speech sound is cut up into segments according to the way the

soud is produced. One basic classification is the distinction

between vowels and consonants. Voels are those segments of
speech produced without any interruption or stoppage of the
airstream e.g. [i], [u]. Passage of air is continuous and
frictionless. Consonants, on the other hand, are segmens marked
by interruption of the airstream. When the interruption is
incomplete and accomponied by friction, a fricative is produced
as in [s] and[v]. The interruption may be in the form of various
kinds of trills as in Scottish [r]. All vowels are produced with
vibration of vocal cord, but cononants may be produced with or
without such vibration.

C. Classification of Vowels
1. Monophtongs
A vowel is characterized by the following variables:
a. Which part of the tongue is raised? When the front of the
tongue is raised the vowels so produced are called front
vowels, such as in [i:] [I], [e] and [ɶ]. The center vowels
include [ə] and [ə:]. The back vowels include [u:], [U], [a:],
[o]. What is called a centro - back vowel?
b. How high is (the part) of the tongue? A vowel in which the
tongue is raised very highly in the mouth, it is called a close
vowel, such as [i:], and [u:]. Find other vowels and try to
characterize according the height of the tongue being raised.
c. The position of the two lips. When the lips are rounded
(+rounded), the vowels are called (+rounded) vowels;

40
 likewise, the lips are unrounded (-rounded), the vowels are
called (-rounded) vowels. Find and classify them.
It should be remembered that phonetics studies speech
sounds as sounds. Thus, it does not touch the function of each
sound as a distinctive feature in a language. As a linguist, it is
necessary to study phonology apart from phonetics.
Phonology is the study of speech sounds with regard to their
functions as distinctive features (the sound patterns of a
language).

d. Tongue Position
Tongue position is described using two criteria: the
height (how high is the tongue) and the part of the tongue
involved in the production of the sound.
In English the tongue may either be high, i.e, when the
speaker produce e.g. [i: ,u: ] in [bi:t, bu:t] beat, boot.
Intermediate, e.g. [e, ɔ:] in [bet, bɔ: t] bet, bought, or low.
e.g [æ, a:], [bæt], [ba: t], bat, bart.
Depending on the language we can have several
intermediate tongue heights. English has three heights: high,
middle, low. Whereas French has two intermediate tongue
heights with a total of four tongue heights: high, mid high,
mid low, and low.
The part of the tongue involved in the production of a
vowel can also be illustrated with the examples above. If you
say [i:] and then [u:] just after it, you almost have the feeling
that you are moving your tongue backwards. This is because
[i:] is a front vowel, and [u:] is a back vowel, or in other

41
 words, the heights point in the pronunciation of [i:] is the
front of the tongue, whereas the heights point in [u:] is the
back of the tongue. For example [ɛ] is front and [ɔ:] is back,
and [æ] front [a:] back. There are also vowels in between
front and back, called central, namely [ɜ: , ə, ʌ] as in [w ɜ:d, f
ɔ:w əd, mʌd] word, forward, mud. [ɜ:] for instance is between
[e] and [ɔ:], as can be seen from [bed, bɜ: d], bed, bird, board.
To give an accurate account of tongue position one has
to combine height of the tongue and part of the tongue
involved.

Figure 5: tongue position of vowels

The diagram below is conventionalized as primary
cardinal vowels:

Diagram of primary cardinal vowels (Source: Peter Rouch (1998: 23)

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2. Diphtongs
So far we have been considering vowels that were
constant, i.e. vowels that were pronounced at one and the same
place. Such vowels are called monophtongs and English has 12
of them.
English also has 8 diphtongs, which are vowels that
change character during their pronounciation, that is they begin at
one place and move forwards another place. Compare for
example of monophtong in car with the diphtong in cow, or the
monophtong in girl with the diphtong in goal. The vowels of cow
and goal both begin at a given place and glide towards another
one. In goal the vowel begin as if it was [ə], but then it moves
towards [U]. Therefore it is written [əU], as in [gəUl] goal, with
two symbols, one for how it starts and one for how it ends.
The easiest way to remember them is in term of three
groups composed as follow:

Figure 6 Table of diphtongs

Note: some pelple speak of triphtongs for group of diphtongs +
schwa.

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 3. Triphtongs
Most complex English sounds of the vowel type are the
triphtongs. They can be rather difficult to pronounce, and very
difficult to thongs. A triphtong sis a glide from one vowel to
another and then to a thrid, all produced rapidly and without
interuption. For example, a careful pronounciation of the word
‗hour‘ bigin with a vowel qualitysimilar a:, goes on to glide
towards the back close rounded area (for which we use the sybol
tʒ, then ends with a mid-central vowel (schwa, θ). We use
the symbols ɑʊə to represent tyhe way we pronounce ‗hour‘, but
this is not always an accurate representation of the
pronounciation.

