Phonetics Dr.

Sarra BENCHABANE
Second Year LMD G03, G04 & G05

Lecture
Lecture One: General
1: General Review ofReview of Consonants
Consonants and Vowels and Vowels and
Articulation andAllophones
Allophones

The following IPA table contains the consonant phonemes of the English language:

Manner of Place of Bilabial Labio- Dental Alveolar Post- Palato- Palatal Velar Glottal
Articulation Articulation Dental Alveolar Alveolar

Plosive p b t d k g
Fricative f v θ ð s z ʃ ʒ h
Affricate tʃ dʒ
Nasal m n ŋ
Lateral Approximant l
Approximant w r j

1. Tips for phonetic transcription:

Most of the IPA symbols in the Table above are the same letters we use in spelling these
words, but there are a few differences. One difference between spelling and phonetic usage
occurs with the letter c, which is sometimes used to represent a /k/ sound, as in cup or back,
and others to represent an /s/ sound, as in cent or receive. Furthermore, the phoneme /ŋ/ is
used mainly to represent (ing) and other cases such as: King / kɪŋ /, Trying / traɪɪŋ /, Think /
/θɪŋk /, Hang / hæŋ /.

2. Vowels
In phonetics, we represent the quality of vowels and diphthongs by placing them on a four-
sided figure usually known as the Cardinal Vowel Quadrilateral, describing the English
vowels in the RP. There are 7 shorts vowels, 5 longs ones and 8 diphthongs. As shown in the
table below:

Monophtongs Diphthongs

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Exercise 1: Write the words for the transcribed utterances in the following instances

/ðæt/ …….. /haʊˈevə/ ……./əˈnʌðə/……../ˈdɪfɪkəlt/……… /wɜ:ld/ ……../ðeə/ ……… /ˈθʌrə/

………. /wɪtʃ/ ………. /ˈeəriə/……. /kɔ:s/………. /ˈʌndə/……… /ʃʊd/……… /ˈnevə/
…………/bɪˈtwi:n/ ………/ˈsʌmθɪŋ/………. /pɔɪnt/………. /hɪə/………. /prəˈvaɪd/………
/lɑ:dʒ/……….. /ˈnʌmbə/

Exercise 2: Transcribe the following words phonemically:

Spying / / ; Cried / / ; Lies / / ; Crossed / / ; Blessings / /;

Needed / / ;Cheese / / ; Kings / / ; Loyal / /; Smile / /.

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 Lecture Two: A Detailed Study of English Consonants

What is phoneme?
A phoneme is the smallest sound that can make a difference in meaning. In phonetics terms,
it is any of the perceptually distinct units of sound in a specified language that distinguish one
word from another. For example, the word car changes to far if you change the phoneme /k/
to /f/. There are 44 phonemes in standard British English (RP). Some of them may be realized
differently or have a variety of allophones. Therefore, the phoneme is “the smallest distinct
sound unit in a given language’’.
What is allophone?
An allophone is any of the various phonetic realizations of a phoneme, which do not
contribute to distinctions of meaning. For example, /p/ in pin /pɪn/ is aspirated [pʰɪn] and /p/
in spin /spɪn/ is unaspirated [spɪn]. The first one [pʰ] is an allophone of the phoneme /p/.
Phonemic Transcription
Phonemic is a transcription showing the pronunciation of words using a simple set of symbols
representing phonemes. It is a transcription usually found in the dictionary which is used
between slashes. E.g.: proposal / pr!ˈp!ʊzl̩ standard /ˈstænd!d/, learn /lɜːn/
Phonetic Transcription
Phonetic transcription is a transcription with more details about the pronunciation of words,
used between two square brackets. In this kind of transcription allophones are represented.
For example, in [prǝˈpʰǝʊzł̩] the allophone [pʰ ] is aspirated and [ ł ] is dark & syllabic.
What is aspiration?
Definition of aspiration: it is when the production of /p/, /t/, /k/ is followed by an audible
plosion (burst of noise) in the post release phase, producing a sound like h represented as [ʰ].
Examples of allophones:
1. Plosives: the Voiceless Fortis Plosives /p, t, k/ are aspirated [pʰ, tʰ, kʰ] when initial in a
stressed syllable. However, they are unaspirated in final position or when preceded by /s/.
E.g.: party [ˈpʰɑːti] table [ ˈtʰeɪbł̩ ] concert (n) [ˈkʰɒnsǝt] appear [ǝˈpʰɪǝ]
partake …………….. stable …………...…….. treat …………….. car ……………..
2. Lateral: the English alveolar lateral phoneme /l/ has three main allophones:
a. Clear [ l ] with a relatively front resonance before vowels and /j/ or when it is intervocalic
E.g.: lead [liːd] follow [ˈfɒlǝʊ] lose [luːz] sailor [ˈseɪlǝ] believe [bɪˈliːv]
b. Dark [ l̴ ] is articulated with a relatively back vowel resonance, final after a vowel(1),

