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English: Phonetics

This document discusses phonetics, which is the scientific study of human speech sounds. It covers key areas of phonetics including articulatory phonetics, acoustic phonetics, and auditory phonetics. The articulators, place and manner of articulation, and voicing are described. Examples of consonant and vowel sounds in English and Sanskrit are provided. The document also discusses syllables, accent, and rules for pronunciation of the /r/ sound in English.

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211 views19 pages

English: Phonetics

This document discusses phonetics, which is the scientific study of human speech sounds. It covers key areas of phonetics including articulatory phonetics, acoustic phonetics, and auditory phonetics. The articulators, place and manner of articulation, and voicing are described. Examples of consonant and vowel sounds in English and Sanskrit are provided. The document also discusses syllables, accent, and rules for pronunciation of the /r/ sound in English.

Uploaded by

dhruv
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© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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English

Chapter 2

Phonetics
Linguistics
 Linguisticsis the scientific study of language,
which involves analysis of language form,
language meaning, and language in context.

 The Person, who scientifically studies a language


is called Linguist.

 The earliest activities


in the documentation and
description of language have been attributed to
the 6th century BC Indian grammarian Pāṇini,
who wrote a formal description of the Sanskrit
language in his Aṣṭādhyāyī.[5]
Areas of Linguistics

Phonetics / • All human sounds


Phonology • Classified sounds

Morphology • Words, forms

Syntax • Clauses, Sentences

Semantics • Meaning

Pragmatics • Use of Language


Phonetics
 Phonetics is a branch of linguistics. The word has
derived from the Greek word “phone”, which means
sound.
 Phonetics is a scientific study of human speech
sounds – their description, classification and
transcription
SCRIPTOLOGY PHONETICS
How the words/ languages How the words are orally
are visually presented pronounced
Writing system System of pronunciation
Basic unit: Alphabet Basic unit: sound
Smallest meaningful unit Smallest meaningful unit
Morpheme Phoneme
Alphabets are written Sounds are articulated
Phonetics

 Phonetics has three basic areas of study:

Articulatory Acoustic Auditory


phonetics phonetics phonetics

• the study of the • the study of the


• the study of the
organs of speech reception and
physical
and their use in transmission of perception of
producing speech sounds speech sounds
speech sounds from the speaker by the listener
by the speaker to the listener
Articulation

 Articulation is the movement of the tongue,


lips, jaw, and other speech organs (the
articulators) in ways that make speech sounds.

 Sound is produced simply by expelling air from


the lungs. However, to vary the sound quality in
a way useful for speaking, two speech organs
normally move towards each other to create an
obstruction that shapes the air in a particular
fashion.
Articulation
• The organs/articulators
Place of responsible for the obstruction
Articulation of air and production of speech
sound

Manner of • the configuration and


interaction of the articulators
Articulation when making a sound

• How closely the vocal cords are


placed together
Voicing • Sounds can be voiceless or
voiced
Sanskrit Sounds
क ख ग घ ङ Velor
च छ ज झ ञ म श Palatal
ट ठ ड ढ ण य/र ष Alveolar
त थ द ध न स Dental
ऩ प फ ब भ व Bilabial
Velar: Back of tongue contacts the soft palate
Palatal: Middle of tongue approaches or contacts the hard palate
Alveolar: Tongue tip contacts the alveolar ridge
Dental: Tongue tip or tongue blade contacts upper teeth
Bilabial: Both lips come together
Glottal: No obstruction anywhere but in the vocal cords down in
the throat
Post-alveolar: Tongue blade contacts the postalveolar region
behind the alveolar ridge
Labiodental: Lower lip contacts upper teeth
Articulators
English Sounds

English
Sounds
44

Vowels Consonants
20 24

Monophthongs Diphthongs
12 8
Types of sounds
 Vowel: a speech sound produced by comparatively open
configuration of the vocal tract
- with vibration of the vocal cords but without audible
friction
- an independent unit of the sound system
- it forms the nucleus of a syllable. (A in jug)

 Consonant: a basic speech sound in which the breath is at


least partly obstructed (blocked)
- dependent unit of sound system, which can be combined
with a vowel to form a syllable. (sa, ang in sing )

 Diphthong: a sound formed by the combination of two


vowels
- in which the sound begins as one vowel and moves towards
another (oi in coin ).
All 44 Sounds
Consonant Chart
Tongue & Lips

 Labial : Sounds requiring the participation of one or both


lips are called a labial sounds
- labium in Latin means lip

 Coronal : Sounds that are produced by raising the tongue


blade (including the tip of the tongue) from its neutral
position towards the teeth or the hard palate are called
Coronal Sounds

 Dorsal: Sounds that are articulated with the back of the


tongue (the dorsum)
Manner of Articulation

 Plosive :Stops or plosives are consonant sounds that are


formed by completely stopping airflow.

 Fricative : Consonant sounds, such as English f or v,


produced by bringing the mouth into position to block the
passage of the airstream, but not making complete
closure, so that air moving through the mouth generates
audible friction.

 Affricate: An affricate is a consonant that begins as


a stop and releases as a fricative
(First Blocked and then released)
Manner of Articulation

 Lateral : Consonant sounds produced by raising the tip of the


tongue against the roof of the mouth so that the airstream flows
past one or both sides of the tongue

 Nasal: Consonant sounds produced with a lowered velum,


allowing air to escape freely through the nose.
There are three nasal sounds in English. /m/, /n/, /ŋ/

 Glide : Semivowels or glides are sounds, that are phonetically


similar to a vowel sound but function as the syllable boundary,
rather than as the nucleus of a syllable

 Approximant: Consonants produced by bringing one articulator


(the tongue or lips) close to another without actually touching it,
as in English r and w.
Syllable
Syllable is a unit of pronunciation which have one vowel
sound, with or without surrounding consonants.
Syllable forms the whole or a part of a word.
E.g., there are two syllables in water ( wa – ter)
and three in inferno ( in – fer – no )

A word that consists of a single syllable (dog) is called


monosyllabic. Similarly, disyllabic for a word of two syllables;
trisyllablic for a word of three syllables; and polysyllabic ,
which refers to any word of more than one syllable.

Consonant Cluster: It is a group of consonants


pronounced together. As str in strong.
Accent
Accent means a distinct emphasis given to
a syllable or word in speech by stress or pitch.

 A long word may have more than one accent. The vowel
that is stressed more or most is called the primary
accent.
 A second accented vowel is called the secondary accent.
For example, cón-ver-sá-tion.
 Very long words can have even more stressed vowel
sounds, but only one primary accent.
[Important Note: to learn the Accent Rules of English
phonetics go through the following links:
 https://www.fluentu.com/blog/english/english-word-stress/
 http://english.glendale.cc.ca.us/phonics.rules.html
Pronunciation of /r/
 There are Three basic rules for pronunciation of /r/
sound.
(1) /r/ sound is not pronounced, when it is at the end of
the word. E.g. Father / ˈfɑːðə/
(2) /r/ sound is not pronounced, when it is followed by
a consonant. E.g. Bird / bə:d/
(In the word Bird, the middle /r/ sound is not
pronounced because it is followed by a consonant /d/.
(3) /r/ sound is pronounced, when it is followed by a
vowel.
(In the word group / ɡruːp / the the middle /r/
sound is pronounced, because it is followed by a
vowel /uː/)

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