Experimental phonetics

The Perceptual (Auditory) Aspect
The way of hearing speech utterances is the object of the perceptual phonetics. It is a psychological perception which makes it possible to hear different noises which may be classified in terms of three features: continuity, resonance and timbre.Continuity. The stops /p, t, k, g etc./ consist of momentary noise. The glides last somewhat longer but cannot be drawn out at will (especially in English /h, j, w, r/, the short vowels and the second elements of the diphthongs). The continuants can be drawn out at will (spirants, nasals, /1/ and long vowels). The trills consist of a rapid sequence of taps and can also be drawn out at will (especially, the Scottish /г/ and the glottal catch which accompanies the fadeaway). Resonance. The voiceless sounds consist of a silent noise. The vowels are generated by the musical tone without any obstruction. The voiced obstruents (stops and fricatives) are characterized by buss.Tim bre. By the term timbre we mean the quality of the voice, specified by the harmonic overtones and resonance tones based on it. Auditorily it is called pitch and overall timbre. In terms of overall timbre, the vowels, liquids and nasals are either bright and thin (such as/i/), dark and full (such as /a:/) or dull and neutral (such as hi). The English /1/ has a bright variant initially in British English, but it is dark and full in most varieties of American English. The hisses Is, zI are bright and thin, the hushes /1 ,3 / bright and full, the spirants /f, 0/ dull and neutral.Some linguists categorize timbre in terms of two dimensions: grave (dull) - acute (bright), compact (full) - diffuse (thin).
The English stops may have burst variants (explosives) initially, snap variants (implosives) finally. The stops It, d/ have single tap (flap) variants medially as in Betty - beddy in American English. In British English /г/ has a similar tap variant medially (as in bury) in the initial cluster /br/. Double stops consist of snap + momentary silence + burst medially in British and Australian English. The snaps are rebased into a following vowel with a slight click. No release is audible before a following consonant as for IkJ in act, fact, ticked, like this. The voiceless bursts of English are known as aspirated and they are released into a weak white noise.The affricates /tj, dzl are bursts released into a hushy noise. The glottalized stops have snaps in a final position in British English (that). As we have seen, the auditory aspect uses its own terms as dark, light, full, thin, neutral, burst, click, snap, etc. which may be interpreted in articulatory and acoustic terms. There are also some other facts of perception in longer utterances

or segments realized in various pitch patterns and intonation contours. The perceptual approach is of great theoretical and practical value. Theoretically it is very important to study scientifically how the language signal may be perceived by the listener. This problem is closely coordinated not only by the psychological facts of hearing, but the most important event lies on the neurological basis that is controlled by the brain through the complex nervous and sensory systems and also by muscular activity. The practical significance of the perceptual approach may be proved by the facts of mastering the pronunciation of a foreign language. Before trying to produce a foreign language the students should listen to them and perceive the differences between the sounds of their own language and those of the foreign language. Listening, in this case, becomes very important. The instructions in foreign language pronunciation teaching usually begin with listening, than the coming identification of speech utterances, transcribing, listening and repeating and at last writing notes on the elements to be drilled