Lecture 1: The Speech Process

1. Means of communication

1.1 What do you think are the most common ways to communicate?

_____________________________________________________________________

1.2 Which visual and audible means of communication can you think of?

Visual: _______________________________________________________________

Audible: ______________________________________________________________

1.3 Which aspects of spoken language do you think Phonetics studies?

______________________________________________________________________

Here is one definition of Phonetics:

PHONETICS is concerned with the human noises by which ‘the message’ is actualized, or given audible shape: the
nature of those noises, their combinations and their function in relation to the message.

1.4 Written and spoken language both convey meaning, but each of them has characteristics of its own. Try to
think of as many differences between the two.

Spoken language: ____________________________________________________________

Written language: ____________________________________________________________

2. The speech process

2.1 What does the speech process involve?

___________________________________________________________________________

1
2.2 What are the elements of the speech process?
1. ________________
2. ________________
3. ________________

2.3. What is the necessary prerequisite for the speech process? _______________________

2.3. THE SPEAKER. What does the speaker do during the speech process?

___________________________________________________________________________

2.4. What is meant by the following stages of the speech process that the SPEAKER goes through:
a. Psychological ______________________________________________________________
b. Neurological _______________________________________________________________
c. Physiological _______________________________________________________________?

2.5 THE AIR CHANNEL (ACOUSTIC STAGE). What happens after the speaker’s vocal organs move?
_______________________________________________________________________________________

2.6 THE LISTENER. Fill in the picture with the appropriate anatomical parts of the human ear. Choose from the
following terms:

cochlea auditory ossicles inner ear eardrum middle ear

auditory nerve outer ear

2.7 What is meant by the following stages of the speech process that the LISTENER goes through:
a. Physiological ______________________________________________________________
b. Neurological _______________________________________________________________
c. Psychological _______________________________________________________________?

2
3. SPEECH COGNITION

3.1 How do you think we understand spoken language? What do we have to rely upon?

_____________________________________________________________________________

3.2 What is implied by the following stages of speech perception:

- Auditory
______________________________________________________________________________

- Phonetic
______________________________________________________________________________

- Phonological
___________________________________________________________________________

- Grammatical/Semantic/Pragmatic
_________________________________________________________

__________________________________________________________________?

3.3 What is Phonemic Restoration Effect?

_________________________________________________________________________________________

3.4 How do you understand the notions bottom-up vs. top-down models of speech cognition?

________________________________________________________________________________________

3
Lecture 2: The Three Branches of Phonetics: Methods and
Techniques

1. Branches of Phonetics
1.4 What are the three branches of phonetics? Which aspects of speech does each study?

- _____________________________________________________________________
- _____________________________________________________________________
- _____________________________________________________________________

1.5 Who needs to study the production of speech? In studying the production of speech sounds, which other
scientific fields does phonetics overlap with?

________________________________________________________________________________

1.6 Which non-instrumental techniques of articulatory phonetics can you think of? What are their drawbacks?

_________________________________________________________________________________

1.7 Think of as many instrumental techniques of articulatory phonetics as you can.

_________________________________________________________________________________

1.8 What do you think palatography investigates? ____________________________________________

1.9 Here are some more instrumental methods and techniques of articulatory phonetics. Try to connect the
method with the area of research:
a. Electroaerometry
b. Electromyography
c. X-ray photography
d. Magnetic Resonance Imaging
e. Laryngography
1. Position of the vocal organs
2. Muscular activity
3. Air pressure produced in speech
4. Activity of the vocal cords
5. Activity of vocal organs

4
2. The Acoustics of Speech

2.1 A sound wave is like any other wave. What are the characteristics of a wave?
- __________________, which represents __________________________________________;
- __________________, which represents __________________________________________;
- __________________, which represents __________________________________________.
2.2. Mark the relevant characteristics in the image below:

2.3 How are the two sound waves (a) and (b) perceived?

2.4 And these two?

5
2.5 For which other scientific fields is the study of acoustic phonetic relevant?

______________________________________________________________________

3. Auditory Phonetics

3.1 How can we test speech perception?

______________________________________________________________________

3.2 Which other sciences study the domain of speech perception?

______________________________________________________________________

6
Lecture 3: Speech production
1. Initiation
1.10 What is the necessary source of all speech sounds? _________________________________________
1.11 What is the main source of airflow?

