Unit 3: Phonetics

The study of speech sounds is called phonetics. To describe speech sounds, it is necessary to know what
an individual sound is, and how each sound differs from all others. This is not as easy as it may seem, for
when we speak, the sounds seem to run together and it isn’t at all obvious where one sound ends and the
next begins. It aims to provide the set of properties necessary to describe and distinguish all the sounds in
human languages throughout the world. When we speak, the physical sounds we produce are continuous
stretches of sound, which are the physical representations of strings of discrete linguistic segments.
Knowledge of a language permits one to separate continuous speech into individual sounds and words.

It is remarkably acknowledged that alphabetic spelling does not represent the sounds of a language in a
consistent way. To be scientific—and phonetics is a science—we must devise a way for the same sound
to be spelled with the same letter every time, and for any letter to stand for the same sound every time.
Taking into account the elements discussed previously. Is not it true that most of ambiguities, bias
utterances, pitfalls, and misunderstandings are sourced in the Segmental realm?

COMMON SPELING AND EXCEPTIONS OF SEMENTALS

Environment for a sound /: i /

e ee ea ei ie eo ey i ae y
We Tree Meat Receive Siege People Key Machine Caesar Many
He Free Beat Perceiv Piece Money Magazin
e e
She Agree Sweat Deceive Niece Honey Fatigue
Me See Cream Either Brief Ski
English Bee Dream Neither Believe
Be Fee Stream Ceiling Field
Peter Knee Mean Being Yield

Environment for a sound / I /

y ui i o e u ee
System Guitar Sin Women Pretty Busy Been
Rhythm Guilt Win Business
Syrup Guilty Pin Lettuce
Symbol Built Tin
Gym Quick Skin
Typical Biscuit Tick
 Environment for a sound / eI /
a ai ay eigh ea ey ei au
Flame Wait Way Eight Break They Vein Gauge
Name Bait Say Weight Great Obey Veil
Fame Main Stay Weigh Steak
Case Pain Lay Sleigh
Base Aim Away Freight
Lace Tail Pay Neighbor
Space Sail May Neigh
Environment for a sound: / є /
e ea a ai ie ue eo
Ten Dead Any Again Friend Guest Leopard
Pen Meadow Many Against Quest
Den Lead Guess
Pet Measure
Met Head
Wet Ahead
Let Thread

Environment for a sound: / æ /

a au
Pat After Map Laughter
Fat Actor Have Laugh
Cat Ant Had
Black Last Glad
Am Back Angry
And Happy Absent
Apple Pad add

Environment for a sound: / :a /

a o a+r o + b, d, g, t, p, ck
Want Elephant Politician Fox Car Farm Rob Pot
Wallet Squash Solve Crocodile Are Alarm Odd Cop
Father Doctor Resolve Star Bar Not Operate
Watch On Politics Start Art Top Stop
Wasp Solid Dolphin Smart Hard Hot Knot
Wash Condor Octopus Dart Part Mop Lot
 Llama Collie Hospital Far Chart Clock Cot

The discrepancy between spelling and sounds in English and other languages motivated the development
of phonetic alphabets in which one letter corresponds to one sound. The major phonetic alphabet in use is
the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA), which includes modified Roman letters and diacritics, by
means of which the sounds of all human languages can be represented. To distinguish between
orthography (spelling) and phonetic transcriptions, we write the latter between square brackets, as in
[fə’nɛɾɪk] for phonetic. Linguists have even suggested the spelling ghoti for the word: fish

Example 1: Same letter, different sounds: hat, all, art, orange, aim, any, above.

Example 2: Different letters, same sound: baby, steak, rain, they, veil, may.

Example 3: Silent letters:

B: Climb, comb, dumb, doubt, debt.
C: Muscle
D: Handkerchief, sandwich, Wednesday.
G: Champagne, foreign, sign.
Gh: Bought, caught, thought, ought, borough, daughter, height, high, light, neighbor, night, right, straight,
through, tight, weight.
H: What, when, where, whether, which, whip, why.
H: Honest, honor, hour.
K: Knee, knife, knob, knock, know.
L: Calm, could, half, salmon, should, talk, walk, would.
N: Autumn, hymn, chimney.
P: Pneumatic, psychiatrist, psychologist, psychotherapist, pterodactyl.
R: iron.
S: Island, isle.
T: Castle, Christmas, fasten, listen, often, whistle.
U: Guarantee, guard, guerilla, guess, guest, guide, guilty, guitar, guy.
W: Wrap, write, wrong, who, whom, whore, whole.

