TOPICS COVERED

 Phonetics-definition and types

 Pronunciation
 Consonant and vowel sounds-monophthongs and diphthongs
 IPA
 Consonant clusters
 Word stress and types
 Transcription
 Intonation
 Word formation

PHONETICS
Phonetics studies speech sounds from different viewpoints and is broken
down into three categories that are studied in linguistics:

 Articulatory phonetics: the production of speech sounds

 Acoustic phonetics: the physical way speech sounds travel
 Auditory phonetics: the way people perceive speech sounds

Articulatory phonetics

The study of how humans use their speech organs to produce specific
sounds.
Articulatory phonetics is concerned with the way sounds are created and
aims to explain how we move our speech organs (articulators) to
produce certain sounds. Generally speaking, articulatory phonetics looks
at how aerodynamic energy (airflow through the vocal tract) is transformed
into acoustic energy (sound).

Humans can produce sound simply by expelling air from the lungs;
however, we can produce (and pronounce) a large number of different
sounds by moving and manipulating our speech organs (articulators).

Our speech organs are:

 Lips
 Teeth
 Tongue
 Palate
  Uvula (the teardrop-shaped soft tissue that hangs at the back of
your throat)
 Nasal and oral cavities
 Vocal cords

Pronunciation in phonetics
Usually, two speech organs make contact with each other to affect the
airflow and create a sound. The point where the two speech organs make
the most contact is named the place of articulation. The way in which
the contact forms and then releases is named the manner of articulation.

Let's look at the [p] sound as an example.

To produce the [p] sound, we join our lips together tightly (place of
articulation). This causes a slight build-up of air, which is then released
when the lips part (manner of articulation), creating a burst of sound
associated with the letter P in English.
In English, there are two main sounds we
create: consonants and vowels.

Consonants are speech sounds created by the partial or total closure of

the vocal tract. In contrast, vowels are speech sounds produced
without stricture in the vocal tract (meaning the vocal tract is open and
the air can escape without generating a fricative or plosive sound).

Let's take a closer look at the production of consonant and vowel sounds

Consonants
“A consonant is a speech sound which is pronounced by stopping the air
from flowing easily through the mouth, especially by closing the lips or
touching the teeth with the tongue”.

(Cambridge Advanced Learner’s Dictionary)

The study of the production of consonant sounds can be divided into three
areas: voice, place of articulation, and manner of articulation.

Voice
In articulatory phonetics, voice refers to the presence or absence of
vibration of the vocal cords.

There are two types of sound:

  Voiceless sounds - These are made when the air passes through
the vocal folds, with no vibration during the production of sounds,
like [s] as in sip.
 Voiced sounds - These are made when the air passes through the
vocal folds, with vibration during the production of sounds like [z] as
in zip.
Practice! - Put your hand on your throat and make the [s] and [z] sounds
in succession. Which one produces the vibration?
Place of Articulation
The place of articulation refers to the point where the construction of
airflow takes place.

There are seven different types of sounds based on the place of

articulation:

 Bilabial - Sounds produced with both lips, such as [p], [b], [m].
 Labiodentals - Sounds produced with the upper teeth and the lower
lip, such as [f] and [v].
 Interdental - Sounds produced with the tongue in between the
upper and lower teeth, such as [θ] (the 'th' sound in think).
 Alveolar - Sounds produced with the tongue at or near the ridge
right behind upper front teeth, such as [t], [d], [s].
 Palatal - Sounds produced at the hard palate or the roof of the
mouth, such as [j], [ʒ] (measure), [ʃ] (should).
 Velars - Sounds produced at the velum or soft palate, such as [k]
and [g].
 Glottals - Sounds produced at the glottis or the space between the
vocal folds, such as [h] or the glottal stop sound [ʔ] (as in uh-oh).

Manner of Articulation
Manner of articulation examines the arrangement and interaction between
the articulators (speech organs) during the production of speech sounds..

In phonetics, speech sounds can be divided into five different types based
on the manner of articulation.

