Phonetics and Phonology

Fortis and Lenis consonants have an effect on the sounds before and after them and may change a voiceless sound into a voiced one or vice versa.. Ex: /b d g/ are lenis consonants.[r]

PHONETICS AND PHONOLOGY

Mr Ánh

PART 1

PHONETICS

Phonetics deals with the physical aspect of sounds Phonetic transcription with allophones is used in this field of study.

The speech organs are the parts of the body that are used to produce the sounds The speech organs consist of:

I- Articulators

They are the movable parts to modify the air stream to produce different sounds The articulators are:

1 Vocal cords in the larynx:

Where sounds may be produced with vibration (voiced sounds) or without vibration (voiceless) The opening between the vocal cords is called the glottis.

2 Pharynx:

The tube above the larynx The epiglottis in the

pharynx can be raised or lowered to open or

close the way to the windpipe.

3 Tongue:

The most important articulator because it is

flexible and it can move to different places in the mouth.

4 Uvula:

The extreme back of the roof of the mouth It can

be raised or lowered to open or close the

passage to the nose.

5 Lower teeth (lower jaw):

They are behind the lower lip.

6 Lower lip:

It faces the upper lip It is flexible and can be

pressed against the upper lip or can be rounded

or spread.

II- Points of articulation:

The fixed parts on the roof of the mouth towards which the articulators move to produce sounds Points of articulation are:

7 Upper lip: Opposite the lower lip.

8 Upper teeth (upper jaw): opposite the lower lip.

9 Alveolar ridge/tooth ridge/gum: It is between the upper teeth and the hard palate.

10 Hard palate/roof of the mouth: It is the hard part of roof of the mouth.

11 Soft palate/velum: It is the soft part of roof of the mouth.

III- Diagram of the speech organs:

Vowels are classified according to 5

standards:

1) Tongue height

- Tongue height is the vertical distance

between the upper surface of the tongue and palate (= degree of opening of the

mouth)

- The tongue may be raised high, mid or low

- Correspondingly the position of the jaw

may also be close, mid or open

Tenseness in the muscle of the jaw and

throat The muscles may be lax or tense

Short vowels are often lax vowels

meanwhile tense vowels are often long

Front Central BackClose i

i:

ɜ:

a:

u:

1 /i/ high front unrounded tense vowel

2 / I / high front unrounded lax vowel

3 /e/ mid front unrounded lax vowel

4 / „ / low front unrounded lax vowel

5 /a/ low back rounded tense vowel

6 /o/ low back rounded lax vowel

7 /ɔ/ low back rounded tense vowel

8 /υ/ high back rounded lax vowel

9 /u/ high back rounded tense vowel

10 /ʌ/ mid central unrounded lax vowel

11 / Ə/ mid central unrounded lax vowel

12 / ɜ/ mid central unrounded tense vowel

CONSONANTS AND THEIR CLASSIFICATION

A consonant is a sound In producing it, the air stream coming from the lungs is stopped, impeded, constricted or otherwise interfered within its passage to the outside air.

Consonants are classed as VOICED if they are produced with vibration of the vocal cords and VOICELESS if they are produced without vibration.

CLASSIFICATION OF CONSONANTS:

Consonants are classified according to these four standards:

a) Bi-labial: 2 lips are pressed together.

released with an explosive sound.

Ex: /b, p, d, t, g, k/

b) Fricative: The air is constricted, causing

friction when passing through the organs of

Ex: /l/

f) Gliding or semi vowel (consonant) or

approximant: There is a gliding from one

to another with little or no obstruction of

the air stream The tip of the tongue

approaches the alveolar ridge

Ex: /w, r, j/

3) Voicing:

There is presence or absence of the

vibration of the vocal cords

a) Voiced: When the vocal cords open and

close rapidly: /b, d, v, g, ð, z, ʒ, dʒ, l, m, n,

ŋ, r, w, h, j/

b) Voiceless: When the vocal cords open

wide and there is the vibration of the

In general, there are 24 consonants in

Consonants: Descriptions & practice

1 /b/: voiced bilabial stop

2 /p/: voiceless bilabial stop

3 /d/: voiced alveolar stop

4 /t/: voiceless alveolar stop

5 /g/: voiced velar stop

6 /k/: voiceless velar stop

7 /v/: voiced labio-dental fricative

8 /f/: voiceless labio-dental fricative

9 /ð/: voiced interdental fricative

10 /θ/: voiceless interdental fricative

11 /z/: voiced alveolar fricative

12 /s/: voiceless alveolar fricative

13 /ʒ/: voiced alveo-palatal fricative

14 /ʃ/: voiceless alveo-palatal fricative

15 /dʒ/: voiced alveo-palatal afffricate

16 /tʃ/: voiceless alveo-palatal afffricate

17 /h/: voiced or voiceless glottal fricative

18 /l/: voiced lateral

19 /m/: voiced bilabial nasal

20 /n/: voiced alveolar nasal

21 /ŋ/: voiced velar nasal

22 /r/: voiced alveolar semi-vowel

23 /j/: voiced palatal semi-vowel

24 /w/: voiced velar semi-vowel

Syllabic consonants

Syllabic consonants are the ones which can form syllable without vowels

Ex: table /’teibl/

They occur in the following cases:

+ Alveolar /t, d, s, z, n/ + le, al, el, on, en:

1 t + le: bottle, cattle

2 t + al: petal

3 t + on: button

4 d + le: muddle, coddle

5 d + al: pedal

+ Bilabial /p, b/ + le, al, el, on, en

13 p + le: couple, people

14 p + al: papal

16 b + le: trouble, bubble

VOICING AND CONSONANTS FORTIS & LENIS CONSONANTS

1 Introduction:

1 We have voicing when there is a

vibration of the vocal cords

2 When consonants have different

positions, we have different productions of the words

3 The voiceless /p t k/ are produced with more force than the voiced /b d g/

Therefore /p t k/ are sometimes called

FORTIS meaning STRONG and /b d g/

are then called LENIS meaning WEAK

3 Fortis and Lenis consonants have an

effect on the sounds before and after them and may change a voiceless sound into a voiced one or vice versa

Ex: /b d g/ are lenis consonants They are sometimes fully voiced, sometimes partly voiced and sometimes scarcely voiced at all (in initial & final position.)

When they are devoiced, they become

1 no voicing=voiceless

a/ Fortis consonants 2 audible and clear plosion /p t k/ 3 aspirated

Ex: pee, top, cope

1 little voicing: voiceless

b/ Lenis consonants 2 weak plosion

/b d g/ 3 unaspirated

Ex: bee, deer, green

2) Final position (V C)

1 no voicing= voiceless

a/ Fortis consonants 2 weak plosion

/p t k/ 3 little aspiration

4 effect on vowel: shorter

Ex: neat, tap, leak

1 very little voicing=voiceless b/ Lenis consonants 2 weak position

/b d g/ 3 unaspirated

4 effect on vowel: longer

Ex: need, tab, league

3) Medial position (C V C)

1 no voicing = voiceless

a/ Fortis consonants 2 audible plosion & aspirated

if they are in stressed syllables Ex: repél, retéll, recúr

3 weak plosion & unaspirated

if they are in unstressed syllables Ex: háppy, létter, línking

1 much voicing = voiced b/ Lenis consonants 2 weak plosion

1) Lenis consonants (plosives)

a/ Initial and final lenis consonants are usually pronounced with very little or no voicing, that is, they are devoiced or they become voiceless.

Ex: deer, green, bee, need, tab, league

b/ However, they are usually fully voiced in medial position, especially when they are surrounded

by voiced sounds.

