Spoken English

S1

Prof. L. Abdelouahed
 Sound Segments
• Knowing a language includes knowing the sounds of that
language

• Phonetics is the study of speech sounds

• We are able to segment a continuous stream of speech

into distinct parts and recognize the parts in other words

• Everyone who knows a language knows how to segment

sentences into words and words into sounds
 Identity of Speech Sounds
• The science of phonetics aims to describe all the
sounds of all the world’s languages

– Acoustic phonetics: focuses on the physical

properties of the sounds of language

– Auditory phonetics: focuses on how listeners

perceive the sounds of language

– Articulatory phonetics: focuses on how the vocal

tract produces the sounds of language
 The Phonetic Alphabet
• In 1888 the International Phonetic
Alphabet (IPA) was invented in order to
have a system in which there was a one-
to-one correspondence between each
sound in language and each phonetic
symbol

• Someone who knows the IPA knows how

to pronounce any word in any language
 Consonants: Place of Articulation
• Consonants are sounds produced with
some restriction or closure in the
vocal tract

• Consonants are classified based in

part on where in the vocal tract the
airflow is being restricted (the place
of articulation)

• The major places of articulation are:

bilabial, labiodental, interdental, alveolar,
palatal, velar, uvular, and glottal
Consonants: Place of Articulation

© Cengage Learning
 Consonants: Place of Articulation
• Bilabials: [p] [b] [m]
– Produced by bringing both lips together

• Labiodentals: [f] [v]

– Produced by touching the bottom lip to the upper teeth

• Interdentals [θ] [ð]

– Produced by putting the tip of the tongue between the
teeth
 Consonants: Place of Articulation
• Alveolars: [t] [d] [n] [s] [z] [l] [r]

– All of these are produced by raising the tongue to

the alveolar ridge in some way

• [t, d, n]: produced by the tip of the tongue touching the

alveolar ridge (or just in front of it)

• [s, z]: produced with the sides of the front of the tongue
raised but the tip lowered to allow air to escape

• [l]: the tongue tip is raised while the rest of the tongue
remains down so air can escape over the sides of the
tongue (thus [l] is a lateral sound)

• [r]: air escapes through the central part of the mouth;

either the tip of the tongue is curled back behind the
alveolar ridge or the top of the tongue is bunched up
behind the alveolar ridge
 Consonants: Place of Articulation
• Palatals: [ʃ] [ʒ] [ʧ] [ʤ][ʝ]
– Produced by raising the front part of the tongue to the palate

• Velars: [k] [g] [ŋ]

– Produced by raising the back of the tongue to the soft palate or velum

• Uvulars: [ʀ] [q] [ɢ]

– Produced by raising the back of the tongue to the uvula

• Glottals: [h] [Ɂ]

– Produced by restricting the airflow through the open glottis ([h]) or by
stopping the air completely at the glottis (a glottal stop: [Ɂ])
Consonants: Manner of Articulation
• The manner of articulation is the way the
airstream is affected as it flows from the lungs
and out of the mouth and nose

• Voiceless sounds are those produced with the

vocal cords apart so the air flows freely through
the glottis

• Voiced sounds are those produced when the

vocal cords are together and vibrate as air
passes through
 Consonants: Manner of Articulation
• The voiced/voiceless distinction is important in
English because it helps us distinguish words like:
rope/robe fine/vine seal/zeal
[rop]/[rob] [faɪn]/[vaɪn] [sil]/[zil]

• But some voiceless sounds can be further

distinguished as aspirated or unaspirated
aspirated unaspirated
pool [phul] spool [spul]
tale [thel] stale [stel]
kale [khel] scale [skel]
Consonants: Manner of Articulation
• Oral sounds are those produced with the velum raised
to prevent air from escaping out the nose

• Nasal sounds are those produced with the velum

lowered to allow air to escape out the nose

• So far we have three ways of classifying sounds based

on phonetic features: by voicing, by place of
articulation, and by nasalization

– [p] is a voiceless, bilabial, oral sound

– [n] is a voiced, alveolar, nasal sound
 Consonants: Manner of Articulation

• Stops: [p] [b] [m] [t] [d] [n] [k] [g] [ŋ] [ʧ][ʤ] [Ɂ]
– Produced by completely stopping the air flow in
the oral cavity for a fraction of a second

• All other sounds are continuants, meaning that the

airflow is continuous through the oral cavity

• Fricatives: [f] [v] [θ] [ð] [s] [z] [ʃ] [ʒ] [x] [ɣ] [h]
– Produced by severely obstructing the airflow so as
to cause friction
 Consonants: Manner of Articulation
• Affricates: [ʧ] [ʤ]
– Produced by a stop closure that is released with a lot of
friction

• Liquids: [l] [r]

– Produced by causing some obstruction of the airstream in
the mouth, but not enough to cause any real friction

• Glides: [j] [w]

– Produced with very little obstruction of the airstream and
are always followed by a vowel
 Consonants: Manner of Articulation
• Approximants: [w] [j] [r] [l]
– Sometimes liquids and glides are put together into one category because the
articulators approximate a frictional closeness but do not actually cause
friction

• Trills and flaps: [r]* [ɾ]

– Trills are produced by rapidly vibrating an articulator
– Flaps are produced by a flick of the tongue against the alveolar ridge

• Clicks:
– Produced by moving air in the mouth between various articulators
– The disapproving sound tsk in English is a consonant in Zulu and some other
southern African languages
– The lateral click used to encourage a horse in English is a consonant in Xhosa

*The textbook uses [r] to represent the central liquid as in the word ready rather than as
a trill
 Vowels
• Vowels are classified by how high or low the tongue is, if the
tongue is in the front or back of the mouth, and whether or
not the lips are rounded

