EN

G 507
Phon
etics and Phonology

Lesson 1
· ‘linguistics’ is the study of language; how it is put
together and how it functions. In other words, various
building blocks of different types and sizes are combined
to make up a language.
· For example, sounds are brought together and
sometimes when this happens; they change their form
and do interesting things (phonetics and phonology).
· Words are arranged in a certain order (syntax), and
sometimes the beginnings and endings of the words are
changed to adjust the meaning (morphology).
· Then the meaning itself can be affected by the
arrangement of words (semantics) and by the knowledge
of the speaker about what the hearer will understand
(pragmatics).
· phonetics and phonology is the branch of
linguistics which deals with the human speech sounds. It
is the study of the description of speech sounds such as
vowels (monophthongs and diphthongs) and consonant
· Received Pronunciation (RP)
· Human sounds are divided into two broad categories:
consonants and vowels. A consonant is a speech sound
in which air is at least partly blocked whereas vowel is a
sound in which there is no obstruction found and the air
passes through the cavity freely. Moreover, a consonant is
classified in terms of the places and manners of
articulation and voicing whereas a vowel is classified in
terms of the position of tongue, the part of tongue and
lip-rounding. Vowels are further classified in terms of pure
vowels (monophthongs) and diphthongs.
--
__________________________________________________________
_________________________________________

Lesson 2
· There are 44 sounds in English RP (BBC) accent. Out
of them, 20 are vowels which, in turn, are further divided
into pure vowels and diphthongs. Pure vowels or
monophthongs are 12 out of which 5 are long and 7 are
short vowels. Examples for these vowel sounds are given
here:
Short vowels
• ɪ pit
• e pet
• æ pat
• ʌ putt
• ɒ pot
• ʊ put
• ǝ another
Long vowels
• iː bean
• ɑː barn
 • ɔː born
• uː boon
• ɜː burn
· English diphthongs are divided into two categories:
centering (which end with ‘ǝ’ sound) and
· closing (which end with either ‘ɪ’ or ‘ʊ’ sounds
respectively). Examples for these diphthongs are given
· below:
Diphthongs
• ɪǝ peer
• eǝ pair
• ʊǝ poor
• eɪ bay
• aɪ buy
• ɔɪ boy
• ǝʊ no
• aʊ now
· English sounds are briefly introduced here:
• Plosives 6
• Nasals 3
• Fricatives 9
• Affricates 2
• Approximants 4
· These sounds are presented with examples as
follows:
· Plosive sounds
• p pin
• b bin
• t tin
• d din
 • k kin
• g gum
· Nasal sounds
• m sum
• n sun
• ŋ sung
· Fricative sounds
• f fine
• v vine
• θ think
• ð this
• s seal
• z zeal
• ʃ sheep
• ʒ measure
• h how
· Affricate sounds
• ʧ chain
• ʤ Jane
· Approximant sounds
• l light
• r right
• w wet
• j yet
IPA
Transcription of
English Sounds
· As discussed earlier, the RP (BBC) accent of English
has 44 sounds. The IPA symbols for these
· sounds are given here for your understanding (you
can also see them from the IPA charts):
Vowels:
1. • Long vowels iː ɑː ɔː
uː ɜː
2. • Short vowels ɪ e æ ʌ
ɒʊǝ
3. • Diphthongs eɪ aɪ ɔɪ
ǝʊ aʊ ɪǝ eǝ ʊǝ
Consonants:
4. • Plosives p b t d k g
5. • Nasals m n ŋ
6. • Fricatives f v θ ð s z
ʃʒh
7. • Affricates ʧ ʤ
8. • Approximants l r w j
Introduction to Phonology
· Phonology is the study of the sounds of a particular
language (e.g., English). For example in English, [r] and
[l] are two different sounds - and the words "road" and
"load" differ according to which of these sounds is used.
Similarly, phonologists describe the contrastive
consonants and vowels in a sound system (language).
They are also interested in syllables, phrases, rhythm,
tone, and intonation of a specific language.
Introduction to Phonetics
· Phonetics, as a discipline, is the study of human
speech sounds. It includes the understanding of how
sounds are articulated using mouth, nose, teeth and
tongue, and how ears hear those sounds and can tell
them apart. In phonetics, the physical properties (such as
the wave form of each sound) can also be analyzed with
the help of computer programs (e.g., Praat). There are
three major types of phonetics: articulatory phonetics,
acoustics phonetics and auditory phonetics.
--
__________________________________________________________
_________________________________________

