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- Herausgeber: John Wiley & Sons
- Kategorie: Geisteswissenschaft
- Serie: Blackwell Textbooks in Linguistics
- Sprache: Englisch
An accessible yet in-depth introductory textbook on the basic concepts of phonetics, fully updated and revised
This broad, interdisciplinary textbook investigates how speech can be written down, how speech is produced, its acoustic characteristics, and how listeners perceive speech. Phonetics: Transcription, Production, Acoustics, and Perception introduces readers to the fundamental concepts of the discipline, providing coverage of all four areas of phonetics. This comprehensive textbook also familiarizes readers with concepts from other disciplines related to phonetics—such as physiology, anatomy, and psychology—through relatable, real-life examples.
Now in its second edition, the text has been substantially revised to improve clarity and currency, based on student feedback received by the authors over the past decade. Brief “Nutshell” introductions have been added to all chapters to provide a clear overview of key points within the body of the text. Expanded content to this new edition examines voice quality, the acoustic correlates of different phonation types, intonation, and different theories of speech perception. Written in a clear and concise style by two of the field’s leading scholars, this textbook:
- Covers related relevant areas, including vocal fold vibration and the physiology of the ear
- Offers examples from other languages to highlight aspects of phonetics not found in English
- Includes chapter-by-chapter exercises, engaging illustrations, and a detailed glossary
- Features a companion website containing additional resources such as figures and sound files
Phonetics: Transcription, Production, Acoustics, and Perception, 2nd Edition is an ideal text for both introductory and advanced courses in phonetics and speech science, general linguistics, related disciplines such as psychology, speech pathology, and audiology, and for anyone interested to learn about how we speak and hear.
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Table of Contents
Cover
Preface to the First Edition
Preface to the Second Edition
About the Companion Website
1 About this Book
1.1 Phonetics in a nutshell
1.2 The structure of this book
1.3 Terminology
1.4 Demonstrations and exercises
2 Articulatory Phonetics
Articulation in a nutshell
2.1 Phonation at the larynx
2.2 Basic articulatory terms
2.3 The articulation of consonants
2.4 The articulation of vowels
3 Phonetic Transcription
Transcription in a nutshell
3.1 Types of transcription
3.2 Consonants
3.3 Vowels
3.4 Diacritics and other symbols
3.5 Transcription of General American English
4 Place and Manner of Articulation of Consonants and Vowels
1
4.1 Consonants
4.2 Additional manners of articulation
4.3 Vowels
4.4 Secondary articulations
5 Physiology of the Vocal Apparatus
Physiology in a nutshell
5.1 The subglottal system: lungs, bronchi, and trachea
5.2 Structure and function of the larynx
5.3 Vocal tract
6 Airstream Mechanisms and Phonation Types
Airstream mechanisms and phonation in a nutshell
6.1 Airstream mechanisms
6.2 Phonation types
6.3 Voicing, voicelessness, and aspiration in plosives
6.4 Common and rare sounds
7 Basic Acoustics
Basic acoustics in a nutshell
7.1 Sound waves
7.2 Measuring sound waves
7.3 Acoustic dimensions and their units of measurement
8 Analysis Methods for Speech Sounds
Analysis in a nutshell
8.1 Digitizing acoustic signals
8.2 Types of acoustic signals
8.3 Analyzing acoustic signals
9 The Source–Filter Theory of Speech Production
The source–filter theory in a nutshell
9.1 Resonance
9.2 Damping
9.3 Filters
9.4 Formants
9.5 Sources for speech sounds
10 Acoustic Characteristics of Speech Sounds
Acoustic characteristics in a nutshell
10.1 Vowels
10.2 Consonants
10.3 Summary
10.4 Variability and invariance
11 Syllables and Suprasegmentals
Syllables and suprasegmentals in a nutshell
11.1 Syllables
11.2 Stress
11.3 Length
11.4 Tone and intonation
12 Physiology and Psychophysics of Hearing
Hearing in a nutshell
12.1 The external ear
12.2 The middle ear
12.3 The internal ear
12.4 The structure of the basilar membrane
12.5 Auditory frequency scales
12.6 Auditory loudness scales
12.7 Auditory time scales
13 Speech Perception
Speech perception in a nutshell
13.1 Vowels
13.2 Consonants
13.3 Contributions of the motor theory of speech perception
13.4 Theories of speech perception
13.5 The role of linguistic experience in speech perception
13.6 Summary
Appendix A
A.1 Mass, Force, and Pressure
A.2 Energy, Power, and Intensity
A.3 The Decibel (dB)
Appendix B
B.1 Physical Terminology
B.2 Mathematical Notations
Appendix C
C.1 Formant Values
C.2 Fundamental Frequency Values
Appendix D
D.1 Glossary
References
Index
End User License Agreement
List of Tables
Chapter 3
Table 3.1 IPA symbols for the consonants of English. Place of articulation is...
Table 3.2 English words illustrating the IPA symbols introduced in Table 3.1....
Chapter 4
Table 4.1 IPA symbols for pulmonic consonants based on IPA 1993, revised 2005...
Table 4.2 Examples of bilabial and labiodental fricatives from Ewe.
Table 4.3 Phonemic contrasts at three places of articulation for both plosive...
Table 4.4 Vowel‐conditioned alternation between palatal [ç] and velar [x] voi...
Chapter 6
Table 6.1 IPA symbols for non‐pulmonic consonants: ejectives, voiced implosiv...
Table 6.2 Voiced and voiceless implosives in Seereer‐Siin (from McLaughlin, 2...
Table 6.3 Taxonomy of the five different types of plosives based on source an...
Table 6.4 Overview of different phonation types and their corresponding vocal...
Table 6.5 Plosives in Bengali. Bengali uses aspiration, length, and voicing t...
Table 6.6 The most frequently occurring consonants in UPSID. (Adapted from Ma...
