I

-
DAN MATE-EBeU

'.

;1

;.....
ENGLISH PHONETICS

AND

rI

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PHONOLOGICAL THEORY

,1
20th Century Approaches

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Edi,tlllra Universitlit i i din

Blllcure~ti
2003 ­
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Referenti
• <otiintifici;
• Com. dr. :Ileana BaCiu
Conf. dr. AndreiA. Avram
JJ
Heaven and earth shall pass away, but my words shall not pass

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away. (Matthew, 24, 35)

PaloDins: What do you read, my lord?

fI
Hamlet: Word.'!, words, words (Hamlet, n, 2)
[J
The other (project) was a scheme for entirely abolishing all
.:: ;
words whatsoever: and this was urged as a great advantage in point of
health a< well as brevity. For, it is plain, that every word we .<peak: is
in. some degree a diminution of our lungs by corrosion; and
1
consequently contributes to the shortening of our lives. An expedient
Walt theo:efore offered, that since words are only names for things, it
will be more convenient for all men to cany about them, such things
[I
a~ were necessary to express the particnlar business they are to
10 Erutum Universitllf;; din Bucur-e¢

$05. Panduri, 90-92, Bucure:lti -76235; TelefonIFax: 410.23.84

E-mail: editUra@unibuc.ro

discourse on. (Swift, Gulliver's Travels. A Voyage ta BaInibarbi)

La parole a ete donnee a l'homme pour deguiser sa pensee.

II
Internet: www.editura.unibuc.ro

Tebnoredactare romputerizati.: Victoria lacob

(Talleyrand)

The Bystanders generaUy: He wants promotion, he does.

I
Deserierea CW • BibUJ)~i Nationale
Taking down people's words.
The Gentl== How do you do that, if I may ask?
The Note Taker: Simply phonetics. The science of speech.
,I
I MATEESCU,DAN
English phODotiO aDd pbODOlogiaJ an.lIT- 20·tb That's my profession: also my hobby. Happy is the man who can

I
century appnuu~bes I DM Mateescu
BuCW'C~: F.di~ Univci.sifApi din Bucnre¢.
2002
nllikea~gbyhishobby.

(G. B. Shaw, Pygmalion, I, 1)

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I 208p.

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Bibliogr.

ISDN 973·;75-670-6 I
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SlLlll'34

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1
CONTENTS
J
;- Ack:lI.QwledgemeJ1is ............~ ......... ,••.... ".w••••• w.". . . . . . . . . . u

Chapter 1: IntroductloR...................................................................................
~
. . . . . . " . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .w_ • • • •
3

13

J
1.1. Language- 8. fundamental dirnenaion of our existence ..........._ 13

1.2. The lost paradise of the original linguistic unit;y. The Babel

myth and subsequent nostalgia ..........,._..•....... ,...... _.....w_........

1.3. Language as sound and meaning. The linguistic sign. Ferdi~

15
I

mmd de Saussure and Louis HjelmsJev ._.......................... _... . 17

1.4. Language in the process of COl)llIllmication .•.....•..•.•••.•.............

1.5. Ll!I1gUage and writing ............................................................. .
24

27
I

Cbnpter 2: Artlcula/;)ry. AlIdit<Jry amiAcoustic Phonetics. PllOnology .... .

2.1. Phonetics and phonology ..........................................................
2.2. Articulatory phnnclic. ..............................................................
2.3. Auditory phnnetics ................................................................... .
33

.33

35

43

I'

2.4. Acoustic phonetics ................................................................... . 47

2.5. Synchronic, diachronic, comparative phonology ..•................_.

2.6. Vaneties of English. The intern.tional .pread of Engli.h.
Regional variation. Accents. Stmdard English and Received
54

Pronunciation.. .._..... h.~ 54

I

• • • • • • , . . . . . . . . . ._ . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . w • • • • • , . _. . . . • _ ....... _

2.7. Sound Change. The gnp between spelling and pronunciation.

The lntEmoJ:ilmal PbonotiJ: j\lphabet. Homonyms., homo­

phones, homogruphs ....._....__................................._...... _... ~...... . 59

Chapter 3, The Soumis of Englblt. COlUDnants ana Vowek An Artieu­

lirtbry CIossf/iC<tlio" and J)escripwm. Acoustic Correloies .." ......

3.1. Consonants mid Vowels. Traditional distinctions. Chomsky

63 I

and Halle's SPB definition ..........................._..............•.•........

63
32. Criteria fur consonant classification. Vocal cord vibration.

Sonority .•.....••......•••.••:.............................................................
3.3. Manner ofarticulatiOlL Plosives. Fricative•. Affricates ...•.•......
66

67

3.4. Sonorants. Th. Approxinumts: glides and liquids ....................

3.5. Oral andnasaJ articulation ....................................................... .
3.6. Force ofartiClllatian ....................__ ............ ,. ............ ,_ .............. ..
3.7, Place ofarticuJn1ion ................... ,............................................. .
69

70

70

7]

3.8. The DescriptioD ofEngJish cou.sonanrs ...... , ..................... , .... "". 74

 •I

74

~
'1 i:'JE:=:z;;:::::::::::::=:::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::
D. The F..ngJjsh Aifricates .............__...__.................. __............... .
77

81

85

6.5. Palatalization ........................................................................... .

6.6. L£1liIlOl1S lH1d fortitions ............ ,............................................... .

149

152

6.7. Delitions and insertions' ........................................................ _."'

154

..t
Chapter 4: The Vowelll of Ehglal.. AN ArticNkrIury CJ_flCIdiol1.
6.8. Metatlresis ................................................................................ .

157

Acoustic Correlates. Tl.. Pescription _ DislriJJJlIinn of

Chapter 7: lJe}'IJ1Ulilie seglni!nI.· SyUnbI. !drUeture in Ellglis/, ................... .

English MotlOpllthongs cmd Piphthongs .:..:................................. . 89

7.1. The Syllable; a furu:lam<mtal phouologioal unit in any 159

4.L The Vowels: Critnria fur Clitssification .................................... 89

lIlI!guage. A tenmtille definition ...............................................

t
4.2. The Cardinal Vowel Cbru1s ..............__ .....__............................... 94

7.2. The structure ofthe ->yllable. Phonotactie Cllll&trafuts ...............

159

- 4.3. EngJisb VoWels. The descciptioll and distribution of BIlgllsh

monophthl>ngs llJ1d diph1l:uJngs ................................................

A- BIlg:l:ish simple 1'Owels ..,.....................................................
98

98

7.3 The importance ofsegmental sonority for lbe ->yllable structure

7.4. Coustraiots on onsets •··............ -.~.:.•__ ••...".h.......__._............_.•• ,.

7.5. Constraints on coda.< ............................................................... .

162

171

173

'1
..;
.. BIlgllsh li'ontllowels .......................................................
h. BIlg:l:ish ba<:k vowels .....,...............................................
c- English central vowels ......................_..........................
98

lOO

102

7.6. Syllabic consonants. Non-vocalic nuclei ................................. .

7.-7. Syllabification in English ........................................................ .

177

182

182

B. BIlg'lish diphthongs .................................. _........................ 104

Chapter 8: Supra.vegnreJJLa/ PIIOROInW: Stress, Rf,ytltm, lntonatwn ........ ..

...f

.. ('.en!ring diphthongs ...................,................................... !O5

187

8.!. Stess IlIld prominencc: The pbonemic (COlltn!Stive) function of

b. Dipbtbongs tofv ...................................................... 107
stress ....................................................................................... .
187

8.2. Free stress and fixe,d stress. The predictability of accentual

c. Dipbtbollfls to / ul ................................................... . 108

,f
patterns ................................................................................... .
189

C. English lripbtbongs ..................... '"................................... .. 109

8.3. Metric paltems ......................... ,.............................................. ..

- .

Chapter S: .PltonologiJ:nJ sUuc.iJne: Tile 1'Iwneme _ its uIIophones.

SegmenJal spec!ft::JUjon' Distinctive FI!IJW:res in -various phunl)- .

8.4. MOIphological processes and stress ~bift ................................. .

8.5. Primary and secondary strcss ................................................... .

8.6. Weak and strong fonns. Vowolr~onanddeJitjon

190

191

192

~I /QgiJ:nJ llU!ories ...............................................................................

5.1. .lndividual. sounds ~ classes of sounds. The phoneme and

III
8.7. Rhythm .................................... ;................................................

193

194

w' its contrastive funcuon ~ ................._ .._.......~ ...._,.. ..~n 111

. . . w •••••••••••
8.8. Intonational contoun;. ThcirP"'!:1lllrtic value ......................... .
195

5.2. Allopb<:roes. Complementary distribution and free variation : 114

w
5.3. The pbooological idiosyru;rnsy of /ingulst:ic systl:ms ..............
5.4.Jlroati and:rum-ow transcription ._..........................................
5.5. Segmenlalilild supra'regntelllal phonemes ............................ ..
116

118

118

l1lbliogT<pi.y ..................................... :............................................................ .

199

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5.6. F~m ~e m:i:.limsl!lIlit oflingulst:ic ilIlal......is to 1he<\nmd/e of

distmctiva teatures ..........................._........................_ ..........

5.7. Jakobsonand Halle's featoresystem .....................................
119

123

5.8. ClIDmsky and Halle's i!istiru;tive:teatw:os ............................... 126

5.9. LaLlefuged's fualure systmn .................................................... 132

i
......
5.10. The ·use <of features for segmenlal specification arid for tile
desoription of pbollillogical processes .......... _ .......: ......... ,..... . 138

:1

"'~
Cb"Pl<!r 6: Se;:mental clumge: ill! ou/line ofsume of the 1/I0>t common

1'11lmDIogicIJiprocesses .................................................................. 141

6.1. ilounds in COllnected speech. Coatticulallan ........................... ..

6,2. Feztnre Changes. As.similation. Dif.ferenttypes ofassimilation- 143
141

;1
1,,,-,::
63. Voicing and devoicing -.-.. ---.-.-~ ..-..................~ ....• ,... -.........~--
6.4. Nasalization ..............................................................................
144

146

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ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS J
It has long been a custom to prefix to any product of our rrrind
a long (if not altogether endless) list of grateful thanks to the people
1
,~

who have assisted the author in bringing the respective work into the
world. However long the list may be, the author is usually careful
and cautiously adds that if someone was left out, this was only
1
because of an unexplainable and unpardonable slip of the memory or

because, if exhauStive, the list would never end, indeed.

Consequently, excuses are made in advance to prevent reactions as

that of the evil (because disgruntled) fairy in the famous Sleeping

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Beauty story. The list is also an opportunity of displaying the

numerous intellectual affinities that the authors have and a wonderful

occasion of introducing their family to the potential .reader,

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undoubtedly ignorant of the author's luck of having such unique and

wonderful people around.

Though my intellectual and emotional debts are as great as any

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person's, I would :rather not begin by thanking Plato and my great­

grandparents for their contnlmtion in shaping my rrrind or my being. I

will mention only three persons to whom I feel immensely indebted

not only for their help during the various stages in the composition of
I
this book, but also for the fact tha(they have always stood by me "in
my most need" as Knowledge allegedly stands by Everyman. I am
grateful to professor Alexandra Comilescu for her constant affection,
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generous friendship and uninterrupted guidance; to professor ileana
Baciu for her friendship, encouragement and advice; and last, but not
least, to Andrei A. AvraIn for being a living proof that selfless
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friendship, nobility of character and intellectual excellence can coexist
in the same person.
I

II
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CHAPTER 1
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I
INTRObUcn:ON

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,J 1.1. Language':'- a fundamental dimension of our
existence
1
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The study of !an,,"Uage haS been 11 COlL~ preoccupation with
more or less professional researchers for thousands of years. Since the

earliest times, much before the birth of linglli<>tics as a distinct

scholaIly diBcipline, people have been' aware of the essential role
1anguage plays not only in their evtnyday life, but also as a

clJaracteristic :feature of mankind, radically differe.ntiating huwan

beings from other species of the animal kingdom. The earliest
religious or sacred texts record the importance given by our ancestors
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to language and their consciousness of the fuet that human existence

- itself cannot be conceived of outside the domain of language. If we

were to refur only to the biblical tradition, tile, very beginning of the

'1

....
BOOK of the Genesis records the fact that the act of creation itself is
intimately fuJked to speech. The C!e.!Ition oflighi is achieved through a
speech act while all the subsequent stages of creation are preceded by

1
-

God's fommJating His idea about what He was going to achieve, the
creation proper only taking place, a.fu:r God pronounces the magic
furtnula: "Let thcre be... "I The newly created realities need names

...

and God, explicitly satisfied with His work, duly proceeds to the
naming of His world. Creation is therefore preceded by, perl'onned
through, and followed by, a linguistic expression, which thus
~I
anticipates, mate1ializ"s and completes it After the creation of man,
:..

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••
1 "And God said 'Let fuere be light' and the", W311Iighi" __ .»And God said
'Let them be a firmamJmt' ... All1I God made the finnamenL __All1I God CI1I1ed the
fi:rmameJJt Hoav""n (Genesis, I, 4. 6,7,8)

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13
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God created the other living. creatures and asked man to find names for langUage acquisition) come, with an amAzing rapidity, to

J
for thenL 2 Thus Adam, who is roade "io the image of God" takes over SIlccessfully use language, beginning with the very first stages of their

from Him the important role of iostitutiog realities by means· of

language. The very act of creation cannot consequently be separated
existence (the aCquisition of language actually parallels the birth of the

child's self-conSciousness and the latter can hardly be imagioed

I
from that of naming whatever has come to have existence, sioce without the former) have puzzled researchers for centuries and none of

without a name the newly created realities don't achieve a full

ontological status. The Gospel of Saint John notoriously begins by.
these questions has actoally received a satisfactory and universally

accepted answer.
I
equating the divioe creator of the universe with the "word", the Greek
word logos (word) beiog actually a synonym for God (more precisely
for one of the Persons io the Trinity, His son, Jesus ChriSt), for the 1.2. The lost paradise of the original linguistic
I
source of whatever exists.' The essence of the myth seems thus to be unity. The Babel myth and subsequent
.tha1 the whole world around us is language-based and thatlangoage is
actually the very source of the existence of the wbole universe. A
nostalgia I
universe outside language, a universe wbere realities .don't have Scientists and students of language have been confronted,

names, seems to be an utter impossibility. sioee the earliest times, with an apparent paradox: on the one hand, the

diversity of the languages spoken all over the world (several

I
The fact that lan"auage acts as a fundamental link between thousands are known) is really impressive, on the other hand, io spite

oUrselves and the world around us and that io the absence of language
our relation to the Universe and to our fellows is dramatically impaired
of the enormous differences among human idioms, they display

striking and fhndmnental similarities. To quote agaio the biblical

I
is something that people have been (a11east iotoitively) aware of since tradition, the famous legend of the Babel tower speaks about a unique,

the beginning of history. Suffice it to mention that different coltures

seem to associate speech problems with iotellectual deficiencies. See,
origioallangoage, spoken by the first genetations ofhumans.(Genesis,

11). It was only God's jealousy and His fear that human beiogs, if

I
for example,·the meaniog of dunib (stupid) in English or the pretty united, could really succeed io their attempt of building a tower that

similar situation of words like ''brubllit'' or ''fonf' io Romanian The

origin oflan"ouage (believed to be divine iomost ancient coltures), the
should reach heaven, representing thus a real and very dangerous

challenge to divioe power that put an end to the golden age of the

I
relation between language and thinking, the question if we can tbiok lioguistic unity of mankind. 4 No longer speaking the same idiom and

without the help of language (and if we can, what kind of thinking is

that), the manner io which human beings (who are not, obviously,
failing thus to understand one another and to SIlccessfully

co=unicate among them, human beiogs ceased to be a significant

I
born with the ability to speak, but· have, however, an ionate capacity threat to God. Their·language is "confounded" and they are "seattered

2 "And out of the ground the Lord God·furrned every beast of the field, and
upon the face of all the earth". The unitary vision of the universe of
the golden age waS thus lost for ever and the uniiyiog and coherent
I
every fowl of tim air; and brought them lIDto AdHm to see _ he would call them:
and whatsoever Adam culled every living creature, that was the nam~ thereof'"
(Genesis, 2, 19)
3 "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the
. 4 "And the Lord said 'Behold, the people fu one and they have one
language... and now nothing will be restrained from them, which they have
I
Word was God. The Word was in the beginning with God. All the things were made imagined to do. Go to, let US go down, and there confuund their languages, that they
by him; and withoulhim WlISnat anything made that wasmade" (John, 1,1-3) may not understand one. anothera speecb' <l (Genesis, II, 6-7)
I

14 15

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image and understanding af!he world aroUlld us was replaced by a history of many languages spoken on earth could be traced back to a
kaleidoscopic, multi-celoured one. 5
J - _ ­
Otb.e.mess has not always been a source of CQ!WCl:ll or of
nostalgia fur the lost unity. It .has often been assumed to represent the
relatively reduced 1lJIlIlber of proto-languages (the rtudy of Tndo­
European seemed to yield .very- encouraging rc:.'Illts) many people
believed that scientists rulght go eveu :further back in history and

J mark of orunistakab1e identity, the basis of proud superiority in

relation to !he oiliers. The ancient Greeb _considered their own
language as ilie supreme manifesta.tion af human :intellect and the
discover the original unique language of mythical times much in the
same way in which paleontologists l1J8JJIlged to ":reCPustru:ct" -the
skeletons of ~ntatives of many an'extinet -species starting from a
few scafuJJ:ed bones.7
J most appropriate tool :for undetstimding and coping with the universe.
The other nations, speaking languages different from Greek were
called "barbarian". Linguistic difference (and hypotOOtica1sUperiority)
- TIle belief of many 20th centory linguists in the existence of a
"universal gt'l!ll:!InaJ:' and their efforts to (re)construct it ate also in the

1 was thus the foundation of national pride, the ve.ty essence of what
made their _ruct:i:on distinct from and better ethan the others. The
etymology of the word itselfappartlIltly leads us to a root meaning "to
tradition of the lI!1Cient belief that lnunan beings used to speak one and
ilie sarne language and that ilie languages we have today ate t\l.."toally
"splinters" of ilie original one, apparently lost for ever. Striking

J stammer". Tlw foreigner was ilien someone unable to speak properly,

his idiom was an impertect vehicle for human ilieught 6
The att~mpt, in ilie [lISt haIf of the 20th century, of creating- an
fimdamental similarities among variousJinguistic systems continue to
panmoxlcally coexist with irreducible diffi~enees.

arti:ficial language, universally spoken (esperamo) was jn fact a

1 reflection of the ancient Babel myth, an expression -of ilie nostalgia for
ilie lost onitaIy world of ilie beginnings. The divine ''cl1ISe~ seemed to
1.3. Language as sound and meaning. The
linguistic sign

.l

be, however, still very powerful and initial eniliusiasm soon gave
place to discouragement in frout of ilie obvious failure of ilie whole If poop1e have been long intuitively awaxe of the twofold
enterprise, confronted with enormous difficulties. mrture of language. (in other -words of ilie fact that when we

The Babel "syndrome" also manifested itself when,

errthusiastic about the discoveries of comparative linguistic;; at the end
u
of the 19 • century and having collected irrefutable evideuce that the
communicate through language we' actually use sozmds to convey
meanings), it was the Swiss 1in!"ui,,-t Ferdinand de Saussure who first
gave a coherent and scientific intfl!:pretation of iangIlllge as a system

'" !i Howe.ver~ as Umberto Eco remarks in a documented study deYoted to

of signs. fu Saussure's theory, linguistic signs have a dnal structure,
the two sides of tile sign being inextricably linked (the metaphor the
Swiss linguist uses is that of a"sheet of paper the _two sides of which
the "utopia ofa perfuct language", the diversi1;Y oflruxnan languages -llJld even

...1

races -had alreody been !lllIDtiou.e<l in a previous chapter of the GenesiS and
should Dot neccssa.ci1y be viowed as au expression of divine punishment and
constitute • sou"", of frustration. As Boo point! out (Eco, 7.002), Dl.ready in 1 There is currently ""'Y strong genetic evideuce about tho amazing unity of
Genesis 10,5, • linguistic and tribal distinction i. eslRhlished by God; "By tlrese allllJnnmkiud. Geneticists ~ ~, lliat in "I'm. offue apparent diversity of

~.
were the isles of the Gentiles divided in their lands; every one after hi. tongue,
after their families, in tbeirnations.u
0: Not~~ hOl1'ever~ tlut in an interesting Te\fer'Sal .of fhe sIt:ua1ion~ :in modtnn
theropn:seubltives "fmsnlcjnd llviDJ! in vsri""" parIS of1he world, all hUlllaR beings
display a 1'fl1IIlIIkably common genetic ~ that elUl be traced back to a
reduced JIIllllber ofindMdnals, originally living in Afii<;a. Tl:Us has been contrasted
times Greek is pecceiwd as some soit of exotic, inCOII!prel!eDBible language. See, for to the gOWltic <fur..-.i1;Y of nthor onin:wl species, such as apes. We may very well

~I

w
mstmce the English "){]JTession: "!hm's Greek to Ille" or !he Spanish worn "gringo"
which is apparently" cOlTIlpted furm of griego = Greek.
presume, then, lliat these fureJidhe:rl; of all lmmaos spoke a CUlJ1lllOI1language, much
jil;u in the biblical myth w1llcb thus .eems to have strong 8l1pJlort in realJ1;Y.

,,-,
16 17

are practicaJ1y inseparable). For Saussure, any linguilllic sign is made
up of a signifumt iEn.,aUsh: signifier). tIu!t is an "acoulllic ima"ae" (the
phonolol.,>ical "skeleton" of the word) and a signifie (English:
signified), or a concept, to which the respective acoustic image sends.'
Vile shoUld not mistake, however, Saussures's" image acoustiqne" for
the real sourids we produce when we utter a .word. The Swiss linguist:­
himself warns against possible misinteI]lCCtations of his' theory.
In spite of being mare «concrete» 1ban the cancept, the acoustic
image is primarily a pSYChologic and not a material reality, which
is proved, he argues, by the £act tIu!t we C/lll speak to ow:selves
without actUally articulating the words whose aconstic image is only
present in our mind.'
Two are the essential feafures of the' linguistic sign in
Sa:ussure's opinion: its arbitrariness and the linearity of the signifier.
The "arbitrariness" of the linguistic sign has been one of the most
fiunoll5 and heatedly debated of Sanssnre'S cQI1cepts. What he aebJally
understands by the arbitr.n:iness of the sign is the arbitrariness of the
relation holding between its constituent Parts. the signifier and the
signified. 'This link is arbill:aty in .the sense that there is no reason
whatsoever for which a particular string of sounds should be
associated with a certain meaning. On the other hand, S!!JlSSUIe
cautiously wm:ns against any mislll1derstanding of biB te:rminology.
The associstion between the acoustic image and the concept is
arbitrllr-y in the sense that it lacks motiva1imL; it is not arhitrmy,
however, in the scMe t!wt it depends Dn the free. choice of the
speakers. In reality, he argues, we have the veIy opposite sitnstion:
once this association established, it becomes immutable; that is it
cannot be changed. Langn.ages tend to be VeIy conservative systems
and it is not up to 'any ofthe speakers in a linguistic commlllJity, and,
indeed, not even to the eritire collectivity itself; to clIange the
association between the sigtiifiers and the. sigcifif',ds in the Jan.,nuage
. Ii *Le sig;n.e linguistique unit non un.e rooSt: et un noIO, mats un concept et
une image acoUJ1rique." (SalW;u:re: 1965 : 98)
9 "(L'image RCaustique) n'cst pas Ie son lJllItenel, chose puremeut physique,
mm. l'empreinte psycbique de ce son, la reprtsenmtion que nons en donne Ie
temoignage de. nos sens.d (Sauasure: 1965 :98)
••
they use. For any linguilllic community language is somethihg
inherited, functioning on the basis of I"""" which the users of the
language cannot modify. Ibis doesn't mean, of course, 1bat languages
are fossilized systems, .given Once and for all. The changes they
J
undergo, however, take place over long periods of time and it is only,,­
historical perspective thai enables U5 tn identify and analyze these
changes. Even so, no linguistic change C/lll. be ·given a "birth
I
certificate" where the eli:.act time of its coming into being and those
who "fafh.ered" it are mentioned. 10
As fur as the arbitrariness of the linguistic sign is concemed,
I
two are, accordi.ng to the Swiss linguist, the situations in which We can
talk about some sort of ·match between the acoustic image and the
concept it is associated with: the onoma:topoeias and the exclamations.
I
Within the fIrst category, Saussure distinguishes between words th!lt
contain suggestive sounds ("des sonorites suggestives") which can
very well be the haphazaid result of phonetic changes, and "gennine"
I
onomatopoeia.~, in the ca~e of which we can also speak only about an
approximate and partly conventiional imitation of the sounds in
nature. As for' what he calls eKclamations (mteljections), their
I
varia:tion, if we compare different languages, proves that we cannot
actually tn1k about motivation. And even if we admit that the two
categories mentioned above :represent special situations, their limited
I
rromber and ml!rginal position in the language will not allow them in
be considered significant exceptions to the general rule.
As pointed OIIt above; Saussure's postulation of the notion of
I
arbitrariness sparlred a great deal ofcontroversy. The relation between
the sounds that make up the word and the meaning that word has was
not, of courne, a Sllbject that the Swiss linguist analyzed for the :first
[
time. As early as in Plato '8 dialogue Craty/()s. Socrates asks if the
names we use for things are selected so that they correspond to the
nature of the things they refur to or if this selection is entirely
f
10 "A n'imp""" quelle opaque et si baut que nous re:tllDmiOnS, 1. langue
apparaIt tonjattrS comme un bCtitage da l'epoque precedenre. L'acre par leque], a un
moment donne, les IIlDIS senUcm distributs Rill( cllos.., par 1_1 un e<mtmt secait
II
passe entre 105 concepts et les inJages acoustiques - cet actc, DOUS pouvaDS Ie
concevoir, llltlis il n'a jaznals <ill! tonstare. " ( S = : 1965 :98)
f
19
If'
 J

J
arbitrary. While Cralylos supports the first point of view, changes the word underwent. Thus a word tlmt was fozmed on the

J Hennog=es, SOcTates' othednterlocutar favours ilie second one. The

philoSQpher do"sn't. explicitly opt far any offu" alternati:ves, offering
:instead a number of more,ar less doubtful etymologies. The notion of
basis of a metaphor becomes a fossiliZed expression and the initial
motivation is'lost. Phonetic changes also alter the structure of words
and again initial motivation is lost It is difficult for an Englislunan

J arbitrariness ali lack. of motivation postulated by Saussure was

subsequently refined by 1i.nguists. It was argued·that there is some sort·
of motivation in the .use of any lexical item. What we
should talk
about w :rather fJ:urt this· motivation can have dtlferent degrees of
;I
... obviousness. A dtlfenmce was established between absolute. or
cxttmlal motivation, lying in the very nature of the acoustic image tbat
~. somehow suggests the meaning of the word, a case illustrated by
~ onomatopoeic words and interjwtions (Saussure's objection that there
are differences between various J.an.,auage5 - in order to express pain,
who is ignorant of the etymology of the word to link the: modern
English word rely to the Latin Tcligare and to see that it is related to
rally too. The motivation is also lost jf some words are not inherited or
. are lost in the history of a Ianguage. Any Romanian will understand
the word oie:r (,shepherd)as referring to someone taking care of oi
(s/wep, plural), while its synonym pticurar will not be easily related to
the Latin word pecora (sheep) as tins word was not inherited in
Romanian. An inteJ;eSting l?ut somehow opposite caSe, will be thafof
the so-called "folk etYmologies" which represent attempts of a
linguistic' community to' aSsign some sort of motivation to an

-:.1
for instance, a Romanian will say "au" while an English.man willsay
rather "ouch", the word that is used to iuuMe a dog's barking is otherwise opaque fomJ by modi:fY.ing- the phonetic structure of the
"ham" in Romanian, "woof' in English and "oua" in French - was word and making it similar to other words in the language. Thus the
dismissed ali irrelevant) and relative or inl:=al motivation where the French word ecrevisse becamtl cray fish in English. An interesting
... meaning of the word can be analyzed starting from its structure in
which case we can.' talk about morpho\ogk.al, semantic or phonetic
ease ill the ung:ramriIatical :furm tran(s)versa instead of traversa
(cross), a word ofPrench origin (traverser) in Romanian. 'Ibc word ill
mispronounced by analogy with other Latinate words in Romanian
1
-
motivation.The morphological structure of derived and compound
words ean thus offer a clue to their meaningY Since we know, fur
instance the meaning of both the word home and the suffix -less we
where the pre;fix trCUlS (across) appears. However, in this way the real
origin of the word is uncovered, smce it was initially formed from

~
will be able' to analyze the meaning of homeless. Compounds will be a tran.~ and 1I1!.rSllS.
more difficult ease smce some of them are, indeed, semantically The second essential feature that defines the sign and that is
t:ranspar=t _ everybody will be able to understailll that a taxi drive:r is IliscllllSlld by SaUSSU;;~· is the linearity of the signifier. By this, the
Swiss lingmsts U!ldeJ::,lands ffiiifliOi:1i in articulatoy terms and in
;I
....
someone who drives ·a taxi, and a hothouse is some sort of
cOl1lltruetion where a high temperatore is preserved inside' - oilier auditory ones the signifier is ebaraCnmzed by duration. This duration
compounds are opaque, b1.nce obvioUJlly" hot dog is not a dog that.is is unidimensional and is conventionally represented as a line including
the successive mOrot::rl!s in time. It takes time to utter a word and it
:I... hot and a Ted herring is not a red fish. Even in such Cases it CIlll be
argued that an eiy!llological analysis of the word can. lead to a
successful inl:crpretation of the word -as it will uncover the semantic
takes time to perceive and 'QIlderstand it. The producing and the
analysis of the signifier are procesies that unfold in time, that are

:'.
"'" II It should be noticed, however, tba! such analyses account for Ihe W:rj ill
which tile word was fanned (derived or compounded), but Ihe ultimate
made up of successive stages: On the contrary, the signified is
something of which we have an instan:taneons perception. We 'tan
compare this to am perception of visual signs which is simultaneous

J
,#
componen:ts of tho word free n:i.Orpbemes or:affixes - still remain umnotivated in
tbe Sanssuriall sense.
and multidimensional. This is more obvious, SaussllTe argues, if we

:1 2(1
21
 .1
]

We can iIlustrnte Hjcl:mslev's tileOIy by concrete examples

tilink of tile written aspect of languages. Jwy writing convention is,
pertaining to wbat he calls tile level of expresslon and the level of
indeed, based on tile principle of linearity.
Ferdinand de Sl!l.lS.rore's COUTS de linguistique, generaJe
content respectively. Both English and Romanian, fur instance, have ]]
fi:o;nt vowels. The fuct fuat .English has four front vowel phonemes and
(published a couple ofyears after his death, ill 1915) by several of his
&it Ro;:;';;:;;an has only two is a result of the different ways in which
students, marked a turning point in the historY of modern lillgu:i~cs .
find his themy of tile linguistic sign (tilough ninch refined by otiler'
the two language-systems structure the same expression continuum
(sense. ill I:!je1mslev's terminology). Each/arm (phoneme ill our case)

II
linguists) remained a cornerstone fur all subsequent tileories of
reference. It is partica.darly relevant for understanding the importance
and role of phonetics amOng ofuer linguistic disciplines. As we sb.all
:is necessarily associated with a certain phonetic substance. All hturIall

beings have the same anatomical features, but while an Engli,hm.an

will tell you that he has ten toes and ten fingers a Romanian will speak

I
see la1er, since phonetics is concerned with tile study of soullI:lS•.inl
doIllJl:in is clearly iliat oftile signifiant.
Another linguist's contn1iution to tile underntandillg of tile
about his twenty degete. Again, a different segmenting operates, this

time attheconceptoallevel (tile level of content), in tile two bmguage­ ]

linguistic sign is particularly relevant for am discussion: the Danish systems,: respectivelyY The idea that in any system represented by a

language we .deal with di:l'furent segmentations of an amorphous

linguist LOllis I:!jcl:mslcv, the most outstmding representative of tile

glossemstic school. Hjelmslev, too, descnlle.s the linguistic sign as a
binary reelity. He distinguishes between tile leveIs of <rrpression and
continuum at .bo1h the level of expreSsion and at that of furm is
1
:o.ntent~ co~S{'.o.nding. ro'!Wy to. SausS!rr:fs .:r[~ sigriified,
respectively. f.notiler essential dichotOIny Hjcl:mslev uses, starting un cOntenu n'est cOl'ltcnu que parce qu'iI est contenu d'lmC expression.#. Si nous I
-frC;m hisill~ous predecessor, is tilat between substance and form.
The linguistic sign, he argues, is not just the relstion between a
siguifier and a signified, but tile relation between expression fonn and
content fuIIIL The tenninology. used can be misleading and it is
_t
oonservons la terminoJogie de Saussilrc, it DOllS Iaut aIors bien vojr - et e'est' ainsi
qu'jJ limt comprerulre son point de we - que la substance depend exclusivement de
Ia forme et qu'on ne pee! en ""cun ellS lui pre!er d'oxistence ind<!pendante."Le sens
chaque fuis la substance d'!ll1c furme noweUe et n'a d'autte existence
possible que d'8t:re ]a substance d'uuc funne que1conque~ Noos reconna.issoflS done
dans Ie proces du contt!l1ll me forme sp6cifique. Ia forme du ctmlemt, qui est
I
necessary to point out thatform is Ilnderstood, ill tilis view, as tile way
in which a language structures the continuum represented by what
B;j ehuslev ealls sense at botil the expresslon and content level. Each
indCpendmtte du sens avec lequel elle se trouve dans un rapport mbitraire et qu?elle
transfurme en substance du OOllteIIU.· ~.Imslev, 1968; 72-76)
" Ffjelmslev's classiJ:;al example is that of the colour spectrum. Comparing
I
12

I
form thus established is necessarily assoCiated with IfUbstance. French to Cymric, Ffjelmslev poinls out that the two languages operate different
segmentB1Jons. Thus vert in French is ei!!:ter K"'JII"'fd or glas in Cymric, bleu
, correspnds to glas> grts to either gillS or l1w.Yd and hrun to llwyd. There is no
u: Criticizing.Snussure's tileory.that stresses the importance of fornt a.o.; an overlapping between !!:te fQllDS recognized by the two languages respectively:
ideal reality, organizilig a p~ snbstllDOO ("0_ combinaisOn" i. e. between
the signifier- 3l1d tbe signified produit me forme, non une suhsfmtc~r:t Satl.'lSllI'e.,
Ciwrs, p. 157). Hjelmslev _ it, by pointing out Ibst we Cl!ll spcllk not only
aboot a necessary solidarity between ""P""',ian and content, but, at each lovaL
r' ...
~
vert gwyrdd

gIns
I

bleu
about an equally necessm:y solidarity between form and substance. By. segmenting
!be continuum of sense at each level - expression and content, respectively - a
language creates form:'! necessario/ associated wifu substlmee and by that very fact -
gris

I:rrun
-_.
Ilwyd I

fonu and substBnce depend an each other. "La fonc:tion semrotique est en elle-m&ne
uno solidnriti: expression at contMII sant solidllires et!le presupposent run I'autre.
Une expression n'est expreSSion que parce qU'el1e est: l'expression d~un conteou. et (Hjelruslcv, 1968, TI)
I
')"
.:-:J
 JII
J essential in Hjelmslev's theory. 14 Any significant unit or any fOIlll at
'I- both the level of expression and the level of content is thus defined by
the contrast in which it stands with all the other units in the ~yslen1.
•J
Saussure had already llsed the teon diffirence when describing this
fundamental property of all languages. 15
...
1.4. Language in the process of communication
Language is obviously the main system available for us, not
II only for knowing the world and understanding it, but also for
-;. accumulating, ;,toring and communicating information. Language can
thus be understood as the main system we have ror communicating
among 11S. All the other SYstems of conveying infoImation are actually
... b-dSed Oil this essential, fundamental one, Communication by means of
lan"uuage can thus be understood as a complex process actoally
:1... consisting of several stages. Ally act of communication basically takes
place between two participants: on the one.band we haV~ the source of
the information" the person who has to communicaJ:e something, the
...t
sc:nder of the message that contains the infonnation" and on the other
hand we need a second' party, the recipient, the addressee of
the message, the beneficiary of ,the communication act, in 'other
....I
words the p'erson(s) 10 whom the information contained in the
message is addressed.
Since the sender has to convey a message, and the transmission
t
....
is to take place on the basis of a system of signs (a code), the :first
.. Coci no.. montre que h>s d,ux fonctifu qui collln!Ctent Ia fonetion
J semiotique: l'exptession el Jo conIImU enJrent dans Ie.rname rapport avec elle. C'est
seulrunent en verin de 1. fonction sCmiotique ([U'ils roOsteD! et qu'an peut los
--
designer avec precision comme Ia fi>nne du conlmu et Ia fmme de l'cxp.....ioll. De
roOme, c'est en verta de 1a funne du conllIDU et de 1. forme de l'cxpression
I... seulement qu'existent 1. substance du conrenu et Ia substance de fl>ll:pression qui
apparaissoot ql.land on prPjette la iinme sur Ie sens, COlllIIle un filet tendu projelIe
son orub", sur Ul1e sndilce ininterIDmpuo. (1968:81)
15 "Tout ce qui precede ",vienl it <tiro quo dans 1. langue il n'y • que de.,
~ dif!i!rences... Un systeme linguistique est une sene de iliflerences de SODS
combin!!es avec uno stlrie de differences d'idees," (1965:166)
'. 24
thing tim scnder has to do is to e,ncode or codifY his message, in other
words to render the contents of the message by means of the signs of
the respeetive code (the language) .1be next stage is obviously
represented by the traru;mission of the message proper, which can
achieved in several ;wa.ys (depending of the type of communication;
e.g. written or ornl).: ()nee the message reaclws the recipient, the
process should unfold in the opposite direction. That is, the message
g!,uqo the re<.-ipient in an encoded funn so that the recipient has t(J
decom; it and grasp its meaning.16 ,
Remembering Saussure's theory of the linguistic sign and of
the act of communication" we can refine the analysis above and say
thet the encoding and decoding processes themse1veli consist of
scv:ern1 stages, respectively. When he wants to convey his message,
the sender has to select the concepts (notions) he wants to transmit.
For instance, if he wants to conv"!i' trui jrrfOITllJltion that "the door is
open n lIe .should select the approprilrte words sending to the concepts
of ~door", the quality of "being" and the idea of "openness". This
would represent the first stage ofthe encoding of the message, namely
l{i Rcfcrti.ng to the way in which a:.:ummmication is achleved~ Saussure
dllitinguishes llI!lODg p-'YchologicaJ. physiological and plrysical processes: the tirs!
ca!egmy woUld include the menUd """"';alion between the cODcept and its acoustic
image in lbe brain of the spealrnr and. convmse)y, lbe a"locialian between the
aroustic ;mage that was conveyed to the Iistener and me cooGept in the latter's brain.
Physiological proc".ses will lrn:;lude the moobanisms of phorurtion (articulation of
lb. words) as :fur as the speaker is concerned, and audition, respective1Jl, in the case
of1he listener. 11>0 prupa",0ati0ll of sound _ves from the speakers spooch organs to
the listenoc'. andilmy ".)'Slmn is • plrysical process. Saus..ore schomatially
r e p _ tho process lib this, the two participants actWg .. speaker/Jislener by
turns (1965:28);
'[lIn:;. J
Audition
.
<- Phonation
[
Concept . Concept
, '
tJ,
lmagtt aC~llStique
,
:coLL,nque
Phonation -+ Audition
Sp~lListeDet Listonerl~'peaker
25
 ~_I

