon & Ladefoged 2001.
- ^ Gobl & Ní Chasaide 2010, p. 399.
- ^ Gobl & Ní Chasaide 2010, p. 400-401.
- ^ Gobl & Ní Chasaide 2010, p. 401.
- ^ a b Dawson & Phelan 2016.
- ^ Gobl & Ní Chasaide 2010, pp. 388, et seq.
- ^ Ladefoged & Maddieson 1996, p. 282.
- ^ Lodge 2009, p. 39.
- ^ Chomsky & Halle 1968.
- ^ Ladefoged & Maddieson 1996, p. 289.
- ^ Ladefoged & Maddieson 1996, p. 290.
- ^ Ladefoged & Maddieson 1996, p. 292-295.
- ^ Lodge 2009, p. 40.
- ^ Ladefoged & Maddieson 1996, p. 298.
- ^ a b c Ladefoged & Johnson 2011, p. 14.
- ^ Ladefoged & Johnson 2011, p. 67.
- ^ Ladefoged & Maddieson 1996, p. 145.
- ^ a b c Ladefoged & Johnson 2011, p. 15.
- ^ Ladefoged & Maddieson 1996, p. 102.
- ^ Ladefoged & Maddieson 1996, p. 182.
- ^ a b Ladefoged & Johnson 2011, p. 175.
- ^ Ladefoged & Maddieson 1996, p. 217.
- ^ Ladefoged & Maddieson 1996, p. 218.
- ^ Ladefoged & Maddieson 1996, p. 230-231.
- ^ Ladefoged & Johnson 2011, p. 137.
- ^ Ladefoged & Maddieson 1996, p. 78.
- ^ Ladefoged & Maddieson 1996, p. 246-247.
- ^ a b Ladefoged 2001, p. 1.
- ^ Eklund 2008, p. 237.
- ^ Eklund 2008.
- ^ Seikel, Drumright & King 2016, p. 176.
- ^ Seikel, Drumright & King 2016, p. 171.
- ^ Seikel, Drumright & King 2016, pp. 168–77.
- ^ Johnson 2008, p. 83–5.
- ^ Johnson 2008, p. 104–5.
- ^ Johnson 2008, p. 157.
- ^ Sedivy 2019, p. 259–60.
- ^ Sedivy 2019, p. 269.
- ^ Sedivy 2019, p. 273.
- ^ Sedivy 2019, p. 259.
- ^ Sedivy 2019, p. 260.
- ^ Sedivy 2019, p. 274–85.
- ^ Johnson 2003, p. 46–7.
- ^ Johnson 2003, p. 47.
- ^ Schacter, Gilbert & Wegner 2011, p. 158–9.
- ^ Yost 2003, p. 130.
- ^ Cutler 2005.
- ^ Sedivy 2019, p. 289.
- ^ a b Galantucci, Fowler & Turvey 2006.
- ^ Sedivy 2019, p. 292–3.
- ^ Skipper, Devlin & Lametti 2017.
- ^ a b Goldinger 1996.
- ^ Johnson 2003, p. 1.
- ^ Johnson 2003, p. 46-49.
- ^ Johnson 2003, p. 53.
- ^ Ladefoged & Maddieson 1996, p. 281.
- ^ Gussenhoven & Jacobs 2017, p. 26-27.
- ^ Lodge 2009, p. 38.
- ^ a b O'Grady 2005, p. 17.
- ^ International Phonetic Association 1999.
- ^ a b Ladefoged 2005.
- ^ Ladefoged & Maddieson 1996.
- ^ Baker et al. 2016, p. 242-244.
- ^ a b c Baker et al. 2016, p. 229-235.
- ^ Baker et al. 2016, p. 236.
- ^ Baker et al. 2016, p. 286.
- ^ Baker et al. 2016, p. 239.
Works cited
- Abercrombie, D. (1967). Elements of General Phonetics. Edinburgh: Chicago, Aldine Pub. Co.
