SPA 3112: Applied Phonetics in Communication Disorders

Notes:

Date	Topic	Reading	Assignment
M, 10/8	Consonants I	Chapter 4	-
W, 10/10	Consonants II	-	Quiz 4
M, 10/15	Consonants III	-	-

1. Consonant basics
   1. Consonant production
      1. Consonants do not occur without vowels
         1. Prevocalic consonant (before a vowel)
         2. Postvocalic consonant (after a vowel)
         3. Intervocalic consonant (between vowels)

            Exercise: eat, tea, itty, coal, stinky, arches

      2. Consonants vary in how they create and shape noise
         1. Resonant (sonorant) consonants are like vowels
            1. Sound created by vocal fold vibration in the larynx
            2. Sound shaped by the cavities of the vocal tract
         2. Obstruent (non-resonant) consonants are different
            1. Sound created by constricting the flow of air through the vocal tract
            2. Sound shaped by the cavities in front of the constriction
         3. Shaping of sound affects the acoustic result transmitted to the ear
            1. Acoustic result described by a frequency spectrum
            2. Resonant consonants have most of their energy in the lower frequency portion of the spectrum (the whole vocal tract, a bigger cavity, shapes the noise)
            3. Obstruent consonants have most of their energy in the higher frequency portion of the spectrum (only part of the vocal tract, a smaller cavity, shapes the noise)
   2. Primary dimensions of consonant production (see classification of English consonants, p. 108)
      1. Manner of articulation (manner of production) - type of constriction
         1. Stop - complete closure of the vocal tract
         2. Fricative - narrow constriction of the vocal tract
         3. Affricate - stop/fricative combination
         4. Nasal - closure of the oral cavity, resonance through the nasal cavity
         5. Liquid - not-so-narrow constriction of the vocal tract
         6. Glide - like a high vowel
      2. Place of articulation (place of production) - location of constriction, usually made by tongue
         1. Bilabial - two lips come together
         2. Labiodental - lower lip to upper teeth
         3. Interdental - tongue tip between the teeth
         4. Alveolar - tongue blade to the alveolar ridge
         5. Palatal - tongue blade to the palate
         6. Velar - tongue body to the velum
         7. Glottal - articulated at the larynx only
      3. Voicing - state of the larynx/vocal folds
         1. Voiced - vocal folds adducted (closed) to create vibration during production
         2. Voiceless - vocal folds abducted (open) during production

            Exercise: voicing, place, and manner of /t/, /f/, /m/, /j/

            Exercise: minimal pairs for consonants that differ by just one dimension

   3. Secondary dimensions of consonant production
      1. Aspirated - stop with extra period of voiceless noise before beginning the following vowel (e.g. /t/ in top vs. after)
      2. Unreleased - stop with no release of closure (e.g. /t/ in pot)
      3. Flapped - stop or nasal with very brief closure (e.g. /t/ in butter, /n/ in winner)
      4. Devoiced - lack of vocal fold vibration where it would normally be expected (e.g. in some speakers production of word initial /w/ as in which)
   4. Consonants can be readily identified from mid-saggital sections using place and manner information

2. Stop (plosive) consonants
   1. Production of stops
      1. Closure of the vocal tract at the place of articulation, stopping air flow
      2. Intraoral air pressure builds up behind the closure (which usually causes vocal fold vibration to cease regardless of the state of the larynx)
      3. The closure is released, producing a burst of air
      4. Voicing resumes soon after if the vocal folds are adducted (voiced stop), or is delayed (larger "voice onset time") for voiceless stops
   2. /p/ - voiceless bilabial stop
   3. /b/ - voiced bilabial stop
   4. /t/ - voiceless alveolar stop
   5. /d/ - voiced alveolar stop
   6. voiced alveolar flap/tap
      1. Allophone of /t/ and /d/ found in intervocalic position, after a stressed syllable
      2. Depending on your dialect, you may or may not feel there is a difference between flaps that are spelled with t's and flaps that are spelled with d's

         Exercise: t, d, or flap?

         token, bitter, casting, baddest, trick, bad, filter, return, atom, atomic, Adam, pander, military

   7. /?/ - voiceless glottal stop
      1. May be found intervocalically to indicate a boundary between adjacent vowels in different syllables
      2. Also found as an allophone of /t/ between vowels/resonants and word finally

         Exercise: glottal stop?