the semarmc encoding. Then the respective words should be given a Summariring, we can say that the communication process -)' ,
:... "
fann in accordimce with the rules' of grammar. It is obvious that if we 'takes place 'ai:cording to !he' following pattern:
say "fue door WI2\' open" instead of "Ine door is open" we do oot
convey the SIIlrul idea: The correct choice of fue
approprlJ!:te tense
funn pertains to the domain (lfmorpbology. It;. on the other hand" we
~~~ffue I I Recipient ofthe
message
·:
1
L ~

say "door open the is", the fOIm of the message is clearly'
ungrn:mma:tical since ,it blatantly violafes the roles of syntlUt (word [I
I
~

order in the given case). ,Both morphological encoding and syntactic , 1. Semantic en'coding oftbe I L Phonological decoding of the
encoding can be considered as stages ofwhai we can call grammatical
encoding. Once it has llI1 appropriate irnmmaticaI furm, the message
has to be give!). a phoJ).etic sbape, in other words the ideas we have to
me....age
2.Grammatical encoding of the
message _ '
I mess.age
2.Grammatical decoding oftne
message
;J

3. PhonolOgical enroding of the

con~"y must be put into sounils. nus last type of encoding is called 3.Semantic decoding ofthe
phomlogicaZ encodtng. Some linguists describe the translating of
concepts irrfn words and the assigning of a phonological shape to
message

~
message
J

fuose words respectively as two different types of articulation and TranSD:J..ission ofth~ message
they speak about the' double arliculation oj the Iang>Ulge. Thos,
according to Andre Martinet, the first articulation of language will
:J

include the segmenting of the conteJlt level by a given language­ - 1.5. Language and writing
system and the association of acoustic images to the concepts tbn.~
obtained. The minimal units for 1his articula:tion are the Words, having :-,' -The importance of language and of it~ stody fur the
J
both meaning and a phonetic stroctore. The next articulation will undetsJaniling of what essentially characterizes our very nature as
imply the segmcntatio;' of the aconstic image into corxtrostiv'e units,

the phonemes. Though devoid of meaning themselves, these units

hI/man Beings cannot be overestimated. By means of the language

immans not only co=icate in a fuller and more efficient way thao
J
have the eSseutiaI function of keeping different words apart Martinet
any other species," but they are in fact the only creatures 1hst can
convincingly argues that Iaognages display remarkable economy at fue

level of the Second articulation since aconstic images are decomposed

tmnsrnit information from a generation to fue following ones. We

have sO':fur discussed lin",auiatic colIlInunicaUon only in its oral form
J
into' a limited mnnber of significant units, !he sfstem mak1rig use of
(which·iS; of course, relevant for fue Sllldy ofphonetics), but for many
the latter's eJd:J;aotdinary combinatorlal possibilities instead of

associal:ing each acoustic image to a different unit 17

thoilsanrui of years now human beings have communicated in a written

A&r the 1:zan8mission of the tneS.'lage, the recipient has to decode
it, petfumring the same operations, but in the opposite order, IlB fust has
to decode the message phonologically, then to decode it gJ;amn:latically
fOmi as- well. While speech was probably an essential faculty that
J
cl:laracterized ',humans from -the first stages of their existence as a
di:!ierent species from !be rest of the arrimaI kingdom, writing I

and then. semantically, reaching thllS the actoaI infurmational contllllt " Scientists have elCtensiveJy studied'various means !lJrough wbich anhnals

11 Martinet. 1970:13-15. These notions will be llUbsequeutly explained in

communicate with one another. Though they have sometimes been loosely called
''Jan&nages", tile di:ffi:nmt modalities used by eer1ain species ofm!llll!llals or by birds
in onlc:r to c:ommunlcate can in no way be cOI1lp>red to tb. complex lin"onistic
I

further detaiL system ofcommunication humans USe.

27
I

,I
 In spite of the awarent diversity between types of graphic
... certainly appeared much laler in the history of mBrildud The earliest symbolism used in various languages, linguists distinguish only
cl records ofhlllJllilL'l tr;ying to express their thougb!s in writing date back betWeen two different kjnd, of writing: ideographic and phonetic, 'The

- to only several thousand yea:rs ago. Even today there are many
languages that do not haVe a written folJD.. The "invention" of writing
ierIi;inology is suggestive oJ; their fui:t<:larll"ental pritlciplcs~~tivelY.
,rdeQgrapbic writing, uscs ideograms orpictogram.~ for the graphic

...t
was essential in. the process of '!rIlD1llllittig inforroation over gl;eat "representation of lingnistic sign. The graphelne tries to represent the
distances, both ill spare and in t:i.ole. It played a,tremendous role in the word in its entirety, the idea that it expresses. Ideographs in the strict
development and evolution of hmnan: ci'Jilization as it
is mainlY "interpretation of the term have" no connection with the phonetic
-I
.J
through written recoxds that info=ation abo1;lt civilizations that have
long been extinct managed to reach us. Sueh is the importance of
struct:ure of the linguistic sign." They are exclusively associamd with
as
the first articulation' described above. Chinese is a classic'aI example
writing in modem t:i.oles that we tend to neglect its :relatively younger
of a language uSing sur.h writing. Linguists often quote amonp; the

J age. We forget 1;)lat many languages in the past and even at present
were (or are) exclusively spoken lllld that writing is, after all, a
secondary and relatively less important system of symbolization19i n the
advantages of ideographic writing thc fuGt that in spite of the
eIlOllIlDUS dialectel vari;;!jr displayed by a language as Chinese,
writing constitutes 1I un~iug elemruit. People speakiog different
1.... absence of which linguistic systems can function very well. The
prestige of writing is so great that the written furm of the word
influences oW: Jllental representation of the word and we often tend to
diaiecls of the language can" f""'1mu u icate by referring to ideographs
common to all varisnts of the language. Phonetic writing attempts to
give .a representation of fuc "phonetic structure of the word. It is
1
~
reverse the natural precedent speaking has over writing and to
consider writing as being primOrdial and speaking only secondarY,
r
therefure linked to the second articulation as described above.
This is due, as Saussure points ont to the fuct that graphic symbols bonetic writing can, in its turn, be of two 1cinds: syllabic or

~
tend to make a more lasting impression on our -intellect than the alplulbetic. In. the formet case we deal with conventions for
sounds we hear. TheY give ,UH the illusion of soliditY and permanence representing the syllable structure of the words, while in the latter the
when, in reality, grapbic Conventions are by fur more superficial and graphic sym~ls. 1;!IDd to represent the phonemes as minimal uuits at

rI
';'M;+-
irrelevant fOf the basic :fual:utes of the Ianguage.2Q

Our own. language, Rom:miarr is (somehOW ~y) an el<iIIDP

1e
the expression level." However, we will see that, for reasons that are
going to be explained in ·the next chapt~T, not even in the case of the
. 19 latter tyjje ofwriting is there "a' one to one cOlTespondence between the

II
r..:.:
that illustrateS tliis point. The earlieSt surviving 1l>lI1 in Romanlan daleS from 1521
but the historY ofthe hmguage itSelf stretclles baCkman:y =1"" bero", that
,. The ex;unple of Rl:>nI3trim _ be again qu<>t.ed. The Slo.voni<> alphabet
was used unti1lhe second' half of tb;> 19'" C<lIltllIY when tb;> Ro)Illlll alphabet was
phonological stmcture of th~wordS and the graphic signs we use to
represent'them. This leiulS 11s"io the conclusion that no actual system
of writing is an exact illllS1ration of either of the two lIllljor classes
iI- adopted. Turlrish abandOned its tra<litiOllal writing :in the 20'" centmy and adopted
Ilw Roman aiphabet, Ino. These chtll1ge., did nut in 3IIy wa:y modify the jjIDdamentaI
cbaractmisti of 1he two languages, ROJ]1lllliim ..... the same Rom"",," language
cs Cyrilic alphabot was used, while Turldsh ","""ins I!ll AJt»ic language
descnlJed 8bove. Ideographic writing can also use ideograms that lost

even when 1M

t
\..j
in SJ';:' of its 1lSing lhe i«>ml!llce alphabet, An unfortunate lllusi:rllDon of the
carre of sanssure'. lheory about lhe undeserved and decePtive preeminence
cillC5S was the ;;tecile <lobate about the spelling of the CllllInll high vowel of
of writing
words, "" an iromc and jIDllI1OllllOry co.tnmem of such situations: "QllJl.qd il y a
dilsaocord elJlre ill lalJgut: et l'mthogrnphe, Ie dtbat est toujour.; difficile a traDcher
pour tout a~ que Ie lino uuiste; truris comme cclui-ci n~a pas VOlx an chapitre; la
Rmnanian. A rational'siIDpJification was recently reverted and ii replaced i in non­

I''''
fonne 6crite a presque mtalement Ie (lessu'" (J965: 47)
initial positio", as u; was aTb"'cd that 1h. Romance chmcter oflhe language is better ure
rendered by t'lC former sign than by the la_. One can omy remember Sauss " 29

·1 n
 their initial value and have acquired a phonetic character. Chinese
pictogrnms and Egyptian hieroglyphs oirer such examples?l
a system which uneconnmically represents concepts rather than a
more limited number ofphonological units.

1
It was for this very reason that the "invention» of the alphabet

ff we consider the cbronoln~ca1 evolution of writing we C811

notice a !J:1lIl3ition ;from rurect, more or less concrete systems of
represetrtatiorui to increasingly abstract (thougll p~ca11y simpler)
by the early Semitic civilization of the Phoenicians represented an

extraordinary step forward. The alphabct created by the Phoenicians

:1
was later modified by the Hebrews and the G:reeks, the Greek alphabet

ones. The manner in which human beings tried tn convey their ideas .
using graphic represeittations was futally vety rudimentary in. 1he
lying in its tum at the basis ofthe Roman and of1he Slavonic (Cyrilic)

ones. Alphabetic writing had the enormous advantage of economy as

[I
beginning. The earliest syStems of writing (if we can ind~ speak of it made use of a. cmnpara:lively much. -more reduced number of

writing) were actually visual representations of what men saw. The

scenes of11lmtil)g, for instance, painted on cave walls, ate considered
symbols (about 30}hy means ofwhich practically all the words in the

language could be represented. This was due to the :fact that at the

[I
1he first a:tternpts of human beings. to give their thoughts a grnphic expression level languages are remarlaibly organized and economical

form. Later s1ag<:s in the development of writing proper included the

appearance of various systems of so called pierorial writing, in which
the symbols, initialJy figurative representations of reality, came to
systems as we are going to see in a subsequent chapter. The­

simplification of the system was paralleled by an ineteased

abstractness as the link between the graphic representation and the

t
di&l'Iay an. increasingly highee degree of abstmctness. Cm:teifonns
used in Mesopotamia illustrate a gmrluaI trallliition from the direct
represerrtation of ol:!iects to the more abstract representation of words
li:nguistic sign was lost, the script reDdeting sounds rather than

meanings. The roost economical and abstract kind of writing ever I

invented, alphabetic writing is cUlre1lfly used by the overwheltning
and finally syllables. Egyptian hieroglyphs constitute the most
spectacular type of ideogrnphic writing. With the tomsition from the
earlie&i hi.:roglyphs to later vanRnts of hieratic and demotic (popular)
majority of present-day civ'ilizations.
Of the two essential compone.nts that constitute the linguistic I
sign, the present book, which analyzes different Rspects of, and
script we witness an effort towards simplification which is paralleled
by a greater abstractness of the representation and the loss 'of the
plJre1y figurative cha:rn.cter of writing. But even in the =of
theories about, the production and interpretation of 'l'eech sound.~ will
obviously deal with the signifier Or the expression level The I
fQliowing chapter is devoted to a. more detailed presentation of the
hieroglyphic writing proper the system interestingly and uiriquely
combines pictoiial representations with conventions suggestive of the
phonetic strueture of the words. This is also the case of Chinese
linguistic disciplines stodying speech production, trmlsmission and
perception. I
writing. the only Stln'iving example of an ancient ideogrnphic writing
in 1he mod= world. Even Chim:se writing,. however, ~s use of
many graphic synibols tlim have - a phonetic characier. (Japanese
I
interestingly combines C'hinese. ideograms with graphic
representations illustrating the structure of the Japanese langua",ae). As
pointed out earlier alI ideographic types of writing tend to acqnire
I
phonetic characteristics because ofthe obviolL~ difficulties ofbandJing

21 SllUssure spoaks of the "mixed" character such systems of writing

I
acquire. (1965:47)
I
•

,I CHAPTER 2
J

J ARTrCUI..ATORY, jilCOUSTrC AND

AUDITORY PHONETICS. PHONOlOGY
J 2.1. Phonetics and phonology

J Two tt:l:ll:ls are (often loosely) used to refer to linguistic

disciplines studying ·fbat part of the linguistic sign which de Sanssure

J called the acoustic image: phonetics and phonology. The importance

of sounds as vclricIes of meaning is something people have been
aware of for tliousiUIds of years. However, syst!lmatic studies on the

J =
speech sounds ·cmlji- appeared with the development of modem
sciences. The texin phonetics used in CO!lllection with such studies
from Greek and its origins CIlIl be Iraced back to the verb
-I phOnein, to speak. in its tutn related to phone, sournt The end of the
- 18th century witnessed a revival of the interest in the studying of the
somids of various language.q and the introduction of the term

1- phoflOlogy. The IaUer comes to be, bowever, distinguished from the

former only more than a ce:ntUIy later with the development of
structuralism which emphasizes the essential contrastive role of

-1
classes of sounds which lire labeled phonBmes. Ibe terms continue to
be used. however, indiscriminately until the prestige ofphonology as a
th
distind discipline is finally established in the first balf of the 20

'I
,,"
century. Though there is no universally accepted point of view about a
clear-cut border line betw"'-:n 1fu, respective. domains of phonetics and
phonology as, indeed, we c>innot talk about a pbonological system
:1
....
ignoring the phonetic aspects it involves ana, on the other band, any
phonetic approach shonld take into accouut the phonological system

r, thai is represented by any language, most linguists will agree aho LIt
SOIIW fundameutal distinctions between the two.

33
'-I

Phonetics will be almost unanimously acknowlec!ged to be the
linguistic science which studies speech sounds: the way in which they
are produced (uttered, articulated),' the way in. which they are
perceived, their physical chiracteristics, etc. Therefore, it is these
more "palpable", measurable aspects of the phonic aspects of.
language thet.constitote the domain of phonetins. On' the other band, it •
is obvious, however, even for those whose perception of lil::i",anistic
phenomena is rather of an empirical and not of a very scholarly kind,
that when cornmunica:ting verbally, though they are producing a wide
vanely of sounds, people are actna1ly "aware" . of using a
comparatively drastically limited set of sounds, in other words that .
they tend to disregard the obvious (mOre or less important) differences
between the way in wbich sounds are uttered and have in mind only
classes of sounds that perfurm a certain function in language; From
this new perspective, it is not the sounds as such that are impozt,mt.
but rather the role they have in linguistic communication. As we shall
see later, diffi:rent languages operate different distinctiOIlS and
stroctorc in di.fferont ways the more or less common stock of sounds
thet can be round in various idioms. It is precisely Ibi!> ru,-pect of
sounds that is of interest for pho7lf}logy, which. is !bus understood to
study not so much the sounds as such, but rather clas5e$ of sounds that
have a certtrin function in the stroct-ure of a given Iimguage, l This
distinction will be further analyzed in the chapter dealing with the
phoneme..
We have alreadY said that phonetics is concerned with various
aspects relev-dllt fur the physical characteristics of sounds. Several
lmmches of phonetics can further be distinguiShed, depending'on the
narrower domain of interest of the respective field. Thus, one of the
most important branches of phonetiCli is articulata", phonetics which.
studies the way in which h11lIJJll1 beings articulate or utter the sounds
they make use ofin verbal communication.
, Note llJat what we refured as phouetlc, alphaht:tie Mitlng- actuall¥
1<)
tends to represont these elMses of so""c\s. That is why peoplll using tlIis twe of
writing have at least some :intu:itive awareness ,of the phonological structure -of their
l;mgllage.
oJ
2.2. Articulatory phonetics
~l
Articulatory phonetics is a branch of phonetics whicb is largely
based On data provided by other sciences, among which the most
important are ~ anatomy and physiology. This is .a result of the
fuet that human beings do not possess organs that are exclusively used
1
to. produce sp<iech sounds, all organs involved in the uttering of sounds
having in filet, primarily,· other functions: digestive, respiratory, etc. 2
This actually raises interesting questions about whether. we had been
1
bom (destined, "prugremrned") to speak or speech developed rather
accidentally - anyWay, comparatively later - in the evolution of
mankind. Therefure, fundsrnental physiological processes like those
1
mentioned above take place sinlultaneously or alternatively with tl:i.e
pIUduction of speech sounds. We can hardly think of speaking as being
separated frOln the activity of breathing, 1lS the air that is breathed in
I
and om of the lWlgs has a crucial role in>thc process of uttering sounds.
Breathing is a rhythmic .process inchaling two successive stages:
j
inspiJ:ation and expiration. It is during the latter phase that speech
production takes place in most languages. Because we speak while we
expel the air from our lungs, the sounds that we produce are called i
egressive. The continuous altc:rnation between inspiration and
­
expiration fundsrnentally shapes the rhythmicity of oUI spee"h.
We have already mentioned the fact that oral communication is
bMed on sound waves produced by the human body. The ioitial
I
moment of this rather camplex process is the expelling of the air from
our lungs. The lungs can therefore be considered the very place where
j
speech production originates. The' airstremn follows a road that is
called the vocal- tract. We will follow this tract of the air that is
expelled from the lungs om of the body. As we are going to see, this
tract includes segments of the ref>l'iratory and digestive tracts and the
i
physiology of speaking is therefore intimately linked to the
j
, W. em arguably speak about speech organs for:rning a SYS!l::m, though,
teclmically speaking, di!f= orgaos ofspeech are actually part ofdifferent syste!llJl
in our body. As pointed out above, ·nom: of these organs perti:>tms a vital function as
It spee"" organ. irs main function ~ rniher mat per:funned !lS part of the other,
truly vital system.
Ii
-.,
35 Ii
-.
 J physiology ofthe respective vital processes. The .!unll!! i!l!e pair organs, pulmonic lobes. They are called bronchioles and their role is to
situated inside the thomcic cavity (the chest). They are farmed of distribute and collect the air into and from the innermost recess~.s of
J three, respectively two spongy lobes (the left lung is smaller because
of the vicinity of the heart within the thoracic cavity). The capacity of
the lungs, These exchanges are made at the level of small air sacs
called 'alveoli and represent the ultiina:te ramifications of the
the lungs (that is the totat amoWlf of air that they can conlain is:,of bronchioles. At the other end, the two bronchial tubes are joined at the
I
-'
about 4500-5000 cm3 (4.5-5 litres) in an adult person, the capacity basis of the trachea, or the Windpipe.
TIle Windpipe bas . a tubular cartilaginous 5lructure (its
. the case of male persons. The so-
beirig glillerally slightly , superior in

J called vital capacity (that is the mrucima1 amount of air that can be
exchanged with. the environment during breathing is of about 3500­
4000 em'. In other words, we can never completely empty our lungs
components are a number of cartilages :held together by J:lleIIIl:irdJl(lUS
md
tissue) is about 10 em long aiul em io diwnelrc. Its e1asti.city
and the position of the larynx can result io important variations io the
actual length of the organ. The "latter is an essential segment of the
J of air during expiration. During nonnal breathing, however, only
about 10-15% orthe vital capacity is used, that is the qua:nJity of air
that is exchanged amoWlfs to about 400-500 em'. The act of speaking
. respiratory system but does not play an active role in speech
production. .

-"I
requires a greater respirato;:y effort and consequently the amount of air All we continue our journey we come aeros~ another organ that
increases to up to 30-80% of the vital capacity (30-40% during has a crncial role in the process of sPc:8k.ing: the laryrlX. The latter is a
expiration and 45-80% during inspiration). VariatiollS are due to c.artil.aginous pyramidal OIg-dll characterized by a rcmmkable structural

...'J
different position of the body, to the quality, quantity and intensity complexity and situated at the top of the trachea. As all speech organs,
(lowlm:ss).<>f-the sounds we art1<:wm. Breathing is a complex process it primarily performs a vital role, namely it acts as a valve that closes,

that essentially consists ill tlle exchaoge of air between our body and thns blocking the entrance to the windpipe and preventing food or

drink from entering the respi:rntory ducts while we are eating4 TImy

;1 th.e environment. It leads to the oxygenation of our body and to the

- expnlsion of the carbon dioxide resulting from the processes of

combustion within our body. It is basically achieved by the successive
are inlltead directed down the pharynx and the esophagus. The larynx

is t1!c first speech organ proper along the tract that we are following,

,
II.... eAl'anding and compressing of the volume of the two lungs, lhe air as it interf~.,.es with the outgoing st:ream of air (which, so far, has

beirig sucked in and pushed out respectively. This n..oppeDS because

followed it~ way :rather unirnpededly) and· establishes some of the

the thoracic caVity itself modifies its volUlllC, a complex system of

essential features ofthe sounds that we prodUCe. However, it il; not the

•. bones' (the ribs), :muscles ,(of which the mmlt important are the larynx proper (that is the organ in its eIitircty) that perfOl1llS this

.
~
f. intercostal ones, that eoordinate the movements of the ribs, llhd the imporbmt role within the speech meC:ha:!lirun. but two muscular fulds

diaphragm, that reprcsellts the floor of the tharacic cavity) and iuside it, called the vocal cords. As mentioned above, the larynx

1
.-
membranes '(pleurae) .bcing involved in the process. Th.e entire process
is controlled by the respiratory centres in the brain.
3

From ea.ch of the lungs a broncJiial tube starts. At one end, the
ramifications of these tl1bes spread inside the spongy mass of the
consists of a number of cartilaginous· b1riIctures that illtlc"l"act ill an
ingeniOlls way enabling thc larynx to pcifu1DJ its important respiratory
and articulatory functions. The thyroid' cartilage is made of two (left
and right) rectangular fiat pJates that faIm· an angle anteriorly,

-:1 3 The IIelVOUS syslllm (and !he br<riD, primarily) also play an IlSSIllIlial rolo in!he .
resembling the covers of a book that is not entirely open. The aperture

;1•• process ofsouM articulation: The description of the way in wbicil1he brain conlrols 1he
speech. u"""""ism does not lie, howeY«, within the scope offuis ~ (see also p. 42).
< A complex system of vlllves similarly prevents air
digwtive tube during inspiration,
frOID entering our

37
·1 36

of the angle, oriented posteriorly, varies with the sex.. It is a right angle
it
in men (90°) while in women is. 120°. The angle is more visible,
because more acute, in the farmer sitnation and the cartilage is
popularly known as "Adam's applc". Posteriorly, each of the plates
bas twa hams (an inferior and a superior one) called: cornua, thTOl,lgll
which the thyroid cartilage is COlll1ected with the ericoid one. The joint.
that the two cartilages fonn, resembling a sort of hioges, allows the
cricoid one to . move· .anteriorly and posteriorly with· respect to the
thyroid one, 1frug controlling the degree of tension in the vocal cords.
One of the main functions of the thyroid cartilage is to protect the
larynx and particularly the vocal cords. The cricoid cartilage is made
of a ring-shaped structure, situated Ill1teriorly and of a blade situated
posteriorly and represents the base of the larynx, controlling
co=unication with the trachea. On top of its blade, on the left and
right side respectively, another pair of cartilages are situated: the
arytenoid ones. The last· important cartilage in" the process of
phcmation or speech production is the epiglottis which is a spoon­
shaped"cartilage also playing an important role in keeping the fOod
away :from the respiratory tract. It is between the arytenoid cartilages
and the thyroid cartilage .that the two vocal cord. mentioned above
stretch. The mcal cords are each made of a so-called vocal ligament
and a vocal muscle. They are covered in mucous membranes or "kin
folds also klIDwn as the vocal folds. They connect the lowl'J: part oHhe
thyroid caitiJage to the anterior part of the arytenoid cartilages" The"
opening between the folds and the arytenoid eartilages" represents the
glottal aperture, more co=only called the glottis. The length ofthe
vocal folds varies with the age and the sex. They become lon~r at the
age of puberty and are longer in men (24-26 = ) than in w"Omen
(17-20 mm). During"breathing , the two folds part, letting the air come
into the larynx or go aut. During phan;mon they come closer, having
an important role in establishing some of the main chm:acteristics of
the sounds we articulate. By the pretty complex action of adjacent
anatomical strUctures (the cartilages described above and a number of
laryngeal muscles) the two vocal cord" ean be brought together or
parted. They thus interfere to various extents with the outgoing
:H~
;"~
airstream. They Clll1 obstruct the passage completely, as in the case of
I
the so-called glottal stop (see below, when a detailed description of
consonants is given), or their participation in the uttering of a given
sound can be mjnjmal (as in the case of trumy hissing sound~). The
I
rapid and intenni:tten:t opening and closing of the vocal cords, which
results in the vibration ofthe tWo orgdllS, plays a key role in aile ofthe ]
most important phonetic processes, that of voicing. Thus, vowels and
vowel-like sounds, as well as a number of consonants, are produced
with the vib,,!tiori of fue cords and are consequently v('Jiced. The ]
absence of vibration in the vocal cords is characteristic for voiceless
obstruents. (More details about the process me given the following
Chapter). The amplitude ofthe vibration is also essential for the degree
of loudness of the voice: thns the intensity of the sound that is uttered
I
depends On the pressore of the air that is !""P"lled. The rate at which
the vocal cords .vibrate has also importabt consequences as far as the
pitch of the voice is concerned; this is closely linked to the preSsure
I
exerted On the vocal cards. When" we 'produce acute (high-pitched or
shrill)) sounds the vocal cords come closer to each other, while duting
the articulation of grave sounds" the vocal cords leave a greater space
I
between them. (Further details will be given below, when tbe acoustic
characteristics of sounds are discussed.)
The Jlext stop on our way along the vocal tract is the pharynx,
I
an organ siruated at a kind of cros.<:rooos along the above-mentioned
tract. It doesn't play an active p"art in the articmlation of sounds its
main role being to link the l~ and the rest of the lower respiratory
I
system to its upper part, thus"" functioning as an air passage during
breathing. It is also an important segment in the digestive apparatus" as
it plays an essential role. in deglutition (the swallowing of food)"
I
The pharynx branches into two cavities that act as resonators for fue
air stream that fue vocal cordB make vibrate: the nasal cavity and the
oral cavity.
I
Before discussing the two respective cavities, it is important to
mention the role played duting articulation by the velum or the soft
pamte. The velum is the contimJation of the roof of the mouth also
I
called the palate. The harder, bonY. structure situated towards the
I
39
I
 I
]
ro.'terior ofthe mO]l~ ~ontinues with 1;he velum.into the rear part ofthe
dynmnic of, all speech orgaus) and :it plays an essentiai roJe in the
mouth. The'latter's position at the back of the mouth can anow the
producing of COIlSOnants, while'its poSition in the mouth is also very
J
airstream to ,\0 o";t through either the mouili or the nose or through

both at the slii:QZ :time, Thus, if the velini is raised, blo!±ing the nasal

important for differentiating among various classes of vowels. When

an articulatory classification .of speech sounils is given below, the
I)
cavity, the air is directed out through tfu: mouth and the sounds thus .

, produced will be oral sounds. If the vclum is lowered; we can'

upper surlllce of the tongue will be "divided ", far practical and,
didactic purposes, into sewnli parts: a) its fore part, made up of the tip
articulate either nasal sounds, if the air is C}..'Pe1led excluSively via the
(apf!X) and the blade; b) the .front. and back part (the dorsum) - the
~a.'al cavity, or nasalized sounds if, in spite of the lowered poSition of

J
the velUm, the air is still allowed to go out through the mouth as well

as through the ~ose. If we nip our nostrils or if the nasal cevity is

label dor~wn is often applied to front and back tosether. and c) the
root (radix) of the tongue (the remmost and lowest part of the organ,
situated in front of the laryngo-p.haIynx·lind the epiglottis. The sides or

J
bloc:kl'\d ):lecause of a cold, hay rever, etc, we can easily notice .the

importance of the nasal cavity as a resonator and the way in which its

blocl\ini affects nonnal speech production. The distinction nru;a1/oral

ri:ms ofthe tongue also play an'important role in the l:lI:WiDg of certain
sotlllds. (As we are going to 'see"in a subsequent ciJapter, the varioui
parts of the tongue lend their names to the sounds they help produce:

[J
is essential in all languages and it will further be discussed when a

detaile<i analysis of both English cousonants and vowels is ·given.

thus, sounds uttered with the participation ofthe tip of the tongne will
be called apical- from the Latin word apex, meaning top or cll:tremity
We have mentioned 'above the oral cavity as one of the two
- thOse in the production of which the blade is involved will be called

J possible outlets fur the airstream that is expelled by .our respiratory

system. The or.u cavity plays an easen:tial role in phonation as it is

here that the niain features of the sounds that we articulate are uttered.

laminaI - from the Latin word. lamina having the same meaning ­
whiJe the back part of the body ofilie tongue, the lhrsum. will give its
name to dorsal sounds, produced in the velar region.)
[I Tli.e cavity itsc:lf acts as a resonator, and we can modify its shape and

volume, thus modifYing the acoustic features of the sounds we

The tongue is a mobile articulator (the term active is usually

used) that influences the way in which sounds are produced, But more

produce, while various orl,'llllS that delimit the oral cavity' or are
often than not it does that with the help of other articulators (fixed or

[J
included in it (the tongue) are active or passive participants in the act

of phonatio'a if W,? follow the airatrearn out through the mouth (oral

mobile i.c. passive or active) as well. like the roof of the mouth (the

palate), the lips or the teeth. The palate css<mt:ia1ly consists of two
cavity) we can ~ notice the above-mentioned organs tWit play an
parts; the hardpalate and the soft palate or the velum. We haw ShaMl

rJ important rore:in the process of sound articalation. .

Undoubtedly, the most important of all is the tongye, which

the important role played by the velum in differentiating between the
articalation of oral and nasal sound~. The hard palate in front of it

...r.
plays a crociai role in oral commonication, the very fupt that in many
languages (GT~iatin, Romance languages) the same word is used
to refer to both,th.e anatomical orgaIl,and lang'.Ulge as a fundamental
human activity ~ that in many cultures the two concepts came
il.... to be assimilated or at least considered to be inseparable. 'Ihe tongue
is actually 'in";~lved in the articulation of most bpeech sOll11l1s, either
through "'" active or a t~mparative1y more passi:ve participation. It is a
[J muscUlar, eJctreroely mobile and versatile. org..m (by far the most
functions as a fixed '(passive) articulator. Not less important are, at the
other end of the mouth, the teeth and the lips. Just behind the teeth we
can notice the alveolar ridge (the ridge of the gums of the upper
teeth). While the upper teeth ace fixed, the lower jaw (the mandible)
is mobile and its constant moving permanently modifies the size and
shape of the oral aperture. The lips also play all important role in the
articulation of some COllSonants by interacting with each other or with

4J
:1 40

the upper teeth and their position ( rounded or &1JfWl) is also relevant
for differentiating b<;f:weell twO rOlljOr clasSes of vowels. Tney are
pretty mobile articulatof.;, though far less so than the tongue. Just like
theyc~ ~ety
the tQngue,
~co()pl'fate"
. <:""" with
Yie.J.d .a
.th~.. t~'tb,
@Per
of configurations..The lower lip
o
to );1!X'dllceiabi -dental sounds,
the two lips can.~ct to articu1atebilabi91 sounds, while lip position·
(rounded or spreadY is essential in deter:mlning one of the basic
con:figurn1ions. of"owels..
Our brief and fufally schematic presentation. of &-peech
production has consciously neglected the essenlilll role the brain plays
in the articulation of sounds .. Speech produc,iion is a process that can
be observed qUite easily as the major artioUtators lend themselves to
direct and detailed scientific observation. We should not forget,
however, that our presentation above is obviously partial, since all
articulatory processes are controlled b)' the brain and we cannot
imagine any kind .of activity of the articulators without the
participation of the brain that actually comrd!s the entire process of
speech production. We chose to leave aside the discession of the part
played by the brain in the physiology of articulation only because the
complexity of the analysis would have taken us too fur away from the
purpose of this study.
Note: The grepb represent<; a sagittal
mid-section through the vncn:tlJ11ct. The
vocal cords ore repIllscaled by a circle
at the level oftlle larynx, the ~e is..
in a neutral. resting position.
.J
2.3. Auditory phonetics
:1
If articulatory phonetics studies ilie way in which speech
sounds are produced, auditory phonetics focuses on the perception of
rJ
sounds or the way in which sounds are heard and interpreted.'
Remembering our conventional division of linguistic communication
into several stages of a process unfolding between two parties, the
fI
sender of ilie message and its addressee, we may say that while
articulatory phonetics is mainly concerned with the speaker, auditory
phonetics deals wiili the oilier important participant in verbal
II
communication., the ~et. It is again, obviously, a field of linguistic
study which bas to rely heavily on biology and more specifically on
anatomy and physiology. We should say frOIIl the very beginning,
J
however, that the mechanism and physiology of sound perception is a
much hazier field that the correspondjng processes related to the
utrering of the respective sounds. This is so because speech production
I
.is a process that takes place roughly along the respiratory tract which
is. c;omparatively, much ~er to observe and study iharl·the b:rain
where most processesJink:ed to speech perception and analysis occur.
I
Our presentation so fur has already revealed a fimdamental
characteristic of acoustic pho.netics wbich essentially differentiutes it
from both artiCulatory and acolllmc phonetics: its lack of unit)'. We are
I
.in filet dealing with two distinct operations which,. however, are
closely interrelated end influence each other: on ilie one hand we can
talk about audition proper, that is the perception of sounds by our
I
auditory apparatus and the transfom:ring of the info.rmation into. a
neural sign aud its sending to the brain and, on the oilier hand, we can
talk about the avalysis of fuis infounation by the brain wbich
I
everdually leads to the decoding of the message, the understanding of
the verbal message.' When discussing the auditory system we can
I
It is obvious. even al: au intlli!ive leve~ fual: hearing someone'. words and
I
5
unrlets!lmJ:lln fuem &8 two quite cli.ffilrent processes. They are ebronOlogica.lty distinct,
since we can 1lIlk about two ~ ~ BOd !bey also diffir in 1l1!Irirc since fuey
inv<Ilve cli.ffilrent .<>P!lM!IirmS of the hrnln- We sibould not make the IllisIllk<\. however, of
sepa:rating them camp~1y sjncf; as we are going to see below, our undersfim,ding of
wbatwe hear ess<:ntialJy influenoos tho process of hearing itselE
43
I
 I
J consequently talk about its peripheral and its central part, respectively. protection role. The mnscles associated with the three little bo,ne5
~ntioned above' eontmet in 'a reflex movement when sounds having a
We shall have a closer look at both these processes and try 1:0 Show
) why they are both clearly distinct and at the same time they are too higll intensity reach the ear. Thus the impact of the too Loud
sounds is reduced and the mcchaniSlll diminishes the force with which
ciOHely,related.
.. Before the sounds we perceive are processed and interpreted the movement is transmitted to the struchrres of the inner ear. It i, in
ear
J by the' bra:irl; 'the first anatomical org-.m thejr encounter is the ear. The.
ear haS 'a 'complex structure and its basic auditorl funcl:ions include
the middle .too, thiit a natrow duct or tube opens. Known as the
Eustachian tobe it connects ilie middle ~ to, the pharynx. Its main
role is to act as an outlet pcrruitting the air to circulate between ille
the perception of auditory stimuli, their analysis and their transmission
1 further on to ilie brain. We can identifY three components: the 'jut!!",
the middle and the inner year. The ourer ear
is mainly repIeStIDtOO by
pharynX aud the ear, thus helping preserve .the required a:mount of arr
pressW:c inside the middle ear. The neltl segment is ilie inner ear, the
main element of which is the eochlea, a cjl.vity filled with liquid. The
the auricle or the pinna and ilie auditory meatus or the ourer ear canal.
] The auricle ,is ,the ouly visible part of the ear, constituting its
outermost part, the segment of ilie organ projectingQutside the skulL
inner ear also includes the vestibule of the ear and the semicircular'
canals., The vestibule represents ilie central part of the labyriuth of the
It does not play an essential role in audition, whick-is proved, by the ear and it". gives aCcess to the cochlea The, cocblea is a coil-like organ,
~, .

] fact that ilie removing of ihe pinna does not substantially damage our
auditory capacity. The-auricle rather plays a protective roklo! the =1:
100king1iJre the shell ofa snail At each oEthe two {--nds of the cochlea

there is an oval window, while the ~rga.ti itself eontains a liquid. fuside

of the ear aud it also helps us locilize sounds:'!fhe meatus, or the onter the cochlea there are two melllbranes: the vestibular membrane and

] ear canal is a tubular structure playing 11 double roll::: it, too, protects
ilie neltl segments of the ear - particularly the middle ear - aud it also
the basilar mCll1brane. It is the latter that plays a central role in the act

of audition. Also essential in the process of hearing is the so-called

organ of Corti. inside the cochlea, a slruetore that is the real auditory

functions as a resonator for the sound waves that enter our auditory
] system:. The middle ear is a eavity wi1hin the skall including a number
receptor. Simplifying lllot, we Can describe the physiology of audition

inside the inner ear as follows: the mechanical movement of the little

of little anatomical structures that have an irDportmt role in audition.

One of them is the eardrum. This is a diaphragm or membrane to bony structores of the middle ear (ilie mallet, the anvil and the stirrup)

[J which soOOd waves are directed from 'outside and which vibrates,
acting as both' a filter and a trnnsrnitter of the ineoming sounds. The
is transmitted through the oval window to the liquid inside the

snaiHike structure of the cocblea; this causes the basilar membmne to

vibmte: the membrane is stiffur at CJ11e and than at the other, which

middle ear also eorrtalns a few tiny bones: the mallet, the anvil and the
J stirrup. The pressure of the air entering our auditory sjstem is
converted by ilie .vibration of the membrane (ilie eardrum) and ilie
makes it vibrate differently, depending on the'pitch of the sounds that

are received. Thus, low-frequency (grave) sounds will make vibrdte

the membrdllc at the 1es8 stiff (upper) end, while high-frequen.cy

elaborate movement of the little bones iliat act as some sort of lever
J &ysterii into mcchanical movement which is further conveyed to the
oval window, a structure placed at the interfuce of ilie middle and
(aruIc) sounds 1vill cause thc lower and stiffer end of the membrane to
vibrate. The cells of the organ of·Corti.· a. highly sensitive structure
hecause it :i:n.clndes.many 'qiliate cells that detect the slightest vibrating
, inner ear. As pointed ont above, th« middle, ear plays an, important
[I
, movement, convert these vibrations into n.eural signals that are
tranmnitted via the auditory nerves to the central receptor and
• We should not forget that the em (more eXllCtly llle inner ear) also plays controller ofthe en1rre prOcess, the brain. '
an essential part in our body's capacity of keeping ils balance. As this functioIl of
[J the ear obviously lies out'1ide tbe scope of!his book we are not going to discUSS it.

45
,~ 44
 The way in which the hUlIlaIl brain processes auditory that always .have the tendency to relate, compare and contrast new

".]
infi:mna:tion arul, in general, the mental processes linked to speech information to already J,::nOWR infOl'Ill!ltion. Our discussion of the

P"Xception and production are still largely unlmown. 'What is clear,

however, regarding the perception of sounds by man's auditory
phonemcin a subsequent chapter will analy"~ this in further detaiL

]
system., is that the buman ear can only hear sounds having certain ;: ­

amplitudes and :frequencies. If the amplitudes. and frequencies of the

respective sound waves are lower thM the range p=-ptible by the
2.4. Acoustic phonetics
]
ear, they are simply not beard. If, on the contrary, they are higher, the The branch of phonetics that studies the physical parametres of
sensation they give is one of pain, the pressure exerted on the
eardrlllTlS being tuo great. These aspects are going to be' discussed
speech SQunds is called aCQustic phonetics. It is the most "technical"
of all disciplines that are concerned with the mtdy of verbal ]
below when the physical properties of sounds are aualyzeJ. As to the commLttJica:tion. The data it bandles are the most concrete, palpable,
psycho logicai processes involved by the interpretation of the sounds
we hear, our knowledge is even more limited. It is obvious that
hearing proper goes haud in haud with the nndersf:a:t1ili of the
easily measurable ones that can be encountered in the domain of
phonetics in general.' The most impo:rt.ant principle of physics on
which verbal oornmllnica:ti911 is based is that VJ.btating bodies send

il
are
sounds we perceive in the sense of organizing them according to
pattemll already existing in our mind and distu"bntiog them into the
famous acou&llc irrlIIges that Saussore spoke of. It is at this level that
waves that propagated in·the env:iroi:ty:teut. Our articlliatory organ.~

produce a number of vibnrtiOl1$; these VIbrations need a mediUlIl to be

tr.a:r:!Jil.nitted through. The medinro through V\lhich speech sounds travel

I
audition proper intermingles with psychological processes heMuse our
brain decodes, interprets, cla.sifies and arranges the respective sounds
according to the linguistic (phonological) patterns already eristing in
is tJ.<rual1y the air. '@<perimeuts .have proved that if we try to

communicate in vacuum the sounds that we produce filii to reach the

addressee since they lack a medium through which they can

I
our mind.7 It is intuitively obvious that if we listen to someone
speaking an uriknown language it:will be very diflicrdt fur US not only
to understand what they say (this is out of the question given the
PIOpl!ga1e.) Classical prototypes of a vibrating body that are normally

referred to ill order to describe the W!fY in V\lhich verbal

commun.ication is achieved include the pendulum or the tuning fork..

I
premise we sfmted from) but we will have great, often insurmountable
