Dr.

Haroun Melgani

STARTING PHONETICS: CLEARING THE GROUNDS

Lesson 1: Writing, spelling and pronunciation

INSTRUCTIONAL OBJECTIVES

After studying this course, students will be able to:

 Identify the differences and similarities between the ancient and modern writing systems;
 Identify the connection between writing and sound articulation;
 Identify the three basic types of letters-sound correspondence

All world’s languages have their distinctive writing systems. The Chinese writing system used in China,
commonly labeled as Hànzì, is different from the Abugida writing system used in India and other world scripts.
Knight (2012) notes that some of these earliest writing systems were essentially based on pictures (Logogram
or pictogram) and symbols that represent specific objects in reality. Many traditional alphabetic systems, such
as Aztec writing system and Aramaic writing system, had been adopted by people in ancient civilizations. Yet,
the earliest logographic systems cannot fully represent all the events, objects and concepts used in the modern
era and most of them became obsolete and outdated. Conversely, other earliest writing systems have long been
continuously modified and developed to represent the sounds of the modern languages and language varieties,
such as The Chinese writing system (Knight (2012).

Sounds and letters Correspondence:

The mapping of sounds-to-letters admits of varying degrees from one language into another. Italian
language is an epitome of one-sound-one-letter correspondence, that is, the perfectly match between the word
and the letter. By way of example, the three letters of the Italian word rosa, meaning a rose, match perfectly
with three sounds of the same word. In stark contrast with the Italian language, English language does not display
a full sounds-latters match. Ogden (2009) notes that the English writing system is based on “a system where a
set of twenty-six symbols is used to represent the forty-five or so sounds” (p. 3). This explains why non-native
speakers of English find difficulties in learning the spelling forms of many English words, such as thoroughly
and queue! Because English, Knight (2012) adds, “has been influenced by many other languages throughout its
history, and because all languages change over time” (p. 4), spelling form and phonetic form are separated in
several words.

Types of sounds-letters match:

In essence, there are four categories of sounds-letters match. The first category refers to a single sound that
is represented by more than one letter. For instance, the sound / z / is marked by the letter < s > in words like
disease and cease, but is spelt as < z > in the words utilize and criticize. Conversely, one letter in the English
language can be pronounced differently in different English words. For instance, the letter < g > is realized with
the post-alveolar sound /ʒ / in the word pleasure and with the post-alveolar /dʒ / in the word large. Another

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category wherein sounds do not correspond with letters can be found in words with silent letters, such as debt
and know. Similarly, while native English speakers do not articulate the letters < h > and < g > in the word night,
they do pronounce the same letters in other words like gate and humid! There are, also, English words with
double letters that correspond to one single sound, such as butter and hissing. Homographs and homophones
represent further cases of mismatch between sounds and letters in the English language. The former refers to
those words which have the same spelling form, but pronounced differently, such as May, meaning the fifth
month, and may. The latter, conversely, refers to the words which have the same phonetic realization but are
spelt differently (Crystal, 2008). For example, the words eight and ate are homophones.

Lesson 2: What is Phonetics?

INSTRUCTIONAL OBJECTIVES

After studying this course, students will be able to:

 Understand the locus of Phonetics

 Understand the role of phonetics in the advancement of other scientific fields and areas of research

Introduction:

The previous course considered the complex way in which spoken discourse and written discourse are
inextricably connected. However, linguists from all strands of thought concur that speech is primary and writing
is secondary. Infants learn how to speak their mother tongue before they start learning how to write through
schooling. The long arc of humankind history reveals that speaking was a primary medium of expression in
almost all the ancient civilizations. In many of these earliest cultures, singing, chanting and other forms of oral
culture had earned honor-roll status as the main symbolic sources of cultural identity and communication among
people. In brief, speaking lies at the heart of all human interactions.

Definition of Phonetics:

As of early 1900s, earliest linguists have long been interested in examining how speech sounds are made
in many world languages and language varieties. The scientific discipline, which addresses speech articulation,
is commonly termed Phonetics, and the specialists working within this linguistic field are called Phoneticians.
Linguists posit different definitions for the concept of Phonetics. George Yule (2020), for instance, defines
Phonetics as “the general study of the characteristics of speech sounds” (p. 29). A more complex definition is
provided by the linguist David Crystal (2008), who notes that phonetics is “the science which studies the
characteristics of human sound making, especially those sounds used in speech, and provides methods for their
description, classification and transcription” (p. 363). Said plainly, phoneticians employ scientific methods and
statistical tools to study the ways in which: 1) world speech sounds, both consonants and vowels, are produced
by speakers, transmitted in the form of sound waves and perceived by listeners, 2) the different types of sounds,
3) the main categories of speech sounds, 4) and their phonetic transcriptions. O’Grady and Archibald (2015)
point out that there are roughly 600 consonants and 200 vowels used in all world languages. Some of these

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sounds are common among all world languages, such as / s / and / b /, whereas other sounds are language-
exclusive. By way of example, the sound / x / can be found in Arabic and Spanish but not in English and French.
Furthermore, phoneticians approach speech sounds from three distinct, yet interrelated, perspectives, namely:
Articulatory Phonetics, Acoustic Phonetics and Auditory Phonetics (see course 3).

