Lecture 9 Intonation: Falling head and Fall-Rise nucleus English consonants: realization/allophonic variation (fortis & lenis obstruents, voicing and aspiration) cei 1 & 3 si! 1-2 Fall-Rise nucleus

It’s a ^\/ joke

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  starts on a high pitch, falls to a low pitch and starts rising again (usually to mid-pitch)
  
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  can occur with (low) prehead
  
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  can occur with a (rising) tail
  
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  if the tail contains a stressed syllable, the rise may start either on the syllable following the nucleus, or on the one following the stressed syllable
  
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  NB: does not occur with high head / high emphatic head
  
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  the head associated with the fall-rise nucleus is called a falling head
  

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  starts on a high pitch and moves gradually towards a lower pitch (different from the High Fall which (a) is a nuclear tone and (b) does the whole fall on one single syllable)
  
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  combines only with a Fall-Rise nucleus (i.e. cannot be used in combination with High Fall, Low Fall, Low Rise, High Rise)
  
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  can be emphatic (i.e. if there are two or more accented syllables in it). Then each accented syllable starts on a higher pitch than the preceding syllable (examples in 3)
  

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  a rising tone  it is non-conclusive, non-definite
  
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  used when the speaker wants to
  
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    sound tentative (e.g. Ex^\/cuse me)
    
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    express uncertainty (if used in a statement)
    
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    make clear that s/he hasn’t finished (a continuation rise)
    
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    express a reservation (typically followed by but, e.g. I’d ^\/ love to…)
    
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    express a contrast (Not ^\/ Tuesday, | but \Thursday, I said)
    
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    make a (polite) warning or correction (e.g. ^\/ Careful! You mean ^\/ Tuesday )
    

Used about obstruents (fricatives and stops)

Concerns

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  force of articulation (muscular tension)
  
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  voicing
  
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  stronger / weaker friction (fricatives and affricates)
  
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  +/- aspiration (plosives)
  
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  length of preceding vowel (+ sonorants)
  

Fortis: , , , , 

always voiceless

Lenis: , , , 

voiced in word-initial position: , ,

voiced in word-medial position: ()()

usually devoiced in word-final position (except if a voiced sound follows immediately within the same tone unit): 
Fortis/lenis stops

Fortis: , , , 

Always voiceless (exception: intervocalic /t/ in GA)

Lenis: , , , 

Voiced in word-initial position: , ,

Voiced in word-medial position:  

Usually devoiced in word-final position (unless a voiced sound follows immediately within the same tone unit): 
Allophonic variation

Allophones = alternative pronunciations of a phoneme

Complementary distribution: different allophones of a phoneme are used in different context

Example: voiced vs. devoiced lenis fricatives [z] and [z] are allophones. They are not used in the same phonetic environment.

A voiced allophone is used in GA (but not in RP) in intervocalic position before an unstressed syllable, i.e. it is pronounced as the voiced tap []: writer, sitting

but as /t/ if the following syllable is stressed.

potato [p ]
Lenis stops (plosives and affricates)

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  (wholly or partly) devoiced in word-final position
  
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  Voiced in word-initial position
  
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  Voiced in word-medial position (but may be devoiced next to a fortis sound, as in magpie)
  

Devoiced allophones after /p, t, k/

[] as in pie

[] as in take

[] as in Kate

[p] as in spy

[t] as in steak

[k] as in skate