PHONETICS

44 phonemes in the English language

24 consonants
20 vowels
Vowel sounds
There is a gap between the articulators
Air flows freely and continuously
There is no audible friction
Vowels are compulsory elements of syllables, some words have only the vowel sound
such as ear, air, eye

Consonant sounds
In the production of approximately two-thirds of English sounds, the air stream is
obstructed in the throat or in the vocal tract before it leaves the body. These sounds are
called the consonants.
There is some constriction or closure of the air stream.
Consonants are optional in a syllable. A single-syllable word can have just a vowel
sound, but cannot have just a consonant sound.
Exception is onomatopoeic words like ssh to indicate silence
 How do you differentiate one phoneme from another?

 State of vocal cords, i.e is a sound voiced or voiceless

 The place of articulation
 The manner of articulation
 State of vocal cords

All sounds are produced by an egressive pulmonic air-stream that passes through the glottis which is the space
between the vocal folds.

If the glottis is narrow, i.e, the vocal folds are together, the air stream forces its way through and causes the vocal
folds to vibrate. Sounds produced in this way are voiced. The vocal cords give volume to the sounds when they
vibrate. These sounds are louder.

All vowel sounds are voiced. Vowel sounds are produced with the vocal folds vibrating.

If the glottis is wide open, i.e., if the vocal cords are apart, the air passes through without causing the vocal folds
to vibrate. Sounds produced in this manner are called voiceless. These sounds are quieter.
 Unvoiced consonants

Voiceless sounds are made with more force. This is called fortis articulation.

p f ɵ t s ʃ ʧ k h

Pea Free thing tree see sheep cheese cat Hope

Voiced consonants

Voiced sounds are usually made with a relatively weak breath force. This is called a lenis
articulation

b v ð d z ʒ ʤ g

Boat Video this dog zoo vision joke go

m n ŋ w l r j
.When we whisper, we make all sounds voiceless because we do not use our vocal cords.

Vowels are said to be devoiced when the vocal folds do not vibrate. This happens when

 We whisper

 When vowels are unstressed. Eg. Give me a moment.

When the glottis is closed, that is, the vocal folds are firmly closed together and the air stream is closed
completely for a brief moment before being released. Such glottal closure can produce only one sound called
the glottal stop or glottal plosive. This is of little importance in the Received Pronunciation of English.

Eg. Uh-oh, mountain, important, bottle, butter

 Place of articulation
 The place of articulation names the speech organs that are involved in the production of a particular
sound, or it is the point at which articulation is made.

PLACE OF ARTICULATION OF CONSONANTS

 To produce a consonant sound, there is

a. One active, mobile articulator that moves and makes contact with

b. A passive, immobile articulator

The place of articulation is the location in the vocal tract where the articulators come together and form a constriction
of the air flow.

There are 13 possible places of articulation in the languages of the world, but not all of them are utilised in English.
1. Bilabial sounds are made with both lips. i.e the articulators are the lips. /p/, /b/ and /m/

2. Labiodental sounds are produced by a movement of the lower lip against the upper teeth. /f/, /v/.

3. Dental/interdental sounds are made with the tongue tip against the upper teeth, or the rims between
the upper and lower teeth. /ɵ/, /ð/.

4. Alveolar sounds are made when the tongue tip is raised (/s/, /z/) to or touches (/t/, /d/, /n/, /l/) the
alveolar ridge or the bony ridge behind the upper teeth.

5. Post-alveolar are made when the tongue tip comes near or touches the rear of the alveolar ridge. /r/

Retroflex: the tongue tip comes is curled backwards near or touches the rear of the alveolar ridge
American /r/
6. Alveo-palatal/Palato-alveolar sounds are made when the tongue tip touches the alveolar ridge with a
simultaneous raising of the blade of the tongue towards the hard palate. /ʧ/, /ʤ/, /ʃ/ /ʒ/

7. Palatal sounds are produced when the body or the middle part of the tongue comes near or touches
the hard palate. /j/

8. Velar sounds are made by placing the back of the tongue against the soft palate or the velum. /k/,
/g/, /ŋ/. The place of articulation for the consonant sound /w/ is the labialized velar. This is because
the sound is produced with both lips rounded (labial) but the back of the tongue moves toward the
soft palate (velar).

