Componants of Linguistics

Speech Sounds:

Speech sounds are those sounds which are produced by the normal human beings.
There are 44 speech sounds in English RP and these sounds are called IPA-
International Phonetic Alphabet. Speech sounds are of two (2) types:

1. Vowels (Pure vowels 12 and Diphthongs 8) 2. Consonants

Speech Sounds (44) are presented below:

• Pure vowels 12
Vowels(20)
• Dipthongs 8

Consonants(24) • Consonants 24

OR
1.Vowel sounds

• During the articulation of the vowel sounds the air passage is not constricted or
blocked. The air passes through the articulators without any friction.

• During the articulation of the vowel sounds the vocal cords are held loosely
together and the air passes through causing the vocal cords to vibrate.

• So all the vowel sounds are voiced sounds.

• All the vowel sounds are oral sounds.

• According to the part of the tongue which is involved in the articulation, the
vowels are classified as front vowels, back vowels, and central vowels.

•Vowels are those speech sounds which are produced without any obstruction in
the oral cavity or inside the mouth.
2.Consonants

• During the articulation of the consonant sounds the air passage is blocked or
constricted by various organs of the phonatory and the articulatory systems.

• The position of the vocal cords determines whether a consonant sound is voiced
or voiceless.

• The position of the soft palate determines whether a consonant sound is an oral
sound or a nasal.

• Consonants are those speech sounds which are produced with audible friction in
oral cavity.

3.Diphthongs

• A Diphthong is a combination of two vowel sounds.

• They are also called as vowel glides

• The articulation of a diphthong starts in the position of one vowel and glides
towards the position of another vowel.
Speech Sounds:

iː ɪ ʊ uː ɪə eɪ

beach bin could moon here pain

e ə ɜː ɔː ʊə ɔɪ əʊ

bend about fur call pure boy Go

æ ʌ ɑː ɒ eə aɪ aʊ

band cup car hot there my Now

 p b t d tʃ dʒ k G

pen but tin do chair jump cat Go

f v θ ð s z ʃ ʒ

fun very thing father sun zoo she Casual

m n ŋ h l r w J

mine nine song hat late run what Yes

For Practice (Speech Sounds)

IPA of English Vowels

and Consonants (phonetic symbols) (2).mp4
Peter N. Ladefoged
CONSONANTS:

A consonant is a speech sound that is articulated with complete or partial closure of

vocal tract. consonants are classified according to three categories:

CLASSIFICATION:

1.Place of Articulation: The place of articulation simply means the active and
passive articulators involved in the production of a particular consonant.

2.Manner of Articulation: Manner of articulation refers to how the air stream from
the lungs is directed to the mouth and modified by the various structures to produce
a consonant phoneme.
3.Voicing: The aspects of voicing are: voiced consonants (those created by the
vibration of the vocal cords during production); and voiceless consonants (those
created by the absence of vibration of the vocal cords during production).

NOTE: In phonetic chart of the English consonants, where symbols appear in pairs,
the one to the right represents a voiced consonant.
[ For your own only
Consonant Cluster: “A cluster is when two or more consonants of different
places of articulation are produced together in the same syllable.” (Source:
Linda I. House – Introductory Phonetics and Phonology) Note that clusters
are determined based on the sounds, not the letters of the words.

Initial clusters are usually formed by combining various consonants withthe

/s/, /r/, or /l/ phonemes. Examples: sleep [sli:p], green [gri:n], blue [blu:]
Medial clusters usually appear at the beginning of a second or third syllable
in a multisyllabic word .Examples: regret [rɪgret], apply [əplaɪ], approve
[əpru:v]• Final clusters are usually composed of a variety of phonemes
including/sk/, /mp/, /ns/, /st/, and /ŋk/.]
Description

To describe a consonant sound, we need certain important pieces of information.

We need to know the following regarding its production:

THE SIX POINTS:

The Air Stream Mechanism;

The State of the Glottis;

The Position of the Soft-Palate;

The Active Articulator;

The Passive Articulator;

The Stricture Involved.

Let us discuss these in some detail.

The air -stream mechanism: All English sounds (vowels as well as consonants)
are produced with a pulmonic egressive air-stream mechanism, i.e., lung-air
pushed out.

The state of glottis; Speech sounds can be classified voiceless or voiced,

depending upon whether the vocal cords are wide apart and the glottis is wide open
(voiceless) or the vocal cords are kept loosely together and they vibrate (voiced).

