PHONETICS AND PHONOLOGY TERM 2

TOPICS:

 Identification of Phonemes
 The International Phonetic Alphabet
 Phonetic Transcription

IDENTIFICATION OF PHONEMES

English has a total of 44 sounds; 24 consonants, 12 vowels and 8 diphthongs. These are:

Consonants Vowels Diphthongs

a) / p / pig a) / i: / peel a) / Ͻl / toy

b) / b / big b) / l / bin b) / al / buy
c) / t / tin c) / e / ten c) / el / stay
d) / d / den d) / ӕ / rat d) / eə / hair
e) / k / kite e) / ʒ: / churn e) / lə / near
f) / ɡ / girl f) / ə / across f) / ʊə / lure
g) /f / fill g) / Λ / fun g) /aʊ/ proud
h) /v/ view h) / a: / heart h) / əʊ / coat
i) /θ/ theta i) / u: / stool
j) /ð/ those j) / ʊ / school
k) /s/ sip k) /Ͻ:/ oral
l) /z/ zip l) / ɒ / orange
m) /ʃ/ ship
n) /ʒ/ usual
o) /h/ house
p) /ʧ/ choose
q) /ʤ/ jump
r) /m/ maize
s) /n/ nest
t) /ŋ/ bang
u) /r/ ripe
v) /l / list
w) /j/ yellow
x) /w/ wasp

These are the symbols that are used in the transcription of English words. We note that most of
these symbols are used in transcription as well as in orthography (spelling) for example ‘p’ in

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spelling is still /p/ in transcription and so is ‘m’ and /m/. But there are a good number where the
symbol used for transcription of a sound is different from that used in spelling.

Illustrations:

 ‘ng’ is represented phonemically as / ŋ / a single sound found only in word middle or

word final postions.
 Letter ‘c’ is represented as /k/ as in cup - / kΛp / or as /s/ in a word like cell / sel /.
Double ‘c’ is captured using a sequence of /k/ followed by / s / for example in accent
- / əksent / or in access - / əkses/ Note that double letters in spelling are captured using
single symbols phonemically.
 The symbol / ɡ / is used for words such as game and not age.
 The symbol / θ / is used for the voiceless dental fricative while the symbol / ð / is used
for its voiced counterpart. In spelling both are captured using ‘th’
 The symbol / ʃ / can represent the letter ‘s’ for example in the word sugar or ‘sh’ for
example in the word shirt. It can also stand for ‘ch’ in borrowed words like parachute,
machine and champagne.
 The symbol / ʒ / represents the letter ‘s’ in words such as vision, leisure and measure. It
mostly occurs word middle.
 The symbol / j / represents letter ‘y’ for example in the words yam and yacht.
 The symbol /ʧ / stands for the letter ‘ch’ for example in the word church or chair
 /ʤ/ can stand for letter ‘j’ in a word like jug and for ‘g’ in a word like age
 /z/ can stand for letter ‘s’ in a word like resent.
 /k/ can represent ‘ch’ in a word like character or chameleon.

When it comes to vowels, all the symbols used are different from those used in spelling
apart from letter ‘e’ which is captured as /e/. We note however that letter ‘e’ can be
realized as / l / in a word like respect /rlspekt/
 Letter u can be realized as / ʊ / in a word like put and as /Λ/ in a word like cut.
 The symbol /ʒ: / can stand for ‘ir’ e.g in bird; ‘ur’ e.g in churn;’er’ for example in herd.
 The symbol /Ͻ: / can represent ‘or’ for example in bore; ‘aw’ for example in hawk.
 The symbol /ɒ/ can stand for ‘o’ in a word like hot
 /ӕ/ stands for ‘a’ in a word like pat
 /a: / can represent ‘ar’ in a word like card or a in pass
Task. Illustrate the remaining phonemes.

THE INTERNATIONAL PHONETIC ALPHABET

In 1896 a group of leading phoneticians from different countries formed the International
Phonetic Association (IPA) whose aim was to device a universal way of representing the various
sounds of the world’s languages. The symbols they came up with are collectively referred to as

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The International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA). The basic principle upon which the IPA is
constructed is that of having a different symbol for each distinguishable speech sound.

The symbols consist of letters and diacritics. A diacritic is a mark placed over, under or through
a letter to show that it has a sound value different from that of the same letter without the mark.

Examples are [ pʰ ] where ʰ is a diacritic for aspiration.

[ t̪ ] where ̪ is the diacritic for dentalization.

[ Ł ] where ҃ going through a letter shows velarization or pharyngealization

[ ã ] where ˜ is the diacritic for nasalization

TRANSCRIPTION

Transcription is the use of symbols to show sounds or sound sequences in written form. There
are two types of transcription:

 Broad or Phonemic transcription

 Narrow or Phonetic transcription

Broad/ Phonemic transcription.

