Notes on Phonetics and Phonetic Terms

                                     Short Notes on Phonetics and Phonetic  Terms

               

Phonetics is a term derived from the word ‘phone’ which means sound. Phonetics, thus studies the production, transmission and reception of sound. The branch of phonetics that deals with the production of different sounds with the help of speech organs and the vocal cord is known as articulatory phonetics. The transmission of sound is known as acoustic phonetics. The auditory phonetics deals with mechanism of perception of sounds and how they are received by the listeners.

1. Organs of Speech:

The air that comes out of the mouth (the air that we breathe out) is modified into speech sounds by the action of certain organs in the body. These organs like the tongue, the lungs, the teeth, the lips etc. are called the organs of speech. Some o these organs may have other functions also to perform in the body.

1.   Respiratory system:

The respiratory system consists of the lungs, the muscles of the chest and the windpipe (also called the trachea)

      3.  Inspiration and Expiration 

            The act that is commonly known as respiration involves two processes –taking outer  air

           into the lungs   called inspiration and throwing out air from the lungs into the outer atmosphere

           called the expiration

.

4        The Alveoli.

The lungs are spongy bodies. They are made up of small sacs called the alveoli

5.        Pulmonic air stream

The expiratory lung air (the air we breathe out) is the basis for the articulation of most speech sounds. For this reason the air stream involving lung air is called pulmonic air stream.

      6     Air stream mechanisms:

a)      Pulmonic

b)      Glottalic

c)      Velaric

7. Egressive and ingressive air

      When the air stream mechanism is used to push air out, it is called  egressive   and  when it is used to draw air in , it is called ingressive. Egressive air is the basis of all the sounds in English language.

8. Implosives:

A speech sound articulated with a glottalic ingressive air stream mechanism is called an implosive. It comes under glottalic air stream mechanism. The Indian language Sindhi has a few  implosives.

9. Voiceless or Breathed sounds:

During the production of some speech sounds the vocal cords are wide apart and the glottis is open. Such sounds produced with a wide open glottis are called voiceless or Breathed sounds. The first sounds in the English words peel, ten, keen, thin, shine, hat etc. are voiceless sounds. [p, t, k, ʧ, f, T ,s, S, h] 9 consonants are voiceless.

10.  Voiced Sounds:

During the production of certain speech sounds, the vocal cords are loosely held together and the pressure of the air from the lungs makes them open and close rapidly. This is called the vibration of the vocal cords and the sounds produced when the vocal cords vibrate are called voiced sounds. All the sounds in the English words bead, deed, vine, measure, need, wing, red etc. are voiced sounds.(all the vowels in English are voiced sounds) [ b, d, g,m, n, N,l, ʤ, ʒ,v,  z, D, r, w, j ] There 15 voiced consonants in English.

              Roof of the mouth is divided in to three parts- Teeth ridge, soft palate and hard palate.

11    Teeth Ridge

      The convex bony part of the roof of the mouth which lies immediately behind the upper

      front teeth is called  the teeth ridge. It is also called as alveolar ridge or alveolum

            12.   Hard palate

          Immediately after the teeth ridge, the roof of the mouth becomes concave and it is hard

          and bony. This bony concave surface is called the hard palate.

           13.  Soft Palate

         Just after the hard palate the roof of the mouth becomes soft and fleshy. This is called the

         soft palate or velum.It plays an important role in the production of oral and nasal sounds.

           14. Uvula:

                  The fleshy structure hanging loose at the extreme end of the roof of the mouth

                  is called the uvula.

15.    Oral sounds:

Sounds during the production of which the air escapes only through the mouth are called oral sounds. All the sounds in the English except   the first sound in ‘money’, ‘nun’ and the last sound in  ‘king’ are oral sounds. While producing the oral sounds there is a phenomenon called  ‘velic closure’.

