Welcome

By

Sayeed Anwar
Assistant Professor
Dept. of Humanities
 Phonetics
• The branch of linguistics that deals with the sounds of speech
and their production, transmission, and perception.
• It is concerned with the physical properties of speech sounds
or signs (phones): their physiological production, acoustic
properties, auditory perception, and neurophysiological status.

• Phonetics as a research discipline has three main branches:

• Articulatory phonetics: the articulation of speech
• Acoustic phonetics: the acoustics of speech
• Auditory phonetics: the perception of speech
 Phonology
• Phonology is the study of the patterns of
sounds in a language and across languages.
More formally, phonology is the study of the
categorical organisation of speech sounds in
languages; how speech sounds are organised in
the mind and used to convey meaning.
• Phonologists may look into questions like –
why there is difference in the plurals of cat and
dog; the former ends with an s sound, whereas
the later ends with the z sound.
 Phonetics vs. Phonology

• Phonetics belongs to descriptive linguistics,

and phonology to theoretical linguistics.
• Phonology is concerned with the abstract level
of sounds, whereas phonetics is concerned
with the physical properties of sounds.
• Phonetics is concerned with its phones [ ]
whereas phonology is concerned with the
phonemes / / and its allophones.
• Phonetics is universal, but phonology is
particular; different from language to language.
 Phonetics vs. Phonology

• Phonetics studies the nature of speech sounds

in isolation. [p]

• Phonology studies the ways in which speech

sounds form systems and patterns in context.
/pen/
 IPA
• The International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA) is an
alphabetic system of phonetic notation based
primarily on the Latin alphabet. It was devised by
the International Phonetic Association in the late
19th century as a standardized representation of
the sounds of spoken language.
• A phoneme is a unit of sound that distinguishes
one word from another in a particular language.
• RP Phonemes are represented by /slash/ mark
• Letter vs Sound
• P vs /P/
 IPA Phonemes

• Despite there being just 26 letters in the English

language there are approximately 44 unique sounds,
also known as phonemes.
• The 44 sounds help distinguish one word or meaning
from another.
• The 44 English sounds fall into two categories:
consonants and vowels
• Vowels (Monophthongs and Diphthongs): 20
• Consonants: 24
Phonetics
 Functions of Speech Organs
• Lips: Lips are used to produce bilabial and labiodental
consonants and rounded vowels.
• Teeth: Lower and upper teeth are used to produce
dental and labiodental consonants.
• Tongue: Tongue is moved in different shapes to produce
different sounds.
• Alveolar Ridge: It is an area between upper front teeth
and hard palate. Alveolar consonants are articulated
here.
• Hard palate: Palatal and palato alveolar sounds are
produced here.
 Functions of Speech Organs
• Soft palate: Soft palate or velum is raised or lowered to
allow the lung air to pass it through mouth and nostrils.
Nasal and oral sounds are produced here.
• Pharynx: It is like a tube. Lung air pass through this organ.
It is 8 cm long for a man, 7 cm for a woman.
• Larynx: It is the neck of a person. It contains two cartilages
called the vocal folds. The vocal folds can be kept closed or
put apart. The space between the vocal folds is glottis. The
lung air passing through the glottis is controlled by vocal
folds to produce different speech sounds.
• Nose and jaws are also considered as speech organs.
 Vowels
• A vowel is a syllabic speech sound pronounced
without any stricture in the vocal tract.
• A speech sound which is produced by
comparatively open configuration of the vocal
tract, with vibration of the vocal cords
(voiced), but without audible friction, and
which is a unit of the sound system of a
language that forms the nucleus of a syllable.
 Vowels

Pure Vowels
/iː/
/ɪ/
/e/
/æ/
/ɑː/
/ɒ/
/ɔː/
/ʊ/
/uː/
/ʌ/
 Vowels
/ɜː/
/ə/

Complex vowels
/eɪ/
/ɑɪ/
/ɔɪ/
/ɑʊ/
/əʊ/
/ɪə/
/eə/
/ʊə/
 Pure vowels
Height & part of the tongue, and lips position position
 RP Pure Vowels: Descriptions
/iː/ = he, she, we, sheep
height of tongue: ‘close’ [high] position
part of tongue which is highest: ‘front’
position of lips: spread
long vowel

/ɪ/ = it, did, hit, bit

height of tongue: nearly ‘half close’ [mid high] position
part of tongue which is highest: ‘front’
position of lips: spread
short vowel
 /e/ = met, set, get, let
height of tongue: intermediate between the ‘half close’ and ‘half open’ [mid-high

and mid-low] position

part of tongue which is highest/raised: ‘front’

position of lips: spread

short vowel

/æ/ = cat, sat, bat, fat

height of tongue: intermediate between the ‘half open’ and ‘open’ position

part of tongue which is highest/raised: ‘front’

position of lips: spread

short vowel
 /ɑː/ = car, far, bar
height of tongue: fully ‘open’ [low] position
part of tongue which is highest/raised: ‘back’
position of lips: neutral
long vowel

