2 The production of speech sounds

2.1 Articulators above the larynx

All !he sounds we make when we speak are the resuh of mtL<eles .:onu... L_,,,.
muscles in the chest that wc use for breathing produce the flow of air llut
almost all speech sounds; muscles in the laryruc produce many diff<'r<-nt moc...,-,.,..._,.
the flow of air from !he chest to the mouth. Afler passing through thc brym.. die
through what we caU thc vocal troct, which ends al the mouth and fl0$1TUS; ""e
part cornprising che mouth the oral cavity and the part that leads m th< nos
cavity. Here the a.ir from thc lungs escapes into the atmosphcre. We h2\~ a
compkx set of muscles that ca n produce chai1ges in the shape or ¡he vo.:al uaa.
ordcr to learn how thc sounds o í speech are produced it is ncccssary to b<come --~
with the differc.iu parts of the vocal 1ract Thcsc different parts are callcd aniculaton
the study of them is called articulatory phonetics.
Fig. 1 is a diagram that is uscd frequently in the study of phonctics. lt rtt~=~
hwnan head, seen from thc side, displayed as though it had been cut in 'ialí \
to look at it carefuUy as thc articulators are described, and you will find ti wdul
mirror anda good light placed so that you can look at the inside of mur mouth.
i) The pharynx is a tubc which begins jusi above !he larynx. lt about -
b
in women Jnd about 8 cm in meo, and at its top end il b Ji, iJtd ur.

hard
00);('
p11h11e 'ºl't p;al111c 1vclutn)

uplX'r
1cc1h -.
upptr lip

luwer Up

Flg. 1 The articulators

8
 The productíon of speech sounds 9

part being tbe back of the oral cavity and tbe otber beiog tb e beginoiog of the
way thro ugh the nasal cavity. lfym1 look in your mi rror witb your mou tb open,
you can see the bllck of the pha(yllx.
ii) Tbe soft palate or velum is seen in the diagram in a position that allows aJr
to pass througb the oose and tbrougb the mouth. Yours is probably in that
position now, but o ften in speech it is raised so tbat air cannot escape tbrough
the nose. Tbe other important thing about tbe soft palate is that it is o ne of the
articulatms 1ha1 can be touched by tbe tongue, When we make the sounds l.., y
the tongue is in comact "~th the lower side of the soft palate, and we cal! these
velar consonants.
iii) The hard palate is often c.alled the "roof of the mou th". You can feeJ its smooth
curved su rface with your tongue. A consonan! made with the tongue dose to the
hard palate is caUed palatal. The sound J in ' yes' is palatal .
iv) The alveolar ridge is between the top froat teeth and the hard p alate. You can
feel its shapc with your tongue. Jts smface is really much rougher than it feels,
aod is covereu with litrlc ridges. You can only see tbese if you bave a mirror small
en ough to go inside your mouth, s ucb as thosc used by dentists. Sounds made
wich the tongue touching here (such as t , u, n) are c.alled alveolar.
v) The tongue is a very important articulator and it can be moved i1\to mru1y dif-
fercn t places an d different s hapes. lt is usual to d ivide the tongue into different
parts, though there are no dear clividing lines within its strucmre. Fig. 2 shows
the tongu e on a larger sc,1lc with these parts shown: tip, blade, front, back a11d
root. (Th is use of the word "front" often seems rather strange at first.}
''i) The teeth (upper and lower) are usually show11 in diagrams like Pig. 1 only at the
front of the mouth, immediately bebind tbe lips. This is for th e sale.e of a simple
diagram, and you should remember that mos1 speakers have teeth to the sides of
1h cir mou ths, back almost to the soft palate. The tongue is in contact with th e
upper side teeth fo,. most speedi sounds. Sounds made with tbe tangue touchi ng
the front teetb, such as English fl, •\ are catJed dental.

fron1 b.ick
blode
tip

Fig. 2 Subdivisions of t he tongue

10 English Phonetics and Phonology
- - -----
vü) Tbe lips are importan! in ~peech. They can be pres.sed togéther ("ilcu ~
produce the sounds " ), brought into contact wiLh the t<"'th (as m ar
rounded to produce the lip-shape for vowels like 11 .• Sound> in "-hidi dar bps
are in contact with each other are called bilabial, while th"'" wtth L;>-
contactare callcd labiodental.

