( 1

2>rhrzxtu oh^r»^ 4-» Introduction

1. THE USES OF PHONETICS

Phonetics is the systematic study of human speech-sounds. It

provides means of describing and classifying virtually all the
sounds that can be produced by human vocal tracts. How this is
done is the principal subject-matter of this book. But before we
begin to investígate the sounds of speech it may be useñil to say
something about why it is interesting and useful to do this: ih other
words, to review some of the uses of phonetics.
Over a century ago, the great English philologist, linguist, and
phonetician, Henry Sweet (who, as Shaw tells us, was in part the
prototype of Professor Higgins in Pygmalion— perhaps better f*
known nowadays as the musical, My Fair Lody] described
phonetics as ' . . . the indispensable foundation of all study of
language—whether that study be purely theoretical, or practica!
as well...' (Sweet (1877), p. v).
This is as true today as it was in the time of Sweet. Any person
who works with language would do well to have a basic know-
ledge of phonetics. The teacher of languages, for example,
including the teacher of English as a second language, must be
able to diagnose the pronunciation errors made by students, and
to devise means of correcting them—this is impossible without *
both theoretical and practica! knowledge of phonetics. *
Phonetics is also useful to those concerned with various aspects
of the mother tongue: the phonetically trained teacher of reading
*
¥
wiil have a better understanding of orthographic probiems and
the relaíionship of speJJing to the spoken language; in the teaching
of speech-production phonetics is obviously essential—actors,
particularly those who wish to master numerous dialects and
foreign accents, certainly ought to have a thorough knowledge of
phonetics, which, alas, they usually lack.
Speech pathologists have an obvious need for phonetics, which th
*
6
 Introduction 3
they readily acknowledge, both for a general understanding of consequently of the greatest importance also for more 'theoreti-
how the vocal apparatus works and for the diagnosis and treat- cal' uses of phonetics.
ment of minor articulatory defects. Thus, the narure of a historical sound-change can usually best
Communication and computer engineers and other 'speech- be understood by those who can actually carry through the
scientists' working on the improvement of speech transmission change in their own vocal tracts and internally, introspectively,
systems, on speech synthesis, and on automatic speech recogni- experience its mechanism; and the interpretation of physiological
tion, also need to have a considerable knowledge of phonetics. or acoustic instrumental records of speech is most efficiently
Another importan! application of phonetics is to what carried out by speech-scientists who possess the same kinds of
Sweet calis 'scientific philology'—or what we would now cali skill—investigators who cannot themselves pronounce, and inter-
1» 'comparative-historical linguistics'. In his words: 'Without a nally experience, most of the phenomena they are investigating
knowledge of the laws of sound-change, scientific philology . . . is sometimes misinterpret their data.
impossible, and without phonetics their study degenerates into a It is because of the great importance of this kind of intro-
mere mechanical enumeration of letter-changes' (p. v). spective awareness of the phenomena of speech that in this book
And of course phonetics is absolutely essential to the student of we introduce the reader to the principies and categories of
linguistics. It is virtually impossible to do serjous work in linguis- phonetic classification not only by means of descriptions, which
tics without a thorough knowledge of phonetjcs. Clearly, without can produce a merely intellectual comprehension of phonetic
phonetics, field-work, the most importan! ^fource of linguistic theory, but by means of experíments which readers are asked to
data, is impossible, and phonological rules become (like the carry out in their own vocal tracts. In this way, they will acquire
sound-laws referred to above) meaningless and unmotivated that deep understanding of phonetic theory which is the in-
t rules of letter-substitution. Even in the study of syntax and dispensable stock-in-trade of the competent phonetician.
morphology questions of phonetics frequently arise.
Now, it is perfectly possible to acquire a good íheoretical
f» knowledge of phonetics by reading, and even more so by working 2. THE P H A S E S OF S P E E C H #
in a phonetics laboratory where aspects of the physiology and
t acoustics of speech are investigated instruméntally. But the kind Before we begin the experimental approach to the subject, in
f» of superficial, purely intellectual, knowledge.of phonetics that is Chapter 2, it will be useful to consider the nature of the speech-
n acquired in this way is quite inadequate as a basis for carrying out event, and what particular aspects of it are, or may be, the domain
f many of the activities referred to above. What the competent of phonetics.
phonetician musí acquire is a deep, internally experienced, When someone speaks to someone, the sequence of events is,
f awareness of what is going on within the vocal tract—an ability to in outline, as follows. In response to the need to communicate
t analyse, and henee describe and ultimately control, the postures about some event (which may either be in the world at large or
f and movements of organs that produce the sounds of speech. Itis within his own consciousness) the speaker conceptualizes the
fairly obvious that this kind of practical ability is essential for event in a particular way and then encades that conceptualization
f those, like language learners and teachers, or actors, who have to in a form laid down by the grammar of his language. The
identify and produce exotic or unaccustomed sounds. What is not linguistically encoded utteranceis externalized and apprehended
so obvious, but is undoubtedly the case, is that the acquisition of by the hearer through the agency of a series of events that we term
