REVIEW OF SPEECH SOUND

Objectives:
 Understand the system of sound and sound combinations in
English
 Distinguish different vowel sounds of English

The Speech Sounds of English

In (Standard British) English there are 44 such speech sounds, divided into
different categories, the most basic categories being vowels and consonants.

These speech sounds are called phonemes. A phoneme may be defined as the
smallest language unit that is able to distinguish meaning. A minimal pair (a pair
of words that differ in one sound only), for example mat and man, illustrates
this quite clearly. By replacing a single sound with another, the meaning of the
word is completely changed, even though the two sounds in this case are very
similar.

The phonemes are abstract units that may come out in different forms. If you
experiment by pronouncing the words key and car, you will hear that the two
sounds are quite different from each other. Key starts with the letter k which
sounds /k/, car starts with c but the sound is still /k/. If variants of a phoneme
are decided by the sound context as in the example above, we refer to these
variants as allophones of a phoneme; therefore, c and k are allophones of the
phoneme /k/.

Fig. 2
Place of Articulation
 Articulatory Phonetics
The traditional method of describing speech sounds is in terms of the
movements of the vocal organs that produce them. The main structures that are
important in the production of speech are the lungs and the respiratory system,
together with the vocal organs shown in Figure 2.

The airstream from the lungs passes between the vocal cords, which are two
small muscular folds located in the larynx at the top of the windpipe. The space
between the vocal cords is known as the glottis. If the vocal cords are apart, as
they are normally when breathing out, the air from the lungs will have a
relatively free passage into the pharynx (see Figure 1) and the mouth. But if the
vocal cords are adjusted so that there is a narrow passage between them, the
airstream will cause them to be sucked together. As soon as they are together
there will be no flow of air, and the pressure below them will be built up until
they are blown apart again. The flow of air between them will then cause them
to be sucked together again, and the vibratory cycle will continue.

Sounds produced when the vocal cords are vibrating are said to be voiced, as
opposed to those in which the vocal cords are apart, which are said to be
voiceless.

Fig. 3
Place and Manner of Articulation for Consonant Sounds

Place of articulation

Consonants are sounds produced with some restriction or closure in the vocal
tract. Consonants are classified based in part on where in the vocal tract the
airflow is being restricted (the place of articulation)
The International Phonetic Alphabet recognizes the following places of
articulation (among others):

Bilabial - The point of maximum constriction is made by the coming together of

the two lips. [p] [b] [m]

Labiodental - The lower lip articulates with the upper teeth. [f] [v]

Dental/interdental - The tip of the tongue articulates with the back or bottom
of the top teeth. [θ] [ð]

Alveolar - The tip or the blade of the tongue articulates with the forward part of
the alveolar ridge. A sound made with the tip of the tongue here is an
apicoalveolar sound; one made with the blade, a lamino-alveolar. [t] [d]

Post-alveolar/uvular - The tip or the blade of the tongue articulates with the
back area of the alveolar ridge. [r]

Palato-alveolar or Alveo-palatal – the blade of the tongue is arched near the

alveolar area with a simultaneous approximation of the front of the tongue
towards the hard palate [tʃ] [dƺ]

Palatal - The front of the tongue articulates with the domed part of the hard
palate. [k] [g] [j]

Velar - The back of the tongue articulates with the soft palate. [ŋ]

Glottal The vocal folds are brought together; in some cases, the function of the
vocal folds can be part of articulation as well as phonation [? ] [h]

Manners of Articulation

The manner of articulation is the way the airstream is affected as it flows from
the lungs and out of the mouth and nose.

Stop
Like nasal consonants, stop consonants occur when the vocal tract is closed
completely. But for stops the airflow is NOT redirected through the nose.
Instead, the air quickly builds up pressure behind the articulators and then
releases in a burst.

English contains the following stop consonants.

/p/ – purse and rap – oral passage is blocked by closing the lips (bilabial).

/b/ – “back” and “cab” – oral passage is blocked by closing the lips (bilabial).

/t/ – “tab” and “rat” – oral passage is blocked by pressing the tongue tip against
the alveolar ridge (alveolar)
/d/ – “dip” and “bad” – oral passage is blocked by pressing the tongue tip
against the alveolar ridge (alveolar)

/g/ – “good” and “bug” – block airflow with the back of the tongue against the
soft palate (velar).

Fricative
While nasal and stop consonants involve a complete blockage of the vocal tract,
fricative sounds involve only a partial blockage of the vocal tract so that air has
to be forced through a narrow channel.

For example, you create a /t/ stop consonant when you block airflow
completely with your tongue against the alveolar ridge. But if you let up with
the tongue a bit and let the air seep through, you make an /s/ fricative
consonant.

