PHONETICS

The Sound of Language

 What is Phonetics?

Phonetics is the study of speech sounds

• From the Greek word phone = sound/voice; and tics =
study
• Although different languages contain different sounds, the
sounds of all the languages of the world constitute a class of
sounds that the human vocal tract is able to make. All these
sounds are human speech sounds. The study of human
speech sounds is called phonetics.
 The Vocal Tracts
Converts it
to sound
• The vocal tract does is to convert air
into sound.

Parts of the vocal tract

• Oral Cavity (the mouth)
• Nasal Cavity
• Pharynx
• Larynx (the voice box)

Provides
air/energy
 AERODYNAMIC
ENERGY

Articulatory Acoustic Auditory

Phonetics Phonetics Phonetics
Articulatory
Phonetics
CONSONANTS AND
VOWELS
 ARTICULATORY PHONETICS

Articulatory Phonetics
 The study of how humans use their speech organs to produce specific
sounds.

 Our speech organs are:

• Lips
• Teeth
• Tongue
• Palate
• Uvula (the teardrop-shaped soft tissue that hangs at the back of your throat)
• Nasal and Oral cavities
• Vocal cords
 Consonants and Vowels

Consonants - are speech sounds created by the partial or total closure

of the vocal tract.

3 Criteria of Consonants
• Voicing
• Place of Articulation
• Manner of Articulation
 Voicing
• Voicing – what the vocal folds doing.

There are two types of sound:

• Voiceless sounds - These are made when the air passes

through open vocal folds.

• Voiced sounds – These are made when the air passes

through vibration vocal folds.
 Places of Articulation
• The where of making sounds is called the place of
articulation.
Here are the Places of Articulation:
• labials – lips
• dentals – teeth
• tongue
• palate – roof of the mouth;
o the hard palate is the harder (firmer) part of the roof of the mouth,
o in the front half of the mouth; the soft palate is farther back, near the rear of
the mouth.
• alveolar ridge – the gums behind your top teeth
• Larynx – ‘voice box’
Here is a list of the sounds you will learn today:

Bilabials
• Formed with two (bi-) lips (labials). Both lips come together
/p/ - pop
/b/ - bob
/m/ - mom

Labiodentals
• Formed with the bottom lip (labio-) and upper teeth (dentals)
/f/ - fish, fry
/v/ - very, vector
 • Formed by putting the tongue
Interdentals on the alveolar ridge, which is
• Formed by putting the tongue
the gum line above the teeth.
between (inter-) the teeth
(dentals) /t/ – Tom
/d/ – dad
/θ/ – thick, thin, through, thief
/n/ – none
/ð/ – though, this, that
/s/ – sit
/z/ – zoo
/l/ – lamp
/ɹ/ – run

Alveolars
 • Formed by putting the back
Palatals part of the tongue against the
• Formed by touching the sides
soft palate.
of the tongue to the roof of the
mouth.
/k/ – curl
/ʃ/ – ship
/g/ – girl
/ʒ/ – pleasure
/ŋ/ – song
/tʃ/ – cheap

/dʒ/ – jump

/j/ – yogurt

Velars
 Manner of Articulation

• The how of making a sounds is called the

manner of articulation.
 Six different types of Manners of
Articulation
1. Stop or Plosive
• We build pressure of air and then release it. This is a sudden burst of air.

Examples of stops include: /p/ /b/ /t/ /d/ /k/ /g/

Take a look at stops in these words. Initial Sounds

/p/ – pig /d/ – dad

/b/ – bag /k/ kick

/t/ – tall /g/ – girl

2. Fricative
• We stop part of the air so it can’t come through everywhere.
• It is a stream of air.

Sound includes: /f/ /v/ /s/ /z/ /h/ /ʃ/ /ʒ/ /ð/ /θ/

Initial Sounds Final Sounds

• /f/ – four • /f/ – half
• /v/ – van • /v/ – have
• /s/ – sun • /s/ – pass
• /z/ – zip • /z/ – has
• /h/ – hello • /ʃ/ – wash
• /ʃ/ – ship • /ʒ/ – rouge
• /ð/ – these • /ð/ – bathe
• /θ/ – thin • /θ/ – bath
3. Affricate
• We combine stops and fricatives to form affricates.
• Affricates start with a stop and then transitions into a
fricative.

Examples include: /tʃ/ and /dʒ/.

Initial Sounds Final Sounds

/tʃ/ – chip /tʃ/ – catch

/dʒ/ – just /dʒ/ – badge

4. Nasal
• We close our palate and let air stream through the
nose.
Examples include: /m/ /n/ /ŋ/

Initial Sounds
/m/ – moon

/n/ – nap
/ŋ/ – sing
5. Liquid
• We let air stream on the sides of our tongue.

Examples include: /ɹ/ /l/

Initial Sounds Final Sounds

/ɹ/ – red /ɹ/ – dear

/l/ – light /l/ – fill

6. Glide
• We move our mouth constantly from articulation to a
vowel sound.

Examples include: /w/ and /j/

Initial Sounds Final Sounds

/w/ – This sound does not
usually occur at the end of a
/w/ – win word in English.