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before a consonant preceded by a vowel(2) and as a syllabic sound followed by a consonant(3).
1. Feel …………… canal …………… pearl …………… call …………..… well ……………
all ………..……
2. Help …………… salt ……………… cold …………… milk …………… film……………
…………… elbow ……..…
3. Apple ……….… middle ………… eagle ……...…… table …………… trouble…………..
able ………
c. Voiceless [ l̥ ] the voiced phoneme /l/ becomes voiceless when it is preceded by accented
/p, k/ E.g.: class [kl̥ ɑːs] clap [kl̥ æp] clean [kl̥ iːn] place [pl̥ eɪs] pleasure [ˈpl̥ eʒǝ] please [pl̥ iːz]

Exercise: Transcribe phonetically and phonemically the following words:

Pile, Pearl, Penalty, Pursue, Prepare Council, Kangaroo, Kitten, Kettle, Keen, Knight, Knee,
Kingdom, Knowledge, Question, Queen, Space, Tension, Towards, Tyranny, Today, Tertiary.

PHONETIC FACTS:
• There is a burst or puff of air after the /p/ in pill, till, and kill called aspiration, which is
absent in spill, still, and skill that means they became unaspirated when preceded by the
phoneme /s/.
• In English, the /t/ sound in the words “tip,” and “little” “hit,” are allophones; phonemically
they are considered to be the same sound although they are different phonetically in terms of
aspiration, but the same in voicing, and point of articulation or manner of articulation; as
follows respectively : [tʰɪp], [lɪtł], [hɪt].
• Although aspirated plosives and unaspirated ones are physically different; however, we
consider the aspiration feature does not affect the meaning of the utterance.

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 Lecture Three: Syllable Structure and Consonant Cluster

I-Basic syllable structure

The syllable is a unit containing one and only one vowel either alone as in I /aɪ/ or surrounded
by consonants in certain arrangements such as tick /tɪk/.
Further examples: Ann /æn/ , sit /sɪt/, split /splɪt/, sixth /sɪksθ/ twelfths /twelfθs/, say /seɪ/, spy
/spaɪ/, spray /spreɪ/, get /get/, text /tekst/, texts /teksts/, glimpsed /glɪmpst/, kicked /kɪkt/.
1.1. Counting Syllables: To find the number of syllables in a word, follow the next steps:
1. Count the vowels in the word.
2. Subtract any silent vowels, (like the silent e at the end of the word) such as: rate /reɪt/.
3. Diphthongs count as one vowel sound like: Time /taɪm/ , don’t /dəʊnt/, toy /tɔɪ/.
4. The number of vowel sounds must be the same as the number of syllables, such as:
receive /rɪˈsiːv/, perhaps /pəˈhæps/, intend /ɪnˈtend/, record (v) /rɪˈkɔːd/, many /ˈmeni/
5. When there is a word that has an "-le" in final position, we divide before the consonant
before the "-le". For example: a/ble, hum/ble, dou/ble, ca/ble, no/ble and "whi/stle".
The English words can be in one syllable or divided into syllables. Here are the examples:
1- One syllable: A, an, the, cold, quite, trade, hide, start, clean, green, chair, sign, low.
2- Two syllables: Qui/et, party, today, partner, demand, doctor, Friday, over, chicken.
3- Three syllables: Fan/tas/tic, expensive, wonderful, temptation, technical.
4- Four syllables: Understanding, American, psychology, conversation.
5- Five syllables: Misunderstanding, uncontrollable, conversational.

