1

L.C.CUȚITARU

QUICK COURSE IN ENGLISH PHONETICS AND PHONOLOGY

for 1st year students in Letters

(Multiple Sources: Peter Roach, Andrei Bantaș, Dumitru Chițoran, Călina

Gogălniceanu, George Yule, the Internet, etc.)
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TABLE OF CONTENTS

 LESSON 1: Introduction. Definitions. R.P., I.P.A., phonemes and

phonemic symbols.
 LESSON 2: Sounds and their allophones. Minimal pairs, minimal
sets.
 LESSON 3: Organs of articulation. Classification of sounds:
vowels,diphthongs, consonants, semi-vowels.
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LESSON 1
Introduction. Definitions. R.P., I.P.A., phonemes and
phonemic symbols.

Every natural language that humans speak around the globe is based on a
kind of patterning that we may call universal without fear of being mistaken:
there is an inventory of sounds, and there is a set of rules for combining those
sounds. The sounds have no meaning taken apart: p, a, t are just three
meaningless sounds, but if we put them together, we obtain the meaningful word
pat. If we rearrange them, we get tap, and apt. If we replace one of the sounds,
we get cat, fat, that (for this last example, remember that, in English, there is no
one-to-one correspondence between a letter and a sound, as we generally have
in Romanian – this is an issue we will come back to).
This design feature of human language is of paramount importance,
because it gives us the possibility to create large vocabularies starting from a
finite number of sounds. The inventories of sounds in world languages differ in
number from one another, and so does the size of their vocabulary. Each
language has very strict rules about which sounds can come next to which sounds
– these are called phonotactic rules. They specify the possible sequences of
consonants and vowels that are possible in the language. For example, there are
languages that do not admit consonant clusters: in Japanese, each consonant has
to have a vowel to the left and to the right: haiku, ikebana, kimono, origami,
karaoke, miso, wasabi, surimi, tamari, tofu. If a neologism violating the rule
arrives in the language, let us say, hamburger, the Japanese will pronounce it
hamuburugeru.
These aspects are studied by phonetics and phonology. In a very broad
sense, we say that p h o n e t i c s (<Gk. Phone ‘sound’, ‘voice’) is that branch of
linguistics that studies speech sounds: it studies the way in which they are
produced by the human vocal tract, their acoustic properties, and the way they
are perceived by the hearer.
Phonology, on the other hand, is the study of sound patterning in human
languages (the way in which sounds are organized). There is, however, a very
important distinction that linguists make between sounds and phonemes. A sound
is a physical, concrete phenomenon. We produce sounds every day when we talk
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to each other: a sound is practically the vibration of a stream of air going through
the two vocal folds (or chords) that we, humans, have in our larynx. A phoneme is
immaterial, abstract, a mental representation that we have in our brains. When
we think of a sound, we do not have to pronounce it in order to recall it. We know
what it sounds like, we have a mental image of the way we write it on paper, it is
in our minds. Therefore, we can say that the sounds are concrete realizations of
the phonemes. Sounds are in our speech, phonemes are in our minds.

One of the simplest definitions qualifies a phoneme as the minimal

(smallest) unit of language, that has no meaning of its own, but which makes a
difference in meaning.

e.g.
1. /b i t/ - /b e t/ - /b æ t/ = the words bit, bet, and bat, distinguished in meaning
by a vowel
2. /b i t/ - /f i t/ - /k i t/ = the words bit, fit, and kit, distinguished in meaning by
the initial consonant
3. /b i t/ - /b i g/ - /b i l/ = the words bit, big, and bill, distinguished in meaning by
the final consonant

The phonemes of a language correspond to the sounds of that language. In

phonemic transcription, each phoneme is represented by a symbol. The symbols
belong to IPA, the International Phonetic Alphabet, devised, in its earliest version,
in 1888, by the International Phonetic Association. IPA is an alphabetic system of
phonetic notation based on the Latin alphabet (but not only), and was constantly
refined over time so as to include symbols for as many sounds of world’s
languages.
The words that I chose to illustrate the way in which a phoneme
distinguishes between words are some of the simplest and shortest in English. But
we all know that, in this language, many times we have letters or even sequences
of letters that are not pronounced. Many times, the same letter sequence is
pronounced differently.

e.g.

final -ough is:

 /au/ in bough
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 /əu/ in dough
 /ʌf/ in tough
 /ɔf/ in cough
 /ə/ in borough
 /u:/ in through
 /ʌp/ in hiccough
 /ɔk/ in hough,
while initial –ough is /ɔ:/, as in ought

