Simple Notes about PHONETICS

Introduction to phonetics

The pronunciation of English presents several problems to the non-native learners. Even the native speakers encounter ticklish problems in the pronunciation of English, as it varies considerably from region to region. However, the standard pronunciation of spoken English has gained acceptance among the educated British. This is called Received Pronunciation (R.P), which is described by Daniel Jones as ‘that most usually heard in everyday speech in the families of Southern English persons whose men folk have been educated at the great public boarding schools’. Today, the kind of pronunciation used by speakers of South London may not be the only model, but it is adopted by the BBC and is, therefore, intelligible to the largest member of speakers all over the world, although there are significant variations in America, Australia and Indian varieties of pronunciation.

Production of Speech:

To speak we use some mechanism, which produces sound with the help of an energizer, a vibrator and resonators. Energizer is the exhaled breath, vibrators are the vocal cords and resonators are the passages of the throat, mouth and nose.

Sound is produced by allowing the air to pass from the lungs through the wind-pipe to the mouth or the nose and by using the tongue and lips in various positions letting it escape. When the air passes through the nose either wholly or partially,nasal sounds are produced and when it passes through the mouth, oral sounds emanate.

Speech organs:

Windpipe, vocal cords, epiglottis, pharynx, uvula, tongue, teeth, lips and nose are the organs involved in the production of speech. The air causes the vocal cords to vibrate at varying speeds by alternately passing through them and being stopped from passing. So all sounds produced with the vibration of the vocal cords are called ‘Voiced Sounds’. All vowels-monophthongs and diphthongs and consonants-b, d, m. The vocal cords do not vibrate in the production of unvoiced sounds and air passes through the wide-open glottis.

The lips and the tongue are very mobile organs. One can close the lips, round them, spread them or just keep them in a neutral position. Similarly, the tip of the tongue is extremely maneuverable and can touch all parts of the mouth from the lips to the front of the soft palate. The tongue can also be raised or kept flat in the mouth.

Classification of sounds:

Speech sounds are classified into two. They are vowels and consonants.

Vowels:
In English there are 12 pure vowels or monophthongs and 8 vowel glides or diphthongs. In the production of these sounds air from the lungs comes out freely with no obstruction.
Daniel Jones defines a vowel as a voiced sound in forming which the air issues in a continuous stream through the pharynx and mouth, there being no obstruction and no narrowing such as would cause audible friction.

A complete list of vowels is as follows:

PHONEMIC SYMBOLS

VOWELS

Pure vowels / Monophthongs:

/ I / - sit / ∂ / - father

/ i: / - seat / 3: / - bird

/ u / - full / e / - bed

/ u: / - fool / æ / - man

/ ^ / - but / / - cot

/ o: / - father / / - call


Diphthongs:

/ aI / - fine / U/ - found

/ ℮I / - pain / ℮∂ / - layer

/ I / - coin / U∂ / - poor

/ υe / - home / I∂ / - fear





CONSONANTS

/ p / - pen / ∫ / - ship

/ b / - back / / - measure

/ t / - tap / / - fan

/ d / - den / v / - van

/ k / - kill / h / - hen

/ d/ - gill / m / - man

/ θ / - thin / n / - net

/ / - then / ŋ / - king

/ t∫ / - chain / l / - leg

/ d / - jam / r / - rain

/ s / - sip / w / - wait

/ z / - zoo / j / - yes









Consonants:
Sounds which are not vowels are called consonants. In their production there is an audible friction or modification at some place in the mouth. Consonants are classified on the basis of
a) The place of articulation
b) The manner of articulation.

The Place of articulation:

Bilabial: articulated by two lips.
Labio-dental: articulated by the lower lip against the upper teeth.
Dental: articulated by the top of the tongue and the back of upper teeth.
Alveolar: articulated by the tip or the blade of the tongue against the teeth bridge.
Palato-alveolar: articulated by raising the body of the tongue and touching the teeth ridge with the blade of it.
Palatal: articulated by the front of the tongue and hard palate.
Velar: articulated by the back of the tongue against the soft palate.
Glottal: articulated in the glottis.


The manner of articulation:

· Plosive/stop: there is a complete closure at some point in the mouth or at the lips. The air stream is stopped and released suddenly making an explosive sound.
· Affricate: The flow of air is stopped as in a plosive, but the speech organs are separated slowly.

· Fricative: The air passage is narrowed at some place in the mouth so that, the air, while escaping causes audible friction.
· Nasal: There is a complete closure at some point in the mouth and the air is released through the nose.
· Lateral: There is a partial closure of the mouth, with the air escaping through the sides of the tongue.
· Semi-Vowel: It is a voiced gliding sound produced like a vowel, i.e., there is no obstruction or friction in the mouth. It has, however, the functional status of a consonant and occurs in consonant positions in syllables.
· Frictionless continuant: It is produced by bringing the speech organs in contact as in the production of a fricative consonant. But it is very weakly breathed so that there is no audible friction.