JPN494: Japanese Language and LinguisticsJPN543: Advanced Japanese Language and Linguistics

Phonology & Phonetics (2)

Two major types of sounds

Consonants: speech-sounds produced when the speaker either stops or severely constricts the airflow in vocal tract.

Vowels: speech-sounds produced with a relatively open vocal tract, which functions as a resonating chamber.

Vowels in English and Japanese

Five Vowels in Japanese – ア [a], イ [i], ウ [ɯ], エ [e], オ [o]

English– many more!

From the articulatory viewpoint …

Three major factors that characterize a vowel:– How high the tongue position is (or how wide the mouth is

opened) (high, mid-high, mid-low, low)– How forward the tongue position is (front, central, back)– The form of the lips (rounded, neutral, spread)

Simple vowels (monophthong) can be combined to form a diphthong (e.g. English [aɪ] as in I am …) or triphthong.

From the acoustic viewpoint …

Vowels differ from one another in their “quality”; or more technically, in their overtone structure.

A sound consists of multiple harmonics:– The frequency of the first harmonic (the fundamental frequency) is

determined by the vibration speed of the sound source (e.g. your vocal cords)

– The frequencies of the second, third, … harmonics (overtones) are whole number multiples of that of the first harmonic; the intensity of each overtone is determined by the condition surrounding the sound source (e.g. the shape of your vocal tract).

– the first harmonic = the basic tone; 125 Hzthe second harmonic = the first overtone; 250 Hzthe third harmonic = the second overtone; 375 Hz…

Formants

Formant = Group of “emphasized” overtones within a certain pitch range

People distinguish vowels largely based on two formants: F1 and F2 (F2 is higher)

Roughly speaking: F1 has a higher frequency when the tongue is lowered, and F2 has a higher frequency when the tongue is forward; both F1 and F2 are lowered when the lips are rounded.

F0 = the fundamental frequency Praat

Formants

F0 varies widely across speakers and in individual sounds (of the same speaker).

Average F0; male: 125 Hz, female: 225 Hz The frequencies of F1 and F2: more or less

constant across speakers/in individual sounds.

L05:184ff

Acoustic characteristics of consonants too can be largely stated in terms of overtone structures – but this is a more complicated story. (see L05:197)

Vowels in Japanese

ア [a]: low-central-unrounded イ [i]: high-front-unrounded ウ [ɯ]: high-back-unrounded エ [e]: middle-front-unrounded オ [o]: middle-back-rounded

ア : F1 - 880Hz, F2 - 1350Hz イ : F1- 320Hz, F2 - 2720Hz ウ : F1 - 370Hz, F2 - 1670 Hz エ : F1 - 480Hz, F2 - 2300 Hz オ : F1 - 500Hz, F2 - 920 Hz(a female speaker)

あか : F1 __ , F2 __ いき : F1 __ , F2 __ うす : F1 __, F2 __ えせ : F1 __, F2 __ おと : F1 __, F2 __

Vowels in English

English vowels can be divided into:– full (strong) vowels vs. reduced (weak) vowels– reduced vowels: [ə] (ago), [ɪ] (chicken) (wide diale

ctal/individual variation; L93:85-6) Full vowels can be divided into:

– lax (short) vowels vs. tense (long) vowels– lax vowels: [ɪ] (bit), [ɛ] (bet), [æ] (bat), [ʊ] (book),

[ʌ] (buck)

Vowels in English

Tense vowels have a special class called diphthongs:– monophthongal tense vowels:

[ɑ] (pot), [ɔ] (bought), [i] (beat), [u] (boot)(In some American dialects, [ɑ] and [ɔ] are not distinguished and [ɑ] is invariably used (e.g. law vs. la, cot vs. caught))

r-colored (rhotacized) vowel: [ɝ] (bird) – diphthongs: [eɪ] (bait), [oʊ] (boat), [ɔɪ] (boycott),

[aʊ] (bounce), [aɪ] (bite)(, [ju] (cue))

Vowels in English

reduced vowels = unstressed vowels? According to Ladefoged (2005):

– Full vowels can be either stressed or not stressed.– Reduced vowels are always not stressed.

Phonemically, there is only one reduced vowel: /ə/ (allophones: [ə], [ɪ], etc.). (Some scholars do not count it as an independent phoneme.)

Full vowels can be “reduced” to [ə], [ɪ], etc. by the reduction rule (L05).

– explain → explanation– recite → recitation

Vowels in English

Other things being equal, tense vowels tend to be longer than lax vowels.

A consonant that follows a tense vowel is shorter than one that follows a lax vowel.

– e.g. beat vs. bit A lax vowel cannot form an open syllable (a syllable

ending with a vowel)– beat [bit] : bee [bi] / bit [bɪt] : ??– bait [beɪt] : bay [beɪ] / bet [bɛt] : ??

“R-coloring”, or rhoticization, refers to lowering of F3 (which can be caused by curling up the tongue, among other ways).

The opposition of reduced/lax/tense is orthogonal to the position of the tongue.

R-colored vowels in GA:– [ɝ]: bird [bɝd] (or [bɜɹd]) (no non-R-colored counterpart; entir

ely rhotacized)– beer [bɪɹ], bare [bɛɹ], bar [bɑɹ], bore [bɔɹ], (boar [boʊɹ],) tour [t

uɹ], burr [bʌɹ], fire [faɪɹ], hour [aʊɹ], (coir [cɔɪɹ],) (pure [pjuɹ])– brother [bɹʌθəɹ]

R-coloring can be understood as a process whereby [ɹ] is “absorbed” into the preceding vowel. (The case of [ɝ] may be exceptional)

– car [kɑɹ] – bird [bɝd] (or [bɜɹd])

Some scholars think that [ɹ] is still there, and it causes r-coloring on the preceding vowel.

– car [kɑɹɹ] Yet others think that there is an r-colored reduced vowel [ɚ] ins

tead of r-coloring on a regular vowel or [ɹ]. – car [kɑɚ]

In addition to the axes of “front-back”, “high-low”, and “rounded-spread”, Englishvowels can be characterized by: full vs. reduced tense vs. lax monophthong vs. diphthong rhotacization

American vs. British English

American (GA): – spa [spɑ], hot [hɑt], caught [cɔt] (or [cɑt]) – far [fɑɹ], brother [bɹʌθəɹ] (r-coloring)– here [hɪr], air [ɛr], tour [tʊr] (r-colored monophthongs)– bird [bɝd] (r-colored monophthong)

British (RP): – spa [spɑ], hot [hɒt], caught [cɔt]– far [fɑ], brother [bɹʌθə] (no r-coloring)– here [hɪə], air [ɛə], tour [tʊə] (diphthongs)– bird [bɜd] (non r-colored monophthong)