- Altmann, Gerry (2002). Psycholinguistics : critical concepts in psychology. London: Routledge. OCLC 48014482.
- Baker, Anne; van den Bogaerde, Beppie; Pfau, Roland; Schermer, Trude (2016). The Linguistics of Sign Languages. Amsterdam/Philadelphia: John Benjamins Publishing Company. ISBN 978-90-272-1230-6.
- Baumbach, E. J. M (1987). Analytical Tsonga Grammar. Pretoria: University of South Africa.
- Bizzi, E.; Hogan, N.; Mussa-Ivaldi, F.; Giszter, S. (1992). "Does the nervous system use equilibrium-point control to guide single and multiple joint movements?". Behavioral and Brain Sciences. 15 (4): 603–13. PMID 23302290.
- Bock, Kathryn; Levelt, Willem (2002). Atlmann, Gerry (ed.). Psycholinguistics: Critical Concepts in Psychology. Vol. 5. New York: Routledge. pp. 405–407. ISBN 978-0-415-26701-4.
- Boersma, Paul (1998). Functional phonology: Formalizing the interactions between articulatory and perceptual drives. The Hague: Holland Academic Graphics. OCLC 40563066.
- Caffrey, Cait (2017). "Phonetics". Salem Press Encyclopedia. Salem Press.
- Catford, J. C. (2001). A Practical Introduction to Phonetics (2nd ed.). Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-19-924635-9.
- Chomsky, Noam; Halle, Morris (1968). Sound Pattern of English. Harper and Row.
- Cutler, Anne (2005). "Lexical Stress" (PDF). In Pisoni, David B.; Remez, Robert (eds.). The Handbook of Speech Perception. Blackwell. pp. 264–289. OCLC 749782145. Retrieved 2019-12-29.
- Dawson, Hope; Phelan, Michael, eds. (2016). Language Files: Materials for an Introduction to Linguistics (12th ed.). The Ohio State University Press. ISBN 978-0-8142-5270-3.
- Dell, Gary; O'Seaghdha, Padraig (1992). "Stages of lexical access in language production". Cognition. 42 (1–3): 287–314. S2CID 37962027.
- Dell, Gary; Reich, Peter (1981). "Stages in sentence production: An analysis of speech error data". Journal of Memory and Language. 20 (6): 611–629. .
- Doke, Clement M (1926). The Phonetics of the Zulu Language. Bantu Studies. Johannesburg: Wiwatersrand University Press.
- Eklund, Robert (2008). "Pulmonic ingressive phonation: Diachronic and synchronic characteristics, distribution and function in animal and human sound production and in human speech". Journal of the International Phonetic Association. 38 (3): 235–324. S2CID 146616135.
- Feldman, Anatol G. (1966). "Functional tuning of the nervous system with control of movement or maintenance of a steady posture, III: Mechanographic analysis of the execution by man of the simplest motor task". Biophysics. 11: 565–578.
- Fujimura, Osamu (1961). "Bilabial stop and nasal consonants: A motion picture study and its acoustical implications". Journal of Speech and Hearing Research. 4 (3): 233–47. PMID 13702471.
- Galantucci, Bruno; Fowler, Carol; Turvey, Michael (2006). "The motor theory of speech perception reviewed". Psychonomic Bulletin & Review. 13 (3): 361–377. PMID 17048719.
- Gleitman, Lila; January, David; Nappa, Rebecca; Trueswell, John (2007). "On the give and take between event apprehension and utterance formulation". Journal of Memory and Language. 57 (4): 544–569. PMID 18978929.
- Gobl, Christer; Ní Chasaide, Ailbhe (2010). "Voice source variation and its communicative functions". The Handbook of Phonetic Sciences (2nd ed.). pp. 378–424.
