ENGLISH PHONETICS

AND PHONOLOGY

LECTURER: Bi Th Phng Tho

1. INTRODUCTION

PHONETICS
is the study of the way we make, transmit,
and perceive speech sounds.

PHONOLOGY
is the study of the sound systems of
languages. It discovers the range and the
function of speech sounds in languages.

2. THE PRODUCTION OF
SPEECH SOUND
To

speak we need air, which is pushed

out of our lungs.

Different

sounds are made by

obstructing the air stream in different
ways.

We

use our vocal organs to make the

obstructions.

The major parts of the anatomy

that relate to speech production
Subglottal

system, including lungs

and trachea

Larynx,

glottis

including the vocal folds and

Supraglottal

system, including the

oral cavity, nasal cavity, and pharynx

When the air is pressed out of the lungs,

air travels up the trachea, or windpipe,
to the larynx of the speech system.

THE ARTICULATORS

The Larynx
The

larynx (voice box) is a mass of

cartilage at the top of the trachea.
The larynx contains folds of muscle
called the vocal folds (vocal cords).
The opening between the vocal folds is
known as the glottis. These folds can
be relaxed, letting air flow freely
through the glottis, or tensed, so that
the air vibrates as it passes through the
glottis.

 Sounds

that are produced with

relaxed vocal folds are known as
voiceless sounds

Voiceless

sounds that are produced with

tensed vocal folds are known as
voiced sounds.

Voiceless

 If

the folds are only partially closed,

a whispered sound is produced.

Voiceless

ARTICULATORS ABOVE THE LARYNX

Articulators above the larynx

All the sounds we make when we speak

are the result of muscles contracting.

Muscles in the larynx produce many

different modifications in the flow of air.

After passing through the larynx, the

air goes through the vocal tract,
which ends at the mouth and nostrils
(nose).

The articulators
i)

The pharynx is a tube which

begins just above the larynx.

At

its top end it is divided into

two: one part being the back of
the mouth and the other being
the beginning of the way
through the nasal cavity

The articulators
ii)

The velum or soft palate is in

speech raised so that air cannot
escape through the nose. It can be
touched by the tongue.

When we make the sounds k and

g , the tongue is in contact with
the lower side of the velum, and
we call these velar consonants.

The articulators
iii)

The hard palate is often called

the "roof of the mouth". You can
feel its smooth curved surface with
your tongue.

iv)

The alveolar ridge is between

the top front teeth and the hard
palate. Sounds made with the
tongue touching here (such as t
and d ) are called alveolar.

The articulators

v) The tongue is a very important

articulator, and it can be moved into
many different places and different
shapes.
Fig. 2 shows the tongue on a larger scale
with these parts shown: tip, blade,
front, back and root.

The articulators
vi)

The teeth (upper and lower) are

only at the front of the mouth,
immediately behind the lips.

The

tongue is in contact with the upper

side teeth for many speech sounds.

Sounds

made with the tongue touching

the front teeth are called dental.

The articulators
vii)

The lips are important in speech.

They can be pressed together (when
we produce the sounds p, b ), brought
into contact with the teeth (as in f , v),
or rounded to produce the lip-shape for
vowels like u:

Sounds

in which the lips are in contact

with each other are called bilabial,
while those with lip-to-teeth contact
are called labiodental.

The articulators

There are three more other articulators:

Firstly, the larynx described as an articulator

is a very complex and independent one.

Secondly, the jaws are also articulators;

certainly we move the lower jaw a lot in
speaking.

Finally, the nose and the nasal cavity are

an important part of our equipment for
making sounds, particularly nasal
consonants such as m, n.

English Pronunciation
The term accents refers to differences in
pronunciations.
Two major standard varieties in English
pronunciation: British English and American
English.
There are also a variety of accents: Received
pronunciation (RP)* and General American (GA).
(Received pronunciation is sometimes defined as
the "educated spoken English of southeastern
England". RP is close to BBC English, and it is
represented in most British dictionaries.
Similarly, GA is spoken by many newscasters in
the US.)

English Pronunciation
English

pronunciation is also divided into

two main accent groups, the rhotic and
the non-rhotic, depending on when the
phoneme /r/ is pronounced.

Non-rhotic

accents are RP and some

other types of British English, Australian,
New Zealand and South African English.

American

English is rhotic (the "r" is

always pronounced).

