Airstream mechanism in phonetics and phonology

1. Airstream
Mechanism
Umm-e-RoomanYaqoob

2. Group 2 Members:
• Umm-e-RoomanYaqoob Roll No. 03 (Leader)
• Faiza Anwar Kamal Roll No. 19
• Samia Shabbir Roll No. 24
• Rabia Ashiq Roll No. 28
• Kinza Qaisarani Roll No. 37
• Sara George Roll No. 38
• Mehak Rasool Roll No. 43

3. Umm-e-Rooman Yaqoob
Roll No. 03

4. Articulatory phonetics
• Humans produce differentkinds of sounds, not all
related to language (e.g, coughing, burping).
• Majoraspects of speech production:
i. airstream mechanism
ii. stateof the vocal cords
iii. state of the velum
iv. place& manner of articulation

5. Speech Sounds
• All speech sounds result from air being somehow obstructed or
modifiedwithinthevocal tract. This involves three processes
working together:
a) theairstream process--the source of air used in makingthe
sound.
b) thephonationprocess--the behaviour of the vocal cords in
the glottis duringthe production of the sound.
c) theoro-nasal process--the modificationof flowof air in the
vocal track (from theglottis to thelips and nose).

7. Airstreammechanism
• In phonetics,the airstream mechanism is themethod
by which airflow is createdin the vocal tract.Along
with phonation and articulation,it is one of three
main components of speech production. The
airstreammechanism is mandatory for sound
production and constitutesthe first part of this
process, which is calledinitiation.

8. Creating Pressure
• We initiate airflowby creating pressure in the vocal
tract.
• Direction of initiatorymovement createstwo types of
pressure:
a. Positive Pressure = Egressive= Outgoing
b. Negative Pressure = Ingressive = Incoming

9. Locations of Initiation
• Initiation at lungs
• Initiation at glottis
• Initiationat velum
• Pulmonic Egressive (common)
• Pulmonic Ingressive (rare)
• GlottalicEgressive (Ejectives)
• GlottalicIngressive (Implosives)
• VelaricEgressive (Clicks)
• VelaricIngressive (Not used)

10. Mehak Rasool
Roll No. 43

11. Pulmonic initiation
• Initiationby means of the lungs (actuallythe
diaphragmand ribs) is calledpulmonicinitiation.
• The airstreamwhich originatesin the lungsis calleda
pulmonic airstream,and since the air flowsoutward, it
is saidto be egressive (i.e. outgoing).
• However, the air can alsoflow inward,in which case
we talkof an ingressive airstream.

12. Egressive Pulmonic Airstream
• Pulmonicegressive soundsare foundin allhuman
languages. In many languages,such as English,all of the
soundsare pulmonicegressive.
• Pulmonicegressive, where the air ispushedout of the
lungs by the ribs and diaphragm.All human languages
employ such sounds(such as vowels), and nearly three
outof four use them exclusively.

13. • The majorityof human sounds are produced by an
egressive pulmonic airstream.This movement
describes an outgoing airstreamproduced by the lungs
and is regarded as the only airstreammechanism that
uses lung air.
• All Englishsounds (both consonantsand vowels) are
produced by an egressive pulmonic air-stream
mechanism, because we speak while we expel airfrom
our lungs (thistype of airstreammechanism isalso
common in other European languages).

14. Rabia Ashiq
Roll No. 28

15. Pulmonic ingressive
• There is another variety of pulmonic airstream
mechanism. Inhaled air can also be modified to produce
speech sounds. This actually occurs in a few rare and
special cases, such as in Tsou, an aboriginal language of
Taiwan, which has inhaled [f] and [h]; Such sounds are
called pulmonic ingressive sounds, and the airstream
mechanism for making such sounds is called the
ingressive pulmonic airstream mechanism.

16. • In the 1980s, a dialectof Tsou was discovered which
made use of pulmonic ingressive sounds.
• In interjections,but notin normal words, pulmonic
ingressive vowels or words occur on allcontinents
• The majorityof humansounds are produced by an
egressive pulmonicairstreaminsteadof ingressive
pulmonic airstream.

17. Glottalic initiation
• It is possible to initiate airflow in the uppervocal
tract by means of the vocal cords or glottis. This is
known as glottalicinitiation.
• There are two types of initiation inglottis:
i. Ejectives
ii. Implosives

18. • Glottalicegressive, where the air columnis
compressed as the glottismoves upward. Such
consonantsare calledejectives. Ejectiveand ejective-
like consonantsoccur in 16% of the languages.
• Glottalicingressive, where the aircolumn is rarefiedas
the glottismoves downward.Such consonantsare
calledimplosives. Implosiveand implosive-like
consonantsoccur in 13% of the world's languages.

