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Speech sound as the basic phonetic unit.
Phonetics takes care of the physical properties of sounds, while phonology, which is sometimes called linguistic phonetics, is concerned with a sound system as a system of contrastive units, phonemes, and their distinctive features.
Speech sounds provide substance (materiality). The most comprehensive definition of the phoneme was first introduced by the Russian linguist L. V. Shcherba. The phoneme is a minimal abstract linguistic unit realized in speech in the form of speech sounds opposable to other phonemes of the same language to distinguish the meaning of morphemes and words. According to this definition the phoneme is a unity of three aspects: functional, material and abstract.
1) The phoneme is a functional unit. The phoneme performs the distinctive function. The opposition of phonemes in the same phonetic environment differentiates the meaning of morphemes and words: bath-path, light-like, heard-hurt.
2) The phoneme is material, real and objective. The phoneme is realized in speech in the form of speech sounds, its allophones. Allophones of the same phoneme possess similar articulatory features: deal – did. The difference between the allophones is predictable and is the result of the influence of the neighbouring sounds. The allophone is one of a set of multiple possible spoken sounds (or phones) used to pronounce a single phoneme. The allophones belonging to the same phoneme:
3) The phoneme is an abstract linguistic unit, it is an abstraction from actual speech sounds, allophonic modifications. The actually pronounced speech sounds (phones) are modified by phonostylistic, dialectal and individual factors. Native speakers abstract themselves from the difference between the allophones of the same phoneme because it has no functional value but they have a generalized idea of a complex of distinctive features, which cannot be changed without the change of meaning. This functionally relevant bundle of articulatory features is called the invariant (постоянство) of the phoneme.
Systematic character of English speech Sounds.
Systematic character of English speech Sounds
SpS – is human patterned noise with organization. It’s organized articulatory, acoustically, auditory & functionally.
1) Articulatory asp.- it’s the way the sound producing mechanisms are investigated, that’s the way the speech sounds are pronounced.
2) Acoustic asp.- speech sound is a physical phenomenon. It exists in the form of sound waves produced by the vocal cords. Each sound is characterized by frequency, intensity & duration (distinctive features)
3) Auditory asp.- sound perception aspect. The listener hears the sound, percepts it acoustic features & the hearing mechanism select & transfers them into linguistically important speech sounds.
4) Functional asp.- every language unit performs a certain function in actual speech. It can differenciate the meaning of the words & their grammatical forms.
These 4 aspects base 3 main principals of producing sounds: presence, absence, obstruction.
From the articulatory aspect the following mechanisms are often distinguished:
1) power (Includes mainly the lungs. The function of the power mech. is to supply the sound producing organs with energy in the form of the air stream / air pressure coming from the lungs.)
2) vibrator (Is mainly the larynx – the upper part of the windpipe – with the wocal cords and the glottis situated in it. Vibrator mech. is both articulatory & acoustic mech., its main function – to produce different types of vibrations: regular (periodic) & irregular (non-periodic). Acoustically: frequency, intensity & duration = Auditory: voice pitch, loudness & lenth.
3) resonator (Cavities: pharynx, mouth, nasal. The function of the mouth cavity – to give rise to vowels, to define their qualities by changing the size, shape & volume of the mouth resonator. The size, shape & volume of the mouth cavity are modified by the tongue & the lips.
Vowels are classified according to: position of the tongue; position of the lips; historical length & final phase of articulation; stability. According of the position of the tongue, vowels are: front, front-retrached, central/mixed, back-advanced & back according to horizontal position of the tongue, and high, mid & low according to vertical position of the tongue)
According to the historical length – vowels are long & short.
According to the final phase of articulation: free & checked.
According to their stability: monophtongs & diphthongs.
4) obstructive (The main function is to produce consonants – SpSs with the obstructions. The tongue & the lips fulfill the role of obstructers.
The quality of the cons-s is defined by the manner of articulation, i.e.: a) the type of obstruction – complete / incomplete. Con-s are occlusive, constrictive, occlusive-constrictive; b) the manner of producing noise – plosives, fricatives, sonants.
According to active organs of speech: labial (bilabial[m,w], labio-dental[v,f]), lingual (forelingual[t,d,n], medielingual[j], backlingual[k,g]), pharyngeal (glottal [h])
According to the place of articulation: dental[ð,θ], alveolar[t,d,l,s,z], post-alveolar[r], palate-alveolar[дж, тш]., palatal[j], velar[k,g]
According to the kind of noise: voiced & voiceless
According to their intensity: forties-voiceless, lenis-voiced.
The articulatory Aspect of Speech Sound.
Speech is impossible without the speech mechanism. So now our attention will be focused on the articulatory aspect of speech sounds.
Speech sounds are acoustic effects of the articulatory movements and positions of the human speech organs. The immediate source of speech sounds is the human speech mechanism developed and perfected in the process of the historical development of man. The organs of speech are the object of linguistic investigation mainly from the point of view of the functions they perform in speech production. So before analysing the linguistic function of phonetic units we need to know how the speech mechanism acts in producing oral speech.
According to their main sound-producing functions the speech organs can be roughly divided into the following four groups: the power mechanism (lungs, diaphragm, windpipe, bronchi), the vibrator mechanism (larynx, vocal cords, glottis), the resonator mechanism (nasal and mouth cavities) and the obstructer mechanism (tongue, lips, hard and soft palate, teeth).
From the lungs through the wind-pipe the air-stream passes to the larynx, containing the vocal cords. The opening between the vocal cords, through which the air passes, is called the glottis. The linguistic function of the vocal cords consists in providing the source of energy necessary for speech production. When the vocal cords are kept wide apart (i.e. the glottis is open) the air passes between the cords and the result is non-phonic breath. Then the vocal cords may be drawn together tightly, so that air cannot pass between them. The sudden opening of the glottis produces an explosion resembling a short cough; this sound is called the glottal stop. It often occurs in English when it reinforces or even replaces the sounds [p], [t], [k] or even when it precedes the energetic articulation of vowel sounds.
The most important role of the vocal cords is their participation in the production of voice. The effect of voice is achieved when the vocal cords are brought loosely together, creating an obstacle to the air stream; when the air pressure becomes very strong the air forces its way between the vocal cords thus making the vibrate. When, as is usual, these vibrations are regular, they produce vocal tone, or voice, whose pitch depends on the frequency of vibrations. We are able to vary the speed of vibration of our vocal cords and thus to change the pitch. Conscious variations of pitch are responsible for intonation. We are also able to modify the size of the puff of the air which escapes at each vibration, thus changing the amplitude of the vibration, which corresponds to the loudness of the sound heard by a listener.
The air-stream, having passed through the vocal cords, is now subject to further modification, according to the shape of the pharynx, mouth and nasal cavities.
The direction in which the air-stream will follow from the pharynx depends on the position of the soft palate. When it is lowered, the pharynx opens into the nasal cavity. When it is risen, the air-stream comes to the mouth cavity. As in the mouth cavity a lot of movable speech organs are situated it can easily change its shape, thus forming the majority of speech sounds.
The movable (or active) speech organs, situated in the mouth cavity are: the tongue, the soft palate with the uvula, the lips and the lower jaw. Of all the movable organs within the mouth cavity the tongue is the most flexible and active. For convenience, the surface of the tongue or divided into several parts: the most flexible part of the tongue, which normally lies opposite the teeth ridge, is called the blade, the tip of the tongue being its extreme point. The part of the tongue next to the blade is called the front of the tongue. Then come the back and the root of the tongue.
The tongue being the most active speech organ in the mouth cavity, the main principles of the majority of articulatory classifications of vowels are based on the movements and positions of the tongue.