Phonetics:Place and Manner-2

Phonetics:Place and Manner-2

Phonetic Preliminaries

Two phonetic systems:
“the talker” : articulation, aerodynamics
“the listener” : acoustics, perception
Two types of patterns in linguistic sound systems:
“Processes”: sound alternations, conditioned changes,
e.g. s > S / _i.
“Inventory” : set of contrastive sounds in a language, e.g. stops in
French (/p/, /b/, /t/, /d/, /k/, /g/).

Consonants are distinguished in terms of place of articulation,
manner of articulation, and voicing.
Vowels are distinguished in terms of height, backness, and rounding.
Secondary articulations are also used in many languages (phonation
type, nasality, strength, airstream mechanism, etc)

Speech Parameters

Three structures: pulmonic system, laryngeal cavity, and the oral cavity
All languages have sounds which involve a pulmonic airstream.
Three airstream sources:
1 Pulmonic: compression of the lungs by intercostal muscles causes air
to pass upward through the trachea.
2 Glottalic: a trapped air column between an oral constriction and a
closed glottis is used as an airstream source.
3 Velaric: a trapped air pocket between a velic closure and an anterior
constriction is used as an airstream source.

Voicing

When the vocal folds are spread apart (abducted, air passes through
the folds without causing vibration. When the folds are brought
together adducted, passing air causes vibration.
Voicing occurs when the air passing between the vocal folds causes
vibration.
All languages have voiced and voiceless sounds.
All languages have vowels and at least a few consonants which are
voiced and all languages have some voiceless consonants too

Any consonant can be devoiced, but certain consonant types can never
be voiced. Ejectives and glottal stops can not be voiced because they
involve closure of the glottis. By their nature, voicing is impossible