BSEE23
LESSON 1
The Sounds of Language
Phonetics
• The general study of the characteristics
of speech sounds is called phonetics.
• Articulatory phonetics - study of how
speech sounds are made or
‘articulated’.
• Acoustic phonetics - deals with the
physical properties of speech as sound
waves in the air
• Auditory phonetics (or perceptual
phonetics) - deals with the perception,
via the ear, of speech sounds.
Voiced and Voiceless Sounds
• In articulatory phonetics, we investigate
how speech sounds are produced using
the fairly complex oral equipment we
have.
• We start with the air pushed out by the
lungs up through the trachea (or
‘windpipe’) to the larynx. Inside the
larynx are your vocal cords, which take
two basic positions.
• When the vocal cords are spread apart,
the air from the lungs passes between
them unimpeded. Sounds produced in
this way are described as voiceless.
• When the vocal cords are drawn
together, the air from the lungs
repeatedly pushes them apart as it
passes through, creating a vibration
effect. Sounds produced in this way are
described as voiced.
Place of Articulation
• Once the air has passed through the
larynx, it comes up and out through the
mouth and/or the nose.
• Most consonant sounds are produced
by using the tongue and other parts of
the mouth to constrict, in some way,
the shape of the oral cavity through
which the air is passing.
• The terms used to describe many
sounds are those which denote the
place of articulation of the sound: that
is, the location inside the mouth at
which the constriction takes place
• To describe the place of articulation of
most consonant sounds, we can start at
the front of the mouth and work back.
• We can also keep the voiced–voiceless
distinction in mind and begin using the
symbols of the phonetic alphabet for
specific sounds. These symbols will be
enclosed within square brackets “[ ]”
Bilabials
• These are sounds formed using both (=
bi) upper and lower lips (= labia)
pat bat mat
[p] – voiceless [b] and [m] – voiced
[w] – voiced
way walk world
Labiodentals
• These are sounds formed with the
upper teeth and the lower lip
fat vat safe save
[f] – voiceless [v] – voiced
cough photo
Dentals
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• These sounds are formed with the Velars

tongue tip behind the upper front
• Sounds produced with the back of the
teeth.
tongue against the velum are called
thin bath three teeth velars

[θ] – voiceless [ð] – voiced

the there feather bathe kid kill cold car

The term ‘interdentals’ is sometimes used for [k] – voiceless

these consonants when they are pronounced
go gun give
with the tongue tip between (= inter) the
upper and lower teeth. [g] – voiced
Alveolars • The velum can be lowered to allow air
to flow through the nasal cavity and
• These are sounds formed with the front
thereby produce another sound which
part of the tongue on the alveolar ridge,
is represented by the symbol
which is the rough, bony ridge
immediately behind and above the [ŋ] – voiced
upper teeth.
sing sang tongue ringing
top sit dip zoo nut
Glottals
[t] [s] – voiceless
• There is one sound that is produced
[d] [z] [n] – voiced without the active use of the tongue
and other parts of the mouth.
[l] [r] – voiced
• The ‘glottis’ is the space between the
lap lit right write
vocal cords in the larynx. When the
Palatals glottis is open, as in the production of
other voiceless sounds, and there is no
• Sounds which are produced with the
manipulation of the air passing out of
tongue and the palate are called
the mouth, the sound produced is that
palatals (or alveo-palatals).
represented by
shout child
[h] – voiceless
[ʃ] [tʃ] – voiceless
house have who whose
treasure pleasure rouge

[ӡ] – voiced
Manner of Articulation
joke gem judge George
• how consonant sounds are articulated
[dӡ]– voiced
• For example, [t] and [s] are both
you yet voiceless alveolar sounds. How do they
differ? They differ in their manner of
[j] – voiced

