 Good morning. Good morning, sir. Are you all right? Yes, sir. Lovely. Let's try and continue talking about speech sounds in natural languages and we have seen during the last two weeks that all speech sounds can be broadly classified into two major categories. What are those categories? Vavels and consonants. Vavels differ from consonants, consonants differ from Vavels though there are consonants which look like Vavels, but don't behave like Vavels. There are consonants which behave like Vavels, but don't look like Vavels, but they are very few. You know nature always has exceptions to many rules. You read in a book of anatomy that most people have only 32 teeth, but suddenly you come across someone who has 34 teeth or you suddenly come across someone who has six fingers. They are, for want of better word, we call them the freaks of nature. But by and large consonants are consonants and Vavels are Vavels. How do Vavels differ from consonants? Vavels are voiced, oral and unobstructed. All the three things together, no exception to that. If they are not voiced, if they are not oral or if they are not or if they are obstructed, if they are not unobstructed, then they are not Vavels. Consonants on the other hand is everything else. A consonant may or may not be oral, may or may not be voiced, may or may not be obstructed. Yesterday we also saw that there can be different kinds of consonants. Do you remember major classes? Can you name any major class of consonants? Plosives. What are plosives? Plosives are those consonants which have total obstruction and major class of consonants actually major classes of consonants. So number one, we have plosive. What is the characteristic of a plosive sound? A plosive sound is produced with total obstruction and sudden release. Please write, total obstruction but sudden release. Then we have a class of sounds for neticians called affricate. What are they? How do you, how do you define affricates? What is the characteristic of affricate sound? It has total obstruction but gradual release. Marvelous. God bless you. And then we talked about fricatives. What are their characteristics? They have partial obstruction, partial audible obstruction because the obstruction is partial. So the question of release does not arise. We also looked at the English language sounds, major sounds, major classes in the English language. And we saw that English has about half a dozen plosive sounds, nine, sorry, a pair of affricate sounds and nine fricative sounds. A little too many, you know. In many Indian languages we do not have as many fricative sounds but we have many more plosive sounds. What is the lesson for us? The lesson for us is that nature has broad classes but each class, are you with me? I am trying to state a scientific truth. Nature has broad classes. Nature has major classes. In anatomy and physiology books you will see that all men have a nose, women also have a nose. But no two noses are alike. Races differ from one another depending upon the geometry of nose or trigonometry of nose. So you know, we have major class of sounds but local variations. English has nine fricatives but only six plosives. There are Indian languages which have nine plosives or a dozen plosives but only two or three fricatives. There are languages which have no fricatives. There are languages which have very few consonants, more vowels. There are languages which have more consonants, few vowels. All of these combinations and permutations are there in nature. But the fact of life is that there are these major classes of sounds that differ from one another. So far we have looked at English and we have seen that English has half a dozen plosives, a pair of fricative sounds and nine fricative sounds. So how many do we get that with? Seventeen, right? English also has nasal sounds. Sounds in the production of which vealum is, see this is vealum. Are you with me? Are we together? Please look at the screen and you know, just see the arrowhead. This is vealum or uvula. When uvula is raised, speech air passes through, please complete the sentence. When uvula is raised, speech air passes through the mouth, through the oral passage. But when uvula is lowered, speech air passes through the nasal passage and we produce nasal sounds. Many languages in the world, some languages have lot more. English has only three. Malayalam, Tamil have five each. Telugu has about three or four. Malayalam is supposed to have the largest number of nasal sounds. Anybody who speaks Malayalam in this class? If you have Malayalam speaking friends, ask them to produce nasal sounds. And they have nasal sounds from the lips, from the alveolar ridge, from