         reality, button, create, mountain, aorta, Hawaii, deactivate, reintroduce

   8. /k/ - voiceless velar stop
   9. /g/ - voiced velar stop
      1. Velar stops are produced slightly differently, depending on whether they are near front or back vowels
      2. Velar stops are fronted before front vowels (e.g. key) and not before back vowels (e.g. cool)

      Exercise: Identify stops from mid-saggital sections

3. Nasal consonants
   1. Production of nasals
      1. Lowering of the velum, which opens the velopharyngeal port (nasopharynx)
      2. Closure of the vocal tract at the place of articulation, stopping airflow through the oral cavity
      3. Airflow continues through the nasal cavity
   2. /n/ - voiced alveolar nasal
   3. /m/ - voiced bilabial nasal
   4. "-ng" - voiced velar nasal
   5. In cases where a nasal follows a stop at the same place of articulation (homorganic), the stop consonant is not release orally, instead the release occurs when the velum lowers (called nasal plosion, as in hidden, chutney)
   6. Nasals can be used as syllable nucleii, which is indicated in transcription by the syllabic mark.

      Exercise: Regular or syllabic nasal?

      nasal, intonation, ocean, ambulance, asymptote, chasm, bungling

4. Fricative consonants
   1. Fricative production
      1. Narrow constriction is made at the place of articulation
      2. Constriction is narrow enough to create turbulence in the airstream, generating a noise source
      3. Also, in the loudest fricatives, called sibilants, the airstream is aimed at the teeth, to create additional turbulence/noise
   2. /f/ - voiceless labiodental fricative
   3. /v/ - voiced labiodental fricative
   4. "th" #1 - voiceless interdental fricative
   5. "th" #2 - voiced interdental fricative
   6. /s/ - voiceless alveolar fricative
   7. /z/ - voiced alveolar fricative
   8. /S/ - voiceless palatal fricative
   9. /Z/ - voiced palatal fricative
      1. The palatal fricatives are produced with some lip rounding
   10. /h/ - voiceless glottal fricative
       1. Noise generated at the glottis by narrowing the vocal folds, though they are not fully adducted as they are for voicing
       2. Shape of the oral cavity for /h/ is determined entirely by the vowel that follows
       3. For high vowels, the vocal tract may be constricted enough to produce noise at the constriction point (e.g. in heat or hoot)

       Exerise: Identify fricatives produced in isolation

5. Affricate consonants
   1. Production of affricates
      1. Sound begins like an alveolar stop, but with the tonge body raised
      2. Stop is released into the articulation for a palatal fricative, giving a loud burst of noise
   2. /tS/ - voiceless palatal affricate
   3. /dZ/ - voiced palatal affricate
   4. Get lots of other affricate-like clusters in English when a stop and fricative come together (e.g. axe, cats, words, bugs)

6. Liquid consonants
   1. /r/ - voiced palatal liquid
      1. Also called a rhotic consonant
      2. Speakers vary in how they produce /r/
      3. Can be articulated with constrictions at the pharynx, palate, and lips
      4. Palatal constriction can be made with the tongue tip down and the tongue blade up (bunched)
      5. Palatal constriction can be made with the tongue tip curled up so that the back of the tongue nears the palate (retroflexed)
   2. /l/ - voiced alveolar liquid
      1. Also called a lateral consonant
      2. Tip of the tongue makes a constriction at the alveolar ridge
      3. Sides of the tongue are lowered so the airstream is not blocked
      4. When an alveolar stop is followed by /l/, the stop release happens when the sides of the tongue are lowered (called lateral release, as in battle, huddle)
      5. When /l/ is in the rhyme of a syllable, the tongue body is also backed and raised, and this allophone of /l/ is said to be velarized
   3. Liquid consonants can be found as syllable nucleii

7. Glide consonants
   1. /j/ - voiced palatal glide
      1. Very similar to /i/ vowel (e.g. hear ye, hear ye)
      2. Diphthong like quality when combined with following vowel (e.g. fuse)
   2. /w/ - voiced labiovelar glide
      1. Very similar to /u/ vowel (e.g. woohoo)
      2. Involves constriction at the velum and the lips, so described with a composite place of articulation
   3. Transcriptions of glides used only in syllable onset position, as the cases of diphthongs that end similar to these phonemes are transcribed with vowel symbols

Exercise: Transcribe anything!