Unit 5 Phonetics and Phonemes

Unit 5 Phonetics and Phonemes Instructional Objectives Upon completion of this unit, you are supposed to be able to: 1. identify the main speech sounds; 2. explain how speech organs are used to produce speech sounds; 3. recognize the phonetic symbols needed to transcribe sounds in English; 4. transcribe words using International Phonetic Alphabets; 5. explain the difference between sounds and letters. THREE KEY WORDS The three key words in this unit are phonetics, phoneme and phonology. These words are similar due to the fact that they are constructed on the basis of the same root phone which means sound. Thus, they are all concerned with sound in some way. Phonetics refers to the study of human speech sounds. It primarily deals with how speech sounds are produced by means of human speech organs (Figure 5-1 below). Meanwhile, phoneme refers to the smallest element of sound in a language; also the name given to the symbol representing the sound. The word cat, for example, has three phonemes: /kæt/. Finally, phonology refers to the study of speech sounds, focusing on the sound patterns of a given language. Sounds, as discussed in Unit 4, are basic to language. It is justified from the development of a baby s language: truly, sounds come first. In this unit, more technical information is introduced in terms of individual sounds and how they are produced. Despite the title being phonetics, it is impossible without looking at phonology, too because the phonemes do not have much interest unless they are related to a language. Then, Unit 6 focuses on phonology (mostly the phonology of English) especially what happens when sounds combine. AIR AND SOUND Prior to describing the actual organs used to produce speech sounds, it is useful to think about air and sound. Actually sound is a short form of sound waves, which are all about the vibrations of the air. When something causes the air to vibrate, sounds are made. In other words, when we speak, we are causing the air to vibrate in the form o sound waves. 1

Figure 5-1 The air itself comes from the lungs; and from the air that we push out through our speech organs these organs are all in or around our oral and nasal cavities. Basically, our speech organs are used to make the air vibrate and produce different sounds. The air usually comes out through the mouth, but sometimes it comes out through the nose too, of which the sounds are called nasals. Figure 5-1 above shows where the air travels from the lungs to the mouth (the oral cavity) and the nose (th e nasal cavity). To reach these cavities, the air passes up the bronchial tubes first, then to the trachea, wind pipe. From there, it passes through the larynx (or voice box), causing the vocal cords to vibrate. THE MAIN SPEECH ORGANS Figure 5-2 2

Task 5-1 The above figure shows all the speech organs. What you have to do is to photocopy and work it out by naming each of the speech organs. First of all, put a number (1, 2, 3, etc.) and consult possible resources in order to match the following terms. nasal cavity alveolar ridge lips teeth tongue trachea (wind-pipe) hard palate soft palate or velum uvula larynx (voice box) with vocal cords/glottis oesophagus (food pipe) Now, pay attention to the following mechanism of the production of speech sounds before you do the next task. A puff of air begins it journey from the lungs and moves towards the nose and lips as you breathe out. On its journey, it can meet the following speech organs, depending on where it is directed by the other speech organ. The air travels up the trachea to reach your larynx, also known as the voice box (may be you know it as Adam s apple?). It is a few centimeters below your chin and you can feel it move as you talk. Your larynx contains a set of muscular folds called vocal cords (note vocal is an adjective from the noun voice), and the space between the cords is called glottis. Air passes through the glottis and over these cords, which vibrate as we speak. From the larynx, the air comes to the back of the top of the mouth, where there are two soft parts---the uvula (the part hanging down) and the velum or soft palate (also soft and fleshy, the roof of the mouth in front of the uvula). Check in you mirror! These speech organs are very important in causing the air flow to vibrate. If you say the /k/ or /g/ sound, for example, the back of your tongue will move up to this area. k g--k--g--k--g--k--g--k--g From this point, there are two possible routes that the air can take: out through the mouth or through the nose. Let s look at the mouth route first. The hard palate is the next, as we come forward in the top of the mouth. Put your finger in your mouth and feel the difference between the soft and hard palate. Can you feel where the hard palate begins? In English, the sound of the letter j is made in this part of the mouth. Try saying jump and joy. And 3