Chapter 11
Table 11.1 Parameters affecting the duration of segments (after Klatt 1979). ...
Table 11.2 The four tones of Mandarin Chinese.
Table 11.3 Words illustrating Japanese (Tokyo dialect) as a pitch‐accent lang...
Chapter 13
Table 13.1 Correct identification (in percentages) of place of articulation, ...
Appendix B
Table B.1 Physical units: their names, derivations, dimensions, and symbols a...
Table B.2 Scaling factors: their abbreviation, Greek or Italian origin, Engli...
Table B.3 Physical dimensions and levels with their units and their subjectiv...
Table B.4 Example of a table of air pressure measurements, when they were tak...
Table B.5 Addition of five air pressure measurements.
Appendix C
Table C.1 Formant frequency values for 10 vowels of American English, as produce...
Table C.2 Fundamental frequency values for 10 vowels of American English, as pro...
List of Illustrations
Chapter 1
Figure 1.1 The main elements of speech production, acoustic transmission, an...
Figure 1.2 (a) Oscillogram and (b) spectrogram of the phrase
How do you do?
...
Figure 1.3 (a) Oscillogram and (b) spectrogram of the first part of the tune...
Chapter 2
Figure 2.1 The vocal tract.
Figure 2.2 (a) Oscillogram and (b) spectrogram of the word
conceptualizing
....
Chapter 3
Figure 3.1 Vowel quadrilateral with IPA symbols for the monophthongal and di...
Figure 3.2 Words exemplifying the monophthongal and diphthongized vowels of ...
Figure 3.3 Vowel quadrilateral for the diphthongs of American English. The s...
Figure 3.4 Oscillograms of the words (a)
attack
with an aspirated voiceless ...
Figure 3.5 Oscillograms of the words
chance
,
length,
and
something
(a, c, e)...
Figure 3.6 Oscillograms of the words (a)
summer
, (b)
some more
, (c)
top air
,...
Figure 3.7 Oscillograms of the words
insight
(a) and
incite
(b).
Figure 3.8 Oscillograms of the words
bat
(a) and
bad
(b).
Chapter 4
Figure 4.1 IPA symbols for the transcription of vowels (Revision 2005).
Figure 4.2 Words exemplifying the vowels of German and IPA symbols for their...
Figure 4.3 The acoustic vowel space of German with vowel pairs illustrating ...
Chapter 5
Figure 5.1 The subglottal system. On the left, tissue and ribs have been omi...
Figure 5.2 Close‐up of a lung with details of the lung membranes and adjacen...
Figure 5.3 Air volume in the lungs during breathing cycles. The grey areas i...
Figure 5.4 Air volume in the lungs during breathing and speaking. (For color...
Figure 5.5 The larynx as seen from three different angles: (a) a side view (...
Figure 5.6 Molecules in a laminar stream. In the narrow passage, the molecul...
Figure 5.7 The speed of air in a laminar flow through a narrow passage. Foot...
Figure 5.8 Demonstration of the Bernoulli effect. The two sheets of paper mo...
Figure 5.9 Different phases of vocal fold vibration, shown by means of simpl...
Figure 5.10 Close‐up of the tips of the vocal folds showing the airflow thro...
Figure 5.11 Glottal opening with slow (a) and fast (b) closing of the vocal ...
Chapter 6
Figure 6.1 Oscillograms of (a) a voiceless unaspirated stop, (b) a voiceless...
Figure 6.2 Oscillograms of (a) a voiced bilabial plosive and (b) a voiced bi...
Figure 6.3 Oscillograms, airflow, and intraoral pressure (IOP) tracks of (a)...
Figure 6.4 Oscillogram and intraoral pressure (IOP) for the postalveolar cli...
Figure 6.5 Oscillograms of the utterances [ɑˈbɑ], [ɑˈpɑ], and [ɑˈpʰɑ]. In ea...
Figure 6.6 Oscillograms and VOT measurements for phonologically voiced and v...
Figure 6.7 Oscillogram of the word
stop
spoken by an English speaker. The le...
Figure 6.8 Oscillograms, closure, and VOT measurements for fully voiced (a),...
Figure 6.9 Oscillograms of Bengali [ɑˈb
ɦ
ɑ] containing a voiced aspirate...
Chapter 8
Figure 8.1 An analog clock (left) and a digital clock (right).
Figure 8.2 Digitizing a signal in the time domain. A 200 Hz signal is digiti...
Figure 8.3 Digitizing a signal in the amplitude and time domain.
Figure 8.4 The recording and reproduction of signals by a computer.
Figure 8.5 Five different types of signals: (a) pure tone, (b) periodic sign...
Figure 8.6 Oscillograms of a speech signal: (a) the phrase
Almost everyone k
...
Figure 8.7 Waveforms of the vowels [ɑ] and [i].
Figure 8.8 The sine signal in (a) has a frequency of 100 Hz, the one in (b) ...
Figure 8.9 Adding up two sine signals with equal frequency and amplitude. In...
Figure 8.10 Four sine signals with increasing frequency and decreasing ampli...
Figure 8.11 The individual frequencies with their amplitude values, which we...
Figure 8.12 A 100 Hz (a) and a 200 Hz (b) sine signal, their sum (c) and its...
Figure 8.13 A 100 Hz (a) and a 150 Hz (b) sine signal, their sum (c) and its...
Figure 8.14 Examples of oscillograms (left) and spectra (right) of different...
Figure 8.15 A periodic signal (a) can be fully reconstructed (c) on the basi...
Figure 8.16 A signal stretch, which does not exactly match a period (b), is ...
Figure 8.17 Reducing the distortions in the signal analysis by choosing an a...
Figure 8.18 A speech signal, sampled at 10 kHz (a), has been multiplied by a...
Figure 8.19 The influence of window size on the spectral (frequency) resolut...