16.    Velic closure.

When the soft palate (velum) is raised, it touches the back wall of the pharynx and so the passage into the nose is closed and the air from the  lungs escapes through the mouth. Thus, the closure of the nasal passage of air by raising the velum or the soft palate is called the velic closure.

17.    Nasal sounds:

Sounds during the production of which the air escapes only through the nose is called nasal sounds. In English there are only three nasal sounds. The last sounds in sum, sun, and sung are nasal sounds.[ m, n,  N ]

           18.  Nasalized sounds:

                  The sounds during the production of which the air escapes simultaneously through the

                  mouth and the nose is called nasalized sounds. The last sound in the French word bon

                 (good) is an example of nasalized sound.

            19. Tongue and its parts:

       a) Tip    :  The extreme edge of the tongue is called the tip

       b) Blade:   Immediately after the tip is the blade and it is the part of the tongue that

                         lies opposite the teeth ridge when the speech organs are at rest.

                   c) Front: The pat of the tongue after the blade is called the front; and it is the

                  part of  the tongue that lies opposite the hard palate  when the

                  speech organs are at rest.

 d) Back: Beyond the front of the tongue is the back and it is the part that lies

                opposite the soft palate when the speech organs are at rest.

                   e) Root: The part of the tongue after the back is called the root.

           20. Consonants.

                  Consonants are the sounds during the production of which the air escapes through the

                  mouth with a friction. 

21.    Vowels.

Vowels are the sounds during the production of which the air escapes through the mouth without a friction. Vowels are articulated with a stricture of open approximation i.e., the active articulator, the tongue is raised towards the passive articulator, the roof of the mouth so as to leave sufficient space between  them for air to escape freely and continuously. There are twenty vowels in English RP. Out of the twenty twelve are pure vowels or monophthongs and the rest eight are vowel glides or diphthongs.

Classification of vowels.

Vowels are classified on the basis of three articulatory dimensions.

A)    The position of the lips (Rounded or unrounded)

Rounded vowels: They are the vowels during the articulation of which the lips are rounded. E.g,- / Q , U , O: ,u: /

Unrounded Vowels: They are the vowels articulated  with spread or neutral(open) lips.

E.g, / i , e , { , V , @ , i: , a: , ȝ: /

There are various degrees of lip spreading and lip rounding.

B)    The part of the tongue that is raised.  (front, central, back)

Front Vowels.

Front vowels are those during the articulation of which the front of the tongue is raised against in the direction of the hard palate. The vowels in the English words bee, bid, bed and bad are some examples of front vowels

     Back Vowels.

    Vowels are those during the articulation of which  the back f the tongue is raised in the

    direction of the soft palate  in such a way that there is sufficiently enough gap between

    them   for the air to escape without friction. The vowels in the English words cart, cot,

    caught, push and pool are back vowels.

          Central vowels

  Vowels may be produced by raising the centre of the tongue in the direction of that part

  of the roof of the mouth where the hard palate and soft palate meet. The vowels in cup

   and heard are examples of central vowels.

C)    The height to which the tongue is raised. ( high, mid, low)

High or Close Vowels  are those during the production of which the tongue is raised  close to the roof of the mouth.  /i:/ in feet and / u: / in cool  are high vowels.

 Low or Open vowels: The  vowels produced by keeping the tongue  low away from the  roof of the mouth are called  low or open  vowels. E.g, /{/   in cat , and  /a:/ in car.

              The position of the tongue varies in a number  of ways while producing the vowels. All the

              positions are not mentioned here.

              We can describe a vowel using a short three term descriptive label, indicating the criteria

              mentioned above. Thus a back half open  rounded vowel  would mean the following.

a)      The back of  the tongue is raised  in the direction of the soft palate during its articulation.

b)      It is raised to a point between the close and open positions but closer to open than to close.

c)      The lips are rounded during its articulation.