The English fricative sounds are as follows:

/f/ – “fro” and “calf“- air is forced through the upper teeth and lower lip
(labiodental)

/v/ – “vine” and “have” – air is forced through the upper teeth and lower lip
(labiodental)

/θ/ – “thick” and “bath” – air is forced through upper teeth and tongue (dental)

/ð/ – “the” and “rather” – air is forced through upper teeth and tongue (dental)

/s/ – “suit” and “bus” – air is forced through tongue and alveolar ridge (alveolar)

/z/ – “zit” and “jazz” – air is forced through tongue and alveolar ridge (alveolar)

/ʃ/ – “shot” and “brash” – air is forced through the tongue and point just beyond
alveolar ridge (post-alveolar)

/ʒ/ – “vision” and “measure” – air is forced through the tongue and point just
beyond alveolar ridge (post-alveolar)

/h/ – “happy” and “hope” – actually /h/ isn’t a fricative. It’s technically not even
a real consonant sound since there’s no constriction/obstruction of airflow.

Affricate
When stop consonants mix with fricative consonants, the result is an affricate
consonant. Affricate consonants start as stop sounds with air building up behind
an articulator which then releases through a narrow channel as a fricative
(instead of a clean burst as stops do).
The English affricate sounds are:
/tʃ/ – “chick” and “match” – air is blocked with tongue just beyond the alveolar
ridge (post-alveolar), then released as a fricative.

/dʒ/ – “jam” and “badge” – air is blocked with tongue just beyond the alveolar
ridge (post-alveolar), then released as a fricative.

Nasal
Nasal consonants are created when you completely block air flow through your
mouth and let the air pass through your nose.

There are three nasal consonants in English.

/m/ – “mad” and “clam” – oral passage is blocked by closing the lips (bilabial).

/n/ – “no” and “man‘ – oral passage is blocked by pressing tongue tip against
the alveolar ridge (alveolar).

/ŋ/ – “going” and “funk” – Oral passage is blocked by pressing the back of your
tongue against the soft palate (velar).

Lateral
Lateral consonants are when the tongue blocks the middle of your mouth so
that air has to pass around the sides.

There is one lateral consonant in English

/l/ – “luck”- place the tip of the tongue at the alveolar ridge (alveolar)

Approximant
Approximants are when two articulators come close together but not quite
close enough to create air turbulence.

The resulting sound is more like a fast vowel than anything else. For example,
the /w/ approximant is like a fast /u/ sound (say /u/ + /aɪ/ fast and you get the
word “why”). Notice how your tongue never actually comes in contact with the
top of your mouth.

There are three English approximants:

/w/ – “wet” and “howard” – back of tongue raises to velum (but not too close!)
and lips are rounded (velar)

/j/ – “yes” and “bayou” – tongue raises to hard palate (but not too close!)
(palatal)
/ɹ/ – “right” and “roar” – tongue raises to hard palate (but not too close)
(alveolar/post-alveolar)

In 1888 the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA) was invented in order to have
a system in which there was a one-to-one correspondence between each sound
in language and each phonetic symbol. Someone who knows the IPA knows how
to pronounce any word in any language.

Consonant sounds

There are 24 consonant sounds in most English accents, conveyed by 21 letters

of the regular English alphabet (sometimes in combination, e.g., ch and th).

Sound Examples
/p/ pair, cup
/b/ bad, crab
/t/ tall, hit
/d/ dark, head
/k/ cab, lack
/g/ good, tag
/f/ fine, wife
/v/ very, above
/θ/ thing, both
/ð/ this, father
/s/ saw, house
/z/ zap, goes
/ʃ/ shape, push
/ƺ/ pleasure, beige
/h/ her, ahead
/tʃ/ cherry, match
/dƺ / judge, raj
/m/ man, team
/n/ nail, tan
/ŋ/ ring, singer
/l/ let, tall
/r/ right, scary
/w/ wet, away
/j/ you, soya

Vowel sounds

There are 12 vowels (or monophthong) phonemes. Vowels are long or short.
Long vowels are marked with a length mark. However, vowels are considerably
shorter in front of fortis consonants than in other positions.

Vowels are therefore primarily distinguished from each other by their quality,
not length. The tongue position is important in the production of vowels.
Vowels are classified by how high or low the tongue is, if the tongue is in the
front or back of the mouth, and whether the lips are rounded or not

 High vowels: [i] [ɪ] [u] [ʊ]

 Mid vowels: [e] [ɛ] [o] [ə] [ʌ] [ɔ]
 Low vowels: [æ] [a]
 Front vowels: [i] [ɪ] [e] [ɛ] [æ]
 Central vowels: [ə] [ʌ]
 Back vowels: [u] [ɔ] [o] [æ] [a]

Sound Example
ʌ cup, luck
ɑ: arm, father
æ cat, black
ɜ met, bed
ə away, cinema
ɜ:ʳ turn, learn
ɪ hit, sit
i heat seat,
ɒ hot, rock
ɔ call, four
ʊ put, could
u: blue, food
aɪ five, like
aʊ now, out
eɪ say, eight
o go, home
ɔɪ boy, join

Using IPA symbols, we can now represent the pronunciation of words

Examples:
English IPA
 /pluck/ /plʌk/
 /went/ /wɜnt/
 /how/ /haʊ/
 /should/ / ʃʊd/
 /mood/ /mud/
 /though/ / ðo/
 /thought/ / θɔt/

Checkpoint!
a. Record a video of yours demonstrating the places of articulation of the
consonant sounds
b. Record a video of yours reciting “Peter Piper” and “Betty Botter”
observing proper pronunciation of the different speech sounds