Linguistics for English Language Teaching: Sounds, Words, and Sentences

CHAPTER 5
ENGLISH PHONETICS:
The Sounds of English Language

uman can communicate both spoken and written language. In

spoken language, the speech sound is very important. The
study of speech sound is called phonetics. The study of
speech sounds then involves three aspects: how the sounds
are produced, how they are transmitted and how they are perceived.
The study of production of speech sounds constitutes articulatory
phonetics; the study of the transmission and physical properties of
speech sounds, i.e. intensity, frequency and duration, constitutes
acoustic phonetics; the study of the perception of speech sounds
constitutes the study of auditory phonetics. The acoustic and auditory
phonetics are excluded in the following discussion.

The study of articulatory phonetics has two subparts. First, we study

the articulation, i.e. production of speech sound. Second, classifying
sounds according to the properties they have.

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The Production of Speech Sounds

Human languages display a wide variety of sounds, called phones or
speech sounds.

Articulators above the larynx

All sounds we make when we speak are the result of the muscles
contracting. The muscles in the chest that we use for breathing
produce the flow of air that is needed for almost all speech sounds;
muscles in the larynx produce many different modifications in the
flow of air from the chest to the mouth. After passing through the
larynx, the air goes through what we call the vocal tract, which ends
at the mouth and nostrils. Here the air from the lungs escapes into the
atmosphere. We have a large and complex set of muscles that can
produce changes in the shape of vocal tract, and in order to learn how
the sounds of speech are produced it is necessary to become familiar
with the different parts of the vocal tract. These different parts are
called articulators, and the study of them is called articulatory
phonetics.

Figure 2 is a diagram that is used frequently in the study of phonetics.

It represents the human head, seen from the side, displayed as though
it had been cut in half. You will need to look a it carefully as the
articulators are described, and you will often find it useful to have a
mirror and a good light placed so that you can look at the inside of
your mouth.

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Figure 2
The Vocal Tract

Source: Crane, L. Ben, et al. (1981: 58)

1. The pharynx is a tube which begins just above the larynx. It is

about 7 cm long in women and about 8 cm in men, and 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.
If you look in your mirror with your mouth open, you can see the
back of the pharynx.

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2. The velum or soft palate is seen in the diagram in a position that

allows air to pass through the nose and through the mouth. Yours is
probably in that position now, but often in speech it is raised so
that air cannot escape through the nose. The other important thing
about the velum is that it is one of the articulators that can be
touched by the tongue. When we make the sounds [k] and [g] the
tongue is in contact with the lower side of the velum, and we call
these velar consonants.
3. The hard palate is often called the “roof of the mouth”. You can
feel its smooth curved surface with your tongue.
4. The alveolar ridge is a hump directly behind the teeth. It is
between the top front teeth and the hard palate. You can feel its
shape with your tongue. Its surface is really much rougher than it
feels, and is covered with little ridges. You can only see these if
you have a mirror small enough to go inside your mouth (such as
those used by dentists). Sounds made with the tongue touching
here (such as [t] and [d] are called alveolar.
5. The tongue is, of course, a very important articulator and it can be
moved into many different places and different shapes. It is usual
to divide the tongue into different parts, though there are no clear
dividing lines within the tongue. Although there are no obvious
divisions on the surface of tongue itself, for the description of
sounds it may be divided into a number of sections. Figure 2 shows
the tongue on a larger scale with these parts shown:
a. tip or point
b. blade—this lies below the alveolar ridge
c. front—this is the middle section which lies below the
hard palate
d. back—this section lies opposite the velum and the uvula
e. root—a relatively vertical section which faces backwards
towards the back wall of the pharynx

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Figure 3
Sub-division of the tongue

front
blade
tip back

root

f. The teeth (upper and lower) are usually shown in diagrams like
Fig.1 only at the front of the mouth, immediately behind the lips.
This is for the sake of a simple diagram, and you should remember
that most speakers have teeth to the sides of their mouths, back
almost to the soft palate. The tongue is contact with the upper side
teeth for many speech sounds. Sounds made with the tongue
touching the front teeth are called dental.
g. The lips are important in speech. They can be pressed together
(when we produce the sound [p], [b]), brought into contact with the
teeth (as [f], [v]), or rounded to produce the lip-shape for vowels
like [u:]. Sounds in which lips are in contact with each other are
called bilabial, while those with lip-to-teeth contact are called
labiodentals.