               Cardinal Vowels  -

The term cardinal vowel was first introduced by AM Bell but later  it came to be associated with Daniel Jones. Cardinal vowels are fixed and unchanging reference points established within the total range of the vowel quality to which any other vowel sound can directly be related. There are eight cardinal vowels.

CV No: 1-  Front close unrounded   / i /

CV No: 2-  Front half-close unrounded / e /

CV No: 3-  Front half-open unrounded /  E /

CV No: 4-  Front open unrounded / a /

CV No: 5-  Back open unrounded / A /

CV No: 6-  Back half- open rounded / O /

CV No: 7-  Back half-close rounded / o /

CX No: 8-  Back open rounded / u /

 

22.    Stricture.

The term stricture refers to the way in which the passage of air is restricted by the various organs of speech or the articulators in the oral cavity. There are eight cardinal vowels and  they can be  used as points of reference  with which the vowels of any  language may be compared.

23.    Plosives. (Stops)

Sounds produced with a stricture of complete closure and sudden release is called plosives. When the articulators release the air ,it escapes with  a small explosive noise. The initial sounds in the English words pin, bin tin, din, kin, and gun are plosives.

Incomplete Plosives.

In a consonant cluster, if one plosive is followed by another plosive or an affricate in the same word, the first plosive is not fully pronounced.Such plosives are called as incomplete plosives. e.g., / k/ in fact and lecture.

24.    Affricates.

 Consonant sounds that are produced with a stricture of complete closure and slow release are called affricates. The initial sounds in the English words chin and jam are affricate consonants.[ ʧ, ʤ ]            

25.    Intermittent closure.

When the soft palate is raised the nasal passage of air is shut off. Then the active articulator strikes against the passive articulator continuously and the air escapes the passive and active articulator intermittently. It is called intermittent closure.

26.    Trills or rolled consonants.

Sounds that are articulated with a stricture of intermittent closure are called trills or rolled consonants. The letter    r   in English words like red and ran is pronounced as a trill by most of the Scottish people. Some phoneticians regard it as frictionless continuant also

27.    Fricatives.

The sounds articulated with a stricture of close approximation are called fricatives. There are nine distinctive fricatives in English. The initial words in the English words five, vine, sip, zip, sheep, and hat are some examples of fricatives.[ S, Z, s, z, h,v, f,T,  D ]

28.    Laterals.

Sounds that are articulated with a stricture of complete closure in the centre of the vocal tract but with the air escaping along the sides of the tongue without any friction are called laterals. The initial sound t\in the English word love is a lateral.

         

29.    Diphthongs and Triphthongs.

A diphthong may be described as a vowel glide, that is, the tongue first takes apposition required for the articulation of a certain vowel and then moves or glides towards the position required for the articulation of another vowel. The vowels in the English words buy, boy; cow, poor, page etc. are some examples of diphthongs.

On the other hand a Triphthong literally means ‘with three sounds’. It is a monosyllabic vowel combination involving a quick but smooth movement of the articulator from one vowel quality to another that passes over a third. Sometimes the closing diphthongs may be followed by / @ / within a word. In words like tire /         /, hour/              /  player /           /  and  rower /             /  it can be noticed.

Classification of Diphthongs

a)      Closing Diphthongs

The diphthongs in which  the glide is from one vowel position  to that of a close or hgh  vowel may be called a closing diphthong.The diphthongs in  the words play,joy,five,home  and town  are closing diphthongs.

                  b).Centering Diphthong

                      The centring  diphthongs are those which  glide in the direction of  the central

                      vowel / @ / . The diphthongs in the words clear, fair, and sure  are centering

                       diphthongs.

c)  Falling  Diphthongs

When a diphthong is long, it is the first element that is lengthened. The second element of the diphthong is very short. Such diphthongs are called falling diphthongs.

The diphthongs in the words- make, boy, sky, coat, how and fair are falling diphthongs.

d) Rising Diphthongs

  Diphthongs with a strong second element are called raising diphthongs. The vowel sounds (diphthongs) in clear and pure are  rising diphthongs.

