Airstream Mechanisms and Phonation Types - Department of ...

Chapter 6
Feb 25, 2013

Consonant Chart

1. Photography
Taking photographs
can help document
the position of the
lips, jaw and (to a
certain extent) the
tongue for various
articulations
Isoko
From
Ladefoged
(2005)

2. Static palatography
Can be used to determine exact place of
articulation of isolated sounds (palatograms and
linguagrams)
Nunggubuyu – From Ladefoged, 2001

How can we tell the place of
articulation?
1. palatogram—oil on palate--chalky
substance on tongue—speaker makes
a sound—then top of mouth is
photographed.
2. linguagram—oil on tongue then chalky
substance is applied to palate—
speaker makes a sound—then tongue
is photographed

From Ladefoged, 2001
A (static) palatogram A (static) linguagram

Dental vs. alveolar
From Ladefoged,
2001

Retroflex vs. retracted alveolar
From
Ladefoged,
2001

3. Electropalatography
Can be used to
examine specific
articulations (like
static
palatography) but
also coarticulation

Works to help children with down’s
syndrome—they prefer visual learning

4. Electromagnetic Articulography
EMA involves the use of silver
pellets, stuck on the lips and tongue
of the speaker
The equipment tracks the movement
of these pellets
From the UCLA website

5. Ultrasound
Front of tongue

6. Aerodynamic recordings
Measurements of air pressure (at various points of the vocal tract)
and nasal flow and oral flow masks can be used
Determine the nasality of segments
Detect differences between voiced and voiceless segments
Investigate differences in phonation (e.g. breathy voice)
From the UCLA website

7. EGG (Electroglottograph)
Measures contact
between the vocal
folds

Consonant Chart

Four parts of producing a
speech sound
1. Initiation (airstream mechanisms)
2. Phonation
3. Oro-Nasal process
4. Articulation

Initiation or “Airstream
mechanism” involves
1. Location of Closing of Airstream
(pulmonic, glottalic or velaric)
2. Direction of airstream (ingressive or
egressive)
3. Trappings of air and release
4. Vocal folds (voiceless, voiced, creaky,
breathy)

Direction of airflow:
a. Egressive

. Ingressive

Airstream Mechanisms (combination of
location of airstream and direction of
airflow)
Definition: The flow of air as a sound is produced
Pulmonic Egressive
Pulmonic Ingressive
Glottalic egressive
Glottalic ingressive
Velaric ingressive

So . . . For each airstream
type . . .
1. Describe where air originates from and where it is
blocked in articulation
2. Describe direction of the air
3. Describe how the air is released

1. Pulmonic Egressive
Steps of Pulmonic Egressive:
1. Diaphram contracts
2. Air flows into lungs
3. Air is pushed out of the lungs by a
downward movement of the rib cage or
upward movement of diaphram (contraction
of abdominal muscles)
Example sounds: /p/, /s/, /f/
(all sounds in English)

Pulmonic Eggressive
Percentage of sounds in world’s
languages that are pulmonic
eggressive?
88%
All languages have pulmonic eggressive
sounds

2. Pulmonic Ingressive
Air is pushed into the lungs by an
upward movement of the rib cage or
downward movement of diaphram
Sounds made when one is out of breath
Which languages have these sounds?
(no known sounds like this in languages)

Robert Eklund’s Ingressive
Speech Page
http://roberteklund.info/
http://ingressivespeech.info/
Places in the world where ingressive speech has been documented

Key to map
lightest
green
mid
green
darker
green
darkest
green
star
?
Ingressive phonation mentioned, for e.g., pain or surprise.
Paralinguistic sounds used, e.g., Japanese hiss.
Single words are pronounced ingressively, e.g., Swedish “ja”,
“jadå”.
Entire phrases are produced ingressively, e.g., Argentine
Spanish “un trabajo matador”.
Star symbol used for areas too small to be filled in (e.g.,
Malta, Vanuatu, Faroe Islands).
Sources unclear/not explicit whether entire country/region is
implied.

