COURSE SYLLABUS PHOBH51 & MORBH51
ENGLISH PHONETICS & PHONOLOGY
WEEK
TITLE
1
Lesson 1: Introduction
2
Lesson 2: The Organs of Speech
3
Lesson 3: English Consonants
Assignment 1
4
Lesson 4: English vowels & diphthongs
5
Lesson 5: Phonological analysis
6
Lesson 6: Syllable Structure
Assignment 2
7
Lesson 7: Adjustments in connected speech
8
Lesson 8: Weak forms
9
Lesson 9: Stress
10
Lesson 10: Intonation
Assignment 3
ENGLISH MORPHOLOGY
WEEK
TITLE
11
I. Introduction
II. Identifying Morphemes and Allomorphs
III. Free and Bound Morphemes
12
IV. Word Structure
V. Word Formation
VI. Derivation
VII. CompoundingTIME
19.01.2015
26.01.2015
02.02.2015
09.02.2015
16.02.2015
23.02.2015
02.03.2015
09.03.2015
16.03.2015
23.03.2015
TIME
30.03.2015 06.04.2015 QUY ĐỊNH VỀ TÍNH ĐIỂM THAM GIA THẢO LUẬN
HỌC PHẦN: NGỮ ÂM HỌC (B1 & B2)
Nhằm tăng cường tính tích cực của học viên khi tham gia chương trình đào tạo trực tuyến cũng như có căn cứ chính xác hơn trong
đánh giá kết quả học tập, Đại học Đà Nẵng sẽ triển khai việc tính điểm tham gia mục Thảo luận (Discussion) từ các học kỳ bắt đầu
vào tháng 01.2015. Nội dung và yêu cầu cụ thể như sau:
1. Cách thực hiện:
- Đầu kỳ mới, CCE gửi kế hoạch học kỳ kèm lưu ý học phần có tính điểm thảo luận.
- HV xem kỹ Course Syllabus các học phần trong học kỳ để biết rõ yêu cầu của học phần có tính điểm thảo luận.
- HV đăng nhập vào học phần, vào Discussion trên Menu bên trái màn hình, tham gia thảo luận bằng cách tự tạo chủ đề mới hoặc trao
đổi về chủ đề học viên cùng lớp đã tạo sẵn.
- Thời hạn đăng bài trong Discussion: trước ngày thi kết thúc học phần.
2. Cách tính điểm:
- Mỗi bài đăng có nội dung cụ thể được tính 2 điểm. Điểm tối đa cho tổng số lần đăng là 10 điểm.
- Giá trị điểm thảo luận:
• Được tính như điều kiện cần để hoàn thành học phần.
• Tổng điểm thảo luận được tính như điểm của 1 bài kiểm tra giữa kỳ (tương đương 1 bài Unit Assignment).
- Các bài kiểm tra giữa kỳ gồm:
• Các bài Unit Assignment
• Điểm thảo luận
- Kết quả cuối học phần:
Điểm TB KT giữa kỳ x 30% + Điểm thi cuối kỳ x 70%
Rất mong toàn thể HV lưu ý thực hiện. LESSON 1: INTRODUCTION
Phonetics and phonology
Two terms are (often loosely) used to refer to linguistic
disciplines studying that part of the linguistic sign which de
Saussure called the acoustic image: phonetics and phonology.
The importance of sounds as vehicles of meaning is
something people have been aware of for thousands of years.
However, systematic studies on the speech sounds only
appeared with the development of modern sciences. The
term phonetics used in connection with such studies comes
from Greek and its origins can be traced back to the Ngữ âm học và âm vị học
Hai thuật ngữ này (thường lỏng lẻo) được dùng để chỉ các
ngành ngôn ngữ học là một phần của các dấu hiệu ngôn ngữ
mà de Saussure gọi là hình ảnh âm thanh: ngữ âm học và âm
vị học. Tầm quan trọng của âm thanh như xe của ý nghĩa là
một cái gì đó mọi người đã nhận thức cho hàng ngàn năm.
Tuy nhiên, các nghiên cứu có hệ thống về các bài phát biểu
của âm thanh chỉ xuất hiện với sự phát triển của khoa học hiện
đại. Ngữ âm ngữ được sử dụng trong kết nối với các nghiên
cứu như vậy xuất phát từ tiếng Hy Lạp và nguồn gốc của nó verb phōnein, to speak, in its turn related to phōnē, sound. The
end of the 18th century witnessed a revival of the interest in
the studying of the sounds of various languages and the
introduction of the term phonology. The latter comes to be,
however, distinguished from the former only more than a
century later with the development of structuralism which
emphasizes the essential contrastive role of classes of sounds
which are labeled phonemes. The terms continue to be used,
however, indiscriminately until the prestige of phonology as a
distinct discipline is finally established in the first half of the
20th century.
Though there is no universally accepted point of view about a
clear-cut border line between the respective domains
of phonetics and phonology as, indeed, we cannot talk about a
phonological system ignoring the phonetic aspects it involves
and, on the other hand, any phonetic approach should take
into account the phonological system that is represented by any language, most linguists will agree about some
fundamental distinctions between the two. có thể được truy trở lại phōnein động từ, để nói chuyện, đến
lượt nó liên quan đến điện thoại, âm thanh. Sự kết thúc của thế
kỷ 18 đã chứng kiến một sự hồi sinh của sự quan tâm trong
việc học tập của các âm thanh của ngôn ngữ khác nhau và sự
ra đời của âm vị học kỳ. Sau đó đến được, tuy nhiên, để phân
biệt với cựu chỉ hơn một thế kỷ sau đó với sự phát triển của
cấu trúc trong đó nhấn mạnh vai trò thiết yếu đối chiếu của
các lớp học của các âm thanh có nhãn ghi âm vị. Các điều
khoản tiếp tục được sử dụng, tuy nhiên, một cách bừa bãi cho
đến uy tín của âm vị học như một môn học riêng biệt cuối
cùng cũng được thành lập vào nửa đầu của thế kỷ 20.
Mặc dù không có điểm giới chấp nhận quan điểm về một
đường biên giới rõ ràng giữa các lĩnh vực tương ứng về ngữ
âm học và âm vị học như, thực sự, chúng ta không thể nói về
một hệ thống âm vị bỏ qua các khía cạnh ngữ âm nó liên quan
và, mặt khác, bất kỳ âm cách tiếp cận nên đưa vào tài khoản
các hệ thống âm vị đó được đại diện bởi bất kỳ ngôn ngữ,
ngôn ngữ học nhất sẽ đồng ý về một số khác biệt cơ bản giữa
hai người. Phonetics
Phonetics is the scientific study of speech. The central
concerns in phonetics are the discovery of how speech sounds
are produced, how they are used in spoken language, how we
can record speech sounds with written symbols and how we
hear and recognise different sounds.
In the first of these areas, when we study the production of speech sounds we can observe what speakers do (articulatory
observation) and we can try to feel what is going on inside our
vocal tract (kinaesthetic observation).
The second area is where phonetics overlaps with phonology:
usually in phonetics we are only interested in sounds that are
used in meaningful speech, and phoneticians are interested in
discovering the range and variety of sounds used in this way
in all the known languages of the world. This is sometimes
known as linguistic phonetics.
Thirdly, there has always been a need for agreed conventions
for using phonetic symbols that represent speech sounds; the
International Phonetic Association has played a very
important role in this.
Finally, the auditory aspect of speech is very important: the
ear is capable of making fine discrimination between different
sounds, and sometimes it is not possible to define in
articulatory terms precisely what the difference is. A good
example of this is in vowel classification: while it is important
to know the position and shape of the tongue and lips, it is
often very important to have been trained in an agreed set of
standard auditory qualities that vowels can be reliably related
to (other important branches of phonetics are experimental,
instrumental and acoustic). Ngữ âm học
Ngữ âm học là nghiên cứu khoa học của các bài phát biểu.
