Phonetics and Phonology

Language as Speech
What is Speech?
•Humans use language at two levels to communicate. They are
speech level (speaking) and writing level. At the speech level, sounds
are used to communicate while at the writing level, letters are used in
communication.
•Speech is the ability to speak a language. Only human beings are
capable of using speech to communicate. Even though animals
communicate, they do not have speech. They therefore communicate
by using sounds, smell, gestures, and action.
 What is phonetics?

• Phonetics is the study of speech sounds (vocal symbols)

• Sounds that are used to produce speech are known as speech
sounds and they are technically referred to as phonetic symbols.
Phonetic symbols are written in between two slanting lines, / /
e.g. / b /.
• The phonetic symbols are always written in lower case letters.
• Note that letters are used at the writing level to produce words.
We use inverted commas in writing letters, ‘ ’, e.g. ‘b’
 Types of phonetic studies
• Articulatory phonetics: the study of the description of the
movement of the organs in involved in speech production
• Acoustic phonetics: deals with the study of the physical
properties of the audible signals or speech sounds as they are
produced.
• Auditory phonetics: this studies the how the listener
perceives the speech sounds. From the listener’s point of view,
are the speech sounds clear, hoarse or blurred?
 What is phonology?

• Phonology is the study of speech sound and permissible

sound patterns in a particular language.
• The English language has a phonological patterns of
sound sequence such as ‘str’, ‘spl’, ‘spr’, ‘acr’, etc but
does not accept patterns such as ‘kgd’, ‘dtm’, ‘sfw’,
etc
 Organs of Speech
• The organs that help us to produce speech sounds are
known as speech organs.
• The organs that help in speech production are: the lips,
teeth, tongue, alveolar ridge, hard palate, soft palate,
vocal cavity, the nasal cavity.
• The main organs of speech are represented in the
diagrams below.
 Vowel Sounds
• Vowels are speech sounds which are produced without any
constriction in the air flow
• The English language has 20 vowel sounds:
12 pure vowels and
8 diphthongs
• Pure vowels are vowels that are said at one pitch level.
They are
single vowel sounds also known as monophthongs. Pure vowels are
made up of;
seven short vowels; /ɪ/, /e/, /æ/, /ɔ/, /ʊ/, /ʌ/, /ə/
five long vowels: , /i: /, / ɑ: /, / ɔ: /, /u: /, /з:/
Pure Vowels
Short vowels Long vowels

/i/ /i:/
i- sit, pill, bitter, kick ea - bead, tea, seat, release
e- packet, market, packet, market ee - peel, breed, feel, sheep
a - shortage, cottage, manage, private eo - people
y – Sympathy, symbol ei - receive, deceive,
u- minute receipt,
ie- babies, ladies ie - relief, belief, chief,
ui- guilty, built seize,
ey - key,
uay - quay,
I - police
e - he, be
Short vowel Short vowel Long vowel

/e/ /Ә/ /З: / or /Ə:/

e - bed, pen tell a – around, about, ir – bird, third first, shirt
a - many, any, alone, again, sofa or – work, word,
ea - dead, head, bread, er – letter, father, ur – burn, turn, curse,
pleasure dancer, walker excursion
ei- leisure, ar – popular, ear – earth, heard,
ai - said spectacular, er – her, herd, perform,
ay - says particular certain
ie - friend or – doctor, actor, yr - myrrh
eo – leopard, Geoffrey, pastor, dictator our – journey,
jeopardy o – of, observe, oblige
u – bonus, minus, focus
ou/r- labour, colour,
famous, neighbour
Short vowel Short vowel Long vowel

/æ/ /ʌ/ /ɑ:/

a - sat, cat, cap, bath, u – mud, cut, cup, sun, ar- car, star, bar, large
matter, battle, gutter, butter, discuss, ear – heart,
black, cattle, mad, ou – tough, young, rough, er – clerk,
bad, enough, courage, al, - psalm, balm, calm,
ai – plaid, plait oo – blood, flood palm,
o – mother, come, son, a, - last
onion, some, oven, au,- laugh
cover, front, dove ass- pass, mass
oe - does oir – reservoir,
Short vowel Long vowel
/Ɔ/ or /ɒ/ /Ɔ:/
o- pot, hot, sorry, knowledge, or - sport, lord, fort, horse, more,
college bore
au/ua- quantity, because, quality oa- broad, soar, hoarse
ou- cough all- tall, all, fall, small, wall
a - yacht, want, wander ou - bought, sought, brought,
thought
a - water, wash
au - taught, fault, daughter,
oor - door, floor
aw – saw, flaw, law, dawn
Short vowel Long vowel
/ʊ/ /u:/
u- full, pull, bush, push oo –loose, fool, pool, tool, cool
o- woman ue,- glue, argue, blue, true
oo - wood, good, foot, book, cook, u – use, rule, futile
wool ui – fruit, fluid, ruin
ou – could, should, would oe- shoe,
ou- you, group, youth
ew – news, chew, nephew, pew
o – lose, do
END OF LESSON