/ɒ/ = on, hot, pot, lot, box

height of tongue: fully ‘open’ [low] position
part of tongue which is highest/raised: ‘back’
position of lips: rounding
short vowel
 /ɔː/ = or, four, door, talk, walk
height of tongue: between ‘half open’ and ‘open’ [mid low and low] position
part of tongue which is highest/raised: ‘back’
position of lips: rounding
long vowel

/ʊ/ = would, should, could, good, mode

height of tongue: just above ‘half close’ [mid high] position
part of tongue which is highest/raised: ‘back’
position of lips: close lip rounding
short vowel
 /uː/ = food, mood, rude
height of tongue: nearly ‘close’ [high] position
part of tongue which is highest/raised: ‘back’
position of lips: close lip rounding
long vowel

/ʌ/ = but, cut, butter

height of tongue: ‘half open’ [mid low] position
part of tongue which is highest/raised: ‘central’
position of lips: neutral
short vowel
 /ɜː/ = her, were, third
height of tongue: nearly half way between ‘open’ and ‘close’ [low and
high] position
part of tongue which is highest/raised: ‘central’
position of lips: spread /neutral

long vowel

/ə/ = a, an, another, banana

height of tongue: nearly half way between ‘open’ and ‘close’ [low and
high] position
part of tongue which is highest/raised: ‘central’
position of lips: neutral
short vowel
 Complex vowels

• Sounds which consist of a movement or glide

from one vowel to another is called diphthong.
• There are eight diphthongs in English.
• In terms of length they are like long vowel, but the
first part is more longer and stronger than the
second part. /ai/ in the word ‘I’.
• They are two types basically: ‘Centering’ and
‘closing’.
• Centering diphthongs gliding towards /ə/
• Closing diphthongs gliding towards /ɪ/ and /ʊ/
Complex Vowels
• Closing diphthongs gliding towards /ɪ/
/eɪ/ = day, bay, pay, may
The glide starts from a point just below half -close front position
and moves in the direction of RP /ɪ/. The movement of the
tongue is accompanied by a slight closing movement of the
lower jaw. The lips are spread.

/ɑɪ/ = sky, why, high, my

The glide for /ɑɪ/ begins at a point slightly behind the front and
open position and moves in the direction of RP /ɪ/. The
movement of the tongue is accompanied by an appreciable
closing movement of the lower jaw. The lips are neutral position
at the beginning, but gradually change to a spread position.
 /ɔɪ/ = boy, toy, coy, boil
Beginning at a point between the back half-open and open position,
the glide for this vowel moves in the direction of RP /ɪ/. The lips
are open rounded at the beginning, changing to neutral towards
the end.

Closing diphthongs gliding towards /ʊ/ :

/ɑʊ/ = now, how, mouth, south
The glide for /ɑʊ/ begins at a point between the back and front
open position much nearer the back position and moves towards
RP /ʊ/. The jaw movement is extensive. The lips are neutral at
the beginning at the glide, but become rounded at the end.
 /əʊ/ = oh, no, snow, go, show
The glide for /əʊ/ begins at a central position between half-close and
half-open, and moves in the direction of RP /ʊ/. The jaw
movement is very slight. The lips are neutral at the beginning of
the glide, become rounded towards the end.

Centering diphthongs gliding towards /ə/

/ɪə/ = ear, beer, near, here, fear

The glide for /ɪə/ begins at approximately the half-close centralized

front RP /ɪ/ and moves in the direction of opener variety of RP
/ə/. The lips are neutral throughout.
 /eə/ = air, hair, fair, there
The glide for RP /eə/ begins in the front, almost half open
position, and moves in the direction of RP /ə/. The lips are
neutrally open throughout.

/ʊə/ = tour, poor

The glide for /ʊə/ starts from the tongue position of /ʊ/, and
moves the direction of /ə/. The lips are loosely rounded at the
beginning of the glide and neutral at the end.
RP Consonant Phonemes
/P/ = pen, pot, path
/b / = bag, beg, beat
/m/ = mat, meat, miss
/w/ = win, wet, queen
/f / = fit, fish, foot
/v/ = vote, veal
/t/ = time, top, ten
/d/ = dog, day, dear
/l/ = low, long, feel
/n/ = near, note, need
/s/ = sit, seat, song
/z/ = zero, zip, zoo
/ʒ/ = measure, leisure, pleasure
/dʒ/ = jam, jeep, age
/ʃ/ = ship, sheep, shop
/tʃ/ = cheap, chair, chapter
/k/ = key, king, kite
/g/ = get, goat, girl
/ŋ/ = sing, song, singer
/r/ = red, right, road
/h/ = hot, whole, happy
/j/ = yes, yesterday
/θ/ = think, thought, thanks
/ð/ = the, this, that, there
 Consonant sounds

