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Linguistic of Phonetics

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The aspiration of /p/ /t/ /k/ sounds disappear when they occur after initial /s/ Introduction
If you take a look at the computer-produced waveform in “sty”, you can see the small variations in the waveform corresponding to the fricative /s/, followed by a straight line during the period in which there is no sound because there is a complete stop for the /t/. This is followed by a sound wave very similar to that of the /d/.
When it comes to phonological theory, whether the voiceless unaspirated stops after /s/ should be classified to the phonemes /p, t, k/ or to the phonemes /b, d, g/has always been an issue to phonologists.
The classification of oral stops after initial /s/ in English is an old phonological problem to which different solutions have been proposed. In order to get much deeper understanding toward this topic, we’d raise more references and develop more studies about this issue.

The reason why we’re interested with this topic
All of us were surprised to learn that we’ve never questioned about this issue: English spelling has words beginning with sp, st, sc, or sk, which are pronounced like sb, sd, and sg, yet there are no words in English that begin with sb, sd, and sg. However, we’d never been curious about the misleading spelling and the ways of reading.
Therefore, based on one of our assignments that we did in phonetics class, we were interested to find that it was obvious to tell from PRAAT, that those which are so-called voice stops /b, d, g/ are completely unaspirated when they occur after initial /s/, and it’s somehow the main reason why the sounds are in fact more like sb, sd, sg when it comes to reading words started with sp, st, sk.

Expectations of Findings in Project (1) The Effect of the Loss of Aspiration.
When aspiration is lost in the context the contrast between /p,t,k/ and /b,d,g/ disappears. Roach (2000:34) shows that “the unaspirated “p,t,k” of the initial combinations “sp, st, sk” have the sound quality that makes English speakers perceive a plosive as one of “b,d,g”.

(2) Investigating the effect of context on VOT in Mosuli Arabic.
We will figure out that does /s/ affect the VOT of /p,t,k/ in Mosuli Arabic? More specifically, we expect to find the effect of /s/ on /p,t,k/.

(3) Explain the /p,t,k/ of /sp, st, sk/ were identified with voiced lenis stops” when the /s/ part was removed.
This result can be explained with reference to data on the VOT of English stops reported ,compare the VOT of /p,t,k/ when preceded by /s/ with the VOT of /b,d,g/ .

(4) The role of aspiration
Aspiration is said to play an important role in the identification of /p,t,k/ from /b,d,g/ in initial position in English. However, it does not seem to play the same role in Mosuli Arabic.

(5) What plays the role of identification in Mosuli Arabic.
We assume that cues other than aspiration seem to play such a role in the distinction between the voiceless stops and their voiced counterparts; namely, the different VOT ranges of the voiceless stops and the voiced stops.

Participants and materials of this project (1) Who will produce the sound/voice for the study?
Four English subjects between the ages of 20 and 26 (mean age 23) will take part in the experiment. Two of these subjects were native English speakers .None of them had received formal instruction in phonetics or phonology in the past and all of them had a similar educational background. However, the other two are students with major in Business and Environment Engineer .
Subject A: Greg B. he is a 26-year-old Canadian, graduating from University of Alberta. Now he is a teacher , specialized in IELTS, TOEFL, and English conversation.

Subject B: Jonathan A he is a typical English man, also the same age as Greg B. He graduated from the University of London and achieved B.A degree. Now he moved to Taiwan and work in a foreign company.

Subject C: Star Lee, is 21-year-old Chinese girl. She is studying in mainland china with major in Environment Engineering. Although she is not native English speaker ,she has studied English for more than 10 years.

Subject D: Andrew Wang, is 21-year-old Chinese boy. He is studying in the Hong Kong Polytechnic University with major in Business Management. He has studied in Europe as an exchange student for about one year. Due to his education environment ,he posses excellent English skill.

For this reason, the whole group could be described as educated but “phonetically naive”. Subjects reported no history of a speech or hearing disorder.

(2) What words, sentences, or passages will be used in the study, and why? sc: scale, scar, scarecrow, scarf, scorpion scale: However, he underestimates the scale of the problem.
Scar: He had a scar on his forehead.
Scarecrow: People create an effigy and dress him up like a scarecrow when the new year comes.
Scarf: He reached up to loosen the scarf around his neck.
Scorpion: The scorpion says, ’Because if I do ,I will die too’. sk: skateboard, skeleton, ski, skirt, skull skateboard: He love to skateboard and swims. skeleton: The skeleton showed no sign of disease or injury. ski: I wondered what he meant, for when I ski it is always with trepidation. skirt: The skirt lends charm to her. skull: He whomped the ruffian on the skull. st: stamp, star, steam, stinger, stool stamp: He gave the stamp a lick. star: The star seemed to twinkle hope to us. steam: Steam and hot water erupt from geysers. stinger: This extremely poisonous marine stinger frequents Australia’s northern oceans all year round. stool: Look out! Don’t knock the stool over. sp: spaceship, spade, spider, sponge, spoon spaceship: They successfully lofted a spaceship into orbit. spade: He laid the spade by the door. spider: Do you think that the spider can web anything? sponge: A sponge absorbs water. spoon: The silver spoon tarnished. (3) What instrument will help you complete the study, e.g., Praat or anything else?
We will use praat to analyze our sound file.

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