English phonetics and phonology (Peter Roach

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Introduction

In any language we can identify a small number of regularly used sounds (vowels and

consonants) that we call phonemes; The rest of the course goes on to look at larger units of speech such as the syllable and at aspects of speech such as stress and intonation. The accent that we concentrate on and use as our model is the one that is most often recommended for foreign learners studying British English It has for a long time been identified by the name Received Pronunciation (usually abbreviated to its initials. RP), but this name is old-fashioned and misleading. Since it is most familiar as the accent used by most announcers and newsreaders on BBC and British independent television broadcasting channels, a preferable name is BBC pronunciation

[O M I D]

(Peter Roach)

2 The production of speech sounds
We have a large and complex set of muscles that can produce changes in the shape of the vocal tract
These different parts are called articulators and the study of them is called articulatory phonetics.
Articulators are as followings
i) The pharynx is a tube which begins just above the larynx. It is about 7 cm long in women and about 8 cm in men, and at its top end it is divided into two, one part being the back of the mouth and the other being the beginning of the way through the nasal cavity.
ii) The velum or soft palate is seen in the diagram in a position that allows air to pass through the nose and through the mouth.
iii) The hard palate is often called the “roof of the mouth”. You can feel its smooth curved surface with your tongue.
iv) The alveolar ridge is between the top front teeth and the hard palate. You can feel its shape with your tongue. Its surface is really much rougher than it feels and is covered with little ridges.
Sounds made with the tongue touching here (such as t and d) are called alveolar
v) The tongue is, of course, a very important articulator and it can be moved into many different places and different shapes.tongue on a larger scale with these parts shown: tip, blade, front, back and root.
vi) The teeth (upper and lower) are usually shown in diagrams like fig.1 only at the front of the mouth, immediately behind the lips. Sounds made with the tongue touching the front teeth are called dental.
vii) The lips are important in speech. They can be pressed together (when we produce the sounds p, b),
brought into contact with the teeth (as in f, v) or rounded to produce the lip-shape for vowels like u:. Sounds in which the lips are in contact With each other are called bilabial, while those with lip-to-teeth contact are called labiodental.
The seven articulators described above are the main ones used in speech, but there are three other things to remember firstly, the larynx could also be described as an articulator. Secondly, the jaw are sometimes called articulators. Finally, although there is practically nothing that we can do with the nose and the nasal cavity, they are a very important part of our equipment for making sounds.
2.2 Vowel and consonant
Vowels are sounds in which there is no obstruction to the flow of air as it passes from the larynx to the lips.

Looking at the different contexts and positions in which particular sounds can occur; this is the study of the distribution of the sounds, and is of great importance in phonology.
Study of the sounds found at the beginning and end of English words has shown that two groups of sounds with quite different patterns of distribution can be identified and these two groups are those of vowel and consonant. We must say that the most important difference between vowel and consonant is not the way, but their different distributions. We need to know in what ways vowels differ from each other. The first matter to consider is the shape and position of the tongue.It is usual to simplify the very complex possibilities by describing just two things: firstly, the vertical distance between the upper surface of the tongue and the palate and secondly, the part of the tongue, between front and back, which is raised highest.
Altough the lips can have many different shapes and positions. We will at this stage consider only three possibilities. These are:
i) Rounded, where the corners or the lips are brought towards each other and the lips pushed forwards. This is most clearly seen in cardinal vowel no.8 [u].
ii) Spread, with the corners of the lips moved away from each other, as for a smile. This is most clearly seen in cardinal vowel no.1 [i].
iii) Neutral, where the lips are not noticeably rounded or spread.
2.3 English short vowels
The symbols for these short vowels are: I, e, æ, Λ, D, υ. Short vowels are only relatively short; Each vowel is described in relation to the cardinal vowels.
I (example words: ‘bit’, ‘pin’, ‘fish’)
e (example words: ‘bet’, ‘men’, ‘yes’)
æ (example words: ‘bat’, ‘man’, ‘gas’)
Λ (example words: ‘but’, ‘some’, ‘rush’)
D (example words: ‘pot’, ‘gone’, ‘cross’)
υ (example words: ‘put’, ‘pull’, ‘push’)
There is one other short vowel. For which the symbol is ə. This central vowel – which is called shwa – is a very familiar sound in English.