Các mối quan tâm trung tâm trong ngữ âm là những khám phá
về cách âm nói được sản xuất, làm thế nào chúng được sử
dụng trong ngôn ngữ nói, làm thế nào chúng ta có thể ghi lại
âm thanh tiếng nói với các ký hiệu văn bản và làm thế nào chúng ta nghe và nhận ra âm thanh khác nhau.
Trong lần đầu tiên của các khu vực này, khi chúng ta nghiên
cứu việc sản xuất âm thanh tiếng nói chúng ta có thể quan sát
những gì diễn giả làm (cấu âm quan sát) và chúng ta có thể cố
gắng để cảm thấy những gì đang xảy ra bên trong thanh quản
của chúng tôi (quan sát kinaesthetic).
Khu vực thứ hai là nơi mà ngữ âm trùng với âm vị học:
thường trong ngữ âm học, chúng tôi chỉ quan tâm đến âm
thanh được sử dụng trong bài phát biểu có ý nghĩa, và ngữ âm
học quan tâm đến việc khám phá ra nhiều và đa dạng của âm
thanh được sử dụng theo cách này trong tất cả các ngôn ngữ
tiếng thế giới; . Điều này đôi khi được gọi là ngữ âm học ngôn
ngữ.
Thứ ba, có luôn luôn là một nhu cầu cho các hội nghị đồng ý
cho sử dụng ký hiệu ngữ âm mà đại diện cho âm thanh tiếng
nói; Hiệp hội phiên âm quốc tế đã đóng một vai trò rất quan
trọng trong việc này.
Cuối cùng, các khía cạnh âm thanh của lời nói là rất quan
trọng: tai là có khả năng làm phân biệt đối xử tốt đẹp giữa âm
thanh khác nhau, và đôi khi nó không thể định nghĩa về cấu
âm chính xác những gì là sự khác biệt. Một ví dụ điển hình
của việc này là trong phân loại nguyên âm: trong khi điều
quan trọng là phải biết vị trí và hình dạng của lưỡi và môi, nó
thường là rất quan trọng để có được đào tạo trong một tập hợp
thống nhất về phẩm chất thanh tiêu chuẩn mà nguyên âm có
thể liên quan đáng tin cậy để (ngành quan trọng khác về ngữ
âm là thử nghiệm, nhạc cụ và âm thanh).
Phát âm học
Các hoạt động cơ bản nhất trong âm vị học là phân tích ngữ
âm, trong đó mục tiêu là để thiết lập những gì các âm vị là và đến hàng tồn kho âm vị của ngôn ngữ. Rất ít nhà âm vị học đã
từng tin rằng đây sẽ là một phân tích đầy đủ của hệ thống âm
thanh của một ngôn ngữ: nó là cần thiết để vượt qua được điều
này. Người ta có thể nhìn vào suprasegmental âm vị học nghiên cứu căng thẳng, nhịp điệu và ngữ điệu, mà đã dẫn
trong những năm gần đây với các phương pháp mới để âm vị
học như lý thuyết metrical và đoạn tự động; ai có thể vượt qua
được những âm vị và nhìn vào các đặc tính chi tiết của từng
đơn vị về tính năng đặc biệt; cách thức mà âm thanh có thể kết
hợp trong một ngôn ngữ được nghiên cứu trong kết âm học và
trong việc phân tích các cấu trúc âm tiết. Đối với một số âm vị
học các lĩnh vực quan trọng nhất là mối quan hệ giữa các âm
vị khác nhau - làm thế nào chúng hình thành các nhóm, bản Phonology
The most basic activity in phonology is phonemic analysis, in
which the objective is to establish what the phonemes are and
arrive at the phonemic inventory of the language. Very few
phonologists have ever believed that this would be an
adequate analysis of the sound system of a language: it is
necessary to go beyond this. One can look at suprasegmental
phonology - the study of stress, rhythm and intonation, which
has led in recent years to new approaches to phonology such
as metrical and autosegmental theory; one can go beyond the
phoneme and look into the detailed characteristics of each unit
in terms of distinctive features; the way in which sounds can
combine in a language is studied in phonotactics and in the
analysis of syllable structure. For some phonologists the most
important area is the relationships between the different
phonemes - how they form groups, the nature of the oppositions between them and how those oppositions may be
neutralised. chất của sự đối lập giữa họ và làm thế nào những người đối
lập có thể được vô hiệu hóa. LESSON 2: THE ORGANS OF SPEECH
Glossary:
In addition to their normal names, many of the parts of the
organs of speech have fancy names derived from Latin and
Greek. The adjectives we use to describe sounds made with each
part are usually based on the Latin/Greek name. Ngoài cái tên bình thường của họ, nhiều người trong số các bộ
phận của cơ quan ngôn luận có những cái tên ưa thích bắt nguồn
từ tiếng Latin và tiếng Hy Lạp. Các tính từ chúng tôi sử dụng để
mô tả âm thanh được thực hiện từng phần thường được dựa trên
tên Latin / Hy Lạp. In phonetics, the terms velum, pharynx, larynx, and dorsum are
used as often or more often than the simpler names. Trong ngữ âm, các từ ngữ chỉ màng khẩu cái, hầu họng, thanh
quản, và mặt lưng được sử dụng thường xuyên hoặc thường
xuyên hơn so với những cái tên đơn giản hơn.
sườn núi phế nang
một khoảng cách ngắn phía sau răng hàm trên là một sự thay đổi
trong các góc của vòm miệng. (Ở một số người nó khá đột ngột,
ở những người khác rất nhẹ). Đây là những sườn núi phế nang. Âm thanh đó liên quan đến khu vực giữa răng hàm trên và sườn
núi này được gọi là alveolars.
(Hard) vòm miệng
phần cứng của vòm miệng. Thuật ngữ "khẩu vị" của chính nó
thường đề cập đến các vòm miệng cứng. Alveolar ridge
a short distance behind the upper teeth is a change in the angle of
the roof of the mouth. (In some people it's quite abrupt, in others
very slight.) This is the alveolar ridge. Sounds which involve the
area between the upper teeth and this ridge are called alveolars.
(Hard) palate
the hard portion of the roof of the mouth. The term "palate" by
itself usually refers to the hard palate. Soft palate/velum
the soft portion of the roof of the mouth, lying behind the hard
palate. The tongue hits the velum in the sounds /k/, /g/, and /ŋ/.
The velum can also move: if it lowers, it creates an opening that
allows air to flow out through the nose; if it stays raised, the
opening is blocked, and no air can flow through the nose. Soft palate / chỉ màng khẩu cái
phần mềm của vòm miệng, nằm phía sau vòm miệng cứng. Lưỡi
chạm chỉ màng khẩu cái trong các âm thanh / k /, / g / và / n /.
Các chỉ màng khẩu cái cũng có thể di chuyển: nếu nó làm giảm,
nó tạo ra một khe hở cho phép không khí thoát ra ngoài qua lỗ
mũi; nếu nó vẫn lớn lên, việc mở cửa bị khóa, và không khí có
thể lưu thông qua mũi. Uvula
the small, dangly thing at the back of the soft palate. The uvula
vibrates during the r sound in many French dialects. Lưỡi gà
bài, điều dangly nhỏ ở mặt sau của vòm miệng. Các lưỡi gà rung
trong âm r trong nhiều phương ngữ tiếng Pháp. Pharynx
the cavity between the root of the tongue and the walls of the
upper throat. Yết hầu
khoang giữa gốc của lưỡi và các bức tường của họng phía trên. Tongue blade
the flat surface of the tongue just behind the tip. Lưỡi Tongue
các bề mặt phẳng của lưỡi chỉ đứng sau đầu. Tongue body/dorsum
the main part of the tongue, lying below the hard and soft palate.
The body, specifically the back part of the body (hence
"dorsum", Latin for "back"), moves to make vowels and many
consonants.
