ENGLISH PHONETICS AND PHONOLOGY Year I, Term 1

This course will enable the students to recognize, transcribe and describe the English sounds
in general phonetic terms and to master the basic phonetic characteristics of the English
language. At the same time, they will have the possibility to improve their knowledge of
English pronunciation in relationship with the English spelling.
Phonetics and phonology are two closely related branches of linguistics, the science which
studies human language in all its aspects.

Speech sounds
Both phonetics and phonology deal with human speech sounds. Speech
sounds are the sounds we produce when we want to communicate, that is,
the sounds that build up our words and sentences. Unlike animals, which
use sets of sounds at random to transmit brief uncomplicated messages
(e.g., a honey-bee dancing in front of its hive), human beings can combine
their sounds in a precise order so as to form larger units and to convey
much ampler and more abstract meaning.
Speaking a language we are intuitively aware that in order to pronounce it
correctly (or accurately) we have to follow a certain pattern and pick those
sounds that characterize it. This is because, as already stated, each
language uses a closed set of sounds, and native speakers have the builtin ability to identify those sounds and associations of sounds, which
normally occur in their language and distinguish them from alien ones. It
is usually when we try to learn a foreign language that we start to realize
what is typical of it.
For example, a Romanian will have difficulties when learning how to
master the difference between the initial sound in the word there [D] and
the corresponding sound in dare [d] because the former sound does not
belong to the inventory of sounds of his own language.
Although each language can only make use of a finite set of sounds, each
set is different, so there is no natural language that employs, has
employed or probably will ever employ the same sounds as another one.
The sound system of any language changes in time. This is due to the fact
that the vocal tract of a human being is sophisticated enough to produce
an amazingly large variety of speech sounds, so that when the generations
of speakers change, the sounds they use will also change, even if only
imperceptibly, under various conditioning factors.
Small changes turn over centuries into big shifts. This explains, for
instance, why the sets of sounds of related languages, e.g., Romanian,
Italian, French, etc. are not identical among themselves and with the
sounds of the motherlanguage they all emerged from in our example:
Latin.

The linguistic sign

When we communicate through language we actually use sounds to convey meanings.The

Swiss linguist Ferdinand de Saussure gave a coherent and scientific interpretation of language
as a system of signs.In Saussures theory,linguistic signs have a dual structure: any linguistic
sign is made up of a significant(English-signifier),that is anacoustic image(the phonological
skeleton of the word) and a signifie(English-signified),or a concept to which the respective
acoustic image sends.The acoustic image is primarily a psychologic and not a material
reality,which is proved by the fact that we can speak to ourselves without articulating the
words whose acoustic image is only present in our mind.There are two essential features of
the linguistic sign in Saussures opinion:its arbitrariness and the linearity of the signifier.
1.Arbitrariness of the sign the arbitrariness of the relation holding between the signifier and
the signified.The link between them is arbitrary because there is no reason for which a certain
acoustic image should be associated with a certain concept,meaning.As far as the arbitrariness
of the linguistic sign is concerned,there are two situations in which we can talk about some
sort of match between the acoustic image and the concept: the onomatopoeias and the
exclamations.