PHONETICS AND PHONOLOGY

Lesson 3: Branches of Phonetics

INSTRUCTIONAL OBJECTIVES

After studying this course, students will be able to:

 Understand the three main branches of phonetics

 Understand the main objectives and characteristics of each subfield

Introduction:

We covered a great deal about what is phonetics, its characterization and goals. We learned that phoneticians
seek to examine, scientifically, the ways in which human beings produce various speech sounds in isolated
words and connected speech. Phoneticians, also, concur that there are three ways to think about phonetics,
namely Articulatory Phonetics, Acoustic Phonetics and Auditory Phonetics. These three branches represent
the fundamental pillars in the field of Phonetics.

Articulatory Phonetics:

Articulatory Phonetics, the most widely studied subfield in phonetics, sheds light on speech production, or
articulation. Any phonetician or a student of phonetics specialized in this branch seeks to understand the
complex mechanisms involved in the production of consonants and vowels, contact between speech articulators
and airflow, all of which play a major role in producing speech sounds. The questions: How are speech sounds
made? and Which speech organs are involved in speech articulation? are usually investigated by any researcher
working within the articulatory phonetics realm. Articulatory Phonetics, it must be noted, is considered as the
backbone of the other main subfields of phonetics-Acoustic Phonetics and Auditory Phonetics.

Acoustic Phonetics:

Researchers working within Phonetics realm are concerned, not only with how speakers produce speech
sounds, but also how those speech sounds and voices move from the speaker to the hearer in the form of sound
waves. This Phonetics subfield is commonly called Acoustic Phonetics or Physics of speech and it essentially
addresses “the physical properties of speech sound, as transmitted between mouth and ear” (Crystal, 2008, p. 7).
Ashby (2011) points out that researchers tend to measure the sound waves, or the disturbances in the air, by
means of many softwares and applications, such as PRAAT, Audacity and WASP.

Auditory Phonetics:

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In stark contrast with Articulatory Phonetics, Auditory Phonetics (or Speech Perception) examines
how listeners receive and perceive speech sounds (Ashby, 2011). Said plainly, researchers seek to understand
how a single speech sound, be it a vowel or a consonant, is perceived by the listener, and transmitted from the
outer ear, through the middle and inner ears to the brain in the form of electric impulses. Phoneticians use several
ear trainings and technological programs to understand how we hear voices, on the one hand, and to have a clear
image about how the brain understands the meanings of such speech segments and discriminates between
various types of sounds, on the other. By the same token, sociolinguists working within Speech Perception field
(Campbell-Kibler, 2008) tend to use the same programs and online open sources to gauge the segmental
segments and supra-segmental features uttered by speakers of various regional, ethnic and social origins.

Lesson 4: Vowels vs. Consonants

INSTRUCTIONAL OBJECTIVES

After studying this course, students will be able to:

 Demystify the concepts of vowels and consonants

 Identify the main differences and similarities between vowels and consonants

Native speakers tend to talk of and comment on highly marked consonants and vowels in day-to-day-
interactions. They usually talk of ‘weird’ vowels, ‘prestigious’ consonants and even ‘funny’ consonants typically
associated with certain dialects and accents. Using his/her phonetic ear, for instance, any native English speaker
can easily tell you that the words win and fan have three sounds. Things become more complicated, however, if
the same speaker is asked to hazard a guess about the number of consonants and vowels in words like xenophobia
and onomatopoeic. From phonetic and phonological standpoints, phoneticians study the differences between
vowels and consonants in terms of degree of stricture, vowel quality, position in the syllable and significance.

Vowels refer to speech sounds made without any contact between speech organs. All vowels are voiced
sounds whose articulation involves no obstruction or blockage to the airflow that may escape through the oral
cavity. Consonants, in contrast, are “sounds made with a lot of constriction in the mouth, so that the air coming
up from the lungs gets squashed” (Knight, 2012, p. 9). Some consonants are typically voiced, such the first and
last sounds of the word red, whereas other consonants are voiceless, such as the middle sound of the word better.
When you produce the vowel / e /, you can feel that your tongue raises against the roof of your mouth, but not
close enough to build a complete closure. Conversely, when you utter the sound / m /, both upper lips and lower
lips form a complete closure such that the air does not pass through the mouth. In stark contrast with vowels
production, the articulation of consonants admits of varying degrees of stricture. By way of example, the sounds
/ s / and /f / involve less obstruction to the airflow than the sounds / g / and / k /. Similarly, there are several
points of reference for describing vowels, ranging from vowel quality (monophthongs vs. diphthongs vs.
triphthongs), tongue shape and position to lips shape. As for consonants possibilities, it is possible to distinguish
between consonants with regard to their manner of articular, place of articulation and force of articulation

