PHONETICS

INTRODUCTION
 PHONETICS
- The study of articulation, transmission and
perception of speech sounds
- Articulatory phonetics
- Acoustic phonetics
- Auditory phonetics
 Articulatory phonetics
• is the study of the way the vocal organs
are used to produce speech sounds
• The number of vocal organs varies with
languages: there are speech sounds that do
not use an air-stream from the lungs (non-
pulmonic sounds, e.g. clicks tut tut or tsk
tsk)
 Acoustic phonetics
• is the study of the physical properties of speech
sounds and how they are transmitted
• Sound energy is a pressure wave consisting of
vibrations of molecules in an elastic medium – a
gas, a liquid, a solid; in this case, air – air particles
are disturbed through the movements and
vibrations of the vocal organs, especially the vocal
folds. The process continues as a chain reaction for
as long as the energy lasts.
• Air particles move in the form of a wave: they are
characterized by oscillation , frequency (hertz),
amplitude and intensity (decibels).
Waveforms of the vowel /a:/ and the
consonant /s/
 Spectrograph:
• Speech spectrograph (a machine) is used to
display sounds acoustically: time (duration)
of a sound is displayed horizontally,
acoustic frequency of a sound is displayed
vertically, and intensity is shown by the
relative darkness of the marks.
Types of spectrogram:
 Spectrogram:
• Vowels and vowel-like sounds are darkest
and different vowel qualities can be seen in
the changing pattern of black bands
(formants) which represent varying
concentrations of acoustic energy in the
vocal tract.
 Auditory phonetics
• is the study of the way people
perceive speech sounds; the study of
speech perception.
• 1st step – when sound waves arrive at
the ear;
• 2nd step – transmission of sound
along the auditory nerve to the
brain
 The articulators
1. The pharynx is a tube which begins just
above the larynx. It is about 7 cm long in
women and about 8 cm in men, and 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. If you look in your mirror with
your mouth open, you can see the back of
the pharynx.
 The articulators
2. The velum or soft palate is seen in the diagram in a
position that allows air to pass through the nose and
through the mouth. Yours is probably in that position
now, but often in speech it is raised so that air cannot
escape through the nose. The other important thing
about the velum is that it is one of the articulators that
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
3. The hard palate is often called the "roof of
the mouth". You can feel its smooth curved
surface with your tongue.
 The articulators
4. The alveolar ridge is between the top front
teeth and the hard palate. You can feel its
shape with your tongue. Its surface is really
much rougher than it feels, and is covered
with little ridges. You can only see these if
you have a mirror small enough to go
inside your mouth (such as those used by
dentists). Sounds made with the tongue
touching here (such as t and d ) are
called alveolar.
 The articulators
5. The tongue is, of course, a very important
articulator and it can be moved into many
different places and different shapes. It is
usual to divide the tongue into different parts,
though there are no clear dividing lines within
the tongue. The parts of the tongue
are: tip, blade, front, back and root.
The tongue
 The articulators
6. The teeth (upper and lower) are usually shown in
diagrams like Fig. 1 only at the front of the mouth,
immediately behind the lips. This is for the sake of a
simple diagram, and you should remember that most
speakers have teeth to the sides of their mouths, back
