Chapter 1: Speech Mechanism

Introduction to Phonology

Phonology is the study of the sounds of a particular language (e.g., English). In phonology, it

matters whether sounds are contrastive or not, that is, whether substituting one sound for another

gives a different, or "contrastive," meaning. For example in English, [r] and [l] are two different

sounds - and the words "road" and "load" differ according to which of these sounds is used.

Similarly, phonologists describe the contrastive consonants and vowels in a sound system

(language). They are also interested in syllables, phrases, rhythm, tone, and intonation of a

specific language.

Introduction to Phonetics

Phonetics, as a discipline, is the study of human speech sounds. It includes the understanding of

how sounds are articulated using mouth, nose, teeth and tongue, and how ears hear those sounds

and can tell them apart. In phonetics, the physical properties (such as the wave form of each

sound) can also be analyzed with the help of computer programs (e.g., Praat). There are three

major types of phonetics: articulatory phonetics, acoustics phonetics and auditory

phonetics.

Phonetics vs. Phonology

Phonetics and phonology, both are important subfields of linguistics dealing with speech sounds

overlapping each other. But the key difference is that phonology is the study of how sounds are

organized in individual languages. It focuses on the organization of sounds by studying speech

patterns (e.g., phonological rules within a specific language). The key words for describing
phonology are ‘distribution’ and ‘patterning’ related to speech. Phonologists may look into

questions like – why there is a difference in the plurals of cat and dog; the former ends with an

‘s’ sound, whereas the latter ends with the ‘z’ sound. Phonetics, on the other hand, is the study of

actual process of sound making. Phonetics has been derived from the Greek word ‘phone’

meaning sound or voice. It covers the domain of speech production and its transmission and

reception. The sounds made by us when we talk are studied through different branches of

phonetics like acoustic phonetics, auditory phonetics and articulatory phonetics.

Introduction to Key Concepts in Phonetics and Phonology

There are various terms which are frequently used in phonetics and phonology. They mainly

include phone, phoneme and allophone. For better understanding, we need to distinguish among

them.

A phone is a sound (or a segment) which has some physical feature and the term is mostly used

in a non-technical sense.

A phoneme is the smallest meaningful unit of sound (therefore, a smallest unit in phonology) in

a language and this meaningful unit of sound is one that will change one word into another

word. For example, the difference in both ‘white’ and ‘right’ (ignore spellings here, focus on

sounds) is the difference of sounds (w – r) which are phonemes and they have the ability to

change meaning. Similarly, take another example of ‘cat’ vs. ‘bat’ (k – b). Linguists have also

defined phoneme as a group or class of sound events having common patterns of articulation. If

phoneme is a group then allophones are the group members. Let us discuss now allophone.

An allophone is a definable systematic variant of a phoneme. Compare the following sets:

‘s’ sound in words like sill, still and spill or in words like seed, steed and speed
‘k’ sound in words like, key and car

‘t’ sound in words like true and tea

‘n’ sound in words like tenth and ten

Introduction to Vowels

There are 44 sounds in English RP (BBC) accent. Out of them, 20 are vowels which, in turn, are

further divided into pure vowels and diphthongs. Pure vowels or monophthongs are 12 out of

which 5 are long and 7 are short vowels. Examples for these vowel sounds are given here:

Short vowels

• ɪ pit

• e pet

• æ pat

• ʌ putt

• ɒ pot

• ʊ put

anothe

• ǝ r

Long vowels

• iː bean
 • ɑː barn

• ɔː born

• uː boon

• ɜː burn

Introduction to English Diphthongs

English diphthongs are divided into two categories: centering (which end with ‘ǝ’ sound)

and closing (which end with either ‘ɪ’ or ‘ʊ’ sounds respectively). Examples for these

diphthongs are given below:

Diphthongs

pee

• ɪǝ r

• eǝ pair

poo

• ʊǝ r

• eɪ Bay

• w wet

• J yet
by a fricative with the same place of articulation (e.g., [tʃ] and [dʒ] sounds at the beginning and

end of the English words ‘church’ and ‘judge’). It is often difficult to decide whether any

particular combination of a plosive plus a fricative should be classed as a single affricate sound

or as two separate sounds, and the question depends on whether these are to be regarded as

separate phonemes or not. It is usual to regard [tʃ], [dʒ] as affricate phonemes in English (usually

symbolized č, ǰ by American writers).