/y/ – yellow /y/ – This sound does not

usually occur at the end of a
word in English.
How to describe Consonants

PLACE OF MANNER OF
VOICING ARTICULATION ARTICULATION

[b] voiced bilabial

stop

[s] voiceless alveolar

fricative
Vowels
• Vowels are speech sounds produced without
stricture in the vocal tract (meaning the vocal
tract is open and the air can escape without
generating a fricative or plosive sound).

2 types of Vowel sounds

• Monopthongs
• Diphthongs
2 Types of Vowels

TYPES MONOPHTHONGS DIPHTHONGS

One Vowel Two Vowels

Examples: Cat [kæt] Face [feɪs]

Sit [s ɪ t] Boy [bɔɪ]
Sound Examples

/i:/ heap, leap, feet, seat, read, beat, peak, seek

/ɪ/ lift, hit, kit, pick, bill, fill, till, him, pin

/ʊ/ Food, Fool, Cool, Cook, look

/u:/ To, You, New, Who

/e/ Bet, Met, Pet, Set, Bend, Lend, Send

/ə/ The, About, Could, Us

/ɜ:/ Earl, Pearl, Sir, Worm, worth

/ɔ:/ Mall, Hall, Shall, Fall, Tall, Wall

/æ/ hand, Land, Sand, Cat, Mat, Pat, Sat

/ʌ/ But, Up, One, Much

/ɑ:/ Start, Ask, Large, After
/ɒ/ Of, On, From, Not
DIPHTHONGS
• ‘di’ represents two and the ‘phthongs’ represents sounds.
• Consist of two vowels
Linguists describe vowel sounds according to three criteria:

Height - how high or low the tongue is

For example, [ɪ] (as in sit) and [a] (as in cat).

Examples Height

[i] – “see” High

[e] – “bed” Mid
[a] – “hot” Low
 Backness - how far front or back the tongue is

For example, [ɪ] (as in sit) and [u] (as in umbrella)

• [i:] as in feel, is an example of a front vowel.

• [ə] as in again, is an example of a central vowel.
• [u:] as in boot, is an example of a back vowel.
Roundedness - Are lips rounded?

[i] vs. [u]

Unrounded Rounded
How to describe Vowels

HEIGHT BACKNESS ROUNDEDNESS

[u] high back rounded

[æ] low front unrounded

Acoustic
Phonetics
• Frequency • Amplitude
• Time • Formant
 Acoustic Phonetics

• The study of how speech sounds travel,

from the moment they are produced by
the speaker until they reach the listener’s
ear.
1. Frequency
 relates to the individual pulsations produced by vocal cord vibrations for a
unit of time. The rate of vibration depends on the length, thickness, and
tension of the vocal cords, and thus is different for child, adult male and
female speech.
2. Time
 Time as a property of speech sounds reflects the duration of a
given sound.

3. Amplitude
 The amplitude is marked by darkness of the bands the greater the
intensity of the sound energy presents in a given time and
frequency, the darker will be the mark at the corresponding point
on the screen.
4. Formant
 A formant is a concentration of acoustic energy around a
particular frequency in the speech wave. There are several
formants, each at a different frequency, roughly one in each
1000Hz band. To put it differently, formants occur at roughly
1000Hz intervals. Each formant corresponds to a resonance in
the vocal tract
4. Formant
 A formant is a concentration of acoustic energy around a
particular frequency in the speech wave. There are several
formants, each at a different frequency, roughly one in each
1000Hz band. To put it differently, formants occur at roughly
1000Hz intervals. Each formant corresponds to a resonance in
the vocal tract
Auditory
Phonetics
 Auditory Phonetics

• The study of how people hear speech

sounds. It is concerned with speech
perception.
This vibration travels from the
eardrum to three small bones
within the middle ear:
• the mallet,
• the incus, and
• the stirrup.
 Phonetic Symbols
International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA)
• The International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA) is a system for
representing phonetic sounds (phones) with symbols. It helps us
transcribe and analyze speech sounds.

• The International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA) was developed by the

language teacher Paul Passy in 1888 and is a system of phonetic
symbols based primarily on Latin script. The chart was initially
developed as a way of accurately representing speech sounds.

• The IPA aims to represent all qualities of speech and sounds

present in language, including phones, phonemes, intonation, gaps
between sounds, and syllables. The IPA symbols consist of letter-
like symbols, diacritics, or both.
Phones vs Phonemes
 A Phone is a physical sound - when you speak (make a sound) you produce
phones.
 Phones are written between square brackets ( [ ] ).

Transcribing phones
 Narrow transcription - (to include as many aspects of a specific pronunciation as
possible) and place the letters and symbols between two square brackets ( [ ] ).

For example:
• The word 'port' has an audible exhalation of air after the letter 'p'. This is shown in
the phonetic transcription with a [ʰ] and the word port in phonetic transcript would
look like this [pʰɔˑt].
Phoneme
 A Phoneme, on the other hand, is the mental representation and
meaning we associate with that sound.
• Phonemes are written between slashes ( / / ).

Transcribing phonemes

 Broad transcription - (only mentioning the most notable and

necessary sounds) and place the letters and symbols between two
slashes ( / / ).

For example:
• The English word apple would look like this /æpəl/.
 Phonetic Charts
VOWELS

DIPTHONGOS

CONSONANTS

The English phonemic chart contains all of the phonemes used in the
English language.
The Phonetic Alphabet