almost to the soft palate. 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
7. 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 uù. 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 seven articulators described above are the main ones used in speech, but
there are three other things to remember. Firstly, the larynx could also be
described as an articulator - a very complex and independent one. Secondly,
the jaws are sometimes called articulators; certainly we move the lower jaw a
lot in speaking. But the jaws are not articulators in the same way as the others,
because they cannot themselves make contact with other articulators. Finally,
although there is practically nothing that we can do with the nose and
the nasal cavity, they are a very important part of our equipment for making
sounds (what is sometimes called our vocal apparatus), particularly nasal
consonants such as m , n . Again, we cannot really describe the nose and the
nasal cavity as articulators in the same sense as (i) to (vii) above.
•
 Vowels & Consonants
Vowels
The most common view is that
vowels are sounds in which
there is no obstruction to the
flow of air as it passes from the
larynx to the lips.
• A doctor who wants to look at the
back of a patient's mouth often asks
them to say "ah"; making this vowel
sound is the best way of presenting
an unobstructed view.
 Consonants
• If we make a sound like s, d it can be
clearly felt that we are making it difficult
or impossible for the air to pass through
the mouth. Most people would have no
doubt that sounds like s, d should be
called consonants.
• If we say that the difference between vowels
and consonants is a difference in the way that
they are produced, there will inevitably be
some cases of disagreement; this is a problem
that cannot be avoided.
• It is possible to establish two distinct groups of
sounds (vowels and consonants) in another
way.
• We need to know in what ways vowels differ from
each other.
• The first matter to consider is the shape and position
of the tongue.
• It is usual to simplify the very complex possibilities
by describing just two things: firstly, the vertical
distance between the upper surface of the tongue and
the palate and, secondly, the part of the tongue,
between front and back, which is raised highest.
 Let us look at some examples:
• Make a vowel like the i: in the English word 'see' and
you will be able to see that the tongue is held up close
to the roof of the mouth.
• Now make an { vowel [æ](as in the word 'cat') and
notice how the distance between the surface of the
tongue and the roof of the mouth is now much greater.
• The difference between i: and [æ] is a difference of
tongue height, and we would describe i: as a relatively
close vowel and [æ] as a relatively open vowel. In both
the front part of the tongue is raised. Fig.3 page 12
• The difference between i: and [æ] is a
difference of tongue height, and we would
describe i: as a relatively close vowel and [æ]
as a relatively open vowel. In both the front
part of the tongue is raised. So, both are
front vowels.
 Front vowel
• A vowel in which the front of the
tongue is the highest point is called a
front vowel.
 Back vowels
• A vowel in which the back of the tongue is the
highest point is called a back vowel.
• If you make the vowel in the word 'calm', which
we write phonetically as a , you can see that the
back of the tongue is raised. Compare this with
[æ] in front of a mirror; as is a front vowel and a:
is a back vowel. The vowel in 'too' [uː]is also a
comparatively back vowel, but compared with a:
it is close. So now we have seen how four vowels
differ from each other; we can show this in a
simple diagram. Fig. 4 page 12
 Vowel Positions

