I Vocal Organs (Vocal Tract /Organs of Speech/Speech Organs)

&
English Sound System

What happens there?

Sounds are produced. Different types of sounds. All of them belong to Phonetics and Phonology.
• A consonant sound is one in which the air flow is cut off, either partially or completely, when it is
produced.
• In contrast, a vowel sound is one in which the air flow is unobstructed when the sound is made.
Activity 1
Make questions for the following answers:
• 30
• 32
• 44
A grapheme is the written representation of one phoneme/sound.
Activity 2
Make questions for the following answers:
• 30
• 32
• 44
Activity 3
What does a grapheme represent – a phoneme or a speech sound?
ORTHOGRAPHIC DICTATION is the way something is written. (Special attention is paid to some small details
that can make big troubles – writing down numbers, dates, names of institutions, countries, nationalities, etc.)
PHONEMIC DICTATION is the way something is said or pronounced. (To take phonemic dictations means to
write down the way something is pronounced.)
The way something is pronounced is always in brackets. E.g.
ORTHOGRAPHIC DICTATION : Phonetics and Phonology
PHONEMIC DICTATION: /fə¢netɪks/ /ænd/ /fə¢nɒlədʒi/
The 44 English sounds can be divided into two major categories – consonants and vowels according to their
type of articulation.
There are 24 consonants:
/p/ play, stop, speak, power /s/ small, since, scene, miss /dʒ/ just, general, age
/b/ bad, baby, big, object /z/ zoo, goes, zero /m/ moon, lamp, lamb
/t/ ten, later, little, pot /ʃ/ shell, nation, machine /n/ can, snow, next
/d/ day, advice, bed /ʒ/ genre, measure, vision /ŋ/ string, singer, tongue
/θ/ thin, earth, method, both /l/ look, small, bottle, isle
/k/ character, quick, taxi
/ð/ they, father, breathe, with /r/ real, train, wrong, write
/g/ got, exam, ignore, finger
/h/ hot, hair, whole, whose /j/ yes, Europe, university
/f/ food, laugh, telephone
/tʃ/ chair, match, future /w/ window, twin, quick, why
/v/ vain, over, Stephen
And 20 vowels – 12 monophthongs and 8 diphthongs
12 Monophthongs
/ʌ/ cut, come, mother /ɒ/ clock, what, because
/ɑː/ car, art, heart, half /ɔː/ or, board, door, small
/e/ bed, head, bury, exit /ʊ/ look, put, could, cushion
/æ/ cat, bag, apple, black /uː/ too, blue, fruit, fool
/ɪ/ pin, English, business /ə/ the, a, woman, banana
/ɪː/ sea, bee, people, receive /ɜː/ girl, burn, word, heard

8 Diphthongs
/ɑɪ/ five, sigh, height, buy /ɪə/ here, deer, dear, fierce
/eɪ/ take, pay, wait, ballet /ʊə/ poor, sure, tour
/ɔɪ/ noise, boy, lawyer /ɑʊ/ round, proud, doubt
/eə/ care, air, mayor, prayer /əʊ/ no, road, sew, broken

Activity 4
Fill in the blanks:
The English sound system includes _____sounds. According to the type of articulation they are divided into
_____ _________ ________________ _____ _____A consonant is _____________________________________
________________ A vowel is____________________________ _____________________________________ A
grapheme is___________________________ Orthographic dictation is _________________________________
___________________________________ Phonemic dictation is ____________________________________
In English there are ____ consonants and ____ monophthongs and____diphthongs.