PHONETICS

Phonetics study the concrete characteristics of real speech sounds. There are three branches into the
phonetics studies;
- articulatory phonetics (how speech sounds are produced, phone quality)
– acoustic phonetics: wave sound
– auditory phonetics (hearing process by listener)., which makes up different parts of the speech chain.
Sounds produced can be VOWELS or CONSONANTS
VOWELS:
 Pure vowels: vowels can differ in the quality and quantity of the sounds; (long vowels or short vowels)
 long vowels can be affected by pre – forties clipping. It is a phenomenon in English where a vowel is
shortened when it is followed by a fortis consonant within the same syllable. Vowels that are followed
by a voiced consonant or a pause retain their normal length.
 In phonetics, clipping is the process of shortening the articulation of a phonetic segment, usually
a vowel. A clipped vowel is pronounced more quickly than an unclipped vowel and is often also
reduced.
Examples:
cheese /ʧiːz/ cheat /ʧiːt/
read /riːd/ reach /riːʧ/
word /wɜːd/ work /wɜːk/

 Diphthongs
Vowels can be;
- voiced sounds (vibration of vocal folds)
– oral sounds – they Are produced without any contact between articulators
CONSONANTS

They can be:

- VOICED (lenis) /b/, /d/ or VOICELESS (forties) /p/, /t/ sounds; the difference between voiced and
voiceless is that the voiced sounds are produced with the vocal folds in light contact, vibrating, and
voiceless sounds are produced with the vocal folds wild apart.

- FORTIES OR LENIS: Forties are consonant sounds produced with great force. Lenis are the
consonant sounds produced with less force.

- ORAL (raise the velum) or NASAL (lowering the velum)

- exists contact between articulators:

- PLACE of articulation… bilabial, alveolar and the MANNER of articulation… plosives, fricatives.

PHONEME
A phoneme is the smallest unit of sound in a language that can distinguish one word from another. Phonemes
are abstract representations of sounds that, when changed, can alter the meaning of a word.

What is an allophone?

They are the different realizations of the same phoneme. They are said to be in complementary distribution
because they can never occur in the place of the other, they are mutually exclusive and never occur in the
same phonetic environment. Some sounds behave differently according to the phonetic environment. For
example, the sound /i:/ in the words /mi:t/ and /mi:n/ sound different.

Maybe the quality is quite similar, but there is a difference in terms of quantity. The length is different and this
is because whenever a “long” vowel is followed by a voiceless sound, it gets shorter, a process known as pre-
fortis clipping.

Another example is the differences between the clear l and the dark l. According to the phonetic environment,
we find two distinct allophones of /l/. Notice the difference between /leg/ and /mi:lk/ , or /kɔːlɪŋ/ and /kɔːl/.

Whenever the /l/ sound is in final position or before a consonant we produce a dark [l]. In order to do so, we
move the back of the tongue up towards the palate.

Allophones in free variation

Different allophones of a phoneme can appear in the same environment without affecting meaning. For
example: The voiceless alveolar plosive /t/ has variants that can appear at the end of a word. In the word "cat,"
some speakers might produce a released [t], resulting in [kæt], while others might produce an unreleased [t̚ ],
resulting in [kæt̚ ]

PHONOLOGY
Phonology of a language studies phonemes; the abstract units of sounds that can difference in meaning.
Phonology is the functional classification of the sound or particular language. It´s a system of sounds.
(phonemes).
They both have the same object of study: speech sounds, but in different perspectives.
MINIMAL PAIRS
Minimal pairs are two words that only differ in one phoneme. In their phoneme’s transcription only one
phoneme in the same slot is different between each minimal pair. These words always have different meaning.
And the same number of phonemes. E.g. stop /stɒp/ vs step /step/.
HOMOPHONES
Homophones are two words that sound exactly the same, but the spelling and meaning is different. In
phonetics terms these two words are made up of the exact same phonemes. These words have the same
sound but different meanings and spellings.
- Flower and flour
- Bear and bare
- Too, to and two
PRE- FORTIS CLIPPING
“short” and “long” vowels exist, but sometimes the quantity of a long vowel can be affected by a process
known as pre-fortis clipping, this process consists in change the length whenever a “long” vowel is followed by
a voiceless sound, so, the long vowel gets shorter.

