Course: BA Special Degree

Module: Introduction to Linguistics

Topic: Phonetics and Phonemic Transcription

What is Phonetics?
Phonetics is concerned with how speech sounds are produced (articulated) in the vocal tract (a
field is known as articulatory phonetics), as well as the physical properties of the speech sound
waves generated by the larynx and the vocal tract (a field known as acoustic phonetics) and how
we perceive sounds (a field known as auditory phonetics) It studies the characteristics of human
sounds, especially those sounds in speech.

Human beings make certain sounds by using the speech organs and the air stream. These speech
sounds travel through air and make the listener‟s eardrums vibrate. This is briefly what we meant
by speech which actually involves three main aspects. All these three involve physical objects
and a physical mechanism. This gives us primary definition that speech is a physical event.

The organs of speech are usually divided into two as active and passive articulators. The passive
articulators are also known as points of articulation. This can be shown in the following diagram.

1
As shown in the diagram, active articulators are the lips, lower jaw, and tongue. Their main
characteristic is that they are flexible. In contrast, the passive articulators provide certain points
for the active articulators. The main passive articulators are upper teeth, hard palate, uvular,
pharynx and larynx. In other words active articulators make a closure against the passive
articulators to produce the speech.

DESCRIPTIONS AND FUNCTIONS OF SOME IMPORTANT ORGANS OF SPEECH

1) The vocal cords
The larynx contains two small bands of elastic tissues. They are called vocal
cords. The opening between the vocal cords is called epiglottis. When we
breathe in or out, the glottis is open. This is the position of the production of
voiceless sounds. e.g. /f/, /s/, /h/, etc are voiceless sounds in English. The
sounds produced when the glottis comes together are called voiced sounds. So
the main function of the vocal cords is to produce voiced and voiceless sounds.

2) The soft palate

The soft palate is also called the velum. It is the roof of the mouth. It separates
the oral and nasal cavity. The last part of the soft palate i s called uvula. When it
is lowered, the nasal sounds (/m, n, ŋ/) are produced. When it is raised, the air
passes out through the oral cavity and the oral sounds (/p, t, k, s,/) are produced.

3) The tongue
The tongue is an important organ of speech. It has the greatest variety of
movement. It is divided into four parts: the tip, the blade, the front and the back.
A number of vowels are produced with the help of the tongue. Vowels differ
from each other because of the position of the tongue.

 The tip of the tongue helps to produce /t, d, z,/.

 The blade of the tongue helps to produce /t∫, dÎ, ∫/.
 The front of the tongue helps to produce palatal sound /j/.
 The back of the tongue helps to produce /k,g/ sounds.

2
4) The lips
The upper lip and lower lip help to produce bilabial sounds /p, b, m/. If they
are held together, the sounds produced in that position are bilabial stops: / p, b/.
If the lips are held together, they produce different vowels.

5) The teeth
The teeth take part in the production of consonant sounds. The upper teeth only
take part in the production of speech sounds. The lower teeth don't take part for
the production of sounds. The sound produced with the help of the upper teeth
are called dental sound (q,r)

6) The alveolar ridge

The alveolar ridge is the part between the upper teeth and the hard palate. The
sound produced with the tongue touching the alveolar ridge is cal led alveolar
sounds, e.g. /s/, /t/, /d/, etc.

Air Stream Mechanism

Any physiological process which provides a source of energy capable of being

used in speech sound production is called air stream mechanism. Air is moved
inwards or outwards by the movement of this mechanism. There are three types
of air stream mechanism: pulmonic Airstream mechanism, Glottalic Airstream
Mechanism and Velaric Airstream Mechanism . The commonest airstream
mechanism is the Pulmonic Eggressive mechanism. Air is expelled from the
lungs, up the wind pipe and gets out through the mouth or through the nose or
through both.

3
Classification of speech sounds
Speech sounds are classified in terms of which articulators are used, in other words, which bit of
the mouth is used in making the sound. They can also be classified according to the way the
sounds are produced.

 Voiced and Voiceless sounds

Voiced sounds are sounds that vibrate the vocal cords, you can feel this in the throat.
Whereas voiceless sounds don't vibrate the vocal cords.
Place two fingers on the front of your throat and make the /z/ sound as in buzz, do you feel
your vocal chords vibrating?
Now try doing the same thing but making the /s/ sounds as in grass, what do you feel now?
The /s/ sound is a voiceless sound and the /z/ sound is voiced.

Place of Articulation

1. Bilabial – two lips

2. Labiodental – lower lip and upper teeth
3. Dental – front of the tongue and upper teeth
4. Alveolar – front of the tongue and alveolar ridge
5. Palatal Alveolar – tip of the tongue and back of the alveolar
6. Palatal – front of the tongue and the hard palate
7. Velar – back of the tongue and the soft palate
8. Uvular – back of the tongue and the uvula
9. Glottal- The vocal folds are brought together; in some cases, the function of the vocal
folds can be part of articulation as well as phonation, as in the case of [ʔ] and [h] in many
languages.

4
Manner of Articulation

1. Nasal
Nasal consonants are created when you completely block air flow through your mouth
and let the air pass through your nose.

There are three nasal consonants in English.

 /m/ – “mad” and “clam” – oral passage is blocked by closing the lips (bilabial).
 /n/ – “no” and “man„ – oral passage is blocked by pressing tongue tip against the alveolar
ridge (alveolar).
 /ŋ/ – “going” and “funk” – Oral passage is blocked by pressing the the back of your
tongue against the soft palate (velar).

