In phonetics, the airstream mechanism is the method by which airflow is created in the vocal tract. Along with phonation, it is one of two mandatory aspects of sound production; without these, there can be no speech sound. It plays an important role in every spoken language. All speech sounds are made in this area. None are made outside of it (such as by stomping, hand clapping, snapping of fingers, farting, etc.)Theoretically, any sound could be used as a speech sound provided the human vocal tract is capable of producing it and the human ear capable of hearing it. Actually only a few hundred different sounds or types of sounds occur in languages known to exist today, considerably fewer than the vocal tract is capable of producing. Thus, I choose this topic to understand more about this phonetic aspect.
ACADEMY OF JOURNALISM AND COMMUNICATION Faculty of Foreign Languages - A STUDY ON THE AIRSTREAM MECHANISM (An Assignment on Phonetics and Phonology) By: Nguyen Xuan Hieu - ETE 40 Supervisor: Luong Ba Phuong PhD HANOI, 2021 Contents Introduction: 1.1 Rationale: 1.2 Aims of the study: 1.3 Limitation of the study: 1.4 Methods of the study: .1 1.5 Design of the study: Describing airstreams Ingressive and Egressive pulmonic airstream 3 Non-pulmonic airstreams 3.1 The glottalic ingressive airstream mechanism and implosives 3.2 The glottalic egressive airstream mechanism and ejectives 3.3 The velaric ingressive airstream mechanism and clicks .12 Conclusion: 19 References: 20 Appendix: 20 Introduction: 1.1 Rationale: In phonetics, the airstream mechanism is the method by which airflow is created in the vocal tract Along with phonation, it is one of two mandatory aspects of sound production; without these, there can be no speech sound It plays an important role in every spoken language All speech sounds are made in this area None are made outside of it (such as by stomping, hand clapping, snapping of fingers, farting, etc.) Theoretically, any sound could be used as a speech sound provided the human vocal tract is capable of producing it and the human ear capable of hearing it Actually only a few hundred different sounds or types of sounds occur in languages known to exist today, considerably fewer than the vocal tract is capable of producing Thus, I choose this topic to understand more about this phonetic aspect 1.2 Aims of the study: The purpose of this study is to survey the general phonetic categories needed to describe the airstream mechanisms 1.3 Limitation of the study: This study of phonetics and phonology is for people who want to gain further information about the airstream mechanism Espeacially for college students in English major 1.4 Methods of the study: The study is designed with some commonly used methods such as analysis, statistics, illustration, systematization These methods are such efficient tools assisting in the research 1.5 Design of the study: The research consists of seven parts The works is composed of introduction, Describing airstreams, Ingressive and Egressive pulmonic airstream, Nonpulmonic airstreams (with exercises and comments included), Conclusions give the finally resutl of the study The list of references organized in alphabetic arragement and Appendix Describing airstreams An airstream mechanism is how air is set into motion for speech to occur By far the most common airstream mechanism in the languages of the world is the outward flow of air from the lungs The technical term for this type of airstream is pulmonic egressive; ‘pulmonic’ refers to the lungs and ‘egressive’ means that air flows out of the body This outward flow happens because muscular activity contracts the ribcage, thereby compressing the lungs and thorax, which causes the air inside the lungs to be under higher pressure than in the surrounding air As always, air flows from an area of higher pressure to an area of lower pressure The other type of airstream mechanism thatIconsidered above is termed pulmonic ingressive The lungs are still responsible for the movement of air, but this time the air flows into the body This happens because muscular activity lifts the ribcage, allowing the lungs to expand, and creating a lower pressure inside the lungs than in the air outside the body As you can see, then, there are two things thatIneed to name when describing an airstream mechanism Firstly,Ineed to describe the part of the body that causes the movement of air This part of the body is called the initiator, which is the lungs in the two airstreamsIhave looked at so far Next,Ineed to describe the direction of airflow in relation to the body, which can be inwards (ingressive) or outwards (egressive) Ingressive and Egressive pulmonic airstream Pulmonic airstream which originates in the lungs