the heart pallet, from the soft pallet, from pharris, from nearly everywhere. Americans also have more nasal sounds than the British. You know, when you hear an American for the first time, you think he is talking like, you know, from his nose. It does happen, you see. So, there can be nasal sounds, there can be oral sounds and there is a third category. There can be nasalized sounds. When uvula or this, you know, vilum, this is only partially lowered, not fully lowered, not fully raised. Then what's the result? The speech here partly passes through oral passage and partly through nasal passage. Then you have nasalized sounds. You know, sometimes you come across people who speak with a nasal twang. And you know, some Americans, particularly after certain words, you know, they have a nasal twang. I have a friend, unfortunately. He passed away some years ago. And when we were boys, we used to make fun of him. But later on, all our lives, we kept apologizing to him because he became a very powerful person. You know, billionaire and all that through business. And we used to look up to him and we used to say, thank you. And he would say, welcome. These are the freaks of nature. It can happen. Look at the English language. So English also has, like many other languages, nasal sounds. What is the characteristic of nasal sound? All nasal sounds are produced when uvula is raised or lowered. Lowered. So that speech here passes through the nasal passage. Keep your, you know, like Hitler's salute. Keep your hand upward or downward near your nose. And just produce sounds like, do it or say, do you feel, where do you feel the air is coming from? From your mouth or from your nose? From your nose. It's the nasal passage. English also has nasal sounds. Let's see the English list. English has m. It's not ma. What is it? It is m. What is it? Both your lips tightly shut together and air passes through the nasal passage and you get the nasal sound. How do you describe it? Don't look at the screen and try and describe it. Attempt your own description, please. You know, in the end you can look at the screen. First try m as in met or as in mat or as in meat. And then say voiced. Then it's bilavial and then nasal. Wonderful, really. Voiced, bilavial, nasal. Okay. Let's go to the next. Don't look at the screen. Now attempt your own description and then compare with the given description. The best way to learn is these things is by doing it. How do you describe it? Voiced, place of articulation, alveolar. Great. But in our languages, in Indian languages, you know, we don't say not. We say nahi. Okay. We say na-na. We don't say na-na. Do we say that? Unless you go to an English medium school, of course. You know. We say na-na. We have it dental. But in English it is alveolar. Okay. And then nasal. So what's the three-term level for? Close your eyes and tell me, please, everybody together. Voiced, alveolar, nasal. Lovely. English has another sound. It occurs in only non-initial positions of the word. You don't have a word beginning with ng. Okay. Even in, as far as I know, even in Hindi and Sanskrit, you don't have a word that begins with ng. I think it is true also of Telugu. You don't have a word beginning with ng. But. Okay. This particular sound occurs in non-initial positions. Such as when you say ring, king, bring, long. Okay. In our languages also we have this sound. Ganga, changa. Okay. Right. So you know, how do you describe this sound? Do it, produce it. Don't look at the screen. Have your own description and then compare. Voiced or voiceless? Voiced. All nasal sounds are voiced. All nasal sounds are necessarily voiced. There is no exception. Okay. Then let's say place of articulation. Which part of your oral passage? Which part of the tongue creates obstruction? Back of the tongue touches the vealum. Therefore, vealur and nasal. Marvelous. You guys are, you know, great fanaticians. I hope you have a future in fanatics. Okay. I was telling you before, you know, as we began this morning, I was also telling you about some vowel sounds. Some consonants are produced like vowels. Okay. What is the characteristic of vowels? Vowels are oral, continuous and voiced. Vowels are voiced, oral and unobstructed. Or continuous. There are some consonant sounds which come in one group. Okay. They are also produced like vowels. Like, you know, Yara Lava. In our alphabet also, we group them together in one corner. Okay. In Roman writing system, which is what English uses. They are all over. Okay. But we are not talking about writing. We are talking about speech. We are also talking about writing perhaps. All right. So, you know, these sounds are continuous. They