REVIEW

What is phone,cs?
- The study of human speech sounds

Phone,cs vs Phonology
Phone8cs is the study of all the speech sounds and the
ways in which they are produced.
Phonology is the study and iden8fica8on of the
dis8nc8ve units of sound in a language.
“Phone'cs is the study and iden'fica'on of the dis'nc've units of sound in a
language whereas Phonology is the study of all the speech sounds and the ways in
which they are produced.” => F
Speech sound: A physical event with 3 aspects:

a. Physiological: the produc8on of speech

sounds by organs of ar8cula8on
b. Acous8c: the transmission of speech sounds
c. Auditory: the percep8on of speech sounds
Ar,culatory phone,cs: studies the way in which
speech sounds are produced by the organs of
speech.
Acous,c phone,cs: studies the physical
proper8es of speech sounds as transmiDed in
the form of the sound waves through the air
Auditory phone,cs: deals with how speech
sounds are perceived by the listener.
• Vocal tract: the air passages which are above
the vocal cords and involved in the produc8on
of speech sounds.
• The vocal tract can be divided into
- The nasal cavity (the air passage within and
behind the nose)
- The oral cavity (the air passage within the
mouth and the throat)
Major differences between Vs &Cs
VOWELS CONSONANTS
Produced with no Produced with a
obstruc8on in the vocal narrow or complete
tract closure in the vocal
tract
More sonorous Less sonorous
Voiced Either voiced or
voiceless
Syllabic Generally not syllabic
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 Vowels
• A vowel is defined as a voiced sound in which
the air has a free passage through the mouth,
and does not produce any audible fric8on.
• Pure vowels / monophthongs
• Diphthongs
• Triphthongs

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 English pure vowels / monophthongs
• Defini8on: an unchanging sound in the
pronuncia8on of which the organs of speech
do not percep8bly change the posi8on
throughout the dura8on of the vowel in a
syllable.

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 Principles of vowel classifica8on
• The raised part of the tongue
• The height of the raised part of the tongue
• The lip shape
• The vowel length

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 The raised part of the tongue
• Front vowels: front of tongue raised in
direc8on of hard palate – /i:/ ; /ɪ/ ; /e/ ; /æ/
• Central vowels: center raised toward palate - /
ɜː/ ; /ə/ ; /ʌ/
• Back vowels: back raised in direc8on of so]
palate - /u:/ ; /ʊ/ ; / ɑː/ ; / ɔː/ ; / ɒ/

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The height of the raised part of the tongue
• Close / high vowels: 1 part of tongue comes
close to palate without touching it, and air
passage is narrow, but not so much as to form
a consonant. - /i:/ ; /I/ ; /u:/ ; /ʊ/
• Mid—open / mid-close vowels: tongue half
way between its high and low posi8on
/e/ ; /ɜː/ ; /ə/ ; / ɔː/
• Open / low vowels: 1 part of tongue is very
low & air passage is very wide
/æ/ ; /ɑː/ ; /ʌ/; / ɒ/
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 The lip shape
• Rounded: lips drawn together -> opening
between them are more or less round
/u:/ ; /ʊ/ ; / ɔː/ ; / ɒ/
• Neutral: lips are not no8ceably rounded /
spread - /ɜː/ ; /ə/ ; /ʌ/ ; /ɑː/
• Unrounded: lips may be spread to leave a long
narrow opening between them
• /i:/ ; /I/ ; /e/ ; /æ/

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 The vowel length
• Long vs. short
• Long vowels: /i:/ ; /u:/ ; /ɜː/ ; / ɔː / ; /ɑː/

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 Diphthongs
• A combina8on of two vowels pronounced
within a syllable
ɪə

Nucleus glide

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 Diphthongs

Centring Closing

Ending in /ə/ Ending in /ɪ/ Ending in /ʊ/

ɪə ; eə ; ʊə eɪ; aɪ; ɔɪ əʊ ; aʊ
pear

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 Triphthongs
• The most complex English vowel-type sounds
• A glide from 1 vowel to another and then to a
third one
• Composed of closing diphthongs + /ə/
E.g. layer, liar, royal, hour, lower
/leɪ.ə/ /laɪ.ə/ /rɔɪ.əl/ /aʊə/ /ləʊ.ə/

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 Consonants
• A sound in the produc8on of which an
obstruc8on is formed in the mouth by the
ac8ve organs of speech.

