Glottalization as a means of sound arrangement in the flow of speech (Social and Regional accents)

The vocal cords may interfere totally or minimally with the air stream. An example of total interference in speech is coughing.

Coughing requires a very firm glottal stop where first the air stream is completely blocked by the closed vocal cords and then considerable air pressure below the closed cords is released suddenly by opening them and expelling the air from the lungs. The glottal stop sounds like a soft cough. It can be heard in various accents today.

For example, p in RP. Glottal stop is added before the bilabial plosive and this occurs frequently before a pause (in a final position) - [həu²p]. The vowel əu is cut off by closure of the vocal cords. The p is then formed the glottal stop as released. The same sequence of events is even more common before consonants (when p is accompanied by a consonant). For example, hopeful - ['həu²pf(ə)²l] where again glottal stop precedes p. In Cockney glottal stop occurs between vowels. For example, whopping - wɔ²ɪŋ. Before consonants glottal stop in Cockney is used alone. Foe example “I hope so” sounds like ai au² sau.

[t]. In RP glottal stop is added when t stands before a pause (in the final position - fi²t) and when t is accompanied by a consonant (fi²ts). In word combinations containing two stops glottal stop is used alone – that bus, that much. The same occurs in polysyllabic words – whiteness. In Cockney glottal stop occurs instead of t between two vowels (water, butter). In Northern accents glottal stop accompanies t between two vowels (pity).

[k]. in RP. Glottalization of k is frequent before pause (back) and before consonant (axe). In word combination containing two velar stops glottal stop is used instead of k (back gate). In Cockney glottal stop is heard alone between any stops (back door – be² doe).

[ʧ] like the plosives in RP. ʧ is glottalized in the final position and before consonants (watch, watched). Unlike the plosives it is frequently glottalized before vowels (watching)

In Yorkshire accent the alveolar stop is lost and only the glottal stop remains. So watch is pronounced as [wɔ²ʃ] and wash is pronounced as [wɔʃ]. From the auditory point of view glottal stop alone makes a distinction between the words in Yorkshire.

13. SPEECH MELODY AS THE BASIC MEANINGFUL UNIT OF INTONATION
Speech melody is represented graphically as a contour which consists of tones. A tone is either no change in pitch (a level tone) or a change in pitch (from high to low, from low to high). Pitch depends on the rate of vibrations.
Differences in the rate of vibration correspond to differences in pitch. The slower the rate, the lowers the pitch, and the higher the rate, the higher the pitch. The rate of 70 vibrations per second corresponds to a very low note in a male voice and 1 thousand per secondgives a high note in a female voice. The VC are typically longer and heavier in the adult male than in female, and therefore they vibrate at lower rates. Though obviously there are variations of range for both males and females. The musculature of the VC is something that can be made longer or shorter and also thicker or thinner. Length and thickness as with harp strings produce slower vibrations and lower pitches; shortness and thinness produce faster vibrations and higher pitches. Our control of rate of vibration and therefore of pitch is very sensitive and we make use of it very extensively in language. A brief example of the kind of use is the difference between
a)'not vonce' meaning'never' said as a categorical reply to the question 'have you met her?' and
b) 'not v once' meaning 'many times'.
In a) the vocal cords vibration changes from rapid to slow and the pitch falls whereas in b) the reverse takes place.
Tone Logical Meaning Emotional Expression
\/ Implication Hint
/\ Antithesis, contrast, opposition Objection, great interest, rage
\ Finality Sadness, indifference, categoric attitude
/ Lack of Finality Sympathy, warmth, doubt, hesitation, suprise

The choice of rising or falling pitch marks a difference of meaning . E.g. 'he won't pay for anything'
a) HE WON'T PAY FOR \ ANYTHING (means he'll pay for nothing which case it has a fall on "anything' (он ни за что не хочет платить)
b) HE WON'T PAY FOR \/ ANYTHING (means 'he won't pay for rubbish' with a fall rise on 'anything' (он за хлам платить не собирается)

