Unit 1

Phonetics: The Science of Speech
Sounds
[1.1] How to study unit 1?
[1.2] Phonetics: the science of speech sounds
[1.3] Types of phonetics
[1.4] The phoneme and the allophone. The grapheme
[1.5] The International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA)
[1.6] The phonemic transcription
UNIT
Fonética de la lengua inglesa
Outline
Unit 1 – Outline 2
Pay attention to
1.1. How to study unit 1?
The aim of this unit is to learn how English speech sounds are produced so that
students can learn to pronounce and identify English speech patterns and sounds
correctly. In this introductory unit, we will set the bases for the correct understanding
of English phonetics. To accomplish this objective, students are required to:
Pay close attention to the main ideas developed in this summary.

Distinguish between the different types of phonetics and pay close attention to the
main features of the articulatory phonetics.
Clearly identify the distinctions between the concepts of grapheme, phoneme and
allophone.
Become familiar with the reasons why the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA)
can be a useful resource for any student to visualize the pronunciation of words and
utterances.
Establish preliminary contact with the phonetic symbols used throughout the unit.
Watch the recommended videos to practice the production of certain speech
sounds.
1.2. Phonetics: the science of speech sounds
Languages can be studied from many different perspectives. We can study how words
are formed (morphology), how words are arranged in sentences (syntax), and also how
speech sounds are produced (phonetics).
Phonetics is the linguistic branch which studies:

The production or articulation of speech sounds. (Articulatory phonetics.)
The physical properties of speech sounds. (Acoustic phonetics.)
The way we perceive those speech sounds. (Auditory phonetics.)
Linguistics is the science in charge of studying language in terms of the human

capacity to communicate.
Unit 1 – Pay attention to 3

Broadly speaking, language is our most unique way of conveying information, feelings,
ideas, that is, of communicating with other human beings. Language is eminently
creative. As a matter of fact, it can even deal with “absent phenomena” (Aitchison,
2000: 25), that is, it can describe objects, states or events not available at the time of
speaking. To do so, we share many distinctive sets of signs to encode our messages. To
any of these distinctive sets of signs we call a natural language. We as speakers share
the ability to produce and understand new words and sentences. This ability is known
as linguistic competence. The linguistic competence entails the existence of a system or
set of rules which controls the accurate formation of new words and its appropriate
arrangement into utterances: this system is called grammar.
Grammar has been traditionally divided into the following fields of study:
The morphological field (morphology).
The syntactical field (syntax).
The phonetic field (phonetics).
Morphology
Grammar Syntax
Phonetics
In general, morphology deals with word formation; syntax deals with how words are
arranged in a sentence and finally, phonetics studies how speech sounds are
produced. To be more precise, phonetics describes speech sounds in a way that every
speech sound may be identified as a distinctive sound within a particular natural
language.
However, before moving on, we must make a distinction between two different but
related fields of study: phonetics and phonology. This course deals with the study of
English phonetics and how English speech sounds are produced from an articulatory
point of view. However, we must also bear in mind that there is a linguistic discipline
called phonology which studies how speech sounds in a particular language are
patterned. Phonology aims at forming the inventory of phonemes (phonemic inventory)
of a natural language. In this sense, it does not provide information on how a specific
speech sound is produced but rather it conveys the list of distinctive speech sounds or
phonemes that are used in one language.

For example, if I say in English the words sum and sun the distinctive sounds that make
me aware of their difference in meaning would be /m/ and /n/. These two words are
called minimal pairs (their only difference being a single phoneme). As we can see,
the speech sounds /m/ and /n/ are distinctive since the occurrence of one of them
instead of the other changes completely the meaning of the word.
In short, phonology lists all these distinctive speech sounds or phonemes whereas
phonetics describes how these speech sounds are produced and realized (allophones).
In other words, phonology aims at an ideal pronunciation of speech sounds whereas

phonetics studies the realizations of those speech sounds.
As professor Eugenio Martínez Celdrán states:
La lengua solo reside en las mentes de los individuos. El habla es producida por los
órganos de fonación, transmitida o transportada por las ondas acústicas hasta el oído y
aquí captada y enviada al cerebro donde se interpreta”
Martínez Celdrán, 1994: 10
To end up this discussion, we will highlight that phonological or phonemic

transcriptions use slant brackets // whereas phonetic transcriptions use square
brackets [ ].
As we have already stated, languages are communication-oriented tools.

Therefore, how can we describe the process of communication? Obviously, we can find
an unlimited number of scenarios but, generally speaking, the process of
communication is regularly described as a chain in which several components can be
found. Here is a brief outline of the process:
Context Context
Sender Message
Receiver(s)
Code A Channel Code A
When we speak we address some information to an addressee that may or may not be
in front of us. Any person who addresses another person is considered the sender.

