Phonetics - introduction

PHONETICS

= general study of characteristic of speech sounds

It can be divided into three parts:

1. articulatory phonetics = study of how speech sounds are made

2. acoustic phonetics = deals with physical properties of speech as sound waves

3. auditory phonetics = deals with the perception, via the ear

Spectrogram

• Spectrograms are a very informative visual display of speech sounds because they mimic the analysis performed by the ear, showing the formants

Articulatory phonetics

• How sounds are made? We start with the air pushed out by the lungs up through the trachea to the larynx

mechanisms of speech production

• airstream process - the source of air used in making the sound for speech

• phonation process – action of the vocal folds (voicing= producing voiced or voiceless sounds)

• oro-nasal process - the modification of that flow of air in the vocal track (from the glottis to the lips and nose)

• Articulatory process - The movements of the tongue and lips interacting with the roof of the mouth and the pharynx

Anatomy parts

• velum - the back part of the roof of the mouth (=soft palate)

• velic closure – raising a soft palate, prevents airflow into the nasal cavity

• larynx - commonly called the voice box, is an organ in the top of the neck of tetra pods involved in breathing, producing sound, and protecting the trachea against food aspiration

• supra-laryngeal - part of the vocal tract located above the larynx (all cavities above the larynx)

• The glottis is the opening between the vocal folds

• Glottal stop – closure of glottis, refers to air pressure difference, they are opening and closing regularly

• Glottal consonants are consonants using the glottis as their primary articulation

• vocal folds/cords two small muscular folds producing vibration during saying some consonants/ vowels

• Cycle – one opening of vocal folds

they have two positions:

• Vocal folds are spread apart – the air passes between them unimpeded – producing voiceless sounds

• Vocal folds are drawn together, the air from the lungs repeatedly pushes them apart as it passes through, creating a vibration effect – producing voiced sound