Introduction to Phonetic and

Phonology
By
Natalia Anggrarini, M.Pd
Lecturer of FKIP
Wiralodra University
 Definition
Language: what is language?
Language is arbitrary vocal symbol used for
human communication.
How is language produced or used by human?
There are many ways on how human use
language, they can use it by gesture, written
language, symbols, etc.
Every human knows at least one language, spoken or signed.
Linguistics is the science of language, including the sounds, words, and grammar rules.
Words in languages are finite, but sentences are not. It is this creative aspect of human
language that sets it apart from animal languages, which are essentially responses to
stimuli.

The rules of a language, also called grammar, are learned as one acquires a language.
These rules include phonology, the sound system, morphology, the structure of words,
syntax, the combination of words into sentences, semantics, the ways in which sounds
and meanings are related, and the lexicon, or mental dictionary of words. When you
know a language, you know words in that language, i.e. sound units that are related to
specific meanings. However, the sounds and meanings of words are arbitrary. For the
most part, there is no relationship between the way a word is pronounced (or signed)
and its meaning.

Knowing a language encompasses this entire system, but this knowledge (called
competence) is different from behavior (called performance.) You may know a language,
but you may also choose to not speak it. Although you are not speaking the language,
you still have the knowledge of it. However, if you don't know a language, you cannot
speak it at all.
There are three types of the study of the sounds
of language.
1. Acoustic Phonetics is the study of the
physical properties of sounds.
2. Auditory Phonetics is the study of the way
listeners perceive sounds.
3. Articulatory Phonetics (the type this lesson is
concerned with) is the study of how the vocal
tracts produce the sounds.
To simplify it, lets say;
The three separate but interacting aspects of
speech relate to the speaker (articulation), the
hearer (audition) and what happen between the
speaker and the hearer (acoustics)
 Some characteristics of speech and writing
Written Spoken
1. Occurs in space 1. Occurs in time
2. Permanent inscription on material 2. Evanescent occurrence in behavior
3. Source can be absent 3. Sources of speech often conversational, face
4. Is transcribed by definition to face
5. Skills : writing, reading – literacy 4. Can be transcribed from recordings
6. Acquired by formal education 5. Skills: speaking, listening – oracy
7. Must be taught 6. Naturally acquired by about age 5
8. Must be acquired second 7. Not taught, appears innate
9. Allows detailed planning 8. Acquired firs naturally
10. Allows complex interpretative procedures, 9. Spontaneous
which may not relate to speaker’s intentions 10. Usually comprehended in terms of speaker’s
11. Based on sentences communicative intentions (speaker has
12. Space between words authority)
13. Sentence construction according to 11. Based on intentional groups
conventions of writing 12. Continuous stream of speech
14. Standardized spelling 13. Performances include semi-sentences,
15. Enables all practices involving writing – repetitions, re-statements, corrections, false
administration, business, bureaucracy, starts and hesitations
literature, history, note-taking, letter-writing, 14. Accent variation
etc 15. Constitutes conversational and all other
16. Segmental mode transcription spoken uses of language – telling narratives,
joke, etc
16. Continuous articulation
The orthography (spelling) of words in
misleading, especially in English. One sound can
be represented by several different
combinations of letters.
For example, all of the following words contain
the same vowel sound: he, believe, Lee, Caesar,
key, amoeba, loudly, machine, people, and sea.
The following poem illustrates this fact of
English humorously (note the pronunciation of
the bold words):
take it you already know of tough and bough and cough and dough?
Some may stumble, but not you, on hiccough, thorough, slough, and
through?
So now you are ready, perhaps, to learn of less familiar traps?
Beware of heard, a dreadful word, that looks like beard, but sounds like bird.
And dead, it's said like bed, not bead; for goodness' sake, don't call it deed!
Watch out for meat and great and threat. (They rhyme with suite and straight
and debt.)
A moth is not a moth in mother, nor both in bother, broth in brother.
And here is not a match for there, nor dear and fear, for bear and pear.
And then there's dose and rose and lose - just look them up - and goose and
choose
And cork and work and card and ward and font and front and word and
sword
And do and go, then thwart and cart, come, come! I've hardly made a start.
A dreadful language? Why man alive! I've learned to talk it when I was five.
And yet to write it, the more I tried, I hadn't learned it at fifty-five.
- Author Unknown
The discrepancy between spelling and sounds
led to the formation of the International
Phonetics Alphabet (IPA.) The symbols used in
this alphabet can be used to represent all
sounds of all human languages. The following is
the English Phonetic alphabet. You might want
to memorize all of these symbols, as most
foreign language dictionaries use the IPA
Phonetic Alphabet for English Pronunciation
p pill d dill h heal ʌ but