are grouped together as continuous sounds. Or in layman's language, we call them semi-vowels. Continuance or semi-vowels. Okay. Now, how do you describe them? Very simple. We describe them, you know, just as we did the vowels. Okay. So, for instance, the first sound. Produce it. Okay. Is it voiced or voiceless? Keep your finger here. Voiced, obviously. Okay. I could have said continuous at the end. I should have said tap and trill. You know. How is it produced? Look at the mechanism of nature. When you produce. And you can have, you can have various kinds of. It's a broad class of sounds. There are smaller variations. You can have. Do it. You can only have as in road. But you know, in my part of the country, when sheffards take their goat and sheep for grazing and if the sheep get stuck in one particular place, then they drive the sheep through this way. And the sheep will start moving. Maybe, you know, they have some acoustic effect. I don't know. So, there can be a variety of different kinds of. But all. Is characterized by this particular articulatory movement. The near between the tip and the blade of the tongue. Okay. Let's call it the front of the tongue, the tip of the tongue. You know, curls backwards, this position. And then it touches the upper teeth. And sideways along the tongue, the speech air can flow. Okay. And as the speech air flows, the front of the tongue is released. And then comes back into contact again. Understand the process. Understand the mechanics, please. The tip of the tongue makes a contact. Sorry. The front of the tongue makes a contact in English with alveolar age, in Indian languages with upper teeth. And then it releases the contact. In this process, all along is speech air flows through, flows along the sides of the tongue. Because everywhere else, there is opening. But this contact, you know, can happen once. When you say road. Say it. It can happen several times in a second. When you say, do it. It strikes several times, like you are playing tabla. Okay. It strikes several times, this way. You know. Okay. So it is either tap or trill. And when you say tap or trill, it means that it is produced from the front of the tongue. Okay. So how shall we describe it? Simple. We will say, as in road, voiced, tap or trill, then continuant. Okay. Voiced, tap or trill, then continuant. You see, the manner features should have come last. I made a mistake by putting it in the middle. You can bring it to the last. Okay. As in road. But look at. Okay. What is the next sound? Feel your tongue. You just see how it happens. Do it alternately. Say. Do you feel tongue makes a different kind of movement? What is the difference? What is the difference? Come on. Please, somebody, allow yourself to be laughed at. Okay. What is the difference? Come on, please. The difference is when you say, the sides of the tongue fold. You know, imagine some sheet of cloth, some curtain. Okay. Which is still in the contact in center, but it folds like this. It folds actually upwards. Tongue folds is like this. It folds upward and this side and this side. Look at the diagram. You know, the speech air flows. This is your tongue. When you produce, then tip of the tongue is in contact with the upper teeth or alveolar edge somewhere in that portion of your mouth and sides of the tongue curl, sides of the tongue fold so that all speech air escapes along the sides of the tongue. Okay. And you get the sound whereas when you produce the sides do not curl. You know, the opening near the mouth lets the air pass or when you release the tap, when there is there is contact, but when you remove the front of the tongue, the air passes. Okay. That's the difference between road and load. Many languages, many people, you know. Like, you know, I told you about my cousins in my village. We don't distinguish between sir and many people in south, you know. When I travel from my home to Chennai by railway train, we know from the, you know, the voice of the vendors whether we are in Bhuvaneswar or whether we are in Visakhapatnam. In Bhuvaneswar, they sell coffee, coffee. But in Visakhapatnam, they sell copy, copy. Okay. They don't sell. They each place has its variations. Similarly in south station languages, if you go to China, Japan, many people, not everyone of course, you know, many people don't distinguish between road and load. So when they tell give you the car, they will tell you, well, you have a long load or they can say you have a wrong load when they mean you have a long road. How would you correct them if you want, if you have to correct them? Very simple. You will guide their tongue movement. You will say when you want to say l, you