these 'practica!' skills is by far the best way of acquiring a deep the phases of speech. These phases start in the speaker, and
understanding of phonetic theory—of the principies underlying culminate in the hearer decoding the utterance and arriving at a
the description and classification of the sounds of speech—and is conceptualization which, assuming he is familiar with the
•t
4 Introduction Introduction 5
speaker's language, closely matches the speaker's conceptualiza- reaches the ear of anyone within hearing distance, including the
tion, which was the start of the process. speaker himself.
The processes of conceptualization and coding/decoding are The sound-wave, impinging on the hearer's ear-drum, sets it
outside the domain of phonetics. The purely phonetic part of the vibrating in step with the wave-form, and these vibrations are
speech process begins, we assume, with the execution of a short- transmitted, by the little bones of the middle ear, to the inner ear,
term neural programme in the central nervous system, which is or cochlea, where they stimulate sensory endings of the auditory
triggered by the lexico-grammatical structure of the utterance nerve. Neural impulses from the nerye-endings travel up the
and determines the nafure and the sequencing of everything that auditory nerve to the brain, where they give rise to sensations of
follows. We may cali this the neurolinguistic programming phase sound. We cali this whole process of peripheral stimulation and
of the utterance. afferent neural transmission the neuroreceptive phase.
Thereafter, in a sequence no doubt determined during the stage Finally, an interpretative process occurs in which the incoming
of neurolinguistic programming, specific 'motor commands' flow neuroreceptive signáis are identified as this or that particular
out through motor nerves to muscles in the chest, throat, mouth, vocal sound or sound-sequence. This is the phase of neuro-
etc. As a result, these muscles contract—in whole or in part, linguistic identificaron, which we can regard as more or less the
successively or simultaneously, more or less strongly. obverse of the neurolinguistic programming phase with which the
We cali this whole process of motor commands (the outflow of phonetic event began. Though there may always be some aware-
neural impulses from the central nervous system), together with ness of sound in this phase, the identification as particular
the indissolubly related muscle contractions, the neuromuscular speech-sounds is usually below the threshold of consciousness. In
phase. the actual exchange of conversation, attention is directed more to
As a result of the muscular contractions occurring in this the meaning of what is said than to the sounds by which that
neuromuscular phase, the organs to which these muscles are at- meaning is manifested.
tached adopt particular postures or make particular movements— The final steps in the process—the hearer's decoding and
the rib-cage may contract, the vocal folds in the larynx may be ultímate conceptualization—are outside the domain of phonetics,
brought cióse together, the tongue adopt a particular configura- just as were the matching conceptualization and encoding in the
tion, and so on. In short, the sequel to the neuromuscular phase is a speaker.
posturing or movement of whole organs in the vocal tract. We We can now summarize the phases of speech as follows:
therefore cali this the organic phase. (1) Neurolinguistic programming: the selection, sequencing,
The movements of organs during the organic phase act upon and timing of what follows.
the air contained within the vocal tract. They compress the air, or (2) Neuromuscular phase: transmission of outbound (motor)
dilate it, and they set it moving in various ways—in rapid puffs, in neural impulses and the contraction of individual muscles.
sudden bursts, in a smooth flow, in a rough, eddying, turbulent (3) Organic phase: postures and movements of whole organs.
stream, and so on. All of this constitutes the aerodynamic phase (4) Aerodynamic phase: dilation, compression, and flow of air
ofspeech. in and through the vocal tract.
As the air flows through the vocal tract during the aerodynamic (5) Acoustic phase: propagation of sound-waves from
phase the things that happen to it set the air molecules oscillating speaker's vocal tract.
in ways that can be perceived by our sense of hearing. In other (6) Neurorecepti ve phase: peripheral auditory stimulation and
words, the aerodynamic events genérate sound-waves, and these transmission of inbound neural impulses.
constitute the acoustic phase of speech. In the acoustic phase, an (7) Neurolinguistic identification: potential or actual identi-
airborne sound-wave radiales from the speaker's mouth and fication of incoming signáis as specific speech-sounds.
i
6 Introdiiclion Introduction 1
Y
i' In addition to all this we must take note of two other phases, or the acoustic phase, and the study of this phase of speech is known
aspects, of the speech process. These are the two kinds of as acoustic phonetics. The aerodynamic phase is also accessible
•V feedback: kinaestheiic feedback and auditory feedback. to instrumental investigation and aerodynamic data have been
i As the organs of speech posture and move about in the used since the nineteenth century, chiefly as a means of acquiring
t performance of speech, sensory nerve-endings within the muscles information about the preceding, organic, phase: by looking at
and on the surfaces of the organs are stimulated by muscle variations in the rale of airflow out of the mouth, measuring intra-
contraction and by contact and pressure. We may be, but often oral pressure, and so on, one can make many useful inferences
are not, conscious of this feedback as proprioceptive sensations about the organic activities that give rise to these aerodynamic
(feelings of muscular contraction and tensión) and (acule sensa- effects. It is only recently that the suggestion has been made that
tions. As a general ñame for these proprioceptive and tactile there should be a more or less independent aerodynamic
