7

CHAPTER II

REVIEW TO RELATED LITERATURE

This chapter presents the review of related literature which is based on

relevant theories and previous research findings. It covers the sound of language,

International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA), the production speech and Royal Thai

General System of Transcription (GTGS).

2.1 The Sound of Language

Written form and spoken sound in English have difference (Yule, 2006).In

spoken English, the sound of word is important thing to be known by people since

they cannot produce the exact sound. Since, alphabet letters cannot represent the

sound of English, producing another alphabet with symbol that can represent the

sound comes as solution. A study discusses about those symbols are widely-

known as phonetic alphabet (Yule, 2006). Hence, learning English will be

challenging for foreign learners who has contrastive system of language from

English.

2.1.1 Pronunciation

Pronunciation is a sub-skill of speaking (Gilakjani, 2011). Pronunciation is

one of the difficulties faced by most foreign learner in language, even though it

has been learnt for many years. There are six factors affecting students add

something in pronunciation, which are motivation and exposure, exposure to

target language, attitude, instruction, and age. Furthermore, mother tongue also

influence was correlated to the ability of pronunciation (Gilakjani, 2011).

8

In additional, Gilakjani (2011) states there are two reasons on mother tongue

influence toward the ability of pronunciation. First, the absent of sound in both

learners’ native language or even in target language, which makes the learners are

not able to produce and perceive sound. Second, the existence of different rules in

combining sound into words gives the other challenges for the learners.

As English writing and spoken are obviously different, foreign learners who

learn English from text will possibly do a mistake in their pronunciation and even

may trigger misunderstanding. Written English has no sound and is only captured

by the eyes while spoken English makes sounds and is taken by ears. Since, there

are some potential in English pronunciation, it becomes one of significant subjects

that plays a significant role.

Furthermore, Odden (2005) states the important structure of a sentence

depends on how it is pronounced. Then, pronunciation is a core to build word

structure. Gilakjani (2012) states that there are various features that make up the

production of sound in English are illustrated in feature below.

9

Features of English Pronunciation

Segmental Features

Phonemes

Consonant

Voiced Unvoiced

Vowel

Single

Short Long

Dipthong

Supra Segmental Features

Linking Intonation Stress

Sentences Stress

Word Stress

Figure 1. The Feature of English Pronunciation (Burns, 2003)

The chart above shows, there are some constituent features of studying

pronunciation. What the writer is trying to highlight here that studying those

features is important to get better pronunciation in English spoken. In line with

this study, phoneme is one of the features in learning pronunciation skill.

2.1.2 Phonetics

Other than pronunciation, phonetics is a study to understand the

characteristic of speech sound (Yule, 2006). It is defined that phonetics is quite

similar to phonology, but it is indeed different. The study of phonology talks

much on the structure of sounds while phonetics talks more on the way of

producing sound physically. McMahon (2002) states that it involves more on

speech organ and muscles in articulatory phonetics; sound transmission from the

10

speaker to the hearer; and in acoustic and auditory phonetics the physic of speech

travels through the air in the form of sound waves. Therefore, it has an effect on

listeners’ ear and brain. McMahon (2002) concludes that phonetics concern on

anatomy, physiology, physics, and even neurology.

The area of studying phonetic involving the study on how the speech sounds

are made is called as articulatory phonetics. Then, the study that deals with speech

sound physical properties as sound waves in the air is called as acoustic phonetics.

Furthermore, the study that deals with the perception of speech sound through the

ear is called as auditory phonetics (Yule, 2006)

2.2 International Phonetic Alphabet

Learning English will be very challenging for foreigner due to its

inconsistency between written form and sound. However, English is a wide

international language that is learnt by people in the world. Therefore, contrastive

language system will be found by those foreign language learners.

In additional, since there are troubles in learning English, such as the same

letters has different sound (e.g: cow vscenter); some letters has no sound

(e.g:high, hour, knife, use, receive)’ two letters represents only one sound (e.g:

call, phone); some letters represent two or more sounds (e.g: shy, mission,

machine, special, caution). Following this idea, the principal of International

Phonetic Alphabet (IPA) comes as a solution. Therefore, to reduce this confusion

and to keep the English system itself, IPA was proposed in 1888 by the

11

International Phonetic Association; it has been revised in 1996 (McMahon, 2002)

then the recent revision is in 2005 (Ladefoged and Johnson, 2011).

In correlation with the use of transcription in English, McMahon (2002, p.

6) states:

The English spelling system, although it is the system of transcription we

are most used to, is both too restrictive and too lenient to do the job.

Without a universal transcription system for phonetics and phonology,

writing down the unfamiliar sounds of other languages presents an almost

insuperable challenge.

