Phonetics, part III: Suprasegmentals

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Phonetics, part III Suprasegmentals
October 19, 2012
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The Docket

• Morphology homeworks to hand back!
• I have mid-term review sheets, as well.
• 3. Suprasegmentals!
• Plus more phonetics practice.
• 4. Homework 2 is still due on Monday (October
  22nd).

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Another Basic Distinction

• Consonants and vowels together make up the class
  of segments in phonetics.
• Each segment is a configuration of
  articulations
• ordered in time in an utterance.
• Languages also have phonetic features which can
  span across multiple segments.
• suprasegmental features
• supra above the segment.
• One basic example
• Languages organize strings of segments into
  syllables.

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Syllabicity

• Syllables are hard to define phonetically
• But native speakers have an intuitive sense of
  what does and does not constitute a syllable.
• Normally, syllables will have
• consonants (optionally) at beginning and end
• a vowel in the middle.
• the syllabic peak
• However, in English, nasals (/m/, /n/) and
  liquids (/l/, /r/) can form the peak of a
  syllable.
• syllabic consonants.

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Syllabic Examples

• Syllabic consonants are transcribed with a small
  vertical dash underneath them.
• Examples

chasm
ribbon
eagle
feature

• The book wants you to believe that there are
  vowels in these syllables ?r, ?l, etc.
• but dont believe it!

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Suprasegmentals

• Other suprasegmental features include
• Stress
• Length
• Tone
• Intonation
• These suprasegmental features are always defined
  in a relative manner.
• Some segments are longer than others,
• Some syllables are more stressed than others,
• etc.

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1. Stress

• Stress makes a syllable sound more prominent.
• (due to increased articulatory effort)
• Stress may be denoted by an accent over the
  vowel in the stressed syllable.
• Examples of stress contrasts
• contrast
• (N)
• (V)

• insult
• (N)
• (V)

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2. Length

• Languages can distinguish segments on the basis
  of length.
• some segments simply last longer than others.

• Italian contrasts both long and short vowels and
  consonants.

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Danish Vowels

• Danish contrasts long and short vowels.

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3. Tone

• In tone languages, speakers change the rate at
  which their vocal folds vibrate to signal
  important differences in meaning.
• Note we hear the rate of vocal fold vibration as
  the pitch of a speakers voice.
• In tone languages, each syllable is produced with
  a characteristic tone.
• Register tone languages
• Pitch must hit a certain level on any given
  syllable.
• Contour tone languages
• Pitch changes on a single syllable may form a
  complex pattern.

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Ibibio Tones

• Ibibio is a register tone language spoken in
  southern Nigeria

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Mandarin Tone

• Mandarin (Chinese) is a classic example of a
  contour tone language.

ma1 mother ma2 hemp ma3 horse ma4 to scold
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Mandarin Sentences
ma1-ma0 ma4 ma3. Mother scolds the horse.
ma3 ma4 ma1-ma0. The horse scolds mother.
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Intonation

• English is not a tone language like Chinese or
  Ibibio
• but it has something called intonation
• English intonation
• High and Low accents attach to stressed syllables
• (transcribed with H or L)
• High and Low tones appear at the ends of phrases
  and utterances.
• (transcribed with H or L)
• The important difference English tones are
  specified by context, not by the lexicon.

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Intonation Examples

• In English intonation, statements usually have
• A high accented syllable (H) within the
  sentence.
• A low tone (L) at the end of the sentence.
• H L
• Manny came with Anna.

• Meanwhile, questions usually have
• A low accented syllable (L) within the
  sentence.
• A high tone (H) at the end of the sentence.
• L H
• Manny came with Anna?