Phonetics: The Sounds of Language

Chapter 3
The Sounds of Language

English is not spelled how it sounds
 Heard looks like Beard but sounds like Bird
 Dead looks like Bead but sounds like Bed
 Meat looks like Great but sounds like Sweet
 Moth looks like Mother but sounds like Cloth
 Dear looks like Pear but sounds like Beer

Phonetics
 The general study of the characteristics
of speech sounds
 This includes whether sounds are voiced
or voiceless sounds as well as their
manner and place of articulation
 The International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA)
is used to help accurately describe sounds

Phone
The basic unit of phonetics is
called a phone.
Any human speech
sound is a phone.
Phones are often expressed
by placing brackets around
an IPA transcription (ex: [dæns]
for the American pronunciation of dance).

Phonology
The study of systems and patterns of
speech sounds in languages
The basic unit in phonology is the
phoneme, which is any sound in language
that distinguishes meaning (ex: in rat and
mat, /r/ and /m/ are the phonemes which
change the meanings of the words)
Phonemes are often expressed by placing
slashes around the IPA transcription: /b/

Phone Phoneme
 Any possible
human speech
sound in any
language
 The smallest
identifiable unit in
speech
 Transcribed within
brackets [b] [o]
 A contrastive unit
in the sound
system of a
specific language
 A minimal unit that
serves to
distinguish
between word
meanings
 Transcribed within
slashes /b/ /o/

 universal system to transcribe the
sounds of speech
 used since 1888
 represents each sound with a single
symbol
 symbols are enclosed in square
brackets [ ]
 enables linguists to transcribe
languages accurately
IPA: International Phonetic Alphabet

Transcribe SOUNDS, not letters!
Annie
How many letters?
How many sounds?
[ æ n i ]
The complete IPA is available as a word file
on our class website.

IPA
SYMBOL
WORD
EXAMPLE
IPA
TRANSCRIPTION
[i] fee [ f i ]
[I] fit [ f I t ]
[ej] fate [ f ej t]
[ɛ] let [ l ɛ t ]
[æ] bat [ b æ t ]
[u] boot [ b u t ]
[ʊ] book [ b ʊ k ]

IPA
SYMBOL
WORD
EXAMPLE
IPA
TRANSCRIPTION
[ p ] spit [ s p I t ]
[ b ] bib [ b I b]
[ t ] stuck [ s t ʌ k]
[ d ] dip [ d I p ]
[ k ] skip [ s k I p ]
[ g ] get [ g ɛ t ]

IPA
SYMBOL
WORD
EXAMPLE
IPA
TRANSCRIPTION
[ θ ] theta thick [ θ I k ]
[ ð ] eth though [ ð o w ]
[ə] schwa the [ð ə]
[ ɾ ] flap hitting [h I ɾ I ŋ]
[ ŋ ] sang [ s æ ŋ ]
[ t ʃ ] chip [ tʃ I p]
[ dʒ ] judge [dʒ ʌ dʒ]

Production of Speech Sounds
 Manner of articulation – HOW
the sound is produced
 Point of articulation - WHERE
the sound is produced
 Voiced or Voiceless - Whether
they make the vocal cords vibrate
or not

Vowels vs. Consonants
 Vowels: produced by letting air flow
through the vocal tract without any (or
with little) obstruction
◦ Vowel sounds are always voiced
 Consonants: production involves
closure or some sort of obstruction of
the air flow in the vocal tract
◦ Consonants can be either voiced or
voiceless

Voiced vs. Voiceless Sounds
Vocal cords spread apart, air passes
unimpeded. These sounds are called
VOICELESS.
Ex: /k/ /f/ /t/
Vocal cords draw together, air pushes
them apart to pass through, creating a
vibration. These sounds are called
VOICED.
Ex: /g/ /v/ /d/

Misunderstandings
http://youtu.be/e8e6ygYaoB0
Why was there a misunderstanding?
She said: “Thanks, Phil.”
He heard: “Thanks, feel.”

Misunderstandings
 Target sound /I/, as in “Phil”
 Produced by speaker as /i/, as in “feel”
NOTE: These sounds are troublesome for
speakers of languages that don’t have both
/i/ and /I/ sounds.
Think what would happen if someone
mispronounces “beach” or “sheet.”