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articulation, that is, in the way they are
pronounced. The [t] sound is one of a
set of sounds called stops and the [s]
sound is one of a set called fricatives.
Stops
[p] [b] [t] [d] [k] [g]
• are all produced by some form of
‘stopping’ of the airstream (very briefly)
then letting it go abruptly
• This type of consonant sound, resulting
from a blocking or stopping effect on
the airstream, is called a stop (or a
‘plosive’)
Fricatives
[f] [v] [θ] [ð] [s] [z] [ʃ] [ӡ]
• involves almost blocking the airstream
and having the air push through the
very narrow opening.
• As the air is pushed through, a type of
friction is produced and the resulting
sounds are called fricatives.
Affricates
[tʃ] [dӡ]
• If you combine a brief stopping of the
airstream with an obstructed release
which causes some friction, you will be
able to produce these sounds.
stop + fricative
Nasals
[m] [n] [ŋ]
• Most sounds are produced orally, with
the velum raised, preventing airflow
from entering the nasal cavity.
However, when the velum is lowered
and the airstream is allowed to flow out
through the nose to produce the
sounds above, the sounds are described
as nasals.
Liquids
[l] [r]
[l] – lateral liquid: 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.
[r] – formed with the tongue tip raised and
curled back near the alveolar ridge.
Glides
[w] [j]
• typically produced with the tongue in
motion (or ‘gliding’) to or from the
position of a vowel and are sometimes
called semi-vowels or approximants.
[h]
• can be classified as a glide because of
the way it combines with other sounds.
In some descriptions, it is treated as a
fricative
Limitations of the chart
• Uvular sounds also occur in many
native languages of north and south
America.
• Other non-English sounds such as
pharyngeal (produced in the pharynx)
occur in languages such as Arabic
Vowels
• While the consonant sounds are mostly
articulated via closure or obstruction in
the vocal tract, vowel sounds are
produced with a relatively free flow of
air. They are all typically voiced.
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• To describe vowel sounds, we consider
the way in which the tongue influences
the ‘shape’ through which the airflow
must pass.
• To talk about a place of articulation, we
think of the space inside the mouth as
having a front versus a back and a high
versus a low area. Thus, in the
pronunciation of heat and hit, we talk
about ‘high, front’ vowels because the
sound is made with the front part of the
tongue in a raised position.
• In contrast, the vowel sound in hat is
produced with the tongue in a lower
position and the sound in hot can be
described as a ‘low, back’ vowel. The
next time you’re facing the bathroom
mirror, try saying the words heat, hit,
hat, hot
• For the first two, your mouth will stay
fairly closed, but for the last two, your
tongue will move lower and cause your
mouth to open wider. (You may also
notice, the next time you’re getting
some, that the sounds of relaxation
and pleasure typically contain lower
vowels.)
• The terminology for describing vowel
sounds in English (e.g. ‘high front’) is
usually based on their position in a
chart,, which provides a means of
classifying the most common vowel
sounds.
• For the first two, your mouth will stay
fairly closed, but for the last two, your
tongue will move lower and cause your
mouth to open wider. (You may also
notice, the next time you’re getting
some, that the sounds of relaxation
and pleasure typically contain lower
vowels.)
• The terminology for describing vowel
sounds in English (e.g. ‘high front’) is
usually based on their position in a
chart,, which provides a means of
classifying the most common vowel
sounds.
Diphthongs
• The last three symbols in the list above
contain two sounds. These ‘combined’
vowel sounds are called diphthongs.
• Note that in each case they begin with a
vowel sound and end with the glides [j]
or [w].
• In pronouncing the majority of single
vowel sounds, our vocal organs assume
one position (very briefly), but in
pronouncing diphthongs, we move from
one vocalic position to another as we
produce the sound
• This process of diphthongization can
actually happen with a wide range of
vowel sounds and is more common in
some varieties of English (e.g. Southern
British) than in others.
• Most American English speakers
pronounce the word say as [sej], with a
diphthong rather than a single vowel.
You will also hear common pronouns
such as we [wij] and they [ðej]
diphthongized.
LESSON 2
The Sound Patterns of Language
PHONOLOGY
• is essentially the description of the
systems and patterns of speech sounds
in a language.
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• It is, in effect, based on a theory of what
every speaker of a language
unconsciously knows about the sound
patterns of that language.
• Because of this theoretical status,
phonology is concerned with the
abstract or mental aspect of the
sounds in language rather than with
the actual physical articulation of
speech sounds
• Phonology is about the underlying
design, the blueprint of each sound
type, which serves as the constant basis
of all the variations in different physical
articulations of that sound type in
different contexts.
• When we think of the [t] sound in the
words tar, star, writer and eighth as
being ‘the same’, we actually mean
that, in the phonology of English, they
would be represented in the same way.
In actual speech, these [t] sounds are all
very different
• Considered from this point of view, we
can see that phonology is concerned
with the abstract set of sounds in a
language that allows us to distinguish
meaning in the actual physical sounds
we say and hear
PHONEME
• is a distinctive, contrasted sound unit,
e.g. / m /, / æ /, / n /. These distinct
sounds enter into combination with
other sounds to form words, e.g.,
/mæn/ ‘man’.
• Phoneme is the smallest unit of sound
of any language that causes a
difference in meaning. It is a phone
segment that has a contrastive status.
The basic test for a sound’s
distinctiveness is called a minimal pair
test.
• A minimal pair consists of two forms
with distinct meaning that differ by only
one segment found in the same
position in each form.
[sɪp] ‘sip’ [zɪp] ‘zip’
PHONE AND ALLOPHONES
• While the phoneme is the abstract unit
or sound type (‘in the mind’), there are
many different versions of that sound
type regularly produced in actual
speech (‘in the mouth’). We can
describe those different versions as
phones
• Phones are phonetic units and appear
in square brackets. When we have a
group of several phones, all of which
are versions of one phoneme, we add
the prefix ‘allo-’ (= one of a closely
related set) and refer to them as
allophones of that phoneme
• For example, the [t] sound in the word
tar is normally pronounced with a
stronger puff of air than is present in
the [t] sound in the word star.
• writer often becomes a flap
• eighth (/etθ/), the influence of the final
dental [θ] sound causes a dental
articulation of the [t] sound
Syllables and clusters
• A syllable must contain a vowel (or
vowel-like) sound. The most common
type of syllable in language also has a
consonant (C) before the vowel (V) and
is typically represented as CV.
Technically, the basic elements of the
syllable are the onset (one or more
consonants) and the rhyme. The rhyme
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(sometimes written as ‘rime’) consists • is a property of a syllable rather than a