________________________________________________________________________________

1.12 What are the meanings of terms:

- Ingressive: ______________________________________________
- Egressive: _______________________________________________

1.13 Match the sources of airflow with the sounds produced:

6. Velaric airstream
7. Lung airstream
8. Glottalic airstream
A. Pulmonic sounds

B. Clicks

C. Ejectives

2. The larynx – Phonation types

2.1 What is the larynx? Why is it important for the production of speech?
________________________________________________________________________________

2.2. Explain the terms:

- Vocal cords: _____________________________________________________________________

- Glottis: _________________________________________________________________________
- Phonation: ______________________________________________________________________
2.3 Phonation types. Fill in the boxes with the appropriate states of the glottis:

7
3. Resonating cavities
3.1 What is a resonator?
______________________________________________________________________
3.2 Which three resonators are important for speech production?
- _____________________________________________________________________
- _____________________________________________________________________
- _____________________________________________________________________
3.3 What happens when the velum is:
- raised _________________________________________
- lowered _______________________________________?
3.4 The pharynx consists of:
- _____________________________________________________________________
- _____________________________________________________________________
- _____________________________________________________________________
4. Vocal organs
4.1 Insert the names of the vocal organs in the image below:

4.2 Insert the names of the parts of tongue in the image below:

8
Lecture 4: The speech (phonological) system. The phoneme.
The allophone.
1. Phonological system
1.14 Which two things are implied by the term ‘system’?
- ______________________________________________________________________________
- ______________________________________________________________________________

1.15 What are the units of the phonological system?

_______________________________________________________________________________
1.16 Can you think of some phonological rules?
_______________________________________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________________________________

1.17 The number of phonemes in languages varies from 13 (Hawaiian) to 50+? Does this affect the
expressiveness or contributes to richness of different languages? Why?
_______________________________________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________________________________

1.18 In what ways are the sounds of human languages different from the sounds produced by animals?
_______________________________________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________________________________

1.19 How is human speech organized?

_______________________________________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________________________________
1.20 Try to think of instances of symmetry and redundancy in human languages:
- Symmetry: _______________________________________________________________________
- Redundancy: _____________________________________________________________________

2. The phoneme
2.1 Why are the underlined sounds in leave, weave and reeve regarded as different phonemes in English?
________________________________________________________________________________

2.2 What is the relationship between the notion of a ‘dog’ ( ) and the phonemes in the word /dɒg/?
________________________________________________________________________________

2.3 Why are the underlined sounds in [thɛə] and [stɛə] not regarded as different phonemes in English?

________________________________________________________________________________

2.4 Can you think of some more examples of ‘different’ sounds, which are not different phonemes?

________________________________________________________________________________

9
2.5 What makes us recognize a phoneme?

________________________________________________________________________________

2.6 Think of as many essential properties of phonemes as you can:

________________________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________________

2.7 We say that phonemes are contrastive units – that replacing one phoneme with another will result in
different words. Can you think of instances where replacing one phoneme with another does not involve the
change in meaning? This is referred to as FREE PHONEMIC VARIATION.

______________________________________________________________________
2.8 POSITIONAL PHONEMIC VARIATION means that we replace one phoneme with another only in certain
positions. Can you think of examples?

______________________________________________________________________

2.9 Why do we say that the phoneme is an abstract unit?

______________________________________________________________________

2.10 What are the more concrete realizations of the phoneme?

- _____________________________________________

- _____________________________________________

3. The allophone
3.1 The realization of a phoneme depends on several outside factors. We call this the PHONOLOGICAL CONTEXT.
Think of as many factors as you can, which may be relevant factors of the phonological context:
- _____________________________________________________________________
- _____________________________________________________________________
- _____________________________________________________________________

3.2 We can transcribe the word ‘tea’ in two different ways: /tiː/ or [thiː]. Those are two different levels of
transcription, one is broad, and the other is narrow. Which is which, and what does each represent?
- BROAD TRANSCRIPTION: ____________________________________________________________
- NARROW TRANSCRIPTION: __________________________________________________________

10
3.3 The following image represents some of the allophones of the phoneme /t/.