Thanks very
Any questions?
 Description of the English vowels

• The cardinal vowels

• The English vowels
pure vowels
diphthongs
 Parameters for Describing Vowels

•There are three parameters used to describe vowels. They are:

Front-Back parameter

Open-close parameter

State of the lips

 Cardinal Vowel chart
•The cardinal vowel chart is language neutral system devised by Daniel
Jones to help describe vowel system of specific language.

•The chart was adopted and used by an International Phonetic Association

known as International Phonetic Alphabet chart- IPA chart.

•The cardinal vowels are sounds general to language, that is, they do not
occur specifically in only one language. They have been designed and
placed on a chart to serve as reference points in the description of vowels in
other languages.

•The cardinals vowels are 16 in all but are divided into 8 primary cardinal
vowels and 8 secondary cardinal vowels.

•The chart below shows the 8 primary cardinal vowels.

Cardinal vowels
 pure vowels
Front central back

close

half close

half open

Open

spread Neutral Rounded

 Front-back Parameter
• The Front-Back parameter (Horizontal Axis) determines which part of the
tongue is highest in the mouth when the vowels are being produced. Three
types of vowels are determined by this parameter. They are front, central and
back vowels.
•Front vowels are made with the front part of the tongue being raised e.g. /i:
/, /ɪ/, /e/, /æ/.
•Back vowel are produced with the back of the tongue raised example: /ʊ/,
/u: /, /ɔ: /, /ɔ/ /ɑ: /
•Central vowels are produced with central part of the tongue raised.
Example, /ə/, /ɜ: /, /ʌ/
 Open-close parameter
• The Open-Close parameter (Vertical Axis) determines how high the tongue is in the
mouth in relation to the hard palate when the vowel is produced. Vowels under this
parameter are either open, half-open, half-close or close.

•Open vowels are produced when the tongue is at its lowest position in relation to
the palate. They include; /æ /, /α: /, /ʌ/, /ɔ/

•Half-open vowels are also made with the tongue lowered but not as in open
vowels. Examples of half-open vowels are: /e/, /ɔ: /, /ə/, /ɜ: /,

•Half-close vowels are produced with the tongue raised towards the palate. They
include; /ɪ/, /ʊ/

•Close vowels are made when the tongue is raised to the highest in relation to the
hard palate. Example /i: /, /u: /
 State of the lips
• The state of the lips parameters determines the shape of the lips when the vowel is
made. The lips are either rounded, neutral or spread when the sound is being made.
Vowels under this parameter are either rounded, neutral or spread.

•Rounded vowels are vowels produced with rounded lips, the lips move forward
to form an ‘O’ shape. The back vowels are rounded. Example; /u: /, /ʊ/, /ɔ: /, /ɔ/.
Note that /ɑ: / is a back vowel but is produced with neutral lips.

•Spread vowels are said with spread lips. The lips move backward. All front
vowels are said with spread lips. e.g. /i: / /ɪ/, /e/, /æ/

•Neutral vowels are made when the lips neither move forward nor backward.
They are neither rounded nor spread. Example /ə/, / /з: /, /ʌ/
 Vowel Description : Front vowels

• /i:/ - Front Close Vowel Said With Spread Lips

• /ɪ/- Front Half-Close Vowel Said with Spread Lips
• /e/- Front Half-Open Vowel Said with Spread Lips
• /æ/ - Front Open Vowel Said with Spread Lips
• - Back Open Neutral Vowel
/ɑ:/

• /Ɔ/ or /ɒ/- Back Open Rounded Vowel

• /Ɔ:/ - Back Half-Open Rounded Vowel
• /ʊ/ - Back Half-Close Rounded Vowel
• /u:/ - Back Close Rounded Vowel
• /ʌ/ - Central Open Vowel Said with Neutral Lips
• /З: / or /Ə:/ - Central Half-Open Vowel Said with Neutral
Lips
• /Ə/ - Central Half-Open Vowel Said with Neutral Lips
 Diphthongs

