Affricates, Nasals,

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Affricates, Nasals, Laterals/Approximants

• Ling 3330
• Spring 2009

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ConsonantVowel transitions
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Affricates

• Are a kind of Complex Articulation
• combination of
• stop and a
• fricative release

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Affricates

• Like plosives affricate consonants completely
  obstruct the air flow
• Unlike plosives the active articulator moves away
  slower from the passive articulator
• This slower parting during the release allows air
  to rush between the articulators making a hissing
  sound like that of a fricative.
• The duration of the resulting fricative will vary
  depending on whether the affricate functions as a
  single phonological unit or as two independent
  units.

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Affricates

• STOP/Plosive
• approach hold release

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Affricates vs. Stops

• STOP/Plosive
• approach hold release
• Affricate
• approach hold release

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Affricates vs. Fricatives
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Affricates

• Very often in languages these series of sounds
  occupy the same slot in the syllable as a single
  obstruent.
• Therefore they are often treated as a single unit
  in IPA they are sometimes used with the tie
  symbol over or under them
• t?? d??
• some newer IPA fonts have a separate Unicode
  symbol for these very common affricates and no
  tie is included

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Affricates

• As you might have noticed the stop/fricative set
  that makes an affricate shares the same voicing
  characteristic (this is by definition)
• There are 2 varieties
• homorganic place of articulation of the
  fricative release is very near if not the same as
  the stop
• b?ß p?f ? ?
• hetrorganic place of articulationof the
  fircative release is at a distance from the stop
• p?s k?? t?f
• note all affricates have voice counterparts
• alveolar and post-alveolar can also be aspirated)

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Some Examples

• Other languages
• Igbo
• velar affricates k?p g?b
• as in àkpà bag àgpà fame
• Bulgarian
• alveolar t?s d?z
• as in tsar 'tsar' dzift 'tar'
• postalveolar t?? d??
• tar 'charm' dob 'pocket'

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English Affricates

• Which affricates are quite common in English?
• How would you describe them?
• in English the main affricates are
• d ? which combine to give us ?
• a voiced post-alveolar (or alveopalatal)
  affricate
• as in 'jaw, jump, jeer'
• t ? which combine to give ?
• a voice-less post-alveolar affricate
• as in 'church cheese'

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English Affricates

• in English the main affricates are
• d ? which combine to give us ?
• a voiced post-alveolar (or alveopalatal)
  affricate
• as in 'jaw, jump, jeer, judge'
• t ? which combine to give ?
• a voice-less post-alveolar affricate
• as in catch, check, church cheese
• Consider the words cats and dogs
• are there affricate sounds? why/why not

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Nasals

• Example
• say the word ado 3x
• ado, ado, ado
• now repeat it again pinching your nose
• Now say the phrase a new 3x
• a new, a new, a new
• now repeat it again pinching your nose
• you should have noticed that it is difficult to
  say the a new normally while holding your nose

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Nasals
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Nasals

• Nasals in most languages of the world
• are voiced
• occur at many places of articulation

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Nasals

• consider the following English words
• me m
• emphasis ?
• nose n
• canyon, onion ?
• sing ?
• like obstruents the airstream in the oral cavity
  is completely obstructed.
• However the air is NOT impeded and it escapes
  through the velum

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Nasals

• When the velum is lowered, all the air that would
  normally be impeded escapes through the nose.
• B/c they do not impede the airstream from exiting
  the vocal tract, nasal consonants are LIKE vowels
• They are NOT vowels b/c they block the air from
  exiting the oral cavity
• Both Nasals and Vowels are classified as
  Sonorants
• (note nasals can be voiceless n? m? as in
  Burmese m?a notice or our American
  interjection sound hmm!... m?m)

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Nasals

• B/c nasals share some characteristics of vowels
  (mostly sonorancy) they can occupy slots in the
  syllable that vowels normally do.
• When this happens they are called syllabic
  nasals.
• like we see in words like button, baton, gotten
• sometimes also captain, bacon (not in words like
  piston)
• ? ? cannot be word initial in English, but
  can in other languages.

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Laterals

• Def
• an oral speech sound in which there is an air
  passageway over one or both sides of the tongue
  and not over the center.
• The most common lateral is l
• as in leaf, long, lie, low
• Laterals come in two different varieties
• Approximants
• Fricitiaves

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Laterals

• Approximate
• A sound produced by two articulators coming close
  to each other
• the airstream is directed by the articulators but
  not impeded
• They are not Stops, but continuants
• The air is not sufficiently impeded to produce
  audible turbulence between the articulators
• Meaning that they are Sonorants (like vowels)
  rather than fricatives.

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Laterals

• as Fricatives, laterals contrast with medial
  sounds
• like s voiceless alveolar median fricative
• Medial sounds have a channel though the center of
  the oral cavity
• Laterals use an obstruction through the center
  wh/ forces the airflow around the outsides of the
  tongue.

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Laterals

• They fail the 3rd criterion of being a vowel
• (the notion that the air flow is central in the
  oral cavity)
• they are listed as Consonants
• feel the difference between
• Ship and Lip
• For the alveolar lateral fricative (like an l z
  combination), the tongue tip contacts the
  alveolar ridge and a constriction b/t one or both
  sides of the tongue and the alveolar ridge
  produces the fricative noise

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Laterals

• 2 types of L
• l is the sound that most English speakers use
  for words like long, live, low where the
  lateral precedes a vowel
• in words like lull, or little the l is
  generally considered to be velarized
• the small gamma diacritic is used l? for narrow
  transcription

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Laterals

• The regular l is called a clear l
• The velarized l? is called a dark l
• l can also be syllabic as in words like
  bottle
• l can also be voiceless in some cases
• ? belted l is similar but has enough
  constriction to cause audible friction noise
• (it is vce but has a voiced counterpart ?)
• L uses the whole body of your tongue including
  the tip pushed against the hard palate
• possibly like the words glue glide

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Median approximates

• Generally abbreviated to just approximate
• have no complete closure anywhere on the midline
  of the vocal tract.
• Air can pass freely over the centre of the tongue
  and exit w/o turbulence
• Older terms for median approximates are
• Glide
• Frictionless continuant

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Median approximates

• Some MAs are very like vowels,
• they are produced in the same area of the oral
  vavity
• they are sometimes called Semi-vowels
• A few examples
• w voiced labial-velar MA as in well
• j voiced palatal MA as in yes
• Others are not as vowel-like including ? ? ?
• a voiced post-alveolar MA
• voiced labiodental MA
• voiced velar MA
• (and a few others)
• Essentially any place a Fricative can be made so
  can a MA.

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Central approximate ?

• a velar approximate
• as in rear, rough, round
• this is the typical American English r sound
  sometimes transcribed as r when there is not a
  contrast.
• r is technically like the trilled r in
  Spanish perro

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More on Approximates

• Semi Vowels generally fit the vowel definitions
• they do not occur in syllable nucleus position
• they function as other part of the syllable.
• they are
• often shorter than their vowel counter part
• and have more constriction between the
  articulators than vowels

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Vowel Target affect on Laterals

• consider the change that the three main cardinal
  vowels on the acoustic analysis of laterals.
• What does this say about the probable
  articulation?

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