The Sounds of language

1. The Sounds of language Chapter 3

2. The Power of Language Humans are the only animals with complex verbal language What do you need to know in order to understand language?

3. The Power of Language • Example: “My boyfriend and I are flying to his mother’s next week.” • Distinct sounds • Each word has a specific meaning • Different tenses • Implicit meanings • Order of the words

4. The Power of Language • This is linguistic knowledge • Most of this knowledge is unconscious and learned at a young age during enculturation • It is intuitive and understood (most times) immediately • Words are arbitrary • Words are combinations of discrete and recombinable sounds • Language is creative • It can discuss hypothetical or imaginary things

5. Introduction • To learn a language, you must learn sound production • Rules for producing any sound in any human language • You must also learn phonology • Many sounds in other languages will not be the same as those in your native language

6. phonology • The study of sounds in a language • It focuses on two differences • 1. phonetics • Identifies and describes language sounds • 2. phonemics • Analyzes the way sounds are arranged in a language

7. Emic and etic • Phonetic study is often etic • Phonemic study is often emic

8. Language and Sound • In other words, • Linguists describe and analyze the nature and patterning of sounds • These patterns make the phonological system and the study of this is phonology • When you speak you do not consciously think of sounds • The word “debt” • How many sounds does this have? • How is this different from “pet”?

9. Phonology • A phonetic chart shows all the sounds of a language and uses different symbols for different sounds made by the same letter • The sounds on the chart are called phones

10. Phonology • A phonemic chart shows only the distinctive sounds of a language, and all sounds made by one letter are grouped together • The sounds on the chart are called phonemes

11. Phonology • If you grew up speaking one language you will probably use the phonetic system even when learning new languages • If you grew up speaking multiple languages, then you can use multiple phonetic systems

12. phonetics • Three types: • 1. Acoustic • Physical properties of sounds/soundwaves • Voice recognition, voiceprints • 2. Auditory • How sounds are perceived and interpreted • 3. Articulatory/Descriptive • How speech sounds are produced • Catalogue all human language sounds • Used in fieldwork

13. Rosetta stone • Egyptian hieroglyphs are not pictures, they are phonemes • https://www.khanacademy.org/humanities/history/ancient-medieval/Ancient/v/rosetta-stone--196-b-c-e

14. anatomy • Three areas of importance: • 1. Lungs • Push air out • 2. Larynx • Where voice box is located and where vocal cords modify air into sounds • 3. Supralaryngeal vocal tract • Above vocal cords • Where sound waves become recognizable speech sounds

16. larynx • As air moves through larynx, it passes through vocal cords • If cords are relaxed and open, the sound is voiceless • If cords are closed and vibrating, the sound is voiced • Touch your throat and say “ssssss” and “zzzzzz” • Do you feel the difference?

17. Sounds • Phonemes are the particular sounds that speakers and listeners recognize as distinct from other sounds • This gives different sounds different meanings • Compare: • /b/ and /p/ • Put your hands on your ears and say these sounds out loud • /b/ causes vibrations and is called voiced (others: /d/, /z/, /v/, /j/) • /p/ does not and is called voiceless (others: /t/, /s/, /f/)

18. Articulation above larynx • After air moves through larynx, it goes to the nose and mouth, where it can be modified and articulated • The position of the tongue and lips can change sounds • Articulation is • Place: where the air is being modified • Manner: how the air is being modified

19. Articulation above larynx • Phonetic charts are important in understanding different languages • There are different spellings and symbols for different sounds in different languages • International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA) was used to have one unique symbol for each sound • This was modified to the American Usage System (AUS) • Both charts are used

20. Vowels and consonants • These are shown on every phonetic chart • Vowels have less constricted air flow and consonants have more constricted air flow • Let’s practice pronouncing different ones