judge has two examples of this palatal sound, even though the second example of the sound is not spelt with a j. Now try to find another hard area, the one just behind tour top teeth. Rub your tongue around and over it. It feels like a small ridge, doesn t it---it s the alveolar ridge. This area very important in speech. Say /t/ and /d/ a few times. Where s your tongue? If you re saying the English /t/ or /d/ sound, then part of your tongue is pressing against the alveolar ridge. Now try saying /n/. Is your tongue in the same place? Consonant such as /t/, /d/, and /n/ are called alveolar consonant because we put our tongue on this ridge when we say them. t d n t d n t d n The tongue is so important in changing the flow of air that we can also use the word tongue to mean language. But do you know the origin of the word language? It comes from the Latin word lingua, meaning tongue! We use our teeth too when we make speech sounds. Say five, for example. Where are your top teeth when you start the word? Where are they when you finish the word? At the end of it, your top teeth should be pressed against your bottom lip. And what if you say the word teeth? Your tongue should have moved underneath your top teeth for the final sound. Did it? When people are talking, watch how they move their lips. Say some words starting with /m/ and see what you do with your lips. They re pressed together to make this sound, aren t they? We also use the lips all the time to change the flow of air (try saying some vowels). Think about what your lips do as you make these sound: p b f v m a e i o u Once the air gets past the lips, its journey is done. But if the air is not routed through the mouth, it goes through the nasal cavity. Here is the last speech organ. The nose: Say /m/ and hold the sound. That is, keep saying /m/ without opening your mouth. In this case, the air goes out through the nose. The evidence is that you cannot say /m/, /n/ and /ŋ/ while holding your nose. Task 5-2 Classify the following speech sounds, decide whether, during the production, the air goes out through the nasal cavity (nose) or the oral cavity (mouth). Tick the appropriate boxes. The first one has been done for you as an example. 4

Speech Sound Nasal Cavity Oral Cavity /p/ /b/ /t/ /d/ /k/ /g/ /m/ /n/ /t / /d / /ŋ/ THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN SOUNDS AND LETTERS It has been mentioned previously that sounds are different from letters. Sounds are associated with phonemes, while letters are associated with alphabets. Task 5-3 For each of the following words, say how many letters and how many sounds. No 1 has been done for you as an example. No Words Transcribed as Letter Sound 1 Through /θru:/ 7 3 2 Thumb 3 Women 4 Cake With respect to the difference between sounds and letters, it can be concluded as follows: (1) in English, there are far more sounds than letters. (2) two or more letters often make up one sound. (3) the same letters may represent different sounds. (4) different letters may represent the same sound. Task 5-4 Justify statements (2), (3) and (4) above, by providing examples (words) for each statement. THE IPA AND SOUNDS IN ENGLISH It is not comfortable to hear a linguist telling you that it is a fascinating area of study to phonetics especially with complexity of IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet). The IPA is very consistent in representing the speech sounds on the principle of one symbol one sound, one sound one symbol. This alphabet was invented in 1889 as a way of recording all sounds in all languages. We would not discuss all sounds. Instead, we will focus on 44 sounds in English. For a start, observe the 4 sounds below 5

/i/ the ee sound in speech /t / the ch sound in speech /I/ the e sound in English / / the sh sound in English Note the use of slashes (/), in phonetics to indicate: a phoneme, by placing slashes on each side of the phoneme, as shown above e.g. /t /; and a phonetic transcription, as you did in Task 5-3, by placing slashes on each side of whole words, like this: /spi:t / /Iŋl I / (speech) (English) However, some phoneticians prefer to use [spi:t ] and [IŋlI ] to represent the phonetic transcription. Task 5-5 So far you have learned phonetics symbols, such as /i/, /t /, /I/, and / /. Here are two more symbols /p/ (as in pop) and /f/ (as in fun). With these 6 symbols, try to transcribe the following words phonetically. 1. ship / / 2. chip / / 3. sheep / / 4. fish / / 5. cheap / / 6. each / / English Phonemes The whole set of English phonemes is divided into 23 consonants, 12 vowels and 9 diphthongs. The English Consonants The list in Table 5.1 below represents the sounds for the consonants in English. The symbols start with sounds that are made at the front of the mouth, and move to those that are made at the back. Table 5-1 Phonemes for the 23 consonants in English Symbol Example Symbol Example /w/ wit, power /m/ met, coma /b/ bet, baby /p/ pet, trip /v/ van, never /f/ fine, proof 6