/t/

[th] [t] [t˺] [ʔt]

How do you understand the notion of complementary distribution based on the image?
__________________________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________________________
3.4 What has happened to the phonemes /m/ and /n/ in the following words:
conflict /kɒnflɪkt/ [khɒɱflɪkt]
comfort /kʌmfət / [khʌɱfət]
____________________________________________________________________
This is referred to as ALLOPHONIC NEUTRALIZATION.
3.5 The phoneme was defined in terms of its distinctive features. What about the allophone?
_____________________________________________________________________
3.6 Think of some examples of such features.
_____________________________________________________________________

11
Lecture 5: The distinctive features of English consonants
1. Distinctive features
1.1 What is the difference between:

- /s/ and /z/? _________________________________________________

- /n/ and /m/? ________________________________________________

- /l/ and /r/? _________________________________________________

1.21 Which two types of features are there? Give an example of each.
- _______________________________________________________________________________
- _______________________________________________________________________________
1.22 Why do we say that distinctive features are language specific?
_______________________________________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________________________________

1.23 For the description of English consonant, the following seven features will be used:
- _______________________________________________________________________________
- _______________________________________________________________________________
- _______________________________________________________________________________
- _______________________________________________________________________________
- _______________________________________________________________________________
- _______________________________________________________________________________
- _______________________________________________________________________________
2. The distinctive type of articulation
2.1 According to the distinctive type of articulation, the sounds of English (and any other language) are divided
into two major groups of sounds:
a. _________________________________________________________

b. _________________________________________________________

2.2 There are two criteria for this division – phonetic and phonological. Describe the phonetic and phonological
difference between vowels and consonants:
- phonetic:
_____________________________________________________________________________________

_____________________________________________________________________________________

- phonological (functional)

____________________________________________________________________________________

2.3 What makes the semivowels /j, w/ exceptional according to the criteria described?

12
 ________________________________________________________________________________

2.4 What are the exceptions according to the phonological criterion?

________________________________________________________________________________

3. The distinctive features that apply to consonants

3.1 The distinctive manner of articulation refers to:
_________________________________________________________________________________
3.2 Obstruction (constriction) created for the production of consonants can be complete or partial. Fill in the
following tree structure to show a more detailed difference between the constriction types and show which
group(s) of consonants are characterized by each:
OBSTRUCTION TYPE:

3.3 Fill in the consonant groups according to the manner of articulation:

- PLOSIVES: _____________________________________

- FRICATIVES: ____________________________________

- AFFRICATES: ____________________________________

- NASALS: ____________________________________

- LATERAL: ___________________________________

- RETROFLEX: ____________________________________

- SEMIVOWELS: ____________________________________

3.4 Which of the above groups are OBSTRUENTS and which SONORANTS? What characterizes each?
OBSTRUENTS: _____________________________________________________________________________
_________________________________________________________________________________________
SONORANTS: _____________________________________________________________________________
_________________________________________________________________________________________

13
3.5 The articulation of PLOSIVES takes place in three stages. Those are:

- _______________________________________________________________________________________

- _______________________________________________________________________________________

- ________________________________________________________________________________________

3.6. How are FRICATIVES articulated?

_________________________________________________________________________________________
3.7 Why do we say AFFRICATES are complex sounds?
_________________________________________________________________________________________
3.8 Are /ts/ and /dz/ in /kæts/ and /bedz/ affricates? Why?
_________________________________________________________________________________________
3.9. How are affricates articulated?

- _______________________________________________________________________________________

- _______________________________________________________________________________________

- ________________________________________________________________________________________

3.10 Describe briefly the articulation of the following sonorant groups:

NASALS: __________________________________________________________________________________
LATERAL: _________________________________________________________________________________
RETROFLEX: _______________________________________________________________________________
SEMIVOWELS: _____________________________________________________________________________

3.11 APPROXIMANTS are ____________________________________________________________________,

and they are divided into:

- CENTRAL APPROXIMANTS __________________________________________________________________

- LATERAL APPROXIMANT ___________________________________________________________________

3.12 The distinctive point of articulation refers to

_______________________________________________________________________________________

1. What is the distinctive point of articulation:

A. place of articulation

B. upper speech organ

C. lower speech organ?

14
For the following questions, always refer to the image of vocal organs and your own feeling of how you
articulate sounds:

2. Which sounds are articulated at the upper lip? _____________________________________________

3. What are such sounds called? __________________________________________________________

4. Which sounds are dental according to the point of articulation? _______________________________

5. What is the point of articulation of /t/? ___________________________________________________

6. What is it called? ____________________________________________________________________

7. Which other sounds are alveolar? _______________________________________________________

8. /r/ is articulated at the back part of the alveolar ridge. What is that point of art. called?

