THE SOUND OF ENGLISH

Sound is

In writing, words are made of letters. In speech, word are made of sounds. Letters are not always the as sounds. For example, the word key and car begin with the same sound, but the letters are different.

There are two kinds of sounds : consonant sounds (C) and vowel sound (V). The number of sounds in a word is not usually the same as the numbers of the letters.

SOUND Air Passage Oral Mouth

Nasal Nose

Obstructure Vowel Non obstraction(Air stream flows smoothly)

Consonant Obstraction (One particular organ is

uncontact with another)

This chart contains all the sounds used in the English language. For each sound, it gives:

The symbol from the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA), as used in phonetic transcriptions in modern dictionaries for English learners.

The chart represents British and American phonemes with one symbol. One symbol can mean two different phonemes in American and British English.

Two English words which use the sound. The underline shows where the sound is heard. The British version is given only where it is very different from the American version.

A. The Phoneme of English

Phoneme is the smallest contrastive unit in the sound system of a language.

 Phonologists have differing views of the phoneme. Following are the two major views considered here:

 

In the American structuralist tradition, a phoneme is defined according to its allophones and environments.

In the generative tradition, a phoneme is defined as a set of distinctive features.

A phoneme is not one specific sound but it is like the common denominators of all realizations of specific sound.

Comparison

  Here is a chart that compares phones and phonemes:

 

A phone is … A phoneme is …

One of many possible sounds in the languages of the world.

A contrastive unit in the sound system of a particular language.

The smallest identifiable unit found in a stream of speech.

A minimal unit that serves to distinguish between meanings of words.

Pronounced in a defined way. Pronounced in one or more ways, depending on the number of allophones.

Represented between brackets by convention.

Example: [b], [j], [o]

Represented between slashes by convention.

Example: /b/, /j/, /o/

Thus a phoneme is a sound or a group of different sounds perceived to have the same function by speakers of the language or dialect in question.

An example of a phoneme is the : /k/ sound in the words kit and skill.

/t/ sound in the words tops and spot

Restricted Phonemes

A restricted phoneme is a phoneme that can only occur in a certain environment: There are restrictions as to where it can occur. English has several restricted phonemes:

/ŋ/, as in sing, occurs only at the end of a syllable, never at the beginning /h/ occurs only before vowels and at the beginning of a syllable, never at the end In many American dialects with the cot–caught merger, /ɔ/ occurs only before /r/, /l/, and

in the diphthong /ɔɪ/. In non-rhotic dialects, /r/ can only occur before a vowel, never at the end of a word or

before a consonant. Under most interpretations, /w/ and /j/ occur only before a vowel, never at the end of a

syllable. However, many phonologists interpret a word like boy as either /bɔɪ/ or /bɔj/.

Underspecification

Phonemes that are contrastive in certain environments may not be contrastive in all environments. In the environments where they don't contrast, the contrast is said to be neutralized.

In English there are three nasal phonemes, /m, n, ŋ/, as shown by the minimal triplet,

/sʌm/ sum

/sʌn/ sun

/sʌŋ/ sung

B. The Consonant of English

A consonant is a sound in spoken language that is characterized by a constriction or closure at one or more points along the vocal tract.

The word consonant comes from Latin meaning "sounding with" or "sounding together", the idea being that consonants don't sound on their own, but only occur with a nearby vowel; this conception of consonants, however, does not reflect a modern linguistic understanding, which defines them in terms of vocal tract constrictions.

There are a group of consonants called sonorant that sometimes act as vowels, occupying the peak of a syllable, and sometimes act as consonants. For example, in English, the sound [m] in "mud" is a consonant, but in "prism", it occupies an entire syllable, as a vowel would.

Consonant is a speech sound that is articulated with complete or partial closure of the vocal tract. Examples are [p], pronounced with the lips; [t], pronounced with the front of the tongue; [k], pronounced with the back of the tongue; [h], pronounced in the throat; [f] and [s], pronounced by forcing air through a narrow channel (fricatives); and [m] and [n], which have air flowing through the nose (nasals). Contrasting with consonants are vowels.

Places of Articulation

1. Bilabial Sound [p] [b] two lips are puts togetherExample : back; pack

2. Labiodental [f] [b] upper teeth and low lipExample : fat ; van

3. Interdental Sound [θ ð] [ð] tip of tounge between teeth/behind teethExample : thin ; they

4. Alveolar Sound [t] [d] blade tounge in the area of alveolaridgeExample : tie ; day

5. Alveopalatal [ʃ] [dʒ] blade of tounge in the area of hard palateExample : shoot ; june

6. Velar Sound [k] [q] [ɳ] back of tounge and soft palate (Valum)Example : king ; queen ; sing

7. Glottal Sound [h] [ɳ]

Consonants are scheduled by their features in a number of IPA charts:

IPA Pulmonic Consonants Chart

Place → Labial Coronal Dorsal Radical Glottal

↓ Manner

Bilabial

Labiodental

Dental Alveolar

Postalv.