Tongue root
the lowest part of the tongue in the throat Cơ thể Tongue / dorsum
phần chính của lưỡi, nằm bên dưới những vòm miệng cứng và
mềm. Các cơ thể, đặc biệt là phần sau của cơ thể (do đó
"dorsum", tiếng Latin "trở lại"), di chuyển để làm cho các nguyên
âm và phụ âm nhiều.
Gốc lưỡi
phần thấp nhất của lưỡi trong cổ họng Epiglottis
the fold of tissue below the root of the tongue. The epiglottis
helps cover the larynx during swallowing, making sure (usually!)
that food goes into the stomach and not the lungs. A few
languages use the epiglottis in making sounds. English is
fortunately not one of them. Tiểu thiệt
gấp của mô dưới gốc của lưỡi. Các nắp thanh quản giúp che
thanh quản trong quá trình nuốt, làm cho chắc chắn (thường!)
Thức ăn mà đi vào dạ dày và không phổi. Một vài ngôn ngữ sử
dụng trong nắp thanh quản làm cho âm thanh. Tiếng Anh là may
mắn không ai trong số họ. Vocal folds/vocal cords
folds of tissue stretched across the airway to the lungs. They can
vibrate against each other, providing much of the sound during Nếp gấp Vocal / dây thanh
nếp mô trải dài trên các đường hàng không vào phổi. Họ có thể
rung động với nhau, cung cấp nhiều của âm thanh trong bài phát speech. biểu. Glottis
the opening between the vocal cords. During a glottal stop, the
vocal cords are held
together and there is no opening between them. Cửa hầu
việc mở giữa các dây thanh âm. Trong một dừng thanh hầu, các
dây thanh âm được tổ chức
với nhau và không có mở giữa chúng. Larynx
the structure that holds and manipulates the vocal cords. The
"Adam's apple" in males is the bump formed by the front part of
the larynx. Thanh quản
các cấu trúc chứa và thao túng các dây thanh âm. Những "quả táo
của Adam" ở nam giới là những vết sưng được hình thành bởi
các phần phía trước của thanh quản. Lungs
the biological function of the lungs is to absorb oxygen from air
breathed in and to excrete carbon dioxide into the air breathed
out. From the speech point of view, their major function is to
provide the driving force that compresses the air we use for generating speech sounds. They are similar to large sponges, and
their size and shape are determined by the rib cage that surrounds
them, so that when the ribs are pressed down the lungs are
compressed and when the ribs are lifted the lungs expand and fill
with air. Although they hold a considerable amount of air
(normally several litres, though this differs greatly between
individuals) we use only a small proportion of their capacity
when speaking - we would find it very tiring if we had to fill and
empty the lungs as we spoke, and in fact it is impossible for us to
empty our lungs completely. Phổi
các chức năng sinh học của phổi là để hấp thụ oxy từ không khí
hít vào và bài tiết carbon dioxide vào không khí thở ra. Từ quan
điểm nói trên, chức năng chính của họ là cung cấp cho lực lượng
lái xe mà nén không khí chúng ta sử dụng để tạo ra âm nói.
Chúng tương tự như bọt biển lớn, và kích thước và hình dạng của
chúng được quyết định bởi khung xương sườn bao quanh họ, để
khi các xương sườn được ép xuống phổi được nén và khi các
xương sườn được nâng lên phổi mở rộng và đầy không khí. Mặc
dù họ nắm giữ một số lượng đáng kể của không khí (thường là
vài lít, mặc dù điều này khác nhau rất nhiều giữa các cá nhân),
chúng tôi chỉ sử dụng một tỷ lệ nhỏ trong khả năng của họ khi
nói - chúng ta sẽ thấy nó rất mệt mỏi nếu chúng tôi phải điền vào
và làm sạch phổi như chúng tôi đã nói chuyện , và trong thực tế
nó là không thể cho chúng tôi để có sản phẩm nào của chúng tôi
hoàn toàn phổi. Oral cavity
the part of the mouth behind the teeth and gums that is bounded above by the hard and soft palates and below by the tongue and
the mucous membrane connecting it with the inner part of the
mandible. Khoang miệng
một phần của miệng phía sau răng và nướu răng là bị chặn trên
bởi khẩu vị cứng và mềm và bên dưới của lưỡi và màng nhầy kết
nối nó với phần bên trong của hàm dưới. Nasal cavity
the cavity on either side of the nasal septum, extending from the
nose to the pharynx, and lying between the floor of the cranium
and the roof of the mouth. Khoang mũi
khoang ở hai bên của vách ngăn mũi, kéo dài từ mũi đến cổ
họng, và nằm giữa sàn của hộp sọ và vòm miệng. LESSON 3: ENGLISH CONSONANTS
Glossary:
Producing a consonant involves making the vocal tract narrower at some location than it usually is. We call this narrowing a
constriction. Which consonant you're pronouncing depends on where in the vocal tract the constriction is and how narrow it is. It also
depends on a few other things, such as whether the vocal folds are vibrating and whether air is flowing through the nose.
We classify consonants along three major dimensions:
•
• place of articulation
manner of articulation • voicing For example, for the sound d:
•
• Place of articulation = alveolar. (The narrowing of the vocal tract involves the tongue tip and the alveolar ridge.)
Manner of articulation = oral stop. (The narrowing is complete -- the tongue is completely blocking off airflow through the
mouth. There is also no airflow through the nose.) • Voicing = voiced. (The vocal folds are vibrating.) Places of articulation
The place of articulation (or POA) of a consonant specifies where in the vocal tract the narrowing occurs.
From front to back, the POAs that English uses are:
Bilabial
In a bilabial consonant, the lower and upper lips approach or touch
each other. English p, b, and m are bilabial stops.
The diagram to the right shows the state of the vocal tract during a
typical p or b. (An m would look the same, but with the velum lowered to
let out through the nasal passages.)
The sound w involves two constrictions of the vocal tract made
simultaneously. One of them is lip rounding, which you can think of as a
bilabial approximant.
Labiodental In a labiodental consonant, the lower lip approaches or touches the
upper teeth. English f and v are bilabial fricatives. The diagram to the right shows the state of the vocal tract during a
typical f or v. Dental In a dental consonant, the tip or blade of
touches the upper teeth. English θ and ð are
actually a couple of different ways of forming
• The tongue tip can approach the back
press against them so hard that the the tongue approaches or
dental fricatives. There are
these sounds:
of the upper teeth, but not
airflow is completely blocked. • The blade of the tongue can touch the bottom of the upper teeth, with the tongue tip protruding
between the teeth -- still leaving enough space for a turbulent air-stream to escape. This kind
of θ and ð is often called interdental. The diagram to the right shows a typical interdental θ or ð. Alveolar In an alveolar consonant, the tongue tip (or less often the tongue blade)
approaches or touches the alveolar ridge, the ridge immediately behind the
upper teeth. The English stops t, d, and n are formed by completely
blocking the airflow at this place of articulation. The fricatives s and zare
also at this place of articulation, as is the lateral approximant l.
The diagram to the right shows the state of the vocal tract during
plosive t or d. Postalveolar In a postalveolar consonant, the constriction is made immediately
behind the alveolar ridge. The constriction can be made with either the tip
or the blade of the tongue. The English fricatives ∫and ʒ are made at this
POA, as are the corresponding affricates t∫and dʒ.
The diagram to the right shows the state of the vocal tract during the
first half (the stop half) of an affricate t∫ordʒ. Retroflex In a retroflex consonant, the tongue tip is curled backward in the
mouth. English ɹ is a retroflex approximant -- the tongue tip is curled up
toward the postalveolar region (the area immediately behind the alveolar
ridge).
The diagram to the right shows a typical English retroflex ɹ.