The production of speech sound involves three distinct processes.

They are:
(i) initiation
(ii) phonation
(iii) articulation

Initiation
The production of any speech sound requires the creation of an
airstream in the vocal tract. The airstream may be created by either
compressing or rarelying the air in the tract. In English the airstream is
initiated by lungs. When the lungs contract, they push air out, creating
an out-flowing airstream. We call this pulmonic egressive—pulmonic

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because it is initiated by the lungs, and egressive because it is out

flowing.

Phonation
The pulmonic egressive airstream, as it passess through the larynx,
may be modified by the vocal cords, through the introduction of voice.
Without voice, speech would be reduced to an inaudible whisper.
When the vocal cords are brought together, air passing out from the
lungs causes them to vibrate, and voice is produced. Sounds produced
with the vocal cords vibrating are called voiced. If the vocal cords are
pulled back, hey cannot vibrate. Sounds produced without the vocal
cords vibrating are called voiceless. When we breathe the vocal cords
are pulled back allowing the air to pass freely in and out of the lungs.

Articulation
As the airstream passes through the vocal tract, it may be modified by
the movement of the articulation, that is by the lips and the tongue
obstructing its passage through the vocal tract to varying degrees. This
process is called articulation. The obstruction of the airstream may
occur at any point in the vocal tract, and is the result of an active
articulator moving towards a passive articulators are the location on
the roof of the mouth, for example the alveolar ridge, hard palate, etc.

In short, there are some processes in producing sounds. First, air

proceeds from the lungs through the trachea to the larynx, commonly
called the voice box, which houses the vocal cords. If the cords are
slightly tensed, the passage of air sets the vocal cords vibrating, which
gives a basic sound quality to the air stream, which continues into the
pharynx, where basic voice quality is established. Voice quality
determines the unique characteristics of each speaker’s voice, so that
an individual often can be recognized by voice alone. Above the
pharynx is the uvula, which is a movable flap that controls the passage
of air through the nasal cavity. The uvula is always open when an
individual breathes through the nose, but it is only open at certain
times during the course of speech. For the most part, the velum (or soft
palate) is closed in speech, and the air moves through the oral cavity
(the mouth), the dimensions of which change according to the
interaction of the tongue and lips. These changes result in what all
speakers of a language recognize to be the sounds of their language.
The study of these speech sounds is called phonetics.

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The production of any speech sounds involves the movement of an

airstream. Most speech sounds are produced by pushing air from the
lungs out of the body through the mouth and sometimes through the
nose. Because lung air is used, these sounds are called pulmonic
sounds; because the air is pushed out, they are called egressive. The
majority of sounds used in languages of the world are produced by a
pulmonic egressive airstream mechanism. All the sounds in English
are produced in this manner.

Phonetic Transcription
Since the sixteenth century, efforts have been made to devise a
universal system for transcribing the sounds of speech. The best
known system is the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA). In this
alphabet the relationship between symbol and sound is one to one.

English Consonants

Symbols Examples

p pat, tap, pit, spit, tip, apple, ample, plague, appear

b bat, tab, amble, brick, black, bubble,
m mat, tam, smack, amnesia, ample, Emmy, camp,
comb
t Tap, pat, stick, mentor, scenting, kissed, kicked
stuffed
d dip, cad, drip, guard, sending, mender, loved, cured,
robbed, batted
n nap, can, snow, know, mnemonic, any, pint,
diagnostic, design, sign, thin
k kit, cat, charisma, character, stick, critique, antic,
close, mechanic, exceed
g guard, burg, bag, agnostic, longer, designate,
Ν sing, long, think, finger, singer, ankle, (the sound
represented by the n in think is not produced in the
same way as that represented by the n in thin; say
the two words to yourself and notice that the tongue
gestures are different)
f fat, fish, philosophy, fracture, flat, phlogiston,
coffee, reef, cough, comfort
v vat, dove, rival, gravel, anvil, ravage

