CHAPTER - II

PHYSIOLOGY OF SPEECH
SPEECH
LANGUAGE
PHONETICS

• The general study of speech sounds.

• THREE BRANCHES OF PHONETICS

- Articulatory phonetics
- Acoustic phonetics
- Auditory phonetics
THE ORGANS OF SPEECH
PHONEME

• A phoneme is a smallest, significant sound-unit of a language. It is

smallest in the sense that it cannot be divided further.
Ex. "Pat" (/pæt/) and "bat" (/bæt/) have different meanings, where the initial
sound /p/ and /b/ are distinct phonemes.
• The study of the phonemes of a language is called phonology.
ALLOPHONE

• An allophone is a variant pronunciation of a phoneme in a specific context.

• In English, the phoneme /p/ has different allophones based on its position in a word.
The aspirated [pʰ] and the unaspirated [p] are allophones of /p/. Here's how they work:
• Aspirated [pʰ]: This allophone occurs at the beginning of stressed syllables, like in the
word "pot" (/pʰɑt/). When you say "pot," you release a burst of air after the /p/ sound,
creating an aspirated [pʰ].
• Unaspirated [p]: This allophone occurs after /s/ within a syllable, like in the word
"spot" (/spɑt/). The /p/ sound in "spot" is unaspirated because there's no burst of air
after the /p/ sound due to the preceding /s/.
SYLLABLE

• A syllable is a unit of sound in a word that typically contains a vowel

sound and may also include consonant sounds. Here's an example to
illustrate:

• The word "banana" has three syllables: ba-na-na.

VOWELS AND CONSONANTS

• Consonants and vowels are the two main types of sounds in spoken
languages.
• Consonants are sounds produced by obstructing or restricting the airflow
in some way. This obstruction can occur at different points in the vocal
tract, such as the lips, teeth, alveolar ridge, palate, and glottis.
• Examples of consonant sounds include /p/, /b/, /t/, /d/, /k/, /g/, /s/, /z/, /f/,
/v/, /m/, /n/, /ŋ/, /h/, /j/, /w/, and so on.
• Vowels are sounds produced without significant obstruction of the airflow
in the vocal tract. They are characterized by the position of the tongue,
lips, and jaw and by the openness of the vocal tract.

• Examples of vowel sounds include /i/, /ɪ/, /e/, /ɛ/, /æ/, /a/, /ɑ/, /ɔ/, /o/, /u/,
/ʊ/, /ə/, and so on.
PHONEMIC TRANSCRIPTION

• Phonemic transcription is a method of representing the sounds of a language using a set

of symbols, typically from the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA).

• Here's an example of phonemic transcription in English using the word "bit" and
its phonemic transcription /bɪt/:
/b/: Represents the phoneme /b/ as in "bit."
/ɪ/: Represents the phoneme /ɪ/ as in "bit."
/t/: Represents the phoneme /t/ as in "bit."
ORAL AND NASAL SOUNDS

• Oral and nasal sounds are two categories of speech sounds based on where the airflow is
directed during their production.