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Vowels and consonants differ in terms of their positions in the word. Generally speaking, vowels tend to
occur in the middle of words-e.g., late, what- or in isolation as in the words eye and the pronoun I. In contrast,
consonants usually occur in the initial position and/or final position of the words, such as in wood and eight
(Knight, 2012). With this difference in mind, it is, also, worth noting that vowels tend to be more important than
consonants in the word. Consider how dropping off consonants and vowels affects the meaning of the word cart.
If, for instance, you drop off the consonants / k / or / t /, the word would remain meaningful (art / ɑːrt /, car /
kɑːr / ). If you omit all the consonants, the word would still be meaningful (the British pronunciation of the
word are is / ɑː / ). However, if you drop off the long vowel /ɑː/ only, the word would be meaningless / krt /*.
Therefore, vowels tend to be, comparatively, more significant than consonants in English words structures.

Lesson 5: Phonetic Transcription (IPA chart)

INSTRUCTIONAL OBJECTIVES

After studying this course, students will be able to:

 Understand how speech sounds are represented in the International Phonetic Alphabet Chart (IPA)
 Learn how to transcribe consonants and vowels

Sounds Transcription: An overview

Since 1888, phoneticians and linguists have been working on designing a global set of symbols that
attempts to represent the sounds spoken in many world languages (Yule, 2020). The International Phonetic
Alphabet Chart (IPA) is the most well-known system of sounds transcription. It consists of many symbols that
describe the pronunciation of consonants and vowels as accurately as possible. By way of example, Table 1
below illustrates the consonants associated with what is commonly labeled Standard English, a type of English
that is mostly used in political conferences, broadcasting (BBC and CNN), academic books and research papers.

Table 1

Phonetic Symbols of English Consonants

Symbol Example Symbol Example

/θ/ thing /ð/ this
/f/ Fate /v/ vast
/p/ Pin /b/ blame
/s/ Seat /z/ Zip
/ʃ/ shrink /ʒ/ pleasure
/t/ Tall /d/ drink
/k/ Kit /ɡ/ gate
/h/ huge /m/ maze
/tʃ/ church /n/ nine
/j/ Yes / dʒ / judge
/r/ Ring /ŋ/ Zink
/w/ Wave /l/ late

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The symbols listed above are part of the International Phonetic Alphabet system (IPA). Certain sounds,
such as /g/ and /n/ are pretty familiar to all students, while others like /ð/ and /ʃ/ seem to be unfamiliar. You can
see that the symbol /z/ is used to transcribe the underlined letters in the words Zinc and disease. This simply
means that there is no one-to-one match between the uttered sounds (spoken form) and arthrography (written
form). You can also notice that there are two phonetic symbols that consist of two symbols, mainly / dʒ / and /
tʃ /. These two symbols describe complex sounds in the English language. For instance, / dʒ / and /tʃ/ represent
the initial combined sounds of the words judgment and cheating, respectively. Similar to consonants, there are
also symbols for all the vowels spoken in English. So, for instance, we write the symbol / e / to describe the
middle sound of the words men and ten, and use the vowel / i: / to describe the final sound of the word bee.
Some phonetic symbols were conventionally created to represent more complex sounds, commonly termed
Diphthongs and Triphthongs. So, the symbol / ɔɪ / can be found in words like boy and toy, and the symbol /
aɪə / is commonly used in words like fire and liar.

On Phonemic Transcription and Phonetic Transcription:

In the previous section, we covered a great deal of ground. We overviewed the standard transcription of
English sounds and discussed some relationships and examples. In phonetics realm, such standard system of
transcribing sounds is commonly called Phonemic Transcription. It is, equally, labeled as Broad
Transcription because it tells us about how each sound is pronounced, but does not contain any further detailed
phonetic data. Said differently, while the aforementioned symbols-e.g., /m/, /n/, /k/- can accurately represent
the spoken forms of English, they do not provide us with more information about the exact pronunciation of
each consonant in different contexts. By way of example, although it is easy to recognize the way in which the
symbol / p / corresponds with the letter < p >, it does not include any details about its different realizations in
isolated words and connected speech. Using your phonetic ear, you can easily realize that, phonetically, the letter
< p > is produced with a puff of air if it is placed at the beginning of the word, but it is produced without a
release of air if it is placed at the end of the word. Therefore, Phoneticians have introduced another type of
transcription, called Phonetic Transcription or Allophonic Transcription, to account for, not only the major
phonetic data, but also every minor change in the pronunciation of the sound. More details about these types of
transcription can be found in the course ‘Broad Transcription vs. Narrow Transcription’.

Lesson 6: Phonetics vs. Phonology

“Phonetics gathers the raw material, phonology cooks it.”