The International Phonetic Alphabet

As a means of communication, language is fundamentally oral. Writing is
subordinate to speech and thinking, as its role is that of fixing ideas in a
more or less durable material by means of symbols.
An alphabet is a much more economical system of writing, as it starts from
the idea that every sound should be represented by one symbol, a letter.
Nowadays, the most frequently employed alphabet is the Latin one, which
has been adapted by many languages according to their phonetic system.
In the English spelling, for instance, the relationship between the
pronunciation and the spelling of words has become apparently so lax that
learners have to memorize strings of letters whose value is different in
different contexts: think, e.g., of the English ghost, laugh and thought. In
the first word, the graphic sequence gh is pronounced [g], and in the
second, [f], but in the third it is not pronounced at all.
Faced with the imperfections and irregularities characterizing the
alphabets of natural languages, in order to be able to refer unambiguously
and rigorously to speech sounds, linguists have come to design special
phonetic alphabets. Nowadays, the best known in the scientific world is
the alphabet of the International Phonetic Association (in short: IPA ) which can
be used for the notation of speech sounds from all natural languages.
The IPA was first devised at the end of the 19th century, and ever since it
has been regularly revised and updated, so as to accommodate sounds
features and from languages that are still being studied.
Like any alphabet, IPA makes use of letters and other small symbols
attached to them (diacritics), which can express the tiniest nuances of
pronunciation. For instance, there are numerous shades of [t] listed in the
IPA alphabet: aspirated [th] (as in top), labialised [tw] (as in twitter),
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palatalized [tj] (as in tune), etc. Such detailed notations are necessary in
the narrow phonetic transcription, which tends to be exhaustive in its
description. If, on the contrary, we need to be economical, we may only
note the sound as a simple symbol, without any detail (i.e., in broad
phonetic transcription) in our example as [t].
By convention, the symbols used in the phonetic transcription are places
within square brackets.

The nature of phonology and phonetics ( Definitions)

Both phonetics and phonology deal with human speech sounds. Speech
sounds are the sounds we produce when we want to communicate, that is,
the sounds that build up our words and sentences.
Human speakers can produce an indefinite number of words and
sentences, while using a limited number of sound units and a restricted
set of rules according to which these sounds are organized.
Speech sounds are different from other sorts of vocal sounds (vocalisations) because they
make regular, meaningful patterns. Speech is a series of meaningful sounds and silences .
Phonology is the study of the sound systems of languages, and of the general properties
displayed by these systems. Phonology is the study of the distinctive sounds of a language,
the so-called phonemes. Phonology examines the functions of sounds within a language, as
well as the way they combine in syllables and other stretches of speech.
Phonetics is the study of ways human make, transmit, and receive speech sounds. Phonetics
deals with the physical aspect of speech sounds: their production, transmission, and
reception.

Vocal tract and articulatory organs

Human speech is a combination of sounds and silences generated by the speech mechanism
of the vocal tract into meaningful patterns.Click here to see a diagram of the vocal tract
All speech begins as a silent breath of air, created by muscular activity in the chest. The air
then comes up from the lungs, via the vocal tract and exiting as a sound wave.
Basically, the speech mechanism as four components: muscular activity, air, some type of
resistance or obstruction to the air which causes some sort of sound to be made, and
amplification to make the sound loud enough to be heard.

Changes to the air flow between the lungs and mouth and nose produce different sounds.Air
starts off in the lungs, flows up through the trachea ( or windpipe), through the larynx, past
the epiglottis and through the pharynx. From there, the air can go either through the mouth
or nose.
The Vocal tract is the channel of air flow between the larynx and the mouth and nose.

Overview: organs of articulation

English Phonetics Classifying English Sounds

English Consonants
Sounds you can feel !
Obstruents:
defined by manner of articulation: obstruction / blockage of air flow
plosives fricatives affricates
Sonorants:
defined by manner of articulation: obstruction bypassed (or incomplete)
nasals approximants lateral (approximant)
There are 24 consonants in standard British English.
A consonant is a speech sound which obstructs the flow of air through the vocal tract. Some
consonants do this a lot and some do it very little: the ones that make maximum obstruction
( ie plosives, which make a complete stoppage of air stream) are the most consonantal. Nasal
consonants are less obstructive than plosives as they stop the air completely in the oral cavity
but allow it to escape through the nasal cavity. Fricatives obstruct the air flow considerably,
causing friction, but do not involve total closure. Laterals obstruct the air flow only in the
centre of the mouth, no the sides, so the obstruction is slight. Some other sounds, classed as
approximants, obstruct the air flow so little that they could almost be classed as vowels if
they were in a different context ( eg /w/ or /j/).

