broad transcription (phonemic) vs. narrow transcription ... · transcription passage 4 she was...

Broad transcription (phonemic) vs. Narrow transcription (phonetic or allophonic)

“We can distinguish between phonetic and phonemic transcription. A phonetic

transcription can indicate minute details of the articulation of any particular sound

by the use of differently shaped symbols, e.g. [glottal stop], or by adding little marks

(known as diacritics) to a symbol, e.g. [nasalization]. In contrast, a phonemic

transcription shows only the phoneme contrasts and does not tell us precisely what the

realisations of the phoneme are.” PRACTICAL PHONETICS AND PHONOLOGY

by BEVERLEY COLLINS AND INGER M. MEES 2013

“diacritic (adj./n.) (1) In phonetics, a mark added to a symbol to alter the way

it is pronounced. Diacritic marks (or ‘diacritics’) include the various accents

(´ ` ^ etc.), and thse signs of devoicing [o] and nasalization [~]” dictionary of linguistics

and phonetics 2009

“Diacritics (or diacritic marks) are indicators of the minor changes in the pronunciation

ofsome sounds in certain word positions or in connected speech. Diacritics are extra

marks used together with phonetic symbols in order to represent the actual pronunciation

of phonemes (i.e., allophones) or represent particular pronunciations (or accents) in a

given language” (Argenis,2009)

Prof. Argenis A. Zapata Fonética y Fonología Inglesa I (B-2009)

1

Universidad de Los Andes Facultad de Humanidades y Educación Escuela de Idiomas Modernos

Transcription Conventions and Diacritics

There a series of conventions that phoneticians usually follow when they do phonetic transcriptions. Among them are the following:

1. Phonemes are put between two slant bars (or slashes or diagonals) / /; hence, phonemic

transcription is also represented between slant bars. E.g., /U/, /D/, method /"meT´d/, It’s late /"Its \ leit/.

2. Allophones are put between two square brackets [ ]; hence, allophonic transcription is also

represented between square brackets. E.g., [pÓ], [:], Dad [d9œÚd9], I’m eating ["aIm \ i…|IN]. 3. If a word starts with a capital letter, the capital letter is not used in the transcription.1 E.g.,

Anthony ["œnt´ni], Monday ["mønÆdeI], England ["INgl´nd9]. 4. The stress mark is always placed before the syllable that has stress. If a word begins with an

‘s’, we put the stress mark before the ‘s’. E.g., castle ["kœs:̀], apology [´"pÓAl´dZi], structure ["strøktS´r], expose [Ik"spoUz9].

5. When doing transcriptions, you MUST WRITE the International Phonetic Alphabet symbols

EXACTLY as the teacher instructs you.

Diacritics

Diacritics (or diacritic marks) are indicators of the minor changes in the pronunciation of some sounds in certain word positions or in connected speech. Diacritics are extra marks used together with phonetic symbols in order to represent the actual pronunciation of phonemes (i.e., allophones) or represent particular pronunciations (or accents) in a given language. Many of these changes are made automatically by native English speakers; however, nonnative speakers must learn to make them consciously. Among the most common diacritic marks used in phonetic transcription are the following:

[ 9] or [ (]: A little circle under or over a phonetic symbol indicates that the sound which it

represents is partially devoiced, i.e., is made with partial vibration of the vocal cords. E.g., [b9, v9, D9, z9, l9, g(, Z(] as in Bob [b9ÅÚb9], dog [d9ÅÚg(].

[ â ]: A raised little angle indicates that the plosive consonant is unreleased. E.g. stop [stApâ]

1 In phonetic transcription, capital letters usually represent archiphonemes or may stand for sounds different from the

ones represented by the letters. E.g., /N/ stands for the nasal archiphoneme (or nasal neutralization) in Spanish.


2

[Ó]: A raised little ‘h’ after a phonetic symbol indicates that the sound which it represents is

strongly aspirated, i.e., pronounced with an extra puff of air. E.g., [pÓ, tÓ, kÓ] as in Peter ["pÓi…|´r], table ["tÓeIb:`], cooker ["kÓUk´r].