The seven articulators described above are the main ones useJ in 'pttdl.
are a few otber thi ngs to remcmber. Firstly, the larynx (which will be >tud1~ 1n ~
could also be describe'<! asan articulator - a very complex and indepéndmt ooc ~=!...
tbe jaws are sometimes called arúculators; certainly we move the Jn,,·e: j.n. a
ing. But the jaws are not articulato~ in lbe same way as tbe other., bc:oa~ Ux.- ....__-'
themselves make contacl with other articulators. Finally, although thcc is pr.KL...::~
ing active that we can do l•·ith the nose and the nasal ca•·i1 y when <pc.ikint;. lht-r atta
important part of our equipment for making sounds (which is somctuncs c.2llcd ~
apparatus), particularly nas.11 consonants such as m, . Again, we cannot &:s..:
the nose and !he nasal caviry as articulators in tbe same sense as 1i) to (.-u ahow.

2.2 Vowel and consonant

The words vowel and consonan! are very familiar oaes, bu1 \\ !im '"Y
sounds of speech scienúfically wc find lhat it is not easy to define exaCI ' ,. wha1 cbn-
The most common view is thal vowels .ire souads in wb.ich Lhere ¡, no obstnxt=:
flow of airas it passes from the larynx to the lips. A doctor who wanh to lool: 4! dar
of a patieat's mouth oñen ~ks them to say "ah"; making this vowel >0und IS thc
of presenting an unobsrruct~ view. But if we make a sound like ' · it can be
lhat we are making it difficult or impossihle for !he air to pass through dar ax>á
people would bave no doubt that sounds like ' • should be called coruonm:
there are many cases where !he decision is not so easy to make. Onc probkm u
Englisb souads that we lhink of as consonants, sucb as !he sounds al 1he 1>q~=6
words 'hay' and 'way', do not really obstruct tbe flow of air more 1h.in SO!llle -~
Another problem is thal diffcrenl languages bave differcnt ways of dhidin¡: tbar .o:::Jla
into vowels and consonants; for cxnmple, !he usual souad produccJ lt thc ~
thc word ' red' is felt to be a consonan! by most Englisb speaker'5, but in IO:lX
guages (e.g. Mandarín Chinese) the s.1me sound is Lreated as one of the •lJ\óCk
lf we say that the difference between vowels and consonants is a JiffettnU m
lhat !bey are produced, there will inevitJbly be sorne cases of unc~n.1in!l or cL:~:=:==
tlus is a problem that cannot be avoidcd. lt is possible lo e.tabfüh rwo diJ.tina e-=..
sounds {vowels and consonants) in anolher way. Consider Eng.Ji,h words bcs:-
the sound .; what sounds can coine next after this 1? We find th.it most tllc =~:,,;
we normally thicl: af as vowels C<tn follow (e.g. in the word 'hea'), but pDC
of !he sounds we dass as consonants, with the possible excep1ion of m a
'huge' h ~. Now think of E.nglish words beginning witlt the lwo soUlldt
many cases where a coasonant can follow (e.g. 1 in the word 'bid, or m dar
 2 The production of speech sounds 11