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s sap, skip, snip, psychology, pass, pats, packs,

democracy, scissors, fasten, deceive, descent,
sclerosis, pseudo, rhapsody, peace, potassium
z zip, jazz, razor, pads, kisses, Xerox, xylophone,
design, lazy, maize, lies, physics, peas, magnesium
θ thigh, through, wrath, thistle, ether, wreath, think,
month, arithmetic, teeth, Matthew
ð the, their, then, wreathe, lathe, mother, either,
rather, teethe
Σ shoe, shy, mush, marsh, mission, nation, fish,
glacial, sure, deduction, Russian, logician
Ζ measure, vision, azure
± choke, church, match, feature, rich, lunch,
righteous, constituent
→ judge, midget, George, magistrate, jello, gelatine,
region, residual
l leaf, feel, lock, call, palace, single, mild, plant,
pulp, applaud
r reef, fear, rock, cars, Paris, singer, prune, carp,
furl, cruel
j you, yes, playing, feud, use
w with, swim, mowing, queen
which, where, what, whale
h who, hat, rehash, hole, whole
♣ bottle, button, Latin, glottal

The principal division of sounds is between vowel and consonants.

Every language makes this distinction. Vowels are defined as those
sounds produced with the oral cavity relatively open to the flow of air.
Consonant, unlike vowels, are speech sounds produced with a
narrowing of the vocal tract which is sufficient to prevent them from
functioning as syllable nuclei (the nucleus is the ‘heart’ of the syllable,
carrying stress, loudness, pitch information and usually consisting a
vowel). In short, consonant are sound produced with a constriction or
occlusion in the oral cavity.

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When describing consonant it is necessary to provide information

about three different aspects of the articulation of the consonant:
1. Is it voiced or voiceless?
2. Where is the sound produced? (Place/point of articulation)
3. How is the sound produced? (Manner of articulation)

Voiced and Voiceless Sounds

In articulatory phonetics, we investigate how speech sounds are
produced using the fairly complex oral equipment we have. We start
with the air pushed out by the lungs up through the trachea (or
windpipe) to the larynx. Inside the larynx are the vocal cords, which
take two basic positions.
1. When the vocal cords are spread apart, the air from the lungs
passes between them unimpeded. Sounds produced in this way are
described as voiceless.
2. When the vocal cords are drawn together, the air from the lungs
repeatedly pushes them apart as it passes through, creating a
vibration effect. Sounds produced in this way are described as
voiced.
The distinction can be felt physically if you place a fingertip gently on
the top of your ‘Adam’s apple’ (i.e. that part of your larynx you can
feel in your neck below your chin), then produce sounds such as Z-Z-
Z-Z or V-V-V-V. Because these are voiced sounds, you should be
able to feel some vibration. Keeping your fingertip in the same
position, now make the sounds S-S-S-S or F-F-F-F. Because these are
voiceless sounds, there should be no vibration. Another trick is to put
a finger in each ear, not too far, and produce the voiced sounds (e.g.
Z-Z-Z-Z) to hear and feel some vibration, whereas no vibration will be
heard or felt if you make voiceless sounds (e.g. S-S-S-S) in the same
way.

Place/Point of Articulation
As the airstream passes through the vocal tract, it may be modified by
the movement of the articulators, That is by the lips and the tongue
obstructing its passage through the vocal tract to varying degrees. This
process is called articulation. The obstruction of the airstream may
occur at any point in the vocal tract, and is the result of an active
articulator moving towards a passive articulator. The active
articulators are the lips and the tongue, and the passive articulators are

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the locations on the roof of the mouth, for example the alveolar ridge,
hard palate, etc.