Lesson 3
Differece b/w
phonetics ad phonology:
· But the key difference is that phonology is the study
of how sounds are organized in individual languages. It
focuses on the organization of sounds by studying speech
patterns . The key words for describing phonology are
‘distribution’ and ‘patterning’ related to speech. EG :why
there is a difference in the plurals of cat and dog
· Phonetics, on the other hand, is the study of actual
process of sound making. Phonetics has been derived
from the Greek word ‘phone’ meaning sound or voice. It
covers the domain of speech production and its
transmission and reception. EG : The sounds made by us
when we talk
· There are various terms which are frequently
used in phonetics and phonology. They mainly
include phone, phoneme and allophone. For better
understanding, we need to distinguish among them.
· A phone is a sound (or a segment) which has some
physical feature and the term is mostly used in a
nontechnical sense.
· A phoneme is the smallest meaningful unit of sound
(therefore, a smallest unit in phonology) in a language
and this meaningful unit of sound is one that will change
one word into another word. For example, the difference
in both ‘white’ and ‘right’ (ignore spellings here, focus on
sounds) is the difference of sounds (w – r) which are
phonemes and they have the ability to change meaning
· An allophone is a definable systematic variant of a
phoneme. Compare the following sets:
· ‘s’ sound in words like sill, still and spill or in words
like seed, steed and speed
· ‘k’ sound in words like, key and car
· you should find that the specific sound is not exactly
the same in the ven word examples. But since these
variants do not change meaning (and we simply take
them as alternate sounds), they are called allophone
Phone is a sound pattern having
some acoustic features.
Phoneme is a group of sound
having the ability to change meaning.
Allophones are the systematic
variants of a phoneme.
· Phonetics is the scientific study of speech sounds. It
has three major branches: articulatory phonetics,
acoustics phonetics and auditory phonetics. Phonetics as
a field of study has a long history, going back certainly to
well over two thousand years ago when we study the
production of speech sounds we can observe what
speakers do (articulatory observation) and we can try to
feel what is going on inside our vocal tract (kinesthetic
observation)
· Phonetics is a multidisciplinary field
Articulatory Phonetics
· Articulatory phonetics deals with studying the
making of single sounds by the vocal tract. It is the
branch of phonetics which studies the way in which
speech sounds are made (‘articulated’) by the vocal
organs. It derives much of its descriptive terminology
from the fields of anatomy and physiology, and is
sometimes referred to as physiological phonetics
· The classification of sounds used in the International
Phonetic Alphabet (IPA), for example, is based on
articulatory variables
· Important discussions included in this field are: air
stream mechanism, speech production, places of
articulation, manners of articulation, phonation (voicing),
and other processes such as the oro-nasal process and
the description of vowel production.
Acoustic Phonetics
· Acoustic phonetics is related to the study of physical
attributes of sounds produced by the vocal tract. It is the
branch of phonetics which studies the physical properties
of speech sound as transmitted between mouth and ear
according to the principles of acoustics (the branch of
physics devoted to the study of sound). It is primarily
dependent on the use of instrumental techniques of
investigation (such as Praat software)
Auditory Phonetics
· Auditory phonetics deals with understanding how
human ear perceives sound and how the brain recognizes
different speech units. This branch of phonetics studies
the perceptual response to speech sounds as mediated
by ear, auditory nerve and brain. It is a very less well-
studied area of phonetics,
--
__________________________________________________________
_________________________________________

Lesson 4
· Experimental phonetics is quantitative (based on
numerical measurement).
· Nowadays, experimental research is carried out in all
fields of phonetics
· Topics explored through experimental phonetics and
phonology include; ‘infant speech perception’,
‘experimental paradigm for testing infants’
Peter Ladefoged explored the following three
areas of experimental phonetics in 1967:
• Stress in respiratory activity
• The nature of vowel quality
• Perception and production of speech
Generative Phonology
· Like other areas of grammar, a major change in the
theory of phonology came about in the 1960s . Morris
Halle and Noam Chomsky showed that there were many
sound processes which, while they are observable in the
phonology, are actually regulated by grammar and
morphology. This area of phonology is mainly related to
specific phonological rules within languages.this can be
seen in the best know generative phonological treatment
of EnglishThis type of phonology became extremely
complex
· Following are the theories that have stemmed from
‘generative phonology’:
• Autosegmental phonology
• Metrical phonology
• Lexical phonology
• Optimality theory
parts of the mouth and
throat area that we move when speaking. These
are called articulators. In Articulatory phonetics,
we study the principal articulators (such as
tongue, lips, lower jaw and the teeth, velum or soft
palate, uvula and larynx)\
Speech production:
· The process of speech production mainly includes
respiration, phonation, articulation and resonance.
· A contrast is usually drawn with the receptive
aspects of spoken communication, such as speech
perception and recognition
· As the anatomy of speech, some experts (such as
Ladefoged) highlight the following four main components
—the airstream process, the phonation process, the oro-
nasal process, and the articulatory process
Sound Waves
· A sound wave is the pattern of disturbance caused
by the movement of energy traveling through air (sound
always travels in the shape of waves in the air). Sound
basically consists of small variations in air pressure that
occur very rapidly one after another. physical features of
sound waves (such as its amplitude, its loudness and its
time duration of vibration) for many purposes in phonetic
studies. Sound waves have important role in
acoustics.physical features of sound waves (such as its
amplitude, its loudness and its time duration of vibration)
for many purposes in phonetic studies. Sound waves have
important role in acoustics.
The Oro-Nasal Process
· The possibility of the airstream going out through the
mouth, as in [v] or [z], or the nose, as in [m] and [n], is
determined by the oro-nasal process. Consider the
consonants at the end of rang, ran, ram (ŋ, m, n) which
are all nasal soundsIn the most speech, soft palate is
raised so that there is a velic closure. When it is lowered
and there is an obstruction in the mouth, we say that
there is a nasal consonant. Raising or lowering the velum
controls the oro-nasal process, the distinguishing factor
between oral and nasal sounds
--
__________________________________________________________
_________________________________________

