NAHIDA SULTANA CHAITY

Lecturer in English
Dept of Humanities
CUET
natural sounds no systematic meaning

speech sounds
a code system.
 The word “ Phone” means sound and “tics”
means scientific or systematic study of
something. So we can say that Phonetics means
scientific or systematic study of human speech
sounds.
 Phonetics is general study of all human speech
sounds and how they are produced, transmitted
and received.
 The study of phonetics can be divided into three
main branches.
1. Articulatory Phonetics(How sounds are
produced?)
2. Auditory Phonetics(How sounds are received?)
3. Acoustic Phonetics(How sounds are transmitted?)
It is concerned with the positions and movements
of the lips, tongue, and other speech organs in
producing speech. It analyses how the various
speech sounds are articulated by vocal organs.
 Auditory Phonetics is the study of hearing and
the perception of speech sounds.
 This branch of phonetics is concerned with the
properties of sound waves.
 It studies the physical properties of speech
sounds as transmitted between the mouth and ear.
 Phonology is a broader study of major speech
sounds and their organization in a particular
language.

 Phonology is the study of the properties of sound

systems, the principles that govern the ways in
which speakers of different languages organize
speech sounds to express meanings.
 PHONETICS PHONOLOGY
 Phonetics deals with  Phonology deals with
production, transmission the ways those sounds
and reception of all are organized in a
human speech sounds in particular language. It
general with no is sub-category of
particular reference to phonetics.
any one language.
 PHONETICS PHONOLOGY

 Study of speech processes  Study of basic speech sounds

including anatomy, neurology of a given language & their
& pathology of speech. function within the sound
system of that language.

 A pure science  A branch of linguistics

 Not to be studied in relation  The functional phonetics of a

to a particular language given language.
Definition: The most widely used system for
representing the sounds of any language.
A reproduction of the latest version of the
International Phonetic Alphabet (2005) is
available at the website of the International
Phonetic Association.

RPN(Receipt Pronunciation Number)

 Definition: The smallest sound unit in a language
that is capable of conveying a distinct meaning,
such as the s of sing and the r of ring. Adjective:
phonemic.
 Besides a brain (and the knowledge of the
language), what do you need to use the spoken
language?

These are the speech organs.

The air breathed in → lungs → the air pressed out →
mouth cavity
↗
windpipe (trachea) → larynx → pharynx →

↘ nasal cavity
Lips
- they serve for creating different sounds - mainly
the labial, bilabial (e.g. /p/, /b/, /m/, /hw/, and /w/)
and labio-dental consonant sounds (e. g. /f/ and /v/
- and thus create an important part of the speech
apparatus.
Upper Lip

Lower Lip
-

-small whitish structures found in jaws

- responsible for creating sounds mainly
the labio-dental (e.g. /f/ and /v/and
lingua-dental (e.g. /ð/and /θ/)
Teeth
tongue
- with its wide variety of possible
movements, it assists in forming the sounds
of speech.
TONGUE

Back
Middle(Dorsum)

Front(Blade)

Tip(Apex)
Alveolar ridge
- hard ridge behind the upper front
teeth. It is between the roof of the
mouth and the upper teeth.
 For the sound /s/, air from the lungs passes
continuously through the mouth, but the tongue is
raised sufficiently close to the alveolar ridge (the
section of the upper jaw containing the tooth
sockets) to cause friction as it partially blocks the
air that passes.
Alveolar Ridge
Hard palate
• a thin horizontal bony plate of the skull,
located in the roof of the mouth.
• the interaction between the tongue and the
hard palate is essential in the formation of
certain speech sounds, notably /t/, /d/, and
/j/.
Hard Palate
Velum (soft palate)
- it should have holes forming that function
during speech to separate the oral cavity
(mouth) from the nose, in order to produce the
oral speech sounds. If this separation is
incomplete, air escapes through the nose
during speech and the speech is perceived as
hyper nasal.
Velum or Soft
Palate
Uvula
- it functions in tandem with the
- back of the throat, the palate,
- and air coming up from the lungs to
- create a number of guttural and other sounds.

- In many languages, it closes to prevent air

escaping through the nose when making some
sounds.
Uvula
Glottis
• combination of vocal folds and space in
between the folds
• as the vocal folds vibrate, the resulting
vibration produces a “buzzing” quality to the
speech called voice or voicing or
pronunciation.
• sound production involving only the glottis is
called glottal. Example is the sound /h/.
Glottis
 SPEECH ORGANS
Alveolar Hard
ridge Palate

Soft
Upper Palate
lip Uvula
Lower Back
lip
Middle(Dors
Teeth
um)
Front(Blad
e) (Apex)
Tip

Glottis
Consonants: the sounds in the production of
which there is an obstruction of the air- stream at
some point of the vocal tract .

