Speech has acoustic parameters {phonetics}|, such as amplitude, duration, frequency, and timbre. Acoustic parameters correspond to sound contrasts used to discriminate among speech features. Speech production and perception parameters are the same.
sound types
Sound types are consonants, sonants or semivowels, vowels, stops, continuants, aspirates, voiced, and unvoiced.
categories
People identify and label perceptual features by sharpening boundaries. People can discriminate among features along many dimensions. People group sounds into rhythms based on sound loudness, length, and pitch. Louder, longer, and higher-pitch sounds are accents.
process
Labeling/identifying and discrimination are two aspects of one mechanism. Special mechanisms make and perceive speech. Perhaps, reverse of production gives perception {motor theory of speech perception}.
articulation
Vocal cords, lungs, pharynx, tongue, nose, teeth, and lips make speech sounds. All people can make all speech sounds, but at different pitches and timbres. Lungs, pharynx, tongue, nose, teeth, and lips modify speech sounds. African languages can use clicks. Languages can use inhaled sounds. Nasalization and other vowel modifications do not change speech-sound basis.
phonetic law
Language has sound shifts over time.
statistics
People learn words by sound-sequence frequency distributions.
sciences
People can study acoustic-signal structure {acoustic phonetics} or how people produce sounds {articulatory phonetics}.
animals
Animals can perceive human speech sounds.
Most sound energy is in several frequency bands {formant}|, which differ among people because vocal tract resonates at different frequencies. Lowest-frequency formant is main formant.
Instruments {phonogram, graph}| can record speech sounds.
Speech is a linear sequence of phonological distinctive features {phonology}| {segmental phonology}, which concatenate into discrete phonemes, which concatenate into syllables, which concatenate into words. Sign language uses physical movements as phonology.
Speech uses stress, rhythm, and tone patterns {prosody, grammar}|.
Speech sounds are phonological units {phoneme}|. Phonemes are not separate and independent but have sequences. Phonemes have context. People recognize phonemes only in context, because preceding and succeeding phonemes indicate current phoneme.
phonological distinctive features
Phonemes have or lack nine features. Phonemes can use consonants, vowels, pitches, silences, intonations, and stresses. Vowels are a, e, i, o, u, and y. Consonants are b, c, d, f, g, h, j, k, l, m, n, p, q, r, s, t, v, w, x, and z. Voiced consonants are b, d, g, and z. Unvoiced consonants are p, t, k, and s. Nasal consonants are m and n. Non-nasal consonants are b, k, and s. Constricted-lip vowels and consonants are oo, w, p, and m. Unconstricted-lip vowels and consonants are i, e, k, and n.
number
People can pronounce 40 phonemes [Jaynes, 1976]. Languages typically have 12 to 67 phonemes. Phoneme number and substitutability do not relate to language type, whether isolating, agglutinative, flexional, analytic, synthetic, or polysynthetic.
Phoneme parts can have different tonal changes {mora}.
Phonemes {radical phoneme} can be word bases, with basic meaning.
Similar phonemes can become more similar or identical {assimilation, grammar}, by changing sound features.
Similar phonemes can become less similar {dissimilation}, by changing sound features.
Over language history, sound-context phonological distinctive features can change to other distinctive features {sound shift}. Phoneme changes follow regular recurrent rules. Functional, autonomous, or spontaneous causes can change paradigmatic sounds. Nearby phonemes can change syntagmatic sounds.
Sounds have diachronic changes {drift, phonetics}.
Speech can double sounds to lengthen them {gemination}.
Consonants between vowels can change {lenition}.
People make sounds {locution}|.
Speech has clarity {enunciation, clarity}|.
People make {phonation} rudimentary vocal sound units {phone}.
Linguistic attributes {shibboleth} can distinguish speaker nationality.
People can use sounds idiosyncratically {solecism}.
Speech has pitch changes {intonation, modulation}|. Intonation emphasizes sentence parts, for example, signaling difference between declarative sentence and question. Speech amplitude and rhythm do not necessarily change.
Speech sounds have relative rise and fall of vocal-cord vibration frequency {pitch, speech}. Speech sounds can rise, fall, rise then fall, or have no pitch change.
Speech organs can move to rest position {release, speech}.
Phonemes {rounded phoneme} can use rounded lips.
Phonological marks {sandhi, phonetics} can be at morpheme boundaries. Neighboring sounds or grammatical functions can alter sounds. Sounds between words can fuse {external sandhi}. Sounds in words can change {internal sandhi}. English and Finnish do not show sandhi in spelling. Sanskrit can show or omit sandhi.
Tonal languages alter tones {tone sandhi}. Mandarin has high monotone, rising tone, falling-rising tone, and falling tone.
Stresses {emphasis, phonetics} {accent, phonetics}| can be on word syllable positions or sentence word positions. Languages typically place stress {fixed stress} on same syllable or word position. Word stresses are main accent and secondary accent. Accent can be on first syllable {initial accent} {initial stress}, last syllable {terminal stress} {terminal accent}, next-to-last syllable {penult syllable}, or second-to-last syllable.
Pitch changes {chromatic accent} can be for emphasis.
Accents {qualitative accent} can be stress and pitch changes.
Accents {quantitative accent} can be duration changes.
Languages {oxytonic language} can have majority of words accented on last syllable {oxytone}|.
Languages {paroxytonic language} can have majority of words accented on next-to-last syllable {paroxytone}|.
Languages {proparoxytonic language} can have majority of words accented on second-to-last syllable {proparoxytone}|.
