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free variation: they can appear in the same context. (example: put (t o glottal stop))
For two sounds to be interpreted as allophones of the same phoneme, they should also be
phonetically similar.
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Active articulators: articulators that move, for example, the lips, the tongue or the soft palate.
Passive articulators: do not move. For example, the teeth, the alveolar ridge and the hard palate. They take
part in speech production because an active articulator approaches them to utter a given sound.
Organs of speech in the oral cavity:
Alveolar ridge
Teeth
Lips
Tongue
Tip
Blade
Front
Center
Back
vocal folds
Pharynx
Uvula
Hard palate
Vocal folds: Two chords situated in the larynx. They can basically have three positions
Closed: The air that comes from the lungs is blocked and cannot escape until they open again.
Open: the air that comes from the lungs is expelled freely. The position of vocal folds is also used to
produce voiceless sounds.
Nearly together: the air cannot escape freely. It pushes through the vocal folds. This makes the
vocal folds vibrate. The vibratory movement of the vocal folds causes sound. (voiced sounds)
The vibratory movement of the vocal folds is also responsible for two other perceptual features, namely,
pitch and loudness.
Our perception of loud or soft sounds depends on the intensity (or amplitude) of the vocal fold
vibration: the higher the amplitude (or displacement) of the vibration, the louder the sound.
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4.1. Initiation:
Airstream mechanism (origin of the airflow):
Ejective sounds: sounds produced with a glottalic airstream mechanism and an eggressive airflow.
Implosive sounds: sounds produced with a glottalic airstream mechanism and an ingressive airflow.
4.2. Phonation:
Modal voice: or normal. Most sounds are voiced.
Whisper: open vocal folds. We can say that when we whisper all sounds are voiceless.
Creaky voice: Vocal folds can only vibrate at one end.
Breathy voice or murmur: vibration is combined with a considerable amount of air.
4.3. Articulation
Sounds are describe according to their place of articulation and their manner of articulation.
Examples:
[b] = voiced, bilabial, plosive
[s] = voiceless, alveolar, fricative
5. The segmental level and the suprasegmental:
Segmental level: the articulation of a series of sounds (vowels and consonants) also known as segments.
Suprasegmental level: the production of a series of suprasegmentals that involve more than consonants
and vowels and include features such as stress, length, intensity and intonation.
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= vowels are produced with an open approximation of the articulators and they are always voiced.
Vowels are described according to: tongue position, tongue height, lip posture and vowel duration.
1.1. Tongue position:
front: the front of the tongue raises towards the front of the hard palate.
back: the back of the tongue raises towards the back of the soft palate.
Central: the centre of the tongue raises towards the middle of the hard palate.
1.2. Tongue height:
close (high): the tongue raises towards the palate (no friction)
half-close (high-mid): the tongue raises (less than for close vowels)
half-open (low-mid): the tongue raises (less than for half-close vowels)
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Tongue location
Tongue height
Lip posture
Duration
Front
Short
Back
Open
Unrounded
Long
Central
Open
Unrounded
Short
Front
Short
Central
Long
Central
Short
Front
Close
Unrounded
Long
Front
Half-close
Unrounded
Short
Back
Open
Rounded
Short
Back
Long
Central
Half-close
Rounded
Short
Back
Close
Rounded
Long
2. Types of vowels:
Monophtong: vowels produced with only one quality.
Diphthongs: vowels produced with a change in quality (two qualities)
Tiphthongs: vowels produced with a change in quality (three qualities)
English closing diphthongs are with or whereas English centring diphthongs are with .
English triphthongs are composed of one of the closing diphthongs followed by .
Smoothing: When the middle vowel of a triphthong is not fully targeted and thus the first vowel is
lengthened.
Strong vowels: mainly occur in stressed syllables.
Weak vowels: can only occur in unstressed syllables. They are , , , I and u. u occurs in unstressed
syllables, specially after [j].
3. Related phenomena:
3.1. Nasalisation: The only difference between an oral and a nasalised vowel is the position of the
velum. Nasalised vowels only occur next no nasal consonants.
