Phonemic symbols are visual representations of the speech sounds (phonemes) that we produce as we speak. Although there are multiple alphabets of phonemic symbols, the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA) is the most widely used in the fields of linguistics and speech-language pathology. Below is a chart of consonant phonemic symbols from the IPA. (From … [Read more...]
Phonetics: The Basics About Acoustic Features of Consonants in Standard English
When analyzing speech segments on a spectrograph, you will notice a significant difference in their respective sound patterns. In this tutorial, we will note the more salient patterns of obstruents and sonorants. Consonants are formed by the constriction of passive and active articulators in the vocal tract. The movement of articulators towards or away from each other creates differing degrees … [Read more...]
The Basics About Acoustic Phonetics
Acoustic phonetics is the study of the acoustic (physical) properties of sounds, which are determined by measuring pitch (formants and frequencies), loudness (amplitude), and quality (timbre). Sounds are measured in terms of sound waves, which are composed of harmonics, frequencies, and formants that show air pressure patterns created during phonation. The physical process of speech production can … [Read more...]
Features
An Introduction to Features The most basic component of a speech sound is a feature, which can be described as the minimal specification that separates one phoneme from another. In fact, a phoneme can be described as a bundle of features, since all phonemes bear at least two or more. Articulatory features are defined in terms of the place and type of constriction of air as it travels through … [Read more...]
Aspiration and Voice Onset Time
Each language has parameters concerning the distribution of plosives. Some languages only permit voiceless plosives, e.g., Proto-Quechua, whereas others permit both voiced and voiceless, e.g., Spanish. Still others allow a 3-way distribution of plosives, adding aspiration to the mix, e.g., Hindi. (Aspiration is symbolized by the diacritic [h].) Hindi (1) [pʰəl] ‘fruit’ [pəl] ‘moment’ … [Read more...]
Sounds and Spellings
Speech Sounds and Symbols Talking was around for quite some time before any type of writing systems were developed. There are many languages still today today that have no written form. In fact, all human beings learn language perfectly well before ever holding a pencil or decoding a scribed word. So even though symbolizing language visually is not essential to communication, written language is … [Read more...]
An Introduction to Phonetics
Many professors of Intro to Linguistics courses choose to begin the semester by launching into phonetics, much to the student’s dismay. The material is foreign, difficult to grasp (it doesn’t seem to relate to anything else in space and time), and is rarely representative of the rest of the semester. However, there is a good reason for starting off on such seemingly shaky ground. Phonetics is the … [Read more...]