Lesson 5
Articulatory Gestures
· The articulators make gestures required for speech
by moving toward other articulators to produce speech
sounds. This movement is called articulatory gesture.
major articulatory gestures used in the production
of English sounds:
· Bilabial: This sound is made with two lips (for
example, /p/ and /b/). The lips come together for these
sounds.
· Labiodental: This sound is made when the lower lip
is raised to touch the upper front teeth (for example, /f/
and /v/).
· Dental: This sound is made with the tongue tip or
blade and upper front teeth. For example, say the words
thigh, thy and you will find the first sound in each of
these words to be dental.
· Alveolar: This sound is made with the tongue tip or
blade and the alveolar ridge. You may pronounce words
such as tie, die, nigh, sigh, zeal, lie using the tip of the
tongue or the blade of the tongue for the first sound in
each of these words (which are alveolar sounds).
· Retroflex: This sound is produced when the tongue
tip curls against the back of the alveolar ridge. Many
speakers of English do not use retroflex sounds at all but
it is a common sound in Pakistani languages such as
Urdu, Sindhi, Pashto, Balochi and Punjabi.
· Palato-alveolar: This sound is produced with the
tongue blade and the back of the alveolar ridge (for
example, first sound in each of words like shy, she, show)
· Palatal: This sound is produced with front of the
tongue and the hard palate (such as the first sound in
‘yes’.
· Velar: This sound is produced with back of the
tongue and the soft palate (such as /k/ and /g/).
Manner of Articulation
· a vowel makes very little obstruction, while a plosive
consonant makes complete obstruction. The type of
obstruction is known as the manner of articulation. There
are several basic ways to pronounce a consonant sound .
For example, a stop sound [p] is pronounced by blocking
the air passage completely in the oral cavity. Consonantal
sounds are divided, in terms of their manner of
articulation, into two major types: obstruents (such as
stops, fricatives and affricates) and sonorants (such as
nasals, liquids and glides). The International Phonetic
Association classifies consonants according to their
manner and place of articulation.
Stop: Oral and Nasal
· Stop refers to any sound which is produced by a
complete closure in the vocal tract, and thus traditionally
includes the class of plosives. Both nasal and oral sounds
can be classified as stops
· Thus the sound stop has two processes; the closure
of air passage (stop) and the burst (release). Examples in
English are [p, b, t, d, k, g]. Plosion is the term used to
refer to the outwards movement of air upon release.
Plosive consonants are one type of stop consonant. Nasal
stops include [m, n, ŋ].
Fricative
· A fricative consonant is made by forcing air through a
narrow gap so that a hissing noise is generated. There are
several fricative sounds in English, both voiced and
voiceless, as in fin [f], van [v], thin [θ], this [ð], sin [s],
zoo [z], ship [ʃ], measure [ʒ] and hoop [h].
· A distinction is sometimes made between sibilant or
strident fricatives. Sibilant fricatives (such as s, ʃ) are
strong and clearly audible and strident fricatives are weak
and less audible (such as θ, f). BBC pronunciation has
nine fricative phonemes: f, θ, s, ʃ, h (voiceless) and v, ð,
z, ʒ (voiced).
Approximants
· Approximant is a phonetic term used to denote a
consonant which makes very little obstruction to
· the airflow. Traditionally approximants have been
divided into two groups: (1) “semivowels” ; and (2)
“liquids” sounds . This category includes laterals such as
English [l] in ‘lead’ and non-fricative [r] (phonetically ɹ) as
in ‘read’. BBC English has four approximant sounds which
include [l] as in light, [r] as in right, [w] as in wet and [j]
as in yet.
· ‘affricate’. It is a type of consonant consisting of a
plosive followed by a fricative with the same place of
articulation (e.g., [tʃ] and [dʒ] sounds at the beginning
and end of the English words ‘church’ and ‘judge’)
· trill (sometimes called roll), tap and flap and
distinguish among them. These are also called central
approximants.
Tap: Tap is up and down movement of the top of
the tip of tongue. For example, pronouncing
the middle sound in word ‘pity’ with typical
American accent [ɾ]. It is very brief and is
produced by a sharp upward throw of the
tongue blade. In this sound, tongue makes a
single tap against the alveolar ridge.
Flap: Flap is front and back movement of tongue
tip at the underside of tongue with curling
 behind. It is found in abundance in Indo-Aryan
(IA) languages [ɽ]. Typical flap sounds found in
IA languages is a retroflex sound and the
examples are [ɽ], [ɖ] and [ɳ].
Trill: In the production of trill the articulator is set
in motion by the current of air [r]. It is a typical
sound
of Scottish English as in words like ‘rye’ and ‘row’.
--
__________________________________________________________
_________________________________________

Lesson 6
· The difference between a vowel and a consonant in
the waveform is very easy to understand. For the vowel
sounds, the lips open and the amplitude gets larger. We
can also observe the time duration of a sound from its
waveform (vowels are longer than consonants). In case of
a stop sound, the closure and the burst are also easy to
judge
· Vowels are the class of sounds which make the least
obstruction to the flow of air.
· They are almost always found at the center of a
syllable, and it is rare to find any sound other than a
vowel which is able to stand alone as a whole syllable
· The Sounds of Vowels
· Vowels as sounds can be defined in terms of both
phonetics and phonology. Phonetically, they are sounds
articulated without a complete closure in the mouth or a
degree of narrowing which woulproduce audible friction;
the air escapes evenly over the center of the tongue
· . Acoustically, vowels are mainly distinguished by the
first two formant frequencies F1 and F2; F1 is inversely
related to the vowel height (which means that smaller F1
amplitude = higher vowels), and F2 is related to the front
or back of the vowels (smaller F2 amplitude = more back
vowels)
· Long Vowels and Diphthongs
· Long vowels (transcribed with the diacritic [:]) occur
in some languages. A contrast of length (between short
and long) is also sometimes encountered with vowels.
Length is an important feature in many ways in speech: in
English and most other languages, stressed syllables tend
to be longer than unstressed
· Introduction to Suprasegmental
· ‘Supra’ means above (beyond) and ‘segments’
means sounds (such as vowels and consonants) so the
term ‘suprasegmental’ means ‘above sounds’. The term
suprasegmental was initially invented to refer to aspects
of sound such as intonation that did not seem to be the
properties of individual segments
· many suprasegmental features are to be found in
speech, but pitch, loudness, tempo, juncture, syllable,
rhythm and stress are the most commonly mentioned
ones.
--
__________________________________________________________
_________________________________________