Speech rhythm can be metrical {metric structure}.
Word and sentence series stress contours can be hierarchical {prosodic structure}.
Vocal tract can produce speech sounds by vibrating vocal chords, positioning tongue and lips, and changing cavity shapes {articulation}|. People know 850 speech sounds.
obstruction
Airflow-obstruction locations affect articulation. Airflow-obstruction levels affect articulation.
sequence
Preceding and succeeding sounds affect speech sounds.
parts
Speech uses jaw, lips, tongue front and back, soft palate, and teeth ridge {vocal tract, speech}. Vocal tract has mouth {oral tract} and nose {nasal tract}.
articulation basis
Language speech-organ neutral or normal positions can differ.
Tongue, teeth, lower lip, and lips {articulator} have tips, blades, middles, and backs.
Articulators can touch lips, teeth, teeth ridge, hard palate, soft palate, uvula, pharynx, or glottis {point of articulation}. Articulation-point changes change consonants but not vowels.
Articulation speech sounds overlap in typical patterns {coarticulation}.
Air inspirations are speech sounds {click sound} in Bushman, Hottentot, and Kafir-Sotho Bantu-family languages.
Speech can use sound w {digamma}.
In Japanese, sounds {flap sound} can mix English l and r.
In Celtic languages, initial consonants can change {initial mutation}, using aspiration, nasalization, or lenition, depending on previous-word final sound or on sentence position.
Pronounce ordinarily silent final consonant of word if next word begins with vowel {liaison, speech}|.
Speech can pronounce s as th and z as zth {lisp}|.
Consonants {oral consonant} can use only oral cavity.
Consonant h {aspirate}| is mostly moving air, without vocal-cord use. Breath puffs {aspirated consonant}, like h sounds, can follow some consonants. In Greek, aspiration or rough breathing can precede initial vowels and r. Such breathing has ' sign.
Consonants {spirant} {continuant} have no air blockage by tongue, teeth, or lips.
Consonants {liquid consonant}|, such as l and r, can have no airflow change.
Liquid consonants l and r and nasal consonants m and n {vocalic consonant} begin with vowel sounds.
Alveolar ridge behind teeth {alveolar sound} makes b, t, and n.
Consonants {palatal consonant} can put tongue near hard palate.
Consonants {velar consonant} can place tongue back near velum soft palate: g, k, and ng.
Consonants {uvular consonant} can place tongue back near uvula.
Consonants {pharyngeal consonant} can phonate at pharynx.
Consonants {bilabial consonant}, such as b, p, m, and w, can use both lips.
Consonants {labial consonant} can use one lip.
Blocked then allowed obstruction {affricate consonant} makes ch and j.
Slight obstruction makes w or y {glide, sound}.
Consonants can involve glottis {glottal stop}.
Sounds {glottal} {laryngeal} can be like Oriental and African language h's or glottal stops.
Speech can use complete air-passage closure {implosion, speech}|.
Slight obstruction makes l or r {lateral consonant}.
Consonants {nasal consonant}| can use nose. Mouth obstruction and nasal opening makes n, m, and ng.
Consonants {stop consonant} {plosive} can use air release after complete air blockage by tongue, teeth, or lips: b, p, d, t, g, and k. Hindi has stop consonants {dental stop consonant} that touch teeth or {retroflex stop consonant} that use tongue to bend up and back.
Consonants {fricative} can partially block airflow, using tongue, teeth, or lips: s, z, f, v, th, and sh. Fricative consonants can be sibilant.
Fricative consonants {sibilant} can put tongue on hard palate.
Articulation movements can be taps {tap, articulation}.
Consonants {rolled consonant} can use rapid tapping of tongue front on teeth, or of uvula against tongue back, usually to make sound r.
Tongue, lips, or uvula can make multiple taps {trill}|, rather than one tap.
Vocal-chord vibration {voiced consonant} makes b, m, z, l, and r.
No vocal chord vibration {voiceless consonant} makes p, s, and ch.
Voiceless consonants {soft consonant} can have voice.
Voiced consonants and semivowels {sonant} are similar.
Some speech sounds {voiceless sound} {unvoiced sound} do not use vocal cords.
Vowels {vowel}| typically begin at vocal cords. Vowels can have tongue highest part in front or back, mouth open or closed, and lips round or spread out. Vowels have distinguishing acoustic properties {vowel quality}. Spanish and many languages have only five vowels: ah = a, ay = é, ee = i, oo = u, and oh = o.
Inserted vowels {connecting vowel} can make pronunciation easier.
Eleven vowels {pure vowel} always sound the same, in all syllables. Five vowels {diphthong, vowel} sound different in different syllables.
Consonants can be vowel-like. w and y {semivowel} {semi-vowel} are not equivalent to full vowels.
Indistinct vowels {shwa} {neutral vowel} have upside-down e sign. A Hebrew sign {mobile shwa} indicates upside down e sound. A Hebrew sign {latent shwa} indicates no vowel sound.
Vowels can resonate {sonorous} {twang}| or have nasal sound.
Vocal-cord vibration {voiced} makes vowels. Consonants are typically voiceless.
In Hebrew and Arabic, marks {vowel point} below or near consonants indicate which vowel to use.
Articulation changes can have transitional sounds {glide}|.
Speech can return oral cavity to neutral position {off-glide} {final glide}.
Speech can move into position for phoneme {on-glide} {initial glide}.
Sounds {bridge-sound} between affixes and roots can ease pronunciation.
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Date Modified: 2022.0225