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(Peter Roach)

3 long vowels, diphthongs
3.1 Long and short vowels
To remind you that these vowels tend to be long, the symbols consist of one vowel symbol.
Plus a length mark made of two dots :. Thus we have: i:, з:, a:, o:, u:, will now look at each of these long vowels individually
i: (example words: ‘beat’, ‘mean’, ‘peace’)
з: (example words: ‘bird’, ‘fern’, purse’)
a: (example words: ‘card’, ‘half’, ‘pass’)
o: (example words: ‘board’, ‘torn’, ‘horse’)
u: (example words: ‘food’, ‘soon’, ‘loose’)
3.2 Diphthongs
BBC pronunciation has a large number of diphthongs, sounds which consist of a movement or glide from one vowel to another. A vowel which remains constant and does
not glide is called a pure vowel
Iə (example words: ‘beard’, ‘Ian’, ‘fierce’)
eə (example words: ‘aired’, ‘cairn’, ‘scarce’)
υə (example words: ‘moored’, ‘tour’)
eI (example words: ‘paid’, ‘pain’, ‘face’)

aI (example words: ‘tide’, ‘time’, ‘nice’)
oI (example words: ‘void’, ‘loin’, ‘voice’)
əυ (example words: ‘load’, ‘home’, ‘most’)
aυ (example words: ‘loud’, ‘gown’, ‘house’)
3.3 Triphthongs
A triphthong is a glide from one vowel to another and then to a third, all produced rapidly and without interruption.
The triphthongs can be looked on as being composed of the five closing diphthongs described in the last section, with ə added on the end. Thus we get:
eI + ə = eIə əυ + ə = əυə
aI + ə = aIə aυ + ə = aυə

oI + ə = oIə

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Peter Roach)

4 voicing and consonants

4.1 The larynx

We begin this chapter by studying the larynx. The larynx has several very important functions in speech.

Its main structure is made of cartilage.

Inside the “box” made by these two cartilages are the vocal folds, which are two thick flaps of muscle rather like a pair of lips; an older is vocal cords.

We use the word glottis to refer to the opening between the vocal folds. If the vocal folds are apart we say that the glottis is open.

If they are pressed together we say that the glottis is closed.

i) Wide apart: The vocal folds are wide apart for normal breathing and usually during voiceless consonants like p, f, s

ii) Narrow glottis: If air is passed through the glottis when it is narrowed, the result is a fricative sound for which the symbol is h: a voiceless glottal fricative.

iii) Position for vocal fold vibration: When the edges of the vocal folds are touching each other, air passing through the glottis will usually cause vibration be varied. Three main differences are found:

i) Variations in intensity, ii) Variations in frequency, iii) Variations in quality

4.3 Plosives

A plosive is a consonant articulation with the following characteristics:

One articulator is moved against another to form a stricture .After this stricture has been formed and air has been compressed behind it; it is released. The escape of air will produce noise loud enough to be heard. This noise is called plosion. There may be voicing during part or all of the plosive articulation.

i) The first phase is when the articulator or articulators move to form the stricture for the plosive. We call this the closing phase.

ii) The second phase is when the compressed air is stopped from escaping. We call this the compression phase.

iii) The third phase is when the articulators used. To form the stricture are moved so as to allow air to escape. This is the release phase.

iv) The fourth phase is what happens immediately after (iii).

4.4 English plosives

English has six plosive consonants: p, t, k, b, d, g.

All six plosives can occur at the beginning of a word (initial position), between other sounds (medial position) and at the end of a word (final position).

4.5 Fortis and lenis

The voiceless plosives p, t, k are sometimes called fortis (meaning ‘strong’) and b, d, g are then called lenis (meaning ‘weak’).