We usually subdivide the articulatory process based on where in the

vocal tract obstruction of the air flow occurs. It refers to place/point of
articulation. The number of places of articulation may vary from one
language to another. But in English, consonants can be divided into
seven groups, namely: bilabial, labiodental, dental/interdental,
alveolar, palatal, velar and glottal/pharyngeal.

Bilabial
Bilabial sounds are made with both
lips. There are five such sounds
possible in English: [p] pat, [b] bat,
[m] mat, [w] with, and [wh] where
(present only in some dialects). We
could say that the lower lip is the
active articulator and the upper lip the
passive articulator, though the upper
lip usually moves too, at least a little

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Labiodental
Labiodental consonants are made with
the lower lip against the upper front
teeth. English has two labiodentals [f]
as in fat and [v] as in vat. The lower
lip is the active articulator and the
upper teeth are the passive articulator

Dental/Interdental
Interdentals are made with the tip of
the tongue between front teeth. There
are two interdental sounds in English:
[θ] thigh and [ð] thy

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Alveolar
Just behind your upper front teeth
there is a small ridge called the
alveolar ridge. English makes seven
sounds at or near this ridge: [t] tab, [d]
dab, [s] sip, [z] zip, [n] noose, [l] loose
and [r] red.

Palatal
If you let your finger glide back along
the roof of your mouth you will note
that the anterior portion is hard while
the posterior portion is soft. Sounds
made near the hard part of the roof of
the mouth are said to be palatal.
English makes five sounds in the
palatal region: [Σ] leash, [Ζ] measure,
[±] church, [→] judge and [j] yes.

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Velar
The soft par of the roof of the mouth
behind the hard palate is called the
vellum. Sounds made near the velum
are said to be velar. There are three
velar sounds in English: [k] kill, [g]
gill, and [ŋ] sing.

Glottal/Pharyngeal
The space between the vocal folds is
the glottis. English has two sounds
made at the glottis. The first is easy to
hear: [h] as in high and history. The
second is called a glottal stop and it is
written phonetically as [♣] (a question
mark without the dot). This sound
occurs before each vowel sound in uh-
oh.

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The place of articulation and the manner of articulation of English

consonants are summarized in table below:

Table 1
English Consonants

Labiodental

interdental

Alveolar
Bilabial

Dental/

Glottal
Palatal

Velar
Manner of State of
Articulation Glottis

Stop -voi p t k ♣
+voi b d g
Fricative -voi f Τ s Σ
+voi v ∆ z Ζ
Affricate -voi ±
+voi →
Nasal +voi m n Ν
Liquid +voi l, r
Glide +voi w j h

Manner of Articulation
So far, we have concentrated on describing consonant sounds in terms
of where they are articulated. We can also describe the same sounds in
terms of how they are articulated. It refers to manner of articulation.
Based on the manner of articulation, English consonants may be
grouped into six groups, namely: stops, fricative, affricates, nasals,
liquid, and glides.

Stops
Stops are made by totally obstructing the airstream. Notice
that when you say [p] and [b] your lips are closed together for
a moment, stopping the air flow. [p] and [b] are bilabial stops.
[b] is voiced bilabial stop. [t], [d], [k], and [g] are also stops.

Fricatives
Fricatives are made by forming a nearly complete stoppage of
the airstream. The opening through which the air escapes is so
small that friction is produced (much as air escaping from a
punctured tire makes a ‘hissing’ noise) [š] is made by almost

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stopping the air with the tongue near the roof of the mouth. It
is a voiceless palatal fricative. [f], [v], [θ], [ð], [s], [z], [Σ], [Ζ]
are also fricatives.

Affricates
The affricates are special group of sounds that are formed by
combining a stop and a fricative. In English, only one pair of
sounds occurs in this category, [±] as in chain and rich and
[→] as in Jane and ridge. Notice that in pronouncing [±], one
seems to pronounce [t] following by [Σ]. Similarly, [→] is
much like a phonetic compound, consisting of [d] following
by [Ζ].

