PHONETICS &

PHONOLOGY
Lecturer: Lê Thị Thu Hường
WHAT’S THE DIFFERENCE?
PHONETICS

➢ “The study of how sounds are produced and how the

position of the mouth can be changed to produce
different sounds is called phonetics.” [Avery & Ehrlich,
1995: 11]
➢ Phonetics describes the sounds we use in speaking.
PHONOLOGY

➢ “In linguistics, the study of how sounds pattern in

languages is called phonology.” [Avery & Ehrlich, 1995:
39]
➢ Phonology is the study of the abstract side of the
sounds of a language, i.e. of how phonemes function in
a language and the relationship among the different
phonemes.
PHONEME
A phoneme is “the smallest unit of sound in a language
which can distinguish two words.”
Ex: The English words pan and ban differ only in their
initial sound:
pan begins with /p/ and ban with /b/
➔ /p/, /b/, /`/ and /n/ are phonemes of English.
[Richards, Platt & Weber, 1987: 214]
PHONEMES
PHONEME

Received Pronunciation has 44 phonemes:

+ 20 vowel phonemes
 12 pure vowels
 8 dipthongs
+ 24 consonant phonemes.
01
A. Articulators
B. Vowels & Consonants
ARTICULATORS ABOVE THE LARYNX:
• Sounds  muscle contracting
• Larynx/ voicebox (thanh quản): ‘the area at the top of the
throat that contains the vocal cords (dây thanh âm).” (Oxford
Advanced Dictionary)
• Air → larynx (thanh quản) → the vocal tract (đường dẫn thanh)
which ends at the mouth and nostrils
• We call the part comprising the mouth the oral cavity and the part
that leads to the nostrils the nasal cavity
→ These different parts are called articulators.
THE VOCAL TRACT (Đường dẫn thanh) is the air passages
which are above the vocal cords and which are involved in the
production of speech sounds.” The vocal tract can be divided into:
1. THE NASAL CAVITY (Khoang mũi), which is “the air passage
within and behind the nose”;
2. THE ORAL CAVITY (khoang miệng), which is “the air passage
within the mouth”;
3. THE PHARYNX (họng, hầu), which is the air passage extending
“from above the vocal cords up to the soft palate (velum –
vòm/ngạc mềm) at the back of the mouth.”
Fig 1. The vocal organs
NƯỚU RĂNG VÒM CỨNG
VÒM/ NGẠC
MỀM

HỌNG/ HẦU

THANH QUẢN
ARTICULATORS

“The movable parts of the mouth — the bottom

lip, the bottom teeth, the tongue, and the jaw —
are referred to as articulators. In production of
speech sounds, the articulators approach the
upper unmovable parts of the mouth, causing
the airstream to be altered in different ways.
 nasal cavity

nose
oral cavity
Alveolar Velar
lip Tongue
teeth
teeth
lip

Glottal
 THE TONGUE
The tongue is a very important articulator because it
can be moved to different places and has different
shapes. The tongue is theoretically divided into
different parts: tip, front, center and back. The tip
and the blade lie under THE ALVEOLAR RIDGE, the
front lies under THE HARD PALATE and the back lies
under THE SOFT PALATE (also called THE VELUM).
 Section 1. SOME BASIC CONCEPTS

Fig 2. The parts of the

palate Fig 3. The parts of the tongue
 Hard palate

Alveolar Velum
(soft palate)
Alveolar sounds (âm
chân răng)

/t/ and /d/ /s/ and /z/

The alveolar ridge is between the top front teeth and the
hard palate
→ Alveolar sounds (âm chân răng) are the sounds made
with the tongue touching the alveolar ridge.
 /t/ & /d/
alveolar stop consonants
 /s/ & /z/
alveolar fricative consonants
Palatal sounds (âm
vòm)
/j/

5.5. The hard palate is the front part of the roof of the mouth
which is formed by a bony structure.
→ Palatal sounds /’p`lətl/ are the sounds produced by the
front upper surface of the tongue touching or nearly touching
the hard palate.
Velar sounds (âm ngạc
mềm)