Needless to say, speaking is not the only way we can address another person. We may
also write or make signs and noises. Throughout this subject, we will concentrate on the
sender’s ability to produce speech sounds. This ability encompasses many different
aspects such as the mental processes involved in the generation of a message and the
articulation of that message into speech sounds.
In studying languages, one of the first features that comes to our minds is that of the
pronunciation or how speech sounds are produced and perceived. At this point, we
must make a valuable distinction in terms of linguistic accuracy vs. communication. On
the one hand, natural languages share a common goal: they are all tools for establishing
communication. However, we should always make a distinction between being
able to communicate in one particular language and being a proficient user of
that same language. For example, English around the world has become a lingua
franca, that is, a language spoken among people from many different countries.
English is a common vehicle for people speaking different languages. In this sense,
English plays the role of a bridge language and thus enables communication. However,
this situation does not always entail having a good command of the English language.
Although people using English as a lingua franca may usually have an advanced level
at syntactic and lexical levels, one feature - does usually denote its non-native origin:
the production of English speech sounds. The way we produce speech sounds is the
main object of study for the linguistic field of phonetics.
It is commonly agreed that we are all born with the same psycho-physical abilities to
produce any speech sound available in the world’s languages. It is difficult to find an
agreement concerning the inventory of speech sounds in the world. Some linguists
assert that there may be an average of 700 and 800 speech sounds in the world. Some
others point at more than 1000 speech sounds. Therefore, it is only a matter of chance
that we end up producing speech sounds belonging to German, Spanish, English,
Japanese or Swahili. Since we all possess the same physical hardware to produce
sounds (lungs, pharynx, vocal folds, larynx, nasal cavity, oral cavity, etc.) we are able
to produce all sorts of human sounds. However, we just pick up those speech
sounds used in our mother tongues.
In English, for example, we just need to use an average of 44 speech sounds. It is one
of the main goals of phonetics to describe and classify each one of these distinctive
speech sounds. The word “distinctive” is here a very important feature to take into
account since the use of one phoneme instead of another inevitably results in a change

of meaning. As we will see in 1.4, this distinctive quality is the main difference between
a phoneme and its allophones. In addition, we must never forget the fact that “every
speech sound is a combination of gestures, each exerting its own pattern of sculpting of
the sound wave, all executed more or less simultaneously—that is one of the reasons
speech can be so rapid.” (Pinker, 1994: 166-167).
Therefore, speech sounds can be studied according to their physical and physiological
features. As we have already stated at the beginning, language is a distinctive feature of
human beings. However, it is noticeable to know that our speech organs were not
originally intended for this purpose. It was only with time that they developed
their actual function as speech organs. Here is a table which depicts the primary
functions of speech organs and their late linguistic specialization (O’Grady, 1997: 14):
Dual functions of the speech organs

Organ Survival function Speech function
Lungs To exchange CO2, oxygen To supply air for speech
Vocal cords To create seal over passage To produce voice for
to lungs speech sounds
Tongue To move food back to To articulate vowels and
throat consonants
Teeth To break up food To provide place of
articulation for consonants
Lips To seal oral cavity To articulate vowels and
consonants
Nasal cavities Breathing To provide nasal resonance
It is then important to be aware of how a particular speech sound is produced or

articulated. This is why our main concern will be the study of articulatory phonetics.
As we will see throughout the course, phonetics can provide us with a helpful amount of
resources for our educational purposes. It can convey:
An accurate description of the articulatory mechanisms involved in the production
of every single speech sound.
A written representation of speech sounds so that students can visualize how a
particular word or sentence should be pronounced (phonemic transcription).
Tips for non-native speakers to pronounce English speech sounds in a correct
manner.

Exercises (minimal-pairs activities) to distinguish between similar speech sounds.

Rules to use word stress correctly.
The importance of teaching phonetics when learning a foreign language relies on their
techniques to reproduce the different speech sounds of any language by means of
written symbols (phonemic transcription). This is especially useful when teaching
languages such as English which has no one-to-one correspondence between spelling
and pronunciation (inconsistent spelling).
1.3. Types of phonetics
The scientific study of the speech sounds can be tackled from several points of view. As
we have already stated, a thorough study of speech sounds must encompass several
issues:
The organs we use to produce these sounds.
The physical features of the sounds.
The different aspects involved in their reception and interpretation.
As a consequence, phonetics has been traditionally divided into three different

branches:
Articulatory phonetics: it deals with the articulatory mechanisms of our body
involved in the production of speech sounds. These are known as the organs of
speech and fall into three areas:
o Respiratory system: the lungs and the bronchial tubes.
o Phonatory system: the larynx and the vocal folds.
o Articulatory system: the pharynx, the oral cavity and the nasal cavity.
Acoustic phonetics: it studies the physical properties of the speech sounds in

terms of frequency (high tones or low tones), amplitude (amount of energy) and
time (duration).
Auditory phonetics: it tackles the mechanisms involved in the perception and

interpretation of the speech sounds.

