Articulatory Phonetics and Speech Production

Recommended Reading

For some light reading and general introduction, check David Crystal's Cambridge Encyclopedia of Language. He's got some nice descriptions on how the various airstream mechanisms that you will learn about in class are realised.

If you are interested in experimental phonetics and in how to find out about the various places of articulation have a look at Peter Ladefoged's Phonetic Data Analysis. Ladefoged writes in a way that is easy and nice to read and I'm sure you will find his descriptions fascinating. The book itself is not in the Semesterapparat but I will put copies of the relevant pages (pp. 32-42) on the shelf.

For a general and thorough introduction read Clark and Yallop, chapter 2, pp. 10-55 (or in the old Clark and Yallop sections 3.1-3.9, pp. 56-87). You will notice that some remarks Clark and Yallop make will go beyond what you need for an introduction. It is still recommendable though to go through the chapter and pick out the essential information for the exam.

When you click on the link http://web.utk.edu/~pflipsen/305-anatomy.pdf you will find short and snappy summary of the basic anatomy and physiology of speech that you may find useful.

Introduction

What is articulatory phonetics?

Articulatory phonetics is the branch of phonetics which studies the organs of speech and their use in producing speech sounds.

Organs of speech

We will go through all the organs involved in producing speech together in class. Please make sure you know the names of all the organs and parts of organs and their function in the production of speech. You may find it useful to draft a table where you enter the German, English and Latin-based English terminology for reference.

Active and passive articulators

The organs of speech can be divided into the ones which are actively involved in the production of speech and the one which are passively involved.
Trask (1996, 10) defines active articulators like this: in the articulation of the consonant, the lower of the articulators involved in forming the constriction (most usually part of the tongue), conventionally regarded as moving towards the upper passive articulator.
Conversely, Trask (1996, 259) defines passive articulators like this: in the articulation of the consonant, the upper of the two articulators involved in forming the constriction, conventionally regarded as standing still while the lower active articulator moves towards it.
According to Crystal (1987, 130), active articulators are the pharynx, velum, lips, mandible or jaw bone and the tongue.

Airstream mechanisms

In order to speak you need air. This airflow can be produced at different places and it can go in to directions - outwards, i.e. egressive, or inwards, i.e. ingressive. Try and speak while you are exhaling and then try and speak while you are taking in air!

The three ways of generating airstream are pulmonic, glottalic and velaric. The following table summarises the airstream mechanisms, how and where they are generated and which sounds are produced by them.

You can find pronunciations of examples of these sounds on the clickable IPA chart. When you click on the left side of the symbol you will hear the sound followed by an a. If you click on the right side of the symbol you will hear the speech sound in an aCa context (C stands for consonant).

For more information on airstream mechanisms, read Clark and Yallop pp. 16-19. For a nice description of the realisation of glottalic and velaric airstream, see Crystal (1987).

Phonation modes

In a narrow sense, phonation describes whether a sound is voiced or not, i.e. the vocal fold vibration. In a more general sense, phonation describes all the means by which the larynx functions as a source of sound. The most widely distinction is between five modes of phonation.

For a more detailed discussion of phonation modes, read Clark and Yallop pp. 19-22.

Places of articulation

In the traditional usage, place of articulation defines both the area of the oral-pharyngeal vocal tract where the constriction is made and the part of the tongue used to form the constriction (if the tongue is the active articulator). Clark and Yallop, however, decided to keep vocal tract place and tongue position apart and we will follow their distinction.

We have already discussed the places of articulation in the oral vocal tract last week so that we just have to brush up on them this week. If you feel you are not really sure about whether you can tell all the places of articulation apart you can read Clark and Yallop pp. 38 ;-)
The description of the various tongue positions is on your copy, we will go through that together in class.

Manners of articulation

Clark and Yallop use two features to describe the manner of articulation of consonants: constriction and articulation. The degree of constriction decreases from total closure via partial constriction to a fully open vowel like manner. Articulation divides into dynamic and stable. Altogether, there are seven recognized manners of articulation: stop, fricative, approximant, nasal, flap, tap and trill.

The manners of articulation are described as follows:

Exercises

1. Make a table with speech sounds as the rows and articulatory properties as the columns like in the table below.
   

   Sound	Airstream	Phonation	Tongue Position	Oral Tract Position	Manner of Articulation
   ŋ
   ð
   !
   w
   k'

2. Try and produce two sounds that you have never produced before!
3. Try and teach someone you know to pronounce a sound that they have never produced before! Explain to them how to produce the sound, how to move the lips, tongue, jaw bone, etc. and note what is difficult and what is easier to describe and teach. When you've managed to teach them a new sound you can be sure that you learned something in this class.
4. Think of possible exam questions that could arise from this class - if you were the teacher, what would you ask your students?