14. THE SUBJECT-MATTER OF THEORETICAL PHONETICS
Theoretical Phonetics studies speech sound :
1) from every point of view.
Articulatory point of view - every speech sound is a complex of definite finely coordinated and differenciated movements and positions of the various speech organs.
Acoustic - speech sounds have certan physical properties.
Phonological - speech sounds are studied through the phonological oppositions.
Auditory - all of speech sounds have infinite number of features.
2) studies meachnisms of vowel and consonant production:
Vibrator mechanism - vocal cords
Resonator mechanism - oral cavity, nasal cavity
Obstructor mechanism - tongue, VC, teeth
Power mechanism - lungs, diaphragm
3) sounds are studied not only separately but in clusters and in speech. Thus we've come to kinetics and kinesthetic factors.
4) the matter of analysis:
- description - setting down as many as possible features which are present in sounds.
- classification - mentioning those features by which sounds utter.
? one of the main subjects is intonation. Theoretical phonetics views it from the point of view of different schools and approaches:
Russian - intonation is many thing + speech melody, tones, change in pitch.
British - intonation is a contour, that is a unit of intonation consisting of pre-head, head, nucleus and tail.
American - intonation is pitch. Differences in pitch cause differences in meaning.
? speaking about sounds we usually view them in words, that constits of syllables. This is another subject of theoretical phonetics - syllable division and different approaches to it.

15. THE INTERCONNECTION BETWEEN RHYTHM AND SPEECH MELODY IN AN UTTERANCE.
Melody - changes in the voice pitch in the process of speech. Speech melody is closely connected with sentence stress, which is connected with rhythm.
Speech melody is also called pitch of the voice. Successive contours of intonation singled out of the speech flow may be defined differently :
Sense group (semantic approach)
Breath group (extra linguistic approach)
Tone groups ( phonological definition)
Intonation group
Tone (tonetic units)
Pitch and stress patterns.
Each tone unit has one peak of prominence in the form of a nuclear pitch movement and a slight pause after the nucleus that ends the tone unit and is usually shorter than the term 'pause' in
pausation system.
The tone unit is one of the most important units of intonational theory. It contains one nucleus, which is often referred to as nuclear tone or peak of prominence. The interval bewteen the highest and the lowest pitched syllables is called the range of a sense group. The Pange usually depends on the pitch level - the higher the pitch, the wider the Range. The Range of pitch within the last stressed syllable of the tone group is called a nuclear tone. It may occur not only in the nucleus but extend to the tail terminal tone. The inventory of the tonal types given by different scholars is different:
Sweet distinguishes 8 tones :
- level ?low falling
? high rising \/ compound rising
? low rising /\ compound falling
? high falling ? rise-fall-rise

Palmer : 4 basic tones - falling, high rising, falling-rising, low-rise.
Vasiljev: 10 tone-groups. He stated that tones can be moveing and level. Moving tones can be simple, complex and compound. Low fall, high wide fall, high narrow fall, low rise, high narrow rise, high wide rise, rise-fall, rise-fall-rise.
The most common compound tones are - high fall + high fall, high fall + low-rise.
Level tones can be pitched at High, Mid, Low level.

The falling tones convey coplexion and finality, they are categorics in character. The rising tones are incomplete and non-categoric. Mid tone is used most frequnlty. The level tone expresses hesitation.

The phenomenon of rhythm is closely connected with the phonetic nature of stress. So, rhythm is the regular alternation of stressed and unstressed syllables. The units of the rhythmical structure of an utterance are stressed groups of rhythmic groups. The perception of boundaies between the rhythmic groups is assiated with the stressed syllables or peaks of prominence.
In English, stressed syllables tend to occure at regular intervals of time. Each sense-group of the sentence is pronounced at approximately the same period of time, unstressed syllables are pronounced more rapidly: the greater the number of unstressed syllables, the quicker they are pronounced.
Rhythm is connected with the sentence stress. Under the influence of rhythm words which are normally pronounced with two equally strong stresses may lose one of them or may have their word stress realized differently.
/'piccad'illi/ - /'piccadilly 'circus/ - close to the picca'dilly
/'princess' - a 'royal prin'cess/

Date: 2015-12-24; view: 852