3.2. Voiceless vowels and aspiration: voiceless vowels are produced when whispering. The
phenomenon of aspiration in English can be interpreted as a partial devoicing of vowels.
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3.3. Pre-fortis clipping: Vowels that precede a voiceless sound (fortis) are shortened or clipped, as
opposed to vowels preceding voiced sounds (lenis). It mainly occurs when the consonant
preceding the vowel occurs word-finally.
3.4. Rhythmical clipping: The higher the number of unstressed syllables that follow the stressed
one, the shorter the duration of the vowel in the stressed syllable.
First articulator
Second articulator
Examples
Bilabial
Upper lip
Lower lip
p, b, m
Labiodental
Upper teeth
Lower lip
f, v
Dental
Upper teeth
Tongue tip
Alveolar
Alveolar ridge
Tongue tip
s, z, l
Post-alveolar
Palatal
Hard palate
Tongue front
Velar
Velum
Tongue back
K, g,
Pharyngeal
Tongue back
Glottal
A partial closure (as I laterals l). This involves a closure of the tip of the tongue against the alveolar
ridge, but with the sides of the tongue lowered.
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Bilabial
Plosive
Labiodental Dental
Alveolar
Fricative
Postalveolar
Nasal
Velar
Affricate
Palatal
Labiovelar
Approximant
Glottal
Lateral
See how to represent consonants in graphs (position of the vocal folds, place of articulation and degree of
the constriction)
2. Types of articulation:
Single articulation: with some kind of a constriction in a particular location of the oral cavity.
Double articulation: two simultaneous constrictions at two different places of the oral cavity (they have to
have the same degree of approximation or manner of articulation).
Primary articulation: the most important (and often the only) articulation of a consonant.
Secondary articulation: involves a simultaneous constriction to the primary one but of lower rank. This
means that the manner of articulation of the second constriction has to be more open than that of the primary
one. For instance, t can sometimes be labialised / l can sometimes be velarised (=dark l).
3. Types of consonants:
Obstruents: sounds produced with a blockage of the airflow in the oral cavity that causes noise. Obstruents
include plosives, fricatives and affricates.
Sonorants: sounds produced with a free escaping of the airflow that causes no noise. Sonorant sounds are
approximants, laterals, nasals and vowels.
4. Allophonic variation in English consonants (aspiration, devoicing and velarization)
Aspiration: takes place when p, t or k are located at the beginning of a stressed syllable. Aspiration is
blocked when p, t, and k are preceded by s.
Devoicing: two devoicing processes:
the devoicing of voiced obstruents: are devoiced when the originally voiced sound is located
before or after a pause or is in contact with a voiceless sound. When the voiced obstruent is next to
a voiced sound, devoicing does not apply. When devoicing takes place at the end of a word, the clue
that distinguishes a word ending with a devoiced sound from a word ending with an originally voiced
sound is the duration of the preceding vowel. (=pre-fortis clipping)
the devoicing of voiced approximants and laterals: English approximants j, w, r and al are
devoiced when they are preceded by p, t, k at the beginning of a stressed syllable. When p, t and k
are preceded by an s, devoicing does not apply.
Velarisation: Dark l (only occurs before consonants (except for j) or before a pause.
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Syllabic consonant: A consonant that makes up a syllable on its own. It is due to the dropping of schwa
when it's followed by a consonant.
Sonority hierarchy: Sounds have different degrees of sonority.
More sonorous
vowels
laterals
nasals
approximants
fricatives
affricates
plosives
Less sonorous
2. Phonotactics: combination of sounds
Phonotactics: The area of phonetics that studies the combination of sounds allowed in a given language.
Initial consonant clusters (in syllable onset position)
Zero consonants: All English vowels can occure syllable initially except for and .
One consonant: All English consonants can appear at the beginning of a syllable except for .
Three-consonant clusters:
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Consonant + t / d / s / z /
Four-consonant clusters: Can only be made by adding a morpheme consonant to a syllable which
already has a three-consonant cluster.
Regressive (or anticipatory) assimilation: Sounds change their place of articulation to that of the
following sound but they keep their original voice condition and their manner of articulation.
Progressive (or perseverative) assimilation: Only takes place when there is an alveolar syllabic
nasal (n) preceded by a bilabial or a velar consonant.