          30.  Monophthongs   or pure vowels.

                The vowels that do not change their quality during the production are called

                 monophthongs   or  pure vowels. The vowels in the English words see, sit, bet bad,

                 saw, put, and boot are  some examples of pure vowels or  monophthongs.

          

31.Composition of the syllable:

        The vowel in a syllable is its central element and is called the nucleus of

        a syllable.

         32.   Releasing consonant.

                 The consonant that begins a syllable is called the releasing consonant.

33.  Arresting consonant.

        The consonant that comes at the end of a syllable is called the arresting consonant.

         34.    Stress

The intensity given to a syllable of speech by special effort in utterance resulting in a relative loudness.  OR When a word has more than one syllabus, one of them is spoken with more force than the rest.  This force is called stress. The syllable which is stressed is shown with the stress mark /  " /    The primary stress is shown with / " / and secondary stress is shown with / =  / The  syllables  uttered with  a greater degree of force are called stressed syllable.

35.  Accent

It shows the property of a syllable which makes it stand out in an utterance relative to its neighbour.

36.Intonation

Intonation is a linguistic feature  in which a modulation of voice  or accent  in utterance  occurs through  variation in pitch. In other words it can be said as the patterns of variation of the pitch of the voice (i.e. the way in which the pitch varies) constitute the intonation of a language. Intonation   is something that is said about the emotional attitude of the speaker. The important tones are Falling tone, Rising tone and Falling rising tone.

         37.  Phonemes.

       Every language has a large number of vowel and consonant sounds forming the

       sound system of that language. These sounds can be grouped into a limited number of

      distinctive sounds or speech sounds called phonemes .In English RP, there are 44 

        phonemes,  20 vowels  and 24 consonants.

 38. Syllables

     A syllable is minimum rhythmic unit of a spoken language consisting of a vowel with or without a consonant. One or more phonemes make a syllable. The vowel in a syllable is its central element and is called the nucleus of a syllable.   Words can have different syllabic formations. For example the word go has only one syllable, doctor has two, remember has three, and population has four syllables.

A syllable can be marked with help of the symbols V for vowel and C for consonants. Therefore, the word bat can represented CVC, spray as CCCV, heir as V

Consonant Cluster - It is a sequence of two or more consonants at the beginning or  end of a syllable. In other words, a sequence of two consonants will have to form part of the same syllable if it has to be considered a consonant cluster. E.g. Stream /stri:m/ ,here consonant cluster is of three consonants CCC. There can be a maximum of three consonants in the beginning  and four consonants at the end in a cluster.

           39. Releasing Consonant (Onset) and Arresting consonant (Coda).

         The consonant that begins a syllable is called the releasing consonant. For example in the word

         cat /k/ is the releasing consonant.(CVC) The consonant that comes at the end of a  syllable is

         called the arresting consonant. For example in the word cat if /k/ is the releasing consonant

          and  /t/  is the arresting consonant.

      40.  Syllabic Consonant.

Though  a vowel occupies the central(nuclear) position in a syllable, there are certain syllables   where the nuclear position is occupied by consonants. Such consonants which form a syllable without a vowel are called syllabic consonants. The last syllable in the following words are some examples of this type: kettle, mutton, prism, ridden, .The English consonants - /m/,/n/,/l/and /r/ occupy syllabic positions in some syllables.

41. Open and Closed syllables.

Another classification of syllable is based on its position of vowels. In a syllable, a vowel or a diphthong is the nuclear element. If a syllable ends in a vowel (without the arresting consonant) then it is called an open syllable. e.g, play, she, go etc. .But if a syllable ends in a consonant, then it is called closed syllable. E.g, cat, bad, add, etc.

