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University of Education Lahore

This lecture covers acoustic phonetics and the acoustic properties of vowels and consonants. It discusses key concepts such as amplitude, wavelength, frequency and formants. It explains that vowels can be distinguished by differences in their overtone structure, known as formants. The first three formants, especially F1 and F2, determine vowel quality. Spectrograms can display the frequency components of sounds over time. Consonants are also examined acoustically, including stops, fricatives, affricates, liquids and nasals. Reference materials on phonetics are provided.

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Sania Ashir
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89 views31 pages

University of Education Lahore

This lecture covers acoustic phonetics and the acoustic properties of vowels and consonants. It discusses key concepts such as amplitude, wavelength, frequency and formants. It explains that vowels can be distinguished by differences in their overtone structure, known as formants. The first three formants, especially F1 and F2, determine vowel quality. Spectrograms can display the frequency components of sounds over time. Consonants are also examined acoustically, including stops, fricatives, affricates, liquids and nasals. Reference materials on phonetics are provided.

Uploaded by

Sania Ashir
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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University of Education Lahore

Department of English

Course Title: Advanced Phonology


Programme: BS English VIII
Course Code: ENGL4134
Instructor Name: Afia Mahmood
Acoustic Properties of Phonemes
This lecture will cover:

• Acoustic Phonetics
• Some key concepts
• Acoustic properties of Vowels
• Acoustic properties of consonants
• Acoustic phonetics deals with the properties of sound as represented
in variations of air pressure. A sound disturbs the surrounding air
molecules at equilibrium, much as a shove by a person in a crowded
bus disturbs the standing passengers.

• The sensation of these air pressure variations as picked up by our


hearing mechanisms and decoded in the brain constitutes what we
call sound
Sound Waves

• In the above diagram the white line represents the position of the medium
when no wave is present.
• The yellow line represents the position of the medium as a wave travels
through it.
Parts of Sound Waves: What is crest and trough?

• The section of the wave that rises above the undisturbed position is
called the crest.
• That section which lies below the undisturbed position is called the
trough.
What is amplitude?

• The amplitude is the maximum positive displacement from the


undisturbed position of the medium to the top of a crest.
What is wavelength?
• The wavelength of a wave is the distance between any two adjacent
corresponding locations on the wave train. This distance is usually
measured in one of three ways: crest to next crest, or from the start
of a wave cycle to the next starting point.
What is frequency?

• Frequency refers to how many waves are made per time interval. This
is usually described as how many waves are made , or as cycles per
second.
• If ten waves are made per second, then the frequency is said to be ten cycles
per second, written as 10 cps.
• Usually, we use the unit Hertz to state frequency. A frequency of 10 cps is
noted as a frequency of 10 Hertz. So, one cycle per second is one Hertz, as in:
• 1 cps = 1 Hertz or it is abbreviated this way:
• 1 cps = 1 Hz
• 120 cps =120 Hz
• 350 cps = 350 Hz
Sound waves and the frequency

• Frequency: The number of complete repetitions (cycles) of variations


in air pressure occurring in a second. The unit of frequency
measurement is the hertz (Hz).
Vowels

• The quality of a vowel depends on its overtone structure.


• A vowel sound contains a number of different pitches
simultaneously.
• There is the pitch at which it is actually spoken, and there are the
various overtone pitches that give it its distinctive quality.
• We distinguish one vowel from another by the differences in these
overtones.
• The overtones are called formants, and the lowest three formants
distinguish vowels from each other.
Vowels(Cont.)

• The lowest formant one, which we can symbolize as F1, can be heard by
tapping on your throat. If you open your mouth, make a glottal stop, and
flick a finger against your neck just to the side and below the jaw, you will
hear a note, just as you would if you tapped on a bottle. If you tilt your
head slightly backward so that the skin of the neck is stretched while you
tap, you may be able to hear this sound somewhat better. Be careful to
maintain a vowel position and not to raise the back of the tongue against
the soft palate. If you check a complete set of vowel positions [i:, ɪ,
e, ɜ:, œ, ɑ, ɒ, ʊ, u:] with this technique, you should hear the pitch of the
first formant going up for the first four vowels and down for the second
four vowels.
Vowels(Cont.)

• The second formant, F2, goes down in pitch in the series of vowels [i:,
ɪ, e, ɜ:, œ, ], as can be heard more easily when these vowels are
whispered.
• F1 primarily reflects vowel height in inverse fashion: greater F1
reflects lower vowel
• F2 reflects vowel backness as well as lip rounding: lower F2 reflects
greater backing or rounding
Spectrogram

• There are computer programs that can analyze sounds and show their
components. The display produced is called a spectrogram.

• In spectrograms, time runs from left to right, the frequency of the


components is shown on the vertical scale, and the intensity
of each component is shown by the degree of darkness. It is thus a
display that shows, roughly speaking, dark bands for concentrations
of energy at particular frequencies.
• Figure 8.4 is a set of spectrograms of an American English speaker
saying the words heed, hid, head, had, hod, hawed, hood, who’d.
ACOUSTIC ANALYSIS

• Phonetic scientists like to describe vowels in terms of numbers. It is


possible to analyze sounds so that we can measure the actual
frequencies of the formants. We can then represent them graphically,
as in Figure 8.3. This figure gives the average values of the
frequencies of the first three formants in eight American English
vowels.
CONSONANTS

• STOPS
• FRICATIVES
• AFFRICATES
• LIQUIDS
• NASALS
Stops
b t
Fricatives
f v
Nasals
n m
Affricates
tʃ ʤ
Liquids
r l
Reference Book

• Ladefoged, P., & Johnson, K. (2014). A course in phonetics. Nelson


Education.
• https://web.ntpu.edu.tw/~language/workshop/chapter%208.pdf

• Video Link (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XLfQpv2ZRPU)


Thank You

Contact Details:
afiamahmood@ue.edu.pk

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