Questions tagged [phonetics]
The study of the production and perception of sounds or "phones".
822
questions
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1answer
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Is American pronunciation “optional” for Americans? [closed]
Stop consonants: b,p,g,t,d,k are pronounced very lightly or not at all, but this is optional.
For instance, "wait"/weit|/ or /weit/, "stop"/st^p|/ or /st^p/
Variations in t ...
1
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1answer
44 views
Does an oral stop with simultaneous glottal stop look any different on the spectrogram than the oral stop would by itself?
I'm not always 100% confident in my judgment of whether or not a final oral stop has an accompanying glottal stop. I don't think this can be checked on the spectrogram but would be pleased to learn I'...
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0answers
81 views
Are there any phones that are produced with the tongue “cupped”?
The book "Experiencing Speech: A Skills Based, Panlingual Approach to Actor Training" sets out to describe all the possible movements of the articulators. One of these is "cupping" ...
1
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1answer
51 views
Is there a compendium for sound laws?
Sound laws such as the Canaanite shift, which is the proposed law that Proto-NW-Semitic *ā -> Proto-Canaanite ō, and the celebrated Grimm's Law.
Is there a database that lists all transformations ...
2
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0answers
36 views
Are there generative theories of grammar with privative features outside of phonology?
By "generative grammar", I take the widest interpretation and do not mean "Chomsky's theory of syntax today", thus HPSG and LFG would be instances of GG(broad). Phonology has a ...
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0answers
22 views
How can I measure fricative voicing?
everyone! This questions regards Praat. I'm trying to find a way to measure the voicing property of word-final fricatives in L2 English. Learners (and often native speakers) often produce forms such ...
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0answers
21 views
Book recommendation on language acquisition of phonetics and phonology in American children?
I'm looking for answers to the following questions about language acquisition, as far as phonetics are concerned. I'm particularly interested in American English, though failing that any language ...
8
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1answer
1k views
What is “˥˩” in the IPA?
While reading the Wikipedia page on voiced bilabial trill, I came across a transcription in the occurrence section which looks like:
[tʙ̩˥˩]
The word is from Lizu language and means 'bean'. What is ...
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0answers
50 views
echo/doubling of consonants in sanskrit
I've notice that whenever people in india pronounce a sanskrit word where one syllable ends in a consonant and following syllable starts with a consonant, they tend to double up one of the consonant.
...
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1answer
32 views
How to differentiate between consonants and vowels on praat? [closed]
I am student of MA and i need your help to know about the praat software. i am stuck in my research in last section. If any one hear to know so i thoroughly and rigorously sorry to say and please help ...
1
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1answer
63 views
Why are phonemic transcriptions used in English pronunciation courses (instead of phonetic ones)?
I'm doing an English pronunciation course. There, I'm asked to pronounce, for example, the following:
/i:/
In each case, I'm presented with articulatory and mouth position guidelines. However, if I ...
0
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1answer
27 views
Help PRAAT - My script to write duration of intervals as label of intervals
I am trying to write a script that extract the duration of intervals (in ms) which have a label (in this case "silent") from a single tier. There are several intervals labeled as "...
0
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1answer
59 views
questions regarding satemisation in sanskrit
I have some questions regarding satemisation in sanskrit.
why there are still k in sanskrit if pie k tunred into sanskrit s ? It seems to me that pie *kʷ turned into k in sanskrit. is that right ? If ...
6
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2answers
121 views
In tonal languages, what is the tone relative to?
According to https://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tone_language
A tone language, or tonal language, is a language in which words can differ in tones (like pitches in music) in addition to consonants and ...
0
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1answer
41 views
Evidence for segmental phonology in the acoustic speech signal
What evidence for segmental phonology could be found in the acoustic speech signal?
I think the parameters of acoustic speech signals include f0, amplitude, duration, wave form, etc., which are ...
2
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0answers
60 views
Is there a standard(-ish) definition of affricate aspiration/VOT?
Is the frication of an affricate considered part of its aspiration? Or does the aspiration start at the end of the frication?
And does voice onset time (VOT) measure aspiration (as defined by the ...
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1answer
83 views
How does the phonetic definition of 'rhyme' relate to the poetic rhymes?