Open = = =
Coalescence: involves the merging of two sounds into another sound which takes characteristics
from the two original ones.
t + j =
d + j =
Elision: is a phenomenon which involves the loss of one sound in a given environment. Only t / d. T / d must
be in word or syllable final position and they must be preceded by a consonant of the same voicing and the
following word must start with any consonant except for h.
cold beer = =
Liaison: is a phenomenon which involves the pronunciation of a sound at the end of a word so as to link it
with the first sound of the following word.
Linking -r: Both linking and intrusive -r are typical of non-rhotic accents. Words ending with r or
re in the spelling are pronounced with final r if the next word begins with a vowel. = linking -r is the
pronunciation of a word-final orthographic r or re when followed by a vowel in the next word.
Intrusive -r: Some speakers pronounce r after certain vowels (even though no r is present in the
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spelling), when the next word starts with a vowel. Intrusive -r can only be found after thouse vowels
which can be followed by an ortographically motivated r. Thus, it is not possible after high vowels ( ,
, or ) or diphthongs ending with a high vowel (closing diphthongs). Intrusive -r is common after ,
and , and also after centring diphthongs.
Stress levels
Nuclear
Pitch prominence
Rhythmic beat
Strong vowel
Primary
Secondary
Tertiary
Unstressed
Primary stress (PS): is always accompanied by a pitch movement and a rhythmic beat. It is the main (or
nuclear) stress of a words and the syllable always contains a strong vowel. Representation: '
Secondary stress (SS): is very similar to PS but is non-nuclear. A secondary stress always precedes the
primary one. Representation: ,
Tertiary stress (TS): is weaker than the secondary one. Usually a tertiary stress is located between the
primary and the secondary stresses of a word. Representation: ,
Unstressed (U): tends to be produced with a weak vowel (sometimes strong vowels can also occur in
unstressed syllables but these cases are minotity).
Introduce =
discontinuation =
2. Predicting the location of stress: (these rules have loads of exceptions)
Phonological structure of a syllable: strong or weak
Strong: a strong syllable contains a long vowel or a diphthong (except for ) or ends with more than one
consonant.
Weak: a weak syllable contains a short vowel (or ) and one (or no) final consonant.
Simple words (two or three syllables and with no pre-primary stresses). We have to take into
account:
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Two-syllable words:
a) Verbs and adjectives:
1. If the last (ultimate) syllable is strong, when it will be stressed.
2. If the last (ultimate) syllable is weak, the penultimate syllable will be stressed.
b) Nouns:
1. If the last (ultimate) syllable of the noun contains a short vowel, the penultimate syllable will be
stressed. Otherwise, the last syllable will be stressed.
Three-syllable words:
a) Verbs:
1. If the last syllable is strong, then it will be stressed.
2. If the last syllable is weak, the penultimate syllable will be stressed.
b) Nouns:
1. If the final syllable is strong, the first (antepenultimate) syllable will be stressed.
2. If the final syllable is weak and the middle syllable is strong, the middle syllable is stressed.
3. If the final and the middle syllables are weak, the first syllable will be stressed.
Stress in complex words:
Stem + affix:
Prefixes: in most cases, the prefix will get a secondary stress, but the primary or main stress will
remain in the original syllable.
stress-attracting suffixes: (suffixes that attract the primary stress) = -ette, -eer, -ese, -ee
stress-neutral suffixes: (suffixes that do not affect stress placement) = -able, -ish, -ful,
-less, -ous
stress-fixing suffixes (suffixes that change the location of the main stress into another
syllable which is neither the originally stressed syllable nor the suffix itself) = -ix, -ion, -ive
Compounds: The main tendency in compounds is to have a primary stress on the first element of
the compound. (Whereas noun phrases have their primary stress on the second element).
Stress reorganisations:
Stress shift: involves the relocation of a primary stress into a secondary stress position as a result
of a stress clash (Portuguese, Portuguese history)
Stress clash: involves the consecutive (or almost consecutive) production of two stressed syllables
in different words.
Consecutive stresses: when three stressed lexical words with one or two more syllables come
together in connected speech, the word in the middle tends to lose the stress.