/ð/ /d/ /z/ /n/ /l/ /r/ /ʒ/ /dʒ/ /j/ /g/ /ŋ/ then, this do, good zip, jazz not, ten lead, pull read, foreign vision judge yes, player goat, frog sing, finger /θ/ /t/ /s/ / / /t / /k/ /h/ think teeth teach, bet sip, pass ship, wish church coat, sock hit With respect to the English consonants, they are classified into (1) place of articulation, (2) manner of articulation, and (3) voicing. There are 8 places of articulation, each of which is described below: 1. bilabial A consonant is called bilabial when the two lips press tightly against each other. 2. labio-dental A consonant is called labio-dental when the lower lip touches the upper teeth. 3. dental A dental consonant is produced by pressing the tip of the tongue against the upper teeth. 4. Alveolar An alveolar consonant is produced when the (tip of) tongue touches the teeth-ridge. 5. palate-alveolar A consonant is said to be palate-alveolar when the tongue touches a point between the teeth-ridge and the hard palate. 6. palatal A consonant is called palatal when the tongue touches the hard palate. 7. velar A velar consonant is produced when the (back of) tongue touches the soft palate. 8. glottal A glottal consonant does not involve the tongue; instead, it is produced between the glottis. 7

There are 7 manners of articulation, each of which is describe below: 1. plosive A plosive sound or stop is produced when the air escape through the mouth with a slight explosion. 2. fricative A fricative sound is produced by letting the air go out through a narrow opening in the mouth. 3. affricate An affricate sound is produced by a gradual release of the air through a tightly narrow opening in the mouth. 4. nasal A nasal sound is produced by letting the air go out through the nose. 5. lateral A lateral sound is produced by letting the air go out through one or both sides of the tongue. 6. liquid A liquid sound is produced by letting the air pass through the (rolled or flapped) tip of the tongue. 7. semi-vowel A semi-vowel is produced by letting the air go out through the opening between the lips. There are 2 types of voicing, namely voiced and voiceless. A consonant is labeled as voiced, when there is noise, and vibration of the vocal cords; while it is labeled as voiceless, when there is no such vibration of the vocal cords. One of the most reliable tests of voicing is to put a piece of paper in front of your mouth. Then, say any of those consonants, when there is more force of air, the consonant is voiced. Try the difference between /p/ and /b/; which one is voiceless and which one is voiced. Table 5-5 below represents three part descriptions of the English consonants. The consonants on the left side are voiceless; on the right, voiced. The left column represents manners of articulation. The upper row represents places of articulation Table 5-2 Three part description of the consonant phonemes in English Place Manner Bilabial Labiodental Dental Alveolar Palatealveolar Palatal Velar Glottal Plosive p b t d k g Fricative f v θ ð s z ʒ h Affricate t ʤ Nasal m n ŋ 8

Lateral Liquid Semivowel w l r j Note that all nasal sounds and semi-vowels are voiced. They do not have their voiceless counterparts. Task 5-6 From Table 5-5 above, /p/ is termed as voiceless bilabial plosive. Try to give the terms for the rest of the consonants. The English Vowels Below is a list of vowels in English consisting of symbols and examples. It should be noted that a vowel is classified into three variables, namely (1) how high the part of the tongue is raised, (2) which part of the tongue is raised, and (3) the lip-position, whether they are rounded or unrounded. /i/ or /i:/ /I/ /ε/ /æ/ /Λ/ /З/ or /З:/ /ә/ /u/ or /u:/ /U/ /ɔ:/ /o/ /a/ or /a:/ Table 5-3 Phonemes for the 12 vowels in English Symbol Example me, beat bit, women bet, Wednesday bat, ant but, funny world, heard, third about, letter, pilot pool, screw pull, hook caught, jaw hot, phonology father, party When there is a deliberate glide from one vowel position to another vowel position, the sound is called a diphthong such as shown in the following table. /ei/ Table 5-4 Phonemes for the 9 diphthongs in English Symbol Example weigh, say 9

/ai/ /oi/ /әu/ /au/ /Iә/ /eә/ /oә/ /Uә/ Thailand, buy, I noise, joy sow, won t council, growl ear, fear air, fair, care oar, more tour, sure IMPLICATION FOR FURHTER DISCUSSION The discussion above obviously has shown that each language has its own phonemes. Therefore, you should be aware of this fact, and thereby learn how to produce the speech sounds of the target language. It is hypothesized that foreign speech sounds which exist in the mother tongue will facilitate learning. Conversely, those which do not will cause learning problems. How would you justify the hypothesis? 10