Kenneth Pike, 1947

INSTRUCTIONAL OBJECTIVES

After studying this course, students will be able to:

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 Understand the concepts of phonetics and phonology

 Identify the relationship between phonetics and phonology
 Learn some basic phonetic patterns and rules that govern the occurrence of some specific sound realizations in
English.

Introduction:

Each individual speaker pronounces one speech sound in different ways and in different words and
situations. By way of example, a native speaker of English may pronounce the sound / k / with a puff of air in
words like kit and cake. In words like stuck and duck, however, the same speaker would pronounce the sound /
k / without a release of airflow. Such difference and many other cases are not arbitrary, as many non-linguists
believe, but rule-governed and constrained by internal factors. Whenever the sound / k / occurs at the beginning
of the word and is followed by a vowel, it is produced with a puff of air (aspirated). The same sound is said to
be unaspirated if it occurs at the end of the word. The same rule can be applied to other sounds, like / p / and /
t /, to name but a few. In fact, the distinction between how a sound is made and how it is pronounced in specific
phonetic contexts corresponds significantly with the relationship between Phonetics and Phonology. The
former is essentially concerned with the various ways in which human beings utter speech sounds and how the
three systems, respiratory, phonatory and articulatory, operate to produce voices and sounds. Conversely, the
latter, Yule (2020) notes, “is about the underlying design, the blueprint of each sound type, which may vary in
different physical contexts” (p. 45).

The epigraph stated above (Pike, 1947) nicely echoes the relationship between the two fields. While it is
possible for every student to learn phonetics as an independent field along with its basics, it is quite impossible
for him/her to understand phonology without having a solid background knowledge in phonetics. Phonetics
inputs to the field of phonology which needs a lot of phonetic information to account for all the potential sound
patterns and their surrounding contexts. In brief, phonology is dependent on phonetics. A specialist in phonetics
would ask: how do we produce sounds? whilst a phonologist would ask: which phonological factors influence
the pronunciation of a single sound in different sound contexts.

SPEECH MECHANISMS

Lesson 7: Anatomy, Physiology and Speech Mechanisms

INSTRUCTIONAL OBJECTIVES

After studying this course, students will be able to:

 Understand the basics of speech mechanisms

 Learn the three processes involved in speech productions, namely respiration, phonation and articulation
 Understand the airstream types involved in speech production
 Learn about the speech organs that play a major role in the articulation of sounds

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Introduction:

That speech production is one of the most complex physiological processes in the human body is crystal
clear. A quick glance over the anatomy of speech reveals that the functions of some organs are manifold. By
way of example, the teeth and tongue are intended for articulating sounds, on the one hand, and for chewing up
and pushing food inwardly to the stomach, on the other. The lungs, by the same token, take part not only in
speech production, but also in normal breathing. The larynx has protective and phonatory functions. In brief,
organs play two basic roles-biological and in speech production. Since this course is mainly concerned with the
phonetic side, we set the task to discuss the second function, speech, and foreground the anatomy and physiology
of speech production. It is worth noting that the speech production involves three basic processes called
Respiratory System, Phonatory System and Articulatory System.

Figure 1. Basic Processes of Speech Production. From Practical Phonetics and Phonology (p. 30), by
Collins, B. & Mees., I. M. (2003). London: Routledge.

Respiratory System:

The respiratory system is located in the chest. It is usually noted that lungs’ main biological function is
respiration, that is, breathing in and breathing out. However, the lungs, also, play a significant function in speech
production. In fact, it is almost impossible to utter one single sound without the inhalation and exhalation of the
airstream. The type of the airstream pushed out from your lungs is termed Egressive Pulmonic airstream (see
Figure 2 below).

Figure 2. Egressive Pulmonic Airstream. From Airstream Mechanisms and Phonation Types.

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The word Egressive means outward and Pulmonic is a Latin word and it refers to the lung. Egressive
Pulmonic airstream is almost the opposite of the so called Ingressive Pulmonic airstream, which involves
pushing the airstream inwardly, that is, towards the lungs (Collins & Mees, 2013). Although this type of
airstream does not take part in the production of English sounds and many other world languages, it is usually
used, intentionally and unintentionally, in some situations, such as when you sob or continuously count numbers.
It also occurs when you express surprise such as when you unintentionally push the air inwardly as you hear
surprising news or suddenly notice something scary or unusual.