difficrdties in idcntH'ying the actna1 sounds the person produced. The
immediate, reflex reaCtion qf our brain will be tu' assimihrt.e the
"When the funner is set in motion or the latter is struck, they vibrate

commmtly. The pendulum or each of the prongs of the tuning fork

ruDve in one di=tion and then back to the'starting point and then in

I
respective SOUllds to the ones whose mental images already exists in
our brain, according to a very conunon cognitive reaction of hUlIlallS
the opposite (\irection to roughly the same extent and the movement is

contioued decreasingly until the. vihrarion dies out completely. It is

because friction with the environment that the movement eventually

Listening ~n is, ofl'e.- oJ!, an essential part of our ttlalllCring •
C<li1llin l.angwtge. In order to actually undorstmJd whlll: 'OIlleone sa;ys in • given
lan~ we need tl> be accustomed to Jhe phonological structute afthe respectuive '
language. 'This will ""able US to oonect:ly interpret - acoustically speaking ,- even
phonological _ whose ",eaniug is unknown to us. Conveisely, when
$oJll,6Oue mispronouoces a word we know - say, in Our own mother tongue -:- 0l.R'
mind will lIlltllllIlllically crmect tho roil;rnb> and we will be able to nnd".."tand 111.
word the speaker meant to utter in spite of its actual faulty pronnncigtion (see, millO,
note 5 above).
I
dies out. Ideally, if the VIorating body were placed in vacuum the
=gy of the initial irnpnlse would be kept constant and the I
•if it is ilifllcult to onalym ui. d~, to caretillly observe 1IIe "Peech organs
in the process of producing wrious soundS, 1he acoustic :features of soUlids are more
easily observable. The sounds we produce can' be recorded. tlreir features can be
!!lll\ly?.ed, we Can even provide graphics representing the sounds we a:rticulare by
I
I
me:ans of special machines (see "the di'icus$ion below)

47
I

J movement would continue for ever. However, as the vibrating body is

surrounded by its movement is'1:!:llIlSD1itted to the air molecules
1- around. that vibrate accordingly. The vibration of1he pendulum or of
the prong of the tu:ni:og furk can be represented graphically by a
sinusoidal curve. The vertical axis or the ordin;rt:e will measure the
measured in cycles per second (cps) or Hertz. Sounds having a
com;timt period (in other words sounds displaying a regular vibration)
are called periodic sounds. The typical example for this kind of sounds
are musical sounds. However, in the case of other sounds, snccessive
periods vary and these sounds are called aperiodic. In reality, periodic
vibrations are seldom simple, the vibration being of a more complex

1.. amplitude or intensity of the SQUDd. while the. horizontal one, or the
abscissa will measure the duration in time of tile vibration. . .
kind than that rL-presented by the simple sinusoidal wave (or sine
"I'II1;lve) deseribed above. A vibrating body oscillates or vibrates at
If the distance from tile point of rest is greater, we say the various intensitie.', the ensuing vibration of the entire body being a
1
... amplitude of the vibration is higher. This is related to the aruount of
energy that is traIllilIlitted through the air by means of the resPective
wave that is not si]rusoidal and will differ from any of the simple sine
waves of which it is the result. The sinnsoidal components of aoy
sound wave. The higher the amplitude i~, the louder the sound. The complex periodic sound are called the harmnnics of the respective
1
.- conventional way in which we refer to the intensity or loudness or
ampJi:tude of sounds is tIlat of using the decibel scale. The decibel
sound. The higher harmonics are integral multiples of the 10WCb1:
harmonic which is called 1he fo,ndamental frequency or the
scale does not express the absolute intensity of a sound, but the ratio fondamentaI of the resPective sound. Thus, if a sound has as its
'I... between the intensity of a sound and a reference intensity. Thus, if we
want to compare the intensity of two sounds, we take the logarithm to
fundamental frequency 200 cps and one of its higher harmonics is of,
nd
say, 400 cps, we say that.;the latter is the 2 harmonic of the sound
the base 10 of their ratio aod multiply it by 10. For instance, ifa sOlIDd since it is twice bigher than the fundemental. A harmonic having the
1
*,
is 1000 times more intense than alJother, it means 1:baf 10 bas to be
raised to the power 3 1JJ get the ratio between them. If we multiply 3
frequency of 800 cps will be 1he 4th harmonic of1he sound, as it is four
times higher than the fundamental. We should always specify
by lOwe get 30, therefore the difference between the two sounds is of therefore, in the case of periodic sounds, which are the frcqncocy and

J 3a decibels (dB). If a sound is a billion times more intense than

another, this means that their ratio. is 10 raised to the power 9, so 1he
dilference between them is of 9 multiplied by 10, that is 0£90 decibels
amplitude of its funda1:nental and of its higher hru:monies. It is also
important to note that though the various mtes of vibra1ion will result
in a given timbre (tonality) of the sound. which is different from any
1.... (dB). Tho reference value fur the decibel scale is the standard intensity
of a sound which has a fixed value close to·the audible limit of sound.
of 1he harmonics, it will always be the fundemental that es"entially
defines (give., 1he quality of) a given sound. This kind of specification
(Ihis'value is .10,16 watts per square centimetre). Therefore, if we say that include., the fundamental and -the hru:monics of a sound is called
1-
that a sound is 40 decibels it means it is ten ihousaod times more
intenSe than ihe standerd reft:rence value.
1hc spectrum oftlie respective sound.
An essential feature of any sound is its pitch. Pitch is, roughly
;. A complete' movement, thin is one starting from tile initial
point going as far as the IJlllXimum amplitude, ,thw back to the point
.-peaking, the way in which we perceive the frequency of a SOUlld, it

- of rest aod beyond it to the maximum amplitude in the opposite

direction and fulally back again to 1he point of reat is called a cycle.
in other words the pc.:rceptoal correlate of the frequency of that sound,
We can say that the higher 1he fundemental frequency of a sound will
be, the higher the pitch of fue respective sound is, or nuher that we
1
0..;
lhe higher thc· number of cycles per unit of time (second) is, the
higher thefrequency of the vibration is. The time it takes for a cycle to
perceive the sound as having a higher pitch. This correlation is not,
however, linear as there is not always a direct proportionality between
be compkted is called the period of the vibration. Frequency is
1
"';

t 48
 the frequency of a sound and our perception of that frequency. Pitch
has a very important role in intonation as we shall see later. Pitch
differs a lot from one speaker to another. Women, for instance, have
shriller voices than men, therefore the pitch of their utterances will he
higher. 9 How is it then that we recognize a sound as being "the same"
even if it is pronounced by persons whose voices have very .different .
pitches? The answer is that though the fundamental and the number of
harmonics differ, obviously, in the two cases (the one with a lower
pitch having a lower number of harmonics) the shape of the spectrum
of ·the two sounds is pretty much the same in the sense that the
harmonics with the greatest ainplitude are at about the same frequency
in both cascs.· While vowels and sonorants have spectra which
resemble those of periodic sounds (of the kind mUsical sounds are),
obstruents, and particularly the voiceless ones, are aperiodic sounds.
which malces them pretty similar to pure noises.
Three are them the essential acoustic parametres that
characterize a given sound (a sound having a certain quality): its
ampliIude or intensity - that we perceive as loudness; its frequency,
that we perceive as pitch. and its duration. A given sound. therefore,
say the vowel lei, can be pronounced with vru;ious degrees of
intensity, the amplitude varies therefore, but fundamentally the sound
is the same. In spite of frequency variations (that we perceive as
variations in pitch) in the pronunciation ofthe above-mentioned vowel
by different persons, we will still identify the "same" sound. We can
also vmy the length of the vowel and we will still say that the sound'
hasn't fundamentally changed its quality. The anatomy and
physiology of both the articn1a:tion and audition processes draStically
limit the range of sounds that we can produce and perceive,
respectively. In oth~r words we cm only utter sounds within a eertain
range of intensity and loudness and their dmation is also limited.
Conversely, our auditory system is able to perceive and analyze
9 The frequency of vocal cord vibration ranges, generally. between 80 and
200 Hz in men, whlle the vibration of women's vocal cords can reach 400 Hz (see
Ladefoged. 1975: 163)'
50
sounds whose frequency and intensity are situated between certain
values and whose duration is limited-
The vibrations of a body can be transmitted, often with a
higher·:amplitude, by a phenomenon called resonance. Certain bodies
have the property of transmitting vibrations in this way and they are
called resonators: It is enough to think ofmusical instnnnents and this
physical proceSs becomes clear for everybody. If we take a violin, for
instance, the strings play the role of vibrating bodies, while the body
of the instrument acts as a resonator. And this is trne not only for
string instruments, but for wind instruments as well. If we take a flute
or a bassoon, we shall easily see 1:hi.t the air that is pushed into the
instrument when we blow:it makes vibrate the air already existing
inside the instrument and the body of the instrument plays again the
role ofresonator. .
A similar process can be witn~ssed in the case of speech.
Remembering am description of the main articulators above we shall
again mention the glottis as the first essential segment of the speech
tract that shapes the sounds .tha\ we produce. The vocal cords have the
role of vibrating bodies while tbe pharynx, the oral and the nasal
cavities, respectively; act as resonators. The versatility of these
cavities (notably the oral cavity) that can easily modify their shape
and degree of aperture, the mobility of the tongue and the complexity
of the human speech producing mechanism enable human beings to
articulate a remarkable variety of sounds in terms of their acoustic
:features. The initially weak vibrations of the vocal cords, having a
wide range of frequencies, are taken over and amplified by the above
mentioned resonators. The amplitude and frequency of the sounds that
ate further transmitted by the resonators depend very much on the size
and shape of these resonators. Resonance does not characterize,
however; only cavities that modify the acoustic features of a sound.
Vibrating.bodies themseives.are characterized by various degrees of
resonance:cResonatws can. amplify or damp the fonnarrts of the given
sound. by : enhancing or suppressing various frequencies. This
accounts for the wide -.variety in the parameteres of sounds different
human beings are able to produce. Each of the features of the
51
 J

J articulators of an individual has an impact on the types of sounds that spectrogram are called the formants of the respective sounds and they

J individual utters_ The musicality ofthe sounds that we producc-largely

depends on the characteristics of our phonatory- system, too. Vowels,
for irist"'lce, have distinct and constant patterns of resonance (the
represent the frequencies at which a greater amount of energy is spent.
Normally, two or tbra fonnants" at the most are used to describe a

'.
certain sound. Formants are essential for tire aJXrIlStic representaJion of
resonating- cavities assume certain shapes whenever a given sound is sounds and all voiced sounds have a fbnuan£ structare.

- uttered) and thus we Can always recognize the .respective sound by its
distinctive mark. The various positions of the soft palate will di:rect the
Different classes of sounds have, as shown above, di:ffurent
acoustic parametres._ We have already meutioned the :fact ihat, of the

J air through either the onu or the IlIl.Sl!l cavity or through both offuem.
This will give the sounds We produce a nasal or an oral character. As
twO major classes of sounds, vowels and ==ts, the fOmler are
closer, acOll&1iCally b'Peaking, to musical sounds, a~ their vibration

...-.
pointed out above, the shape and degree of OjJ<mIJeSS of the mouth can comcs closer to the ideal line of the periodic constant vibration.
vaJY, The ton.,aue,the lips, the teeth, the moyement of the Inaudible Vow"!s in their tum have distinct aconstic features. Front- vowels, for
can also influence speech prodtu:tion assigning various acoustic: inStance, are acute sounds, displaying higher frequencies in their
characteristics to the sounds we articulate. The qualities of the
second £o=t (between 1800 and 2300 eps), w1rile back vowels ore,
1... vibrating bodies themselves (in om: case the vocal cords) largely
iniluence the timbre of the sound that is produced- Speech p<m:eption
cOinpar.d.lvelY, graver sounds, their second formant ranging between
800 and 1009 cps. We can also distiilguiab between compact and
also fundamentally relies on the vibrating chruacteristics of various

....'I
membranes, on the possibility of transmitting these vibrations and"­
converting them into neural impulses. Certain segments of the
auditory- system, too, act as resonators, amplifying the basic features
:-1 of the sounds that reach our ear, or, on ilie -con1raly, damping these
'- sounds, ofren in order to protect oui auditory- organs, (s-"e the
discussion of audition above).
dj:j'fuse vowels, depynding on the way in which the main fo=ts are
." . to -=h othei
close '
or ore wider' apart in the spectrum of the sound.
ThpS, low or open vowels have their funnants grouped toward.q the
middle of the spectrum and axe consequerrtly compact, while high or
clOllC vowels are diffuse. the distance between their fOIl:IJJmts being
greater. Consoillmts, on the oilier band, can be clearly distinguished on

;1
-
As we have said, acoustic phonetics is the b:ranch ofphonetics
where data lire most liable to ll1e.asmemems, quantification, etc. IT we
the basis of their acoustic features. Non-p,:ripheral (dental, alveolar,
alveopalatal, palatal) sounds are !,cutc, as their formants axe situated
can hardly think of apparatuses being used in other linguistic fields among the uppe.r freqnencies of the spectnJm, while pLnpheral

rl
~
like sYntax or semantics, for instance, the situati.on is different in the
case of phon~1ics, as scientists have devised v..n()w insirum<:llts that
consonants are' grave, as their formants are situated among the lower

frequencies-of the spectrum. 1Q

are used to provide _an "image" of the way in which peOple speak find
1'"" graphics representing the sounds we produce. Such an :iru.irument k
the .acolMtic spectrograph, au appliance similar in marry ways to a I. :rm:, ~ was made by Ialrobsan and Halle (1956), who introduced
seismograph, or to an electrocardiograph (devices ihat record seismic the respeclivr. Iioatmes, actIJ£Igrave to diffenmtiare betwom periphcira! and non­

'I.... and heart activity respectively). It marks on paper the vibrations

caused by &1'eoch sound production. The graphs they produ<;e are
peripheral consolll!l:llR Acoustic param"tu:" of sounds played an important mI. in
sev<lIii1 notorious atttmplS made by wrious phonologistli b:> eSlablish. a list of so­
called distinctive.fua1nres. JaJcobson and Halle's clBssification notably uses acoustic
called spectrograms and represent the frequency of the sound on the
~-I
1<J
vertical and its duration on the horizontal. 'The darker bands in the
chapter discussing di'/tin<1ive features.
m
charncteristics b:> describe the femures. More detailS will be givOJI this book ill the

'·1 52 53

2;5. SynchrOniC, diachronic, comparative phonology
. We have SO fur exatriined the interest of phoneticianS in what
may. be called the production, the perception and the physical
characteristics of sounds and we have briefly presentee! various
doro.;iio.s' of phonetics dealing with the respective dam: articulatary,
aud:il:ory and acoustic Pboni:rtics. LangtlllgeB, however, are not given
once for ever and they are sUbject to change as all h = things are.
Of course that changes affecting a certain language are not easily
noticeable over a shari; period. of time and if we want to collect
relevant data regarding these phenomena we often have to :refer to
periods of one or severa} centuries. Pronunciation changes too and
though we do not have recordings of the way in which people spoke
centuries ago, specia1L<rts can, however, "reconstruct" the manner in
which words used to be pronounced in the past. klinguistiC approach
that is interested in data that pertain to the evolution or changes in the
pronunciation of a given language over a longer period of time
belongs to the domain of histarical or diachronic phonology. If, on the
contr;lljT, the phonetician's approach focuses on aspects linked to the
phonological system of a language at a given moment in its evolution
we say that his or her approach is synchroniC and can be subscribed to
what is called .SJlnc/vonic phonology. If a phonetician'S analysis deals
with aspects regardi.ne the pronunciation of different languages or
even ofdialects or regional varieties· of ohe and the same Ia:ngOage, in
other words ifbe' or she is interested in comparing phonetic feattireS of .
different linguistic systems, the t!,speetive approach belongs to what is
called comparati:ve phonology.
2.6. Varieties of English. The international spread
or English. Regionid variation. Aeeents.
Standard English and Received Pronunciation
If there are people who claim that Chinese rather than English
is the language that haq ·the largest nlJ1Ilber of speakers in the world
I
,~
~I
_.
(though arguably so, since we can hardly speak about a unique
laD.oauage spoken by the 1.2 -billion Chinese) English is indisputably
the lllilst widely spread language on earth, as it is practically spoken
on all continents, either as mother tongne or first language or as a
J
second language (oflen an official isnguage in the respective
countries) by hundreds ofmillions of people. A language having such
It wide geographical' spread cannot be fWlIlcted to be "the same" in
t
.4
places tens of thousands of kilometres apart. hI other words, we
cannot imagine that people in Sydney, Calcutta, Vancouver, Toronto,
Los Angeles, the FaJ.kland Islands, Dar es Salasrn, Harare,
J
Johannesburg, Cork, Glasgow, York, Manchester. London or Victoria
speak the same "kind" of English. The d:iJ'furences are n.:n always­
proportional-to the dist:ances, since General American (the variety of
I
American Eng1ish !bat is dialectallY. ncu1n!1, that is it is not influenced
by the souythern or eastern AmeriClm accents and is spoken by the
majority of the population of the USA; .it is usually abbreviated GA) is
I
much closer to stlmdard British English (see the explanation of the
ll
term below) than are some of the northern accents spoken on ilie
very island of Britain. 1bis is so because dialectal (or regional)
I
suCh
variation is typical of any language, not only of languages having
a reJl.larkable geographical spread as English. The fact that English
came into contact _ as a consequence of the werldwide extent of the
I
.British colonial empire _. with a wide variety of languages spoken by
native populations in variollS parts of the werld only contributed to an
even greater diversification of the varieties of English that are
I
currently spoken all over the world. Therefore, the distinctions
mentioned above can be of different kinds, pertaining either to the
already mentioned regi anal varistion, or to the separate evolution of
I
the language in different parts of the world to which geographical
distances and cultural fuetOIS largely contributed. hi many cases, the
interaction between English and one or several localla:nguages gave
I
birtb to so-called pidgins. Variation can aiso be noticed at individual
I
It We Use tl:u:.: terril accent with the sense of promlOclntion Wical of a
(;
.
certlin. dialect (regiolllll varillnt) ofa given lall,!!uage.
55
 I

I
level and the kind of English spoken by a certain person often pronunciation is commonly known as Received PronullciaJiofL 111"
illustrales his or her educational and social bacl<:ground, a situation ernc.rgence of a southern dialect to this predominant position can be
I
particul.arly relevant in a conservative country like Britain. where
social and cultural differences are more important than in other parts
historically. explained by the political, economic and cultural
importance of London ever since early Middle Ages. The language
of the world. Diffurences between the varieties of English pertain, spoken at Court by the royal f:amily and their refined entourage WdS
[I
n.atur-.illy, not only to the voc;WularY or grai:m;oar, but, essentially,. to early invested. with all the respect, authority and iriiluence that a
pronunciation as well. They are never that imporlallt, however, to model needs. Being the language of the educated upper segments of
justify the identificatio~ of " d.i:ffurent "llinguage" and those speaking the. iEngIioili society, it was perceived as the correct version of the
J
abont an "American" langaage, for example, are doing it either out of
ignorance, or of "patriotism", or because of commereia1 interests
_language, in opposition to other accents that were consequently
regsrdcd as corrupted forms of the norm. The two traditional
(more people would be intaJ:ested in being taught "American" than lmivt.Jrsities, Oxford and: Cambridge. and, in more recent times, the
J
"English", for instance). If variation in the case of individual
languages is a natural and co.mmon phenomenon, institu~onally and
public schools largely contribnted to the growing prestige of Received
Pronunciation. The very term received suggests the idea of the geDerai
adn:rinistratively it can hardly be accepted. Attempts at stand~on acceptance of this variety of Engli1!J:t. The invention of the radio IlI!d
]
and normalization, .at preserving the unity and even the 'Jrurity"12 of the adopting of RP by the BBC also pliyeld an important role in the
the language represent therefure a constant concem fur different imposing ofRP as the socially desirable norm for the p:ronunciation of
the Janguage. It also account9 fur RP being known as BBC English.
II
official bodies md institutions in various countries. If this is easier to
achieve at the level of the writtcm language, dilficnlties are much.
greater in the case of the spoken language. Even at this level,
This prestige of RP is not linguistically motivated but is essentially
rooted in: tradition and in the anthority of the educational systt-."IIl and

]
however, the need for a standardized,. more or less universallY
acceptable and recognizable variant is: even greater in the case of
of the upper classes, since it has been for a long tim" the
prommciation mught in .schooL , .
descnoed by English dictionaries and
English than in that of other languages, since this is the official phonetic books, .disseminated through the media, ll.'lCd by the educated

J
language of many countries in the world and is the most -widely used
lan"ouage in international conferences, meetings, etc, being the main
Jan.,ouage used by UN organizations and ba;ving become since Warld
people in academic circles, in public speeches, conferences, etc. It

in one word, the kind of English having the highest social and crdtural

Sl!Jllls and that any ''reb-pectable'' person is supposed to use. 13 Starting

]
War JI a kind of lingua franca of contemporary world. A variety of
English ignoring the naluo3l diversity. of various dia).ects or
as the accent of a limited social segment and having the essential

features of a southc:rn accent, RP transcended social and geographical

geograpmcalinational varian1.ll of the 1!wgaage thus gradually limits and came to be recogxrized as the correct variant of the

]
established itself as the standard version of the language. This variety
ofEnglish is largely based on the southem dialects of the language,
Ian.,OUBge, the norm as regards pronunciation. As mentioned above,
more than other couniries, Engiand is a placel where accent still
around which the literary' laoguage had been formed, and its
]
12 ~llie French are notorious for their often exaggerated efforls to. protect
1) It should be mention~ howevcr~ that;, aCC01"ding to statispcs. RP is

characteristic ouly of about 3% of the overall nmul>er of speakers of the English

ODd preserve the ~, of their lal:Igullge. Si:milar atlelllp1S, less consistent and
rJ
systematic and having little if any scieotific fuundation - and consequently being
pure pul:tiwl demagogy have been made in our country. teo.
language, thm many I!lltive speakors will consider it affected and that foreigu
sp6llkers rarely acqulre it rorrectJ;y. For most people it functions as an ideal target
rather fhao an actual mealJ." ofcrunmunicatiou.

57
FI
56

repre~cnts an important index to lhe social and educational
background of the speaker. This largely accollIJis :fur lhe survival of
RP 'as the standard pIOllunci1ltion Ilf the ilmguage in spite of its
stati.Stic insignificance descnoed in the not" before. Wilhin RP itaeif,
however, three main types can be di,;<linguished: conservative RP,
general RP and advanced RP. Conservative Ri' is characteristic·for the
older generations of RP s~ers and is !he variant most resistant ta
~. Advanced RP, on the contrary typifies a:J:temptB to obange
witliin RP and may be suggestive of future evolutions within RP.
General RP is !he most widely used, keeping the bel;mce between !he
conServative and !he innovative tendencies within lhe accent. 1t is !he
RP variant !hat is commonly used by !he mecfu..
As for the other dialectal pronunciations of British English we
will mention only some of the most important Cockney enjoys a
certain notoriety as it i~ the accent used in the south, notably in !he
London
. region and typifies the pronunciation . of whal: was
ttaditionally called the working class. Some of the most striking
ahal:acteristics of Cockney are that it replaces voiceless stops by the
glottal stop and widens lhe diphthong [elJ to [m]. Several acoonta of
I
southern and soufu.eastern England are collectively known as Estuary
England. Northern dialects, whlclJ inclUde accents of Northern
rmgllmd and uf Scotland are, generally, motie {r is pronounced in
I
po~t-vocalic.fiua1 or pre-consonantal position; e.g. in wordS like car or
pa:rt), while !he, central open vowel [A] is. generally pronounced as
some .sort of (u]. hish people speak English with avery distinct
I
acceot. If we e,dend our outlook to varieties of English spoken outside
the BritjsJl isles in various regions of the world that were foIIIU'irly
inCluded in the British Empire, American rmgIish will of course have
an: outstanding position, Americans forming the large.s!. community of
native English speakers in the world V.arious l.!ihels will be attached
to different varieties of the language, that have borrowed the name of
the respective countries or geographical regions: Australian 'Englisl:t,
Indian English, Canadian English etc. Further snbdivisions are, of
coprae, possible, taking into account linguistic diversification eveo.
wilhin lhe varicties mentioned above.
j
2.7. Sound Change. The gap between spelling and 'I
I .
l·
pronunciation.' The International Phonetic
Alphabet.
homographs
Homonyms,
.
homophones, ]
As shoWn above, the invention of alphabetic writing
represented a huge step forwm-d on the way to a simplified graphic
]
symbolization of the words of spoken languages. Early systems of
spelling were gt:nerally based on a one-to-one correspondence
between the graphic representation and the spoken language, in other
Words alie lind the same sound (or, raiher, phoneme, as we .hall see
l.'.
later) 'Was' always represented by One and the same graphic symbol
ea
(letter) and a graphi.c symbol could only be pronounced in one way. iI
one-to-oDe relation). However,., as the prommciation of = y
lmi:,,~es underwent important changes aJ.ong centuries, the spelling
did not always keep the pace with these transformations. The example
of, English is, .probably, the most relevant, among the modem
I
Euiopean languages at"1east To the dismay of foreign stodeuts of the
language, but probably no less to that of p:rim.aty school native
sPeakers as well, the gap created between the pronunciation ofwords
and ortbogrophy in modem English is sometimes stunning; even
consonants, a usually safer ground than vowels, .can sometimes
reserve unpleasant smprises. How can an average English speaker
account for !he variation from a velar plosive to a palata-Alveolar
affricate or fricative in examples like get [get], gem [d3em] and
gendarme [30;nda=J or give [gTV], gipsy [<tIPSI] and gi'te [3 i:t]
respectively? Why should one and the same group of letters - ch - be
read in three different ways in words lilre child (IfaIId], charade I
[fa'ra:dI and character ('kemkta]? How can we account for the fact
that wordS like four, cliff, laugh, pharmacy and lieutenant use five
difrerent ways for representing one and the same sound; Iff? The
j
""planation that present-day English ,,.pell:ing actually represents (or,
anyway, is muclJ closer to) the pronunciation of late middle English
can harrlly sweeten the pill The grim reali1y we arc confronted with is
i
thst wc have to separately learn the pronunciation and the spelling of
59
i
~,
 I

,the words of the language as any correspondence we might be tempted Association has been to keep it updated, enriching and adapting it to
)
to establish between :the two can prove utterly misieading,14
Suggestions have .1)een made to simpli:fjr English orthography and
the various diifurent idioms as well as to publicize :the changes
brought to the alphabet. The alphabet of the International Phonetic
"tune" it to :the prommciation of :the words. It is precisely tile Associati.on. commonly. cclled the InternationaLphonetic Alphabet is

J
m.1raordioo:ry variel)' of the language mentioned above :that seems t!l
be, however, one of the major obstacle.~ in this direction, as; it has
been argued, spelling T<i1;nains one of the major 'ml;:lllL'l of prest.'rving
)
:the lmity of the language. If it were adapted to the way people
pronounce the words, then one and the same word could have, so IDBllY
spellings that different users ofEnglish could hardly recognize it.
the one ,COllV",,-qon4lY used by all major language dictionar;ies aud
encyclopediaS in 9.t:4BX.1:O repreSf.,.nt the pronunciation ofbo:th common
and proper oo~, ~t ~a.s proved to he an extremely useful tool, as it
has the major advairtagc of uSlng one and only one '(always :the same)
symbol for the srune sound disregarding thus spelling peculiarities that
are often SO PUZl1.!iug and misleading for students of a language woose

J
o The need was felt, :then, for a handier, illore accessible system
of graphic representation of the sounds that should somehow parallel
orthography is essentis1ly based on eJymological principles,
Conventionally, :the graphic symbols used to represent pronunciation
the normal spelling but be based on a more logical, one-to-one are placed between square btacl<ets.
]
correspendence with the phonemic ~ystem of the lan,,<>uage. ~!'~ idea
of a so-called phonetic alphabet was thus bom. At the end of the 19
th
The di51ance existing betweeu. ;
the pronunciation of words Il11d
their spelling creates a special problem in ymguages like English, one

century a group of phoneticillIlS led by a French linguist, Paul Passy, that is unknown to languages like Romanian where spelling is based;

J
created the lllternatiOnal Phonetic Association and devised a system of
. graphic representation of soUnds that was actllally :the first ph~lletic
on a phonemic principle. Ail languages have words that have similar

pronunciations. but have entirely' diff=ntmeanings. "They have'

alphabet. Gradually, :thc system was enriched and inJproved 50 that it different ~, diffi:rent meamngs and their phonetic similari1:)r is.

]
soould not be linked to any, particular language, but rather be apt to
represent graphically' :the pronunciation of words in any langrmge
due to sound changes undergone by words that were originally

entirely distinct. These words are called homonyms, the word coming

~'Poken On earth. Since the members of the association cmne from

UUID Greek ~-uggcSifug their Samenes; (Ok.. ' homos = same). Ali

[)
countries where the Latin alphabet is used (which is, anyway, the
predominant alphabet on most of:the five continents ofthe world), the
homonyms have both :the same pronunciation and' fu~ same spelling io'

symbols used by the newly devised phonatic alphabet are mainly a language like: Romanian: e.g. mare (adj., big) and mare (n.• sea), a

st

II
taken from this alphabet. Diacritics ru:c some/:imes used tu represent
cet1l1in -sounds. As far as English is concerned, sarne of i~ sotiruis (the
semiina. (to resemble) and a 8emtina (to sow), pot (1 pers sg. and 3'"

pern, pI. of:the present iodicanve of the verb II pUlea, can) and pot.

(stake in a g"d!Ile of cards), cearii 3m person sg, and plurdl present,

interdental fricatives, for iIlb"tance) lID' represented by symbolS taken

[J
from the' Greek alphabet, the respective sounds being round in the
Greek language as' well. Ever since the first phonetic alphabet was
su~unctive) and cearii (war). ,!he diiI=.n.ce between spelling and.

pronunciation in English introduces a further distinction as word~ may

created, 'one of the main tasks of the International Phonetic have similar pron:unCi~tiOllS and be homopk,nes (or ho~ophonoUs I

fJ
J4 Ber<Ulrd Shaw's furuous ,,,,,,,,,,tic suggesliOIl that English people should.
leJdcal items)' but have differ'OIlt spel1io~I;<;. Two English words will be
then homoDyrOOus, strictly speaking, if:they are not only homophones,
be consist<mt alld ,poll tlte word fish 3R ghoti (gb to represent 1he sound { as in but they are also homographs (:they arc spelt in the same way). Thus,
[)
laugh. 0 to roprese.nt tit. "owol I as in women and ti 10 represent tile paialo-al"eolar
fricative J as iu mWOl1) is quoted by all plronoticimlS
the modal verb riiOji is.a homonym of the noUn May (:the mon:th ofthc,

rl
60 61
 year) or the :noun type is a hOJIlOnym of the verb type as they are hoth
'CHAPTER 3
homophones and homograpb.q, while pairs of words lJke pray aod
prey, meat and meet, sow ~d sew, will only ,be homophones but not
genuille homonyms as'they are not also bomogrnpbs. We can come
, two
acro,~ 'the opposire situation, Wl:w.n words are homograpb.~ but are
THE SOUNDS OF ENGLISH. CONSONANTS
pronounced differently: e.g. row (or;;b;irn)'aDd row Cqum:rel)bo~ (the
AND VOWELS. AN ARTICULATORY ,
"weapon) and bow (the 'synonym of bend); $OW the verb and sow the
CLASSIFICATION AND DESCRIPTION
female pig. OF CONSONANTS. ,
DI.STRI~UTION.ACOUSTIC CORRELATES

3.1. Consonants and Vowels. Traditional

distinctions. Chomsky and Halle's SPE
definition

The previous chapter has provided a brief description of the

human phonatory system insisting on the main articulatory organs and

t;lifferentiating between passive and active articulators. Articulatory

phonetics has been defined j$JhII.Lbl@~9LOOmletics thatJl.l.Jldies.1hf'

soundS of a language from the point of view of theiJ:)U1LeolatioI.l....gf

the manner in which they come to be produceg, utttrred !:1Y the l!P.eliker.

The neXt ChliPters oftlils book will giv.;:u;;;description and ait~pt-a '
.,
classification of the sounda of English in articulatory terms, presenting
also some acoustic correlates ofllie major classes of sounds.
When tJyjng to describe the, sounds of English - or of any
language for that matter - one should, start with the ttaditional
distinction between two major classes of sounds: v(JWels and
consonants., respectively. There is, of course, no universally acce;pted
definition" for ~ither cla~s - is there any subject upon which
grammar:ians Will' agree, after all? but we can resort, at last for the
beginning, to etymology, to explain what people - in an intuitive
rather than scholarly manner -,have always under.srood by the two
concepts. The woro vowel comes from. the Latin woro vocaiis, which
ic its turn derives, from vox, vocis, meaning word, voice, (cf. also Rom.

6".1
 J

J vocaJif) In other words, we always percelve Ivowels',

•

\~.~".
t< ---.~

as sound -­ ---- the .case of vowels, while in the case of consonants it r,,-duces the
intimately relaied to the feature of voicedness: a vowellS a sound thai
J must be produced with vocal cord V1;'ratio~: '&t tlrls'is a featuii-tri.iii
characterizes some non~v~~io sOWldS- is something thai will be
I

resonance of the laryngeal souru:ls, It noise-like effect being produeed

by fhe In:tercession of oral articulatOrs. 2
LeOl1llTd Bloomfield defines vowels as "modifications of
discussed a little bit later. On the other band, the word ~~
J su~llts - again, on a strictly etymological b/liiis - thai the '~ve
;~und doesn't have an articulatory autollomy, 0:;:, to put it differently,
voice-sOlmd that involve no closure, :fi:ictiDn, or contact ofthe tongue or
lips" while conso1ll'll1tS (thai include stops, trills, ~pimnJ:s, nasals and
laterals) are "the other" sounds. Bloomfield i:leplares the way in which

iJ that it pas to sound tQ&-etber (La:, COnB017L1llS, present parrticiple of

consonare cf also Lat. consOM, Rom. consoanli) or. ~ounccd in.
association with other SOUllds. This iH again somerhin,i(tlia-Cwe
somehow intuitively aware of. or at least we were taught thai this was
....~I the case as· early as during our first language classes in primary
schooL Thai this is a definition that causes some serious problems is
:1 again sometlring thai will be soon discussed­
J As pointed out before, these etymological references are not
very helpful in llllderstanding the true nature of the dlfferences
betweOll fhe two classes of sounds. Though always voiced" vowels are
:1
,-­ by no means the only voiced sounds in a l!l.l1llU"ge. On fhe other hand,
sounds that don't have consonantal features, may very well be
;1
....
pronounced together with other sound.~. Further difficulties are created
by fhe ambiguous nature of certain sounds that have both vocalic and
conson.autal features.
TIle soroewhaJ: intuitive criteria (seldom explicitly expressed,
1.... howeveri had to be replaced by systematio and consiStent attempts at
are
the twa labels, vowels and consonants respectively, are used and argues
that in. the description of individuBl1anguages it is convenient to use the
terIns in a cliffurent w:ay and to supple:n:tlmt !his distinction made in
artk.-ulatory 1etms. He suggesi.s that the distinction should be refined by
adding two more classes: sonan/s and ;-emivoweL,', (1935: l02) ,
Arguing in favOlU' of a slrict delimitation betweL"Il fhe phonetic
(articulatoJy and acoustic) descriptions of souru:ls and their phonemic,
contrastive value in a given context,; J'ike' distinguishes between
contoid and vocoid sound.q, a division exclusively based on phonetic
charaeter:i:>1ies thai parallels the distinction consonants/vowels iliat are
"categories of sounds, not as deten:nined by fheir own phonetic nature,
hut according to their. grouping in speci:lic syllable contextual
./
!I,
functions", . Aecording to tlris interprataiion we can talk about
univernal, purely phonetic fua'tores of· conroids aurl vocoi ds
respectively, while each particular langllflgc (phonological system)
j
will dclineate itS own classes of consommts and vowels.
I

defi:n:ing the true nature ofthe di:ffurence~ between the two classes.
According to Ferdinand de Sau:;sure, what distinguishes
i
1. La fomml. d'une voyell. est ."a,c!:fmlellt comparable a celie de n'irnporte

1.... vowels fram consonants is the higher degree of aperture of the oral
cavity. From an articulatory point of view, the two classes are not,
quelle COIlSOllil. s = Au point de we de "articulation buccal", il n'y a pas de

dJstinctian a:fitire. Scul I'cffot a£cOIllltiqUll est difierent. Passe 1m certain degr.

d'aperture, la bouche .tbru:tiom:te principalc;twmt comme resona:teUr. Le timbre dtt

son l..-ynge "Ppi1fldt pleineinen1 et la'bruit buccal.'ei!iu:e. Plu!! Ia bouche 50 ferroe,

1- however, essentially di:ffurent. It is only from an acou..otic point of

view that ·distinctions are relevant; the laryngeal sound being
amplified by the oral eavity that Dmctidns primarily as a resonator in
plus Ie son bIIYllg&est:intercepti. (1965: 75)

'"A phonetic sYstem should be able, wiJirin the limits of the aecnracy and

finesse of its articulaWty, acoustic, ru- imitation-labo! procedures, to d"scribe my

sound in isolation., or in: nanse;n.sc syllablcs, or as cut from: the continuum of speech,

rl... I KOllllcth Pilre notes that "frequently fur desGripiWn of sin~ langtUlgt'" 1he
without the necessity ofreftu:ring to othct sounds in 11m context to :find crltz.ria for its
classtlic:ation. A phonetic sci""ce should be .ble In define IIIld de$noe its own uriits
by its Oml dattt.•• If 1he phanetic.ian ;fj,,;t dolilnits supposed mticnlatory classes by
division is assumed, with no attempt In defiM it. Tl)e distinctiOIL is ofhm p~ phonnmlc team.res, haw can be thon dc=ibe the phonemes with articulatory
;1
",~
as if it were cl=r·cu~ with every solllld belonging to one or the otlrer oftl!e groups"
(1943: 66)
mel:bods? Any such a!tcmPt
presents a Vicious circle of phonemics 10 phonetics ID
phonemics, with the phonetician stllrting at phonmmcs.n (1943: 78)

65
'I 64
 Many conttmlponuy liDguistic. studies follow C'homsky and
Halle (The Sound Pattern of English, 1968) in po~'tulatiDg the fact
that the mmn distinction hetween vowels and COIlSOrumts consists in
the .filet that while we utter a vowel the outgoing 8irl:tream does not
meet any major ohstacle or constriction in its way from the lungs out
of the mouth, and the articulation of the sound allows spontanOOtlS
voicing, whereas the articulation of a consonant always involves some
kind ofblocking of the airstream. 4 ·
Once we have decided that consonants are sounds that involve
a smeture (llllmlwing, wlrich can sometimes lead to a complete
Obstruction) of !he vocal tract, we will easily notic.e that what we have
just decided·to call consonants are far from being a homogeneous
elass. On the other hil!ld, it is obvious that consoruu.rts will be more
readily described io articolatory terms than. vowels since it will be
definitely easier to poiut to the precise organs involved in the process
of articulation and to the place where the above mentioned
constriction takes place.
3.2. Criteria for consolllant classification. Vocal
cord vibration. Sonority
Traditionally, the three basic criteria llsed in the articulatory
descriptioo of a sound an: vocal cord vibration (voicing), the place of
i
articulation and the manner ofarticulation.
. As fu as voicing is concerned, mtmtion has been made in the
chapter describing the articulatory organs that the vocal· cords
I,
I
represent a key element in the articulation of speech sOlllldi If the
I
cords vibrate when we produce a sollnd, the sound thus· uttered is
i 3.3. Manner of articulation. Plosives. Fricatives.
I
I
< Vocalic sounds are defined as sounds "prodnced ...nIt an oral caYity in
wru ch the most ramcal consnictimt does not OlCceed !bat flJllllli in the high 'Iowels [i}
and [u) and with vocal cords fuat are positioned so as to allow spontmoous voicing;
in producing llOIlvocalic ao,mils one or bofu of fuL"Se conditions me not s.dsfied."
CQnsOlla.ntal so1.ll'l<ls a:re: dt--..:fi'ned as sounds "producecL with a radical obstruction in
the mid~agittal region of 'the -rocal tract; nonconsonanbll sounds are produced
without such an obstruction" (191ill: 302)
h/l
called a voiced sound (Rom. sonar). If, on the contrary, the sound is
utterec1'witholit vocal· cord vibration. th!'1l we are tal.king about a
VOiceless sound· CRam. surd). We havc alretldy said that all vowels are
voiced, while'is regards consonants, they fall into the two categories
mentioned ".nove.
Voicing is not, however, the only parameter that can be used to
classifjr consonants and other I.:riter:ia ",111 also be used to eross­
classifY this pretty numerous and heterogeneous cla~s of sOllJJ.ds. If
Vloration of the vocal cords constitutes an important. cinerion for
differentiating among various sounds, the outgoing airstream. may
make the tWo cavities (oral or nasal) mentioned in the second chapter
vibxllte. TItis generates an acoustic phenomenon we are fumilj'ar with
from everyda;y life, namely resonance. The lrigher or lower level of
resonance produced when a sound is uttered results into a higher or
lower degree of prominence or sonority and leads to a majar
distinction betWeen two classes of -consonants: sonorallts and
obstruents. Sonorants ;;n, of course, be called those sounds having a
1rigber d~gree of sonoril;y and :resonance, while obstruents will be
those consonants characterized by a comparatively lower sonority and
involving a much lower resoIl!!nce (if a:ny). The level of sonority beiog
higher in the case of sonarants (the vowels themselves will hold the
highest positirni on a sonority scale), they will consequently be vowel
or vowel-like sounds. The obsttuents wiU be those sounds having
predominantly consonanlal features, the class including the so called
genuine or.true COnsOlWlts. In English, aU sonorants are voiced, while
obs!Illents may be voiced OJ: voiceless.
Affricates
. Tmeconsonants or obstitrents can then be classified taking
into account. manner of articulation featores. Consonants have already
been definedas'sounds produced by obstructing the vocal tract w:hile
expclling the .airs1re3m from the lungs. The way in which this
obstruction is ac1rieved can be of difrerent kinds. If a sound is
67
 J
produced with a complete closure of the vocal tract fullowed by a 3.4. Sonorants. The Approximants: glides aJill]
)