Classification of Consonants
Most English consonants can be classified using three articulatory parameters:
(or we can use everyday words to describe sounds in terms of 3 features):
Place of Articulation: the point at which the air stream is most restricted;( what parts of the
mouth are used)

Manner of Articulation: What happens to the moving column of air; (how the sound is made)
Voicing: vibration or lack of vibration of the vocal folds; (whether or not a sound is made in the
throat)

Places of Articulation
Lips: Bilabial consonants : /p, b, m, w/
Lips and teeth: Labiodental consonants: /f, v/
Teeth: Interdental consonants : /, /
Alveolar ridge: Alveolar consonants : /t, d, s, z, n, l/
Central palate (or hard palate): Palatal consonants : / , , r, t, d, y/
Velum (or soft palate): Velar consonants : /k, g, /
Glottis: Glottal fricative : /h/
Fortis consonants are produced with greater articulatory effort and more air pressure required
by stronger resistance at the place of articulation. Lenis consonants are more lax: they require
less intensity and tension. The duration of articulation is also longer in the case of fortis
consonants than in the case of lenis ones. In a voiced/voiceless pair (e.g., [d]/[t]), the voiced
consonant is lenis and the voiceless consonant is fortis.
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Manner of Articulation
The process by which the moving column of air is shaped is called the manner of articulation.
For English, these are:
Plosives: /p, t, k, b, d, g/
Fricatives: /f, v, , , s, z, , , h/
Affricates: / , /
Nasals: /m, n, / (sometimes called nasal stops)
Liquids: /l, r/
Glides: /w, y, hw/
Plosives (stops) occur when the air stream stops completely for an instant before it exits the
vocal tract.
Voiceless stops in English are the /p/ in pour and slap, the /t/ in time and adept, and the /k/ in
cold and poke.
Voiced stops are the /b/ in bow and crab, the /d/ in dock and blood, and the /g/ in game and
bag.
Fricatives occur when the air stream is audibly disrupted but not stopped completely.
Voiced fricatives are the /v/ in very and shove, the // in them and bathe, the /z/ in zoo and
wise, and the // in measure.
Voiceless fricatives are the /f/ in fool and laugh, the // in thin and bath, the // in shock and
nation, the /s/ in soup and miss, and the /h/ in hope and home.
Affricates start out as a stop, but end up as a fricative. There are two affricates in English,
both of which are palatal. Therefore we do not need to mention place of articulation to
describe afficates.
The voiceless affricate is the /t/ in lunch and chapter.
The voiced affricate is the /d/in germ, journal and wedge.
Nasals occur when velum is lowered allowing the air stream to pass through the nasal cavity
instead of the mouth.The air stream is stopped in the oral cavity, so sometimes nasals are
called nasal stops. We will just call them nasals.
Nasals are the /m/ in mind and sum, the/n/ in now and son, and the // in sing and longer.
Liquids occur when the air stream flows continuously through the mouth with less
obstruction than that of a fricative. Both liquids in English are voiced, so we dont need to
mention voicing when we describe liquids.
The lateral liquid, /l/, is pronounced with the restriction in the alveolar region at the
beginning of syllables, as in low and syllable, but in the velar region at the ends of syllables,
as in call, halter, and (optionally) syllable. It is called lateral because air flows around the
sides of the tongue.
The central liquid is the /r/ in rough and chore.
This also has various pronunciations. It is called central because air flows over the center of
the tongue. So the terms central and lateral replace the place of articulation in
descriptions of the liquids.

Approximants occur when the air stream is unobstructed, producing an articulation that is
vowel-like, but moves quickly to another articulation making it a consonant. Sometimes
approximants are described as semivowels.
The approximants in English include the the labio-velar /w/ shares the articulation
features of [u] (the lips are rounded and the back of the tongue raised
towards the soft palate) in witch, water and away;
the articulation of the palatal [j] is similar to that of the vowel [i] (the front of the tongue is
raised close to the palate), /j/ in year and yes.