5.6. The soft palate = the velum /'vi:ləm/ is the muscular flap at the
back of the mouth that can be raised to press against the back
wall of the pharynx and shut off the nasal cavity, preventing air
from going out through the nose.
→Velar sounds /'vi:lər/ are the sounds produced by the back of the
tongue touching the velum.
 /k/ & /g/
velar stop consonants
Dental sounds (âm
răng)

5.7. Dental sounds are sounds made with the tongue touching the
front teeth.
Dental sounds /8/ & /5/
Bilabial, labiodental sounds (âm
2 môi, âm răng môi)

5.8. Bilabial sounds (âm hai môi) are sounds in which the lips are in contact
with each other
Ex: /b/ or /p/

5.9 Labiodental sounds (âm răng môi) are sounds with lip- to-teeth contact
Ex: /f/ or /v/
Oral sounds (âm
miệng)
Oral sounds
● When THE VELUM is raised all the way to touch
the back of the throat, the passage through the
nose is cut off. When the nasal passage is blocked
in this way, the air can escape only through the
mouth. Sounds produced this way are called oral
sounds …” [Fromkin & Rodman, 1993: 189-190]
● The mast majority of consonants are oral.
 /t/ & /d/
alveolar stop consonants
Nasal sounds (âm
mũi)
Nasal sounds

● Nasal sounds are produced “by stopping the

airstream from the lungs at some place in THE
MOUTH (for example by closing the lips) and
letting the air escape through THE NOSE.”
[Richards, Platt & Weber, 1987: 187]
● E.x: /m/, /n/, /ŋ/
 /m/
bilabial nasal consonant
Larynx (thanh quản)

The larynx is a casing of cartilage (sụn)

and muscles in the upper part of the
windpipe (also called the trachea – khí
quản) which contains the vocal cords.
Vocal cords (dây thanh âm)

The vocal cords /The vocal folds/The vocal

bands are folds of tough, flexible tissue in the
larynx extending from back to front.
Glottis (thanh môn)

The glottis → glottal

- is the space between the vocal cords.
- is easily recognised in four states:
 c
Fig 5. Four different states of the glottis
 Open: for normal breathing and during
voiceless consonants. (Notice that when
the glottis is open, the vocal folds are
wide apart.)

Narrowed: the result is the voiceless

glottal fricative /h/, which is produced
by the friction right at the narrowed
glottis when the airflow passes through
it.
Closed or nearly closed: when the
edges of the vocal folds are touching or
nearly touching together, air passing
through the glottis will usually cause
vibration, resulting in voiced sounds (all
vowels and voiced consonants).

Tightly closed: the result is the glottal

stop /?/, which is produced by the rapid
closing of the glottis which traps the
airflow from the lungs behind it, followed
by a sudden release of the air as the
glottis is opened.
Name the vocal organs!

palate
alveolar oral

velum

back
lips

folds
blade
tip
glottis
Voiced vs voiceless sounds
Voiced sounds vs. Voiceless sounds
● “The airstream from the lungs moves up through THE TRACHEA, or
WINDPIPE, and through the opening between THE VOCAL CORDS,
which is called THE GLOTTIS.
● If the vocal cords are apart, the airstream is not obstructed at the
glottis and it passes freely into the supraglottal cavities (the parts of
the vocal tract above the glottis). The sound produced in this way are
voiceless sounds …
● If the vocal cords are together, the airstream forces its way through
and causes them to vibrate. Such sounds are called voiced sounds …”
[Fromkin & Rodman, 1993: 187]
Voiced vs voiceless sounds
Vowels – Consonants (Nguyên
âmConsonants
– Phụ âm) vs. Vowels
● “Every language of the world contains the two basic classes of
speech sounds often referred to by the cover terms consonants
(C) and vowels (V). In the production of consonants the flow of
air is obstructed as it travels through the mouth.
● Vowels are produced with no oral obstruction whatsoever. Oral
and nasal stops, fricatives, affricates, liquids and glides all have
some degree of obstruction and are therefore consonants.”
[Fromkin & Rodman, 1993: 198]
Name the vocal organs!

palate
alveolar oral

velum

back
lips

folds
blade
tip
glottis