The position of the soft-palate; Speech sounds can be classified as oral or nasal,
depending upon whether the soft-palate is raised so as to shut off the nasal passage
of air (oral) or it is lowered to open the nasal passage of air simultaneously with an
oral closure (nasal). Sounds can also be nasalized.

The active and passive articulators: Of the various articulations described, at

least two are required for the production of any speech sound; some articulators
move during the production of speech sounds. These are termed active articulators.
Certain other articulators remain passive and the active articulators move in the
direction of these. These are termed passive articulator.

The lower lip and the tongue are the active articulators.
The upper lip and the entire roof of the mouth are the passive articulators.
The stricture involved: The term ‘stricture’ refers to the way in which the passage
of air is restricted by the various organs of speech.

Let us study the various types of strictures in detail.

Complete closure and sudden release: The stricture may be one of complete
closure, i.e., the active articulators come into firm contact with each other, thus
preventing the lung-air from escaping through the mouth. Simultaneously there is a
velic closure, i.e., the soft palate is raised, thereby shutting off the nasal passage of
air. Thus, the lung-air blocked in the mouth. When the oral closure is released, i.e.,
when the active articulator is suddenly removed from the passive articulator, the air
escapes with a small explosive noise. “Sounds produced with a stricture of
complete closure and sudden releases are called Plosive”. The initial sounds in
the English word pin, bin, tin, din, kin, and gun are plosives.

Complete closure and slow release: If after blocking the oral and the nasal
passages of air, the oral closure is removed slowly, i.e., if the active articulator is
removed slowly from the passive articulator, instead of the explosive noise that is
characteristic of plosive consonants, friction will be heard. “Sounds that are
produced with a stricture of complete closure and slow release are called
Affricatives.” The initial sounds in the English word chin and jam are affricate
consonants.

Complete oral closure: the active and passive articulators are in firm contact with
each other, thereby blocking off the oral passage of air completely. But the soft
palate is lowered so that there is a velic opening, i.e., the nasal passage of air is
opened. The lung-air will then escape through the nostrils freely. “Sounds that are
articulated with a stricture of complete oral closure are called Nasals”. The
final sounds in the English words sum, sun, and sung are some examples of nasal
consonants.

Intermittent closure: The soft palate is raised, thereby shutting off the nasal
passage of air. The active articulator strikes against the passive articulator several
times with the result that the air escapes between the active and passive articulators
intermittently. Such a stricture is termed intermitted closure. Sounds that are
articulated with a stricture of intermittent closure are called trills or rolled
consonants. The letter r in English words like red and ran is pronounced as a
trill by most Scottish people.

For some consonants the active articulator strikes against the passive
articulator just once and then quickly flaps forward. Such consonants are
called taps or flaps. The letter r in very is pronounced as a tap by some
English people.

Close approximation: The active articulator is brought so close to the passive

articulator that there is a very narrow gap between them. The soft palate is raised
so as to shut off the nasal passage of air. The lung-air escapes through the narrow
space between the active and passive articulators, producing audible friction.
“Sounds that are articulated with a stricture of close approximation are called
Fricatives”. The initial sounds in the English word five, vine, thin, then, sip, zip,
sheep and hat are fricatives.

Partial closure: the active and passive articulators are in firm contact with each
other. The soft palate is raised, thereby shutting off the nasal passage of air. If the
sides of the tongue are lowered so that there is plenty of gap between the sides of
the tongue and the upper molar teeth, the air will escape along the sides of the
tongue without any friction. “Sounds that are articulated with a stricture of
complete closure in the centre of the vocal tract but with the air escaping
along the sides of the tongue without any friction are called laterals”. The
initial sound in the English word love is a lateral.

Open approximation: The soft palate is raised, thereby shutting off the nasal
passage of air. If the active articulator is brought close to the passive articulator so
that the gap between them is wide the air will escape through this gap without any
friction. “Sounds that are articulated with a stricture of open approximation
are called frictionless continuants and semi vowels. In fact, Peter Ladefoged
uses the term approximants to refer to sounds that are articulated with a
stricture of open approximation.

Description of some consonant sounds with reference to the six points.

The sound represented by the letter p in the English word spy:

The air stream mechanism is pulmonic egresssive.

The vocal cords are drawn apart. The glottis is open. The sound is voiceless.
The soft palate is raised and the nasal passage of air is shut off completely. The
sound is oral.
The active articulator is the lower lip.
The passive articulator is the upper lip.
The stricture is one of complete closure and sudden release the sound articulated is
a plosive.
The sound represented by the letter s in the English word spy:

The air-stream mechanism is pulmonic egressive.

