Phonetics

Introduction
Phonetics is one of branches in linguistics which other branches are phonology,
morphology, syntax, and semantics. Phonetics as it is formed by two morphemes has a
meaning ‘the study of sound’. However, this meaning is ambiguous with the phonology
which also has a meaning ‘the study of sound’. Therefore, the complete definition or meaning
should be given that phonetic is the study of sound produced by the human organs of speech.
Not only languages contain different sounds but also the words in the language itself
also contains different sounds. English with other languages (Indonesian, Javanese, French,
Japanese, Korean, Mandarin, etc) has different sounds for examples maison in French, rumah
in Indonesian, and omah in Javanese. In English, the sounds are arranged to have a word
“house”, those are letters of h-o-u-s-e. It is different sounds or letters to have a word “good”
which the letter arrangement is g-o-o-d.
Learning a language not only knows the sounds represented by letters but also the
more important is how to produce the sounds correctly as the speakers of standard English
produce the sounds. In order to have good linguistic knowledge on phonetics, the sounds are
classified according to the results of the English production of sounds from the organs of
speech.

Individual sounds, continuous sounds, and ambiguous sounds

Learning a phonetic in a language, we should know and able to give differences
between individual sounds and continuous sounds. Individual sounds are not on words, but
continuous sounds are on words. Individual sounds are spellings and continuous sounds are
pronunciation. Spelling refers to the alphabet of a language such as English, Indonesian,
Javanese, Chinese Mandarin, Korean, Japanese, and Arabic. Continuous sounds are
continuous motion of speech organs when the sounds are produced. Phonetic knowledge also
indicate that we are able to segment sentences into words, clauses into words, and words into
sounds.
In English, the sounds on phrases and sentences which have distinctive in printing or
distinctive letters show ambiguous spoken. The ambiguous spoken makes the
misinterpretation for listeners such as grade A with grade day, I scream with ice cream, the
sun’s rays meet with the sons raise meat. The distinctive in printing for a word between
different languages will be ambiguous spoken if we see the word without a context for

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example the pronunciation for the word “house” in English and in Indonesian. In English, the
pronunciation for the word “red” means red colour and the past participle also ambiguous in
spoken.
Identity of speech sounds
There are no speakers who say the same word including English words. Speakers will
show different degree such as people’s size, age, and gender. Examples are the saying for the
same words among the adults, teenagers, children, and small children even between two
teenagers. These are personal differences not linguistic differences.
Phonetic knowledge makes awareness of speakers for the sound differences in
English itself or between English with other languages. Tsk is not a part of an English sound
but a Xhosa sound, a language spoken in southern Africa. The letters th in the word thank is
speech sound of English but not French. The letters mb is a part of Javanese sound not
Indonesian even English. It is said then that the inventory of speech sounds the words are
built from are different among languages to a greater or lesser degree.

The phonetic alphabet

Spelling or orthography in English does not represent the sounds of English language
in a consistent way. It is different cases with Indonesian language because spelling represents
the sounds of Indonesian in a consistent way. Rather different is Javanese because spelling in
Javanese sometimes does not represent the sound of Javanese language in a consistent way.
In English, the letter a represents the various sounds such as in a sentence “My father
wanted many a village dame badly. Three sounds of a are strong, mid (usual), and weak in
the words badly, many or village, and a in village. The second, the combination of letters
represents a single sound such as sh in shoot, th in either, oa in coat, ch in character, ea in
deal, ci in glacial, th in Thomas, gh in rough, th in theater, ph in physics, ti in nation, and ai in
plain. The letter x represents two sounds. In the word sex when x is not pronounced as z
represents two sounds ks. There are also “silent letters” in some words such as honest,
mnemonic, psychology, bough, autumn, chthonic, sword, phthalate, asthma, hole, debt,
island, corps, and knot. The fifth, the letter in words represents different sounds such as u
represents yu in use, cute, and fume contrast to coot, fool, and umlaut.

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IPA Symbols
IPA or International Phonetic Alphabet represents English speech sounds.
Table 1. | A Phonetic Alphabet for English Pronunciation
Consonants Vowels
p pill t till k kill i beet ɪ bit
b bill d dill g gill e bait ɛ bet
m mill n nil ŋ ring u boot ʊ foot
f feel s seal h heal o boat ɔ bore
v veal z zeal l leaf æ bat a pot/bar
θ thigh ʧ chill r reef ʌ butt ə sofa
ð thy ʤ gin j you aɪ bite aʊ bout
ʃ shill ʍ which w witch ɔɪ boy
ʒ measure

The square brackets [ ] are the phonetic symbols used to distinguish them from
ordinary letters. The sound a in sofa is produced toward the bottom right of the chart. This
sound is weak and used to represent vowels in syllables which are not emphasized and the
duration of speaking is very short. Other examples are general, about, reader, etc.
The pronunciation for some words could be different and same in the word which and
witch, the initial sound of both words is symbolized by [w] in the chart or the “breathy” wh
of which is represented by [ʍ]. The same pronunciation of vowels is in bought and pot. The
organ of speech mouth is wider open not like the pronunciation in words no and born. The
phonetic differences occur among many varieties of English or many dialects such as
American English, England, Australia, Ireland, and India.
The IPA uses an upside-down r ([ɹ]) for the English sound r. The six words below, ou
represents six distinct vowel sounds; the gh is silent in all but rough, where it is pronounced
[f]; the th represents a single sound, either [θ] or [ð], and the l in would is also silent.
However, the phonetic transcription gives us the actual pronunciations such as though [ðo],
thought [θɔt], rough [rʌf], bough [baʊ], through [θru], and would [wʊd].

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