ut pracclcally no cases where a vowel may follow. What we are doing here is looJ<ing al
n.. differeat coatexts and positíons in which particular sounds caa occur; this is tbe study
· tbe distribution of tbe sounds, and is of great importance in phonology. Study of the
· •unds fou nd at the beginning and end of English words has shown that rwo groups of
mnds with quite different patterns of distribution can be identified, aad tbese two groups
uc tbose of vowel and consonam. If we look at the vowel-consonant distinction in this
'ªY• we m use say chat the most importa at difference between vowel and consonant is not
the way that tbey are rnade, but their differeat distributions. [t is im po rta111 to remember
that thc distribution of \>OWels and coosonants is different for each language.
We begin the study of Engl ish sounds in chis course by looking at vowels, and it
., necessary to say something about vowels in general before turning to the vowels of
E.nglish. We necd ro know in what ways vowels differ from each other. The füst cnatter to
.:oosider is the shape aad position of the tongue. ll is usual to sicnplify lhe very complex
p<1ssibilities by describing j ust two things: füstly, the vert ical distaace between the upper
mrface of the tongue and tbe palate and, secondly, the part of the tangue, bet:weea fron t
and back, wnich is rnised h ighest. Ler us look at sorne examples:

i) Make a vowel like the 1: in the English word 'see' and look in a mirror; if you tilt
your nead back slighlly you will be able to see that tbe tongue is held up close to
the roof of the mouth. Now make an ;e vowel (as in the word ~cat') aad notice
how the distance between tbe surface of the tongue and the roof of tbe cnouth
is now much greater. The difference between i: and <~ is a difference of tongue
neight, and we would describe i: as a relatively dose vowel and a· as a relatively
open voweL Tongue heiglrt can be changed by moving the tongue up or down,
or moving tbe lower jaw up or down. Usually we use socne cocnb ination of the
two sorts of movement, but when drawing side-of-thc-head diagrams such as
fig. 1 aad fig. 2 it is usually found simpler 10 illustrnte tangue shapes for vowels
as if tongue heigbt were altered by tongue movement alone, witbout any accom·
panying jaw movement So we would illustrate the tongue heigh t d ifference
between 1: and ll' as in Fig. 3.

" ' '1

t
1
1
I

Flg. 3 Tongue positions for i: a nd "'

12 English Phonetlcs and Phonology

ii) ln making the two vowels described above, il is the front part of the ·
is raised. We could therefoie describe i : and 1c as comparariwl}· front ·~
chaoging the shape of the tangue we can prc1duce vowcls in whkh
of rhe tengue is the highest point. A vowel in which the back of t1u um;:_ a
highest point is called a back vowel. lf you make tl1e vowd in l:M1"i:ird
which we write phonetically as u;, you cao see tbat the back of lhe lOll?
Compare this with a: in front uf a mirror; :e is a front vowel and .i: ts i l:u.:X
vowel. The vowel in 'too' (u:) is also a comparatively back VO\>d. but <'.'.M:::;=z:~
with u; it is dose.
So now wc have seen bow four vowels differ from each other; we c;in sfo ~ tlm
diagram.

Front Back
Close ll:

Open a:

However, lhis diagl"am is rather inaccurate. Phonctlcians oeed a very u. ~

classifying vowels, and have developed a set of vowels which are ammged mi ~
front-back diagram similar to tl1e one above but whicl1 are not thc vowels oí m> J:=:::.t!Slir
ln nguage. These cardinal vowels are a st<indard reterence system. aod peo¡*~=='°'
in phonetics al an advanced level have to leam to muke Lhem accuratelv ana 1..:~
correctly. lf you leam tbe cardinal vowels, you are not leaming to m3k.! Englisb SCKmdi!.
you are leaming about the range of vowels that the huma n vocal apparatU> .:an
also learning a useful way of describing, dassifying ~nd comparing-vowels. Tan ~ ;:u:ir.:lo::
on Track 21 of CD 2.
it lias become traditional to locate cardinal vowels on a four-side<l 5¡:'~r- ~e;;:;'""'::.·
lateral of Lhe shape seen in Fig. 4 - the design used here is the one recolllllX'DÓo!
International Phonetic Association). The exact sbape is oot really 1mpcirwu - t
would do quite well - but we will use tbe traditional shape. The vowcls in fl¡; ~ i=e
called primnry cardinal vowels; tbese are rhe vowds that are most familiar w tbe ~:.á:=
of most Europea11 languages, and there are otheI cardinal voweJs (seronda.tT ==='"-
vowels) that sound less fam iliar. lo tllis course cardinal vowels are primcd
brackets 1 ] to distinguish them dearly from English vowel sounds.

