The Vocal Tract and Initiation of Speech: Anatomy and Physiology

Outline

The vocal tract and articulatory organs The airstream mechanisms The state of the vocal cords Velum position Places of articulation Manners of articulation The articulation of vowels Classification of speech sounds Consonants vs. Vowels Suprasegmental features

The vocal tract and articulatory organs

The airstream mechanisms

Airstream mechanism

Airflow initiator

Airflow direction

language

Pulmonic egressive lungs outwards

Most languages, for many it is the sole AM

Velaric ingressive velum inwards Zulu (S. Africa)

Glottalic egressive glottis outwards

Navajo (N. America)

Glottalic ingressive glottis inwards Sindhi (India)

The state of the vocal cords

Voiceless sounds: /p/, /t/, /k/, /f/, /s/, /ɕ/, /ʃ/, /x/, /t^s/, /t^ɕ/, /t^ʃ/

Voiced sounds: all vowels, sonorants and /b/, /d/, /g/, /v/, /z/, /ʑ/, /ʒ/, /d^z/, /d^ʑ/, /d^ʒ/ …

Velum position

oral sound /b/

nasal sound /m/

Place of articulation (1)

•Labial articulationsLips

•Coronal articulationsTongue tip and blade

•Dorsal articulationsThe back of the tongue

Places of articulation (2):Labial articulations

/b/ e.g. but, budka/p/ e.g. ptak, kropki/m/ e.g. most, pomost

labial (lower and upper lip)

/v/ e.g. wił, wył/f/ e.g. fortuna

labiodental (lower lip and upper front teeth)

Places of articulation (3):Coronal articulations

/t/ e.g. piątek/d/ e.g. błędy/n/ e.g. nóż/θ/ e.g. moth

Dental (tip of the tongue and upper teeth)

Post-dental (tip of the tongue, the upper teeth and the area just behind them)

/s/ e.g. sąsiad/z/ e.g. język/t^ɕ/ e.g. ręce/d^ʑ/ e.g. pieniądze

Alveolar (tongue tip and alveolar ridge)

PL:/t^ʃ/ e.g. rączka, tęcza/d^ʒ/ e.g. dżentelmen/l/ e.g. walka/r/ e.g. rak, burak

Places of articulation (4):Coronal articulations

EN:/s/ e.g. snake /z/ e.g. zebra/t/ e.g. tiger /d/ e.g. dog /ɾ/ e.g. better, ladder

Palato-alveolar (tongue blade and the back of the alveolar ridge)

/ʃ/ e.g. shrew/ʒ/ e.g. measure/t^ʃ/ e.g. chimpanzee/d^ʒ/ e.g. lodger

Places of articulation (5):Coronal articulations

post-alveolar (the blade of the tongue and the front of the hard palate)

/ʃ/ e.g. szczęście/ʒ/ e.g. książę

alveolo-palatal (the blade and the center of the tongue and the front of the hard palate)

/ɕ/ e.g. śnieg/ʑ/ e.g. zwięźle/t^ɕ/ e.g. pięć/d^ʑ/ e.g. dźwięk/ɲ/ e.g. mięsień

palatal (front of the tongue and hard palate)

/c/ e.g. kiedy/ɟ/ e.g. giełda/j/ e.g. jasny

retroflex (tongue tip and the back of the alveolar ridge)EN (optionally):

Places of articulation (6):Coronal articulations

/ʂ/ e.g. try/ʐ/ e.g. dry

Places of articulation (7):Dorsal articulations

velar (tongue back and soft palate)

/x/ e.g. harcerz/k/ e.g. kret, kredka/g/ e.g. góry, kangury/ŋ/ e.g. tango

uvular (tongue back and uvula), e.g. French „rat” pharyngeal (tongue root and pharynx wall) glottal (vocal cords are the active and passive articulator), e.g. PL:

nauka /naʔuka/uiścić /ʔuʔiɕtɕitɕ/o /ʔoʔ/ (only if pronounced in isolation)

Manner of articulation (1)

It refers to the vertical relationship between the active and passive articulators.

