SSC: The Science of Talking Sounds of the World's Languages Michael - - PDF document

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SSC: The Science of Talking

Sounds of the World's Languages Michael Ashby

How many languages are there in the world? How many distinctive speech sounds are there in English? Is English a typical language? In what ways (if any) is it unusual? How many distinctive speech sounds are there in all the languages of the world considered together?

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MRI mid-sagittal view Lateral X-ray of the vocal tract

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Tongue shapes in front vowels Tongue shapes in back vowels

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A very quick look at vowels

• English has a big vowel system, but doesn't use…
• Front rounded vowels such as

– (French, German,…)

• Nasalized vowels such as

– (French, Polish, Hindi, …)

• Unrounded back vowels such as

– Korean, Turkish

Contrastive back rounding in Korean

= 'threat' 'cry' (n)

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• How will a rounded front vowel [y] differ

acoustically from an unrounded vowel with the same tongue position [i] ?

Consonants

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Terminology for place of articulation Familiar consonant, unfamiliar context

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Exotic places (of articulation)

• !
• The pharyngeal place of articulation

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Exotic manners (of articulation)

• "#"
• #!#$

Uvular trills

• %&'&(&')*#

&')+

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Can we trill anything else?

, -

• Taps and flaps

.ɽ/0

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"

• "
• 1"
• "
• ""
• 212

212

• 12
• 31"

14" 31"

• 3""
• 1

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Double articulation

"

• 5 6

"

• Double articulation

"

• 5 6

"

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Non-pulmonic airstreams

7

• implosives

""# " ""

! " #

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Clicks

• 8 #

9#$

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