Lesson 7
· Why Transcribe?
· Transcription is an important tool in phonetics and
phonology. Based on a specific set of symbols,
transcription is the writing down of a spoken utterance. In
its original meaning, the implied word is converted from
one representation (e.g. written text) into another (e.g.
phonetic symbols).
· Transcription exercises are a long-established
exercise for teaching phonetics
· : Introduction to IPA
· Established in 1886, the International Phonetic
Association (IPA) is a forum for teachers and practitioners
who were inspired by the idea of using phonetics to
improve the teaching of the spoken language to foreign
learners
· https://www.internationalphoneticassociation.org/
· It also maintains its specific set of alphabets
(also called IPA - International Phonetic Alphabets
or IPA charts) for transcription
· This chart covers all languages of the world
--
__________________________________________________________
_________________________________________

Lesson 8

· Broad and Narrow Transcription

· Two main kinds of transcription are recognized: broad
(phonemic) and narrow (phonetic). Conventionally,
square brackets enclose phonetic transcription [k];
oblique lines enclose phonemic transcription /k/.
· The story ‘The North Wind and the Sun
--
__________________________________________________________
_________________________________________

Lesson 9
· One more example is /n/ becoming /m/ in the phrase
green bus. The features of connected speech are:
assimilation, rhythm, stress, elision, linking, tone and
intonation
Transcription Beyond Words: Word Stress
· In phonetics, stress refers to the degree of force used
in producing a syllable. The usual distinction is between
stressed and unstressed syllables, the former being more
prominent than the latter (and marked in transcription
with a raised vertical line, [ˈ]).
· The IPA symbol for stress is:
• Primary stress: symbol [ˈ] above the line and
before the stressed syllable such as /ˈsnɪp. ɪt/ /ɪgˈzɪst/
/prənʌnsiˈeiʃən/
• Secondary stress: symbol [ˌ] below the line
before the stressed syllable /ˌmɪnɪmaɪˈzeɪʃən
· Accent
· The community identification (based on specific
features in pronunciation) is reflected in language. There
are many Englishes today with many national and
regional varieties based on the typical way (called
accent) of pronunciation
a. Difference in phonological inventories.
Compare /strʌt/ vs. /strʊt/.
b. Difference in phonetic features such as
pronouncing /t/ as [ʔ].
c. Phonological distribution e.g., rhotic vs. non-
rhotic accents.
d. Lexical distribution e.g., /θ/ and /ð/
differences (as England and Wales have /ð/ and Scottish
accents have /θ/).
· Transcription Beyond Words: Phrases
· Words are always put together in phrases creating
many transitions and changes in the pronunciation. For
example, in the phrase ten green bottles (when spoken in
a connected speech), the pronunciation of ten and green
changes In these cases, the two /n/ sounds have changed
to suit their contexts by becoming a little bit more similar
to the consonants that follow in the next word. This type
of phrase level change is called ‘assimilation’. Other
changes of such types are called elision, linking,
epenthesis and liaison.
· Transcription Beyond Words: Rhythm and
Beyond
· While transcribing, it is also important to take care of
the noticeable events at regular intervals.Maximally
regular patterns which are encountered in any kind of
poetry are referred to as ‘metrical
· Ten green bottles
· Hanging on the wall
· And if one green bottle
--
__________________________________________________________
_________________________________________

Lesson 10
· The Consonants of English
· There are 24 consonants in the RP accent of English.
These consonants are described in terms of (1) voicing,
(2) manners and (3) places of articulation
· Stop Consonants
· ‘Stop’ is often used as if synonymous with plosive.
However, some phoneticians use it to refer to the class of
sounds in which there is complete closure specifically in
the oral cavity. In this case, sounds such as m, n are also
stops. More precisely, they are nasal stops. In English,
there are nine stops (six oral and three nasal):
· bilabial alveolar velar
· - Voiced p t k
· +Voiced b d g
· (nasal) +Voiced m n ŋ
· Fricatives
· It refers to a sound made with two articulators
coming so close to each other that the air moving
between them produces audible friction
· a voiceless velar fricative [x] in Urdu, Pashto and
Sindhi, a voiceless pharyngeal fricative [ħ] in Arabic, a
voiced bilabial fricative [β] in Spanish.Very common
fricative sounds are /f, v, s, z, θ, ʃ, ð, h/ whereas [ʒ] is a
less common fricative sound.
· Stops and fricatives are together called
‘obstruents’ and they are similar in three ways:
(1) they influence vowel length (vowels are shorter before
voiceless obstruents)
, (2) voiceless obstruents at final position are longer than
their voiced counterparts (e.g., race vs. rays),
and (3) obstruents are voiced only if the adjacent
segments are also voiced (e.g., dogs)
· Affricates
· An affricate sound is a type of consonant which is
made of a plosive followed by a fricative with the same
place of articulation (so, it is a mixture of two steps or
gestures). For example, /tʃ/ (the voiceless affricate).There
are two affricates in English:
· /tʃ/ and /dʒ/ (the first of these is voiceless, the second
voiced) sounds as at the beginning and end of the English
words church and judge
· Nasals
· Nasals are the consonantal sounds in which the air
escapes through the nose (the soft palate i.e., velum is
lowered). For nasal sounds, two articulatory actions are
necessary; (1) the soft palate (or velum) must be lowered
to allow air to escape through nose, and (2) a closure
must be made in the oral tract (in order to prevent air
from escaping through it).
· Approximants
· The consonants which make very little obstruction to
the airflow are called approximants. These have
traditionally been divided into two main groups:
semivowels (such as /w/ in ‘wet’ and /j/ in ‘yet’) which are
very similar to close vowels ([u] and [i]) but are produced
as a rapid glide; and liquid sounds which have an
identifiable constriction of the airflow
· The BBC accent of English has four approximant
sounds:
Bilabial: /w/ as in whack
Alveolar: /l/ and /r/ as in lack and rack
Palatal: /j/ as in yak
--
__________________________________________________________
_________________________________________