and produces direct sounds Almost every sounds we pronounce is Bengali, all of them are pulmonic airstream Another is non-pulmonic airstream, which sounds produces also lungs but doesn't produce direct sounds It stay in our vocal tract and trapped for some time Then for some movement, the sounds produce This is the second highest sounds that people produce in this world Like, Africans or Scandinavian sounds When the air flows outward than it is said to be egressive And when the air flow inward, we can said ingressive airstream This airstream is not helpful to speech, but it is used for paralinguistic purposes in various languages For example, gesture or sign languages or semi-linguistics things In Scandinavian languages, when people wish to signal their empathy with the speaker that time they produce sounds by ingressive pulmonic airflow Dutch and French, we also find ingressive airstream Non-pulmonic airstreams It may surprise you to learn that airstreams other than pulmonic airstreams can be used to produce speech These can be referred to as non-pulmonic airstreams Although they are not used to create meaning in English, they may be used in other contexts and are used to produce meaningful speech sounds in other languages They exist in about 13 per cent of languages and are quite common in languages in Africa and Asia, although less so in Europe Exercise 1: The soundsIwill look at below are produced using the following airstream mechanisms Using just what you know already, what you think are the initiators and directions of airflow in the following airstream mechanisms? Glottalic ingressive Glottalic egressive Velaric ingressive Comment: Looking at the names for these airstream mechanisms, you will see that two are ingressive, so air flows into the body, while one is egressive, so air flows out of the body Your knowledge of terminology so far will suggest that the first two have the glottis (which you may remember fromUnit 3is the space between the vocal folds) as an initiator, while the last mechanism has the velum as the initiator.Iwill now look at each of the airstream mechanisms in turn, to see how they work, and the type of sounds they produce 3.1 The glottalic ingressive airstream mechanism and implosives The glottalic ingressive airstream mechanism produces sounds called implosives Implosives are not meaningful sounds in English, but can be used to imitate sounds in the environment, asIwill see in Exercise Exercise 2: What noise you make when you imitate someone drinking out of a bottle (glug-glug), or the sound a chicken makes (bok-bok)? Comment: These sounds are very hard to describe in writing, and it is possible that different readers might use a variety of different sounds to imitate drinking and chickens Many readers, however, will make velar and bilabial implosives as part of their imitations of these noises Implosives have a distinctive ‘gulping’ sound, andIwill describe their production in detail below The diagrams and explanations below describe how an implosive is produced Figure The first stage of a bilabial implosive Figure The second stage of a bilabial implosive ( ) Figure The third stage of a bilabial implosive Figure The fourth stage of a bilabial implosive Firstly, a closure is made in the oral tract In Figure 1Ihave a bilabial closure, so the resulting sound will be a bilabial implosive You also see that the velum is raised This is because pressure needs to build in the vocal tract, and this cannot happen if the velum is open (seeUnit 4on manner of articulation if you need a reminder about this) In the next step (Figure 2), the vocal folds vibrate while the whole larynx, including the glottis and vocal folds, which are inside the larynx, moves downwards, as indicated by the downwards arrow in Figure This downwards movement is achieved by a number of muscles which allow the larynx to be raised and lowered The downwards movement of the larynx increases the space between the bilabial closure and the vocal folds, which, in turn, reduces the pressure in the oral cavity Importantly, pulmonic egressive flow continues throughout the production of the implosive, so that voicing can occur This is the case for most implosives, which are usually voiced The oral closure, bilabial in this case, is released As the air outside the vocal tract is now at a higher pressure than that inside, it flows into the area of lower pressure inside the vocal tract, as indicated by the arrow in brackets in Figure As air from the lungs continues to flow throughout, all voiced implosives are actually produced using two simultaneous airstreams, glottalic ingressive and pulmonic egressive Finally, the larynx returns to its normal position, and, if no other sound follows, the vocal