Phonatory System:

Figure 3. The Larynx. From (https://teachmeanatomy.info/neck/viscera/larynx/organ/)

The Phonatory system is located in the throat. It is represented by the larynx (commonly called Adam’s
Apple), a voice-box device that produces different voices by modifying the shapes and tension of the vocal
cords. The abduction and adduction processes, caused by the space between the vocal cords, are accompanied
by the movement of the Egressive Pulmonic air stream inside the larynx. The airstream, then, moves through
the pharynx and takes two directions, commonly known as The Oral Cavity (mouth) and Nasal Cavity ( nose)

Articulatory System:

The normal way for any speech sound, be it a vowel or a consonant, to be produced is for speech organs
to be combined and stricture be modified in different ways. The Articulatory system is located in the head and
is usually termed the Supra-Glottal Vocal Tract by some phoneticians (Collins & Mees, 2013). Its anatomy
consists of a set of speech organs located above the throat. The speech organs, which are movable, are labeled
Active articulators, whilst those which are fixed are termed Passive Articulators.

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Figure 4. The Articulatory System. From The Study of Language (p. 30) .by Yule, G. (2020). Cambridge:
Cambridge University Press.

A closer look at the vocal apparatus in figure 4, it appears that many organs interact with each other to
produce meaningful speech sounds. For instance, in producing the consonant /m/ and /b/, one can easily notice
the lower lip, fixed in the lower jaw, moving upwardly to form a firm closure with the upper lip. After the two
lips are tightly hold together for a few milliseconds, they move apart from each other. The obstruction is, then,
followed by a quick release of the airstream outside the mouth. The production of the semi-vowel /w/ involves
a narrowness of the speech organs at two levels, mainly the lips and between the velum and the back part of the
tongue.

PHONATION

Lesson 8: Phonatory System

INSTRUCTIONAL OBJECTIVES

After studying this course, students will be able to:

 Understand the basic mechanisms of the Phonatory system

 Identify the structure of the larynx and its essential functions

Introduction:

Phoneticians concur that speech vocal sounds are made by modifying the airflow at various points and in
various ways in the whole articulatory system (Carr, 2013). One of those points is the Larynx, or the voice box,
as it usually called by laypeople. This course considers the meaning of Phonatory system and casts light over
the anatomy of the larynx and its basic functions (see Figure 5 below)

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Figure 5. The Larynx and Vocal Cords (Anatomy). From https://www.informedhealth.org/how-does-the-

larynx-work.html

Phonation and the Anatomy of the Larynx:

Crystal (2008) notes that Phonation refers to the vocal activities produced by the modification of the
airstream in the larynx. By vocal activities, he means the set of voices (e.g., breathy voice) and audible sounds
caused by the low and high vibrations inside the larynx. Yet, that the larynx is one of the most significant organs
involved in speech production is crystal clear. It is a box-like structure made of cartilages and is located in the
interior side of your neck. Commonly labeled as Adam’s Apple, the larynx is, comparatively, more visible in the
case of adult men than most women. Figure 6 below represents a simplified picture of the larynx and some of
its basic aspects. The Epiglottis is a fleshy flap, whose main job is to close off the entrance to the trachea and
to prevent the food from moving to the lungs (Collins & Mees, 2013). The food, then, moves to the stomach
through the so called Oesphagus.

Figure 6. A simplified Model of the Larynx. From Practical Phonetics and Phonology (p. 32), Collins, B.
& Mees., I. M.( 2003). London: Routledge.

The cross-section model above displays two pear-shaped cartilages called the Arytenoid Cartilages.
These two cartilages are attached to muscles from one side and to the Vocal Folds (or Vocal Cords) from
another side. The latters are two fleshy tissues that vibrate on varying degrees to produce voices. Compared to

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females, Males’ vocal cords are comparatively thick. This explains the tough and heavy voice produced by men,
as opposed to women whose voices sound soft. The space (in black color) that you see between the cords in the
figure 6 is called the Glottis. When the vocal cords move apart, the airflow can pass from your lungs through
the same space to the trachea and then escapes through your mouth. In a nut shell, the larynx’s functions are
twofold. First, it has a Protective function, whereby the Epiglottis acts as a valve that opens up and closes off
to protect your lungs from any substance or object. Second, it has a Phonatory function in that it modifies the
airflow in various ways to produce voices, such as creaky voice and breathy voice.

Lesson 9: Larynx and Voicing

INSTRUCTIONAL OBJECTIVES

After studying this course, students will be able to:

 The different voices made at the level of the larynx

 The basic characteristics of each voice produced by the vocal folds

Introduction:

In the previous course, we covered a great deal of information about the anatomy and functions of the
larynx. We pointed out that the larynx has two main roles, mainly protective and Phonatory, and foregrounded
some of the most significant aspects of the larynx’s structure, such as the vocal folds and Epiglottis. When the
vocal folds abduct (open) and adduct (close), they cause the larynx to produce an infinite number and diverse
types of voices. Said plainly, the vibrations made by the movements of the vocal cords admit of varying
possibilities of voice types and registers of voices. This present course will cast light over some of these voices
and foregrounds their basic mechanisms.

Voiceless (No voice):

In Producing no voice, the vocal folds are moved apart, vibrating at an extremely low frequency. The
abduction of the cords leads the pulmonic airstream to escape through the mouth freely.

