People’s Democratic Republic of Algeria

Ministry of Higher Education and Scientific Research

Teacher Training School of Constantine

Distance Training for Middle School Teachers

Specialty: English (LMD)

Module: Phonetics
Prepared by: Amina Haddad
Academic Year: 2007- 2008
 Lesson one

Phonetics and Phonology

Before you study the phonetics of English, or in fact of any other
language, you need first to understand what is meant by the term
phonetics and understand the difference between the two related words
‘phonetics’ and ‘phonology’.

II-Phonetics
The word phonetics comes from the Greek word ‘phone’ which
stands for ‘sound’ or ‘voice’. Usually used with a singular verb, it refers
to the branch of linguistics that deals with the sounds of speech and their
production, combination, description and representation by written
symbols. This representation is usually referred to as the phonetic
transcription in which systems of phonetic writing are provided and
aim at the accurate representation of any sequence of speech sounds.
International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA)
These systems attempt to facilitate the process of language
learning, especially the foreign one. In this context, a uniform system
has been put forward that caters for almost all possible sequences of
human speech sounds. This system is known as the International
Phonetic Alphabet (IPA) where human speech sounds are represented by
specific symbols. All IPA symbols are enclosed in slashes to indicate that
the transcription is phonetic rather than representative of a particular
language. Phonetics also refers to the system of sounds of a particular
language.
Branches of Phonetics
Phonetics has three main branches.
1) Articulatory phonetics is concerned with the positions and
movements of the speech organs such as the lips and the tongue
in producing sounds.
2) Acoustic phonetics is concerned with the physical properties of
the sound waves.
3) Auditory phonetics is concerned with the perception of the
speech sounds or the effect on the ear.

III- Phonology
The term phonology is derived from the Greek words ‘phone’
which stands for ‘sound’/ ‘voice’ and ‘logos’ which means ‘word’/
‘speech’. It refers to the study of speech sounds in languages or in a
language with reference to their distribution and pattering and to tacit
rules governing pronunciation. It also refers to the system of a
language. In other words, phonology attempts to account for how
speech sounds are combined, organized and convey meaning in
particular languages. For example, the sound /θ/ in ‘think’ often
poses problems to many English learners such as French speaking
learners. In addition, combinations of sounds vary widely from one
language to another. The combination ‘kt’ at the beginning of a
word, for example, would be impossible in some languages but is
unexceptional in Greek. So, whereas phonetics deals with the nature
of sounds per se, phonology describes the way sounds function
within a given language.
 IV- Importance of learning phonetics and
phonology
Because of the confusing nature of the English spelling, it is
particularly important to learn to think of English pronunciation in
terms of phonemes rather than letters of the alphabet. So, it is
important to learn the English phonetics mainly because there is not
always a correspondence between the English spoken form and the
written form.
a) One sound may have many graphical representations.
For example the English vowel /i:/ can be written
• ‘ea’ as in read
• ‘ee’ as in sleep
• ‘ie’ as in believe
• ‘ei’ as in receive
The English sound /f / may be represented by many letters
• ‘f’ as in frame
• ‘ph’ as in photograph
• ‘gh’ as in enough
b) One graphical representation may refer to many sounds.
For example the vowel ‘a’ can be pronounced
• /ei/ as in shape
• /æ/ as in cat
• /a:/ as in last
• /i/ as in shortage
 Lesson two

The production of speech

When speak, we use language spontaneously to convey our

messages. We are, most of the time, unaware of the complex process
through which a single speech sound may be produced.

I- Stages of speech sounds production

Any manifestation of language by means of speech happens
through three stages.
1) The psychological stage: In the first place, the
information of the concept will take place in the brain.
2) The articulatory stage or the physiological
one: The nervous system transmits this message to the
organs of speech. These in turn will produce a particular
pattern of sounds.
3) The acoustic stage or the physical one: The
movement of the organs of speech will create
disturbance in the air which enables us to hear
particular sounds and discriminate between them.

II- Organs of speech

 The main organs of speech are represented in the diagrams below.
Each organ constitutes a place of articulation of sounds. Each place of
articulation is assigned an adjective that refers to the sound produced
there. For example, a sound that is produced thanks to the articulation of
the tongue with the alveolar ridge is known as an alveolar sound.

Figure 1: Diagram of the organs of speech above the trachea

 Trachea

Lungs

Figure 2: The
lungs

III- Speech mechanisms

The production of any speech sound takes place through steps where
each of the organs of speech has a particular role.
 The air escapes from the lungs which serve as an air reservoir
and energy source. It, then, passes through the trachea (wind
pipe) and through the larynx which lies behind the prominence
in the throat called the ‘Adam’s apple. The larynx contains two
stretched membranous cords called ‘the vocal cords’ which are
made of an elastic tissue. As they open and shut, the vocal cords
regulate the amount of air that passes to the lungs. They can take
different positions. Indeed, they can be:
a) Completely brought together: In this case, the air
stream is cut.