Example 4: Homophones:
By- Bye-Buy Flower-Flour
Naval-Navel Right-Write-Rite
Hymn-Him They’re-Their-There
Whole-Hole Straight-Strait
Two-Too-To Buy-By-Bye
One-Won Fourth-Forth
 Know-No Morning-Mourning
Knew-New Weight-Wait
Poor-Pour Waste-Waist
Very-Vary Week-Weak
Hair-Hare-Her Way-Weigh
Hour-Our Steel-Steal
Weather-Whether Sweet-Suite
Principal-Principle Toe-Tow
Bear-Bare Stare-Stair
Bee-Be Son-Sun
Knight-Night Tail-Tale
Wear-Where-Ware Witch-Which

Example 5: Words pronounced with: /aI /.

Biology, buy, dial, height, iron, microphone, science, society, either, neither.

Example 6: Other sounds to be memorized.

A: / є /
Many, any.
Ch: / k /
Ache, archeology, architect, chaos, character, chemist, Christmas, mechanic, stomach.
Ea: / є /
Already, bread, breakfast, dead, death, dreamt, dreadful, head, health, heavy, instead, lead, learnt, meant,
leather, measure, pleasure, ready, steady, threat, weather.
Ea: /ei /
Break, steak, great.
Gh: / f /
Cough, draught, enough, laugh, rough, tough.

Example 7: Troublesome words or mispronounced.

Sing-Sign Hurt-Heart
Nigh-Night High-Height
Beer-Beard Woman-Women
Pear-Peer Break-Breakfast
 Saw-Sow-Sew Salmon-Semen-Cement
Prophesy-Prophecy Soup-Soap
Suit-Suite Down-Dawn
Sweet-Sweat In a sense-In essence-Innocence
Think-Sink Quite-Quit-Quiet
Message-Massage Desert-Dessert
Curse-Course Again-Against
Boss-Bus-Buzz Sheet-Shit

Example 8: Words with double pronunciation.

Verbs Nouns Verbs Nouns

Adjectives Adjectives
Record Record Conduct Conduct

Addict Addict Protest Protest

Progress Progress Permit Permit

Increase Increase Desert Desert

Contract Contract Object Object

Subject Subject Convict Convict

Defect Defect Present Present

 Produce Produce Rebel Rebel

Project Project Suspect Suspect

Contest Contest Rebel Rebel

Example 9: Words with weird pronunciation.

Colonel, Choir, Iodine, Ballet, Expertise.

Example 10: Disappearing Syllables.

In some very common words in English, when two or three unstressed syllables follow a stressed syllable,
the unstressed syllable immediately after the stressed syllable is dropped altogether. This is especially
common before (R).
In – te – res – ting

Temperature Aspirin
Favorable Beverage
Miserable Comfortable
Pleasurable Reasonable
Laboratory Vegetable
Elementary Evening
Documentary Chocolate
Separate Family
Deliberate Generally
Favorite Accidentally
Different Awfully
Restaurant President

All English speech sounds come from the movement of lung air through the vocal tract. The air moves
through the glottis (i.e., between the vocal cords), up the pharynx, through the oral (and possibly the
nasal) cavity, and out the mouth or nose.

Human speech sounds fall into classes according to their phonetic properties. All speech sounds are either
consonants or vowels, and all consonants are either obstruents or sonorants. Consonants have some
obstruction of the airstream in the vocal tract, and the location of the obstruction defines their place of
articulation, some of which are bilabial, labiodental, alveolar, palatal, velar, uvular, and glottal.
Consonants are further classified according to their manner of articulation. They may be voiced or
voiceless, oral or nasal, long or short. They may be stops, fricatives, affricates, liquids, or glides. During
the production of voiced sounds, the vocal cords are together and vibrating, whereas in voiceless sounds
they are apart and not vibrating. Voiceless sounds may also be aspirated or unaspirated. In the production
of aspirated sounds, the vocal cords remain apart for a brief time after the stop closure is released,
resulting in a puff of air at the time of the release. Consonants may be grouped according to certain
features to form larger classes such as labials, coronals, anteriors, and sibilants.

