2 Phonetics.ppt.Convertor.docVIP

Chapter Two Phonetics College of Foreign Languages and LiteratureNorthwest Normal UniversityNov. 2006 To understand what phonetics and speech organs are; To know the characteristics of speech sounds To have a general idea about the methods for the transcription, description, and classification of consonants and vowels Aims What is phonetics? The organs of speech Phonemic Notation Phonetic Notation Vowels Consonants Vowels Consonants Vowels Consonants Vowels Consonants Vowels Outline The general study of the characteristics of speech sounds is phonetics. Speech sounds may be studied from different angles, thus we have at least three branches of phonetics: articulatory phonetics, auditory phonetics and acoustic phonetics. What is phonetics? Of the three branches, what linguists are concerned with and interested in is mainly articulatory phonetics which is the longest established, and until recently the most highly developed. The initiator of the air-stream The vocal cords The resonating cavities The organs of speech The initiator of the air-stream The first requisite for the production of a speech sound is that there is an air-stream. In most languages, the air-stream usually comes from the lungs, and the sound is superimposed on the outgoing breath. The vocal cords The air-stream provided by lungs has to undergo a number of modifications to acquire the quality of a speech sound. The air-stream first passes the larynx. Inside the larynx are the vocal cords, which, in spite of their name, are not cords or strings such as one sees on a violin or a piano. The vocal cords may be closed tightly so that the airstreams form the lungs is blocked and the air pressure behind them builds up. This phenomenon is called the glottal stop. The resonating cavities Sounds produced by the movement of the vocal cords need to be amplified and further modified in order to be functional in speech. In human speech mechanism, there are three resonating c