Figure3: Completely brought together vocal cords

b) Parted or separated : The glottis, or the opening
between the two folds of the vocal cords, is open. So, the
air passes freely. This is the case of normal breathing and
during the production of voiceless consonants such as /p/
as in ‘parent’, /f/ as in ‘fire’ and /s/ as in ‘sun’.

Figure 4: Parted vocal cords

c) Brought together but not completely: They are

so close that when air passes through them they vibrate
(air makes them shake or move). These vibrations
produce voice. This is the normal feature of all vowels
and voiced consonants like /z/ in nose, /n/ in nine, /b/ in
big.
 Figure 5: Brought together but not completely

 The pharynx is a tube which begins above the larynx. At its

top end, it is divided into two, one part being the back of the
mouth and the other being the beginning of the way through the
nasal cavity. The escape of air through the pharynx may be
affected in three different ways according to the position of the
soft palate or velum.
• When the soft palate is lowered, the air escapes
through the mouth and the nose, as in normal
breathing. This is the case, for instance, in the
production of the nasalized French vowels: en, in
‘prend’, on in ‘répond’, in ‘instinct’, etc.
• When the soft palate is lowered with an obstacle at
some point in the mouth, the air escapes through the
nose. This is the case in the production of the
English consonants called nasal: /m/ as in mouth,
/n/ as in nose and /ŋ/ as in eating.
 Figure 6: Air passing through the nasal cavity
• When the soft palate is raised, the nasal cavity being
shut off, the air escapes through the mouth only
(oral escape). This the way of production of all
English consonants except for the nasal sounds /m,
n, ŋ /

Figure 7: Air passing through the oral cavity.

  The mouth, of course, plays an essential role in the
production of sounds. Its shape determines the quality of the
majority of speech sounds. The mouth consists of the ‘roof’
which is made of the alveolar ridge, the hard palate and the soft
palate; the tongue, the teeth and the lips.
 Of all the movable parts, the tongue is by far the most flexible
one. It is capable of assuming a great variety of positions in the
production of vowels and consonants. It is usually divided into
different parts, though there are no clear dividing lines within the
tongue.

Figure 8: Subdivisions of the tongue

Exercises
The following tasks are meant to guide your recapitulation and revision.
Exercise 1:
Label the different organs of speech and places of articulation on
the following diagram
 Diagram ‘a’

Exercise 2:
1) Identify and compare the survival as well as the speech
functions of each of the speech organs mentioned in Diagram
‘a’.
2) Use the information obtained in question (1) to fill in the
following table. The first answer is given to you as an
example.

Organ Survival function Speech function

Lungs exchange oxygen and carbon dioxide supply air stream
Vocal ---------------------------------------------- -----------------------------
cords ------ ---
Tongu ---------------------------------------------- -----------------------------
e ------ ---
Teeth ---------------------------------------------- -----------------------------
 ------ ---
Lips ---------------------------------------------- -----------------------------
------ ---

Lesson Three

Introduction to vowels
I-Definition
 From a phonetic point of view, vowels are sounds produced with
no obstruction to the flow of air as it passes from the larynx to
the lips. In other words, air passes without any complete closure
or narrowing between speech organs. A doctor who wants to look
at the back of a patient’s mouth often asks the patient to say “ah”;
making this vowel sound is the best way of presenting an
unobstructed view.
 On functional grounds, the vowel is the sound which has a
central, major, syllabic function (the vowel is usually in the
middle of words). The consonant, however, is marginal, less
important in the syllable.
II- Description of vowels
When describing a vowel, the following points must be noted and
taken into consideration:
1. The position of the soft palate.
2. The kind of opening formed by the lips. The lips can, generally,
have three shapes. They can be:
• Rounded such as in the vowel / u: / in words like:
‘group’, ‘shoes’, ‘move.’ The corners of the lips are
brought together towards each other, with the lips pushed
forward. You can notice this by looking at a mirror while
trying to articulate the examples mentioned above.
• Spread as in the vowel / i: / in words like: ‘green’,
‘achieve’, ‘please’. The corners of the lips are moved
away from each other, as for a smile.
• Neutral such as with the vowel /ɑ: / in words like
‘calm’, heart’, and ‘father’. The lips are not noticeably
rounded or spread.
3. The part of the tongue which is mainly raised: Is it the front,
centre, or back one? ( place of articulation)
4. The degree of raising of the tongue ( manner of articulation)