- Goldinger, Stephen (1996). "Words and voices: episodic traces in spoken word identification and recognition memory". Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, and Cognition. 22 (5): 1166–83. PMID 8926483.
- Gordon, Matthew; Ladefoged, Peter (2001). "Phonation types: a cross-linguistic overview". Journal of Phonetics. 29 (4): 383–406. .
- Guthrie, Malcolm (1948). The classification of the Bantu languages. London: Oxford University Press.
- Gussenhoven, Carlos; Jacobs, Haike (2017). Understanding phonology (Fourth ed.). London and New York: Routledge. OCLC 958066102.
- Hall, Tracy Alan (2001). "Introduction: Phonological representations and phonetic implementation of distinctive features". In Hall, Tracy Alan (ed.). Distinctive Feature Theory. de Gruyter. pp. 1–40.
- Halle, Morris (1983). "On Distinctive Features and their articulatory implementation". Natural Language and Linguistic Theory. 1 (1): 91–105. S2CID 170466631.
- Hardcastle, William; Laver, John; Gibbon, Fiona, eds. (2010). The Handbook of Phonetic Sciences (2nd ed.). Wiley-Blackwell. ISBN 978-1-405-14590-9.
- International Phonetic Association (1999). Handbook of the International Phonetic Association. Cambridge University Press.
- International Phonetic Association (2015). International Phonetic Alphabet. International Phonetic Association.
- Jaeger, Florian; Furth, Katrina; Hilliard, Caitlin (2012). "Phonological overlap affects lexical selection during sentence production". Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, and Cognition. 38 (5): 1439–1449. PMID 22468803.
- Jakobson, Roman; Fant, Gunnar; Halle, Morris (1976). Preliminaries to Speech Analysis: The Distinctive Features and their Correlates. MIT Press. ISBN 978-0-262-60001-9.
- Johnson, Keith (2003). Acoustic and auditory phonetics (2nd ed.). Blackwell Pub. OCLC 50198698.
- Johnson, Keith (2011). Acoustic and Auditory Phonetics (3rd ed.). Wiley-Blackwell. ISBN 978-1-444-34308-3.
- Jones, Daniel (1948). "The London school of phonetics". Zeitschrift für Phonetik. 11 (3/4): 127–135. (Reprinted in Jones, W. E.; Laver, J., eds. (1973). Phonetics in Linguistics. Longman. pp. 180–186.)
- Keating, Patricia; Lahiri, Aditi (1993). "Fronted Velars, Palatalized Velars, and Palatals". Phonetica. 50 (2): 73–101. S2CID 3272781.
- Kingston, John (2007). "The Phonetics-Phonology Interface". In DeLacy, Paul (ed.). The Cambridge Handbook of Phonology. Cambridge University Press. ISBN 978-0-521-84879-4.
- Kiparsky, Paul (1993). "Pāṇinian linguistics". In Asher, R.E. (ed.). Encyclopedia of Languages and Linguistics. Oxford: Pergamon.
- Ladefoged, Peter (1960). "The Value of Phonetic Statements". Language. 36 (3): 387–96. JSTOR 410966.
- Ladefoged, Peter (2001). A Course in Phonetics (4th ed.). Boston: ISBN 978-1-413-00688-9.
- Ladefoged, Peter (2005). A Course in Phonetics (5th ed.). Boston: ISBN 978-1-413-00688-9.
- ISBN 978-1-42823126-9.
- Ladefoged, Peter; Maddieson, Ian (1996). The Sounds of the World's Languages. Oxford: Blackwell. ISBN 978-0-631-19815-4.
- Levelt, Willem (1999). "A theory of lexical access in speech production". Behavioral and Brain Sciences. 22 (1): 3–6. S2CID 152230066.
- Lodge, Ken (2009). A Critical Introduction to Phonetics. New York: Continuum International Publishing Group. ISBN 978-0-8264-8873-2.
- Löfqvist, Anders (2010). "Theories and Models of Speech Production". Handbook of Phonetic Sciences (2nd ed.). pp. 353–78.