D. Classification of Consonants
The consonants are characterized on the basis of (1) the place
of articulation and (2) the manner of articulation (3) the activity of
the vocal cords and (4) the place through which the out-going air
escapes.

1. Place of Articulation
A consonant may be:
Bilabial sounds are produce when the lips
are brought together, such as in [p], [b],
[m], [ n ] and [w]. For example: bay, may

44
Labio-dental sounds are made when the
lower lip touches the upper teeth such as in
[f] and [v]. For example: [f] safe
(voiceless) and [v] save (voiced)

Dental (apico-dental) sounds are produced

when the tip of the tongue touches the
upper teeth, such as in [θ] oath (voiceless)
and [ð] clothe (voiced).

Alveolar sounds are made up by rising the

tip of the tongue towards the ridge that is
right behind the upper front teeth, called the
aveolar ridge. Examples are [t,s] too, sue,
both voiceless, and [d,z, n, I, r] do, zoo,
nook, rook, all voiced.

Palatal sounds are very similar to palatal

alveolar ones, they are just produce further
back towards the velum. The only palatal
sound in English is [j] as in yes, yellow,
beauty, new and it is voiced.

Palatal Alveolar sounds are made by the

blade of tongue toward the part of the
palate just behind the alveolar ridge.
Examples are [ʃ, tʃ] pressure, batch
(voiceless) and [ʒ, d ʒ] pleasure, badge
(voiced)

45
 Velar sounds are made by rising the back of
the tongue toward the soft palate, called
velum. Examples are [k] back, voiced, and
[g, ŋ] both voiced, bag, bang. [w] is a velar
which is accompanied with lip rounding.

Glottal sounds are produced when the air is

passed through the glottis as it is narrowed:
[h][ as in high. (Figure 14 in Roach, 1983:
25)

2. Manner of articulation
A consonant may be:
a. Plosives or stops
Plosive are sounds in which there is a complete closure
in the mouth, so that the air is blocked for a fraction of a
second and then released with small burst of sound, called a
plosion (it sounds like a very small explosion). Plosives may
be bilabial [p,b] park, bark alveolar [t,d] tar, dark or velar
[k.g] car, guard. There is fourth kind of plosive, the glottal
stop. The word football can be pronounced without
interruption in the middle ass in [f ʋtbɔ:l].
In English a voiceless plosive that occur at the
beginning of word and is followed by a vowel, is rather
special in the sense that at the release one can hear a slight
puff of air (called aspiration) before the vowel is articulated.
Hence in ―pen ‖we hear [phen]. These aspirated voiceless

46
 plosives from the point of view of how they function in the
sound system. This difference, which can be clearly heard, is
said to be phonetic.
b. Fricatives
Fricative have a closure which is not quite complete.
This means that the air is not blocked at any point, and
therefore there is no plosive. On the other hand the
obstruction is big enough for the air to make a noise when it
passes through it, because of the friction. This effect is similar
to the wind whistling around the corner of house. Fricatives
may be labio-dental [f,v] wife, wives, dental [θ,ð], breath,
breathe, alveolar [s,z] sink, zinc, palate-alveolar anywhere
else, and as all air passes between the vocal folds, this means
that [h] is 5like aspiration unaccompanied by any obstruction.
A distinction may be made between sibilant and
non-sibilant fricatives. Sibilant sounds are te fricatives with a
clear ―hissing‖ noise, [s,z, ʃ, ʒ] and the two affricates [t ʃ, d
ʒ], choke, joke.
c. Affricates
Affricates are a combination of a plosive and fricative
(sometimes they are called ―affricated plosives‖). They begin
like a plosive, with a complete closure, but instead of a
plosive, they have a very slow release, moving backward to a
place where a friction can be heard (palate alveolar). The two
English affricates are both a palate alveolar, [tʃ] which is
voiceless, chin, rich and [d ʒ] which is voiced, gin, ridge. The
way an affricative resembles a plosive followed by a fricative

