The Sounds of Language: Phonetics and Phonology

Although different languages contain different sounds, the sounds of all the languages of the world
constitute a class of sounds that the human vocal tract is able to make. All these sounds are human speech
sounds. Phonetics is interested in all the speech sounds used in all human languages: the features they
possess, how they can be classified, etc.

Articulatory phonetics focuses on how a speaker uses his speech organs (vocal tract) to articulate the
(speakers’ point of view) sounds of language.

Auditory phonetics focuses on how listeners perceive the sounds of language. When the sound waves
(hearers’ point of view) reach our ears they set the eardrum vibrating according to the same pattern. Inside
the ear, the vibrations set off nerve impulses, which are interpreted by our brain
as sound.

Acoustic phonetics focuses on the physical properties that allow the sounds of language to be
(sound waves in the air) transmitted through the air from one person to another. Once represented and
stored in a digital format, sound files can be matematically analyzed to separate
out the diferent frequencies.

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 Spelling, or orthography or written form, does not consistently represent the sounds of language because
1. The same sound may be represented either by one letter or by a combination of letters; for example, the
sound /f/ can be spelled either “f” as in “food” /fuːd/ , “ff” as in “riff” /rɪf/ “ph” as in phone” /fəʊn/, “gh” as
in “laugh”/ lɑːf/.
2. The same letter may represent a variety of sounds. As you know that the letter (u) can be pronounced as
either /ᴧ/ as in “umbrella” or /ju:/ as in “university”.
3. A combination of letters may represent a single sound; for instance, “sh” in “wash” /wɒʃ/ is one single
sound /ʃ/; “air” /eə/ is one sound, the diphthong /eə/ and the “ck” in “clock” /klɒk/ is one single sound /k/.
4. A single letter may represent a combination of sounds like in exit /ˈɛksɪt/, the letter “x” combines too
sounds /k/ and /s/.

In 1888, the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA) was invented in order to have a system in which
there was a shared universal and unambiguous one-to-one correspondence between each sound in language
and each phonetic symbol. To achieve this, they relied on phonetic and phonemic transcriptions of sound
segments.
Phonemic (or broad) transcription is indicated by slanted brackets: / /. Board transcription uses a
relatively simple set of symbols to represent contrasting segments, but does not show all phonetic detail.
These transcriptions are used when capturing phonemes in phonology (disregarding details not relevant
for a particular language). For instance, the English word pretzel in a broad transcription would
be /ˈpretsl̩ /
Phonetic (or narrow) transcription is indicated by square brackets: [ ]. Narrow transcription uses a more
elaborate set of symbols, diacritics and suprasegmentals to show more phonetic detail. These
transcriptions are used when capturing sounds in phonetics (encoding all the details). For example, the
English word pretzel in a narrow transcription would be [ˈpɹ̥ ʷɛʔts.ɫ̩ ]

Articulation

Sound is vibrating air. Speaking means using your vocal tract (lungs, trachea, larynx, mouth and nose)
to get air moving and vibrating. Speech sounds are produced by a moving air column. There are two types
of airflow directions: egressive (air is pushed out of the mouth through the vocal tract) and ingressive (air is

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sucked into the vocal tract through the mouth during part of the articulation). Most speech sounds are made
with air exiting the lungs (egressive pulmonic sounds).

On the basis of their function, our speech organs can be subdivided into:
a. Initiator: the speech organ that sets air into motion for the production of speech sounds. The main
initiator is the lungs because most speech sounds are produced by pulmonic air. I.e. air set into motion
by the lungs.
b. Phonator: the speech organs that are used to produce speech sound called ‘voice’. Phonator refers to
the vocal cords in the larynx. The vocal folds, also known commonly as vocal cords, are composed
of two membranes stretched horizontally across the larynx.
Vibration of the vocal cords results in "voicing", which is a feature of all vowels and some
consonants. Such sounds are voiced.
When the vocal cords are drawn wide open, letting air go through the glottis without causing
vibration, the sounds produced in such a condition are voiceless.

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c. Articulator: the speech organs that are used to obstruct the out-going air in the production of speech
sounds.
Active articulators: the lips, the tongue, the uvula, and the vocal cords.
Passive articulators : the teeth, alveolar ridge, the postalveolar region, the hard palate, the soft
palate (velum)

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 The sounds of all languages fall into two classes: consonants and vowels. The English language comprises
44 sounds amongst which 20 are vowel sounds and 24 are consonants. The difference between the production
of consonants and vowels is that the consonants are made by obstruction, while vowels are produced by
resonance (no obstruction).
 Vowels: Speech sounds which are produced with no obstruction of the vocal tract, so no
turbulence or a total stopping of the air can be perceived. They are produced mainly when the airflow
from the lungs to the lips is relatively unrestricted.
 Consonants: Speech sounds which are produced by constricting or obstructing the vocal
tract at some place to modulate the flow of air in the vocal tract. They are always produced with some
closure to the vocal tract. The nature and location of this closure determines what type of consonant
that is produced.

