THEORY

1. What is Phonetics?
The general study of the characteristics of speech sounds are called phonetics.
2. What is phonology?
Phonology studies how these sounds combine and how they change in combination, as
well as which sounds can contrast to produce differences in meaning.
3. Label the articulators and describe them briefly

a) Velum or soft palate: The velum is the back top part of your mouth, often in
speech it is raised so that air cannot escape through the nose. The other important
thing about this articulator is that it can be touched by the tongue.
b) Alveolar ridge: The alveoral ridge is between the top front teeth and the hard
palate. Sounds made with the tongue touching here are called alveoral.
c) Tongue: is a very important articulator and it can be moved into many different
places and different shapes. It is usual to divide the tongue into different parts,
though there are no clear dividing lines within its structure.
d) Hard palate is often called “the roof of the mouth”. You can feel its smooth curved
surface with your tongue. A consonant made with your tongue close to the hard
palate is called palatal.
e) The lips are important in speech. They can be pressed together, brought into
contact with the teeth or rounded to produce the lip-shape for vowels. Sounds in
which the lips are in contact with each other are called bilabial, while those sounds
with lip- to- teeth contact are called labiodental.
 4. What are vowels sounds? How are they classified?
Vowel sounds are produced with a relatively free flow of air. They are all typically
voiced. 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 a high versus a
low area.
5. What are consonants sounds? How are they classified?
Consonant sounds are sounds in which can be clearly felt that we are making it difficult
or impossible for the air to pass through the mouth. 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.
We can also keep the voiced-voiceless distinction in mind.
6. Describe manner and place of articulation
The manner of articulation refers to the way the articulators are set so that the
resonance effect is possible. The place of articulation is the description of the place
where the obstruction in the vocal tract takes place.
7. What are diphthongs? How are they classified?
In addition to single vowel sounds, we regularly create sounds that consist of a
combination of two vowel sound, known as diphthongs. The first part is much longer
and stronger than the second part. There are eight diphthongs in English: centring
diphthongs glide towards the schwa vowel, closing diphthongs have the characteristic
that they all end with a glide towards a closer vowel,
8. What is IPA?
The international Phonetics Alphabet (IPA), an alphabet developed in the 19th century
to accurately represent the pronunciation of languages. One aim of the international
phonetic alphabet (IPA) was to provide a unique symbol for each distinctive sound in a
language.
9. What is RP?
Received Pronunciation (RP) is regarded as the standard accent of standard English in
the United Kingdom, with a relationship to regional accents similar to the relationship
in other European languages between their standard varieties and their regional
forms.

PRACTICE
1- Write the words next to the right phonetic symbol above.

/i:/ Steam- Week- seat- scream- seem

/ɪ/

/ʊ/ Foot

/u:/ Food- cool- rude- puke

/e/

/ə/

/ɜ:/ Lurk- stern

/ɔ:/ Dork- corn- sport- born

/æ/ Van- spat

/ʌ/ dull

/ɑ:/ Start- lark- far- harsh- psalm

/ɒ/ rock

2- circle the correct option

2- match the consonant sound classification to the sound characteristic.

a- Plosives b- fricatives c-approximants d-latera

1 The articulators come closer together but do not cause audible b

friction

A closure is made in the vocal tract and air flows around the sides of d
the tongue
A complete closure is made in the vocal tract and the air is then a
released explosively

Air is heard passing between two vocal organs c

4) write the correct consonant sound for each description. Bear in mind that for voiced an
unvoiced pairs one description will do.

a- /d (+V) -t (-V)/
b- /m(+v)/
c- /b (+V) – p (-V)/
d- /h (-V)/

Baños Berenice Selene del Rosario- 3rd year