b bill n neal l leaf aj light

m mill s seal r reef ɔj boy

f feel z zeal j you ɪ bit

v veal č chill w witch ɛ bet

θ thigh ǰ Jill i beet ʊ foot

ð thy ʍ which e bait ɔ awe

š shill k kill u boot a bar

ž azure g gill o boat ə sofa

t till ŋ ring æ bat aw cow

Some speakers of English pronounce the words
which and witch differently, but if you
pronounce both words identically, just use w for
both words.
And the sounds
/ʌ/ and /ə/
are pronounced the same, but the former is
used in stressed syllables, while the latter is used
in unstressed syllables.
This list does not even begin to include all of the
phonetic symbols though. One other symbol is
the glottal stop, ʔ which is somewhat rare in
English. Some linguists in the United States
traditionally use different symbols than the IPA
symbols. These are listed below.
U.S. IPA
š ʃ
ž ʒ
č tʃ
ǰ dʒ
U ʊ
The production of any speech sound involves
the movement of air.
Air is pushed through the lungs, larynx (vocal
folds) and vocal tract (the oral and nasal
cavities.)
Sounds produced by using air from the lungs are
called pulmonic sounds.
If the air is pushed out, it is called egressive.
If the air is sucked in, it is called ingressive.
Sounds produced by ingressive airstreams are
ejectives, implosives, and clicks.
 The sounds producing system
Speech sound involves the movement of air.
The mechanism for generating the human voice
can be subdivided into three parts;
The lungs,
The vocal folds within the larynx,
The articulators,
Sound is produced when air is set in motion.

The speech production mechanism consists of:

- an air supply
provided by the lungs

- a sound source that sets the air in motion in ways specifically relevant to
speech production
the larynx where a set of muscles called the vocal folds (or vocal cords) are
located

- a set of filters that modifies the sound in various ways

organs above the larynx:
the pharynx (the tube of the throat between the oral cavity and the larynx)
the oral cavity
the nasal cavity.
These Passages are collectively known as the
vocal tract.
Vocal tract
Those parts of the body used in speech production.

The primary function of the speech organs is

biological. We do not have unique speech organs
(organs developed for speech only)

Those parts of the body used in speech production.

The primary function of the speech organs is

biological. We do not have unique speech organs
(organs developed for speech only)
 Articulation
The major areas of articulation are
- The larynx
- Velum
- Mouth
- Lips
 The Lungs
Speech is produced by moulding and moving the
articulators of all kinds around an airstream
• Biological function: to exchange CO2
• Speech function: to supply air for speech.
• The source of moving air.
• During speech production short inspirations followed by
expirations whose lengths are keyed to the lengths of
the utterance.
• The air pressure needed to keep speech mechanism
functioning steadily is maintained by:
In order to produce the majority of sounds in the
world’s languages, air is taken into the lings and
expelled during speech (A small number of sounds are
made with air as it flows into the vocal tract).

A certain level of air pressure is needed keep the

speech mechanism functioning steadily which is
maintained by the action of various sets of muscles
The muscles are:
- the intercostals (the muscles between the ribs)
- the diaphragm (the large sheet of muscles that
separates the chest cavity from the abdomen).
There are two ways in which air can be trapped
in the oral cavity:
(i). By closing the glottis and making some other
closure in the mouth (glottalic airstream) and
(ii). By closing the velum and making a velar
closure with the back of the tongue, and making
some other closure in advance of this (velaric
airstream)
a. The Glottalic airstream is used to produce two
tipes of sound :implosives and ejectives
b. The Velaric airstream is used to produce clicks
 The Larynx
• This is between the pharynx and the trachea. It
communicates with the mouth and the nose
though the laryngeal and oral parts of the pharynx.
• Although it is part of the air passages, the larynx
normally acts as a valve for preventing swallowed
food and foreign bodies from entering the lower
respiratory passages.
• The larynx is the phonating mechanism that is
specifically designed for voice production.
• The larynx is shorter in women and children and is
situated slightly more superiorly in the neck.
• Biological function:  It protects the lungs by preventing
food particles and fluids entering from the trachea 
(windpipe =  a tube composed of cartilages leading
from larynx and connecting to the lungs).
• Speech function:  It produces voice for speech sounds.
• Larynx:  the source of sounds.
• Larynx is a structure of cartilages and muscles situated
atop the trachea (voice box).
• Cartilages:
- thyroid
-  cricoid
-  arytenoids  (these move the focal folds)
 Vocal cords
Within the larynx are the vocal cords (also called
Vocal folds), two muscular flaps which can be
moved into various positions to interfere with
the airflow.
Glottis is the part of windpipe that goes through
larynx.
Air flowing out of the lungs up the trachea (windpipe) passes through a box-
like structure made of cartilage and muscle – the larynx (commonly known as
the voice box or Adam’s apple).