__________________________________________

9. Where is /S/ articulated? What this p.o.a. called? ____________________________________________

10. Which other sounds are palatoalveolar? __________________________________________________

11. One English cons. is articulated at the hard palate. Which one? _____________________________

12. This point of articulation is called…. ________________________________________________

13. If a sound is articulated at the soft palate, it is called… _________________________________

14. Which sounds are velar? ____________________________________________________________

15. Where is English /h/ articulated? __________________________________________________

16. What is the term used for this p.o.a.? _____________________________________

17. Fill in the table below with the appropriate sounds and names of point of articulation:

15
 Upper organ Sounds Label

Upper lip

Upper teeth

Alveolar ridge

Back of the alveolar ridge

Back of the alv. ridge + front part of

the palate

Palate

Velum

Between the vocal cords

3.13 The distinctive articulator refers to:

________________________________________________________________________________________
1. What is the distinctive articulator:
A. place of articulation
B. upper speech organ
C. lower speech organ?
NOTE: Don’t forget to check the image of the speech organs (p. 4) for the following questions!
2. Which sounds are articulated with the lower lip? _________________________________
3. What do the following traditional terms mean:
A. labio-dental _________________________________________________
B. bilabial _____________________________________________________
4. Which part of the tongue is used as the articulator of most alveolar and dental sounds /T, D/?
5. Which term is used for this articulator? __________________________________________
6. If the blade of the tongue is the articulator, the sounds are called laminal or coronal. Which sounds are laminal
in English? __________________________________________________
7. Which part(s) of the tongue are active for the articulation of /S, Z, tS, dZ/?
__________________________________________________
8. This articulator is called…. __________________________________________________

16
9. The part of the tongue facing the hard palate is called…. __________________________________________
10. /j/ uses the front part of the tongue, and is therefore called… ______________________________________
11. Velar sounds are articulated with the…. __________________________________________________
12. They are called DORSAL sounds. __________________________________________________
13. /h/ is…..__________________________________________________
14. Fill in the table below with the appropriate sounds and names of the articulator:

Lower organ Sounds Label

Lower lip

Tip of the tongue

Tip and blade

Tip, blade and front (part )

Front part of the tongue

Back part of the tongue

Glottis

3.14 The distinctive voicing refers to:

________________________________________________________________________________________
1. According to this feature, consonants are divided into:
- _________________________________________________ and
- _________________________________________________
2. All SONORANTS are ________________________________
3. Voiced OBSTRUENTS are: _____________________________
4. Voiceless OBSTRUENTS are: _____________________________
3.15 The distinctive force of articulation refers to:
________________________________________________________________________________________
According to this feature, all consonants are divided into ___________/________________ and
________________/_________________ sounds.
3.16 According to he distinctive phonological composition consonants are divided into:
________________________________________________________________________________________

17
Lecture 6: The distinctive features of English vowels

1. Distinctive features of vowels

1.1 What is the difference between:
- /iː/ and /ɑː/? _______________________________________________

- /iː/ and /æ/? ________________________________________________

- /iː/ and /uː/? ________________________________________________

- /iː/ and /ɪ/? _________________________________________________

- /iː/ and /ǝ/? _________________________________________________

- /iː/ and /eɪ/? ________________________________________________

- /ɑː/ and /ɒ/? _______________________________________________

1.24 For the description of English vowels, the following features will be used:
- _______________________________________________________________________________
- _______________________________________________________________________________
- _______________________________________________________________________________
- _______________________________________________________________________________
- _______________________________________________________________________________
- _______________________________________________________________________________
2. The distinctive manner of articulation/phonological composition of vowels
2.1 In terms of their phonological composition, English vowels can be:
a. _________________________________________________________

b. _________________________________________________________

2.2 How many phonemes are there in the word take /teɪk/? _______________:
2.3 Why do we say that e.g. /eɪ/ is one vowel? There are several reasons for analysing diphthongs as single
vowels!