        42.   Semi vowels (Frictionless continuants)

          Sounds that are articulated with a stricture of open approximation are called frictionless

         continuants or semi-vowels. In this mode, the soft palate(velum) is raised, and there by closing

         the nasal passage. Then the active articulators are brought so close to the passive articulator yet

         the gap between them is wide enough to  produce the sound without a friction.   The initial

        sound in the English words yes and wet  are  semi- vowels (approximants)

   43.  The Active and Passive articulators

      The air we breathe out is modified into speech sounds by the function of some supra-glottal speech organs like the lips and the tongue, the teeth, the roof of the mouth etc., called articulators. Again, they are divided into active and passive articulators. The articulators those move while producing speech sounds are called active articulators. E.g. lower lip and the tongue. The speech organs that do not move,  e.g  upper lip, the teeth and the roof of the mouth are called as passive articulators.  However, it should be remembered that we use a label derived from the passive articulator in order to describe a consonant.

     

   

      

 44.    Consonants and their descriptions.

   There are 24 consonants in English RP. They are given a detailed description based on three important aspects of their production: a) The state of the glottis- Voiced or Voiceless. b) The place of articulation- Bilabial,Dental Alveolar etc. and c)   The manner of articulation-Plosive, Fricative , Affricate  etc.

Plosives –(6)

/ p /   voiceless bilabial plosive;                          spin

                /  b /   voiced   bilabial plosive;                           bee

                /  t /   voiceless alveolar plosive;                        stick

                /  d /   voiced alveolar plosive;                            day

                /  k /   voiceless velar plosive;                              skin

                /  g  /   voiced velar plosive;                                  gun

                             

                                          Affricates-(2)

                

                / ʧ /    voiceless palato-alveolar affricate             chin

               / ʤ /   voiced palato-alveolar affricate                jump

             

                Nasals – (3)

              

                  /  m /     voiced bilabial nasal                                        man 

                   /  n /     voiced alveolar nasal                                       near

                   /  N /      voiced velar nasal                                           finger

             Fricatives- (9)

                  / f /       voiceless labio-dental fricative                        five

                  / v  /      voiced labio-dental fricative                            vine

                   / T /        voiceless dental fricative                               thin

                  / D  /      voiced dental fricative                                     then

                  /  s /      voiceless alveolar fricative                              sin

                  / z /        voiced alveolar fricative                                  zoo

                  /  S /       voiceless palato alveolar fricative                    ship

                  /  Z /       voiced palato alveolar fricative                        pleasure

                  / h /      voiceless glottal fricative                                   hat

                Lateral- (1)

                  / l  /     voiced alveolar lateral                                        leave

               Approximants (Semi Vowels) – (2)

                  /  j /      voiced palatal approximant                               yes

                  /  w /      voiced labio velar approximant                       wet

               Frictionless continuant (rolled/Trill) or (Tap or Flap –( 1)

                 /   r /     voiced alveolar trill                                            red (in Scottish English)

                [    r   ]    voiced alveolar tap                                           very

                  Consonants, if classified according to the place of articulation fall into the following

                  Groups.

                 Bilabial – (4) /p, b , m , w /          Labio-Dental – (2) /f,v / 

                 Dental  -(2) / T , D /   Alveolar (6) /t ,d , n ,l ,s ,z /  Post- alveolar- (1)    / r /

                 Palato-alveolar –(4) / ʧ ,ʤ /  Palatal –(1)   /j /

                 Velar –( 3 )     / k, g ,N /                 Glottal ( 1)  /h /

   45.         The Linking ‘r’

                When a word ends with the letter ‘r’ and the next word begins with a vowel and

                  if  there is no pause  between  the two words  in connected speech, the final ‘r’

                  of the  first word  is pronounced. For example, butter and jam, father and

                 mother, far away  etc..

46.         Static tone and Kinetic tone

            A syllable said on a level tone, high or low is said to be a static tone and one on which

             ( accented syllable) there is a pitch  change is said to be  a kinetic tone.

