PHONETICS

1.
Introduction
2. Organs of Speech
3. Transcription Symbols
PHONETICS 4. Introduction to Consonants
5. Consonants
I. INTRODUCTION
What is Phonetics?
Linguistics is the study of the nature and properties of the systems of communication, and
its various branches focus on different aspects of the communication process. One of the
branches is PHONETICS.
Phonetics is the branch concerned with human speech sounds, and itself has three different
aspects:
• Articulatory Phonetics (the most anatomical and physiological division) describes
how vowels and consonants are produced or “articulated” in various parts of the
mouth and throat.
• Acoustic Phonetics (the branch that has the closest affinities with physics) studies
the sound waves that transmit the vowels and consonants through the air from the
speaker to the hearer.
• Auditory Phonetics (the branch of most interest to psychologists) looks at the way
in which the hearer’s brain decodes the sound waves back into the vowels and
consonants originally intended by the speaker.
Closely associated with Phonetics is another branch of linguistics known as Phonology.
This focuses on the way languages use differences between sounds in order to convey
differences of meaning between words, each language having its own unique sound pattern.
Phonology is really the link between Phonetics and the rest of Linguistics. This course
focuses on the first of these aspects: Articulatory Phonetics.
Warning. The word phonetics is often incorrectly used to refer to the symbols of the International
Phonetic Alphabet (the IPA). So people say: “How is this written in phonetics?”, “It was all in
phonetics, so I couldn’t understand it”, or “Dictionaries use phonetics to show pronunciation”.
This isn’t how the term should be used. As has just been explained, Phonetics is a branch of
Linguistics, not an alphabet. So it would be more appropriate to say: “How is this written in
phonetic script?”, “It was all in phonetic transcription...”, or “Dictionaries show pronunciation
by using the phonetic alphabet”.
Why Study Phonetics?
Obviously it’s a fundamental part of Linguistics, so no-one studying this subject can ignore
it. But for students of languages, there are also practical advantages to be gained from
knowing some basic Phonetics.
ONE : you should be able to improve your pronunciation of foreign languages if you have
a clearer idea of how the sounds are actually produced. Troublesome sounds like French r,
German ü or Spanish j lose their mystery and become less daunting once you know how
they relate to other more familiar sounds. And there are various general features of the
“British accent” which can be characterized by phonetic analysis: when you know what it
is that makes British accents so British, you’ll be well on the way to getting rid of yours (if
you have one: most people do to some extent at least). What’s more, you’ll be able to look
up the pronunciation of words in the dictionary once you’re familiar with the phonetic
alphabet.
TWO: many of you will at some stage or other find yourselves teaching a language to other
people: either French, German, Spanish, etc. if you make a career of teaching, or English if
you are involved in ESOL (English as a Second Language, also known as EFL: English as
a Foreign Language). ESOL is not just a useful source of vac jobs: it is a serious career in
itself. And many Modern Languages students spend a year of their degree course working
abroad as English language teachers. In all such cases, you are likely to have to help learners
to improve their accents. If someone is having difficulty with English th, it’s not much help
just to tell them “Don’t say it like that, say it like I do”. (Unless they’re natural mimics, in
which case they won’t need instruction from you anyway.) Much better if you can guide
them to make the appropriate tongue movements, on a basis of your knowledge of
phonetics.
II. ORGANS OF SPEECH

(The Vocal Tract)
To be able to pronounce the sounds clearly and correctly, we need to know how they are
made. English sounds are produced as the air stream flows from the lungs to the mouth. This
air passage changes shape till the air escapes, forming different sounds. To understand how
sounds are produced we need to identify the different parts of the air passage or vocal tract.
1. First, air is expelled from the LUNGS.
2. Air then passes through the LARYNX, which is informally called Adam's Apple, the
vocal cords, or technically the "GLOTTIS". The vocal cords are little lips that can take
different positions, modifying the sound produced. They can open slightly while
vibrating, as whenproducing the sounds /z/, /v/, or /ʒ/. (You can feel this vibration if
you put your finger over your Adam's Apple while saying the sounds /z/ or /v/, or /ʒ/
over a long time.) This vibration is also called "voice", so that these are described as
"voiced" sounds. The vocal cords can also open widely, without any vibration, as when
pronouncing the sounds /f/, /s/ or /ʃ/ , which are therefore called "voiceless" sounds.
(Put your finger again over your Adam's Apple while saying any of these sounds and
you will not feel any vibration.) The third role of the vocal cords is to close and then
open suddenly as when producing the sound /?/ or ‫ أ‬in Arabic.
3. The TONGUE moves and takes different shapes by raising or lowering different parts
of it. For practical reasons, the tongue can be said to consist of different parts: the TIP,
the BLADE, the FRONT, and the BACK, all of which are moveable parts.
4. The roof of the mouth is touched by the different parts of the tongue. The different parts
of the roof are: the SOFT PALATE or velum ( which is the middle to the back end of
the roof); the HARD PALATE (which is the middle of the roof); and the TEETH
RIDGE or alveolum, which is immediately behind the teeth.
5. The upper and lower TEETH.
6. The upper and lower LIPS may close completely to produce /p/ or /b/, or take different
shapes in producing vowel sounds. They are spread when pronouncing "fill" or "feel",
rounded when pronouncing "full" or "fool", and neutral when pronouncing "fall".
SUMMARY
1. English sounds are produced as the air stream flows from the lungs to the mouth. The
air passage changes shape till the air escapes forming different sounds.
2. The different parts of the air passage are:
The lungs
The larynx and the glottis (or vocal cords)
The tongue (tip, blade, front, and back)
The roof of the mouth (the soft palate or velum, the hard palate, the
teeth ridge or alveolum)
The upper and lower teeth
The upper and lower lips
III. TRANSCRIPTION SYMBOLS
Because spelling is a poor representation of the way words are pronounced, we resort to
the use of phonetic symbols. Each sound has a symbol that corresponds to it, regardless of the
different ways it may be spelt in different words. Thus the symbol /f/ stands for the initial sound
in both "fine" and "photo". Most of these symbols will look familiar and very similar to English
spelling, with the exception of a few symbols which may look strange but you can learn them
easily through practice. Here is a list of the symbols that will be used in this book, each followed
by a word starting with the sound that the symbol represents.
/p/ pill /f/ feel /m/ mere

/b/ Bill /v/ veal /n/ near
/t/ till /θ/ thaw /Ŋ/ sing
/d/ day /ð / though /w/ what
/g/ game /s/ say /j/ yes
/k/ kill /z/ zinc r/ ride
/h/ hill /ʃ/ share /tʃ/ chair
/l/ like /ʒ/ measure /dʒ/ jar
/ɪ/ fill /İ:/ feel e/ fell

/o/ lot /u/ full /ʌ/ luck
/ə/ above /ɑ:/ lark 3:/ fur
/Ɔ:/ sport /u:/ groom
/eɪ/ fail /əu/ no /ɪə/ here

/aɪ/ file /au/ now /eə/ pear
/ Ɔɪ/ boy /uə/ poor
However, different dictionaries use different phonetic symbols to represent the sounds of
English. Having read the symbols above, find out whether your dictionary uses the same
symbols.

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1.

II. ORGANS OF SPEECH

/p/ pill /f/ feel /m/ mere

/ɪ/ fill /İ:/ feel e/ fell

/eɪ/ fail /əu/ no /ɪə/ here

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