This is transcription using only the distinctive sounds of a language or phonemes. A

phoneme is the smallest unit of a sound in language which can distinguish meaning. For
example in the words pan and ban; pin and bin substituting /p/ with /b/ results in a word
with a different meaning. Thus /p/ and /b/ are phonemes.

It is captured within slashes/ /.

Examples pan /pӕn/ and bin / bln /

Narrow / Phonetic transcription.

This is transcription which uses phonetic symbols for various sounds including diacritics to
show in detail how a particular sound is actually realized. Phonetic transcription shows the
finer points of pronunciation such as aspiration, nasalization, velarization etc. It is captured
within square brackets.

For example: pin [ pʰ l n] indicating that /p/ is aspirated as it is in the word initial position.

nun [ nΛ̃n] indicating that /Λ/ is nasalized.

net [ net ͦ ] indicating that /t / is unreleased.

Task: transcribe the following words phonemically and phonetically.

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a. Man
b. Task
c. Clap
d. Pull
e. Spot

Rules of Transcription

There are three ways in which the past tense of a regular verb can be realized in transcription:

a) If the regular verb ends in any voiceless sound except the voiceless alveolar stop /t/, the
past tense suffix -ed is transcribed using /t/.
For example ask- asked /a:skt/
b) If the regular verb ends in any voiced sound except the voiced alveolar stop /d/, the past
tense suffix is transcribed using the voiced alveolar stop / d /.
For example long – longed /l ɒŋd /
c) If the regular verb ends in an alveolar stop, be it voiced or voiceless (/t/, /d/ ) the past
tense suffix is transcribed with sound /l/ followed by /d/.
For example land - landed / l ӕnd ld/

The plural suffix in nouns can also be transcribed in three different ways:

a) If the singular noun ends in any voiceless sound except a sibilant ( any sound whose
articulation is accompanied by a hissing sound e.g /s/, /z/, / ʃ /, / ʒ /, / ʧ /, /dʒ / ) the plural
suffix is transcribed using the voiceless alveolar fricative- /s/.
For example stamp – stamps /stӕmps/ ; stalk – stalks /st Ͻ:ks /
b) If the singular noun ends in any voiced sound except a sibilant, the plural suffix is
transcribed with the voiced alveolar fricative /z/
For example leg – legs / leɡz / ; pin – pins /plnz/
c) If the singular noun ends in any sibilant be it voiced or voiceless, the plural suffix is
transcribed with the high front spread short vowel /l / followed by the voiced alveolar
fricative /z/.
For example bush – bushes / bʊ ʃlz / ; patch – patches / pӕʧ lz/; judge- judges / dʒΛdʒ lz/

Guidelines on Transcription
1. Note that the letter ‘s’ in most small words such as ‘as’, ‘was’, ‘his’, ‘is’, ‘this’ etc
where the ‘s’ is preceded by a vowel the ‘s’ is transcribed using the voiced alveolar
fricative /z/, though exceptions exist.
2. Most words which start with ‘u’ that is pronounced as ‘a’ are transcribed with the
wedge /Λ/ apart from words such as ‘urban’ and ‘unless.’
For example up - /Λ p/ and utmost - /Λtməʊst/
3. If a word begins with an ‘a’ sound which is followed by a consonant then a
diphthong, it will usually be transcribed with the schwa /ə/.

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 For example amaze - / əmelz / Note that there are some words starting with an ‘a’
sound but not followed by a diphthong which have the ‘a’ sound captured using the
schwa /ə/.
4. If a word ends with ‘er’ e.g teacher, brother, mother, farmer etc. The ‘er’ is
transcribed with a schwa /ə/. If the next word begins with a vowel the ‘r’ is realized in
pronunciation and therefore also in transcription. If it begins with a consonant sound
the ‘r’ is not usually realized in pronunciation and therefore should be left out when
transcribing.
For example The teacher is….. / ðə ti:ʧ ər lz/
The teacher bought /ðə ti:ʧə bϽ:t /
5. Most words that have ‘ar’ in spelling are transcribed using /a:/ for the ‘ar’.
For example card - /ka:d/ ; part - /pa:t/
6. Most words that have an ‘o’ which is pronounced as ‘a’ are transcribed using /Λ/ for
the ‘o’
For example son /sΛn/ ; some /sΛm/ ; money /mΛnl /

Task: Transcribe the following sentences phonemically.

a. When will the farmer bring the eggs?
b. A fat cat caught the rat.
c. Lend me some money.
d. Row your boat gently down the stream.
e. Girls love baking while boys love roasting.
f. She was part of the team
g. Above all else, trust your instincts
h. The dogs chased the horses down the streets
i. The donkey dragged the cart as the farmer planted the seeds.
j. I think that would be best.

The end

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