1.

Phonetics
Phonetics is the study of sounds. To understand the mechanics of

human languages one has to understand the physiology of the human

body. Letters represent sounds in a rather intricate way. This has

advantages and disadvantages. To represent sounds by letters in an

accurate and uniform way the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA)

was created.

Sound is both a physical and a mental phenomenon.

PHONETICS is a technically based subject concerned with measuring sound, recording

frequencies and studying the physiology of speech.

PHONOLOGY is essentially preoccupied with sound as a system for carrying meaning and its
task is identifying phonemes.

PHONETICS has 3 main dimensions:

(a) Acoustic phonetics (production of sound)

(b) Articulatory phonetics (transmission of sound)

(c) Auditory phonetics (reception of sound)

(a) studies the properties of sound as a consequence of variations in air pressure. Frequencies
of speech are recorded by a spectrograph to produce spectrograms.
(b) studies the processes by which we articulate speech sounds and describes them in terms
of the organs involved in their production: tongue, teeth, lips, lungs etc. (Place of
articulation, manner of articulation, voice)
(c) is concerned with the perception of speech sounds.

Phonetics is the study of speech sounds:

• how they are produced,

• how they are perceived,

• what their physical properties are.

 The technical word for a speech sound is phone (hence, phonetics). Cf. telephone, headphone,
phonograph, homophone.

Place of phonetics in the language system:

Pragmatics – Meaning in context

↑↓

Semantics – Literal meaning

↑↓

Syntax – Sentence structure

↑↓

Morphology – Word structure

↑↓

Phonology – Sound patterns, language dependent abstraction over sounds

↑↓

Phonetics – Sounds; (nearly) language independent

↑ – understanding language expressions; ↓ – producing language expressions

2. Subfields of Phonetics

Articulatory Phonetics – the study of the production of speech sounds. The oldest form of
phonetics.

A typical observation: “The sound at the beginning of the word ‘foot’ is produced by
bringing the lower lip into contact with the upper teeth and forcing air out of the mouth.”
 Auditory Phonetics – the study of the perception of speech sounds .Related to neurology and
cognitive science.

A typical observation: “The sounds [s, ᶴ, z, ᴣ] are called sibilants because they share the
property of sounding like a ‘hiss’.”

Acoustic Phonetics – the study of the physical properties of speech sounds.

A relatively new subfield (circa 50 years); uses sophisticated equipment (spectrograph,

etc).Related to acoustics (the subfield of physics dealing with sound waves).

A typical observation: “The strongest concentration of acoustic energy in the sound [s] is
above 4000 Hz.”

3. Phonetic Alphabet

Why do we need a new alphabet?

Because: We want to be able to write down how things are pronounced and the traditional

Roman alphabet is not good enough for it:

• Words are pronounced differently depending on region, speaker, mood, . . . but they are
(usually) spelled the same way root [rut] or [rᶷt], truck [trᶺk] or [tᶴrᶺk], strong [strᵓᵑᶢ] or [ᶴtᵓᵑᶢ]

• Words or word forms sounding differently can be spelled the same way read [rid] vs. [rᵋd]

• One sound is spelled many different ways:

[k]: king, card, clique, nick, chasm, exit
reed vs. read; mˇe ‘Igen/acc’ vs. mnˇe ‘ᴵdat/loc’, tip ‘tip’ vs. typ ‘type’
• There are many more sounds than there are letters in Latin alphabet

There are only 6 vowel letters, but English has at least 10 vowel sounds

thigh, thy

There are many other sounds in other languages

1) Vowels

Rounded Vowels

The only rounded vowels in Czech/English are the back vowels [ᵤ, ᶷ, o, ᵓ].

German and French both have front rounded vowels. They are written as [y] and [œ] in IPA.The
high front rounded vowel [y] is pronounced like [i], but with rounded lips.

Front rounded Back rounded Front unrounded

French: [sy] sue (I sweat) [su] sous (under ) [si] si (if/yes)

[nø] noed (knot) [no] nos (our ) [ne] n´e (born)

Nasalized Vowels

• Oral vowels – more common; the nasal passage is closed (the velum is raised).