Front back
Close i: uː
Open æ a
 Vowels classification
We have now looked at how we can classify
vowels according to their tongue height and
their frontness or backness.

There is another important variable of vowel

quality, and that is lip-position.
• We are considered with three possibilities of
lip-position.
• Rounded
• Spread
• Neuteral
 Lips shapes & positions
• Rounded, where the corners of the lips are
brought towards each other and the lips pushed
forwards. This is most clearly seen in cardinal
vowel no. 8 [u].
• Spread, with the corners of the lips moved away
from each other, as for a smile. This is most
clearly seen in cardinal vowel no. 1 [i]
• Neutral, where the lips are not noticeably
rounded or spread. The noise most English
people make when they are hesitating (written
'er') has neutral lip position.
 Conclusion
• Vowels can be classified according
to the shape and position of the
tongue, and the shape of the lips.
English Phonetics and Phonology Fernando Trujillo

The Vowels
The vowel chart is a diagram to understand vowel sounds. It tries to represent
where the tongue lies in relation to the openness of the mouth when you
produce a vowel. So the front closed vowel /i:/ means that your tongue is in a
forward position in the mouth, which is in a relatively closed position. Try saying
it to yourself and then contrast it with the open back sound in the diagram.

Taken from
http://www.stir.ac.uk/departments/humansciences/celt/staff/higdox/stephen/pho
no/phonolg.htm
The production of speech sounds
Articulators above the larynx
 The articulators
1. The pharynx is a tube which begins just above
the larynx. It is about 7 cm long in women and
about 8 cm in men, and 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. If you look
in your mirror with your mouth open, you can
see the back of the pharynx.
 The articulators
2. The velum or soft palate is seen in the diagram in
a position that allows air to pass through the
nose and through the mouth. Yours is probably in
that position now, but often in speech it is raised
so that air cannot escape through the nose. The
other important thing about the velum is that it is
one of the articulators that 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
3. The hard palate is often called the "roof of
the mouth". You can feel its smooth curved
surface with your tongue.
 The articulators
4. The alveolar ridge is between the top front
teeth and the hard palate. You can feel its
shape with your tongue. Its surface is really
much rougher than it feels, and is covered
with little ridges. You can only see these if you
have a mirror small enough to go inside your
mouth (such as those used by dentists).
Sounds made with the tongue touching here
(such as t and d ) are called alveolar.
 The articulators
5. The tongue is, of course, a very important
articulator and it can be moved into many
different places and different shapes. It is
usual to divide the tongue into different parts,
though there are no clear dividing lines within
the tongue. The parts of the tongue
are: tip, blade, front, back and root.
The tongue
 The articulators
6. The teeth (upper and lower) are usually
shown in diagrams like Fig. 1 only at the front
of the mouth, immediately behind the lips.
This is for the sake of a simple diagram, and
you should remember that most speakers
have teeth to the sides of their mouths, back
almost to the soft palate. 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
7. 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 uù. 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 seven articulators described above are the main ones used in
speech, but there are three other things to remember. Firstly, the
larynx could also be described as an articulator - a very complex and
independent one. Secondly, the jaws are sometimes called
articulators; certainly we move the lower jaw a lot in speaking. But
the jaws are not articulators in the same way as the others, because
they cannot themselves make contact with other articulators. Finally,
although there is practically nothing that we can do with
the nose and the nasal cavity, they are a very important part of our
equipment for making sounds (what is sometimes called our vocal
apparatus), particularly nasal consonants such as m , n . Again, we
cannot really describe the nose and the nasal cavity as articulators in
the same sense as (i) to (vii) above.
English Vowels
 Vowels
• Vowels description relies on variations of
tongue position and of the shape of the
mouth; no clear contact between organs of
speech can be felt.
• Vowels are voiced sounds
• Vowels have syllabic function, i.e. every
English syllable requires a vowel sound
• The description of vowels in terms of articulatory
features is not as straightforward as that of
consonants which is why we need a different
descriptive system for vowels.
• The reason is that in the production of vowels it
is not possible to observe or perceive distinct
places or manners of articulation distinguishing
clearly between the different vowels.
• All of the vowels are formed in the oral cavity .
 Determining vowel quality
The position of the tongue, the shape of the
lips and the jaw position determine the vowel
and its quality, yet these features are much more
difficult to observe and formulate into clear and
distinct sets of features than in the system used
in the description of the consonants?
 For this reason, Daniel Jones made x-rays of the mouth
from the side of the face thus observing the position of the
tongue and the shape of the oral cavity when speakers
produced vowels sounds at different positions in the mouth.
By taking as a point of reference the positions assumed by
the articulators in the production of the most extreme
vowel sounds at the front, centre and back of the mouth as
well as those with the highest and lowest raising of the
tongue, different width of mouth opening and lip rounding,
he formulated the so-called vowel trapezoid, a chart in
which all vowel sounds can be entered relative to the
positions of those vowel sounds produced at the most
extreme positions in the mouth.
Jones thereby determined the so-called primary
or cardinal vowel system which to this date is
used as a system of reference in the description
of vowel sounds in all languages of the world (cf.
Cardinal vowel chart below).
Cardinal vowel chart
Vowel trapezoid of the Cardinal vowel
system and the English vowel system
Examples of English vowels and their description
English vowel sounds
 DIPHTHONGS