Fruut C.eotral Back

Cl<.l J.\! 1 - - - - - - - ---
8
11
2 _ ___,_ _ _7_. l)
Closc-mid c .._

Fig. 4 Primary cardinal vowels

 2 The production of speech sounds 13

Cardinal vowel no. l has the symbol [i], a11d is defined as tbe vowel wh.ich is as dos<.'
.uiJ as front as it is possible to make a vowel without obstructi11g tbe tlow of air enough to
,Juce friction noise; friction noise is the hissing sound that one hears in consonants lil<e
'r . G1rdinal vowel no. 5 has th e symbol (ul and is defined as the most open a11d back
"'el that it is possible to mal<e. Cardinal vowel no. 8 1 u] is fully close and back nnd no. 4
i> fully open and fronL After establishing tbese extreme points, it is possible to put in
1.rrmediate points (vowels no. 2, 3, 6 001d 7). Many students when they hear tbese vowels
·· nJ that they sound strange and exaggerated; you mus! rerne.mber that they are extremes of
'OWel quality. lt is useful to tbink of the cardi11al vowel framework like a m:ip of an atea or
. untry tbat you are interested in. U the map is to be useful to you it must coverall the area;
'ut if it covers the whole area of interest it must inevitably go a Ji ttle way beyond tbat and
dude some places tbat you migh t aever wan1 to go 10.
When you are familiar witl1 thcse enreme vowels, you bave (as mentioned above)
cimed a way of describing, classifying and compari11g vowels. For example, we can say
that the Englisb vowel ;l' (tbe vowel in 'cat' ) is notas open as card inal vowel no. 4 [a), We
have now Jooked at bow we can classify vowels accorcliag to tbeir tongue heigbt and their
trontaess or back.J1ess. There is aaother irnportant variable of vowel quality. and that is
1p-position. AJtl10ugh tbe lips can bave many differeat shapes and positions, we will at
this stage consider only three possibilities. These are:
i) Rounded, where the corners of tbe lips are broughc towards each other and th e
lips p ushed forwards. Th is is most clearly seen in cardinal vowel no. 8 [u].
ii) Spread, with the comers of the lips moved away from eacb other, as for a smile.
This is most clearly seen in cardinal vowel no. 1 [i ].
iii) Neutral, wbere the lips are aot noticeably rounded or spread. The noise most
Englisb people make wben they are hesitating ( written 'er'} has neutral lip positio11.
~ow, using tbe principies that have just been explained, we will examine sorne of the
En.glish vowels.

2.3 Engllsh short vowels 0 AU2, Exs 1- 5

English has a large n umber of vowel sounds; the fi rst o nes to be examined are sbort
vówels. Thesymbols for tbeseshortvowels ar~: 1, c , 1u, ' • o, o . Shott vowelsare only relative/y
sbort; as we sball see Jatei·, vowels can have quite differe.nt lengtbs in differenl contexts.
Each vowel is descrfüed in relation 10 the cardinal vowels.