Nasals
In English, the three nasals, [m, n,Ν], are made with the lips
and the tongue in the same respective position as they are for
[p, t, k]; however, air pressure does not build up as it does in
the stops. Instead, the uvula (the flap that controls the opening
to the nasal passage) is open, allowing the air to flow through
the nose. In English, the nasals are always voiced. Whereas
[m] and [n] may occur at the beginning as well as at the end of
a syllable in English, as in mom and nun, [Ν] occurs only at
the end of syllable, as in sing.

Liquid
The consonants [l] and [r], as heard in lilt and roar, are called
liquid. Both sounds are normally voiced. An [l] sound is
formed by touching the tip of the tongue to the alveolar ridge
and allowing air to escape to each side. The [r] sound in
English is formed by curling the tip of the tongue up behind
the alveolar ridge and flipping it forward and upward without
actually touching the alveolar ridge.

Glides
Glides are made with only a slight closure of the articulators.
In fact, if the vocal tract were any more open you would
produce a vowel sound. [w] is made by rising the back of the
tongue toward the velum while rounding your lips at the same
time; it is thus classified as a voiced bilabial glide. (Notice the
similarity in the way you articulate [w] in the woo and then [u]
vowel in this word; the only change is that you open your lips

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a little more for [u]). The [y] glide, much like the [w], is
formed with the tongue and lips in the same position as they
are when making the sound ‘ee’ (as in bee).
Both [w] and [y] always appear either before or after a vowel
in English. In both cases, the sound ‘glide’ rapidly to or from
the articulatory position for that vowel. Since [w] and [j]
posses certain vowel-like properties--for example lack a
definite constriction of the oral cavity--they are not true
consonants and are often called semi vowels.

In conclusion, the description of consonants is based on a combination

of the following: the degree of obstruction of the air flow, for
example, stop, fricative, or nasals; place of obstruction, for example,
dental, alveolar, or palatal; and voicing, that is all consonants are
neither voiced or voiceless. Since it is the combination of voice, place
and manner that defines the quality of each consonant, by using these
three qualities we are able to provide descriptive labels for all English
consonants as follows:
[p] = a bilabial, stop, voiceless sound
[b] = a bilabial, stop, voiced sound
[m] = a bilabial, nasal, voiced sound
[f] = a labiodentals, fricative, voiceless sound
[v] = a labiodentals, fricative, voiced sound
[Τ] = a dental, fricative, voiceless sound
[∆] = a dental, fricative, voiced sound
[t] = an alveolar, stop, voiceless sound
[d] = an alveolar, stop, voiced sound
[s] = an alveolar, fricative, voiceless sound
[z] = an alveolar, fricative, voiced sound
[n] = an alveolar, nasal, voiced sound
[l] = an alveolar, liquid, voiced sound
[Σ] = a palatal, fricative, voiceless sound
[Ζ] = a palatal, fricative, voiced sound
[±] = a palatal, affricate, voiceless sound
[→] = a palatal, affricate, voiced sound
[k] = a velar, stop, voiceless sound
[g] = a velar, stop, voiced sound
[Ν] = a velar, nasal, voiced sound
[j] = a palatal, glide, voiced sound

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English Vowels

symbols Examples

i beet, beat, we, see, sea, receive, key, believe, amoebe,

people, Caesar, vaseline, fiend, money, lily
ω bit, consist, injury, bin
e bate, bait, ray, profane, great, air, eight, gauge, rain,
reign, they
ε bet, serenity, reception, says, guest, dead, said
æ pan, bad, act
u boot, who, sewer, duty, through, poor, to, too, two,
move, Lou
Υ put, foot, butcher, could
but, among, does, cover
o boat, go, grow, over
] bought, caught, wrong, saw, ball, author, awe
a pot, father, palm, car, hospital
χ sofa, alone, principal, science, telegraph, difficult,
suppose, vision, television

Vowels are voiced continuous sounds involving no interruption in the

flow of air through the oral cavity. Different vowel sounds result from
changing the shape of the mouth; each vowel is associated with a
different configuration of the tongue and lips. For example, to say ‘ee’
represented phonetically as [i], the lips are somewhat pulled back and
the tongue is archived up toward the palate. To say ‘oo’ as in woo and
Sue, represented as [u], the tongue is raised toward the back of the
mouth and the lips are rounded and pushed forward.

