JPN494: Japanese Language and Linguistics JPN543: Advanced Japanese Language and Linguistics

1. JPN494: Japanese Language and LinguisticsJPN543: Advanced Japanese Language and Linguistics Phonology & Phonetics (2)

2. Two major types of sounds • Consonants: speech-sounds produced when the speaker either stops or severely constricts the airflow in vocal tract. • Vowels: speech-sounds produced with a relatively open vocal tract, which functions as a resonating chamber.

3. Vowels in English and Japanese • Five Vowels in Japanese • ア [a], イ [i], ウ [ɯ], エ [e], オ [o] • English • many more!

4. From the articulatory viewpoint … • Three major factors that characterize a vowel: • How high the tongue position is (or how wide the mouth is opened) (high, mid-high, mid-low, low) • How forward the tongue position is (front, central, back) • The form of the lips (rounded, neutral, spread) • Simple vowels (monophthong) can be combined to form a diphthong (e.g. English [aɪ] as in I am …) or triphthong.

5. From the acoustic viewpoint … • Vowels differ from one another in their “quality”; or more technically, in their overtone structure. • A sound consists of multiple harmonics: • The frequency of the first harmonic (the fundamental frequency) is determined by the vibration speed of the sound source (e.g. your vocal cords) • The frequencies of the second, third, … harmonics (overtones) are whole number multiples of that of the first harmonic; the intensity of each overtone is determined by the condition surrounding the sound source (e.g. the shape of your vocal tract). • the first harmonic = the basic tone; 125 Hz the second harmonic = the first overtone; 250 Hz the third harmonic = the second overtone; 375 Hz …

6. Formants • Formant = Group of “emphasized” overtones within a certain pitch range • People distinguish vowels largely based on two formants: F1 and F2 (F2 is higher) • Roughly speaking: F1 has a higher frequency when the tongue is lowered, and F2 has a higher frequency when the tongue is forward; both F1 and F2 are lowered when the lips are rounded. • F0 = the fundamental frequency • Praat

7. Formants • F0 varies widely across speakers and in individual sounds (of the same speaker). • Average F0; male: 125 Hz, female: 225 Hz • The frequencies of F1 and F2: more or less constant across speakers/in individual sounds. • L05:184ff

8. Acoustic characteristics of consonants too can be largely stated in terms of overtone structures – but this is a more complicated story. (see L05:197)

9. Vowels in Japanese • ア [a]: low-central-unrounded • イ [i]: high-front-unrounded • ウ [ɯ]: high-back-unrounded • エ [e]: middle-front-unrounded • オ [o]: middle-back-rounded

10. ア: F1 - 880Hz, F2 - 1350Hz • イ: F1- 320Hz, F2 - 2720Hz • ウ: F1 - 370Hz, F2 - 1670 Hz • エ: F1 - 480Hz, F2 - 2300 Hz • オ: F1 - 500Hz, F2 - 920 Hz (a female speaker)

11. あか: F1 __ , F2 __ • いき: F1 __ , F2 __ • うす: F1 __, F2 __ • えせ: F1 __, F2 __ • おと: F1 __, F2 __

12. Vowels in English • English vowels can be divided into: • full (strong) vowels vs. reduced (weak) vowels • reduced vowels: [ə] (ago), [ɪ] (chicken) (wide dialectal/individual variation; L93:85-6) • Full vowels can be divided into: • lax (short) vowels vs. tense (long) vowels • lax vowels: [ɪ] (bit), [ɛ] (bet), [æ] (bat), [ʊ] (book), [ʌ] (buck)

13. Vowels in English • Tense vowels have a special class called diphthongs: • monophthongal tense vowels: • [ɑ] (pot), [ɔ] (bought), [i] (beat), [u] (boot) (In some American dialects, [ɑ] and [ɔ] are not distinguished and [ɑ] is invariably used (e.g. law vs. la, cot vs. caught)) • r-colored (rhotacized) vowel: [ɝ] (bird) • diphthongs: [eɪ] (bait), [oʊ] (boat), [ɔɪ] (boycott), [aʊ] (bounce), [aɪ] (bite)(, [ju] (cue))

14. Vowels in English • reduced vowels = unstressed vowels? • According to Ladefoged (2005): • Full vowels can be either stressed or not stressed. • Reduced vowels are always not stressed. • Phonemically, there is only one reduced vowel: /ə/ (allophones: [ə], [ɪ], etc.). (Some scholars do not count it as an independent phoneme.) • Full vowels can be “reduced” to [ə], [ɪ], etc. by the reduction rule (L05). • explain→ explanation • recite → recitation

15. Vowels in English • Other things being equal, tense vowels tend to be longer than lax vowels. • A consonant that follows a tense vowel is shorter than one that follows a lax vowel. • e.g. beat vs. bit • A lax vowel cannot form an open syllable (a syllable ending with a vowel) • beat [bit] : bee [bi] / bit [bɪt] : ?? • bait [beɪt] : bay [beɪ] / bet [bɛt] : ??

16. “R-coloring”, or rhoticization, refers to lowering of F3 (which can be caused by curling up the tongue, among other ways). • The opposition of reduced/lax/tense is orthogonal to the position of the tongue. • R-colored vowels in GA: • [ɝ]: bird [bɝd] (or [bɜɹd]) (no non-R-colored counterpart; entirely rhotacized) • beer [bɪɹ], bare [bɛɹ], bar [bɑɹ], bore [bɔɹ], (boar [boʊɹ],) tour [tuɹ], burr [bʌɹ], fire [faɪɹ], hour [aʊɹ], (coir [cɔɪɹ],) (pure [pjuɹ]) • brother [bɹʌθəɹ]

17. R-coloring can be understood as a process whereby [ɹ] is “absorbed” into the preceding vowel. (The case of [ɝ] may be exceptional) • car [kɑɹ] • bird [bɝd] (or [bɜɹd]) • Some scholars think that [ɹ] is still there, and it causes r-coloring on the preceding vowel. • car [kɑɹɹ] • Yet others think that there is an r-colored reduced vowel [ɚ] instead of r-coloring on a regular vowel or [ɹ]. • car [kɑɚ]

18. In addition to the axes of “front-back”, “high-low”, and “rounded-spread”, English vowels can be characterized by: • full vs. reduced • tense vs. lax • monophthong vs. diphthong • rhotacization

19. American vs. British English • American (GA): • spa [spɑ], hot [hɑt], caught [cɔt] (or [cɑt]) • far [fɑɹ], brother [bɹʌθəɹ] (r-coloring) • here [hɪr], air [ɛr], tour [tʊr] (r-colored monophthongs) • bird [bɝd] (r-colored monophthong) • British (RP): • spa [spɑ], hot [hɒt], caught [cɔt] • far [fɑ], brother [bɹʌθə] (no r-coloring) • here [hɪə], air [ɛə], tour [tʊə] (diphthongs) • bird [bɜd] (non r-colored monophthong)