The Sounds of English and Their

Representation
There is no one-to-one relation between the
system of writing and the system of
pronunciation.

English has 26 letters but in (Standard

British) English there are approximately 44
speech sounds.

The number of speech sounds in English

varies from dialect to dialect.

To represent the basic sound of spoken

languages linguists use a set of phonetic
symbols called the International Phonetic
Alphabet (IPA).

The IPA symbols

English vowels, diphthongs and consonants:

THE PHONEMIC SYMBOLS

LONG AND SHORT VOWELS

THE PHONEMIC SYMBOLS- Diphthongs

hear

newe
r
e

e
play

boy

go

THE PHONEMIC SYMBOLS

CONSONANTS

Vowels and Consonants

Sounds

can be classified into

two major categories: vowels
and consomants.

The

difference between vowels

and consonants is not only in
the way that they are made but
also the way the sounds are
distributed.

English Vowels
Vowels

are sounds made by opening the

mouth and letting air come out freely.
There is no obstruction to the flow of air
when it passes from the larynx to the lips.

Dictionaries

say that there are 20 vowel

sounds in English. Phonetically there are
three distinct kinds of vowels used in
English: short vowels, long vowels and
diphthongs. All vowels are voiced by
definition.

Vowel Classification

Vowels differ from each other on

the basis of the shape and
position of the tongue.

Each

vowel is described in relation

to the cardinal vowels.

Vowel

classification is based on
four major aspects: tongue height,
tongue backness, lip rounding, and
the tenseness of the articulators.

Vowel Classification- Tongue

Height
Vowels are classified in terms of how
close is the tongue to the roof of the
mouth, which is determined by the
height of the tongue.
There are three primary height
distinctions among vowels: high, low,
and mid.

: u:
Low (open) vowels are: :
Mid vowels are: e : :

High (close) vowels are: I

illustration of tongue height

Vowel Classification- Tongue

Backness
Vowels

are classified in terms of how

far the raised body of the tongue is
from the back of the mouth , which is
called the backness of the tongue.
Three primary height distinctions among
vowels: front, back, and central.

: e
Back vowels are: u:
: :
Central vowels are:
:
Front

vowels are: I

illustration of tongue
backness

u:

Vowel Classification- Lip

Rounding
Another

aspect of vowel
classification is the presence or
absence of lip rounding.

vowels u: : are
rounded (except : - unrounded).
English front and central vowels
are always unrounded.
Back

Vowel Classification- Tense vs. Lax

The

classification is characterized in
terms of the tenseness or laxness of the
articulators.
Tense vowels (produced with a great
amount of muscular tension) are:

i: : u: : :
Lax

vowels (produced with very little

muscular tension) are: I e
Lax vowels are always short.

Vowel quadrilateral (cardinal

vowels)

The vowel chart for English (pure

vowels)

English Short Vowels

Short vowels are relatively short. They

differ from long vowels not only in
quantity but also in quality.

The precise length of vowels varies

depending on context and stress.

The symbols for these short vowels are:

I

English Long Vowels

There

are five long English vowels:

i: : u: : :

They are longer than short vowels in a

similar context.
Ex: beat / b i: t / and bit / b I t /

English diphthongs

Diphthongs are two-part vowel sounds

consisting of a glide from one vowel to
another in same syllable.

There are 8 diphthongs in English:

- Centring diphthongs: I e
- Closing diphthongs: eI aI I a

The first part of a diphthong is normally

louder and longer than the second, which is
short and quieter.

Diphthongs of RP

English triphthongs

A triphthong is a glide from one vowel

to another and then to a third; all
produced rapidly and without
interuption.
Ex: hour / a / - fire / faI /

Triphthongs can be viewed in a

combination of closing diphthongs and
//. They are: eI aI I a

Semi-vowels
jyes,

beyond
wwell, where, cow
-These two sounds are phonetically
vowels but phonologically consonants.
That is, phonetically they are
pronounced as /i:/ and /u:/ but a little
bit shorter. But, then, they only occur
before vowel phonemes.
-Consonants +y at the end of the words
is pronounced /i/: happy, any, thirty

English Consonants
Consonants

are sounds made with or

without vocal fold vibration. There is
some obstruction or narrowing in the
vocal tract when consonants are
produced.

