Questions tagged [phonetics]
The study of the production and perception of sounds or "phones".
1,028
questions
1
vote
2
answers
97
views
Mandarin Chinese phonology: on the issue of p/b, t/d, k/g distinction and older romanization systems
Like many people, I've found it intriguing that older Chinese romanization systems such as Wade-Giles and postal romanization seem to "confuse" certain sounds, such as p/b, k/g, and t/d. I ...
- 729
1
vote
0
answers
36
views
F0 as a distinguishing factor in certain sibilants?
I am currently planning a research paper about pitch's role in distinguishing [s̪], [s̻], [s̺], [ʂ], and [ɕ], and I don't know if there already exists literature about this. The closest I was able to ...
- 19
2
votes
0
answers
46
views
Is there a language that loudness alone is phonemic?
The prominence of a stressed syllable can be measured by: Loudness VS Duration VS Pitch
Amplitude usually comes together with duration (and/or) pitch. Usually pitch and duration are more important ...
- 194
0
votes
0
answers
58
views
PHONETICALLY, is a language without vowel possible? How many CONTRASTS can our vocal system make?
***** Phonetically, not phonologically
***** Exclude sign languages
I read it on Quora that it is possible for a language without phonemic vowel, but impossible without vowel phonetically.
Is it ...
- 194
0
votes
1
answer
62
views
Is it possible for allophonemes to be "conditional"?
What I mean by this, since I'm not sure if this even has a name, is if, say for example a language or dialect had allophony between something like /bʱ/ and /b/ in most words, but considered them ...
1
vote
1
answer
54
views
voicing contrast vs aspiration contrast in English
we know that voicing contrast is existing in English but aspiration is not contrast. For example, the word gap /ɡæp/ and the word cap /kæp/. However, If we look at the phonetic transcription, these ...
- 11
-1
votes
1
answer
134
views
Is the flap a stop, a liquid, or something else?
The flap sounds like a fast [d], and is represented in IPA like [ɾ]. Is it a stop like [d] or a liquid like [r]? If neither, which class is it? see this table from Yule's Study of Languages for ...
- 913
2
votes
2
answers
100
views
acoustic means of distinguishing between fricatives
I work on data from an under-described language. I am consulting two sources that present phonemic inventories of the same language.
One source posits that the language has a phonemic voiceless velar ...
- 192
0
votes
0
answers
80
views
Why are the <tt> in <utter> (american English) and <r> in <cara> (Spanish) considered the exact same sound [ɾ]?
According to Wikitionary, the american pronounciation of <utter> is [ˈʌɾɚ] in IPA, and <cara> in Spanish is pronounced as [ˈka.ɾa].
According to the IPA these are both the same voiced ...
- 101
0
votes
0
answers
53
views
What determines whether a vowel is ATR?
How would one determine if some vowel has an advanced tongue root (ATR) or retracted tongue root (RTR)?
For example: is /y/ ATR or RTR?
- 423
1
vote
1
answer
192
views
Why is Portuguese 'mundo' transcribed phonemically /ˈmũ.du/ but for other languages not even phonetic transcription records a "deviation" from /n/?
For a short version of the question, see at the end EDIT AFTER COMMENTS:
I know about the Differences between phonemic and phonetic transcriptions, and I am referring to the phonemic transcription, ...
- 774
0
votes
0
answers
18
views
Pitch and formants of vowels of female singer voice
I am looking data on female singing voice that contains
(pitch F0), F1, F2, (possibly more formants)
for phonetic vowels 'a', 'e', 'i', 'o', 'u', 'y', (possibly more vowels)
when sung at different ...
- 1
0
votes
1
answer
53
views
Romance dialects : sound-to-spelling correspondance?
Romance languages differ greatly in between dialects. What are exemples of Romance languages that have the same writing system, but are written phonetically, with differences between dialects?
- 47
0
votes
0
answers
65
views
Why do Spanish dialects sound so close to Spanish?
Spanish dialects sound very close to Spanish from Spain. From what I could find, a lot of Spanish dialects sound very close to Spanish accent, even Basque a totally unrelated language sound like ...
- 11
0
votes
0
answers
98
views
How similar are the French and Spanish R sounds, linguistically speaking?
To preface, I'm not particularly knowledgeable about linguistics, but I did take several semesters of French and Spanish in college several years ago. I remember putting a lot of effort into learning ...
2
votes
1
answer
357
views
How did English end up with a voiced "z" at the end of words?
How did English end up with a voiced "z" at the end of words, for example in "is", "was", "those"? Does this phenomenon exist in any Indio-European language ...