Retroflex

Palatal Velar Uvular Pharyngeal

Epiglottal

Glottal

Nasal m ɱ nP n ɳ ɲ ŋ ɴPlosive p b pP bP tP dP t d ʈ ɖ c ɟ k ɡ q ɢ ʡ ʔFricative ɸ β f v θ ð s z ʃ ʒ ʂ ʐ ç ʝ x ɣ χ

ʁħ

ʕʜ

ʢh

ɦApproximant ʋ ɹ ɻ j ɰTrill ʙ r ɽ͡n r ʀ я  * Flap or tap ⱱ̟t ⱱ̟ ɾ ɽ͡ ɢv ʡwLateral Fric. ɬ ɮ ɭ˔̊| ʎ̥~ ˔̊ ʟ̝̊� |Lateral Appr. l ɭ ʎ̥ ʟ̝̊Lateral flap ɺ ɺ� ʎ̥w

Consonants versus Vowels

Consonants and vowels correspond to distinct parts of a syllable: The most sonorous part of the syllable (that is, the part that's easiest to sing), called the syllabic peak or nucleus, is typically a vowel, while the less sonorous margins (called the onset and coda) are typically consonants. Such syllables may be abbreviated CV, V, and CVC, where C stands for consonant and V stands for vowel. This can be argued to be the only pattern found in most of the world's languages, and perhaps the primary pattern in all of them. However, the distinction between consonant and vowel is not always clear cut: there are syllabic consonants and non-syllabic vowels in many of the world's languages.

Features

Each spoken consonant can be distinguished by several phonetic

The manner of articulation is how air escapes from the vocal tract when the consonant or approximant (vowel-like) sound is made. Manners include stops, fricatives, and nasals.

The place of articulation is where in the vocal tract the obstruction of the consonant occurs, and which speech organs are involved. Places include bilabial (both lips), alveolar (tongue against the gum ridge), and velar (tongue against soft palate). In addition, there may be a simultaneous narrowing at another place of articulation, such as palatalisation or pharyngealisation.

The phonation of a consonant is how the vocal cords vibrate during the articulation. When the vocal cords vibrate fully, the consonant is called voiced; when they do not vibrate at all, it is voiceless.

The voice onset time (VOT) indicates the timing of the phonation. Aspiration is a feature of VOT.

The airstream mechanism is how the air moving through the vocal tract is powered. Most languages have exclusively pulmonic egressive consonants, which use the lungs and diaphragm, but ejectives, clicks, and implosives use different mechanisms.

The length is how long the obstruction of a consonant lasts. This feature is borderline distinctive in English, as in "wholly" [hoʊlli] vs. "holy" [hoʊli], but cases are limited to morpheme boundaries.

The articulatory force is how much muscular energy is involved. This has been proposed many times, but no distinction relying exclusively on force has ever been demonstrated.

All English consonants can be classified by a combination of these features, such as "voiceless alveolar stop consonant" [t]. In this case, the airstream mechanism is omitted.

C. The Vowels of English

A vowel is a type of sound for which there is no closure of the throat or mouth at any point where vocalization occurs. Vowels can be contrasted with consonants, which are sounds for which there are one or more points where air is stopped. In nearly all languages, words must contain at least one vowel. While a word can be formed without any consonants – such as the English words I or way – no word may consist of only consonants, without a vowel.

Since a vowel refers to a specific type of sound, orthographically some letters may represent a consonant in some circumstances, and a vowel in others. In English we can see this with the letters y and w which are most often used to make consonant sounds, but can also be used to represent vowels. In the case of y, for example, we can compare its use in the words yonder and day. In the word yonder, it acts distinctly as a consonant, with the center of the tongue blocking the flow of air on one side by touching the palette of the mouth – as what is called a palatal approximant. In the word day, on the other hand, it is forming a vowel sound akin to if the word were written in English as dei.

In English, there are five letters which always represent a vowel when written: a, e, i, o, and u. These five letters represent more than five vowel sounds, however, depending on the word, or if they are combined with other vowels. Compare the letter a in the words hat and hate as one of many examples.

Monophthongs, Diphthongs, Triphthongs

A vowel sound whose quality doesn't change over the duration of the vowel is called a monophthong. Monophthongs are sometimes called "pure" or "stable" vowels. A vowel sound that glides from one quality to another is called a diphthong, and a vowel sound that glides successively through three qualities is a triphthong.