It might be useful to know the terms trill (sometimes called roll), tap and flap and distinguish

among them. These are also called central approximants. In the case of tap and flap, there is only

one rapid contact while in the case of trill [r] the tongue is striking continuously (rrrrr) as the

stricture of intermittent closure.

Vowels:

• Long vowels iː ɑː ɔː uː ɜː

• Short vowels ɪ e æ ʌ ɒ ʊ ǝ

• Diphthongs eɪ aɪ ɔɪ ǝʊ aʊ ɪǝ eǝʊǝ

Consonants:

• Plosives p b t d k g

• Nasals m n ŋ

• Fricatives f v θ ð s z ʃ ʒ h

• Affricates ʧ ʤ

• Approximants l r w j
Types of phonetics:

Phonetics is the scientific study of speech sounds. It has three major branches:

articulatory phonetics, acoustics phonetics and auditory phonetics. Phonetics as a field of study

has a long history, going back certainly to well over two thousand years ago. 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 recognize 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 (kinesthetic observation). The second area is where it

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 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 regard. Finally, the auditory aspect of speech is very

important: the ear is capable of making fine discrimination between different sounds, so much so

that sometimes it is not possible to define in articulatory terms precisely what the difference is

(but we can still hear the difference).

Phonetics is a multidisciplinary field and it also studies language in terms of ‘general

linguistics’, ‘language development’, ‘dialectology’, ‘sociolinguistics’, ‘psycholinguistics’,

‘anatomy’, ‘physiology’, ‘developmental psychology’, ‘robotics’ and ‘information processing’.

There are various other fields which are newly emerging and taking phonetics into account for a
detailed analysis such as ‘instrumental phonetics’, ‘applied research in speech technology’ and

‘theoretical and experimental phonetics’.

Articulatory Phonetics

Articulatory phonetics is the branch of phonetics which deal the making of single sounds by the

vocal tract. In this branch of phonetics we studies the way in which speech sounds are made

(‘articulated’) by the vocal organs. It derives much of its descriptive terminology from the fields

of anatomy and physiology, and is sometimes referred to as physiological phonetics. This area

has traditionally held a central place in the training of phoneticians, the movements involved

being reasonably accessible to observation and, in principle, under the control of the

investigator. The classification of sounds used in the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA), for

example, is based on articulatory variables. In the recent years, there has been much progress in

the development of instrumental techniques for observing and measuring such factors as tongue,

lip, palate and vocal fold movement. Important discussions included in this field are: airstream

mechanism, speech production, places of articulation, manners of articulation, phonation

(voicing), and other processes such as the oro-nasal process and the description of vowel

production.

Acoustic Phonetics

Acoustic phonetics is related to the study of physical attributes of sounds produced by the vocal

tract. It is the branch of phonetics which studies the physical properties of speech sound as

transmitted between mouth and ear according to the principles of acoustics (the branch of

physics devoted to the study of sound). It is primarily dependent on the use of instrumental

techniques of investigation (such as Praat software), particularly electronics, and some

importance to the phonetician is that acoustic analysis can provide a clear, objective datum for

the investigation of speech .