should fold the sides of the tongue. When you want to say r, you should release the front of the tongue. Very simple, you know. How shall we describe it? How shall we describe it? As in load, it is voiced because air passes laterally and laterally means sides of the tongue. So in literature, you will find it written as voiced lateral continuum. Okay. Simple. Look at ear. Ear is nothing but a combination of two vowels, e and a. Say it quickly together. E and a. Say it quickly. That is ear. And w, w and a quickly together. Just say w, w. So one is a diphthong from the front of the mouth, the other is a diphthong from the back of the mouth. Ear is a diphthong from the front of the mouth and w is a diphthong from the back of the mouth. Very simple. Ear, as in yet, how do we describe it? Voiced, palatal, semi-vowel. Palatal, you could also say voiced, front, semi-vowel. No problem. Because there is only one. Or you can say w, as in wet. To say w, you have to round your lips. Round your lips and say w. You cannot say it with flat lips. Okay. Ordinarily speaking. So wet, as in wet, it is voiced, labial, because lips are involved. You could also say back. Okay. Voiced, back, semi-vowel. So English has three nasal sounds, four continuance. How many sounds does it make? 24. English, standard British English is supposed to have 24 consonants. But you see, it is not the case that it is all alike. You know, when next week, when we begin talking about phonology, I am going to contradict all of this. I am going to tell you what we have studied so far is science fiction. Reality of life, reality in nature is a little different. But at the moment, we are learning the terminology rather than a particular language. This terminology, the idea of using three-term labels referring to articulatory movements can be applied across languages. It is not that you can describe only English or Latin or Sanskrit or French with it. You can describe practically any language. You can apply it to the description of mother tongue. Say for instance, I have taken some examples here from my mother tongue. So, you know, I gave you the demonstration. The other day, you can take your own mother tongue. Think of a word beginning with right as I have written. K as in please and take a Telugu word. K as in Koti, you know. That is the first name that comes to my mind because of Hyderabad. K as in write it on the notebook in this manner. First write the sound, sound that is the speech sound. Then write the word where it occurs as in. Then because Telugu is not known to all, because Maitreya is not known to all. So, we give meaning, English meaning in within quotes. Like this, you know, meaning. And then we use three term level. So, for instance, I have said K as in con, which means ear. The three term level is voiceless, velar, plosive. Simple. I want you to take example from your mother tongue, not from my mother tongue, please. Okay. We also have unlike English another variety and that is where we have to use a different terminology. Say for instance, we have something called use superscript. When you do it on your computer, please use superscript. It is not parallel. Can you see the difference? Yes or no, please. Okay. So, it is not parallel. It is superscript. K as in con. I am using normal spelling, not phonetic transcription here. Con as in the meaning is mine. How do we describe it? It is still voiceless. It is still velar. It is still plosive, but I want your total attention. Are we together? Everybody please. Okay. When does ka change into ka? That is the question. So, what we do is as we release the obstruction, okay, say for instance, take pa. Both your lips are together, cheek puffs and you suddenly release it and you get pa. Okay. But as you release it, now see the mechanics, now see the turbulence. Okay. As you release it, you add another puff of, an extra puff of air. Okay. So, it becomes pa plus quickly. Yeah, pa plus quickly, very quick. So quick that it becomes pa. Okay. So quick that it becomes ka, agha, achha, atha. Okay. Another added extra puff of air. Because puff of air in Latin is aspiration, inspiration is taking in, throwing out is aspiration. So here, funerations call it, velar, aspirated, aspirated, plosive. Are we together? Do you understand? Yes or no, please. Am I too rapid? Okay, if you don't please try it once again, you know. The difference between ka and ka is that in, in the production of the speech sound ka, we add an extra breath of air, extra puff of air, you know. Immediately after the release of obstruction. Release of obstruction is essential for the production of plosive sound. But when you add an extra puff of air, it