Phonetic reversal

Last updated

Phonetic reversal is the process of reversing the phonemes or phones of a word or phrase. When the reversal is identical to the original, the word or phrase is called a phonetic palindrome. Phonetic reversal is not entirely identical to backmasking, which is specifically the reversal of recorded sound. This is because pronunciation in speech causes a reversed diphthong to sound different in either direction (e.g. eye[aɪ] becoming yah[jɑː]), or differently articulate a consonant depending on where it lies in a word, hence creating an imperfect reversal.

Contents

Backmasking involves not only the reversal of the sounds and order of phonemes or phones, but the reversal of the allophonic realizations of those phonemes. Strictly speaking, a reversal of phonemes will still result in allophones appropriate for the new position; for example, if a word with a final /t/ is reversed so that the /t/ is initial, the initial /t/ will be aspirated in line with the conventional allophonic patterns of English phonology.

According to proponents of reverse speech, phonetic reversal occurs unknowingly during normal speech.

Examples

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Allophone</span> Phone used to pronounce a single phoneme

In phonology, an allophone is one of multiple possible spoken sounds – or phones – used to pronounce a single phoneme in a particular language. For example, in English, the voiceless plosive and the aspirated form are allophones for the phoneme, while these two are considered to be different phonemes in some languages such as Central Thai. Similarly, in Spanish, and are allophones for the phoneme, while these two are considered to be different phonemes in English.

Modern Hebrew has 25 to 27 consonants and 5 to 10 vowels, depending on the speaker and the analysis.

A lateral is a consonant in which the airstream proceeds along one or both of the sides of the tongue, but it is blocked by the tongue from going through the middle of the mouth. An example of a lateral consonant is the English L, as in Larry. Lateral consonants contrast with central consonants, in which the airstream flows through the center of the mouth.

In phonology, minimal pairs are pairs of words or phrases in a particular language, spoken or signed, that differ in only one phonological element, such as a phoneme, toneme or chroneme, and have distinct meanings. They are used to demonstrate that two phones represent two separate phonemes in the language.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Onomatopoeia</span> Words that imitate the sound they describe

Onomatopoeia is the use or creation of a word that phonetically imitates, resembles, or suggests the sound that it describes. Common onomatopoeias include animal noises such as oink, meow, roar, and chirp. Onomatopoeia can differ by language: it conforms to some extent to the broader linguistic system. Hence, the sound of a clock may be expressed variously across languages: thus as tick tock in English, tic tac in Spanish and Italian, dī dā in Mandarin, kachi kachi in Japanese, or tik-tik in Hindi and Bengali.

In phonology and linguistics, a phoneme is a set of phones that can distinguish one word from another in a particular language.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Palindrome</span> Phrases that read the same backward

A palindrome is a word, number, phrase, or other sequence of symbols that reads the same backwards as forwards, such as madam or racecar, the date and time 12/21/33 12:21, and the sentence: "A man, a plan, a canal – Panama". The 19-letter Finnish word saippuakivikauppias, is the longest single-word palindrome in everyday use, while the 12-letter term tattarrattat is the longest in English.

A hidden message is information that is not immediately noticeable, and that must be discovered or uncovered and interpreted before it can be known. Hidden messages include backwards audio messages, hidden visual messages and symbolic or cryptic codes such as a crossword or cipher. Although there are many legitimate examples of hidden messages created with techniques such as backmasking and steganography, many so-called hidden messages are merely fanciful imaginings or apophany.

Phonetic transcription is the visual representation of speech sounds by means of symbols. The most common type of phonetic transcription uses a phonetic alphabet, such as the International Phonetic Alphabet.

In phonetics, the airstream mechanism is the method by which airflow is created in the vocal tract. Along with phonation and articulation, it is one of three main components of speech production. The airstream mechanism is mandatory for most sound production and constitutes the first part of this process, which is called initiation.

In linguistics, vowel length is the perceived length of a vowel sound: the corresponding physical measurement is duration. In some languages vowel length is an important phonemic factor, meaning vowel length can change the meaning of the word, for example in Arabic, Estonian, Finnish, Fijian, Japanese, Kannada, Kyrgyz, Latin, Malayalam, Old English, Scottish Gaelic, Tamil and Vietnamese.

In phonetics, denasalization is the loss of nasal airflow in a nasal sound. That may be due to speech pathology but also occurs when the sinuses are blocked from a common cold, when it is called a nasal voice, which is not a linguistic term. Acoustically, it is the "absence of the expected nasal resonance." The symbol in the Extended IPA is ◌͊.

Australian English (AuE) is a non-rhotic variety of English spoken by most native-born Australians. Phonologically, it is one of the most regionally homogeneous language varieties in the world. Australian English is notable for vowel length contrasts which are absent from most English dialects.

In historical linguistics, phonological change is any sound change that alters the distribution of phonemes in a language. In other words, a language develops a new system of oppositions among its phonemes. Old contrasts may disappear, new ones may emerge, or they may simply be rearranged. Sound change may be an impetus for changes in the phonological structures of a language. One process of phonological change is rephonemicization, in which the distribution of phonemes changes by either addition of new phonemes or a reorganization of existing phonemes. Mergers and splits are types of rephonemicization and are discussed further below.

Backmasking is a recording technique in which a message is recorded backward onto a track that is meant to be played forward. It is a deliberate process, whereas a message found through phonetic reversal may be unintentional.

Phonemic contrast refers to a minimal phonetic difference, that is, small differences in speech sounds, that makes a difference in how the sound is perceived by listeners, and can therefore lead to different mental lexical entries for words. For example, whether a sound is voiced or unvoiced matters for how a sound is perceived in many languages, such that changing this phonetic feature can yield a different word ; see Phoneme. Another example in English of a phonemic contrast would be the difference between leak and league; the minimal difference of voicing between [k] and [g] does lead to the two utterances being perceived as different words. On the other hand, an example that is not a phonemic contrast in English is the difference between and. In this case the minimal difference of vowel length is not a contrast in English and so those two forms would be perceived as different pronunciations of the same word seat.

Talking backwards may refer to:

A lisp is a speech impairment in which a person misarticulates sibilants. These misarticulations often result in unclear speech.

Phonetics is a branch of linguistics that comprises the study of the sounds of human speech.

References

  1. Script for Amadeus
  2. Eshun, Kodwo (2002). "The A-Z of Radiohead". Culture Lab. Archived from the original on 3 July 2001. Retrieved 1 April 2012.
  3. "Backwards Dave Vs Mr Backwards". YouTube . Archived from the original on 2021-12-14. Retrieved 2012-02-09.
  4. "Backwards Dave on Australia's Got Talent". YouTube . Retrieved 2011-05-03.
  5. "Backwards Dave on Sunrise". YouTube . Archived from the original on 2021-12-14. Retrieved 2012-02-09.