Phonetics.
Branches
Articulatory phonetics Acoustic phonetics Auditory phonetics
Although we will primarily focus on the resources provided by the articulatory

phonetics, it seems convenient to provide a general overview of the object of study of
each type of phonetics.
Articulatory phonetics
Articulatory phonetics deals with the description of the parts of our body used when
producing speech sounds.
More specifically, it gives us information on how and where a particular speech sound
is produced. Using the diagram on the process of communication we studied before, we
will notice that articulatory phonetics deals primarily with the sender’s ability to
speak, in other words, to articulate speech sounds.
To have a clearer idea of the process involved in the production of speech let’s begin by
describing it step by step. A first question then arises: what is speech? According to
professor Beverley Collins, “speech is a continuous flow of sound with interruptions
only when necessary to take in air to breathe or to organize our thoughts” (Collins,
2008: 10).
Therefore, we must bear in mind that sounds are produced by moving air which travels
in the form of vibrations. But, how are speech sounds produced? To produce a
speech sound we must first set some previously inhaled air in motion. This inhaled air
is stored in our lungs so we can say that the starting point for speaking relies on our
lungs. This way of producing speech is known as pulmonic egressive mechanism since
it originates in the lungs and the airstream is directed outwards (egressive). It is the
mechanism used in the great majority of languages although some African languages
can also use pulmonic ingressive mechanisms.
Once the airflow has been set in motion it goes through several stages before becoming
a particular speech sound. These stages correspond to different body parts and

represent the main object of study of articulatory phonetics. These body parts are
known as the organs of speech and fall into three main areas according to their
main function in the speaking process:
Source:
http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=File:Respiratory_system_complete_en.svg&page=1
The respiratory system: it consists of the lungs and the bronchial tubes. We
should also mention the important role played by the diaphragm and the intercostal
muscles whose pressure keeps the speaking process functioning.
The phonatory system: it encompasses the larynx, which is a cartilage structure
in which the vocal folds are located. The larynx is where the vibration of the
airstream released from the lungs takes place. This airstream passes through a
windpipe known as the trachea and between the vocal folds causing them to vibrate.
The larynx is then the place where voice and voiceless sounds are produced (we will
study this process in greater detail in unit 2). Finally, it is worth mentioning that the
gap between the vocal folds is known as the glottis and its complete closure
produces a speech sound known in English as the glottal stop (phonetically marked
as [ʔ]). The glottal stop is a common speech sound in a Londonian dialect known as
Cockney.

The articulatory system: this is where the airstream is finally modified to

produce the different speech sounds available in any language. As we said before,
languages usually show a pulmonic egressive mechanism by means of which speech
sounds are produced when the airstream is on its way outwards. The articulation of
the different speech sounds occurs in three resonating cavities above the larynx:
o The throat or pharyngeal cavity.
o The mouth or oral cavity.
o The nose or nasal cavity.
Phonetics.
Branches
Respiratory syste ms
Phonatory system
Articulatory system
The following figure shows the articulatory places employed together with the sort
of consonantal sound produced when each one of these places is used:
Source: http://www.indiana.edu/~hlw/PhonUnits/vowels.html

Having this picture in mind, we can say that consonantal sounds in English can be
primarily classified according to:
Where they are articulated (place of articulation).
How they are articulated (manner of articulation).
This dual distinction is highly relevant since a thorough understanding of the

articulatory mechanisms will prove very useful for teaching our students how to
produce each specific sound in English in a correct manner. Notice that each
language may have different places of articulation for the same sound. In
this sense, students of English as a second language must know that a particular
English sound is not necessarily articulated in the same way as in his or her mother
tongue.
For the time being, here you have a chart where all English consonants are classified
according to their place and manner of articulation:
PLACE OF ARTICULATION (WHERE)
Labio- Palato-
Bilabial Dental Alveolar Palatal Velar Glottal
dental alveolar
Plosive /p/ /b/ /t/ /d/ /k//g/

MANNER OF ARTICULATION
/ʧ /
Affricate
/ʤ/
/f/
Fricative /θ/ ð/ /s/ /z/ /ʃ/ /ʒ/ /h/
(HOW)
/v/
Nasal /m/ /n/ /ŋ/
Lateral /l/
Approximant /w/1 /r/2 /j/ /w/1
1 /w/ is labial-velar
2/r/ is post-alveolar
In unit 2 we will study the different organs and articulators involved in the production
of these sounds and we will describe the classification displayed in this chart in terms of
the articulatory settings required to produce each one of the abovementioned
phonemes.