Therefore, it is an illusion to believe that, like in French or in German, we can

find in English systematic rules of pronunciation of certain letters or letter
sequences. There are so many exceptions, and sometimes the pronunciation is so
counterintuitive, that the best is for one to learn every new word in its double
aspect: spelling and pronunciation. This is why English dictionaries provide
phonetic transcriptions for every word.
The pronunciation that is taught in universities all over the British speaking
world is called R.P. (Received Pronunciation), where ‘received’ means ‘approved’,
‘accepted’. Originally, it is that variety of English spoken by educated people in
the South of England and London. It is believed that Daniel Jones (1881-1967), a
London-born phonetician, introduced the term in circulation, but other names for
the same thing are ’Standard English’, ‘Oxford English’ (because it was by tradition
the common speech of Oxford University), ‘B.B.C. English’ (used by the
announcers in the British Broadcasting Corporation), or G.B. (General British).
I will give below a list of English letters and their phonetic symbols. These
symbols are the ones used by Andrei Bantaș in his presentation of English
phonetic transcription that opens the monumental Dicționar englez-român
coordinated by Leon Levițchi. Since there is no agreement among linguists as to
how many phonemes this language has, I choose Daniel Jones’s classical
description of 12 vowels, 8 diphthongs, and 24 consonants (I only replaced here
the original symbol for /e/ in diphthongs with a newer and simpler one).

1. VOWELS

Symbol Explanation E.g. Phonetic

transcription
ʌ short a sun /sʌn/
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ɑ: long a car /kɑ:/

ə like the the /ðə/
Romanian ă
ə: like a long sir /sə:/
Romanian ă
e e bet /bet/
æ a very open e hat /hæt/
i i sin /sin/
i: long i seen /si:n/
ɔ o Tom /tɔm/
ɔ: long o saw /sɔ:/
u u put /put/
u: long u shoe /ʃu:/

2. DIPHTHONGS

Symbol Explanation E.g. Phonetic

transcription
iə open i plus a hear /hiə/
short ă
eə very open e plus air /eə/
short ă
uə short u plus tour /tuə/
short ă
ai ai nice /nais/
ei ei face /feis/
ɔi oi voice /vɔis/
əu ău so /səu/
au au cow /kau/

3. CONSONANTS

Symbol Explanation E.g. Phonetic

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transcription
p p pen /pen/
b b Ben /ben/
t t ten /ten/
d d den /den/
k c cut /kʌt/
g g gum /gʌm/
ʧ the sound in the chess /ʧes/
Rom.ce/ci
ʤ the sound in the jam /ʤæm/
Rom.ge/gi
m m man / mæn/
n n sin /sin/
ŋ n velar sing /siŋ/
f f fat /fæt/
v v vet /vet/
Ɵ s with the
tongue between thin /Ɵin/
the teeth
ð z with the
tongue between the /ðə/
the teeth
s s sit /sit/
z z zip /zip/
ʃ the Rom. ș Ship /ʃip/
ʒ the Rom. j Beige /beiʒ/
l l lab /læb/
r softer than the rat /ræt/
Rom. r
h h hi /hai/

I am drawing your attention to the following two sounds (and to their names)
that I now separate from the rest of the consonants, although they are usually
included in the consonants’ table. Explanations will follow later.

4. SEMI-VOWELS (SEMI-CONSONANTS)
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Symbol Explanation E.g. Phonetic

transcription
w the u we hear in wet /wet/
oameni
ȷ the i we hear in yet /jet/
iar, iod.

These are some of the simplest symbols, used for didactic purposes, but there are
alternative symbols for English sounds used, for example, by the many online
dictionaries one can find on the Internet. Moreover, you may Google-search the
IPA Chart (revised to 2005) and see the numerous features taken into account in
what is called narrow transcription, but this is useful only to phoneticians. The
usefulness of an international phonetic/phonemic alphabet is obvious: a phonetic
transcription can be read by any person who knows the symbols, therefore, even
if one does not know a foreign language (meanings of words), one can still record
in writing or read the words in that language.
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LESSON 2
Sounds (phones) and their allophones. Minimal pairs and
minimal sets.