This book hints, without expounding, that the phonetic definition of rhyme relates to the poetry definition. Can someone please expound?
For example, I still don't understand why "this type of ...
0
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1answer
63 views
How should I study additional texts?
This might sound a bit stupid. I just completed phonetics and phonology from Grady's "Contemporary Linguistics". I'm still in my schools and preparing to join bachelor of arts linguistics in ...
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2answers
156 views
What do these diagrams of vowels actually represent?
I've heard many times that spoken language is subjected to variations and we never make the exact same sound when we speak, even for the same word. If that's the case, how can you be so exact about ...
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0answers
13 views
Is it possible to extract a single word (may be in textgrid) from the textgrid file of a sentence through a code in praat?
Is it possible to extract a single word (may be in textgrid) from the textgrid file of a sentence through a code in praat?
Suppose, from a long file I have put boundary and created one textgrid ...
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2answers
98 views
Differentiating phonemes in foreign languages for adults
I've heard that past a certain critical period for language acquisition, our brain loses some neural connections and thereby the ability to differentiate phonemes not occurring in our maternal ...
2
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1answer
175 views
Did h2 and h3 change the phonetic reality of an adjacent *e in PIE under any circumstances?
Did h2 and h3 change the phonetic reality of an adjacent *e in PIE under any circumstances? Can we treat *a and ā as allophones of *e in PIE?
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1answer
61 views
Feature correlates of the length and tenseness contrast in the low vowel /a/
My ultimate goal is to be able to predict from external factors whether and what kind of vowel quality correlates an /a–a:/ contrast might have in a language, and specifically to determine which on is ...
11
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2answers
3k views
How does the nonsense word “frabjous” conform to English phonotactics?
I am aware that this question is rather more complex than I am treating it, but I am looking for a few general rules (e.g. basic phonotactic constraints) that would lead to the conclusion that the ...
0
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1answer
75 views
Breaking a word down into its constituent phonemes [duplicate]
How should the nonsense word 'frabjous' be broken down into its constituent phonemes (e.g. the consonant blend -fr)? I would like to determine how this word is regular in English phonotactics.
2
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0answers
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During second language acquisition, is it common for the speech organs to get tired by speaking the second language?
I am a non-native speaker of English (I'd rather not say what my native language is). I have noticed that my speech organs (tongue, lips, jaws and also the palate but I'm not so sure if it's the ...
8
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1answer
305 views
Why are voiceless plosives (p, t, k) unaspirated after /s/?
Take for example English voiceless plosives such as /p t k/ which are aspirated at the start of a stressed syllable and before a vowel as in kill, tar, pie:
[kʰɪl]
[tʰɑː(r)]
[pʰaɪ]
But after a ...
2
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1answer
42 views
What is the difference between these two nasalization constructs in Telugu, ఁ ం?
One is a half circle, one is a full circle, they both seem to nasalize the preceding vowel, but what is the difference in terms of IPA, or another way to describe it?
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1answer
69 views
Is the vocalic R and L pronounced the same in all Indian languages?
Wondering what exactly is meant by the vocalic R and L in Oriya, Telugu, Malayalam, Tamil, and other related Indian languages. In many of these languages on Wikipedia, you find the IPA transcription ...
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1answer
72 views
Diphthong detection technique — reference?
I find it hard to directly detect which sounds a diphthong is composed of (or whether it even is a diphthong at all), but I found a little trick for it that seems to work. In song, one sometimes ...
5
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0answers
74 views
How diachronically stable is release type?
Are there examples of languages completely shifting from (vocalic) release of all coda stops to, say, nasal release?
I imagine substrate effects could account for some of these cases (cf. unreleased ...
1
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1answer
51 views
About the behavior of the larynx and glottis in the production of consonants
Consider the following three consonant sounds in intervocalic positions: a dental click, an (aspirated) voiceless alveolar stop, and a palatal nasal. I'm trying to understand what happens with (1) ...
0
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1answer
74 views
Is /v/ cross-linguistically semi-voiced and powerless in devoicing preceding consonants in case of regressive assimilation? How to explain it?
In Danish, /v/ is semi-voiced, like a combination of [f] and [v], though /f/ does exist in Danish phonology.
Russian features general regressive assimilation of voicing, but this rule doesn't apply ...