• High vowels: [i] [ɪ] [u] [ʊ]

• Mid vowels: [e] [ɛ] [o] [ə] [ʌ] [ɔ]
• Low vowels: [æ] [a]

• Front vowels: [i] [ɪ] [e] [ɛ] [æ]

• Central vowels: [ə] [ʌ]
• Back vowels: [u] [ɔ] [o] [æ] [a]
 Vowels
• Round vowels: [u] [ʊ] [o] [ɔ]
– Produced by rounding the lips

• Diphthongs: [aɪ] [aʊ] [ɔɪ]

– A sequence of two vowel sounds (as opposed to the monophthongs we have
looked at so far)

• Nasalization:
– Vowels can also be pronounced with a lowered velum, allowing air to pass
through the nose
– In English, speakers nasalize vowels before a nasal sound, such as in the words
beam, bean, and bingo
– The nasalization is represented by a diacritic, an extra mark placed with the
symbol:
 1.Write the words below in the correct column.
ɪ/i:
feet, leap, fit, lip, hit, sit, beat, delight, mix, breathe, key, see, flee, kneel,
teach, each, happy, business, leave, cream, silly, equal, dignity, free,
reason, in, spirit, sing, window, very, divide, near, bill, real, seal; indoor,
money, honey, sunny, cease

ɪ i:
....................................
........................ ....................................
........................

.................................... ....................................
........................ ........................

.................................... ....................................
........................ ........................
 æ/a:

have, art, start, sat, aunt, dance, ask, card,

farm, trap, stand, scar, father, arm, car, cat, bat,
ask, calm, far, lack

æ/ a:
....................................
........................ ....................................
........................

.................................... ....................................
........................ ........................

.................................... ....................................
........................ ........................
 ʊ/ʊ:

through, mood, few, boot lose, choose, put, look, should, yours, flu, good, put,
should, look,you, juice, blue, hood, soot

ʊ ʊ:
.................................
........................... ................................
............................
................................. ................................
........................... ............................
................................. ................................
........................... ............................
 ɑ/ɔ:

pot, hot, spot, dot, lot, core,

door, sore, cough, sword,
possible, rob, watch, top, talk,
walk, port, more, small, court

/ɑ/ /ɔ:/

...........................................
................. ............................................
................
........................................... ............................................
................. ................
........................................... ............................................
................. ................
 e/ɜ:

went, bread, necessary, edge, friend, furniture, very,

set, blur, stir, birth, interview, head, world, new, merry,
heard, sir, her

/e/ /ɜ:/
..................................
.......................... ..................................
..........................
.................................. ..................................
.......................... ..........................

.................................. ..................................
.......................... ..........................
 PRACTICE
•Apple
•Book
•City
•Door
•Education
•Future
•Garden
•History
•Important
•Knowledge
•Language
•Mountain
•Nature
•Opportunity
•Question
•River
•School
•Teacher
•University
•Victory
•Apple /ˈæp.əl/
•Book /bʊk/
•City /ˈsɪt.i/
•Door /dɔːr/
•Education /ˌɛdʒ.ʊˈkeɪ.ʃən/
•Future /ˈfjuː.tʃər/
•Garden /ˈɡɑːr.dən/
•History /ˈhɪs.tər.i/
•Important /ɪmˈpɔːr.tənt/
•Knowledge /ˈnɒl.ɪdʒ/
•Language /ˈlæŋ.ɡwɪdʒ/
•Mountain /ˈmaʊn.tən/
•Nature /ˈneɪ.tʃər/
•Opportunity /ˌɒp.əˈtjuː.nɪ.ti/
•Question /ˈkwes.tʃən/
•River /ˈrɪv.ər/
•School /skuːl/
•Teacher /ˈtiː.tʃər/
•University /ˌjuː.nɪˈvɜː.sɪ.ti/
•Victory /ˈvɪk.tər.i/
/klaɪmɪt/ /wʌn/ /kemɪst/ /kiːp/ /b ɪ z n ɪ s/ /aɪ l ə n d/
............ ............ ............ ............ ................ ............

/ mədʒɒrɪti/ /kjuːˌkʌmbə/ /ˈvaɪələt/ /ɔːtəm/ /sʌnlaɪt/ /s ɪ ŋ ɪ ŋ/

............ ............ ............ ............ ............ ............

/ leɪjə/ /pleʒə/ /mʌðə/ /hɑːmfl/ / fɪʃəmən/ /ˈɒrɪnʤ/

............ ................ ............ ............ ............ ............

/deɪndʒərəs/ / sʌmhaʊ/ /fɔtʃənətlɪ/ / pʊə / /n ɒ l ɪ ʤ/ /ʧ e k/

............ ............ ............ ............ ............ ............

/waɪt/ /haɪt/ /rʌf/ /l ɑ: f/ /ðə/ /h ɔ: s/

............ ............ ............ ............ ............ ............

/lɔ:d/ /pɑːθ/ /juːs/ /g ɪ v ɪ ŋ/ /h ɑ: t/ /sɜːvɪŋ/

............ ............ ............ ............ ............ ............
 Tone and Intonation
• Tone languages are languages that use pitch
to contrast the meaning of words

• For example, in Thai, the string of sounds [naː] can

be said with 5 different pitches and can thus have
5 different meanings:
 Tone and Intonation
• Intonation languages (like English) have
varied pitch contour across an utterance,
but pitch is not used to distinguish words

– However, intonation may affect the meaning of a

whole sentence:

• John is here said with falling intonation is a statement

• John is here said with rising intonation is a question