Both the sounds we've called "postalveolar" and the sounds we've called
"retroflex" involve the region behind the alveolar ridge. In fact, at least for English, you can think of retroflexes as being a sub-type of postalveolars,
specifically, the type of postalveolars that you make by curling your tongue
tip backward. Palatal In a palatal consonant, the body of the tongue approaches or touches the hard palate. English j is a
palatal approximant -- the tongue body approaches the hard palate, but
closely enough to create turbulence in the air-stream. Velar In a velar consonant, the body of the tongue approaches or touches the
soft palate, or velum. English k,g, and ŋ are stops made at this POA. The diagram to the right shows a typical k or g -- though where exactly on the velum the tongue body
hits will vary a lot depending on the surrounding vowels.
As we have seen, one of the two constrictions that form a w is a bilabial approximant. The other is a
velar approximant: the tongue body approaches the soft palate. Glottal The glottis is the opening between the vocal folds. In an /h/, this opening is narrow enough to create
some turbulence in the air-stream flowing past the vocal folds. For this reason, /h/ is often classified as
a glottal fricative. Manners of articulation
The manner of articulation dimension is essentially everything else: how narrow the constriction is, whether air is
flowing through the nose, and whether the tongue is dropped down on one side. Stops
Stops are consonants formed by completely stopping the flow of air somewhere in the vocal apparatus, and then
releasing the air. Since the sudden release of the pent-up air creates a small explosive sound, stops are also called
plosives. Stops may be voiced (vocal cords vibrating during the articulation of the stop) or voiceless (vocal cords not
vibrating during the articulation of the stop). Here is a list of the stops in English t, d, k,g, p and b.
Fricatives
In the stop t, the tongue tip touches the alveolar ridge and cuts off the airflow. In s, the tongue tip approaches the
alveolar ridge but doesn't quite touch it. There is still enough of an opening for airflow to continue, but the opening is
narrow enough that it causes the escaping air to become turbulent (hence the hissing sound of the s). In a fricative
consonant, the articulators involved in the constriction approach get close enough to each other to create a turbulent airstream. The fricatives of English are f, v, θ, ð, s, z, ∫ and ʒ.
Approximants
In an approximant, the articulators involved in the constriction are further apart still than they are for a fricative. The
articulators are still closer to each other than when the vocal tract is in its neutral position, but they are not even close
enough to cause the air passing between them to become turbulent. The approximants of English are w, j, ɹ, andl.
Affricates
An affricate is a single sound composed of a stop portion and a fricative portion. In English t∫, the airflow is first
interrupted by a stop which is very similar to t (though made a bit further back). But instead of finishing the articulation
quickly and moving directly into the next sound, the tongue pulls away from the stop slowly, so that there is a period of
time immediately after the stop where the constriction is narrow enough to cause a turbulent airstream.
In t∫, the period of turbulent air-stream following the stop portion is the same as the fricative ∫. English dʒ is an
affricate like t∫, but voiced.
Laterals
Pay attention to what you are doing with your tongue when you say the first consonant of /li:f/ leaf. Your tongue tip is
touching your alveolar ridge (or perhaps your upper teeth), but this doesn't make /l/ a stop. Air is still flowing during
an /l/ because the side of your tongue has dropped down and left an opening. (Some people drop down the right side of
their tongue during an /l/; others drop down the left; a few drop down both sides.) Sounds which involve airflow around
the side of the tongue are called laterals. Sounds which are not lateral are called central.
/l/ is the only lateral in English. The other sounds of English, like most of the sounds of the world's languages, are
central.
More specifically, /l/ is a lateral approximant. The opening left at the side of the tongue is wide enough that the air flowing through does not become turbulent.
Voicing
The voicing parameter specifies whether the vocal folds are vibrating. The vocal folds may be held against each other
at just the right tension so that the air flowing past them from the lungs will cause them to vibrate against each other. We
call this process voicing. Sounds which are made with vocal fold vibration are said to be voiced. Sounds made without
vocal fold vibration are said to be voiceless.
There are several pairs of sounds in English which differ only in voicing -- that is, the two sounds have identical
places and manners of articulation, but one has vocal fold vibration and the other doesn't. The θ of thigh and the ð of thy
are one such pair. The others are: Voiceless p t k f θ s ∫ t∫ Voiced b d g v ð z ʒ dʒ The other sounds of English do not come in voiced/voiceless pairs. h is voiceless, and has no voiced counterpart. The
other English consonants are all voiced: ɹ, l, w, j, m, n,and ŋ. Brief descriptions of English consonants Voicing Place of
Manner of
Articulation Articulation Spelling /p/ voiceless bilabial It is spelt p: plane or pp: opposite and only exceptionally gh in hiccough.
stop / plosive The letter p is silent when followed by another obstruent or a nasal in word-initial
position:psalm, pterodactyl, pneumatic. /b/ voiced bilabial stop/plosive /t/ voiceless alveolar stop/plosive It is spelt with t: toe, with tt: cutter or withth: Thomas, Thames /d/ voiced alveolar stop/plosive It is spelt d: read or dd: adder /k/ voiceless velar The sound can be represented by the letter c:comb or by cc: accuse, by k: kill,
stop/plosive by ck: pick, by ch: architect, by qu: queen.
In words like muscle and knave the letters can k are silent. /g/ voiced velar The consonant can be rendered by g: get bygg: begged, or by g followed by h, as
stop/plosive inghastly, by ua, ue or ui, as in guarantee,guess or linguist, respectively.
The voiced counterpart of /ks/, /gz/ can also be rendered by x in words like example. /t∫/ voiceless postalveolar It is spelt b: bar or bb: ribbon
The letter is silent in final position after m:limb, crumb, dumb and in front of t in words of Latin origin where the sound has long been lost: debt, doubt, subtle. affricate The phoneme is represented graphically bych: charm, chinchilla, rich or tch: kitchen,
bitch or by t followed by u: creature, culturewhen the plosive is palatalized.
In words like habitual, sanctuary the pronunciation with an affricate is a variant
of /tj/.
Exceptionally, we can have ce or cz as graphic representations of the sound in
(violin)cello or Czech.
It can be rendered graphically by j: justice, John, rejoice, pyjamas, by ge: gesture,
agent, sage, by gi: giraffe, rigid; and gy:gymnastics.
In certain words it can be spelt d followed byu: gradual, individual, procedure/al. In
all these cases, however, there is an alternative pronunciation /dj/.
In a number of proper names or common nouns originating in proper names ch is read
/dʒ/: Norwich, Greenwich, S/sandwich.
Another spelling can be dg in words like ridgeor edge. /dʒ/ voiced postalveolar affricate /m/ voiced bilabial nasal It can be spelt with m or mm: come, common /n/ voiced alveolar nasal It is spelt n or nn: dean, annual. /ŋ/ voiced velar nasal This phoneme has a limited distribution: it always precedes the voiceless velar plosive
or occurs in syllable-final position in front of an elided /g/: tank, ankle, sing, long. /f/ voiceless labiodental fricative The sound can be spelt f: fine, fringe, feud, loaf, stifle, ff: effort, snuff, ph: physics,
graph, or even gh: enough, tough.
The word lieutenant /lef’tenənt/ is a particular case. /v/ voiced labiodental fricative It is spelt with the letter v: vein, live, voice. (Exceptionally, by ph in Stephen,
nephew andf in of). /θ/ voiceless dental fricative The sound is rendered graphically by th: thin, method, path.