III-Categories of vowels
 Vowels can be categorised in different ways. The most common
principles of vowels classification are:

 Length. Accordingly, there are

1. Long vowels where the articulation of the vowel takes
more time In English, the long vowels are /ɑ:/ /i:/ /ɔ:/
/u:/ /ɜ:/ (The colon “ :” which is not always used refers
to the length of the sound)
2. Short vowels are vowels where the articulation takes less
time. The short vowels in English are /ɪ/ /e/ /æ/ /ɔ/
/ʊ/ /ʌ/ /ə/.
 The part of the tongue involved in the articulation. Indeed,
this method of categorization is very common one for vowels.
Accordingly there are three sets of vowels.
1. Front vowels or sounds in which the main raising is made
by the front of the tongue toward the hard palate.
2. Central vowels or sounds in which the main raising is
made by the centre of the tongue toward the hard palate.
3. Back vowels or sounds in which the main raising is made
by the back of the tongue toward the soft palate.

IV-Cardinal vowel scale: Daniel Jones’ Diagram

Daniel Jones, the late 19th c and early 20th century phonetician,
introduced a diagram called the vowel Quadrilateral which is a four
sided chart used as a reference for the description of vowels.
Phoneticians are using this chart to represent the most important degrees
of raising of the tongue and the parts which are mainly raised or
involved in the articulation of vowels. In addition, the position and shape
of the lips are also represented in the chart. They put on it the vowels
corresponding to each position.
Tongue

Front Centre Back

Close i:
u:
ɪ
ʊ
Half-close e
ɔ:
ɜ: ə
Lips Half-open ʌ

Open æ
ɑ:

Figure 9: The cardinal vowels

This chart or scheme represents the Cardinal Vowels System. It

accounts for the range of vowels that the human vocal apparatus can
make. So, when you learn the cardinal vowels, you are not learning
to make English sounds only, but rather you are learning about the
human ability to articulate those sounds. In addition, you are
acquiring the ability to describe, classify, and compare vowels.
 Lesson four

Front vowels
There are four front vowels in English / i: / , / ɪ / , /e/ , /æ /.

I- Description of the articulation of / i: /

This vowel is identified as a front, close, long vow el. During its
articulation:
 The lips are spread.
 The front of the tongue is raised almost in the
close position.
 The side rims of the tongue make firm contact
with the upper molars.
The front, close, long vowel / i:/ appears in words like:
Feet Leave Piece Receive Complete Police key
Teeth Team field These Machine
Bee Please belief
Sheep Sea
See Reason
Cheese
Tree
II- Description of the articulation of / ɪ /
This vowel is identified as a front, half-close, short vowel. During the
production of this vowel:
 The lips are slightly spread.
 The front tongue is raised between the close and half-close
positions and is near to the centre.
 The rims of the tongue make a slight contact with the
upper molars.
The front, half-close, short vowel / ɪ / is found words like
Sit rhythm Needed Village guilt
With Symbol Pretty Private

Give City Sund ay (and days

of the week)
Ship System Savage
Minute Silly
Hit

III-Description of the vowel /e/

During the articulation of this vowel which is identified as a front, half-
close, short vowel:
 The lips are slightly spread or neutrally open.
 The front of the tongue is raised between the half-close and half-
open positions nearer to the half-close one
 The side rims make a slight contact with the upper molars.
The vowel /e/ can be heard in words like:
Bed Head Many Again LEICESTER friend guest
West Dead Said
Went Pleasure
Set Spread
Let

IV-Description of the short vowel /æ /.

This vowel is identified as a front, half-open, short vowel. During its
production:
 The lips are neutrally open.
 The front of the tongue is raised between the half-open
and open positions almost in the open one
 The side rims make a very slight contact with the back
upper molars.
This vowel /æ / can be heard in words like:
Cat Bath Plaid
Bag Hat
Catch Bad
Bat Than
Gas Lad
Pat latter

Exercises
Exercise 1:
Repeat the following ‘minimal pairs orally.

/ i: / /ɪ/ /ɪ/ /e/ /e/ /æ /

Feet Fit Lid Led Led Lad
Lead lid Sit Set Pet Pat
Seat Sit Din Den Bed Bad
Deem Dim Bid Bed Letter Latter
Bead Bid Bit Bat Then Than
Beat Bit Bitter Better Pen Pan
Feel Fill
Steel Still
Read Rid
Been Bin
Heat Hit
Exercise 2:
Write your own lists of similar pairs “ 5 in each”
Exercise 3
Write 10 examples of your own for each of the front vowels
Exercise 4
Identify the vowel in each word.: He - Went- bed - at - ten.- Did - she
- meet – him - dad – ship - carrying - fifty - sheep.