sudden release ofthe air, the articulation is accompanied by a burst, a
sort of explosioIL Such so).lIidS are consequ=tly called plostves. As
liquids
fu" articulation involves a total Obstnicti01i (occlusion) ofthe'trac(ali Not all continuant sounds are produced, however, with friction,
]
alternative flame for such a coiJs01lll1lt is that of stop (Ro7l!~ (jcluzivii).
It should be m=tioned, however, that the two. tenDs are not ,exactly
as is the case of fricatives, mentioned above. There are sounds in
English (and other IBlloouages as well, of course) the pronunciation of
synonymous, since~a.l.. s()unds are stops (the: air stream is blocked) which dol'S not involve a major obstruction m the speech tract and
but are not plosive smmils a:i 'their articUlatIon is not accompanied by
)
an explosive burst. We must remember, fu=, tfurt t:1:W 'articulation of
does not produce the auditory effect ,of friction that characterize
fricatives. Such sounds are co=only called approrirnants or
any plosive sound includes three distinct phases: dming the :first one,
frictionless continuants. The glides and the liquids are the two major
often called the approach, the articulators are moving together;
] preparing to plock the airstream; during the S!'COM stage, called the
-! subclasses of approximants.
hold or closure, the articulators completely block the speech tract
preventing the air to go out and contributing thus to builcting up the Tne glides are sounds such as [wJ and fj] in English words like
]
pressure of the airstream; during the third and last stage, called the wife and young. Articulatorily,' they have a predDminimtly vocalic
character since no maj or obstacle can be.identified when analyzing the
release, or plosion, the speech organs move swiftly, releasing the air
with an explosion. way 'in which these sounds are utter~d. If this is a :feature that
]
If the stricture or narrowing of the tract does not result,
emphaSizes their vocalic character, their distribution is not, however,
that of a vowel; they can never be syllable nuclei (they are not syllabic
however, in a complete blockage and 11 narrow passage is left for the in SPE terminology) and they always precede a genuine vowel.
]
air to go out, the pressure building up in the case of plosives is absent
and the sound is uttered n~t with a sudderiburst, but continuously, the
Because of their dual nature they are traditionally called semivowels
or semiconsonants, the very coexistence of the two names suggesting
articuJation being accompanied by friction between the a:in;tream: and the uncertainty and hesitation: of specialists, confronted with their

J
the speech organs. Such sounds'are therefure called fricatives. A
major distinction between the latter and the stops is that they are
conlinuani, noruibrupt sounds and their articulation can be, at least
ambiguous lllIfure. A more detailed description of glides will, be given
later, when diphthongs are discussed.

[J
theoretically, continued mdefinitely. Liquids constitute an important subclass of sonorants. Their
high level of sonority places them, like the glides and the nasals,
The last major group of consonants that can be identified on
between vowels and genuine consonants. Liquids can be lateral
[J
the basis of the triannet of articUlation is that of the affricates.

Affiicates combine the features of the two previou,s classes of sounds,

sounds like [I] - the name comes from' the fact that when we utter
these sounds the air is released laterally on one or both sides of the
since their articulation starts like that of a ploSive, by a complete
tongue - or rhona like [rJ - the Dame comes from the Greek word

J
. blockage of the airstream, but continues l.ilre that of a fricati~. as the '
,.n"xt stage does not involve an abrupt release Of the air, but a gradual
one. The symbols used in the phonetic transcription of these sooods in
rho, ,designating 'the Jetter R in the Greek alphabet 1f in standard
EngliSh'the sound'has the featureS of an approxllnant, more exactly of
a glidf>.like sound, being produced without any kind of friction, in

[J
English are, as we shall see, somehow suggestive of their ambiguous,
hybrid nature.
certaii:t dialeCts of'ErigJish when this sound is uttered the tongue is
placed agaIDst the alveolar ridge and caused to vibrate, generating a

'1
68 69
 sonorous, intermittent sound a.q !he tongue touches the paSlrive the case oftheir fortis countexparts. The duration of articulation is also
"'
]

articrtlator quickly and repeatedly, interrupting the outgoing airstream.
It is the kind of [r] that appears in Spanish words like Rodrigo, real,
etc. or in the interjection brrrrl that accompanies a shivering
sensation.. It is called the rolled or trilled [rJ. If when the sowtd is
uttered the tongue rapidly touches with only one movement the
post-alveolar region we have a tap or flap type of thotic. If the tip of
the tongue is drawn even further back" the thotic thus articulated is
called retroflex.
3.5. Oml and nasal articulation ,I
,
longer in the case of fortis sounds than in the case ofthe Lenis ones. In
a voiced I voiceless pair, such as [t] I Cd], for instance, the feature
fortis always characterizes the voiceless consonant, while the voiced
oneill lani•.
[J
I
If we. consider the .mct iliat the source of the airstream that haq
an essential role in producing the sounds are the lungs, then we can
fJ
I say that all the sounds of English are pulmonic (Latin puima,
,i
;
pztlmollls, m.eaning Zuni). The direction of the airstream is from the
lungs out of the body, in other words we always speak during the
[J
expiiation, not during the iospiiation phase of breathing. Therefore,

A different criterion that can he used to distinguish among

the sounds of Engli'lh are also egressive. There are, however,
languages where the sounds are ingressive'as they are uttered while
the speakers breathe in.
fI
sOlmds is !he position of ilie velum or soft palate (see. in Chapter 2
above the description of the main articulstory organs). Jfthe velnm is
lowered, thus allowing the air 1:0 escape through the ll!!Slll cavity, we
3.7•.Place of articulation
I
are dealing with a nasal sound. If it is raised, blocking the nasal eavity
and letting the air out through the om! cavity (the mouth) the sound is
called oral. English nasal con.qonants are stops as the airstream is
I
i
'1I We have so far examined English consonants taking into
account the manner iri which they are articulated. Another equally

I
caznplerely blocked when these· cODSorumts are uttered, but they are I

I
!
not considered pIomve sounds as tqair release stage differs from. that :i:mpo.rtJmt criterion we can llSe in classitYing Engli'lh consonants is the

of om! stops. Nasal sounds are son=ts and of·all the members of place where the obstruction is aclrieved, the plare of articula:ti.on. A

,, tfurtinction has already been drawn between active and passive

tlris class theydh'Play the lowest degree of sonority. As fur as English
vowels are concerned, nasality is a contextual feature as we are going
to see later.
i
I
articuJatars, which started from the comparatively higher or lower
degree of mobility of the organs Involved .in the articulati01l. As we are
going to see, the :lk1Il1es giv<..'I1 to different classes of consonants
I
3.6. Force ofarticulation
! identified on the basis of their place of articuiation are actually Ul!ren
from the names of the very organs involved in the articulation a.nd I
creating the obstruction or constriction along the buccal tract In almost
all cases it is the paqsive articulator that lends its illInJe to the sound~ It
Another parnmerer differentiating· among obstruents is farce of
articulation. A greater llrtlculatory effort and a greater air pr!)Ssure
required by a gre!rter J:esistance at the place of articulation (where the
will be useful, therefore, to remember. the brief descrivtion
tract given in the :previous chapter of this course.
. ofthe speech I
constriction takes place) cb~ sounds called fortis consonants
while Ienis consonants are those obstruents the articula:ti.on of which
requires a comparatively lesser effurt and a lower air pressUTe than .in
We shall remember that if we start from' the exterior, the first
IlIticulatory organs We come across me the lips. The sounds produced
I
with the participation of the lips as active articulators are called labial
70
71
J
I

sounds (from the Latin word labium" meaning lip). If bofh lips are
used to utte<r the sounds, the teml b.1abial is used. J?nglish bilabials
) include plosive obstruents like [P] and [b), nasal stops like [Ill] and
glides like [wJ.
The only English palatal phoneme is the approxlmant [jJ, a
glide. However, ' mimy 'soUnds" come" fa have 'a secondary palatal
.. articulation due to the 'phenomenon of coarticuiation which will be
discu,sed later,

] Some sounds are articulated with the 'help of both the lips (the Dorsal sounds :will include those' sounds produced with the
body of the ton"oue dorsum - aglrinst the region of the soft palate or
lower one, more precisely) and the (upper) teeth, Such' .sounds are
called labio-dental sounds (the word dental comell from the Latin
I velum or in the uvular region. Consequelilly, they 'are als~ called velar.
] word dens, dentis, meaning tooth). The English fabio-dentals are the ,
fricatives [t] and [v]. '' " ' , I
and 'Wu!ar sound, rCl>l'ectively. Only the former class is represented
in Engiish. It includes velar nasal stops )ike [:g] and velar ploslve
0bstruents.Jike [k] and [g].

] The dental SOllllds are the sounrls in the production of which

I
j
Further back we COme across the pharyngeal region but,
the teeth participate as passive articulators. The ouly English derrt:als Engl:iI;lldoesn't have any pharyngeal phonemes.
are the frica:tivcs {O] and [6], which are interdentd sound; or, more
] exactly, apico-interdental solIllds (the term comes from the teclmical
word apex, desigca:tiog the tip of the tongue, which participates as an
SOllllds produced in the region of the glottis are called glottal
sounds. English has two glottal. phonemes, the glottal, stop [1] and the
active articulator). lJ.l~ :fi:icatiye [!>]. The latter differs from its Romanian counterpart

] The sounds produced in the region immediately behind the teeth

by placing the tip of the toD.gue against the alveoliu- ridge are called
alveolar sounds, afulr the name of the passive articulator. If the active
I
"
as its pl'Ommciation is more retracted, the English [11] being actually a
hissing sound, articulated by spreading the vocal folds and letting the
air pass ont through the giottis. '

] one (the tongue, that is its apex) is also specified, we can call them
apico-aiveolar. The class includes plosiveobstruents like [tJ and [dJ - it The following lable" surrunarizes the classification of
is to be noted that, unlike their 'Romanian counterparts, whiCh are consonants using the place of articulation specifications. It also
dental, the English solIllds are more ~eted : IJaSals like [n], lateral mentions the passive and the active articulator for each group of
] liquids like [IJ, rhoties like [r], fricative obstruents like [s] and [z].
I sounds. It iB from the fOIlnCf that the articulatezy label is derived,
Typeofconsonant­ .Passive articulator Active articulator
~
J Alveopalatal sounds 'are pronounced with the tip of the tongue
aga:inst the alveopala:ta1 region, just belrind the alveolar ridge; in the
imm~ie vicinity of the hard palate. (A further distinction is
place ofarticulation
Bilabial
Labiodental
Jnter(don1l'll)
both Iios '
upperteoth
f£e!h
both lips
lower lip
ton11.lIC tiJJiblade
som<;:times made between postaT:ve~lar sounds, articulated just behind
1 the 'alveolar ridge like the approximant, [J] and pdat,o-a/veolar
sounds, articulated further back. closer to the palatal region). We
Alveolar
AlveopalutaliPalaf:o..
alveolarlPQstalvealar
Retro.flex
alveolar ri~""
alveolar rjdge ahd hllm paJaie

blmlpalote
WlWle tivlblade
tongue blade

tongue tip
include here sounds like the fricatives [jJ and t3],as well as the two,
[J EnglishaIDica1:e phonemes, [ifl and [d3]. ", . .
Palatal
Velar
hardpalare
saftpalate(velum)
ton!!Ue blade
tougue body ( dc>~Sllill. .L
~_

Retroflex sounds are pronounced with the tip of the tongue Uvular uvula tonG11e body
curled back and touching the roof of the mouth just behind the Pharyngeal wall ' ' IDngue root

J poslIllveolar region.
Glottal !lltt}'llg.al) larynx ,

cl 72
73

3.8. The Description of English Consonants
l-Iaving examined the maID criteria we can use to classify
consonants from M articulatory point of view, we can noW briefly
describe the consonant phonemes of English.
A. The Approximants
1. The Glides. There are two SOlIDds in English, [w] and [j],
baving vowel-like features as far as therr articulation is
concerned, but which differ from their vowel counterparts
[u] and [i] respectively through their distribution, force of
articulation and length. WheIi we articulate a glide the
articulatory organs start by producing a vowel-like souod,
but then they immediately change their position to produce
another souod. It is to the gliding that accompanies their
articulation that these sounds owe their name. As we have
seen earlier. precisely because of their ambiguous nature
they are also called semivowels or semicoTlSonants. Unlike
vowels. they cannot occur in syllable-final position, can
never precede a consonant and are always followed by a
genuine vocalic sound.
a. [w] is a labio-velar. rounded sound. At the beginning. its
articulation is simi1arto that of the vowel [u]. but then the
speech organs shift to a different position to utter a
different vocalic sound. The distribution of 1he . sound
includes syfu,),le-initiaI position before almost any
engliSh vowel (e.g. win [wm], weed [wi.:d], wet [wet],
wag [wcegj, work [wa:k], won [WN!],woo [wu:]. wood
[wud], walk, [wD:k] warider [w~de],}oradiphthong
(e,g.wczy). Before [r]. (e.g. write) the sound is no longer
. pronounced. [w] can also occur after a plosivc (e.g. twin,
.. queen) or a fricative consonant (e.g. swine). It cim be
rendered graphically either by the letter w (the most
common case) (e.g. sweet) orbyn (e.g. quite).
'Ill
b. OJ is an unrounded palata). semivowel. The initial stage
. of its pri>imnciation is quite ·similar to that of the short
vowel [I], but then the 'sound glides to a different
vocalic value. Like [w]; OJ cannot occur in final
position (as a quite similar. palatal sound very often
does in Romanian). is never followed by a consonant
and occurs in front of back, , central and front vowels.
(e.g. yes, young, youth). It ,can be preeeded by a plosive
(e.g. tune) or a fricative (e.g.fome).
, The sound may be
spelt y (as in year) while -in words spelt with n. ne, m,
ew, en and ean read as the long vowel [n:] the palatal
sound is often inserted. Vte insertion is obligatory if.
the preceding consonant is: an oral plosive (p, b, t, d,
a
k, g), a nasal stop (m, n), labio-dental fricative (f, v)
or a glottal one (h). A word like beauty can only be
read [bju:tr] and not [bu;tr]. Cf. also: pure, bureau,
tUlip, deuce, .queue, argue, mule, neutrar. forious,
reV1Ie, huge. The palatal 'solIDd is not inserted after
affricates or after [r] or 0] preceded by a consonant:
cht<>t', June, rude, clue. When [1] is not preceded by a
consonant or when the sound preceding [u:] is an
alveolar fricative [s, z] or a dental one, the usage
varies: cf. suit [sjn:t], br¢ also [sn:t]. In words like
.-<.<
unite, unique. university,' etc, where n forms the
syllable alone the vowel:is always preceded by the
semivowel: [jn:nalt].
2. The Liquids. These are approximant sounds. produced in
.the alveolar and postalveolar: region and include several
variants of the lateral [1] and of the rhode [r].
,
I
a. The lateral [1]. The. main variants of [I] are a so-called
"clear" [1] and a "dark" [1]~, The clear [1] is distributed
in prevocalic positions. Wh= this sound is articulated,
the tip of the tongue touchhs, the alveolar ridge and the
air is released either unilaterally or on both sides of the
active articulator. The fr~nt part of the tongue also
75
,.

,J i
. ! A rolled [rl i~ 'common in northern dialects and in
raises towards the hard palate. Words like lake [leikJ, m
Scotlatid. It prodUced by a quick succession of flaps,
look [Iuk], flute [flu:t], lurid [tjund] delight [dJIaIt] the tongue rePeatedly 'and rapidiy touching the alveolar
J illUb1:ra:te the duitributiOll <:>f the consonant in syllable­
initial position' or after a plosive plot [plot], ,Hake
_[bIeik], clean [kIi:n] , glue [gIn:} or a fric.<ltiv~ '~iot
ridge and vi'hmting against it -This sound is not
characteristic for RP.

;) lslot],fly [flai] and in front oia yowal or the glide [j]

_TlID dark [I] i~ distributed in worq.-finalpositioll or
The letter r or double rr reproduces the sound
grapbically: right, barren In postvocalic word- or
_-before a consonant. As·in the case 0 the clear [I] the tip syllable-final position the sonnd is not pronounced ir)
] ..-of the tongue touches the alveolar ridge and the all- is
released latera.l1y, but now it is the body of the tongue
standard English cf. car, party. If the word is,
however, followed by a vowel, [rJ is reinserted: the car
that raises ~ the soft palate, . modifying the
is mine. The same insertion fakes place when an affix is
[I resonance of the sound and giving it a, more "stifled"
. cb.aracter. Words like kill [kilJ, role' [ro:IJ, belfiy
attached to a base ending in'a (noIITlally) silent [r]: Ifear
[Ina] !hearing [lnan.I)]; Moor [mDs} lMoOlish
[bclfnJ, belt [belt], silk [SIlkJ illustrate the distribution
[mDsnJ]. This type of [rl is called "linking r".
of the sound either at the end of the word (syllable) ot
:1 ,
before a consonant.
_The phoneme is spelt either I or n in: words like link or
. call, for ins~ce: In many words, however, before II. The English Stops
[I .' plosive. sounds- like [k] or [dJ - cf. chal/r. could; or
.before nasals like [m] or [nJ - cf calm, Lincoln; the L The oral plosives. In llmns of their place of articulation
labio-dental fricatives [fJ and [v1-:- cr.
caif, cal:ves; the they are bilabial, alveolar and velar.

LI lateral sound is :not pronounced.

a. [PJ is a voiceless, bilabial, fortis plosive . Its variants
b. The rhode [1'1. The clru;s includes several variants include an aspirated pIomve if the consonant is
[I which are prettY different both in articulll10ry terms and followed by a stressed vowel and occurs in syllabJe­
initial position. Being a bilabial stop, [P] is produced
in auditory ef!l;lbt. .
by completely blocking the airstream at the level of the

LI The RP [J] is africtionless conti1'1wmt, articnlated very

mnc\:;. like a fricative, but friction does not aec-ompany
Jip.g and by suddenly releasing the air with an
explosion. EXCL'Pt for .the a<;pirated variant, the
the production of the so-and. 'I'he .-tip of the tOIlouue phoneme is pretty similar to its Romanian cOllllterpart.
[J slightly touclIDs the back of the alveolar riti"ae, while
.the body ofthe-tongue 1£ low in the mouth.
It is distributed in initial, inedial and final pooition:
pane, appear, lip. It is ~pelt p: plane or pp5; opposite

[I . A flapped [r] is nsed by many _speakers of English,

especislly when it occurs at the begitmiD.g ofunstressed
5 Doubling the consonants is strictly a problem of spelling conveutiou in
English. The BlIglish language does not have double (geminate) consonants.
syllables. The tongue. rapidly toubhe.~ the alveolar ridge Compare &gliSh innate Emert] to Rotnanian innHscut [tnnaskutj.

;1
,­
with a tap. '
77

1 76

and only exCeptionally gb in hiccough, The letter p is
silent when followed by another obstruent or a nasal in
word-initial position: psalm, pti!rodactyl, pneumatic.
b [bJ is the voiced, lenis counterpart of [p]. Voicing and,
force of articulation are the 'f"mures that contra.'rt the
two phonemes, (b J being like [p1 a bilabial sound. It is
distributed in all three basic positions; initial, medial
and final: bet, above, cab. It is spelt b: about or
bb:abbot The letter is silent in fum1. position aft.er m.:
limb, crumb, dumb and in front of t in words of Latin
origin where the sound ha, 10lig been lost: debt, d(JIJ.bt,
subtle. The variants of [b] include partially devoiced
allophones in initial position: big, blo:w, bring and
laterally or nasally released allophones when [bJ is
followed by the lateral 1; bless or by a IlllSal consonant:
ribbon. It is not audtbly relea~ed in final position: rib,
c. [tJ is a voiceless, apico·alveolar, fortis pJosive. Like
[P], it has an aspiIated -variant that 0 = before ,
~1ressed vowels when the phoneme is distributed in
syllable-initial position: tube. If preceded by s"
however, [t] is unaspi:r:rted: stain. Its, dlstribution
includes all basic positions: try, attain,pit, It is laterally
or nasally released if fonowed by (IJ or by a nasal'
consonant, repectively: little, written, utmost. The
English phoneme is more retracted than its Romanian
counterpart whicb is rather a derrtal sound. Ii is spelt
with t: toe, with tt: cutter or with th: Thomas,1'ht:mI£iS.
d [d] is the VOiced., lenis rounterpartof [fl, voicing and
force of articulation differentiating between, the two
somu:ls that share the same place of articulation in the
alveolar wmon. Both [tJ and Cd] can become dentalized
in the vicinity of the dental fricatives, in words like
eighth and tireadth The sound is distributed in
,I
initial, medial and final position; dime, addition,pad. It ]
, is ' partially; d;;;"oiced ' :in ,initial position: duke and
aevoibed 'in final p()sition; road. )t is late.raJlyrelea~ed
if foiIo~ by [I): riddle llI1dnasally releaSed if [J
fonowed by [ID) or fn]: admit, sudden.~ It is spelt d:
read or dd: adder.
e. [k) is a voiceless, dorsa-velar, fortis, plosive ,sound,
II
articulated with the dorsum of the ton"crue against the
soft palate. Like the other voiceless plosives de~cnbed [I
above, it has an aspirated -variant if the sound is
distributed in syllable-initial position, in, front 'of a
stressed vowel: cat. [1<] is distributed :in initial, medial [J
and fi.n.al position: coat, accuse, sack. It can be
'''l-&l1Ow!!d by a nasal consonant and be consequently
:'j;,
"nasaily'released: thicken ~r bytl:te tateralJiquid and be
""'laterally released: fickle. In spelling, the sound ~an be
il
"'represented by the letter c (e.g. comb) or by cc (e,g.
accuse), by'k (e,g. kill), by cl< (e.g. pick), by ch (e.g.
,architect), by qn (e.g. queen). As in RomanillIl" the
J
~ucnce [ks] can be rendered by the letter x (e.g.
extre1!<e"1. In words like muscle and knave the letters c
an k are silent
I
f [gJ is the voiced., lenis pair of [kJ and it has basically the
same fua:tures as its Romanian counterpart. It is
I
" distributed in initial, med1~l and final position: game,
begin, rag. It, allophones include partially devoiced
wrriants in initial position: gain, devoiced variants in
I
, :final position; dog, laterally released, when followed by
[11: giggle and :nasally released when followed by m]:r
",.dogmatic. In ~:pelling, the consonant ean be rendered by
I
, g: get by gg: begged, or by g followed by h,' as ill
,,:, ghastly, ,by nil, ne or ni, 35 in guarantee, guess or
~ Ifnjuist,
"respectively. The voiced counterpart of [Ie;],
I
[gz] can >ilso be rendered by l::in words like example.
79
I
I
) g. The glottal stop [1] is a glottal, voiceless, fortis sound
pronounced. If an affix. is added, nevertheless, that
begins with",Ia vowel,., the second COnsOrulllt is
produced in the glottal region. by bringiIJg the· vocal recovered. Compare solemn [solem] to solemnity

) cords together ·and· then, sepanrting them, thus

completely. blocking and then sudJie:oly releasing the
[solemIiIJI].

airstream. It i~ a sound that has belm COlIlPared with a b. [n] i~ an alveolar, voiced, lenis, nasal stop. The place of

] slight couglL It appears in:;yllable-:final position

especially when it separates two adjacerrt vowels that are
. irrticulafion is similar.to that of [1] and Cd], but [n] is a
nasal sound, 00 the air is released through the lJl)se IIIld
not part cif the same syllable em a bialUS):" geography not through the mouth. . It- :is..sitnilar to its Raroanian
[c!3I'?ografI]or between a vowel and a syllable-:final counterpart It is distributed 'in ruJ..1hree basic positions "
[J voiceless 5'to]l or affricate that it reinforces.. In saroe initial. medial and :final: name; renown.. can... It is spelt Xl
accents (notably CockDey), it replaceS voiceless plosives or un: dean, annual. The,sound is elided in :final position
like [k] and [t] at the, end of a syllable. E.g. sick guy
11
LI [sr'lgaI] or quite right [kwal'lIaItl
after fm], but recovered in, derived words: damn,
danrnation. (See elsa solemn and solemnity above).
,
Acoustically, English voiced plosives can be
[J distinguished from their voiceless counterparts by
having a low frequency component deten:nlned by the
c. WJ is a velar, voiced, lenis, :nasal stop. It occurs in the
vicinity of the velar oral plosives in words like link or
es "'Tong. It is to be noted that in present-day English the
feature voice. The :release stages ofthe three classs of
ve1m' oral plosive in the last word is no lunger
] stops in tenns' ofplace of articulation: bilabial, alveo1m'
and velar, respectively, differ as regards the noise burst
pronounced, but we can find ,the velar nasal in front of
[g] in connected speech in sequences like I can get it.
they produce. Alveo1m' plosives display higher
iJ frequencies (3000-4000 qis) than the bilabial (around
.360 cps) and velar ones (around 700 cps),
A similar sound can be found in ROIIlllDian, in words
like bondi, ranga, but in our language it does not have
a phonemic, contrastive value; As pointed out above,
this phoneme has a limited distribution: it always
[I .2. The Nasal stops.
aIm] is a bilabial, voiced, lenis, :nasal stop, As in the
precedes the voiceless velar plosive or occurs in
case of all nasal sonorants, when we articula:te this syllable-final position in front of an elided [g].

it sound the velum'is lowered, blocking the oral 'cavifY

and letting the air escape through the :nose. TIiere are
no ,differences between the English sound and its
C. The English Fricatives
Fricatives are, as we remember, sounds'that are produced
[J Ro:manian counterpart- [m] is distributed, in all basic
positions: initial, Illedial and :final: make, remote, dim.
by narrowing the speech tract and letiilig'the air out, B
process which is accompanied by fiiction and in some
It can be spelt with m or mm: come, commO'fl. ~t should cases·by a hissing soun<i
be said, however, that English does not ~ a
[I sequence of two nasal sounds in the same syllable, [f} is a,labiq-derrtal, voiceless, fortis corurorumt. It is
words like solemn and hymn differing from their produced by pressing the lower lip against the upper teeth

[I Romanian counterparts as the last nasal sound is 110t

81

80

 L'

and forcing -the air out between them.. The sound is similar .freely in medial position: brother, bother, rather, heathen. ]

to its Romanian counterpart.The Sound = be spelt f.:.. as in

fine, fllare, fringe, feud, loq{. sf[f/e, if - as- in effort, snuff,
as
ph -- inphysics, b'1'aph, Qreven-gh'-: as-in enough. tough­
In fin.al position it_ often represents the voicing of [eJ in.
pInrals like mouths ImaulizJ, wreaths [rl:l'iz] which may
pro ve -difficult to pronmmce, or in derived wo:n:ls like bath [)

The word lieutenant [Ief'tenant] is 3 particular case.
[v1. is the voiced, lanis pair of [fj with :which it sh= the
place (Iabio- dental) and manner (fricative) ofarticulatioIL
(ba: 0] (noun)lbathe (belil] (verb) or breath [breeJ (n.)!
bNiathe [iJl:i:l'iJ (v.). The sOlmd is always spelt th, like its ­
voiceless COU1lterpart 11

It is important to remember that the English sound is a
labio-dental and not a bilabial fricative (as its Spanish
col1Iltcrpart, for instance). It .hils exactly the same
[sJ is an alvco lar, voiceless, fortis fricative, produced with
the blade of the tongue against the alveolar ridge, a sound
quite similar to its Romanian counterpart. It is a hissing
[J

characteristics as the Rormmian soimd. -It is ~-pelt with the
letter v. (ExceptitJDally, by ph in Stephen, nephew and fin
oj)- Certain English nouns voice their lal:iio-demru final
sound distributed in all major positions: at fue beginning,
within WJil at the end of a word,. It is in fuet the onlY
obstruent sound in English that can occur in front of
I)

fricative when they pluralize displaying the aiternance ffv: another obstruent, provided -the latter is voiceless: e. g. spot.
e.g. leaf I leaves, wife/wives. DeriVlrtionai affixes can also
voice the final consonant; lifelliven.
stop, skin. [5] is the plural aIfamorph for nouns ending in a
.;voiceless consonant as well as the allomorph of the 3'd

pl;ISon .inguiar present indicative morpheme. It is spelt s,

[6] is an interdental, voiceless, fortis mcative. The

phoneme does not havc lII1'f distnbution.al vllliants. It
58 or c in front of e, i or y:. e.g. sour, say, hiss, assign,

ceiling, cellar, cigarette. precise, cypress, bicycle.

occ1ll:S in word-initial, medial and final position. It is Sometimes the spelling can be see, sci or scy (e.g. science,

produced with the tip of the tongue between the teeth, the
air escaping through the pass"g" in between. It is a sound
scent, scene, scythe). s is silent in words like corps, island.

viscount.
I
cfuiicult to pronounce for Romanian speakers who often
rni.stake it for [s] or even ftJ. The sound exists in ofuet
European !anguages too, -such as Spanish or Greek, the
[zJ is the voiced, lenis" alveolar fucative thet corresponds
to the voiceless [5]. It is quite similar to its Romania.n I
symbol used in the IPA alphabL1: being in fact borrowed
couo:t:erpart. but it plays a more important role in English
from the Greek alphabet The sound is rendered

graphically by h: e.g. thm, method, patlt Ihesound often

". it is one of the =in allomOl:Pb.. of the plural IIlorpheme

occurs in clusters difficult to pronoll!Jce: eighths [eJ.tes],
voiceless counterpart, [z] is a hissing sound, produced with
depths [dep6s], lengths {le!le.j.
[0] is the voiced pair of [01 (;cine an interdental, voiced,
lenis fricative. ill initial position it is only distributed in
grammatical wo:n:ls .'lUCh as OOmonstrative.<: this. that.
th.ese, those, there; articles: the; adveibs: thlLr. It oecum
n~
(distnbuted after a. voiced colJSOIJl!ll:t or a vowel). Like its I
a .high-pitched frictioIL Because when these sounds are
articuln:ted _the air is expelled furough a narrow groove I
along the middle of the blade they are also called grooved
fricatives. Together with the .more retracted, alveo-palatal
fricatives and with the affricate sounds they are called
I
sibilants. The sound is spelt z. It is often spelt s when the

83
I
J , sound does not occur in initial positon e.g. nose, eosy,
words like casual the alternative pronunciation [zj] is
possible, while io other cases the fricative is replaced by

desire), and, exceptionally, tz: io tzar. Sioiilarly, when it the:affiicatefd3] (e.g. garage).

] maIks the plural of nouns ending in a voiced sound (e.g.

boys, balls, ribs) or when it is the voiced allomorph of the
" . .:, ...

[h] is a glotml fticative in English. a voiceless, fortis sOllnd

~3'd person singular present indicative of verbs ending in a produced .J:lJ)etting the air pass freely through the mouth

J voiced sound (e.g. plays, calls, 'adds) the spelling is s.

Exceptionally, the sound can be spelt double S5 io Words
. durillg ""Fimtion. Thus, its placc of articulation in the
g1ottal.regial;1 is 'more retracted than io the cPl~e of the
, Romanian so!ll1d "Whl<;ili is mther a velar sound, closer to
like dissolve, possess. .the '¥ariant 'OCClIIling in Scottish English: loch [lox]. A
J (1] is an alveopalatru, voiceless. fortis fricative consonant.
The uttering f this SOUIld should not raise any particular
,. palatalized version,is ,wed when the sound is followed by a
palatal: -humane' [hjnmem]. Unlike in most Romance,

J problems for Romanians as its articulatory :fuaj:u:res are

similar to those of its counterpart in Romanian The blade
of the tongne is raised against the :region' behind the
Ianguagcs,h'freely occurs in initial position in English:
home, hiss;' hut. "Dropping the h's ., is even Considered a
sign of lack: of education. In f! small-number Of words the

J alveolar ridge .and the alr is forced out through a groove a

little wider 1:hao in the case of [s], its more fronted
counterpart m is distributed in all three main positions io
sound is, however, dropped even in standard English in
both in inltilil and medial position: hour, heir. honour,
honest, vehicle. annihilale. It is.al.qo common (even for
~. the word. It is oflen !>'Pelt sh in words like shoe, cushion or edUCated people to drop the initial h io Ullll1ressed (weak)
LJI push. It em also be spelt s (e.g. sure, sugar) or 5S (e.g. foims of th'epersonal pronDona (he. him) possessives (his.
pressure, mission) or ci (ancient, delicioZlS), sci (conscioZlS) ;her-ror the'Verb have h is also silent io final position in the
1
.".
ce (ocean), si (pension, mansion), ti (f:uition, retribution).
It is a variant of [sj] in words J.ike is.s;ue, tissue. In wordq of
'inteijection qh or io words like shah. The conservative
&-pe:tJ:fug of :ti;'gusb: has preserved the letter b after r in
words of Greek ,origin where no b sound or aspiration is
French origin the sound is spelt cl1:.c(zampagne, charade,

-'1 charge., moustache, attache. The same spelling is used io heaH,l'nowadays (rhapsody, rhetoric. rheumatism, rhinal,
proper names like Charlotte. Chicago.. Chicoutimi. rhinoceros, rhombus. rhyme, rhythm).

Michigan.
:1 [31 is the voiced counterpart of m· It is an .alveopalatal,
v<)iceci., lenis fricative and is pronounced VeJY much like
D. The English Ajfriclltes
The affricate phonemes of English are [in and [dij. They
,differ, }~l)m their Romanian counterparts as they can be

J the corresponding Bomid in Romar:Wm. It is Tlot, hov.>evcr, a

very common sound in English as it occurs inainly in loan
(particularly French) words. It is never distributed io initial
distri.buted in all three basic positions (including the word­
, fi:nald:me) and can be followed by any vowel. Therefore,
".. jheYi,are far less palatslized than the corresponding

J position, but it can occur in medial (pleasure. treasure.

measure) oefmal position (garage, prestige). It can be
spelt either s when followed by u (visual) or i (decision); or
Romanian soundq that mm.i be followed by either e or i,
Even when they are followed by i and e the English
affricates differ considerably from the corresponding

iJ
"'
z if followed by u (seizure) or ge (ml13sage;espionage).lll
85

84
I
 ]
The following table su:m:marizes the infoIDlation about1he articulatory
]
'features ofihe Englisli consonants:
sounds in Romania:p. In order to realize the difference
betWeen the English sounds and their RoIllllIlian ~
Bila. iLahil.> Den- Alve- ALvea-lra!- Velar Uvnl· Phalyn- Cllnt-
I bial d<llltall-tal oIM I poJatnl atal ar geal tal
]
it is enOllffl to compare the Etw)i.'lh word chin to tlle I p. b t, d k, g ?
or ~~e
RoJllJlDian cin the English gem to the ROJl)Jl1lian gem.

[ill is a voiceless. lbrtis, alveo-palatal'sol1l1d produced VJitll

'. Nasal
Trill
1m . n_
r
1)
R II
-1
the blade of tlle tongue r.Used against the region just behind
tlle alveolar ridge. As in the case of any affricate souna, its
articulation starts like tlmt of a plosive in our ~e [t]­
;
I Flap r
LI
by completely. blocking the outgoing airstteaIn and then I, I Fricative t;v I e,o I s,z 1[.3
h

continues by a gradual release of the air, as fur a fricative

rn: The vcry symbol used in the II'A alphabet for the
I

I I Ao"rox~--
I
IlOtation of the sound suggests tlle mixed· na:tuJ:O of tlle i
,
affiicate. We should make a difference, however, between
the affricate proper (pitch [Pltf] and the sequence of the
I
I
Lateral

'Appr<>'fimrort

Affricate
-I .'j I..!~LL I I -t:J I
plosive and the fricative [tl + [f] (courtship [k::>:tJlPl, right
,I
shoe [nutIn:D. The phoneme is :represented graphically by
ell: (charrJr, chinchilla. rich) or tcll (kitchen, bitch) or by t
I
I
followed by 11 (creature, culture) when the plosivc is .1
paJ.alalizerl. In words like habitual., sancruary the
pronunci;rtion witll a:p. affricate is . a varian:t of [til
Exceptionally, we can have ce or cz as grapbic
I
represeniaJions of the sound in (violon) cello or Czech

[d3l is the voiced counterpart of [tn, being an alveo­

I
I
palatal, voiced, leniS, affricate consonant: It can be
rendered grapbically by j in eitller initial or medial position
in words like justice, John, rejoice, pyjamas, by gl' in all
I
basic positions: gesture.' agent. sage, by gi in ,initUll and
medial pm,ilion: girciffe, rigid; and gy in initial position:
gymn.asti . In cerlllin words it can be spelt d followed by
cs
I
II: graduaL individual, procedure/aI. In all these cases,
however, there is an alternative pronunciation [dj]. In a
number of proper nanJl'S or common nnUllS origiruJ.ti.ng in
I
proper J11lmes ch is read [d."l]: NorwiCh, Greenwich,
Sisanriwich. Another spelling can be dg in words like
ridge or edge.
I
I
J
CHAPTER 4

J
y-

I
,,"
THE voWELSOFENGUSH.
AN ARTICULATORY CLASSIFICATION.
ACOUSTIC CORRELATES. THE DESCRIPTION
"1

.~ AND DISTRIBUTION ·OF ENGLISH

MONOPHTHONGS AND DIPHTHONGS
....'I

-I

~,
4.1. The Vowels. Criteria far Classification

The chapter before has exl!IIl.irie!J, ilie consonant phonemes of

Wi
English from ll1l :ilII.irolatmy perspective. After trying to establish a
gerueral borderline between Ihe two major classes of soWlds
consonanl5 and vowels :respectively - by po,tulaiing some major

articulatory distinctions between iliem, an attewpt was made to

analyze English consonanl5 in ,detail, discussing /he distinctions
among iliem as well as contrasting. them with the corresponding

:1
sounds of Rom.maIl.

-
We will remember ilien. that if consonants
. are distingnished
from vowels preciselY on the basis of an.artieulatory feature that all of
Ihem arguably share - a pJace aloog t\le-. speech tract where the
:1

-
airstream meets a truY or obstacle or constriction .- it wOllld be vexy
difficult to describe vowels in the same 1:eIIIlS as it will nO longer be

',.1
i

...
possible to identifY a "place of articulation". Articulatory criteda can
be, indeed. used to chlssiiY vowels but they v;ill be less relevant or, in
any case, of a di:ffutent type 1han in the case of consonants. Acoustic

1...
and ewen. auditory features on the oilier J:!aP.d will play a much morc
importaot role in accuratelydescribing.:vowels- as vowels are sonorous
sounds, displayingihe highest Jevels ofresonance ofall speech sounds .

'I
~
89


Vowels, like consonants, will differ in terms of quality - the
acoustic features "wilI differ from one vowel ro another depending on
the position of the arliculators, but in a way which is distinct from
what we have seen in the case of consonants where there is another
type of interaction between the various speech organs - and in tenns
of qunntity or duration _. again in a way distinet from consonants as
vowel. are all sonorous, continuant sounds.
The quality of a vowel is given by"!4e way in which the tongue
_ the main articulator, as in the "case of ciJ~~onants - is positioned in
" the mouth and by the activity of the lips/'Pbis position of the tongue
modifies the" shape of the resonating cavities above the Jarynx and
decisively influences the quality of the resulting sound. 'The great
mobility of the tongue and the absence of any definite place of
obstrru::tion . - as in the ease of consonants - acCO\IDts fur the great
variety of vowels that can be funnd" in any language and for the filet
that -vowels rather than consonants are more intimately linked to the
peculiar nmure of each and every \angnage. It will be therefure much
more difficult for a stodent of a foreign language to acquire the correCt
features ofthe vowel system)ltan those ofthe COllsonant system of the
respective language"
Three will be then the criteria that can be used to distinguish
among vowe1s on an articulatOJ'y basis:" the position of the tongue in"
the mouth - high or low OIl the vertical axis and fronted or retracted
on the" horizontal axis - and the position of the lips. Many Janguages
wilt" also recognize a funclional distinction between vowels prodUced
by letting the air out either through the nasa! cavity or through the
oral one. "
Tongue height. If we consider the position of the tongue in the
mouth we can identifY two ex:treII1e situations: one in which the: body of
the tongue is raised, almost touclJiog the roof of the oral cavily and in"
this case we will be dealing with high or dose vowels - the llame
clearly refers to the position ofthe tongue high in the mouth or close to
the palate- and the opposite position when the body of the tongue is
.J
very law in the mouth leaving the cavity wide open as in the case when ~I
the doator wants to examine our tolJllils and aaks us to say "ah ". The
-vowels funs produred will be called open or low vowels since the
tongue is lowered in the month and the oral cavity is open. Ifthe tongue
is placed in an ;ntennediate position, raised only halfway against the
II
]iaIate, we shall call the vowels mid vowels. A further, more renned
distinction will di:lferentiate between two groups of mid vowels: close­
[I
mid/mid close or half-close or high-midlmid high \TOwels aIld open­
mid/mid open or half-open or law-midlmid low "VOwels.
Tongue frontnesslbackness. If we consider the position of the
II
tongue along the horizontal axis we can identifY three classes of­
vowels: front vowels - uttered with the front part of the tongue I
I highest:, central vowels if it is" rather the central part of the tongue
that is highest, modifYing the shape of thc:.articuJator and back vowels
i
- the rear part of the tO~"1le is involved in articulation. 11
I
I
!
The position of lhe lips. As I have mentioned earlier, the
position of the lips is another major criterion that is used 0
distinguish among vowels. When we pronounce a vowel, our lips can
I
be rounded, and then the resultIDg sound will be rounded, or they
.can be spread and then we shill say that the vowel that we have
articulated is unrolmded. As we are going to see later, roundness
I
may be more or less relevant, depending on the patticular language
we are talking abouL I
TIle cavity through which the air is "released - oral or nasal
establishes an impOr1l1Ilt distinction between oral and nasal vowels.
There are nasal or nasalized vowels in all Ianguages, but again this
I
distinction will be more important in languages like, say, French,
where it has a functional; contrasti-ve, phonemic value, than in English
or in Romanian where the feature is just contextual. More will be said
I
about that later:
";,.
As mentioned abo'<ie, quantity is an impOrlnnt feature th.rt we
I
have to take into account when we discuss not only consonantal
I
91
 .,-­

.. sounds, but vocalic oues as welL ill fact, this is a feature tbat is much when we "'exanrine thc way the vowel of sit" ia produced, the

-1
more important for vowels, because when we 1lllk about duration in articulatory organs are jess strained, laxenDap. in the previous case.
consonants we can contrast:, fur instance, non-dur.mve sounds of the We will consequently de."t:r:ibe the.'le vowels as being 1m:. As we s.hall

'.
plosive 1:ype to cootiunant sounds of the kind fricatives ate or sbwle see later, unlike in Romanian,' vowel ,duration. associated with
to geminate consonants, while in the = of vowels much more tell5eness, has a phonemic, contrastive value: 10. Englisb.
... refined distinctioll.'l can be established among VlLTiOUS soun.cls. The f.u::t
that vowels vary in length is something we can intuitively become The position of the tongue root., The more advanced Or

-1
aware of if we con'!:ra.h1: the vowel ofped [pi:!] for instance, to that of reil!lcted position of the root of the ton,.,<>ue differentiates between
pill [pdJ. As we aJ1I going to see later, however, the contrnst betwct;ll vowels having diffMent degrees of operwflSS. 'The vowels pronounced
the two vowels is not limited simply to durdlion and, moreover, vowel with the ,root ofthe tongue pushed forwHn:l;Qfits normal position will

1
-
length is very much a contextual feature. Thus, what we consider to be
members of one imd the same phoneme, the long vowel [i:] will vary
be- specified "" advanced ,tongue root ,,(.4TR} vowels. Conversely,
non-advanced tsngue root vowels will be., articulated with the root.
considerably in length in words like sea, seed and seat. It is obvious of the tongue in its common. resting position. The first group of

1
....
even for a phonetically less trained ear that the vowel is longer in case
it occurs in syllable-fimil position and it becomes shorter and shorter
vowels will be comparatively tenser and higher than the vowels in the
second group .
depending On the voicedness ,or the voicelessness of the following

rl
".
coll.'lonant. The picture becomes even IllOre complex if we compare
the preceding contexts to seal, .ean or Seem. On the other hand al!-tbe
Vowel quantity - dur.moll; length - combines with stability of
articulation to make the distinction between simple or "pure" vowels
occurrences of [i:] mentioned above will be kept apart from the or monophthongs On the one hwld ~d iiip'hthongs on the other.

il
....,
,
variants of the short vowel [1] in words like Sid, sit. sill or sin which
differ in their tum in length depending 0:(1 the nature of the fullowing
Monophthongs are rompmatively shorter voweis that preserve the
same quality throughout the entire duratioriof tbeir articulation. A
COllSonant. We shall then say that vowel length is not always a reliable ,diphthong combines two different vocalic elements joined together in
,II.... distinctive feature when we try to contrast vowels - since iUs so much
influenced by the context. Other featntes will be added to obtain a
a unique articulatory effort and eonseque,ntlybeing part of the same
syllabic' unit In any diphthong on;:' of th~· 'Vocalic elements will be
more refined and closer to reality representation. 'Ine next featntes we atronger than the other, from, which or towards vibicl1 the