Auditory Phonetics

Auditory phonetics deals with understanding how human ear perceives sound and how the brain

recognizes different speech units. This branch of phonetics studies the perceptual response to

speech sounds as mediated by ear, auditory nerve and brain. It is a very less well-studied area of

phonetics, mainly because of the difficulties encountered as soon as one attempts to identify and

measure psychological and neurological responses to speech sounds. On the other hand,

anatomical and physiological studies of the ear are well advanced, as are techniques for the

measurement of hearing, and the clinical use of such studies is now established under the

headings of audiology and audiometry. But relatively little pure research has been done into the

attributes of speech-sound sensation, seen as a phonetic system, and the relationship between

such phonetic analyses and phonological studies remains obscure. The subject is closely related

to studies of auditory perception within the domain of psycholinguistics.

Articulatory Phonetics

It is the branch of phonetics that studies articulators and their actions related to human speech

production. Actually, we can only produce speech sounds by moving parts of our articulators

(body parts), and this is done by the contraction of muscles. Most of the movements relevant to

speech take place in the mouth and in the chest for breath controland parts of the mouth and

throat area that we move when speaking. These are called articulators. In this branch of

phonetics, we study the principal articulators (such as tongue, lips, lower jaw and the teeth,
velum or soft palate, uvula and larynx) and other processes related to speech production. This

includes the features of various sounds such as vowels and consonants and their specific

properties including places and manners of articulation, phonation, etc.

Speech Mechanism

The process of speech production mainly includes respiration, phonation, articulation and

resonance. This simply means that in order to produce speech, we need the air stream

mechanism (so that the process of speech is activated), the exploitation of the air stream at

larynx (this process is called phonation or voicing), the modification of the air passage with the

help of articulators at the cavity (either oral or nasal) and finally the transfer of energy. In

phonetics, speech production is a term used for the activity of the respiratory, phonatory and

articulatory systems during speech, along with the associated processes required for their co-

ordination and use. A contrast is usually drawn with the receptive aspects of spoken

communication, such as speech perception and recognition.

As the anatomy of speech, some experts (such as Ladefoged) highlight the following four main

components—the airstream process, the phonation process, the oro-nasal process, and the

articulatory process. The airstream process includes all the ways of pushing air out that provide

energy for speech. The phonation process is the name given of the vocal folds. The oro-nasal

process is the possibility of the airstream going out through the mouth, as in [v] or [z], or the

nose, as in [m] and [n]. And finally, the movements of the tongue and lips interacting with the

roof of the mouth and the pharynx are part of the articulatory process.
Places of Articulation

Articulatory System: Speech Organs

Sound Waves
A sound wave is the pattern of disturbance caused by the movement of energy traveling through

air (sound always travels in the shape of waves in the air). Sound basically consists of small
variations in air pressure that occur very rapidly one after another. These variations are caused

by actions of the speaker’s vocal organs that are (for the most part) superimposed on the

outgoing flow of lung air. Thus, in the case of voiced sounds, the vibrating vocal folds chop up

the stream of lung air so that pulses of relatively high pressure alternate with moments of lower

pressure. Variations in air pressure in the form of sound waves move through the air somewhat

like the ripples on a pond. When they reach the ear of a listener, they cause the eardrum to

vibrate.

The Oro-Nasal Process

The possibility of the airstream going out through the mouth, as in [v] or [z], or the nose, as in

[m]and [n], is determined by the oro-nasal process. Consider the consonants at the end of rang,

ran, ram (ŋ, m, n) which are all nasal sounds. these consonants when you say by themselves, note

that the air is coming out through the nose. In the formation of these sounds in a sequence, the

point of articulatory closure moves forward, from velar in ‘rang’, through alveolar in ‘ran’ and to

bilabial in ‘ram’. In each case, air is prevented from going out through the mouth but is able to

go out through the nose because the soft palate, or velum, is lowered. In the most speech, soft

palate is raised so that there is a velic closure. It is when lowered and there is an obstruction in

the mouth, we say that there is a nasal consonant. Raising or lowering the velum controls the

oro-nasal process, the distinguishing factor between oral and nasal sounds.

In order to fully describe a sound, we need to know various actions made by articulators during

the process of articulation. The articulators make gestures required for speech by moving toward

other articulators to produce speech sounds. This movement is called articulatory gesture.