Stops – complete closure of the articulators, the airstream can not escape through the mouthOral stops (examples from Polish, do not include all stops)*

Nasal stops (-> nasals): /m/, /n/, /ɲ/ and /ŋ/

Bilabial/p/, /b/

Velar/k/, /g/

Dental/t/, /d/

Manner of articulation (2)

Fricatives – close approximation of two articulators, the airstream is partially obstructed and turbulent airflow is produced.(examples from Polish, do not include allophonic variants)

labiodental /f/, /v/ post-dental /s/, /z/post-alveolar /ʃ/, /ʒ/ alveolo-palatal /ɕ/, /ʑ/velar /x/

Affricates - involve more than one manner of articulation: a combination of a stop followed by a fricative of the same place of articulation(examples from Polish)

post-dental /t^s/, /d^z/alveolar /t^ʃ/, /d^ʒ/ alveolo-palatal /t^ɕ/, /d^ʑ/

Manner of articulation (3)

Liquids – the articulators approach each other, but to such an extent that there is a free passage of air through the oral tract

Alveolar/l/ , /r/, /ɾ/, /ɹ/

lateral /l/ – produced with a central obstruction – the air passes out at the sidetrill /r/ – articulator set in vibration by the airstreamtap/flap /ɾ/ – a single movement in a trill, tongue hits the roof of the mouthapproximant /ɹ/ – approximation of two articulators with no turbulent airstream

Manners of articulation (4)

Glides (semi-vowels) – the articulators are wide apart and the air flows unhinderedthe position of the articulators is unstablelike consonants they do not form the nuclei of syllables

/j/ /w/

Glides and liquids are classified as approximants.Together with nasals and vowels they belong to sonorants.

jaj – jejkuj – kijodbij - odbyj

biłem – byłemczuła – czołamuły - mały

The articulation of vowels (1)

Classification of vowels:

Vertical position of the body of the tongue -> front and back vowels

Horizontal position of the body of the tongue -> high, mid and low vowels

Lip rounding -> rounded and unrounded vowels

1) heed, 2) hid , 3) head, 4) had, 5) father, 6) good, 7) food

Open approximation – the articulators do not come very close together; an unobstructed passage for the airstream in the oral cavity

The articulation of vowels (2)

/i/ e.g. wij/ɨ/ e.g. wyj/e/ e.g. jej

/a/ e.g. jaj/o/ e.g . czuła/u/ e.g. czoła

Classification of speech soundsConsonantal sounds can be described by referring to the following features:Airstream mechanismThe state of the vocal cordsVelum positionPlace of articulationManner of articulation

Consonants – usually 3 dimensions: voicing, place and manner of articulation

Vowels – the height of the tongue body, the front-back position of the tongue and the degree of lip rounding

Consonants vs. vowels

The distinction between vowels and consonants is primary in the analysis and description of speech.Vowels:

articulated with an open approximation syllabic (nucleus)

Consonants: articulated with some kind of an

obstruction non-syllabic (onset, coda)

Suprasegmental features (1)These features are superimposed on units larger than a single speech unit (phoneme) -> syllables, phrases, sentences. They include:variation in stressvariation in pitch(variation in length)

Analysis and description – in relation to other items in the same utterance – relative values are linguistically significant.

Variation in stress increased activity of respiratory and

laryngeal muscles functions

Grammatical e.g. (En) ins’ult (verb) vs. ’insult (noun)

Lexical e.g. (Pl) j’ajem vs. ja j’em Grouping e.g. (Pl) do d’omu Demarcative e.g. (Pl) niedal’eko, poj’utrze Cumulative Emphasis (focus) or contrastive emphasis

Suprasegmental features (2)

Suprasegmental features (3)

Variation in pitch laryngeal activity intonation – patterns of distinctive changes

in pitch domain: phrases, sentences convey semantic, evidential and regulative

information

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