IPA is an international recognized system of transcription agreed

internationally, that helps every learners easily make comparison between accents,

pronunciation, and producing every sound. Even though students are not able to

pronounce the words precisely through transcription at least the learner knows

how the native speakers produce the sound.

Furthermore, Gut (2009) suggests the transcription standardized in IPA

helps linguists, language teachers, speech therapist, and people working in speech

technology. Gut (2009) also notes that although the symbols are usually called

phonetic symbols they also represent phoneme.

For the long discussion on the transcription above, the writer freely wants

to say that one of the widely-known transcriptions used in English standard is

IPA. The writer also wants to highlight since IPA is written differently from the

common alphabet, it may cause difficulties of writing. Moreover, the difficulties

are perceived by language learners, educators, and even language practitioners

from the other countries which are not familiar to that writing.

12

The sounds of language are grouped into two major classes, vowels and

consonants. Each of these classes of sounds has a distinguishing features number.

Vowel and consonants are distinguished on the basis of differences in articulation,

as well as acoustically and functionally.

2.2.1 Consonants

Here is a complete list of the consonant symbols for English IPA:

/p/ as in pin [pɪn] /h/ as in hill [hɪl]

/t/ as in tin [tɪn] /l/ as in let [let]

/k/ as in can [kən] /w/ as in wet [wet]

/b/ as in bin [bɪn] /n/ as in not [nɑ:t]

/d/ as in do [du] /v/ as in vine [vaɪn]

/g/ as in go [goʊ] /ð/ as in they [ðei]

/m/ as in meal [mi:l] /z/ as in zoo [zu:]

/f/ as in fine [faɪn] /ʒ/ as in measure [meʒər]

/θ/ as in three [θri:] /dʒ/ as in age [eɪdʒ]

/s/ as in see [si:] /ŋ/ as in sing [si:ŋ]

/ʃ/ as in she [ʃi:] /r/ as in room [ru:m]

/tʃ/ as in chair [tʃer] /y/ as in yet [jet]

13

2.2.1.1 Place of Articulation

According to Bulreigh, Peter (2005), there are thirteen possible place of

articulation in the languages of the world, but not all of them are utilized in

English. They are usually labeled according to the immobile, upper speech organ

used in their production.

1) Bilabial sounds are produced with both lips. There are two sounds of

Bilabial; voiceless and voiced. Consonant voiceless Bilabial; /p/ as in power,

whereas threevoiced bilabials, /b/ as in banana, /m/ as in mango and /w/as in

window.

2) Labiodental sounds are produced by a movement of the lower lip

against the upper teeth. There are two sounds of Bilabial; voiceless and voiced.

Consonant voiceless labiodental; /f/ as in fun, and voiced labiodental, /v/ as in

view.

3) Dental or Interdental sounds are made with the tongue tip and rims

between the upper and lower teeth or against the upper teeth. The consonant

voiceless dental; /ɵ/ as in thankand the voiced /ð/ as in these.

4) Alveolar sounds are made with the tongue tip coming near or touching

the bony ridge behind the upper teeth. There are two consonants voiceless

alveolar; /t/ as in tiger and /s/ as in snake. While voiced alveolar are /d/ as in done,

/z/ as in zoom, /n/ as in night, and /l/ as in lamp.

5) Post-alveolar sounds are made with the tongue tip approaching or

touching the rear of the alveolar ridge or the area just behind it. There is only one

post-alveolar; /r/ as in red, this islenis sound.

14

6) Palatal-alveolar sounds are made with the tongue tip touching the

alveolar ridge, and with a simultaneous rising of the blade of the tongue towards

the hard palate. There are two voiceless sounds; /tʃ/ as in chest and /ʃ/ as in shell

and two voiced sounds; /dʒ/ as in gen and /ʒ/ as in major.

7) Palatal sounds are produced when the body of the tongue comes near

or touches the hard palate. Only one palatal sound in English; /j/ as yes, this is

voiced sound.

8) Velar sounds are made by placing the back of the tongue against or

near the velum, or soft palate. There is one voiceless; /k/ as in Canada, and

twovoiced; /ɡ/ as in Greenland and /ƞ/ as in England

9) Glottal sounds are produced in the larynx when air passes through the

glottis. Only oneglottal sound, namely is /h/ as in hat, this is voiceless sound.

2.2.1.2 Manner of Articulation

The manner of articulation, there are eight different manners of

articulation that use an aggressive pulmonic air-stream mechanism, plus an

additional one that has become a conventional category in the description of some

languages, including English. In this section, there are nine categories,

progressing from total closure of the speech organs to a fairly wide opening

between them. Bulreigh, Peter (2005).

1) Plosives or stops are sounds for which the speaker makes a complete

closure at some point in the vocal tract, builds up the air pressure while the

closure is held, and then releases the or explosively through the mouth.