All languages have monophthongs and many languages have diphthongs, but triphthongs or vowel sounds with even more target qualities are relatively rare cross-linguistically. English has all three types: the vowel sound in hit is a monophthong /ɪ/, the vowel sound in boy is in most dialects a diphthong /ɔɪ/, and the vowel sounds of flower, /aʊər/, form a triphthong or disyllable, depending on dialect.

In phonology, diphthongs and triphthongs are distinguished from sequences of monophthongs by whether the vowel sound may be analyzed into different phonemes or not. For example, the vowel sounds in a two-syllable pronunciation of the word flower (/ˈflaʊər/) phonetically form a disyllabic triphthong, but are phonologically a sequence of a diphthong (represented by the letters <ow>) and a monophthong (represented by the letters <er>). Some linguists use the terms diphthong and triphthong only in this phonemic sense.

Articulation

IPA Vowel Chart

Frontnear-

frontCentral

near-

backBack

Close

Near-

close

Close-

mid

Mid

Open-

mid

Near-

open

Open

English Vowel Sounds

Sound

/i/ leak keen peat beet bee

/I/ lick lit kin pit bit

/ey/ lake late cane bait bay

/e/ let Ken pet bet

"ae" lack can pat bet baa

"ah" lock con pot bought bah

"uh" luck putt but

"oo" look put

/u/ Luke lute coon boot boo

"er" lurk Kern Pert Bert burr

/o/ cone boat Bo, bow

/ai/ like kine bite by

/au/ lout pout bout bough

/oi/ coin boy

Manner of Articulation

1. Plosive [p] [b] Air pressure increases behind the closer then release explosively

2. Affricative [t] dʒ] Air pressure increases behind the closer then more slowly

3. Fricative [f] [v] Two vowel organs come close enough together for the movement

of air between them to be heard

4. Nasal [m] [n] A closer is made by the lips or by tounge in the palate. The soft

palate lower, air escape through the nose

5. Lateral [l] Air is eable to flow around the sides of tounge, then blade of

tounge in alveo

6. Aproximant [r] [w] Vowel organ come near to each other but so close. As to cause

audible.

D. Consonant Cluster

Definition

A consonant cluster is a group or sequence of consonants that appear together in a syllable without a vowel between them.

In linguistics, a consonant cluster (or consonant blend) is a group of consonants which have no intervening vowel. In English, for example, the groups /spl/ and /ts/ are consonant clusters in the word splits.

Discussion

It is important to distinguish between consonant clusters and digraphs with which they are often confused. In contrast to a consonant cluster, a digraph is a group of two or more symbols which really stand for just one sound (usually a consonant).

 

In the word chat, the letters c and h appear contiguously but are not a consonant cluster, even though both are separate consonants in other contexts (cat; hat). In this instance, ch is a digraph because the ch sequence represents a single sound in the underlying English sound system.

  Examples of consonant clusters:

 

\sp\ and \ts\ in the word spots \spr\ in the word spray

E. Stress

All words of more than one syllable have what is called word stress.  This means that at least one of the syllables is longer and louder than the other syllables.

In the following examples, stressed syllables are in capital letters:

Column A Column B Column C  

PHOtograph      phoTOgraphy    photoGRAphic

PENcil comMITtee volunTEERMARyland soCIety inforMAtion

In many cases, word stress must simply be learned as new volcabulary is acquired.  However, there are several rules for word stress which can make it easier to deal with.

I.  Compound Nouns:

      bluebirdblackboardnotebookbookstoretoothbrushkeyboard

In each of these examples, the first part of the compound gets the stress.

II.  Noun+Noun Compounds (2-word compound nouns)

      air conditionercomputer programmernail polishfrench fryGeiger counterdoctor's office

Similar to the rule for compound nouns, the first part of the compound--here, the first word--gets the stress.  (Note: If the "unstressed" part of the noun+noun compound is more than one syllable, it will have some word stress.  However, the first part of the compound will get even more stress.)

III.  Phrasal Verbs versus Compound Nouns derived from phrasals

Phrasal verbs (a.k.a. two-word or two-part verbs) are generally made up of a verb and preposition.  For many of these, correct word stress is especially important as they have compound noun counterparts. In the following examples, the words on the left are phrasal verbs. The words on the right are nouns.

let down letdownshut out shutoutprint out printoutturn off turnofftake over takeover

In phrasal verbs, the preposition gets the word stress.  If they have a noun counterpart, however, it gets the stress on the first part.

IV.  Homographs

Homographs are words which are written the same way but which have different pronunciation.  In English, there are many words which have the same spelling, but whose part of speech changes with the word stress.  If you listen carefully, you will hear that the vowel sounds change depending on whether they are stressed or unstressed.