The organs of speech

Trachea
The trachea is the tube that passes air to and from the lungs to the rest of the vocal tract.
Larynx
It is a rigid structure, situated at the top of the trachea and below the pharynx. It contains the first valve or trap
that can interfere with the passage of the air stream: the vocal folds, two bands of muscle lying across the
center of the larynx.
They can form:
- A v shape, open
- Brought tightly together so no air can pass through
- They can come into light contact so they produce a vibration

Pharynx
It is the passage situated at the top of the larynx, communicating with the oral and nasal cavities. It can change
its shape slightly.
The oral cavity
The oral cavity contains the articulators which are surrounding the area.
- The tongue: the most agile speech organ, principally made of muscle. We can divide it in different parts: the
tip, the extreme end, the blade, the front and the back.
- The palate: it is a concave structure separating the mouth from the nasal cavity. It is not physically separated
into parts, but we can divide it into:
alveolar ridge (behind the teeth), the hard palate (the bony immovable part lying over the center of the mouth)
and the soft palate or velum (the moveable part at the back)
- Teeth: they are used in speech to interfere with or stop the air flow with the help of the tongue or the lower
lips.
- Lips: they constitute the very mobile outer edges of the mouth, and can adopt different shapes.
Nasal cavity
It extends from the pharynx to the nostrils and is separated from the oral cavity by the palate. It is in constant
shape and size.

Cardinal vowels chart

Vowel 1: /i:/
- Vowel number 1 is closer than vowel 2, that is, that the tongue is higher.
- in vowel number 1 the lips are spread. There is tension in the production of vowel 1 and the rims of the
tongue are in firm contact with the molars.
- It is a long vowel
Vowel 2: /i/
- in vowel number 2, the tongue is a bit more retracted or back.
- The lips are neutral
- It has an allophone in complementary distribution which is called “happy /i/”, it happens whenever it is in final
position.
Vowel 3: /e/
- The tongue is raised between the close-mid and open-mid positions.
- The lips are loosely spread and are slightly wider apart than for vowel 2 /ɪ/.
- This is a front vowel , which means that the tongue is all the way forward. Compared with our Spanish sound
e, vowel 3 is more open, more tense, and the lips are more spread.
- In terms, of quantity this is a short vowel.
Vowel 4: /æ/
- It is a front vowel, but the position of the tongue in terms of height is a bit lower, this is why this vowel is
placed between a mid-open and open positions.
- The lips are spread and open.
- In terms of quantity, this is between a short and a long vowel, and it is affected by pre-forts clipping. There is
a difference in length for example between the words /mæt/ and /mæd/
Vowel 10: /ʌ/
- Placed between mid-open and open positions, but it s a central vowel.
- The lips are neutrally open.
- In terms of quantity, it is a short vowel.
Vowel 5: /a:/
- Vowel number 5 /ɑː/ is an open vowel articulated with a considerable separation of the jaws.
- The lips are neutrally open.
- The part of the tongue between the centre and back is in the fully open position. The back of the tongue is
low and the velum or soft palate is raised, as if you had a plum in your mouth
- In terms of quantity, it is a long vowel and it is affected by pre-fortis clipping.
Vowel 6: / ɒ/
- It is a back open vowel. This means that there is a big space between the tongue and the palate. The lower
jaw drops. The tongue is retracted; it is not in touch with the lower teeth.
- The lips are rounded and the mouth is protruding.
- In terms of quantity, this is a short sound.

Vowel 7 /ɔː/.
- It is also a back vowel, but it is in the mid-position, so the space between the tongue and the palate is not as
big as in vowel 6.
- The lips are rounded and the mouth is protruding. There's more tension
than in vowel 6.
- In terms of quantity, this is a long vowel. It is affected by pre-fortis clipping.
Vowel number 8 /ʊ/
- There is a correlation between vowel 8 and vowel 2. In terms of opening, the position is similar inside the
mouth, regarding the distance between the palate and the tongue.
- Now, the tongue changes from being more forward in vowel 2 to being more retracted in vowel 8.
- And the most visible change is the position of the lips. The lips are protruding.
- In terms of quantity, this is a short vowel.
Vowel 9 /uː/
- This is a close back vowel. There is a correlation with vowel number 1. They are both close vowels, so the
position inside the mouth is similar in terms of the distance between the palate and the tongue.
- However, the tongue in vowel 1 makes contact with the lower teeth and the upper molars.
- In vowel number 9, the tongue is retracted, and there is no contact with the teeth. The lips are protruding and
there is tension.
- In terms of quantity, this is a long vowel. It is affected by pre-fortis clipping.
Vowel 11 /ɜː/
- Vowel 11 is a central vowel. It is produced with the centre of the tongue raised to a mid-position and the lips
neutrally open.
- In terms of quality, it is similar to vowel 10; however, it is a closer vowel, meaning that the distance between
the palate and the tongue is smaller.
- And in terms of quantity, this is a long vowel.
Vowel "schwa" /ə/
- This is a very special vowel in the English language and it highly frequent in unaccented syllables. It is found
in weak forms of function words such as articles, pronouns, prepositions, auxiliaries, and the copular verb to
be.
- Function words take usually the weak form in connected speech.
- In term of quality, it is the same as vowel 11, but in terms of quantity, it's very short.
Strong and weak forms
Function words usually have weak form in connected speech; however, they can become strong, such as in
the example of short answers, where the auxiliary is stranding (in final position).
Another example in which weak forms become strong is when you emphasise them for some contextual
reason.