 Plosive (aka stops) - sounds made by the obstruction and release

of the air stream from the lungs. Plosive sounds are harsh sounds,
such as [p, t, k, b, d, g].
  Fricative - sounds formed when two articulators come close but
don't touch, forming a small gap in the vocal tract. Since the airflow
is obstructed, this small gap generates audible friction, such as [f, v,
z, ʃ, θ].
 Affricate sounds - these sounds are the result of plosive and
fricative sounds happening in rapid succession. For example, the
affricate [tʃ] represents [t] plus [ʃ], just as the affricate [dʒ] results
from [d] plus [ʒ]. The first of these is unvoiced and the second is
voiced.

 Nasal sounds - produced when the air passes through the nasal
cavity instead of out through the mouth, such as [m, n, ŋ].
 Approximant - sounds made with partial obstruction of the airflow
from the mouth. This means some sounds are coming out of the
nose and some from the mouth, such as [l, ɹ, w, j].

Vowels
“A vowel is a speech sound produced when the breath flows out through
the mouth without being blocked by the teeth, tongue, or lips”.

(Cambridge Learner’s Dictionary)

Linguists describe vowel sounds according to three criteria: Height,
Backness and Roundness.

Height
Height refers to how high or low the tongue is in the mouth when
producing a vowel. For example, consider the vowel sounds, [ɪ] (as in sit)
and [a] (as in cat). If you say both of these vowels in succession, you
should feel your tongue going up and down.

In terms of height, vowels are either considered: high vowels,

mid vowels, or low vowels.

 [ɪ] as in bit is an example of a high vowel.

 [ɛ] as in bed is an example of a mid vowel.
 [ɑ] as in hot is an example of a low vowel.
Backness
Backness focuses on the horizontal movement of the tongue. Consider
the two vowels [ɪ] (as in sit) and [u] (as in umbrella) and pronounce them
one after the other. Your tongue should be
moving forward and backwards.

In terms of backness,vowels are either considered: front vowels, central

vowels, or back vowels.

 [i:] as in feel, is an example of a front vowel.

 [ə] as in again, is an example of a central vowel.
 [u:] as in boot, is an example of a back vowel.

Roundedness
Roundedness refers to whether or not the lips
are rounded or unrounded when producing the vowel sound. When we
pronounce rounded vowels, our lips are open and extended to some
degree. An example of a rounded vowel is [ʊ] as in put.

When we pronounce unrounded vowels, our lips are spread and the
corners of the mouth are pulled back to some degree. An example of an
unrounded vowel is [ɪ] as in bit.

Phonetic sounds and symbols

To transcribe phonetic sounds into symbols, we use the International

Phonetic Alphabet.

The International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA) is a system for representing

phonetic sounds (phones) with symbols. It helps us transcribe and analyse
speech sounds.
The International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA) was developed by the language
teacher Paul Passy in 1888 and is a system of phonetic symbols based
primarily on Latin script. The chart was initially developed as a way of
accurately representing speech sounds.

The IPA aims to represent all qualities of speech and sounds present in
language, including phones, phonemes, intonation, gaps between sounds,
and syllables. The IPA symbols consist of letter-like symbols, diacritics,
or both.

The IPA was created to help describe sounds (phones), not phonemes;
however, the chart is often used for phonemic transcription. The IPA itself
is big. Therefore, when studying the English language, we would most
likely use a phonemic chart (based on the IPA), which only represents the
44 English phonemes.

Did you know that British English has:

26 letters (A-Z)
✪ 5 vowels
✪ 21 consonants

44 pronunciation sounds
✪ 20 vowels sounds
✪ 24 consonant sounds

Syllables

Vowels can be monophthongs, diphthongs or triphthongs. To

understand these terms you must first understand what a syllable is,
and the best way to explain that is with an example.

Say each of these words to yourself:

 Mouse (1 syllable)
 Rabbit (2 syllables)
  Kangaroo (3 syllables)
 Barracuda (4 syllables)
 Hippopotamus (5 syllables)

As you can hear, a syllable is a 'unit of pronunciation'. If we say that a

word has one syllable or two syllables, that says something about the
rhythmic character of the word.
Monophthongs, Diphthongs & Triphthongs

Now that you understand what a syllable is we can look at monophthongs

and diphthongs. A monophthong is where there is one vowel sound in a
syllable, and a diphthong is where there are two vowel sounds in a
syllable.