47
 is mirrored in the symbols. Both consist of a plosive symbol
followed by a fricative one: [t + ʃ], [d + ʒ].
d. Nasals
Nasals resemble plosives, expect that there is a
complete closure in the mouth, but as the velum is lowered
the air can escape through the nasal cavity. Though most
sounds are produced with the velum raised, the normal
position for the velum is lowered, as this is the position for
breathing (your velum is probably lowered right now when
your are reading this). The three English nasals are all voiced,
and [m] is bilabial, ram [n] is alveolar, ran, and [ŋ] velar,
rang. In the section on places, the dotted line on the pictures
of bilabial, alveolar, and velar articulations illustrate the three
nasals.
e. Laterals
Laterals are sounds where the air escape around the sides of
the tongue. There is only one lateral I English, [I], a voiced
alveolar lateral. It occurs in two versions. The so called ―clear
I‖ before vowels, light, long, and the ―dark I‖ I other cases,
milk, ball. Words like little, lateral, have one each of each
type. ―dark I‖ it is the back of the tongue which is raised.
Here again, as with aspirated and un-aspirated voiceless
plosives, even tough ―clear I‖ and ―dark I‖ are phonetically
different, they cannot be said to be different sounds from the
point of view of how they function in the sound system. If
you produce a ―dark I‖ where usually you have a ―clear I‖, for
example at the beginning of the word long. Your

48
 pronunciation will sound odd but nobody will understand a
different word.
f. Approximants
Approximant are sounds where the tongue only
approaches the roof of the mouth, so that there is a not enough
obstruction to create any friction. English has three
approximants, which are all voiced. [r] is alveolar, right,
brown, sometimes called post-alveolar, because it is slightly
further back that the other alveolar sounds [t, d, s, I]. [j] is a
palatal approximant, use, youth and [w] is a velar
approximant, why, twin, square. [w] always has lip-rounding
as well, and therefore it is sometimes called labio –velar.
[r] only occur before vowels in southern Britain
English, whereas other accents, e.g. Scottish, Irish, and moat
American ones, also can have it after vowels. Therefore those
accents can make a distinction between, e.g. saw, and sore ,
which are pronounced exactly a like in southern British
English.
The manner of articulation can be put into two major
groups, obtruents and sonorants. The obtruents are plosives,
fricatives and affricative, all sounds with a high degree of
obstruction. Obstruents usually come in pairs, one voiceless
and one voiced, e.g. [p/b, t/d]. Sonorants have much less
obstruction and are all voiced and therefore more sonorous.
They include nasals, the lateral, and approximants. The
manner can illustrated as in the following diagram:

49
 Consonant

Obstruents Sonorants

plosive fricative affricative nasal lateral approximants

Figure 7 Table of Consonants

Source: Hamman and Smitz (2005)

50
 Figure 8 Table of consonants manner and voicing

Exercise for Practice

1. Why is phonetics discussed in this chapter?
2. What is the difference between (+) voiced and (-) voiced?
3. What are the four important variables to describe consonants?
4. Write a (+) or (-) to describe the first sound of each of the
following words.

51
 Word Voiced Consonant Vowel Transcription
a. Queen (-) (+) (-) [kwi:n]
b. Apron
c. Not
d. Thing
e. Then
f. Academy
g. Green
h. Doubtful
i. Eggs
5. What do you call a consonant produced by letting the air go out
through the nose?
6. Write (+) or (-) to describe the vowel in each of the following
words.
Word Rounded Front Central Back Diph-
thong
a. Hope
b. Caught
c. But
d. Tempt
e. Come
f. Shoe
g. Fan
h. Good
i. Board
j. Teach

52
7. Find the phonetics symbol for the first sound in each of the
following words:
a. This f. hear
b. Usual g. phonetics
c. Thousand h. giant
d. Psychology i. one
e. Knee j. table
8. Put the following words into the corresponding columns:
a. ill – eel –knee – nil – will – wheel- field – bin – ski –
sick

I i:
Sit seat
..... .......

b. Board – two – bored – call – pot – moth – cough – do –

through - thought

ɔ: ɒ u:
call ..... .....

53
9. Among the following words tick those which start with a nasal
sound:
a. Know h. gnaw
b. Mother i. look
c. Another j. go
d. Power k. beer
e. Tea l. dear
f. Kill m. near
g. Mare n. pneumonia
Note: you now have two of the three English nasal sounds.

10. a. Circle the words that begin with bilabial consonant :

Mat gnat Sat bat rat Pat
b. Circle the words that begin with a velar consonant :
knot got Lot cot hot Pot
c. Circle the words that begin with a labiodentals consonant :
Fat cat That mat chat vat
d. Circle the words that begin with a alveolar consonant :
Zip nip Lip sip tip dip
e. Circle the words that begin with a dental consonant :
Pie guy Shy thigh thy high
f. Circle the words that begin with a palate-alveolar consonant:
Sigh shy Tie thigh thy Lie

54