0
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1answer
89 views
What linguistics degree(s) would best equip someone to develop written languages from oral ones?
If one wants to work with people-groups that have an oral language but no written language and develop a written language for those people-groups, what linguistics degree(s) would best equip that ...
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1answer
40 views
Influence of sonorant consonants / semivowels on f0
I think it's fairly well established that voiced stops tend to depress f0 while unvoiced stops tend to raise it, but I'm less clear on other types of consonant. I'm especially interested in sonorant ...
3
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2answers
218 views
Are there languages where vowels are always oral?
I was surprised to find in Zsiga (2020: 120, 125) a claim (by Donegan & Stampe 2009) that vowels in Hawaiian, as well as oral vowels in French, are always oral.
Unfortunately Donegan & Stampe ...
0
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1answer
21 views
The notion of categorization in phonetics
What is meant by "categorization" in phonetics? It's supposed to be related to transcription in the sense that transcription requires one to categorize speech in some two dimensions.
I only ...
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1answer
25 views
How should I understand these acoustic and perceptive terms from phonetics?
So, while reading the New Grammar of Spanish Language (a book from a very influential institute of the Spanish languague: Royal Spanish Academy) I found out these terms (they'll be in bold) from ...
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1answer
52 views
Which sounds in spanish sound louder: vowels or consonants?
I think vowels but I'm not so sure. I'm neither sure if vocal cords are what makes a phone be more audible and so what makes vowels be more audible than consonants or some of them.
5
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1answer
195 views
Evolution of [v] to [b] and vice versa
There are many examples that show that two phones [v] and [b] are related:
b
v
Meaning
Old English to New English
* habban
have
have
Middle Persian to New Persian
varan
baran
rain
Middle Persian ...
2
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0answers
76 views
What is the origin of the pronunciation difference between 'replicate' (noun) and 'replicate' (verb)?
In English, the noun 'replicate' is pronounced with a schwa (ə) at the end while the verb is pronounced with the diphthong 'eɪ'. The same is true for the word 'duplicate'. Is there a more general ...
2
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0answers
72 views
Intuitive phonemic transcription systems for various languages
When a text or video about pronunciation is aimed at the average reader, it often doesn't use the IPA to represent sounds. Instead, it might talk about the "AW" sound as in law, the "AH&...
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2answers
108 views
How to extract specific data from a TextGrid file?
I'm new here. Just found that there is a linguistics community on stack exchange!
I have a TextGrid file that has been output from a forced aligner, webMAUS and I mainly want to understand how to ...
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35 views
Central – lateral dichotomy for labiodentals
In the IPA chart, there's no labiodental lateral approximant. The cell isn't even left blank, it's shaded out and therefore the articulation is judged impossible.
One of the explanations is (see, e.g.,...
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0answers
96 views
Diphthongoids and diphthongs
In Russian linguistics, there's a term дифтонгоид (diphthongoid). For example, in textbook Современный русский литературный язык (Modern Standard Russian) by S.V. Knjazev and S.K. Pozharitskaya, it is ...
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1answer
35 views
Identifying natural classes
After I Stated the phonetic environments in which the sounds [n] and [ŋ] appear.[from a list of words]
How should I identify natural classes of sounds that appear in the environments I’ve provided?
...
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1answer
62 views
VOT of word-final plosives?
Some arguments against its "existence" could be terminal devoicing (which doesn't happen in all languages), lack of a sonorant after the plosive since it's at the end of the word, or the ...
1
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1answer
34 views
Getting some mess when trying to “draw” a textgrid file in Praat
I created a textgrid file that looks like this:
Then when I select the audio file together with the textgrid file and click "Draw", I'm getting not what everyone would expect. I'm getting ...
0
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0answers
54 views
The possible sound change when /t/ sound is preceded by fricatives or affricatives
Here, I am talking about the assimilated /t/ sound that is one of the most common features of Standard Southern British English (such as /t/ at the beginning of a syllable, time, task, Twitter, twice, ...
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1answer
35 views
Phoneme production metrics
(Apologies in advance for the expected misuse of terminology; I am not a linguist. Please correct as appropriate.)
I am considering a Deep Learning language evolution experiment and would like to ...