The vocal cords are drawn apart. The glottis is wide open. The sound is voiceless.
The soft palate is raised and the nasal passage of air is shut off completely. The
sound is oral.
The active articulator is the blade of the tongue.
The passive articulator is the teeth ridge.
The stricture is one of close approximation. The sound articulated is a fricative.

The sound represented by the letter n in the English word finger:

The air-stream mechanism is pulmonic egressive.
The vocal cords are kept loosely together. They vibrate and the sound is voiced.
The soft palate is lowered. The nasal passage of air is open.
The sound is nasal.
The active articulator is the back of the tongue.
The passive articulator is the soft palate.
The stricture is one of complete oral closure. The sound articulated is a nasal.

The sound represented by the letter v in the English word vine:

The air-stream mechanism is pulmonic egressive.

The vocal cords are kept loosely together. They vibrate and the sound is voiced.
The soft palate is raised and the nasal passage of air is shut off completely. The
sound is oral.
The active articulator is the lower lip.
The passive articulators are the upper front teeth.
The stricture is one of close approximation. The sound articulated is a fricative.

Three-term labels: (please see the beginning)

Consonants are described using three-term labels. The three – term refer to

(A) THE STATE OF GLOTTIS,

(B)THE PLACE OF ARTICULATION AND

(C) THE MANNER OF ARTICULATION.

The three – terms should be arranged in the order in which they have been listed
above. Some consonants are described below with three-term labels.

The letter p in the English word spy represents a voiceless bilabial plosive.

The letter d in the English word dear represents a voiced alveolar plosive.

The letter k in the English word sky represents a voiceless velar plosive.

The letter ch in the English word cheap represents a voiceless palate-alveolar

affricative.

The letter m in the English word mat represents a voiced bilabial nasal.

The letter n in the English word finger represents a voiced velar nasal.

The letter y in the English word yes represents a voiced palatal approximant.
(Semi-vowel).
 VOWEL SOUNDS

Classification of Vowel Sounds

Vowels can be classified according to:
1. Tongue Height
2. Tongue Position
3. Shape of the Lips (Lip Rounding)
4. Length of the Sound

Tongue Height.
Vowels are classified in terms of how much space there is between the tongue
and the roof of the mouth, which is determined by the height of the tongue. •
There are three primary height distinctions among vowels: high, low, and mid.
In English, examples of high vowels are /i:/, /ɪ/, /u:/, /Ʊ/. These are vowels
with a narrow space between the tongue and the roof of the mouth. Examples
of low vowels are /ӕ/, /a/. These are vowels with a wide space between the
tongue and the roof of the mouth. Examples of mid vowels are /e/, /Ɛ/, /ʌ/, /ɔ/,
/o/. These are vowels whose tongue positions are roughly between the high
and low vowels.
Tongue Position
Vowels are classified in terms of how far the raised body of the tongue is
from the back of the mouth. There are three primary height distinctions
among vowels: front, back, and central. • In English, examples of front vowels
are /i:/, /ɪ/, /Ɛ/, /ӕ/ . These vowels are articulated forward in the mouth.
Examples of back vowels are , /u:/, /Ʊ/, /ɔ/,/o/ .These vowels are articulated
far back in the mouth.. Examples of central vowels are /ə/, /ʌ/.These are
vowels whose tongue positions are roughly between the front and back
vowels.

Lip Rounding
Another aspect of vowel classification is the presence or absence of lip
rounding. There are two shapes of the lips, rounded and unrounded. Rounded
vowels: All the back vowels in English are rounded except [ɑ:]. Unrounded
vowels: All the front vowels and central vowels in English are unrounded.
Length Long vowels: They are usually marked with a colon such as[i:] and
[ɑ:] Short vowels: other vowels in English are short vowels such as [e],[ə] and
[æ].
Semi-Vowels these are vowel like sounds, because they have the same
production manner as the vowels, however they aren’t as long as the vowels.
 12 Pure vowels

Diagram of English
Pure vowels
The Description and Distribution Of Diphthongs

There are eight English diphthongs altogether. It is useful to distinguish them

between centring and closing diphthongs:

A. The first three diphthongs are centring diphthongs. They have the neutral
"shwa" vowel sound /ə/, which occurs in grunting noises and the weak forms of
"the" and "a", as the finishing position.