The sound often occurs in clusters difficult to pronounce: eighths,, depths, lengths.. /ð/ voiced dental fricative The sound is always spelt th, like its voiceless counterpart: within, then, they.. /s/ voiceless alveolar fricative It is spelt s, ss or c in front of e, i or y: sour, say, hiss, assign, ceiling, cellar,
cigarette, precise, cypress, bicycle. Sometimes the spelling can be sce, sci orscy: science, scent, scene, scythe; s is silent
in words like corps, island, viscount. /z/ /∫/ voiced alveolar voiceless postalveolar /ʒ/ voiced postalveolar / ɹ/ voiced retroflex /j/ voiced palatal /w/ voiced fricative The sound is spelt z. It is often spelt s when the sound does not occur in initial
positon:nose, easy, desire, and, exceptionally, tz intzar. Similarly, when it marks the plural of nouns ending in a voiced sound (e.g. boys,
balls, ribs) or when it is the voiced allomorph of the 3rd person singular present
indicative of verbs ending in a voiced sound (e.g. plays, calls, adds) the spelling is s.
Exceptionally, the sound can be spelt doubless in words like dissolve, possess. fricative It is often spelt sh in words like shoe, cushionor push.
It can also be spelt s: sure, sugar or ss:pressure, mission or ci: ancient,
delicious,sci: conscious, ce: ocean, si: pension, mansion, ti: tuition, retribution.
It is a variant of /sj/ in words like issue, tissue.
In words of French origin the sound is speltch: champagne, charade, chargé,
moustache, attaché.
The same spelling is used in proper names like Charlotte, Chicago, Chicoutimi,
Michigan. fricative It can be spelt either s when followed by u: visual or i: decision, or z if followed
by u:seizure or ge: massage, espionage.
In words like casual the alternative pronunciation /zj/ is possible, while in other cases
the fricative is replaced by the affricate /dʒ/ (e.g. garage). approximant The sound is spelt r: rain, ring or rr: carry, marry
approximant labial + velar approximant /l/ voiced alveolar /h/ voiceless glottal The sound may be spelt y (as in year) while in words spelt with u, ue, ui, ew,
eu and eauread as the long vowel /u:/ the palatal sound is often inserted.
It can be rendered graphically either by the letter w (the most common case)
(e.g. sweet) or by u (e.g. quite). The phoneme is spelt either l or ll in words like link or call, for instance. In many
lateral
words, however, before plosive sounds like /k/ or /d/ – cf. chalk, could; or before
approximant nasals like /m/ or /n/ – cf. calm, Lincoln; the labio-dental fricatives /f/ and /v/ –
cf. calf, calves; the lateral sound is not pronounced.
fricative The conservative spelling of English has preserved the letter h after r in words of
Greek origin where no h sound or aspiration is heard nowadays: rhapsody, rhetoric,
rheumatism, rhinal, rhinoceros, rhombus, rhyme, rhythm. Assignment 1: Click here to accomplish Assignment 1. LESSON 3: ENGLISH CONSONANTS
Choose the best answer. Tick A, B, C, or D.
1. People have been aware of the importance of sounds as vehicles of meaning for ...
A. a very long time
B. some years
C. a hundred years
D. a thousand years
2. Systematic studies on the speech sounds only appeared with
A. the modern life
B. the development of foreign language learning
C. the development of modern sciences
D. the development of tape recorders
3. The term phonetics comes from the ...
A. Geek language
B. Italian language
C. English language
D. Latin language
4. The term phonology first appeared in ...
A. the end of the 19th century
B. the end of the 18th century
C. the early of the 19th century
D. the early of the 18th century
5. The structuralism emphasizes the essential contrastive role of classes of sounds which are labeled ...
A. phonetics
B. phonology
C. phonemes
D. phones
6. The terms phonetics and phonology was used indiscriminately until...
A. the first half of the 19th century B. the first half of the 20th century
C. the end of the 19th century
D. the end of the 20th century
7. Some fundamental distinctions between phonetics and phonology will be agreed about by ...
A. most teachers
B. most students
C. most language users
D. most linguists
8. Which of the following is NOT CORRECT?
The central concerns in phonetics are the discovery of ...
A. how speech sounds are produced
B. how they are used in written language
C. how we can record speech sounds with written symbols
D. how we hear and recognise different sounds
9. Articulatory phonetics generally refers to the study of how humans ...
A. produce speech sounds
B. perceive speech sound
C. transmit speech sounds
D. interact with speech sounds
10. The International Phonetic Association has played a very important role in ...
A. designing conventions for using sounds in speech
B. using phonetic symbols for speech sounds
C. making use of phonetic symbols that represent speech sounds
D. designing conventions for using phonetic symbols that represent speech sounds
11. Auditory phonetics is concerned with the ...
A. production of phonetic sounds of words of a language
B. hearing of phonetic sounds of words of a language
C. transmittion of phonetic sounds of words of a language
D. description of phonetic sounds of words of a language
12. Which of the following statement is NOT CORRECT? A. The objective of phonemic analysis to establish what the phonetic sounds are and arrive at the phonemic inventory of the
language.
B. The objective of phonemic analysis to establish what the phonemes are and arrive at the phonemic inventory of the language.
C. The most basic activity in phonology is phonemic analysis.
D. A large number of phonologists have believed that it is necessary to go beyond phonemic analysis.
13. Which of the following DOES NOT belong to suprasegmental phonology ?
A. stress
B. rhythm C. intonation
D. transcription
14. "Distinctive features" are mainly concerned with
A. the detailed transcription of each unit
B. the detailed characteristics of each unit
C. the detailed articulation of each unit
D. the detailed rules of each unit
15. Phonotactics is mainly concerned with the way in which ...
A. sounds can combine in a language
B. consonants can combine in a language
C. vowels can combine in a language
D. words can combine in a language
16. The soft portion of the roof of the mouth, lying behind the hard palate is called the ...
A. uvula
B. velum
C. palate
D. cavity
17. The lowest part of the tongue in the throat is called the ...
A. epiglottis
B. tongue root C. dorsum
D. tongue blade
18. The small, dangly thing at the back of the soft palate is called the ...
A. uvula
B. larynx
C. glottis
D. dorsum
19. The hard portion of the roof of the mouth is called the ...
A. velum
B. uvula
C. hard palate
D. soft palate
20. The structure that holds and manipulates the vocal cords is called the ...
A. pharynx
B. larynx
C. velum
D. glottis
21. The fold of tissue below the root of the tongue is called the ...
A. epiglottis
B. pharynx
C. larynx
D. vocal cords
22. The main part of the tongue, lying below the hard and soft palate is called the ...
A. tongue blade
B. dorsum
C. tongue
D. tongue root
23. The opening between the vocal cords is called the
A. oral cavity
B. nasal cavity C. glottis
D. epiglottis
24. Which of the following DOES NOT belong to the major dimensions of consonant classification?
A. place of articulation
B. pronunciation
C. voicing
D. manner of articulation
25. In producing a consonant there is a ........... in the vocal tract.
A. construction
B. constriction
C. opening
D. height
26. In a .............. consonant, the lower and upper lips approach or touch each other.
A. dental
B. labiodental
C. bilabial
D. palatal
27. In a ............. consonant, the body of the tongue approaches or touches the soft palate.
A. bilabial
B. velar C. postaveolar
D. glottal
28. In a ............. consonant, the body of the tongue approaches or touches the hard palate.
A. palatal
B. velar
C. dental
D. labiodental
29. Which of the following statements is NOT CORRECT? A. The manner of articulation tells how narrow the constriction is.
B. The manner of articulation tells where in the vocal tract the constriction occurs.
C. The manner of articulation tells whether the tongue is dropped down on one side.
D. The manner of articulation tells whether air is flowing through the nose.
30. The English t, d, and k are....
A. fricatives
B. stops
C. nasals
D. approximants
31. In a ............... consonant, the articulators involved in the constriction approach get close enough to each other to create a
turbulent air-stream.
A. fricative
B. stop
C. nasal
D. lateral
32. The major difference between the two consonants /f/ and /v/ is the ......
A. manner of articulation
B. place of articulation
C. voicing
D. sound class
33. Sounds which are made with vocal fold vibration are said to be ..........
A. voiced
B. voiceless
C. lateral
D. affricate
34. The place of articulation of a consonant specifies ..........
A. whether air is flowing through the nose
B. whether the tongue is dropped down on one side
C. where in the vocal tract the narrowing occurs
D. how narrow the constriction is 35. /h/ is a ............. sound.
A. stop
B. fricative
C. voiceless
D. B and C are correct
36. /m/, /n/, and /ŋ/ are ............
