Chapter 3

Phonetics

Phonetics: Describing Sounds

Key concepts
Phonemes are the distinctive sounds in a language. There are 40 distinctive phonemes in English language. A vowel sound is produced in such a way that the air stream can pass through the vocal tract without a noticeable obstruction. A consonant sound has some degree of air restriction.
DENHAM, Kristin. Linguistics for Everyone: An Introduction. Wadsworth: Wadsworth Cegage Congress. 2010

 There are 24 consonants. /p/ and /b/ are distinctive sounds, we hear the difference between them and we know that the words bit and pit have different meanings. Minimal pairs two words that differ by only a single phoneme in the same position. Bit x pit

Phonemic transcription There is always correspondence between sounds and symbols. We describe each consonant in terms of each of the following: Voicing Place of articulation manner of articulation

 Voicing controlling the vibrations of the

vocal cords as air passes through to make speech sounds.

Place of articulation the places in the

oral cavity where airflow is modified to make speech sounds.

Manner of articulation the way we move

and position our lips, tongue, and teeth to make speech sounds.

Voicing: Voiceless = air flow freely without vibrating vocal cords Voiced = air flow vibrating the vocal cords. All vowels are voiced.

Place of articulation
1- Bilabial sounds made with both lips /p/ pink /b/ ball /m/ make /w/ wash / / which (for some speakers)
/w/ and / / are sometimes classified as velar or labiovelar because the back of the tongue is raised toward the velum during production of the consonants. / / - Dissapearing sound.

2- Labiodental sounds made with the lower lip against the upper front teeth. /t/ fast /v/ valley 3-Interdental sounds made with the tongue between the front teeth. // thick // though

4- Alveolar sounds made with the tongue tip at or near the alveolar ridge. /t/ teeth /d/ dog /s/ sea /z/ zenith (peak) /n/ nut /l/ leer (malicious eyes) /r/ red, bar

5- Palatal sounds made with the tongue near your palate, the hard part of the roof of the mouth.

// // // // /y/

or / / shell or / / genre, measure or /t/ cheers or /d/ jam or /j/ yellow

6- Velar sounds made with the tongue near the velum, the soft part of the roof of your mouth, behind the palate. /k/ kiss /g/ gear // sing 7- Glottal sounds made at the glottis. /h/ happy */h/ is sometimes classified as a glottal fricative

Manner of articulation
1-Stops the sounds in this group are made by obstructing the airstream completely in the coral cavity.
/p/ /b/ /t/ /d/ /k/ /g/ pink ball teeth dog kiss gear

2- Fricatives the sounds in this group are made by forming a nearly complete stoppage of the airstream. /f/ fast /v/ valley // thick // though /s/ sea /z/ zenith // / / shell // / / genre, measure

3- Affricates the sounds are made by briefly stopping the airstream completely and then releasing the articulators slightly so the friction is produced. // /t/ cheers // /d/ jam
4- Nasal the sounds are made by lowering the velum and letting the airstream pass primarily through the nasal cavity. /m/ make /n/ nut, bun // sing

5- Glides the sound are made with oly a slight closure of the articulators if the vocal tract were any more open, the result would be a vowel. /y/ yellow /w/ wash / / which /h/ happy 6- Liquids the sounds result when na obstruction is formed by the articulators but is not narrow enough to stop the airflow or to cause friction. /l/ leer /r/ red

Forgotten clusters
kn= /n/ Knee knight

knock

knife knit knot

gn= /n/ Gnash gnarl gnome gnaw gnat

mb= /m/ Dumb climb

comb

Diphthongs
The most common in American English /ay/ or /a/ - sky /aw/ or /a/ - cow /oy/ or /o/ - foil /iy/ - beat (dialect not /bit/ but diphthong) /uw/ - boot (dialect not /but/ but diphthong) /ey/ or /e/- bait /ow/ or /o/ - boat

Standard English diphthongs

RP(British) low loud lout lied light lane loin loon lean leer lair lure ] [ Australian ] [ American GA Canadian ] [o ] [a ] [ ] [a ] [ ] [e ] [ ] [u [i ] ] [ ] [ ] [

] [a ] [a
] [e ] [ [u:] [i:] ] [ ] [ ] [

] [ ] [e
] [ ] [o [:] [i ] ] [ [e:] ] [

] [a

 / and /a / called 1 - Canadian English exhibits allophony of /a Canadian raising. GA and RP have raising to a lesser extent /. General American (GA), also known as Standard in /a American English (SAE), is a major accent of American English
2 - The erstwhile monophthongs /i:/ and /u:/ are diphthongized in many dialects. In many cases they might be better transcribed ] and [ii ], where the non-syllabic element is understood as [uu to be closer than the syllabic element. They are sometimes transcribed /uw/ and /ij/ or ~/iy/. 3- In rhotice dialects, words like pair, poor, and peer can be analyzed as diphthongs, although other descriptions analyze them as vowels with [] in the coda. 4- In Received Pronunciation, the vowels in lair and lure may be monophthongized to [:] and [o:] respectively (Roach (2004:240)). Australian English speakers more readily monophthongize the former.

Syllabic consonants /r / e /n / runner /rnr / ribbon /ribn / /r, l, m, n/ ou / r , l, m ,n / sugar /gr/ or /gr / bird /brd/ or / br d/ button /btn/ or /btn /

Vowel distinctions: Length /:/

In English they are not distinctive. There is no change in meaning.
Finnish: [muta] mud [mu:ta] some other [mut:a] but [tapan] I kill [tapa:n] I meet [tule] come! [tule:] comes [tu:le:] is windy

Japanese:
[to:kai] collapse [tokai] city [kokaku] a customer [ko:kaku] wide angle [ko:to:] oral, verbal [koto:] na isolated island [kotto] antique

English ( long consonants = geminate) /bknd/ /bkkes/ /ksspt/ bookend (long k) bookcase except (long s , two ss)

Tone Chinese: [ma] mother - high level tone [ma] hemp - high rising tone [ma] horse - low failing rising tone [ma] scold - high failing tone

Nupe language Nigeria: ab place aba penis eb husband ed kind of fish d Niger river du kind of yam edu thigh ed deer

Nasalization French: lot /lo/ prize longue /l/ long

Navarro: a e (hook in the a indicates nasalization in Navajo) a e - tone

Vowel Shifts: The Great Vowel Shift

It began in Chaucers time (the Fourteen Century) and continued through the time of Shakespeare (the early Seventeenth Century) .

The Great Vowel shift

Front High [fi:f] [fayf] five i: Central Back u: [hu:s] haws] house

Mid

[swe:t] [swit] sweet [d:g] [de] day

e:
: ay aw

o: :
a:

[fo:d] [fu:d] food [st:n] [ston] stone

[na:me] [nem] name

Low

 Northern Cities Chain Shift Chicago, Detroit, Rochester, Cleveland, Buffalo

/ie/ idea /I/ kid

// Ked

// cud

/ / cawed

// cad

/a/ or // cod

 The southern vowell shift

4
/iy/ keye d // kid /ey/ mad e

5 3 6 2
/ / ked
// cad

/uw/ cooed

7
/ow/ code

4
4

/ r/ cord

8
/ar/ card /ay/ hide

Phonemes and allophones

A pat pickle Peter B spell special spare

/p/ - phoneme
[p [p] - allophones

/p/ becomes aspirated when it occurs at the beginning of a stresses syllable. Otherwise, it is unaspirated.