/ɪə / ইয়া : This diphthong starts with a front unrounded vowel /ɪ/ and then moves
towards the central unrounded vowel / ə / between half-close and half-
open position. The diphthong is distributed in all three basic positions:
/eə/ এয়া : This diphthong starts with the front unrounded vowel / e / and then
moves towards the central unrounded vowel / ə / between half-close and half-
open position. The diphthong is distributed in all three basic positions:

/ʊə/ উয়া : This diphthong starts with the back rounded vowel / ʊ / and then
moves towards the central unrounded vowel / ə / between half-close and half-
open position. This diphthong is distributed only in medial and final positions:

B. The next three diphthongs are closing diphthongs. They have the vowel sound
/ɪ/ in "pit" or "if" as the finishing position.
/eɪ/ এই : It starts with a front unrounded vowel /e /and then glides to a front-
close vowel / ɪ / between close and half close position.The diphthong is distributed
in all three basic positions:

/aɪ/ আই : It is the diphthong that actually implies the amplest articulatory

movement of the speech organs that starts from the position of an open vowel
between front and back (similar to ʌ in cut) and then glides towards / i /. The
diphthong is distributed in all three basic positions:

/ɔɪ/ অই : This diphthong starts from a half-open back vowel, situated

between cardinal vowels 6 [ɔ] and 7 [o] and ends in a front-close vowel / ɪ /,
somewhere in the vicinity of cardinal vowel 1 [i]. Like the preceding diphthong, it
also involves an ample articulatory movement from a back vowel to the front part
of the imaginary vowel chart. It is distributed in all three basic positions:

C. The last two diphthongs are also closing diphthongs. They have the back
rounded vowel / ʊ / as the finishing position.

/əʊ/ ওউ : This diphthong starts with the central unrounded vowel / ə / and then
moves towards the back rounded vowel / ʊ/ between close and half-
close position. It is distributed in all three basic positions: old, gold, flow:
 /aʊ/ আউ : This diphthong starts with an open back rounded vowel (similar to ɑ:
) and then moves towards the rounded vowel / ʊ/ between close and half-
close position. It is distributed in all three basic positions: ouch, loud, bough:

THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN DPHTHONGS AND LONG VOWELS

Diphthongs and long vowels differ from each other in a number of ways. We can
differentiate them in the following manner:

• The basic difference between diphthongs and long vowels is that whereas the
former is a gliding vowel, the later is a pure vowel. During the articulation of
long vowels, the tongue stays at one fixed location in the mouth. But in the
case of diphthongs, the tongue is not stationary; rather it moves one position to
another.
• Diphthongs and long vowels can be distinguished from one another with
regard to phonetic representation. Though diphthongs are single speech
sounds, they are usually represented, in phonetic transcription of speech, by
means of a pair of characters indicating the initial and final configurations of
the vocal tract.
• Long vowels are independent. But diphthongs are dependent because they do
not have any individual starting points, they always start either from a short or
long vowel or vowels with similar qualities.
• Lastly, we can distinguish diphthongs from long vowels in relation to quantity.
Whereas diphthongs are eight in number, the long vowels are only five in
number.

BANGLA DIPHTHONGS

Bengali language is renowned for its wide varieties of diphthongs or vowel

combinations. But the parameters we generally use to produce these diphthongs are
quite different than those of English ones. Majority of Bengali diphthongs posses
different starting and ending points. As a result, all of these combinations cannot
be compared to English diphthongs. Therefore, in Bengali, we have only two
diphthongs- /ঐ/ and /ঔ/, which are very much similar to the English- /ɔɪ/and /əʊ/.

/ ঔ / : This diphthong starts from a half-open back vowel, situated

between cardinal vowels 6 [ɔ] and 7 [o] and moves towards close and half-
close position, somewhere in the zone of cardinal vowel 1 [i]. For example: বউ
[wife], ন ৌকা [boat]
/ ঐ / : The starting point for this diphthong is central position between half-
close and half-open position. Then there is a glide towards close and half-
close position, somewhere in the area of cardinal vowel 8 [u]. For instance: কই
[where], ন তিক [moral]

References

“Diphthongs.” Encyclopædia Britannica. 2008. Encyclopædia Britannica Inc. 29

March 2008
<http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/164541/diphthong>.

“English Diphthongs.” Pétur Knútsson. 2008. Pétur Knútsson. 29 March 2008

<https://notendur.hi.is/peturk/index.html>.

“English Diphthongs.” Ted Power. 2008. Ted Power. 29 March 2008

<http://www.btinternet.com/~ted.power/esl0105.html>.

Varshney, Dr. R.L. An Introduction of Linguistics & Phonetics. Dhaka: BOC, n.d.