19. Sara George
Roll No. 38

20. Egressive glottalic initiation
• For egressive glottalic initiation,one lowers the glottis (as if to
sing a low note),closes it as for a glottalstop, and thenraises it,
building up pressure in theoral cavity and upper trachea.
• Glottalicegressives are called ejectives. The glottis mustbe fully
closed to form glottalic egressives, or the air column would flow
backwards over it; it is therefore impossible to pronounce
voiced ejectives. Ejective allophones of voiceless stops occur in
many varieties of Englishat theends of intonationunits.

21. Ejectives

22. Ingressive glottalic
• Glottalic ingressives are called implosives, althoughthey may
involve zero airflow rather thanactual inflow.Because theair
column would flow forwards over thedescending glottis, it is
not necessary to fullyclose it, and implosives may be voiced;
indeed, voiceless implosives are exceedingly rare.
• It is usualfor implosives to be voiced. Insteadof keeping the
glottis tightlyclosed, it is tensed but left slightly open to allow
a thinstream of air through.

23. • If the closed glottis is lowered to create a smallvacuum in
the mouth, an implosive consonant is produced. The
lowering glottis acts like the downward movement of a
piston to create a brief rarification of the air in the vocal
tract. When the stricture in the mouth is released air moves
into the mouth.
• Swahili has three implosives: [b], [d], [g]. Implosives occur
mostly in languages of east Africa, in several Amerindian
languages andin some IE languages of northern India.

24. Faiza Anwar Kamal
Roll No. 19

25. Lingual(velaric) initiation
• The thirdform of initiationinhumanlanguageis lingualor velaric
initiation,wherea sound is produced by a closure at twoplaces of
articulation,and the airstream is formed by movement of the bodyof
the tongue. Lingualstops are more commonlyknownas clicks, and
are almostuniversally ingressive.
• There is regular oral articulation,while the back of tongueseals off air
from the lungs andcreates a relative vacuum.
• Englishuses a few of them for quasi-linguistic sound gestures:
'grandmother's kiss' (bilabialclick),encouragingahorse (lateral click),
tisk-tisk(actually adental or alveolar click).

26. Velaric egressive
• Lingualegressive initiation is performed by reversing the
sequence of alingual ingressive:the front andback of the
tongue (or lips and back of the tongue) seal off the vocal
cavity, andthe cheeks and middle of the tongue move
inward andupward to increase oral pressure.
• Velaric egressive sounds are physically impossible because
there is no way to compress the portion of the oral tract
between the velar closure andthe anterior closure.

27. Velaric ingressive
• Velaricingressive sounds are called clicks.Many
Englishspeakers have someclicks used
paralinguistically.For example, the kissingsoundthat
many peoplemake at babiesis a bilabialclick.The
sound thatsome people use to callto horsesis an
alveolarclick. The only languagesthat use clicks as
regular speech soundsare foundin Southern Africa.

28. • To produce a lingualingressive airstream, first close the vocal
tract at two places: at the back of the tongue, as in a velar or
uvularstop, and simultaneously withthe front of the tongue
or thelips, as in a coronal or bilabial stop. These holds may be
voiced or nasalized. Thenlower the body of the tongue to
rarefy theair above it.
• Theclosure at thefront of the tongue is opened first, as the
click "release"; thentheclosure at theback is released for the
pulmonic or glottalic click "accompaniment"or "efflux".This
may be aspirated, affricated, or even ejective.

29. Kinza Qaisrani
Roll No. 37

30. Consonants vs. vowels
• Consonants: there is obstructionin the oraltract.
• Vowels: no hindrance to the outflowofair.
• Liquids& nasals:the air flows out freely .
• Glides: don’tform nuclei ofsyllables,butoccur on the
edges ofsyllables.
• Vowel: produced with openapproximationandis a
syllablenuclei (excludingglides, syllabicliquids &
nasals).

31. Place of articulation

32. Consonantal place ofarticulation
• The place of articulationis definedin terms of
articulatorsThese may be: lips,teeth, alveolarridge,
tongue tip (apex),tongue blade(laminus),or back
of the tongue (dorsum), hard palate,soft palate
(velum), uvula, glottis,pharynx.
• Followingare some of the sounds produced by
airstreammechanism:

33. Umm-e-Rooman Yaqoob
Roll No. 03

34. • bilabial[b, p,m, w]
• labiodental,[f, v]
• interdental, [T,D]
• alveolar (apico-orlamino-)tongue andalveolar
ridge (compare 'ten' vs.'tenth').
Examples:English[t, d,s, z]
• postalveolar or palatoalveolar (apico-or lamino-
)(English [S]/[Z]).

35. • palatal(apico-or lamino-)(English[j]), [S]/[Z] in
many languages.
• velaror dorso-velarEng.[k, g,N] German[x] Greek
[V].
• uvularFrench [R], also found in many German
dialects.
• glottal(glottalstop, the vocal chords are the two
articulators[h] is a glottalicfricativesound.

36. Thank You Very Much
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