9. Glottal sounds are made when air passes through the glottis/the space between the vocal cords. /h/ /ʔ/
Manner of articulation

The manner of articulation refers mainly to the type of closure of the articulators involved or the degree to which the air stream is obstructed at the place of
articulation of the consonants. It therefore refers to the kind of constriction of air that occurs.

 There are 6 manners of articulation.

1. Plosives or stops: are sounds for which the speaker makes a complete closure at some point, in the vocal tract, builds up pressure while the closure is held,
and then releases the air explosively through the mouth. /p/, /t/, /k/ /b/, /d/, /g/

2. Fricatives: Air is forced through a very narrow gap between two speech organs, thereby producing audible friction. /f/, /ɵ/, /s/, /ʃ/, /h/, /v/, / ð/, /z/, /ʒ/

3. Affricates: The first element of this sound is a plosive. The air is released slowly enough to produce friction, which causes a hissing sound. A plosive
followed by a fricative, /ʧ/,/ʤ/

4. Nasals: There is a complete closure of the vocal tract and air escapes through the nose. /m/, /n/, /ŋ/

5. Approximants: are made with a wider gap between the articulators than in the case of the fricatives. The gap is not narrow enough to make the air friction
audible. Approximants are between fricatives and vowel sounds. /r/, /l/

6. Glides: There is very little obstruction of the airstream, and this consonant sound is always followed by a vowel sound. These are transitional sounds and
the articulators move during production. /j/, /w/

 With regards to 5 and 6, some linguists place all phonemes into the category of Approximants as such:

1. Glides (semi-vowels) /j/, /w/

2. Liquids as the air flows out on either side of tongue /l/, /r/
Single vowels or monopthongs Dipthongs
Short vowels Long vowels
/ɪ/ ship, fish , dish, /ıː/ sheep, seat, three, /eɪ/ day,
finish feed train
/ə/ person, bonus, /ɜː/ bird, third, girl, /aɪ/ tight,
England nurse cry
/e/ egg, red, bed, /ɔɪ/ boy,
said noise
/æ/ cat, had, /ɔː/ horse, walk, /əʊ/ go, vote
matter door /aʊ/ mouth
/ɒ/ on, hot, clock, /uː/ shoot, food, /ɪə/ ear,
stop pool career
/ʊ/ full, /aː/ star, car, palm, /eə/ air,
book, pull dark where
/ʌ/ funny, sun, cup, /ʊə/ poor,
love furious
Vowels
 Vowels do not have a place of articulation because there is no obstruction of air.
 There is no point where the tongue touches other parts of the mouth to obstruct air as in the case of
consonant sounds.
 They are produced in an open vocal tract, making it difficult to determine their specific point of
production. Instead they are described by their relative positions to other vowel sounds in the vocal
tract.

Front Centre Back

 Vowels are traditionally specified or classified in terms of
i: u
Close
:
 Tongue position
ɪ ʊ
 Tongue position can be described in terms of two axes:
Close-mid
 front-centre-back ə
 High-mid-low/ open-close
Open-mid e ɜː ʌ ɔː

 Position of lips æ
Open ɒ
The lips can assume spread, neutral or rounded positions aː
Tongue position (front, central, back): refers to the part of the tongue that is raised highest.

i. If the front of the tongue is raised the highest, it is a front vowel.

ii. If the back of the tongue is raised the highest, it is a back vowel.

iii. If the centre of the tongue is raised the highest, it is a central vowel.

Closeness/openness or tongue height (high, mid, low): This refers to the distance between the tongue and the palate
Front and the position ofBack
Centre the lower
jaw.
i u
Close
iv. If the tongue is high, the vowel is a close vowel. : :
v. If the tongue is low, it is an open vowel. ɪ ʊ
Close-
vi. If the tongue is in a mid-high position, it is a close-mid/ half-close vowel
mid
vii. If the tongue is in a mid-low position, it is an open-mid/half-open vowel
ə
viii. If the tongue is in between the mid-high and mid-low position, Open- e ɜ ʌ ɔː
mid
it is simply called a mid-vowel. ː
æ
Open ɒ
a
ː