The Wonders of Phonology!

[jvcc]

Slash phonetics.

This is the boring, technical part: in phonology class today we discussed how certain sounds (called obstruents) are made when airflow through the vocal tract becomes obstructed somewhere along the way (for example, not how you have to close your lips first to make a [b] sound but not an [a] sound). Most consonants are obstruents, but some are sonorants which means that the airflow does not become obstructed in the vocal tract. [l] is put into this category, because while the tongue blocks the airstream from going through the middle of the mouth it can go out one or both sides.

Here is where the interesting part (in my opinion) begins: whether or not you use both sides of your tongue or one side or other when making an [l] noise apparently varies from person to person. The way to tell is to position your mouth like you are going to make an [l] sound, then stop and without moving your tongue suck air into your mouth. If both sides of your tongue feel the cool influx of air, then you lower both to make [l] noises; if the left side feels cool air then you drop that one to make the sound, etc. I make them by dropping the left side of my tongue.

I was excited to share.

[Android Replica]

Interesting.

Is there an objective measure of this, or is it largely a matter of feel? I mean, given enough study, could you tell the degrees of one person versus another?

[jvcc]

We didn't go too much into it in class. The professor likes to occasionally break up the monotony of lecturing by getting us students to make funny noises, albeit for some purpose tangentially related to what he had just previously been discussing.

[PonderThis]

Welllll.

Wellllll.


Welll welll welllllll.


Huh. I appear to be a part-time lefty. I did not know that.

[GregorR]

I'm disappointed that I can't use this as an angle for prejudice since it's impossible to tell. You filthy side-ellers should be forced to wear badges!

[fanelian]

I just noticed that I push my tongue further against my teeth to pronounce my english "L" than I do my spanish ones. for my spanish "L" I push my tongue against my gum/mouth roof. Funny.

[ntw3001]

I never thought there was a right and wrong way to pronounce L's, but since there is a way I do it and a way I do not, I guess there must be. By the way guys, you probably ought to work on symmetrical L-formation; you don't want to look stupid.

[chrismachine]

I am lefty and my wife is balanced... I smell divorce!

[jvcc]

You double-sided L makers are freaks! Lefties, let us band together in solidarity!

[kupo]

I love this type of stuff. I love linguistics and sounds and things. Hooray.

[jvcc]

You would love my class then. There's also a seemingly disproportionate amount of dick jokes made by the professor and occasionally the students. I'm not sure if you'd love that.

[EsBe]

You would love my class then. There's also a seemingly disproportionate amount of dick jokes made by the professor and occasionally the students. I'm not sure if you'd love that.

Are they at least phonology puns? On an unrelated topic, I initially read this as "frenology" because of the way I pronounced it in my head.

[jvcc]

Yes. In English there are only five possible combinations for words that begin with three consonants, so we had to determine what they were for a homework assignment. We were discussing our findings in class and someone suggested "schl" as in "schlepp"--by the way, "ch" is considered one sound in phonetics: it is transcribed as [tʃ] by the Brits and [č] by the Merkins. During our debate about whether that combination of consonants should be accepted given that it is only used for words derived from Yiddish, people were trying to come up with examples. Our professor said that he could think of one that he wouldn't say in mixed company, after which there was a pause and then some general laughter. I turned to look at the President of the Linguistics club, as I know him to be, and he his face was the very picture of confusion.

In another class our teacher was trying to explain phonemes and allophones. He wrote a letter P on the board and explained how the sounds that we denote with that letter can be aspirated (i.e., be accompanied by a burst of air as in "pin") or not (as in "spin"): these two sounds are allophones of the phoneme /p/. After explaining all this he stopped and said, "I've chosen a bad example; you'll see why in a moment." He then wrote the letter T next to P and its allophones on the board and went through a similar explanation. He ended by saying that /t/ as a phoneme represents "t-ness." Again, a pause and then general laughter.

Not the greatest penis-related anecdotes in the world, but given the context of their occurrence I think that they are worthy of note.

[Judas Maccabeus]

Yes. In English there are only five possible combinations for words that begin with three consonants, so we had to determine what they were for a homework assignment. We were discussing our findings in class and someone suggested "schl" as in "schlepp"--by the way, "ch" is considered one sound in phonetics: it is transcribed as [tʃ] by the Brits and [č] by the Merkins. During our debate about whether that combination of consonants should be accepted given that it is only used for words derived from Yiddish, people were trying to come up with examples. Our professor said that he could think of one that he wouldn't say in mixed company, after which there was a pause and then some general laughter. I turned to look at the President of the Linguistics club, as I know him to be, and he his face was the very picture of confusion.

Of course, "that word" comes from Yiddish too, if it's the one I'm thinking of. Also, "schl" is still only two consonants phonetically, since the "sch" is just the same sound as "sh" with a different spelling.