A. oral stops
B. nasal stops
C. lateral sounds
D. approximants
37. Letter h is silent in the word ..........
A. hear
B. history
C. honour
D. horn
38. The letter x in the word example is pronounced as .........
A. /ks/
B. /gz/
C. /s/
D. /z/
39. Which of the CAPITALISED letters in the following pairs have the same pronunciation?
A. poSSession - miSSion
B. enouGH - thorouGH
C. seiZure - garaGE
D. iSland - hiStory
40. In which of the following words the CAPITALISED letter is silent?
A. linGuist
B. corpS
C. Plane
D. thoughT LESSON 4: ENGLISH VOWELS & DIPHTHONGS
Glossary:
In the last lesson, you were introduced to the classification of consonant sounds. The
classification of consonants were shown to be based on three aspects of articulation: place of
articulation, manner of articulation, and voicing. In this lesson, you will be introduced to vowel
sounds and diphthongs. English vowels
Vowels are the class of sound which makes the least obstruction to the flow of air. They are
almost always found at the centre of a syllable, and it is rare to find any sound other than a vowel
which is able to stand alone as a whole syllable. Classification of vowels
The classification of vowels is based on five major aspects: tongue height, tongue backness, lip
rounding, vowel length and the tenseness of the articulators. Tongue Height
Vowels are classified in terms of how much space there is between the tongue and the roof of
the mouth, which is determined by the height of the tongue.
There are three primary height distinctions among vowels: high, low, and mid. /w/ /e/ /æ/ In English, examples of high vowels are /w/, /i:/, //, /u:/. These are vowels with a relatively narrow space between the tongue and the roof of the mouth. Examples of low vowels
are /æ/, /Y:/, /Z/, /]:/. These are vowels with a relatively wide space between the tongue and the
roof of the mouth. Examples of mid vowels are /e/, /∂/, /f:/, //. These are vowels whose tongue
positions are roughly between the high and low vowels.
These classifications are quite relative, as different languages have different canonical tongue
heights for different classifications.
As you can see from the above diagrams, the tongue height of the high vowel /w/ is much
higher than that for the low vowel /æ/, while the tongue height for the mid vowel /e/ lies
somewhere in between the two. Tongue Backness The second aspect of vowel classification that you will be introduced to is that of tongue
backness. Vowels are classified in terms of how far the raised body of the tongue is from the back
of the mouth, which is called the backness of the tongue.
There are three primary height distinctions among vowels: front, back, and central.
In English, examples of front vowels are /w/, /i:/, /e/, /æ/. These vowels are articulated
relatively forward in the mouth. Examples of back vowels are //, /u:/, /Y:/, /Z/, /]:/. These vowels
are articulated relatively far back in the mouth.. Examples of central vowels are /∂/, /f:/, //. These
are vowels whose tongue positions are roughly between the front and back vowels.
These classifications, like the tongue heights, are quite relative, as different languages have
different canonical tongue backnesses for different classifications.
As illustration of tongue backness, observe the following diagrams for the vowels /w/, /u:/. /i:/ /u:/ As you can see from the diagrams, the articulation of the front vowel /i:/ is much farther forward than that for the back vowel /u:/. Lip Rounding
Another aspect of vowel classification is the presence or absence of lip rounding. Some vowels,
such as the vowels /u:/ and /]:/, are formed with a high degree of lip rounding. Such vowels are
called rounded vowels. Some vowels, such as /i:/ and /e/, are formed without such rounding, and
are called unrounded vowels. Vowel Length
Vowel length is the length of time it takes to pronounce the vowel. We can measure this length
in centiseconds - hundredths of a second.
•
• Short English vowels: /w/, //, /æ/, /Z/, /e/, /∂/, //
Long English vowels: /i:/, /u:/, /Y:/, /]:/, /f:/ Some languages, like English, vary the lengths of their vowels according to certain rules. Below
you can see the typical or average length of some of the vowels in English.
As we will see, there is not a clear-cut long/short distinction. Typically, each vowel has its own
length, with for instance /æ/ holding a half-way position between lax and tense vowels. Also,
lengths of different vowels overlap in different contexts: looking at /i:/ and /w/ we found the
following situation. The lengths are given in centiseconds. Tense vs. Lax
Another aspect of vowel classification is commonly characterized in terms of the tenseness or
laxness of the articulators. Some vowels, such as the vowels /i:/ and /e/, are formed with a high
degree of tenseness. Such vowels are called tense vowels. Some vowels, such as /∂/ and //, are
formed without a high degree of tenseness, and are called lax vowels. The general rule is:
•
• lax vowels (/w/, //, /æ/, /Z/, /e/, /∂/, //) are short.
tense (/i:/, /u:/, /Y:/, /]:/, /f:/) vowels (including
diphthongs: /ew/, /aw/, /]w/, /∂/,/a/, /w∂/, /∂/, /ε ∂/) are variable in length, and often
longer than lax vowels. English vowel charts (Source: University of Stirling, Centre for English Language Teaching) Descriptions of the English simple (“pure”) vowels
English front vowels
There are four front vowel phonemes in English: /w/, /i:/, /e/, /æ/
Sound
/i:/ /w/ /e/ /æ/ Description
front, close (high), long,
tense, unrounded Distribution
initial, medial and
final: east, dean, sea initial, medial and
more retracted, front, short,
final: ink,
lax, unrounded
kill, aptly front, short, lax, unrounded initial or medial: end, tell lowest, front, short, lax,
unrounded initial or medial: ant, cat Spelling
e: economy, remark
ee: eel, see, feet,
ea: each, seal, plea
ie: fiend
ei: seizing
i: machine
ey: key
ay: quay
eo: people
oe: Oedipus
eau: Beauchamp
i: ill, tick y: syntax, party
u: minute
a: private
o: women
ay: Friday (a reduced unstressed vowel)
e: elf, fell
ea: lead (n. = plumb), head or bread
a: ate (the past tense of eat), many, any,
Thames or Pall Mall
a: act, fat
ai: plait, plaid English central vowels
There are three central vowel phonemes in English: /ž/, /∂/, /f:/
// a central halfopen, short,
lax, unrounded vowel /∂/ a central, mid, lax,
unrounded vowel u: under, but
o: come, front, honey
ou: courage, southern, rough, tough
oo: blood, flood
oe: does
freely occurring in all basic The reduced form of any simple vowel or positions, but only in
even diphthong (seefatality, above) in
word-initial and medial
position:utter, subtle. It
never occurs in word or
syllablefinal position. unstressed syllables:aside,
collide, rather /f:/ central, mid, long, tense
central vowel in all three basic positions,
very often in monosyllabic
words: err, first, curtain,
fur, refer English and can consequently be rendered in
writing by any vowel letter with the
exception of y which only represents the
semivowel j or the vowel i.
ir: bird
ur: burn
er: fern
yr: myrtle
ear: learn our: journey, journal, scourge English back vowels
There are five back vowel phonemes in standard English: //, /u:/, /Y:/, /Z/, /]:/
/Y:/ a more advanced, low, long,
tense, unrounded vowel /Z/ short, lax, open and slightly
rounded /]:/ // /u:/ initial, medial and final: are,
cart, far
ar: jar, carpet
al: palm, calm, balm
af (ff): after, staff
ass: pass, class
ath: path, bath
as or an followed by another consonant: past, demand
Exceptionally, other letters: aunt, Berkeley, hearth,
father, sergeant, memoir , barrage o: hot, lot
ou: cough
a: want
au: laurel
aw: awl, drawn, thaw
initial, medial and final:
au: August, taught
a long, tense vowel, more
awful, caught, flaw
or: for, sore, port
rounded than /Z/. It is the degree
oor: floor, door
of aperture being between open
oa: board, broad, coarse, hoard
and half-open.