Figure 8.20 A
waterfall display
of a sequence of spectra. Each individual “s...
Figure 8.21 The speech signal of the phrase
How do you do?
(a – note that th...
Figure 8.22 By means of LPC analysis, a speech signal can be transformed int...
Figure 8.23 A windowed part of a speech signal ([m]) in (a) is transformed b...
Chapter 9
Figure 9.1 Air pressure change in a resonating cylindrical tube open at one ...
Figure 9.2 Higher resonance frequencies of a cylindrical tube open at one en...
Figure 9.3 Resonance frequencies of a cylindrical tube open at both ends.
Figure 9.4 Molecules swinging in a tube closed at both ends (the pressure si...
Figure 9.5 Effect of tube shapes on resonance frequencies.
Figure 9.6 A low‐pass filter with a slope of 6 decibel per octave. The frequ...
Figure 9.7 A band‐pass filter (solid line) made from overlapping low‐ and hi...
Figure 9.8 Two band‐pass filters, each with its own center frequency and 3‐d...
Figure 9.9 Larynx signal (a), its spectrum (b), vocal tract filter spectrum ...
Figure 9.10 Harmonics and vocal tract spectrum of a signal with a low
F
0
(a)...
Figure 9.11 Effects of constriction location on the frequency of the first t...
Figure 9.12 Average formant frequencies of 50 male speakers of American Engl...
Figure 9.13 One cycle (T
0
) of a glottal source wave for modal voice. T shows...
Figure 9.14 Spectrum of a modal voice source. The amplitudes of the harmonic...
Figure 9.15 Jitter differences of consecutive glottal pulses. The
jitter
[ms...
Figure 9.16 Shimmer differences of consecutive glottal pulses. The
shimmer
[...
Figure 9.17 Spectrum taken in the middle of the modal vowel [ɑ] produced by ...
Figure 9.18 Spectrum taken in the middle of the breathy vowel [ɑ] produced b...
Figure 9.19 Waveform and spectrum of the creaky vowel [ɑ] produced by a male...
Figure 9.20 Waveform and spectrum of white noise.
Figure 9.21 Waveform and spectrogram of a whispered [ɑ]. Note the missing vo...
Chapter 10
Figure 10.1 Spectrograms (a and c) and LPC spectra (b and d) of the English ...
Figure 10.2 Average and stylized formant frequencies (F1–F3) of the monophth...
Figure 10.3 Spectrograms and LPC spectra of the unrounded high front vowel [...
Figure 10.4 FFT spectra of the oral vowel [ɑ] (a) and the nasal vowel [ã] (b...
Figure 10.5 Spectrograms of the English diphthongs [aɪ] (a), [ɔɪ] (b), and [...
Figure 10.6 Spectrogram of the utterances [aja] (a) and [iji] (b) spoken by ...
Figure 10.7 Spectrogram of the utterance [iwi] spoken by a male native speak...
Figure 10.8 Spectrogram of the utterance [iɻi] spoken by a female native spe...
Figure 10.9 Vocal tract model representing the articulatory configuration fo...
Figure 10.10 FFT Spectra of [f] and [s] with the statistical moment measures...
Figure 10.11 Spectrograms of the utterances
a dime
with a voiced (a) and
a t
...
Figure 10.12 Schematic representation of the vocal tract configuration for a...
Figure 10.13 FFT spectra from the center of the nasal consonants in the utte...
Figure 10.14 Spectrogram (a) of the utterance [ili] together with LPC (b) an...
Figure 10.15 Spectrograms of [aa] (a), [aa] (b), [aa] (c), and [aa] (d) ...
Figure 10.16 Stylized F1 and F2 pattern for [di] and [du]. (After Delattre e...
Figure 10.17 The middle and right columns show LPC spectra for labial, alveo...
Figure 10.18 Schematic representation of locus equations for maximal and min...
Figure 10.19 Regression lines of F2 transitions in relation to their F2 midv...
Chapter 11
Figure 11.1 Different syllable types with their components (“σ” is a conveni...
Figure 11.2 Idealized sonority levels of the words
past
,
pastor
, and
pastora
...
Figure 11.3 Oscillogram, intensity and
F
0
contours, and spectrogram of the w...
Figure 11.4 Oscillogram of the sentence
Eddy’s playing a trombone
. The...
Figure 11.5 Distribution of languages when plotted in terms of %V and ΔC. La...
Figure 11.6 Oscillograms and pitch contours of the word [ma] spoken with eac...
Figure 11.7 Oscillograms and pitch contours for (a) the declarative sentence...
Figure 11.8 Oscillograms and pitch contours of the sentence
We will buy our
...
Figure 11.9 Oscillogram and pitch contour of the sentence
We will buy our fi
...
Figure 11.10 Oscillograms and pitch contours of the sentences (a)
Almost eve
...
Chapter 12
Figure 12.1 External, middle, and internal ear and their main structures.
Figure 12.2 Schematic representations of how the muscles of the middle ear a...
Figure 12.3 A schematic representation of an “uncoiled” cochlea and the trav...
Figure 12.4 The organ of Corti, as shown in a cross‐section of the entire co...
Figure 12.5 Linear spectrum (a) transformed into the Bark scale by applying ...
Figure 12.6 Frequency sensitivity for different levels of loudness according...
Chapter 13
Figure 13.1 Vowel space of Hillenbrand et al. (1995), based on speech by 45 ...
Figure 13.2 Listeners’ identification of synthetic stimuli used in a burst p...
Figure 13.3 Expected result of identification experiment in which VOT is sys...
Figure 13.4 Obtained result of identification experiment in which VOT is sys...
Figure 13.5 Results (solid line) from a two‐step discrimination experiment u...
Figure 13.6 Results from Eimas et al. (1971). Mean number of sucking respons...
