Principles of classification of speech sounds

Date: 2015-10-07; view: 698.

In all languages speech sounds are traditionally divided into two main types — vowels and consonants. From the articulatory point of view the main principles of the division are as follows: the presence or absence of obstruction; the distribution of muscular tension; the force of the air stream coming from the lungs. Vowels are speech sounds based on voice. There is no obstruction in their articulation. The muscular tension is spread evenly throughout the speech organs. The force of the air stream is rather weak. Consonants are speech sounds in the articulation of which there is an obstruction (plosion or friction). The muscular tension is concentrated at the place of obstruction. The air stream is strong. The articulatory boundary between vowels and consonants is not well marked. There are speech sounds that occupy an intermediate position between vowels and consonants and have common features with both the of them. These are sonorants [m, n, ŋ, j, I, w, r]. There is an obstruction in their articulation and the muscular tension is concentrated at the place of obstruction as in the production of consonants. Like vowels they are based on voice. The force of the air is weak as in the case of vowels. Due to their great sonority some sonorants can be syllabic in some particular positions. But generally sonorants do not perform the function of syllable formation. That is why they are attri­buted to consonants. From the acoustic point of view vowels are complex periodic vibrations — tones. Consonants are non—periodic vibrations — noises.