;1 are gOing to examine will then be the degree of muscular tension pronunciation glides. If the weaker element. comes first and we have a

- involved in articulation and the position ofthe root ofthe tongue: glide towards'the domIDant vocalic; ellm1e.nt, the diphthong is a rising
one: it is the kind of diphthong we have in Romanian words like iatac,

rl- Muscular ten.sjon can varY considerably when we produce

different vocalic sounds and 1his is something we can easily, become
aware of when we contr.ast the long voWel [i:] in seat and the short
iulrire, iepure, ioua[? meandre., cbdalli etc: Thi!; js a type of diphthong
that does not exist in Engliilh, a langulIge that only has falling
diphthongs. that is diphthongs in which the glifle is from the dominant

1
;..,
one [1] in sit, the examples analyzed above. Long vowels
conventionally marked in the IPA alphabet by a colon - are always
vocalic. element to the weaker one_.{-e.i boy. biiy in English or bo~ bal
in Rmriimian- N.B. these exampl\ls:do .not sUggest that the diphthongs
associated with a higher degn:e of mUSC!Ilar tension in the speech in the two 11mguagcs are identical!). It is q~' c!ifficult to deCide when

...,I
organs involved in their articulatiolL We will say that these vowels are we deal with a genuine diphthong (that--is.a"sequence of two vowels
tense, since the articulators are so when we utter them. Conversely, pronounced together) and when we deal with a sequence of a vowel

f 92 93
 J
establish extreme positions for vowel quality aod use them as a
]
reference system for all tbe other voweIB. The hun:um oral cavity was
and a glide fur instance. In ofuer words, shall we describe the vocalic
element in buy as the diphthOng :u or shall we roilier interpret it as fue
represented under fue furrn of a trapezoid, conventionally facing left.
[I
vowel a followed by fue glide j? Many linguists opt for fue seeond Back
-A II
variant and some will go as far as interpreting long vowels like i: in
beat for instance as a succession of r+-j. The dl.13:3lion of fue glide ean
constitute fue basis for a differentiation, suice gl ides will argoabiy
CI""e
I
take shorter to pronounce than fue second vocalic element in a flIlIing
diphfuong. If the vowel is very short, however. it is often difficult do
distinguish it from tbe glide. The scope of tbis m:udy will not allow us
lIalf-close
1
I
to go into further detail, so for the sake of simplicity we will adopt the"
widely embraced approach that considers long vowels monoplrthnngs
and vocalic sequences as that of buy genuine diphlhongs.
Ii a1f... p en 3 6"
I
The primary cardinal 4 5

4.2. The Cardinal Vowel Charts

vowel chart.
Open

cardinal vowel 1 is fue highest and the most fronted vowel that
I
As we have mentioned above. vowels are sounds more difficult
tu define in articulatory termS than consonants and tbe nmnber of
can be ideally produced by lhe hun:um phooatory system. It is .IOll.iked
in the IPA alphabet by fue symbol [i]; fue Engli'lh vowel of sill does
not exactly correspond to tbis position, being in filet more retracted
I
vowels iliat can be ptoduced by human speech organs is fairly great.
In his Ouiline of English Phonetics (1918, reprinted in 1987). fue
famous English phonetician Daniel Jones c1airus that "a good ear can
distinguish well over fifty vowels, exclusive of nasalized vowel'!,
and more open. The diametrically opposed position is tbat of vowel 5,
which is fue lowest (most open) back vowel, for which the
conventiOnal notation [a] is used. Now tbat two oftbe basic positions
I
vowels pronounced wifu retroflex modification, etc." (p. 29) If was
fuen necessary to devise a conventional system 1hat could be used for
are established we can proceed to the identification of lhe remaining
comers of 1he trapezoid. Starting from vowell, by gradually
increasing 1he apertnre between the tongue and 1he roof of the mouth
I
I
a more aCL-urate specification of vowel features. On fuc ba.;ru; of some
of fue most impoi:tant criteria mentioned above a cardinal Vl1IIIcl chari
was drawn (Daniel Jones had It major contribution to "it) that
established some reference points to which the feajm:es of any vowcl
we obtain fue lowest front vowel [a]. In between, the intermediate
cardinal position ofl mid-close vowel [e]- and 3 -mid-open vowel
[E] are established. Conversely, by raising fue tongue from position 4
I

in BIIY laoguage spoken on earth could be related. As cardinal: points

are used for our geographicorieoJ:atiOn, so cardinal vowels were
meant to help phoneticians more accurately :find fueir way in fue
thicket of vocal1c sounds. And just like in the case of cardinill points
I We can obtain increasingly closer vowels until we get to position 8 [n]
wbich is fue bighest cardinal back vowel. In between, position 6 an 7
are held by the back mid-open vowel [()1 and by fue back mid-dose
I

on fue compass, lhe cazrlinlll vowel positions were just abstract, ideal
constructions which did not descnoe any existing, real voweL The
basic coord.inatei; used in estsblishing 1he cardinul vowel positions
1
I
vowel [01 respectively. t
I
Though, as I have mentioned, 1he cardinal vowels are ideal
I
were 1he vertical axis witll "fue opposition higbllow (close/open) and"
the horizontal axis wifu the opposition front/back. The idea was to
I constructions, we can establish their closest equivalents among the

95
I

I
] real-world vowels. Thus, according to Daniel Jones (19&7:35), the
9 CLOSE 16[w]

following.:orrespondences can be established. [0] 10 HALF-CLOSE 15 Iv]

] 1. Cardinal vowel (iJ: the nearest equivalent: the vowel i in the
14 (!-..] BACK
French word sf. FRONT [O'l] 11 HALF-OPEN
(unrounded) .
Cardinal vowel [e1: the nearest equivalent: 1he vowt:1 e of the
J Franch wordthi
3. Cardinal vowel [s]: 1he nearest equivalent: 1he vowel e of1he
(rounded)

[eE] 12 opEN 13 [0] (rounded)

J French word mime.

4. Cardinal vowel [a]: the nearest equivalent: the vowel a ofille
11", sec.ondary cardmal vowel chart

Though the c1amrlcal standard vowel chart only includes the

~1
French word la
5. Cardinal'vowel [,,]: the nearest equivalent: 1he vowel a of the eight primary vowels, the central vowels are also commonly included
French word pate, or the vowel of1he English word l(Jt in present-day representations ofthe chart.

1 pronounced without lip rounding.

6. Cardinal vowel [0]: ille nearest equivalent: ille vowel
Gennan word Sonne.
~ in the
The central lowest position is herd by a variety of 3. iliat does
not exist in standard English. A little hlgher, in a rnid-opcn position,
",,1: :find the vowel rAt which frequently appellTS in English words like

J 7. Cardinal vowel [0]: the nearest equivalent: the vowel 0 ofthe

French word rose.
utter, cut, etc.
If we raise the tongue higher in 1he mouth, narrowing the
passage left. for the air to go out between the body of
the tongue and
ll. Cardinal vowel En]: ille nearest equivalent: the vowel u in the
J German word gut.
The eight vowel positions thus established form the so-called
the roof of the mouth we get ilie central mid vowel [aJ. The position
adopted by the'tongue when we articulate this sound is cousidered to
be the neittiaI, reSting position, 1he vowel being actually placed right
[J primary vowel chart. Notice that five of the vowels are pronouooed
with spread lips and are consequently unrounded; while, three of ilie
in the centre of the imaginmy space we have constructed to represent
the oral cavity wliere sounds are produced. The vowel is commonly
back vowels are rounded vowels. Ifwe modifY the feature rounded for
called schwa [fwal with a Hebrew word used to designate a diacritic
1... all the eight vowels and pronounce the first five with rounded lips and
the last three with spread lips we obtain the secondary cardinal vowel marking a missil;lg vowel. It is a very common vowel in many
European languages, not only in English, and its parlicular importance
chari which is the' reverse of the :first in terms of ·the feature
[J roundedlunround.ed. Thus, in this newly-established set all front
vowels are round. Sillce ExJ.gIish does' not have any front rounded
fur the Engiish language lies in the filet that it appeaIs very frequently
in syllables where the vocalic element is not stressed. 1M lonl'ft teuse
voWels,.this cl1a:rt is not relevant for the study of the vocalic system of and,always stressed [3:J is the highest English central vowel. Even

1... Engiish. We shOuld romember, however, that if in English '(and in

Romanian, actually) the features front and unro1.lIlrled alwayS go
closer than it is the cardinal It], a vOWljl close to the Romaoisn one in
gand [glnd], which does not exist in Engu.sh..

r.
od
. together, this is not the case of all languages, French and German
having each a IlllIIlber of front r,ounded vowels. 97

'J . 96
 :..

4.3. English Vowels. The description and The length decreases if the following sound is
voiceless. It is distributed in all three basic positions:
1
.~

distribution of English monophthongs and

initial. medial and final: ink, kill. aptly. After the
diphthongs
schwa, it is the commonest English vowel in unstressed
positions. The vowel is spelt i (e.g. ill. tick) or y;
~I
Having established the vowel chart as a basic syl!lllm of
syntax, party. Other b-pellings are possible as well, as in
reference we can now proceed to a brief description of the vowel
phonemes of l:\nglish and of their distribution in a Il1IlllIler similar to
that used in the case of consonants.
the exceptional examples miJTUie [lnIIllt] eNE.
adjective having the same spelling is read [mamju:t],
The .. fI
private [pr.......-tJ, wom"n [WUDlnl As it co:ro:monly
A The English simple ("pure'') vowels or monophthongs.
repres~1)l a reduped.ullstressed vowel, other 'l'ellings
are also possible for instance day [del] is reduced to

I
a. English front vowels. There are four front vowel
phonemes in Englisll: [i;], [1], Eel and Ere]
[dtJ in the names of the days of the week: Friday

[fr.lldt] .
I
i 3. (e] Ibis is a short, lax, ull!"unded vowel whose degree

1. [I: J is a close (high), long, tense, unrounded voweL The

duration of [i:] can be compared to that of the
Roinrurill11 vowel in plural nouns Jike genii and the
I"
i
I
of openness is intermediare between cardinal half-close

and ha1f-open. It is a common vowel in English,

I
distributed in i.n.itial position: end, or'medial pORition:

sound is roughly similar to the French vowel of the

French word precise, though. not so close. The vowel
is distributed in all tbree basic positions: word-initial:
I
·1
tell. It never' occurs in word-final position as it is

normally reduced to [11 or [a] if it is unstressed or

I
I diphthongizes to [el] in loan words like attache, fi=e

eal't; word-medial; dean ,and word-fma1: sea. As

already mentioned, it is longer if it occurs in syllable
final position and shorter if it is followed by a voiced
j or cafe if it is stressed.. It can occur, nevertheless, in

syilshle-final positioo, UIlder stress, as in telegraph

I
I [teb,,"l'af], peril [penI). The vowel is spelt either e in

, "oood, the shortest variants beittg those followed by a

voiceless ob:rtruent. If followed by a msal stop it is
nasalized: e.g. bean, beam. It is spelt e; economy.
i words,like elf, foil, or ea in lead (n. plumb), head or

bread. It can be exceptionally spe1t a in ate (the p"-<:t

I
tense of eat), many, a1'!)I, Thames or Pall Mall

remark, or ee: eel, see, feet, or ea each, seal, plea.

Other possible spellings are ie: fiend" .ai: seizing, i:
machine, or, ~ooptiaOaUy: ey: kRy,- ay: qutly rid: 1, eo:
people, oe: Oedipus or eaa: Beauchamp [bi:!Jam]
4. [re] is the lowest front vowel of English. It is a short,
I
lax, unrounded vowel, a little higher than the cardinal

2 [1]. This is a more retracted frollt vowel, andits .degree

vowel [a]. It is a vety common vowel in English and,
COnll:ary to the perception of many roreif}l1 learners of

I
English, it i.~ ashort, not a long vowel. In fact, the basic

of openness is close to that of the cardinal half-close

position. [1] is a.hart,
"
lax, unroundcl vowel, its leciQth
varying, as ill the case of the preceding vowel,
a
di.ffim,nce between this VOWT::1 and the preceding one is

the degree of apeuness, [re] being lower. Romanian

I
'natlJre speakers of English find it particularly difficult to make

according to the of the following consonant.

99
I
J the difference between the two vowels (which is a
u.qrmlly spelt 0_ Other spellings are po""ible;
aU in rare oases like cough,. want, or laurel_
0", " and

contrastive, phonemic one) simply because Romanian

J does not recognize this contrast between front low
vowels as being a functional one, Constant trallring
on
3_ [:n:] is closer and longer than [0]- It is a long, tellse
vowel, more rounded than [0), the degree of aperture
being between open and half-open. The vowel is
can, however, lead to a correct pronllllciali of the
) Ellglish sound. The· vowel is cfu.lTIOuted in syUabJe­
initial, medial and final position (e_g_ ant.[rent], cat
·distributed in all threc basic positions: awful, caught,
flaw- It is usually spelt either aw Of au: awl, drawll,
thaw, august, taught. The sequence or is also «,ad [:"1
(kret1, rapid [t""pld]), but not in word-final position. It
] is usually spelt a: act, fat, and only exc,.,"P
tiormllY
ai;
if it occurs in final position or is followed by eifuer a
consonant or a &'i\ent c: for, sore, port. The sound is
plait [plret], plaid [piled). exceptionally spelt 00 in floor, door, oa in board;.

] b_ English back vowels. Th= are five back vowel pho­

nemes iostandardEnglish: [a:J, [ol,To:], [0] and [u:]
broad, coarse and hoard, ongh in (n)ought, sought,
wrought, and Ii in water or wrath and on in course,
source.
] 1- [a:] in RP does not coincide with cardinal vowel 5 [a]
It is a more· advanced, low, long, tense, unro
uoded 4_ [u] is a short, lax, rounded vowel which is
wnsider.ilily closer than [o:) its degree of aperture
vowel. It is distributed in all three basic positions: are,

J cart, far- It is normally spelt by the lcller II. followed by

a silent r in syllabIc or word-final poiition: jar. carpet.
It is often fOllowed by Ii silent 1 in words like palm,
"
being a littlc bit higher than the cardinal half-close. The
vowel never occurs in initial position and only
exceptionally io final position, io the weak, mi.'!!ressed

J calm, balm- sometimes f of ff can folloW: after. staff;

fonn of the preposition to, the verb do Of the pronoun

I
who_We can fuen say that its tfu;tnlJunon is restricted
Of 58; pass, class. or s or n followed by another
to medial position. The usual spelling for [0] is the
consonant: pasl, de:mand; or tb in word-final position:

II path, balh Of, exceptionally, othedeuers: aunt [a:nt],

Berkeley [ba:khl, hearth [ba:eJ, father [fa: ],
sergeant. [sa:c\3ant], memoir [memwa :], barrage
oa
\
letter u in words like push, cushion, pull, put_ The lelter
o can also represent the souod after w: wolf, Worcester.
In quite a few words double 00 is fue spelling for fue

I [b rera:3J­
souud, followed by k: look, book; by t:foot, sool, by d:
wood, stood; by the lateIai 1: wool, or a nasal: room,
broom, groom; on appears as the spelling ofthe sound
2 a
[8] is genuine back vowcl in RP. It is short, lax, open
in verbal forms lik:f! would. could, should.
J and slightly rouoded. It is only distributed in initial and
medial position: on, pot, and novel in final pob'ition- In 5_ [n:] is fue bighest barik vowel of English- It is a long,
SOlDe accents ofBngIish the vowel is pronotJJJCed prettY tense., roun.de:d vowel. It occurs in all three basic
.1 close to fue cardinal vo··;vel 5 [a]. In some varieties of
Arncrican English it is still open and a little bit fromed,
positions, though pretty infrequeutly in Urinal position:
oom, oomph, ooze, ugh, uhlan; rude, baboon. crew,
ooniing very close to [0:] so that it is often difficult to

J (iistingUish pot from part, for instance. Tne vowel is 101

~. 100

chew, tatoo. Romanian speakers of English - should
remember that ilie vowel is closer and tenser than ilie
preceding sound for which it must not be mistaken. The
SOundjR usually spelt 11 or 00: rule, root, taboo. 0 can in blood and flood and oe in does. Many Romanian
be the spelling of [11:1 in :fiIllU position in the stressed
farms of to, who, etc, and in the .noun ado. In words
like rQUte, through, routine, soup, douche, the wood is
'1'elt O1t. In: shoe, canoe, manoeuvre it i~ :rendered by
oe. The sound is often preceded by the palatal [j] which
is optionally inserted in words like suit [su..'1fsjll:tJ or
fruit [frn:tlfrjn:t], and obligatorily in beauty and its
deriVatives, infeud. music, mutiny, deluge, etc.
We can ellBily notice that all English front vowels are
r
UDTounded, while the back o_~, with the exception of a;] which is
not, strictly speaking, R back vowel, since its pronunciation in
pronunciation doesn't non:rl'ally mise any problem fur a
standard English is a little more advanced than that of cardinal vowel
Romanian speaker of English. It should be noted,
5 '{a] - display different degrees of roundness. This means that only
however, that one of the most difficult to acquire of the
the primary can:linal vowel chart is relevant for English, lIS there axe
no front rounded vowels or back uarounded vowels in thi s langua!le
(at lea~t in RP)
comparable to Russian). Thus, most English vowels, if
c. Engli'lh central vowels. There are three central vowel I
phonemes in English: [I\.J, [a] and [a:].
1. [A] (JV.B. For technical reasans. I have followed Daniel
Jones and the majority ofphonetic transcription" in use
in choosing this symbol to represent the vowel of the
lsnglish word cut; however, strictly speaking. this
symbol -is used in the IPA alphabet to represent
secondary cardinal vowel 14. the unrounded
counterpart of primary cardinal vowel 6 [a] see
above) is a central half-QjJell, shon:;, lax, unrounded
vowel. It is the lowest standard English vowel ana is
distributed in word-initial and medial position: utter,
subtle. It never occurs in word or syllable-fmal
,1\" 103
:.
-position. It is usually "Pelt -either n: WIder, but, or 0:
come, from. honey; in a number of words it is spelt Oll:
iJ
courage, southern, rough, tough, and exceptionally 00
[J
speakers of English find u difficult to acquire the
correct pr()I1unciation of [I\.J mistaking it for some
variant of a-oro. 1
2 [a] is the commonest English vowel. It is a central, mid,
lax, unrounded vowel - the schwa mentioned before - [)
for the pronunciation of which the tongue adopts the
neutral position in relation to which all the other
articulatory positions can, be described. The vowel· ]
freely occms in all basic positiOIl.', but only in
unstressed syllables: aside. collide. rather. Its
;)
phonological features of English is the change of the
vowel quality- with the stress shift (in a way
I
,i unstressed, will be reduced to schwa ouly to resume
their basic value if the stress shifts back on them: cf
I
Satan [_tan], Balanic [satsentk], Batsnlsm [serta=l
i or fatal [fertal], [futreJrt1], fatalism [fertahzm]. It would
I
,
I
be superlluous to list all tJ:ie possible spellings of [sa],
since the vowel can be, as ~ have said, the reduced form
!
I
of any simple vowel or even diphthong (see fatality,
above) in English and can consequently be rendered in
I
writing by any vowel letter with the exception of y
which only represents the· semivowel j or the vowel i.
I
3. [3:] is a central, mid, long, ten.~e central voweL It is the
. tense coimterpart of the schwa. and since it ollIy occurs
in stresseU syllables, in complementary distribution
I
withth,,-preceding vowel, some phoneticians, including
I
 ,---------
I Daniel Jones, argue tbl!t the two sounds are positional less prominent vowel in the diphthong that transfomls it into a

!I variants of the s'ame niid central vowel phoneme: It is

distributed all tl:Jrce basic positions, veIY ofum in
. semivocalie element 'There is, for instance, a difference, both in
quanti1;Y and quali1;Y between the second vocalic clement in the
monosyllabic words: err, first, curtain, for, refer. It is English diphthong [aJ] - that occurs, say, in the word buy, and the

I commanly spelt ir, Ill', cr, CYI yr in :final p0sitiun or

followed by a consonant or ear. when followed by a­
consonant bird, burn, fortI, myrtle, learn. 0t1rer
semivoV'rel UJ in the Spanish mterjection ayl [aj].
.According to the position ofthe more prominent .element in the
diphthong we havc already divided diphthongs into falling diphthongs
] spellings incJude our in words like courtesy, journal,
jow-ney, scourge, and, exceptionally, 0 in colonel.
- if the prominant element comes :fin;1; - and rising diphthongs - ifthe
!ess'prominen1 element <;:DIDeS first. All Englishdiphthongll belong to
rust
lhe categOIY, as it hils already been pointed out Diphthongs can

[I Here arc the English simple' vowels -or monophthongs

distributed conlrasiively in the same context:
a. the front vowels: eat [hi:t], bit [hlt], bet [bet], bat [hret]
J b. the central vowels: Burt [bs .. fj, but [bet] ~ the weak,
uru;tressed fo!Ill, butt [bAt]
i
then be opening diphthongs if the degree of aperture ;:w:reases with
the glide or closing diphthongs if the less proniinent vowel is closer
i than 'the fust. We can also di:ffeJ:entiate between wide diphthonis _ .
i
I
those in which the glide implies a more':radical movement of the
speech organs (e.g. [al]) and narrow diphthongs - if the two vocalic

[I c. the back vowels: boot [bn:t1, butch [butIJ, bought

[bo:t), bot [bot}, Bart [ba;t).
I
,
ekments occnpy neighboltring positipns (e.g. ["']) on the vowel crum.
'There are also centring diphthongs - if the glide is from a marginal
vowel in the vowel chart·.. eithL'T back or front - to a central voweL

We can now 5w:nmarize the inf01mation we have on the English .I (See the furee English diphthoIlgs gliding towards schwa; [1a] in dear,

] simple vowels (monophthongs) and include jt in the following lable: !

[sa] in cJuziJ' and (oaJ iu moor - to which We should add [00], no
longer met in prescnt-day standard English).
Central - Back
[I Higb/close
Tense
i:
Front

1
La:Jc I TellS. La:Jc Tense
u:
Lax
\J
A The centring diphthong." [la], [sa], [ua], [39]
a. [la] is a centring, falling, narrow, opening diphthong
Mid e a: a tbl!t starts at about the position of the short, lax [1] and
[I ~10!J"l1. ~
'"
0; glides towards schwa. The diphthong is distributed in
_re
- ---!::.-- " all three basic positions: ear, deer, tier. If the first

[I B. The English diphthongs.

Diphthongs have already been described as sequences of two
vowels pronounced together, the two vocalic eJeJl1<mts being members
1 of the same. syllable. We have shown that it is often difficult to
dis~auish a genuine diphthong from a sequence of a vowel and a
semivowel, tbl!t we can ofbm proncuru::e diphthongs Jllld ev(UI long
J vowels as such sequences an~ it is often the shortvr duration of the
element of the diphthong does not have the normal
prominence and length, it can be reduced to a glide ana
the diphthong is changed into De]. There are severdl
possible &'Pellings for the diphthong: eel' as in deer,
peer or career; ea(r) as in ear, weary, idea, (ear (n.
"lacrima"), beard, eir 3H in weird, leI' as injierce or
pierce, ere as in here or mere. Exceptionally we Clill
have ia a.~ in mediae/), labia(l), genial, ell as in

'I 104 HiS


museum, in as in delirium; co as :in theory and
theology; e a.q :in hero or in the diphthorrgized version
of [i:]: serious, serial.
b. [lID] is a centring, falling; narrow, in most cases
opening diphthong. The degree Df openness of the fir~t
clement varies, in. some dialects of English !he sound
being quite close ro rae]. In the more conservative
prODllllciations. closer to RP, Ihe articulation of the
diphiliong starts somewhere in the vicinity of cardinal
vowel 2 [sJ. Then follows a glide towards a Vllfiant of
.the schwa. There are dialects Where the glide to [a] is
very short and sometimes the diphthong is changed :into
B. The diphthongs to [1]: [all, [0'), [el]
a monophthong, !l long, tense vowel [s:]. The
diphthong is distributed:in all three basic positions: air,
scarce, fore. It can be spelt air: air, fair, chair, dairy,
fairy; are: fare, mare, care, care; ear. bear, wear, tear
(v.); acr: aerial, aeroplane; ere: there; eir: their, heir.
In words like prayer, layer, mayor, the spelling is ay
followed by either or or el". The vowel of Mary and
derived words suab as Maryland or Maryport is
nonuaUy diphthongi7.ed to [saJ.
c. [De] is a centring, falling, narrow, opening diphiliong.
If in 1he case of 1he two diphthongs anaiy7.ed before the
glide was from!l front vowel towards 1hc centre of the
imaginary vowel chart, :in the case of [Del the
articulation starts with a fairly hack, close vowel [nJ.
I
[1)8] is' distributed only:in woro-medial.:jewel or word­
final position: sure. The most conimon spell:ings ofthe
dipb1hong are: nre and oor - endure, mature, cure,
I
pure (words wbere the semivowel (j] is inserted before
the diph1hong), sure, poor, moor, or ill' folloWed by
other vowels than e: curious, duration. In a number of
cases we can have the spelling on: our, gourd, bourse,
I
The diphlhong can also occur in wurds where the suffix
lHli
I
]
er is attached. to a base ending in [{j)n] fewer, newer,
chewer, doer~pwsuer.
d. [06] is a diphthong that bas not survived :in present-day
~I
RP. It used to render the vowel of words like floor,
door, pore~ scare~ shore) coarse) hoars;e oar, course
1 ]
now pronounced [0:]. It still does that in various
dialects of English, though ·the gcneral tendency seems
to be to monophthongize such diphthongs. This has
been the rete of [Da] as wel~ which in many variants of
fl
Englishi. pronounced [0:] in words like poor, sure etc.
)
a. [m] i< a. faIling" wide, Closing diphthong. It is the
diphthong that actually implies the amplest articulatory
J
movement of the speech organs tbat shift from the
position of an open vowel which is :fuirly central (the
position vari",. !Jetween cardinal vowels 5 and 4) to a
I
:fuml:, close, lax vowel (not far :from the position of
cardinal vowel l. Historically, thc vowel originates in [i:],
that subsequently lowered to [eI), thm centred and I
lowered again to :finally become [81]. The diphthong is
distributed in all tim:e basic positions: isle [all]; bite
[baIt), cry fkrm}. Itcan.be spelt i as in ice, dime, loci, cry
I
a in dyke, fly, or ie as in die, jie, pie, or in inflected forms:
spies, spied; ye as in dye, fye; ei a, in height, either,
neither; and, elCceptionally ny in buy, guy. Note also the
pronunciation of l!)'(e) [m], eye [m] and aisle [all].
b. (Ol] is afalling, wide, closing diphthong. It starts from a
back, mid vowel, situated between cardinal vowels 6 an
7 and ends in a :front, close, lax vowel, somewhere in
the vicini1y of cardinal vowel 1. Like the preceding
diphthong, it also involves an ample articulatory
movement from a back vowel to the front part of the
I
107
i'
J imaginarY vowel chart. 1ti5 distributed in all three
basic positions: ointment; boil, tOY· It can be spelt either
1- oi: oil, tailor oy: cryster, Boyle, coy.
c:. [.,,] is a jalling, nan'O'W, closing diphthong. It
with a front, mid vowel - b~ cardinal vQwels 2
...I [eJ and ::I [Il] and glides to a higher vowel value,
closing. Often the second el=e:nJ: is very -short,
three basic positions: ouch, loud, bough. It can be ,pelt
by ou: oust, doubt, plough,or ow: owl, howl, how and,
exceptionally eo in MacLeod.
Here are the English complex vowels (diphthongs)
starts distributed contrastively in the same context:
a) centring diphl:hongs: beer [bi~], bear [bse], boor
[bua], boar [boe]

J somelin:ws 6Vell dropped, the diphthong being reduced

to II long vowel monophthong [6:]. 10 Cockney the
diphthong starts with a lower and central vowel, being
b) diphthongs to [1]; blJiY [ba I], boy [b~I], bay [bel]
c) diphthongs to [0]: baw, beau [bau]; boW, bough [bau]

...1
pronounced [At]: late [lAtt], say [SAl], day [ew]. The English triphtJumgs. The very ex1:rtence of tciphthongs in
diphthong is distributed in all three basic positions: present-day English is a controversial problem. There is hardly any
eight; plate, play. It can be spclt a: ace, lace; ai: aid, phonetic evidence for the surival of the fi;spcctive structures at lea<;\; in

1
- maid; ay: 4Jffl, clay; ei: eight, reign, ey: they, grey, ea:
break, steak. Exceptioniilly, there axe ~pellings like
RP. The controversisl sequences occur wbefore the rhotic r when the
DOn-centrig diphthongs are followed by schwa. Thus em], [01], [ell,
gaol [C\3etl], bass [betS}, gauge [gmC\3], halfpenny ["u],[au] become [ala], [::n.a], [em], [aoo], [aua] infre, employer,
'I
-
[Iuupm}. 'The mpbiliong also OCCU1li in a SIDall number
of French loan words ending in et or e: ballet, bouquet.
layer, mower,pawer. As ROGa and Johnson point out (1999: 200-201),
the actual pronunciation of these vocalic sequences tends either to
chalet, cafe, fiance, attache, resume. . break them into the diphthong and the following simple vowel

~I
,...;
c. The diphthongs to [\)]. There are two diphthongs in RP
. (schwa) _ e.g b)lyer [bal-£>], or to redUce the diphthong to a si:mpJe
vowel !OllOWL-il by schwa e.g. buyer [baa], Triphthongal sequences
endiog in Ii glide to [0]: [ao] and [au]. are quite common in Romanian :as proved by examples Iik.e leoarcii,

rI.... a. [ao] is the counterpart of [et] in the back area of the

aripioarii, beai, vreall, t'-td. mwll, lua~ luau, miet, leoaicii. (Vasiliu.
1965: 134)
vowel chart The diphthong starts with Ii cmttral mid
:1.... vowel and glides to a back close one· It is a fulling,
narrow, closing dipbl:hong. It is distributed in all three
basic pnsiuons: old, gold, flow, It has various spellings:

1
...
(I: old, sold, no; oa: oak, roast, oe: toe, ow: 0'Wl'l, /awWn,
row; ou: pOllltry, dough; eau: beau, bureau, and,
exceptionallY, au: gauche; 00: brooch; ew: sew; oh: ok

\1- b. [aD] is a/alling, wick, closing drphthong.It starts1lS an

open, fairly front vow"l em
the vicinity of cardinal

1- vowel 4) and glides towards [01 It is distributed in all

108
t
 ~.

CHAPTER'5
1
J
PHONOL.OGICAL. STRUCTURE:

'"

THE PHONEME AND THE AL.L.OPHONE.

SE6MENTAL. SPECIFICAnON:

DISTINCTIVE FEATURES

1
IN VARIQUS PHONOL.OGICAL. THEORIES

11

5.1. Individual sounds and classes of sounds. The

phoueme and its contrastive function I
The precOOing chapters o:ffi:rcd a tentative description of
English sounds from'
cermm
an: articulatory perspective, aiso providing
acoustic correlates of consonants and particularly vowels,
I
From the very beginning' of the book we lIsed the word smma to
loosely refer to one of the two sides of the Saussurian sign. the onc
, that the Swiss linguist called le signifje. However, this is not the way
I
in which phonologists, and, indeed, our own brllin, deal with 'the wide
varietY of gj.gniii.ers that a given linguistic system includes. It is clear
that human beings ptOOuce a great varietY of sounds, but only a part of
I
them are genuine speeCh sounds, that is sounds that are used for verbal
communication and are consequently of interest for the present
discussion. With our inventory drastically limited, can we still say that
I
all sounds that we prodlwe when we speak are interpreted as actually
discrete and entirely di:ffi:rent phonetic sequences? If this were the
case we would have indeed great difficulties in dealing with :mch a
I
wide varietY (in :taet. theoretically an infinite number of sounds) that
we articula:te. A closl;!: analysis of the phonation process will reveal
that, indeed, different speakers pronouncing, say, the word pen will
I
foil to identically pronounce its component parts, the sounds p, " and

111
I
I

J
n, respectively. Even more, one and the same speaker, if asked to
prOllOu:ru::e the respective word 10 tiInf:s will actually produce ten
] almost lmperceptibly diffu:rent VlIriants. 1he usc of phonographs bas
provided visiblr; evidence for this noW lmqu<'.stionable reality.
The question that we have to ask ournelves thfill is this: do
] these differ=ces really matter? Are tliey signillGant fur us, or do we
rather'tend to overlook the above mentioned variations and interpret
the respective segment as' identical, or, indeed, irrelevantly different,
1 each and every tllue we perceive it? Besides, it is intuitively pbvious
for anyone that the sound p in the English word pill is different :from
the "same" sound in spill. In the .first case the foree JJf the plosive
] sound is greater and a sort of "h" sound .accompilDies its arti.,1llatiou.
the other band, the differences are no longer neglected and the two
sounds are allotied to two different categOries. What is the reasOIJ we
do that for? D: is a jUnctional Dne, it was azgued The two words pill
and biZI are distinguished as discrete words precisely because the
interpretation of the two sounds is different. (A good parallel would
probably be one we are all fumiliar with and is linked to our primmy
. school memories., We were all asked to COD1pare two drdwings - two
representations of a human being, let's say, that differ in only Ope,
, often slightly perooptible detail: a square button opposed to. a rou'nd
one, maybe. Those buttons having d.ifferent shapes that keep the two
drawings apart are the phonemes of our situation). The two sounds we
are talking about have a ccmtrastive value, they establish an'

:I

,"
This phonetic phenomfillon is celled aspiration. Notlring of.the kind
happens in the sooooocase, Again, if asked whether we deal with the
same sound in the two words any speaker of English will give an
opposition, they keep apart the two wDrds, their difference actually
resolts in a semantic difference. Tbc presence or absence of aspiration
in the -different varlanis of p as well as'The variations that we may
affirmative am;wer without any hesitation and nobody will question perceive when we compare soccessive pronunciations of the

]
the sameness of the two sounds in spite of their obvious dissimilarity.
How come that we are so careless and neglect soch often important
respective words are 1lIlimJ2()~ or we com.ider them to be so as
loog as the meaning of the word the sound is part of is :interpreted as
di:flerences, while if asked to compare the sound p inpill to the sound being the same. Our intellect then apparently works on two different

II
b in bill - another case where we obviously deal with sounds that
differ - we will immediately say that the two sounds are distinct? Are
there cliffurent types of diffeiences sO to say? Are some differences
planes. Areal one where the differences between the actoal sounds are
pen::eived. and an ideal one, where these diffi:rences are analyzed and
are either considered to be irIlportant, or functional, or contrastive and
]
more important than others? These !night seem pretty trivial ~
at :frrst glance, but the answer that linguists gave, to them actually
are consequently recognij..ed, or, on thc contrary, are interpreted as
uuimportant and overlooked. It is the historic merit of structural
maiked a taming point ill the history of linguistic disciplines. What we linguistics to have postulated this distinction and to. have iutrod!roed
]
actually operate with - it :baS been explained - is not individual,.
separate, ll1lrejJC'ltable units, but:ruther categories. We know tbts from
the notion of Invariant in grantIIlaI. On the ideal plane, then, we work
with such abstract constructs, categories that don't have 11 concrete
ancient philosophers -' in particular from Aristotle - and l~e reality :md to which the concrete, actually occurring s01lIlds a."C

] makes no exception in tbi., respect Linguists have argued th.erefure,

that in the case of the sOlmd p in pill and spill respectively, as well as
allocated. The abstract construct was calledphoneme. Tile symbols for

phonemes are put in stashes: /pI and Ibl in our examples above. The

in the case of different people's or one and the same person's materializa:ti.ons, in",tan:t:iations, realizations of a phone:me in actual

]
pronuriciation of the same word, in spite of the obvious differences,
our rcind tends to group all the Vl!riants of the p soond in one and the
. speecl:t were called its allophof/e.s. The symbols fur allophones are put
in square brackets; [P]and [po] in our examples above for the aspirated
s = category. When we compare the initial sounds of pm and bill on of
and unaspirnted variant< Ipl. respectively.
]

113
<I
1!2
 5.2. Allopbones. Complementary distribution and
free variation
Phonemes are then theoretical coILStrUCbl, classes of sounds the
members of which display obvious phonetic similarities the
differenees among ille respective members being never contrastive or
functionaL As soon as, in a given linguistic context, this difference
beoomes :functional and :iepresents the basis on wbi<;h a sematUic
contrast i~ achieved, it ceases to be allophonic and becomes phlmemic,
in other words the respective sounds are members of distinct classes
(phonemes).
. It should be noticed that allophoniC differences or variations
can be of different kinds. If they :result from the occurrence of the
phoneme in di:ffurent environments or contexts (we will call this the
distribution of the respective phoneme) -we will talk about
distributional variation and we WIll say that the allophones are in
complementary distribution. The word "complementary'" actnally
refers to the fact film the contexts in which the allophones of a .
phoneme appear can never be the same and they cover the whole
ronge of possible environments in which the sound can occur (fur an
:malogous situation think of complementaiy angles in geometry). In
other words, in a given context X only a certain allophone will occur,
while in another context Y, another allophone is expected to occur and
X and Y are the only contem in wbich the allophones can occnr. It
follows from this thet the o c c = of allophones is always
predictable since in a certain context we can only expect one and only
one realization of the phoneme. In our particular example, in' the
context of pill - the voiceless plosive Ipl is followed by a stressed
vowel and is in syllable-mitial position - we can safely say that the
aspirated allophone[P"J will eoroe up. If; on the other hand, p is not
~"yllahle-initial and is preceded by s as in ·spill, we can safely predict
that the llnaspirated variant of p will occur. The occurrence of
differurrt phonemes ;.<;, on the contrary, totally unpl-edictable s~ it is
the VCIy fundamental characteristic of phonelIles that they 'are
contrasted in one and the same context. ThL'l"e is no way in which we
can predict therefure that in the context -d we will havepill. nil, chill
1\d
fil~ gill. Jin sill, kill, mill, hill. dill or till (the list can continue). Any
two words - such as pill and bill, =tioned above, or kill and hill,
etc. that help us discover which sounds have a contrastive value in a
given lan.,ouage are said to form a minimal pair. Tlle follOwing criteria
must be met by the twoword~ in order that they form a_minimal pair:
they should have the same number of sounds, and these sounds should
be identical. With the only exception of the contrasting sound thai
should be distributed in the same context in both words; the words
JllllSt also have di.:ffi:re:nt meanings.
If variation is not associated with positioning, and is rather
unpredictable, without being phonemic however, we talk about free
variation or random variation. One type of nrndom variation that we
eneollllter is when we compare different realizations of one and the
same phoneme by various speBkers or in the speech of one and the
same person in di:ffi:rent situations. It differs from the preceding type
because it is context·free and it differs from phonemic variation
because it is not contrastive. To give an example, if a person
h ­
pronounces the word rock as eitheJ:.f~ -ar [rok ], then.we taIk.&lJout
free variation.. We can have a different type of free ""nation when We
deal with realizations of different phonemes m the same context
withont a change of meaning. E.g.: li:1 and lei in the re.spective
pronunciations of economics: Ii:kan::mnksl VS. lekanoDl1ksI; or leI and
lell in the respective pronunciations of again fagenl VB. lagent!.
W:rth this we have actllally bighl:ighted the basic strategy
through which we can brjng out the contrast between two different
phonemic tmtities: in aile and the same context we replace or
suhstitute one element for another and analyze the effect this has on
the meaning of the entire sequence. The method is predictably called
suhstitution (~otber term often Ilsed is commutation) and it represents
the main strntegy through wbich structnralist grammarians
emphasim:! ~ce in language. Having established this, we can
refine our discussi~n <:If the Sanssmian sign. What the Swi.~s linguist
called Ie ;tiimfiflnt is W::tu;,ny a string ofphonemes and not of sounds,
a
iuext:ricahly ~d to certain notion or concept So we can say thai
at the leve!" of the sig"ifianr languages perfOttD a truly remarkable
thing. fustead of selecting an acoustic image (to use the Saus..'l'1lrian
115
 I

I
while in Romanian vowel length doesn't play any role, in killglish it
telln) for each and every concept in the S)'Stml- [P] fur cat, fD] for
J
mouse, etc - they actually combine a 'limited set of phonemes and
obtain a sufficiemtly large number of signifo:mts fur all the concepts in
clearly does so, since it is vowel length that <fu.1:ingllishes, say, seat
from sit. AnoUler ex.ample of the different interpretation of the same
phonetic reality by the two languages is the treatment of the velar
the language. By exploiting the combinatorial possibilities of elements
J
_ and anyone having elementary mathematical knowledge will be
aware that these are enonnous - languages manage to be extremely
nasal liD. Any ~reakeI of Ro:rrunrian if asked to carefhUy arutlyzethe
. sound spelt n in bandii and banco respectively will acknowledge the
d:ifi:i:rence but will not consider it an important one, becaose in
economical. Imagine what· rerrible offort wOlud be needed to learn
I
thousands of different sounds that would symbolize the concepts of a
language! Jf tbis is perl'Olllled al. the !"vel of. speech, the same
tendenl-"y can be noticed in the evolution' of writing: from various
is
Romanian the distinction between the alveoJar nasal and the velar one
never contt-alrtive or :functional. In English, however, it is, as
miIJirnal pairs like sin [smJ and sing [SIU] prove. Consequently, w4ile
:1

-
primitiVe symbolic representations htlIllll11 writing developed to
systems representing the syllabJes of word~, while the alphabetic
Romanian treats the two sounds as allaphnnes of the same llllSal
phoneme, In!, English will grant both en] and [IJl the st3.tus of
writing tends to a rePresentation of the phonemes of the language. I allophones oftwo di:ftere1lt nasal phonemes, In! and I :g i.r:espectively:

...t
used the word "tends" because even in the 'relling systems that come
closest to a one-to-one representation of the phonemes such a thing is
Aspiration, mentioned above, is another good example. While in
English it doesn't have a phonemic value as it is ",;sociated to
not achieved. (In Romanian, fur iIJStlmce, the phoneme Ik1 can be positional variants of one and the saine phoneme, in Hindi, for
t
. ~
rendered by either the letter c or by ch if distributed before a front
vowel, or even by q in the eonsen'lltive spelling of certain Latin
example, it is the baR;s of a phonemic contrast since pal with an
llllllSpirated plosive means to take care of, whilepha{ (pronounced

,1

....
words: e.g. requiem The letter c, on the other. hand, will get an
affricate reading if fullowed immediately by one. of the two front
vowels). The IPA alphabet is such all alphabet, but it is not used to
with aspiration) means the edge of a knife (Spencer, J996: 5).
Remembering die distinction between phonetics aru1 phonology

discussed in the second cihllpter of the book, we can now say that while

spell the word,; of ally language. (See chapter 2 above). phooetics deals with the more or less nnivernal chBtactecistics of sounds

~-f
(in articula1ory, acoustic or auditory terms) phonology will rather foGUs

on the particular way in . sound systems of di:ffurent languages

. .which the
5.3. The phonological idiosyncrasy of linguistic arc organized. The pbonological rules, constraints, the sound patterns of
....11
systems a given lin,,"llistic system will then be the domain of phonology.
SimpJ:i:fying, we ean say that pho:wtics deals with actual sounds and
.
Another imvortant reality becomes
. evident for us: if lilllDan their characteristics, while phonology will be concerned with matters of
il

....

beings are biologically apt to produce a Wide (but still fuiite) variety
of speech sounds, each natural language will operate a· pa..'i::icular
a more abstract nature;, a~ it analyses phonemes, phonemic features
phonological patterning. We will actually see that the boundary
seJection and choose a set of sounds that are :functional within the
rl

....
respective linguistic sy:,'tern. It follows from that that diffl'fences
which are considered "important''' (:functional, contrastive, phonemic)
between the two disciplines is far from being so clear-cut as we would
like it to be since it is impossible to speak of the phonetic characteristics
of sounds outside' of a pbono1ogical wrrtext and on the other hand we
by a certain language, may :tiot' be considered in the same way by other

...t
cat100t talk about phonological processes without making use of the
languages. An example at band is vowel length. It is evident thaJ: phonetic characteristics of sound,;.
vowels have different lengths in both Romanian' and English. But

'.
llG
117

5.4. Broad and nan"oW tralll.Scriptiol'l
]
Another distinction shonld be made in this context. We have
talked in a previous chapter aboot various ways of representing the
sOllndq of a language in writing and we loosely called them phonetic
transcriptions, What we actually represent' by a system as that
designed by the IPA are .the phonemes of a given language- and it is
more appropriate to call this a phonemiC trOl1Scription, usually
rendered between slashes, The term ftroad transcription is also used,