• A diphthong refers to the union of two

adjacent vowel sounds occurring in the same
syllable of a word. The combination of the two
sounds gives a unique vowel sound that is
distinct from both as in main, hate,, high,
bone, few and note. Given below is a chart of
the 8 diphthongs with examples.
Dipthongs
1. [ia] (example words: beard, Ian, fierce) - a centring diphthong glide towards
the a (schwa). The starting point is a little closer than i.
2. [ea] (aired, cairn, scarce) - a centring diphthong begins with the same vowel sound as
the e.
3. [ua] (moored, tour) - this centring diphthong has a starting point slightly closer than u.
4. [ei] (paid, pain, face) - a closing diphthong (they all have the characteristic that they all
end with a glide towards a closer vowel). The starting point is the same as the e.
5. [ai] (tide, time, nice) - this closing diphthong begins with an open vowel which is
between front and back. It is quite similar to the Ʌ.
•
6. [ɔi] (void, loin, voice) - this closing diphthong has the same quality as ɔ.
7. [au] (load, home, most) - the vowel position for the
beginning of this is the same as for the "schwa" vowel, as
found in the first syllable of the word "about. The lips may be
slightly rounded in anticipation of the glide towards u, for
which there is quite noticeable lip-rounding.
8. [au] (loud, gown, house) - this diphthong begins with a
vowel similar to a: but a little more front. Since this is an open
vowel, a glide to u would necessitate a large movement.
Usually in English the glide towards u begins but is not
completed, the end of the diphthong being somewhere
between close -mid and open-mid in tongue height. There is
only slight lip-rounding.
 Triphthongs

A triphthong (from Greek "triphthongos", literally

"with three sounds," or "with three tones") is
a monosyllabic vowel combination involving a quick but
smooth movement of the articulator from one vowel
quality to another that passes over a third. While "pure"
vowels, or monophthongs, are said to have one target
articulator position, diphthongs have two, and
triphthongs three. They are the most complex English
sounds of the vowel type. They can be rather difficult to
pronounce, and very difficult to recognize.
Consonant Sounds in English
•Ex. Pages 17 &25
•Goodluck
 Plosives page 30
Produced by the complete stoppage and
sudden release of the breath, as the
sounds of /p/, /k/, /t/, /b/,/d/, /g/, /m/, and
/n/
 Plosive phonemes
VELAR ALVEOLAR BILABIAL
/k/ /t/ /p/ FORTIS
(VOICELESS)
/g/ /d/ /b/ LENIS
(VOICED)
 A phoneme
A phoneme

• A phoneme is the smallest

• A phoneme is the smallest
contrastive unitcontrastive
in the sound unit in
the sound system of aoflanguage.
system a language.
 Here is a chart that
compares phones and phonemes
A phoneme A phone is

A contrastive unit in the sound system of a particular One of many possible sounds in the
language. languages of the world.

A minimal unit that serves to distinguish between The smallest identifiable unit found in
meanings of words. a stream of speech.

Pronounced in one or more ways, depending on the Pronounced in a defined way.

number of allophones.

/b/, /j/, /o/

[b], [j], [o]
Consonant Sounds in English
 Fricatives
Fricatives are consonants that are formed
by impeding the flow of air somewhere in the
vocal apparatus so that a friction-sound is
produced. Because of the way the flow of breath is
heard in producing fricatives, fricatives are also
called spirants. Fricatives may be voiced (vocal
cords vibrating during the articulation of the
fricative) or voiceless (vocal cords not vibrating
during the articulation of the fricative). Here is a list
of the fricatives in Present-Day English.
 Fricatives
1. /f/ (the phoneme spelled f in fine):
voiceless labiodental fricative.
2. /v/ (the phoneme spelled v in vine):
voiced labiodental fricative.
3. // (the phoneme spelled th in thistle):
voiceless interdental fricative.
4. /ð/ (the phoneme spelled th in this):
voiced interdental fricative.
5. /s/ (the phoneme spelled s in sue):
voiceless alveolar fricative.
 Affricates /t∫/ and /dʒ/
Africate, also called semiplosive, aconsonant sound
that begins as astop (sound with complete obstruction
of the breath stream) and concludes with
a fricative (sound with incomplete closure and a
sound of friction). Examples of affricates are the /t∫/
sound in English chair, which may be represented
phonetically as a t sound followed by /∫/; the jin
English jaw (a /d/ followed by the /ʒ/ sound heard in
journey . /dʒ/
 Nasal Consonants
A consonant produced through the nose with the
mouth closed.
/m/, /n/, and
The Nasal Sounds
/m/ (mom, Mary, name)
/n/ (nine, name, Nancy)
/ŋ/ (sing, ring, long)
The three of them are Plosives (stops)
Table of Standard English
Consonants
 Home work
• Page 35
• Page 46
• Page 55
• Page 66