Lesson 11
Overlapping Gestures
· Speech sounds are produced with the movements of
the articulators and sounds are often described in terms
of their articulatory gestures. Remember that sounds are
not static; they ar movements.
· This kind of gestural overlapping, in which a second
gesture starts during the first gesture, is sometimes also
called anticipatory co-articulation.The same kind of
anticipatory overlapping takes place in words like tree
and dream
· Overlapping is a common feature of connected
speech
· The difference between two different forms of /k/
sound (as the [k] in key and the [k] in caw) may be simply
due to their overlapping with different vowels in contex
Co-articulation
· An articulation is an articulatory phenomenon which
involves a simultaneous overlapping of more than one
points in the vocal tract as in the co-ordinate stops
(/pk/, /bg/, /pt/ and /bd/) often heard in some languages
from West Africa
Rules for English Consonant Allophones (ECA)
· . These are not the kind of prescriptive grammar
rules that people are expected to abide by.
1. Consonants are longer when at the end of a
phrase (e.g., bib, did, don and nod).
2. Voiceless stops (e.g., p, t, k) are aspirated
when they are syllable initial (pip, test, kick).
3. Voiced obstruents (b, d, g, v, ð, z, ʒ) are
voiced only when they occur at the end of an
utterance or before a voiceless sound.
4. Voiced stops (b, d, g) and affricate (dʒ) are
voiceless when they are syllable initial (except
when immediately preceded by a voiced sound
– compare a day with this day).
5. Voiceless stops (p, t, k) are unaspirated
after /s/ in words such as spew, stew and skew.
6. Voiceless obstruents (p, t, k, tʃ, f, θ, s, ʃ) are
longer than their voiced counterparts (b, d, g,
dʒ, v,ð, z, ʒ) at the end of a syllable (e.g., cap -
cab and back – bag).
7. Approximants (w, r, j, l) are at least partially
voiceless when they occur after initial voiceless
stop sounds (e.g., play, twin, cue).
8. The gestures for consecutive stops overlap,
so that stops are unexploded when they occur
before other stop (e.g., apt and rubbed).
9. In many accents of English, syllable final
voiceless stops /p, t, k/ are accompanied by an
overlapping glottal stop gesture (e.g., tip, pit,
 kick).
10. /t/ is replaced by a glottal stop when it
occurs before an alveolar nasal (e.g., beaten).
11. Nasals are syllabic at the end of a word -
after an obstruent (e.g., leaden, chasm).
12. The lateral /l/ is syllabic at the end of a word
- a consonant (e.g., paddle, whistle).
: Rules for English Consonant Allophones (ECA):
Explanation
1. An alveolar stop becomes a voiced tap when it
occurs between two vowels the second of which is
unstressed (winter – winner)
2. An alveolar consonant becomes dental before
dental consonant (eighth, tenth, wealth).
3. Alveolar stops are reduced or omitted when
between two consonants (/moʊst pIpl/ - /moʊs pIpl/).
4. A homorganic voiceless stop may occur after
a nasal before a voiceless fricative followed by an
unstressed vowel in the same word (e.g., hearing /t/ in in
both agency and grievances).
5. A consonant is shortened when it is before an
identical consonant (e.g., /k/ in cap and kept).
6. Velar stops become more frontal before more
frontal vowels. (e.g., clap and talc).
7. The lateral /l/ is velarized after a vowel or
before a consonant at the end of a word.
--
__________________________________________________________
_________________________________________
Lesson 12
· Diacritics
· While transcribing (accurately and in detail), a small
mark is added to a phonetic symbol to show the way it is
spoken. Diacritics include various marks such as accent
marks (´ ` ^), the signs of devoicing [o] and nasalization
[~]. The diacritic marks may be placed over a symbol,
under it, before it, after it, or through it.
· The International Phonetic Association (IPA)
recognizes a wide range of such marks (diacritics) for
both vowels and consonants. In the case of vowels,
diacritics indicate differences in frontness, backness,
closeness or openness, and lip-rounding or unrounding,
nasalization and centralization. On the other hand, in the
case of consonants, diacritics are used for voicing or
voicelessness, for advanced or retracted place of
articulation, aspiration and many other aspects. These
small marks are very important for detailed (narrow)
transcription.
diacritics are used to a symbol in order to narrow its
meaning. The
following six diacritics are quite important for attempting
the detailed transcription exercises:
· S. No: Feature Symbol Examples Transcription
· 1. Voiceless ̥ (small circle below) quick /kw̥ ɪk/
· 2. Aspirated ʰ (small /h/ above)
kiss /kʰɪs/
· 3. Dental ̪ (dental sign below)
health /həl̪θ/
· 4. Nasalized ̃ (tilde symbol above)
man /mæ̃ n/
· 5. Velarized ̴ (tilde symbol through)
pill /pʰɪl̴ʰ
· 6. Syllabic n ̩ (small vertical line
below) mitten /mɪʔn̩ ɪ
Nasalization
Nasalization is an articulatory process whereby a sound is
made ‘nasal’ (when the air is passin through the nasal
cavity) due its adjacent nasal sound (it is an articulatory
influence of an adjacent nasal consonant, as in words like
mat or hand).
Aspiration
Aspiration is a puff of noise made when a consonantal
constriction is released and air is allowe to escape
relatively freely (e.g., in English /p t k/ at the beginning of
a syllable are aspirated).
Velarisation
In co-articulation, velarisation is a process whereby a
constriction in the vocal tract is added t the primary
constriction which gives a consonant its place of
articulation. More specifically, velarisatio is an example of
secondary articulation