Figure 13.7 Stimuli from Pisoni (1977). Schematic representation of three of...
Appendix A
Figure A.1 Pressure changes for the same weight depending on the surface are...
Figure A.2 Surface area increasing with the square of the distance.
Figure A.3 Two signals with the same amplitude.
Figure A.4 Computation of the sum of squared values of a signal with 10 samp...
Figure A.5 Computation of the sum of squared values of a low‐frequency (a) a...
Guide
Cover
Table of Contents
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Henning Reetz and Allard Jongman, Phonetics: Transcription, Production, Acoustics, and Perception (Second Edition)
Phonetics
Transcription, Production, Acoustics, and Perception
Second Edition
Henning Reetz
Allard Jongman
This second edition first published 2020© 2020 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.
Edition History1e, John Wiley & Sons Ltd, 2009
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Library of Congress Cataloging‐in‐Publication DataNames: Reetz, Henning, author. | Jongman, Allard, author.Title: Phonetics : transcription, production, acoustics, and perception / Henning Reetz, Allard Jongman.Description: Second edition. | Hoboken : Wiley, 2020. | Series: Blackwell textbooks in linguistics | Includes bibliographical references and index.Identifiers: LCCN 2019037251 (print) | LCCN 2019037252 (ebook) | ISBN 9781118712955 (paperback) | ISBN 9781118712870 (adobe pdf) | ISBN 9781118712887 (epub)Subjects: LCSH: Phonetics. | Speech.Classification: LCC P221 .R37 2020 (print) | LCC P221 (ebook) | DDC 414/.8–dc23LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2019037251LC ebook record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2019037252
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Preface to the First Edition
Phonetics is traditionally subdivided into three areas: articulatory phonetics concerns the way in which speech is produced and requires an understanding of the physiology of the speaking apparatus; acoustic phonetics investigates the acoustic characteristics of speech such as frequency, intensity, and duration, and requires knowledge of sound waves; auditory phonetics addresses the perception of speech and requires awareness of the function of the auditory system and memory. Phonetics thus spans several related disciplines, including linguistics, biology, physics, and psychology. In addition, students of phonetics should be familiar with phonetic transcription, the use of a set of symbols to “write” speech sounds.
Some courses in phonetics cover primarily articulatory phonetics and phonetic transcription while others focus on acoustic or auditory phonetics. However, in our teaching experience, we have found it more rewarding to combine these subjects in a single course. For example, certain speech patterns are better explained from an articulatory point of view while others may be more readily motivated in terms of auditory factors. For these reasons, we decided to write this textbook. This book covers in detail all four areas that comprise phonetics: articulatory, acoustic, and auditory phonetics as well as phonetic transcription. It is aimed at students of speech from a variety of disciplines (including linguistics, speech pathology, audiology, psychology, and electrical engineering). While it is meant as an introductory course, many areas of phonetics are discussed in more detail than is typically the case for an introductory text. Depending on their purpose, readers (and instructors) will probably differ in terms of the amount of detail they require. Due to the book’s step‐wise approach, later chapters are accessible even if sections (for example, those containing too much technical detail) of preceding chapters are skipped. While some technical detail is, of course, inevitable (for example, to understand a spectrogram), little knowledge of physics or mathematics beyond the high school level is required. Technical concepts are introduced with many examples. In addition, more advanced technical information can be found in Appendices A and B in order to maintain a readable text. This book thus employs a modular format to provide comprehensive coverage of all areas of phonetics with sufficient detail to challenge to a deeper understanding of this complex inter‐disciplinary subject.
Phonetics as a science of speech should not be geared toward any particular language. Nonetheless, many examples in this textbook are from English, simply because this book is written in English. We do, however, include examples from a variety of languages to illustrate facts not found in English, but in‐depth knowledge of those languages by the reader is not required.
This book reflects the ideas and research of many speech scientists, and we feel fortunate to be part of this community. For discussions about speech over the years, we are first and foremost indebted to Aditi Lahiri and Joan Sereno without whose continued support and guidance this book would never have been finished. It is to them that we dedicate this book. In addition, we thank our teachers and mentors who initially got us excited about phonetics: Sheila Blumstein, Philip Lieberman, and James D. Miller. And our students who kept this excitement alive: Mohammad Al‐Masri, Ann Bradlow, Tobey Doeleman, Kazumi Maniwa, Corinne Moore, Alice Turk, Travis Wade, Yue Wang, Ratree Wayland, as well as the many students in our introductory and advanced classes who – through their questions – made us realize which topics needed more clarification. We are also grateful to Ocke‐Schwen Bohn, Vincent Evers, Carlos Gussenhoven, Wendy Herd, Kazumi Maniwa, Travis Wade, Ratree Wayland, and Jie Zhang, who provided valuable comments on previous versions of the text. A very special thank you goes to Regine Eckardt, who provided the artistic drawings. Finally, we thank Wim van Dommelen, Fiona McLaughlin, Simone Mikuteit, Joan Sereno, Craig Turnbull‐Sailor, Yue Wang, and Ratree Wayland for providing us with their recordings. Needless to say, none of these individuals is responsible for any inaccuracies of this book.
We especially thank Aditi Lahiri for her extensive financing at many stages of the book through her Leibniz Prize. We also thank the Universities of Konstanz and Kansas for travel support and sabbatical leave to work on this book.
Henning Reetz Allard Jongman
Preface to the Second Edition
This second edition has greatly benefitted from feedback from the students that we have taught with this book over the past 10 years as well as from our anonymous reviewers. Following their suggestions, we have added “nutshell” introductions to virtually all chapters. We hope that these brief summaries make it easier to navigate each chapter by giving a clear overview of the main points to be covered. Depending on the reader’s background and interest, the nutshell may in some cases provide all the information that is necessary to move on to the next chapter. In addition, we have shortened our survey of different theories of vocal fold vibration and expanded our coverage of voice quality and the acoustic correlates of different phonation types. There is also more extensive coverage of intonation as well as of different theories of speech perception.
