Phonetics and Phonology: Phonetics

Segement

Segment: A discrete unit (e.g. phoneme)
Suprasegment: A unit which belongs words rather than a phonetic segment (e.g. stress, rhythm, and intonation)

Phoneme

Human speech apparatus and the hearing mechanism limits the number of phonemes. (200-300 phonemes v.s. 5000-8000 languages)

Phonemes are consisted of vowels and consonants. The following is the definition of them. (Roach, 2005, p.17)

Vowels (vocoids)

“Sounds which do not obstruct airflow” (e.g. /a e i o u/)

Consonants

“Sounds which obstruct the airflow” (e.g. /p t k s f r w/)

Voicing

• Air source: Lungs
• Buzzer: Larynx
• Resonator (filter): Mouth (vocal tract)

(Make your own vowel resonators!, Mark Huckvale, 2008)

They change different properties of vocal sounds.

Larynx

• Quality of voice (phonation)
• Loudness (amplitude)
• Pitch (fundamental frequency)
• Voiced v.s. voiceless

Vocal tract

• Articulation (manner and place)

The vocal tract makes formants.

The components of sound

Waveform

Periodic

Periodic sounds repeats a pattern, which can be either simple (e.g. sine) or complex (e.g. human voice). Complex patterns can also be expressed with compositions of simple patterns (harmonics).

Aperiodic

Aperiodic sounds doesn’t repeat any pattern (e.g. noises)

Frequency

Frequency determines the pitch. Frequency is the number of repetitions in a particular period and the common unit is Hertz (Hz), which is the number of repetitions of cycles per second.

Amplitude

Amplitude determins the loudness. Amplitude is the amount of force applied.

Formant

Formant is a harmonic which are augmented.

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