to show that it tends 0 ignore the details and represent c1a.~ses of
sounds rather than SOlmds proper. By contrast, a traoscription that
alros to fu.i:thfully ~ender the allophonic variants of the phoriemes and
provide as much information as possible about the 'Olrod., that actually
[J
occur in a given context will be called a narrow, or phonelic
transcription. SUCh a trdllScription is conventionally put in square
bracket<; [ J. Since' fur reasOI1'l of economy, bot often quite
confusmgly, the same graphlc symbo( is used for both the phoneme
and its allophonic variants, various diacritics or additional symbols
can be used to make the diff:brence. For instance, while the phoneme
!pi is represented by the letter p, its aspirated allophone will be
rendered by the same symbol followed by a small b: ph, while the
unaspirated one by p-. 'The symbol that we chose to represent the
phoneme will always he the one representing its most wid""-pread
allophone. This aCcolmts for the fact that the unaspirated rather than
the ""pirated allophone of Ipl i., represented by its graphic symbol.
simi!ai:ly, English vowel phonemes will be represented by the
symbols oftheir oral and not their nasal allophones, etc.
5.5. Segmental and snprasegmental phonemes
We have so fur described the sounds of English. we tried to n,;t
gome of their main articulatory features, we even postnlated the
existence of cla..ses of soundS that we called phonemes ana we
discllssen tb.em in functional terms emphasizing their contra.qtive
value. Bot even when we talked about classes of sounds (phonemes)
J
we considered them as actually defining unique pll!>DoJogical units in
~pi'" of the piiimetic variations displayed by their respective members
which we cho= to ignore. We can say then that we analyzed
individual, separate scgm<>ntJ, poouologicn1 units m i.90lation. The [J
study of such segments outside of a: larger phonological context is the
.domain of segmental phonology. Many changes undergone by sounds,
many con~ m language, many phonological processes, actually f)
take place or can be ooticed l!t a higher level, a level that will involve
sequences or strings of sounds, or even of words aod phrdSes. Tlris
will be the domain of suprasegmental phonnlogy and part of the 1[1
l
. following chapters will be de";oted to a brief analysis of such
phenomena Stress, rhythm., intonation are obviously such
phonological realities. that :manifest themselves at a suprasegmental
level. Sire.. and intonation contours can even have phonemic
(contrastive) value since only diffe:rence in stress placement
establishes the distinction between envoy (the noun) aod envoy (the
verb). 'Q1e same word, phrase or sentence pronounced with different
;1
intonational contours could expreBS su:q:rriSe, satisfaction, matter-of­
factneBS. The last chapter of·the book will discuss such CllSes in furth~-r ;)
detail.
)
5.6. From the minimal 'unit of linguistic analysis to
the bundle of distinctive featnre..~
The "discovery" of the phoneme tbrilled linguists enormously.
I
Scholars working in the domain ofhumanities have always lived with
the <:orupJex of the extraordinary achievements of their colleagues
studying exact or natural sciences. If mathematicians walked on such
I
a rigorous and strictly organized groUnd, if hiologlst. Jike Linne were
able tu so convincingly classify and expJain the extraordinary variety
of living creatures why should lin,,"llistics and literary sciences, for
I
example, work with vague and slippery concepts? Couldn't empirical
observation be organized in this field too, couldn't general principles
he enounced and rules he discovered and formalized just as in the
I
domains of, say, physics or algebra? And if this was not possible did
119
I
 J sciences, after all? So that when the phoneme was "discovered" an be analyzed (that is dee...mposed) in tcnns of characteristic features
J analogy-struck the mind of enthusiastic researchers. ff languages were
rnultHayered systelJ1S of levels that were hieran::hlciilly and
isomorphically organized _- in·other words the elernertts of OIli' level
actually amounted to dOrn,g- away with -the myth of the atomic
phoneme. The unbreakable -atom could a:ftri all be split into
COlIlpOllent features. Thus it came to have subs1ance and be
il
"" ­
could be analyzed (etymologically decomposed) into small~ elemenll;
at the ~ly -inferior level and SQ on will the lowest level is
understood not ouly in :fi.mct:ional terms - its oppositional value - but
also as a combination or, to use the established terin, a bundle of
reached; hadn't linguists actnally bit the iJ.l!imate illid smallcist unit in distinctive features. -'What does diStinctiVe mean? Some ofthe features
1- language - the phoneme? If pliysicists and chern ists had discovered
the atom, the mjnim.l sllUcture in the universe that could not be
we _mentioned <::arlier seem to be more relevant tbJm others, in certain
=u1exts at least, since /pi and Ib /- to refer to the actual example we
further decomposed (the reality later proved to be -bitterly discllssed before - haw lots of features in common (plosive, bilabial,

J disappointing), wasn't the status of the phoneme in linguistics exactly

the same?
ff we remember the presentation in the first -chapter of this
obstruent sounds) and only differ in:. one; because this feature that
differentiates or distinguishes them, it was called distinctive feature.
Now that the concept of phoneme unbreakability was dead, ­
1
I

;1.... book of the stages in the process of communication. the reasoning

roughly went along the following lines: sentences could be analyzed
linguists enthusiastically set about inventory:ing and describing the
distinctive features, the new minimal uni!, at the phonological leve.l.
into phrases at the syntactic level, that could be further split into (phonology was again a pioneer in the' field. as the ''filshion''
1
l,;
words and morphemes at the morphological level to be finally
decomposed mm.·phonemes at the-phonological leveL The phoneme
subsequently spread to other linguistic disCiplines - see componential
analysis in semantics, for instance). This actually became one of the
would be then the minimal unit in Ian"ouage. Unlike words, lIlain tasks of phonologists: identifYing the L"Xact set of features that

1-
.'
morphemes, phrases and sentences at the superordinate levels it will
be itself devoid of mesni:ng, since Ie signiru.nt is ouly accidentally a
unique phoneme, but rather a combination or string of phonemes, but
.1.... -will have an essential mk (a contrastive one as we saw) in keeping
apart semantically different sequences.
Nevertheless, from the perspective on the phoneme presented
to
....t
above,this newly found atom of lan,,"llilge didn't seem have much
substance after all To say that p inpot is oot n in not =y, of course,
be important, but it is not very illll1.llinating about the true nature of
are relevant for any language and describing the way these features
arc relevant far phonological processes. It proved to be, however, a
_di£fj,,-u]t task since there Were several criteria that could be used in
analy-Lfug the features (articulatory, ac.oustic, auditory) and some
features wt>re particularly relevant for some languages whlle in other
languages not ouly w~e they not distinctive, but could not be
identified at all when examining the phOIWInes of the respective
langtlages. Should specialists conti.uue to aim at designing a set of
universal features or ratbffi. - start from the idea of the highly

t
;.....
either p or n, since it amounts to saying what p and n are IWt:rather
than. what they arc. ff we agree that thq arc different, is this
difference purely functional, Of does it rather have some phonetic
idiosyncratic character of each language and design individual sets Of
features? As the idea of language universals was very dear to lingllurts
lllld, moreover, there was rimcb empirical support for such a

t
I.,,;
"wstallcc as well? And if it does, what is it based on? How are tlwy
different after all? In t = of our discussion of the two soUnds we
hypothesis, a universal set of features was established - based on
fundamental simi.iJlrities among laognages ..; while some other featw:cs
-will say that most of their characteristics or features are comrnon;with were h-pecified as being relevant for a more limited number of
;I
....
the .exception of one importmlt feature: voicing or vocal cord
vibrmi:m. However, acknowledging the tact that each phoneme could
languages. (As we are going to see later, a feature like guttural will
not be relevant for any European language; but this is not the case of

I 120 121
 ,.

!.']
only suCh "exotic" features. Nasality, fur instJm<:e is distinetive and specification [+voiceJ. Still, some features are not really analyzable in

h11S a. phon=ic value when we analyze FrenCh vowels, wbiIe in binary temis at·all. How are we to reduce ,the multitude of places of

languages such as Romanian and English it is a purely cantextllal

feature that characterizes lIliophones of vowel phonemes distributed :in
articulation of consonants to binary oppositions? Can we say, for

example, that a sonnd is non..ruveolar? There is no such place of

]
a nasal enviromnent). . articulation, so ":non-alveolar" can I;i:tean bilabial, palatal, velar, etc.
Smce phonemes had an oppositional' value and the contrasts
they established seemed to be ofa binary kind (ofthe type either... or)
Place of articulation features thus do not bave just two values or
spe,,:ifica;tions. Therefore, a specitica;tion suCh as [-alveolar] would be
]'"
.'

the features were - at least initially· devised:in the same WHY. When me!lningl.ess. Clearly ~ fuatures",~to establish oppositions ofl.
i we' talk about binary oppositions, we have in mind a polarity. The
I[
respective feature has two poles and an element charaeterized by it
the type presented above and were consillered; m litter approaclies,/
!mm;y~-as they only had one value Or specification.

[J
~can only be situated at one of the poles. To give a clearer ex:arnple, I Most of the rema:ining part of the chapter will be devoted to a

will refer to a ·semantic opposition of this kind: dead/alive. Along the

fuatmc "endowed with life" we call only encounter the two situations
sketchy presen1ation of the distinctive features in various influential

approaches. [I
mentioned above. If·someth:ing is alive, !han it is not dead and if it is
dead, it is not alive. No intermediate degrees are allowed as in the case
of the oppositiou coldlbot where it is clear that if something is not hot 5.7. JakobsOD aDd Halle's feature system fI
it doesn't necessarily fullow that it is cold: it ean be wann, cool, ete.
Tliis' is a i:ed.iiCfive: perSpeCflve anil there are very few -natural or
linguistic phenomena that can. accurately be described in these terms.
Reality is much more complex, allowing for infinite degrees and it can
.. Traditionally; speech sounds were almost exclusively
descnoed in articulatory terms, in' a way very much similar to that we

nsed in the preceding chapters of this book. The reason. for which

Il­
be rarely reduced to an either... or opposition. Many features were felt
as being more accurately descnoable in terms of scalar values. InStead
articulatory rather than acoustic Or auditory 'characteristic prevailed

and for whiCh articUlatory phonetics has had a longer history than its
I
of heaving two poles - the oppo~ite values of the fuarure, a hierarchy younger sisters, acoustic and auditory phonetics are Obvious and bave

of intmmediate degrees was introduced. Therefore, instead of the +/­

opposition deSC!1oed above, many f e _ were later described using
the symbol a that mm:k:ed a variable degree of the Characteristic (see
been cursorily mentioned in the introductory chapters of this book.

Intuitively we are more readily aware of the way we articulate sounds

- we can even touch, feel, watCh our speeCh organ.. perform the

I
the opposition higb/low in vo_ls, discussed in a previous cruWter). It
doesn't only have the two poles as it allows for different degrees of
aperture: mid, high-nUd, open-mid voweL'l). However, it seemed very
necessary movements for producing lhe reqnired sounds. Befure the

recent development of teclmDlogica! means by whiCh sounds could be

represented, visnalized, mapped on complex diagrams we could

I
convenient and efficient to overlook such ~letaiJs and simplify mattLT.l
by oilly allowing the features to be 5]Y'vCified by either + or -. Along
hardly speak of acoustic phonetics as II discipline on its own right

AuditoI}' phonetics, as it involves psyChological and even

phy"iological processes that are still largely unclear, bas always been
I
the featore [voice], for example, we have two values or specificatious,
the fumrer symbol clearly marking the presence of the :feature, .while
the latter made; its absence. Thus the voiceless plosive /pI will be
a shadier ground. With the developmeut of the phoneme theory and of
the structuralist approaChes to language, the identification and analysis
of distiuctive' features wittiessed a sudden boom. The inflneutial wDrl,
I
specified [-voice], while its voiced counterpart fbI will receive the

123
I
J
th
of the Prague School linguists in the fusI: decades of the 20 century
'The fust two;' 1J()calicirw1'J--vocalic and consonantal/non­
consonantal obviously distinguish between vowels and consonant~.
was echoed later by, one of the most di;fuiguished representatives of Acoustically, [+vocalic] sollnds were described as having a well­

I
the school, Roman Jakobson, who published in 1952 a book
eo-authored by (3un:rlaI'Fant and Morris.1Iille, entitled Preliminaries
detiued formant structure, wb,ile articn1atorily they are characte.rized
by vvc:"i cord vib,'a:i:ion and free passage of the airstream.
to Speech Analysis. It was the first major attempt by the structural Acousrically, COilSOIJlilltril sounds were characterized by a lowering in
rl

....
'
school of linguistics to give a comprehensive imd articulate, coherent
piatore 0 ,the distinctivl; fea;!mes in language. Four years later,
the fuRt fimnant, while articn1atorily an obstrnction is met by the
outgoing airstream. While vowels were descr:ibed as [+vocalic;
Jakobson and Hall" ,xefitl.ed ,:t\le theory in their Fundamentals of -consonantal] COllSOnants received the specification [+consonantal;

~
Language (1956). Jakob~o:n and Halle's fuatureS depllIt from the
traditional approacl1es as 1Jley attempt t6 describe sounds from an
vocalic]. The latt:ral 1 (and, later, the other liquid, r) was
controvL'TSially desc~ibed as [+vocalic; +consonantal] while the glottal
acoustic (and occasionally auditory) perSpective (which were simply fricative h received the specification [- vocalic; - consonantal], a label
1

.... not avirilable, previously, as I have poiIitt:d out). The principle of

mnanty was for the first time clearly stipulated. The features were
also used for, gJides:

described as being universal rafuer than language specific. They also The feature compactldlfJUse, supposedly common to both

J
e
tried to bridge the gap between the traditionally iIreconciiabl classes
of vowels and consonants by finding or at least attempting to find
vowels and ,consonants, distiIiguishes between open and low vowels
and front and back (post-alveolar) consonants respectively. The name
ofthe featme'cmnes from its acoustic chardCterization. Diffuse sound.~
common denominators for fueir respective descriptions. Amplitude (or
1.... lomw.e!i&);' flRtlh- {ar frequenCY) and duration (length) are·-the three
coordinateS that define speech sounds. Largely relying on data made
bave energy spread widely (d:i:ffusely) across the spectrum, while in
the case of compact sounds the energy is conccutrateil in the central
available by technical developments, the authors built up a system of area of the. auditory sPOOtruin (it· is . compact): Articulatorily, the
'I

...
fua:tureS that they tabulated 'll1d,baptized the feal:Ul:e, matrix of the '
respectiv,,:phonemes. Thus, Jllllking use 'ofonlY nine binary features,
rliffuse sou.iJ.il.i (close vowels and frout consonants) are clli-u:acterized
by a back:w.m:l~flanged shape of.the resonator (the oral civi1y), while
compact sounds (open vowels and poatalveolar consonants) are
t....
they gave a tentative description of all the phonemes of English. niese
f~atures were: '
1. vocalic/non-vocalic
char!lllterized by a forward-flanged shape ofthe resonator.

Within the opposition nasal/oral" J+nasal] sounds are

[I....

2. consonantaJinon-con:;onatal
3. compac!1diffuse
characteriz.ed acoustically by a re<luction of the intensi1y of the sound
the presence of II nasal formant and a damping of the oral ones, wbile
4. rg.avel acute articulatorily we witoess a blocking of the oral ca:v:i1y and the release
t
5. flat/plain

6, nasal/oral

ofthe airtbrough fue nasal ca:vi1y.

,
"""
7. tensellax The fuature continriantiintlJ1'rupted (abrupt) keens apart
J..... 8. contiuwmtlinterropted
9. stridentJmcllow
fricative sounds the pronunciation of which, as we saw, can be
COntillned indefinitely, from stops which are characterized in
Most features belonged to a more comprehensive category. articulatory terms by instantaneous release. Acoustically, stop

,. calied sonority features.

124
125
 J
~cor<ti"uantJ sounds are characterized by a sudden spread of energy
in Noam Chomsk;y and Moms Halle's Sound Pattern of English
(1968), a book t!Jat represented a turning point in the development of

w
J
OVCI a wide freqnency region.

Stridentlmellaw is a fcallJre that differentiates among affricates

and grooved fucatives (labio-denta1, alveolar and a1vea-palatal) on the
phonological theory in the 20 century. The phonological analysis is

carried out from, a generative perspective, which radically mod:ifies the

i.nterpreta:tions of. the_ phonological processes. 1he task of the

J
phonologist was not longer to identify and classilY the elements in a
one hand - they are all-[+.rtridentJ and slit" fricatives (the dentalOOllS)
which are [-l>'tridentJ. Acoustically, strident sounds have- irregular
given corpus, but railicr to devise a system of rules that explain the
phonological structure of sentences and the phonOlogical changes

1
<...

wave forms and articulatorily they are rougb-edged because of all

add:itional obstruction fu,II; increases turbulence at the place of
articulation. We will remember that strident sounds will :require the
u:r:ide!:gone by vaious -segments. The classical variant of American

Stru:cturnlis:m often called Item and Arrangement phonOlogy was

repudiated in favour of a flexible system that should allow the linguist

1
.~

insertion of a vowel between them and the "-s morpheme.

Protensity features are only represented by the feature

tense/lax. The [+tenseJ specification characterizes soundswhlch are
to explain the phonological structure of a given language. From
essentially cla~sificatory and descriptive, the model tends to become
explanatory. Generative transformational grammar was a h,ter

fI
development of earlier sttuctura1ist tlJi:Qries in the 20w century, of

mticulated with a greater effort. AcoUlltically they evince a great<:r

spread of e;o.ergy in the specuum IUld ru.ve a longer durati.on, while
articulatorily they rcqniIe a greater deformation of the vocal trllCl
w.hich it is in many ways a continuation, but from which it essentially

departs in some fundamental aspects. At the time when SPE was

J
Voiccle.ss-=nants will be thus specified, while voiced ones will be
described as [-tense].
publiShed, most generativiSl:S woura ifiJl accept the -Standard-model of

the late fifties and early sixties which considered the syntactic

component as cen:tral within grammar while the serrumtic and

I
TonalllJl features include the grave/acute and flat/plain
oppositions. The former characterizes boj:h vowels and consonant!; and
distinguishes back vowels from front ones and "peripheral" from
phonological coIDpOJl!)ll,ts were jnterpretative ones. 1he pbonological
- component was structured much l.ikl: the syntactic one. An underlying
representation was postulated which consisted of a string of highly

J
I
"centra!" oonsonants. [+grave] sounds are characterized acoUlltically ablltract phonological segmenta t!Jat were converted by phonological

by a low pitch (frequency) and include back vowels and labial and roles into sw:face representations that mirrored pretty faifufully the

velar Consonants. Acute -sounds will display higher ftetiuencies and actual pronunciation of phonetic sequences. We will come back later

include front vowels, dental, alveolar and palatal consonants.

The full/plain opposition corrtraats rounded to unrounded
vowels. [+flat} sounds display acoUstically a lowering of the higher
in this chapter to this type of interpretation of phonological changes.

The features used by Chomsk;y and Halle were defined primro::ily in

articulatory terms and not in acoustic ones as they were in the

I
formant and are articulatorily characterized by lip rounding. Jakobsonian nwdeL 'This was not a return to the 'tradition", but a
rei.nterpretation of most of Jakobson's festores. Chomsl'Y and Halle
them..elves argue that the priority given to an articulatory description
J
5.8. Chomsky a.nd Balle'S distinctive features

Within a fundamentally different theoretical furnework Dlany

is a circumstantial one rather than one pertaining to tlre essence of
their tl::teoretical approach (1968: 299). The feattrres .-. more numerous I
than Jakobson's-were subdivided into five groups.
of the distinctions proposed by Jakobson and Halle can be tecognized

127 J

a) sonorantlnonsonorant (obstruent)
1. Major class features:
b) vocalidnonvtic:aJiC
did not involve any major obstruction in the way of the airbtream,
c) consonantal/non-consonantal
a) coronallnoncoronal
2. Cavity fearures:
b) anrerior/nananrerior
c) body of the lOngue featureS:'
1) higbJnonhigh
2) low/nonlow
3) backlnonback
d) roundedlnonrounded
) e) distribute<llnondi.stnouted
'\. L 1) coveredlnoncovered
g) glottal coDStrictions
h) secOndary apertures:
1) nasaJ/nonnasal
2) lateral/nonlateral
3. Manner of articulation features;
a) continuantlnoncontinuant (stop)
'j
"/ b) instantaneous/delayed release
c) supplementmymovements
1) suction
2)press=
d) tenselnontense (lax)
a) heightened ~'1ibglottal,pressur"
4. Souree feaJ:ures:
b) voicedlnonvoicOO
c) stridimtlnoDStrident
5. prosodie features:
a);1reSS
b) pitch
c) leDe.ath
Here follows a brief presentati"n ofthe SPE distinctive teamre":
1. Major class features dealt with the fundamental
vocaliclnorrvocalic and consonantaV,wnevnsonantal distinctions. A,
128
explained earlier in this book, the distinction suggested by Chomsky
and Halle was essentially an articulatory -one: the uttering of vowels
while a major constri"tion at some point along the vocal tract was
always associated with the articulation of consorumts. Just as with
Jakobson, liquids were described as being [+consomintal; +vocalic],
glides were [-consonantal; -vocalic], a combination of featurestbat
$0 cbiiacteriZCd the glottal fricative b and the glottal stop ?
The distinction sorwrant!obstruent was introduced the former
being described as sounds allowing spontaneous voicing. Vowels, (
lifidcs, liquids and nHsals were naturally included. though itlS-not
clear Why h lind the glottal stop received the same speci:fieation. A
refinement of these feaJ:urcs is suggested in the epilogue of the book
where vowels are described as syllabic and vocoid (vowel-like in
nature) while glides are cbHracteri.zed ~m rwrl-syllabic and voeoid.
'Thu.q, the articulatory' similarity 'between 'vowels and glides is
captured, the difference being one of distribution (in the,position of
I
syllable nuclei - see the ~ on sy1Ii6fe). "
I Syllabiclrwnsyllabia. "Consonants are -described as confOids
i
(consolll!Dt-like in nature) lind vowels as vocoids while the same
distinction ,syllabiclno11S)'llabic that differentiated between vowels and
, glides operdles in the case of consonants too. It keeps apart syllabic
consonants (nasals and 'liquids) and nonsyffabie ones (the hue
consonants or obstruelIts). We must mention that +/- syllabiC is a
di.ffi:rcnt type of feature since it ref€.-'!s to the possibility of oceurrence
(distIibution) of a sound in a given position (context) - i.e. syllable
nucleus. That is why the introduction of ibis feature was considered by
many phonologists to be a shortco_ of the SPE system as it is
based on a criterion that differs from the mainly articulatory critt,,na
that operate in the case ofthe other features.
2. Cavity features wete essentially place of articulation features.
a) Coronal sounds (a new feaJ:urc actually originating in
Jalrobson's grave/acute opposition) were dermed as
sounds producOO with the blade ofthe tongue r.nsed from
129
 "J
the neutral position (dental, alveolar, palato-a1veolar 2. laterallnonlateral sounds, the oppoSItIOn b~J.ng ]
again based on fue type of release: the air is Or is
consonants).
not allowed to flow laterally.
. b) Anterior sounds (anomer apparently new fuature, which
can, however, be associated to. Jakobson's compact!
]
diffose one) were sounds prpduced in front of the 3. Manner of articulation foatures essentially .distinguished
palato-alveolar region.
c) The body of the tongue flatures actually dist:inoauished
between stops and fiicatives on me one hand mal plosives
and affricates on me other. ]
among vowels having di:ffu:rer!t degrees of aperture as It a) contiF111Lmtinoncarrtinuant. Continuant sounds are pro­
result of the higher or lower position of the tungue in the
mouth. It was, however, extended, not very convincingly,
duced with a prim!!ly constriction iliat does not entirely
block the air flow, wbiIe the articulation ofnoncontiDllant
:w
~
to [_ anterior; -coronal] consonants and, as it was sounds (stops) involves such a complete closure.
h) ~antaneou.i release/delayed release is a feature that
obvious that it was irrelevant for coronal and anterior
sOUIldS, the authors argued that it could be at least used to keeps apart plosives from afllicates. It refers fuen to [J
describe "subsidiary consonantal· articulations such as sounds produced with a complete closure of the tract,
but which differ in the manner of the release:
palatalization, vela:rlza:tion and pharyngealization".
d) The feature roinidedlWlT'ouru1ed made a distinction instantaneous or abrupt in the case of plosives and [J
between .SOllllds (priIJ:l}l:cily vowels) pronOlmced with delayed in me case ofafllic:ates.
either rounded or spread lips.
e) The feature distributedhwrulistributed difll::rentiate
between sounds produced with a Constriction that extends
The two featureas men combine to describe fue respective
consonant classes. Stops are characterized a' [-continuant; fI
+;nstantaneous release], while fiicatives are [+continuant) and
fur a coru.iderable distmice along the direction of me air
flow, and sounds articulated with a constriction . mat
extends ouly for a short di,;tance in the diJ:ection of me air
afllieates are [-continuant; +delayedreleaseJ.
c) srrppl=taxy movemen:ts characterise sounds
I
flow. Apical from lamina! mal :retroflex from nonretrofiex articulated with two simultaneons c1osnres, such as
consonants, respectively ate thus distinguished.
f} The feature cOlleredlnoncovered :refers to me position of
. clicks, the labiov~lars or the glottalized sounds.
d) The featnre tense/Iax parallels the feature long/short in
I
the pharyngeal walls: in the ca..e of covered sounds the vowels and vaicelesslvoiced in consonants. It describes
walls are narrowed and tensed, while noneovered sounds
are articulated without Such It narrowing or tensing.
the higher or lower muscular articulatory effort
required by fue uttering ofthe respective sound.
I
g) glottal constrictions involve fue complete closure of fue
glottiS.
h) The features involving secondary apertures mainly
4. Ofllie sourcefoatures
a) the heightened .rnhglottal pressure feature acco1mts for
I
differentiate between: . aspiration in fue tense voiceless stops.
J. nasallnonnnsal sOlmds, fue opposition being based on
fue different cawes nasal and oral respectively
b) voiced/unvoiced is a fundamental feature characteristic
of sounds in any language and has already been
I
through which me air is released. discussed in detail.

131
I
 0) the feature stridentlllonstrfdeni was described as being
"marked acoustically by grea1l.or (or lower) noisine$"
and restricted to obstruent cOntinUilllts and affiicates.
Of the fonner class, the dental fricatives of English are
nonstrident, while the alveolar ones are strident
5, ,Prosodic feature:; W<.."J:e ouly listed, without being described
since as fue authors pufit;. "our investigations of these features have,
not progressed to a point where a discussion in print yrould be useful".
Most of Chomsky and Halle's fuatures are still widely used in
phonological theorY even at present. Phonologists have, however,
become increasingly aware of the inadequateness of the binary principle
especiaJJy in the situations when a more refined a.naiysis of a
phonological reality was needed. Even with Cbomsky and Halle some
of the fea1:tlretJ were' not binarY and a feature like syllalJic was of a
totally di:ffurcnt nature as pointed out above. Inl!tead of the initial
polarities, hierarchies or scales were built to more accurately dCS'-'Iibe
the characteristics of phonemes. In order to explain syllable
constituency, !he initial binary opposition obstruent/sonorall! 'MIS
, , abandoned in favom of a scale ofsonority (seethe cbapter on syllable).
5.9. Ladefoged's feature system
.Peter Ladefuged, one of the most distinguished phoneticians of
the 20'" century, established an eqnally well-known system of
features. The initial highly theoretical stance was often departed from
and a more pragmatic approach waS adopted· as phonologists felt the.
need to adapt their system to the phonetic reality. Ladefoged's
distllctive featw:es are essentially described in articulatorY i.etms and
are not all binarY, many of them. being multivalued feamrc;s. Hero
follows a succint presentation ofLadefoged's feature system!
l. Tbe feature glottalic, in Ladefoged's words, "specifies the
aiJ:sIream, by quantifYing the movement, if any, oif the
..
' 132
glottis." There arc three phonological possibilities for this
fuature:
a) [ejeclive], wh<..-n the glottis is moving upward;
b) [pulmonic], When fuere is no movement of fue glottis;
c) [implosive], when the glottis moves downward.
2. TIle feature velaric "specifies the degree of use of velaric
aiJ:sIream mechanism in a sound". The phonological
possibilities for specifYing sounds are:
a) [+click]
b) [-click]
The feature· can then be used as a binary one to distinguish
phonemes in certain Janguages.
3. The feature voice, for which. Ladefoged also suggests the
term glottal stricture describeS the degree of approximation
of the llJ}'tenoid· cartilages. (see above the subchapter
dealffig with articulatory ~"s liUld-:the physiology of
speech 'productiou). Ladcfoged identifies five different
values for a language like Beis, spoken in Sudan.
However, most langUaj?;es, he acknowledges, will ollty
distinguish two values [+ voice] and [-voice] ,espectively:
a) [glottal stop]
b) [laryngealizedJ
c) [VOice]
d) fJnurmur]
e) [voicelesy]
4.. The :feature aspiration specifies the relation between
voicing and the tiroing of articulation or the tllrte: of onset
of articulation with respect to release of articl1latio.1L There
are three values that cim e,1:abJish oppositions:
a) [aspiratedJ
b) [una.lpiratedj
c) [voice]
133
 5. Tire feature place ~specifies the di'ltaIlce from the glottis to
the first maximum constriction of the vocal tract". TIre
maximum number of differt."Jlt places of articulation that
can be found in any language spoken in the world is six...
There are, however, contrasts between adjacent terms
[bilabial] and [labiOdental], [labiode(l!al] and [dental], so
Lagdefhged establishes eleven values fur this fea1in:e:
a) [bilabial]
9. The feature lateral measures the degree of laterality or the
proportion of the airstream that i~ flowing over the side of
the tongue. Languages distinguish between two values:
a) [+lateral]
b) [-lateral]
!D. The feature trill refers to the degree of vibration of an
articulator. As an articulator can be either vibrating or not

vibrating there can be only two values, respectively:

b) [labiodental]

a) [+trill]
c) [dental]

b) [-trill]
d) l alveolar]

e) {retroflex]

1L The feature tap has as a possible scale the rate of move­

f) (palato-alveolar]

ment of. an articulator. It is also described in binary terw.s,

g) [palatal]

as having two values;

h) [velar]

a) [+tapj
i) [uvular]

b) [-tap]
j) (pharyngeal]

Ie) [glottal]

12. The fcalure sonorant, as described by Ladefoged differs

6. The feature labial describes the degree of approximation of
the centres of the lips. It has two values;
a) [+labial] for sounds like [p, b, m]
b) [-labial]
7. TIre feature stop or articulatory stricture refers to the
degree of articulatory elosure. Ladefoged difrerentiates
he:tv.'e<lt1 thr".e phonological possibilities fot this :feature:
a) [stop]
position after a [stop] or a [fricative] it becomes
b) [fricative]
[+syllabic].
c) [approximant]
:from the others as' it is defined in acoustic and not
"physiological» {i.e. articulatory) torrns. Like the preceding
feattires it has two values:
a) [+sonorantJ
b) [-sonorant]
With the help of this feature, Ladefoged explains the
peculiar' situation of consonants that become syllabic in
Engiish. Thus, if a [+sonorant] is distributed in final

13. The feature sibilant. is defined in acoustic terms as

8. The feature nasal refers to the degree of lowering of the specifing the amount ofbigh-:frequency energy and making
soft palate. There are two phonological possibilities for this
a difference between den1al fricatives on the one hand [f, v,
feature:
fl, oJ and alveolar and palato-alveolar fricatives [s, z, J, 3]
a) [+nasal]
on the other· hand. It explains vowel epenthesis in the
b) [-nasal]
plural Or the third person singular of the presnt indicative

34 135
•
I of Englliili verbs, the vowel being inserted if the ]m,1: sound
.b) [3 height]

c) [2 height]

before the affix is a [+sibila/lfl sound. There are tben two d) [J height]

1'._ As he remarks, the physical scale correspoutling to the

III values for this feature:
a) (+ sibilant]
vowel h~-jght in articulatmy terms is the inverse of the
frequency of the first formant.

J b) [-sibilant]

14. The fea11lre grm'e is also acoustically based and "speciij.es 16. The fea11lre back is applied for vowel ~'Pccifieation and can
be defined in acoustic terms as the inverse of the difference
the aIIlOunt of acoustic eneq,\1.es in the lower as opposed to

t the upper :frequencies". As we bave showed above in the

subchapter devoted to the acoustic features of sounds, this
between the fi-cqnency of formant two and that of formant
one. Vowels are generally distinguished in temJs of the

-\I
fea11lre differentiates betWeen consonants articulated at the binarity:

. extremities of the vocal tract (labial. and vclars) that are a) [+ backJ

[+grave] and alveolar and palato-alveolar CODsonants that b) [-back]

are [-grave]. Ladefoged explains the. diachronic though Ladefuged acknowledges the possibility of a
transformation of the Old English velar frica:tive [x] into ternary distinction:

I,;:;
the Modem English labio-dental [f] in words like rough [front], [central] and [back].

and tough by the similarity between the two classes of

J fcic..ti'fflS that are'both [+grave]. There is no articulatory·

reason for wlllch such change should have hllppened and it
17. Round is another feature used for the specification of
vowels and it refers to the degree of rountling of the lips.
As in En.glish the fuature. [+back] is associated with
is only in acoustic terlllS that we .can account for it, he
_d
(I
:II.,

argues.l There are two values for the feature: [+roun.c.iJ, that is, if we kuow that a vowel is [+backJ we
can safely predict iliat it is also [+round] (with the
a) [+grave] exception ofthe vowel [o:J that is [+back] but [-rozwi) the
1
.~
b) (-grave]

15. The fea11lre height was introdured by L!1def ged to

o
fea11lre is redWldant for English yowels. The feature is
binarY and its values are;

differentiate among yowels. It is a fua:ture that does not a) [+back]

[I.... normallY lend itself to a binarY interpretation as there are

several degrees of aperture that are rele-vant for 'vowel
b) [-back]

description. In mo;'t languages there are at1cast three 18. The feature wide describes variations in the width of the
1
.... values. Ladefoged lists four:
a) [4 height]
pharynx.and is a binary feature, too, its values being:
a) [+Wide]
b) [-wide]

I,., I For an interesting discussiOll of a similar change in Romanian see Andrei

A = probleme de etimologie, 2000, p. 37 fL The change of po- into co- in
Ladefoged describes it as being predictable from the values

of other features, for instance height.

Ro)llallian is explained by the two plosives, fue labial [p1 and 1he velar [kl sharing
I- the feature [+grave]. 137

:I 136
 ~J

19. Another essentially vocalic feature is rhotacized. 1t mea­

like [+voicedJ automatically result froni the previous ones, since we
[)
know that all vowels are voiced. In the case of English vowels we can

sures an acoustic property, namely the lowering of the

frequency of the third formant. It has two specifications:
a) [+rhotacizedJ

also add [- nasal] since there are no nasaJ. vowel phonemes in English,

English vowels being only contextually nasalized. Such features in the

[)
specification of a segment that can be inferred from the others and

b) [-rhotacizetij

20. The last feature in Ladefoged's system is syllabic: Ithas nD

need not be included in a mjnimal specification of the respective

segment are called redundant features. A rule that helps us enrich the
[)
specification of a segment with its redundant features is called a

corresponding physical seale. It has two values:

a) [+J]lZZabic]
b) [-J]lllabic]
redundancy rule.
The adding, deletion or cbanging of fea1llres during a ]
phonological process (transformation, change) are considered to be

5.10. Tbe use of fe~tures for segmental

the result of the application of certsin phonological roles. A
transformation affects certain elements in a given context. The rul~
[I
bringing about that transformation can apply automatically, that is

specification and for the description of

pbonological processes
whenever the conditions for its application are met and then we call

about an obligatory change. Other changes can, however, be optional,

that is the application of the rule depends on the rate of speaking,

I
The features were not devised, construed and described just for
the sake of ennclli:I).g the conceptual inventory handled by
style, etc. Deletiorul offer good examples in this respect. The deletion

of the velar befure the nasal is obligatory in (k)nife in present-day

[I
phoneticians and phonologists. From the very beginning they were English, while the deletion of the final COrulonant cluster in the

meant to adequately describe the segmental uDits at the phonological

level and to cast light on various phonological alternations or changes.
The description of a segment shoiIld include as many featureS as
conjunction is optional in bread a(nd) butter. There is an ordering

constraint for the application of phonological rules, in other words

they don't apply at random but only in a certsin succession, since the

I
necessary to keep it apart from any other segment in ihe language. The
overall nwnber of features itself was considered to be the minimal set
needed. to provide distinct descriptions for each and every phoneroe of
application of a rule can create the conditiorul for another rule to apply

or, on the contrary, can limit or even block the application of another

rule altogether. In the first case we talk about a feeding order; in the

I
the language (in other words, no two differeot segmeots should get the
same description). Segments were considered combiimtions (bundles)
of features, each feature working as a bipolar axis aloItg which an
second case we have a bleeding order.

Here is the co=onest way in which the representation of

I
opposition could be achieved. Thus, if Ipl can be contrasted to fbI
along the feature [+1- voiced], both labial.plosives can be contrasted to
another labial stop, ImJ, along the feature [+1· nasal]. The complete
transformations or structural changes is formalized:

specification of a segment was only used to keep it apart ii:iJm any
other phoneme in the language. Some features, it was noticed, could
be, however, inferred from otheri;. For instance if we know that a
segment is [+vocalic] and [-consonantal] (a vowel, that is), features
X-+Y/A-B I
where X is the target of; or the element affected by, the
transformation, the arrow symbolizes the transformation, Y is the
result of the transfonnation, the slash separates the change proper
I
from the context where it takes place, the dash symbolizing the

139
I
I

I
position of the changed element, A being its left-hand context, that is CHAPTER 6
...\1 whatever precedes it and B its rightchand context, that is whatever
comes after it. To give a conerete exampie, ifwe want to show that n
OOcomes 1) if it is followed by k or g we will represent this
I.... transfonuation thus:
il--+~/ -k
_ IT
SEGMENTAL CHANGE:

- f o

where n is X of our former notation (the element affected by the

change), 1) is Y, the result of the transformation, and k and g are B, the
AN OUTUNE OF .sOME

OF THE MOST COMMON

right-hand context Notice that we disregmded A. the left-hand PHONOLOGICAL PROCESSES

...r' conteJ..-t, as it is irrelevant for our'transformation. The phonemes will

not, however, be represented by their IPA symbols, but distinctive

...t
features will be used instead to specify the respective segments and 6.1. Sounds in connected speech. 'Coarticulation
show what transfonnations they undergo. The following chapter,
devoted to some of the most co=on phonological processes that We have so far described variouS sounds, we analyzed and

J
rc;,d
occur in connected speech will examine in furth6r detail such changes
in tenus of the distinctive features that are modified.
classified consonants, vowels and other classes and subclasses of
sounds. We even talked about functional classes of sounds that we
labeled phonemes and further decomposed into distinctive features,

...1
We have, nevertheless, spoken only about individual' sounds. When
we talked about groups, or classes of so~ds we actually operated
, various generalizations extending the features of a particular sound to

I
...;
a hypothetical superordinate category. This means that our analysis
only dealt with isolated sounds, sounds that we picked up as we do
with a beetle that we keep in an insectariurn, and we examine hoping

:1
..;
to draw from its individual cha:racteristics conclusions about the traits
of its entire family or species. However, this is not how speech works .
We saw from the very beginning of this book that speech is a'd:Yill=ic

I~
process and that wh= human beings talk they do not utter each and
every sound separately, but deliver a continuous flow of soundS that
are actually often difficult to distinguish for au ear that is not

;1

ow
accustomed to the phonology of the respective language. It was
actually one of our first examples of the diffurent concerns pf
phonetics and phonology, as it was clear that when we listen to an

I...
unknown idiom our mind cannot understand what the ellT perceives,
which in fact demonstrates that, mentally, we operate with classes of

I
141

sounds (the phonemes we described earlier) arranged in patterns
ohserving language-specific rules, and not with unique, individual
somids, Since sOImds come one after another in a rspid and hardly
intbropted succession, it is clear thai their respective features
influence one another. This is something that intuitively, too, we are
readily aware of. When we disL.'11SSed' the allophones as
materializations of the phonemes, we saw that the context or the
distribution can often have an iulportant influence on the way a sound
is actually pronounced. Some other examples will cle>n:ly demonstrate
that tbis is indeed the case.
If we examine the pronunciation of the voiced labiodental
fricative in the sequence give boats [giv bauts], and we contrnst it to
the sequence give peace [gif pi:s] we will easily notice that while in
the first case [v] is fully voiced, in the second it is rather, pronounced
as some ldnd of [fl. What could be the reason for such a
metamorphosis? TIns is the question mnchof this chapter is going to
address and try to answer.
A closer analysis. of the example above will lead n8 to the
conclusion that the only' way we can account for the different
pronunciation of what we atill consider to be the s.ame phoneme is the
enviromnent or context of QCCl.UTeIlce of the respective phonetic mrit.
When followed by [b], which is a yoiced sound. the labial fticative
remains fully voiced.. When followed by the voiceless counte.rpart of
[b], namely [Pl, the fticative becomes itself voiceless. It is clear that
the feature or specification [-voice] of [P] bas somehow been
transfetred to the preceding sound. This is a cOmmon phenorn.enon in
aU languageS and in the light of our introductory discussion it .is
natoral that the pronunciation of a sound should influence the way in
which we pronounce a neighbourini sound. e,'Pecial.Iy when we speak
at a f",,1: rate. Ilecau.e the two sounds, [v] lIDd [p] in our ,case" have
become in a way similar to each other -'they have coIl1C to share the
specification [-voice] which they don't normally do we call this
process' assimilation. It is sometimes loosely called coartiduIation,
though the latter term strictly-refers to the fact that, when pronounced,
certain sounds are uttered "together and thus it actnally describes the
cmme of assimilatioIL
j
6.2.,1!'eamre Changes. Assimilation. Different types
]
of ~si~iIation
Assimilation can be of several kinds. As it always involves a
1
transfer of feature(s) between two neighbouring segments we can