For example: I do like pizza /

I was dating John, but not any more / Thank you...Thank you / They are dating,
they didn't break up.

Verb to be, auxiliaries and modal verbs are always strong when they are in the negative form. Examples:
can't , wasn't, weren't, aren't, doesn't, etc.
Connected speech
Connected speech in phonetics refers to the natural way in which speech sounds change and interact when
words are spoken together in sentences or continuous speech, as opposed to when words are spoken in
isolation. This phenomenon occurs because the articulatory processes of producing one sound can influence
the production of adjacent sounds.
CONSONANT SOUNDS
Consonant sounds can be classified according to the the following criteria;
1- Vibration of the vocal folds, consonants sound can be voiced, produced with the vocal colds in light
contact, vibrating, e.g. /d/ or voiceless, produced with the vocal cords wide apart, e.g. /t/

Voiced: b, d, g, v, ð, z, ʒ, ʤ, l, r, w, j, m, n, ŋ
Voiceless: p, t, k, f, θ, s, ʃ, h, ʧ
2- the cavity where the sound is produced, consonants can be produced in the oral cavity, for example
/s/ or in the nasal cavity, for example /n/.
3- muscular effort, consonant sounds are also classified into fortis or lenis. Fortis sounds are those
produced with great muscular force e.g./k/ and lenis are sounds produced with less force, e.g. /g/.
Additionality, they can be in opposition. Consonants sounds in oppositions are those that have the same
place and manner of articulation, but they are opposites in terms of strength and muscular effort, one of
them is lenis whereas the other one is fortis. for example, /k/ fortis /g/ lenis. However, not all the
consonants are in opposition, For example /h/ which is not in opposition, meaning that it is neither fortis nor
lenis. it is voiceless.

In opposition:

Fortis Lenis

p b

t d

k g

f v

θ ð

s z

ʃ ʒ

ʧ ʤ

The opposition fortis/lenis is a constant feature, compared to the opposition voiced/voiceless, which is variable
since voiced consonants can be devoiced in certain contexts, such as when voiced consonants are in final
position
4- Consonants sounds can be described accordingly to:
- where the interference of air-flow occurs, the place of articulation consonants can be:
- the kind of interference in the air flow, the manner of articulation, consonants can be:

Plosive: When an active articulator comes into firm contact with a passive one, forming a stricture of complete
closure, the air-stream is built up behind them and suddenly released. This produces a puff of air characteristic
of plosive sounds.
p,b; bilabial t,d; alveolar k,g; velar
However, these consonants share the same manner of articulation, even though they don´t share the same
place of articulation
Fricative: When an active articulator comes into light contact with a passive one, forming a stricture of close
approximation, the air has to force its way out, making a noise called friction.
f,v; labiodental θ,ð; dental s,z;alveolar ʃ, ʒ ; palato- alveolar
h; glottal, it is not in opposition, meaning that it is neither fortis nor lenis. it is voiceless.
However, these consonants share the same manner of articulation, even though they don´t share the same
place of articulation
Affricate: They are formed by a succession of a plosive and a fricative. The active articulator forms a stricture
of complete closure with the passive one, but instead of opening suddenly as for a plosive, they come apart
slowly into the fricative position.
ʈʃ, dʒ; palate- alveolar
These are in opposition, these ones have the same place and manner of articulation, but they are opposites
in terms of strength and muscular effort. / ʈʃ/; is fortis and voiceless while /dʒ/; is lenis and voiced
Lateral : The active articulator (the tongue) comes into firm contact with the passive one (generally the
alveolar ridge), and the air escapes down one or both sides of the contact.
i; alveolar /voiced/¸ it is not in opposition, meaning that it is neither fortis nor lenis.
Nasal: The velum (or soft palate) must be lowered, so the air escapes through the nose.
m; bilabial n; alveolar ŋ; velar all the consonants are voiced, and they are not in opposition (they are
neither fortis nor lenis=
Approximant: The approximation of the articulators is too open to cause any friction.
r; post- alveolar, voiced sound, it is not in opposition, meaning that it is neither fortis nor lenis
Semivowel: These consonants are phonetically similar to vowels, but function as syllable boundaries as any
other consonant. In the same way as approximates, the articulators are distant.
w; labio- velar j; palatal voiced sound