Say the word ‘funny’ out-loud. As you can hear, in ‘funny’ we have two
vowel sounds –
ʌ and i – divided into two syllables by the consonant sound n. So we can
say that ‘funny’ contains two monophthongs: ʌ and i.

Now say the word ‘guy’. Here we have the same two vowel sounds but
this time they are stuck together in one syllable, without any consonant
dividing them. So we can say that ‘guy’ contains one diphthong: ʌi. To put
it simply: a monophthong is a single vowel and a diphthong is a double
vowel.

A monophthong is where there is one vowel sound in a syllable, and a

diphthong is where there are two vowel sounds in a syllable.
Let’s look at another example: the word ‘behind’. Here we have three
vowel sounds: ə, ʌ and i. The ə is on its own, separated from the other
two vowel sounds by the consonant sound h. However the ʌ and i are
stuck together to make a double vowel, ʌi, which is the same diphthong in
the word ‘guy’. So the word ‘behind’ has three basic vowel sounds divided
into two syllables, the first of which contains a monophthong, ə, and the
second of which contains a diphthong, ʌi: bəhʌind.

In English we also have a couple of triple vowels called triphthongs, such

as in the word ‘fire’, which has three vowels ʌ, ɪ and ə stuck together in
one syllable: fʌɪə.

All the 24 vowel sounds are derived from only ten basic sounds. Every
single word in English, regardless of its spelling, is pronounced using
some combination of these ten sounds.

These ten basic sounds are: ɑː əː æː ɛː iː ɪ ʊː ʊ ɔː ɒ

CONSONANT CLUSTER
A consonant cluster is when two consonants are positioned together.
They can appear at the start of a word, for example:
st in stay
fr in friend
cr in croak
Or at the end of a word:

sk in task
st in fast
nt in went
nd in sound

WORD STRESS
Word stress, also called lexical stress, is an important suprasegmental feature
in English because it determines so many other aspects of pronunciation.
Definition
Word stress is the emphasis placed on certain syllables in a word. The
Syllables that are stressed tend to be louder and longer, while the
unstressed syllables are shorter and softer. Each word in English is not
pronounced with the same amount of force or vigor. We emphasize just
one syllable every word. We pronounce one syllable (large, strong,
important) quite loudly and all the other syllables very softly.
Type
There are three types of word stress: primary, secondary, and tertiary.

 Primary stress is the strongest form of stress and is placed on the

first syllable of a word. For example, the word "record" is stressed
on the first syllable: RE-cord.
 Secondary stress is not as strong as primary stress, but is still
noticeable. It is placed on the second syllable of a word. For
example, the word "present" is stressed on the second syllable:
pre-SENT.
 Tertiary stress is the weakest form of stress and is placed on the
third syllable of a word. For example, the word "photograph" is
stressed on the third syllable: pho-TO-graph.

There are many factors that can influence where the stress falls in a
word. For example, the addition of suffixes or prefixes can change the
position of the stress.
‍
Examples of Word Stress
Here are some examples of words with different stresses:
PRIMARY STRESS: RE-cord, con-TRACT, ob-JECT
SECONDARY STRESS: pre-SENT, com-MIT, per-MIT
TERTIARY STRESS: pho-TO-graph, bus-I-ness, in-FANT
INTONATION
In linguistics, intonation is the variation in pitch used to indicate the
speaker's attitudes and emotions, to highlight or focus an expression, to
signal the illocutionary act performed by a sentence, or to regulate the
flow of discourse. For example, the English question "Does Maria speak
Spanish or French?" is interpreted as a yes-or-no question when it is
uttered with a single rising intonation contour, but is interpreted as
an alternative question when uttered with a rising contour on "Spanish"
and a falling contour on "French". Although intonation is primarily a
matter of pitch variation, its effects almost always work hand-in-hand
with other prosodic features. Intonation is distinct from tone, the
phenomenon where pitch is used to distinguish words (as in Mandarin)
or to mark grammatical features (as in Kinyarwanda).
Transcription
Most transcription conventions have been devised for describing one
particular accent or language, and the specific conventions therefore
need to be explained in the context of what is being described. However,
for general purposes the International Phonetic Alphabet offers the two
intonation marks shown in the box at the head of this article. Global
rising and falling intonation are marked with a diagonal arrow rising left-
to-right [↗︎] and falling left-to-right [↘︎], respectively. These may be
written as part of a syllable, or separated with a space when they have a
broader scope:

He found it on the street?