[(]: A raised little ‘(‘ after a phonetic symbols indicates that the sound which it represents is

weakly aspirated. E.g., [p(, t(, k(] as in stop [stÅp(], seeking ["si…k(IN]. [ `]: A little vertical line under a phonetic symbol indicates that the sound which it represents is a

syllabic consonant; i.e., it is a consonant that can function as a syllable by itself. E.g., battle ["b9œt:]̀ or ["b9œ|:̀], listen ["lIsǹ], I can go ["aI kǸ \ goU], better ["b9et®`] or ["b9e|®̀].

[ ‚ ]: A wavy line across an ‘l’ (a lateral sound) indicates that the sound which it represents is

velar or dark; i.e., it is pronounced with the back of the tongue raised toward the soft palate. E.g., ‘l’ in the following words call [kÓÅ:], bullpen ["b9U:ÆpÓen].

[ " ]: A raised little vertical line before a syllable or monosyllabic word indicates that that syllable

or word has the primary stress when said in isolation. E.g., determine [d9I"tÓ‰…rm´n], apple ["œp:̀]. In connected speech (i.e., in phrases and sentences), this same diacritic mark before a syllable or word indicates that that syllable or word has a secondary stress. E.g., The students wanted to leave [D9́ • "stu…dn`ts "wAntId9}t´ \ li…v].

[ Æ ]: A lowered little vertical line before a syllable or monosyllabic word indicates that that

syllable or word has the secondary stress when said in isolation. E.g., examination [IgÆzœm´"neISǹ], possibility [ÆpÓAs´"bIl´ti]. In connected speech, this same diacritic mark before a syllable or word indicates that that syllable or word has a secondary stress.2 E.g., I saw Pat only two minutes [aI "sÅ "pÓœt} f´r • "oUnlI \ tÓu… ÆmInIts]. What are you looking for ["wø| • ´r j´ \ lUkIN ÆfO…r]?

[ • ]: An upward facing parenthesis between two words indicates those words must be linked up

or pronounced together. This diacritic mark is also known as liaison. E.g., This is an easy subject ["D9Is • Iz • ´n • "i…zI \ søbdZekt].

[ … ]: This diacritic mark after a phonetic symbol indicates that the sound which it represents is a

long sound. In English, this diacritic is used to represent long vowels, namely, [a…, i…, ‰…, O…, u…].

[ Ú ]: This diacritic mark after a vowel symbol indicates that the vowel is a lengthened short

vowel3 ([œÚ, eÚ, ÅÚ, øÚ, UÚ]) or a shortened long vowel4 ([iÚ, AÚ, ‰Ú, OÚ, uÚ]).

2 This stress mark usually appears after words with the primary stress in statements and some WH-questions. 3 Short vowels are usually lengthened in syllables closed by voiced consonants, as in mud [møÚd9]. 4 Long vowels are usually shortened in syllables closed by voiceless consonants, as in feet [fiÚt].


3

[ )]: A wavy line (or tilde) over a vowel symbol indicates that the sound is a nasalized vowel; i.e., produced with the soft palate lowered. E.g., man [mœ)n], can´t [kÓœ)nt].

[ \ ]: A downward slanted little bar before a syllable or monosyllabic word (usually the tonic

syllable5 of a sentence or intonation group6) represents a falling tone (or fall tone). It indicates that the pitch of the voice begins high and then goes down on that syllable or monosyllabic word. In English, this tone is typical of statements (i.e., affirmative and negative sentences) and information questions (i.e., questions that begin with a question word: what, where, how, etc.). E.g., A: What do you teach? ["wAt} d9U jU \tÓi…tS]. B: I teach English [aI "tÓi…tS≈\INglIS].

[ \ ]: An upward slanted little bar before a syllable or monosyllabic word (usually the tonic

syllable of a sentence or intonation group) represents a rising tone (or rise tone). It indicates that the pitch of the voice begins low and then goes up on that syllable or monosyllabic word. In English, this tone is typical of yes/no questions. E.g., Have you seen ‘Harry Potter’ yet? ["hœv≈jU "si…n "hœrI "pA|´r \jet].

[ ^ ]: This upward pointing wedge symbol represents a rise-fall tone. When it appears before a

syllable or monosyllabic word, it indicates that the pitch of the voice first goes up and immediately then goes down on that syllable or monosyllabic word. This tone generally shows surprise, excitement, and the like. E.g., I passed phonetics! [aI ^pÓœst} f´Æne|Iks].