Overview: table of English consonants

English Vowels
For the sake of simplicity, the most common representation of the vowel space takes
the stylized arbitrary shape of a quadrilateral (a trapezoid), as first proposed by Daniel Jones
in the 1920s, under the name of Cardinal Vowel chart.(figure 1.1)
The shape of the chart is modelled on the shape of the phonetic space ie the shape of the oral
cavity produced by various positions of the tongue. For English, the phonetic space is
represented as a trapezoid.
In figure 1.1 the upper left corner represents the tongue position for the (ideally) highest and
furthest forward vowel ([i]), while the lower right corner shows the tongue position for the
lowest and furthest back vowel [A]. Six other sounds, approximately placed equidistantly
from each other, are also indicated, thus giving a series of eight cardinal vowels, of which 1 to
5 are unrounded, and 6 to 8 rounded. These are known as the primary cardinal vowels.
1 [i]
[u] 8
2 [e]
[o] 7
3 []
[] 6
4 [a]
[] 5
The Cardinal Vowel chart is a schematic representation of the vowel space and its limits. It
establishes reference points (hence the label cardinal) to which vowels in specific
languages can be compared and described as, for instance, higher than the cardinal vowel X,
further back than the cardinal vowel Y, or more rounded than the cardinal vowel Z. In this
sense, the vowels in the words sea and shoe are said to illustrate the high cardinal vowels [i]
and [u], respectively.
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There are also other central vowels which do not belong to the inventory of cardinal vowels,
but are included in the IPA chart: the central low-mid unrounded vowel [ ], the central
mid(half) unrounded vowel [3], the central mid (half) unrounded vowel [ ], etc. [ ] is
shaped like an inverted e and is usually called schwa (pronounced [Swa]), which is the old
Hebrew term for a diacritic indicating a missing vowel (Hebrew writing usually only includes
consonants).
The RP variety of British English, with twenty vowel phonemes (standard American English
has fifteen), has a relatively large vowel system, which is characteristic of Germanic
languages (Swedish has even more vowels). There are seven short vowels, five long vowels
and eight diphthongs.
The vowels and their corresponding phonemic symbols are shown in the table below:

Figure 1.1

Figure 1.2

Figure 1.3

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Criteria for classifying vowels

Vowels are usually described according to their quality within a three-term system: vowel
height, vowel backness, and vowel roundness.
Vowel height is a vertical parameter, corresponding more or less to the consonantal criterion
of manner, based on the distance between the articulators. Vowels vary from close (that
position in which the tongue body is as near the palate as it can be without causing audible
friction) to half-close, half-open and open (where the tongue body is as far from the palate
as possible).
Vowel frontness/backness is a horizontal criterion, parallel to consonantal place. It refers to
the part of the tongue which is raised highest in the articulation of the vowel, varying from
front (equivalent to palatal) (through central) to back (equivalent to velar).
Vowel roundness: a vowel may be either rounded articulated with the corners of the lips
brought towards each other and the lips pushed forwards, e.g., [u] or unrounded.
Traditionally in describing English vowels we use the quantity distinction long vs. short.
Long vowels can be 50 to 100 percent longer than short vowels. For example, there is an
obvious difference in length between the vowel in feet [i:] (the colon indicates a long vowel)
and the one in fit [I].
That is because length in most English varieties is never the only feature which distinguishes
two vowels.
This is not the case in other languages (e.g., Danish) or even in a number of Scottish and
Northern Irish English varieties, where length is sometimes the only criterion of distinction
between pairs of words such as daze [dez] and days [de:z].
Long vowels are always associated with a higher degree of muscular tension in the
articulatory organs.
Consequently, they are described as tense. Short vowels are produced with less tension, in a
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more relaxed manner hence their description as lax.

The number of vowels and their positions on the vowel chart differs considerably from one
English variety to another.
Of the English varieties, the RP vowel system is particularly rich.
Conservative RP is thus said to have 20 vowel sounds (12 monophthongs
and 8 diphthongs).

RP front vowels
[i:] close (high), long, tense, unrounded (e.g., in see).
[I] half-close (high), more central and lower than [i:]; short, lax,
unrounded (e.g., in bit).
[e] half-open (low-mid), short, lax, unrounded (e.g., in check).
[] open (low), short, lax, unrounded (e.g., in cat).