Acoustic phonetics
As professor Peter Roach states, “all audible sound is the result of variations in air
pressure that produce vibration” (Roach, 2004: 39). Speech sounds travel through the
air in the form of waves.
Acoustic phonetics studies the speech sounds as physical entities.
In other words, speech consists of a succession of sound waves and as such it can be
studied and described in terms of some acoustic categories such as:
Frequency: it measures how many times per second a pattern of vibration is
repeated. It is closely related to the articulatory mechanisms involved in the
vibration of the vocal folds. If the vocal folds vibrate rapidly we say the waveform
shows high frequency whereas if they vibrate slowly we say it shows low frequency.
Amplitude: it refers to the amount of energy employed in a particular sound wave
and measures its distance from the source. If a waveform shows a lot of energy we
say it shows high amplitude.
Time: it describes the length of a sound.
Phonetics.
Branches

Acoustic categories
Freque ncy
Amplitude
Time
Acoustic phonetics relies on laboratory experiments with accurate instruments such as

the spectrograph which decomposes the different sounds into formants. The
formants are then reproduced in a spectrogram.
A spectrogram gives us information on the amount of energy employed in the sound

wave which is tightly linked with the frequency and amplitude used.

For example, high frequencies are associated with a high amount of energy from an
articulatory point of view. On the other hand, vowels are the result of the vibration of
the vocal folds. This vibrating airstream is modified in the vocal tract which “acts as a
filter, weakening the energy at some frequencies while at other frequencies the energy
remains relatively strong. The shape of the vocal tract (which depends on factors like
the tongue-shape, the position of the lips, and the position of the velum) determines the
characteristics of this filter so that a particular vowel is produced; if you change the
shape of the vocal tract, you change the resulting vowel” (Roach, 2004: 41-42).
Auditory phonetics
Our third type of phonetics studies, the auditory phonetics, studies the mechanisms
involved in the perception and interpretation of the oral message.
It works hand in hand with psycholinguistics since once the oral message has been
physically perceived in the ear; it then passes to the neuronal circuits located in the
cortex for its decoding.
The sound is perceived in the ear and in its several components. As mentioned, the
sound is just a flow of variations in the air pressure. The sound waves are captured in
the auricle and then they pass through the ear canal which is an air-filled passageway
and then cause the eardrum to vibrate. This vibration moves into the middle ear where
it turns into mechanical movements. Finally, in the inner ear the cochlea transforms
these mechanical movements into electrical impulses which will pass through the
auditory nerve to be processed by the central nervous system. It is important here to
mention the fact that not all perceived sounds are to be interpreted. We filter
the different incoming sounds to avoid irrelevant background sounds (noise).
Auditory perception is normally described in terms of:

Pitch: it directly relates to the acoustic property of frequency.
Duration: it is associated with the acoustic property of time.
Loudness: it has to do with the acoustic property of amplitude.

Phonetics.
Branches

Auditory perception
Pitch
Duration
Loudne ss
As we can see, phonetics is a linguistic branch covering all acoustic properties of the
speech sounds; from the articulation of speech sounds in our body (articulatory
phonetics), going through the physical features of the sound wave travelling through
the air, up to the final stage where the sound wave is captured (perceived), transmitted
and interpreted.
1.4. The phoneme and the allophone. The grapheme
The phoneme and the allophone
At this point, it is helpful to think of language as a speech chain where several

constituents can be identified. The process by means of which we divide the speech
chain into smaller constituents is called segmentation. The resulting constituents are
called segments and correspond to vowels and consonants. Therefore we may say
that vowels and consonants are segmental phonemes. However, we must always bear in
mind that in connected speech it is often difficult to identify individual phonemes (or
segments) since the articulation of speech sounds is actually a rather continuous
process. We will see this fact in greater detail in units 4 and 5 where the distinction
between content and function words is introduced.
To set the basis for a correct understanding of phonetics, we must first take a close look
at what a phoneme is.
A phoneme can be defined as the distinctive sound in a particular language capable of

producing a change in meaning.

For example, the word bed has 3 phonemes: /bed/. We know these 3 speech sounds are
phonemes because a change in any one of them results in a change in meaning:
/bed/  bed
/bet/  bet
/led/  led
/bæd/  bad
Phonemes have no meaning in isolation but they combine to form words

(just in the same way as morphemes combine to form new words: form + ation 
formation). Two words that are distinguished by a single phoneme are called minimal
pairs. The use of minimal pairs in phonetic exercises is widely accepted since it
provides useful examples to identify particular speech sounds. For example, if we want
to practice the distinction between the sound vowel /æ/ and /e/ we may use a list of
minimal pairs such as:
/æ/ /e/
Flash Flesh
Bad Bed
Bag Beg
Lag Leg
Sat Set
Man Men
As we can see, a change in the vowel ends up in a change in meaning so we can assert
that the vowels /æ/ and /e/ have a distinctive or contrastive function. In other words,
they are phonemes of a particular language. It is important to have in mind that
different languages can have different phonemes. As far as English is concerned, we can
identify 44 phonemes (24 consonants, 12 vowels and 8 diphthongs).
In addition, it is worth noting that the phoneme is an abstract entity since every one of
us produces these phonemes differently. Even the same word is never pronounced in
the same way. So, we have to make a distinction between the phonemes that form the
phonemic inventory of a particular language and their actual realizations as speech
sounds.
These different realizations of a phoneme are called allophones.