[PonderThis]

Man it's funny how jvcc's post has had me all self-conscious about how I make "L" sounds for the last few days.

Wellllll helllll's bellllllls .... Llllllllllllamas.

[jvcc]

Of course, "that word" comes from Yiddish too, if it's the one I'm thinking of. Also, "schl" is still only two consonants phonetically, since the "sch" is just the same sound as "sh" with a different spelling.

I don't know if anyone in class brought that up. We were probably too busy thinking about schlongs.

Man it's funny how jvcc's post has had me all self-conscious about how I make "L" sounds for the last few days.

Wellllll helllll's bellllllls .... Llllllllllllamas.

lol

[GregorR]

I don't know if anyone in class brought that up. We were probably too busy thinking about schlongs.

If I wasn't so wholly satisfied with my current sig, this would be my new one.

[Zombie Protestor]

The L you say.

[jvcc]

Those who are familiar with French and Canada (and I think I'm really addressing one person here in particular), how many vowels are there in Canadian French? Not separate vowel sounds, but letters used to denote vowels. I will share an anecdote regarding this class and the phrase "monkey crotch" if I receive a satisfactory answer. I'll probably share it anyway, but I want to heighten the suspense.

[James]

I KEEP MEANING TO POST IN THIS THREAD BUT FORGETTING TO.

Phonology is one of many subjects I'd like to know more about, but never bother to spend the time learning. Specifically, it's one of many linguistic subjects I'd like to know more about, but neer bother to spend the time learning. It all seems very interesting, but I can never remember the terminology, no matter how many Wikipedia pages I absent-mindedly skim over.

I just noticed that I push my tongue further against my teeth to pronounce my english "L" than I do my spanish ones. for my spanish "L" I push my tongue against my gum/mouth roof. Funny.

My mum pointed out to me that in Swedish the "T" sound is pronounced with the tongue against the teeth, whereas in English the tongue tends to be touching the roof of the mouth just behind the teeth. It seemed weird that it should be different, and I wasn't sure of the impact it would actually have, but now that I listen out for it, I think I can hear a difference in Ts in Swedish, and even in English spoken with a Swedish accent (although we mustn't forget the role my expectation might play in that). The interesting thing is that when I make my feeble attempts to speak Swedish, and terrible though my pronunciation is, I do think there's a kind of a mode-switch regarding the way sounds are formed, beyond the surface-level phonetics. I think that must in part emerge from the nature of the language: the features of a language, such as the permissible phonemes and sequences thereof, will inform the ways the mouth and tongue produce sounds, if only out of practicality (moving between two different particular tongue positions might be prohibitively awkward, for example). At least, that would be my guess. Then there's always the cultural element (some things are just the way they are because that's how they've come to be for that language).

I don't know. This is yet another subject on which I am not an expert.

[jvcc]

I've looked it up and the English [t] is a voiceless alveolar stop while the Swedish [t] is a voiceless dental stop. Voiceless means that making the sound does not cause the vocal chords to vibrate (to experience this place your fingers or hand over your voice box, then make a prolonged [p] sound, and then a prolonged [b] sound: the first is voiceless and the second voiced). A stop or plosive is a sound produced by blocking the airflow at some point along the vocal tract. The English stops are [p], [b], [t], [d], [k], and [g].

So the difference between the Swedish and English [t] is the place of articulation. This involves which articulators come into contact in order to make the sound: you have active articulators which move (the lower lip and tongue) and passive ones which stay in place (e.g., your upper teeth, alveolar ridge, velum, etc.) Alveolar articulation (as in the English [t]) means that the active articulator of the tongue tip or blade comes into contact with the passive articulator of the alveolar ridge (the area behind your upper teeth). [D] is another alveolar sound in English. Dental articulation (as in the Swedish [t]) involves the tongue tip or blade touching the upper teeth. If you get your tongue in the position to make an English [t] and then move it slightly forward you can hear a noticeable difference.

[chrismachine]

The alphabet is the same as English, unless you count vowels with accents as being distinct, in which case there are 3 extra Es, 2 extra As and Us, and an extra I and O.

[jvcc]

The alphabet is the same as English, unless you count vowels with accents as being distinct, in which case there are 3 extra Es, 2 extra As and Us, and an extra I and O.

Yeah, my homework is to determine whether two different sounds are phonemes (in highly watered down terms, different sounds represented by different letters) or allophones (different sounds all represented by the same letter). My teacher hasn't said whether a letter with an accent counts as an allophone for the same letter without one. Fortunately he never has us actually hand in the exercises we do and I don't feel well, so I think I'll let my brain rest until class tomorrow.

[chrismachine]

Two specified sounds? what are they?

[jvcc]

[i] as in "me" and [I] as in "bit". I've been listening to pronunciations of French words online and the distinction is clearly not as pronounced as it is in English.