RP back vowels
[u:] close (high), long, tense, rounded (e.g., in boot).
[ ] half- close (high), more central and lower than [u:]; short, lax, rounded (e.g., in put).
[ :] half-open (low-mid), long, tense, rounded (e.g., in taught).
[ ] open (low), short, lax, rounded (e.g., in got).
[A:] open (low), long, tense, unrounded (e.g., in father).

RP central vowels
[ ] half-open, short, lax, unrounded (e.g., in cut); it is closer to
the IPA vowel [6] than to the cardinal [V].
[ ] mid, short, lax, unrounded (e.g., in about, woman always in unstressed syllables).
[3:] mid, long, tense, unrounded (e.g., in fur, bird)
http://www.cambridge.org/elt/resources/skills/interactive/pron_animations/index.h
tm
http://davidbrett.uniss.it/
http://www.paulmeier.com/index.html

PHONOLOGICAL PROCESSES
Feature changing rules
Feature-changing rules are those rules which affect one feature or a small group of features.
Here belong assimilation and delition, as well as lenition, flapping, glottalisation, etc.

Sounds in connected speech

Assimilation
Sometimes a sound is assimilated (absorbed / incorporated) into an adjacent, similar sound.
The faster a person speaks, the more likely this will happen.

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Examples of Assimilation:
/s/ + // becomes //
horseshoe
less shocking
Some people think a horseshoe is a good-luck charm.
That horror movie was less shocking than I thought it would be.
z/ + // becomes //
his shirt
Waynes shadow
His shirt is really quite attractive.
Waynes shadow fills a large space.
Certain letters followed by a /y/ often result in a new sound. This depends on several factors:
-

speaking habits
speed of speech
casual vs. formal speech

Examples of Assimilation:
Im turning 21 this year.

S+y =

Does your teacher know?

Z+y =

Is that your best guess?

T+y= t

He hates your style

TS + y = t

Would you mind not smoking?

He needs your support.

D+y= d
DZ + y = d

Deletion
Sometimes a sound is deleted when its part of a consonant cluster. This can happen when
connecting words, or within a single word.
Examples of Deletion
East side
Blind man
Restless
Kindness
Wind tunnel
Notice that T and D are the most commonly deleted consonants
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Example of Sounds in connected speech :

Connect 2 stops

Reduce to

Connect the sh & s

I wouldnt be able to speak English smoothly

y-glide

Connect consonant & vowel

SUPRASEGMENTAL PHONOLOGY:
THE SYLLABLE
Consonants and vowels can be described (as we learnt) both from a phonetic point of
view(how they are produced) and from a phonological point of view (where they occur).
Phonetically, a syllable can be described as having a centre, also called peak or nucleus (the
main core, the most prominent),which is produced with little or no obstruction of air and is
usually formed by a vowel ( either a monophthong or diphthong ).
Vowels are the most sonorous sounds human beings produce and the presence of a vowel or
of a sound having a high degree of sonority will then be an obligatory element in the
configuration of the syllable.
The minimal syllable is typically a single, isolated vowel, as in the word are [] and I [a].
The few consonants that can occur in isolation, such as interjections mm[m] agreement and
sh [ ] used to ask for silence, are not regarded as minimal syllables by all linguists.
The sounds either preceding the vowel or coming after it are necessarly less sonorous and
they are optional elements in the make-up of the syllable the basic configuration of an
English syllable will be (C)V(C).
The part of the syllable preceding the nucleus is called onset and is produced with greater
obstruction of air. So, the onset is formed by one or more consonants.
E.g. bar [b], stir [st], my [ma]
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The non-vocalic elements coming after the nucleus are called the coda of the syllable, which
is also produced with greater obstruction of air, and is therefore formed by one or more
consonants.
E.g. art [t], urge [d], ice [is].
A syllable that ends in a vowel (one that ends with the nucleus) is called open syllable (no
coda at the end).
A syllable that ends in a consonant ( ends with a coda) is called a closed syllable.
A syllable is a peak of sonority, often surrounded by less sonorous segments.

Structure
A syllable consists of an obligatory rhyme, preceded by an optional onset.
A rhyme consists of an obligatory nucleus, followed by an optional coda.

