IntroductiontoEnglishPhonetics:

The

Sounds

of

English

Representation

1. IntroductiontotheEnglishAlphabet
2. RPandGAEnglish
3. ClassifyingtheSoundsofEnglish:Vowels
4. ClassifyingtheSoundsofEnglish:Consonants
5. StressinSimpleWords

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and

Their


1.IntroductiontotheEnglishAlphabet
ModernEnglishAlphabet:

In English, there is no onetoone relation between the system of writing and the
systemofpronunciation.ThealphabetwhichweusetowriteEnglishhas26lettersbut
in(StandardBritish)Englishthereareapproximately44speechsounds.Thenumberof
speech sounds in English varies from dialect to dialect, and any actual tally depends
greatly on the interpretation of the researcher doing the counting. To represent the
basic sounds of spoken languages linguists use a set of phonetic symbols called the
InternationalPhoneticAlphabet(IPA).ThechartbelowcontainsalloftheIPAsymbols
used to represent the sounds of the English language. This is the standard set of
phonemicsymbolsforEnglish(RPandsimilaraccents).

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Languagescanbasicallybethoughtofassystemshighlycomplicatedoneswhich
enableustoexpressourthoughtsbymeansofvocalnoises,andtoextractmeaning
from the noises (speech sounds from now on) that are made by other people.
Linguisticsisthestudyofthenatureandpropertiesofthesesystems,anditsvarious
branches focus on different aspects of the communication process. Phonetics is the
branchconcernedwithhumanspeechsounds,andithasthreedifferentaspects:

Articulatory Phonetics (the most anatomical and physiological division)

describeshowvowelsandconsonantsareproducedorarticulatedinvarious
partsofthemouthandthroat.

Acoustic Phonetics (the branch that has the closest affinities with physics)
studiesthesoundwavesthattransmitthevowelsandconsonantsthroughthe
airfromthespeakertothehearer.

AuditoryPhonetics(thebranchofmostinteresttopsychologists)looksatthe
wayinwhichthehearersbraindecodesthesoundwavesbackintothevowels
andconsonantsoriginallyintendedbythespeaker.

Closely associated with Phonetics there is another branch of linguistics known as

Phonology.Phonologyfocusesonthewaylanguagesusedifferencesbetweensounds
in order to convey differences of meaning between words, each language having its
ownuniquesoundpattern.PhonologyisreallythelinkbetweenPhoneticsandtherest
ofLinguistics.

2.RPandGAEnglish
ManystudentsofEnglishasaforeignlanguagedonotknowthatthereisnotjustone
English language, and that all the diverse varieties present differences in the
pronunciationofwords.Allthesevarietiesreceivethenameofaccentsandtheyare
related to the geographical, social and/or educational background of every single
speaker. The most accepted and prestigious accent (or standard) is the RP English
(Received Pronunciation). This variety was known through the British radio stations
and television. This is why RP English is also known as BBC English, and was
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traditionally related to th
he universitties of Cam
mbridge y Oxford, annd to highclass
peop
ple.
RPEn
nglishis,alo
ongwiththeGAEnglis h(GeneralAmerican),themoststtudiedvarie
etyof
Engliishworldwiide.Thisis thereason whymost dictionarie
esandgram
mmarbooksstake
them
m as a mod
del. It is alsso the varieety used to
o teach Eng
glish as a fooreign language.
However, despite the imp
portance off RP Englissh in the te
eaching praactice, onlyy few
peakersuse
ethisaccen t.
nativveEnglishsp

TheR
RPand/orG
GApronuncciationaret hemodelswewilluseinthiscourrse.

3.CllassifyingtheSoundsofEngllish:Vowe
els
In Sp
panish therre are 5 vo
owels, howeever the En
nglish langu
uage preseents 12 diffferent
vocalicsounds:

Engliishvowels,unliketheSSpanishonees,canbed
dividedintw
wogroups: longvowelsand
shorttvowels.Th
helengthorvowelquaantityisone
eofthemostimportanntcharacterristics
ofEn
nglishvowels,thisiswh
hylongvow
welsarerep
presentedphonemicallyywithacolon(:)

In th
he pronuncciation of the twelvee English vowels,
v
the
e tongue aadopts diffferent
posittions.Todisstinguishthem,wenorrmallypayaattentionto
othesetwoaspects:
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 Tongueheight:theverticaldistancefromthetonguetothepalate.
Frontnessvs.backnessofthetongue:thehorizontalpositionofthehighestpart
ofthetongue.
ForaclearerstudyanddescriptionoftheEnglishvocalicphonemes,weusethevowel
quadrilateralchart:

Apartfromthisdistinction,Englishvowelscanbealsoclassifiedbasedontheseother
twoaspects:
Liproundingwhetherthelipsarerounded(Oshape)orspread(norounding)
when the sound is being made. Rounded phonemes in English are:
/

/,/

/,/ /,/

/(althoughinthelastone,itmaynotbesoclear).