15

2) Affricate is a sound that is consists of two elements. The first element

is a plosive. This means that affricates, too, require a complete closure in the vocal

tract, but the air is released slowly enough to produce friction, which we hear as a

hissing s like sound. This second element is articulated in the same place with the

same speech organs, as the preceding plosive. The two elements are

homorganicsounds. There are two affricates sounds; the voiceless /tʃ/ as in chest

and the voiced /dʒ/ as gen.

3) Nasal has a complete closure in the vocal tract as well. They stand out

from all other English phonemes, however, in that the velum, or soft palate, is

lowered, so that air escapes through the nose. There are three sounds those are all

voiced sounds; /m/ as in mango, /n/ as in night, and /ŋ/ as in English.

4) Fricative is made when air force its way through a very narrow gap

between two speech organs, thereby production audible friction. There are nine

consonants for this sound; the voiceless/f/ as in fun, /ɵ/ as in thank,/s/ as in snake,

/ʃ/ as in shell and /h/ as in hat, while the voiced /v/ as in view, /ð/ as in these, /z/ as

in zoom and /ʒ/ as in major.

5) Laterals or lateral approximants are also made with air that escapes

around the sides of a partial closure of the speech organs, but the air passage is not

quite as narrow as in lateral fricatives. English has only one lateral, namely voiced

sound; /l/ as in lamp, where the tip of the tongue touches the center of the alveolar

ridge.

6) Approximant is a generally made with a wider gap between the speech

organs than is the case in the production of fricatives. The speech organs approach

16

each other, but they do not touch each other. The three English approximants are

all lenis phonemes: /r/ as in red, /j/ as in yes, and /w/ as in window.

Figure 2. English Consonant Chart

2.3 Royal Thai General System of Transcription (RTGS)

Royal Thai General System of Transcription is the international official

system for rendering Thai language words in the Latin alphabet, published by

the Royal Institute of Thailand. It is used in road signs and government

publications.

Thai uses an alpha-syllabic script. In Thai writing word division is not

ordinarily indicated which may complicate the Romanization. The Romanization

system is not reversible to its original script form.

2.3.1 Consonants

Thai characters are Romanized in two ways depending on whether they

denote syllable-initials or syllable-finals. The Romanization of syllable-finals is

17

indicated in parentheses. There are 44 consonant symbols in the Thai alphabet

which produce 20 initial consonant sounds when used at the beginning of a

syllable and 7 final consonant sounds when used at the end of a syllable. See table

1:

Table 1. Transcript of Thai Consonants

Thai Consonants Romanized Characters

Pronounces Initial Final

ก K k Kokhai = chicken

ข Kh k Khokhai = egg

ฃ Kh k Khokhuat= bottle

ค Kh k KhoKhwai = water buffalo

ฅ Kh k Khokhon = person

ฆ Kh k Khora-khang = bell

ง Ng ng Ngo ngu = snake

จ Ch d Cho chan = plate

ฉ Ch d Choching = cymbals

ช Ch d Cho chang = elephant

ซ S d So so = chain

ฌ Ch d Cho choe = tree

ญ Y n Yoying = women

ฎ D d Do cha-da = headdress

ฏ T d To pa-tak = goad

ฐ Th d Tho than = pedestal

ฑ th/ d d Thomontho = Mandodari

18

ฒ Th d Thophu-thao = elder

ณ N n No nen = novice monk

ด D d Do dek = child

ต T d To tao = turtle

ถ Th d Thothung = sack

ท Th d Thothanan = soldier

ธ Th d Tho thong = flag

น N n No nu = mouse

บ B b Bo baimai = leaf

ป P b Po pla = fish

ผ Ph b Pho phueng = bee

ฝ F b Fofa = lid

พ Ph b Pho phan = tray

ฟ F b Fo fan = teeth

ภ Ph b Pho sam-phao = sailing boat

ม M m Mo ma = horse

ย Y Yo yak = giant

ร R n Ro ruea = boat

ล L n Lo ling = monkey

ว W w Wowaen = ring

ศ S d So sala = pavilion

ษ S d So rue-si = hermit

ส S d So suea = tiger

ห H Ho hip = chest

ห L n Lo chu-la = kite

19

อ O O ang = basin

ฮ H Ho nok-huk = owl

The table above shows the Thai consonants, but some of them have not

been used in daily language. Those consonants can be replaced with other

consonants, such as ฃ, ฅ and ฆ can be replaced with one of these consonants; ก,

ข and ค based on the context. Another consonant can be replaced with the others

that have same pronunciation; ฉ, ฌ, ฑ, ฒ, ผ and ฝ. Additional, few consonants

in English such as, /t/ and /th/ those are changed into d sound due to they do not

have in their language.