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Weak forms:
Word
Weak form
Strong form
eI
Am
()m
An
And
n(d)
nd
Are
A:
As
At
Be
bi
bi:
Been
bIn
bi:n
But
bt
Bvt
Can
kn
kn
Do
Du / d
du:
Does
dz
dVz
Could
kd
kUd
For
fO:
From
frm
frAm
Had
(h)d
hd
Has
(h)z
hz
Have
(h)v
hv
He
(h)i
hi:
Her
(h)
h3:
Him
Im
hIm
His
Iz
hIz
Just
ds(t)
dVst
Me
mi
mi:
Must
ms(t)
mVst
Of
Shall
Sl
Sl
She
Si
Si:
Should
Sd
SUd
Some
sm
sVm
Than
Dn
Dn
That
Dt
Dt
The
D / Di
Di:
Them
Dm
Dem
There
Dea
To
t / tu
tu:
Us
Vs
Was
wz
wz
We
wi
wi:
Were
w3:
Who
hu
hu:
Would
wd
wUd
You
j / ju
ju:
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1.
Not all monosyllabic function words have a weak form (off, on, or, my, out, those...)
2.
There are some function words that have the same weak forms.
Apart from emphatic and citation contexts, there are other contexts in which function words tend not to appear in its weak
form.
1.
Auxiliary and modal verbs located at the end of a sentence are produced with a strong form.
2.
3.
Auxiliary and modal verbs are also strong when they appear in the negative form.
4.
5.
Sometimes, the presence of a weak or a strong form depends on the word category or the meaning of the word:
some: pronoun (strong) / adjectives (algunos) (strong) / adjective (unos, partitif) (weak).
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Long constituents: It occurs when one of the constituents of the clause becomes too long, then it is treated
as a separate intonation phrase (IP). For example: the man with black glasses and a brown hat / goes to
Leeds (long subject = two IPs)
Lists: In lists, each item in the utterance tends to be included in a separate intonation unit.
Vocatives: They behave differently depending on whether they are located in initial or in final position. In
final position, vocatives are produced in a separate intonation group.
Reporting phrases: As in vocatives, reporting phrases behave differently depending on whether they are
located in initial or in final sentence position.
Tone inventory: it is the system of accentual choices of a given language which includes all the tones
(linguistically relevant intonation entities) used in that particular language.
Pitch range: It has to do with the key or amount of pitch displacement with which an intonation phrase is
produced. It can be divided into a broad pitch range (big amount of pitch displacement) and a narrow pitch
range (small amount of pitch displacement). Pitch range differences are speaker-dependent, that is, some
speakers have a broader pitch range than other. However, speakers can control and modify their pitch range.
Britich school: a main tradition for the analysis of English intonation. It is also known as the configurational
modal since tone units are analysed according to two configurations: the nuclear configuration (which
includes the last accented syllable and all the subsequent unaccented syllables) and the pre-nuclear
configuration (which includes all the syllables unaccented and accented preceding the last accent).
British school divides each intonation phrase into the following parts: pre-head, head, nucleus and tail.
American school: a main tradition for the analysis of English intonation. It describes intonation by means of
a series of tone levels such as H (high), L (low), M (mid). On the other hand, the American tradition does not
differentiate between nuclear and pre-nuclear accents. According to the American School, each stressed
syllable may become accented, which means that it may be associated to one of the preceding tones.
Nuclear tones: They are associated to the nuclear syllable. The inventory of nuclear tones includes five
simple tones and two complex tones. The simple tones indicate the origin of the pitch (high, low or mid) and
direction of the pitch (fall, rise or level). The complex tones show the combination of two pitch trajectories
(fall-rise, rise fall).
Pre-nuclear tones: the types of tones found in pre-nuclear position differ from those in nuclear position in
that they de not account for the pitch trajectory at the end of the intonation phrase, but they just describe the
pitch movements of the accented syllables before the nucleus. There are two types of tones: high and low. A
high tone indicates that the first accented syllable of the head is produced with a high pitch. A low tone
indicates that the first accented syllable of the head is produced with a low or mid pitch.