The sounds of General

American English are

classified into three
namely:

1. Vowels (11)
2. Diphthongs (3)
3. Consonants (25)
 THE ENGLISH VOWELS

🞂​ Vowels are sounds which are

produced with the vibration of air in
the oral cavity

🞂​ All
vowel sounds are voiced oral
sounds

🞂​ The
relationship of the vowels to
one another is shown by the device
known as the Vietor Triangle
 VIETOR TRIANGLE
– is a vowel triangle which shows the
differences among the vowel sounds in
English and their relative positions on
the tongue

- Contains two axes:

a. horizontal axis – from front to
back of the mouth (front, center,
back)
b. vertical axis – fromthe
floor to the roof of the mouth (high,
mid, low)
When a speaker enunciates a vowel, his or her air flow remains
unblocked. This table, containing American English
vowels, explains that the degree of elevation of a speaker’s
tongue determines the sound of the spoken vowel.
VOWEL SOUNDS:

1. /iy/ - beat, me, key, seed,

chief
2. /i/ - sit, give, rid, pick,
live
3. /ey/ - ate, ray, face, weigh,
great
4. /e/ -
met, let, head, less, tell
5. /ae/ - cat, am, bag, land,
class
6. /a/ - pot, block, got, cop, lost
7. / / - ball, talk, saw,
draw, dawn
8. /ow/ -
hope, go, wrote, home,
soak
9. /u/ - look, good, would, sure,
bush
moon, blue,
10. /uw/ - rule, chew, suit
11. /∂ / -
luck, must, touch, gone, cup
VOWEL SOUND PRODUCTION
1. TONGUE POSITION OR
ADVANCEMENT – refers to the part of
the tongue that is most active in the
production of vowels. Vowels are
described in relation to the highest
point of the hump formed.

2. TONGUE AND JAW HEIGHT – refers to

the degree of closeness of the lower
jaw to the upper or the tongue to the
palate
3. LIP POSITION – refers to the amount of
rounding or spreading of the lips.

a.rounded – when the corners

are brought forward
b.unrounded (spread) – when
the corners are pulled back

4. TENSION – refers to the degree to which

the muscles of the speech tract are tense
or lax during sound production

5. LENGTH – refers to the duration (long

or short) the vowel is held in a certain
position
B. DIPHTHONGS

– are those sounds which combine

two vowel sounds and which
blend them into one within a
syllable
- Some vowel sounds have
diphthongal quality
- Tend to be long because of the
time needed to glide forward
to another position
DIPHTHONG SOUNDS:

1. /ai/ - time, might, sigh, pie, height,

rhyme, pint, fly guide,
aisle, sigh, fried, buy, climb

2. / i/ - point, oil, soil, joy, ploy,

coin, join, moist, poise, noise,
voice, annoy, buoy

3. /au/ - now, brown, sound, blouse,

mouth, plow, crown,
ouch, howl, bough, proud,
out
C. CONSONANTS
a consonant is a speech
sound used with a vowel or
diphthong to constitute a syllable
Consonant sounds are
those sounds which are
produced with the partial
or complete obstruction of
the air column by some parts
of the speech apparatus
In order to vocalize a a
consonant, speaker must
constrict his or her air flow at
some point in the
delivery, using either the
tongue, mouth or throat. The
table showing American
English Consonants indicates
the part of the mouth or
throat in which each sound is
produced.
 CONSONANT SOUND PRODUCTION

A. VOICING
 Voiced sounds pronounced
are with the of the
vibration cords vocal
 Voiceless sounds pronounced
without the vibration of the
vocal cords
THE CONSONANT SOUNDS OF
ENGLISH CLASSIFIED ACCORDING TO
VOICING:
1. VOICED
/p/ pen, /t/ ten, /k/ cod,
/f/ fine, /th/ thigh, /s/
mission,
sue, /sh//ch/ chew, /h/ hot

2. VOICED
/b/ Ben, /d/ den, /g/ God, /v/
vine, /dh/ thy, /z/ zoo, /zh/
vision, /j/ jew, /m/ men, /n/
neck, /ng/ bring, /l/ let, /r/
right, /y/ you, /w/ water, /hw/ what
B. NATURE OR OBSTRUCTION OR MANNER
OF ARTICULATION

1. STOPS – are produced by stopping

the passage of the breath stream
with a build up of pressure
behind the closure before
releasing the breath
vl vd
Bilabial stops /p/ & /b/
Alveolar stops /t/ &
Velar stops /k/ & /d/
/g/
2. FRICATIVES – are continuants produced
when the air stream is not completely
stopped but passes through with friction
or a hissing sound
vl vd
Labiodental fricatives /f/ & /v/
Dental fricatives /θ/ & /ð/
Alveolar fricatives /s/ & /z/
Post alveolar fricatives /r/
Palatal fricatives /∫/ & /dz/
Glottal fricatives /h/
3. AFFRICATES – are produced when a stop
combines with a fricative. Like fricatives, they
are also continuants. They may be prolonged
as long as the speaker wishes.

Alveolar affricates /t∫/ & /dz/

4. NASALS – are produced with the air stream

passing through the nose rather than the
mouth

Bilabial nasal /m/

Alveolar nasal /n/
Velar nasal /ŋ/
5. LATERAL – is produced when the air stream
is stopped in the center by the tip of the
tongue against the alveolar ridge, while the air
passes along one or both sides of the tongue

Alveolar lateral /l/

6. SEMI-VOWELS – in their production, there

is lack of friction and the sounds are vowel-
like in their voicing but they function as
consonants
Bilabial /w/ - wear, win
/wh/ - why

Palatal /y/ - new, view

C. POINT OF ARTICULATION – refers to the
upper parts of the mouth
lowers parts
which the (articulators) come in
contact with the production of the
consonant sound

1. BILABIAL – when the lower lip touches

the upper lip to produce the
consonant sound
* /p/, /b/, /m/ & /w/

2. LABIO-DENTAL – when the lower lip

comes in contact with the upper front
teeth
* /f/ & /v/
3. DENTAL – when lower teeth
the approach the
upper teeth
* /θ/ & /ð/
4. ALVEOLAR – when the tip of the tongue
is raised close to the toothridge or the
back of the upper front teeth
* /t/ & /d/

5. POST ALVEOLAR – when the tip of the

tongue is articulated against the back
part of the alveolar ridge
* /r/
6. PALATAL – when the tongue is
arched towards the hard palate
* /∫/

7. VELARS – when the back of the tongue

closes against the velum or soft palate
* /k/

8. GLOTTAL – when friction is produced

by the air passing through the glottis
* /h/