Vowels: the sounds in the production of which no

articulators come very close together and the air-
stream passes through the vocal tract without
obstruction.
Let us take a look at
them!
PIT
GOOD
PET
GIRL
PAT
MEAT
POT
CAR
LUCK
DOOR
AGO
TOO
 The term diphthong simply means double
sounds.
 It is a sequence of two pure vowels realized as
one sound.
 A diphthong starts as one vowel but changes its
quality as a result of the gliding of the tongue in
the course of its production and ends as another
vowel. The resultant sound is a diphthong.
 The production of a diphthong involves
three stages, these are

 the onset

 the peak

 the fall
DAY BEAR

SKY TOUR

BOY GO

BEER COW
a, as in pay ei, as in weigh
as in say as in veil
as in day as in vein
as in way as in reins
as in feigh
o, as in pole oe, as in toe oa, as in coast
as in hole as in roast
as in hoe
as in wrote as in boast
as in woe as in toast
as in whole
as in foe as in toad
as in so
as in vote

ou,
as in soul
as in poultry
 I, Ie, Uy,
Hide Tie Buy
Kite Die Guy
Tight Tried
spite Cried

Ye, Ry, Ly,

bye Try Fly
Dry Ply
fry supply
 Ou, as in found ow, as in how
 as in bound as in now
 as in pound as in bow
 as in count as in cow
 as in county as in fowl
 as in bounty
 Own, as in town
 as in down
 as in frown
 as in crown
 as in brown
 Oy, as in toy uo, as in buoy
 as in boy
 as in destroy
 as in employ


 Oi, as in soil as in voice

as in coil as in loin
 as in toil
 as in spoil
 as in groin
 as in coin
 ua, as in square
 ai, as in fair
 a, as in care
 as in rare
 as in fare
 as in dare
 as in bare
 ere, as in where
 as in there
 ea, as in near
 as in wear
 as in fear
 as in bear
 as in tear
 ee, as in peer
 as in beer
 as in deer
 as in seer
 ie, as in tier
 as in viewer
 ur, as in sure
 as in cure
 as in ensure
 as in endure

 oor, as in poor

 Ou, as in tour
Think
That
Ring
Shop
Leisure
Chop
Jump
 1. The place of articulation

2. The manner of articulation

3. The mode of articulation

 Bilabial e.g. [p], [m].
 Labio-dental e.g. [f].
 Dental e.g.[ð]
 Alveolar e.g. [t]
 Palatal e.g..[j].
 Palato-alveolar e.g. [ʃ]
 Velar e.g. [k].
 Glottal e.g. [h]
 Retroflex
 Uvular
 Pharyngeal
Lateral (01)
 There are six plosive consonants in English.
These are the sounds formed by means of a
complete closure of the air passage, which is
afterwards released suddenly.
These are given as followed:
/p/ /b/ /t/ /d/ /k/ /g/
pen bet tea dress kind good
 Aspiration is a period during which air escapes
through vocal cords, making a sound like “h”.
 There are three plosives in English Phonology

which are aspirated when they are pronounced as

initial sounds in a word.
 They are symbolized as:

/ph/ /th/ /kh/

e.g. Pet /phet/ Tailor /theɪlə/ Cool /khu:l/
In production of Fricatives, articulators move towards each
other to make stricture or obstruction in flow of air but air
cannot be stopped completely and it escapes through
narrow passage with friction or hissing sound.
Fricatives are 9 in number.
/f / /v/ /s/ /z/ /θ/ /ð/ /ʃ/ /ʒ/ /h/
Fine very song zeal through these sheet treasure
hay
 There are three nasal sounds in English. These
sounds are pronounced or uttered by escaping the
air (partially or completely) through nasal cavity.
These are given as followed:
/m/ /n/ /ŋ/
Miss nine sing
Melancholy Naïve Finger
There are two affricate sounds in English. These
are the sounds formed by means of a complete
closure of the air passage which is afterwards
released slowly with friction.
/tʃ/
/dʒ/
Chair germ
There is only one sound in English. While uttering
this sound air escapes along the both sides of the
tongue.

/l/
Like, life, silly
There are three semi-vowels. These sounds are
phonetically vowels and phonologically consonants.
Phonetically means their mechanism of producing the
sound is same as vowels because there is no
obstruction in flow of air.
But phonologically, they give sounds like consonants.

/w/ /r/ /j/

Wine read young
Plosive d k
p b t ɡ

Fricative f v s z θ ð ʃ ʒ h

Nasal m n ŋ

Affricates tʃ dʒ

Lateral l

Approximant w r j
'lænd əv ‘lɒs ən ‘geɪn |
‘fɔ:tju:nz ‘daʊn ðə ‘dreɪn |
‘rɪʧɪz ‘stɪl rɪ’meɪn |
‘ri:’θɪŋk | ‘ri:’treɪn |
‘klaʊdɪə ‘wɪnz ə’geɪn |
Land of loss and gain
Fortunes down the drain
Riches still remain
Rethink, re-train,
Claudía wins again.