Unit-IV: Phonetics

4.1 IPA Symbols

 Phonetics
• Linguistics is the scientific study of language.
• Phonetics, an important branch of linguistics,
is the study of speech sounds.
• Broadly, it's the science or study of speech
sounds and their production, transmission,
and reception, and their analysis,
classification, and transcription.
 Basically, we have three ways of classifying
speech sounds based on phonetic features:
voicing, by place of articulation, and by
nasalization.
 Branches of Phonetics

Phonetics has main three branches:

1. Acoustic phonetics: focuses on

the physical properties of the sounds
of language.
2. Auditory phonetics: focuses
on how listeners perceive the
sounds of language.
3. phonetics: focuses on how
the vocal tract produces the
sounds of language. Most
speech sounds are produced by
pushing air through the vocal
cords:
Glottis = the opening between the
vocalcords
Larynx = ‘voicebox’
Pharynx = tubular part of the throat above
the larynx
Oral cavity =mouth
Nasal cavity = nose and the passages
connecting it to the throat and sinuses.

International Phonetic Alphabet

• In 1888, the International Phonetic

Alphabet (IPA) was invented in
 order to have a system in which
there was a one-to-one
correspondence between each
sound in language and each
phonetic symbol.

• We have 24 consonant sounds and

20 vowel sounds in IPA.

• Out of 20 Vowel sounds, 12 vowel

sounds are called 'Monophthong' or
'Pure Vowel' and 8 vowel sounds
are called 'Diphthong' or 'glide
vowel'.

• Someone who knows the IPA knows

 how to pronounce any word in any
language.

• Using IPA symbols, we can now

represent the pronunciation of
words unambiguously.
(IPA Chart)
 (Consonants)
Place of Articulation

• Consonants are sounds produced with

some restriction or closure in the vocal
tract.
• Consonants are classified based in
part on where in the vocal tract the
airflow is being restricted (the place
of articulation).
• The major places of articulationare:
bilabial, labiodental, interdental, alveolar,
palatal, velar, uvular, and glottal, etc.

Place of Articulation
 Place of Articulation
(Explanation)
• Bilabials: [p] [b] [m]
– Produced by bringing both lipstogether
• Labiodentals: [f] [v]
– Produced by touching the bottom lip to the
upperteeth
• Dental/Interdentals [θ] [ð]
 – Produced by putting the tip of the tongue
between the teeth.

• Alveolars: [t] [d] [n] [s] [z] [l] [r]

– All of these are produced by raising the
tongue to the alveolar ridge in someway

• [t, d, n]: produced by the tip of the tongue

touching the alveolar ridge (or just in front
ofit)

• [s, z]: produced with the sides of the front of

the tongue raised but the tip lowered to allow
air toescape

• [l]: the tongue tip is raised while the rest of the

tongue remains down so air can escape over the
sides of the tongue (thus [l] is a lateral sound)

• [r]: air escapes through the central part of the

 mouth; either the tip of the tongue is curled
back behind the alveolar ridge or the top of the
tongue is bunched up behind the alveolar
ridge.

• Palato-Alveolar: [ʃ] [ʒ] [ʧ] [ʤ]

- Produced by raising the blade of the tongue to the

back part of alveolar ridge.

• Palatals:] [j]
– Produced by raising the front part of the tongue to the hard-
palate.

• Velars: [k] [g] [ŋ]

– Produced by raising the back of the tongue to the soft-palate or
velum.
• Glotals: [h]
– Produced by restricting the airflow through the open glottis
([h]) or by stopping the air completely at the glottis.
 Manner of Articulation
(Explanation)
The manner of articulation is the way the air
stream is affected as it flows from the lungs and
out of the mouth and nose. Oral sounds are those
produced with the velum raised to prevent air from
escaping out the nose.
 Nasal sounds: [m], [n] [ŋ]
- Produced with the velum lowered to allow air to
escape out the nose.
• Plosives or Stops: [p] [b] [t] [d] [n] [k] [g]
– Produced by completely stopping the air
flow in the oral cavity for a fraction of a
second.
 • All other sounds are continuants, meaning
that the airflow is continuous through the
oralcavity

• Fricatives: [f] [v] [θ] [ð] [s] [z] [ʃ] [ʒ] [h]
– Produced by severely obstructing the airflow
so as to causefriction.