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 Principles of consonant classifica8on

• The place of ar8cula8on

• The manner of ar8cula8on
• The state of vibra8on of the vocal cords

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 The place of ar8cula8on
1. Labials (lip sounds)
- Bilabials (2 lips)
/p/ /b/ /w/ /m/
- Labio-dental (lower lip against upper teeth)
/f/ /v/
2. Dentals (8p of tongue against upper teeth)
/θ/ / ð/

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 The place of ar8cula8on
3. Alveolars (8p/blade of tongue against teeth
ridge)
/t//d/ /n/ /l/ /s/ /z/
4. Palato-alveolars (sounds which have alveolar
ar8cula8on together with a simultaneous raising
of the main body of the tongue towards the roof
of the mouth)
/tʃ/ / dʒ/ / ʃ/ /r/

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 The place of ar8cula8on
5.Palatal (tongue against hard palate)
/j/
6. Velars (back of tongue against so] palate)
/k/ /g/ /ŋ/
7. GloDals (sounds ar8culated in the glovs)
[glovs: the opening between the vocal cords]
/h/

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 The manner of ar8cula8on
1. Plosives (/stop/explosive sounds) (air stream
is completely stopped for a moment, a]er
which it is allowed to rush out of the mouth
with an explosive sound)
/p/ /b/ /t//d/ /k/ /g/
Distribu8on: in ini8al/medial/final posi8on

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 The manner of ar8cula8on
2. Frica8ves (sounds formed by a narrowing of
the air passage at some point so that the air in
escaping makes a kind of hissing)
/f/ /v/ /θ/ / ð/ /s/ /z/ / ʃ/ /ʒ/ /h/
/ʒ/ only in medial posi8on
/h/ in ini8al and medial posi8on

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 The manner of ar8cula8on
3. Affrica8ves (a combina8on of a plosive
consonant with an immediately following
frica8ve / ʃ/ or /ʒ/)
/tʃ/ / dʒ/

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 The manner of ar8cula8on
4. Nasals (all the air from the lungs escapes
down the nose & not through the mouth at all)
/m/ /n/ /ŋ/ (only medially & finally)
[leDers] –ng
anger [ˈæŋɡə] hang/er [ˈhæŋə]
Finger [ˈfɪŋɡə] sing/er [ˈsɪŋə]

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 The manner of ar8cula8on
5. Laterals (the sound formed by the 8p of the
tongue firmly pressed against the teethridge/
teeth so that the air can escape at one or both
sides of the tongue)
/l/
like /laɪk/ 8tle /ˈtaɪ.təɫ/

clear /l/ dark (ɫ)

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 The manner of ar8cula8on
6. Rolled (8p of tongue vibrates in the airstream)
/r/ [only occurs before a vowel]
7. Semi-vowel (a gliding sound)
/w/ /j/

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 State of vocal cord vibra8on
• Voiced (when vocal cords are vibra8ng)
/b/ /m/ /w/ /v/ /d/ /n/ /l/ /z/ /r/
/ ð/ /dʒ/ /ʒ/ /g/ /ŋ/ /j/

• Voiceless (when vocal cords are not vibra8ng)

/p/ /f/ /θ/ /t//s/ /tʃ/ /ʃ/ /k/ /h/

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 Syllabic consonants
• The syllabic consonant is a combina8on of a
vowel and a consonant in one sound.
[l̩] [m̩] [n̩] [ɹ̩]
E.g. boDle [ˈbɒtl̩] muddle [ˈmʌdl̩]
complaints [km̩pleɪnts] problem [ˈprɒblm̩]
Garden [ˈɡɑːdn̩] even [ˈiːvn̩]
FlaDery [ˈflætɹ̩i] buDering [ˈbʌtɹ̩iŋ]
Literal [litɹ̩l̩] na8onal [næʃn̩l̩]
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 Phoneme theories
• The mentalist/psychological view regards the
phoneme as an ideal sound at which the speaker
aims.
• The physical view regards the phoneme as a
family of sounds.
• The func8onal view regards the phoneme as the
minimal dis8nc8ve unit of sound in a language by
which meanings may be differen8ated.
• The abstract view regards phonemes as
essen8ally independent of the phone8c
proper8es associated with them.
 Phoneme iden8fica8on
(The minimal pair test)

