Chapter Three

What are the Sounds of

Language?
------ Phonetics
Bell work: What is phonetics?
Why study speech sounds?
• Two-thirds of 7000 languages in the
world do not have written form.
• Human language is primarily spoken
• Linguistics only deal with those sounds
related by language system to certain
meanings.
• What are the speech sounds, how they
are produced, how they are classified
Finding example: one language
may have some sounds which
do not exist in another.
• What are some sounds in Chinese
but not in English?
• What are some sounds in English but
not in Chinese?
3.1 The relationship
between sounds and
spellings
• Do you think that the sound of an
English word have a one-to-one
correspondence to its spelling?
• The answer is NO.
• How about Chinese? \
Chinese is a radical case in point with
its sound and written form having
almost nothing to do with each other.
Brainstorming: (1)

• Find out examples of different

pronunciations represented by the same
letter (vowel letters) e.g. letter ‘e’
• Find out examples of same sound may
be shared by different letters: e.g. ei
 A variety of pronunciations can be represented
by the same letter or series of letters:
the different pronunciations represented by the same
boldface letter a :
American boat have lady father
forward star village washing water
The same sound may be shared by different letters:
the same pronunciation [ai] shared by all those
different boldface letters:

buy kite height sty pie tonight mind

Brainstorming (2)

• Find out examples of some letters

are silent in certain words:
A combination of letters may represent a single sound:
laugh wing breathe thin Phillip
shoe coat deep cuckoo chemist

Some letters are silent in certain words:

should rained autumn know write
comb Ghana neighbor island sword
Have a Try:
1). Mark the pronunciations of the following words, all of which
are represented in part by a combination of letters ough:
cough ________ bough ________ dough ________
rough ________ sough ________ through ________
though ________ thoroughfare________ tough ________
2). Mark the pronunciation of the following words, all of which
contain the same sound [i]:
Caesar ________ see ________ people ________
she ________ deep ________ ceiling ________
cease ________ eat ________ seize________
3.2 The definition of
phonetics
Phonetics is the scientific study of speech sounds. It
studies how the speech sounds are produced,
transmitted and perceived.
• Articulatory phonetics 发音学
concerns how the sounds are produced by the speech organs;
• Acoustic phonetics 传音学
concerns how sounds travel by looking at the sound waves
through the air;
• Auditory phonetics 听音学
concerns how the sounds are perceived by the hearer.
3.3 The IPA system

• We need an independent system so that each

distinct sound has a distinct symbol to
represent it; and each symbol represents one
and only one distinct sound.
• the International Phonetic Association
(IPA) is the most widely used tool to describe
all the sounds in human languages.
 Table 3-1 of A Phonetic Alphabet for
English Pronunciation
Vowels
Consonants Monophthongs Diphthon
gs
[p pen [] shoe [h] hat [i:] she [i] ship [e tail
] ep ]
[b bab [] televisio [] thin [a: hea [e] pen [ai] fine
] y n ] rt
[t tin [ cherry [] feath [ ball [] man [ boy
] ] er ] ]
[d door [ jam [] mout [u boo [] cup [au hous
] ] h ] t ] e
[k key [f] fan [] nose [ girl [ clock [ pho
] ] ] ] ne
[g girl [v] van [] ring     [ book [ beer
] ] ]
[s sun [w] window [] lette     [ came [ chai
] r ] ra ] r
[z zoo [j] yellow [] rain         [ poor
] ]
3.4 The production of speech
sounds
Have a Try: Identify all
the speech organs
involved in speech
production and discuss the
question with your
partner: what other
functions do these speech
organs perform to serve
the life-sustaining
processes?
Figure 3-1
The Speech
Organs
How are speech sounds
produced?
First, we need the initiator of the air stream.
First, we need the initiator of the air stream.
•
Then we need the producer of voice (through two folds of
• membrane --- the vocal cords 声带 )

Voiceless sounds: [p, t, k, s]

Voiced sounds: [b, d, g, z].
How to feel the voiceless sounds or voiced sounds?
[z-z-z-z-z] → [s-s-s-s-s] → [zzzzzssssszzzzzsssss]
The speech organ has three
cavities 共鸣腔
• the pharyngeal cavity 喉腔 :
the top of the larynx 喉 and the back of the soft
palate 软腭
• the nasal cavity 鼻腔 :
the passage through which the air passes when
we breathe normally
if the oral cavity is blocked, sounds produced are
nasalized, and called nasal sounds 鼻音
• the oral cavity 口腔 :
the part of the mouth from the lips to the uvula 小舌
(including the tongue, the lips and the lower jaw)
basic phonetic features :

•Voicing 嗓音
•Nasality 鼻音
3.5 Classifications of speech
sounds
Sounds of all languages fall into two broad classes:

•Consonants 辅音
•Vowels 元音
•What is the difference
between consonants
and vowels?
3.5.1 The classifications of
consonants
Consonants are produced by obstructing
the air stream in the throat, the nose, or
the mouth in one way or the other
What are the two classifications of
consonants?
• The place of articulation means where in
the vocal tract the airflow restriction
occurs
• The manner of articulation means how in
the vocal tract the airflow restriction
occurs.
According to the place of
articulation
• Bilabials 双唇音 [p] [b] [m] [ ]
• Labiodentals 唇齿音 [f] [v]
• Interdentals 齿音 [ ] [ ]
• Alveolars 齿槽音 [t] [d] [n] [s] [z] [ ]
[r] [  ] [  ]
• Palatals 上颚音 [ ] [ ] [ ] [ ]
[j]
• Velars 软腭音 [k] [g] [ ]
• Glottal 声门 ( 闭 ) 塞音 [h]

Have a Try: Pronounce the two voiced consonants [b] and [d].
What is the difference between them?
According to the manners of
articulation
• Plosives 爆破音 [p] [b] [t] [d] [k] [g]
• Fricatives 摩擦音 [f] [v] [ ] [ ] [s] [z]
[ ] [ ] [ ]
• Affricates 塞擦音  [  ] [  ] [ ]
[ ]
• Liquids 流音 [l] [r]
• Glides 滑音 [j] [w]
• Nasals 鼻音 [m] [n] [ ]

Have a Try: Pronounce the two bilabial voiced consonants

[b] and [m]. What is the difference between them?
 Table 3-2 Phonetic features of
English consonantsPlace of Articulation
Manner of
Articulation Labio- Inter-
Bilabial Alveolar Palatal Velar Glottal
dental dental
Plosives (oral)
voiceless p t k
voiced b
d g
Fricatives
voiceless f    h
voiced v   
Affricatives
voiceless  
voiced  
Nasals (voiced) m n 
Glides
voiceless
voiced w j
Liquids rl
3.5.2 Classifications of
vowels
Vowels are classified and characterized by a
combination of articulatory features:

• The place of articulation—tongue

position and the lip shape
• The manner of articulation –vowel
duration.
 Tongue position
• Height: high, middle, low;
• Front/back: front, central, back
Front vowels: [  ] [] [ ] [ ]
front higher
Back vowels: [ :] [ ] [  ] [] [  ]
back higher
Similarly, if the central part of the tongue is held
highest, the
vowels thus produced are called central vowels.

Have a Try: Pronounce the following pairs of vowels loudly and feel the
difference of the height and frontness of the tongue involved in each
pair.
1). [] [] 2). [] [] 3). [] [] 4). [
[ ] []
 Table 3-3 The English Vowels

    FRO CENTR BAC

Hig Ten NT
 AL
  K

h
  se
Lax    
Mid Ten   
  se
Lax   
Low (Lax  :
)
 Lip shape
• The lips can be held in such shapes
as rounded, neutral and spread
• In other words, vowels are produced
with the lips protruded and rounded,
or withdrawn and spread.
• all the front and central vowels are
unrounded
• The low vowel [:] is the only English
back vowel that occurs without lip
rounding
Vowel duration
• The English vowels [  ] [ ] [  ] [  ] have a
higher tongue position than their counterparts
[] [ ] [ ] []
• They are usually longer in duration with greater
tension of the tongue muscles.
• Thus the traditional long and short vowels are
also termed as lax and tense vowels respectively.
• English vowels [] [ ] are lax and they do not
have corresponding tense vowels.
 Table 3-4 Phonetic Features of English Monopthongs

  Front Front Central Back Back

Unroun Rounde Unroun Unroun Rounde
ded d ded ded d
 
High
tense       
lax        

Upper       
Mid
Mid         

Lower        
Mid
Low        
Diphthong
• Monophthongs are pronounced without
any noticeable change in vowel quality from
beginning to end.
• Diphthongs is usually considered as a
sequence of two vowels, with one vowel
gliding to the other, such as
[  ], [  ], [  ] [  ] [  ] [  ]
[] [].
Summary
• Phonetics is the scientific study of
speech sounds.
• The idea of making one symbol
correspond to one sound gave birth to
the development of phonetic alphabets.
International Phonetic Association
(IPA) is used for representing the
sounds of all human languages.
• All speech sounds are either
consonants or vowels.
• The most dominant difference
between consonants and vowels
consists in that all the consonants are
produced with some obstruction of
the air stream in the vocal tract, while
vowels are produced with no
obstruction of the air stream.
• Nasality, voicing, place of
articulation and manner of
articulation are four criteria used for
consonant classification.
• In terms of place of articulation,
consonants can be classified as
bilabials, labiodentals,
interdentals, alveolars, palatals,
velars, and glottals.
• According to manner of articulation,
consonants can be grouped as
plosives, fricatives, affricates,
liquids, glides, and nasals.
• Tongue position (height and
frontness), lip shape and vowel
duration are three criteria used for
vowel classification.
• Vowels can be classified as front,
central and back vowels according
to which part of the tongue is held
higher.
• Vowels can also be grouped as tense
and lax, short and long in accordance
with the tenseness of the tongue
muscle and the duration of the sound

End of Chapter Three

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