Normal Voice:

As the pulmonic airstream passes through the larynx, the Arytenoids pull the vocal folds tightly, causing
them to vibrate at a very high speed similar to the hummingbird’s wings beats. Collins and Mees (2013) assert
that vibrations’ frequency of normal voice crisscrosses with sex, noting that the changing vibration “occurs on
average 130 times a second for male voices, and 230 times per second for females” (p. 32). This explains why
the voice made by males sounds deep and heavy, as opposed to the sharp and soft voices made by their female
counterparts. Figure 6 below elucidates the models of the Voiceless voice (left model) and Normal voice (right
model).

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Figure 7. Models of Voiceless Sound and Normal Voice. From Practical Phonetics and Phonology (pp. 32-
33), Collins, B. & Mees., I. M.( 2003). London: Routledge.

Creaky Voice:

Ashby (2011) notes that when producing a creaky voice, “the vibratory cycles tend
to be irregularly spaced in creaky as opposed to regular in normal voice and that the
frequency is always very low” (p. 24). That is, the production of creaky voice involves a sequence of vibrations
with varying frequencies. In some English speaking communities, this type of voice is highly remarkable in the
speech style of women and is commonly called Vocal Fry (more information about Vocal Fry can be found in
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4L7-9N1xQZA). In the USA, the latter is emblematic of prestige and
belongingness to higher social classes. It is, also, worth noting that some highly educated speakers in Algeria
and France choose to, intentionally, adopt this phonation type to index stances, such as ‘educated’ and ‘elitism’.

Figure 8. Creaky Voice. From Practical Phonetics and Phonology (p. 35), Collins, B. & Mees., I. M.( 2003).
London: Routledge.

Breathy Voice:

The production of Breathy voice involves a complete closure of the glottis. However, a small gap is
maintained between the Arytenoid, enabling the pulmonic airstream to continuously pass through, as shown in
Figure 9. Anyone can produce this phonatory voice in specific situations, especially those in which he/she feels
extremely afraid, swims in a swimming pool or holds heavy objects.

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Figure 9. Breathy Voice. From Practical Phonetics and Phonology (p. 36), Collins, B. & Mees., I. M.(
2003). London: Routledge.

Other Phonatory Voices:

In essence, the aforementioned voice types represent some of the most widely known voices to laypeople.
However, it must be noted, people tend to produce other voices in different situations and cultures. By way of
example, Falsetto, characteristically a very keen and sharp voice, is mostly made by Opera signers. In addition,
many people tend to use a very low voice for various purposes, such as gossiping and disclosing secrets. This
voice type is called Whisper and it involves holding both vocal cords together with no vibrations (Collins &
Mees, 2013).

Lesson 10: Speech Production and Airflow

INSTRUCTIONAL OBJECTIVES

After studying this course, students will be able to:

 Understand the essential processes involved in the movement of the airflow

 Identify the main types of the airflow

Introduction:

The voice coming out of the larynx passes through the Pharynx into two airflow directions. Depending on
the position of the Velum, the air escapes either through the mouth or through the nose.

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Figure 10. Nasal, Oral and Pharyngeal Cavities. From Practical Phonetics and Phonology (p. 38), Collins,
B. & Mees., I. M.( 2003). London: Routledge.

Oral Airflow:

When the velum (or soft palate) is raised, the passageway to the nose is blocked. This would cause the
airstream to escape through mouth. The production of all vowels and most English consonants is accompanied
by a flow of the airstream through a channel to the mouth called Oral Cvity (see Figure 10). Notice when you
utter the sound / w / in words like wave and wait. You can easily feel that the air goes out freely through your
mouth.

Nasal Airflow:

In start contrast with the Oral Airflow, Nasal Airflow refers to the channel though which the air escapes
through the nose (Ogden, 2009). Phonetically, the velum is lowered, closing off the channel leading up to the
mouth, causing the air to go out of the vocal tract through the nose. Unlike the sounds produced with the Oral
airflow, there are only three consonants that involve the escape of the airflow through nose, namely /m/, /n/ and
/ŋ/. The channel though which the air goes out of the nose is called Nasal Cavity.

On Central and Lateral Airflow:

When the Oral airflow escapes through the mouth, it goes down through various passageways in the oral
Cavity. The Phonetician Richard Ogden (2009) points out that it is possible to talk of two passageways in the
Oral Cavity, namely the Central Airflow and Lateral Airflow. The former involves the movement of the
airflow through the central part of your tongue. Ogden (2009) adds that when you utter the sound / s / and then
quickly suck the air in, you can easily feel that the air flows on the central part of your tongue. The same is well
attested with the sounds /r/ and /w/. Conversely, the airflow is said to be Lateral (Airflow Lateral) when the
air escapes through both sides of your tongue. When you pronounce the sound /l/ and then suck the air in, you
can easily notice the air flowing down through both sides of the tongue.

