Ling 205, Fall 2013 Airstream mechanisms and phonation types
Egressive pulmonic Most sounds made with egressive pulmonic air Egressive: Air pushed out Pulmonic: from lungs Rare exceptions The ǃ Xóõ language of Botswana has a series of nasalized click consonants in which the nasal airstream is pulmonic ingressive. "This ǃXóõ click is probably unique among the sounds of the world's languages in that, even in the middle of a sentence, it may have ingressive pulmonic airflow." Damin (ritual language of Lardil) ingressive lateral fricative
Paralinguistic use, as interjectives in backchannel conversation e.g. French casual ouais [w ɛ ] ('yeah') Swiss-German window speech, ingression as marker of high romantic sentiment
Other airstream mechanisms
Ejective (= glottalic egressive)
Implosive (=glottalic ingressive)
Click (=velaric ingressive) Here alveopalatal, kǂ
Click accompaniments A click is always preceded by a velar (or uvular) consonant, showing the phonation (voicing) and nasalization of the click. e.g. k ǂ, k ʰǂ, ɡǂ, ŋǂ These accompaniments are not separate consonants, they are part of the specification of the click itself (ambiguity can be avoided by using tie-bar).
Real language examples http://www.phonetics.ucla.edu/
Phonation states of the glottis (the area between the vocal folds)
Larynx: the packaging
Voicing The vibration of the vocal folds is not due to muscular contraction (muscles can't contract and relax nearly that fast) but due to areodynamics: as the air flows through the glottis, Bernoulli's force (fast air flow = low air pressure) draws the vocal folds together, but then build-up of pressure below them blows them apart again, cyclically... hence vibration
see movies
Voiced vs. voiceless voiced = modal (i.e. normal) phonation voiceless, usually achieved with glottal abduction, but may alternatively be by constriction
Aspiration e.g. p ʰ, t ʰ, k ʰ, tʃʰ glottal abduction continues after the release of the consonant, positive voice onset time.
Voice Onset Time (VOT) A useful measure of phonation type in stops = the length of time between the release of the stop and the start-up of voicing in a following vowel (or approximant). Aspirated stops have long positive VOT (usually > 40 msec. in English) (Ejectives have long positive VOT as well) Voiceless unaspirated stops have short positive or 0 VOT Truly voiced stops have negative VOT (because voicing starts before the stop release
Murmur (breathy voicing) Vocal folds are adducted (or nearly so) along most of their length (hence some voicing), but open towards the back (near the arytenoid cartilages) (hence some aspiration noise) murmur is thus modal voicing + aspiration IPA diacritic: aa, ma, ˈla ɛa ɛ ma əa ɛ na Stops may have murmured release, called voiced aspirated stops: b ɦ, d ɦ, ɡ ɦ
Creaky voicing (laryngealization, glottalization) Vocal folds are constricted, vibrating only towards the front Result: irregular glottal pulses IPA diacritic: aa, ma, ˈla ɛa ɛ ma əa ɛ na
more real language examples
Only tangentially related, but cool Tuvan (Russian Mongolian) throat singing humans can sing two different pitches at the same time!