MANNER OF ARTICULATION

CONSONANTS
VOICED AND VOICELESS SOUNDS
Voiceless when the vocal cords are apart so that air flows freely through the glottis into the oral cavity. Fall into two classes
depending on the timing of the vocal cord closure:
 The vocal cords remain open for a very short time after the lips come apart to release the p. We call this p aspirated.
 When we pronounce the p in spit, however, the vocal cords start vibrating as soon as the lips open. That p is unaspirated.
The production of the voiced [b] (and [d] and [g]), the vocal cords are vibrating throughout the closure of the lips, and continue to
vibrate during the vowel sound that follows after the lips part.
NASAL AND ORAL SOUND
Sounds produced with the velum unblocking the air from escaping through the nose, are oral sounds, because the air can escape
only through the oral cavity.
When the velum is lowered, air escapes through both the nose and the mouth. Sounds produced this way are nasal sounds.
STOPS
Stops are consonants in which the airstream is completely blocked in the oral cavity for a short period. All other sounds are
continuants. The sound [t] is a stop, but the sound [s] is not, and that is what makes them different speech sounds.
Different Variety of Stops:
Fricatives - /f, θ, s, ∫, v, ð, z, З, h/ In the production of some continuants, the airflow is so severely obstructed that it causes friction,
the sounds therefore called fricatives. The first of each of the following pairs of fricatives is voiceless; the second voiced.
Affricates - [tʃ]and [dʒ] These sounds are produced by a stop closure followed immediately by a gradual release of the closure that
produces an effect characteristic of affricative. The palatal sounds that begin and end the words church and judge are voiceless and
voiced affricates, respectively.
Glides - [j] [w] The sounds [j] and [w], the initial sounds of you and we, are produced with little obstruction of the airstream. They
are always followed directly by a vowel and do not occur at the ends of words. After articulating [j] or [w] the tongue glides quickly
into place for pronouncing the next vowel, hence the term glide.
Liquids - [l] [r] In the production of the sounds [l] and [r] there is some obstruction of the airstream in the mouth, but not enough
to cause any real constriction or friction.

VOWELS
Vowels are produced with little restriction of the airflow from the lungs out through the mouth and/or the nose. The quality of a
vowel depends on the shape of the vocal tract as the air passes through.
Tongue Position
• Tongue is high in the mouth in the production of the vowels [i] and [u] in the words he and who. In he the front part (but not the
tip) of the tongue is raised; in who it is the back of the tongue. These are both high vowels, and the [i] is a high front vowel while
the [u] is a high back vowel.
• To produce the vowel sound [a] of hah [ha], the tongue is low in the mouth.
• The vowels [l] and [u] in the words hit [hit] and put [put] are similar to those in heat [hit] and hoot [hut] but with slightly lowered
tongue positions.
• The vowels [e] and [o] in bait [bet] and boat [bot] are midvowels–they are neither high nor low. [e] in bet [bet] is also midvowel,
produced with a slightly lower tongue position than [e]. As well, [e] and [r] are front vowels and [o] is a back vowel.
• The vowel [ӕ] in hack [hӕk] or cat [cat] is produced with the front part of the tongue low in the mouth.
• The [s] in saw [s] is also a low vowel, but with the tongue back toward the throat. It is therefore a low back vowel.
• The vowel [a] in the word luck [lak] is a central vowel pronounced with the tongue low in the mouth though not as low as with [a].
• Finally, the schwa [ǝ), which occurs as the first sound in about [ǝbaut], or the final sound of sofa [sofǝ], is articulated with the
tongue in a neutral position between the extremes of high/low, front/back. The schwa is used mostly to represent unstressed
vowels (unstressed vowels are letters that are not easy to hear in a word).
 MAJOR PHONETIC CLASSES
Obstruents and Sonorants
The non nasal stops, the fricatives, and the affricates form a major class of sounds called obstruents. The airstream may be
fully obstructed, as in non nasal stops and affricates, or nearly fully obstructed, as in the production of fricatives. Sounds that are
not obstruents are sonorants.
Consonantal Sounds
Linguists place the obstruents, nasal stops, and liquids in a subclass of consonants called consonantal, from which the glides
are excluded.
•Labial - [p] [b] [m] [f] [v] [w] [m] Labial sounds are those articulated with the involvement of the lips.
•Coronal - [θ] [ð] [t] [d] [n] [s] [z] [f] [Ʒ] [tʃ] [dʒ] [l] [r] Coronal sounds are articulated by raising the tongue blade.
•Anterior - [p] [b] [m] [f] [v] [θ] [ð] [t] [d] [n] [s] [z] Anterior sounds are consonants produced in the front part of the mouth, that is,
from the alveolar area forward.
•Sibilants - [s] [z] [ʃ] [Ʒ] [tʃ] [dʒ] This class of consonantal sounds is characterized by an acoustic rather than an articulatory property
of its members. The friction created by sibilants produces a hissing sound, which is a mixture of high-frequency sounds.
Syllabic Sounds
Sounds that may function as the core of a syllable possess the feature syllabic. Clearly vowels are syllable, but they are not the
only sound class that anchors syllables. Obstruents and glides are never syllabic sounds because an obstruent or glide is always
accompanied by a vowel that functions as the syllabic core.
PROSODIC FEATURES
Prosodic features is the study of different aspects of speech and how they contribute to the meaning of speech. Length, stress,
Intonation, pitch, and tone are prosodic or suprasegmental features.
Length – Speech sounds that are identical in their place or manner features may differ in length (duration).
Stress – It is the degree of emphasis given to a sound or speech to provide context to meaning is specific languages.
Intonation – It is basically the rise and fall of speech.
●rising Intonation
●falling Intonation
Pitch – When we speak we also change the pitch of our voice. The pitch depends on how fast the vocal cords vibrate: the faster
they vibrate, the higher the pitch.
Tone – Languages that use the pitch of individual vowels or syllables to contrast meanings of words are called tone languages.
● register tone
● contour tone
It is as important to know about prosodic features as successful communication depends as much on intonation, stress and
rhythm as on the correct pronunciation of sounds.
SUPRASEGMENTAL
When vowels and consonants are put together, they form a syllable. Syllables become words, phrases, clause, an
eventually an utterance. When we make utterances, we also include sounds that makeup rhythm and tone. These are called
suprasegmental. Suprasegmental includes stress, pitch, intonation, juncture, and blending.
Stress - putting relative emphasis to a certain syllable of a word or to a certain word in a phrase or sentences. In words, the
stress falls on the vowel sounds, which is affected by the articulation of vowel sounds such as length and pitch. Stress symbols
such as (‘) that indicate primary stress, and (^) or (,) as secondary stress.
Rules in Stressing Syllabic Stress
1. Monosyllabic stress- Monosyllabic stress is applied in words that are said in isolation. These include: WhAt? NO! WOw!
2. Bi-syllabic stress – for words that contain two syllables. Some nouns and adjectives that are bi-syllabic receive the stress
on the first syllable. Although there are exceptions to this rule, very few two-syllabic nouns and adjectives are stressed on
the second syllable. Examples for first: SAMples PURple AWEsome Examples for second: reLAX deCIDE perMIT
3. Multisyllabic stress – in words with more than two syllable, multisyllabic stress is used. The stressing is usually suffix-based.
Such words end in “er” and “ly”, where stress is placed on the first syllable. Examples: QUARterly CERtainly ORderly
Rules in Lexical Stress
1. Some words change in stressed syllable when they function differently. Ex. OBject = (noun-thing) obJECT = (verb-disagree)
2. Some derived words undergo a shift in stress and a change in function and meaning when suffixes are added. Ex. POpular
3. Some derived words retain their primary stress even when suffixes are added to the root words. Ex. reTIRE
4. In some proper nouns, the second word usually takes the stress. Ex. North DAKOTA
5. In reflexive proper nouns, the stress is usually on the second syllable. Ex. mySELF
Phrasal Stress
1. Phrasal verbs are two or three-word phrases consisting of a verb and preposition and should be stressed on the second word.
2. When verb and preposition combination is used as a compound noun, the stress falls on the first word. Ex. HAND out
3. The first words are stressed in some compound words with noun and noun combination. Words are also used as a noun.
4. Compound nouns that are formed through noun and noun combination or adjective and noun combinations and used as
nouns are stressed on the second syllable. Examples: Ice-QUEEN
5. In most cases, the nouns carry the main stress. Examples: a big HOUSE
6. Adjective and noun combination that is treated as one unit, the adjective takes the main tress. Examples: a hot DOG
7. When nouns are combined with compound nouns the first word is stressed. Ex: AIRplane
8. In number stress, if the number is a multiple of ten, the first syllable takes the stress. Ex: ONE-hundred
 9. In numbers that end in –teen, the stress falls on the last syllable. Ex: sevenTEEN
Sentence stress - refers to the pattern of stressed and unstressed words throughout the sentence. Important words are normally
stressed especially the words that carry and change the meaning of the word. The types of sentence stress include tonic stress,
emphatic stress, contrastive stress and content word stress.
Tonic stress is stressing the syllable of the word that is important. It usually occurs at the last word that carries the thought unit.
Examples: Why are you HEre?
Emphatic stress is stressing certain words that carry or change the emotion and meaning of the sentence. Examples: I CAN’T do it.
Contrastive stress. It puts emphasis or stress on the syllable or words compared to highlight contrast. Ex. It’s not SILK, it’s COTton.
Content word stress refers to the stressing of “content words” that are grammatically identified such as the nouns, the verbs,
and the modifiers. In the sentence, content words receive the stress. Ex: I will GIve you a RING.
PITCH - is the rise and fall of the voice. It is always related to stress. It is generally the degree of highness and lowness of voice or
the rhythmic up and down of the speech. Pitch has four levels: the low, normal, high, and extra high.
1. Low pitch or pitch 1 is generally used to end a sentence. Also used in asking WH-question and giving information about the
question. Example: Cebu city is a beautiful place.
2. Normal pitch or pitch 2 is used in starting a sentence. Also used when signaling that something is not implied. It is used
further when we have more to say or when we have reservations. Ex. I know that you tried, however…
3. High pitch or pitch 3 is used when emphasizing certain syllables or words in the sentence. It is usually used in stressed words
or the words of a thought unit. High pitch is also used in yes or no questions, in stating a list or sequence of words or short
phrases such as: Did Juliane kiss Sam? Or when signaling a confirmation, like: You can’t be sure about it, right.
4. Extra high pitch or pitch 4 is used in expressing excitement, surprise or extreme emotions. Cebu city is such a beautiful place!
INTONATION - is putting together stress and pitch in indicating emotions, mental state and attitudes of the speaker. It is also used
in ranging functions of an utterance such as focusing attention on the significant elements of the message, helping in directing
verbal interactions, signaling statements, and differentiating question.
1. Rising intonation is used in questioning, also used to express excitement or annoyance. The pitch of the voice rises. Examples:
Is she feeling better? Do you understand that? (This denotes a desire for a response and continues the conversation.)
2. Falling intonation is a downward intonation pattern, in which the pitch of the voice falls. This is used in neutral statements and
comments. Ex: It is going to rain.
3. Rise-fall intonation (peaking) is used in emphatic sentences, asking forchoices and expressing series. Ex: Is this mine or yours?
4. Fall-rise intonation (dipping) is used when you want confirmation. It is also used in Yes/No question, when the answer is
something unexpected or when you are being uncertain with your answer. Ex: He went to the party, did he?
JUNCTURE - is the pausing and grouping of words by thought unit. It is used to establish a slight delay in a continuous flow of
speech so that we would be able to provide a smooth transition from one idea to another. It is also used as a time to breathe so
that we could enunciate the words better. Juncture is a meaningful stop and pause in the utterance. The pauses are categorized as:
1. Sustained juncture is represented by a “/”. It is used in a momentary pause of speech. Ex: Whether you like it or not, / you
have to study.
2. Rising Juncture is represented by the symbol (//). It is used in Yes/No questions, word series, nouns, and address, and the
first two alternatives. Ex: I like mangoes, //peaches,// apples,// and watermelons.
3. Falling Juncture is represented by the symbol (#). It is used at the end of each sentence where a complete stop is necessary,
except in questions answerable by yes or no. Ex: I am interested.#
Blending - It is similar to compounding. In blending we have usually two words that are clipped and then put together as a new
word after they are shortened. Blending is the shortening of the bases before putting them together, usually the first base is cut at
the end and the second base is cut from the beginning.
Ex. Brunch (Longman: a meal eaten in the late morning, as a combination of breakfast and lunch)