We have seen in the previous lesson that the sound is not the same thing as
the phoneme. That this is so can easily be seen in the fact that people pronounce
the same phoneme in many ways, not just one. To give some examples from our
own culture: in Ardeal, the diphthong oa- in initial position is really very close in
pronunciation, resembling more a long o-, as in oameni/oomeni, or
Doamne/Doomne (the vowel is barely diphthongated). In Banat, the sequence –
te- sounds more like the English ʧ: fruntea/fruncea. So, there are more sounds to
the –oa diphthong and to the t consonant, but there is only one mental
representation, as one is the graphic representation in Romanian.
Moreover, the way in which a sound is pronounced is often influenced by its
neighbours. For example, in English, phoneticians have noticed that there is a
difference in pronunciation of the /i/ sound in words like seed and seen. In seen,
the effect of the nasal consonant /n/ makes the /i/ sound nasalized. This
nasalization can be represented by a diacritic over the symbol, /ĩ/, in narrow
phonetic transcription. So we can speak of at least two realizations: /i/ and /ĩ/ for
i. These variants are called allophones. The total number of pronunciation
variants of a phoneme make up the allophones of that phoneme. The Greek allos
means ‘different’, and phone is just another name for sound. Unlike phonemes,
allophones do not change the meaning of a word.
An essential property of the phoneme is that it functions contrastively. We
know that there are two phonemes /f/ and /v/ in English because they are the
only basis of the contrast in meaning between the forms fine and vine.
If we substitute one sound for another in a word and there is a change in
meaning, then the two sounds represent different phonemes. We say that the
sounds substituted for each other are in a relation of opposition, because the
substitution leads to the creation of a new word, with a new meaning. Another
word for the process of substitution is commutation.
When the sounds in any two words (such as fine/vine, or pat/bat, or
nose/hose and so on) are identical, except for a contrast in one phoneme
occurring in the same position within the word, then the two words are described
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as a minimal pair. Other examples of minimal pairs: fan/van, site/side, near/tear,

etc.
Finding as many minimal pairs by applying the commutation (substitution)
procedure is the basis of the process of identification of the total inventory of
phonemes in a given language. Sounds are not universally opposable: for
example, the Arabs cannot distinguish /p/ from /b/ and /f/ from /v/. To their ear,
pat and bat, or fine and vine are all the same, so they cannot establish a
difference in meaning in suchlike pairs. Similarly, the Japanese have difficulties
distinguishing /r/ from /l/, and cannot pronounce /l/.
When more than two words are differentiated, each one from the others, by
changing one phoneme occurring in the same position within them, then we
speak of a minimal set. Remember that, when we compare two forms, we take
into the consideration the phonetic transcription, not the spelling of the words in
question. We compare sounds, not letters.

e.g.

a). a minimal set based on a vowel:

/fit/ - /fi:t/- /fæt/ - /feit/ - /fut/ - fɔ:t/ (the corresponding words are fit, feet,
fat, fate, foot, fought).

b). a minimal set based on a consonant:

- in initial position: /big/ - pig/ - /fig/ - /dig/ - /wig/ (the corresponding
words happen to have the same orthography – big, pig, fig, dig, wig)
- in final position: /bit/ - /bi:t/ - /bet/ - /bæt/ - /bait/ - /beit/, /bu:t/ - /b ʌt/
- /bəut/ - /bɔ:t/ (spellings are bit, beat, bet, bat, bite, bait, boot, but, boat,
bought).
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LESSON 3
Organs of articulation. Classification of sounds:
vowels, consonants, semi-vowels.

The articulation of sounds implicates:

1. the lips
2. the jaws (inferior – the mandible -, and superior)
3. the hard palate
4. the soft palate /the velum
5. the tongue
6. the uvula

We distinguish between two kinds of sounds: vowels and consonants. Vowels

are sounds during the production of which there is no obstruction to the flow of
air. They are continual, so they can be produced without the help of other sounds.
Consonants include any sound that does not fit the definition of the vowel: there
is obstruction to the flow of air in some point of the vocal tract, and they cannot
be produced without the help of other sounds. All this will be detailed in the
paragraphs that will provide a description of sounds.

1-nasal cavity
2-lips
3-teeth
4-aveolar ridge
5-hard palate
6-velum (soft palate)
7-uvula
8-apex (tip) of tongue
9-blade (front) of tongue
10-dorsum (back) of tongue
11-oral cavity
12-pharynx
13-epiglottis
14-larynx
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15-vocal cords
16-trachea
17-esophagus

Speech sounds are produced by modifying the air flow coming from the lungs
and, in the Indo-European languages, are produced during expiration. These
modifications are varied, according to the place where the airflow is obstructed,
or the amount of air, position of the lips and tongue, and so on.

A. VOWELS

Here is a classification of the English vowels, reduced to its simplest form.

