PHONETICS AND

PHONOLOGY
WHY STUDY PHONETICS AND
PHONOLOGY?
 English pronunciation and theoretical context: phonetics and phonology
 To understand the principles regulating the use of sounds in spoken English.
 For English major students and professionals (non-native or native speakers)
PHONEMES AND OTHER
ASPECTS OF PRONUNCIATION
 Regularly used sounds such as vowels and consonants (also called phonemes)
‘pin’ and ‘pen’
‘pet’ and ‘bet’
What are the differences?
Think in terms of phonemes rather than alphabets.
‘enough’ ‘inept’ ‘stuff’
/ɪ nAf/ /ɪˈnept/ /stɑːf/
PHONEMES AND OTHER
ASPECTS OF PRONUNCIATION
 Syllable (a single unit of speech, either a whole word or one of the parts into
which a word can be separated, usually containing a vowel)
 Stress (which could be roughly described as the relative strength of a syllable)
 contract (noun)
 contract (verb)
 Intonation (the use of the pitch of the voice to convey meaning)
 well (high to low) !
 well (low to high) ?
ACCENTS AND DIALECTS
 Accents: They are pronounced differently by people from different geographical places, from
different social classes, of different ages and different educational backgrounds.
(only differences in pronunciation)

 Dialect: It refers to a variety of a language which is different from others not just in
pronunciation but also in such matters as vocabulary, grammar and word order.
ACCENTS AND DIALECTS
Standard British Accents for Teaching
 Received Pronunciation (RP) old-fashioned and misleading (“received” means “accepted” or
“approved”). It is a recommended accent for foreign learners studying British English.
 BBC pronunciation among most announcers and newsreaders, but not official
 General British
 (think more England (north and south), British (Scottish and Wales), United Kingdom
(Northern Ireland)
EXERCISES
1 Give three different names that have been used for the accent usually used for teaching?
2 What is the difference between accent and dialect?
3 Which word is used to refer to the relative strength of a syllable?
4 How many sounds (phonemes) do you think there are in the following words?
a) love b) half c) wrist d) shrink e) oughtng
2 THE PRODUCTION OF
SPEECH SOUNDS
 Articulators above the Larynx
 Air from larynx through vocal tract (oral and nasal cavity)
 Different parts of vocal tract are called articulators.
 Studying them is called articulatory phonetics.
ARTICULATORS
 Pharynx
 Velar = k, g
 Palatal = j ‘yes’
 Alveolar = t, d, n
 Dental = θ, ð (think, the)
 Bilabial = p, b
 Labiodental = f, v
Jaws are no articulators
Nasal = m, n