__________________________________________________________
_______________________________________
Lesson 13
Although the RP accent of English has 20 vowel sounds
(including monophthongs – short an long vowels and
diphthongs) yet there is a discrepancy about the number
of vowels
The difference in English vowels is not only related to the
number of vowels but it is also found in th ‘length’ and
‘quality’ of vowel sounds
Vowel Quality
Quality is a term used in auditory phonetics and
phonology to refer to the characteristic resonance, or
timbre of a sound, which is the result of the range of
frequencies constituting the sound’ identity. Variations in
vowels are describable in terms of quality, (e.g. the
distinction between [i] and [e vowels etc.) would be called
a qualitative difference
Auditory Vowel Space
Vowel sounds are tricky to be described phonetically
accurately because they are points, or rather areas,
within a continuous space. A language has a certain finite
number of contrasting vowels
American and British Vowels
Many of the American vowels are essentially different
than those of British – and that is why it is
a different English .American vowels [i, ɪ, ɛ, æ] as in
words heed, hid, head had these vowels sound as if they
differ by a series of equal steps. Similarly, the back
vowels also vary considerably in both forms of English
__________________________________________________________
_______________________________________
Lesson 14
Diphthongs
Diphthong is a single vowel consisting of the features of
two vowels.There had been a point of difference whether
a diphthong should be
treated as a single phoneme (in its own right) or it is a
combination of two phonemes.
On the basis of phonetic classification of vowel sounds
and manners of articulation, we need to
compare diphthongs with monophthongs and triphthongs;
9. - a monophthong is a vowel with no qualitative
change in it
10. - a diphthong is a vowel where there is a single
(perceptual) noticeable change in quality during a
syllable (as in English words beer, time and loud)
11. - a triphthong is a vowel where two such
changes can be heard.
Diphthongs, or ‘gliding vowels’, are usually classified into
phonetic types depending on one of the two elements
that is the more sonorous: ‘falling’ (or ‘descending’)
diphthongs have the first element stressed. In the English
examples: ‘rising’ (or ‘ascending’) diphthongs have the
second element stressed.
Unstressed Syllables
A vowel may take one out of three forms: stressed,
unstressed and reduced. Most of the time vowel is
completely pronounced when it is i a stressed syllable but
the same vowel is different in quality (allophonic form)
when it takes place in an unstressed syllable, and, of
course, it is reduced to another form when it is in a
reduced syllable. Remember that in most cases, various
reduced vowels are taking the shape of a schwa vowel
/ə/. The symbol /ə/ may be used to show many types of
vowels with a central, reduced vowel quality.
Rhotic Vowels
This term is used to describe some varieties of English
(e.g., American) pronunciation in which the /r/ phoneme is
found in all its phonological contexts. Remember that in
the BBC accent of English, /r/ is only found before vowels
(as in ‘red’ /red/, ‘around’ /əraʊnd/), but never before
consonants or before pause. In rhotic (e.g., some
American) accents, on the other hand, /r/ may occur
before consonants (as in ‘cart’ /ka:rt/) and before a pause
(as in ‘car’ /kɑ:r/).
__________________________________________________________
_______________________________________
Lesson 15