Ex: elbow, unbar, undo, ungainly

2) Fortis consonants (plosives)

a/ Final fortis consonants shorten their preceding + Vowels: plate [p h leit], bark [ba:k]

+ Continuant consonants l, m, n:

belt [belt], bump [bʌmp], bent [bent], bank [b„ŋk]

b/ Initial fortis consonants make their following

vowels which are always voiced continuant

consonant (r w j) lose their voicing:

+ Initial fortis aspirated consonants + partly

devoiced vowels.

Ex: Put [p h ut]

+ Initial fortis aspirated consonant + devoiced (l r

w j)

Ex: play [p h lei], tray [t h rei], quick [k h wik], cue

[k h ju:], straight [streit].

+ Initial fortis unaspirated consonant + devoiced (l r w j)

Ex: splendid [‘splendid] spread [spred]

square [skweƏ], skewer [skju:Ə]

C The English fricative:

There are nine:

1 are voiceless

1) Fortis fricatives 2 are articulated with greater

/f θ s ʃ/ force than the lenis ones and

their friction noise is louder.

Ex: laugh [laf], death [deθ], kiss [kis], bush [buʃ]

1 are pronounced with very little

or no voicing (are devoiced or become voiceless

- in initial position (CV)

2) Lenis fricatives Ex: vet [vet], this [δis], zoo [zu:]is], zoo [zu:] /v δis], zoo [zu:] z ʒ/ - in final position (CV)

Ex: five [faiv], booth [ bu:δis], zoo [zu:]]

dose [d ƏU z], beige [beiʒ]

2 are fully voiced in medial

position (VCV)

Ex: television [t h elƏviʒn], closet [kl ƏU zit] breathing [bri:δis], zoo [zu:]iŋ], closure [khlƏU zƏ]

1 when h occurs between 3) The glottalfricative h voiced sounds: ahead,

greenhouse, it is voiced.

2 h + w is a voiceless

fricative: which, whale, why D) The English Affricates ʧ & ʤ

1 are voiced sounds.

ʧ & ʤ 2 Initial ʧ is slightly aspirated

E) The Lateral l

Devoiced l, follows p or k at the beginning of a

stressed syllable.

Ex: play [p h lei], clever [k h lev Ə]

F) The Alveo Palatal Aproximant r

1 continuant and voiced

r 2 preceded by p t k at the beginning of a syllable, it is voiceless and slightly fricative Ex: press [p h res], stress [stres], cress [kres]

G) The Palatal Approximant j and the Bilabial

Approximant w:

1 continuant & voiced

j & w 2 are devoiced and slightly fricative when preceded by p t k at the beginning of a

syllable.

Ex: pure /pju Ə/ [p h ju Ə ], queue /kju:/ [k h ju:],

twin /twin/ [t h win], quin /kwin/ [k h win]

THE ENGLISH SYLLABLE

1 Introduction:

When we combine vowels, diphthongs and consonants we have different syllables

The number of the syllables in a word

depends on the number of vowels In other words, a syllable must contain at least a

vowel

Ex: ah /a/, are /a/, or /ɔ/, err /ɜ/

3 The structure of a syllable

A syllable usually consists of:

1 a peak (vowel)

2 ± (with or without) onset and coda

Onset Consonants peak Coda Consonants

Pre-initial initial post-initial Vowel Pre- Final final final 1 final 2 final 3

S L, R, W, J l, s

m, n, ŋ

 Pre-initial + initial

s + mell: smell /smel/

s + now: snow /sn ƏU /

 Initial + post initial

c + lay: clay /klei/

q +uick: quick /kwik/

p +ure: pure /piu Ə /

 Pre-initial + initial + post initial

bump, bent, bank, belt, ask

 Final + post final s, z, t, d, θ

bets, beds, backed, bagged, eighth

 Pre-final + final + post final

helped, banks, bonds, twelfth

 Final + post final 1 + post final 2

fifths, next, lapsed

 Pre-final + final + post final 1 + post final 2

twelfths, prompts

 Final + + post final 1 + post final 2 + post final 3 sixths, texts.