This book reflects the ideas and research of many speech scientists. In addition to the mentors, colleagues, and students acknowledged in the first edition, we would like to thank more recent graduate students Kelly Berkson, Goun Lee, Hyunjung Lee, and Charlie Redmon for their input, as well as Bob McMurray for feedback on sections of the book.
We gratefully acknowledge financial support from Aditi Lahiri. We also thank the University of Frankfurt and the University of Kansas for travel support and sabbatical leave to work on this new edition.
About the Companion Website
This book is accompanied by a companion website which contains sound files and images corresponding to the text:
www.wiley.com/go/reetz/phonetics
1About this Book
Phonetics is the study of speech. It is a broad and interdisciplinary science whose investigations cover four main areas:
how speech can be written down (called
phonetic transcription
),
how it is produced (
speech production
or
articulatory phonetics
),
what its acoustic characteristics are (
acoustic phonetics
), and
how it is perceived by listeners (
speech perception
or
auditory phonetics
).
The present textbook provides a coherent description of phonetics in these four areas. Each of these areas of phonetics is related to other scientific disciplines and has its own methodology. For example, the transcription of speech sounds is based on (supervised) introspection, careful listening, and speaking. The study of speech production and acoustics is related to physiology, anatomy, and physics. Finally, the study of speech perception is more oriented towards psychology. This book tries to familiarize the reader with important concepts of these other, sometimes rather “technical” areas, by means of everyday examples. This approach is based on the conviction that understanding is an important key to knowledge.
Given this range, this textbook is not only intended for students of phonetics or linguistics, but also for students of related disciplines such as psychology, computer science, medicine, speech pathology, and audiology – indeed for anyone interested to learn more about how we speak and hear. Phonetics as the science of speech is not geared towards any particular language. Nonetheless, many examples are taken from English, simply because this book is written in English. We do, however, include many examples from other languages to illustrate facts not found in English, but in‐depth knowledge of those languages by the reader is not required.
1.1 Phonetics in a nutshell
This section introduces some basic concepts of phonetics, which are explained in detail throughout the book. They are represented in Figure 1.1 and include, from left to right: the anatomical structures that enable us to speak, the acoustic signal that these structures produce, and the anatomical structures that enable us to hear.
The anatomical organs which play a role in speech production can be organized into three main areas (see left part of Figure 1.1): the lungs, the larynx, and the vocal tract, which itself consists of mouth, nose, and pharynx.
The lungs, which are used for breathing, are the main source of energy to produce speech sounds. Air that flows from the lungs outwards has to pass through the larynx in the neck, where the vocal folds are located. The vocal folds can vibrate in the airstream and this gives the speech its pitch: the vocal folds in the larynx vibrate slower or faster when we produce a melody while we are speaking. This important process is called phonation and speech sounds that are produced with vibrating vocal folds are called voiced sounds. The phrase I lost my voice actually refers to this process, since somebody who lost his voice is not completely silent but is rather whispering because his vocal folds do not vibrate. The area between the vocal folds is the source of many speech sounds; consequently, it has its own name, the glottis. Finally, the vocal tract (mouth, nose, and pharynx) are the central structures for producing speech sounds, a process which is called articulation. The structures involved in this process are called the articulators. The tongue is the most important organ here, and as the terms mother tongue or language (from the Latin word lingua ‘tongue’) indicate, this was well known by our ancestors.
Figure 1.1 The main elements of speech production, acoustic transmission, and speech perception.
Figure 1.2 (a) Oscillogram and (b) spectrogram of the phrase How do you do?
Since the larynx has the role of a separator in this system, the part of the speech apparatus above the larynx is referred to as the supralaryngeal system and the part below it as the subglottal system.
Speech sounds formed by the human vocal apparatus travel through the air as sound waves, which are essentially small air pressure fluctuations. In an oscillogram, these small fluctuations can be graphically represented with time on the horizontal x‐axis and pressure at each instant in time on the vertical y‐axis (see Figure 1.2a for an oscillogram of the sentence How do you do?). A surprising experience for many looking for the first time at a graphic representation of a speech signal is that there are no pauses between the words (like there are nice spaces between printed words) and that the sounds are not to as neatly separated as letters are. In fact, speech sounds merge into each other and speakers do not stop between words. It actually sounds very strange if a speaker utters words with pauses between them (How ‐ do ‐ you ‐ do) and in normal speech the phrase sounds more like howdjoudou with the dj like the beginning of the word jungle. This continuation of sounds and lack of breaks between words is one of the problems an adult learner of a foreign language faces: the native speakers seem to speak too fast and mumble all the words together – but this is what any speaker of any language does: the articulators move continuously from one sound to the next and one word joins the next. The graphic display of this stream of sounds is therefore very helpful in the analysis of what actually has been produced.
If a sound is loud, its air pressure variations are large and its amplitude (i.e. the vertical displacement) in the oscillogram is high, just like an ocean wave can be high. If a sound wave repeats itself at regular intervals, that is, if it is periodic, then the signal in the oscillogram shows regular oscillations. If the sound is irregular, then the display of the signal on the oscillogram is irregular. And when there is no sound at all, there is just a flat line on the oscillogram. The oscillogram therefore is an exact reproduction of the sound wave.
Analyzing the signal and representing it in a spectrogram is often a useful method to gain further insight into the acoustic information transmitted by a speech signal (see Figure 1.2b for a spectrogram of the same utterance of Figure 1.2a). On a spectrogram, time is also displayed on the horizontal axis as in the oscillogram, but the vertical axis shows the energy in different pitch regions (or, more precisely, frequency bands). Frequency increases along the vertical axis, with higher frequencies displayed toward the top of the axis. In addition, intensity is represented by the darkness of the display, with areas of greater intensity showing up as darker parts of the spectrogram.