Tense and Lax Vowels

Tense and Lax are the labels of ‘strong’ and ‘weak’ given
to vowels on the basis of their behavior. This is one of the
comparative features of sound set up by Jakobson and
Halle in their distinctive feature theory of phonology . Lax
sounds are produced with less muscular effort and
movement, and are relatively short and indistinct vowel
sounds (e.g., i, e, ɒ, æ, ʌ, ʊ, ə vowels articulated near the
center of the vowel area) compared to tense sounds (e.g.,
u:, i:, ɜ:, a:, ʊə, iə). It is mainly American phonologists
who use the terms lax and tense in describing English
vowels.
Fortis and Lenis Consonants
These are the terms used in the phonetic classification of
consonantal sounds on the basis of their manners of
articulation. Fortis refers to a sound made with a
relatively strong degree of muscular effort and breath
force compared with the other sound (known as lenis).
The distinction between tense and lax is used for vowels
on the similar lines
The term ‘fortis’ is sometimes used loosely to refer to
strong vowel articulation also, but this is not a standard
practice
Rules for English Vowel Allophones
Following is the list of statements regarding the rules for
English vowel allophones:
1. Other things being equal, a given vowel is
longest in an open syllable, next longest in a syllable
closed by a voiced consonant, and shortest in a syllable
closed by a voiceless consonant (e.g., compare sea, seed,
seat or sigh, side, site).
2. Other things being equal, vowels are longer
in the stressed syllables (e.g., compare below and billow).
3. Other things being equal, vowels are
longest in monosyllabic words, next longest in words with
two syllables, and shortest in the words with more than
two syllables
4. A reduced vowel may be voiceless when it
is after a voiceless stop (and before a voiceless stop.
Compare potato with catastrophe.
5. Vowels are nasalized in syllables closed by a
nasal consonant (e.g., /man/).
6. Vowels are retracted before syllable final [l̴]
(as in words peel, pail, pal). Compare your pronunciation
of /i:/ in heed and heel, of /eɪ/ in paid and pail, and [æ] in
pad and pal.
__________________________________________________________
_______________________________________
Lesson 16
English Words and Sentences
There is a lot of difference between words spoken in
isolation than in a connected speech. The key difference
between citation speech (where a word is in its complete
form) and connected speech is the variable degree of
emphasis placed on different words in the connected
speech. This “degree of emphasis” is probably related to
the amount of information that a word conveys in a
particular utterance
Words in Connected Speech
Words can have two possible forms: weak and strong. In
other words, one of the two possible pronunciations for a
word in the context of connected speech is ‘strong’ and
the other is ‘weak’. The ‘strong’ form is the result of a
word being stressed (e.g., I want bacon and eggs vs. I
want bacon and eggs – where the stress is on AND in
order to emphasize it), the weak form is that which is the
result of a word being unstressed as in the normal
pronunciation of OF in cup of tea, and in most other
grammatical (closed form of) words.
Stress
Stress is a term used in phonetics to refer to the degree
of force (for making it louder and longer) used in
producing a syllable. The usual distinction is between
stressed and unstressed syllables, the former being more
prominent than the latter (and marked in transcription
with a raised vertical line, [ˈ].
Degree of Stress
The analysis of the degree of stress is another interesting
area.. In the American structuralist tradition, four such
degrees are usually distinguished, and analyzed as stress
phonemes, namely (from strongest to weakest) (1)
‘primary’, (2) ‘secondary’, (3) ‘tertiary’ and (4) ‘weak’.
In phonological analysis, most of the experts only
distinguish among three degrees of stress namely
‘primary’, ‘secondary’ and ‘weak’ or ‘unstressed
Remember that, we create ‘rhythm’ in spoken language
on the basis of stress. Analyze the following examples
(stressed words are shown in bold):
Mary’s younger brother wanted fifty chocolate peanuts.
__________________________________________________________
_______________________________________
Lesson 17
: Sentence Rhythm
Sentence rhythm is another feature of a connected
speech. Actually, speech is perceived as a sequence of
events in time, and the word rhythm is used to refer to
the way events are distributed in time. Obvious example
of vocal rhythms is chanting as part of games
Intonation
Intonation refers (very) simply to the variations in the
pitch of a speaker’s voice (f0) used to convey or alter
meaning but in its broader and more popular sense
intonation covers much of the same field as ‘prosody’
where variations in such things as voice quality, tempo
and loudness are included
‘Intonation’ is pitch variation at sentence level and it
could be described in terms of intonational phrase. In
order to describe intonation, we need to analyze the role
of a ‘stressed syllable
Target Tones
It refers to an identifiable movement or level of pitch that
is used in a linguistically contrastive way .in the analysis
of English intonation, tone refers to one of the pitch
possibilities for the tonic (or nuclear) syllable, a set
usually including fall, rise, fall–rise and rise–fall, though
others are also suggested by various experts.
The three variables (1) pitch range, (2) height and (3)
direction are generally distinguished
__________________________________________________________
_______________________________________
Lesson 18
Airstream Mechanisms
All human speech sounds are produced by making the air
move (in oral and nasal cavity) thus creating the
airstream. , ‘airstream’ is a term used in phonetics for a
physiological process which provides a source of energy
capable of being used in speech sound production.
The most commonform is when the air is moved inwards
or outwards by initiating air movement involving ‘lungs’
(the pulmonic airstream), which is used for producing
the majority of human speech sounds.
The ‘glottalic’ airstream mechanism, as its name
suggests, uses the movement of the glottis - the aperture
between the vocal folds as the source of energy.
The third one is the ‘velaric’ airstream mechanism
which involves an airflow produced by a movement of the
back of the tongue against the velum
Pulmonic Airstream Mechanism
Pulmonic airstream mechanism is the most commonly
used mechanism for speech production by human beings.
The adjective used for this lung-created airstream is
‘pulmonic’
Glottalic Airstream Mechanism
This mechanism involves ‘glottis’ as the adjective could
be used to refer to anything pertaining to the glottis. A
glottalic airstream is produced by making a tight closure
of the vocal folds and then moving the larynx up or down
thus raising of the larynx pushes the air outwards causing
an egressive glottalic airstream
Velaric Airstream Mechanism
Under this mechanism, speech sounds are made by
sucking the air (see airstream). This sucking mechanism
is used first by babies for feeding and by adult humans in
later stages of life for such things as sucking liquid
through a straw or drawing smoke from a cigarette
__________________________________________________________
_______________________________________
Lesson 19
Introduction to Phonation
The position of larynx (also known as sound box) and the
vocal folds inside larynx are very important in the