We will need to describe vowels in terms of different features from

those we use for consonant. Vowels are sounds produced with a
relatively open vocal tract, so they actually do not have a point of
articulation (place of constriction) or a manner of articulation (type or
degree constriction), and they are almost voiced.

We can change the shape of the vocal tract, and thus change vowel
quality, in various ways:
1. we can raise or lower the body of the tongue
2. we can advance or retract the body of the tongue

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3. we can round the lips or not

4. and we can make these movements with a tense or lax gesture
Each of these features will be discussed in turn.

Tongue Height
If you repeat to yourself the vowel sounds of seat, set, sit--transcribe
[i], [ε], and [æ]--you will find that you naturally open your mouth a
little wider as you change from [i] to [ε], and then a little wider still as
you change from [ε] to [æ]. These varying degrees of openness
correspond to different degrees of tongue height: high for [i], mid for
[ε], and low for [æ].

High vowels like [i] are made with the front of the mouth less open
because the tongue body is raised, or high. The high vowels of English
are [i, u, ω, ] as in leap, loop, lip, look. Conversely, how vowels like
[æ] in sat are pronounced with the front of the mouth open and the
tongue lowered. [æ, a], as in cat and cot, are the English low vowels.
Mid vowels like [ε] in set are produced with an intermediate tongue
height; in English, these mid vowels include [e, ε, , χ, ], o] as in bait,
bet, but, about, caught, boat.

Tongue Advancement
Besides being held high or mid, or low, the tongue can also be pushed
forward or pulled back within the oral cavity. For example, in the high
front vowels [i], the body of the tongue is raised and pushed forward
just under the hard palate. The high back vowel [u] in boot, on the
other hand, is made by raising the body of the tongue in the back of
the mouth--toward the velum. The tongue is advanced or pushed
frontward for all the front vowels, [i, ω, e, ε, æ], as in see, Mick, take,
Fred, bake, and retracted or pulled back for the back vowels [u, ʊ, o, ],
a] as in you, look, so, soft, doc. Central vowels require neither fronting
nor retraction of the tongue

Lip Rounding
Vowel quality also depends on lip position. When you say the [u] in
two, your lips are rounded. For the [i] in tea, they are unrounded.
English has four rounded vowels: [u, Υ, o, ]], as in you, could, go,
wrong. All other vowels in English are unrounded. In the vowel chart,
the rounded vowels are enclosed in a dotted-line rectacle.

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Tenseness
Vowels that are called tense are produced with an extra degree of
muscular effort. Lax vowels lack this extra effort. For example, tense
front vowels are made with a stronger or more extreme tongue
fronting gestures than lax front vowels, which are produced with a
weaker fronting movement: compare tense [i] in meet with lax [ω] in
mitt, or tense [e] in late with lax [ε] in let. Tense rounded vowels are
made with stronger or tighter lip rounding than their lax counterparts:
compare tense [u] in boot with lax [ ] in put.

Now, we can consider some sample description of English vowels

[i], as in beat, is high, front, unrounded and tense
[]], as in caught, is mid, back, rounded, and lax
[a], as in cot, is low, back, unrounded, and lax
[ ], as in cut, is mid, central, unrounded, and lax
[e], as in cake, is mid, front, unrounded, and tense

How would you describe each of the following English vowels?