In other words, they are variants of a phoneme. Thus, we can say that when we speak
we actually produce allophones and when we study the distinctive sounds of a language
we talk about phonemes.
Allophones are represented within square brackets [ ] in phonetic transcription. For

example, if we take the word matter we may represent it phonetically as follows:
Phonemic transcription: /´mætə/ this transcription would represent a
pronunciation every English speaker would understand. Broadly speaking, we could
say that it is a standard pronunciation.
Phonetic transcription (representing two different ways in which this word is

actually pronounced):
Phonetic
Regional Variation transcription Main features
of matter
It is a common feature in GA to pronounce
General American intervocalic “t” as [r]. This pronunciation is
[´mæɾəɽ]
English (GA) known as flap and is represented with [ɾ]
It is a common feature in this accent spoken in
London to pronounce intervocalic “t” with a
closure in the glottis: glottal stop. This
Cockney accent [´mæʔə]
pronunciation is represented with [ʔ]
The following chart shows a summary of the distinction between phonemes and
allophones:
Type of
Type of transcription Main purpose
existence
To produce changes in
Phonemic
Phoneme Abstract entity meaning
transcription //
/pæt/ ≠ /bæt/
Concrete Phonetic To reproduce the actual way
Allophone
realization transcription [ ] people pronounce

Throughout this subject, we will deal with the phonemic transcription, that is, we will
only represent those distinctive speech sounds which produce changes in meaning
(phonemes).
It is time now to see why phonemic transcription is a very helpful resource when
teaching English. As we know, English shows no one-to-one correspondence
between sounds and letters. As a matter of fact, one letter (grapheme) can
represent several different sounds:
Grapheme Represented phoneme Example

/ə/ About
/æ/ Sad
/e/ Many
“a” /eɪ/ Cake
/a:/ Ask
/ɒ/ Want
/ɔ:/ Old
Therefore, we should always take into account that speech sounds are not letters
or graphemes. Graphemes are used for orthographic spelling whereas phonemes are
used for phonemic transcription.
The grapheme
One of the main difficulties any Spanish speaker can find in learning English is the
lack of one-to-one correspondence between spelling and pronunciation.
In English we have 26 graphemes (you can watch the ABC song) out of which we can
form up to 44 different phonemes.
The video is available on the following website:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5XEN4vtH4Ic

Graphemes are therefore just written symbols we use for orthographic spelling
(letters). These are the phonemes we can find in English:
1.5. The International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA)
The International Phonetic Alphabet stands as the best-known system for

transcribing the manifold speech sounds available in the world’s languages.
Its development began in the 19th century and its main purpose is to represent each
speech sound with a symbol. In a phonetic transcription, the symbols used to represent
a particular speech sound are enclosed in square brackets [ ]. The use of these square
brackets indicates that they are not spelling symbols.
As professor Peter Roach writes, “one of the most important achievements of phonetics
in the past century has been to arrive at a system of phonetic symbols that anyone can

learn and use and that can be used to represent the sounds of any language.” (Roach,
2004: 5.)
The phonetic alphabet has proved to be a very helpful tool in the learning of a foreign
language, especially in languages with no one-to-one correspondence between spelling
and pronunciation (as it is the case of the English language). So, if we take a look at an
example we will see how different the pronunciation of some words looks from its
spelling counterpart:
Spelling: our dreams disappeared into thin air
Transcription: /aʊə ´dri:mzdɪsə´pɪədɪntə ´θɪn ´eə/
The phonetic symbols used in the transcription above represent distinctive speech
sounds in English. Each symbol stands as a phoneme and is used in phonemic
transcriptions. It is worth making a distinction here between the use of phonetic
symbols and phonemic symbols:
When the symbols we use are those representing the phonemes of a particular language,
it is usual to enclose them in ‘slant brackets’ (for example ‘book’ is transcribed /bʊk/.
When we use phonetic symbols to represent a sound that could belong to any language,
or a sound which is a special way of pronouncing a phoneme (allophone) we enclose
them in square brackets.
Roach, 2004: 7
This means that we can have two different kinds of transcription:

Phonetic transcription: it reproduces the actual speech we hear in a particular
language. Therefore, we are not representing phonemes, but allophones, that is, the
actual realizations of phonemes. The phonetic symbols are enclosed in square
brackets: pit  [phɪt]. In addition, phonetic transcriptions try to reproduce every
single detail of the articulation of a particular sound speech. Apart from the
symbols, it also employs some marks known as diacritics as in [ł] to represent a
dark /l/ as in the word ball:
Phonetic transcription: [bɔ:ł]
Phonemic transcription: /bɔ:l/
Phonemic transcription: this kind of transcription represents an ideal
pronunciation and it encloses the phonetic symbols within slant brackets: pit 
/pɪt/. It represents the different phonemes available in a particular language
(English in our case). It does not try to represent actual realizations of the speech

sounds but rather it portrays the distinctive phonemes available in a language. It

just focuses on the important aspects to convey meaning: the phonemes at a
segmental level and the intonation at a supra-segmental level. This type of
transcription is the one we will be dealing with throughout the course.
Kinds of transcription
Phonetic Phonemic
Phonetic symbols: Phone tic symbols:
Square brackets Slant bracke ts

[] //
The following website by Oxford University Press offers a thorough introduction to the
IPA symbols and how to use them.
http://www.oupchina.com.hk/dict/phonetic/home.html
1.6. The phonemic transcription
As we said before, the phonemic transcription represents phonemes by using slant

brackets //. You all may be familiar with it since this is the kind of transcription we
normally find when we look up a word in a dictionary:

Roughly speaking, the phonemic transcription represents in written symbols the way a
particular word should be pronounced in a given language. Sometimes, we can find
travel guides which imitate this kind of transcription. For example, a travel guide to
London for Spanish speakers would include a list of useful words or expressions in
English with an approximate pronunciation counterpart in Spanish written in the
Roman alphabet:
Can I have some water, please?  */can ai jaf sam guota, plis/
Obviously, this is not a phonemic transcription but it gives us an idea of its main
purpose: to provide a useful and visual guide for the correct pronunciation of words
and sentences in a foreign language.
It is a primary goal of this subject to master as much as possible the phonemic

transcription. At a first stage, we will focus on isolated words, and later in course, we
will practice with connected speech, that is, with the way we actually speak. It is then
important to become familiar with the phonemic inventory of the English language
(phonetic symbols and their corresponding sounds).
As we need to go step by step, we should start from the very beginning. We will start
with the transcription of the English alphabet. Secondly, you need to get
acquainted with the different phonetic symbols we will be using in this course. To
accomplish these two objectives, here you have two charts: the first chart shows the
English alphabet (graphemes) and its phonemic transcription, and the second chart
shows the phonemic inventory for the English language:
A /eɪ/ N /en/
B /bi:/ O /əʊ/
C /si:/ P /pi:/
D /di:/ Q /kju:/
E /i:/ R /a:/
F /ef/ S /es/
G /ʤi:/ T /ti:/
H /eɪʧ/ U /ju:/
I /aɪ/ V /vi:/
J /ʤeɪ/ W /´dʌbəlju:/

K /keɪ/ X /eks/
L /el/ Y /waɪ/
M /em/ Z /zed/ /zi:/
Secondly, it is important to become familiar with the phonemic inventory of the English
language. The 44 English phonemes are:
12 Pure Vowels 8 Diphthongs
/i:/ Free, read /aɪ/ My, die
/ɪ/ Sit, pill /eɪ/ Day, say
/e/ Get, let /ɔɪ/ Boy, voice
/æ/ Man, cat /aʊ/ How, cow
/a:/ Car, mark /əʊ/ No, go
/ɒ/ Got, not /ɪə/ Here, beer
/ɔ:/ Call, door /eə/ Where, wear
/ʊ/ Look, book /ʊə/ Cure, pure
/u:/ Fool, pool
/ʌ/ Much, some /ð/
/ɜ:/ Girl, work
/ə/ About, America
24 Consonants
/p/ Put, pet /b/ Boy, baby
/t/ Time, tea /d/ Day, do
/f/ Fine, from /v/ Very, shave
/k/ Come, concert /g/ Go, peg
/s/ Yes, say /z/ Comes, is
/ʃ/ Ship, shop /ʒ/ Pleasure, television
/ʧ/ Church, watch /ʤ/ Just, gesture
/θ/ Thin, both /ð/ They, there
/m/ My, mother /n/ No, nose
/ŋ/ Long, think /l/ Little, lamb

/r/ Root, very /h/ Hot, he
/w/ White, why /j/ Young, you
The last step at this introductory stage is to be familiar with the actual sound each one
of the abovementioned symbol stands for.
To accomplish this last objective, you can check the correct pronunciation of these
phonemes in the chart provided by the British Council.
http://www.englishonline.org.cn/en/listen-watch/sounds-interesting/phonemic-chart