•A diphthong is a vowel glide or movement generally represented by two

vowel symbols.
•It is a combination of two vowel sounds produced together.
•In producing diphthongs, the tongue moves from one vowel position to
another vowel position. In terms of length, diphthongs are like the long
vowels described earlier.
•The first part is much longer and stronger than the second part.
 Diphthongs contd.
• The total numbers of diphthongs in English are eight (8), presented in
the diagram below:
• Diphthongs are of two kinds: Closing and centering diphthongs.
•Closing diphthongs are those diphthongs which require the tongue to
slide from a more open vowel quality to a close vowel position.
•There are five closing diphthongs, [ei, ɑi, ɔi, əʊ, ɑʊ].
Closing diphthongs
 Closing diphthongs

•/ei/- spelling clue (ei, a, ay, ai) eight, table, gate, day, pay, sale, tail, bail etc
•/ɑi/- spelling clue (ie, i, y, eye, ei, uy,) die, cry, tie, bye, dive, height, fight, kite,
time, guy, buy

•/ɔi/- spelling clue (oi, oy) oil, boy, toil, boil, employ, coin, choice, joint etc.
•/au/- spelling clue (ou, ow) how, plough, town about, down now, brown etc.
•/əu/- spelling clue (o, ew, ow, oe oa, ou) go, sew, low, hoe, goat, coat, though,
toe etc.
Centring Diphthongs
 Centering diphthongs
• Centering diphthongs require the tongue to move from one vowel position
to a central vowel position.
• The centering diphthongs glide toward the (schwa) vowel (ə).
• The centering diphthongs are three, /iə/, /eə/, / ʊə/.
•/iə/ -spelling clue (ear, eer iour, ior, ea,) ear, fear, hear, tear, appear, idea,
beer, seer, behaviour, junior
•/eə / -spelling clue (air, ere, are, ear, err) air, hair, fair, care, there, bear,
wear, fare, err, mayor.
•/uə/-poor, sure, cure, tour, fewer, Europe etc
 Triphthongs

•Triphthongs are a combination of three vowel sounds produced together.

They
are made by adding the central vowel (ə), known as schwa to the closing
diphthongs.

•/ɑiə /- liar, fire, tire, pliers, wire

• /eiə /- player, layer, prayer, surveyor

• /ɔiə / - loyal, royal, destroyer, employer

•/əʊə/- lower, slower, mower, goers

• /ɑuə/-hour, power, tower, flower, flour, sour,
 Consonant Sounds
• What are consonant sounds?
consonant sounds are produced in which the air proceeding
from the lungs is obstructed.
The obstruction or constriction of the pulmonic egression of the air
flow is one of the features of consonant.
The English language has 24 consonant sounds:

. /p/, /b/, /m/, /w/, /θ/, /ð/, /f/, /v/, /t/, /d/, /l/, /r/, /n/, /s/, /z/,

/ʃ/, /ӡ/, /ʧ/, /ʤ/, /k/, /g/, /ŋ/, /h/, /j/

 Consonant Sounds contd.
• The consonant letters are most often used to represent consonant
sounds.eg ‘b’ for /b/, ‘k’ for /k/, ‘v’ for /v/, ‘z’ for / z/ etc.
• There are, however, few exceptions, for example, ‘c’ can be
represented by the /s/ (soft ‘c’) and /k/ (hard ‘c’) sounds.
• For instance, when the letter ‘c’ is followed by the vowels ‘e’ or ‘i’, it
is produced as /s/. E.g. cease /si:s/, city /sɪtɪ/, cell/sel/.
• But when the letter ‘c’ is followed by vowels such as ‘o’, ‘a’ or ‘u,’ it
is produced as /k/ e.g. car /ka: /, cut /kʌt/, cook /kʊk/.
• There also other symbols, which not letter, used to represent
consonant sounds: /ʃ/, /ӡ/, /ʧ/, /ʤ/, etc
 Description of consonant sounds

• There are three parameters use to describe

consonant. They are
Voicing or phonation

Place of articulation
Manner of articulation.
 Voicing

• Voicing refers to whether the vocal cords vibrate or not when a sound
is produced.
• When a sound is produced with vibration of the vocal cord, then the
sound is said to be a voiced sound.
• When there is no vibration of the vocal cords when a sound is made,
such a sound is known as voiceless sound.
• You may determine this by putting a finger on your Adam’s apple as
you try to pronounce the consonant sounds.
• A consonant sound is therefore either voiced or voiceless.
 Voicing contd.
Voiceless sounds (-V) Voiced sounds (+V)
/p/-pit, pack /b/-bit, back, beg
/f/-fan, feet, phone, laugh /v/-vote, vast, invite
/θ/-thank, theme, thought /ð/-them, the, that, breathe
/t/-tail, time, teeth /d/-dance, dam, dip
/s/-sell, sing, same /z/-zinc, zoo, lazy
/ʃ/-shines, shell, shy, shout /ӡ /-measure, pleasure, leisure
/k/-king, kick, cake, come /g/- give, get, game
 Voicing contd.