MANNER of ARTICULATION

Plosive Fricative Affricate Lateral Appraximant Semivowel Nasal

BILABIAL b, p m

LABIO-VELAR w

LABIODENTAL f, v

DENTAL ð, θ
P
ALVEOLAR t, d s, z l n
L
A POST-ALVEOLAR r

C PALATO-ALVEOLAR ʃ, ʒ ʧ, ʤ
E PALATAL j

VELAR k, g ŋ
 GLOTTAL h

pronunciation rules of -ed verbs in the past

verbs ending in -ed are pronounced:
 /d/ when the last sound of the infinitive form of the verbs is a vowel or voiced consonant. E.g. played-
cleaned- closed
 /t/ when the last sound of the infinitive form of the verbs is an unvoiced consonant. E.g. brushed-
watched- walked
 /id/ when the last sound of the infinitive form of the verbs is /t/ or /d/. E.g. waited- wanted – landed

Pronunciation rules of nouns in singular form

The letter ‘s´ is pronounced:
- /s/ after an unvoiced sound. E.g. artists- snakes- sacks
- And /z/ is pronounced after a voiced sound. E.g. animals- parcels- arms

APPROXIMANTS

The approximants are oral sounds in which the air escapes through a relatively narrow
aperture in the mouth without friction, but with voice.

The sound /l/ is a lateral approximant alveolar sound in which the air escapes over the
sides of the tongue. There are two distinctive allophones in complementary
distribution of this sound which are clear [l] and dark [l]. In the latter, the front of the tongue
is depressed while the back of the tongue is raised in the direction of the soft palate.

 Clear [l] is found in initial position and before vowels. e.g. /liːv/, /let/, and in consonant
clusters such as in /ɡləʊ/, /plɒt/.
 Dark [l] is found in final position, such as /ˈpensl/, /fiːl/, /aɪl/, and before consonants such
as in /fɪlm/, /helθ/

The sound /r/ is a post alveolar approximant sound. The tip of the tongue is near the alveolar
ridge (not touching). The back rims of the tongue are touching the upper molars. The central part
of the tongue is lowered. The air escapes freely with no friction.

The sound /r/ is silent (not pronounced) when there is no vowel following, such as in final
position /kɑː/ or followed by a consonant /dɜːti/ . However, in connected speech, when /r/ is in
final position and followed by a vowel, it is pronounced, such as in /ðə kɑːr ɪz dɜːti/. This is called
the linking /r/.

SEMI VOWELS

Within the approximants, there are two very special consonant sounds called semivowels,
because there is no touching of the articulators, but only approximation. In terms of how they
are produced, they are similar to vowels; however, their behaviour within the word (usually at
the edge of the syllable) is that of a consonant.

In the labiovelar semivowel /w/, the position of the tongue is that of a close-back vowel, with
the lips rounded. The narrowing of articulators is produced at the bilabial and velar places.
Examples in initial position: /waɪn/, /wɔːk/; not in initial position: /ˈkwɪkli/, /ˈkwestʃən/

In the palatal semivowel /j/, the position of the tongue is that of a close-front vowel, with the
front of the tongue close to the hard palate. Examples in initial position: /jes/, /jɪə/, /ˈjeləʊ/, /juːz/;
not in initial position: /fjuː/, /prəˈdjuːs/, /ˈbjuːtɪfl/

NASALS

Nasal consonants are produced when the velum is lowered so the air escapes through the
nose, giving the sound the special resonance provided by the naso-pahryngeal cavity. In the
English systems, there are three nasal phonemes: the bilabial /m/, the alveolar /n/, and
the velar/ŋ/. They are all voiced sounds and the are not in opposition (neither fortis nor
lenis)

Check the spelling for the velar/ŋ/. There is a combination of <nk> such as in think /θɪŋk/ or a
combination of <ng>, such as in song /sɒŋ/, or the suffix -ing /ɪŋ/ e.g. /ˈwɔːkɪŋ/, /ˈswɪmɪŋ/. In the
case of the latter, the plosive velar is muted,