folds open for normal breathing (see Figure 4) Exercise 3: Which of the diagrams above (Figures to 4) would look different ifIwere showing a voiced alveolar implosive? Draw those diagrams as they would appear Comment The final stages of the process will look the same, as the closure has been released However, the first two stages will look different, as the place of articulation has changed, as shown in Figures 5and 6: Figure The first stage of an alveolar implosive Figure The second stage of an alveolar implosive The symbols for implosives look very similar to the symbols for voiced plosives, but have a rightwards hook at the top So, a bilabial implosive is [ɓ] and an alveolar implosive is [ɗ] These symbols, and all those explored in this unit can be seen in the consonants (non-pulmonic) section of the main IPA chart, as shown in Figure 16 (Appendix) and on the main IPA chart in Appendix 3.2 The glottalic egressive airstream mechanism and ejectives In 3.1, I saw that the glottis can be the initiator of an airstream, as its movement causes pressure changes in the vocal tract.Isaw that, for implosives, the larynx moves down, and, of course, the glottis moves down too, as it is inside the larynx This movement leads to pressure differences, which, in turn, move air and create an airstream flowing into the mouth NowIwill continue to look at glottalic airstreams, but this timeIwill look at sounds produced on a glottalic egressive airstream Sounds produced on a glottalic egressive airstream are called ejectives They exist in about 15 per cent of the world’s languages and are quite common in North American and African languages They are not found linguistically in English, so they never make a meaning difference However, they can be found as one way of pro- ducing voiceless plosives (/p t k/) at the end of a phrase, especially if the speaker is being particularly forceful Exercise 4: Bearing in mind what you know about the glottalic ingressive airstream, what you think might happen to the glottis to initiate a glottalic egressive airstream? Comment: Above,Isaw that the glottis moves down to bring air into the vocal tract To move air out of the vocal tract – that is, to produce an egressive airstream – the glottis moves up, asIshall see shortly We now turn our attention to the stages of production for ejectives.Iwill illustrate this with the velar ejective, which is the most common ejective in the languages of the world Figure The first stage of a velar ejective Figure The second stage of a velar ejective ) Figure The third stage of a velar ejective Figure 10 The fourth stage of a velar ejective The first stage when an ejective is produced is for two closures to form more or less simultaneously, in addition to velic closure One of these closures 10 must be a glottal closure, whereby the vocal folds become tightly shut This closure of the glottis is shown by the straight line in the larynx in Figure 7, just as for a glottal plosive The other closure is elsewhere in the vocal tract, such as the velar closure in Figure Air is therefore trapped between these two closures The next stage is for the larynx (and the glottis, which is inside the larynx) to move up, while both closures remain in place This is shown by the upward arrow near the larynx in Figure As the glottis is closed, it acts like a piston and pushes up the air trapped between the two closures The air cannot escape, so is squashed into a smaller space, and therefore under higher pressure than before the larynx rose Then the closure in the oral tract is released (see Figure 9), and the pressurised air flows quickly out of the vocal tract towards the ambient air, which is of lower pressure This quick movement of air gives the ejective its distinctive sharp sound Finally, the larynx lowers, and, if no sound follows, the glottis opens to return to normal breathing (see Figure 10) Exercise 5: Do you think it is possible to produce voiced ejectives? Why, or why not? Try it! Comment: Voiced ejectives not exist in the languages of the world You can give them a try and hear that you not get the distinctive ejective sound if the vocal folds are vibrating While most voiceless sounds have an open glottis, ejectives have a firmly shut glottis, like [ʔ] If the glottis is to act as an efficient piston, it needs to be tightly closed, and if it is tightly closed, it cannot also be vibrating to produce 11 voice Conversely, if the glottis is not tightly closed, it does not move the air very efficiently Importantly, any voiceless obstruent can be produced as an ejective So the languages of the world contain ejective plosives, ejective fricatives and ejective affricates There are no new symbols to learn for ejectives, as all ejectives can be symbolised