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(Peter Roach)

5 The phoneme

When we speak, we produce a continuous stream of sounds. In studying speech we divide this stream into small pieces that we call segments.

There is an abstract set of units as the basis of our speech. These units are called phonemes, and the complete set of these units is phonemic system of the language.

The b at the beginning of a word such as ‘bad’ will usually be pronounced with practically no voicing. Sometimes, a speaker may produce the b with full voicing, in speaking emphatically.

If this is done, the sound is still identified as the phoneme b, even though we can hear that it is different in some way. We have in this example two Different ways of making b – two different realizations of the phoneme. One can be substituted for the other without changing the meaning.

When we find this strict separation of places where particular realizations can occur, we say that the realisations are in complementary distribution.

When we talk about different realisations of phonemes, we sometimes call these realisations allophones.

Basically the symbols are for one of two puposes: either they are symbols for phonemes (phonemic or phoneme symbols) or they are phonetic symbols.One of the traditional exercises in pronunciation teaching by phonetic methods is that of Phonemic transcription, where every speech sound must be indentified as one of the phonemes and written with the appropriate symbol. There are two different kinds of transcription exercise:

in one, transcription from dictation, the student must listen to a person – or a tape – recording – and write down what they hear; in the other, transcription from a written text.

The student is given a passage of dialogue written in orthography and must use phonemic symbols to represent how she or he thinks it would be pronounced by a speaker of a particular accent.

Diacritics, marks which modify the symbol in some way; for example, the symbol for cardinal vowel no. 4 [a] may be modified by putting two dots above it.

Such a transcription would be called a phonetic transcription; a phonetic transcription containing a lot of information about the exact quality of the sounds would be called a narrow phonetic transcription,

While one which only included a little more information than a phonemic transcription would be called a broad phonetic transcription.

When, we study the abstract side of the sounds of language we are studying a related but different subject that we call phonology.

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Peter Roach)

6 Fricatives and affricates

6.1 Production of fricatives and affricates

Fricatives are consonants with the characteristic that, when they are produced, air escapes through a small passage and makes a hissing sound.

Affricates are rather complex consonants. They begin as plosives and end as fricatives.

The fortis fricatives have the effect of shortening a preceding vowel, as do fortis plosives.

Phonologically, h is a consonant. It is usually found before vowels. When hoccurs between voiced sounds, it is pronounced with voicing called breathy voice.

Most American and Scottish speakers, produce a voiceless fricative with the same lip, tongue and jaw position as w.

The phonetic symbol for this voiceless fricative is M.

t∫, dз are the only two affricate phonemes in English.

p, t, k may be followed not by a vowel

but by one of l, r, j, w. these voiced continuant aonsonants undergo a similar process: they lose their voicing. So words like ‘play’ pleI, ‘tray’ treI, ‘quick’ kwIk contain devoiced l, r, w

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Peter Roach)

7 Nasals and other consonants
7.1 Nasals
The basic characteristic of a nasal consonant is that the air escapes through the nose.
We will now look at some ways in
which the distribution of ŋ is usual.
i) In initial position we find m and n occurring freely, but ŋ never occurs in this position.
ii) Medially, ŋ occurs quite frequently
iii) A third way in which the distribution of ŋ is unusual is the small number of vowels it is found to follow,
It never occurs after a diphthong or long vowel, and in fact there are only five vowels ever found preceding this consonant: I, e, æ, Λ and D.
7.2 The consonant 1
A lateral consonant is one in which the passage of air through the mouth does not go in the usual way along the centre of the tongue;

7.3 The consonant r
This consonant is a post-alveolar approximant.
The tongue is slightly curled backwards with the tip raised; consonants with this tongue shape are called retroflex.
7.4 The consonants j and w
The most important thing to remember about these phonemes is that they are phonetically like vowels but phonologically like consonants

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Peter Roach)