conventionally mark the two successive sounds by X and Y. Taking
into account the direction of the process, we can then talk about
[I
prognssive afsimilation if the latter works forwards (conventionally
from left to right, thai is from X to Y) or, in other words, if the feature
passes. from a sound to the following one. If we have the opposite
[)
elL"", as in our example before - backwards, from right to left, from Y
to X - we have regressive assimilation. V cry often there is a mutual '
influence between the two sounds and then we speak about reciprocal
[J
assimilation. In this latter case the, two sounds can fuse completely
and give birth to a different sound; fhls t;ype of assimilation is called
coalescence. The various possibilities are illnstra1ed below. The
[I
direction ofthe arrow indicates the direction ofthe feature movement
X..".Y progressive assimilation (X "lends" a fuatore to Y) 11
X<- Y regressive assimilation (X "bonuws" a feature from Y)
Y <->X reciprocal assimilation
)
X ... Y
.I­
coa1es<;ence (X and Y merge into a different sound Z)
J
Z
If we consider the extent to which the features of a segment
)
influence the features of an adjacent one we can talk about partial
assimilation ifj~<lt some of the features are transferred, or total or
c011plete assimilation ,if one of the sounds hecomes indistinguishable
from the other.
I
In certain cases assimilation cao he diachronically established
and consequently obligatory, in others it can be optional it appears, I
say, in mpid, careless speech, hut when we till<. at a lower rate and
143
J
11
 J
more carefully Illld distinctly prono= the "sounds, it may not take of the respective structure was given. The transition from the deeper,
place at all. Thus, in the example above, we can separate the
'I prontu;lciation of the verb from that of the following noun and thus
underlyiog representation whicb was coIlliidered to be basic to the
I.f prevent assimilation from taking place. The adjective ,';ure, on the
surfiice one whicih was considered to be derived, was perfonned by a
numb"" ofpiionolo:,>i= rules that converted the DR into the SR
other .hand, can only be Pronounced wrJJ a palatoalveolar fricative in
'I

-
present-day English, a sound that results from" the coalescence of the
alveolar [s] and the palatal fl1.
Underlying
Representation
Bemg a v£;ry common process in f11lY language: .- so lmportsnt
:
1

...... that the v£;ry fact that the t = coarticulation, that is pronouncing
sounds together, has become a (not very adequate) synonym for it ­ Pbonological ,j. 1111c5
assimilation can iovolve the transfer of different types of features. In a
!I

...
very influeJ:ltii! approach in phonology, ca1Jed autosegmental
phonology preci.sely because features are granted an autonomous
"Surface
Representation

1..;;;
status, features are cou:,idered to spread from one segment to another.
D«pending on the type of :feature that spreads from one segment to
another we can talk about several major type8 of assimiIa:tion such as In the case we are tliscussing we bave two options. Either we

<I

...

assimilative processes involving voicing, nasal or oral release, manner

of articulation :features and plowe of articulation features.
consider the fottn [s] as basic and derive the voiced allomoxphfrom it,
or we consider the voiced form to be the one appea:rittg "in the
underlying representation and postulate that the voiceless variant is

~
,I
6.3. Voicing and devoicing
derived from it. For reasons that will become clear later oD, we will
cboose tl:ie second variant We will then say that in the case of a noun
ending in a voiced sound (with the exception of the voiced sibilants

rl
Assimilation involving the "feature {+!- yoicej. In a certain
en"Vironment we can consequently witness the voicing or 4evoicing of
a segment RD!lllillian typically voices the alveolar. frll::ative [s] before
[z], [3] and [q;;]) - say, l:>id.,-when we add the plmal morpheme that is
voiced, bee""."" th.= i~ agreement in the feature [voice) in both the
'""' last sound of the base and the suffix, the underJying representation
a voic!,d soond as words of Frencih origin like zbtr (from sblre) or

...rI

sUl'fitces as such, without undergoing lillY change. I:t;, however, we add

ZlIelt (from .welte) prove. the same suffix to a noun ending in a voiceless plosive or, in a number
English plural and past tense allomOIpby is phonologically "of ca.<es, in the voiceless fricative [f] ~ e.g. bit, or roof, respeetively ­

,I..,
conditioned. In other words, 111e fODll adopted by clther the pluml
morpheme s or "the past tense morpheme ed depends on the
pbonological enviromnent and we sho1lId have an agreement in the
because the Im,-t sound of the noun is voiceless, a process of devoicing
takes place as fue suffix is assimilated by the voiceless obstruent in the
root in the root.
feature voice between the root and the affix. We will remember that
t

u
within a very influential approacb in phonology - the generative Oll" ­
the phonological" compooent was considered to consi~i of two distinct
fgndJ + [z] .-+

z -+ z

fgnd7.]
+voice +voke
rl

;...
Jevels: an underlying one, where 311 underlying representation (UK)
,vas provided 3lld a surface one where a surface representation (SR) no change

144 145
,I

 ;.
[gntJ +
+
[z] -~ [grzts]
[klifsJ
vowel phanewes .are oral ~d that llllSality is only a contextual,
allophonic feature in English vowels (remember, that in French, for
]
flclif] [zl --+
-voice +voice ­ z --+ s insance, nasal vowels are phonemes in their own right as mioimal
progressive assimilation d(!:IJoicing pairs like ptite /pat /-- pente /pat!, trait Itre/ - train Itr£!, robe Irobl
- rhombe lrib/- contrasted on the basis of=ality, clearly prove).
]

In the case of other nouns ending in [1], however, the -process

has the opposite effect, that is the fricative is voiced by the plural
morpbmnc. Consider fuc- funnntion of the plum I of wolf and wife;
Assimilation can affect the place of articulation as well. Nasal
sounds often assimilaie to the place of articulation of the following
[J

plosive. The case of the Latin prefix in is illustrative. When fullowed by

[self] + [z] -)- [selvz] a root beginning wttli a liquid - III or lei it was assi:tirila1ed by the
II

+ --+ [larv.zJ

,.r­
fll1!fJ fz} respective liquid. Latin words like illegitimus, illiteratus, illicilus or
-voice +voice /--+v irrationalis, irregullJris and irreligiosus exempli:fjr the process. The
regressive assimilation nasal/ml in the root also assimilated the consonant of the prefix: e.g.
voicing
immaterialis, immaturus, immediatus, fmmemoriaZis. Notice that the
A similar process of as.~imilation of the inflexion by the root pro=s led to the creation of geminate (double) consonants in the Latin
applies when we add a past tense mOl:pherne to a voiced or voiceless words. The geminate consonant was preserved in modem Rowance
languages sucl:t as Freneh in correspo:nding words like illlfgittme
]

root. (Stems ending in t and d corJStitute an exception; see the

illustration of vowel epenlhesis below). Again we will con.'lider the
voiced fOIm. of the Su:ffi:x to he basic. Thll,'l, for the paa:! ten.~e of the
verbs rob and sip we will get the fullowing derivations:
lille3ifun1, illettrtf, illicite; irratiOJ1IJeI limlsjona1l, irr6gulier
irreligrew;; immat€riellimmaterj&J!, immature, immediat, immtfmorie.l.
However, in English and Romanian the consonant didn't survive as a
]

geminate one, the current Pugli sh spelling with a double conS01lll1lt

+
!gra?h]
+voice
[ d]
+voiee d-?
-?

d
!graN}] suggesting the- origin of the word rather than its aetna! pronunciation.
ltg. in English: illegitimate Irled;;rtrm:d/, illiterate, illicit; irrational J

no change I.meJanell, Irregular,: irrelegiQl/S; fmmateriaV Imatianel/, immature,

[np1 + Cd] -)­ [nptJ

'immediate, immemorial. Rommrian follows the same pattern in this
respect: i/egitim:, /licit imaterial, imatw, tmediat, imemorial, irafional, J

-Voice -l,""oice d-? t iregularitate_Here fullows fue illustration of the process in Latin:
progressive assi:m:i1ation _ t:levoicing
[m J -'+ [zIl / '# -- [I'lateral] J

iIIegitimus, illiteratus, illieims

6.4. Nasalization
[ In] --+ [ 1r] / If - [+consonantal]
.1

Assimilation can affect the nature of the release, /UlSaliza(frm [+approximantJ

frequently modifying the pronunciation of English vowels. -'Illis
bappens when the vowel is followed by a nasal consonant; e.g. bin,
le.an, man, :roan. We should remember,however, that all Englhh
[-lateral]
irrationalis, irregularis, irreIigiosus
J

146 147 J
I
 Notice, however, the different behaviour of another negative
prefix in English:, WJ-, in similar contexts. Assimilation doesn't work in
[m} -+ [1/11] / # - [+consonantal1
[+nosal1 any of th= case~ across the boll1ldary and the nasal in the prefix
[-coronal] remains unch!mged.
[+anll:rior1
111'1 + !pI: unpredictable
immaterial~, immaturUS, lmJ'/!f!diail/S, immemorialis
un + Ib/: unbelievable
When followed by a bilabial obstruent, Inl in the prefix.
assimilates to 1m! in all the languages mentioned above. A siinilirr un + Im/: unmentionable
process takes place w)1en the sound in the prefix is fullowed by a velar
obstruent iu the base: In! changes imo lui. Here are some examples un + !If: unlawful .
from English and Romanian:
Romanian un + IrI: unrepresentative
English
un + IkI: unclear (alv(,olar. uot velar nasal]
[In] -~ [1m] / if - [+consonantal ]
[-vocalic]
[+instani:aneous release] un + Ig/: ungovernable (alveolar, not v:clar nasal)
[-coronal]
[+anterior]
imposibil, imbatabil 6.S. Palatalization
impossible, imbed
Another type of .assimilation to {lie place of articulation that is
[m } -+ [ '!J} / 1/ - [+consonantal1 very frequent in both English and RomaniJm is palatalization. We can
[-SODorant]
hardly overest:imJrte .the importance of this type of assimilation. It
[-anterior]
ranges from contex:tna1 allophonic variants of non-palatal phonemc.' to
[-coronal}
different types of col;llescence, the palatal semivowel and the
incapabil, ingrf.lliWt/ine preceding sound met'ging into an entircly new phonetic unit.
incoherent; inglorious
In Romanian, the palamlization of obstruents (plosives,
The relations above formalize the phonological tr.msfor­ fricatives and affiicates) nasals or liquids can rn.a.rlc number, gender or
roations undergone by the prefix in ...vhen followed by dilferent types person oppositions in the noun, the ruljective or the verb:
of consonants. The symbol # marks worci boundaries, in other words,
lup/IJIP, rupmq!, hriblhriY, sorb/sorY bilabial plos1ves
the begiJ:ming and the end of a word. In our particular cases, it shoWS
that the coDJ>onant assimilating the na,al in the prefix is w.ordcinitiaL
grof/grof', grav/graV labiodental fricatives
Word uoundary is an important concept introduced by Chomsky.and
cf3e:/1I/dy:rri, an/ad nasal stops
Halle's Sound Pattern of English that the scope of this book doesn't poVpol; morlmo~ liquids

allow me to discuss in detail. 149

14&
 ~.

most· cases as a result of affixation - can result either into a

,.'
].
..

alveolar fricative
huhurezliruhurei palaroalveolar sound:

paJatoalveolar fricative
najlna[j
hotslhoti affricate
velar fricative
t+j -->.J: create/creation [knert] / [kne:rfn] ,
d+j -+ 3: divide!division [drvaId] ! [drvI31l]
[J
paroh/parOli·
s-/j --> J: presslpressure [pres] / [pre]a],
Alveolar obstments· get a more retracted articulatiQn and z+j --> 3: seize/seizure [.si;z] / [5i;3"] [J
coal<;sce with the palatal sound merging into a palaJ:aJ.ized alveolar or .
OI into an affricate and .in this case palatalization is also called
alveopalatalJi:icative or affricate:
cadlea!
alveolar fiicative
paIatoalveolar fricative
a;/frication:
t+j --> 1f : create/creature [knert] / Ou-i:lfaJ
!l
pas/ptI/j, treaz/trej
pot/pot!!
affricate d+j --> ct;: grade/gradual [gre:rd] / [grrect;nal];
proceed/procedure [prasi:dJ / [presi:ct;a] f)
A palatalized affricate also resuhs from the coalescence of the
Sometimes, when ~e have a sequence of an alveolar plosive

inI1ection with a velar plosive:

treldtrelf j ; merglmerctf.
and the affricate sound we can have two parallel fonus, both of them

.acceptable: tine with the palatalized plosive and one with the

it
affricate sound:

PaIatalized coronals and velars also appear in inflected

sanctuary [slel)ktjuen] / [SlelJktfllerr]; habitual [habrtjDaI]/
;t
fonns like:
[habrtfllsl]
rel(j, minctf, wei
p ErluT!, urd, ridi/!
coronals
velar
graduate (gr.edjuet] I [gr::ect;uat]; individual [mdrvIdjualjl
[mdrvlct;ualJ t
In English, too, we can have palatalized allophones d almost
all consonant phonemes - obstruerri:s, nasals and liquids - as in
We witness the same altemation in sequences where an
alveolar fiicative can be changed either into its palatalized version or
I
,I
pure [pljus] tribunal [trru:t.ijunal] bilabial plosives into a more retracted palatoalveolar fricative:

tuna [t'PJR9j duke [dijn:k] alveolar plosives issue [ISjn:] / [rIm]

future [£ljntJs], view [v!ju:] labiodental fiicatives
suitor [:;ljntaJj reS1UJ1£ [.r-rz;ljum] alveolar fri~tives
cure Odiue], regular [regijula)
huge [\'U:d3]
velar plosives
glottal fricative
Rounding is a type of IlSsimilation involving !1lIlIll1er of
artierdation features. It affects sounds that are contextually
pronounced with rou:Oded lips because of the vicinity of f1 rounded
i
immune [~jUll]; nuclei [Ili juldrm] nasal stops
illuminate [IFjummert] liquids

Notice that, however, the change can be phonemic and the

vowal or the rounded glide [wJ. Consider, for instance examples like
twin, too, dwell, door where the alveolar plosives are rounded and,
consequently, a rounded allophOne will occur when the phoneme is
I
coalescence of an alveolar sound with the palatal semivowel - in
distributed in the above mentioned positions.

151

J Dissimilation is the opposite of !he phonological process we

A similar process in vowels will involve the changing of a
tense vowel into a lax one or a lax one into a tense one. We talk in
[I have been discussiDg SO fur; in a given environmClll. two sounds tllJlt
have simi.lar features come to be utterly distincL Again, from a
such cases of the phonological processes of laxing and, respectively,
tensing. Diaclu:onical1y, these Pl'Ocesses had a rollior influence on the
diachronic perspective Greek offers some illustnllions of the process
pronunciation of English vowels, but the scope of this book will not

1 (Spencer, 1996:59). Thus, in a sequence that used to include two

plosives, the first one loses its [+instnntaneous Ielease] feature changing
into a fricative and thus becoming dissimilar to the following cine:
allow Us to go. into details. Suffice it to say that many Boglish derived
words illustrate the phenomeno.JL If we compare the adjective sublime
and the noun sublimity or the verb st4fice to the adjective sufficient we
fJ lepW "seven"-r 1eftJ>i
/oldol "eight" ..-). /onol
vim easily notice that the first member of each pair includeS a
diphthong (a tense vowel), while the inflected word has a lax
monophthong in the root According to Chomsky and Halle, this is
J Assimilatictn and dissimilation are not, of comse, the only
phonological transformations affecting sound sequences. 10 the
explained by the existence in the UJJ.derlying representation of a tepsc
vowel which SIlJfuces as "11Ch (diphthongized, in :fuet) in the cas~ of
following lines we will exaroine how other transformations ·affect the of
the first mcwbers the pairs, and undergoes Ii process of laxing in the

J features ofphonetic segments in certain environments. derived word.

V.R. subllm' + I2J -> sablann

J 6.6. LenitioJ)s ~n~l~!titions + rtr •. ,. sabbmrtr laring

These are phonological processes that involve changes in the Conversely, in the pair, courage - courageous, we have a
1
- force of articulation feature fortisllenis. Thus, the change from Ancient
Greek dental and respectively velar aspirated plosives to. dental and
common underlying lax vowel which is left unchanged in the first
word, but UJJ.dergoes tensing and diphthongization in thl' derived one;
:respectively velar fricatives iJlustral:es the process of lenition Since (1968: 73) ,
it- plosives involve

a greater articula!:ory effort than fricatives.
E.g.: Itbalassa / "sea" -r /6alassal

V.R. korrege -> korrege + I2J -+ kArrd3

:-> korAge + os .... karerd;;as tensing
f!J:!'TI,ma! "colom:" ..-). Inmnal·

1
... Ibiblos/ "book" ..-)./vivlos/ Derivatiou can trigg~ not only the modification of vowels iu
the root, as in the examples above, but also cause consonani.al

J Conversly, ./ortitions involve a crumge from a weaker sound

(say, a voiOOd stop), to a sound involving a greater ariiculstory effort
(a voiceless stop). It is compulBo.ryin German to devoice and
alternations in the morpheme the affix is attached to. Thus, in pairs
like penniUpennissive, ·demoer"df/democraey, . include/inelus;:"e
decide/decisive or fanatic!:fimatiCism, medic/medicine we notice the

J consequently strengthen the pronunciation of syllable-final voiced

stops. Consider the following examples:
Tag [ta:kl "day" Yo. Tage [b:ga) "days"
replacement of d by s. In the examples discussed above under
assimilation. the high vowel in the affix coalesced with theconsolliint
in the root and the process resulted into a palatoalveolar sound. Since

[I Weg lve:k] "way" VB; lve:ga) "ways" these changes are caused by roOl:phological· processes and the nature

153
l -~
) ­
 :1

ofthe affix that is attached to the base is ess=tial for the phonological
transformations, we are actually at the'interfilce between morphology
and ptionology in a territory 1hat is often c;.a1led morphophonology,
x -> flJl A-B

where flJ represents fire fact that the sound is lost.

rl
morphophonemic. or lexical phonology.

Lengthening and shortening of vowels. are very frequent ;aere are a few concrete examples:
[J
processes and we have already mentioned that .p.gJish vowels have
shorter allophones when followed by voiceless· sounds and longer
ones if the context of the vowel is voiced (see, above, the comparison
vowel elision; IJUDvasrtrl -> IjullIVartr/
optional
Ipahsl -> IplIs/
[J
between bit and bid and beat and bead).

Aspiration is also an important change that affects English

diachronic
Lat. ''tabula'' --? O.F. "table"--? Eng./tcrbll
jJ
voiceless plosives in syllable-initial position, when they are followed consonant elision: Ipaustmanl ....
,iJ
optional Ipausmenl
by a stressed vowel. In English the change is allophonic and
conditioned by the distribution of the sound, as we have just
OR cniht lknil't] .....
remembered. It is an antomatic, obligatory change and fuilure to diachronic knight [11m]
pronounce the plosives with an aspiration will be perceived by native
spealcers ofEngliSh as a mark offoreign accent.
Notice that the conservative spelling ofEnglish still represents

iJ
6.7. Delitions and insertions
sounds that have no longer been pronounced for centuries. The first

example for each case illustrates optional, contextual elision, While the

diachronic ones are, of course obligatory.

J
Phonological changes can have drastic results in certain

environments leading to the complete dropping of a sound in a given

The opposite of deletion Or elision is insertion or epenthesis.

Again, depending on the kind of sound that is inserted we can have

}I
context. This process is called deletion m: elision. It may affect vowels

and then we talk about vowel elision or it may have consonants as

target and then we obviously deal with consommt elision. It may be an

optional proc= if the speaker drops the sound only for articUlating

consonant Or vowel ·insertion. This is a process that also takes place

because in a certain context a phonetic sequence is either difficult to

pronounce or violates the phonotactic rules of the language and then

J
a vowel is introduced to break up the unacceptable consonant

the phonetic sequence more easily, or it can be obligatory; if triggered

by the phonotzctics of the respective langwi.,oc (see below 'the chapter
on syllable). The latter case can be noticed in loan· words which are
clusters while a glide or a consonant can be inserted to separate

Sequences of vowels that Would be difficult to pronounce in

I
succession with a hiatus.
adapted to the requirements ofthe ~ae they are borrowed into Of,
I
di~chronically, when the phonotactic constraints of a certain lan"ouage Here is the general
change in time. epenthetic process: fOrmalized representation of an
EliSion can be formally represented thus:
0-+ X I A-B
I
1 "4

155
I
 •
J A. Vowei jm;extiop:
When it is followed by a vowel, the syllable-final rhone, which
is narrnally dropped in non-rhonc _ accents, is commonly
n "resuscitated". This r is called "linking" r (see, also, the description

J We will remember fuat "Vowel insertion is very- cororoo in

Engli<ili in morphological processes when the past tense ed mOrPh<;:me
ofthe moties above, in Chapter 3):
The car is mine f1<a:r lZUlamj. YOW' answer [j:J:r a:nsQ]
is added to a base ending in either t or d or the plural morpheme s is-

J added to a base ending in a sibilant.

vowel insertion: .

[tm) + [z) -> [tai1:l'z) -> [tzkszzJ

6.8. M(,.-j;athcsis

J (morphophono1ogy)
pluraZi>ratio n
vowel epenthesis

[kalaui] + [d] -> [kalauId]...,. [kalauIui]

Reversing the order of sounds or groups of sounds :within a

word is a process that is called metathesis. It can be based on a

J
[rent1+ [d 1 -> [rentd ] ...,. [rentui]

past terlSe formation vowel epenthesis

ItabIlIsIi
diacll:ronic process, as the frequently cited English bird and horse
which come from DE brid and hros respective!? or, in Frenchfromage
which comes from the LaLformaticus (compare the Italianformagio,
->
;1
... vowel insertion:
Tbilissi
GdaDSk ->
19adanski that doesn't display the change), or in Romanian castravete whieh
comes from the Bulgarian trastavei or the alternative variants pritoci
ce and pitroci, a verb referring to a technology for producing wine. It can

'I
.....
Other languages illustrate the same process. For iDStall ,
because the sequence IfIPl is not ,accepted in syllable initial position is
Spanish, an epenthetic lei is inserted befureit escudn, esperanza,
also be the result of misprOtrU11Ciation. See the name of the Romanian
village of Potigraju, clearly coming from Tipogrq!U "printer".
Caragiale's works represent a rich source of similar examples of

it- Espai1a. estar, Esteban. metathetical mispronunciations. His uneducated characters often
mispronounce words that arc u.nknown or sound exotic to them. E.g.:
proper names like Galibardi im.'lead of Garibaldi (Conu Leonida fafa
B. CoIlSODant insertion:
rl
I'
....
A common ex:arople in English is the furm an adoptecI by the
indefinite article in front of words beginning with a. vowel: lID act, an
'cu reacp1.l1'l£{l) or Marcu Aoleriu instf:ad of Marc Aureliu (0 noapte
jurtU1Wasii); cororoon nouns like zavragii (Conu Leonida), plebicist or
rerTUlllErape (0 scrisoare pierdutii).
octopUS 'etc. Notice that in front of glides no epenthetic oonsonant is
1
- introduced: a year [a ja], a wi/e [a-waIfl. However, ifthe vlOrd begins
with a mute h, then the consonant is,inserted: an how, an honaur
able
Here is the general represen1ation of metathesis:
AB .... BA I X,-Y

:1... mall, an heir. The Greek prefix a, "not", "without", displays the same
behaviour; atrophy. aboulia, amorphous. apathy, aphasia. but
anarchy, (.lJJtJigesic, anharmoniC, anhydrOW]. anaesthetic .

1
'­
The latter are all cases of diachronic, obligatory insertion.
Contextually, in certain accents of English, the rhotic r is optionally
inserted to break up Ii hiains. This is called au "intruSive r".

'I... r as
I saw it [ ax SOl:1' It]; the flaw is too serioUS [fl:J: n;tu:srarr 1· 157

'I 156
 CHAPTER 7

BEYOND THE SEGMENT:

SYLLABLE STRUCTURE IN ENGLISH

7.1. The Syllable: a fundam~ntal phonological unit

in any language. A tentative definition

SylJllbles are something we are I!lllde aware of from the very

first days we go to school. The fust verse we learn by heart, the first
words we learn to spell are inex:t!:;icably linked to syllables and
syllabificatiOlL If somebody asks ns- about the s1:rJ1d;Uro of a foreign
word, or of a word we might not have acquired too- well we may be
unce!tam about the sounds that make it up, but we'll definitely be on a
safer ground and feel more at ease if asked how many sylliibles that
word has. Scholar> have proved that even a child's initial efforts to
articulate and memorize the phonetic stroctures of the words of its
mother tongoe are closely linked to the sylJllbic configurations of
those words. Historically speaking, fue first attelllpts human beings
made to give fueir thoughts a graphic form - see the first chapter of
this course where different types of writing were briefly described ­
were fundatnentally associated v,n.fu syllHbles since it was the syllables
of words rather than their compotrent sounds/phonemes that the
earliest forms of writing tried to render.
Why is the syllabiC rather than the phonological structure of the
words more obvious fur us? What mikes then syllables so important in
any huml!ll language, what is their I!lllgic role that seelIlS to transecnd
that of fue mere souruls which as we know from de S!!J.1SSUIC - are
iutimately linked _to the concepiS the wordsflinguistic signs -stand for?
These are some ofthe question.. we are going to try to answer.

159
 I In spite of what bas just been mentioned, paradoxically There are several features that vowels have on the basis of which this
enough, if we are asked to give a definition of the syllable we might
I encounter serious difficulties. And this goes not only for laymen in the
field, but for phoneticians or specialists as well. Or particularly for
similarity can be established. Probably the most important one is the
one that is relevant for oUr present discussion, namely the high degree
of sonority or sonorousness these sounds have, as well as their

I
them, since common people cannot be reasonably expected. to have continuous and constant natgre and the absence of any secondary,
more than an intuitive perception of the syllabic structure of words, parasite acoustic effect - this is due to the fuet that there is no
while scholars, who are supposed to be able" to provide a "learned constriction along the speech tract when these sounds are articulated­
explanaiion for everything they study, have failed to reacl1 a mjnjmal
I consensus on the basis of which a scientifically valid and acceptable
dcfinition of the syllable can be given.
Vowels can then be said to be the "purest" sounds human beings
produce when they talk. By contrast, most consonants (and
particularly obstruents) will sound rather lilce noises since the
Criteria that can be used to define syllables are of several obstruction along the vocal tract has various "impure" audito:ry effects
I-
kinds. What we are actually awar" of when We talk :iliout our
consciousness of the syllabic structure of words is the fuet that the
- the articulation can be accompanied by friction, by an implosion etc._
Once we have established the grounds for the preeminence of
flow of human voice is not a monotonous and constant one, but there vowels over the other speech sounds, it will be easier for us to
I

-
are important variations in the intensity, loudness, resonance, quantity
(duration, length) of he soUhds that make up the sonorous stream that
understand their particular importance in the make-up of syllables.
The flow or stream of sounds that we produce when we speak and
helps US communicate verbally. Acoustically speaking, and then which is pr0p<tgated through the air to reach the auditory system of
I....
auditorily, since we talk: of our perception of the respective feature, we
make a distinction between sounds that are more sonorous than others
our conversational partners can then be analyzed as a succession of
varioUs vocalic and consonantal sounds that follow after one another
or, in other words, sounds that resonate differently in either the oral or almost uninterruptedly. However, we have just mentioned the -fact that
I...
nasal cavity when we utter -them. In previous chapters, mention has
been made of resonance and the correlative feature of sonority in
this flow is not a constant, invariable one and we all know that when
we speak Or we listen to someone speaking what we call the
various sounds and we have established that these parametreS are
;1

lIiw.
essential when we try to understand the difference between vowels
and consonants, for instance, or between several subclasses of
modulations of the human voice follow certain rules of the language
ofwhich we are normally intuitively aware.
One fundamental division would be the Saussurian one, the

consonants, such "as the obstroents and the sonorants. A comparison one thai is semantically_ based and establishes certain boundaries ­
I

..."...
was made earlier between the way in which we articulate sounds and
these sounds are propagated in the air on the one hand and the .Way"in
often almost imperceptible phonetically - where each and every word

(linguistic sign) begins or ends. Similar segmentations can be operated

which musical sounds are produced and transmitted in the at higher or lower levels. At a superorrlinate level we cao talk about

I....
environment on the other hand. If we think of a string inStrument, the
violin for iristance, we may say 1ha1 the vocal cords and "the other
rhythmic groups, stress patterns, and intonation within the more

inclusive syntactic sequences of a phrase or even an utterance

articulators can be compared to the strings that also nave an essential (sentence). The phenomenon playing an essential role will be stress as

role in the production of the respective sounds, while the mouth and
the nasal cavity playa role similar to that of the wooden reso~ce
we are going to see in a subsequent chapter about prosody. And just as

in the caSe of syllable structure, everything will fundamentally be a

box of the instrument. Of all the sounds that buman beings produce -queStion of promineiJee. On a subordinate level, we can identifY the
I...
when they communicate, voweJs" are the closest to musical sounds. syllables that make up the word and if We continue our analysis, the

160 161
I

 __I

there is no generally accepted definition of a syllable since The criteria

.).
component pbonemes. Syllable di:visiort or syllabification and syllable
'­
structure in English will be tk! main conce:t:ll of the fullowing pages. we can use can be so·differllllt. Something t!iat everybody will accept

We have SO fur poin1i:d out the remarkable similarity existing will be, however, that prominence plays an irsportant part in

among ail the languages sp<i{eo in the world, emphasizing the fuct
that nO matter how nnfarrrilimr a ce:ttain language is or sounds to u.~ we
identifying the numb"" of syllabJes in an utterllllce. As we have seen.

vowels are the most sonorous sounds human beings produce and when
I1
will still be abJe on an intuitiVe basis to identifY the number af we are askf:d to count the syllables in a given word, pluase or sentence
sylw;es in a given enuncilltion if not their exact strUcture. (The what we are aimmlIy counting is roughly the number of vocalic ]
distinetion is important and mevant for our discussion. since it is not segments - simple or complex - that occur in that sequence of sounds.
the exact composition of the> ~ve sequt..'"llOOS that we perecive, The presence of a vowel or of a sound having a high degree of
but the number af prominet1ll units). Having in mind eve:rytlring we
llllve said so fur, we can safeb' say that we have identified ane of the
sonority will then be an obligatory element in the configuration of
what we call a syllable. I have mentioned other sonorous sounds

[J
language universals, so mnch cherished by grammarians, namely the beside the vowel because, as we are guing to see, English syJlables

syllabic strncture of our utterances. Our joy of discovering something

that represents a. common denominator of all hun:wn idioms will be,
however, very soon tempereril by the rea.1iziltion that the syllapJe is at
the very core of the peculiar and idiosyncratic nature of each and
every language. It is, to a .large extent, the unit canying the very
blueprint of each particular lIlnguage. Just lIS the DNA structures in
our cells cany ihe genetie -infunnation t!iat makes us unique,
l1nmistaIcable individuals, tI¥: struc:tme of the syJlables of a given
Jangua"ae will fundamentally coninlmte to the phonological identity of
can m:guahly contain, as their most sonorous element, other sounds ­
-that vowels.
[I
Since the voweJ - or another highly sonorous sound - is at the
COre ofthe syllable, it is called the nucleus ofthat syllable. The sOlmds
either preceding the vowel or coming after it are necessarily less
]
sonorous than the vowels and unlike the nucleus they are optional
elemecis in the make-up of the syllable. The basic configuration or
template of an English syllable will be therefore (C)V(C) - the
,)
parentheses mru:king the optional character of the presence of the

the respective language. The rules i.uu:le:rlyiog the syllable

configuration in· each parlicoJa:r language are generally referred to -as
the constraints or phonntac1ic constraints governing the -syllable
consonants in the respective positiollS. The part of the syllable

preceding the nucleus is c.alled the onset of the syllable. The non ­ J
vocalic elements coming after the nuclells are called the coda of the

structure of the re."Pective l1uJjg1mges (the ten:n comes from the GIeek
words phone, meaning voice, sound, and taktikt!, meaning art of
placing, particularly troops). They will be examined in detail further
syllable. The nucleus and the coda together are often referred to as The.

on as fur as the structure of~h syllables is concerned.
7.2. The strnctwre of the. syllahle. Phonotacnc
constraints
Before we proceed, I:l!Dwever, to a more detailed examination
ofthe syllables of English we should first say a few more things about
the structure of IIYllahles in general. As I have already poioted out,
rfQnne of The syllable by analogy with The last part of a word that J
rhymes with the end ofThe word in the next line in a piece ofpoetry. It
'
is, l1owevc:r,tbe nucleus, that is the essential part of the rhyme and of
the whole syllable, as I have already pointed out The preeminence of
)
the nuclens over the other elem~ts in the syllable has been likened to
tlm:t of heads over the other elements in a syntactic structure. In a
conventional tree-like representation of the strncture of a syllable We
will then have to show that the position of the nucleus ill hierarchically
J
more importmrt than"that of either the Oll.Sct or the coda. Thus, the
rhyme will be the first projeetion of the nnclens, -the node optionally
dominating a coda, while the maximum projection will be the syllable
I
'0
1OJ I

, itself, having an optional onset in sister position ro the rhyme; the

standard representrrtion of a syllable in a: tree-Jilre diagra:/Jl wjlllook
like that: (S stands for Syllable, 0 for Onset, R for Rhyme, N for
Nucleus and Co for Coda).
the eI"ment d me syllable. A syllable that doesn't have a coda
and <.-onsequently in a vo~J having !he struclUre (C)V, is called
an open syllable. One having a coda and therefore ending in a
coosonant - ofthe type (C)VC is eal1ed II closed syllable. The kiod of

J"" s
syllable that is preponderant in a given language leaves its prim 00 the
acoustic featllres of the respective idiom. For instance, the higher
/1 degree of musiCality of Romance. languages - such as Italian, to give

I o R

NCo
1\
only one ex.atnple - is largely due to the fact that, statistiClllly, opeD
sy!1ables are inore nnmerous iu these languages trum in Germimlc
languages, snch as English or German itself, where the number of

I The structure of the syllaWe bel in the wurd belfry or the

monosyllabic word bell will look like that:
closed syllables is dominant
The syllables analyzed above are all closed syllables. An open
syllable will be fur instance [mel] in either the monosyllabic word maY

I
'-
/1
s
or the polysyllabic maiden. Here is the tree diagram of the syllable:

s
o R
I... /1

:1...
i f~
bel
1\
°R
f f\
TIl e I
A more complex syllable like [sprmt] will have this

I.... represeotation:
, S
English syllllbles can also have no onset and hegin directly

wjfu the nucleus. liere is such a closed syllable;

[opt]

I.... /1 s
I
O\f\ R
:1... / ,
. N Co
I l\ /\
NCo
iJ prl.Tll I 1\
:1... All the syllables representeq. above are syllables contajning all
three el=ents (onset, nucleus, coda) of the type eve. As I l:Iave
.0 p t

If syllable is open, it wjll only ha Ye a nucleus (the

h1lCh a

I.... pointed out earlier, we can very well have syllables in English the!
don't have any coda; in other words, they end in the nucleus. that is
vowel), as [eo] in the monosyllabic noun air or the polysyllabic
aerial. .

I 164 165
 L.
'"
1
,
""
s
/1
s
I
o R
I ~1
R N
I
N
1\ s
I
"
1
e
e

In previOUS chapters dedicated to the description of the

c.

Vowel quantity helps, as we have seen, distinguish open li gilt

1
consonants and vowels of English, we have seen that qumrt1ty or
duration is an
important feature of consonants and especially vowels.
syllables from open heavy syllables. We can conventionally consider
]
A distinction wa~
"made 1Jet;We<!U short and long vowels and this
the duration of a long vowel or of the diphthong to be twice as lox\g as "
the duration of a short monophthong. Consequently, we can. enrich our
distinction is relevant for the discussion of syllables as well. A
syllable that is open and ends in a short vowel will be called a light
~yllable. Its general description will be CV. If the syllable is still open,
analy.is of the syllable with a supplementary level that will not refer
to the quality of the vowels (or even consonants; consonan~ me II
but the vowel in its nucleus is long or is a diphthong, it will be called a
considered to have thc duration of a short monophthong), but to their
hea10' syllable. It~
representation is CV: (we remember that the colon
is conventionally used to mark long vowels) or CVV (for a
quantity. TIlls is particulDr1y helpful in understanding certain
diachronic processes that altered the pronunciation of various English II
diphthong). Any closed syllable, no matter hOW I!lllllY consonants will vowels, by either changing long vowels into diphthongs or taming
its coda include is called a heavy syllable, too. In other words, we will diphthongs into long monophthongs. It is not the pmpose of this book
"to give a detailed de~cription of such diachronic transfonnations, but it
]
say 1hat heavy syllables have /JraJ'lchlng rhymes" The mature that
distinguishes the two kinds of syllable above is called weight: will be useful to remember the conventional repre.<:entation" of, this

fi. open heavy syllable CVV

additional level, that we are going to call lier, 1hat representS the
quantity of the sounds in a syllable. As it is duration that it describes,
J
b. closed heavy syllable yec the name USIl.a1ly employed for it is the timing tier, to distin.,ouiSh it
c. light syllable Cy from the next and last tier, the one that actnally gives the value of the
respective sounds and which is called the melDdy tier. If we use the
I
S letter X to note the conventional duration of a time unit (a consonant
/1
S I
R OT a short vowel), a diphthong, a long vowel or a geminate consonant )
0 R 1\ will be represented by two XX. The skeletal time slots that we mark
I NCo by X and are not included in the omet are also called moras. Here are
N
1 1\ some examples:
,
)
\ 1\ ::> p t
met The syllable [pot] will be represented like that;

a.
b.
167
I
1
 •

J s s
/1 /1
J o R
I N/\
Co

o R
J\co
I
-J
1 I
1 1\ 1\
x x x tim.ing tier x xx xx
·1 I 1 /\ V I)
J P "
t melody tier

By contrast, [po:t] will be represented with a nucleus twice

t I a: t s

Notice that the two elements making up the affricate - the ,stop

-1
longer than the one before, and the fricative - occupy a single time slot on the time tier and are
rep:resentoo separately on the melody tier, wbile each segment in a·
s
consonant cluster 15 allcrttCd a diffurent tUne unit.

...[.,1
/1
"
o R
Now that' we have examined some of the basic syllable
1\ configurations, let us have a eloser look at the poonotactics ofEnglisb,
<I
....
NCo
1\ \ other words at the way in whiCh the English language structures its
syllables. We wi1l remeroher from the very beginnjng that English is a
X Jq. X

I V I
language having a syllabic structure of the type (C)V{C). (This is
';...1 p 0: t exactly the stiucnire of the RoJllllnian syllable). This generafu;ation
capture.. the reality that in English as in Romanian both onsets and

1".
On the other hand, [mern] will have a diphthoo,g as a nucleus codas are optional elements and that we can have syllables like, say,
" and wi1lbe represented as follows: fi-, i-. if- in Engliih and lfUl-, a-. am- in Romanian. In other words, the
;.# IIl.llJdmum syllable mmplate will be allowed in Romanian. This
s ":freedom" is common to many languages in the world, but it is by no

1..., /1
f 1\
means a unive:rmd"phonotaclic feature, There are languages that will
accept no coda, or, in other words, that will only have open syllables.
Other languages will have codas, but the onset may be obUgato1Y or

1
... 1\ \
Xxxx
NCo not. Theoretically, there are $e possibilities:

L The onset is obliglltolY and the coda is not accepted: the

I II I
;1 syllable will be of the type CV; this is actually the most

-
'. '" <11 11

The representation of [tfa:ts] will look like that:

commori type of syllable in any language. It is .the basic
. syllabic structure, the one people first acquire in infancy

~I
,.?",.
when they .start to speak. That is why it :is often called the

-c
1u,
168
I
 7.3 The importance of segmental sonority for the
~I
~yllable.
core It is, however, the only possible pattem only
in a SIIlall number of languages (Senufo in Africa and Hua
in Papua New Guinea, ( Roca: 1999: 247). Japanese, too,
syllable structure
We have already shown that prominence or sonority is a
1
comes very close to th~. With very few exceptions,
Japanese will not accept two consonants coming in a row,
sO that in all loan words a vowel, will be inserted to
feature that creates a hifffWChy among speech sounds, the vowels
occupying the highest position on the scale. The nucleus or the vowel
of the syllable is then the most sonorous element within the syllable,

J
separate the members of a conso:nant cluster. Thus, English
words like ChristmaS, grotesque and text will become
or the sonority peak of the syllable, all the other consonantal elements

in either the onset or the coda being situated lower ill the hiernrchy. If )

kurisu , gurotesuku and teJ<:;isutO, respectively in we were to represent the variation in sonority of the sounds in an

masu utterance we will get something of an undulating, sinuous

Japanese. This vowel insertion is in accordance with the

phon01actic constraints of Japanese.
2. The onset is obligatory and the coda is accepted. This is a
representation with ups and doWns, generated by the succession of'

vowel nuclei and consonantal onsets and codas. On the scale of

J
sonority mc:n:ti.oned above, the Jrighest position will be held by vowels,
syllable structure of the type ev(C) and is found in = y
lan"auages (Arabic, for instance) a.q an obligatory syllable then come. the glides and liquids folloWed by the nasals as the least
sonorous of the sonorarzts. Among the obstruents, the fricatives and
I
structure or template. the affricates are a degree higher than the plosives, which are at the
3. The onset is not obligatory, but no coda is accepted (the
syllables are all open). The stIUC1JlIe of the syllables in
these languages (Maori in New l..ealand or certain
bottom ofthe scale. Within each class of obstruents, voiced sounds are
ohviously more sonorous than their voiceless counterparts, while an
I
open vowel will he more sonorous than a mid one and the latter will
languages in South America) will co:nsequenlly be (C)V.
4. The onset and :the coda are neither obligatory nor
prolulJited, in other wmds they are both optioonl and the
have a higher degree of sonority than a close one. Here is how !he
,above mentioned scale looks (the bigger the figure on the left, the
I
syllable template will be,(C)V(C). As already pointed·aut,
this is the type of language both English aild Rom=ian
belong to. We are left with five other exclusively
higher the degree of sonority):

6. Vowels
I
theoretical possibilities, ,s.i:nce nO language ar;b.lalIy
conforms to either pattern.
s. There m:e no onsets in that language, in other words thc
SONORAl'.'TS 5. Glides
I
syllable will always start with its vocalic nucleus: V(C) 4. Liquids
6. The coda'is obligator)" or, in other words, there are only
closed syllables in that language: (C)VC.
(6-3)

J. Nasals
I
7, All syllables in that language 'are maximal syllables both
the onset and the coda are obligator)': eve
8, All syllables m:e minimal: both codas and onsets are probl­
OBSTRUENTS 2 FricativeslAffricates
I
bited, consequently, the language has no consonants: V.
1. Plosives
9, All syllables are closed and the onset is exclnded - the

reverse ofthe core syllable: VC.

(2-1)

171
I
I
I

I
The scale above will be of much help to us in. explai:n.i:n.g the
will call this the :,yllabijicatio7l algorithl'T" In order that this operation
of paming take plane accunrt:ely we'11 .have to decide if onset
formation or coda furmalion is more important, in other word.~, if a

I strategy on the basis of which synables are constructed in variouS

languages and in English in. particular. The llIlffie we use fur the way
in which the sounds are m:dered in a linguistic sf.IUl:;tllIe is, as wec
sequence of consonants can be IIDceptably split in. several ways, shall
we give more importance to the formation Of the onset of the
following syllable or to the coda of the preceding one? As we are

I mentioned above,; phorwtactiC8 and it is highly langUage lPec:ifi ,

though, of course, some geneial principleS :represent !angulI.ge

universals.
going to see, onsets have priOlity over codas, presumably because the