- 1,140
0
votes
1
answer
65
views
Measure of difficulty in pronouncing sounds
I came across this article that states that hunter gatherers found it more difficult to pronounce the f and v sounds. I was amused to find an exact percentage given in the article:
"While the ...
4
votes
2
answers
685
views
Why do Koreans have trouble telling apart /p/ and /f/, when their Discrete Fourier Transforms look nothing alike?
I understand why Japanese have trouble telling apart /r/ and /l/: their Discrete Fourier Transform looks almost the same (the only difference being that /r/ has some element at around 2500 Hz that /l/ ...
- 704
1
vote
0
answers
92
views
Cot-Caught Merger in NYC and New Jersey?
I'm a bit confused with the cot-caught and father-bother merger, especially as they appear in the NYC / New Jersey area? I'm a native of the area and have lived there my whole life, yet I have the ...
2
votes
1
answer
137
views
Is the Alveolar Tap the Same as a Very Brief Alveolar Plosive?
Is the alveolar tap executed with the same tongue movement as in the alveolar plosive except that in the case of the alveolar tap, the tongue tip strikes and moves away from the alveolar ridge so ...
- 21
1
vote
0
answers
52
views
Does the Alveolar Tap Cause Complete Closure of the Vocal Tract and Total Obstruction of the Airstream for a Short Time?
When doing the alveolar tap, does the tongue tip cause complete occlusion in the vocal tract and total obstruction of the airflow for a split second? If so, then how long does the blockage of air last,...
- 11
0
votes
0
answers
45
views
I'm looking for a praat script that measures the voiced portion of a consonant closure marked in a textgrid
Does anyone have or know of a praat script that can measure the voiced portion of segments that are marked on a textgrid in praat? Like, say I had a conversation and I had every /d/ spoken in that ...
2
votes
1
answer
130
views
How commonly are [u] and cardinal close-mid [o] allophones?
I ask because I listened to the recordings of [o] here:
https://www.internationalphoneticassociation.org/IPAcharts/inter_chart_2018/IPA_2018.html
For me (being a speaker of Finnish) all but the first ...
- 470
0
votes
1
answer
133
views
Lip rounding doesn't transform the close-mid back vowels into each other, so why is the only difference between their names roundedness?
I don't understand why ⟨o⟩ is called the "close-mid back rounded vowel" while ⟨ɤ⟩ is called the "close-mid back unrounded vowel" - they sound completely different and they feel ...
- 29
0
votes
0
answers
29
views
Is the physiology-to-sound function injective, and if so, why?
By injective, I mean that there are no inputs corresponding to the same output. I only recently learned that the range of sounds produced by human physiology has to do with different mouth positions ...
- 590
1
vote
0
answers
35
views
Can anyone read a video spectrogram and understand it?
Is it known if there have been people that can visually digest a spectrogram of speech in time, as a video, and learn to read it in real time, like text? (Or vice versa, translating images to sounds ...
- 590
3
votes
0
answers
40
views
Canonical flaps
Dear colleagues: I have a question about canonical flaps. The literature is not clear on whether a canonical flap has a burst or not. I have found in my data that many flaps do have a burst (sometimes ...
0
votes
0
answers
20
views
Annotation of speech signal with Praat: criteria for setting vowel onset-offset?
I have a question for all those with experience in annotating acoustic (speech) data using Praat or similar software. Specifically, I'm referring to the annotation of vowels and the criteria used to ...
- 31
1
vote
1
answer
136
views
Why don’t consonants have a definite pitch?
Is it because consonants are too fast or too slow that we perceive them as indefinite pitches?
- 111
-2
votes
1
answer
139
views
What's this linguistic phenomenon in English speaking?
I was enjoying the relaxing vibes that the hotel provided.
When Americans say the above sentence, do they sometimes say "vibes that" in a way that sounds like "vibesat"?
Does it ...
- 913
1
vote
1
answer
197
views
What's the difference between 'voiceless' and 'unaspirated'?
It's an additional question to the following:
Why is a voiced, voiceless unaspirated, and aspirated distinction so rare cross-linguistically?
My understanding
What distinguishes aspirated/...
- 111
4
votes
1
answer
146
views
What makes linguolabial consonants rare?
Even though I don't speak a language with linguolabial consonants, it seems to me that these sounds are easy to produce and also auditorily quite distinct, e.g. the difference between bilabial or ...
- 470
1
vote
0
answers
104
views
Did Cretan Greek have [s] as an allophone of /ts/ after a nasal?
Wikipedia cites Hinge (2001) as reporting the claim that Cretan Greek had [s] as an allophone of /ts/ after a nasal. I’m not a German speaker so I can’t verify this.
The relevant section from the ...