Consonants

syllable.

occur at the edge of a

Voicing
If

the vocal folds are held apart, the

glottis is in a voiceless state, while
if the vocal folds are held together,
and allowed to vibrate, the glottis is
in a voiced state.
Ex: / b / is a voiced sound
/ p / is a voiceless sound.

/t/

/k/

In producing consonant sounds, the

point at which the vocal tract is
altered is known as the place of
articulation.

Consonant classification
Consonants are classified
according to their manner
and place of articulation,
and their voicing.

VOICED & VOICELESS

CONSONANTS
VOICED
b d g v z d m n j l
r w
VOICELESS
p t k f s t h

Some places of articulation:

bilabial consonants

lips

p pie b buy m mute w

wood

Labiodental consonants
upper teeth

lower lip

fine

v vine

Dental consonants
upper teeth
tip of tongue

thin

this

Alveolar consonants
alveolar ridge
tip/blade of tongue

tie

die

s Sue z

zoo

Post-alveolar / palato-alveolar
consonants

shoe, pressure

cheap

jeep

pleasure
r

rack

Palatal consonants

yes

Velar consonants
velum

back of tongue

k curl g girl rang

Some manners of articulation:

plosives (think explosion) or
stops

Bilabial: p b

Alveolar: t d

Velar: k g

Fricatives (think friction)

Labiodental: f v

Alveolar: s z

Palato-alveolar or
post-alveolar:

Oral

Nasal

(Velum is lowered, allowing air

to enter the nasal cavity)

Nasals

Bilabial: m

Alveolar: n

Velar:

Other consonants
Affricates

fricative):

(a combination of stop +

= voiceless post-alveolar affricate

= voiced post-alveolar affricate
Approximant

(articulators approach each

other but do not touch): w r j
Lateral (also called lateral approximant;
air flows over sides of tongue): l

Summary of Places of
Articulation
Bilabial (lips) p b m w

Labiodental (lips and teeth) f fine v

vine
Dental (tongue and teeth) thin then
Alveolar (tongue and alveolar ridge)
tdsznl
Palato-alveolar (tongue and front part
of hard
palate) shoe measure cheap
jeep r
Palatal (tongue and hard palate) j yes
Velar (tongue and velum) k g running

Summary of manners of
articulation
Plosive

/ Stop p b t d k g
Fricative f v s z h
Affricate (stop + fricative)
Nasal m n
Approximants w r j (central) l
(lateral)

Phonology- The sound patterns

of a language
Phonology

focuses on the way languages

use differences between sounds to convey
differences of meaning between words.
Phoneme: the smallest distinctive unit
sound of a language.
Changing a phoneme in a word produces
another word that has a different meaning.
Ex: In the minimal pair 'cat' and 'bat', the
distinguishing sounds /c/ and /b/ are both
phonemes.

Phones: are the actual sounds produced such

as a simple vowel or consonant sound.
Allophones: A phoneme may have several
allophones, related sounds that are distinct
but do not change the meaning of a word
when they are interchanged.
Ex: The sounds corresponding to the letter "t"
in the words 'tea' and 'trip' are not quite the
same. The position of the tongue is slightly
different, which causes a difference in sound
detectable by an instrument such as a speech
spectrograph. Thus the [t] in 'tea' and the [t]
in 'trip' are allophones of the phoneme /t/.

Phonemic transcription: uses only

phonemic symbols put between slashes / /.
It indicates only the more noticeable
phonetic features of an utterance.

Phonemic transcription is found in normal

dictionaries. It is called a broad phonetic
transcription.
Ex: / f'ni:mk trn'skrpn /

Phonemic transcription doesn't include

such features as aspiration (/p/ in pin and
spin), devoicing (/w/ in wet and twice ), or
shortening (/i:/ in feed and feet)

 Phonetic

transcription needs a much

larger set of symbols and diacritics (du
ph) to represent sounds precisely. It is
put between square brackets [ ].
Ex: little [l I t ] > The final / l / is dark []
Phonetic transcription encodes more
information about the phonetic variations
of the specific allophones in the utterance.
It is called a narrow phonetic
transcription.
Phonetic transcription is used mainly by
specialists.

The Syllable- Definition

Phonetically,

a syllable is one or more

letters representing a unit of spoken
language consisting of a single
uninterrupted sound (centre)

WORD STRESS
A

multi-syllable word has a prominent

syllable. This is called a stressed syllable.
Stressed syllable is longer in duration,
higher in pitch, and louder in volume.
Duration is the primary attribute to the
prominence of a syllable.
Usually 2 syllable nouns (90%+) have
the stress on the first syllable; 2 syllable
verbs (60%+) have the stress on the
second.