[ v ]: This downward pointing wedge symbol represents a fall-rise tone. When it appears before a

syllable or monosyllabic word, it indicates that the pitch of the voice first goes down and immediately then goes up on that syllable or monosyllabic word. This tone shows doubt, disbelief, doubt, etc. E.g., You passed? [jU vpÓœst] (But you told me that you hadn’t studied for the final test).

5 The tonic syllable is the syllable that has the primary sentence stress; i.e, it is the syllable (usually at the end of a

sentence) that is heard loudest in a sentence or tone group. For example, in the following sentence, the word ‘here’ is the tonic syllable: John works \here.

6 An intonation group is a group of words which form a meaning syntactic unit and over which a particular pitch pattern extends. For example, each of the underlined sentences of following compound sentence is a tone group: John studies English, ≤ but Mary studies biology.

Exercise 2. Define the consonants in the initial position each of the following words according to the place

and force of articulation

moon: ………………………………………………………………………………………………………

rent: ………………………………………………………………………………………………………

slightly : ………………………………………………………………………………………………………

physics: ……………………………………………………………………………………………………..

exercise:

Examples minimal pair Not minimal pair

a. roof, rough

b. wise – rice

c. Sum, Thumb

d. Case, phase

e. Long, wrong

Exercise 6:

a. :

1. voiceless glottal fricative: …………………..

2. voiced post-alveolar fricative: ……………….

3. voiced bilabial nasal: …………………

4. voiced palatal approximant: …………………….

5. voiceless velar plosive: …………………

6. voiced dental fricative: ………………….

7. voiceless post-alveolar affricate:…………………..

b. Write the articulatory description that corresponds to the following sounds:

1. Ing

2. B

3. J

4. L

5. W

6. Rrrr

7. F

8. S

9. D

10. K

11. M

CONSONANT POSSIBILITIES 45

A5

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34

Transcribe phonemically, showing intonation groups and sentence stress, andusing weak and contracted forms wherever possible.

Transcription passage 4She was close behind it when she turned the corner, but the Rabbit was no longer to be seen and she found herself in a long, low hall, which was litup by a row of lamps hanging from the roof. There were doors all round the hall, but they were all locked. Alice went all the way down one side andup the other, trying every door. Then she walked sadly down the middle, wondering how she was ever to get in.

CONSONANT POSSIBILITIES

Consonant labelsConsonants are usually referred to by brief descriptive labels stating energy, place ofarticulation and manner of articulation, always in that order (Table A5.1). However,we shall discuss energy of articulation last, since it’s the most complex.

Place of articulationPlace of articulation tells us where the sound is produced. The English places of arti-culation are shown in Figure A5.1 (they correspond to the column ‘Place’ in Table A5.1).

Other languages and varieties of English may have additional places of articula-tion. For instance, French /r/ is uvular, made with the back of the tongue against theuvula; it is symbolised phonetically as [y] and can also be heard in traditional Geordie(Tyneside) accents; see Section C2. Indian languages (and most Indian English) haveretroflex sounds made with the tip of the tongue curled back against the rear of thealveolar ridge (see Section C4). Some speakers of West Country English also make /r/in that way (see Section C2).

Some consonants have two places of articulation resulting in what is termed a double articulation. An example is English /w/ which is articulated at the lips (bilabial) and at the velum (velar) and hence is termed labial-velar.

35

Say these words and relate the consonants in bold to their places of articulation:pub (bilabial), five (labio-dental), this bath (dental), side (alveolar), rarer (post-alveolar), change (palato-alveolar), you (palatal), king (velar), how (glottal).

46 I N T R O D U C T I O N

Manner of articulationManner of articulation tells us how the sound is produced. All articulations involvea stricture, i.e. a narrowing of the vocal tract which affects the airstream. Table A5.2summarises the three possible types of stricture: complete closure, close approximationand open approximation.

Active and passive articulatorsThe active articulator is the organ that moves; the passive articulator is the target of thearticulation – i.e. the point towards which the active articulator is directed. Sometimesthere’s actual contact, as in [t] and [k]. In other cases, the active articulator is positionedclose to the passive articulator, as in [s] or [0]. With other articulations again, like English/r/, we find only a slight gesture by the active articulator towards the passive articulator.

