Description of Speech Sounds

Description of Speech Sounds

1. There are two kinds of relevant features in english in order to describe speech sounds

   • Phonetic Features
     • Physical aspects of English
       • Production, transmission and perception of sounds
         • Non-Distinctive Features.
   • Phonological features
     • Relevant to the FUNCTION of sounds
     • Can distinguish meaning
       • For instance: Difference between CAP and CAB
     • Distinctive features
   • (Some of them are both phonetically and phonologically relevant features)
     • Purely Phonetic Features
       • Don't change function of the phoneme (only physical aspects). Those are:
         • LOUDNESS
           • Suprasegmental (goes beyond the minimum linguistic unit: phoneme)
             • It can convey an emotional state (anger, happiness, etc.)
           • Distinction between noun and verb record
           • The greater the amplitud of the vibration (vocal folds), the louder the sound
         • PITCH
           • Suprasegmental
             • It can help distinguish meaning.
               • For instance: "She speaks english", here pitch help distinguish whether it is a statement or a question
                 • However, pitch cannot change the function of the sound. Thus, english is an non-tone language.
                   • Unlike over half the languages (Tone Languages), in which pitch can change the function of sounds
         • TONE OF VOICE
           • Not usually considered suprasegmental, but Paralinguistic Feature
             • It can help characterise the speaker and their voice (female, male, harsh, etc.)
             • Thus, it goes beyond the lexicon
           • Also called voice quality, tonal quality or timbre
         • VOICEDNESS AND VOICELESSNESS
           • Related to the state of glottis
             • Narrow
               • Vocal folds together. They vibrate
                 • Voiced. For instance: "zeal"
             • Open
               • Vocal folds apart; no vibration
                 • Voiceless. For instance: "seal"
                   • When whispering, all sounds are voiceless
             • Closed
               • Vocal folds pressed; air-stream is completely stopped
         • AIR-STREAM MECHANISM
           • In english the mechanism is one egressive (pulmonic air-stream). Thus, it is not a distinctive feature.
             • Taking the above, there are three kinds of sound:
               • EJECTIVE
                 • Air is pushed up from the glottis
                 • Voiceless sound
                   • For instance /p/ sound, in the word "play"
                 • Egressive glottalic air-stream
               • IMPLOSIVE
                 • Glottis makes the air move inwards (occlusive)
                 • The majority of them are voiced
                 • Ingressive glottalic air-stream
               • CLICK
                 • Air is sucked in as a result of movements against the velum
                 • Ingressive velaric air-stream
         • DURATION AND LENGTH
           • Referred to the time taken in articulation of the sound
             • That depends on the speaker ( emphasis in their particular utterance)
             • LENGTH
               • Usually considered phonological concept
                 • For instance: FULL (short u), and FOOL (long u)
                   • Here it could change the meaning
                 • However, length is not the only distinctive feature in a sound: it is usually accompanied by a difference in sound quality
                   • That is why it is not considered a distinctive feature in here
           • DURATION
             • purely phonetic concept