Assignment Parse spectrogram into C’s and V’s, and identify major manner attributes

Assignment 1. Parse spectrogram into C’s and V’s, and identify major manner attributes.

0.15: fricative, stop?

0.25: vowel

0.35: vowel or approximant

0.45: fricative

0.52: vowel

0.65: consonant, perhaps cluster ending with a stop

0.70: vowel (short)

0.80: fricative

0.90: vowel (short)

1.00: sonorant

1.10: vowel (short)

1.25: plosive

1.35: vowel

1.43: fricative (sibilant)

1.53: stop/ fricative?

1.60: vowel

1.80: another vowel

2.00: long closure here: cluster? Surely ends with stop

2.20: vowel

2.33: fricative

2.40: vowel?

2.50: another element? Not sure.

Assignment 2. Identify vowels

0.25: vowel: high F1/ low F2 = /a/

0.35: vowel or approximant = low F1/F2 nearly 2000 Hz = /I/ or it’s a diphthong with the previous vowel.

0.52: vowel: F1 is nondescript and low/F2 around 2000 Hz = nasalized /i/

0.70: vowel (short): F1 is low/ F2 nearly 2000 Hz = /i/ or /I/

0.90: vowel (short): F1 is low/ F2 around 1800 Hz and short = probably /I/

1.10: vowel (short): low F1/F2 very high = /i/ but not very stressed? Maybe /I/

1.35: vowel: F1 around 400 Hz/ F2 = 1500 Hz = looks like a schwa.

1.60: vowel: see 0.25: high F1/low F2 = /a/

1.80: another vowel: trailer at 1.67 looks a lot like diphthongal element = /aj/. However, the long period following it has low F1/high F2, so it looks like a sequence of this diphthong with an /i/ following it.

2.20: vowel: high F1/low F2 = /a/

2.40: vowel?: if so, it really a schwa

2.50: another element? Not sure. If this is a vowel, it’s the schwa of schwas.
Assignment 3: Identify consonants.

0.15: fricative, stop: appears to have really obvious noise in the formant frequencies corresponding to F1 and F2, etc. This really should indicate a posterior fricative, and I would guess /h/. It’s possible that we have an aspirated stop here, but the burst is missing, so that would be unusual.

0.35: vowel or approximant: if an approximant, it’s /j/. There’s no edge to suggest a lateral or nasal or what not. If post-vocalic /j/, then it would probably get analyzed as a diphthong.

0.45: fricative: noise all over the place, but not very strong means non-sibilant. No voicing. Noise isn’t really in the formants particularly, so it’s not /h/, leaving the evil twins = /f/ and theta.

0.65: consonant, perhaps cluster ending with a stop: stop part is clear, but not at all clear which point of articulation. The strong voicing, etc., at 0.61 suggests a nasal before it, which would make the consonant voiceless. There’s no aspiration after the stop, so if it’s initial, it would be /b,d,g/, but it could be word-final, in which case /p,t,k/.

0.80: fricative: sibilant with strong frequencies corresponding to F3 = /ʃ/

1.00: sonorant: giant hole surrounding 1000Hz suggests nasal. F3 is too low for a lateral, and the sharp edge after the sonorant would indicate that it isn’t the rhotic or an approximant. Among the nasals, it could be/m/ or /n/. The velar would have to be final, and there’s a suggestion of a low F2 transition into the following vowel, which wouldn’t match that of a front velar expected in this vowel environment.

1.25: plosive: F2 transition appears to be around 1700Hz, with a strong burst (not double). Would suggest /t/, with a puzzle that there’s no clear aspiration, but with a short and positive VOT.

1.43: fricative (sibilant): sibilant with noise around F4 = /s/. There might be voicing going into it, so /z/ is also possible.

1.53: stop/ fricative?: problem here is that there’s no burst. Thus, this could be a non-sibilant fricative (one of the evil twins) or a ‘voiced’ stop. Transitions are pretty sketchy, which would suggest a labial, so /b/ or /f/. Note low F3 transition below 2000 Hz, which might indicate a rhotic in a cluster.

2.00: long closure here: cluster? Surely ends with stop: Hard to tell about why such a long closure, but noise concentrated in F2 transition suggests a /k/.

2.33: fricative: high sibilant noise again = /s/. Voicing leakage means, maybe /z/, but long duration here makes this unlikely.

2.50: another element? Not sure. As a consonant, the low-freqency concentration doesn’t really fit with any possible codas, so I’d be pretty reluctant to place weight on any particular consonant here.

Assignment 4. Assembling information from above, we get the following:

- /h/ for glottal stop at beginning.

- Can’t tell which non-sibilant fricative.

- The combination of /k/ and /w/ creates something that’s not obviously any particular plosive.

- ‘Should’ actually has a front vowel, and not the expected back vowel. /m/ and /n/ are hard to distinguish, even in clear cases like this one.

- /t/ plus theta is actually producing an unaspirated dental stop here.

- /f/ is hard to distinguish from an unaspirated stop as well.

- the medial /d/ in Friday is simply not there. Welcome to America.

- in addition, ‘if’ is blended in with the previous vowel.

- I plain got the /p/ wrong, thinking it’s a /k/. I suppose there’s no velar pinch, but not all velars have the pinch, esp. ones preceding posterior articulated vowels like this one. So, I think this is a real ambiguity.