21. Vowels and consonants: Articulation • “Bilabial Stop” • Bilabial (with both lips) • Stop (stop the air and then let it out) • “B,” “P” • Turn to pg. 57-59 and look over articulation places and manners • Practice: • Alveolar nasal “N” • Palatal approximate “J” • Velar stop (plosive) “K,” “G”

22. Vowels and consonants: Articulation • Be familiar with the terms for place and manner

23. Vowels and consonants: Articulation • Generally, consonants are sounds made by constricting the air stream and vowels are made by not constricting the air as much or at all • Phonetic charts are not as helpful for vowels • We look at ways air streams can be modified • Height of tongue • How high tongue is in mouth: “ee” sound tongue is high, “ah” sound is low • Place of tongue • How far forward or back tongue is in mouth: “ee” sound tongue is forward, “oo” sound tongue is back • Rounding of lips • Holding lips in rounded or flat position: “oh” sound versus “ee” sound

24. Vowels and consonants: Articulation • These are guidelines • Different dialects and accents can make these sound differently

25. Beyond phonetic charts • Phonetic charts show the basic sounds, or segments, of language • But language can further modify sounds • These are called suprasegmentals are have their own special symbols in a phonetic chart • Nasalization: sound goes through nasal cavity and not mouth • Pitch: high or low “notes” • Clicks: air released inward (symbol is ! In Kung) • Lengthening: holding sound for longer period of time

26. Assignment • Article on Click Languages • Video Log on Click Languages • http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c246fZ-7z1w

27. phonemics • In order to really understand and speak a language, you need to also know how the sounds are used • Phonemics/phonology analyzes the way sounds are arranged and what sounds are important in a language • Phonemics can give you an insider (emic) view of a language

28. phonemics • Phoneme is a sound that functions to distinguish one word from another • Example: “t” and “d” are different sounds, and also distinguish the word “tie” from the word “die” • This is also a minimal pair, or a pair of words in which one difference in sound makes a difference in meaning • This is how to identify phonemes

29. phonemics • Allophones are another type of phoneme; they are a group of sounds that together form a single phoneme • Each allophone is a separate unit but all together they make up a phoneme • Wherever you find allophones in a language, there is a good chance you will also find a pattern that defines how and where they are used in a language • Example: • [ph] (aspirated p sound) usually occurs at the beginning of words • [p] (unaspirated p sound) usually occurs in the middle of words

30. phonemics • Example: • [ph] (aspirated p sound) usually occurs at the beginning of words • [p] (unaspirated p sound) usually occurs in the middle of words • AspiratedUnaspirated • Peak Speak • Pool Spool • Pend Spend • Pun Spun

31. phonemics • The previous example is one of complementary distribution (the different variations, or allophones, are distributed between different words) • Conditioned variation means variation in allomorphs happens because of the sounds around them • Sometimes this can be social • Men and women can pronounce words differently (example, pg. 69) • Even if two languages have the same phones, they may not group them into phonemes and allophones the same way • How does “ng” sound in our language? Where is it found in a word? • How do you pronounce ngoma (drum)? Why is this difficult?

32. paralanguage • Paralanguage refers to anything that is communicated alongside language • Voice cues • Intensity • Penmanship • Emoticons  • USING ALL CAPS • One must learn how to use these properly as well

33. Voice quality and intonation • AKA tone of voice • Most commonly noticed type of paralanguage • What does it mean when you whisper? • What does it mean if you whine? • How do you talk to a baby? • Trend of ‘rising intonation’ (began with “Valley Girl”): voice goes up at the end of a sentence • How can this be confusing with meaning?

34. Sounds: Tone • Pitch of voice can also convey meaning • What are the differences between these: • She went to class. • She went to class? • In tone languages, changing voice pitch changes meaning of the word • Example: Nupe (African): • Bá: high tone = “to be sour”, mid tone = “to cut”, low tone = “to count” • Example: Thai: • Nâa: tone falls on second vowel = “face” • Nˇaa: tone rises on second vowel = “thick”