MONOPHTHONGS, DIPHTHONGS AND TRIPHTHONG

Course 11: Short Vowels and Long Vowels

INSTRUCTIONAL OBJECTIVES:

After studying this course, students will be able to:

 Understand the locus of Vowel and its basic characteristics

 Understand the meaning of monophthongs
 Identify the differences and similarities between short vowels and long vowels

What is meant by a vowel?

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Ogden (2009) points out that “Vowels are syllabic sounds made with free passage of air down the mid-line
of the vocal tract, usually with a convex tongue shape, and without friction. They are normally voiced; and they
are normally oral” (p. 56). As noted in previous courses, vowels articulation, contrary to consonants production,
involves neither an obstruction of the airflow nor contact between the articulators. Similarly, vowels are, by their
very nature, voiced sounds and their articulations admit of varying types of tongue shape and height and lip
roundedness. In essence, English vowels can be classified into monophthongs (or pure vowels), diphthongs and
triphthongs.

Monophthongs (Short Vowels and Long Vowel):

BBC pronunciation and General American English have seven short vowels and five long vowels. The
former vowels are typically short in length and highly frequent in daily speech. The vowel /ə /, called Schwa, is
the shortest vowel in the English phonetic inventory system. Because it is the shortest vowel in English, it is
almost difficult for non-linguists to hazard a guess about whether a specific word contains a Schwa or not-e.g.,
lower. Although there is no general pattern for the occurrence of the vowel / ə /, it is, however, highly pronounced
in words which end with er, such as baker, darker and daughter and, also, in the first syllable of many words
like around and above. Examples of the vowel / ʌ /, also called Wedge, are the words cut and but. Examples of
the vowels / æ /, / ɒ / and / ʊ / are the words fat, dot and good, respectively, whereas the vowels / ɪ / and / e / are
used in words like bit and men. In contrast with short vowels, long vowels, also called Steady-state vowels
(Collins & Mees, 2013), are almost double in length than short vowels. It is worth noting that all short vowels
have long versions, except for / æ / and / e /, as shown in Table 2 below. We usually add the length marker : in
front of each symbol to indicate that the monophthong is long. Therefore, the long versions of the short vowels
/ ɪ / and / ɒ / are / iː / and / ɔː /, respectively.

Table 2

English Monophthongs

Short Vowels Example Long Vowels Example

/ʌ/ but / ɑː / car
/ʊ / foot / uː / moody
/ɪ/ kit / iː / seat
/e/ hen / /
/æ/ rat / /
/ɒ/ knot / ɔː / thought
/ə/ around / ɜ: / curtain

Lesson 12: Diphthongs

INSTRUCTIONAL OBJECTIVES:

After studying this course, students will be able to:

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 Understand the locus of Diphthong and Gliding movement

 Identify the essential characteristics of Diphthongs
 Identify the main categories of Diphthongs

Diphthongs are more complex than monophthongs. While short vowels and long vowels consist of one
sound, diphthongs consist of two combined sounds. In producing diphthongs, the tongue smoothly shifts from
one position into another. Such Gliding movement represents a shift from one sound into another, such as when
moving from / e / to / ɪ / in the word rate and from / e / to / ə / in the word fair. Peter Roach (2009) points out
that though the duration of diphthongs is relatively similar to monophthongs, first vowel tends to be, more or
less, longer and louder than the second vowel. When you utter the diphthong / ɪə /, you can notice that loudness
decreases as you move to the second sound Schwa.

Figure 11. Closing Diphthongs and Centering Diphthongs. From English Phonetics and Phonology (p.
17), Roach, P. (2009). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

There is a general consensus among phoneticians that sees that diphthongs can be divided into two main
categories, namely: centering diphthongs and closing diphthongs. The former category is called centering simply
because it consist of diphthongs that end with the central vowel Schwa, whereas the second category are called
closing because they end with close vowels. There are three centering diphthongs in English, namely: / ɪə /, /
eə / and / ʊə /. Figure 10 shows three diphthongs that end with the vowel / ɪ / and two diphthongs that end with
the vowel / ʊ /. It is, however, worth noting that the pronunciation of some diphthongs is not the same in the RP
and GA (Yule, 2020). By way of example, while British people pronounce the word poor with the standard form
/ ʊə /, Americans in several USA regions pronounce it with the short vowel / ʊ /. Likewise, while British speakers
realize the words square and there with the diphthong / eə /, many native speakers in the USA realize the same
words with the short vowel / e /.