________________________________________________________________________________

________________________________________________________________________________

________________________________________________________________________________

________________________________________________________________________________

NOTE: The same goes for all English diphthongs!

18
2.4 English diphthongs are usually divided into groups according to the second element, the one towards which
the glide is made. List the diphthongs according to the second element. Provide a word example for each
diphthong, together with its transcription.

(a) glide to [ɪ] (b) glide to [ʊ] (c) glide to [ə]

2.5 What are triphthongs? What is triphthong leveling? Fill in the table below.
______________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________
Closing Triphthong Example Leveled form
diphthong

3. The distinctive part of the tongue. The distinctive height of the tongue.

3.1 In diagram A. mark the areas which correspond to the following areas:

- front

- front-to central

- central

- back to central

- back

Diagram A.

19
3.2 In diagram B. mark the areas which correspond to the following areas:

- high

- high-to-mid

- mid

- low-to-mid

- low

Diagram B.

3.3 Now mark all the English monophthongs in the diagram below:

3.4 Now classify the English vowels according to the part of the tongue:

- Front _______________________________________________________________

- Front-to-central _______________________________________________________

- Central ______________________________________________________________

- Back-to-central _______________________________________________________

- Back _______________________________________________________________

3.5 Now classify the English vowels according to the height of the tongue:

- High _______________________________________________________________

- High-to-mid _______________________________________________________

- Mid ______________________________________________________________

- Low-to-mid _______________________________________________________

- Low _______________________________________________________________

20
3.6 In the diagrams below mark the diphthongs: a. gliding to [ɪ], b. gliding to [ʊ] and c. gliding to [ə].

A. glide to [ɪ] B. glide to [ʊ]

C. glide to [ə]

4. The distinctive tension

4.1 The distinctive tension refers to ___________________________________________.
4.2 According to this feature, vowels can be:
- Tense: ___________________________________________________
- Medium: _________________________________________________ and
- Lax ______________________________________________________

5. The distinctive lip position

5. 1 The distinctive lip position refers to ___________________________. It is also called __________________.

5. 2 According to this feature, vowels are generally divided into rounded vs. unrounded:
• Unrounded
- Spread: ______________________________________
- Spread-to-neutral: _____________________________
- Neutral ______________________________________
• Rounded – back non-low vowels
- Close rounded: ________________________________
- Open rounded: ________________________________

21
6. The distinctive length

6.1 Vowels can either be _______________ or ________________.

6.2 Phonemic length is marked by the IPA symbol [ ]. For example, / /.
6.3 All diphthongs are __________________.
6.4 Now list all short and long monophthongs:
- long ________________________________
- short ________________________________

22
Lecture 7: The non-distinctive features. Allophonic variation.
1. Non-distinctive type of articulation

1.1 How are semivowels typically articulated?

_______________________________________________________________________________
1.2 What happens when they occur after strong consonants?
_______________________________________________________________________________
1.3 Vocoids are __________________________________________________________________
1.4 Contoids are _________________________________________________________________
1.5 Give an example of /j/ and /w/ both as vocoids (typical allophone) and as contoids.
____________________________________________________________________________

2. The non-distinctive manner of articulation

2.1 Sonorants /l, r, j, w/ are typically articulated as ____________________________.
2.2 If they follow a strong consonant (especially plosive) they change their manner of articulation and voicing.
Explain how.
_____________________________________________________________________________________
E.g. __________________________________________________________________________________
2.3 What is the difference in the manner of articulation of /r/ in the following words:
raw _______________________________________________________________________________
through ____________________________________________________________________________
marry _____________________________________________________________________________
train ______________________________________________________________________________

3. The non-distinctive voicing.

3.1 The non-distinctive voicing applies to ________________________________________.

3.2 Voiced consonants can have three allophonic realizations in terms of their voicing. They can be:
- ________________________________________
- ________________________________________
- ________________________________________

3.3 The degree of voicing in obstruents depends on

________________________________________________________________________________.

3.4 The degree of voicing in sonorants depends on

________________________________________________________________________________.

23
3.5 Fill in the table below with examples illustrating how obstruents and sonorants change their voicing.