2. Stop
Like nasal consonants, stop consonants occur when the vocal tract is closed
completely. But for stops the airflow is NOT redirected through the nose. Instead, the air
quickly builds up pressure behind the articulators and then releases in a burst.

English contains the following stop consonants.

 /p/ – purse and rap – oral passage is blocked by closing the lips (bilabial).
 /b/ – “back” and “cab” – oral passage is blocked by closing the lips (bilabial).
 /t/ – “tab” and “rat” – oral passage is blocked by pressing the tongue tip against the
alveolar ridge (alveolar)
 /d/ – “dip” and “bad” – oral passage is blocked by pressing the tongue tip against the
alveolar ridge (alveolar)
 /k/ – “kite” and “back” – block airflow with the back of the tongue against the soft palate
(velar).
 /g/ – “good” and “bug” – block airflow with the back of the tongue against the soft palate
(velar).

5
3. Fricative
While nasal and stop consonants involve a complete blockage of the vocal tract, fricative
sounds involve only a partial blockage of the vocal tract so that air has to be forced
through a narrow channel.

For example, you create a /t/ stop consonant when you block airflow completely with
your tongue against the alveolar ridge. But if you let up with the tongue a bit and let the
air seep through, you make an /s/ fricative consonant.

The English fricative sounds are as follows:

 /f/ – “fro” and “calf“- air is forced through the upper teeth and lower lip (labiodental)
 /v/ – “vine” and “have” – air is forced through the upper teeth and lower lip (labiodental)

 /θ/ – “thick” and “bath” – air is forced through upper teeth and tongue (dental)
 /ð/ – “the” and “rather” – air is forced through upper teeth and tongue (dental)

 /s/ – “suit” and “bus” – air is forced through tongue and alveolar ridge (alveolar)
 /z/ – “zit” and “jazz” – air is forced through tongue and alveolar ridge (alveolar)

 /ʃ/ – “shot” and “brash” – air is forced through the tongue and point just beyond alveolar
ridge (post-alveolar)
 /ʒ/ – “vision” and “measure” – air is forced through the tongue and point just beyond
alveolar ridge (post-alveolar)

 /h/ – “happy” and “hope” – actually /h/ isn‟t a fricative. It‟s technically not even a real
consonant sound since there‟s no constriction/obstruction of airflow.

4. Affricate
When stop consonants mix with fricative consonants, the result is an affricate consonant.
Affricate consonants start as stop sounds with air building up behind an articulator which
then releases through a narrow channel as a fricative (instead of a clean burst as stops
do).

6
 The English affricate sounds are:

 /tʃ/ – “chick” and “match” – air is blocked with tongue just beyond the alveolar ridge
(post-alveolar), then released as a fricative.
 /dʒ/ – “jam” and “badge” – air is blocked with tongue just beyond the alveolar ridge
(post-alveolar), then released as a fricative.

5. Approximant
Approximants are when two articulators come close together but not quiteclose enough to
create air turbulence. The resulting sound is more like a fast vowel than anything else.
For example, the /w/ approximant is like a fast /u/ sound (say /u/ + /aɪ/ really fast and you
get the word “why”). Notice how your tongue never actually comes in contact with the
top of your mouth.

There are three English approximants:

 /w/ – “wet” and “howard” – back of tongue raises to velum (but not too close!) and lips
are rounded (velar)
 /j/ – “yes” and “bayou” – tongue raises to hard palate (but not too close!) (palatal)
 /ɹ/ – “right” and “roar” – tongue raises to hard palate (but not too close) (alveolar/post-
alveolar)

6. Lateral
Lateral consonants are when the tongue blocks the the middle of your mouth so that air
has to pass around the sides. You create this when you

There is one lateral consonant in English

 /l/ – “luck”- place the tip of the tongue at the alveolar ridge (alveolar)

1. [Bilabial] [Stop]

/p/ vs. /b/

“pat” vs. “bat”

7
2. [Velar] [Stop]

/k/ vs /g/

“card” vs. “guard”

3. [Dental] [Fricative]
/θ/ vs. /ð/
“thigh” vs. “thy”
4. [Alveolar] [Stop]
/t/ vs. /d/
“tire” vs. “dire
5. [Alveolar] [Fricative]

/s/ vs. /z/

“sit” vs. “zit‟

8
Distinction between consonants and vowels

Consonants and vowels are two different qualities of sounds that are found almost in all
languages of the world.

Consonants are defined as the sounds articulated by temporary obstruction in the air
stream which passes through the mouth. The obstruction made by the articulators may be `total‟,
`intermittent‟, `partial‟, or may merely constitute a narrowing sufficient to cause friction. In the
articulation of consonants almost all articulators are involved.

Vowels on the other hand are the sounds that are produced without any obstruction in the air
passage. Among all articulators, only the tongue is involved in their production. All vowel
sounds are voiced and all of them are oral sounds as during the production of them the soft palate
is raised and hence the nasal cavity is completely blocked

When it comes to describing and classifying consonants and vowels show apparent distinction.
Consonants are identified or classified in terms of voicing, place of articulation, and manner of
articulation. Since there is no obstruction of the airstream in the production of vowel sounds, and
since all vowel sounds are voiced and oral, we cannot describe vowels in terms of their place of
articulation, but are left with the manner, in which they are produced.

9
Vowel Classification

10