core syllabic structore is CV in any language.
Having established that the peak of sonority in. a syllable is its

I nucleus which is a short or long monophthong or a diphthong (we'll

see that in English, some other sounds that occupy high positio)lll on 7.4. Constraints on onsets
I... the sonority scale qui take the place of vowels as syUable Dllelei) we
are goin.g to have a closer look at the manner in which the o)lllet and
the coda of an English syllable, respectively, call be structnred. Even
One-c.011s0nnnt onsets. If we examine the constraints imposed
on English one-consonant onsets we shall notice that only two English

I
t::

without having any linguistic training most people will intuitively be

aware of the taet thai a succession of SOllllds like plgndvr cannot
sounds cannot be distrtlmted in sYllabic-initial position: :t) and 3· A~
:fur as the :firet one is concerned, the constraint is natora1 siuce the
occupy the syllable initial position in. any language, not only in.
sound only occurs in English when followed by a velar stop, k or g (in

I
English. On the other hand, while words like vlo.gji, vrajii, zgardli,

zgura, §tiulete, §peracltl, §111otrU, cneaz, psihoIogie etc., are perfectly

acceptable in Roroani.an, no English word beginS with vI, w, zg, Jt. Jp.
the latter case, g is no longer pronounced and survived only in
spelli:n.g). As :fur as 3 is concerned., it is a rare SOlmd in. English
anyway and is only distributed in· words of foreign origin - usually
I
1:.
Jm, kn, p£. ConVL"I"Sely, English affricates call occur in syllable final
position as CodllB of those syllahles -catch. bridge • while in
.French; c.g. genilarme• .Notice, however, that the constraint refers
rather to word·initial position sitIec the verY word usual, used above,
RoJ;nanian they Inust be followed either by a paIntal sound or a front

~
vowel: mod, regi, micii, legii.
The examples above show that ell languages impose
constrai:n.:ts on both syllable onsets and codas· Some of them seem to
proves that in polysyllabic words the sound can occur at the beginning
of a syllable as is the ease of the second ~llable of the word -sual
[3Ual] or the second one of measure pleasure, etc: .ure [3a j.

~
According to Spencer (1997:83), the deote1 voiced fricative [0] is in a
be universal. that is ell languages will rule out certain seqoonces,
otherS are language-lPecific. After a brief review of the restrictions ,pecial position since it only appears at the beginning of the word in
imposed by English 'on its onsets and codas we'll see how these "grammatical" words like the qefinite article the, tb.e: demonstratives

I.... restrictions operate and how syllable division or certain phonological

tJ;allllfQOJll!.lions will take care that these constrai:n.:ts should be
observed. What we are going to analyze will be how unacceptable
this, that, these, those, there, .etc. However. if we consider syllable­
initial position in. general, Jt can be :the onset of syllables fm:med by
the addi:n.g of the suffix -ing to verbs ending in [0] like breathe or

I.... consonantal sequences will be split by either syllabification: or by

vowel insertion. We'll scan the word and' if several nuclei. are
. ideotified, the intervocalic consonallts will be assigned to either the
bathe, or it can be the onset of1iYllables having a nasal as nucleus as is
tb.e: ease ofthe lal.1 one of rhythm [ri-om] 'heathen [bi:..('jn] ete .
,
I
'­
coda of the preceding syllable or the onset of the folloWing one. We
173

I 172
 II
Thus, words liIce please, blot, prime, brim, train, drink, climb,

]
Clusters of two C011Sonants. If we have a succession of two
glue, crew, grace, }ly, freak, throw, slot, shrink are perfectly 'well­

consonants Of a two-consonant cllL<rter, the picture is a little more

complex. While sequences liIce pI or ff will be accepted, as proved by
furmcd, while tl, dl, vI, w, B I, (fl, cr,j'I, ,3l, 3J' are impossible in

English. Romanian allows all well·folllled Englim onsets; pUc,: prost,

[J
words like plot orframe, m or ill or vr will be ruled out. We'll need to bleg. brici, tre;'· 'drag. clasic, glas, crac, gros, }leac, fresce, slobod,

have a closer look at these cases and understand whllt rules opera:te in
variOUs cases. A useful fu:si: step will be to refer to the. sehle of
with the exception of {}r and jf (the interdental fricative does DDt
in Romanian, . wb1le the second sequence occurs only in loan words,

\:ocist ]

sononty presented above. We will remernber 1hat the (vocalic) nucleus esp.cciaJly German; §Tapnel). Additionally, vI and w are licensed: see

is the peak of sonority within the syllable and that, consequently, the
consonants in the onset will have to represent an ascending scale of
words like: vlagii. wease, though such combinations tend to be rare

and are restricted (especially fue fonner) to a couple of Sla~onic

I
50nority before the vowel and once the peak·is reached we'lI have a words and Slav proper names. The situation of zI, hI, hr is sirriilar:

descendant scale from the peak downwards within the onset This zloatii, zlot. hla:midt'i, hrean.
[I
seems to be the explanation for the fuct that the sequence ro is roled
out, since we would have a decrease in the degree of sonority from the If we continue. our analysis by examining the possible

liquid r(4) to the nasal n(3). This appears to be a role that tranSCends
the boundaries of.a single language, since nei:lher :RonlalJ:ilm nor any
obstruent+glide combinations, we will get the fullowiug pictore: !

J
other European llInguage at least will accept such a sequence, and we
pj pw tj tw kj kw jJ fw fJj ew .sj sw .Ii Iw hj hw

can safely prediLi twit this is a lingUistic: universal. It has actually been
proved to be so and E. Selkirk called it the Sonority Setp1l!ncing
bj bw dj dw gj gw 1j vw 5j {'Jw ~ zw 3i 3W

J
Thus, words liIce, pure, tzme:, twist; cure, queen, foture, Th(!lj~

Generalization.
An overview of the possible combinations in two-consonant
vowel clusterS in English will rapidly lead us to the conclu.~ion thai: the
thwart. suitable, sweet, hue. beauty, duty, dwell, iIrgue, Gwen, reView

are good examples of the licensing ofthe respective sequences. lfj is a

I
special case, since its oetmrence is limited to a couple of words of

only two.obstrwmt sequences allowed by English are those that have s

as Ii first member. We will see, however, that not all S+Obstruent
combi:Datiore are allowed. If the first consonant is an obStruent other
French origin like view, revue. The best proofthet this sequence is not

considered a. natnral one in EngliSh is that the French phrase dejii 1'" is
I
read [de3il:vn.:]. 3W is in a quite ·similar situation" its distribUtion

thari s, then the only combinations allowed are those in. which the
second COIL~onant is ei:Iher a liquid (J orr) or a glide (j orw). We will
being in fuct limited in Englisli to the French loan bour;/;eois

/'bml3Wo:l and its derivatives. 3W .is here rlistributed in syllable·

initial, but DDt in word-initial posiri.on.

I
see that even this' .picture pres&rts seve:rnl gaps. Leaving the
combination.s including s for later, we can smnrnmize what we have
said by representing the possible ()bstfuent+liquid combinations as If the first position. is occupied by a nasal (other than :g w~ch,
as we saw, is actually the only English consonant that cannot appear
I
follows. The combinations that are not italicized are IIlled out:.

pl pr tl iT k1 leI' }l fr 81 (}r .vI sr 11 .f hl br

in oreets) we can have·fue following combinations, of which only mj
(mute) and '!if (rruclear) llTC licensed; I
gr vI vr ill 6r zl zr3l3J:
bI br ill dr gl mI lJ1l' mj row n1 m nj ,nw
I
175
..
 I
Tn Romanian, the above mentioned onsets are not Ii<:ensed,
while words beginning with mr and mr like mreo:ji1 or mlapinii are
very rare.
. The' fiLet that only liquids or glides are allowed after
obsriruents and that a nasal can only be followed. by a glide lead,s us to
another' phonotactic rule operating on English onsets, namely that the
distance in sonority betw~ the first and second element in the onset
must b~ of at least two degrees. Thus, plosives only have 1 on our
scale of sonority and :fricatives 2, while liquids (4) and glides (5) are
situate4 two to four degrees higher and consequently the Jiequeru:es
plosiveljricative -f liquid/glide are allo__d. Sequences of nasals and
liquids ,like mr and nl (3; 4) or offricatives and nasals like vn andfin
"
(2;3) obviously violate this rule and are consequently ruled out. We
will call this rule the minimal sonority distance.
We are left with the two-obscruent clusters, the first consonant
of which can only be s. It is clear that sequences like sf or sf which
are perfectly acceptable in English raise serious problems as to the
applicability ofthe rules that we enonnced before. 1be former violates
the minimal sonority distance principle, since s and f are both
fricatives and are consequently on a par as fur as sonority is
concerned. Ivforeover, s+plosive sequences as st mentioned above
actually contravene the fundamental Sonority Sequencing
Generalization,' which we asswned to be a rule ofUniversal Grmnmar,
because we have a downfall in sonority from 2 to L Since the
frameWork of the present discussion does not allow us to go into Ii
detailed explanation,. we will say that s represents a particular Case. It
should be noticed that s can ooly be followed by a voiceless plosive or
the voiceless iiicative f sp; st, sk, if. spot, stick sky, sphinx. There
should be, therefore, an agreement in the feature voice between the
first. and second obstruent. s can also be fullowed by a nasal: .m or 8m
in wo~ds like srutke or smear. This time the ~iDimal sonority di~ce
is observed. The caseS where s is followed by a liquid or semivowel
have been presented above.
176
Three-consonant onsets. Such sequences will be restricted to
licensed two-consonant onsets .preceded by the voiceless fricative s.
The latter will, however, impose some additional restrictions, as we
will remember that s can only be followed by a voiceless sound in
two-consonant onsets. 1n other words not only the sequence of
consonant 2'and consonant 3 should be a valid one, but also s +
consonant 2. Therefore, only spl, syr, str, skr will be allowed, as
words like splinter, spray, strong, screw prove, while sbl, sbr, stir,
sgr, sar will be ruled out. Though kl,jl andfr are accepted and so are
sk and :if, the sequences skJ, # and ffr are not. Romanian accepts all
well-folllled . English onsets: splina, spre, strident, scroafo and,
additionally, sid: sclav and -r/i": -r/i"untat: In the sequence stir the initial
sound is voieed: zdrel£ ztiraviin. If the third position is occupied by a
glide we get the following accepted combinations in English: spj, sij,
skj, slew: spurious, stwient. skewer, sqzmsh. Notice that stw which is in
principle acceptable (as both sf at tw are licensed) does never occur.
Summarizing, we can present the possible com.binations in the
following table:
pi pr pj IT tj tw kl \u­ kj
~
~
5 spleen spray spwne straw stew * • screw skew sq:'~
75. Constraints on codas
Simple codas. If we consider one-consonant codas, or simple
codas in Englisb we will notice that with the exception of the two
glides, w and j, of h and of r - in non-rhotic accents, any English .
non-vocalic. segment can be distributed in final position. 3 will be
again a special case as it only occurs in French loan words as
garage, mirage, espionage, camDujlage, massage, barrage, prestige,
beige, cortege. rouge.
Complex codas.' Even a superficial look at the possible
consonantal combinations in syllable-final position - in other words in
the last (optional) element of the syllable, the coda - will show that
177
 J
,constrainJis are much laxer 1hlm in the case of onsets. If in principle the
Sonority Sequencing Generalization i., observed, in the sense thatthe kiln or almost any obstruent help, bulb, kilt. cold, bulk, golf,
valve [Iv], health [191, else [Is], Charles [hI, Welsh [ln,
]
syllable contour decreases in sonority at the end, we cannot say the
milch [It[], divulge [ld3J.
same l:l:liug about the Minirna1 Sonority Distance, as words IDceapt for
instance prove, where the two voiceless stops display tlte same degree
b) fue rhotic r shares the same contexts in rhotic accents: firm,

[J
of sonorily. Statistics can be confusing and exhaustive computations
fern,' carp, Curb, cart, card, cork, dwarf, carve [rv], hearth

as those petformed by HortM~ia Pilrlog, though having the great merit

of coverimIg fue whole i:ange of combinations, Jeave us with the fueling
of discomfort 1hat we ·always experience when confronted With bare
frO]. 'horse [rs],Mars [n1, harsh
(rct31, and, additionally, rg: burg.
ern.birch [rtf[, dirge
[J
figures: <lur intellect is pUZ71ed, but am tmdersfRnding of the
phenomenon is hardly advanced. We learn fulL~ that English allows 86 c) nasals followed by .an obstruent thet sbares the same place' [)
twu-conOOl1!llltcombination.. in syllable codas, While Romanian only of articnlation: mp, mf, nt, lUi, ns, nz, nt;; 11<.8, .gk: camp;
liccl15es liD. By contrwst, 41 such cambinlltiollS are possible in the lymph, ant, and, lens. cleanse, pinch, range. link. Notice.
English aosets, while in Romanian fue numbe~ is almost doUble: 75.
This is in keeping with om previous assertion that Romance languages
that in tlte sequences mb and J}g, fue last sound was lost in
modern English: dumb [dAm], sing [lInJ];
fI
(and, cOllSequently, Romanian, .too) seem to favour open syllables
while in Germanic languages (English included) closed syllables are
statisticaly prepondeJ:lUlt. We'm:e left, however, with a large amount
d) sequeoces of tWo ubstruents: a non-coronal stop fullowed
by a coronal on~: Jeept, pact [M], or a fricative followed by
iJ
of data titat we will have to bandle in a satisfuctory, plalL'lible way. If a coron.al stop: least, rift; a plosive followed by s: oops,
we leave aside the word-final consonantal clusters tbat are a result of
the lIlo1]Jhological process of affixation - e.g. aged [e:rl'f3dJ or depth
tax [ks].
:1
[dep9J and we restrict our analysis to mOIphologically simple words

wifuout examining fue complex ones, the pieture is mucb simplified.

We will come across a fuirly large number of cases that appear

e) In lIloIpho]ogically complex codas s can follow any
voiceless obstruent (wifu tlteexception of 1he strident
coronal soundq, fue sibilants [s, z,;; 3, If, q!f]) to fann the

,I
to blatalllly violate fue Sonority Sequencing GeD.eraIizaf;ion as fueY
seem to be made up of a succession of an obstruflnt and a nasal Or a
liquid. C.cnsequ<lIItly fue sonority seems to be rising in.the coda; e.g.
plural of noun.< or the 3,d person singular of fue present

indicative of verbs, whlle z does the S!!me after voiced

obstru~ts and sonorants; t futms the past tense of fue

J
dn:· hidden [brdnJ; zm: schism [likr1mJ; tl: cattle [kretl]; tIl: ndd{e
[ndlJ am:!, in thalic accents br: sabre [setbr.]. TI.tese case.~ will be
dealt'with \ate;:, when we di.'leuss non-vocalic nuclei in Hnglish.
regular verbs'and is added after voiceless obstruents, while

d dOes.tbe Sll!!l~ 1hing after voiced obstruents and SODarants.

Neither sound can be reduplicated, in such cases an

We are le.ft wifu a illirly reduced. number of possible

combinations that we will tentatively group as follows:
epen1hetic vowel being needed. [0, too, appears in

mOIphologically compiex codas, eifuer as a derivational

suffix; length [lege1, depth [depe] - in width [mdo] we
I
~ the
liquid lis fullowed by another consooant. Thi~ second
consonant can be a labial or alveolar nasal as in realm and
have ita voiced pair - or as an affrx fOrming ordiIi.als: tenth
/ten6],flfth [rue]. I

179 I

 ..

J Three-consonant codas. Mo!phDlogically simple codas and co=£j1IDIltIy the nucleus of the syllabIc. Thus, the word topple,
including three consonant<; can be fonned either of a nasal followed instead of being inti:Ipreted. as a monosyllabic one and get the
11 by two obstruents: against rust], /yn:x: [:!)ks], atfjunct, [:glt1, prompt following representation:
[m(p)t], attempt [m(p)t] - notice that in the case of mpt the oral

,J; .
plosive, which shares the place ofarticnJation with the preceding nasal
. is normally dropped - or of rare sequences of. three obl>1:rUents, of
which the second is. s: text [lest], amidst [dst). Mo!phologic.ally
/1
o R
s

~ \co
I
J complex: codas will include the .two-consonant licensed combinations
followed by one of the phonological realizations of the affixes
mentioned in the previous paragraph: [.I', z, t, d, e, ~. E.g. helped [1pt].
It
I /\
() p l

J . We can even have combinations ofaffixes tiepins [P0s].

Four-consonant codas. They can only be mo!phologically

will be divided into two syllables and represented funs;

J complex, being made up of a well-formed coda of the kind we met in

the preceding paragraph to which an affix is added - s or t:
thousandths [nd98]; instincts [:gkts], tempts. [mpts], glimpsed [mpst].
/1
S
/1
o
S

r~
R

J Notice, however, that since sur:ili clusters are difficult to pronounce,

some oftb.e consonants are often dropped: e.g.[gInnst1, [temts1
If
J 7.6. Syllabic consonants. Non-vocalic nuclei
t () p l

'The same intC!pTe:tmon will be assigned to sequences of

J In a previous paragraph we mentioned the quite large number

of cases where sequences of an obstruent and a nasal or a liquid could
not be accepted to be part of a well-fonned coda as they .vIOlated. the
fimdrunemtal principle of Sonority Sequencing. Indeed, ifwe consider,
fur instance, the word fiddle and we analyse it as a mono,yllabic word
whose onset contains the fricative j, while the nucleus is .repreilented
by the vowel I and the.coCia by the tWo-consoilanl: chistenil, we will
obviously have problems with the latter sequence since instead of
having a full in sonority in the coda we witness an increase .from the
voiced obstruent d to the liquid l. Such examples are quite nmnerous
in English and a widely accepted solution is to postulate the
possibility that in some cases not only vowels, but CCltain· sonorants -'­
·Uquids and nasals, more precisely - can represent fue peak of sonority
obstruent+ liquid llike supple [SA-pl], table [ter-biJ, cattle [kae-tl],
fiddle [ft-dl); sickle [SI-kIJ, bagel [her-gIl, siffie [SI -fij, shovel [fA-vI],
castle [ka:....I], hazel [beI1'J] or obstruent+nasal m: chasm [k:re---zmJ,
rhythm. [ri-om]; obstruen1+nasal n: deepen [di:-pn], ribbon [n-bn],
cotton [ko -tn], ridden [n-dn], bacon .[ber-lm], waggon [me-gn],
soften [s:>-fu], raven [reI-vn], fasten [fa;-sn], brazen [},reE-_],
heathen [bi:-Iln] cushion [kn-Jn], vision [vi:-3IlJ. In motic accent<;,
the liquid r can aIsa be asyllahle nucleus: brother [brA-Or].
In all the cases above we deal with non-vocalic element<;
(sonorants: nasals OT glides), occupy.ing the position of the nucleUs.
Such consonants are called syllabiC consonants, Their relatively high
degree of sonority allows them to replace Ihe vowels in fbis otherwise
typically vocalic position. Most languages (Romanian included) do

180 181
 c.

not have syllabic cOnsonants, but English is not unique in this respect, ]

Czech for instance being another language that includes such sounds.
(See above, io Chapter 5, the discussion of the feature +1- syllabic
introduced by Chomsky and Halle in SPE in 1968).
f.J

7.7. Syllabification in English [)

Having examined the structure of the three main components

of the syllabI e, the nucleus, the coda and the rhyme - of which,
however, it is only the nucleus iliat is obligatory, let US have a look at
11
how syllabification or the division of words ioto syllables works.
Trivial as the matter might look, it is a process that has major
implications not only on the way in which we write the words when
1
we'arrive at the end ofthe line - this is probably the sitnation in which
most people become aware of the pheoomenon and this awareness is
cultivated from their fitst school years - but also on somc important
~J
phonological processes. StrnrIge as it might seem, we will see that
syllabification which is a phonologlcal process, does not always
parallel the division of words into syllables in wriring, a process
c)
S S
J
whose rules take into account rather tIie rllOIphological structurc of /1 /1
o R
.1
words. If we deal with a monosyllabic word - a syllable that is also a
word, our strategy will be rather simple. The vowel or the rtucleus is
the peak of sonority around which the whole syllable is structmed and
consequently all consonants ur non-vocalic elements preceding it will
be parsed to th" onset and whatcver comes after the nucleus. will
Ir
r e
(If
k t a J

belong to the coda. What are we going to do, however, if the word has
more than one syllable? We will pretty easily iderrti:fY the syllable
nuclei but how are we going to parse'the intervocalic or internucleic
Jbelast of the three solutions-c) [re-kta] clearly contravenes
the phonotactic rules of English that we have just reviewed, since its
I
second syllable has an unacceptable onset in English: kt. We are left

elements? Shall they be allotted to the codas or the onsets· of the

syllables that we try to fami? In other words, if we have to syllabify
rector, shall we divide it by parsiog the two consonants to' the cOda of
with variants a) and b) which are both in accordance with the rules

mentioned above. Phonological evidence that the scope of this book

I
will not allow us to present even briefly is in favour of the second
the first syllable, shall we split them between the two syllables or shall
we parse them both to the onset of the second syllable? Here are the
three possible configurations:
variant. Indeed, languages apparently tend to give priority to the
fonnation of onsets over coda formation. Several hypotheses have
I
183
I
 J
been furnmla1eci, ofwbich one was mentioned before, namely that thi.s

J is probablY in keeping with the template of the lllliversal core ,,,llable

CV. The rise in sonority in the onset appears to be more irnpo:rtmt /J
s
o R
/1
o R
s
than the full in the coda This is also proved by the fact that there are
J languages that prohibit the coda - all syllables are open - but there are
no iangllllges that prohibit the onset.' We will ·C(}llsequeintly. adopt a'
I ~\oI
J I f
syllabi:fica:tion algorithm that will give priority to onset foonation and v e n
J we will call the principle that is observed Ons<."1: Maximization. This
conId be translated thus: whenever we have a number of consollllIIts

If a

As mentioned above, syllabification doesn't always mIrror the

morphological structore of wonis as the n= example _ tainted _
J
. between two syllable nuclei. we will group together the maximum

number of consonants .that form an acceptable onset according to the

phonotactics of the respective language and the remaining number of

proves:

s s
-JI
consonants will be included in the coda ofthe preceding syillable.
/1 /1
a R R
. /\
1
'­
Thus, the syllabification of the word conscript will look
like this: ,'. }\ /0 r J\ N Co
/ /
s s t e In tId
il
-rI /1
a R a
/1
R The word is a complex one, :made up of the verb taint, to

III
i
1\
N Co ./I\~\O
I I /\
which the past tense morpheme cd is added. This is how we divide the

word in writing, tal.'ing into consideration the two morphemes that

make it up. PhonologicaJJy, however, when we 5yllabi:/y the word, the

skl"Ipt
k "" obstruent t goes to the onset of tbe second syllable. An even clearer

example of the fact that syllabification doesn't overlap the

The reason why we split the intervocalic consonant cluster in
morphological structore of words is the diffurent behaviour of two
this way was that sfr was the maJtitnal .1ructure accepted by Enffish
morphologically identical words: helpful Lhelpful] and helpless
phonotactics as a valid ~Ilable ODS(.-t (mf/" is rnled ont by these rnles). [hclple.]. Here is how me two words syllabify:
Thus, n went to the cOda of the first syllable, wbile sf/" formed the
oDSel ofthe second. s s
// //
A word like venture is syllabified thus (remember that a R o R
affricates, because they are considered to be mongrel sounds, _are
conventionally represented by a stop and a fricative in the IPA
transcriptions): .
, 1\
NCo
1 /\
I 1\
NCo
I I
h e I p f u I
HIt:'
1&5
 "I
~··I
s s CHAPTER 8 ,.
/1 /1
o o R
R
1\ 1\
NCo
1
NCo
I I 1/ I I
h e I p I e s SUPRASEGNIENTAI..S; STRESS,
BHYTHNI, INTONATION J
The difference. li"" in the fuet that while pf is not a valid
syllable onset and, consequently, the two consonants are split between ]
. the two syllables, pI is a licensed syllable onset and therefore ilie two S.l Stess and prominence. The phonemic
consonants are parsed to the onset of the second ~'Yllable. (contrative) function of stress
Morphologically, however, "'" have the same base help, to which two [J
suffixes _ ful and less respectively are attached. In writing, both . In ilie preceding chapter we conducted OUT analysis beyond the

suffixes are separated from the base if we have to divide the word.
Romanian is in the same situation as the gerunziu furm of the verb a
urea: urclind will be divided in writiog lll'c4riti, following the
limit of phonological units and described syllables as scqu<'lnces of

sounds establishing a collocation relationship between the elements

[J
they were marle up of. With 1his we went beyond the limit of mere

morphological structure of the word, while phonologically we will

have the following struct1tte: [ur.kkldJ·
segments and entered the domain of suprasegmental phonology. By

assuming syllables to be hierarchical struetures, combinations of

sounds in which some elements (the nucleus) were more important

II
than others, we departed from· the strictly linear representation of

phonological combinations and adopted a non-linear approach.

The last chapter of1his studi;s concerned with such notions as

I
stress, rhythm and intonation. As we are soon going to see - a fact that

is obvious even intuitively - such phonological realities are relevant at

a level of a higher complexity than 1het of ilie mere segment and are

I
considered to be typical suprasegmentals. Another tenn used to refer

to them is prosodic elements. Prosody is a word coming :from Gxeek

and referring roughly to the musicalitY of phonetic sequences.

I
Etymology i. relevant in this case since, as we are going to see, we
will be able to dra:w numerous parallela between tonality in human
speech and 1nIJa1i1y in musie. Such prosodic elements are often called
I
metrical elements and we can speale 01 metrical phonology analyzing
such suprasegmenW phenomena. A pal:anel is drawn here with poetry
where the metre is an essential element when we discuss the prosodic
I
187 I
 I

I structure of verse. The scope oHhis book will a,,<nrin not allow ns to go stress placement of the ROIllWlian verb urcii "climb". 1£ we place the

I .mto very many details, but some elementary information in this field
is essential for anyone wishing to have even a very general image of
the sound structures ofEng:li.sh..
stress on the first ~'Yllable and read it urea, we interpret it as the 1hird
person singular , indicative present fonn;
.
u: however, we place the
stress on the sooond syllable, and read it urea, we !mve the third

I It would be difficult maybe even for a specialist to give a very

accurate definition of stress, but even a schoolchild will be intuitively
aware'that when we talk about stress in a word or in more' complex
person singular,afthe'indicative simple perfect fann. A pretty similar
example would be fentillfema, the reading with the suess on the frrst
syllable interpreting the sequence as a noun (":feint", "dodge") while

I structures we talk in :tact ~bont prominence, or emphasis, that is parts

of that word or structures are perceived as haviug a lligher degree of
prominence in comparison to the others. Thus, if asked wht,re :the
tha reading with the stress on the 1ast syllable interpret~ it as the third
person ,,'ingullir sitnple -perfect of the corresponding verb ("he feinted"
"he dodged"). The obvious conclusion is that stress bas contrastive,

J accent or stress fiills in a word like, say, t1mic [tjunik], an English

pupil will unhesitaiingly answer "on tha first syllable", while if asked
the same question about :the corresponding word in French, /unique
phonemic value' as segments like p and b had in our analysis in the
:fifth chapter, and that we CIIll cons:i<k:r it, in certain sit1Ja1ions, a
suprasegmental phoneme. Our enthusiasm will be soon tempered by

I- (tynikJ a French schoolchild will say: "on the second syllable". 1£we
carefully examine the two words we will see, indeed, that besides a
the observation·that these are rare cases in Romanian, a language
where stress seldom perfurros such a :function. If we tum to English,
however, plenty' :of examples will came up, underlying the decisive
minor difference in the vocalic sequence 'of the first syllable - Ii

I semivowel and a bacl;:, high, unrounded vowel in, English and :the
corresponding front, high, rounded vowel in French, the main
c;liffurence between the two words lies in the placement of stress. The
role played by'the stress in distinguiabing members of verb/noun
pain;, fonned by the, extremely productive - :in English - process of
conversj~ e.g. inc.-ea.se (v) I increase (n); implant (v) I implant (n);

I answers of the two clrlldren will be also ,:relevant for the dispute (v); dispute (n); contrast (v); contrast (n).

, suprasegmental nature of stress, since they would perceive accent as a

phenomcnon affecting syllables. not mere sounds. A suggestive
representation Of the di:fl:erent aecentua1 pattern of the two words,
could be the fullowing, where the embolderu:;<i k:tters represent the
more PlXlmment Sequence of sounds: tunic; tunique (the last two
8.2. Free "Stress and fixed stress. The predictability
of accentual patterns

I- letl.c:rS ofthe French word don't have any phonetic materialization).

Though not easy to define, this prominence we are t:pking
Before we get a closer look at this contrastive value of stress in

English we should say a :few general things about stress in this

about bas certain acoustic correlDtes. A :;tressed syllable will be heard language. Unfortunately for foreign stud,,-nts of the language, Engli.'lil,

I like R omau;sll, is a lIlngllage where stress placement is completely

,
louder, and therefure be characterized by Ii higher intensity or
L;;; amplitwie, will have a longer duration, will display a change in pitch unpredictable. We CIIll therefore say that in such languages we have a

orfrequency,
The example above contrasted stress plac<>.ment ill two
different languages. 1£ we try to do the SOUle thing within the same
linguistic system we will notice some interesting facts, Compare, for
I'"
instance, the two possible prdnUllciatioDs - due to the difference in
free: stress system.. In langnages like Hungarian, or Czech, for instance,
stress always :faIJs on the first syllable of the word. In Frencb and
Turkish, it is the last syllable that is always stressed, while,in Polish
the laSt ,but one. Such laJJgl.lllges are systems that have positiorul1ly
fired stress. In Spanisl~ there are strict rules for stress placement

'I' 188
189
 ,J

either on the last or on the penultimate (last but one) syllable and all
the exce:Pfions are marked grnphically.
It should also be pointed out that stress, is a relational and
gradual ("aiUte, siDee we, described it in terms of prominence of
certain elemen!s in comparison' to others. Therefure, there are lID
four syllables with the stress on tbe first: in:tri.ca.cy, cu.sto.mary; ]
four syllables with the stress on tbe second: re.ci.pro.ca1, pa.ra.me.ire;
four syllables with tbe stress on the third: con.fi.den..tial; dis.po:si.tion
four syllables with the stress on tbe last: mi~.un.deutand; ]
mis.a.ppre.hend;

absolute degrees - lllJ'OtimaI stress and no stress, at all - and we can .:frve syll"bles with tbe stress on the third: com.ple.men.ta.ry,

only say that somestroctures display this feature to a greater eldent

th!lIl other. This is even more obvious in F.nglish where, as we are
con.sti.tu.tio.nal, re.gu.la.ri.1y;

five syllables with the stress on the fourth: re.pre.sen.ta.tion,

fI
going to see, we will have to define several degrees ofstress. i.ma.gi.na.tion, llILder.dc.ve.Iopped;

mOTe tblIn five syllables: un.de.si.ra.bi.Ii.ty.

[J
8.3. Metric patterns
S.4. Morphologieal processes and stress shift [J
As mentioned above, the term metric structure Cffi1 be used
when discussing stress and rhythmical patterns, a terminology It can establish phon~c contrasts like those mentioned

borrowed from the analysis of verse structure. The basic metrical previously and, even more, the shift of the stress triggers a change in
[J
structure in poetry is the foot. It can contain two or several syllables, the value of the vowels of the sequence. This happens mostly dining

but siuce English word. don't tend to be excessively long:we win only morpholOgical processes such as affixation. Affixes are of two

refer to two- or three-syllable structures. A dissyllabic structure with

the accent on the :first syllable, is called a trochee. If in a two-syllable
categories: a) affixes that do not modify the accen1Ual pattern of the

base and affixes that trigger ,'tress shift in the base. Chomsky and

fI
foot the stress f"lIs on the second syllable we talk about BI1 iamb. In Halle (1968: 66-67) distinguished between word boundaries # that

three-,yllable patterns we can have the accent on the :first one and then
we have a dactyl, on the second one - an amphihrar:h, Or on tbe last
blocked the operationofphoIlDlogical roles and fOllnB.tive boundaries

+ that do not block phonological processes. Thus, tbe word fatal

J
one - an anapest. Here are' some examples of English words
['fertal] has the stress .on the :first syllable, which contains a

displaying the respective metric ,imctures.

diphthong, that is a teese vowel having the dumtion of two skeletal

slots (inoras) on the timing tier. The second syllable, which is not

I
coree, Florence, Venice
COllJlltry, + - trochee'
hare!, decide, BIaZll, Berlin
comforting, infidel, Coventry, Binningbam
- +
+-
iamb
dactyl
stressed, has a short, lax 'vowel - schwa. If we derive the word fatality

[fu'trelrtr] with the suffix ity, the stress shifts onto the second syllable

and the vowel in the first one becomes lax, is reduced to schwa and
I
- +-
distinction, employer, Calcutta, Toronto
nominee, cang-.;roo, Montreal, Tennessee '- - +
amphibrach
anapest
occupies just one slot on the timing tier. The vowel of the second
syllable, now under stress, gets a new phonetic value, as it is no longer
reduced to sChwa. This is co'nsisteut with what we bow about the
I
In English, stress placemeut is not ooly unpredictable, as.the
examples above prove. We can test the mohllity of the accent on even
longer wQrds:
distn'bution anaJ which, _ will remember, onJy occurs in unstressed
syllables. This means that the boundary between the suffix ity and the I
verb is a foJ:Illlitive boundary + and not a word bonnrlary #.

191 I
 I

8.5. Primary and secondary stress 8.6. Weak and strong forms. Vowel redllctioDl. and
I
What makes the acquUing of the correct pronunciation of the
deJition

English words extremely difficult for foreign speakers is that English Stress or emphasis also plays an important role in the
I
has several degrees of word stress. All words have a primary stress,
whose placement is totally UDpIooictable, as .we have seeD.. fu
selection of the so called strong and weak. forms of many
"grammatical" words of English. They are thus called because it is
not their lexical content that primarily matters, but the role they have
I
addition., long words in piJrticular have a secondary stress
(phonologists also distinguish a tertiary stress, but fur the purpose of
our discussion, we will just restrict our presentation to the :first
in the sentence. ('VVe will remember, however, the general tendency
of "schwa" to replace any English ·vowel in unstressed syllable.
Vowel reduction is not, therefore, a process restricted to the weak
I
tWo types of stress). Though we are not always aware of the
existence of this secondary stress its presence is clearly fult by the
blocking of vowel reduction. Thus, according to the I'rinciples
forms of a limited set of words.)

AUXiliary verbs like do, have, be, will, shall, modals like can
I
enounced above, we would expect all the vowels of the six-syllable
word that occur in unstressed syllables (syllables 1..2,3,5,6)
and must, prepositions, pronouns, possessives and adverbs have
parallel forms: a strong one, when the word is stressed or emphasis is
im.par.ti.aIUy [nn-,pa:-JI-'re-h-tr] to be reduced to schwa. However, placed on it, and a weak one, When the word is not under stress or any
I
we notice that the vowel in the second syllable, fur from being
reduced to schwa is a long, reUse vowel. The fact that the vowel has
kind of emphasis. The latter form usually has its vowel reduced to
schwa (only [1] is not reduced to schwa) if not elided altogether,
managed to preserve its value though primary stress doesn't fall on elision often applying to many of the consonants of the word, too. The
I....
,,.

that syllable is explained by the fact that the second syllable of the
word bears a secondary stress that we conventionally mark by,.

We have seen how stress can playa phonemic role, contrasting

lexical pairs verb/noun, for instance. At a more complex level stress
auxiliary have for instance, whose strong form is h.rev, can be reduced
to hay or even simply the fiicative consonant v. Here are. some
examples:

[oem]~[oamJ;
[kren]~[kan]-7[kn]
I saw them, not yon. vs. I don't like th(e)m.
Yes, I can. Vs. I c(a)n·tell you an interesting
may establish oppositions between compounds and phrases. Thus in
...
me sequence English teacher, if we assign primary stress to thefust
[brev]~[hav]-7[v]
story.
I have obeyed yo1+, I swear. Have you met my
word and the second word bears a weaker· stress (a tertiary one, in wife? They've left.

....II

filct) we interpret this as a compoundm=ing "a teacher of English".

I:t; however, in the. same sequence, we assign primary stress to the [tu]~[ta] Where are you going to? I'm going to
word teacher and a secondary stress to EDglish, we interpret this as a LondolL
! I'
......
phrase meaning "a teacher who is English". Without analyzing such
cases in detail (they are very. co=on) we will say that they ~ be
[fu;]~[fa] Who are you waiting·for? I'm waiting for
John
accoUDted for in terms of stress placement roles that assign primary [a;]-7[a] Are you taking me for a fool? They're trylllg
I....
stress on the left in compounds and on the right in noUIl pm:ases. to help.

I
192 193
 lJ

Notice in the examples above that. if the· pfeposition is called syllable-timed. In the other type of language of which English

]
stranded, it is always stressed and consequently the form thI!lt occurs is is illustrative - the time unit is not the syllable, but the stressed

always the strong one. syllable. Such a type of rb:Ythm is consequently called stress-timed. It

is this type of rhythm - and not stress alone - that is also largely
]'...
responsible for the reduction of vowels in English UllStl"essed syllable
8.7. Rhythm which are thus sl:tortened to fit the narrow time slots left fur them. The
con=! use of thcse rhythmic patterns is one of the things thI!lt are most

]
In order to batter explain the notion of rhythm. we should go difficult to aeqtrire for a foreign learner of English and the improper

back to our previous references to poetry and to metric unita A. metric

foot in poetry was, we will remember, a sequence of syllables
extension to English of different Ihytbmic patterns borrowed from

one's mother tongue is one of the elements that a native English

]
including a stressed one and a couple of other syllables thI!lt were not speakers will immediately recognize as indicative of a fureign 3CceD.t.

stressed. The skillful combination of such S1.rt1GttITes results into

different rhythmic patterns. Rhythm, flwn, as in mu.oUc, is based on
]
combinations of louder and weaker segments, strong beats which 8.8. Intonational contours. Their pragmatic value
occur at regular intervals of time. Anyone listening to recordings of
spoken English and spoken RolllllIlian will innnediately notice an
important and striking difference between the two langnages. They
Variation in pitch leads to different intonational contours.
II
Intonation is an essential suprasegmental element in any language 8J1d

actually typify two different categories of languages. m.Romanian,

syllables, whether stressed or not, tend to have roughly the same
durati(JI!. In: English, UIlBtressed syllables not only have their vowels
it can <Dave,. as already pointed out, eoIJtnlstive values, the same

utterance, though preserving the same demotational meaning,

II
suggesting diffurant attitodes of the speaker if di:ffurCllt intonational

reduced Ii' we saw ahove, bnt their duration is severely shortened. A

stressed syllable bas roughly the sl!TIle duration as the several
unstressed syllable following it WIlli the next aooentual peak·fulloWll.
contours are used. There are langoages in Asia (Chinese for instance)

Where piteh variation changes file very meaning of the ward. Thus, the

same phonetic sequence (signifiant) is associated to different

fI
The acamltic impression that an English utterance gives is one of Ii
sequence having g<ome strong, heavily marlced units (the stressed
syllables) around which file mnch less important unstressed syllables
meanings (signifies) if various pitch changes are used. Such languages

are <called tone languages. The systematic character of intonation is

also important to mention, in tbe sense that within a certain linguistic

I
are clustered. While in RomaniJm filere is a certain feeli{!g' of <
monotonY,equally long syllables wming one after another in
m
humdrum succession, English, the tTansttion from stressed segments
system a certain intonational pattem will be llSed and recognized by

the speakers of that langnage as bB:ving a given function. Thus, a I

:rising intonational contour will characterize intcnogative structures or
to a number of unstressed segments thI!lt have togelherlhe same
duration as the stressed one, giving the fuelli;Jg that they have been
compressed, COnveys the lmguage a certain Il1llSicaJ character..Since
utterances, OJ;' will express smpcise dissatisfllction, etc. In languages
like Romariian for instance intonation is the only element that marks
the contrast between an in~rrogative sentence (a rising contour) and
I
languages like Romanian have rhythmic patterns based on the
,yllable, that has all equal duration, <irrespective of .its
stressed/unstressed character, file type of rhythm that they display is
itq a:fli:rnlative counterpart E.g.: EI a venit cu ea'l t(illterrogative) VB.
EI a venit cu ea. -I{affirmative). Several tone groups are distinguished
in English h)r phoneticians Thus, J. D. O'Connor and G. F. Arnold
I
195
I
•

 •I

(1973) discriminate among ten tone groups characterized by distinct 8. 'rue Jacknife is a risecfiill intonational pattern, expressing
I pitch variatiol1S. It is iroprtant to :remember that it is the nucleus of the
stressed syllable that is always the locus ofiliat change in pitch:
definiteness, completeness and often the fact that the
speaker is impressed or awed.
9. The High Dive includes Ii high faIl followed by a low

I 1. The Low Drop contains falling nuclear tones and sounds

definite and complete and· can be .used in "statements,
It is used when it is the first part of Ii word group that
contains an importaot idea and not its second, which is of
wh-questi.ons" (that sotmd serious., intense and urgent) sccon1lazy importaoc:e.
I yes-no questions (when the speaker sounds serious), in
commands.
10. 11:J.e Terrace mainbins Ii level intonation and is typically
used to express non-finality.
2. The same completeness and definiteness is suggested by

I the High Drop, hut the speaker no lon.,oer sOll11ds detached,

the tone group suggesting invo.!vement through i~ greater
variation in pitch.

I 3. The Take-Off is nsed in statements that iirvite the

contribution of the listener to the conversation. In
questions it is often used to invite the listener to repeat

I what he or she has just said. It implies a low rise in pitch.

4. The Low-Bounce is an intonational contollT, that is also
based on a low rise in the nucleus, statements "uttered with

J this intonational contour sounding soothing, rcasl>llrirlg.

Questions asked :in this way express the interest of the
listener.

:1 S. The "!;,Witchback includes a full-rise intonational pattern.. It

is used in statements to ex:press contrast, while in questions
it expresses astonishment. Commands having this

J intomrtional contour contain a Wll11ling note, while

interjections e'.. .p ress scorn.
6. The Long Jump has a high fall nuclear tone and shares the
:1
....
definiteness aill! completeness of falling intorumonal
contours, expressing, in addition to the high drop.preSt.'71ted
above, a note of protest Commands sound rather as

J
,
recommendations than as genuine orders. ,
7. The High-Bounce is character:ized by a high rise in the
nucleus, being a typical interrogative pattern in European
lan"cruages.

I 196
 ,J
"

[J
]

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Arcnot( N1mk. 1976. Word Formiifion in Generative Grammarw Cambridge. _'MA:
MIT Pres••
]
Avery, P.· and Snsan Ehrlich.1992. Teaching American English Pronunciation:

OJCfurd: Oxford Univ"",ity Pross.

1
Avram, Andrei. 2000. Probleme de etimologie. Bucure~: Univern Encjclapedic.

Avl7I1ll, Mioara and Manus Sala. 2000. May We Introduce the lIDmanion Language .•..~I
to You? Bucur".n: Editura FuruJapei CUlturale Romline.

Bacll,.F..mmon and R. T. Harms (ed•.). 1968. Universals in Linguistic Theory'. New

Yoik: Holt, Rinebart& WInSton.

]
Beo""Jliste, Emile. 2000. Problrmte deliT1gvlstlcii generalii. 2 voIs. Buc~: Toom.

(OriginaIlypub!ished in 1966 as Probliimes de linguistique generale).

Bloomfield, Loonard. 1935. Language.Landon: George Allen and Unwin·Ltd. (fum

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