Specify height, advancement, rounding, and tenseness
[ω], as in bit
[o], as in boat
[ε], as in be
[u], as in boot
[æ], as in cat
[ ], as in could

The features of all English vowels can be summarized in the

following chart:

front central back

high i u
ω

rounded
mid e
ε χ o
]

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low Θ a

tense lax lax tense

English Short Vowels

English has large number of vowel sounds; the first ones to be
examined are short vowels. The symbols for these short vowels are [Ι,
ε, Θ, , Α, Υ]. Each vowel is described in relation to the cardinal
vowels.

Ι (example words: ‘bit’, ‘pin’,

● ‘fish’. The diagram shows
that, though this vowel is
in the close front area,
compared with cardinal
vowel [i] it is more open,
nearer in to the centre. The
lips are slightly spread.

ε (example words: ‘bet’,

‘men’, ‘yes’). This is a
front vowel between
cardinal vowel [ε] and [Ε].
● The lips are slightly
spread.

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Θ (example words: ‘bat’,

‘man’,’gas’). This vowel is
front, but not quite as open
as cardinal vowel [a]. The
lips are spread

(example words: ‘but’,

‘some’, ‘rush’). Ths is a
central vowel, and the
diagram shows that it is
more open than the open-
mid tongue height. The lip
● position is neutral

Ζ (example words: ‘pot’,

‘gone’, ‘cross’). This
vowel is not quite fully
back, and between open-
mid and open in tongue
height. The lips are
slightly rounded
●

Υ (example words: ‘put’,

‘pull’, ‘push’). The nearest
● cardinal vowel is [υ], but it
can be seen that [Υ] is
more open and nearer to
central. The lips are
rounded.

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Long Vowels
There are five long vowels in English. The symbol consists of one
vowel symbols plus a length mark made of two dots, [:]. Thus, we
have [i:, ∈:, Α:, :, u:]. We will now look at each of these long vowels
individually.

i: (example words: ‘beat’,

● ‘mean’, ‘peace’. This
vowel is nearer to cardinal
vowel [i] (that is, it is more
close and front) than the
short vowel of ‘bid’, ‘pin’,
‘fish’. The lips are only
slightly spread and this
results I a rater different
vowel quality

∈: (example words: ‘bird’,

‘fern’, ‘purse’). This is a
central vowel which is
well-known in most
English accents as a
● hesitation sound (spelt
‘er’), but which many
foreigners find difficult to
copy. The lip position is
neutral.

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Α: (example words: ‘card’,

‘half’, ‘pass’. This is an
open vowel in the region
of cardinal vowel. The lip
position is neutral

: (example words: ‘board’,

‘torn’, ‘horse’. The tongue
height for this vowel is
between cardinal vowel
● [ ] and [o], closer to the
latter. This vowel is almost
fully back and has quite
strong lip-rounding

● υ: (example words: ‘food’,

‘soon’, ‘loose’. The
nearest cardinal vowel to
this is [υ], but it is much
less back and less close,
while lips are only
moderately rounded

Monophthong and Diphthongs

Monophthong—one sound. If the sound of a vowel remains relatively
unchanged during its production, then we call it monophthong. [e] and [Α:]
are monophthongs.

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Diphthong—two sounds. If a sound of a vowel continually changes within a

single syllable then we call it a diphthong. The change in sound quality may
be achieved by a movement of the tongue and/or lips. The vowels in toy,
tie and town ([ Ι ], [ΑΙ], [ΑΥ]) respectively) are all diphthongs.

At this point, we still have not described the vowel sounds of English
words--e.g. hide, loud, coin. Unlike the simple vowels described
above, the vowels of these words are diphthong, two part vowel
sounds consisting of a vowel and a glide in the same syllable. If you
say eye slowly, concentrating on how you make this vowel, you
should find that your tongue starts out in the position for [a] and
moves toward the position for the vowel [i] or the palatal glide [j]. This
diphthong, which consists of two articulations and two corresponding
sounds, is written with two symbols; [aj], as in [haϕd] hide. To make
the vowel of loud, the tongue and the lips start in position for [a] and
move toward the position for [u] or [w], so this diphthong is written
[aω], as in [lawd] loud. In the vowel oϕ coin, the movement is from [o]
position toward position [Ι] or [j], so the vowel of coin is written [oϕ],
as in [koϕn] coin.