Bearing all these terms in mind, let us go through the major articulatory gestures used in the
production of English sounds:

Bilabial: This sound is made with two lips (for example, /p/ and /b/). The lips come together for

thesesounds.

Labiodental: This sound is made when the lower lip is raised to touch the upper front teeth (for

example,/f/ and /v/).

Dental: This sound is made with the tongue tip or blade and upper front teeth. For example, say

thewords thigh, thy and you will find the first sound in each of these words to be dental.

Alveolar: This sound is made with the tongue tip or blade and the alveolar ridge. You may

pronouncewords such as tie, die, nigh, sigh, zeal, lie using the tip of the tongue or the blade of

the tongue for the first sound in each of these words (which are alveolar sounds).

Retroflex: This sound is produced when the tongue tip curls against the back of the alveolar

ridge. Manyspeakers of English do not use retroflex sounds at all but it is a common sound in

Pakistani languages such as Urdu, Sindhi, Pashto, Balochi and Punjabi.

Palato-alveolar: This sound is produced with the tongue blade and the back of the alveolar

ridge (forexample, first sound in each of words like shy, she, show)

Palatal: This sound is produced with front of the tongue and the hard palate (such as the first

sound

Approximants

Approximant is a phonetic term used to denote a consonant which makes very little

obstruction to the airflow. Traditionally approximants have been divided into two groups: (1)

“sein‘yes’.
Velar: This sound is produced with back of the tongue and the soft palate (such as /k/ and /g/).

Manner of Articulation

In order to classify a speech sound, one of the most important things that we need to know is

what sort of obstruction it makes to the flow of air: a vowel makes very little obstruction, while

a plosive consonant makes complete obstruction. The kind of obstruction is known as the

manner of articulation. There are several basic ways to pronounce a consonant sound which are

based on the configuration and interaction of the articulators involved. For example, a stop

sound [p] is pronounced by blocking the air passage completely in the oral cavity. Similarly,

there are certain parameters for determining the manners of articulation such as stricture,

laterality and nasality. Consonantal sounds are divided, in terms of their manner of articulation,

into two major types: obstruents (such as stops, fricatives and affricates) and sonorants (such as

nasals, liquids and glides). The possible manners of articulation are described in detail in the

next sections. The International Phonetic Association classifies consonants according to their

manner and place of articulation.

Stop: Oral and Nasal

Stop refers to any sound which is produced by a complete closure in the vocal tract, and thus

traditionally includes the class of plosives. Both nasal and oral sounds can be classified as stops,

though the term is usually reserved for the latter. The term ‘stop’ is used in the phonetic

classification of consonant sounds on the basis of their manner of articulation (it refers to a

sound made when a complete closure in the vocal tract which suddenly released and the pressure

of air which had built up behind the closure rushes out with an explosive sound). Thus the sound

stop has two processes; the closure of air passage (stop) and the burst (release). Examples are [p,
b, t, d, k, g]. Plosion is the term used to refer to the outwards movement of air upon release.

Plosive consonants are one type of stop consonant. Nasal stops include [m, n, ŋ]. It is also

possible (using a different airstream mechanism than the one which produces an outward flow of

lung air) to produce plosives (implosives) where the air upon release moves inward.

Fricative

A fricative consonant is made by forcing air through a narrow gap so that a hissing noise is

generated. This may be accompanied by voicing (in which case the sound is a voiced fricative,

such as [z] or it may be voiceless as [s]). The quailty of fricative sounds varies highly but all are

acoustically composed of energy at relatively high frequency. There are several fricative sounds

in English, both voiced and voiceless, as in fin [f], van [v], thin [θ], this [ð], sin [s], zoo [z], ship