Bilabials
Sounds involving
both lips
[b], [p], [m], [w]
boy, people,
man, wet

Labiodentals
Sounds made
using the lower lip
and upper teeth
[v], [f]
velvet, fence

Dentals/Interdentals
Made by placing
the tongue against
or between the
teeth
teeth, bath, this
loathe, bathe

Alveolars
Made by using the
tongue and the
alveolar ridge
[t], [d], [s], [z],
[n], [l], [r]
top, deer, soap, zip,
nap, lap, right

Palatals
Made when the center
of the tongue
approaches the palate.
Voiceless sounds: chip,
chocolate or ship and
shoe
Voiced sounds: rouge,
judge, and George
The [j] sound,
pronounced you or yet
is called a palatal glide

Velars
Made when the back
of the tongue touches
the velum.
[k] sound as in kid
[g] sound as in go
Also, the ~ng sound:
rolling, sung,

Manner of Articulation
 How a sound is made
 Important for explaining how to make
sounds
 For example, [d] and [z] are made in the
same place of articulation, the alveolar
ridge, but they have different manners of
articulation.

Stops
[p] [b] [t] [d] [k] [g]
 Also called ‘plosives’
 Produced by a form of brief stopping of
the airstream
 For instance the [t] in ten, and the [b]
and [d] in bed

Fricatives
[f] [v] [θ] [ð][s] [z] [ʃ] [ʒ][h]
 Produced by almost blocking the
airstream (air pushes through a very
narrow opening)
 Fish begins and ends with fricatives [f]
and [ʃ]
 Those begins and ends with fricatives
[ð ] and [z]

Affricates
[tʃ] [dʒ]
 Produced by a combination of a brief
stopping of airstream with an
obstructed release, causing some
friction
 cheap and jeep have affricate
sounds [tʃ] and [dʒ]

Nasals
[m] [n] [ŋ]
 Produced when the vellum is
lowered and the airstream is
allowed to flow out through the
nose
 morning, knitting and name
begin and end with nasals

Liquids
[l] [ɹ]
 The [l] sound as in led is formed by letting
the airstream flow around the sides of the
tongue as the tip of the tongue makes
contact with the middle of the alveolar ridge.
 The [ɹ] sound as in red is formed with the tip
of the tongue raised and curled back near
the alveolar ridge.

Glides
[w] [j] [h]
 Produced with the tongue in motion or
‘gliding’ to or from the position of a
vowel
 They are sometimes called semi-
vowels or approximants
 We, wet, you, yes, hi and hello

Glottal Stop and the Flap
Glottal stop: [ʔ]
 Produced when the space between the
vocal cords (glottis) is closed
completely (very briefly) and then
released
 Uh oh! [ʌ ʔ ow]
The flap: [ɾ]
 Butter or Manhattan

Vowels: Front vowels
[i] = feed
[ɪ] = fit
[eɪ] = fade
[ɛ] = fed
[æ] = fad

Vowels: Central vowels
[ə] = above
◦ “schwa” (used in unstressed syllables)
[ʌ] = above
◦ (used in stressed syllables)
IPA Transcription of above [əbʌv]

Vowels: Back vowels
[u] = food
[ʊ] = foot
[ɔ] = fought
[ɑ] = frog

Vowels: Diphthongs
 a sound made by combining two
vowels, when the sound starts as
one vowel sound and ends as
another
[aɪ] = fight
[aʊ] = foul
[eɪ] = fate
[oʊ] = foe
[ɔɪ] = foil

Minimal Pairs
The words Phil and feel are a minimal
pair. What do you think a minimal pair
is?
“When two words are identical in
phonetical form except for a contrast in
one phoneme, occurring in the same
position, the two words are described
as a minimal pair.” (Yule 1985)

Can you think of more examples?
/i/ /I/
Feel Phil

Accent vs. Dialect
 Do you have an accent?
 What is the difference between an
accent and a dialect?
 Accent: Manner of pronunciation,
typically associated with a particular
nation, locality, or social class.
 Dialect: Manner of speech which differs
in structure, grammar, pronunciation,
and vocabulary
 Different dialects are mutually
comprehensible.; different languages are
not.
http://youtu.be/3UgpfSp2t6k

American Dialects
http://spark.rstudio.com/jkatz/DialectQuizFull/

Phonetics: The Sounds of Language

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