• When the two words are iden8cal in all

respects, except for one segment, they are
referred to as minimal pairs
E.g. sea /siː/ - she /ʃiː/
Beat /biːt/ - bought /bɔːt/

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 Phoneme – Phone – Allophone
• A phoneme (an abstract unit) is a minimal
dis8nc8ve unit of sound in a language.
• A phoneme is abstract. >< The physical
realiza8on of the phoneme is a phone.
• A phone8c unit / segment is a phone.
• Phonemes can have several different physical
forms (variants / realiza8ons) – Allophones

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 Phoneme – Phone – Allophone
• An allophone is a predictable phone8c variant
of a phoneme.
• An allophone – a contextually determined
variant of a phoneme.
Phoneme /l/ has principal variant
(+Consonantal>, < + Voiced >, <+ Alveolar>, <
+Lateral>); All the other variants of /l/ are
called subsidiary variants.

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 Dis8nc8ve features
• /p/ /b/
+ bilabial + bilabial
- voiced + voiced
+ stop + stop
+ consonantal + consonantal
* Par8cular characteris8cs dis8nguishing one
dis8nc8ve sound of a language from another or
one group of sounds from another group.
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 Segmental vs. suprasegmental
phonemes
• Segmental phonemes: Vowels & consonants
• Suprasegmental phonemes: Word-stress,
sentence-stress, intona8on …

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 Pronuncia8on standards
• Received pronuncia8on (RP): Bri8sh English
• General American (GA)
• An accent is a par8cular way of pronuncia8on
which tells the listener something about the
speaker’s background.
Ø The country / region s/he comes from
Ø The social class s/he belongs to
Ø The na8ve speaker of the language or not
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 Principles of transcrip8on
• Transcrip8on is the use of the symbols in IPA
(Interna8onal Phone8c Alphabet) to show
sounds or sound sequences in a wriDen form.
• 2 types of transcrip8on:
Ø Phonemic
Ø Allophonic/Phone8c

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 Phonemic transcrip8on
(Linguis8cally broad transcrip8on)
• Used to show only dis8nc8ve sounds of a
language.
• “One symbol per phoneme”
• /slan8ng lines/: /f/ /i:/ /t/

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 Allophonic transcrip8on
(Phone8c/linguis8cally narrow transcrip8on)

• Uses allophonic symbols for various sounds

• “One symbol per allophone”
• [square brackets]: [tʰi:m] vs. /8:m/
team

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 What is a syllable?
ØThe smallest possible unit of speech
ØThe syllable may be defined as one or
more speech sounds forming a single
uninterupted unit of uDerance which
may be a whole word, or part of it.

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Syllable forma,on
S

Onset (O) Rhyme (R)

Nucleus (N) Coda (C)

spr ɪ ŋ

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 Closed & Open syllables
• Open syllable – ending in a vowel
E.g. she, bye
• Closed syllable – ending in a consonant
E.g. kid, ten

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 What is word-stress?

Word-stress is the prominence

given to (a) certain syllable(s) in
a word by the use of greater
breath force.

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 What makes a syllable prominent?
Ø Loudness: stressed syllables are louder than
unstressed syllables.
Ø Length: If one syllable is made longer. It will be
heard as stressed.
Ø Pitch: Every voiced syllable is said on high pitch,
it will produce an effect of prominence.
Ø Quality: A syllable will tend to be prominent if it
contains a vowel that is different in quality from
neighbouring vowels.
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 Levels of stress
ØPrimary / tonic strong is represented
with a high mark (‘)
ØSecondary / non- tonic strong is
represented with a low mark (,)