STRESS PRACTICE

When a word has

more than one
syllable, one is
more prominent
than the others.
When this
happens, we say
that the syllable
has a stress, or
that it is stressed

tea.cher

beau.ti.ful

..

un.der.stand

..

con.ti.nue

..

con.ti.nu.a.tion

...

black.board

. .

two syllables

de.sign

a.bout

af.ter

three syllables

va.nil.la

Ca.na.da

graf.fi.ti

four syllables

in.dif.fe.rent

A.ri.zo.na

a.vai.la.ble

five syllables

u.ni.ver.si.ty

ca.fe.te.ri.a

la.bo.ra.to.ry*

Group the following words so that they match their patterns .

word list

infamous

banana

calendar

statement

dinosaur

imply

cluster

kingdom

enjoyment mountain

eternal

countless

excel

passage

before

defeated

begin

arrive

worry

history

Placement of stress
The

location of stress is determined by

a set of many complex rules. Therefore
predicting where the stress falls is not
easy. However, some sets of words
follow a simple pattern.

Except

for the compounds, stressed

syllables in words with more than 2
syllables never stand next to each
other (Stressed syllables and weak
syllables alternate).

Intonation
Intonation contours in
English

Not

all rises and falls in pitch that occur

in the course of an English phrase can
be attributed to stress. The same set of
segments and word stresses can occur
with a number of pitch patterns.
Consider the difference between:
You're going. (statement)
You're going? (question)
The rise and fall of pitch throughout is
called its intonation contour.

 English

has a number of intonation patterns

which add conventionalized meanings to the
utterance: question, statement, surprise,
disbelief, sarcasm, teasing.

An

important feature of English intonation is

the use of an intonational accent (and extra
stress) to mark the focus of a sentence.

Normally

this focus accent goes on the last

major word of the sentence, but it can come
earlier in order to emphasize one of the earlier
words or to contrast it with something else.

Questions
The normal intonation contours for questions:

final rising pitch for a Yes/No question

Are you coming today?

final falling pitch for a Wh-question

When are you coming?

Using a different pattern adds something extra

to the question.
- E.g: falling intonation on a Yes/No question =
abruptness.
- Rising intonation on a Wh-question = surprise or
asking to have it repeated.

Cross-linguistic differences
Contrastive emphasis
Many languages mark contrastive emphasis like
English, using an intonational accent and
additional stress.
Many other languages use only syntactic devices
for contrastive emphasis, for example, moving the
emphasized phrase to the beginning of the
sentence.
Instead of
I want a car for my birthday. (as opposed to a
bike)
you would have to say something like:
A car I want for my birthday. / It's a car that I

Aspects of connected
Weak
speech
Forms

This regards a series of words which have one

pronunciation (strong) when isolated, and another (weak)
when not stressed within a phrase, e.g.

a car

I bought a car

/e k:/

/a b:t
k:/

 the

most important words, those that

are central to the message, can be
emphasised:
I went to the hotel and booked a
room for two nights for my father and
his best friend.
/awent

t htel n bkt ru:m

f tu: nats f ma f:r n hz best
frend/

Aspects of connected speechAssimilation

BEFORE

A VELAR (/k/, /g/)

/n///bank /bk/
/d//g/good girl /gg g:l/
/t//k/that kid /k kd/

BEFORE

A BILABIAL (/m/, /b/, /p/)

/n//m/ten men /tem 'men/
/d//b/bad boys /bb bz/
/t//p/hot mushrooms /hp mru:mz/

Aspects of connected speech- Elision

Elision is the omission of certain sounds in
certain contexts.
The next day.

/ neks de/

The last car

/ l:s k:/

Hold the dog!

Send Frank a card.

/hl dg/
/sen frk k:d/

secretary

/sekrt()ri/

camera

/km()r/

memory

/mem()ri/

Aspects of connected
speech- R-linking
Care/ke/
Caring/ker/
Care about/ker bat/
Draw all the flowers/dr:r :l flaz/
There's a comma after that/z kmr
:ft t/
Australia or New Zealand/strelr : nju:
zi:lnn d/

End of the course