STRUCTURES

OF
ENGLISH
Historical Antecedents
to Modern English
• The linguistic
ancestors of English • Old English as seen in
were the Angles, the Lord’s Prayer differs
Saxons and Jutes and from Modern English
they were savages who both in grammar,
migrated from orthography and
northern Europe and vocabulary.
settled in England
about 400 A.D.
• The history of English
actually started about 600
AD when the Anglo
Saxons, having killed and
driven out the original
inhabitants of England, the
Celts, and settled in
England became converted
to Christianity.
• Between 1000 and 1200
A.D., the Norman Conquest
brought the French
language to England.
• English was used as the
vernacular while French
was the official language;
consequently, English
became simplified - the
sound system and the
grammar changed; speakers
relied less on inflectional
devices and more on word
order and structure to
express their meaning.
Language and
Structure
 The approach spread to Europe
Language is a purely human and was developed into the Systemic
behaviour and that is made up of Model By the linguists of the London
sounds and symbols. School of Linguistics mainly J.R Firth
Language is a learned and M.A.K. Halliday
behaviour; it is conventional and The Structural Approach analyses
language at four categories: unit,
arbitrary Language is a system and class, structure and system.
Language is mainly for has four main levels of Structure is used to analyse
communication among structure: phonological, all the units of grammar
a speech community syntactic, lexical and except the morpheme.
semantic
The structural approach
to the analysis of language
is traceable to Bloomfield
of the American School of
Linguistics.
The Structure of the
Sound System of
English
THE SOUND PRODUCTION

Pulmonic Airstream

Nasal

Voiceless
Voiced
THE SOUND OF ENGLISH

Vowels

Consonants
 CRITERIA IN DESCRIBING
CONSONANTS
2. ORGANS OF
PRODUCTION
Alveolar Bilabial
1. VOICED/
VOICELESS Glottal Labio- dental

Palato- alveolar Velar

Palatal Dental
 CRITERIA IN DESCRIBING
CONSONANTS

3. MANNER OF PRODUCTION

Plosives/Stops Liquids

Fricatives Semi-vowels (approximants

Affricates Nasal
 DESCRIPTION OF CONSONANTS

/p/ Voiceless bilabial plosive as in

pat, reap, leper /ɵ/ Voiceless dental fricative as in
/b/ Voiced, bilabial plosive as in thin, bath
bed, labour, babe / ð / Voiced dental fricative as in
/t/ Voiceless alveolar plosive as in though, other, bathe
table, cat, rat /s/ Voiceless alveolar fricative as in
/d/ Voiced alveolar plosive as in city, sister, rice
dance, lad, ladder /z/ Voiced alveolar fricative as in
zebra, business, prize
 DESCRIPTION OF CONSONANTS
/k/ Voiceless velar plosive as in
king, market, cook
/g/ Voiced velar plosive as in gold,
big, bigger
/f/ Voiceless labio – dental fricative
as in fish, infant, leaf
/v/ Voiced labio-dental fricative as
in very, alveolar, leave
/ʃ / Voiceless palato-alveolar
fricative as in shoe, mission, push
/ʒ / Voiced palato-alveolar
fricative as in vision, garage
/h/ Voiceless glottal fricative as in
house, inhale
/ t / Voiceless palato-alveolar
affricate as in church, teacher,
catch
 DESCRIPTION OF CONSONANTS
/ dʒ / Voiced palato-alveolar
affricate as in joke, enjoy, judge
/m/* Bilabial nasal as in moon,
lamp, calm
/n/* Alveolar nasal as in navy,
nanny, none
/ ŋ/* Velar nasal as in bank,
longing
/l/* Alveolar liquid (lateral) as in
look, valley, pull
/r/* Alveolar liquid (rolled) as in
wrong, marry, mirror
/w/* Bilabial semivowel as in
woman, reward
/j/* Palatal semivowel as in
yellow, you
 CRITERIA IN DESCRIBING
VOWELS

1. Parts of the tongue used

CRITERIA IN DESCRIBING VOWELS

2. Height of the tongue

3. Posture of the lips

DESCRIPTION OF VOWELS

1. According to the part of the tongue used

Front

Back

Central
DESCRIPTION OF VOWELS

2. According to the height to which the tongue is

raised

Close

Open

Half- open/ Half- close

DESCRIPTION OF VOWELS

2. According to the posture of the lips

Rounded

Unrounded
English Monophthongs

English Diphthongs

English Triphthongs