Irina Noé Cerrudo. Traductorado Público de Inglés. Primer año.

ESLE – UDA.

Phonetics and Phonology.

Brief summary unit by unit.

UNIT I.
“Language is a system of choices (because there are different elements
working together with a purpose, and speakers can choose between sounds,
prosodic features, morphemes, syntactic structures, etc.) from which speakers
(language users) select in order to create meaning (it refers to speakers
´experiences and ideas of the context and themselves)”.

There is one science that systematically and formally studies language and it is
called Linguistics.
- Linguistics is the formal study of language and it originated from
philosofy, the mother of all sciences. But, as language itself as an object
of study is a complex field, there are different branches or sub-
sciences that derive from and belong to linguistics, each of which
focuses on specific aspects of language.
- Some sub-sciences are: morphology, syntax, semantics, pragmatics,
sociolinguistics, psycholinguistics, phonetics and phonology.

Phonetics: is the Articulatory Acoustic Auditory

scientific study of phonetics: it phonetics: it is phonetics: it
how humans studies how concerned with focuses on how
produce, transmit sounds are how speech speech sounds are
and perceive articulated and sounds and their perceived by the
sounds. It is a analyses which physical listener.
general science organs and properties travel
that studies muscles take part from a speaker´s
speech sounds in the production mouth to a
from all languages. of speech-sounds. listener´s ear.
Three main areas
of phonetics can
be identified:
Phonology: is the Segmental phonology: it Suprasegmental
scientific study of how deals with segments phonology: it deals with
speech sounds form (sounds). larger units tan the
patterns in a particular segment (syllables, feet,
language. It is concerned intonation phrases, etc).
with how sounds behave
in a given language. It is
an specific science that
generally focuses on
single languages.

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Irina Noé Cerrudo. Traductorado Público de Inglés. Primer año.
ESLE – UDA.

Two main areas of

phonollogy can be
identified:
How does speech vary?
Dialect: Accent:
- It is a variety of language used - It is a variety of pronunciation
by a specific group of people. used by a specific group of
- It is different from other people.
dialects in terms of sintax, - Different from other accents
vocabulary, pronunciation, etc. only in term of pronunciation.
- E.g. “Trousers” (UK) “Pants” - E.g. “Water” /ˈwɔːtə/ (GB) -
(US). “Water” /ˈwɔtəɹ/ (GA)
What variety of English are we studying?
General British (GB) is the variety of English we are describing and learning. It
is a social accent heard from educated speakers throughout Britain and its non-
localisable or has very few regional variances (it is more neutral in terms of
regionalism).
General British is also known as: Modern Received Pronunciation, Estuary
English, BBC English, Standard Southern British Pronunciation.
IPA
IPA is the International Phonetic Association who created the IPA
(International Phonetic Alphabet). It is what we use to represent sounds in a
written form.
Phonemes: Allophones:
- It can be defined as the - They can be defined as
smallest speech unit that can different realisations of speech
change the meaning of a word. sounds which do not change
The amount of phonemes in a the meaning of a word.
language can be determined by - Allophonic realisations ca be in
analising minimal pairs (two free variation (the speaker
words that have equal choses to use that specific
pronunciation but differ in one sound realisation) or in
sound). complementary distribution
- E.g. Cot – Pot. Pin – Bin. (the speaker produces that
specific realisation because of
th influence of the environment
in which they occur).
Additional info.
- The process of changing one
sound for another to determine
if meaning changes can be
referred as commutation.
- Words that have different
spelling or different meaning
but are pronounced exactly the

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Irina Noé Cerrudo. Traductorado Público de Inglés. Primer año.
ESLE – UDA.

same are called homophones.

E.g. see and sea.
- Words that have the same
spelling but different
pronunciation in different
contexts are called
homographs. E.g. row.
- In General British English
there are 44 phonemes. 20
vowel sounds (12
monophthongs/pure vowels and
8 diphthongs). 24 consonant
sounds (6 plosives, 2 affricates,
9 fricatives, 3 nasals, 1 lateral,
1 retroflex, 2 semivowels).