Tensenessofthearticulatorsreferstotheamountofmusculartensionaround
themouthwhencreatingvowelsounds.Tenseandlaxareusedtodescribe
musculartension.
o Tensevowels(producedwithagreatamountofmusculartension):
/ /,/ /,/ /,/ /,/ /
Tensevowelsarevariableinlength,andoftenlongerthanlaxvowels.
o Laxvowels(producedwithverylittlemusculartension):
/ /,/ /,/ /,/ /,/ /,/ /,/ /
Laxvowelsarealwaysshort.

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Apartfromthetwelvevocalicphonemes,consideredaspurevowels,therearealso8
diphthongsinwhichthetonguemovesfromtheinitialpositionofafinalposition,e.g.
/a/inthewordmine.TheeightdiphthongsinEnglishare:

At first sight, English diphthongs are similar to Spanish ones, but they are not
pronouncedexactlythesame.Itisalsoimportanttorememberthateachoneofthe
symbols of a phoneme in a diphthong only represents the relative position of the
tongue in the moment of pronunciation. Therefore, it is not correct to use different
symbolsfromtheproposedones,e.g.//(incorrect)insteadof/a/.

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4.CllassifyingtheSoundsofEngllish:Consonants

Acco
ordingtotheemannero
ofarticulatio
on(howthe
ebreathisused)thecoonsonantsaare:
11. Stops,allsoknownaasplosives[[voicedoru
unvoiced]
22. Fricativees[voicedorunvoiced]
33. Affricatees[voicedorunvoiced]]
44. Nasals[vvoiced]
55. Laterals[voiced]
66. Approxim
mants[voice
ed]

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Acco
ording to th
he place off articulatio
on (where in the mou
uth or throoat the sou
und is
produced)thecconsonantsare:

5.SttressinSimpleWorrds
InEn
nglish,inwo
ordswithm
morethano nesyllable,,wecandisstinguishbeetween:stre
essed
syllab
bles and un
nstressed syllables. Thhe distribution of thesse two typees of syllables in
the w
words deteermines, alo
ong with thhe specific sound
s
of th
he differentt phonemess, the
pronunciationo
oftheword..
Stresssedsyllableesaremore
eeasilyperrceivedbylisteners.Inphonetics,thisimporttance
is du
ue to a seveeral factorss like: volum
me (stressed syllables need a greeater respirratory
andm
muscularefffort),pitch (alturatonnal),andlen
ngth(orvow
welquantityy).
InEn
nglish,thereearethreettypesofsyl lables:
11. Syllablesswithaprim
marystress
22. Syllablesswithsecon
ndarystresss
33. Unstresssedsyllables
Primarystressiswherethewordhassitsbiggesttconcentrationofsouund.Itismaarked
napostroph
heplacedatthebeginnningofthe
estressedsyyllable,anddtheapostrrophe
byan
musttbeupplacced.Second
darystress iswhereth
hewordhassanysortoofstress,ye
etitis
notaasrelevant astheprim
marystress;theapostrropheisplacedinthebbeginningo
ofthe
stresssedsyllablee,butitmusstbedownplaced.
For eexample: the
t
word vaccination

n should be
b phonetically transccribed like this:
[vks'nein]. Where the "va" hhas the seccondary strress and thhe "na" has the
whereasciandtionnareunstressedsyllab
bles.
primarystress,w
Thep
positionofttheprimaryystressina worddeterminesthewayitisprronounced((and
onso
omeoccasio
ons,itsmeaaning).Therrearenotvveryclearorrreliableru lestoestab
blish
thep
primarystreess,thereforespeakerssmustrelyontheirauditorymem
mory.Howevver,

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sometimesthestressofwordsisdeterminedbythegrammaticalcategory(noun,verb,
etc.).Forexample:

Stressed syllables are perceived as more emphasized because the weak syllables
reducetheirlengthandtenseness.Thisisthereasonwhyitisverycommontoobserve
howreducedvowels,suchas//,//and//,usuallyappearinweaksyllables,and
itisveryraretopronouncefullvowelsinthiskindofsyllables.Thisiswhy,the//
(schwa)isbyfarthemostcommonphonemeinRPEnglish,followedbythesound//.

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