Specially recommended
Be sure you read…
Phonetics in Language Learning?
Arun Behera & Tripathy, “Phonetics in Language Learning?” The Dawn Journal, 1:2
(July-December 2012): 198-203.
The document is available on the virtual class or on this website:

http://www.thedawnjournal.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/07/16-Arun-Behera.pdf
Be sure you watch…
Why are Phonetics Important?
The following video shows the importance of learning phonetics to acquire a correct
pronunciation. It offers an introductory survey to what phonetics is about.
The video is available on the virtual class or on this website:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cJG0uErf8WY
Unit 1 – Specially recommended 25

Introduction to English Phonetics
Allex Bellem provides a great introduction to why we should all be acquainted with the
phonetic symbols in order to improve our pronunciation of the English language.
The video is available on the virtual class or on this website:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/worldservice/learningenglish/grammar/pron/sounds/
Introduction to English Phonetics (American variation)
Introduction to the use of phonetics when teaching English as foreign language. It is

advisable to follow the phonetic transcription given at the bottom of the screen.
The video is available in the virtual class or on this website:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JF6QVxJoiKo
Unit 1 – Specially recommended 26

More information
In depth
English Phonetics and Phonology. Glossary
Peter Roach is one of the most important phoneticians in the English language. His
books are easy to understand and provide lots of practical cases. He also contributes to
the spread of teaching phonetics with an online glossary of phonetic terms which can be
downloaded and visited on this website.
This glossary is available on the virtual classroom or on this website:

http://www.cambridge.org/servlet/file/EPP_PED_Glossary.pdf?ITEM_ENT_ID=249
1706&ITEM_VERSION=1&COLLSPEC_ENT_ID=7
Webgraphy
Speech, Hearing & Phonetic Sciences
This website provides information and resources for the use of IPA phonetic symbols
on computers. It is highly advisable to use the Unicode fonts. You can download
Unicode fonts from this website.
http://www.phon.ucl.ac.uk/resource/phonetics/
Unit 1 – More information 27

Bibliography
Aitchison, Jean. The Seeds of Speech: Language Origin and Evolution. Cambridge:
Cambridge University Press, 2000.
Alcaraz, Enrique and Moody, Bryn. Fonética inglesa para españoles: teoría y práctica.
Alcoy: Marfil, 1995.
Collins, Beverley and Mees, Inger M. Practical Phonetics and Phonology: A Resource
Book for Students. London: Routledge, 2009 (2nd ed.).
Martínez Celdrán, Eugenio. Fonética. Barcelona: Teide, 1994.
O’Grady, William, Michael Dobrovolsky and Francis Katamba. Contemporary

Linguistics: An Introduction. London: Longman, 2011 (2nded.).
Roach, Peter. Phonetics. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2004.
Unit 1 – More information 28

Exercises
Practice unit 1
1. Answer the following questions:

A. What is a phoneme? Give two examples.
B. What is a grapheme?
C. What is an allophone? Give three examples.
2. Which graphemes from the English Alphabet have the /eɪ/ sound?
3. Transcribe the following graphemes:
Grapheme Transcription Grapheme Transcription

a m
n t
p o
w z
s d
c e
w y
4. Write down the different phonemes we can associate to the grapheme “a”: Give two
examples.
Phoneme Examples
“a”
Unit 1 – Exercises 29
5. Distribute the following phonemes into two groups: vowels and consonants:
/æ/ /eɪ/ /ɔɪ/ /k/ /ʧ/

/ʤ/ /s/ /w/ /j/ /ɪ/
/i:/ /æ/ /ʌ/ /θ/ /ð/
/b/ /p/ /g/ /ŋ/ /ɜ:/
/ə/ /aʊ/ /ʊ/ /u:/ /r/
Vowels Consonants
6. Write down how many graphemes and phonemes there are in the following words.
Then, provide the phonemic transcription.
Word Graphemes Phonemes Phonemic transcription

Through
Water
Although
Mother
Father
Phonetics
Park
Church
Visitor
Computer
Technology
Misinformation
Speak
Knife
Writer
Listen
Fashion
7. Read the transcriptions and write down the words.
/´mʌðə/ /´brʌðə/
/wʌn/ /ka:/
/rʌn/ /pa:k/
/wɜ:k/ /wɜ:d/
/ræn/ /gɜ:l/
/sæd/ /bɜ:d/
/pa:m/ /si:/
/ʃʊd/ /ʃɪp/
/wɪl/ /wi:l/
/gəʊ/ /nəʊ/
/nɒt/ /ʃɒk/
/peɪnt/ /θɪn/
/θɪŋk/ /θɪŋ/
/peɪpə/ /sɪŋ/
/ʧɪmnɪ/ /´ʤesʧə/
/ðɪs/ /ðæt/
/ðə/ /ðəʊz/
/jes/ /waɪl/
/waɪt/ /´jestədeɪ/
/ʤɒn/ /´pi:pəl/
/ʧɜ:ʧ/ /ɪg´zæm/
/meɪk/ /feɪk/
/leɪt/ /teɪk/
/wɔ:k/ /tɔ:k/
/kʊd/ /wʊd/
/´teɪbəl/ /ʃu:/
/ʃi:/ /hi:/
/aɪ/ /maɪ/
/ju:/ /jɔ:/
/meɪ/ /naɪt/
/ðeə/ /feə/
/taɪt/ /sɔ:s/
/bʌt/ /ʌs/
Test
1. Articulatory phonetics studies:

A. The perception of speech sounds.
B. The physical properties of sounds.
C. The production of speech sounds.
2. The allophone is:

A. The actual realization of a phoneme.
B. The minimal constituent in morphology.
C. The written representation of a phoneme.
3. English has:
A. 26 graphemes and 40 phonemes.
B. 25 graphemes and 42 phonemes.
C. 26 graphemes and 44 phonemes.
4. Minimal pairs are:

A. Words in which only one phoneme is different.
B. Words with similar meaning.
C. Words with similar spelling.
5. How many vowels are there in English?

A. 12 vowels and 7 diphthongs.
B. 5 vowels.
C. 10 vowels.
D. 12 vowels and 8 diphthongs.
6. The phonetic transcription is used for:

A. The representation of real speech
B. The representation of ideal speech.
7. In English, 1 grapheme always represents 1 sound:

A. True.
B. False.
Unit 1 – Test 33
8. The phoneme is:

A. The minimal constituent in phonetics.
B. An abstract entity which stands as a sound in a language.
C. Both A and B are correct.
9. The respiratory system is not studied in articulatory phonetics:

A. True.
B. False.
10. Acoustic phonetics studies:

A. The physical properties of sounds.
B. The perception of sounds.
C. The production of sounds.
Unit 1 – Test 34

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Phonetics: The Science of Speech

[1.2] Phonetics: the science of speech sounds

[1.3] Types of phonetics

[1.4] The phoneme and the allophone. The grapheme

[1.5] The International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA)

[1.6] The phonemic transcription

1.1. How to study unit 1?

Pay close attention to the main ideas developed in this summary.

1.2. Phonetics: the science of speech sounds

Phonetics is the linguistic branch which studies:

Linguistics is the science in charge of studying language in terms of the human

Unit 1 – Pay attention to 3

Unit 1 – Pay attention to 4

In other words, phonology aims at an ideal pronunciation of speech sounds whereas

As professor Eugenio Martínez Celdrán states:

To end up this discussion, we will highlight that phonological or phonemic

As we have already stated, languages are communication-oriented tools.

Unit 1 – Pay attention to 5

Unit 1 – Pay attention to 6

Dual functions of the speech organs

It is then important to be aware of how a particular speech sound is produced or

Unit 1 – Pay attention to 7

Exercises (minimal-pairs activities) to distinguish between similar speech sounds.

1.3. Types of phonetics

As a consequence, phonetics has been traditionally divided into three different

Acoustic phonetics: it studies the physical properties of the speech sounds in

Auditory phonetics: it tackles the mechanisms involved in the perception and

Unit 1 – Pay attention to 8

Articulatory phonetics Acoustic phonetics Auditory phonetics

Although we will primarily focus on the resources provided by the articulatory

Unit 1 – Pay attention to 9

Unit 1 – Pay attention to 10

The articulatory system: this is where the airstream is finally modified to

Articulatory phonetics Acoustic phonetics Auditory phonetics

Unit 1 – Pay attention to 11

This dual distinction is highly relevant since a thorough understanding of the

PLACE OF ARTICULATION (WHERE)

Plosive /p/ /b/ /t/ /d/ /k//g/

Nasal /m/ /n/ /ŋ/

Approximant /w/1 /r/2 /j/ /w/1

Unit 1 – Pay attention to 12

Acoustic phonetics studies the speech sounds as physical entities.

Articulatory phonetics Acoustic phonetics Auditory phonetics

Acoustic phonetics relies on laboratory experiments with accurate instruments such as

A spectrogram gives us information on the amount of energy employed in the sound

Unit 1 – Pay attention to 13

Auditory perception is normally described in terms of:

Unit 1 – Pay attention to 14

Articulatory phonetics Acoustic phonetics Auditory phonetics

1.4. The phoneme and the allophone. The grapheme

The phoneme and the allophone

At this point, it is helpful to think of language as a speech chain where several

A phoneme can be defined as the distinctive sound in a particular language capable of

Unit 1 – Pay attention to 15

Phonemes have no meaning in isolation but they combine to form words

These different realizations of a phoneme are called allophones.

Unit 1 – Pay attention to 16

Allophones are represented within square brackets [ ] in phonetic transcription. For

Phonetic transcription (representing two different ways in which this word is

Unit 1 – Pay attention to 17

Grapheme Represented phoneme Example

“a” /eɪ/ Cake