8 The syllable
Phonetically syllables are usually described as consisting of a centre which has little or no obstruction to airflow and which sounds comparatively loud;
before and after this centre there will be greater obstruction to airflow and/or less loud sound.
i) What we might call a minimum syllable would be a single vowel in isolation
The study of the possible phoneme combinations of a language is called phonotactics.
If the first syllable of the word in question begins with a vowel we say that this
Initial syllable has a zero onset.
When we have two or more consonants together we call them a consonant cluster.
Initial two-consonant clusters are of two sorts in English.
One sort is composed of s followed by one of a small set of consonants; examples of such clusters are found in words such as ‘sting’ stI ŋ, ‘sway’ sweI, ‘smoke’ sməυk.
The other sort begins with one of a set of about fifteen consonants, followed by one of the set 1, r, w, j as in, for example, ‘play’ pleI, ‘try’ traI, ‘quick’ kwIk, ‘few’ fju:.
We call the first consonant of these clusters the initial consonant and the second the post-initial.

If there is no final consonant we say that there is a zero coda
When there is one consonant only, this is called the final consonant. Any consonant may be a final consonant except h, r, w, j. there are two sorts of two-consonant final cluster,
One being a final consonant preceded by a pre-final consonant and the other a consonants form a small set: m, n, ŋ, l, s. we can see these in ‘bump’
bΛmp, ‘bent’ bent, ‘bank’ bæ ŋk, ‘belt’ belt, ‘ask’ a:sk. The post-final consonants also form a small set: s, z, t, d, θ; example words are: ‘belts’ bets.
There are two types of final three-consonant cluster; the first is prefinal plus final plus post-final.

The second type shows that more than one post-final consonant can occur in a final cluster: final plus post-final l plus post-final 2. post-final 2 is again one of s, z, t, d, θ

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(Peter Roach)

9 Strong and weak syllables
When we compare weak syllables with strong, syllables, we find the vowel in a weak syllable tends to be shorter, of lower intensity and different in quality.
Any strong syllable will have as its peak one of the vowel phonemes (or possibly a triphthong) listed in chapter 3, but not ə, i or u
It the vowel is short, then the strong syllable will always have a coda as well
At the end of a word, we may have a weak syllable ending
with a vowel (i.e. with no coda):
i) The vowel ə
ii) A close front unrounded vowel in the general area of i: and I (symbolised i);
iii) A close back rounded vowel in the general area of u: and υ (symbolised u).
We also find weak syllables in word-final position with a coda if the vowel is ə.
We have ə in following cases:
i) Spelt with ‘a’; strong pronunciation would have æ ‘attend’ ətend
ii) Spelt with ‘ar’; strong pronunciation would have a: ‘particular’ pətIkjələ
iii) Adjectival endings spelt ‘ate’; strong pronunciation would have eI
‘intimate’ intitImət
iv) Spelt with ‘o’; strong pronunciation would have D or əυ ‘tomorrow’ təmDrəυ
v) Spelt with ‘or’; strong pronunciation would have o: ‘forget’ fəget
vi) Spelt with ‘e’; strong pronunciation would have e ‘settlement’ setlmənt
vii) Spelt with ‘er’; strong pronunciation would have з: ‘perhaps’ pəhæps
viii) Spelt with ‘u’; strong pronunciation would have Λ ‘Autumn’ o:təm
ix) Spelt with ‘ough’ ‘through’ θΛrə
ix) Splet with ‘ou’; strong pronunciation might have aυ ‘gracious’ greI∫əs
Syllabic consonants:
In this case, a consonant, either l, r or a nasal, stands as the peak of the syllable instead of the vowel.
Syllabic l is perhaps the most noticeable

Example of the English syllabic consonants
The l is a “dark l”
The most obvious case is where we have a word ending with one or more consonant letters
followed by ‘le’. Example are:
i) With alveolar consonant preceding
‘cattle’ kætl
ii) With non-alveolar consonant preceding
‘couple’ kΛpl
Syllabic n is most common after alveolar plosives and fricatives
Syllabics m, ŋ:

Both can occur as syllabic, but only as a result of processes such as assimilation and elision
In words like ‘happens’, which can be pronounced hæpm

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