1.3.5 Voice onset time
- Refer to Figure 1.5 on page 10
1.3.6 Vowels and diphthongs
- monophthongs: The vowels having a single unchanging quality
e.g.) /i, ɪ, u, ʊ, ..../
- diphthongs: The vowels moving from one vowel to another
e.g.) /aɪ, aʊ, ɔɪ,.../
Note: Circled vowels are rounded
- Vowels, which are all voiced, are characterized by the position of the tongue
and the lips.
height: high, mid, low
backness: front, central, back
rounding: rounded / unrounded sound
tenseness: tense / lax
•
tense vowel: [i], [e], [u], [o], [ɔ:], [a:], [ɝ]
•
lax vowel: [ɪ], [ɛ], [æ], [ʊ], [ə], [ʌ], [ɔ], [a]
•
rounded vowel: [u], [ʊ], [o], [ɔ] -- 'boot, put, boat, bore'
•
stressed lax vowel: [ʌ] -- 'bus, mother, hut, cut, tough, cover, flood'
•
stressed tense schwa: [ɝ] -- 'firm, urge, burn, murk, heard, earn'
•
unstressed lax schwa: [ə], [ɚ]
# Vowel Description
[ɝ]: mid central unrounded r-colored stressed tense
[ə]: mid central unrounded unstressed lax
[ɚ]: mid central unrounded r-colored unstressed lax
[ʌ]: low central unrounded stressed lax
1.4 Additional Sounds
1.4.2 Places and manners of articulation
- Liquids: R-sounds belongs to one of the 'interrupted' types (taps, flaps, trills).
Both taps and flaps involve a momentary contact between the articulators.
- Taps: The Spanish [ɾ], in caro[kaɾo] "expensive"(or the American English intervocalic
/t/, as in writer), is made with a flicking movement of the tip of the tongue
against the upper articulator.
# Taps are sometimes equated with flaps, which is not accurate. First, taps are mostly
dental/alveolar(a movement from up to down) while flaps are retroflex(a movement
from back to front).
- Trills: Trills are produced by the repeated tapping of one flexible articulator against
the other. The dental/alveolar trill, [r] (e.g. Spanish perro[pero] "dog") is one
of the most common in languages of the world.
# In this book, the retroflex( r-sound) is represented as [ɹ] and trills as [r]. How-
ever, the retroflex can be commonly described as [r] and trills as [r] with diacritic
mark [̃].
1.4.2 Places and manners of articulation
- Liquids: R-sounds belongs to one of the 'interrupted' types (taps, flaps, trills).
Both taps and flaps involve a momentary contact between the articulators.
- Taps: The Spanish [ɾ], in caro[kaɾo] "expensive"(or the American English intervocalic
/t/, as in writer), is made with a flicking movement of the tip of the tongue
against the upper articulator.
# Taps are sometimes equated with flaps, which is not accurate. First, taps are mostly
dental/alveolar(a movement from up to down) while flaps are retroflex(a movement
from back to front).
- Trills: Trills are produced by the repeated tapping of one flexible articulator against
the other. The dental/alveolar trill, [r] (e.g. Spanish perro[pero] "dog") is one
of the most common in languages of the world.
# In this book, the retroflex( r-sound) is represented as [ɹ] and trills as [r]. How-
ever, the retroflex can be commonly described as [r] and trills as [r] with diacritic
mark [̃].
1.4.3 Secondary articulation
- The distinct sound that is superimposed on the primary articulation creates
the secondary articulation, resulting in the coarticulation which represents
merged articulation.
(1) Labialization: This term refers to the addition of lip rounding. A rounded
vowel quality is added to an adjacent consonant, resulting in a labialized
consonant. The diacritic for labialization is a raised [w] because it is often
accompanied by raising the back of the tongue.
e.g.) boot quick room queen
[bwut] [kwɪk] [rwum] [kwin]
(2) Palatalization: This is the raising of the blade of the tongue toward the
hard
palate without touching the roof of the mouth. It can be considered as the
addition of a [j] quality to the primary articulation, and the diacritic for
palatalized consonants is a raised [j].
e. g.) Russian, other Slavic language: [brat] "brother"
[bratj] "to take"
English: pure cute few
[pj] [kj] [fj]
'decide + ion'
[dɪsaɪd] + [ɪən] = [dɪsɪʒən]
'quest + ion'
[kwɛst] + [ɪən] = [kwɛsʧən]
