THE SOUND OF ENGLISH

THE SOUNDS OF GENERAL AMERICAN ENGLISH ARE CLASSIFIED INTO 3 NAMELY:

1.VOWELS

2.DIPHTHONGS

3.CONSONANTS

TRIVIA!

There are eleven (11) English vowels, (3) three diphthongs and twenty-five (25) consonants.

Vowels are sounds which are produced with the vibration of air in the oral cavity. All vowel sounds, then are voiced oral sounds.

THE VICTOR TRIANGLE

The purpose of this vowel triangle is to show the differences among the vowel sounds in English and their relative positions on the tongue.

/iy/-- beat me key seed chief

/i/--- sit give rid pick live

/ey/--- ate ray face weigh great

/e/--- met let headless tell

/ae/--- cat am bag landclass

/a/--- pot block got cop

/ow/--- hope go wrote home

/u/--- look good would bush

/uw/--- blue moon rulechew

/ /--- luck must touch cup

SUMMARY: I. FRONT VOWELS

Phonetic Symbols Key Words Transcription

/i/ beat /bit/

/I/ bit /bIt/

/e/ bait /bet/

/ε/ bet /bεt/

/ae/ bat /baet/

/a/ bask /bask/

II. Mid-VowelsPhonetic Symbols Key Words

Transcription

/з/ birth /bзrθ/

/∂/ (schwa) above /∂b^v/

/^/ but /b^t/

It should be noted that some phoneticians use any one mid-vowel sound, in the presentation of the English vowels. This is so because the two other mid-vowels, /з/ and /^/, hardly show the difference when produced.

III. BACK VOWELSPhonetic Symbols Key Words

Transcription

/u/ boot / but /

/Ʊ/ book / bƱK /

/o/ boat / bot /

/ɔ/ ball / b ɔl /

/ɒ/ box / bɒks/

/ ɑ / bɑlm / bɑm/

DIPHTHONGS

DIPHTHONGS

•Sounds which combine two (2) vowel sounds and which blend them into one within a syllable

EXAMPLE: LIGHT

The vowel sound in the word is a diphthong. It starts with the position /a/ and moves smoothly on to the /i/ position within one syllable.

ENGLISH DIPHTHONGSExamples:

/ai/ /au/

time point now

might oil bough

height toy blouse

rhyme annoy plow

pie hoist howl

fried joy townDiphthongs tend to be long because of the time need to glide forward to another position.

THE ENGLISH

CONSONANTS

CONSONANT•Speech sound used with a vowel or diphthong to constitute a syllable. Consonant sounds are those sounds which are produced with the partial or complete obstruction of air column by some parts of the speech apparatus.

3 DIMENSION OF VARIATION IN THE PRODUCTION OF SOUND:

A.Voicing

Consonants may be voiced or voiceless.

Voiced sounds- pronounced with vibration of the vocal cords

Voiceless- pronounced w/o vibration of the vocal cords

VOICELESS

p pen

tten

k cod

f fine

th thigh

s sue

sh mission

ch chew

h hot

VOICED

b Ben n neck

d den ng bring

g God v vine

l let dh thy

r right y you

z zoo w water

zh mission hw what

j Jew m men

NATURE OF OBSTRUCTION OR MANNER OF ARTICULATION

CONSONANTS MAY BE CLASSIFIED INTO THE FF:

1.STOPS- are consonants sounds produced by stopping the passage of the breath stream with the build up of pressure behind the closure before releasing the breath.

bilabial stops- /p/ & /b/

alveolar stops- /t/ & /d/

velar stops- /k/ & /g/

FRICATIVES

• are continuants produced when the air stream is not completely stopped but passes through with friction or hissing sound

FRICATIVES

Labiodental fricatives /f/ & /v/

Dental fricatives /θ & / ð/

alveolar fricatives /s/ & /z/

post alveolar fricatives /r/

palatal fricatives /∫/ & /dz/

glottal /h/

AFFRICATES

•Are produced when a stop combines with a fricative. Like the fricatives, they are also continuants.

Alveolar affricates-- / t∫/ & /dz/

NASALS

•are produced with the air stream passing through the nose rather than the mouth.

bilabial nasal- /m/

alveolar nasal- /n/

velar nasal- /ŋ/

SEMI-VOWELS•in their production, there is lack of friction and the sounds are vowel-like in their voicing but they function as consonants.

bilabial- /w/ as in wear, win

/wh/ as in why

palatal- /y/ as in new, view

POINTS OF ARTICULATION

•This refers to the upper parts of the mouth which the lower parts, called the articulators, come in contact with in the production of the consonant sound. As regards their point of articulation, consonants may be:

1. bilabial-when the lower lip touches the upper lip to produce the consonant sound. /p/, /b/, /m/, & /w/ are bilabials.