description of speech sounds. ‘Phonation’ is a technical
term used for describing the forms of vibration of the
vocal folds (or vocal cords) and the process is more
commonly known as voicing. The glottis (which is defined
as the space between the vocal folds) can assume a
number of shapes (such as voiced, voiceless, murmuring
and creaky positions).
Phonation’ is a general term used in phonetics to refer to
any vocal activity in the larynx (i.e., sound box)
States of the Glottis
So, based on the possibilities of the nature of vibration,
the states of glottis are determined thus the vibration can
be made to vary in many ways, resulting in differences in
such things as pitch, loudness and voice quality
Phonation Types
There are mainly four possible glottis/larynx settings or
types of phonation:
• Voiceless – when the folds are open apart and the
air passing through the glottis freely (/t/ or /p/).
• Voiced – when the folds are tight together and
there is vibration during the air passage though the
glottis (e.g., /b/ or /d/).
• Creaky voice – when there is a slight opening in the
front and the arytenoid cartilages are tight together, so
that the vocal folds can vibrate only at the anterior end
(the small opening at the top).
• Breathy or murmuring sound – when the vocal folds
are apart but still they are vibrating - a breathy voice is
like a whisper except voice.
Voicing and Consonants
Voicing is an important feature of speech sounds which is
used not only as a feature but also as a distinction for
describing sounds. There are sounds which are usually
voiced .On the other hand, there are sounds which may
be voiced or voiceless such as fricatives and plosives
(together called obstruents). Obstruents are the most
frequently found sounds that have both voicing and
voicelessness.
A glottal stop is only an allophonic variation and is used in
RP before /p, t, k/. In some dialects these three can even
be replaced by a glottal stop altogether. The symbol for a
glottal stop is like a question mark [ʔ].
__________________________________________________________
_______________________________________
Lesson 20
Voice Onset Time (VOT)
All human languages distinguish between voiced and
voiceless consonants, and plosives (stops) are the most
common consonants to be distinguished using the voicing
feature
. In simple words, the onset of voicing in a plosive may
lag behind the plosive release, or it may precede (“lead”)
contrarily, resulting in a fully or partially voiced plosive.
Both can be represented on the VOT scale, one case
having positive values and the other negative values (and
the third possibility is zero VOT)
In order to understand VOT, the three types of plosive
sounds are to be explained – voiced, voiceless and a
voiceless aspirated sound
Importance of VOT
VOT is an important feature in experimental phonology .
Languages vary in terms of VOT and the delay (lag or
VOT) is an important feature to be explored for the
comparison of languages. It also provides an important
insight regarding the perception of VOT by bilingual
learners.
 The Navajo aspirated stops have a very large VOT value
that is quite exceptional (150 MS). On the other hand, the
normal value for the VOT of English stressed initial /p/
would be between 50 and 60 MS
Types of VOT
There are three possible types of VOT based on the
nature of stop sounds.
12. Firstly, simple unaspirated voiceless stops have
a voice onset time at or near zero.
13. The second possibility is when aspirated stops
are followed by a vowel: voice onset time is greater
than zero called a positive VOT
14. The third possibility is when voiced stops have a
VOT noticeably less than zero called "negative VOT"
__________________________________________________________
_______________________________________
Lesson 21
15. Consonantal Gestures
16. In phonetics and phonology, speech sounds
(segments) using basic units of contrast are defined as
gestures – they are treated as the abstract
characterizations of articulatory events with an intrinsic
time dimension. Thus sounds (segments) are used to
describe the phonological structure of specific languages
and account for phonological variation
17. Articulatory Targets
18. A number of the possible places of articulation that
are used in the languages of the world have been defined
so far (in this course). The traditional terms which are
used for all the places of articulation are not just names
for particular locations
19. Types of Articulatory Gestures
20. Bilabial gesture – very common in English (e.g.,
stops and nasal: p, b, m), In some languages (such as
Ewe of West Africa), bilabial fricatives contrast with
labiodental fricatives. The symbols for the voiceless and
voiced bilabial fricatives are [ɸβ]
21. Labiodental fricatives – many languages (including
English) have the labiodental fricatives [f, v]. But
probably no language has labiodental stops or nasals
except as allophones of the corresponding bilabial sounds
Dental sounds are present both in British and American
English, e.g. dental fricatives [θ, ð] but there are no
dental stops, nasals, or laterals except allophonically
realized (before [θ, ð] as in eighth, tenth, wealth).
Alveolar are very common targets and stops, nasals, and
fricatives all occur in English and in many other
languages at alveolar as a target of articulatory gestures
(e.g., t, d, n, l, r., etc.).
Retroflex is very common sound in many Pakistani
languages which is made by curling the tip of the tongue
up and back so that the tongue tip moves during the
retroflex sounds such as [ɳ, ŋ, ɲ, ʈ, ɽ]. Thesesounds are
also the feature of Indian English.
Palato-alveolar and palatal are also possible
articulatory gestures commonly found in world
languages.Similarly, velar sounds found in Urdu and other
Pakistani languages need to be mentioned here including
[x, ɣ] which are velar fricatives
Stops
Description Symbol Language
1. Voiced b English and other languages
2. Voiceless unaspirated p -do3.
Aspirated pʰ Sindhi and many other Pakistani languages
4. Murmured (breathy) bʱ Sindhi
5. Implosive ɓ Sindhi
6. Laryngealized (creaky) b̰ Hausa
7. Ejective kʼ Hausa
8. Nasal release dn Russian
9. Prenasalized nd Swahili
10. Lateral release tɬ Navajo
11. Ejective lateral release tɬʼ Navajo
12. Affricate ts German
13. Ejective affricate tsʼ Navajo
Nasals
Nasal manners of articulation are commonly found in the
languages of the world. Like stops, nasal can also occur
voiced or voiceless
Fricatives
Fricative as an articulatory gesture may be divided into
voiced or voiceless sounds but we can also subdivide
fricatives in accordance with other aspects of the
gestures that produce them
__________________________________________________________
_______________________________________
Lesson 22
Trills, Taps and
Flaps
Voiced alveolar trill r Spanish
Voiced alveolar tap ɾ Spanish
Voiced retroflex flap ɽ Hausa
Voiced alveolar approximant ɹ English
Voiced alveolar fricative trill ɻ Czech
Voiced uvular trill ʀ French
Voiced uvular fricative or approximant ʁ
Parisian French
Voiced bilabial trill ʙ Kele
Voiced labiodental flap * Margi
Laterals
Laterals are usually presumed to be voiced approximants
unless a specific statement to the contrary is made.
13 types of stop sounds (i.e., b, p, pʰ, bʱ, ɓ, b̰, kʼ, dn, nd,
tɬ, tɬʼ, ts, tsʼ) and
nine types of trill, tap and flap (together one category of
approximants) sounds (i.e., r, ɾ, ɽ, ɹ, ɻ, ʀ, ʁ, ʙ, *)
__________________________________________________________
_______________________________________
Lesson 23

22.