- Maddieson, Ian (1993). "Investigating Ewe articulations with electromagnetic articulography". Forschungberichte des Intituts für Phonetik und Sprachliche Kommunikation der Universität München. 31: 181–214.
- Maddieson, Ian (2013). "Uvular Consonants". In Dryer, Matthew S.; Haspelmath, Martin (eds.). The World Atlas of Language Structures Online. Leipzig: Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology.
- Mattingly, Ignatius (1990). "The global character of phonetic gestures". Journal of Phonetics. 18 (3): 445–52. .
- Motley, Michael; Camden, Carl; Baars, Bernard (1982). "Covert formulation and editing of anomalies in speech production: Evidence from experimentally elicited slips of the tongue". Journal of Verbal Learning and Verbal Behavior. 21 (5): 578–594. .
- Munhall, K.; Ostry, D; Flanagan, J. (1991). "Coordinate spaces in speech planning". Journal of Phonetics. 19 (3–4): 293–307. .
- O'Connor, J.D. (1973). Phonetics. Pelican. pp. 16–17. ISBN 978-0140215601.
- O'Grady, William (2005). Contemporary Linguistics: An Introduction (5th ed.). Bedford/St. Martin's. ISBN 978-0-312-41936-3.
- Ohala, John (1997). "Aerodynamics of phonology". Proceedings of the Seoul International Conference on Linguistics. 92.
- "Phonetics, n.". Oxford English Dictionary Online. Oxford University Press. 2018.
- Roach, Peter (2015). "Practical Phonetic Training". Peter Roach. Retrieved 10 May 2019.
- Saltzman, Elliot; Munhall, Kevin (1989). "Dynamical Approach to Gestural Patterning in Speech Production" (PDF). Ecological Psychology. 1 (4): 333–82. doi:10.1207/s15326969eco0104_2. Archived from the original(PDF) on 2020-10-28. Retrieved 2018-08-23.
- Scatton, Ernest (1984). A reference grammar of modern Bulgarian. Slavica. ISBN 978-0893571238.
- Schacter, Daniel; Gilbert, Daniel; Wegner, Daniel (2011). "Sensation and Perception". In Charles Linsmeiser (ed.). Psychology. Worth Publishers. ISBN 978-1-4292-3719-2.
- Schiller, Niels; Bles, Mart; Jansma, Bernadette (2003). "Tracking the time course of phonological encoding in speech production: an event-related brain potential study". Cognitive Brain Research. 17 (3): 819–831. PMID 14561465.
- Sedivy, Julie (2019). Language in Mind: An Introduction to Psycholinguistics (2nd ed.). Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-1605357058.
- Seikel, J. Anthony; Drumright, David; King, Douglas (2016). Anatomy and Physiology for Speech, Language, and Hearing (5th ed.). Cengage. ISBN 978-1-285-19824-8.
- Skipper, Jeremy; Devlin, Joseph; Lametti, Daniel (2017). "The hearing ear is always found close to the speaking tongue: Review of the role of the motor system in speech perception". Brain and Language. 164: 77–105. PMID 27821280.
- Stearns, Peter; Adas, Michael; Schwartz, Stuart; Gilbert, Marc Jason (2001). World Civilizations (3rd ed.). New York: Longman. ISBN 978-0-321-04479-2.
- ISBN 978-0-415-11261-1.
- Yost, William (2003). "Audition". In Alice F. Healy; Robert W. Proctor (eds.). Handbook of Psychology: Experimental psychology. John Wiley and Sons. p. 130. ISBN 978-0-471-39262-0.
External links
- Media related to Phonetics at Wikimedia Commons
- Collection of phonetics resources by the University of North Carolina
- "A Little Encyclopedia of Phonetics" by Peter Roach.
- Pink Trombone, an interactive articulation simulator by Neil Thapen.