ough: (n)ought, sought, wrought
ou: course, source
a: water, wrath
u: push, cushion, pull, put
Being restricted to medial
o: wolf, Worcester
short, lax, rounded vowel which position; never occurring in
oo: look, book, foot
is considerably closer than /]:/, initial position and only
ou: would, could, should
exceptionally in final
its degree of aperture being a
little bit higher than the cardinal position.
half-close. the highest back vowel of
English. It is a long, tense,
rounded vowel. initial or medial:on, pot u: rule, music, mutiny, deluge
initial, medial and final: oom, ui: suit, fruit
oomph, ooze, ugh, uhlan;
o: to, who, ado
rude, baboon, crew, chew, oo: root, taboo
tatoo
ou: route, through, routine, douche
oe: shoe, canoe, manoeuvre
eau: beauty
eu: feu English Diphthongs
Classification of diphthongs
Diphthongs are described as sequences of two vowels pronounced together, the two vocalic
elements being members of the same syllable. The most important feature of a diphthong is that it
contains a glide from one vowel quality to another one. According to the position of the more
prominent element in the diphthong we can divide diphthongs into falling diphthongs – if the
prominent element comes first – and rising diphthongs – if the less prominent element comes first.
All English diphthongs belong to the first category. Diphthongs can then be opening if the degree of
aperture increases with the glide or closing if the less prominent vowel is closer than the first. We
can also differentiate between wide diphthongs – those in which the glide implies a more radical
movement of the speech organs and narrow diphthongs – if the two vocalic elements occupy neighbouring positions on the vowel chart. There are also centring diphthongs – if the glide is from
a marginal vowel in the vowel chart – either back or front - to a central vowel. To make it simple,
we can say that there are three diphthongs ending in /w/ (/ew/, /aw/, /]w/), two ending in /∂/
(/w∂/, /∂/, /ε∂/) and three ending in // (/∂/, /a/).
The easiest way to remember them is in terms of three groups divided as in this diagram: The descriptions of English diphthongs
The centring diphthongs: /w∂/, /∂/, /ε∂/
Sound
/ε∂/ /∂/ Description Spelling
air: air, fair, chair, dairy, fairy
initial, medial and final: air, are: fare, mare, care, care
a centring, falling, narrow, in scarce, fare
ear: bear, wear, tear (v.)
most cases opening diphthong
aer: aerial, aeroplane
ere: there
eir: their, heir
ay: prayer, layer, mayor
ure: endure, mature, cure, pure
a centring, falling, narrow,
only in word medial: jewel or
oor: poor, moor
opening diphthong word-final position:sure
ou: gourd, bo /w∂/
a centring, falling, narrow,
opening diphthong rse Distribution initial, medial and final: ear, eer: deer, peer
deer, tier
b: ear, weary, idea, tear, beard
eir: weird
ier: fierce, pierce
ere: here, mere
ia: media(l), labia(l), genial
eu: museum
iu: delirium
eo: theory, theology
e: hero, serious, serial The diphthongs to /w/: /ew/, /aw/, /]w/
/aw/ a falling, wide, closing
diphthong /]w/ /ew/ a falling, wide, closing
diphthong
a falling, narrow, closing
diphthong initial, medial and final: isle, i: ice, dime, loci
bite, cry
y: dyke, fly
ie: die, lie, pie
ye: dye, fye
ei: height, either, neither
uy: in buy, guy
Note also the pronunciation of ay(e) /aı/, eye /aı/ and
aisle /aıl/.
initial, medial and
final: ointment, boil, toy
initial, medial and
final: eight, plate, play oi: oil, toil
oy: oyster, Boyle, coy
a: ace, lace
ai: aid, maid
ay: aye, clay
ei: eight, reign
ey: they, grey,
ea: break, steak
et or é: ballet, bouquet, chalet, café, fiancé, attaché, resumé
Exceptionally, there are spellings like gaol, bass, gauge,
halfpenny . The diphthongs to //: /∂/, /a/
/∂/ a falling, narrow, closing
diphthong /a/ a falling, wide, closing
diphthong initial, medial and final: old, o: old, sold, no
gold, flow
oa: oak, roast
oe: toe
ow: own, known, row
ou: poultry, dough
eau: beau, bureau
au: gauche
oo: brooch
ew: sew
oh: oh
ou: oust, doubt, plough
initial, medial and
ow: owl, howl, how
final: ouch, loud, bough eo: MacLeod LESSON 5:
PHONOLOGICAL ANALYSIS
Glossary: Phone/Phoneme/Allophone
A great deal of evidence indicates that humans perceive speech sounds in a way that
is vastly simplified from how they actually sound. Specifically, an unbroken stream of
phonetic speech is perceived as a sequence of abstract psychological units called
phonemes. The science of phonology, or the study of how speech sounds are perceived
by and organized in the brain, usually assumes that phonemes exist.
Some sounds that are phonetically different nevertheless sound the same to English
speakers, e.g. [t] and [th], [l] and [|], [p] and [ph]. Similar groups of sounds can be found
for any human language. Such a group of phones that sound alike to a speaker of a
language represent a phoneme: a purely psychological entity that a speaker considers to
be a single sound, even though it may have various phonetic shapes, or allophones.
Definitions
a. phone: a physical language sound, measurable by acoustic instruments.
b. phoneme: a language sound as it is perceived by a speaker.
c. allophone: a phone in complementary distribution with other allophones that are
related to the same phoneme.
Allophones have three important characteristics:
(i) they are perceived as the same sound,
(ii) they are in complementary distribution, and
(iii) they are usually phonetically similar.
We distinguish phones from phonemes in our notation by writing them in square
brackets and slash brackets, respectively: e.g. [t] and [t h] are allophones of the English
phoneme /t/, [l] and [|] are allophones of English /l/, and [p] and [p h] are allophones of English /p/. We must therefore distinguish at least two ways of transcribing speech.
A phonemic (or broad) transcription shows the sequence of phonemes that a
native speaker perceives in the speech stream, while a phonetic (or narrow)
transcription shows (in greater or lesser detail) the actual phones that occur in the
speech stream.
Phonemic and phonetic transcriptions of some /t/ words a. table
b. batter
c. stop Phonemic
/tewbl/
/bæt∂/
/st]p/ Phonetic
[thewb|]
[bæ∂]
[st]p] Phoneme vs. Phones vs. Allophones
Phonemes
Phones
o Abstract sounds stored in our memory
o Mental representation of the sounds
o Concrete phonetic segments
o Finite number of phonemes
o Actual realization
o Organizable (labial, interdental, alveolar.. of the phonemes etc.)
o Infinite number of phones
o Contrastive phonological segments,
o Hard to organize
distinctive sounds
o Non-contrastive
o The substitution of one for the other makes o You never hear same phone
a different word.
twice.
o Phonemes vary from language to language. o Designated in brackets [ ]
o Designated in slashes / / Allophones
o The different phones that
are the realizations of one
phoneme
o Predictable
o Phonetic variants of a
phoneme
o Rule-governed
o No difference in meaning,
no minimal pairs
o Designated in brackets [ ] Distribution
Complementary distribution
Complementary distribution is commonly applied to phonology, where similar phones
in complementary distribution are usually allophones of the same phoneme. For instance,
in English, [p] and [ph] are allophones of the phoneme /p/ because they occur in
complementary distribution. [ph] always occurs when it is the syllable onset and followed by a stressed vowel (as in the word pin). [p] occurs in all other situations (as in the
wordspin).
Complementary distribution is an indication that the sounds in question
areallophones of the same phoneme.