Other places
Newfoundland, Canadian Maritimes, Maine, Ireland,
Scotland
French
Faroese, Icelandic, Danish, Norwegian, Finnish,
Swedish, Northern German
Mongolian (yes, no, I don’t know)
Ewe and Togolese
Tagalog, Waray Waray, Borongan Oras, Artache,
Dolores(all in Samar). (Oh)
Japanese “hiss” (means no)

3. Glottalic egressive
(ejectives)
Steps for ejectives
Air in lungs is trapped below glottis
Air is also closed off in vocal tract (bilabial,
alveolar, velar, etc)
Upward movement of the glottis forces air
out of the mouth (egressive) Glottis acts
like a piston
Voiceless
Ejectives are written p’, t’, k’

Ejectives
1. Closure in oral cavity and closure of
glottis
2. Glottis is raised (upward movement)
3. Air in pharynx is compressed
4. Closure in oral cavity is released.
5. Glottal closure is released.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D4W0Gm4iSqI 2.42
To make ejectives . . .
Practice raising and lowering the glottis by
going back and forth from lowest to highest
note you can sing on /a/
Make a glottal stop—keep glottis closed
Put the tongue in the position to make a /k/
Raise larynx
Release /k/
Release glottis
http://homepage.ntu.edu.tw/~karchung/Phonetics%20II%20page%20four.htm

Ejectives
Languages with ejectives
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LgoXJ8YlOEk
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PS3OIc3GCy0
Caucasian languages
Salish Languages (Lushootseed)
Afro-Asiatic languages
Mayan languages

Glottalic Egressive (Ejectives)
1. In how many languages do they occur?
18 percent
2. In what two language groups are they most
common?
Mayan and Caucasian
3. What place of articulation is most common for these
ejectives?
Velar
4. What kinds of consonants are they (fricatives, stops,
nasals, or approximants?)
Stops and fricatives
5. Can ejectives be voiced and voiceless
It is physically possible but no known voiced phonemes
have been found

Lakota

Implosives
1. Closure in oral cavity (closure 1)
(like making a “b”)
2. Downward movement of glottis
3. Air from lungs comes through
glottis still
4. Change in air pressure in mouth
5. Release of closure in oral cavity
(release of “b”)

:18
Implosives (glottalic
ingressive)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OWSb
RLqZdyY
Languages with implosives:
Sub-saharan African languages (Bantu
languages, Xhosa, Zulu, etc)
Mayan languages (usually limited to one
place of articulation
Southeast Asia (Vietnamese)

Implosives
1. What percent of the world’s languages have
implosives?
About 10 percent
2. Where do most of them occur?
West Africa
3. Are implosives voiced or voiceless?
Voiced
4. Which place of articulation is the most common?
Bilabial
5. Can languages have both ejectives and implosives?
Yes, though very few do.

Sindhi

Clicks
1. Closure in front of oral cavity
2. Closure at velar area
3. Tongue in between front closure and velar
closure moves down
4. Closure in front of oral cavity is released—
air flows in
5. Velar closure is released
http://www.vowelsandconsonants3e.com/C
hapter%2014%20video/Video%2014.13-Xray%20of%20a%20Click.MOV
http://speech.umaryland.edu/movies/clicks
_Amanda_M_O/25.1.mov

Clicks
1. ʘ bilabial
2. | dental
3. ǃ alveolar
4. ǂ palato-alveolar
5. ‖ lateral alveolar
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c246fZ-7z1w

Languages with clicks
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OAPY6W
kNY1A (.45)
Languages with clicks
Bantu languages
Khosian languages (Southern Africa)
East African

Zulu
http://www.yourdictionary.com/elr/ku!khaa
si.wav

Parts of Speech Production
1. Initiation
2. Phonation
3. Articulation

State of the Glottis
What is the “state of the glottis”?
Refers to the
1. Stiffness of the glottis
2. Vibration along glottis
3. Rate of airflow