by adding the symbol [ʼ] to the equivalent pulmonic egressive symbol So, the velar ejective plosive from above is symbolised as [kʼ], a bilabial ejective plosive is [p’] and an alveolar ejective plosive is [t’] The symbols for ejectives are shown with the other non-pulmonic sounds on the IPA chart (see Appendix) 3.3 The velaric ingressive airstream mechanism and clicks The final airstream mechanismIwill consider is the velaric ingressive air- stream, which is responsible for the production of click sounds Clicks only exist in southern and eastern African languages Click sounds are not part of the sound inventory of English, but they occur frequently when English speakers try to imitate sounds in the environment, or to express certain emotions, so will probably be familiar to all readers Exercise 6: What sounds would you make to the following? Blow a kiss Tut your disapproval Imitate the sound of horses’ hooves (at a Nativity play, for example) Tell a horse to giddy-up (this one may be familiar only to those who have learnt to ride horses) 12 Comment: All of the sounds above are click sounds and therefore have a number of similarities in their production I will consider the production of a voiceless alveolar click below, and then think about the labels for the other clicks: Figure 11 The first stage of an alveolar click Figure 12 The second stage of an alveolar click 13 Figure 13 The third stage of an alveolar click Figure 14 The fourth stage of an alveolar click Firstly, two closures form almost at the same time One of these closures is always a velar closure, just as for a /k/, and gives its name to the velaric airstream mechanism The other closure is further forwards in the vocal tract, and the closure shown in Figure 11is alveolar This traps a pocket of air between the two closures Next, the tongue moves back and down, but both closures are maintained, so that no air can enter or leave the pocket As the cavity has changed shape, the trapped air is now in a larger space, and therefore under lower pressure, than before (See Figure 12.) 14 Now, the front-most closure is released so that the pocket of air is no longer trapped As the pressure inside the vocal tract is lower than that outside, ambient air is sucked into the vocal tract (See Figure 13.) Finally, the velar closure is released, so that, if no other sounds follow, the articulators return to their resting positions (See Figure 14.) Exercise 7: The place of articulation for the ‘tut’ sound is either alveolar, as illustrated in Figures 11 to 14, or dental What you think are the places of articulation for the other clicks? a) Blowing a kiss b) Imitating the sound of horses’ hooves c) Telling a horse to giddy-up Comment: a) Kisses are bilabial clicks It is important to remember for bilabial clicks that the tongue is still involved in the articulation If you make a slow and deliberate kissing motion, you should feel that you make a velar closure with the back of your tongue, even though the tip of the tongue is not involved, as it is for many other clicks This velar closure is the crucial feature of clicks, and gives its name to the velaric airstream mechanism, asIhave said above b) The sound used to imitate horses’ hooves is usually a postalveolar click, with lips spread and then rounded to imitate ‘clip’ and ‘clop’, respectively (vowels, on to work out why that should make a difference to the sound produced) 15 c) The giddy-up noise is an alveolar lateral click So, the head diagram would look very similar to those in Figures 11 to 14 However, rather than the tongue tip lowering to produce the click, the sides of the tongue lower, so that air escapes laterally The symbols for these clicks are as follows: [k⊙] voiceless bilabial click [k|] voiceless dental click [k∥] voiceless alveolar lateral click [k!] voiceless alveolar or postalveolar click Exercise 8: Why you think these symbols have two parts? Specifically, why you think the symbols contain a [k]? Comment: The part on the right of the symbol indicates the place of articulation of the click – bilabial, alveolar, and so on – and these can be seen on the full IPA chart under ‘Consonants (non-pulmonic)’ (see Appendix) The part on the left, [k], reminds us about the velar closure that all clicks must have, and also tells us about the voicing and nasality of the click, asIwill investigate further below Note that some transcription systems not show the leftmost [k] part of the symbol for voiceless clicks I will use the two-part symbol throughout this study, however, for consistency with the symbols used for voiced and nasal clicks, which I will turn to now 3.3.1 Click accompaniments 16 All the clicks described above are voiceless, as the vocal folds are not vibrating, and