Classification of Consonant Sounds

We classify consonants according to
a) where in the vocal tract the airflow restriction occurs, called the place of articulation
b) The way the airstream is affected as it flows from the lungs up and out of the mouth and nose, called
the manner of articulation.
c) The activity of vocal cords: whether the sound is voiced or voiceless (whether the vocal cords
vibrate or not (voiced & voiceless).

1. Place of articulation: where in the vocal tract the airflow is being restricted. The major places of
articulation are:
o Bilabials: [p] [b] [m] [w] produced by bringing both lips together
o Labiodentals: [f] [v] produced by touching the bottom lip to the upper teeth
o Dentals [θ] [ð] produced by putting the tip of the tongue between the teeth
o Alveolars: [t] [d] [n] [s] [z] [l] [r] All of these are produced by raising the tongue to the alveolar ridge
in some way:
-[t, d, n]: produced by the tip of the tongue touching the alveolar ridge (or just in front of it)
-[s, z]: produced with the sides of the front of the tongue raised but the tip lowered to allow air to escape
-[l]: the tongue tip is raised while the rest of the tongue remains down so air can escape over the sides of
the tongue (thus [l] is a lateral sound)
-[r]: air escapes through the central part of the mouth; either the tip of the tongue is curled back behind the
alveolar ridge or the top of the tongue is bunched up behind the alveolar ridge
o Palatoalveolars: [∫] [з] [t∫] [dз] produced by raising the front part of the tongue to the region between
the alveolar ridge and the hard palate
o Palatals [j] produced by raising the front part of the tongue to the hard palate
o Velars: [k] [g] [ŋ] produced by raising the back of the tongue to the soft palate or velum
o Labiovelars [w]

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 o Glottals: [h] [Ɂ] produced by restricting the airflow through the open glottis ([h]) or by stopping the air
completely at the glottis (a glottal stop: [Ɂ])
o Retroflex: the tip of the tongue is curled back to articulate with the area between the rear of the
alveolar ridge and the front of the hard palate. We can hear this from Indian English accent of [t], [d].
o Uvular: the back of the tongue articulates with the uvula, as in French rue.
o Pharyngeal: the front wall of the pharynx (in the region of epiglottis) articulates with the back wall.
This exists in Arabic [h].

2. The manner of articulation is the way the airstream is affected as it flows from the lungs and out of the
mouth and nose
o Stops: [p] [b] [t] [d] [k] [g] [Ɂ] produced by a complete closure is made at some point in the vocal tract;
the soft palate is raised. Air pressure thus builds up behind the closure, which is then released
explosively.
o Fricatives: [ f ], [ v ], [ s ], [ z ], [ ʃ ], [ ʒ ], [ θ ], [ δ ] produced by severely obstructing the airflow so
as to cause friction
o Affricates: [t∫] [dз] produced by a complete closure is made at some point in the mouth; the soft palate
is raised. Air pressure builds up behind the closure, and is then released relatively slowly (compared
to a plosive sound)
o Nasals: [m][n][ŋ] a complete closure is made at some point in the mouth; the soft palate is lowered,
so that air escapes through the nose
o Lateral: a partial closure is made at some point in the mouth, in such a way that the air stream is
allowed to escape around the sides of the closure. Various kinds of [l] sound are the result.
o Liquids: [l] [r] produced by causing some obstruction of the airstream in the mouth, but not enough to
cause any real friction
o Roll (Trill): one articulator taps rapidly against another – typically the tongue tip against the alveolar
ridge or the tongue back against the uvula, as in [r] in French, German or some English accent.
o Flap: a single tap is made by one articulator against another, as in some pronunciation of the ‘r’ in
very, or‘d’ in ladder, where the tongue tip taps once against the alveolar ridge.
o Glides: [j] [w] produced with very little obstruction of the airstream and are always followed by a
vowel
o Approximants: the articulation is strongly influenced by the following vowel sound. [w], [y] and [h]
(voiceless) are produced with the tongue moving (gliding), to or from the position of nearby vowel.