becomes aspirated. Please make a note. Look at another very simple ka, ka. Let's take ga in Maitre. Okay. This is, what is it in Maitre? Gaam. You should be able to, gaam meaning village. How do we describe it? Come, give me the terminology please. Voiced, velar, then plosive. But when we take, mark the superscript, it is never parallel. Okay. But here in orthography, normal orthography, I am using Roman alphabet to transcribe the word. I am going to write it parallel. Gaam. In English it will mean sweat. Okay. How do we describe it again? Give me the description please. Voiced or voiceless? Voiced. Place of articulation? Everybody please. Place of articulation? Velar. Great. What is extra thing? How do you describe it? Aspirated. Plosive. It doesn't matter. You can also say plosive aspirated or aspirated plosive. But in many books you will find aspirated plosive. In some books you can also find plosive aspirated. Hardly matters, you know. What is required is voiced or voiceless, place of articulation, manner of articulation. Correct? Okay. Chur as in, you know, as in Telugu word. Can you give me a Telugu word with chur? As in... Okay. As in kuchur. Or as in chanty. Right. Please describe it. The symbol for chur is, this is the symbol for chur. You know, I have deliberately used lower case on the screen just to show that our chur is not affricate. Okay. In Indian languages, it is not affricate. Chur. Write it in this manner. Give me a word with chur. Come on, please. Which word? Chur chur. Is that Telugu? Chakram. Chakram. Or in Telugu, in Tamil, chakram. Sugar. Okay. What does it mean? Write. Wheel. Voiced or voiceless? Feel it. Just say ch. Voiceless. If you add a, then it becomes voiceless. If you say chur, then it is voiceless. Just say ch. Just say ch. Is it voiced? It is voiceless. Okay. Palatal. Manor of release of obstruction. Plosive. Does Telugu have ch? Does Telugu have this sound? In my mother tongue, we have. Do you have this sound? Chur. I think Dravidian languages, you can have Sanskrit origin words like Chhatram, the canopy or Chhatrapati, you know. But in my mother tongue, in many North Indian, Indo-Aryan languages, particularly North India, Northeast, we have ch. So, for example, I have said chur. Chur can mean quit. It can mean end. It can mean a whole lot of things. Different things. It is voiceless, palatal, aspirated. Plosive. Okay. Right. I think, you know, we can go on. We can urge her. We can describe. It may not be a bad idea to take at least six sounds from your mother tongue. Please describe it in this manner. Mail it to me. This is an assignment. Not doing which will bring you no punishment, but doing it will bring you reward. You will understand. So, I don't make it compulsory, but if you try describing some sounds in your mother tongue, one quick test. Can I give you one quick test for two minutes? And then I will say, thank you. Have a good day, nice weekend. Okay. And I'll pray for distinction to everyone without work. Right? Okay. Be ready, please. I am going to tell you the three-term level and you are going to write the symbol. Ready? Voiced, interdental, fricative as in English. Voiced, why English, you know? Voiced, interdental, fricative. Just write the symbol and compare with the symbol I write. Voiced, interdental, fricative. This is the symbol. How many people got it right? Raise your hands. Raise your hands, please. Nobody? Okay, at least two. I was going to jump from the third floor of this building. I have been shouting myself out. Okay. Voiced, bilevial, plosive. Voiced, bilevial, plosive. Right, the same one. Okay. Voiced, leviorental, fricative. Voiced, voiced, not voiceless. Voiced is one last. Voiced, veeler nasal. Voiced, veeler nasal as in king ring. Okay, actually you should have some practice using symbols. First write your name. Say for example, my name using phonetic transcription. What is your name? Write it on you quickly using phonetic transcription. What is the name of our institute? Indian Institute of Technology. Tell me what is it I am writing now? What is it? Technology. Okay, write Indian. Okay, you must have some practice in using these. If you have an English dictionary, you get symbols. I have already given you a copy of these phonetic symbols for English. You know, if you go to Google, if you just Google IPA chart, you will get a chart on your screen, save it, download it, save it, and use it for, and you see, you will have a new power. You will have learned an alphabet which only you and a few other people use. You can use that for conversation, for communication, for transcription, for a variety of things. Any questions please? Thank you. Have a good day.