Voiceless sounds (-V) Voiced sounds (+V)

/ʧ/-church, charge, change /ʤ/-jail, jump, gentle

/h/-hut, hang, hug
/m/-man, meat
/n/-name, nut
/ŋ/-ring, bang
/l/-left, leaf
/r/-red, run
/j/-yolk, yes
/w/-word, water
 Place of Articulation
• Place of articulation refers to where the sound is produced. In the
production of consonants sounds, the part or point in the mouth at which the
sound is made is the place of articulation.
• The main points of articulating the English consonant sounds are.
• Bilabial – where the two lips are used to make the sounds e.g. [p, b, m, w].
• Dental-where the tip of the tongue is used with the upper and lower teeth to
produce the sounds e.g. [θ, ð]
• Labio-dental –where the lower lip articulates with the upper teeth to produce
sounds e.g. [f, v]
 Place of Articulation contd.
• Alveolar -where the blade or tip of the tongue articulates with the alveolar ridge. E.g. [t, d,
l, n, s, z]
• Post-alveolar -where the tip of the tongue articulate with the rear part of the alveolar ridge
e.g. /r/.
• Palato-alveolar – where the blade or the tip and blade of the tongue raise to touch the
alveolar ridge and / or the hard palate e. g [ ʃ, ӡ, ʧ, ʤ]
• Velar-where the back of the tongue articulates with the velum (soft-palate) to produce
sounds e.g. [k, g, ŋ]
• Glottal-where a narrowing causes friction but not vibration between the vocal lords. E.g.
/h/
 Manner of Articulation

• This refers to how a consonant sound is produced. The air from the
lungs is modified or obstructed differently at the various places of
articulation. The kinds of obstruction made by the organs are four:
total closure, intermittent closure, partial closure and narrowing.
• These four types of obstructionlead to the recognition of six types
consonants based on manner of articulation. These are:
 Total /complete closure
• 1. Plosives -where the air stream is first completely blocked in the mouth
and then released suddenly so that the air escapes with a slight explosive
sound. Plosives are also called stops. e.g. [p, b, t, d, k, g]

• 2. Affricates – These are sounds for which the air is first blocked
completely as in plosives and then released slowly. Affricates begin like
plosives and end as fricatives. E.g.[ʧ, ʤ].
• 3. Nasals- These are sounds for which the air is completely blocked in
the mouth and is allowed to escape through the nose. All nasals are
voiced sounds. Eg. [m, n, ŋ].
Intermittent Closure
Laterals – These are sounds for which the air escapes through the sides of
the tongue or the air escapes around the tongue e.g. [l, r].
Narrowing
Fricatives -These are sounds produced with the air escaping through a
narrow passage thus causing a hissing or friction sound. Fricatives are
also called continuant sounds, that is, they can be made continuously
without interruption as long as you have air in your lungs. E.g. [s, z, f, v,
ʃ, ӡ, θ, ð]

Partial Closure
Semi-vowels- These are sound for which the air escapes through a
relatively wide passage. E. [j, w].
/p/- Voiceless Bilabial Plosive /b/ - Voiced Bilabial Plosive
‘p’ – pit, pack, rope, proper b. bag, bribe, barber, club
‘pp’- happy, wrapper, pepper bb- rubber, bobble

Note that, the ‘b’ in the following words is not

pronounced; doubt, debt, bomb, lamb, climb,
subtle, comb, dumb.
/t/ - Voiceless Alveolar Plosive / d/- Voiced Alveolar Plosive

t- tail, time, teeth, height, writer, coat d. dance, dam, wander, ride
tt- written, bitter, litter, fitter
dd- ladder, bidder, riddle
ed- packed, checked, collected

The ‘t’ in the following words is not The ‘d’ in the following words is
pronounced, listen, often, bustle, castle, silent, handsome, Wednesday,
Christmas, wrestle, fasten handkerchief
/k/ - Voiceless Velar Plosive /g/ - Voiced Velar Plosive
‘k’ – king, key, keep, kill, kiss g- give, get, go, girl, guide

‘ck’ – pack, black, lick, prick chick gh- Ghana, ghost, ghetto

‘ch’ – chameleon, chemistry, stomach, chaos, gg- giggle, bigger, struggle

character, archives

‘c’ or ‘cc’ – cat, coach, come, accomplish,

accord

‘q’ – quay, liquor, quick In the following words, the letter ‘g’ is
silent; sign, high, gnash, resign,
campaign, gnome.