5 The analysis chart

1 One syllable word:

2 Multi-syllable words: extreme and temperature Word

Phonemes and allophones

1 What is a phoneme?

1) A phoneme is the smallest unit of sound

in a language which can distinguish 2

words

2) For example:

a/ In English, the words PAN and BAN

differ only in their initial sound: PAN

begins with /p/ and BAN with /b/

b/ BEN and BIN differ only in their

vowels: /e/ and /i/

3) Therefore /p b e i/ are phonemes of

English The number of phonemes varies from one language to another English is often considered to have 44 phonemes: 24 consonants and 20 vowels

2 What is an allophone?

1) An allophone is any of the different

forms of a phoneme

2) For example: In English, when the phoneme /p/ occurs at the beginning of words like PUT

/put/ and PEN /pen/, it is said with a little puff of air That is, it is aspirated [p h ].

3) But when /p/ occurs in words like SPEND

/spend/ and SPELL /spel/ it is unaspirated [p o ] 4) Both the aspirated [p h ] in PEN and the

unaspirated [p] in SPELL have the same

phoneme function That is, they are both heard and identified as [p] and not as [b] They are

both ALLOPHONES of the PHONEME [p] > ([p h ]

3 The difference between a phoneme and

an allophone

1) A phoneme is a meaning-distinguish

sound in a language If we substitute one sound for another in a word and there is a change of meaning, then the 2 sounds

represent different phonemes

Ex: tie and die They are not allophones

2) Otherwise if we substitute allophones,

we have different pronunciation of the

same word

Ex: Phoneme [t] has got 2 allophones.

[th] aspirated as in TAPE

[to] unaspirated as in LETTER

3) Phonemes are transcribed phonemically

in slant bars / / and allophones are

transcribed phonetically in square brackets [ ]

4) As a result of this, we have 2 kinds of

transcription: narrow transcription

(phonetic transcription) and broad

transcription (phonemic transcription)

4 English phonemes and allophones

A Consonants

[p o ] unaspirated after /s/: speak, span

1) [p] ( o : unaspirated mark)

[p h ] aspirated elsewhere: pen, map

( h : pronounced with aspiration)

[bo] final position: rib

2) [b] (o : pronounced without voicing, voiceless mark [b] elsewhere: bag

[t] after /s/: stood

3) [t] [th] aspirated, elsewhere: ten

[tho] before /δis], zoo [zu:] θ/: eighth /eitθ/

(o pronounced with tip between teeth) [d] elsewhere: decide

4) [d] [d] before dental sound /δis], zoo [zu:] θ/ breadth [do] final position: decide

[+kh] before front vowels: keep

[go] final position: bag

6) [g] [g+] before front vowels: geese

[g-] before back vowels: goose

[g] elsewhere: revolve

7) [v] [vo] final position: revolve

[v] elsewhere: revolve

8) [δis], zoo [zu:]] [δis], zoo [zu:]o] in initial & final position: this, booth

[δis], zoo [zu:]] in medial position: breathing

9) [z] [zo] in initial & final position: zoo, dose

[z] in medial position: closet

dark [l] before consonants: milk

devoiced [lo] after /p.k/: play, clock

10) [l] [l] before dentals: health

syllable [l] after t n b d: bottle tunnel, trouble clear [l] elsewhere or before vowels: lake

11) [r] [ro] after voiceless consonants: pray

B Vowels & diphthongs

1) Diacritics show the allophones of vowel and

diphthong phonemes.

: > long vowels & diphthongs

~ > long & short vowel or diphthongs, before

nasals.

o > long vowels or dipthongs shortened by the

following fortis consonants /p t k/.

v > short vowels or diphthongs shortened by the

following fortis consonants.

2) For examples:

[i:] elsewhere: seed [si:d]

[i] [ĩ] before nasals: seen [sĩ:n]

[i o ] long I before fortis consonants /p t k/:

1 Definition

- Assimilation is the influence of one

phoneme upon another neighboring

phoneme, so that they become more alike

2 Notes about assimilation

1) Assimilation is more likely to be found in rapid, casual speech and less likely in

slow, careful speech