Ling170D: Phonetics

How we use the meat in our heads to produce

speech sounds.
sounds

Test on Tuesday,
Tuesday September 15:
•Multiple choice: Correctly match consonants and
vowels in common American English
g words with
descriptions of place and manner of articulation.
•Review from 4:00 to 4:45
Ling170D: Phonetics
THE BIG CONCEPTS
•Becoming conscious of what you do with the meat in 
Becoming conscious of what you do with the meat in
your head all day every day
•Unlearning the spelling instinct:
•Decoupling the sounds of English from their 
written representations
•Understanding language independent phonetic
•Understanding language‐independent phonetic 
transcription: the International Phonetic Alphabet
•Today: Basic Consonant Sounds. Thursday: Basic 
Vowel Sounds
Ling170D: Phonetics
Unlearning the spelling instinct:
U l i th lli i ti t
•The relationship between English letters and English 
speech sounds is highly indirect.
p g y
•English spelling has been essentially frozen since the 
late fifteenth century, even as the vowel and 
consonant inventories of the language have been
consonant inventories of the language have been 
largely or even completely reorganized. 
• could just as easily be spelled ghoti:
j y p g
•<gh> in laugh, rough
•<o> in women
•<ti> in nation, lotion (link)
Ling170D: Phonetics
Unlearning the spelling instinct:
U l i h lli i i
•English spelling does not reflect differences between 
sounds that predictably occur in specific
sounds that predictably occur in specific 
environments. Think of the sound indicated by <t> in 
take vs. steak.
•English spelling has no way of consistently 
representing non‐English sounds, e.g. clicks, uvulars, 
pharyngeals, glottalization, etc. etc. 
h l l tt li ti t t
The Human Speech Apparatus
 Manners of Articulation
Stop or Plosive:
Oral and nasal cavities are completely 
closed off No air comes out of the head
closed off. No air comes out of the head 
until the stop/plosive is released
poor – bore – tore  – door – core – gore 

Fricative:
Two parts in the oral cavity are brought 
close enough together to create 
turbulence in the air stream coming out
turbulence in the air stream coming out 
of the lungs, creating ‘white noise.’
four – Thor – sore – hair 

Nasal:
l
Voicing:  The mouth is completely closed off but 
The vocal chords are brought together the velum is lowered, allowing air to 
closely enough to start vibrating against g
come out through the nose.
each other, creating a buzzing sound.  mere – near – hang
poor – bore – swift – swivel
Uh Oh
Uh. Oh.
We’re already in trouble with English 
spelling.  We’re using two letters in some 
cases to represent a single sound: 
Thor hang
Moreover, each of these letters already has 
a job:
a job:
tore  hair near gore

We also have letters that are sometimes 
without jobs. They represent sounds that 
h b h h
English had – and has since lost – when our 
spelling system was established in more or 
ess t s cu e t o . a p e: t e e a
less it’s current form. Example: the velar 
fricative hear in Yiddish‐influenced English 
– or from Groundskeeper Willie on The 
Simpsons: Ach!
right –
i ht rough h – laugh
l h ‐ daughter 
d ht
We Need a Better Alphabet
We need an alphabet
that …
•Can be used to represent any
sound in any language, including
any possible sound we might not
yet have encountered
•Allows a one-to-one relationship
between symbols and sounds –
not one-to-many, many-to-one,
etc.
etc
•We’ll be taking a tour through this
vast inventory, concentrating on the
sounds attested in English.
English
•From now on, we’ll represent
phonetic symbols in [square
brackets] and spelled words in
<angled
l d bbrackets>
k or in italics.
l
Feeling Out the Points and Manners
of Articulation: English Sounds

water uh-oh
hang

think this share treasure

Feeling Out the Points and Manners
of Articulation: Non-
Non-English Sounds
 Feeling Out the Points and Manners
of Articulation: Non-
Non-English Sounds
Try It Out:

Which best describes the sounds hinted at 
by the bolded letters?

Voicing Place of Articulation Manner of Articulation

Voiceless

Fricative
Alveolar

alveolar
Voiced

Dental
Labial

Nasal
Velar
Post‐

Stop
pressure
pressure
skin
skin
skin
 Feeling Out the Points and Manners
of Articulation: Non-
Non-English Sounds
Try It Out:

Which best describes the sounds hinted at 
by the bolded letters?

Voicing Place of Articulation Manner of Articulation

Voiceless

Fricative
Alveolar

alveolar
Voiced

Dental
Labial

Nasal
Velar
Post‐

Stop
pressure X X X
pressure X X X
skin X X X
skin X X X
skin X X X
 Feeling Out the Points and Manners
of Articulation: Non-
Non-English Sounds
Try It Out:

Which best describes the sounds hinted at 
by the bolded letters?

Voicing Place of Articulation Manner of Articulation

Voiceless

Fricative
Alveolar

alveolar
Voiced

Dental
Labial

Nasal
Velar
Post‐

Stop
gnaw
nothing
soothed
pressed
pressed
 Feeling Out the Points and Manners
of Articulation: Non-
Non-English Sounds
Try It Out:

Which best describes the sounds hinted at 
by the bolded letters?

Voicing Place of Articulation Manner of Articulation

Voiceless

Fricative
Alveolar

alveolar
Voiced

Dental
Labial

Nasal
Velar
Post‐

Stop
gnaw X X X
nothing X X X
soothed X X X
pressed X X X
pressed X X X