Phonetics

 The study of physical properties of sound

 Sounds may not be represented
systematically by spelling.
 Examples?
 Why not just spell?
 Sounds may not be represented
systematically by spelling because...
 Same spelling for different sounds
 Combination of letters representing one
sound,
 Some letters are silent
 Phonetic Alphabet
 One symbol represents one sound
 Each speech sound has a distinct symbol
 Cross-linguistically applicable
 IPA symbols for Transcription

[p]= pat [k]= car [h]= hat

[b]= bat [g]=guard [m]=mull

[f]= foot [n]= null
[t]= tap
[v]= van [ŋ]= ring
[d]=dam
 IPA symbols for transcription
[s] = sap [ʃ]= shine [ɹ]= ring
[z] = zip [ʒ] = vision [l]= leaf
[θ] = think [ʧ]= touch [j] = yes
[ð] = this [ʤ]= judge [w]= with
 IPA symbols for transcription

[i]=sheep [u]= boot [æ]=ash

[ɪ]=ship [ʊ]=put [ɑ]= father
[ɛ]= end [ɔ]= open [ə]=about
[ʌ]= but
Diphthongs (Complex Vowels)
•Complex because they are two-
part vowels
•But count as a single sound
because two vowels are
articulated together. Examples:
[ɑɪ] =bite
[ɔɪ] = boy
[eɪ]= bait
IPA symbols for transcription
PRACTICE!
(Remember brackets!)

next chin lamb

kite cat meet
 IPA symbols for transcription
PRACTICE!
next [nɛkst] chin [ʧɪn] lamb [læm]

kite [kɑɪt] cat [kæt] meet [mit]

The Vocal Tract
 Consonants vs. Vowels
 consonantal sounds: obstruction of airflow
in vocal tract
 vowel sounds: little to no obstruction of
airflow
 Features of Consonants
 Voicing (state of the glottis)
 Place of articulation
 Manner of articulation
 Site for listening to the sounds of
American English:

http://www.uiowa.edu/~acadtech/phoneti
cs/english/frameset.html
Voicing
Voicing
 Place of Articulation
 Articulator: Organ a speaker employs to
produce and distinguish certain speech
sound (e.g. lips are active articulators and
hard plate is a passive articulator)
 Place of articulation: Identifies the location
of articulators
 Place of Articulation
 Bilabial [p] [b] [m] [w]
 Labiodental [f] [v]
 Interdental [θ] [ð]
 Alveolar [t] [d] [n] [s] [z] [l] [ɹ]
 Palatal [ʃ] [ʒ] [ʧ] [ʤ] [j]
 Velar [k] [g] [ŋ]
 Manners of articulation
 Stops [p] [b] [t] [d] [k] [g]
 Fricatives [f] [v] [θ] [ð] [s] [z] [ʃ] [ʒ]
 Affricates [ʧ] [ʤ]
 Liquids [l] [ɹ]
 Glides [w] [j]
Consonant Chart for English
 Phonetic features of consonants

 To describe phonetic features of

consonants, list (a) voicing (b) place of
articulation and (c) manner of articulation
for consonants (3 features)
e.g. [p] = Voiceless bilabial stop
[z] = Voiced alveolar fricative
 Features of vowels
 All vowels in English are voiced and involve a
continuous flow of air through the oral cavity.
English vowels can be categorized by 4
distinctive features:
(1) Height of the tongue

(2) Frontness/backness of the tongue

(3) Tenseness/laxness i.e. whether the tongue muscle is tense or

lax

(4) Round/unrounded i.e. whether the lips are rounded or not

 Every vowel is a combination of 4
features.
 [i] as in meet is high front tense
unrounded vowel
 [æ] as in pat is low front lax unrounded
 [ɑ] as in pot is low back lax unrounded
Vowels of English
What knowledge do we have about
the sounds of our native language?
 We know which sounds are distinctive
e.g. “l” and “r” are perceived as different
sounds in English but not in Japanese
 We know which sounds can (and can’t
combine)
e.g. Are these possible English words?
mbeem, tsub, coofb
 What do we know about sound in
(and not in) our language?
 Recognize “foreign accents”

 How does a French speaker pronounce the word “this”?

 How does a German speaker pronounce the word

“think”?
 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=64vBaFOfawI