2. LABIO-DENTAL

•When the lower lip comes in contact with the upper front teeth. /f/ & /v/ are labio-dentals.

DENTAL

•When the lower teeth approach the upper teeth. /θ/ & /ð/ are dentals.

ALVEOLAR

•When the tip of the tongue is raised close to the toothridge or the back of the upper front teeth. /t/ and /d/ are examples of alveolars.

POST-ALVEOLAR

When the tip of the tongue is articulated against the back part of the alveolar ridge as in /r/.

PALATAL

•When the tongue is arched towards the hard palate like the consonants / ∫ /.

VELARS

•When the back of the tongue closes against the velum or soft palate as when we say /k/.

GLOTTAL

•When friction is produced by the air passing through the glottis as in /h/.

THE ENGLISH CONSONANT

ACCORDING TO VOICING, CONSONANTS MAY BE:

•Voiced- when produced with vibration of the vocal cords

•Voiceless- when produced without the vibration of the vocal cords.

ACCORDING TO THE MANNER OF ARTICULATION

CONSONANTS MAY BE CALLED:

STOPS- WHEN PRODUCED WITH COMPLETE OBSTRUCTION OF THE AIR PASSAGE,

FRICATIVES- WHEN PRODUCED WITH PARTIAL OBSTRUCTION,

AFFRICATES- WHEN A STOP AND FRICATIVE COMBINE,

NASALS- WHEN VIBRATED THROUGH THE NOSE,

LATERAL- WHEN AIR PASSES ALONG THE SIDES OF THE TONGUE IN ITS PRODUCTION, AND

SEMI-VOWELS- WHEN THERE IS LACK OF FRICTION AND ARE VOWEL-LIKE IN VOICING.

POINT OF ARTICULATIONBILABIAL – UPPER AND LOWER LIPS

LABIO-DENTAL – UPPER TEETH AND LOWER LIP

DENTAL – UPPER AND LOWER TEETH WITH TONGUE BETWEEN

ALVEOLAR – ALVEOLAR RIDGE AND TIP OF THE TONGUE

POST-ALVEOLAR – TIP OF THE TONGUE AND PALATE

PALATAL – TONGUE AND PALATE

VELAR - BACK OF TONGUE AND VELUM

GLOTTAL - GLOTTIS

ACTIVITY: READ THE FF. WORDS OBSERVING THE CORRECT ARTICULATION OF THE CONSONANT SOUNDS INDICATED IN THE BRACKETS:•STOPS

/p/ - power, prayer, priest, pen, pearl, paint, please

/t/ - tank, teacher, time, tree, table, talent, true

/k/ - key, cat, king, cause, cup, care, kind

/b/ - bread, bank, bridge, bright, but, bike, brother

/d/ - day, dance, drama, dew, dawn, drum, dream

/g/ - gun, grace, go, gold, gas, guide, grow

NASALS/m/ - mind, music, merry, moon, milk, mirror,

mother

/n/ - nice, name, neighbor, night, nun, new, known

/ng/ - rank, ring, sing, sink, prank, bring, blink

FRICATIVES/f/ - friend, farm, free, fruit, phone, leaf

/v/ - vow, vine, view, vein, drive, victory

/θ/ - think, thank, mouth, truth, month

/ð/ - there, that, though, then, them

FRICATIVES/s/ - soul, sea, sound, sung, silver

/z/ - zip, zest, zoom, zero, size

/∫/ - shine, ocean, fish, nation, sugar

/zh/ - Asia, pleasure, leisure, measure

PRONOUNCE THE FF. PAIRS OF WORDS & PHRASES CORRECTLY. TRANSCRIBE IT IN IPA.

/ i / - / I /

heat / / hit / / leap / / lip / /

least / / list / / steal / / still / /

feet / / fit / / feel / / fill / /

peal / / pill / / cheap / / chip / /

PHRASES

•leap with ease sheep in the ship

•Reach the rich feel and fill the jar

•Sit in the seat live but never leave

•Beat or bit peel that thing

•TRANSCRIBE THE WORDS/PHRASES IN THE PREVIOUS SLIDE.