Table A5.1 Consonant labels for English

Consonant Energy Place Manner

p 5 bilabial 5t 6 fortis alveolar 6 plosivek 7 velar 7b 5 bilabial 5d 6 lenis alveolar 6 plosiveg 7 velar 7tt fortis # #dn lenis $ palato-alveolar $ affricate

f 5 labio-dental 54 40 4 dental 4s 6 fortis alveolar 6 fricative

4 4t 4 palato-alveolar 4h 7 glottal 7v 5 labio-dental 5q 4 dental 46 lenis 6 fricativez 4 alveolar 4n 7 palato-alveolar 7w labial-velar 5r post-alveolar 6 (central) approximantj palatal 7l alveolar lateral (approximant)

m bilabial 5n alveolar 6 nasalf velar 7


The distinction of passive/active articulator isn’t always possible. For instance, [h]is formed at the glottis. The descriptive label for place of articulation is in most casesderived from the passive articulator. Figure A5.1 shows the chief places of articulationfor English.

1 Bilabial (lower lip ↔ upper lip)2 Labio-dental (lower lip ↔ upper front teeth)3 Dental (tip of tongue ↔ rear of upper front teeth)4 Alveolar (tip/blade of tongue ↔ alveolar ridge)5 Palato-alveolar (blade/front of tongue ↔ rear of

alveolar ridge/front of hard palate)6 Palatal (front of tongue ↔ hard palate)7 Velar (back of tongue ↔ velum)8 Glottal (glottis)

1 23

45

6 7

8

Figure A5.1 English consonants: places of articulation

Table A5.2 Manner of articulation – stricture types

Nature of stricture Effect of stricture

Complete closure Forms obstruction which blocks airstreamClose approximation Forms narrowing giving rise to frictionOpen approximation Forms no obstruction but changes shape of vocal tract,

thus altering nature of resonance


Activity J36

Say /t/ as in tight [taxt]. Now say /s/ as in sauce [scis]. Can you feel that for /t/the active articulator (tongue-tip/blade) and the passive articulator (alveolarridge) block the airstream with a stricture of complete closure? But for /s/ the samearticulators form a narrowing through which the airstream is channelled, i.e. a stricture of close approximation. Now say and compare the followingsounds:

q English /k/ in coat (complete closure)q Spanish /x/, the sound spelt j in jefe (close approximation)q English /j/ in yes (open approximation).

Complete closure

StopsStop consonants have a stricture of complete closure in the vocal tract which blocks(i.e. stops) the airstream, hence the term stop. The soft palate is raised so that there’sno escape of air through the nose. The compressed air can then be released in one of two ways:

q The articulators part quickly, releasing the air with explosive force (termed plosion).Sounds made in this way are termed plosives, e.g. English /p t k b d g/.

q The articulators part relatively slowly, producing homorganic friction, i.e. frictionat the same point of articulation. Sounds made in this way are termed affricates,e.g. English /tt dn/.

Figures A5.3 and A5.4 illustrate the stages in /tt dn/ as in church, judge. In English,/tt/ and /dn/ are affricates which function as phonemes (but see also Section B2).

Note: in the cross-sections:indicates voiceless–indicates voicedindicates that both voiced andvoiceless articulations are possible

+

–+

Figure A5.2 Plosive [t] showing complete closure

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NasalsLike stops, nasals have a stricture of complete closure in the oral cavity, but the soft palate is lowered allowing the airstream to escape through the nose, e.g. English/m n f/. In English, as in most languages, nasal consonants are normally voiced. However, a few languages, e.g. Burmese, Welsh and Icelandic, have voiceless nasalsfunctioning as phonemes, i.e. /U V \/. Note that we employ here the diacritic for voice-less [N] added below the symbol (above in the case of [f]).

37 Track 10

Try imitating these examples, based loosely on Burmese words: [Ua] ‘notice’;[Va] ‘nose’; [\a] ‘borrow’. (See Ladefoged and Maddieson 1996: 111.)