Part of the tongue involved

↓

Mouth front----------------central-----------------back
aperture
↓
close i: u:

half-close i u

ə
half-open e ə: ɔ:

open æ ʌ ɑ: ɔ

unrounded rounded

Vowels differ from each other according to:

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1. The shape of the tongue (i.e., which part of the tongue is raised highest):
- front vowels: / i: i e æ /
- central vowels: / ə ə: ʌ /
- back vowels: / u: u ɔ: ɔ ɑ:/

2. The position of the tongue (the vertical distance between the tongue and the
palate):
- open: / æ ʌ ɑ: ɔ /
- half-open: / e ə ə: ɔ:/
- half-close: /i u /
- close: / i: u: /

3. Lip-rounding:
- 4 rounded vowels: /u u: ɔ ɔ: /
- 8 unrounded vowels: the rest of them

4. Length:
- 5 long vowels: /ɑ: i: u: ɔ: ə: /
- 7 short vowels: the rest of them

5. Degree of muscular tension in the tongue:

- tense vowels: all the long vowels are tense
- lax vowels: all the short vowels are lax.

Description:

/i/
Front, half-close, short, lax, unrounded (fill, hit)

/i:/
Front, close, long, tense, unrounded (feel, need)

/e/
front, half-open, short, lax, unrounded (set, men)
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/æ/
front, open, short, lax, unrounded (Sam, man)

/ʌ/
central, open, short, lax, unrounded (come, cut)

/ɑ:/
back, open, long, tense, unrounded (car, bar)

/ə/
central, half-open, short, lax, unrounded (the, sitter)

/ə:/
central, half-open, long, tense, unrounded (sir, bird)

/ɔ/
back, open, short, lax, rounded (lot, pot)

/ɔ:/
back, half-open, long, tense, rounded (door, war)

/u/
back, half-close, short, lax, rounded (cook, took)
/u:/
back, close, long, tense, rounded (moon, soon)

B. DIPHTHONGS

The vowels described above are of the single type (monophthongs). But in English
there are also combinations of two phones, called diphthongs. A diphthong
consists of a movement or glide from one vowel to another. A vowel which
remains constant and does not glide is called a pure vowel.
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In terms of length, diphthongs are similar to long vowels, but the first part is
much longer and stronger than the second part. There are 8 diphthongs in BBC
pronunciation:

a). 3 diphthongs in /i/ = /ei/ /ai/ /ɔi/

e.g. say, lie, boy

b). 2 diphthongs in /u/ = /əu/ /au/

e.g. so, know

c). 3 diphthongs in /ə/ = /iə/ /eə/ /uə/

e.g. here, where, sure

C. CONSONANTS

Consonants differ according to their:

A. Place of Articulation
Bilabial - uses both lips to create the sound
Labiodental - uses the lower lip and upper teeth
Dental - creates sound between the teeth
Alveolar - is a sound created with the tongue and the ridge behind the upper
teeth
Palatal - uses the tongue and the hard palate
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Velar - makes the sound using the soft palate in the back of the mouth
Glottal- is a sound made in the throat between the vocal cords
B. Manner of Articulation
The manner of articulation means how the sound is made using the different
places of articulation, tongue placement.
Stops - air coming from the lungs is suddenly stopped at some point during the
formation of the sound
Fricatives - the vocal channel is tight, and restricted air flow causes friction but
the air flow isn't completely stopped
Affricates - are combinations of stops and fricatives
Nasals - as expected, the air is stopped from going through the mouth and is
redirected into the nose
Liquids/laterals - almost no air is stopped, but it flows alongside the tongue

Semi-vowels/semi-consonants - the air passes through the articulators to create

vowel-like sounds (there is no obstruction to the flow of air which comes out
freely through the mouth, as vowels do). But, because they always occur near a
vowel (as consonants do), they are considered consonant-like sounds as well.

Place→ Bilabial labio- Dental Alveolar Palatal Velar Glottal

dental
Manner -v -v -v -v -v -v
+v -v +v +v +v +v +v
↓
+v

Plosives P b t d k g
Fricatives f v Ɵ ð s z ʃ ʒ h
Affricates ʧ ʤ
Nasals m n ŋ
Liquids l,r
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Semi- w j
vowels

-v = voiceless (pronounced with greater muscular energy and stronger breath

effort) - Rom. “Consoane surde”
+v = voiced (the force of articulation requires less energy) - Rom. “consoane
sonore”

16 sounds form 8 correlative pairs called homo-organic in the table above: (p,b),
(t,d), (k, g).... What separates them is this distinction, -v / +v:

Correlative /homo-organic pairs

Voiceless (-v) Voiced (+v)

p b
t d
k g
f v
Ɵ ð
s z
ʃ ʒ
ʧ ʤ

Any other (unpaired) consonant is voiced, except for /h/, which is voiceless.
The place of articulation and the manner of articulation are called distinctive
features, because they distinguish one consonant from another.