UNIT II.
General information:
- There are two terms that we must differentiate: anatomy (structure)
and physiology (function).
- None of the organs human beings use to produce speech are exclusively
used for speaking.
- Producing speech is a secondary function.
- The use of the organs involved in speaking developed this function later
in evolution.
The three systems of speech organs.
1. The respiratory system: it provides the airstream on which
speech is produced. It includes:
The rib cage: it´s The intercostal The diaphragm: a
barrel shaped and muscles: a group of dome-shaped muscle.
contains the lungs and muscles that run
the intercostal between the ribs.
muscles.
The lungs: a pair of The bronchial tubes: The trachea: it is a
organs made of they are pipes that windpipe.
sponge-like material connect the trachea
that do not move. and the inside of the
lungs.
- The main function of the respiratory system is to breathe.
- By breathing, we are able to provide oxygen to the body and remove
carbon dioxide from the blood.
- The main function in producing speech is to provide the airstream1 to

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Irina Noé Cerrudo. Traductorado Público de Inglés. Primer año.
ESLE – UDA.

produce sounds (the flow of air).

- Speech in English is produced on an egressive pulmonic airstream.
- In order to get air inside the lungs, speakers inhale2.
- In order to get air outside the lungs, speakers exhale3.
- Inhalation and exhalation generally take the same amount of time.
- However, when speaking, exhalation takes longer4.
2. The phonatory system.
The cricoid cartilage: it functions The thyroid cartilage: it is like
as the top ring of the trachea and two flat plates that can be seen
forms the base of the larynx. and felt as the Adam´s apple. It is
a shield for the vocal folds.
The arytenoid cartilages: they sit The vocal folds or vocal cords5:
on the cricoid cartilage and are are muscles covered by several
attached to it by a joint that moves layers of fibrous tissue. They are
and allows the speaker to tense there to prevent food entering the
or relax the vocal folds. trachea or the respiratory system.
They also allow us to hold our
breath. They are responsible for
phonation (secondary function), it
refers to the vocal folds rapidly
opening and closing (this is what we
call vibration6).
3. The articulatory system: it consists of three cavities which act
as resonating chambers and amplify the buzz produced by the
vocal cords.
The pharyngeal The oral cavity: its The nasal cavity: it is
cavity: it is the throat. shape varies greatly 10cm long.
It is 12cm long and from speaker to
extends from the speaker.
1
The airstream can be ingressive (it goes in) or egressive (it goes out). Egressive airstream can be
pulmonic or glottalic.
2
The intercostal muscles and the rib cage are lifted, the diaphragm is lowered to increase lung volume.
The difference in atmospheric pressure allows the external air to enter the body through the mouth to
the lungs.
3
The intercostal muscles, rib cage and diaphragm work together to produce pressure and reduce lung
volume and expel air.
4
During the production of pulmonic egressive speech, the breathing muscles work together to maintain
a consistent level of pressure. The necessity to refill the lungs to speak determines an important
characteristic of speech: it can be divided into breath groups.
5
Some extra information about the vocal cords: its length is 12-17mm for adult females and 17-25mm
for adult males. The space between the vocal cords is called glottis.
6
Not all the speech sounds are generated with vocal fold vibration: see /f/ and /v/. When the airstream
escapes through the larynx and the vocal folds, different modes of phonation are produced. These are:
voiced sounds (produced with the vibration of the vocal folds) and voiceless sounds (produced without
vibration of the vocal folds). When producing voiced sounds, the vocal cords open and close. When
producing voiceless sounds, the vocal cords are separated.

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Irina Noé Cerrudo. Traductorado Público de Inglés. Primer año.
ESLE – UDA.
larynx to the mouth
and nose.
The uvula: it is a small
fleshy appendage at
the lower end of the
palate. In English
language, it is a passive
articulator.
The lips: they are two
fleshy folds richly
supplied with muscles.
They can block, allow
or reduce the airflow
coming from the lungs.
They can be held
rounded or spread.
They can work
together with the
teeth to produce
sounds.
They are active
articulators.
The articulators
The palate: it is a
bony structure that
forms the roof of the
mouth. In order to
study it: we can
identify two parts: the
hard palate and the
alveolar ridge. It is
not capable of
movement (passive
articulator).
The mandible: it is an
approximately U-
shaped bone structure.
It can move up and
down. Downwards
movements influence
the position of the
tongue.
The soft palate or
velum: it is muscular
tissue at the back of
the palate that can be
lowered or raised to
allow air flow through
the nose or mouth. If
it is raised, the air
escapes through the
mouth (oral sounds).
If it is lowered, the air
escapes through the
nose (nasal sounds).
It is capable of
movement (active
articulator).
The tongue: it is the
most important active
articulator and the
most complex organ of
speech.
It consists nearly of
entire muscle.
It can assume a wide
variety of shapes.
For descriptive
purposes, it is
segmented into
different sections.
These are: tip, blade,
front, back, root.