sensations we use the term 'kinaesthesis', henee kinaesthetic phonetics, parallel to acoustic phonetics.
feedback. General phonetic taxonomy, however—that is, the general or
The second type of feedback consists of the stimulation of the basic classification of speech sounds—is still based on the organic
speaker's peripheral hearing organs by the sound-wave issuing phase, with some contributions from aerodynamic and acoustic
from his own mouth which reaches his ears both externally, by air phonetics where helpful. This type of phonetics is often called
conduction, and internally, by bone conduction. This is auditory articulatory phonetics, a term which is somewhat inaccurate,
feedback. since, as we shall see, articulation is only one (though a very
These feedback systems monitor and control speech by insert- important one) of the components of speech sound production.
ing into the motor system information concerning the continuing
muscular, organic, aerodynamic, and acoustic events. Much of
phonetic training involves making these feedbacks, especially
kinaesthetic or proprioceptive feedback, conscious. AJialysis, 3. THE VOCAL TRACT
and conscious control, of the activities of speech must be based
upon awareness of what the vocal organs are doing and this All the sounds of speech are produced in the vocal tract. For the
awareness is derived from the feedback systems. purpose of this book we take the vocal tract to consist of the entire
Of the seven phases of speech described above only three lend respiratory tract, from lungs to nose, plus the mouth. This is a
themselves conveniently to categorization for general phonetic somewhat wider appücation of the term than is found in most
purposes: these are the organic phase, the aerodynamic phase, other works, where 'vocal tract' means only the tract from the
and the acoustic phase. Traditionally, phonetic classification has laryax up through the mouth and nose. It is, however, more useful
been based on the organic phase. This was the basis of classifica- for phonetic purposes to use the term in the wide sense of all
tion of the earliest phoneticians—the Indian grammarians of those tracts within the human body that normally particípate in
2,500 years ago—and also of the ancient Greek and Román the production of vocal sounds.
a grammarians, the medieval Arab grammarians, and the English The srudent of practical phonetics does not require a very
phoneticians from Elizabethan times onwards. The acoustic detailed knowledge of the vocal tract and vocal organs, and in this
phase has only been fully accessible since the development in the book we shall introduce such detail as is necessary as and when it
twentieth century of electronic devices for acoustic analysis, such is needed. However, it may be useful in this introductory chapter
as the cathode-ray oscilloscope and the sound spectrograph in to outline the structure and phonetic functions of the principal
the 1930s and 1940s. Nevertheless, since such instruments organs in the vocal tract. Figure 1 and the following description
became available an enormous amount has been learned about are primarily for reference, and at this stage need not be deeply
8 Introduclion Introduction 9
studied, but should be apprehended in a general, impressionistic, can expand to draw in half a gallón or so of air, and can contract to
way. blow out a like quantity: in speech they contract quite slowly.
As we have seen, the function of the organic phase of speech is There are two tubes leadingfrom the bellows (the bronchi) which
to créate certain aerodynamic conditions—to set the air in the unite in a larger tube (the trachea, or windpipe).
vocal tract in motion, and to control the flow of air in ways that Near the upper end of the windpipe there is a pistón (the
ultimately genérate sounds. The vocal tract can thus be regarded larynx) that can slide up and down for an inch or so. You can feel
as a pneumatic device—a device consisting of a bellows and the front of the larynx-piston as a projection in the front of your
various tubes and valves and chambers whose function is to set air neck (the 'Adam's apple') and you can also feel that it can slide up
in motion and to control its flow. and down—this is specially noticeable when you swallow. The
Figure 1 is a sketch of this 'pneumatic device' alongside a larynx is usually more prominent in men than in women but the
somewhat more naturalistic sketch of the vocal tract with lines swallowing movement can easily be felt by both. Within the pistón
connecting the two to show the relationships between their parts. there is a valve (the glottis—lhat is, the space between the vocal
The brief account of the vocal tract that follows should be read in cords, or vocal folds, as we shall cali them). The glottis-valve can
cióse conjunction with a srudy of the figure. The bellows (lungs) be tightly closed or opened to varying degrees or else rapidly and
rhythmically opened .and shut in the course of speech.
Above the larynx there are three chambers, A (pharynx), B
(oral cavity, i.e. mouth), and C (nasal cavity), which can be put
into communication with each other, or separated off from each
other by the valves v (velum, or soft palate) and / (tongue). The
tongue-valve is highly mobile and can control airflow through
chamber B (mouth) at a number of different places and in a
number of different ways. Finally, the outer end of chamber B
(mouth) is provided with a double valve, namely the upper and
lower lip.
Srudy of this brief description of the 'pneumatic device' and the
corresponding sketch of the vocal tract in Fig. 1 should make
clear the main parts of the vocal tract and their major phonetic
functions.
As we said earlier, phonetic taxonomy is primarily based on the
organic phase; but it requires contributions from the aerody-
namic phase. This is inevitable, since the production of speech-
sounds is an aerodynamic process. The organic postures and
movements do not themselves genérate sounds; they merely set
the air in the vocal tract in motion, and it is the flow of air through
the vocal tract that generales sounds.