[ʃ], measure [ʒ] and hoop [h]. There is distinction which is made between sibilant or strident

fricatives. Sibilant fricatives (such as s, ʃ) are strong and clearly audible and strident fricatives

are weak and less audible (such as θ, f). BBC pronunciation has nine fricative phonemes: f, θ, s,

ʃ, h (voiceless) and v, ð, z, ʒ (voiced).

mivowels” such as [w] in English ‘wet’ and [j] in English ‘yet’, which are very similar to close

vowels such as [u] and [i] but are produced as a rapid glide; and (2) “liquids” sounds which have

an identifiable constriction of the airflow but not the one that is sufficiently obstructive to

produce fricative noise. This category includes laterals such as English [l] in ‘lead’ and non-

fricative [r] (phonetically ɹ) as in ‘read’. BBC English has four approximant sounds which

include [l] as in light, [r] as in right, [w] as in wet and [j] as in yet.

Additional Consonantal Gestures

There are some additional consonantal gestures which may be useful to discuss at this stage. One
of such gestures not yet discussed is ‘affricate’. It is a type of consonant consisting of a plosive

followed by a fricative with the same place of articulation (e.g., [tʃ] and [dʒ] sounds at the

beginning and end of the English words ‘church’ and ‘judge’). It is often difficult to decide

whether any particular combination of a plosive plus a fricative should be classed as a single

affricate sound or as two separate sounds, and the question depends on whether these are to be

regarded as separate phonemes or not. It is usual to regard [tʃ], [dʒ] as affricate phonemes in

English (usually symbolized č, ǰ by American writers).

Trill, Tap and Flap

It might be useful to know the terms trill (sometimes called roll), tap and flap and distinguish

among them. These are also called central approximants. In the case of tap and flap, there is only

one rapid contact while in the case of trill [r] the tongue is striking continuously (rrrrr) as the

stricture of intermittent closure.

Tap: Tap is up and down movement of the top of the tip of tongue. For example, pronouncing

the middlesound in word ‘pity’ with typical American accent [ɾ]. It is very brief and is produced

by a sharp upward throw of the tongue blade. In this sound, tongue makes a single tap against

the alveolar ridge.

Flap: Flap is front and back movement of tongue tip at the underside of tongue with curling

behind. It isfound in abundance in Indo-Aryan (IA) languages [ɽ]. Typical flap sounds found in

IA languages is a retroflex sound and the examples are [ɽ], [ɖ] and [ɳ].

Trill: In the production of trill the articulator is set in motion by the current of air [r]. It is a

typical soundof Scottish English as in words like ‘rye’ and ‘row’.

Silent r

The most obvious difference between standard American (GA) and standard British (GB) is the

omission of ‘r’ in GB: you only pronounce a written < r > if there is a vowel sound after it, so we

don’t say it in PARK /pɑːk/, HORSE /hɔːs/ or FURTHER /ˈfɜːðə/. In American, though, we

pronounce every written /r/ so /pɑrk/, /hɔrs/ & /ˈfɜrðər/.

“Roast dinner will be pork, carrots and turnips.”

(1st British, 2nd American)

Vowel Sound Changes

Many of the 19 vowel sounds are very similar in American and British, however, there are

8 sounds that significantly change as follows:

/ɒ/ to /ɑ/

In British (GB) we use back rounded open sound /ɒ/ for words like SHOP /ʃɒp/, LOST /lɒst/ and

WANT /wɒnt/. In American (GA) we don’t round the lips, so it’s: /ʃɑp/, /lɑst/ & /wɑnt/.

“John wants a stop watch.”

/æ/ to /e/

The British thinking sound /ɜː/, found in words like HEARD /hɜːd/, FIRST /fɜːst/ and WORST
/wɜːst/, is pronounced differently – with the tongue raised and a /r/ quality in

American, /hɜrd/, /fɜrst/ & /wɜrst/. This sound nearly always has an ‘r’ in its spelling, but

even when it doesn’t, American speakers say one, like in the word COLONEL /ˈkɜrnəl/,

which is /ˈkɜːnəl/ in British English.