As a further example, Figure 1.3a and b represent the first half of the tune played by London’s “Big Ben” bell. The oscillogram (Figure 1.3a) shows that there are four acoustic events, but without further analysis it is not possible to differentiate the musical notes played by the bells. From the spectrogram (Figure 1.3b) an experienced person could infer that the tones were produced by bells, and not, for example, by a trumpet, and determine the frequencies of the bells (what we perceive as their pitch). Comparing Figures 1.2 and 1.3, it is obvious that speech sounds are far more complex than the rather simple signal of bells.
The speech sounds eventually reach the ear of a listener (see right part of Figure 1.1). The ear is not only the external structure on the sides of the head, which is visible as ear auricle, but includes the central hearing organ which sits deep inside the head in the internal ear. The transmission of sound energy from the external ear to the internal ear is performed by a mechanical system in the middle ear that translates the airborne sound waves to pressure waves inside the fluid‐filled cavities of the internal ear. Our brain, finally, makes sense out of the signals generated by the sensory nerves of the internal ear and transforms them into the perception of speech. Although we cannot directly observe what is going on in this process, we can develop theories about the perception of speech and test these with clever experiments. This situation is somewhat similar to an astronomer who can make theories about a distant planet without actually visiting it. Unfortunately, our perception cannot be measured as easily as the physical properties of a signal, which we examine with an oscillogram or a spectrogram. For example, while it is easy to measure the amplitude of a signal, that is, how “high” sound waves are, this amplitude does not directly relate to the sensation of how “loud” a signal is perceived. This effect is well known by listening to music in a car on the highway and then stopping for a break: the music sounds extremely loud when the car is re‐started after a few minutes. The physical amplitude of the signal is the same on the freeway and in the parked car, but the perception has changed depending on the background noise and how long a person has been exposed to it.
Figure 1.3 (a) Oscillogram and (b) spectrogram of the first part of the tune of “Big Ben.”
All activities – producing, transmitting, and perceiving speech – are related to a sound wave and “run in real time:” if a video is paused, the picture can be frozen but the sound disappears. How, then, can speech sounds be described and captured on paper in order to talk about them? The oscillogram and spectrogram are ways to put signals on paper but they are not easy to understand and it is very complicated to infer from these pictures what a person has said. Normally, we write down the words that we hear, but we do this by knowing the spelling of a language, which might not be related to the way the words are pronounced. For example, the English words cough, though, through, and thorough all share the same letters —ough, but these letters are pronounced very differently. Thus, the orthography is often not a good way to represent the pronunciation of words. Therefore, speech sounds are “written” with the special symbols of the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA). Some of these symbols look very much like the letters we use in writing, but these phonetic IPA symbols reflect sounds and not letters. To make this distinction obvious, IPA symbols are enclosed in square brackets. In this book, we use double‐quotes for letters. For example, the English word ski is written in IPA as [ski]. In our example, the words cough, though, through, and thorough are represented in IPA as [kɔf, ðoʊ, θɹu, ˈθʌɹə]. This writing with phonetic symbols is called transcription. And although this transcription may look foreign, it is obvious that the underlined sound sequences are different for these words and reflect the way the words are pronounced in this particular dialect of English. It is very important to keep this distinction in mind between the IPA symbols used for sounds and the letters that many languages use for writing.
Recall that Figure 1.2a shows a speech waveform (oscillogram) of the phrase How do you do?, which is a true representation of the air pressure fluctuations that make up this speech signal. When looking at such a waveform, it becomes clear that speech is not a sequence of isolated sound segments. Unlike printed characters that are a sequence of isolated letters grouped into words, nicely separated by spaces, a speech signal is a continuous, ever‐changing stream of information. The transcription into sound segments is a rather artificial process that reflects our impression that speech is made up of a sequence of sounds. But even a single sound, like the consonant p in the word supper is a complex event, that in a fraction of a second requires a precise coordination of the different muscle groups of the lips, tongue, and larynx. The outcome is a complex acoustic structure with different components, which are nevertheless perceived as one sound segment. On the other hand, even the removal of this sound segment from a speech stream leaves traces of its articulatory maneuvers in the adjacent speech segments, and the speech sound can often still be perceived after it has been removed from the signal. In this book, we explain how such a sound is produced, analyzed, perceived, and transcribed.
Additionally, there are other characteristics related to speech that affect more than one segment. Because these characteristics extend beyond a single segment, they are called suprasegmentals. An important notion here is the syllable, which groups several sounds together. When we speak, we usually produce individual syllables of a word with more or less stress. For example, we say contráry as an adjective in the nursery rhyme Little Mary, quite contráry, stressing the second syllable, but when we say it as a noun, we stress the first syllable in on the cóntrary, in a phrase like On the cóntrary, I said the opposite. The stress on a word can even change its meaning, for example, desért means to abandon whereas désert means wasteland, and it is obvious that the stress is important to understand the utterance, although it is not reflected in the orthography of the written text (but you will note a change in quality in the related vowels due to the difference in stress). Another suprasegmental phenomenon is the intonation or melody we give a sentence when we speak. For example, in making the statement It is 10 o’clock. the pitch of the voice goes down at the end whereas in the question It is 10 o’clock?, expressing surprise, the pitch goes up. In both cases, the segmental material (i.e. the speech sounds) is the same and only the intonation differs. There are languages that change the intonation of individual syllables to alter the meaning of a word. The standard example here is Mandarin Chinese, where the word ma means ‘mother,’ ‘hemp,’ ‘horse,’ or ‘scold,’ depending on whether the pitch stays flat, rises slightly, falls and rises, or falls sharply, respectively, on ma. This usage of pitch, known as tone, might sound strange to someone whose language does not have this feature, but many speakers of the world actually use pitch in this way.
