PHONOLOGY AND IPA

Teacher’s Training
Course
I. Presentation. COURSE OUTLINE
A. Ice-Breaking Activity.
II. Introduction.
A. What is Phonology?
B. Organs Used in the Production
of Speech.
a. Voicing.
b. Aspirating.
c. Representation.
III. I.P.A.
A. Introduction.
a. What is IPA?
B.Consonant Symbols.
C. Vowel Symbols.
IV. Exercises.
V. Bibliography.
 PRESENTATION
 Ice-Breaking Activity.
 Students should write their own
answers to the following paragraph:
 The last time I laughed a lot was
when____________. I like people who
_______________. My idea of the
perfect day is__________________.
________________ terrify me. I think
everyone should _____________ at
least once in their life. I think
___________ is/ are beautiful. I am
obsessed with ___________.
 Teacher collects their answers and
reads them out loud.
 Students should guess whom the
answers belong to.
 INTRODUCTION
 What is Phonology?
 It is the study of
pronunciation, in the “what”
and “how” we make sounds.
 English phonology is the
study of the phonology of the
English language.
 Although there are many dialects
of English, the following are
usually used as standard accents:
 Received pronunciation for the
UK.
 General American for the U.S.
 General Australian for Australia.
 INTRODUCTION
Organs Used in the
Production of Speech.
The apparatus are the
organs which are used
for speech, from the
diagphram and lungs,
and into the mouth to
the outside of the body.
In making sounds, we
can concentrate on the
region of the head and
neck.
 INTRODUCTION
 Voicing. It is the actual
vibration of the vocal
cords. Consonants can be
classified into two
categories: voiced and
unvoiced (voiceless).
 Letters p, t, k, s and f are
unvoiced because the vocal
cords do not vibrate when
articulating the sounds.
 Letters b, d, g, z and v do
vibrate the vocal cords, so
they are voiced.
 e.g. pair-bare; tail-dale; kiddy-
giddy; sue-zoo; few-view.
 INTRODUCTION
Aspirating. It occurs
when there is an audible
exhalation of breath.
 e.g. pine has an aspirated
p, and spine is
unaspirated.
 Compare pill, till, kill with
spill, still and skill.
 INTRODUCTION
Representation. English
letters cannot be used
effectively to represent
the same sounds.
 e.g. letters “ough” have a
different sound in rough,
ought and though; letter “c”
has a different sound in
caught and precious.
 How to transcribe a sound

which is unambiguous and

yet accurate?
 IPA!
 I.P.A.
 Introduction.
 It is a system of phonetic notation
based on the Latin alphabet, devised
by the International Phonetic
Association as a standardized
representation of the sounds of
spoken language.
 Formed by a group of French and
British language teachers led by the
French linguist Paul Passy in 1886.
 As of 2008, there are 107 distinct
letters. However, they are
occasionally removed, moved or
modified by the IPA.
 I.P.A.
 The number of speech
sounds in English varies
from dialect to dialect.
According to the Longman
Pronunciation Dictionary,
there are:
 24 consonants and 23 vowels
used in Received Pronunciation,
plus two additional consonants
and fours additional vowels
used in foreign words only.
 25 consonants and 19 vowels for
General American, with one
additional consonant and three
additional vowels.
 I.P.A.
CONSONANTS

/p/ pit /b/ bit

/t/ tin /d/ din
/k/ cut /ɡ/ gut
/tʃ/ cheap /dʒ/ jeep
/f/ fat /v/ vat
/θ/ thin /ð/ then
/s/ sap /z/ zap
/ʃ/ she /ʒ/ measure
/x/ loch
/w/ we /m/ map
/l/ left /n/ nap

/ɹ/ run (also /r/, /j/ yes

/ɻ/)
/h/ ham /ŋ/ bang
 I.P.A.
VOWELS

English diphthongs
American
RP Australian
GA Canadian
low /əʊ/ /əʉ/ /oʊ/
loud /aʊ/
/aʊ/ /æɔ/ /aʊ/
lout [əʊ]1
lied /aɪ/
/aɪ/ /ɑe/ /aɪ/
light [əɪ]1
lane /eɪ/ /æɪ/ /eɪ/
loin /ɔɪ/ /oɪ/ /ɔɪ/
leer /ɪə/ /ɪə/ /ɪɚ/³
lair /ɛə/² /eː/ ² /ɛɚ/³
lure /ʊə/² /ʊə/ /ʊɚ/³
IPA examples

ʌ cup, luck
ɑ: arm, father
æ cat, black
e met, bed
ə away, cinema
ɜ:ʳ turn, learn
ɪ hit, sitting
i: see, heat
ɒ hot, rock
ɔ: call, four
ʊ put, could
u: blue, food
aɪ five, eye
aʊ now, out
eɪ say, eight
oʊ go, home
ɔɪ boy, join
eəʳ where, air
ɪəʳ near, here
ʊəʳ pure, tourist
IPA examples
b bad, lab
d did, lady
f find, if
g give, flag
h how, hello
j yes, yellow
k cat, back
l leg, little
m man, lemon
n no, ten
ŋ sing, finger
p pet, map
r red, try
s sun, miss
ʃ she, crash
t tea, getting
tʃ check, churc
h
θ think, both
ð this, mother
v voice, five
w wet, window
z zoo, lazy
ʒ pleasure,
vision
dʒ just, large
 I.P.A.
VOWELS

General American full vowels,

vowel height distinctive
i u
ɪ ʊ
e o
ɚ, ə
ɛ ɔ
æ ɑ

General American full vowels,

vowel length distinctive
iː uː
i u
eː ɹ̩ ː oː
e ʌ o
a aː
 I.P.A.

GO TO THE EXERCISES AT THE END

 BIBLIOGRAPHY
 Internet Resources.
A Layman’s Guide to Phonology and IPA.
 http://www.sungwh.freeserve.co.uk/sapienti/phon/ipasymb.h
tm#IPA
English Phonology from Wikipedia.
 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/English_phonology