Fio. 1. The vocal tract

f
10 Introduction

4. THE F U N C T I O N A L C O M P O N E N T S OF SPEECH

From the organic-aerodynamic point of view the production of Basic Components of Speech
speech-sounds involves two essznúal functional components: (1)
•i some method of initiating a flow of air in and through the vocal
tract— that is, some form of initíation, as we cali it; and (2) some
method of shaping or articulating the air-stream so as to genérate 1. I N I T Í A T I O N AND A R T I C U L A T I O N
a specific type of sound— thal is, some form of articulation. There
is a third functional componen! of speech-production, present in The first step in the study of phonetics is to discover, experi-
most, but not all, sounds, and consisting of certain types of mentally, the basic components that go into the production of any
modulation of the air-stream as it passes through the larynx— that speech-sound.
is phonation. In order to understand the mechanism of speech it We begin by producing a prolonged [f]-sound—the first sound
is essential to have a clear conception of these three functional in the words 'first', 'four', and last sound in 'huff, 'puff, and so on.
components— of the forms that they can take, and of how they While making the sound one must think about what is going on—
interact to produce speech-sounds. that is, one must analyse the production of the sound intro-
The following chapters introduce the reader to these three spectively, by taking note of the kinaesthetic sensations, the
basic functional components of speech, and to other aspects of feelings of contact and movement associated with it.
speech production, by means of a series of experiments to be
carried out in the reader's own vocal tract. The results of these 1 Begin by comfortably filiing the lungs—that is, take in a deep, but not
experiments will not only provide a deep, personally experi- excessively deep, breath—then start up a prolonged [f]-type sound: [f f
enced, insight into phonetic theory, but will also develop the f f f f]. On one full intake of breath you will no doubt easily be able to
motor and auditory skills that are essential for the competent keep the sound going for 5 to 10 seconds. Repeat this three or four
phonetician, and which cannot be developed by the mere reading times—breathe in, say prolonged [f f f f f f], then relax—concentrating
your attention upon what is happening, upon what you are doing in
of descriptions and explanations.
order to produce that sound.

It wül quickly become clear from introspective observation that

the production of this prolonged [f]-sound requires the simul-
taneous occurrence of two events; in other words, the production
of the sound has two components. These components are (/)
deflation ofthe lungs, which sends a stream of air up the windpipe
and out through the mouth, and (ü) contact between the lower Up
and the upper teeth, forrrúng an obstacle to the fíowing air, which
forces its way through in a turbulent stream that generales the
specific hissing sound of [f].

2 Now carry out the same experiment with a prolonged (s)—the first
sound in see, the last sound in hiss. Breathe in, start up a prolonged
[s]-type sound [s s s s s s] lasting for 5 to 10 seconds or so. Repeat