Classification of English vowels

Vowel sounds are classified according to: the position of the tongue in the mouth, the openness of the mouth, the shape of the lips, and the length of the vowels.

1) the position of the tongue in the mouth Front vowels are the ones in the production of which the front part of the tongue is raised the highest such as [i:] [i] [e] [æ] [a].

When the central part of the tongue maintains its highest position, the vowels thus produced are central vowels such as [3:] [Ə] and [] . If the back of the tongue is held the highest, the vowels thus produced are back vowels such as [u:][u]

2)the openness of the mouth

close vowels: [i:] [i] [u:] and [u]; semi-close vowels: [e] and [3;] semi-open vowels: [ə] and [Չ:] open vowels: [æ] [a] [] [Չ ] and [:].

3) the shape of the lips rounded vowels: All the back vowels in English are rounded except [ɑ:]. unrounded vowels: All the front vowels and central vowels in English are unrounded.

4)the length of vowels long vowels: They are usually marked with a colon such as[i:] and [ɑ:] short vowels: other vowels in English are short vowels such as [e],[ə] and [æ].

Give the following phonetic symbols:

Voiced palatal affricate

Voiceless labiodental fricative

Voiced alveolar stop

Front close short

Voiced bilabial stop

Give the phonetic features of each of the following sounds

[s]

[z]

[k]

Assimilation rules:

Word-final alveolars become dental before dental fricatives;

not thin ten thumps well thought

Bilabial and alveolar nasals /m, n/ become labio-dental before labio-dental fricatives;

ten forks come for me

Word-final labio-dental fricatives may become bilabial before bilabial plosives;

live bird v ß

Word-final /l/ is non-velarised if followed by an initial vowel;

fill it

Word-final /t/ become bilabial before bilabial consonants /p, b,m/;

that pen /..p pen/ that boy/..p b../ that man /..p m../

Word-final /d/ become voiced bilabial before bilabial consonants /p, b,m/; good pen /gub pen/

Word-final /t,d/ become velar before velar plosives;

that cup /..k k..

that girl /..k g../

good cup /gug k../

Word-final /n/ becomes bilabial before bilabial consonants;

ten pens

ten boys

ten men

Word-final /n/ becomes velar before velar plosives/k, g/:

Ten cups

ten girls

Word-final /s,z/ become palato-alveolar before palato-alveolar fricatives and the palatal frictionless continuant/; This ship This year has she those young men

Word-final /t,d,s,z/ become palato-alveolar affricates (/t,d/) or fricatives(/s,z/) before /j/ and /j/disappears;

Would you

What you want

As yet

In case you need it

Word-final /d/ becomes a nasal before a nasal, at the place of articulation of the nasal;

Word-final /v/ becomes a nasal before a nasal;

Word-final lenis fricatives become fortis before an initial fortis consonant;

Phonology and phonetics

Phonetics is general, classificatory and descriptive

Phonology aims to discover how speech sounds in a language form patterns and how these sounds are used to convey meaning in linguistic communication.

Phone, phoneme, and allophone

A phone is a phonetic unit or segment. The speech sounds we hear and produce during linguistic communication are all phones.

It does not necessarily distinguish meaning; some do, some don’t. For example, in the words feel[fi: ], ł leaf[li:f], tar[tha:], star[sta:],there are altogether 7 phones: [f],[i:],[ ], [l], [tł h]. [t], [a:], but [ ] and[l] do not distinguish meaning, ł[th] and [t] do not distinguish meaning as well.

A phoneme is a phonological unit. It is a unit of distinctive value. It is an abstract unit. It is not any particular sound, but rather it is represented or realized by a certain phone in a certain phonetic context

Different phones that represent a phoneme are allophones.

Phonemic contrast:

If two phonetically similar sounds are distinctive phonemes, they are said to form a phonemic contrast.

/p/and /b/ in pit and bit

/k/and /g/ in kill and gill

If two phonetically similar sounds are allophones of the same phoneme, they do not distinguish meaning, and they occur in different phonetic environments, they are said to be in complementary distribution.

When two different forms are identical in every way except for one sound segment which occurs in the same place in the strings, the two sound combinations are said to form a minimal pair.

Pill/bill till/kill pit/bit

Sequential rules in phonology

Rules that govern the combination of sounds in a particular language are called sequential rules.

S

M N

D θ T K P F B G

W R L

1. The first phoneme must be / s /. 2. The second phoneme must be / p / or / t / or / k /. 3. The third phoneme must be / 1 / or / r / or / w /.

Suprasegmental features 超音位特征

见 p.28

Stress: word stress and sentence stress

The location of stress distinguish meaning in English. A shift of stress may change part of speech of a word.

Import

Increase

Progress

Insult

Rebel

Permit

Stress can distinguish a compound from a free phrase.

White elephant

Red tape

Green house

See page 29

Sentence stress refers to the relative force which is given to the words in a sentence. Some words are more important than other words, and the more important words are pronounced with greater force and made more prominent.

I didn’t walk with Mary to the library at 7 yesterday.

Tones:

ˋNo ( a matter-of-fact statement)

ˊNo (questioning)

ˇNo(doubtful but encouraging )

ˆNo (indignant; emphatic prohibition

and scolding)