[hiː ˈfaʊnd ɪt ɒn ðə ↗︎ˈstɹiːt ‖]
Here the rising pitch on street indicates that the question hinges
on that word, on where he found it, not whether he found it.

Yes, he found it on the street.

[↘︎ˈjɛs ‖ hi ˈfaʊnd ɪt ɒn ðə ↘︎ˈstɹiːt ‖]
How did you ever escape?
[↗︎ˈhaʊ dɪdjuː ˈɛvɚ ə↘︎ˈskeɪp ‖]
Here, as is common with wh- questions, there is a
rising intonation on the question word, and a falling
intonation at the end of the question.

In many descriptions of English, the following

intonation patterns are distinguished:

 Rising Intonation means the pitch of the voice rises

over time.
 Falling Intonation means that the pitch falls with
time.
 Dipping or Fall-rise Intonation falls and then rises.
 Peaking or Rise-fall Intonation rises and then falls.
What Is Word Formation?
The English language is known for its wonderful quality of the way in
which words and sentences are formed and used. Formation of new
words from an existing root word by adding a syllable or another word is
the general process; however, there are multiple ways in which it can be
done.

Types of Word Formation with Examples

The formation of words is classified into four types based on how the
process of formation is carried out. They are:

 By adding prefixes
 By adding suffixes
 Converting from one word class to another
 Forming compound words
Adding Prefixes
The term ‘prefix’ refers to one or more alphabets added to the stem of a
word, mostly to make it negative. The most commonly used prefixes
include ‘in-’, ‘un-’, ‘dis-’, ‘im-’, ‘ir-’, etc. Look at the examples given below
for a clearer understanding of how prefixes are used to form new words.

Examples of Word Formation by the Addition of Prefixes

 Discipline – indiscipline
 Just – unjust
 Tidy – untidy
 Respect – disrespect
 Understand – misunderstand

Adding Suffixes
A suffix is a short syllable added at the end of a base word. The addition
of suffixes usually changes the word class of the particular word. The
most common suffixes include ‘-ment’, ‘-ness’, ‘-ity’, ‘-ous’, ‘-tion’, ‘-sion’,
‘-al’, ‘-able’, ‘-ible’, ‘-ive’, ‘-ly’, ‘-ate’, ‘-er’, ‘-or’, etc. Check out the
following examples to see how suffixes are added.

Examples of Word Formation by the Addition of Suffixes

 Comprehend (verb) – comprehension (noun) – comprehensible

(adjective)
 Inform (verb) – information (noun) – informative (adjective)
 Invest (verb) – Investment (noun) – Investor (noun)
 Write (verb) – writer (noun)

Conversion
The process of conversion focuses solely on changing the word class of
the particular word. If you have noticed, you would have seen how some
nouns are used to perform the role of a verb or an adjective acting like
a noun just by the addition of another word or slightly altering the
spelling of the actual word.
Examples of Word Formation by Conversion

 The rich should help the poor.

Adjectives such as ‘rich’ and ‘poor’ are used as nouns by using them
with the article ‘the’.

 Everyone is talented.
‘Talented’ – a past participle is used as an adjective in the above
sentence. The word is formed by adding the suffix ‘ed’ to the end of the
noun ‘talent’.

Forming Compound Words

Compound words are formed by combining one part of speech with
another to form a specific word class. There are many ways in which
compound words are formed. Verbs are combined with adjectives to
form compound verbs, a present participle is combined with a noun to
form a compound noun, two nouns are combined to form a compound
noun, an adjective and a noun are combined to form a compound noun,
an adverb is combined with a noun to form a compound noun, an
adjective is combined with a past participle to form a compound
adjective and so on. Take a look at the following examples and go
through the articles on compound nouns, compound
words and compound adjectives to understand how they work.

Examples of Word Formation by Compounding

 Over (adverb) + load (noun) – Overload

 White (adjective) + wash (verb) – Whitewash
 Black (adjective) + board (noun ) – Blackboard
 Cup (noun) + board (noun) – Cupboard