• A consonant is a speech sound that is articulated

with complete or partial closure of the vocal
tract.
• Can be voiced and voiceless
• Voicing refers to the activity of the vocal folds.
When the vocal folds wide apart, are said to be
voiceless. And when they are closely together
and vibrating, are said to be voiced.
• Can’t construct syllable alone
• Can be classified according to place, manner, and
voicing.
Phonetics
 Places of Articulation
• The place of articulation refers to ‘the point in the
vocal tract where the speech organs restrict the
passage of air in some way so producing
distinctive speech sounds’ (Finch, 1999).
Consonants according to the place of articulation:
• Bilabial: To produce bilabial consonants (/p, b, m,
w/) two lips functions as the primary articulator.
They first make contact to block the lung air and
then go apart to release it.
 Places of Articulation
• Labio-dental: To articulate labio-dental
consonants (/f, v/) the lower lip makes contact
with the upper front teeth.
• Dental/Inter-dental: To produce the inter-dental
consonants (/θ, ð/) the tongue tip is slightly
pushed between the lower and upper front teeth.
• Alveolar: The blade, or tip and blade of the
tongue articulates with the upper alveolar ridge
to produce alveolar consonants (/t, d, l, n, s, z/).
 Places of Articulation
• Post-alveolar: The tip of the tongue articulates with the back part
of the upper alveolar ridge to produce post-alveolar consonant
/r/.
• Palato-alveolar: To produce palato-alveolar consonants (/ʃ, ʒ, tʃ,
dʒ /), the blade or tip and blade of the tongue articulates with the
alveolar ridge and there is at the same time a rising of the front of
the tongue towards the hard palate.
• Palatal: The front of the tongue articulates with the hard palate to
produce palatal consonant /j/.
• Velar: To articulate the velar consonants (/k, g, ŋ/), the back of the
tongue contacts with the soft palate.
• Glottal: To produce the glottal consonant /h/, there is an
obstruction or narrowing causing friction but not vibration
between the vocal folds.
 Manner/nature of articulation
• Plosive/stop: formed by complete closure of the air
passage during an appreciable time; the air is compressed
by the action of lungs and on release of the closure issues
suddenly, making an explosive sound or plosion. /p, b, t, d,
k, g/
• Fricative: formed by narrowing the air passage to such an
extent that the air in escaping produces audible friction
( some kind of hissing sound). /f, v, θ, ð, s, z, ʒ, ʃ, h /
• Affricate: formed as plosive consonants, but with slower
separation of the articulating organs, so that the
corresponding fricative is audible as the separation takes
place. /dʒ, tʃ/
 Manner/nature of articulation
• Nasal: formed by a complete closure in the
mouth, the soft palate being lowered so that
the air is free to pass out through the
nose. /m, n, ŋ/

• Lateral: formed by placing an obstacle in the

centre of the air channel, but leaving a free
passage for the air on one or both sides of the
obstacle. /l/
 Manner/nature of articulation
• Frictionless continuant: made with the
organic position of a fricative consonant, but
pronounced with weak breath force so that no
friction is heard. /r/
• Semi- vowel/Glide: a voiced gliding sound in
which the speech organs start by producing a
weakly articulated vowel of comparatively
small inherent sonority and immediately
change to another sound of equal or greater
prominence. /j, w/
 Consonant Chart

Place Bilabial Labio- Dental Alveolar Post Alveo- Palatal Velar Glottal
dental Alveolar Palatal
Plosive - P t k

+ b d g

Fricative - f θ s ʃ h

+ v ð z ʒ

Affricate - tʃ

+ dʒ

Nasal + m n ŋ

Lateral + l

Frictionless + r

Glide + w j
 Stress & Syllable

Unstress
Stress
• Primary stress – upper vertical line
/ˈɒn.ɪst/
• Secondary stress- lower vertical line
/ˌjuː.nɪˈvɜː.sɪ.ti/
IPA to Word Transcription
/ˈen.i.θɪŋ/
/ˈdʒæn.jʊ ə .ri/
/ˌjuː.nɪˈvɜː.sɪ.ti/
/ˈɒn.ɪst/
/ˈfoʊniːm/
Word to IPA Transcription

Language
Department
Engineer
/ˈlæŋ.gwɪdʒ/

/dɪˈpɑːt.mənt/

/ˌen.dʒɪˈnɪə r /
 Transcription
/ədˌmɪn.ɪˈstreɪ.ʃn/
/prəˈdʌk.ʃ ə n/ /əkˈnɒl.ɪdʒ/
/ˈen.i.θɪŋ/
/ˈɑː.kɪ.tek.tʃə r /
/kwə ʊ ˈteɪ.ʃ n/
/ˈprɑː.dʒekt/
 Allophones
• A phoneme (/ˈfoʊniːm/) is a unit of sound that
distinguishes one word from another in a particular
language.
• For example, in most dialects of English, the sound
patterns /sɪn/ (sin) and /sɪŋ/ (sing) are two separate
words that are distinguished by the substitution of one
phoneme, /n/, for another phoneme, /ŋ/.
• On the other hand, /pʊʃ/ represents a sequence of
three phonemes, /p/, /ʊ/, /ʃ/ (the word push in
Standard English), and [pʰʊʃ] represents the phonetic
sequence of sounds [pʰ] (aspirated p), [ʊ], [ʃ] (the
usual pronunciation of push).
 Allophones

• These different sounds are considered to

belong to the same phoneme, because if a
speaker used one instead of the other, the
meaning of the word would not change but
the word would still be recognized.
• The above shows that in English, [P] and [Pʰ]
are allophones of a single phoneme /P/.
???