47.    Assimilation

         Speech is a continuum and not a stringing together of discrete units and so   a sound may be

         affected by the sounds  that precede and  or  succeed it. Thus the way in which sounds

          influence each other is called assimilation. It refers to the  influence exercised by one sound

         upon the  articulation of another.The change may be allophonic or phonemic i.e,the

         replacement may be  by an allophone of the same phoneme or by another phoneme. If the

         features of a phoneme affect the  phoneme following it, it is called progressive assimilation.

         In regressive assimilation, the features of a phoneme affect the phoneme preceding it.

48.  Elision

      The act of leaving out a vowel or a syllable in pronunciation (in rapid speech) is called

      elision   e.g. . Let’s for let us,   It’s for It is ,etc..

49.   Minimal Pair

     A minimal pair is a set of two words which differ from each other in one sound.

      eg. meat –neat, seat- feet  ,leak- lack etc.

     However, pin and spin do not constitute a minimal pair  because spin has an additional sound.

50. Morpheme

     The smallest unit of meaning that a word can be divided into is called a morpheme.

     For example ,the word ‘like’ contains one morpheme but ‘un-like-ly’ contains

     three morphemes.

51.  Clear ‘l’ and Dark ‘l’.

     Clear ‘l’ occurs only when ‘l’ is followed by a vowel or the semi vowel /j /.

     For example, in words like lean, let ,lose flute, ply ,lad  etc the ‘l’ is followed by

     a vowel sound. In words like million, allure, etc the ‘l’ is followed by the semi-vowel / j /.

     Dark ‘l’ occurs whenever the lateral (the sound ‘l’) is not followed by a vowel.

    For example the lateral can be a word final as in heal, call, hell, pull etc and also

    before    consonants other than /j / as in health, milk, cold, stealth, help etc.

52.Allophones.

A phoneme can have a little variation in its sound depending on its position in different words.                               

For example, the sound of / k / in cake and scale is a little varied, ie in cake the sound /k / is aspirated  whereas it is  unaspirated in scale. Thus when phonetically similar sounds in complementary distribution in relation to one another are called positional variants or allophones of the same phoneme. In other words, the sounds that can be grouped together into  a single phoneme are called members of that phoneme or allophonemes of that phoneme.Yet another way, it can be said as the variations in sound of the same phoneme.   The phoneme / l / has alphonemes- clear  [ l ]- articulated with the tip of the tongue making a complete closure  with the teeth ridge, and dark [ l ] , in addition to the previous position, the back of the tongue also goes up simultaneously  to articulate with the soft palate.

53.  Juncture

 Juncture is the transition from one segmental phoneme to another. In other words, juncture refers to the relationship of a particular  sound with its immediately preceding  and following sounds.. For example in the set of words - I scream and ice cream, it is the juncture that determines or gives the meaning to the listener. Breaking the sentences into proper sense groups can also be called as juncture.

54. Supra-segmental features

Supra-segmental feature forms a part of the prosodic analysis which includes juncture, stress or accent, pitch, rhythm and intonation.

55.Homonym

    The term homonymy consists  of  different  items with same phonetic  form. They differ only in

     meaning, as for example  the item ‘bank’ means either  a financial  institution or the bank of a

    river. Homonymy is classified as  homograph and homophony.

    Homograpy  is the phenomenon of  two or more words having same spelling but different

     meaning or pronunciation. E.g. lead meaning  a kind of metal, or to show the way. Game,

     Homophony is a case of two or more words having the same pronunciation but different

     meanings or spellings. E.g. alter and  altar, pail and pale, flower and flour, key and quay ,grate

     and great etc.

56. Rhythm

       It refers to the regularity of prominent units in speech.In English language accented syllables

      occur at more or less  the same time interval irrespective  o the unaccented  syllables between

      them. English is language with a stress time rhythm, that means, stressed syllable tend to occur at

      regular intervals of time.