The ‘k’ in words such as know, knight, knife,

knap, etc is silent.
 /f/- Voiceless Labio-Dental /v/- Voiced Labio-Dental Fricative
Fricative

‘f’ or ‘ff’ - fool, fat, different, life, v’ – vote, value, vanish, save, live,
leaf, safe reveal,
‘

ph’ – photograph, physics,

pharmacist,

‘gh’- laugh, cough, rough, tough

/s/- Voiceless Alveolar Fricative /z/- Voiced Alveolar Fricative

‘s’- sink, sing, sip, seat, sew, sow, z- zinc, zero, zip, embezzle, prize

‘sc’- science, scene, scissors s- boys, as, advise, choose, eyes

‘c’ – centre, certificate, dancer, x- xylophone, example, executive

price, etc

‘ps’- psalm, psychiatry,

psychology,
 /ʃ/ - Voiceless Palato-Alveolar /ӡ/ - Voiced Palate-Alveolar
Fricative Fricative

sh- share, shine, shelter, publish, s- usual, pleasure, leisure, closure

,television,
confusion/kənfju:ӡn/,
occasion/əkeiӡn/,
conclusion/kəŋklu:ӡn/
s/ss- sugar, mission, pressure,

t- introduction, education

ch- machine, chef, Champaign,

/ʧ/- Voiceless Palato-Alveolar /ʤ/- Voiced Palate-Alveolar
Affricate Affricate

ch- church, charge, change, rich j- jail, jump, job, judge

tch- watch, batch, match, catch g- gentle, germ, gin, charge

,

t- culture, righteous, actual dge- judge, badge, knowledge

/nɒliʤ/

d - soldier, education/eʤʊkeiʃn/
/θ/ - Voiceless Dental Fricative /ð/ - Voiced Dental Fricative

th- bath, sheath, wreath, worth, the/ th - bathe, sheathe,

theme, thin, thick, thank, wreathe, worthy, thy, though,
think there, then, the, than
 Nasals
/m/ - Voiced Bilabial Nasal ‘m’ or ‘mm’ - money, common, blame,
come,

/n/ - Voiced Alveolar Nasal n or nn – number, news, funnel, banner

kn – know, knock, knight, knapsack,
knee, knife,
pn – pneumonia, pneumatic,
mn - mnemonic, Mnemosyne
gn – gnash, gnaw, gnostic,
/l/ - Voiced Alveolar Lateral /r/ - Voiced Post-Alveolar Lateral

‘l’ – love, letter, declare, ‘r’ or ‘rr’ – right, red, correct,

select, careful, mail, arrow,
‘wr’ – write, writ, wrap, wreath,

The ‘l’ in the following words

is silent; calm, psalm, balm,
talk, salmon, could, palm, half,
colonel, walk, etc
/w/ - Voiced Bilabial Semi-Vowel /j/ - Voiced Palatal Semi-Vowel

‘w’ – win, want, whip, wheat, ‘y’ – you, young, year, yes, yard,
sweat, swap, yeoman, yesteryear,

‘o’ – one, once, someone, ‘u’ - uniform, union, sue, human,

queue, onion

‘u’ – quit, quest, quite, question,

quack, language
ice-/ais/
nature/neitʃə/ sharp/ʃɑ:p/
eyes-/aiz/ quick/kwɪk/
catching/kæʃɪŋ/ photograph/fəutəgra:f/
father/fɑ:ðə/ architect/ɑ:kɪtekt/
football/fʊtbɔ:l/ attend/ətend/ perfect/pз:fɪkt
measure/meӡə/ support/sʌpɔ:t/ honest/ɒnɪst/
ring/rɪŋ/ quantity/kwɒntəti/
usual/ju:ӡuəl/ custody/kʌstədi/ boys/bɔiz
few/fju:/
bank/bæŋk /