Phonetics and Phonology

IMPORTANT CONCEPTS

Selected by: Normareliz Espinosa from different sources.

1. Phonetics vs. phonology.

Phonetics deals with the production of speech sounds by humans, often without prior
knowledge of the language being spoken. Phonology is about patterns of sounds,
especially different patterns of sounds in different languages, or within each language,
different patterns of sounds in different positions in words etc.

2. International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA).

International Phonetic 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—
that is, every sound, or phoneme, that serves to distinguish one word from another.

3. 26 letters in English alphabet: 44 sounds.

There are 26 letters in the English alphabet. These 26 letters represent 44 sounds. Each
sound has its own symbol.
 Phonetics and Phonology
IMPORTANT CONCEPTS
Selected by: Normareliz Espinosa from different sources.

4. Vowels.

20 vowels are divided into two parts: monophthongs and diphthongs. So, 12
monophthongs and 8 diphthongs are 20 vowel sounds.

-Monophthongs are also called pure vowels as they have single sound in their
pronunciation. There is no shift or glide from one sound to another sound while we
pronounce these vowels. The position of our tongue and mouth remains the same when
we pronounce these vowel sounds.

12 monophthongs are divided into two parts: long vowels (5) and short vowels (7).
Examples:

Long vowels: /i:/-week, /ɑ:/-hard,/ɔ:/-fork,/ɜ:/-heard, /u:/-boot

Short vowels: /ɪ/-pit, /e/-pet, /æ/-pat, /ʌ/-cut, /ʊ/-put, /ɒ/-dog, /ə/-about.

-Diphthongs. A diphthong is a sound made by combining two vowels specifically when it

starts as one vowel sound and goes to another sound. If we break the word diphthong we
get two parts Di and phthong. That means two sounds. When we pronounce diphthong
sound, there is a glide or shift from one sound to another sound. This glide from one sound
to another makes one diphthong sound. That is why diphthongs can also be called impure
or gliding vowels.

Examples of diphthong vowels: /eɪ/-place, /oʊ/-home, /aʊ/-mouse, /ɪə/-clear,/eə/-care,

/ɔɪ/-boy, /aɪ/-find, /ʊə/-tour.

5. Consonants.

Consonants are produced by restricting and then releasing the flow of air in three ways:
vibrating the vocal cords, changing the part of the anatomy which restricts the air flow, and
changing the extent to which the air flow is restricted. Consonants with relatively little
vibration of the vocal cords are called voiceless consonants. Consonants with relatively
more vibration of the vocal cords are called voiced.

To sum up, English consonants can be unvoiced and voiced. More specifically, the
English language has 24 consonant sounds. Some consonants have voice from the
voicebox and some don’t.

An unvoiced consonant means that there is is no vibration or voice coming from the
voicebox when the sound is pronounced. Examples of unvoiced consonant sounds are /s/,
/p/ and /t/.
 Phonetics and Phonology
IMPORTANT CONCEPTS
Selected by: Normareliz Espinosa from different sources.

A voiced consonant means that there is voice or vibration coming from the voicebox
when the sound is pronounced. Examples of voiced consonant sounds are /v/, /b/ and /g/.

These consonants are voiced and voiceless pairs:

/p/ /b/

/t/ /d/

/k/ /g/

/f/ /v/

/s/ /z/

/θ/ /ð/

/ʃ/ /ʒ/

/ʈʃ/ /dʒ/

These consonants are voiced /h/, /w/, /n/, /m/, /r/, /j/, /ŋ/, /l/.

6. Homophones.

Homophones are two or more words that share the same pronunciation, but which have
different spellings or meanings. For example, the words ‘hear’ and ‘here’ are homophones
because they mean completely different things, even though they sound similar. In some
cases, homophones have the same spelling.

Examples:

1. There vs Their vs They're

2. To vs Too vs Two
3. Bough vs Bow
4. Lead vs Led
5. Sell vs Cell
6. Hear vs Here
7. Sea vs See
8. Bear vs Bare
9. Flower vs Flour
10. Ate vs Eight
 Phonetics and Phonology
IMPORTANT CONCEPTS
Selected by: Normareliz Espinosa from different sources.

7. What are silent letters?

“Letters that you can’t hear when you say the word, but that are there when you
write the word”.

A silent letter is a letter that isn’t heard when a particular word is pronounced. Think
of the “b” in subtle, the “a” in bread, and the “h,” in ghost. Almost every word in the
alphabet plays the role of a silent letter in at least one word.

Why Do Silent Letters Exist?

1) When writing, silent letters can help differentiate homophones.

Take for example hour and our. They are spelled almost the same, but the “h” in hour
helps you identify that the word means “60 minutes”.
Hours went by, and still, they never admitted that the tickets were ours.

Another example of these types of homophones are knew and new as well as know, now,
and no.
He knew that the new version of the game was going to be more expensive, but he
bought it either way.

2) The word came from another language.

Often, a word has a silent letter because it came from another language. For example,
tsunami /[t]suːˈnɑːmi/ is a Japanese word. Psychology /saɪˈkɒlədʒi/has Greek origins.