Trills and tapsFor a trill, the active articulator strikes the passive articulator with a rapid percussive(i.e. beating) action. The two types of trill that most frequently occur in language arealveolar (the tongue-tip striking the alveolar ridge) and uvular (uvula striking the backof the tongue): see Figures A5.5 and A5.6. But other kinds are possible – for instance,a bilabial trill (see Activity 38).

Figure A5.3 Affricates [tt] and [dn] showing palato-alveolar closure

Figure A5.4 Affricates [tt] and [dn] showing release with homorganic friction


Figure A5.5 Alveolar trill [r] Figure A5.6 Uvular trill [y]

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38

You should find it easy to make a bilabial trill – it’s just the brrr noise we sometimes use to mean: ‘Isn’t it cold!’ The sound has its own phoneticsymbol [,]. It functions as a phoneme in a few African languages, e.g. Ngwe,spoken in Cameroon. Look in a mirror and then you’ll be able to see, as wellas feel, the rapid percussive lip action.

An alveolar trill is found in Spanish, e.g. carro ‘cart’. The uvular trill [y] is occa-sionally heard in French – but usually only in singing. Edith Piaf, a well-known Frenchvoice from the past, was renowned for her vibrant uvular trill.

A single rapid percussive movement (i.e. one beat of a trill) is termed a tap. Spanishis unusual in having a contrast of a tap /?/ and a trill /r/, e.g. caro ‘dear’ /Bka?o/ andcarro /Bkaro/. In many languages with trilled [r] (e.g. Welsh and Arabic) speakers regularly pronounce taps, reserving the trill for careful speech.

39 Track 11

Try saying, between vowels, (1) an alveolar tap [a?a] and (2) an alveolar trill[ara]. Then practise the uvular trill [y] in the same context [aya].

One important point concerning transcription: note that in phonetic transcrip-tion the symbol for an alveolar trill, placed, of course, in square brackets, is [r]. Thephonetic transcription symbol for the commonest type of English /r/ (a post-alveolarapproximant, see p. 53) is an upside-down [P]. Nevertheless, for phonemic transcrip-tion the rule is to employ the simplest letter shape possible, and consequently an ordin-ary /r/ (in slant brackets) is used for the English phoneme.

ActivityJ


NRP, like virtually all other types of native-speaker English, has no regular trillarticulation. Scots can usually produce a trill if called upon to do so but use a tap for/r/ in everyday speech. Many British regional accents, not only Scottish, but also Liverpool,and most Welsh varieties, regularly have an alveolar tap [?] for /r/. A tap was also to be heard from old-fashioned traditional RP speakers (one famous example was the legendary Noël Coward). It was used for /r/ between vowels in the middle of aword, e.g. carry, very. Indeed, a tapped [?] is still sometimes taught by elocutionists(prescriptive speech trainers) as ‘correct’ speech, especially for would-be actors.

40

Some people find it hard to make an alveolar trilled [r]. Don’t despair! Oneway to begin is by saying a ‘flappy’ [d] using the very tip of your tongue, andas quickly as possible. Try it in words like cross, brave, proof [kdbs bdexv pduif].Practise rapid ‘flappy’ [d] many times until you can change it into a true tapand then extend that into a trill.

Close approximation

FricativesThe articulators are close to each other but don’t make a complete closure. The air-stream passes through a narrowing, producing audible hiss-like friction, as in English/f v 0 q s z t n h/.

Compared with most varieties of English, Scottish accents have two extra frica-tives [x Q]. The voiceless velar fricative [x] is found mostly in local usages, e.g. och!‘oh’, loch ‘lake’ ([x] also occurs in many European languages; see Section A2). Thevoiceless labial-velar fricative [Q] occurs in words spelt wh, such as which, what, whether, wheel. It is used not only by Scots but also by many Irish and some Americanspeakers.

Figure A5.7 Fricative [s] showing narrowing at alveolar ridge

Activity J


A useful term to cover both stops and fricatives is obstruents. All other con-sonant sounds, and also vowels, are classed as sonorants.