voicing degree obstruent sonorant

4. The non-distinctive type of explosion

4.1 This non-distinctive feature applies to __________________________.

4.2 How are plosives typically articulated?
______________________________________________________________________________________.
If all of these stages are present in a plosive, we say that it is orally exploded.
4.3 Otherwise, plosives are realized as nasally exploded, laterally exploded, or unexploded allophones. Provide
the conditions under which these allophonic variations occur.
- Nasal explosion: __________________________________________________
- Lateral explosion: _________________________________________________
- No explosion: _____________________________________________________
4.4 In the table below fill in the terms of allophones with different release (explosion) type and provide examples
for each.

Type of explosion Examples

5. The non-distinctive aspiration

5.1 The non-distinctive aspiration refers to __________________.

5.2 According to this feature, voiceless plosives can be:

24
 - Fully (strongly) aspirated when: __________________________________________________
- Weakly (partially) aspirated when: _________________________________________________, or
________________________________________________________________________________.
- Unaspirated when: _____________________________________________________.
5.3 In the table below fill in the boxes with examples:

Aspiration Examples

Full

Partial (unstressed)

Partial (followed by /r, l,

j, w/)

Unaspirated

6. The non-distinctive place of articulation

6.1 How are the bilabial sounds /p, b, m/ articulated in the words emphasize, cupful, obvious?
______________________________________________________________________________
6.2 How is the alveolar nasal /n/ articulated in the words envy, convey, information?
______________________________________________________________________________
6.3 In conclusion, write the rule how labiodental /f, v/ affect the allophonic change in the place of articulation.
________________________________________________________________________________________
6.4 How do interdental fricatives /θ, ð/ affect the place of articulation of the preceding alveolar consonants in
tenth, wealth, width, read these?
_____________________________________________________________________________________
6.5 How does the postalveolar /r/ or the consonant groups /tr, dr/ affect the articulation of the preceding
alveolar consonant in try, dry, already, unreal, Israel, poultry, hundred?
_____________________________________________________________________________________
6.6 Explain the meaning of the allophonic realizations of velar consonants, providing example for each:
- pre-velar: _________________________________________________________________
- mid-velar: _________________________________________________________________
- post-velar: _________________________________________________________________

7. The non-distinctive tongue position

7.1 This feature refers to the ____________________ consonant.

7.2 What are the allophones of /l/ called? Explain where each of the allophones occurs and provide examples for
each.
- _______________________________________________________________
- _______________________________________________________________

25
8. The non-distinctive phonological composition
8.1 Plosives, which are typically simple consonants, may become ‘affricated’. When does this happen?
_______________________________________________________________________________________
8.2 Give the allophonic transcription of the following words:
two /tuː/, do /duː/, retire /rɪ`tɑɪə/, adore /ə`dɔː/
______________________________________________________________________________________
8.3 What can happen to affricates in the words French and lounge? Why?
______________________________________________________________________________________

9. The non-distinctive features of vowels

9.1 Non-distinctive phonological composition of vowels.
- Simple vowels (monophthongs) _______________ can become slightly diphthongized.
- Diphthongs _____________________________ can become simplified, i.e. pronounced as monophthongs.
- Triphthongs can become simplified, i.e. changed to a diphthong or monophthong. This process is called
_________________________________________________________.
9.2 Non-distinctive length. The duration of vowels depends on _____________________________________.
9.3 Give examples of long and short allophones of the following vowels:
Long Short
/iː/ ___________________________ _________________________________
/ɪ/ ___________________________ _________________________________
/ǝʊ/ __________________________ _________________________________
9.4 Non-distinctive height of the tongue. In the diagram below insert the possible positions of /ə/ and write the
conditions under which they occur:

10. And now, some exercises.

10.1 What is the difference between the allophonic realizations of /p/ in:
spit, pray, apart, topmost and stop? ___________________________________________________
_________________________________________________________________________
10.2 What are the differences in the allophonic realizations of voiced obstruents in:
zoo, buzz, buzzing, judge and judges? _______________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________
10.3 What are differences in the realization of sonorants in:
play, apron, tenth, veal and through? ________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________________________________

26