(syll)

On

Rh

Co

A syllable nucleus consists of an obligatory sonorant (or resonant) segment, usually a vowel:
(sigma)

(O)

(C)

The onset and coda, when present, may consist of one or more less sonorant segments:

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C C C
/s

C C

t/

Syllables are clusters of segments grouped around a sonority peak(usually a vowel). The most
widely-spread syllable structure in the languages of the world consists of a CV sequence (i.e.,
a consonant followed by a vowel e.g., Rom. barbat man
The phonological definition of a syllable takes into account the structure of a particular
language, analysing the combinatorial rules of phonemes into syllables, as well as their place
and order in the syllable structure.Each language has restrictions concerning the combination
of phonemes in syllable.
The distribution of sounds in sound patterns is not arbitrary, but follows some constraints
called phonotactics.
Phonotactics: the set of constraints on the permissible combination of sounds in a language,
which is part of speakers phonological knowledge.
Still the most serious restriction regards the combination of consonants into clusters (two or
more consonants together) in the onset and coda.
Phonotactic constraints
The syllable onset:
If the syllable begins with a vowel, it has a zero onset as in am /m/; ease /iz/.
If a syllable begins with one consonant, the initial consonant can be any consonant phoneme
except / / and / /. Examples: key /ki /; kick /kk/.
If a syllable begins with two or three consonants, such a sequence of consonants is called a
consonant cluster. Examples: play, stay, street, split, etc.
Consonant clusters in the onset:
Initial two-consonant clusters are of two types:
-

Composed of (/s/ + one of a small set of consonants)

(pre-initial + initial)

Examples: stay, spoon, skin, small, snow, sleep, swim, etc.

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Consonant clusters in the onset:

Initial two-consonant clusters:
Composed of (one of a set of fifteen consonants + /l, r, w, j/ (initial + post- initial)
Examples: fly, green, three, twin, pride, blind, try, quick, swim.
The set of 15 consonants :/p, t, k, b, d, g, f, , s, , m, n, l, h, v/
[prei] [plei] [twin] [tjun] [kwik] [kju] [blk] [bjut] [dwel]
[glu] [grin] [flai] [fju] [ru] [slp] [swm] [sju] [rnk] (past participle of shrink) [hjud]
[vju] [mjuz] [njuz] [ljud] (lewd indecent)
Initial three-consonant clusters are:
Composed of (/s/ + voiceless stop + approximant)
(pre-initial + initial + post-initial)
Examples: splash, spread, string, screen, squeeze, etc
The syllable coda:
If the syllable ends with a vowel, it has a zero coda as in car /k/; see /si/.
If a syllable ends with one consonant, the final consonant can be any consonant phoneme
except /h, r, w, j/. Examples: at /t/; kick /kk/, catch /kt /, seen /sin/.
If a syllable ends with two, three or four consonants, such a sequence of consonants is called a
consonant cluster ( you already know the clusters, but just in case..)
Examples: books, six, bank, banks, prompts.
Consonant clusters in the coda:
Final two-consonant clusters:
Examples: help, bank, edge, belt, blind, books, six etc.
Final three-consonant clusters:
Examples: helped,against, adjunct, text [kst], seconds, fifths.
Final four-consonant clusters:
Examples: prompts, sixths, thousandth, instincts, glimpsed .
Strong (stressed) syllables have greater prominence than weak (unstressed) syllables because
they can be:
-

longer in duration
Louder
Sources of pitch changes (high or low)

Weak (unstressed) syllables can have reduced vowels and are less prominent than strong
syllables.
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The End of this Boring Course/ Story

When you were a baby, did you understand your own language?
You learned to understand by listening 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.
After that, you learned to speak. Then you learned to read. And then you learned to write.
But listening came first!
TO LISTEN is active.
TO HEAR is passive.
Sometimes it is better only to HEAR. Let the radio, tv, ipod, iphone or the dvd play.
But DON'T listen. Just HEAR. Your subconscious will listen for you.
And you will still learn. And you - you do nothing.
Your brain will HEAR, your subconscious will LISTEN and you will LEARN!
GOOD LUCK !

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