Vowels form the nucleus of syllables. They differ according to the position of the tongue and lips: high,
mid, or low tongue; front, central, or back of the tongue; rounded or unrounded lips. The vowels in
English may be tense or lax. Tense vowels are slightly longer in duration than lax vowels. Vowels may
also be stressed (longer, higher in pitch, and louder) or unstressed. Vowels, like consonants, may be nasal
or oral, although most vowels in all languages are oral.

PHONETIC ALPHABET FOR ENGLISH PRONUNCIATION

PLACES OF ARTICULATION OF ENGLISH CONSONANTS

PHONETICAL SYMBOLS FOR AMERICAN ENGLISH CONSONANTS

EXAMPLES OF CONSONANTS IN ENGLISH WORDS

 CLASSIFICATION OF AMERICAN ENGLISH VOWELS

Exercise I. Find a way from start to finish. You may pass a square only if it has the sound /: i /. You
can move horizontally or vertically only.
Leave Earth Health Reach Teach Meat Steak Dip Quit Print
Dream Dead Cream Jeans Steak Cheat Break Trip Guitar Trim
East Bread Tea Death Heat Peak Tip Rip Gift Gym
Beach Break Peace Search Leaf Meant Pit Trip Guilty They
Seat Please Team Early Beat Being Hit Tea Leave Dear
 Head Bear Wear Dreamt Sweat Clean Cling Tee Busy Fear
Felt Bread Mite Trim Swing Beam Slim Bee Pretty Sleep
Dealt Meado Sit Strip Sleeve Stream Bite Heat Women Steep
w
Hell Hill Bill Pin Peter Great Feet Wheat Win Police
Well Eel Each Steam Lean Fake Eat Tin Sin People
Smell Feel Fill Met Fit Lake Green Pin Fin Heel
Dealt Wheel Deal Steal Steel Beans Queen Been Being Heal
Start
Finish
Exercise II- Put these words in the following two groups: / I / and / :i /.

Scene Beans Been Even Police People Women Key Peace Sheet
Piece Pretty Build Live Lettuce England Rhythm Leave Biscuit
Shit

Feel _________________________________________________________________________________
Filled ________________________________________________________________________________

Exercise III- Circle the only one odd word horizontally written for the sounds: /є/, /eI/, /æ/, /:a /.
1 Any Breakfast Many Break Bread
2 Break Steak Stream Great They
3 Meant Maid Said Head Wet
4 Mad Tape Map Pat Tap
5 Hot Stop Cop Cap Lock
6 Lake Rake Height Fake Weight
7 Reading Thread Ahead Dead Step
8 Laugh Path Made Math Can
9 Rock Lock Lack Pocket Wallet
10 Politician Problem On Luck Log

Exercise IV- Put the words of the box in the correct grid. / :i /, / Ι /, /eI /, /є/, /æ/, /a /.
 :i Ι ei є æ :a
Leak Lick Lake Leck Lack Lock
Heat Hit Hate Het Hat Hot
Peak Pick Pace Peck Pack Pocket
Seat Sit Sate Said Sad Sod
Pet Pit Paste Pet Pat Pot
Hot Heat Het Hate Hat Hit Lack Lock Lake Lick
Leak Leck Pocket Pack Peck Pick Pace Peak Sate Sod Seat
Sit Said Sad Pit Pet Peter Pot Paste Pat

Exercise V- What is the environment for each strings of words. /:i /, / Ι /, /eI /, /є/, /æ/, /:a /.

Said Breakfast Many Sweat Bread Instead /є/

Break Steak Obey Great They Gauge / eI /
Mean People Police We Trainee Steel /I/
Mad Slap Map Pat Tap Guarantee /æ/
Hot Stop Cop Lot Lock Hot / :a /
Lake Rake Fate Fake Weight Freight / eI /
Meadow Thread Ahead Dead Step Lead /є/
Laugh Path Mad Math Can Pan /æ/
Rock Lock Stop Pocket Wallet Start / :a /
Politician Problem On Lock Log Block / :a /