of a vowel, which is treated as the segment. It is a cover term for a
nucleus, plus any following combined effect of pitch, loudness and
consonant(s), described as the coda. length --- the result of which is vowel
prominence; hence, it refers to the
• Syllables like me, to or no have an onset
relative prominence of syllables. The
and a nucleus, but no coda. They are
syllable that receives the most
known as ‘open’ syllables. When a coda
prominent stress is referred to as
is present, as in the syllables up, cup, at
primary stress. To produce a stressed
or hat, they are called ‘closed’ syllables.
syllable, one may change the pitch
• The basic structure of the kind of (usually by raising it), make the syllable
syllable found in English words like louder, or make it longer.
green (CCVC), eggs (VCC), and (VCC),
Intonation
ham (CVC), I (V), do (CV), not (CVC), like
(CVC), them (CVC), Sam (CVC), I (V), am • is the rise and fall of pitch which may
(VC) is shown in the accompanying contrast meanings of sentences. The
diagram. pitch movement in spoken utterances is
not only related to differences in the
• Both the onset and the coda can consist
word meaning, but serves to convey
of more than one consonant, also
information of a broadly meaningful
known as a consonant cluster. The
nature such as completeness or
combination /st/ is a consonant cluster
incompleteness of an utterance.
(CC) used as onset in the word stop, and
Intonation refers to the pitch contours
as coda in the word post. There are
as they occur in phrases and sentences.
many CC onset combinations permitted
in English phonotactics, as in black, Juncture
bread, trick, twin, flat and throw. Note
• refers to the pauses or breaks between
that liquids (/l/, /r/) and a glide (/w/)
syllables. It refers to the transition
are being used in second position.
between sounds. The lack of any real
Suprasegmentals break between syllables of words is
referred to as close juncture; plus
• are prosodic properties that form part
juncture or open juncture is used to
of the makeup of sounds no matter
describe a break or pause between
what their place or manner of
syllables in the same word or adjacent
articulation is. These properties are
word; e.g. nitrate vs. night rate; why try
pitch, intonation, stress, and juncture.
vs. white rye; black bird vs. Blackbird.
They are variations in intensity, pitch,
and timing

Pitch

• is the auditory property of a sound that

enables us to place it on a scale that
ranges from low to high.

Stress

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