- 423
2
votes
3
answers
811
views
Spurious Fs' spawning
As advised, I am posting a separate question, but I still think it is a better fit for linguistics (because of phonetics and phonology); feel free to migrate to latin SE.
Famagusta is supposed to be a ...
- 107
2
votes
0
answers
84
views
What precisely is the distinction between Finnish /p k/ and /b g/?
In Finnish /p k/ are formally voiceless, but in casual speech they can become fully voiced (Suomi et al), yet they are never mistaken for /b g/. What exactly is the distinction?
- 470
0
votes
0
answers
43
views
Are laryngealization, low phasal tone and creaky voice all the same thing?
I read somewhere that creaky voice is produced by drawing the tongue root closer to the larynx. And also that the third tone in Mandarin Chinese is also regarded to as the low tone or creaky tone.
So ...
2
votes
0
answers
33
views
Are there any references for acoustic measurements of Finnish consonants?
I'd like to know details about the specific acoustic properties of Finnish consonants, as well as how these change in specific coarticulatory environments. It seems to be easier to find information ...
- 470
2
votes
1
answer
159
views
What is the name of the "clicky" t sound used in some british accents in words like "little" and "mental"?
Emma Stone tries to replicate it here.
It's not a glottal stop; the t is definitely being pronounced in the mouth and not the throat. It's almost exclusively used when a "t" sound is ...
- 23
1
vote
1
answer
77
views
What would an IPA narrow transcription be for Finnish /d/?
From Finnish Sound Structure (Suomi, Toivonen, Ylitalo):
The Finnish /d/ is apical alveolar, and the duration of its occlusion is very short,
about half of that of /t̪/, ceteris paribus, see e.g. ...
- 470
0
votes
1
answer
69
views
Is there any way to numerically describe phonetic sounds?
I've been theorizing if it's possible to create an automatic transliteration program between two different languages that use two different writing systems.
So, I was wondering if there are certain ...
0
votes
1
answer
66
views
Which sounds, if any, induce vocal strain?
I use voice recognition software as a keyboard replacement. I recently replaced the word 'enter' with 'eek' to trigger an enter keystroke. The word 'eek' has much better recognition accuracy. Although,...
- 101
2
votes
2
answers
114
views
What's the nasal phoneme before the "n" in "didn't"?
I've noticed that, in informal American english, we don't pronounce the word "didn't" exactly as /ˈdɪd(ə)nt/. There's a nasal sound right before the "n" that sound a bit like the /...
- 121
-2
votes
1
answer
189
views
Why does the French consonant "b" sound so different from the "b" in the IPA chart (with audio)?
Why does the French consonant "b" sound so different from the "b" in the IPA chart (with audio)?
I have compared many IPA chart audios, and the "b" in all IPA charts I ...
- 1
1
vote
1
answer
158
views
Why is anekdota written with a "k" in Czech but a "g" in Polish (anegdota)?
So I decided to compare the languages Czech and Polish. The devolving of voiced consonants to voiceless consonants are pretty much the same. However, one of the differences were, words with [g] ...
- 318
2
votes
1
answer
149
views
Is ʕ̞ equivalent to the semivowel articulation of ɑ?
Wikipedia claims that Ladefoged & Maddieson (1996) p. 323 states that ʕ̞ is equivalent to the semivowel articulation of ɑ.
Is this true?
If so, why?
If not, what is the false premise behind this ...
- 423
8
votes
2
answers
648
views
Do the qualities of a vowel determine its semivowel’s place of articulation?
[j] (the semivowel of [i]) is palatal.
[w] (the semivowel of [u]) is labial–velar.
[ɥ] (the semivowel of [y]) is labio-palatal.
Does the position of the vowel in the mouth play a part in determining ...
- 423
2
votes
2
answers
183
views
Vowel quality: tongue position vs formant frequencies
I stumbled upon the claim that vowel quality model based on tongue height and frontness has been known to be incorrect – and the so called openess and frontness are actually two formant frequencies.
...
- 357
-1
votes
1
answer
130
views
About similarity of sounds in Swedish and Danish
In all sources I have found the symbol /ð/ is used for Danish 'd', indicating something between the English /ð/ and /l/ with the tongue moved a bit back, touching the teeth a bit.
So, actually, I am ...
1
vote
0
answers
40
views
What is the difference between double articulations and secondary articulators?
I need to know the examples that makes secondary articulators and double articulations different.
- 11
1
vote
1
answer
195
views
How many beats is a syllable?
I’ve read some sources that say a syllable is “one beat” but I don’t understand that. Wouldn’t it depend on the tempo of the pulse. I.e, if a tempo is 60bpm can’t you fit different numbers of ...
- 111