Description:

1. There are 6 plosives or stops (Rom. ‘ocluzive’): /p b t d k g/ which are called

that way because the air flow is briefly obstructed, the vocal tract is close then
opens suddenly. But, as you pronounce them, you can observe that each is
obstructed (stopped) differently. /p/ and /b/ are uttered by using both lips, so
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they are called bilabials. For /t/ and /d/, the tip of the tongue touches the alveolar
ridge, so they are alveolar. While /k/ and /g/ need another part of the tongue to
touch the velum, at the back of the mouth, therefore they are velar.

2. There are 9 fricatives (Rom. ‘spirante’): /f v Ɵ ð s z ʃ ʒ h/. For their articulation

the vocal tract is not wide open, but tight. The air can still escape during the
emission of sounds, producing a hissing sound. They too differ in place of
articulation. /f/ and /v/ are labio-dentals because they are produced with lower
lip and teeth. The dentals /Ɵ ð/ are pronounced with the tongue between the
teeth. /s/ and /z/, alveolar, use the tongue and the alveolar ridge, and the
palatal /ʃ ʒ/ use the back of the tongue against the palate. The glottal /h/ is
produced in the back of the mouth, near the glottis and, phonetically speaking, it
is neither a consonant nor a vowel.

3. There are 2 affricates /tʃ dʒ/ (Rom. ‘semi-ocluzive’), for the production of which
the air flow is blocked (stopped) at first then followed by a hissing sound
(friction). So, they combine the two qualities just described: an affricate
consonant, which is neither one simple sound nor two sounds, is a combination of
two sounds, each articulated with lesser force than either one in isolation.
/tʃ/ = /t/ (plosive/stop) + /ʃ/ (fricative)
/dʒ/ = /d/ (plosive/stop) + /ʒ/ (fricative)
So, the (incomplete) plosive element is followed by a fricative element, not in
succession but accommodating each other (you may say that an affricate begins
as a plosive and ends as a fricative).

4. There are 2 liquids /l r/, for the production of which the airstream flows
alongside the tongue. Phonetically speaking, these two sounds display properties
of both consonants and vowels.

5. There are 3 nasals /m n ŋ/, during the production of which the mouth shuts and
the airstream flows through the nasal cavity, while there is variation in the
position of the tongue, lips, and velum.

6. There are 2 semi-vowels /w j/ (also called semi-consonants, or glides). The

names ‘semi-vowel’/’semi-consonant’ reflect the ambivalent nature of these two
sounds. Phonetically, they are like vowels: /w/ is very similar to /u/, only much
shorter, while / ȷ/ is very similar to /i/, but again much shorter. Phonologically,
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they are like consonants: they occur only before or after vowels, which means
they have a typically consonantal distribution. This is also the reason why the
indefinite article a does not become an in front of words like window or
university, while the definite article the is pronounced /ðə/ and not /ði/. The
name ‘glide’ comes from the manner in which these sounds glide toward a vowel
(wet, yet) or away from it (so, joy), which makes these sounds transitional ones.

Distinctive features:

If you look in the chart, you will notice that there are sounds that come in
pairs. There are 16 sounds that form 8 correlative pairs (they are also called
‘homorganic’). As you pronounce each member of a pair, a difference becomes
obvious: one is voiced, the other voiceless. A voiced consonant (the latter in each
such pair: b d g v ð z ʒ dʒ) is one that involves the vocal folds in its production,
you can feel them vibrate. In the production of a voiceless consonant (the former
in each pair: p t k f Ɵ s ʃ tʃ) there is no vibration of the vocal chords. Voiced
consonants are believed to be pronounced with greater muscular energy and
stronger breath effort, therefore they are called fortis, while the voiceless
consonants are believed to be pronounced with lesser muscular energy and
breath effort, so they are called lenis. Nevertheless, this ‘force of articulation’
issue is controversial and results are inconclusive.
The concept of distinctive features helps linguists contrast speech sounds.
There are many cases when two very different phonemes are involved in a
minimal pair, e.g. bin and sin. In this example, /b/ and /s/ cannot be confused
when heard. But the situation changes when in a minimal pair two homorganic
sounds are involved, e.g. bin and pin, where /b/ and /p/ share the same place of
articulation (the lips). What keeps them apart is their voicing (sonority): one is
voiced, the other is voiceless. In noisy environments, they can easily be mistaken
for each other. Voicing is, therefore, a distinctive feature.
Other suchlike properties of sounds are stridency, nasality, and others.
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