PHONOLGY

Phoneme= contrastive unit of sounds which can be used to change meaning

- Not every small diff. Can be heard btw 1 sound and another is enough to change meanings-
glottal stop
- Composed of number of diff.sound – which are interpreted as one meaningful unit by a
native speaker of the lang.- this range is termed – ALLOPHONIC VARIATION
- And the variants itself are : allophones- exist in reality as concrete entities= are real. Can be
recorded, stored,….
- Is abstract, in mind of speaker, unpronounceable= we refer to its realized= as allophone
- Is a member of set of abstract units which together form sound system of a given lang. And
through which contrasts of meaning are produced

How we produce speech

1. Respiration
2. Phonation
3. Modification

1,RESPIRATION

- Air stream= egressive- outgoing, expiratory

- Lungs= initiator of the air-stream
- Bronchi, trachea= priedušky, windpipe

2,PHONATION

- Activity of the Larynx/Voicebox/= made up of cartilages/chrupavky/ and muscles, engine of

the phonatory sys.
- Vocal folds/V.Cordis/= in larynx, 2 thick flaps of muscle
- Phonation= funct. Of the larynx as a vibration source
o GLOTTIS= opening btw vocal folds
 Basic Phonation Position= closing of glottis
 Vocal cord vibration= repeated activity of the vocal folds during the entire
process of Phonation
 4 States of vocal folds :1. wide apart,2. narrow glottis,3. touched/nearly
touched,4. tightly closed

3,MODIFICATION

- Air-stream is further modified in SUPRAGLOTTAL COVAL TRACT/ resonance chambers,

supraglottal cavities, vocal tract/

Resonality cavities/articulators/ in the supraglottal tract/above glottis/

1. Oral cavity
2. Nasal cavity
3. ___cavity

PHARYNX

- above larynx
- Not variable in shape
 - At the upper end, the passageway splits into 2:
o Leading to oral cavity
o Leading to nasal cavity

SOFT PALATE

- Switches air-stream to flow(velum)

- Through the mouth (soft p. raised)= oral sound
- Through nose(lowered)= nasal sound

THE ORAL CAVITY

- Most variable in dimension and shape

- Organs:
o Active=tongue= most active, mandible, lower lip, soft p .
o Passive= roof of the mouth=maxilla(upper jaw),teeth, alveolar ridge, h. palate, upper
lip(movable to some extend)

Tongue= tip, blade, front, back

Basic positions of lips= round/u:/

-spread /I:/

-neutral /a:/

NASAL CAVITY

- Fixed dimension and shape

- NASALITY- modification by means of the nasal cavity
- Nasal cavity participates in the articulation through the soft palate:
 1. Raised- forming velopharyngeal closure, which prevents the air
stream from passing to the nasal cavity
 2. Lowered- enabling the expiratory air stream to pass into nasal
cavity

THE SUBSYSTEM OF ENGLISH CONSONANTAL PHONEMES

-consonants are easily characterized from the articulatory POW with regard to the type of
blockage in the air-stream and contacts of the articulatory organs.

- Consonant labels:

1. Energy
2. Place of articulation
3. Manner of articulation

1.PLACE OF ARTICULATION

- place of art. Tells us where the sound is produced

- according to the place of artic. Eng. Consonants are divided into:

Bilabial, labio-dental (lips+teeth), dental, alveolar, palate-alveolar(post alveolar),palatal ,velar, glottal

2.MANNER OF ARTICULATION

- Tells us how the sound is produced

- All articulators involve a stricture= narrowing of the vocal tract which affects the airstream
- 1.complete closure (stops, nasals, trills and taps)
- 2.close approximation (fricatives)
- 3.open approximation (central and lateral approximation) /laterals, approximant/
- Stop consonants=affricatives, plosives

Consonats

1- obstruents= fricatives, stops= plosives, affricates

2- sonorants= nasals, approximants= lateral,central

3.ENERGY OF ARTICULATION

- Acc. To the presence/absence muscular tension during artic. We distinguish:

- FORTIS consonants (voiceless of stronger)
- LENIS consonants (voiced or weaker)
- The fortis/lenis distinction applies in ENG only to the obstruents (stops + fricatives).
- The sonorants (nasals+ approximants) do not have this contrast