Consonants

Obstruents

Stops Fricatives/fv θð sz ʃ� h/

Plosives/pb td k�/

Affricates/tʃ d�/

Sonorants

Nasals/m n ŋ/

Approximants

Lateral/l/

Central/w j r/

Figure A5.8 Overview of English consonant system

Open approximation

(Central) approximantsApproximants have a stricture of open approximation. The space between the arti-culators is wide enough to allow the airstream through with no audible friction, as inEnglish /w j r/. English /j/ and /w/ are like very short vowels – similar to brief versionsof /ii/ and /ui/ (an old term for these sounds was in fact ‘semi-vowels’). Note that [j]is also termed yod after the name for the sound in Hebrew.

41

Say English /ii/ followed directly by /es/ in this way: /ii es/. If you say /ii/quickly, you will end up with yes. Now try the same with /ui/. If you say a rapid /ui/ followed by /et/, you should end up with a sound close to /w/, and a word sounding like English wet. For non-native learners of English who don’t have /j/ or /w/ in their languages this is a good way to learn them.

In NRP, and most English regional accents, /r/ is a post-alveolar approximant – made with the tip of the tongue approaching the rear of the alveolar ridge. The pho-netic symbol is [P]. Remember that in phonemic transcription, because one tries touse simple symbol shapes wherever possible, it is shown with the ordinary letter /r/.


All the approximants so far described may if necessary be termed central approx-imants to distinguish them from the lateral approximants described below.

Lateral (approximant)Lateral consonants are made with the centre of the tongue forming a closure with theroof of the mouth but the sides lowered. Typically, the airstream escapes without friction and consequently this sound is termed a lateral approximant. This is true formost allophones of English /l/, and indeed for [l] as it occurs in most languages.Consequently, the ‘approximant’ part of the label is usually omitted, and just ‘lateral’is used. However, if there’s a narrowing between the lowered sides of the tongue and the roof of the mouth, and the air escapes with friction, the result is a lateral fricative.

Figure A5.9 Approximant [P] showing post-alveolar open approximation

Figure A5.11 Transverse cross-sections of mouth viewed from front.Left: tongue sides lowered for lateral [l]; right: tongue sides raised as for non-lateral articulations, e.g. [t d]

Figure A5.10 Lateral approximant [l].Arrow indicates passage of airstreamwithout friction over lowered sides of tongue


Activity J

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42 Track 12

Say [l] a number of times. Now try saying the sound, raising the tongue sides a little closer to the roof of the mouth, and forcing a stronger airstreamthrough. This gives you a voiced lateral fricative, [à]. Now try ‘switching off ’the voice. This results in a voiceless lateral fricative [/], which is Welsh ll. A similar sound also occurs in English (usually represented as [T]) as an allophone of /l/, following fortis plosives, as in close, place.

Lateral fricatives are unusual in the languages of the world but by no meansunknown. The most familiar to you may be the notorious Welsh ll. The voiceless lateral fricative (spelt double ll, and symbolised [/]) is a frequent phoneme in Welsh.You can hear it in the place-name Llanelli. It’s sometimes said to be ‘impossible’ fornon-Welsh people to produce – a claim which is patently untrue, since not only dosuch sounds occur in many other languages but English itself has a similar articulationas an allophone of /l/; see above.

43 Track 13

Try saying these Welsh words which contain the voiceless lateral fricative:llaeth //ai0/ ‘milk’, llaw //au/ ‘hand’, llong //cf/ ‘ship’, allan /Ba/an/ ‘out’, ambell/Bamb™// ‘sometimes’.

44 Track 14

Just for fun, try saying the longest Welsh place-name. It’s full of voiceless [/]sounds:

Llanfairpwllgwyngyllgogerychwyrndrobwllllantysiliogogogoch[B/anvairpu/Bgwxngx/goBgerexwernBdrcbu/B/antxBsxljoBgogoBgoix]

Incidentally, the name in its present form was invented in the nineteenth century – apparently as a joke, or perhaps to bewilder the English. The officialname is actually ‘Llanfairpwllgwyngyll’ – still a bit of a mouthful! But it’s known to the locals simply as Llanfair P.G. – much easier to pronounce! Evenfor the Welsh!

Welsh, Icelandic, Burmese, the South African languages Zulu and Xhosa, and manynative American languages all have [/]. The voiced lateral fricative [à] is much moreuncommon but does occur, for example, in Zulu and Xhosa.


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45

Find a recording of Miriam Makeba (or another South African performer)singing folksongs in Zulu or Xhosa. Listen to it carefully and try to pick outthe lateral fricatives (voiced and voiceless).

