Phonetics: the Sounds of

Language

HUM 202

Spring 2022
 Phonetics
What is Phonetics?
– The part of linguistics concerned with the
sounds and sound systems of language.
It deals with how sounds are produced,
their physical properties
how the rules of language organize and change sounds
in different context
 Phonetics

Who studies phonetics and why?

– Clinicians
diagnose and remediate speech disorders

– Language teachers/specialist
teach a nonnative language

– Engineers
design more efficient voice based applications andsecurity systems

– Linguists
analyze the properties common to all human
 Phonoticians:
• analyze the characteristics of the sounds that
make up syllables, words and sentences
• ask the following questions:
 How many sounds does it include?
 What is the best way to describe these
sounds?
How does the language organize sounds?
 Phonoticians
Phoneticians want to know:

􀂙How does language X relate to a set of

characteristics that are common to all
languages?

-or-

􀂙 What are the characteristics that are

common to all languages and what do they
reveal about the structure and functioning of
the human mind.
George Bernard Shaw's play Pygmalion, and in that play Henry Higgins is based
on phoneticians of the Victorian era, particularly Henry Sweet, who basically introduced Europe
to phonetics. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZJBM6qs22sE

This classic centers around a conceited professor

of phonetics, Henry Higgins, who tricks his snobby
peers by teaching a young woman from "the
gutter," Eliza Doolittle, to behave and speak like "a
lady” who uses Received Pronunciation (RP), a
once widely used term to describe the accent of
the social elite in England. And everyone thinks
she is a princess! The play was later remade as
"My Fair Lady," which also won several Oscars.
 Important Point
Phonetics helps us understand that language
is a sound system NOT a writing system.
The idea that letters ‘have’ sounds is not only
mistaken but misleading…since it tends to
blind us to the principles and rules of our
spoken language.
The letter ‘c’ ≠ sounds [s] & [k] but rather
[s] & [k] can be represented by the letter ‘c’
 Then why the alphabet?
Alphabets help us to represent sounds in
print in a common way that all readers (of
a particular language) can understand. They
assign a permanence to the sounds of speech.

However, the relationship between sounds

and their spellings is not perfect in any living
language.
 Plan for the Improvement of English Spelling
by Mark Twain (?)
• For example, in Year 1 that useless letter "c" would be dropped to be
replased either by "k" or "s," and likewise "x" would no longer be part of
the alphabet. The only kase in which "c" would be retained would be the
"ch" formation, which will be dealt with later. Year 2 might reform "w"
spelling, so that "which" and "one" would take the same konsonant, wile
Year 3 might well abolish "y" replasing it with "i" and Iear 4 might fiks the
"g/j" anomali wonse and for all.

• Jenerally, then, the improvement would kontinue iear bai iear with Iear 5
doing awai with useless double konsonants, and Iears 6-12 or so
modifaiing vowlz and the rimeining voist and unvoist konsonants. Bai
Iear 15 or sou, it wud fainali bi posibl tu meik ius ov thi ridandant letez
"c," "y" and "x"--bai now jast a memori in the maindz ov ould doderez--tu
riplais "ch," "sh," and "th" rispektivli.

• Fainali, xen, aafte sam 20 iers ov orxogrefkl riform, wi wud hev a lojikl,
kohirnt speling in ius xrewawt xe Ingliy-spiking werld.
 English Spelling v. Pronunciation

• http://www3.sympatico.ca/srajano/jokes.html
 Discrepancies b/t Sound and
Spelling in English
1.
– When the printing press was invented in the
15th century, spelling was standardized for the
current pronunciation

– 500+ years later, Speech has changed;

spelling not as much… Knight / night / nite(?)

Currently allow multiple spellings for same

sounds, as well as many foreign
borrowings into English. (ice v. police)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7ucCJ_Vn58w

https://spelling.wordpress.com/2007/09/05/english-pronunciation/
 Linguists use
a “standardized”spelling
By using a spelling system that more appropriately
indicates a one to one system of sound to character
linguist can avoid the ambiguities of English spellings.

Typically this is done by using the IPA or International

Phonetic Alphabet.
– (note: obviously the context of a sentence in
IPA would now have to give the meaning
rather than spelling as in won / one)
 Intro to the IPA

It is a complex system that contains over 100 symbols as well as diacritics and other
specifying marks to accurately record exact sounds in a speech system.
– The image below is a list of Consonant symbols
 IPA in the Text
If you have your book let’s look at pg. 34 (in the 3rd
edition)
– you’ll notice that there are many symbols that
are not immediately accessible by your typical
computer keyboard…
– If you prefer to have a way to digitally input
these symbols you will most likely want a font
such as Doulos SIL available at:
http://scripts.sil.org/cms/scripts/page.php?site_id=nr
si&id=DoulosSILfont
 IPA in the Text
• Notice that many of the consonant symbols
are quite similar to the Roman Alphabet that
we use in English.
• However, since there are many more vowel
sounds that we use than can be represented
by just the “standard a,e,i,o, & u” that we
learned in grade school, there are several
more symbols for these.
 Articulators and Articulation
WEBSITE APP: English, Spanish, and German
http://www.uiowa.edu/~acadtech/phonetics/#

consonants are identified by:

– location of obstruction (place)
– nature of obstruction (manner)
– state of vocal cords

vowels are identified by:

– vertical position of articulation (high, mid, low)
– horizontal position of articulation (front, central, back)
 What is a Phone/ Allophone?
• /t/ /p/
stop / top
pit / spit

• /d/ /t/
writer / rider
ladder / latter / later
 For your own review:

• list the main articulators: (p.31-32, 3rd edition)

• list the main manners of articulation: (p.34 +

37-38, 3rd edition)
 IPA good or bad?
• What are some advantages of using the IPA?
(p. 51)

• What are some disadvantages?

• Practice using IPA in the End-of-chapter

questions (chapter 2)
 Homework for Next week, 03.02.22

Read Chapter 2 (only about the consonants), p.

27—37.