1.2 The structure of this book
This book covers the four areas of phonetics: speech transcription, production, acoustics, and perception. We do not want to separate these fields as there is a certain overlap. This illustrates how we think about speech in phonetics: to understand speech one has to know how to write down a sound, how it is produced, what its acoustic correlates are and how listeners perceive a speech sound. But to be able to do these four things in parallel, each area must be known beforehand – for that reason this textbook presents these four areas as somewhat separate. Whenever we have to use certain terms before they are explained in more detail later in the book, we try to give a short motivation when they are first introduced. Additionally, certain technical details require a longer motivation and explanation. We put some of this background information into separate appendices to maintain a readable main text, even when the information in the appendices is crucial for a deeper understanding.
Finally, we have added “nutshell” introductions to virtually all chapters. These brief summaries may make it easier to navigate each chapter by giving a clear overview of the main points to be covered. Since the nutshell covers the main points in a condensed fashion, it may contain sufficient information to allow the reader to skip to the next chapter.
In Chapter 2 we describe the structures of the vocal apparatus that are easy to observe: the phonation at the larynx and the articulation in the vocal tract. In Chapter 3 we introduce the principles of how sounds of the English language that are produced by these structures are transcribed with the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA). Chapter 4 goes systematically through the transcription of many consonants of the world’s languages. Chapter 5 presents a detailed discussion of the anatomy and physiology of the respiratory system, the larynx and the vocal tract. Alternative ways of producing sounds by means of different airstream mechanisms are explained in Chapter 6. Chapters 7 and 8 provide basic knowledge about sound in physical terms, ways to analyze and measure sound, and survey the methods that are available on computers to analyze speech sounds. Chapter 9 introduces the acoustic theory of speech production based on the concepts introduced in the Chapters 7 and 8. These three Chapters are rather “technical”, but we try to convey the principles in a way that can be followed by a reader without extensive mathematical background. The concepts and methods introduced in Chapters 7 to 9 are then applied to speech sounds. Interestingly, consonants are easy to describe in articulatory terms whereas vowels are easier to describe in acoustic terms. That is why we provide a somewhat hybrid articulatory and acoustic description of the sounds. A similar principle applies to the last three chapters of this book: speech is not a sequence of isolated sound segments but rather a continuous flow of larger sound structures that are eventually perceived by listeners. Since these larger sound structures that are essential to speech require an understanding of the individual elements (the sound segments), they are covered relatively late in the book, in Chapter 11. Ultimately, speech exists only because it is perceived. Even though a child typically perceives speech before it is able to produce it, hearing and perception come last in the book because an overview of these two areas requires a basic understanding of the acoustics of speech. Chapter 12 lays out the structures of our hearing organs and Chapter 13 reports on findings about the perception of speech. An appendix explains some more technical terms in more detail for the interested reader. In sum, 13 chapters discuss how to transcribe speech, how it is produced, what its acoustic characteristics are, and how it is perceived.
1.3 Terminology
Whenever a term is introduced, it is printed in bold in the text and its transcription is given in the index if it is not a usual word. Technical measures are based on metrical units, which are used in this book. Everyday examples use parallel metrical units (with meters and kilograms) and the so called “British/US” or “Imperial” system (with inches and pounds) so that they are familiar to readers of varying backgrounds.
1.4 Demonstrations and exercises
We have included exercises at the end of each chapter. These exercises are meant to check and enhance understanding of the key concepts introduced in the chapters. All the sounds and graphic representations such as oscillogram and spectrogram related to this book are presented on an accompanying website (www.wiley.com/go/reetz/phonetics) and can be downloaded for own investigations. The website refers back to this book. This allows us to make updates, additions, and changes to the website.
Exercises
List and briefly define the four areas of phonetics.
What are the three main areas involved in speech production? Briefly describe their role in speech production.
How does an oscillogram reproduce a sound wave? How does it differ from a spectrogram?
Justify the use of IPA symbols instead of orthographic representations to represent the pronunciation of words.
Define and provide one example of a suprasegmental.
2Articulatory Phonetics
An important component of phonetics is the description of sounds. One mode of description is articulatory; that is, it involves an articulatory description of how speech sounds are produced. First of all, the production of any kind of sound requires a source of energy. For speech this energy source is the flow of air. For most sounds of the world’s languages, this airflow is generated by the lungs, which are described in detail in Section 5.1. Air flows from the lungs through the trachea (windpipe) and then through the larynx (voice box), where the vocal folds are located. The larynx and its role in the complex process of voice formation are discussed in detail in Section 5.2. Finally, the physiological details of the upper part of the speaking apparatus, namely the pharynx (throat), oral tract (mouth), and nasal tract (nose) are presented in Section 5.3. In this chapter, aspects of the speaking apparatus that are easy to observe will be introduced, including phonation at the larynx and articulation in the vocal tract. This description will help to explain terms used for phonetic transcription (Chapter 3).
Articulation in a nutshell
Most speech sounds of the world’s languages, and all English ones, can be classified as voiced or voiceless, depending on whether the vocal folds in the larynx vibrate or not. Sounds with a full or partial obstruction in the vocal tract, made by the tongue and lips, are called consonants. These are categorized in a two‐dimensional grid by the manner of articulation, that is, the extent of the obstruction, and by the place of articulation, where the obstruction is made. Important for this categorization is the tongue, which is segmented into tongue tip, blade, body (front, center, back), and tongue root. Places of articulation are ordered from the front of the mouth along the roof of the mouth down to the pharynx, yielding for English labial, labio‐dental, dental, alveolar, postalveolar, palatal, labial‐velar, velar, and glottal. Ordering manner of articulation in terms of the degree of obstruction yields an (oral) stop (or plosive), nasal (stop), fricative, affricate, and approximant. Stops have a complete closure of the vocal tract, where nasals have an open nasal tract. For fricatives, the articulators come close together to create a narrow channel and airflow through this passage produces a hissing sound. Affricates are a combination of a plosive immediately followed by a fricative. And approximants are marked by a somewhat wider opening of the oral tract, so that no hissing sound is produced.