We have already mentioned in Activity 42 that English /l/ has a very commonfricative allophone which is to be heard in words beginning /pl/ and /kl/. If a normallyvoiced phoneme is for whatever reason realised without voice, the effect is termed devoi-cing. As we have seen, this is shown by a diacritic in the form of a little circle, e.g. [T].

46 Track 15

Try saying these words with devoiced [T]: clean, play, click, clock, please, plaster, plenty, cluster. Many English speakers (not all) produce a devoiced[T] following [t] as in atlas, rattling, cutlet. Do you?

Energy of articulation (fortis/lenis contrast)The third possible distinction is energy of articulation (already mentioned briefly above).The English consonants /k/ and /g/ are both velar (place of articulation) and plosives(manner of articulation), yet they’re obviously very different sounds. The same goesfor /s/ and /z/, which are both alveolar fricatives, but are clearly not identical. So what’sthe difference?

47 Track 16

Listen and repeat these words a number of times: pack – back. Compare theinitial sound in each word /p – b/. Which sound do you hear as the stronger,more energetic articulation? Did you also notice that there is a slight ‘puff ofair’ after the release of /p/ but not after the release of /b/?

48

Say /p/ and /b/ between /ai/ vowels: /aipai/, /aibai/. Put your fingers in yourears and listen for voice. Voice ceases during /p/, but continues all the waythrough /b/. Now do the same for /t/ and /d/, and /s/ and /z/: /aitai/ and/aidai/, /aisai/ and /aizai/. Voice ceases for the consonants /t/ and /s/, butcontinues throughout for /d/ and /z/.


English has two classes of consonant sound: one of the /t k s/ type with strongerand voiceless articulation and another of the /b d z/ type whose articulation is weakerand potentially voiced. The first class is termed fortis (Latin: ‘strong’), and the secondlenis (pronounced /Bliinxs/ Latin: ‘soft’). Consonants in English divide as follows (notethat /h/ has no lenis counterpart).

Fortis Lenisp t k tt f 0 s t h b d g dn v q z n

The fortis/lenis distinction applies in English only to the obstruents (i.e. stops andfricatives). The sonorants (nasals and approximants) do not have this contrast (hencethe blank spaces in the ‘Energy’ column in Table A5.1).

The fortis/lenis contrast in EnglishMost languages have a contrast of a kind similar to the fortis/lenis contrast found inEnglish. But the exact form of the contrast varies a lot from one language to another,and there are more phonetic signals for the fortis/lenis contrast in English than in mostother languages (see Table A5.3 below).

There may also be very important differences in distribution. Many languages haveno word-final fortis/lenis contrasts (even where the spelling would seem to indicatethis). This goes for German, Dutch and Russian. In German, Wirt – wird ‘host – becomes’are said exactly the same and kalt – bald ‘cold – soon’ form a good rhyme. Similarly,in Dutch, hout – houd ‘wood – hold’ are pronounced identically, and maat ‘size’ rhymeswith kwaad ‘angry’. Speakers of languages such as these usually have great difficultywith the frequent word-final fortis/lenis contrasts in English in pairs like life – live,rate – raid, nip – nib.

Table A5.3 summarises the main ways in which the fortis/lenis contrast is indicated in English. The factors described in this table are crucial for this contrast.

Table A5.3 Fortis/lenis contrast in English

Fortis

1 Articulation is stronger and more energetic. It has more muscular effort and greater breath force.

2 Articulation is voiceless.

3 Plosives /p, t, k/ when initial in a stressed syllable have strong aspiration (a brief puff of air), e.g. pip [phxp].

4 Vowels are shortened before a final fortis consonant, e.g. beat [bit].

5 Syllable-final stops often have a reinforcing glottal stop, e.g. set down[semt Bdakn].

Lenis

1 Articulation is weaker. It hasless muscular effort and lessbreath force.

2 Articulation may have voice.

3 Plosives are unaspirated, e.g. bib [bxb].

4 Vowels have full length before a final lenis consonant, e.g.bead [biid].

5 Syllable-final stops never have a reinforcing glottal stop, e.g. said [sed].

broad transcription (phonemic) vs. narrow transcription ... · transcription passage 4 she was...

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