There are cases where elements are in complementary distribution, but are not
considered allophones. For example in English [h] and [[ŋ] (engma, written as "ng" in
English) are in complementary distribution, since [h] only occurs at the beginning of a
syllable and [ŋ] only at the end. But because they have so little in common they are still
considered separate phonemes.
Contrastive distribution
Contrastive distribution means that the sounds are distributed in the data in a way that
distinguishes one word from another. For example the sounds /p/ and /k/ are in
contrastive distribution in English in such words as skill and spill.
Contrastive distribution is an indication that the two sounds in question are different
phonemes.
Free Variation
The substitutability of one sound for another in a given environment, with no change
in the word’s meaning. For example, the word economics may be pronounced with /w/
or /e/ in the first syllable; tomato is pronounced differently in British and American
English; or either has two pronunciations which are fairly randomly distributed.
Minimal pair
In establishing the set of phonemes of a language, it is usual to demonstrate the
independent, contrastive nature of a phoneme by citing pairs of words which differ in one
sound only and have different meanings. Thus in English 'fairy' /'fε∂w/ and 'fairly' /fε∂lw/
make a minimal pair and prove that /‹/ and /l/ are separate, contrasting phonemes.
Sometimes an exact minimal pair contrasting two phonemes does not exist in a
language. Linguists then look for near minimal pairs.
In a near minimal pair only the sounds surrounding the phonemes are identical. Could you come up with a minimal pair for /∫, ¥/? A near minimal pair for these phonemes
is mission, vision: /'mw∫∂n/ /'vi¥∂n'/
Distinctive Features
In any language it seems that the sounds used will only differ from each other in a
small number of ways. If for example a language had 40 phonemes, then in theory each
of those 40 could be utterly different from the other 39. However, in practice there will
usually be just a small set of important differences: some of the sounds will be vowels and
some consonants; some of the consonants will be plosives and affricates, and the rest will
be continuants; some of the continuants will be nasal and some not, and so on. These
differences are identified by phonologists, and are known as distinctive features. There is
disagreement about how to define the features (e.g. whether they should be labelled
according to articulatory characteristics or acoustic ones), and about how many features
are needed in order to be able to classify the sounds of all the languages in the world.
Major class features
These features represent the classes: consonant, obstruent, nasal, liquid, glide, and
vowel.
[± consonantal]
Sounds which are [+ consonantal] are those which have some kind of constriction
along the center of the vocal tract. This constriction must be at least as narrow as that
required for a fricative. Examples: [p] [b] [s] [z] [t∫] [¥]
[± sonorant]
Sounds which are [+sonorant] are those which are produced with a constriction in the
vocal tract that allows the air pressure both behind and in front of the constriction to be
relatively equal. This feature generally divides the sound system into sonorants ([+sonorant] sounds), which are nasals, approximants, glides, and vowels, and
obstruents ([-sonorant] sounds), which are oral stops, fricatives, and affricates.
[± vocalic]
Vowels and syllabic liquids. Use of major class features
[consonantal]
[vocalic]
[sonorant]
Examples Obstruents
+
pbzθ Vowels
+
+
iæ Glides
+
jw Liquids
+
+
lr Nasals
+
+
mn Laryngeal features These features represent laryngeal states.
[± voice]
Sounds which are [+voice] are those which are produced with vibration of the vocal
folds.
[± spread glottis]
Sounds which are [+spread glottis] are those produced with a glottal configuration
that produces audible glottal friction. For example, the aspirated stops in English are
[+spread glottis]
[± constricted glottis]
Sounds which are [+constricted glottis] are those which are produced with the vocal
folds drawn together and tense.
Place features
These features represent place of articulation.
[± labial]
Any sound articulated with one or both lips is [+ labial. Examples [p] [b] [f] [v] [w].
[± round]
Sounds that are [+ round] are made by protruding the lips. Examples [w]
[± coronal]
Any sound articulated with the tongue tip or blade raised is [+ coronal]. Examples [t] [d]
[θ] [ð] [s] [z] [t∫] [d¥] [∫] [¥] [n] [l] []
[± anterior]
Any sound articulated in front of the alveopalatal region is considered to be [+
anterior].Examples [p] [b] [t] [d] [s] [z] [θ] [ð]
[± strident]
The 'noisy' fricatives and affricates only. Examples [s] [z] [∫] [¥] [t∫] [d¥]
Dorsal features
These features represent the placement of the body of the tongue.
[± high]
Sounds produced with the tongue body raised are considered [+ high] (both vowels and
consonants). Examples: [i:] [u:] [k] [g] [± low]
Vowels made with the tongue body distinctly lowered from a central position in the oral
cavity are [+ low]. Examples: [æ] [Y:] [± back]
Any sound articulated behind the palatal region in the oral cavity. Examples: [u:] []:] [k]
[g]
[± tense]
Expresses the tense - lax distinctions among vowels.
[± reduced]
Only the schwa ([∂]) is [+ reduced]
Manner features
These features represent manner of articulation.
[±continuant]
Sounds which are [+ continuant] are those which are produced without a central blockage
in the vocal tract. For example, fricatives have a central constriction, but there is no
complete blockage of the air, and they are therefore, [+ continuant].
[±nasal]
Sounds which are [+nasal] are produced with nasal airflow.
[±lateral]
Sounds which are [+lateral] are produced with airflow passing through one or both sides
of the tongue, which is in contact with the central part of the oral cavity. LESSON 6:
SYLLABLE STRUCTURE
Syllables and their parts
A syllable is a unit of sound composed of a central peak of sonority (usually a vowel), and
the consonants that cluster around this central peak. Words can be cut up into units called syllables. Humans seem to need syllables as a way of segmenting the stream of speech
and giving it a rhythm of strong and weak beats, as we hear in music. Syllables don't
serve any meaning-signalling function in language; they exist only to make speech easier
for the brain to process. A word contains at least one syllable.
Most speakers of English have no trouble dividing a word up into its component syllables.
Sometimes how a particular word is divided might vary from one individual to another,
but a division is always easy and always possible. Here are some words divided into their
component syllables (a period is used to mark the end of a syllable):
- tomato = to.ma.to
- window = win.dow
- supercalifragilisticexpialidocious =su.per.ca.li.fra.gi.lis.ti.cex.pi.a.li.do.cious (some
people might put some of the periods in different places in this word).
Syllables have internal structure: they can be divided into parts. The parts
are onset andrhyme; within the rhyme we find the nucleus and coda. Not all syllables
have all parts; the smallest possible syllable contains a nucleus only. A syllable may or
may not have an onset and a coda.
Onset: the beginning sounds of the syllable; the ones preceding the nucleus. These are
always consonants in English. The nucleus is a vowel in most cases, although the
consonants [ r ], [ l ], [ m ], [ n ], and the velar nasal (the 'ng' sound) can also be the
nucleus of a syllable. In the following words, the onset is in bold; the rest underlined.
read
flop
strap
If a word contains more than one syllable, each syllable will have the usual syllable parts:
win.dow
to.ma.to
pre.pos.te.rous
fun.da.men.tal
Rhyme (or rime): the rest of the syllable, after the onset (the underlined portions of the
words above). The rhyme can also be divided up: Rhyme = nucleus + coda
The nucleus, as the term suggests, is the core or essential part of a syllable. A nucleus
must be present in order for a syllable to be present. Syllable nuclei are most often highly
'sonorant' or resonant sounds, that can be relatively loud and carry a clear pitch level. In
English and most other languages, most syllable nuclei are vowels. In English, in certain
cases, the liquids [ l r ] and nasals [ m n ] and the velar nasal usually spelled 'ng' can also
be syllable nuclei.
Parts
Onset
Rhyme
– Nucleus
– Coda Description
Initial segment of a syllable
Core of a syllable, consisting of a nucleus and coda (see below)
Central segment of a syllable
Closing segment of a syllable Optionality
Optional
Obligatory
Obligatory
Optional | 
