Linguistics 105 * Words and Sounds
Lecture Number Three
Introduction to Phonetics


  1. Phonetics and Phonology: The Sounds & Sound Systems of Language

    1. Questions:
      1. What is the relation between spelling and linguistic sounds?
        (Remember the example of ghoti, "fish," from laugh, women, nation (George Bernard Shaw).)

        1. How are the following pronounced?
          bough [baw]
          cough [kØf]
          dough [do]
          hiccough [hikÏp]
          thorough [ÊÏrÏ]
          through [Êru]
          tough [tÏf]

        2. Others:
          bass [bes], [bÀs] low frequency/fish
          bow [bo], [baw] shoots arrows/front of the boat
          buffet [bÏfe], [bÏfêt] food spread/wind-blown
          close [kloz], [klos] to shut/near
          coax [koks], [kowÀks] urge/shielded cable
          desert [dizrt], [dêzrt] abandon/Sahara
          do [du], [do] to act/do re mi
          does [dÏz]. [doz] acts/several female deer
          dove [dÏv], [dov] bird/did dive
          Some more

        3. Remember: in linguistics, [lêtr] is a 4-letter word!  In this course we only discuss sounds and signs for only about 1/3 of the world's 5,000 languages have writing systems.

      2. Ambiguity: how do we avoid it?
        1. Rim ember us poke in cent tense all mow stall ways con deigns word snot in ten did
        2. Not "boundaries" as on the page, although some boundaries exist. (Some are different from others.)
        3. We do not merely receive sounds, we actively perceive them.

    2. "Perception" is a set of expectations to which we actively match incoming signals
      1. Flexible Aaaaaaaaaaaaaa!-- i.e. we are interpreting abstractions, types, not tokens (although these terms are tricky).
      2. Vary with context.
      3. This "perception" is grounded in "phonology."

    3. Phonetics. The first step is a system of universal, cross-linguistic notation without reference to a specific alphabet or language
      1. Language is primarily a spoken system, not a written one. (Only about 1/3 of 5,000+ languages have writing systems.
      2. Phonetics represents sound at the token, not type, level
      3. Rule of phonetics: one sound-- one symbol -- no matter how small the distinction, whether it is linguistically significant or not.


  2. The Phonetic Alphabet

    1. The English Phonemes
      1. The Natural Classes of Consonants (Saggital Section)

        English Consonants

         

        Bilabial Labial
        Dental
        Alveolar
        Palatal
        Velar
        Glottal

        Stops

        Voiced b d… d g
        Voiceless p t… t k ´
        Aspirated
        Fricatives
        Voiced v ö z g  
        Voiceless f q s Πx h
        Affricates
        Voiced            
        Voiceless            
        Sonorants
        Nasal m     n   h  
        Liquid       r,l      
        Glide w       j    


      2. The Natural Classes of Vowels (Sagittal Section)

        Vowels, vowels everywhere!

    2. Some other phonetic conventions
      1. nasalization [›, ‹, õ, Æ]
      2. aspiration [p b t d k g‘]
      3. palatals [û, ÿ],
      4. Palatal affricates (delayed release): put the upside-down hat (called a wedge), as seen on s and z above, on top of c (=) and j (=)
    3. Some surprising examples:

      Some Unexpected Examples
      nation [neŒn] catch [kæ] fish [føŒ] picture [pøkr]
      fission [føn] tree [ri] trouble [rÏbå] did you [dø”u]
      pretty [prøDi] bottle [ba´tl] talk [tÍk] which/witch [Åø /wø]

    4. Examples for practice.
      Print these examples out and transliterate them from or to phonetic script for practive.

      1. Phonetic Latin Check Right?
        [kat]
        [hit]
        [but]
        [get]

        [“raj]
        [prøDi]
        [prabli]
        [vekeŒn]

        [êksplo—n]
        [sun]
        [“r“]
        [gíd]

        [ækn]
        [lænwø]
        [aŒ]
        [krøstin]

        [mæøk]
        [mam]
        [tßat]
        [fret]

        [dajêst]
        [prskrøpŒn]
        [lajt]
        [rar]



      2. A Few More Examples
        [lÐn—íre] __________ [rezr] __________ [ajdÏv] __________
        [”i“êk] __________ [wõu] __________ [dø”Ïgêdøm] __________



      3. Latin Phonetic Check Right?
        laugh
        gorge
        resemble
        women

        night
        other fads
        city
        scent

        elephants
        phase
        manage
        cat

        writer
        could you
        cater
        through

        though
        trough
        enough
        knife

        Howard
        machine
        lotion
        box

  3. Conclusion

    The International Phonetic Alphabet is designed to represent distinctive linguistic sounds on a one-one basis, one sound associated with one symbol, to avoid the ambiguities associated with writing systems.

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