ØUnstressed:
ᵊ
, I, u
E.g. mountaiꞋneer /ˌmaʊntɪꞋnɪə/
pictureꞋsque /ˌpɪktʃərꞋesk/
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 Assimila8on
— ASSIMILATION (2 adjacent consonants)
= a modifica8on in the ar8cula8on of a
consonant under the influence of a
neighboring consonant (C _ C)

— E.g. * sneezed /sni:zd/

* kissed /kɪst/
* used to /'ju:zd/ + /tu/ à /'ju:st tu/

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• The consonant whose ar8cula8on is modified
under the influence of a neighbouring consonant
is called the assimilated sound.
• The consonant which influences the ar8cula8on
of a neighbouring consonant is called the
assimila8ng sound.
— E.g. * sneezed /sni:zd/
* kissed /kɪst/
* used to /'ju:zd/ + /tu/ à /'ju:st tu/

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 Degrees of assimila8on
3 degrees: complete, par8al, intermediate
E.g. complete: horse shoe /'ho:s/ + /ʃu:/ à /'ho:ʃ
ʃu:/
par'al: eighth /eɪtθ/
intermediate: uncle /'ʌn - kl/ à /'ʌŋkl/
goose /ɡuːs/
Gooseberry /ˈɡʊz.bər.i/

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 Accommoda8on
Types of Accommoda8on
*CßV
— the rounded V makes C become rounded
E.g. [unrounded t] in /ti:/ (tea) vs. [rounded t]
in /tu:/ (too)

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Accommoda8on

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 Linking + Intrusion
• LINKING r:
E.g. /hɪərə/ (here are), /fo:regz/ (four eggs)

• INTRUSIVE r:
E.g. /fo:mɪələreɪ/ (formula A)
/mi:dɪərɪvent/ (media event)

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 Elision
• ELISION (in rapid, casual speech)
= the disappearance of sound(s)
= the zero realiza8on of phoneme(s)

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 Types of Elision
— 1. loss of weak vowel a]er /p/, /t/, /k/
E.g. potato /pə'teɪtəu/ à /ph'teɪtəu/
— 2. weak vowel + /n/, /l/, /r/ = syllabic C
E.g. tonight /tə'naɪt/ à /tnaɪt/
— 3. avoidance of complex consonant clusters
E.g. looked back /lukt/ + /bæk/ à /luk bæk/

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 Types of Elision
— 4. loss of final /v/ in ‘of’ before consonants
E.g. lots of them /lots/ + /əv/ + /ðəm/ à /lots ə
ðəm/
— 5. contrac8ons of gramma8cal words/func8on
words
E.g. I’m /aɪ/ + /æm/ à /æm/ or /am/
I’d, He’s

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 Sentence-stress
• The greater prominence with which one or
more words in a sentence are pronounced as
compared with the other words of the same
sentence.
• 4 factors: loudness, length, pitch, quality

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 Levels of sentence-stress

E.g. He will come in a day.

vHe, will, in, a: unstressed

vCome: secondary stress
vDay: primary / main stress

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 Rhythm
• The tendency to pronounce stressed syllables
in a sentence at more or less equal intervals of
8me is called rhythm.
e.g. 'Walk 'down the 'path to the 'end of the
ca'nal.

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 Intona8on
• Intona8on – the unity of speech melody,
sentence stress, speech tempo and voice
quality which enables the speaker to
adequately communicate (in speech) his
thoughts, will, emo8ons and avtudes towards
reality and the contents of the uDerance.
• Speech melody – varia8ons in the pitch of the
voice.

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• Speech tempo – the speed with which
sentences or their parts are pronounced.
• Voice quality – a special colouring of the voice
in pronouncing sentences which is
superimposed on speech melody and shows
the speaker’s emo8ons.

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 Func8ons of Intona8on
Emo8onal and Avtudinal Func8ons
Accentual Func8on
Gramma8cal Func8on
Discourse Func8on
 Basic intona8on paDerns
• Fall – finality & definiteness
• Rise – something more is to follow
• Fall-rise – politeness, apology, concern,
uncertainty, and disagreement
• Rise-fall – pleasant and unpleasant avtudes
• Level – a feeling of saying something rou8ne
or boring, hesita8on and uncertainty ->
reci8ng poems
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