Lesson 13: Triphthongs

INSTRUCTIONAL OBJECTIVES:

After studying this course, students will be able to:

 Understand the meaning of Triphthong and its types

 Identify all the possible and impossible combinations of triphthongs

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Vowels, which consist of a combination of three juxtaposed sounds, are commonly termed Triphthongs.
Contrary to diphthongs production, the articulation of triphthongs involves two gliding movements, that is, a
smooth shift from the sound A to B and finally to C. By way of example, when we produce the triphthong / eɪə
/, the vocal organs shift from the vocalic position / e / to / ɪ / and then smoothly shifts to / ə / (Roach, 2009). It
worth noting that it is almost difficult for native and non-native speakers to recognize the last vocalic position,
Schwa, in words that have a triphthong. Because, it must be noted, / ə / is the shortest vowel in the whole English
inventory system, many non-linguists cannot hear it in speech, and thus fail to hazard a guess about the exact
number of sounds in the words which typically have triphthongs, such as royal and lower. In essence, there are
five triphthongs in the English language:

/ eɪ / + /ə/ = / eɪə /

/ ɔɪ / + /ə/ = / ɔɪə /

/ ɑɪ / + /ə/ = / ɑɪə /

/ əʊ / + /ə/ = / əʊə /

/ ɑʊ / + /ə/ = / ɑʊə /

Remarkably, all the five triphthongs listed above end with the short vowel /ə/. Although it is possible to
find triphthongs which are composed of one closing diphthong followed by /ə/, it is impossible to find a
triphthong that is formed by combining a centering diphthong and a Schwa in any English speaking community.
This is quite conceivable, provided that in English phonetic system the vowel is not followed by another identical
vowel, in this case /ə/ + /ə/ = /ʊəə/*. In brief, the combination of one centering diphthong + Schwa, though
theoretically possible, does NOT occur in any English-based variety, be it standard or vernacular.

CHARACTERISATION AND CLASSIFICATION OF VOWELS

Lesson 14: Classifications of Vowels

INSTRUCTIONAL OBJECTIVES

After studying this course, students will be able to:

 Understand the locus of the Cardinal Vowel System (CVs)

 Learn how to describe the vowels in terms of distinct reference points, such as height and frontness

Introduction:

This course overviews the Cardinal Vowel System (CVs) used to describe monophthongs, diphthongs and
triphthongs in terms of a set of criteria. Some of the CVs descriptions discussed in this course, it must be noted,
are similar to other descriptions used with other languages.

Cardinal Vowel System:

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Figure 12. Daniel Jones

In 1917, the British phonetician Daniel Jones (1881–1967) devised the so called Cardinal Vowel System
(In short, CVs) as a reference point for classifying the English vowels. The cardinal vowel system was
introduced to describe the vowels with regards to many criteria, ranging from height, openness/closeness,
backness/frontness to roundedness. The section that follows addresses each criterion individually and considers
the possible differences in descriptions in both varieties, namely the standard British English (RP) and General
American English (GA).

Classifications: Monophthongs

Figure 8 displays the cardinal vowel system of the English monophthongs. It was noted in the previous
course that monophthongs vary in terms of length and quality. Yet, they also differ in terms of their height,
backness and openness. At a closer look, the vowels / ɪ / and / ʊ / are high vowels, as opposed to the mid vowels
/e/, /ʌ/ and / ə / and the low vowels / æ / and / ɒ /. Likewise, long vowels vary in terms of their height, as well.
Comparatively, notice that the tongue position for the long vowels / i: / and / u: /, for instance, seems to be
higher than their short counterparts-/ ɪ / and / ʊ /. As for frontness, / ɪ / and / i: / are front vowels, whilst / ʊ /
and /u:/ are back vowels. Unlike the central vowels /ʌ/, / ə/ and / ɜ: /, the vowels / æ / and /e/ are front vowels.
As for openness, it appears that all low vowels, such as / æ / and / a: / are open vowels, as opposed to the vowel
/e/ which is considered as a half open vowel. Conversely, all the high vowels are also close vowels, such as / ɪ
/, / i: / and / u: /.

Figure 13. English Short and Long Vowels. From English Phonetics and Phonology (p. 13-16), Roach, P.
(2009). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

The roundedness criterion refers to the shape made by your lips when articulating the vowels. All back
vowels, be they short or long, such /ʊ/ and / ɔː / involve a complete roundedness of the lips (Rounded). However,

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the shape of your lips tends to be, more or less, neutral when pronouncing central vowels and spread when
pronouncing front vowels (Roach, 2009)

Figure 14. Centering and Closing Diphthongs in English. From English Phonetics and Phonology (p. 18),
Roach, P. (2009). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Centering diphthongs end with the short vowel / ə /. The CVs in figure 14 shows that the diphthong / ɪə /
begins with the spread, front and close vowel /ɪ/ and gradually moves to the neutral, central and mid vowel / ə /.
The vowel / eə /, conversely, starts with the spread, front and half close vowel /e/ and then glides to the neutral,
central and mid vowel / ə/. As for closing diphthongs, the ending vowel is either /ʊ/ or / ɪ/. By way of example,
the articulation of the diphthong /əʊ/ involves a gliding movement from the neutral, central, mid vowel /ə/
towards the rounded, back, close vowel / ʊ /.

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