When the articulators are even further apart, vowels are produced. Vowels are also categorized in basically three dimensions: a horizontal dimension depending on the frontness or backness of the tongue, a vertical dimension depending on the height of the tongue, resulting in labels such as high, mid, or low, and a third dimension, which expresses whether the lips are rounded or unrounded. For some vowels, tense and lax varieties exist, which differ in qualities that will be described in Section 3.3. Additionally, the nasal tract is open when producing nasal or nasalized vowels. A combination of two vowels, with a continuous movement from one vowel to the other is called a diphthong, in contrast to the production of a single vowel, which is called a monophthong.
2.1 Phonation at the larynx
The larynx (voice box) is located at the bottom of the pharynx (throat) on top of the trachea (windpipe) and consists of cartilage, muscle, ligament, and tissue. For some speakers, the larynx is visible as the Adam’s apple, moving up and down during swallowing and speaking. It is not this movement that is central for speech production but the operation of two small muscular folds inside the larynx. These are known as the vocal folds (or vocal cords) and airflow generated by the lungs must pass through them. The vocal folds can be either apart, close together, or tightly closed. When they are apart (as in normal breathing), air travels through without much obstruction. When they are tightly closed, no air passes through, which prevents, for example, food from entering the trachea. When they are close together, the airstream from the lungs will make them vibrate. This vibration is known as voicing or phonation. It is important to note that voiced sounds such as vowels and many consonants are produced with vocal fold vibration (vocal folds close together) while voiceless sounds are produced without vocal fold vibration (vocal folds apart). The presence and absence of vocal fold vibration can be determined by placing your finger loosely on your Adam’s apple and prolonging the sound at the beginning of a word like zip (“zzzzzzzz”). This is a voiced consonant produced with vocal fold vibration and you should be able to feel this vibration with your finger. The beginning of a word like sip (“ssssssss”) has a voiceless consonant that is produced without vocal fold vibration. You should not feel any vibration. Another way to test this difference is to place your hands over your ears and then produce the sounds. For the voiced sound (“zzz”) there should be a humming in your head which is not there when the voiceless sound (“sss”) is produced. This hum is caused by the vibration of the vocal folds.
The space between the vocal folds is known as the glottis. Adjustments of the vocal folds, and hence the glottis, can result in whisper, breathy voice, or other modifications of the voice quality (see Section 6.2).
2.2 Basic articulatory terms
Figure 2.1 shows a side view (also known as a midsagittal view) of the part of the speech production apparatus from the larynx up. The air passages above the larynx are collectively known as the vocal tract and the organs above the larynx are sometimes collectively referred to as supralaryngeal organs. These air passages include the pharynx (throat), the oral tract (mouth), and the nasal tract (nose).
The parts of the vocal tract that can be used to form sounds are called articulators. The basic principle in describing and producing sounds is that an articulator comes near or touches another articulator. Often, the articulators that form the lower surface of the oral tract move toward those that form the upper part. We will now describe the principal articulators or supralaryngeal organs, moving from the front of the vocal tract toward the back, that is, from lips to larynx:
Figure 2.1 The vocal tract.
Lips.
Both the upper and lower lip can be used to produce speech sounds. Sounds involving the lips are known as
labial sounds
.
Teeth
(primarily the upper incisors). Sounds involving the teeth are known as
dental sounds
.
Alveolar ridge.
This is a slight protrusion directly behind the upper front teeth. Its prominence varies among individuals. The alveolar ridge is sometimes known as the gum ridge. Sounds produced here are known as
alveolar sounds
.
Palate.
This is the hard and bony part that forms the front part of the roof of the mouth. It is sometimes referred to as the
hard palate
. Sounds produced here are known as
palatal sounds
.
Velum.
This is the soft muscular rear part of the roof of the mouth, also known as the
soft palate
. Sounds produced here are known as
velar sounds
. The velum also serves another purpose in the production of speech sounds. It can be raised to close off the nasal cavity from the rest of the vocal tract, for example during oral breathing. In this case, air can only escape through the mouth. This closing of the nasal cavity is known as the velic or
velopharyngeal closure
. Sounds produced with a raised velum are called
oral sounds
. When the velum is lowered, the passage between the nasal and oral cavities is open, as in nasal breathing. Air can now go out through the nose and the mouth, producing in this way
nasal
or
nasalized sounds
(see
Section 3.5.2.2
for a discussion of the difference between nasal and nasalized sounds). If, in addition to lowering the velum, the airstream is blocked from flowing out of the oral cavity, the air can only escape through the nasal cavity. In this case a
nasal stop
is produced.
Uvula.
This is a small wedge‐shaped object hanging down from the end of the velum. It can be seen when looking in the mirror with the mouth wide open and keeping the tongue low and flat or holding it down with a tongue depressor, as when saying “aaa” at the doctor’s office. Sounds produced here are known as
uvular sounds
.
Pharynx.
This is the cavity between the uvula and the larynx, in everyday language referred to as the throat. The back wall of the pharynx can be considered an articulator on the upper surface of the vocal tract. Sounds produced here are known as
pharyngeal sounds
.
After reviewing these parts of the upper surface of the vocal tract and before going over the lower surface of the vocal tract, we should discuss what in common terms is known as the “voice box.”
Larynx
. Usually this is the source of all voiced sounds. But the vocal folds in the larynx can also be the narrowest constriction in the production of a speech sound and hence the larynx can also serve as an articulator. Sounds produced in this way are called
glottal sounds
.
The articulators forming the lower surface of the vocal tract include:
