ENGL 221: PHONOLOGY OF ENGLISH

TOPIC 1: INTRODUCTION TO PHONOLOGY

1.1 Definition of Terms

This section helps us to define key terms commonly used in this unit, such as phonology,
phoneme, phones, allophones, phonotactics. Coarticulation effects, syllable, assimilation,
nasalization and elision

1.12 Phonology

Phonology originated from the Greek word phono, meaning voice or sound and logy, meaning
speech or discussion. According to Yule (1985), phonology is the description of the systems and
patterns of sounds in a language. It is based on a theory of what every speaker of a language
unconsciously knows about the sounds patterns of the language. Because of this theoretical
status, phonology is concerned with abstract or mental aspects of the sound in a language rather
than actual physical articulation of speech sounds.

Phonology is about the underlying design, the blueprint, the sound type that serves as the
constant basis of all the variations in different physical articulation of that sound type in different
contexts.

The sounds considered in phonology must be abstract meaningful sounds regardless of which
individual vocal tract is used to produce them. Thus, phonology s concerned with abstract set of
sounds in a language which allows us to distinguish meaning in the actual physical sound we
say or hear.

1.13 Phoneme

A phoneme is the meaning distinguishing sound in a language. Conventionally, slashes (//) are
used to indicate phonemes as opposed to square brackets ([]) for each phonetic or physically
produced segment.

An essential property of a phoneme is that it functions contrastively. We know there are two
phonemes /f/ and /v/ in English because they are the only basis of the contrast in meaning
between the words fat and vat, or fine and vine. This contrastive property is the basic operational
test for determining the phonemes in a language. If we change one sound in a word and there is a
change of meaning, the sounds are distinct phonemes.

1.14 Phones and allophones

A phoneme is the abstract unit/sound type in the mind. There are many different versions of that
sound type regularly produced in actual speech. Those different versions are phones. They are
phonetic units and appear in square brackets ([]). A set of phones, all of which are versions of
one phoneme are allophones of that phoneme. Phonemes are meaning distinguishing; change f a
phoneme results to change in meaning, whereas change in a phone result to change in
pronunciation.

1.15 Complementary Distribution

Two sounds are in complementary distribution if they have different pronunciation arising from
their being used in different part of a word. Allophones of the same phoneme are a good
example-the [th] pronunciation of the phoneme /t/ with aspiration is used word-initially, as in tar,
but never after another consonant in initial position, as in star. The places where /t/ occurs with
aspiration, and without aspiration, never overlap and so the different pronunciations are in
complementary distribution.

1.16 Minimal Pairs and Sets

Phonemic distinctions in a language can be tested via pairs and sets of words. A minimal pair
consists of two identical words which differ only in one sound element occuring at the same
position, e.g. words such as fan and van are identical in form except for a contrast in one
phoneme, occurring in the middle of the words. When a group of words can be differentiated,
each one from the others, by changing one phoneme (always in the same position in the word),
they are described as a minimal set.

(Yule, G., 1985, p143)

1.17 Phonotactics
Every language employs some phonological constraints in how sounds can be arranged to form
correct words in the language. These constraints are known as phonotactics (i.e. permitted
arrangement of sounds). For instance, forms such as lig or vig are not English words, but can be
considered as possible english words in future, because they sounds cruster in a manner that is
acceptable in English. This may not be the case with words like [begr] or [fsig]. These are
phonotactically incorrect because they do not align with the rules of possible arangement of
sounds in English. Because these constraints operate on a unit that is larger than the single
segment or phoneme, we have to move on to a consideration of the basic
structure of that larger phonological unit called the syllable.

1.18 Syllables
A syllable is a unit of pronunciation having one vowel sound, with or without surrounding
consonants, forming the whole or a part of a word. A syllable must contain a vowel or vowel-like
sound, including diphthongs. The most common type of syllable also has a consonant (C) before
the vowel (V) and is represented as CV. The basic elements of the syllable are the onset (one or
more consonants) followed by the rhyme. The rhyme (sometimes written as “rime”) consists of a
vowel, which is treated as the nucleus, plus any following consonant(s), described as the coda.
Syllables like me, to or no have an onset and a nucleus, but no coda. They are known as open
syllables. When a coda is present, as in the syllables up, cup, at or hat, they are called closed
syllables. The basic structure of the kind of syllable found in English words like green (CCVC),
eggs (VCC), and (VCC), ham (CVC), I (V), do (CV), not (CVC), like (CVC), them (CVC), Sam
(CVC), I (V), am (VC) is shown in the follwing figure:

(Yule, 1985; p. 145)

1.19 Consonant Clusters

Both the onset and the coda can consist of more than a single consonant, also known as a
consonant cluster. The combination /st/ is a consonant cluster (CC) used as onset in the word
stop, and as coda in the word post. There are many CC onset combinations permitted in English
phonotactics, as in black, bread, trick, twin, flat and throw. Note that liquids (/l/, /r/) and a glide
(/w/) are used in second position.

English can actually have larger onset clusters, as in the words stress and splat, consisting of
three initial consonants (CCC). When we study the phonotactics of these larger onset consonant
clusters, we can find a fairly regular pattern. The first consonant must always be /s/, followed by
one of the natural class of voiceless stops (/p/, /t/, /k/), plus a liquid or a glide (/l/, /r/, /w/). We
can check if this description is adequate for the combinations in splash, spring, strong, scream
and squeeze (/skwiz/). Does the description also cover the second syllable in the pronunciation of
exclaim? How about /ɛk-skleɪm/? Remember that it is the onset of the syllable that is being
described, not the beginning of the word.

1.10.1 Coarticulation Effects

It is quite unusual for languages to have large consonant clusters of the type just described. In
English, large clusters may be reduced in casual conversational speech, particularly if they occur
in the middle of a word. This is just one example of a process that is usually discussed in terms
of coarticulation effects.

In much of the preceding discussion, we have been describing speech sounds in syllables and
words as if they are always pronounced carefully in slow motion. Speech is not normally like
that. Mostly our talk is fast and spontaneous, and it requires our articulators to move from one
sound to the next without stopping. The process of making one sound almost at the same time as
the next sound is called coarticulation.

1.10.2 Assimilation
When two sound segments occur in sequence and some aspect of one segment is taken or
“copied” by the other, the process is known as assimilation. In the physical production of
speech, this regular process happens simply because it is quicker, easier and more efficient for
our articulators as they do their job. Think of the word have /hæv/ by itself, then think of how it
is pronounced in the phrase I have to go in everyday speech. In this phrase, as we start to say
the /t/ sound in to, which is voiceless, we tend to produce a voiceless version of the preceding
sound, resulting in what sounds more like /f/ than /v/. So, we typically say [hæftə] in this phrase
and you may even see it written informally as “hafta,” showing how the assimilation from a
voiced to a voiceless sound is perceived.

1.10.3 Nasalization
Vowels are also subject to assimilation. In isolation, we would typically pronounce [ɪ] and [æ]
with no nasal quality at all. However, when we say the words pin and pan in everyday talk, the
anticipation of the final nasal consonant makes it easier to go into the nasalized articulation in
advance. This process is known as nasalization and can be represented with a small diacritic (~),
called “tilde,” over the vowel symbol. The vowel sounds in those words will be, in more precise
transcription, [ɪ]̃ and [æ̃ ]. This process is such a regular feature of English that a phonological
rule can be stated in the following way: “Any vowel becomes nasal whenever it immediately
precedes a nasal.”

This type of assimilation process occurs in a variety of different contexts. By itself, the word can
may be pronounced as [kæn], but, when we say I can go, the influence of the following velar [ɡ]
in go will typically make the preceding nasal sound come out as [ŋ] (velar) rather than [n]
(alveolar). The most commonly observed conversational version of the phrase is [aɪkəŋɡoʊ].
Notice that the vowel in can has also changed to schwa [ə] from the isolated-word version [æ].
We may also pronounce and as [ænd] by itself, but in the normal use of the phrase you and me,
we usually say [ən], as in [juənmi].

1.10.4 Elision
In the last example, illustrating the normal pronunciation of you and me, the [d] sound of the
word and was not included in the transcription. That is because it is not usually pronounced in
this phrase. In the environment of a preceding nasal [n] and a following nasal [m], we simply
don’t devote speech energy to including the stop sound [d]. There is also typically no [d] sound
included in the everyday pronunciation of a word like friendship [frɛnʃɪp]. This process of not
pronouncing a sound segment that might be present in the deliberately careful pronunciation of a
word in isolation is described as elision. In consonant clusters, especially in coda position, /t/ is a
common casualty in this process, as in the typical pronunciation [æspɛks] for aspects, or in
[himəsbi] for the phrase he must be. We can, of course, slowly and deliberately pronounce each
part of the phrase we asked him, but the process of elision (of /k/) in casual conversation is likely
to produce
[wiæstəm].

Vowels also disappear through elision, with the result that sometimes a whole syllable may not
be pronounced, as in [ɛvri] for every, [ɪntrɪst] for interest, [kæbnət] for cabinet, [kæmrə] for
camera, [prɪznər] for prisoner. These processes are summarized in the following table from
Yule, G. (1985) p. 150. We use a pair of symbols (/ ____) to indicate “in the context of” or
“under the influence of” the following element.

1.2 Differentiating Phonology from Phonetics

Phonetics and phonology are related but different terms. They are related in the sense that they
refer to sounds. They only differ in the parameters in which they apply.

Firstly, phonetics is about the physical aspect of sounds. It studies the production and the
perception of sounds, called phones. On the other hand, phonology is about abstract aspect of
sounds. It studies the phoneme. It is about the establishing the phonemes in a given language i.e.
sounds that can bring a difference in meaning between two words.
Secondly, phonology is the study of cognitive processes that turn words into instructions and
hand down to the physical body parts that produce the sounds. Phonetics, however, is the study
of how these instructions/commands end up translating into specific articulators and vocal tract
movement.

Thirdly, phonology deals with patterns of sounds, especially different sound patterns in different
languages or in each language or different patterns of sounds in different positions of words.
Phonetics, on the other hand, deals with production of speech sounds by humans, often without
prior knowledge of the language being spoken.

Fourthly, the smallest unit in the sound system of a language is a phoneme, e.g. /f/ sound in the
word fun. While phonetics attempts to understand how each of these phonemes is physically
formed and produced by humans, phonology studies how the phonemes are put together and how
they create meaning.

Fifthly, phonology is the term used for description of speech sounds used in a particular
language. The distinctive accents that many learners of English have are due to differences
between the phonological system of their language and that of English. Conversely, phonetics is
the term used for the description and the classification of speech sounds, particularly how sounds
are produced, transmitted and received.

Homework:
Read widely to understand the difference between phonetics and phonology

1.3 Importance of Studying Phonology

Study of phonology has the following benefits:

1. When we study phonology, we are able to break words down to understand the real sound
or pronunciation of the word and to explain why it sounds the way it does.
2. Phonology also deals with supra-segmental features of a language. By studying it, we are
able to understand stress, rhythm, intonation e.t.c, and how they affect meaning.
3. Sound changes depending on the environment they are produced in. Studying phonology
of a language enables one to understand why this happens, discover the different rules for
combining different sounds and also helps one to find different rules of various different
languages.
4. Phonology helps us to discover how sound system of a language has changed over time.
5. Study of phonology enables us to identify child language. Children may for instant
pronounce the word prize as [prais]
6. By studying phonology, you can identify various dialects of a language

1.4 Study Questions

1. In French, the words /bo/ for beau (“handsome”) and /bõ/ for bon (“good”) seem to have
 different vowels. Are these two vowels allophones or phonemes in French?
2. Which English phoneme has the features: –voice, +velar, +stop?
3. What is an aspirated sound and which of the following words would normally be
pronounced with one?kill, pool, skill, spool, stop, top
4. Does this phrase (big black bag) contain a minimal pair, a minimal set, or neither?
5. Which of the following words would be treated as minimal pairs? ban, fat, pit, bell, tape,
heat, meal, more, pat, tap, pen, chain, vote, bet, far, bun, goat,
heel, sane, tale, vet
6. What is meant by the phonotactics of a language?
7. In the pronunciation of track, which sound(s) would be the nucleus?
8. What is the difference between an open and a closed syllable?
9. Is the nasal consonant in the everyday pronunciation of I can go alveolar or velar?
10. Which segments in the pronunciation of the following words are most likely to be
affected by elision? (a) government (b) postman (c) pumpkin (d) sandwich (e) victory
 TOPIC 2: THE CONSONANTS OF ENGLISH

2.1 Introduction

This topic deals with the articulatory mechanics involved in production of speech sound,
described in terms of manner of articulation, place of articulation, state of the glottis (voicing)
and airstream mechanism and the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA).

It is possible to abstract from a continuous utterance of English, 24 distinctive units which are
consonantal, both in terms of function ( tend to be non-central in the syllable) and also in the
majority of cases in terms of their phonetic nature (have at least in some of their realization,
articulation involving the obstructions or narrowings which produce acoustically, a noised
component)

The 24 consonantal phonemes are classified in two general categories

A. Those articulations in which there is total closure or stricture causing friction

B. Those articulations in which there is only partial closure or un-impended (unstopped) oral
or nasal escape of air.

2.2 Parameters of Describing English Consonants

Each spoken consonant can be distinguished by several phonetic features derived from the
mechanisms involved in articulation. These are called parameters. There are four parameters
involved in articulation of sounds (cf. Katamba, 1989):

a) Manner of articulation

It is concerned with how air escapes the vocal tract when a consonant or an approximant (vowel-
like) sound is articulated. This paramenter gives sound like stops, fricatives, nasals etc

b) Place of Articulation

This is where in the vocal tract the obstruction of the air flow occurs and which organs are
involved. Places include bilabial, labial dental, alveolar, post alveolar, palatal alveolar, palatal,
velar and glottis.

c) State of the glottis/Phonation/Voicing

The phonation of a consonant is how the vocal cords vibrate during articulation. Vibration occurs
when air flows through the glottis. When the vocal cords vibrate fully, the consonant is said to be
voiced, and when they do not vibrate, meaning no air flows through the glottis, the consonant is
voiceless. The oice Onset Time (VOT) indicates the timing of the phonation. Aspiration is a
feature of VOT.

d) Airstream Mechanism
The airstream mechanism pertains to how the air moving through the vocal tract is powered.
Most languages have exclusively pulmonic egressive consonants which use lungs and the
diaphragm. Ejectives, clicks and implosives use different mechanisms.

All consonants can be classified by a combination of these parameters e.g. a voiceless alveolar
stop ( in this case, the airstream is omitted). Virtually, all of the English sounds are pulmonic
(produced by manipulating the exhaled air)

2.3 The International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA) Chart

The International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA) is an alphabetic system of phonetic notation based
primarily on the Latin script. It was devised by the International Phonetic Association in the late
19th century as a standardized representation of speech sounds in written form. The IPA is used
by lexicographers, foreign language students and teachers, linguists, speech–language
pathologists, singers, actors, constructed language creators and translators.
The IPA is designed to represent those qualities of speech that are part of lexical (and to a limited
extent prosodic) sounds in oral language: phones, phonemes, intonation and the separation of
words and syllables. To represent additional qualities of speech, such as tooth gnashing, lisping,
and sounds made with a cleft lip and cleft palate, an extended set of symbols, the extensions to
the International Phonetic Alphabet, may be used.
IPA symbols are composed of one or more elements of two basic types, letters and diacritics. For
example, the sound of the English letter ⟨t⟩ may be transcribed in IPA with a single letter, [t], or
with a letter plus diacritics, [t̺ ʰ], depending on how precise one wishes to be. Slashes are used to
signal phonemic transcription; thus /t/ is more abstract than either [t̺ ʰ] or [t] and might refer to
either, depending on the context and language.
Occasionally letters or diacritics are added, removed or modified by the International Phonetic
Association. As of the most recent change in 2015, there are 107 segmental letters, an
indefinitely large number of supra-segmental letters, 44 diacritics (not counting composites) and
four extra-lexical prosodic marks in the IPA.
(See attached copy of IPA chart)

IPA system of representing sounds was developed because the number of possible sounds in all
the world languages is much greater than the number of letters in any of the alphabet. In fact,
English alphabets has fewer consonant letters than English consonant sounds. Therefore,

digraphs like /ᶞ/, /ᶿ/ and /ᶴ/ are used to extend the alphabet.
Using IPA symbols, we can represent the consonants of English as follows:
 Bilabia Labia Denta Alveola Post- Palatal Palata Vela glotta
l l l r alveola alveola l r l
Denta r r
l
A Plosives p b t d k g
Affricates tᶴ dᶾ
Fricatives h
f v ᶿᶞ s z ᶴ ᶾ
B Nasal m n Ŋ
Lateral l
Approximan w r j
ts

A) Plosives
In the articulation of a plosives three staɡes are involvedː

i) Approach closinɡ staɡe- the orɡans move toɡether to form the obstruction
ii) Hold/compression stage - The lung action compresses air behind the closure. This
stage may or may not be accompanied by voice (vibration of the vocal cords)
iii) The release/ explosion stage- The organs forming the obstruction, part, rapidly
allowing the compressed air to escape abruptly. If stage 2 is voiced, the vocal cord
vibration may continue in stage 3 and vice versa

a) Bilabial plosives [p, b]

The soft palate is raised and the nasal cavity shuts. The primary airstream obstacle is provided by
the lips. Air from the lungs is compressed behind the closure during which stage the vocal cords
are held far apart for articulation of /p/, thus voiceless. However, for articulation of /b/ the vocal
cords are held together. The vocal cords vibrate, thus the sound is voiced.

The voiceless bilabial plosive is /p/ is realized in the words like put, pet, etc but silent in words
like pneumonia, psalms etc.

The voiced bilabial plosicve /b/, spelt with ‘b’is found in words like boy, bed, bread, tab etc. it
is, however, silent in words like limb, lamb,plumb etc

b) Alveolar plosives /t/ /d/

The voicelss alveolar plosive /t/ is, for example, realized in words like thongs,
thames, better, ten etc.
The voiced counterpart /d/ is realized in words like bed, budden, dot, double drum
etc
 Articulation- in articulation of these sounds, the soft palate is raised and the nasal cavity is
closed. Airstream is obstructed by a closure made between the tip and the rims of the tongue
together with the upper alveolar ridge and side teeth.

c) Velar Plosives /k/ /g/

Voiceless velar plosives /k/ can be realized in words spelt with:
K
C followed by vowels a, o,u, i such kit, came accord etc
CC
Qu- e.g. quick, equip
Ch- e.g. chemical
Voiced velar plosive /g/ is realized in words spelt with:
g- goat, game, great
gg- beggar
gh- ghost
it is silent in words like gnaw, sigh etc
Articulation- It is articulated at the soft palate with the nasal cavity closed.
Airstream is obstructed by a closure made between the back of the tongue and the
soft palate.
d) Affricates /tᶴ/ /dᴈ/
An affricate is a stop linked to a fricative. It denotes a plosive whose release stage is
performed in such a way that considerable friction occurs at the point where the plosive
stop is made. Voiceless acfricates /tᶴ/ is realized in words with:
t+ure – future, rupture, feature
ch – church, charm, chariot
tch – butcher
t+eous – righteous
t – question

The voiced counterpart /dᶟ/ is realized in words with:

j – jam, jug, major, jury, juice
dg – midget, budget, judge
g – germs, germinate, doge, gouge
ng – average, avenge, sponge, singe

Articulation- The soft palate is raised as the nasal cavity is shut off. The obstacle to the
airstream is formed by a closure in between the teeth, lips and rims of the tongue, and upper
alveolar ridge and side teeth. At the same time, the front of the tongue is raised towards the hard
palate in readiness for the fricatives. The closure is realized slowly. The air escapes in a diffused
manner over the whole of the central part of the tongue.
 e) Fricatives

In the articulation of the fricative consonant, two organs are brought and held sufficiently close
together for the escaping airstream to produce turbulence. Therefore, fricatives are like plosives
and affricates. This turbulence may or may not be accompanied by voice.

i) Labial-dental Fricatives /f/ /v/

Voiceless labial dental fricative /f/ is realized in in words spelt with:
f – fork, form, five, fun
ff - off, effort, different
ph –physics, photography, pheromone
gh – rough, enough
the voiced labial-dental fricative /v/ is realized in words spelt with:
v – vine, violet, vehicle, vermin
Articulation- The ssoft palate is raised and the nasal cavity closed. The inner surface of the
lower lip makes a tight contact with the edge of the upper teeth so that the escaping air produces
friction.

f) Dental Fricatives /ᶿ/ /ᶞ/

The voiceless dental fricative /ᶿ/ is realized in words like that, thought, thief, thumb etc. the
voiced counterpart /ᶞ/ is realized in the words; there, though, they etc
Articulation- The soft palate is raised and the tip of the tongue and the rims make a light contact
with the edge and inner surface of the upper teeth and a firmer contact with the upper side teeth
so that air escaping between the surface and front upp er teeth causes friction.

g) Alveolar Fricatives /s/ /z/

The voiceless alveolar fricatives /s/ is realized in words with:
s – so, sum, see
ss – pass, ass, bass, glass
c – nice, peace, price
sc – science, scent, scene
x – axe (eks)
The voiced alveolar fricative /z/ is found in words with:
S – clauses, because
Ss – scissors
Z – zoo, zoom
Zz – dizzy
X (gz) – exact
Articulation:- The tip and the blade of the tongue make a light contact with the alveolar ridge
and the side of the tongue in close contact with the upper side. The airstream escapes by means
of a narrow grove in the centre of the tongue, which causes friction between the tongue and the
alveolar ridge.

/
h) Palatal Alveolar Fricatives /ᶴ /ᶟ/
The voiceless palatal alveolar fricative /ᶴ/ is found in words with:
s – sure
sh- shoe, shame, shape, shoot
ss – assure
ch – machine, champagne
sch – schedule
t – nation, friction
ns – mansion
The voiced palatal alveolar fricative /3/, on the other hand, is realized in the words spelt with:
si – vision
s – measure, pleasure
z – seizure
erg- berge
g – gigolo

Articulation:- the tip and the blade of the tongue make a light contact with the alveolar ridge. The
front of the tongue is raised at the same time in the direction of the hard palate and the side rims
o the tongue being in contact with the side teeth. The friction occurs in a more extensive area of
the tongue and the roof of the mouth.

i) Glottal Fricative /h/

It is realized in words with:
h – how, hat, heat
wh – who
it is silent in the words like honest
Articulation:- the tongue is pushed backwards and the back of the tongue is slightly raised. The
nasal cavity is closed and the vocal cords are held close to each other, but not too close to
produce friction. Air from the lungs flows unimpeded through the glottis.
j) Nasal Consonants /m/ /n/ /ᵑ/
Nasal consonants resemble oral plosives in that the total closure is made within the mouth. They
differ from such plosives in that the soft palate is lowered allowing the air to escape into the
nasal cavity.
i) Bilabial Nasal /m/
It is rewlised in words with:
m – man
mm – mammal
Articulation: the closure is made at the lips, just like in the production of /p/ /b/. the soft palate is
lowered.
ii) Alveolar Nasal /n/
It is realised in words spelt with:
n – new, name, need
nn – spanner, banner, planner
kn – kneel, knee, kneed, knew
gn – gnaw, gnat
pn – pneumatic, pneumonia

in its articulation, the tongue forms a closure with the teeth ridge, with the upper side as in the
production of /t/ and /d/. the soft palate is lowered adding the resonance of the nasal cavity.
iii) The alveolar nasal /ᵑ/
It is realized in words with:
Ng – thing, sing, bring
Nk – think, thank, plunk
Evidently it is found in words with the combination of the alveolar nasal and the two velar
consonants /k/ and /g/
k

n+ / ᵑ/
g
Articulation:- A closure is formed in the mouth between the back of the tongue and the velar as
for /k/ and /g/ and the soft palate is lowered.

k) Lateral Sound /l/

A lateral sounds is articulated by means of a partial closure on one or both sides of which the
airstream is able to escape through the mouth. In English, it is normally articulated between the
tip of the tongue and the centre of the upper teeth ridge.
English lateral sounds are usually voiced and frictionless. It is realized in words with:
L – late, lead, lion
ll– usually, actually, mentally
Articulation: it is voiced. The soft palate is raised shutting off the nasal cavity. The tip of the
tongue is in contact with the upper teeth ridge, allowing air to escape on both sides. A distinction
is usually made between the dark and the clear ‘l’. clear l has a relatively front vowel resonance
and occurs before vowels e.g. in the words leap, led, and before /u/ as in the word lieutenant.

A dark ‘l’ is marked with a diacritic at the middle [ᵼ]. It comes after vowels and before and
before consonants e.g.
Clear ‘l’ – lost, fly, silly
 Dark ‘l’ – bull, heal

l) The approximants /w/, /r/, /j/

An approximant consonant is a consonant that sounds in some way like a vowel.

i) Lateral Approximant /l/

In production of a lateral approximant, only the centre of the mouth touches the roof of the
mouth. Air only flows through the sides of the tongue e.g. in articulation of ‘l’ in the word like,
look, allow, fall.

ii) Bilabial approximant /w/

In articulation of the sound, the lips are rounded and the soft palate is raised, shutting off the
nasal cavity. At the same time, the back of the tongue approaches the velar but does not touch as
in the articulation of /g/. /w/ therefore has a secondary articulation at the velar region. It is
released in words such as one, won, water etc.
iii) Post alveolar approximant /r/
This is a frictionless approximant especially found at the beginning of words. It is voiceless if it
comes after p, t or k e.g. pry, try, cry.
Voiced after sp_, st_, sk_ e.g. spray, stray, escape etc.
Ordinarily, /r/ is voice when it is followed by a vowel e.g. rose, story, carry etc

2.4: Study Questions

a) Describe the four mechanisms of classifying consonant sounds
b) The IPA does not make use of the normal alphabetical letters in representing sounds. Explain
why this is the case.
d) Identify all he consonant sounds in the following passage and write them down using IPA
symbols:

e) Using a chart, represent all the consonants of English clearly showing their place and
manner of articulation
TOPIC 3: THE VOWELS OF ENGLISH
3.1 Introduction
This topic deals with the mechanisms of describing sounds sounds and various types of vowels
according to tongue height and position of the tongue on the horizontal axis and the shape of the
lips. Vowels in English are categorized into three
i) Monothongs - pure vowels e.g. hut
ii) Dipthongs - glides e.g. right /rait/

iii) Tripthongs - successive glides eg. fire/faiᵊ/

3.2 Description of Vowel Sounds

Description of pure vowels is in terms of tongue height, position of the tongue on horizontal axis
and the shape of the lips. In the description of dipthongs and tripthongs you need to indicate the
starting point of the glide.

3.21 Monothongs
They are 12 in number:

Initial Midia Final

/i:/ east Seen /si:n/
/i:st/ key/ki:/
Hit /ᴵt/
/i/ It /it/ duty/honey
/ᴂ/ and Hat ---
arm Harm car/ka:l
/ᵅ : /
end Bend ----
/e /
/ᶛ / on Cot ----

/ᵓ : / all tall/caught saw

 /ᶷ /
: ---- Put ----

/ᶸ /
: oops Choose shoe

/ᶺ / up Cup ----

/ᶾ : / earn Bird sir

/ᵊ/ Ago /about Insolent mother

3.22 Dipthongs
They are eight in number:

Initial Media Final

/ei/ eight straight Stray
oak joke Slow
/ᵊu/
/au/ out shout How
/aᶦ/
ice mice My
oil boil Boy
/ᵓᶦ/
ear beard Clear
/ᶦᵊ/
air shaired Care
/eᵊ/
------ cured Poor
/uᵊ/

3.3 Articulation of Vowel Sounds

3.31 Front Vowels
1. /i/ - It is a front high unrounded vowel. The front of the tongue is raised to a height just
below the closed position. The lips are spread and the tongue is tensed. It is a long vowel.

It is realized in:
_ay_ e.g. quay

_e_ “ even”

_ea_ “ beat”

_ee_ “ meet”

_ee_ “ eel”

ee_ “ bee”

_el_ “deceive”

_eo_ “people”

_ey “ key”

_i_ “police”

2. /I/ - The rear part of the front of the tongue is raised first above the half-close position. The
lips are loosely spread and unlike in the production of /I:/the tongue is lased. It is a short
vowel.

Examples:
-a- village, private
-ai- bargain
-ee coffee
-ey money
-i- hit, bit
3. /e/- The front of the tongue is raised to a point about half way between half open and half
close position of the tongue. The lips are loosely spread and a little wider apart than /i/.

Examples:

a- any
-ai- said
-e- bed
e- end
-ea- death
-ue- guest
4. /ae/- It is produced by raising the front of the tongue to a little below the half-open position.
Lips are in a vertical position and the mouth is a bit open than in the production of /e/

Examples:
-a- hand, ass

-ai- plait

Activity:

Identify the vowels in the following words:

Hem bag men band

head seal mess Sill

jam sure

3.32 Central Vowels

1. /ᶺ/- The centre of the tongue is raised to a point nearly half way between open and half open
position followed by a considerable separation of the jaws. It is unrounded short vowel.

Examples:
-on- tongue, son, one, won, done, mother
-u- cut, sun, cup, bus
-ou- county, young, couple
-oo- blood
-ee- does
2. /3:/- The centre of the tongue is raised between half close and half open position. It is along
unrounded vowel.

Examples:
-ir- bird, first, girl
-ea- earth, learn
-ur- nurse, purr, church

3. /ᵊ/(schwa)- The centre of the tongue is raised just below the half open position. It is a central
unrounded vowel. The schwa is the most frequently occurring vowel in English. It is always
associated with weak syllables. It is generally described as lax-not articulated with much
energy. Not all weak syllables contain a schwa, though many do.

Learners of English need to learn where schwa is appropriate and where it is not.

Examples:
 -er- teacher
-our- colour
-ure- measure, treasure, pleasure, picture

3.33 Back Vowels

1. /a/- The jaws are kept considerably separated. The lips are literary open. It is along
vowel, back , open and unrounded.

Examples:
-a- ask, dance
-ar- part, are
-au- aunt
-ah- ah, ayah
-al- palm, psalm, calm
-ea- heart, learn

2. /ᶛ/- During articulation, the back of the tongue is slightly raised above the open position.
Jaws are wide open and the lips are slightly rounded. It is a back rounded short vowel.

Examples:
-a- was, want
-o- cot, dog
-ow- knowledge

3. /ᵓ:/- Articulated at the back of the tongue placed between the half close and half open

position. The lips are more rounded than in /ᶛ/. It is a back rounded vowel. It is a long
vowel.

Examples:

-a- tail, water

-aw yawn
-o- worn
-ar war
-aw jaw
-oar- board
-or- horse, corn, horn, sword
-ore- before, more
-oor door, floor
 4. /U/- The vowel is articulated by raising part of the tongue near the centre than to the back
and is more centre tending than back tending, just above half-close position. It is a back
rounded short vowel.

Examples:
wo- woman, wolf
-oo- good, book
-ou- should, would, could
bo- bosom

5. /U:/- The back of the tongue is raised to very near the close position. The lips are closely
rounded and the tongue is tensed.

Examples: Beauty, soon, woo, food, move, wood, blue, lose, juice, fruit

3.34 Diphthongs
A diphthong is a sequence of vocalic elements, which glide into one unit within one syllable.
There is always a first element or starting point or second element which is the point of direction
in which the glide takes/ is made.

Diphthongs are classified into two:

a) Closing- glide towards close position

b) Centering- glide towards central position

Out of the eight diphthongs , three glide towards /e / oi/ai/, two glide towards / ᵊu/, /au/ and three

glide towards schwa; /uᵊ/, /ᶦᵊ/ and /eᵊ/

The diphthongs that glide towards /au/and/ei/ are closing diphthongs while those that glide
towards the schwa are centering diphthongs.

1. /ei/- The glide starts from /e/ moving towards /i/. Movement of the tongue is
accompanied by slight movement of the lower jaw and lips are spread e.g. take, fake,
ace, aim, blame, height, weight.

2. /ai/ The tongue from position of /a / towards /i/.There are two types:
a. The glides begins at the point slightly behind the front open positions and
moves in the direction of RP (Received Pronunciation)
 b. Movement of the tongue is accompanied by notable closing movement of
the lower jaw e.g. lime, aisle, either, eye, buy, die vie etc.

3. /ᵓᶦ/- The tongue moves from the back to the high position of /I/ It begins at a point
between the back half open and open positions and moves towards /i/. Lips are rounded
at the beginning of the glide, changing towards the end.eg oil, boil, by, noise, annoy etc.

3.341 Closing Diphthongs- Moving Towards /U/

1. /au/- The glide begins at a point half way between the back and front open positions
towards the RP. At the start, the lips are neutral position, but becomes rounded towards
the end eg out, sound, shout etc.

2. /ᵊu/- It begins at the central position between half close and half open, towards the
direction of received pronunciation /U/. Jaw movement is very slight, lips are neutral at
the beginning but becomes rounded towards the end e.g. road, loaf, toe, open, home, go,
both etc.

3.342 Centering Diphthongs

/Iᵊ/ Moves from I position towards / ᵊ/ e.g. area, idea, fear /e ᵊ/moves from /e/ towards /ᵊ/ with a
combination of e.g. share, spare, care, fare

/Uᵊ/- Example cure, pool, sure, endure

3.35 Triphthongs

They are the most complex. They are rather difficult to pronounce and very different to
recognize.

A triphthong is a glide from one vowel sound to another and then to a third. They are produced

rapidly and without interruption. A simple way is having a closing diphthong + ᵊ e.g. Noah /nᵊuᵊ/

In a rapid speech, the middle sound is omitted and the resulting sound is hard to distinguish from
triphthong and long vowel.

Examples

i) –liar, fire /aiᵊ/

 ii) Layer, player /eiᵊ/

iii) –employer, joyer / ᵓiᵊ/

iv) –lower, slower / ᵊuᵊ/

v) Power, our, shower /auᵊ/

3. Study Questions
a) Giving examples, distinguish betwen the following terms
i) Diphthong and triphthong
ii) Centering and closing dipthong
iii) Media and back vowels
b) Identify the vowel sounds in the following words:
Broad ward err
Calf earn seal
Cool team curl
Clear cow tone
Style out way
They there their
Bear beer coil
Hair why call
Home could group
Should no greap
Shower go share
TOPIC 4: DISTINCTIVE FEATURES

4.1 Introduction

Distinctive feature theory was first formalized by Rodman Jacobson in 1941. Since then there
have been refinements of Jakobson set of features, most notably with development of generative
phonology since the publication of the Sound Patterns of English (SPE). In recent years, there
have also been proposals that the features be hierarchally structured and arranged on separate
levels or tiers (e.g by Clement and Keyser, 1983) which is consistent with the developments in
autosegmental phonology since the publication of the sound pattern of English.

Irrespective of many differences in approach, the features share the following characteristics:

i. Distinctive features establish natural classes

Using distinctive features, phonemes are broken down into smaller components e.g a nasal
phoneme /m/ might be represented as a feature matrix (+sonorant, -continant,+voice, +nasal,
+labial). By representing /m/ in this way, we are saying both something about it phonetic
characteristics- it is a sonorant because like vowels, its acoustic waveform has low frequency
periodic energy; its non-continuant because the air flow is totally interrupted in the oral cavity.
But also importantly, the aim is to choose distinctive features that establish natural classes of
phonemes, e.g. since all other nasal consonants and nasalized vowels (if a language has them)
have feature matrices that are defined as (+nasal), we can to all these segments in a single simple
phonological rule, by making the rule apply to (+nasal) segments. The sound features (p t k) can,
thus ,be described as using a bundle of features( – continuant, - voice)

ii. Economy of phonological units

In phonology (in particular, generative phonology) we are often concerned to eliminate

redundancy from the sound pattern of a language or to explain it by rule. Distinctive features
allow the possibility of writing rules using a considerably smaller number of units than the
phonemes of a language. A language may for instance have 12 consonants and 3 vowel
phonemes. Using distinctive features, we could use 6 of them to refer to the phonemes, a
reduction by over half the number of phoneme units, e.g:

[+voice] bdgmn ᵑ i u ᵅ
[+nasal] mn ᵑ

[+high] I u k g ᵑ ___

[+labial] pmbuf

[+ anterior] ptbdmnfs

[+ cont] fsiua

At the same time, each phoneme is uniquely represented as shown in the distinctive features:

voice nasal high labial anterior continuant

p - - - + + -
b + - - + + -
t - - - - + -
d + - - - + -
k - - + - - -

iii. Binary
The features are presented in a binary form i.e. a segment is either nasal or it is not; [+nasal]
or [-nasal]. This is done because it is the most efficient way of reducing the phoneme
inventory of a language and also because most phonological oppositions are binary in nature
e.g. either sounds are or are not produced with a lowered soft palate and nasalization.
Jacobson (1941) who first advanced the binary approach even suggested that it has a
phonological basis i.e. the nerve fibres have an ‘all’ or ‘none’ response.

iv. Phonetic interpretation

According to Jacobson (1941) the distinctive features should have definable articulatory
and acoustic correlates, for example, [+nasal] implies a lowering of the soft palate and
also increase in the ratio of energy in the low to the high part of the spectrum. However,
Chomsky and Halle (1968) abandoned the acoustic definitions of phonological features
(some linguists say this was inappropriate).

Many of the features are defined loosely in phonetic terms. This is perhaps expected
because phonology has established highly abstract representations to explain sound
alternations (i.e. to factor out what are considered redundant or predictable aspects of a
word’s pronunciation). Nevertheless, if phonology is related to how words are actually
pronounced, the features are required to have at least some phonetic basis.
Chomsky and Halle (1968-1983) Distinctive Features

The features described in Halle & Chomsky (1983) have been commonly used in the phonology
literature in the analysis of sound patterns of various languages. They incorporate many insights
of the original features devised by Jacobson (1941) but are mostly based on the sound patterns of
English.

4.3 Major Class Features

The major class features define the major classes of sounds that are relevant in phonological analysis. The
major classes include consonants and nonconsonants, syllabics and nonsyllabics, sonorants and non-
sonorants (obstruents).

i) Consonantal – Non-consonantal [± cons]

Consonantal sounds are produced with a drastic stricture along the centre-line of the vocal tract; non-
consonantal sounds are made without such
obstruction. Obstruents, nasals and liquids are consonantal; vowels and glides" are non-consonantal.

ii) Syllabic – Non-syllabic [± Syllabic]

Syllabic sounds are sounds which function as syllable nuclei; non-syllabic sounds occur at
syllable margins. Normally, syllabic sounds are auditorily more salient than adjacent non-syllabic
sounds. Vowels are syllabic and so are syllabic consonants such as [l] in bottle and candle or the
nasal [n] in cotton and [m] in bottom.

iii) Sonorant – Non-sonorant (Obstruent) [± Sonorant]

Sonorants are produced with a vocal cavity disposition which makes spontaneous voicing easy while non-
sonorants (obstruents) have a vocal cavity disposition which inhibits spontaneous voicing.
In other words, the unmarked (normally expected and natural) state for sonorants is to be voiced,
while for obstruents, the unmarked state of affairs is to be voiceless.

Vowels, nasals and liquids are sonorant; stops, fricatives and affricates are obstruents.

4.4 Cavity Features

These features refer to place of articulation. They specify where in the vocal tract modifications of the
airstream take place in the production of particular sounds.

i) Coronal – Non-coronal [± Coronal]

To produce a coronal sound, the blade of the tongue is raised towards the front teeth, the alveolar ridge or
the hard palate; for non-coronal consonants the blade of the tongue remains in a neutral position. Dental,
alveolar, alveo-palatal, retroflex and palatal sounds are coronal; labial, velar, uvular and pharyngeal
consonants are non-coronal.

ii) Anterior – Non-anterior [± Anterior]

In the production of anterior sounds, the main obstruction of the airstream is at a point no farther back in
the mouth than the alveolar ridge; for non-anterior sounds the main obstruction is at a place farther back
than the alveolar ridge. Labials, dentals and alveolars are anterior while all other sounds are not.

iii) Labial – Non-labial [± Labial]

A sound is labial if it has a stricture (narrowing) made with the lips; if there is no such stricture, the sound
is non-labial. In the literature the alternative feature ROUND is often used to refer to many of the sounds
which can also be described as labial. Rounded sounds are produced with a pursing or narrowing of the
lip orifice. There is a considerable degree of overlap between the groups of sounds covered by the
features [+ round] and [+labial]. Rounded sounds like [o] [u] and [w] are a subset of labial sounds;
consonants like [p b m] are labial but not round. Labial sounds include bilabial and labiodental
consonants as well as rounded vowels. All other sounds are non-labial.

iv) Distributed – Non-distributed [±Distributed]

Distributed sounds are made with an obstruction extending over a considerable area along the middle-line
of the oral tract; there is a large area of contact between the articulators. In non-distri buted sounds, there is a
smaller area of contact. This feature is primarily used to distinguish APICAL sounds from LAMINAL sounds. In
apical sounds the tip of the tongue makes contact with the front teeth or the alveolar or alveo palatal regions of the
roof of the mouth while in laminal sounds it is the blade of the tongue that makes contact with those same areas.
This feature also distinguishes labial from labiodental sounds. The following sound types are distributed:

bilabial fricatives like [Ф β] (lamino-)alveolar fricatives like [s z] (lamino-) alveo-palatal fricatives like [ ᶴ ӡ].

The following sound types are non-distributed:

labiodental fricatives like [f v], (apico-) dental fricatives like [ Ꝋ ð] retroflex fricatives like [ ᶳ ᶎ].

4.5 Tongue Body Features

In the sound pattern of English (SPE), the neutral position of the body of the tongue is said to be the position which
it assumes in the production of a mid-front vowel. Other tongue configurations are regarded as departures from that
norm.

i) High – Non-high [± High]

High sounds are made with the tongue raised from neutral position while non-high sounds are made without such
raising of the body of the tongue. High sounds include vowels like [i u], the glides [w j ], alveo-palatal, palatalized,
palatal and velar consonants. All other sounds are non-high.

ii) Low – Non-low [± Low]

Low sounds are produced with the tongue depressed and lying at a level below that which it occupies when at rest in
neutral position; non-low sounds are produced without depressing the level of the tongue in this manner. Open
vowels like [a α D] are low and so are the pharyngeal consonants [h] and [ҁ]. All other sounds are non-
low. (MID vowels are both non-high and non-low.)

iii) Back – Non-back [± Back]

Sounds produced with the body of the tongue retracted from neutral position are back. Sounds produced
with the body of the tongue either in neutral position or pushed forward are non-back. This feature
distinguishes between back vowels like [u o ɔ] and front vowels like [i e ɛ]. (Note that because in SPE the
position of the tongue in the production of a mid-front vowel is taken as the neutral position, it is not only
back vowels that are [+ back], but also central ones like [i e-u]. (Because the feature system is binary,
there is no way of showing that certain vowels are neither front nor back; central vowels are grouped
together with back vowels. This does not appear to be entirely satisfactory on purely phonetic grounds.)
Of the consonants, velars, uvulars and pharyngeals are back while labials, dentals, palatals as well as
glottals are nonback.

iv) Velar Suction – Non-velar Suction [± velar suction]

This feature is used to characterise CLICK SOUNDS like the Tut tut! used in English to show
disapproval. While in English clicks are not fully-fledged speech sounds which can combine with other
sounds to form words, in some languages (which happen to be almost exclusively found in Southern
Africa) clicks are used as regular speech sounds. The production of a click involves two crucial phases.
First there must be a stricture made using the back of the tongue and the velum; this is called VELIC
CLOSURE.
Secondly there must be some constriction in the labial, dental, alveolar or alveo-palatal area. The f eature
[ + velar suction] itself describes the pulling back of the body of the tongue which creates a partial vacuum between
the velic closure at the back and the forward closure, say at the alveolar ridge. The resulting sound is a click. Clicks
are produced with an INGRESSIVE VELARIC AIRSTREAM MECHANISM (which is different from the more
common pulmonic egressive airstream mechanism described in Chapter 2). The soft palate and the back of the
tongue are the initiators of the movement of air and the direction of the airflow is inward. Clicks are velar suction
sounds; other sounds are not. Zulu has a dental click [j], an alveolar click [rj] and an alveo-palatal click [c].

4.6 Tongue Root Features

The vocal tract is a long tube with holes at both the lip end and the throat end. The shape of this tube can be odified
by rounding the lips and making them protrude - and thus elongating the tube. Alternatively, the tongue root position
can be adjusted by pushing it forward or retracting it so that the vocal tract is either lengthened or shortened. Either
of these actions has the effect of modifying the shape of the resonating chamber in the vocal tract in much the same
way as differences in size and shape of wind instruments affect the notes which they produce.

i) Advanced Tongue Root – Non-advanced Tongue Root [± Atr]

The tongue root is pushed forward in the production of advanced tongue root sounds, thus expanding the resonating
chamber of the pharynx and possibly pushing the tongue body upward; if the tongue root is not advanced, it remains
in a neutral position. Vowels like [i e o] in many West African languages are made with the tongue root pushed
forward while [i c o] are made with the tongue root in neutral position.

ii) Tense - Lax [± Tense]

The validity of the feature TENSE has always been controversial. I quote Halle and Clements (1983:7)
who give this cautious definition: 'Tense vowels are produced with a tongue body or tongue root
configuration involving a greater degree of constriction than that found in their lax counterparts; this
greater degree of constriction is usually accompanied by greater length. (Tense vowels vs. lax vowels.)
We note that this feature and the last [ATR] are not known to co-occur distinctively in any language and
may be variant implementations of a single feature category.' The English 'long' vowels and diphthongs [i,
a, 0, u, ei, ai, oi, au, ju] are tense while the 'short' vowels [1, e, se, u, A, D] are lax.

4.7 Laryngeal Features

 i) Spread Glottis – Non-spread Glottis [± spread]
Pushing the vocal cords wide apart augments the airflow through the glottis and inhibits voicing. This
gesture, which is associated with voicelessness and aspiration, is absent in non-spread sounds. Spread
sounds include aspirated stops; murmured and breathy voice sounds, voiceless vowels and voiceless
glides. All other sounds are non- spread.

ii) Constricted Glottis – Non-constricted Glottis [± Constr]

Constricted sounds are GLOTTALISED. They are produced with a severe obstruction of the glottis which
is made using the vocal cords. This inhibits or prevents the free vibration of the vocal cords. No such
gesture occurs in the production of non-constricted sounds. Constricted sounds include implosives,
ejectives, glottalised and laryngealised consonants as well as creaky voice and glottalised vowels and
glides. All other sounds are non-constricted. In the opening chapter of this book we observed that English
only uses speech sounds made with the pulmonic airstream mechanism, but there are languages which
employ additional mechanisms. Such a mechanism is GLOTTALIC AIRSTREAM MECHANISM.

To understand how it works, I suggest that you begin by making a big constriction in your throat - pretend
that you are just about to cough. Get your vocal cords firmly together and shut off the glottis. At this
stage, an upward movement of the larynx will push out the air above the larynx while a downward
movement of the larynx will suck in air and loosen the constriction; the vocal cords will vibrate
vigorously as the air flows in. Stops made with the GLOTTALIC AIRSTREAM MECHANISM, with the
air above the larynx being expelled, are called EJECTIVES. Ejectives are voiceless. An example of an
ejective is the [t'] in Tlingit, a language of Alaska, in the word [t'ij] 'elbow'.
Stops made with the Glottalic Ingressive Airstream Mechanism are called implosives. The air drawn into
the larynx as it is pulled downward normally causes heavy voicing. An example of this is the bilabial
stop, in the word [6a6a] 'father' in Shona (Zimbabwe).

iii) Voiced - Voiceless [± Voice]

Voiced sounds are produced with the vocal cords vibrating at regular intervals; voiceless sounds are
produced without such periodic vibration.

4.8 Manner features

These characterise the way in which the airstream is obstructed in the production of a consonant:

i) Continuant – Non-continuant [±Cont]

Continuants are produced by impeding, but not completely blocking, the flow of air through the
glottis, or the pharynx or through the centre of the oral tract; non-continuants are made by completely blocking the
flow of air through the centre of the vocal tract. Affricates, nasals and oral stops and laterals are non-continuant. All
other sounds are continuant.

ii) Lateral – Non-lateral [± Lateral]

A lateral sound is produced if the airflow through the centre of mouth is blocked and air only escapes over one or
both sides of the tongue. In non-lateral sounds air flows out through the centre of the mouth. The English [1] is an
example of a lateral LIQUID. (The term 'liquid' is conventionally used to refer to T and 'r'-like sounds.) Languages
may have lateral sonorants, fricatives and affricates made at various places of articulation.

iii) Nasal – Non-nasal (Oral) [± Nasal]

In the production of a nasal sound the velum is lowered to allow air to escape through the nasal cavity. Oral sounds
are produced with the velum raised so as to block access to the nasal cavity and to allow air to go out only through
the mouth. Nasal sounds include nasal stops like [m n ɳ ɲ ꬼ] (which are made with complete blockage of air at the
place where the articulators meet) as well as nasalised consonants, glides and vowels. All other sounds are oral.

iv) Strident - Nonstrident [± Strident]

Only fricatives and affricates can be strident. Acoustically, strident sounds are characterised by more random noise
than their non-strident counterparts. In the SPE system, where features are generally defined in articulatory terms,
the feature [strident], which is acoustically-defined is different from the rest - it is a relic retained from the original
Jakobsonian system. Fricatives which have high pitched strident noise are referred to as SIBILANTS. The feature
strident distinguishes fricatives as follows:

(Katamba, 1989, p.51)

v) Delayed Release – Instantaneous Release [± Del Rel]

This feature is only applicable to sounds produced in the mouth cavity and distinguishes stops from affricates. In
stops, the closure is released abruptly while in affricates it is released gradually: the initial hold phase of an affricate
is similar to that of a stop but in the later release phase an affricate is like a fricative. Only affricates can have the
property [ + del rel]; all other sounds are [-del rel].

4.9 Prosodic Features

Prosodic features such as tone and stress, which are usually associated with an entire syllable or word, are difficult
to describe. Although their phonological relevance is clear, their phonetic properties are not easy to specify
satisfactorily. The account of prosodic features given in this chapter is provisional. It is based on the SPE position
which was dominant for a long time, and is reflected in much of the literature that appeared during the 1970s, but
has been superseded by recent theories.

i) Long - Short [± Long]

This feature refers to the duration of a sound. Clearly, in purely physical terms this feature cannot be binary since
length is always relative. In the SPE system, and in its Jakobsonian predecessor, length is not regarded as a basic
phonetic property but rather as an incidental attribute of the feature [tense], which is binary. Thus in English, for
example, the contrast between [i] and [I] (as in /sik/ 'seek' and /sIk/ 'sick';) is regarded as being essentially a tense
versus lax opposition; the fact that / i / is longer than / I / is viewed as secondary. But even if this were the correct
analysis, using the feature [tense] to subsume length would be questionable where differences in duration involve
consonants since the feature [tense] is meant to specify vowels only. If we use the feature [±long], however,
these difficulties are avoided because it is equally applicable to vowels and consonants. No problems arise when we
encounter a language like Luganda (Uganda) which distinguishes long consonants from short ones in words like /ta/
[ta] 'release! (imperative)' and /tta/ [t:a] 'kill! (imperative)' as well as long and short vowels as in /kula/ [kula] 'grow
up! (imperative)' and /kuula/ [ku:la] 'uproot! (imperative)'.In principle, the feature [long] is multivalued. A language
could contrast more than two degrees of length. Kikamba (Kenya) contrasts three degrees of vowel length. In
practice most languages which have distinctive vowel length only distinguish between long and short vowels. A
binary approach, while not ideal is not altogether inappropriate.

ii) Stress [± Stress]

Stress is an elusive concept. All stressed (or accented) syllables in a word are more salient than their unstressed
counterparts but the phonetic manifestation of stress varies. The prominence of stressed syllables is due to an
admixture of raised pitch, greater length and increased intensity of the signal, which is perceived as loudness. In
addition, in some languages, e.g. English, stressed vowels retain their full vowel quality while unstressed vowels

are reduced to some muffled vowel sound like schwa [ ᵊ]. It is generally agreed in principle that stress need not be
binary. In SPE, for instance, three degrees of stress are recognized for English. In practice, however, phonologists
often treat stress as binary for convenience.

iii) Tone
It is important to distinguish between tone and pitch. The pitch of an utterance depends on the rate of vibration of
the vocal cords, the higher the rate of vibration, the higher the resulting pitch becomes. Any time a voiced sound is
produced, the vocal cords must vibrate at a certain rate: all languages have sounds which show pitch differences. In
a TONE language those pitch differences are used phonemically either to differentiate between word meanings or
to convey grammatical distinctions. Commonly used tone features (which are normally indicated by writing the
appropriate diacritic above the appropriate tone-bearing element) are:
[±] High: (marked by (ʹ))
[±] Mid: (marked by (-))
[±] Low: (marked by (`))
[±] Rising: (marked by (︣ )
[±] Falling: (marked by (ᵔ))
[±] Fall-rise: (marked by (ᵕ))
It should, however, be noted that English is not a tonal language, so such distinctive features may not
apply.
Summary

Distinctive Features for Vowels

Distinctive Features for Sonorants

Distinctive Features for Obstruents

 TOPIC 5: APPROACHES IN GENERATIVE PHONOLOGY

5.1 Introduction

Generative phonology is a branch of phonology that a came to prominence with Chomsky &
Halle’s (1968) ‘Sound Patterns of English’ a publication in which the need to eliminate and
factor out redundancy from phonological analysis by using phonological rules is expressed. The
term generative is first introduced by Noam Chomsky in his book Syntactic Structures (1957) to
denote the capacity of grammar to define the set of grammatical sentences in a language.
According to crystal (2008) there are two main branches of generative linguistics:

a) Generative phonology
b) Generative syntax

Generative phonology is an approach of generative linguistics whose aim is to establish a set of

rules, principles or constraints efficient to produce the surface phonetic forms of a language and
to model the internalized linguistic knowledge of native speakers. It was the central idea in
linguistics research throughout 1960s and although it has undergone changes in subsequent
decades, it continues to be the dominant framework for many developments in phonological
theory. It is a component of generative grammar that assigns the correct phonetic representations
to utterances in such a way as to reflect a native speaker’s internalized grammar.

5.2 Generative Phonology (GP) as opposed to Structural Phonology

Chomsky and Halle (1968) reject the various aspects of American structuralism (i.e. structural
phonology (SP)) initianted by Leonard Bloomfield (1887 – 1949) in his ‘Item and Arrangement
Model’ and Edward Sapir (1884 – 1942) in his ‘Item and Process Model’.

An Item Arrangement (IA) model, with emphasis on explicit methods of analysis, as adopted by
Bloomfield, is a descriptive morphological model in which words are seen as linear sequence of
morphs; thus a word like ‘girls’ is analysed as ‘girl + s’. An item and Process (IP) as designed by
Sapir on the other hand is an alterbative to IA which failed to explain irregularities in English
such as mice. IP postulates that an abstract phonological representation, which is changed into a
phonetic representation by processes that ‘delete, add and change sounds’. In this model, the
relationship between words are seen as ‘processes of derivation’ for example the verb ‘made’ is
a product of a derivation process that changes the Velar /k/ into the alveolar /d/. Similarly, the
word took is a product of a derivation process involving vowel change. According to Ogusinji
and Sunday (2011) structural phonologists regard the phoneme as the fundamental unit of
organization of sound systems, and for them, the scientific way to establish the phonemes of a
language was called phonemics. However, generative phonologists conversely rejected the
notion of phoneme and replaced it with the notion of ‘Underlying Representation’.

In SP, three levels of representation are recognized: allophonic or phonetic, phonemic and
morphophonemic. The allophonic/phonetic levels offer a more or less accurate transcription of

actual speech event [khᵆ7ts] (cats). At the phonemic level, only contrasting speech sounds are
represented/kᴂts/. At the morphophonemic level, every morpheme has unique representation
//kᴂt-p// where //p// is a morphophoneme that abstracts over the plural allomorph /-s/, /-z/, /-iz/.
GP differs from structural phonology in rejecting that there is a separate phoneme and
morphemic levels. Chomsky and Halle, thus, distinguished between two levels of representation:

i) Underlying phonological level

ii) Surface phonetic level

The underlying level comprises of a set of phonological rules applying to the underlying forms to
yield surface phonetic representation, as shown in the Generative Grammar Model of language
below:

Phrase Structure Rules Lexicon

Initial Phrase Marker

Transformational Rules

Surface Structure

Phonological Rules Semantic Interpretation

Rules

Logical Form
Phonetic
Representation

5.3 GP and the Sound Patterns of English (SPE)

SPE is the major contribution of Chomsky and Halle to phonology; it is an attempt to build a
description of English phonology on a transformational generative theory of language (Ogusinji
and Sunday, 2011). It is Chomsky and Halle who attempt to state explicitly, the phonological
rules underlying the speech sounds of native English speakers as Chomsky and halle observe:
“there are abstract rules determining the actual acoustic outputs of speech; the rules apply
sequentially to produce a series of derivations resulting in an abstract representation of the
phonetic representation; phonetic consist of a series of segments that could be exhaustively
defined in terms of sets of binary features; the rules are strictly ordered.”

Chomsky and Halle, does not, however, totally ignore the concept of the phoneme; rather they
regard a phoneme as a bundle of distinctive features and incorporates Jacobson’s (1942)
distinctive features as the centre of phonological descriptions. Hence, the hallmark of generative
phonology is feature analysis. Each phoneme, according to this phonological model is seen as
being made up of a bundle of features rather than irreducible contrastive units of sound. Fr
example; back, rounded, vowels include the following distinctive features:

-consonantal
+ back
+ round
+ Syllabic

5.4 Components of Generative Phonology

The following are the essential components of GP

Semantic Representation
i) Levels of phonological
representation

Generative phonology posits two levels of phonological representation:

 i. An underlying representation is the most basic form of a word before any
phonological rules have been applied to it. Underlying representations
show what a native speaker knows about the abstract underlying
phonology of the language.
ii. A phonetic representation is the form of a word that is spoken and heard.
ii) Derivation – A phonological derivation is a set of stages used to generate the phonetic
representation of a word from its underlying representation. The stages are
summarized in the following diagram:

Underlying Apply Derivation Apply Derivation Apply Phonetic

Representation Rules I Rules II Rules representation

Note: phonological rules influence each stage of derivation.

Example 2- Derivation of a word ‘Impossible’

Underlying representation ……… /im//pasᵊbᵊl/

Assimilation …………………………../impasᵊbᵊl/

(derivation 1)

Aspiration…………………………………/ imphasᵊbᵊl/

Phonetic Representation …………/imphasᵊbᵊl/

iii) Linearity – a stream f speech is described as a ‘sequence of discrete sound segments.

Each segment is a generative model consisting of a linear bundle of features known as
distinctive features
iv) Phonological Rules

Goldsmith (1993) defines phonological rules as the ‘mapping between two different levels of
sound representation:

 The abstract underlying level

 The surface level

To potray how speakers go from abstract representations stored in their mind to the actual sounds
they articulate when they speak. Generally, phonological rules begin with the underlying
representation of a sound and yield the surface form that is actually spoken. An underlying form
may have multiple surface forms. This is referred to as ‘allophone’ e.g. the English plural suffix
may be pronounced as /s/ in books, /z/ in cars and / ᵊz/ in buses. All the forms are stored mentally
as the same ‘s’ but the surface pronunciations are derived through a phonological rule. Examples
of phonological rules include:

i) Intervocalic alveolar flapping – it is a process through which the consonant /t/ and /d/
are changed via rule into a quick flap consonant in words such as butter or writer, by
speakers of American English dialects. The stop consonants /t/, /d/ are changed into
flaps when they are preceded and followed by vowels, the first of which is stressed
while the second is unstressed;
[+stop, + consonant, + alveolar] [flap]/[+vowel, +stressed]__ [+ vowel, -
stressed]

ii) Devoicing – An allophonic rule via which voiced consonants tend to be devoiced at
the end of words:
[+ cons, + voice] [+cons, - voice]/__#

Types of Phonological Rules

Phonological rules are categorized into:

a) Assimilation Rules - these are rules via which a sound may alter one of its features to
become more similar to a neighbouring sound. This type of rules occur in English plural
rule where the plural suffix become voiced or voiceless depending on whether the
preceding consonant is voiced or voiceless.
b) Deletion Rules – These are rules through which a sound such as unstressed syllable or
weak consonants may not be pronounced e.g. most American English speakers do not
pronounce /d/ in handback or even handkerchief.
c) Insertion rules
They are rules by means of which an additional sound is inserted between two other
sounds to ease their pronunciation e.g. when the English plural morpheme ‘s’is added to
‘bus’, bus-s would be difficult to pronounce, so the short vowel /ᵊ/ is inserted between the
two ‘s’ to make the pronunciation of the word easy.

Homework:

Show the stages involeved in deivation of the following nglish words from the underlying
representation to the phonetic representation

a) Disappoint
b) Made
c) Mice
d) Acknowledgement
 e) Pronunciation

TOPIC 6: PHONOLOGICAL PROCESSES

6.1 Introduction
Phonology is not a static system in which an established unit remains unchanged in all its
occurances. Rather, it is a dynamic system in which units change as they come into contact with
other units in the system. We refer to such changes as phonological processes.

Example using the word ‘can’:

[ai kᵆn ᵆsk] I can ask

[ai kᵆn si:] I can see

/kᵆn/ [ai kᵆm plei] I can play

[ai k ᵆᵑ gᵊu ] I can go

[ai kᵆᵑ kᵊm] I can come
Noted phonological processes:

/n/ is pronounced as [m] before a labial plosive

/n/ is pronounced as [ᵑ] before a dorsal (velar) plosive

The modification of sounds seem to follow natural principles related to physiological and
psychological strategies. Some phonological processes may be explained as muscle co-
ordination within vocal mechanisms. Others may be due to perceptual strategies that enhance
effective communication.

Some rules make sequence of sounds easier to pronounce. When we say [k ᵆmbi:] instead of /kᵆn
bi:/, we produce two bilabial sounds in row using a single gesture instead of making an alveolar
[n] and the bilabial [b] i.e. using two different gestures.

Likewise, some rules make sounds easier to perceive as when voiceless stops are aspirates at the
beginning of stressed syllables.

6.2 Types of Phonological Processes

a) Assimilation – This is the most common type of phonological processes found in

languages in which sounds take on the characteristics of a neibhouring sound. There are
two necessary components to define assimilation:
i) The sound that changes
ii) The sound that causes the change

The following are the phonological processes that result from assimilation:
 i) Labialization
It refers to when lip rounding accompanies articulation of a sound that is not labial. it
occurs when a non-labial sound is followed by a labial sound e.g. articulation of quick
[kw]
Cort [kw]
ii) Dentalization
Occurs when alveolar consonants become dental before a dental consonant as in:
Eighth [eiṱᶿ], tenth [teṋᶿ], wealth [weḻᶿ]
iii) Valarization – a lateral consonant is velarized when after a vowel and before another
consonant or the end of a word. When articulation is taking place, the back of the
tongue is raised towards the velum e.g. file, talc, dial, hill, cool.
iv) Nasalization
Vowels are nasalized before a nasal consonant e.g. ban [bᴂn], come [kᴧm]
v) Palatalization
It is the pushing of the tongue into the front position, thus producing a [i] like
modification e.g. articulation of the words: yes, fuse, few etc. it is also called fronting,
marked as [fi], [ji] etc. it also occurs when non-palatal sound is followed by vowel [i]
as in hit [hiit], sit [siit], fruition [fruᶴin ].
vi) Spirantilization
This refers to a change of oral stops to fricatives (spirants). Voiced stops undergo
spirantilization as a result of the reduction of oral compression to facilitate the glottal

voicing: /b/ > /ᵦ/, /d/> / ᶞ/ and /g/> /ᵞ/. In voiceless aspirated stops, the release is often
misinterpreted by listeners as frication [ph] > [pᵩ], [th]> [tᶿ] and [kh]> [kx]
vii) Voicing
A voiceless consonant may become voiced due to influence of the phonological
environment it is in.
Prevocalic voicing- is the voicing of an initial voiceless consonant preceding a vowel
in a word as in peach [pitᶴ] or bitch [bitᶴ].
viii) Deletion/ Ellipsis

A simple way to alter the structure of a word is to omit particular speech segments. There are
two main speech segments tat are typically deleted:

 Consonants
 Weak syllables

Consonant deletion

Consonant deletion occurs whenever a consonant in a syllable-initial or syllable final position is

omitted. Children may delete sounds at the beginning of words e.g. the words cat and boat may
be articulated as at and oat respectively. Final consonants may also be deleted. The words pat
and lid may be realizes as pa and li respectively.

Weak Syllable deletion

Weak syllable deletion occurs whenever the unstressed or weak syllable of multi-syllabic words
is omitted. In this process, whole syllables are deleted. The words banana and octopus may be
realized as nana and ocpus after deletion of the weak syllables ba- nad –to- respectively.

6.3 Formalization of Phonological Rules

In formalizing phonological rules, we go beyond stating the rules in words. Instead, we use
formal notations; use of special symbols which make the rules look more like mathematical
formulas.

A number of such notational devices are used as part of the theory of phonology. They do more
that merely save paper or abbreviate ling statements. They provide a way to express
generalizations of the language which may otherwise be obscured. For example, if we use + or –
feature value notation in the rule which nasalize vowels before nasal consonants, it could be
stated as:

+vocalic – consonant becomes + nasal before a [+ nasal]

This clearly shows that just one feature is changed, and it is an assimilatory rule. Suppose we
wished to write a rule which nasalized a vowel before, and only before a /p/. By stating this
without features, we would say: nasalize a vowel before a /p/. This seems to be a simple and
general a rule as the nasalization rule. Yet it just a strange and highly unlikely rule. To state the
rule with features, we should have to write:

+vocalic, - consonantal becomes +nasal before a + consonantal – vocalic + labial – voiced -continuant

Unlike the previous rule which seemed natural, this one is more complex and has nothing in
common. But this is the essence of using the features. Without the features, the difference
between the two rules would be hidden. Instead of writing becomes or occurs, we can use an
arrow ( ) to show that the segment on the left of the arrow is or becomes whatever is on the
right of the arrow.

+ vocalic – consonantal + nasal before a [+nasal]

The phonological environment / context is also important to specify in a rule. In many languages,
vowels are nasalized before but not after nasal. We can formalize the notions of ‘environment’ or
‘in the environment’ and the notion ‘before’ and ‘after’ by the following notations:

A slash /, to mean ‘in the environment of’

A dash, __, placed before or after a segment which determine change. Using these notations, we
can write the above rule:

+ vocalic – consonant + nasal / + nasal __

It reads: A vowel becomes nasalized in the environment after a nasal. The fact that the dash
follows the [+nasal] shows that a vowel which comes after it is changed. The segment to be
changed by the rules occurs at the beginning or end of the word. We can use double cross # to
signify a word boundary:

-Vocalic + consonantal + aspirated /# __ _consonantal + vocalic + stressed

A voiceless stop (a segment that is [+ consonantal] and [-voiced] becomes ( ) aspirated in

the environment (/) after a word boundary (#__) (that is at the beginning of a word) before a
stressed vowel (a segment that is [- consonantal] and [+ vocalic] and [+ stressed]. The rule which
velarizes an /l/ in English must state all the environments where this occurs: before back vowels,
before low front vowels, at the end of a word. We can state this formally as:

a) + lateral + velarized /__ + vocalic – consonantal + back

b) + lateral + velarized /__ + vocalic – consonantal + low

c) + lateral + velarized/__ #

To collapse (combine ) two or more rules which have identical parts we can use another device {
} (braces) and we can collapse rule a, b and c into d below:

+ lateral + velarized /__ {(+ vocalic – consonantal + back) (+vocalic – consonantal + low)}

Another rule: A vowel becomes long in the environment before either a voiced consonant or at
the end of a word ( before a word boundary).

-consonantal + vocalic + long/__ - consonantal + vocalic – back

Suppose there was a rule in some language to shorten a vowel when the vowel occurs before
three consonants or two consonants. We could write this:

+ vocalic – consonantal - long/__ - vocalic + consonantal – vocalic + consonantal – vocalic +

consonantal – vocalic + consonantal – vocalic + consonantal

If we use V for vowels and C for consonants, the rule can be written as:

V - long /__ CCCCC

The rule gives us the results we want.

To collapse the two rules, use parenthesis around an optional segment or segments:

V - long / __ CC(C)

“A vowel is shortened in the environment before three consonants or before two consonants”

The importance of formal devices like feature notations, arrows, slashes, dashes and parenthesis
is that they enable us to express linguistic generalization since the grammar that linguists write
for any particular language aims to express in the most general fashion a speaker’s linguistic
competence, the notations which permit them to do this are part of the theory of phonology.

Study Questions:

Restate the following rules using formal notation

a) A glide is inserted between a high front vowel and any following vowel
b) A voiced consonant becomes a nasal after a nasal stop
c) Obstruents are devoiced word-finally or when they precede voiceless obstruents.
d) A stressed vowel is lengthened if the following vowel is unstressed
e) Voiced stops become the corresponding fricatives inter-vocalically.
 TOPIC 7: BROAD AND NARROW TRANSCRIPTIONS

7.1 Introduction

Phonology is the study, investigation and description of sound system in a given language.
Articulation of sounds is mostly concerned with the movement of speech organs including lips
and tongue, but this is just a beginning. To investigate and describe sound systems, one needs to
dig deeper and capture other organs and factors at play. Phonologists, therefore, seek to represent
as much as they can get about the articulation of sounds by transcribing the phonetic/ phonemic
segments. Transcription is categorized into two: Broad and Narrow transcription

Broad Transcription
Broad transcription indicates only the most noticeable phonetic features of an utterance. It is for
this reason it is also referred to as phonemic transcription. Its main focus is the phonemic- the
meaning distinguishing units of an utterance. It does not make use of diacritic marks.

Narrow Transcription
Narrow transcription refers to the use of more phonetic details in showing the pronunciation of a
word. It is also called allophonic transcription, and makes use of diacritics to mark some discrete
features on sounds.

Examples:

Sound Broad transcription Narrow transcription

P /p/ [p] and [ph]
L /l/ [l] and [ᵼ]
Examples in words:

Sample word Broad transcription Narrow

transcription
Please /pliz/ [pli:z]
Kill /kil/ [khIᵼ]
Snap /snᴂp/ [snǣp7]
Pay /pei/ [phei]
Spin /spin/ [spin]
Map /mᴂp/ [mǣp7]
Tab /tᴂb/ [tᴂb]
Maize /meiz/ [meiz]
Rules of narrow transcription
It should be noted that the guidelines for narrow transcription provided here in are not really
‘rules’ but more of predictions. They are prescriptions for ideal pronunciation. Speakers are at
liberty to modify their pronunciations in various ways.

a) Narrow transcription of /r/

It has been along convention in English phonetics and phonology for the phoneme /r/ to be
represented as ‘r’. It should, however, be noted that this phoneme can be realized in a number of
ways in various English dialects (alveolar, post alveolar and retroflex approximant) are the most
common, but trills taps and uvular trills also occur in some dialects.

In general English however, the phoneme is usually realized alveolar or post alveolar
approximant. In Narrow transcription it should be converted to [ɹ].

b) Aspiration and Release of Stops

Voiceless oral stops are aspirated before stressed vowels/ diphthongs in the same syllable. The
aspiration is thus marked as follows:

Pay [phei]

Tea [thi:]

Come [khᶺm]

However, the aspiration rule does not apply to voiceless oral stops following /s/ e.g. in spin
(spin), scar [ska:] or spring [spriꬼ]

Syllable and Word Final (VC) Oral Stops

Word and syllable- final oral stops ( VC stops) show somewhat different pattern of release to
those shown by CV stops. Therefore, in carrying out narrow transcription of VC stops we are
particularly interested in whether the release of stops is audible or inaudible. This applies to both
audible and voiceless stops. In narrow transcription, audibly released stops unmarked as shown

Released unreleased

Map [mæp] [mæp7]

Squeak [skwi:k] [skwi:k7]

Jog [ʤↄg7]
c) Devoicing
a) Devoicing voiced oral stops and fricatives

Voiced oral stops and voiced fricatives are usually devoiced in the following context:

i) Before a pause (e.g at the end of an utterance /sentence):

Tab [tæḅ]

` bath [beiᵹ]

Maize [meiẓ]

ii) before a voiceless or devoiced , obstruent (ie before oral stops, affricates or fricatives)

tabs [tæḅẓ] /b/ is devoiced before a devoiced /z/

Said Kim [seḍ khim] /d/ is devoiced before /k/

iii) Devoicing approximants following voiceless fricatives

When approximants immediately follow voiceless fricatives they are often but not always
devoiced. The devoicing usually happens when the fricative and the approximant are in the same
syllable, and also more likely when the syllable is stressed.

Friend [fɹend]

Sweet [sẉi:t]

Shred [ᶴɹed]

d) Clear and Dark realization of /l/

i) Before pure vowels, diphthongs and /j/, /l/ is realized as clear /l/ e.g

leaf [li:f]

law [lↄ:]

value [vælju:]

feeling [fi:liꬼ]

ii)Before consonants (except /j/ or a pause (e.g the end of a sentence or utterance) the
allophone is dark (velarized)
 feel [fi:ɫ]

field [fi:ɫd]

Dark /l/ is also usually found at the end of a word even when the following word start with a
vowel. This articulation clearly marks the /l/ as belonging to the end of the first word, rather than
beginning of the second word.

Feel fine [fi:ɫ fain]

e) Assimilation of Alveolars

Alveolar assimilation is extremely common, but exceptions to these rules do occur, even in
casual connected speech. However, assimilation is less likely to occur in careful speech and
particularly when articulating isolated words carefully.

i) Alveolar nasals become labialized before labiodentals

infant [iɱfәnt]

invite [iɱvait]

ii) Alveolar nasals and oral stops become dentalised before dentals

Tenth [teṋҨ]

Wealth [weḽҨ]

f) syllabic consonants

All syllabic consonants must be marked with a diachritic in narrow transcription e.g:

Middle [midɫ]

Sudden [sɅdṇ)

g) Nasalization

Nasalisation is particularly likely to occur when a low vowel e.g /æ/ /a:/ /Ʌ/or /ↄ/ occurs next to a
nasal consonant.

Ant [ậnt]

Mum [mɅm]

Activity
Differentiate between broad and narrow transcription by transcribing the following words

Big cow quack mad travel plot

Invent man roll trap swing fresh

Draft tip pain block

THE NOTION OF THE SYLLABLE

The syllable is a segment of speech that consist of a vowel, with or without one or more
accompanying consonant sounds immediately preceeding or following it. A syllabic consonant
such as final /n/ sound in button and widen, also constitute a syllable.

NB. A precise definition of a syllable as well as its role in speech is a subject of phonological
debate.

Structure of the Syllable

The syllable can be structured hierarchically into the following components:

Onset

Rhyme

Nucleus

Coda

Syllable (δ)

Onset Rhyme (R)

nucleus coda

C V C

c æ t
In this example, the english word cat consists of a single CVC syllable. This syllable has been
broken down into its onset (any consonant preceeding the syllable) and its rhyme (all phonemes
from the vowel to the end of the syllable).

The rhyme has been further divided into nucleus which in the vast majority of the syllable is a
vowel (with the exception of syllabic consonant) and the coda, which are any consonant(s)
following the nucleus (vowel).

It is possible to have more than one consonant in the onset, a diphthong /tripthong in the nucleus
and more than one consonant in the coda.

Example;

onset rhyme

nucleus coda

CC VV CC

Fl аu ns (flounce)

Flounce - onset /fl/

rhyme /auns/

nucleus /au/

coda /ns/

It is also possible to have a syllable without an onset (zero onset) or one without a coda.

The nucleus is however, obligatory except in syllabic consonants.

Examples:

Free - onset /fr/

rhyme =/i:/

nucleus -/i:/

coda - zero
Each - onset- zero

rhyme - /i:ts/

nucleus -/i:/

coda /ts/

This gives rise to four main syllables.

a) zero onset –there is no onset and no coda e.g in the words are /a:/ ere. It is made of the
nucleus only (V)

b) Onset syllable – there is an onset but no coda e.g. tea, go, fee (CV)

c) Terminational syllable – there is no onset but a coda e.g. eat, each, it (VC)

d) Onset Terminational Syllable – it has a coda and an onset e.g flounce, strict, meat (CVC)

Open and closed syllables

Syllables can also be classified as either open or closed. Closed syllables are syllables that have
at least one consonant following the vowel. The most common closed syllable is the (VC)
syllable. Open syllables are syllables that end in a vowel. The most common is the CV syllable.

Examples of Open Syllables::

V ‘i’ /ae/

CV ‘me’ /mi:/

CCV ‘spy’ /spae/

CCCV ‘spray’ /sprei/

Examples of closed syllable

VC ‘am’ / æm/

VCC ‘ant’ /ænt/

VCCC ‘ants’ /ænts/

CVC ‘man’ /mæn/

CVCC ‘bond’ /bond/

 CVCCC ‘bands’ /bændz/

CVCCCC ‘sixths’ /siksҨs/

CCVC ‘brag’ /bræg/

CCVCC ‘brags’ /braegs/

CCVCCC ‘plants’ /plænts/

CCCVC ‘spring’ /spriꬼ/

CCCVCC ‘springs’ /spriꬼz/

CCCVCCC ‘splints’ /splints/

The above data provides evidence that the english syllable is flexible. There are languiges with
only cv syllable.

Activity:

Draw syllable structures and indicate the type of syllable in each of the following words

Work unfortunate produce

split jog about sudden brag

VARIETIES OF ENGLISH PRONUNCIATIONS