 Noncontinuants: the airstream is totally obstructed in the oral cavity = Stops and affricates
 Continuants: the airstream flows continuously out of the mouth = All other consonants and vowels

3. The voiced/voiceless distinction is important in English because it helps us distinguish words like:
rope/robe fine/vine seal/zeal
[rop]/[rob] [faɪn]/[vaɪn] [sil]/[zil]

But some voiceless sounds can be further distinguished as aspirated or unaspirated

aspirated unaspirated
pool [phul] spool [spul]
h
tale [t el] stale [stel]
kale [khel] scale [skel]

So far we can classify sounds based on: voicing, place of articulation, manner of articulation and
nasalization.
– [p] is a voiceless, bilabial, oral, stop sound
– [n] is a voiced, alveolar, nasal, lateral sound

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 Classification of vowel sounds
1. The hightest position of the tongue
High vowels are pronounced with the tongue arched toward the roof of the mouth.
Mid vowels have a tongue position between the extremes of high and low
Low vowels are produced with the tongue relatively flat and low in the mouth and with the mouth open
a little wider than for high vowels.
A front vowel is pronounced with the highest part of the tongue pushed forward in the mouth and
somewhat arched.
A central vowel is pronounced when the tongue is positioned halfway between a front vowel and a back
vowel
A back vowel is produced with the back part of the tongue raised toward the soft palate (velum).

2. The openness of the mouth

An open vowel is a vowel sound in which the tongue is positioned as far as possible from the roof of the
mouth.
A close vowel is a vowel positioned as close as possible to the roof of the mouth as it can be without
creating a constriction

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 3. The shape of the lips
Rounding, also called Labialization is the production of a sound with the lips rounded.
In unrounded vowels the lips are slack or may be drawn back.

4. The length of the vowels

 Monophtongs
Long vowels are /æ/ /e/ /ɪ/ /ɒ/ /ʌ/ /ə/ /ʊ/
Short vowels are /aː/ /iː/ /uː/ / ɛ ː/ /ɔ:/
 Diphtongs
Diphthongs are a type of vowel sound where two single vowel sounds/monophthongs are combined
within a single syllable. There are eight different diphthongs in the English language. They are:
 /eɪ/ as in late (/leɪt/) or gate (/geɪt/)
 /ɪə/ as in dear (/dɪə/) or fear (/fɪə/)
 /eə/ as in fair (/feə/) or care (/keə/)
 /ʊə/ as in sure (/ʃʊə/) or cure (/kjʊə/)
 /əʊ/ as in globe (/ˈgləʊb/) or show (/ʃəʊ/)
 /ɔɪ/ as in join (/ʤɔɪn/) or coin (/kɔɪn/)
 /aɪ/ as in time (/taɪm/) or rhyme (/raɪm/)
 /aʊ/ as in cow (/kaʊ/) or how (/haʊ/)

A semivowel. The semivowels are /j/ and /w/. There are no specific phonemic
representations (e.g. /əʊ/) for rising diphthongs, as they are usually analysed as a sequence of two
phonemes (e.g. /wiː/). The rising diphthong sound can be heard in words like yell (/jel/), weed (/wiːd/),
and walk (/wɔːk/).

 Triphtongs
A triphthong is a glide from one vowel to another and the to a third, all produced rapidly and without
interruption. For example, a careful pronunciation of the word ‘hour’ begins with a vowel quality similar to
‘ɑ:’ goes on to ‘ʊ’ then ends in ‘ə’.
• Triphthong : 5 closing diphthongs with ‘ə’ added on the end.
- eɪ + ə = eɪə . as in layer, player
- aɪ + ə = aɪə. as in lire, fire
- ɔɪ + ə = ɔɪə, as in loyal, royal
- əʊ + ə = əuə, as in lower, mower
- aʊ + ə = auə, as in power, hour.

5. The state of the larynx tense (long vowels), lax (short vowels)
Tense (fortis) vowels are produced with greater tension in the tongue. May occur at the end of words
Lax (lenis) vowels are produced with less tongue tension. May not occur at the end of words

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 The Syllable

Syllable: a syllable refers to a segmental structure made of consonants and vowels

Phonetically: a unit consisting of a center which has little or no airflow and sounds comparatively loud
(sonority scale: klasp14521)
Structurally: A syllable can have three parts: onset, nucleus, and coda. The onset and the coda are
consonants, or consonant clusters, that appear at the beginning and the end of the syllable respectively; they
may or may not be present. The nucleus forms the core of the syllable; it is most often a vowel or a
combination of vowels (diphthongs or triphtongs) - but there are exceptions to that (e.g. hmm)

In the word “cat” for example, [c] is the syllable onset, [a] is the nucleus, and [t] the coda. A syllable does
not necessarily have to have an onset or a coda - depending on the language - but a nucleus is always present.
If a coda is present in a syllable, the nucleus and the coda form a single unit called a rhyme; otherwise the
nucleus makes up the rhyme by itself. Looking at “cat” again, [at] forms the rhyme.

syllable
onset rhyme
nucleus coda

Phonologically: it concerns the way vowels and consonants combine to form various sequences.
(sequential rule: CCCVCCC) e.g. strict
The sequential rule: In English, if three consonants occur together at the beginning of a word (consonant
cluster), the combination should obey the following three rules:
1. the first phoneme should be: /s/
2. the second phoneme should be: /p/, /t/, /k/
3. the third phoneme should be: /l/, /r/, /w/
spring, strict, square, scream , sixths