Fig. s English short vowels

J4 English Phonetics and Phonology

1 (example words: 'bit'. 'pin', 'Jish') The diagram shows 1ha1, chouzh ÜttS _ a
che clase front area, compared with cardinnl vowel no. 1 (,] it ¡_, mott o;:c:.=
nearer in to the centre. The lips are slightly spread.
~ (example words: 'bet', ' men', 'yes) This is a front vowel between car~
no. 2 [e] and no. 3 {<]. Thc lips are slightly spread.
<e {example words: 'baf, ' man', 'gas') This vowel is front, but n o t quite :as~ e
cardinal vowel no. 4 (a j. The lips are sligbtly spread.
' (example words: 'cut', 'come', 'rush' ) This is a central vowel, and .U~
shows that it is more open than tbe open-mid tonguc height. 1ñr hp •
neutral
n {example words: ' pot', 'gone; 'cross') This vowel is not quitefully lw.:i:.. z:id be:wrm
open- mid and open in 1011gueheighL. Thelips are sligbtly roundtrl.
,¡ ( example words: 'put; 'pull', 'push') The nearest cardinal vowel ii no. ~
can be seen that 11 is more open and nearer to centTal. The lips .tre nnr:-~
There is one other short vowcl, for which thc symbol is o. This central ...,,.d-
called schwa - is a very familiar sound in English; it is heard in th"' tmt 51ibbK
words 'about', 'oppose', 'perhaps', for example. Since it is different from thc othc '~
severa! important ways, we will study it separately in Chapter 9.

Notes on problems and further readlng

One of the most difficult aspects of phon etics at this stage is the large numher oi ~
terms that have to be leamed. Every phonetícs textbook gives a descrípti.m · die ut~;t­
tors. U-;efuJ inrroductions are Ladefoged (2006: Chapter l ), Ashby (2005 .u d Asfb-
Maidment ( 2005: Chapter 3).
An importa:nt d.iscussion of the vowel-<:onsonanr d istinction is b~· Pikc ~ l3·1:<>--
He suggested that sincc rhe two approaches to the distinction pro duú sucb <L!'.~as:
results we should use new terms: sounds which do n ot obstmct the ainlow u·ac.=::.
ally called "vowels") should be called vocoids, and sounds wl11ch rlo ob>tr.xl tht
flow (traditionally called "conson ants") shou ld be called contoids. Thh .~ tM
"vowel" and "conso1iant" for use in labeWng ph onological elements accor,¡¡n~
distribution aod their role in syllable structure; see Section 5.8 of Lav..r 1?94
vowels are usually vocoids and consonants are usually contoids, this i> not .dwzn
case; for example, 1 in 'yet' and " in 'wet' are (phoneti cally) vocoids but iun.
nologically) as consonants. A study of the distribu tional d.ifferences be~"ttD 'roOfds
consonants in English is described in O'Connor and Trim (1953); a bntc"'r lit:C!::ie •
is in Cruttenden (2008: Sections 4.2 and 5.6). The classificacion af 'º"'els has 1
üteratu.re: I would recommend Jopes ( 1975: Chapter 8); Ladefoged r2001) ;:i•cs a
introduction in Chapter l , and much more detail in Chaprer 9; see al.so .o.bér·==~
( 1967: 55-60 a nd Chaptcr 10). The Hcmdbook o( the f11ternational Plrorutr~ ..Wxr:=..;
( 1999: Section 2.6) eiqilains the fPA's principies of vowel classificatíon. Tnf di;t;n;:
 2 The production of spttch sounds J 5

r!orn primary and seconda ry card inal vowcls is a rather dubious one which appears
be hased to somc cxLent on a divis ion between those vowels which are familiar and
6ok,, which are unfamiliar to speakers of most European languages. lt is possible to
dl:l¡srl)· vowels quite unambiguously without resorting to this notion by specifying tbeir
back, closc/opcn and lip positions.

altten eKercises

, On the diagrnm provided, various articulators are indicated by labclled arrows

(a-e). C ive thc names for the articulators.
(h)

<••

.! Using the descriptive labels introduccd for vO\•·el dassification, say what the fol-
lowing cardinal vowels are:
a) [u) b) (e ] c) l •J d) (i] e) In ]
3 Draw a vowcl quadrila teral and indicate on it the corree\ places for the followin g
Englísh vowcls:
a) :i! b) \ C)I d) •
4 Writc the symbols for the vowels in the following words:
a) bread b) rough e) foot d ) hymn
e) pul) () cougb g) mat h) friend