The main portion of the larynx is formed by the thyroid cartilage, which rests
on the ring-shaped cricoid cartilage.

Fine sheets of muscle flare from the inner sides of the larynx, forming the
paired vocal folds (vocal cords).

The vocal folds are each attached to the thyroid cartilage at the front and to
the arytenoids cartilage at the back.

The vocal cords can be pulled apart or drawn closer together, especially at their
back or posterior ends, where each is attached to one of two small cartilages
the arytenoids.

As the air passes through the spaces between the vocal folds, which is called
the glottis, different glottal states are produced.
a. The larynx from the front
b. The larynx from the back
c. The larynx from above
The larynx in picture a, is a condition with the vocal folds open. The striated lines
indicate muscles, a number of which have been eliminated from the drawings to
show the cartilages more clearly
The air passages that make up the vocal tract are often
divided into three main parts:
- the oral tract
- the pharynx
- the nasal tract.

The parts of the vocal tract that can be used to form

sounds are called articulators.

The articulators that form the lower surface of the vocal

tract often move to towards those that form the upper
surface.
 The Articulators or Organs of Speech

Nasal cavity
Oral cavity

Hard palate
Alveolar ridge

teeth
tongue Soft palate (velum)
lip
Uvula
Tip of the tongue
pharynx
Blade of the tongue
Front of the tongue
Back of the tongue
larynx
The principal parts of the lower surface of
the vocal tract
The tip and blade of the tongue are the most mobile parts.

Behind the blade is what is known technically as the front of

the tongue ( actually the forward part of the tongue that lies
underneath the hard palate when the tongue is at rest).

The centre of the tongue is the part of it that lies partly

beneath the hard palate and partly beneath the soft palate
when it is at rest.

The back of the tongue is beneath the soft palate, and the root
which is opposite the back wall of the pharynx.

The epiglottis is attached to the lower part of the root of the

tongue.
 Glottal States
The vocal folds(vocal cords) may be positioned
in a number of ways to produce different glottal
states.
Voicelessness
"voiceless" does not mean "soundless" it simply means
the vocal folds are not vibrating.
The first position of glottal states shows the position of
vocal folds in condition of voicelessness where the air
passes directly through the glottis.
You can check how the sounds of voicelessness by
touching your fingers to the larynx as you produce it.
There is no vibration from the vocal folds
The example of words which is pronunced voiceless:
see, head, flag, fish, sing, house, etc
 Voicing
The sound that is produced by the vibration of
the vocal cords.
When the vocal folds are brought close together,
but not tightly closed, air passing between them
cause them to vibrate, producing sounds that
are said to be voiced.
The example of voicing:
Zip, vow, veal, jug, etc
 Whisper
Whispering is voiceless but the vocal folds are adjusted
so that the anterior (front) portions are pulled close
together, while the posterior (back) portions are apart
an unvoiced mode of phonation in which the vocal
cords do not vibrate normally but are instead adducted
sufficiently to create audible turbulence (a 'hissing'
quality) as the speaker exhales (or occasionally inhales)
during speech
The example of word: should
 Murmur
Murmur is sounds that produced with glottal configuration
are voiced, but the vocal folds are relaxed to allow enough
air to escape to produce a simultaneous whispery effect.
Breathy voice (also called murmured voice, soughing, or
susurration) is a phonation in which the vocal cords
vibrate, as they do in normal (modal) voicing, but are held
further apart, so that a larger volume of air escapes
between them. This produces an audible noise.
The example of word:
behind
 Exercise (group exercise)
1. What is mean by Phonetic?
2. How can sounds of language can be produced?
3. How many types are the study of sounds of language?explain it!
4. What is IPA?and what it’s function to Phonetics?
5. Explain these terms!
a. pulmonic sounds
b. egressive
c. ingressive
6. How is the sounds produced? Explain the steps!
7. How can the lungs and larynx is a part of sounds produced? Explain it!
8. Make a picture of organs of speech! In detail!
9. Give explanation of the effect by the position of vocal folds (glottal
states)