• Nasal vowel – like oral, but the nasal passage is open; marked by a tilde ([˜e, ˜a, . . . ]).

Oral Nasal

[mᵋ] mais (but) [mᵋᵋ᷈] main (hand)

French: [lᵋ] lait (milk) [lᵋᵋ᷈] line (linen)

[ᶴas] chasse (hunt) [s˜as] chance (luck)

 [mo] mot (word) [m˜o] mon (my)

In fact, there are nasal vowels in Czech and English – before nasal consonants, e.g. in

bin [b˜ᵢn]. However, because they do not distinguish meaning (as they do in French), in a

simplified transcription, their nasality is usually ignored ([bᴵn]).

2) Consonants

• voiceless uvular stop [q]: Farsi (Persian, Iran)

• voiced bilabial fricative [ᵦ]: Spanish Cuba

• voiceless labial affricate [pf ]: German Pfennig (penny)

• non-pulmonic consonants – sounds whose airflow is not dependent on the lungs:

– clicks – in Khoisan languages and some Bantu languages in Africa

– implosives

– ejectives – in many native American languages and Caucasian languages

4. Articulatory Phonetics : Place Of Articulation

Place of articulation is the point in the vocal tract where the speech organs restrict the
passage of air producing distinctive sounds and is particularly important for the production of
consonants. Consonant sounds are referred to by their place of articulation:

Bilabial / b /p /m /w
 Labio-dental / f / v (bottom lip touching the upper teeth)

Dental / θ / ð (tongue touching the upper teeth)

Alveolar / t /d /s /z /l /n/ (tongue touching the alveolar ridge behind the upper

teeth)

Post-alveolar / r / (tongue curled behind the alveolar ridge)

Palato-alveolar /dʒ / tʃ/ (tongue touching both the hard palate and the alveolar

ridge)

Palatal / ʃ / ʒ / j (middle of the tongue against the hard palate)

Velar / k / g / ŋ (back of the tongue against the soft palate or velum)

Glottal / h / (formed in the space between the vocal folds or glottis)

In vowels air is manipulated by the shape of the oral cavity and the position of the speech organs.
Thus you can have:

Frontal vowels : / i (need) / I (name) / ɛ (bed) / æ (cat)/ (front of the tongue + palate)

Middle vowels : / ʌ (cup) / ɜ (bird) / ə (mother)/ (middle of the tongue + palate)

Back vowels: / a(car) / ɒ(not) / ɔ (ball) / ʊ (book) / ʊ (blue) / (back of the tongue + palate)

5. Articulatory Phonetics : Manner Of Articulation

Configuration adopted by the speech organs in articulating a sound.

Plosives (stops) : / p / b / t / d/ k / g / (airstream is stopped by a brief closure)

Fricatives : / f / v/ θ / ð /s / z / ʃ / ʒ / h / (friction occurs as air passes

 through)

Affricates : /dʒ / tʃ/ (airstream is stopped as for a plosive and then released

slowly with friction)

Nasals : / m / n / ŋ/ (airstream is diverted through the nasal cavity by

lowering the soft palate)

Liquids : /l/r/

Glides : /w/j/

6. Articulatory Phonetics : Voice

Voicing occurs when the vocal folds or chords situated in the larynx vibrate.

Voiced sounds : ex. / b / z / v /

Voiceless sounds: ex. / p / s / f /

AUDITORY PHONETICS

This discipline studies the physical ways in which the sound waves we produce are converted
into meaningful units of speech.

The outer ear collects the sounds, the middle ear amplifies them, and the inner ear transmits
them through the auditory nerve to the speech centres of the brain, the most important of which
are Wernickes’s area and Broca’s area, both located in the left emisphere in right-handed people.

There are various theories on how the brain reconstructs a word from a series of coarticulated
sounds and speculations on the uniqueness and innateness of language..