“The early bird murders the worm.”

/ɔː/ to /ɔr/ & /ɑ/

Long back rounded /ɔː/ as in SWORD /sɔːd/, FORCE /fɔːs/, THOUGHT /θɔːt/ & LAW /lɔː/is

pronounced in 2 ways in American. /ɔr/ for words with ‘r’ so SWORD /sɔrd/ & FORCE

/fɔrs/, and /ɑ/ for words without /r/ so THOUGHT /θɑt/ & LAW /lɑ/. This means that for

many American speakers, COT /kɑt/and CAUGHT /kɑt/ are the same, though COURT

/kɔrt/ would be different.In British English CAUGHT /kɔːt/ and COURT would be the same,

COT /kɒt/ would be different.

“I caught four walkers talking Norse.”

/ɑː/ to /ɑr/ & /æ/

ong back unrounded /ɑː/ like in CAR /kɑː/, START /stɑːt/, AFTER /ɑːftə/ & HALF /hɑːf/ is

pronounced /ɑr/ in American if there’s an ‘r’ in the spelling so CAR /kɑr/ & START

/stɑrt/. Most of those words that don’t have an ‘r’ in GB are pronounced /æ/ in American

so AFTER /ˈæftər/ & HALF /hæf/.

“Pass these parts to master Carter.”

Vowel Length

There is a greater difference in British English between the length of vowel sounds, with some

being pronounced significantly longer than their American counterparts. Some of this is owing to

the additional pronunciation of ‘r’ in many American vowel sounds as seen above. Most
phonemic charts reflect this by showing five or six English vowel sounds with two triangular

dots, whereas most charts do not offer this for American.

heard /hɜːd/ /hɜrd/

bar /bɑː/ /bɑr/

caught /kɔːt/ /kɑt/

need /niːd/ /nid/

shoe /ʃuː/ /ʃu/

Consonant Sounds

Consonant sounds are largely similar in American and British with just a few key

differences:

/t/

When /t/ appears after a stressed vowel and before a weak vowel, American speakers often

make a voiced flap – a bit like a very fast /d/: WATER, FIGHTER, GOT IT. In Standard

British this would be pronounced as a normal /t/ WATER, FIGHTER, GOT IT, though in

regional British accents, most famously cockney, this would be a glottal stop: WATER,

FIGHTER, GOT IT.

“My daughter bought a motorbike.”

/r/

Apart from the higher number of /r/ sounds in American English, there is also a small but

significant difference in the way they are pronounced. In American, the tongue curls back

further, giving it a slightly muffled quality – RIGHT, ARROW. Whereas in British the

tongue is flatter and further forward RIGHT, ARROW.

“These red roses are for Rachel.”

In British English where /j/ appears after /t, d, n, l, s, z/ (the alveolar consonants) it is omitted in

American: /t/ TUNE /tjuːn, tun/, /d/ DUTY /ˈdjuːti, ˈduti/, /n/ NEW /njuː, nu/, /l/ LEWD

/ljuːd, lud/, /s/ SUIT /sjuːt, sut/ /z/ EXUDE /ɪgˈzjuːd, ɪgˈzud/. This is often referred to as ‘yod

dropping’.

“On Tuesday, tune into the news.”

Word Stress

Some words are stressed differently in American English, particularly those of French origin

where American keeps the last syllable stress and British goes for first syllable (audio is British

then American): GARAGE, GOURMET, BALLET, BROCHURE, though this is reversed in the

words ADDRESS and MOUSTACHE.

“Here’s the address of the garage.”

Intonation

The melody of British and American is quite different, though the structure of speech is very

similar. The most obvious difference is the British tendency to use high falling intonation, hitting

the main stress high and dropping down. Whereas in American rising tones are more common,

so you go up from the main stress. This use of rising intonation on statements is sometimes

referred to as ‘Upspeak’.

“I don’t really know what to do about it