Symbols Examples

aj/aΙ bite, sight, by, die, Stein, aisle, choir, liar, island,
height, sign
aw/aΥ about, brown, doubt, coward
oj/ Ι boy, doily

In simple vowels, or monophthongs, the tongue body has a relatively

stable position throughout. But there are other vowels where the
tongue body does not stay in one place, even in the most abstract
diagrams with artificial slices. Complex vowels which are
characterized by movement are called diphthongs. To transcribe a
diphthong, we need two symbols: the first indicating the starting
position and the second indicating the finishing position or the
direction of movement.
In the English diphthong [aj], the
tongue body starts in the position

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for [a] -- between [æ] and [Ψ].

Almost immediately, it begins
moving upwards and forwards.
Occasionally it gets as far as [i],
but usually only as far as [ω] or
even lower. In a broader
transcription, we can ignore the
exact position of the end-point
and simply use the glide [j] as a
cover symbol.

In the English diphthong [aw],

the tongue body starts out in the
same position (for most Canadian
speakers) and moves upwards and
backwards, towards [u], [Υ], or
[o]. In a broader transcription, we
can use the glide [w] as a cover
symbol for the end-point. The lips
become increasingly rounding
throughout the diphthong.

In the diphthong []Ι], the tongue

body begins in the position for []]
and moves upwards and
forwards. The lips become
increasing less rounded
throughout the diphthong.
Ι

In most dialects of English, the

vowels we have been transcribing
[e] and [o] also involve an
upwards movement of the tongue
body. In narrower transcriptions
of these dialects, they would be

eΙ oΥ
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 Chapter 5: English Phonetics: The Sounds of Language

written [eΙ] and [oΥ]. A tendency

to pronounce all tense mid
vowels as diphthongs is one of
the most noticeable accent
features of English-speakers
trying to speak other languages.

The total number of diphthongs is eight (though [Υ↔] is increasingly

rare). The easiest way to remember them is in terms of three groups
divided as in this diagram

Figure 4
English Diphthongs

DIPHTHONG

centring closing

ending in Ι
ending in ending in Υ
↔

Ι↔ ε↔ Υ↔ εΙ αΙ Ι ↔Υ αΥ

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Triphthongs
The most complex English sounds of vowel type are the triphthongs.
They can be rather difficult to pronounce, and very difficult to
recognize. A triphthong is a glide from one vowel to another and then
to a third, all produced rapidly and without interruption. For example,
a careful pronunciation of the word ‘hour’ begins with a vowel quality
similar to [Α:] goes on to a glide towards the back close rounded area
(for which we use the symbol Υ), then ends with a mid-central vowel
(schwa, ↔). We use the symbols αΥ↔ to represent the way we
pronounce ‘hour’, but this is not always an accurate representation of
the pronunciation.

The triphthongs can be looked on as being composed of the five

closing diphthongs described in the last section, with ↔ added on the
end. Thus we get:

εΙ + ↔ = εΙ↔ ‘layer’, ‘player’

αΙ + ↔ = αΙ↔ ‘liar’, ‘fire’
Ι + ↔ = Ι↔ ‘loyal’, ‘royal’
↔Υ + ↔ = ↔Υ↔ ‘lower’, ‘mower’
αΥ + ↔ = αΥ↔ ‘power’, ‘hour’

The principal cause of difficulty for the foreign learner is that in

present-day English the extent of the vowel movement is very small,
except in very careful pronunciation. Because of this, the middle of
the three vowel qualities of the triphthongs (that is, the Ι or Υ part) can
hardly be heard and the resulting sound is difficult to distinguish from
some of the diphthongs and long vowels. To add to the difficulty,
there is also the problem of whether a triphthong is felt to contain one
or two syllables. Words such as ‘fire’ [φαΙ↔] or ‘slower’ [sl↔Υ↔]
are more likely to be heard as two syllables.

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