1.2-Syllabic consonants:

In unstressed syllables where usually the realization of the underlying sequence

of schwa plus consonant can be represented in one consonant called “syllabic consonant”;
those consonants are (/l/, /m/ , and /n/ , /r/ ) which can serve as the separate syllable instead of
a vowel plus consonant. It’s indicated by means of a small vertical diacritic (ֽ ) as in ( / / , / /
and / / and / / ). For example: Table [ˈteɪb ], Turtle /t3:t /, Cotton /ˈkɒtn /, sudden /ˈsʌdn /,
rhythm /ˈrɪðm /, bottom /ˈbɒtm /, reference /ˈrefr əns/, difference / /, separate / /.
Syllabic /ņ/ is the most common syllabic consonants which is found after alveolar plosives
and fricatives; in the case of /t,d/ sounds followed by /n/. Such as: Eaten /ˈi:tn /, seven /ˈsevn/.
heaven /ˈhevn /, heathen /ˈhiːðn /; relation /rɪ’leɪʃn /, lessen /ˈlesn /, risen /ˈrɪzn /, frozen
/frəʊzn /

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The lateral /l/ consonant is mostly syllabic at the end of the word, if it fell immediately after
plosives and fricatives –such as: couple [ˈkʌp ], little [ˈlɪt ], tackle [ˈtæk ] , paddle [ˈpæd
],awful[ˈɔːf ], whisle [ˈwɪs ] ,muscle [ˈmʌs ],drizzle [ˈdrɪz ]. Also after nasal consonants such
as: channel [ˈtʃæn ], trouble [ˈtrʌb ], struggle [ˈstrʌg ].
II- CONSONANT Cluster

2.1. Structural properties of the syllable:

If we have a look at the structural properties of the syllables, we can observe that each
syllable consists of a nucleus (central peak of sonority), usually a vowel, and the consonants
that cluster before and after the nucleus which are called the onset and the coda respectively.
syllable parts Description Optionality
– Onset Initial segment of a syllable Optional
– Nucleus Central segment of a syllable (core) Obligatory
– Coda Closing segment of a syllable Optional
- The preceding consonants or consonant cluster before the nucleus, are called the “onset”.
- The consonants or consonant cluster which are following the nucleus, are called the “coda”.
- English syllable requires a “nucleus” which is a vowel in most cases, although the syllabic
consonants / r /, / l /, / m /, / n / can be also the nucleus of a syllable.
Zero onset: if the syllable does not contain any consonant before the vowel. E.g.: Ill, On, Ask
Zero coda: when the syllable has no consonant after the vowel. E.g.: May, Fee, Strew, Troy

2.2. Consonant Cluster :

Definition: a consonant cluster is a group, combination or sequence of consonants that appear

together in a syllable without a vowel between them.
Initial Cluster:
1. s (pre-initial) + /p, t, k, f, m, n, l, r, w, j/ (initial) = C1 + C2 + V + CCCC
E.g: Spy, stay, skill, sphinx /sfɪŋks/, sphere, smile, swear, slay, Sri Lanka; Sue; Suit /sju:t/.
If an onset cluster has three consonants, then it should always begin with / s / as pre-initial.
2. s+/p,t,k,f,m,n,l,r,w,j/ + /l, r, w, j/ = pre-initial + initial + post-initial or (C1 +C2+C3+V)
E.g : Splendid ; sphere /sfɪə/; street; square ; squad ; steward ; spread ; skew.
Final Cluster:
There are two kinds of final consonants cluster: Pre-final + final + post-final 1 + Post-final 2.

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Pre-finals /m, n, ŋ, p, b, k, g, f, v, d, s, z, θ, ð, l, ʒ, tʃ, ʤ/. E.g.: dream, green, king, map,
tube, duck, fog, laugh, save, dead, doze, mouth, with, pleasure /pleʒ.ə/,bell, fetch, page.
Final may be / s, z, t, d, θ/. E.g.: pets /pets/, beds /bedz/, missed / mɪst/, health /helθ/.
Post-final1 may be
Post-final2 is always /s/ or /t/. E.g.: Texts /teksts/, Glimpsed /glImpst/.