oral, as the velum is raised, sealing off the nasal cavity However, it is also possible to produce voiced and nasal clicks Exercise 9: a) Why can clicks be voiced and nasal when ejectives and implosives are much more restricted? b) How would our diagrams change to show voiced and nasal clicks? Specifically, what would the diagram look like for the second stage of a voiced, nasal, alveolar click? Comment: a) As the larynx does not have any involvement in initiating a click, the vocal folds can either vibrate for voiced clicks or remain open for voiceless clicks Importantly, voiced clicks make use of two airstream mechanisms simultaneously The velaric airstream mechanism takes care of the click part, asIhave seen above Voicing, however, occurs when air flows up from the lungs and through the vibrating glottis, so voiced clicks are actually produced on two airstreams simultaneously: velaric ingressive and pul- monic egressive As you can see from Figures 11 to 14, the nasal cavity is also independent from the actions of the oral cavity during click production, because all the air is trapped in front of the velum Therefore, the velum can be lowered while the click is produced, without affecting the pressure in the space between the two closures, and a nasal click will result b)Figure 15 shows the second stage of a voiced, nasal, alveolar click 17 Figure 15 The second stage of a voiced nasal alveolar click Exercise 10: a) How might our symbols change to symbolise clicks that are voiced or nasal? b) How wouldIsymbolise: a voiceless dental click? a voiced bilabial click? a voiced nasal postalveolar click? Tip: Remember the role of [k] in the click symbolsIhave already seen above Comment: a) As you will remember from Exercise 8, the initial part of the symbol indicates voicing and nasality, while also reminding us about velar closure This is why a velar symbol (such as [k]) is used, rather than, say, an alveolar or bilabial symbol I can, therefore, use other velar symbols to indicate voiced and nasal clicks b) So, while [k] indicates the click is voiceless and oral, [ɡ] indicates it is voiced and oral, and [˛] indicates it is voiced and nasal The rightmost part of the symbol simply indicates the place of articulation (and the manner for laterals) of the click, as I noted earlier 18 A voiceless dental click [k|] A voiced bilabial click [ɡ⊙] A voiced nasal postalveolar click [˛!] 3.3.2 The velaric egressive airstream In order to fully cover all the logical combinations of initiators and directions,Ishould mention the velaric egressive airstream While it is possible to produce sounds (sometimes known as reverse clicks) using this airstream, no such sounds are found in human languages, soIwill not discuss these further here Conclusion: In this study as well as exercises, we have looked at the generation of speech sounds, and then at those sound-types made with an airstream that is not supplied by the lungs These are called non-pulmonic sounds Sound generation in speech relies either on the compression of air, giving an outward (egressive) flow or the rarefaction of air, resulting in inward (ingressive) flow Three types of nonpulmonic consonants are used in languages Two of these types use a glottalic airstream mechanism Ejectives are produced with an egressive airflow generated by larynx raising Implosives are made with an ingressive flow generated by lowering the larynx The third types, clicks, use the velaric ingressive airstream mechanism, produced by rarefying a small volume of air enclosed in mouth We have seen that there are sounds that make simultaneous use of pulmonic and nonpulmonic airstreams and have considered various modifications that can be applied to clicks 19 References: Pike, Kenneth (1943) Phonetics Michigan pp 103–5 Ian Maddieson (2008) "Presence of Uncommon Consonants" In: Martin Haspelmath & Matthew S Dryer & David Gil & Bernard Comrie (eds.) The World Atlas of Language Structures Online Munich: Max Planck Digital Library, chapter 19 Available online at http://wals.info/feature/19 Accessed on 18 January 2011 Michael Ashby, John Maidment (2005), Introducing Phonetic Science, Chapter Appendix: 20 21 ... categories needed to describe the airstream mechanisms 1.3 Limitation of the study: This study of phonetics and phonology is for people who want to gain further information about the airstream mechanism... 19 References: 20 Appendix: 20 Introduction: 1.1 Rationale: In phonetics, the airstream mechanism is the method by which airflow is created in the vocal tract... considered various modifications that can be applied to clicks 19 References: Pike, Kenneth (1943) Phonetics Michigan pp 103–5 Ian Maddieson (2008) "Presence of Uncommon Consonants" In: Martin Haspelmath