• Affricates: [ʧ][ʤ]
– Produced by a stop closure that is released with
a lot of friction

• Liquids: [l][r]
– Produced by causing some obstruction of the
airstream in the mouth, but not enough to cause
any realfriction
 • Glides: [j] [w]
– Produced with very little obstruction of the
airstream and are always followed by a vowel.

• Approximants: [w] [j] [r] [l]

– Sometimes liquids and glides are put together into
one category because the articulators
approximate a frictional closeness but do not
actually cause friction.

 Trills and Flaps: [r]

– Trills are produced by rapidly vibrating anarticulator
– Flaps are produced by a flick of the tongue against the
alveolar ridge.
R
 Vowels
• Vowels are classified by how high or low the tongue
is, if the tongue is in the front or back of the mouth,
and whether or not the lips are rounded.

• High vowels: [i] [ɪ] [u][ʊ]

• Mid vowels: [e] [ɛ] [o] [ə] [ʌ][ɔ]
• Low vowels: [æ][a]

• Front vowels: [i] [ɪ] [e] [ɛ][æ]

• Central vowels: [ə][ʌ]
• Back vowels: [u] [ɔ] [o] [æ][a]
Vowels
Vowels are mainly categorised into:
1. Monophthong or Pure Vowel
2. Diphthong or Glide Vowel

1.Monophthong or Pure Vowel:

A. The word monophthong comes from the old Greek
language: mono means one or single, and the -
phthong means sound or tone.

B. The word monophthong shows that a vowel is

spoken with exactly one tone and one mouth position.

C. Here, vowels don't glide like diphthongs. For

example, when you say “teeth”, then while you are
creating the sound of the “ee”, nothing changes for that
sound. In phonetics we find 12 pure vowels as follows:
Vowel Sounds. words Transcription
[ɪ] sit, it /sɪt/, /ɪt/
[I:] seat, beast. /si:t/, /bi:st/
[e] get, red. /get/, /red/
[æt] cat, bat, /kæt/, /bæt/
[ɑː] car, arm, /kɑː/, /ɑːm/
[ʌ/] cut, shut, /kʌt/, /ʃʌt/
[ə] about, letter /əbaʊt/, /ˈlɛtə(r)/
[ɜ:] pearl, girl, /pɜːl/, /ɡɜːl/
[ʊ]. cook, book,. /kʊk/, /bʊk/
[uː] fool, cool, /fuːl/, /kuːl/
[ɒ] pot, lot, /pɒt/, /lɒt/
[ɔː] all, call,. /ɔːl/, /kɔːl/
2. Diphthong or Glide Vowel:
A. Diphthong comes from the old Greek language. Di
means two or double, while the part -phthong means
sound or tone, It is a vowel where two different vowel
qualities can be heard.
B. A Diphthong is also a vowel and also known as 'glide
Vowel' unlike 'pure vowel'.
C. Diphthong is basically a combination two pure vowels
where one Vowel moves towards another Vowel position
and creats diphthong.
D. A person has to move his or her mouth into two different
positions to make the sound. Each of these is a different
vowel sound. Examples are as follows::
 Voiced and Voiceless Sounds

1. Voiceless sounds are those produced with the

vocal cords apart so the air flows freely through the
glottis. When you pronounce voiceless consonants,
your throat does not vibrate. Only air comes out of
your mouth. There are more voiced consonants
than voiceless ones.
Voiceless Consonant Sounds:
/p/, /t/, /k/
/tʃ/
/f/, /θ/, /s/, /ʃ/, / h/

2. Voiced sounds are those produced when the

vocal cords are together and vibrate as air passes
through. When you pronounce voiced consonants,
your throat should vibrate. Put your fingers around
your throat (Adam’s Apple) and feel your throat
vibrate. Besides these consonants, all pure vowel
sounds and diphthongs (combinations of two vowel
sounds) are voiced.
Voiced Consonant Sounds:
/b/, /d/, /g/
/ dʒ/
/v/, /ð/, /z/, /ʒ/
/m/, /n/, /ŋ/
/l/
/w, /ɹ/, /j/

The voiced/voiceless distinction is important in English

because it helps us distinguish words like:
rope/robe fine/vine seal/zeal
/rop/, /rob/. /faɪn/, /vaɪn/ /sil/, /zil/

But some voiceless sounds can be

further distinguished as aspirated
or unaspirated
 aspirated unaspirated
pool /phul/ spool /spul/
tale /thel/ stale /stel/
kale /khel/ scale /skel/

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