o Phonetics: the study of sound in human language.

(acoustics = the study of sound in general)

o Articulatory phonetics (a detailed study of speech sounds which describes the movements of the
tongue, lips and other speech organs and their function in producing speech sounds)
o Acoustic phonetics (the physical properties of the speech signal)
o Auditory phonetics (the study of how the ear receives the speech signal)
o Received Pronunciation (RP) – the prestige social accent of the British Isles
o Three types of RP:
1. General RP – traditional type of RP
2. Refined RP – associated with the upper class
3. Regional RP – regionally neutral quality
o SSB – Standard Southern British
o GA – General American English (same as RP)
o Breath groups – word groups that make up such uninterrupted wholes
o Segmentation – dividing speech into smaller chunks
o Segments (vowels and consonants; phoneme) – don’t operate in isolation, don’t have a meaning
of their own; contrastive units within a given language
o Allophones – non-contrastive sounds
o Minimal pair – two words which differ in one phoneme
o Minimal sets – minimal pairs in the larger groups of words
o Speech is produced by our vocal organs (speech organs/the speech apparatus)
o Three groups:
1. The respiratory system – the lungs and the bronchial tubes
2. The phonatory system – the windpipe/trachea, the larynx (voice box), the vocal folds
(the vocal cords), the arytenoid cartilages, the glottis (glottal stop – the release of the
glottal closure) and the esophagus
3. The articulatory system – the pharynx/throat, the oral cavity (mouth), the nasal cavity
(nose), the soft palate (velum), the lips, the teeth, the alveolar ridge (the tooth-ridge),
the hard palate (the palate), the uvula, the tongue (tip, blade, front, back, root, rims),
the lower jaw
o Articulation – the production of speech sounds using the speech organs to modify the airstream
set in motion by the lungs; passive articulator and active articulator
o Voiced sounds – produced with the vocal folds vibrating (opening and closing rapidly); vowels
and diphthongs
o Voiceless sound – the vocal folds apart
o Lenis consonants – usually voiced with relatively weak energy
o Fortis consonants – voiceless with strong energy breath force
o Place of the articulation – the location in the vocal tract where an articulation occurs
o Manner of the articulation – how the sound is produced
o Approximant – a consonant which makes very little obstruction to the airflow; semivowels (w, j)
and liquids (l, r)
 Consonant Voice Place Manner
b voiced bilabial plosive
p voiceless bilabial plosive
d voiced alveolar plosive
t voiceless alveolar plosive
g voiced velar plosive
k voiceless velar plosive
dʒ voiced palato-alveolar affricate
tʃ voiceless palate-alveolar affricate
v voiced labiodental fricative
f voiceless labiodental fricative
ð voiced dental fricative
θ voiceless dental fricative
z voiced alveolar fricative
s voiceless alveolar fricative
ʒ voiced palato-alveolar fricative
ʃ voiceless palato-alveolar fricative
m voiced bilabial nasal
h voiceless glottal fricative
n voiced alveolar nasal
ŋ voiced velar nasal
r voiced post-alveolar approximant (liquid)
l voiced alveolar approximant (liquid)
j voiced palatal approximant
(semivowel)
w voiced labial-velar approximant
(semivowel)
o Allophonic variation – number of different sounds which are interpreted as one unit by a native
speaker; the variants – allophones
o Allophones of a phoneme can exist in reality as concrete units
o Phoneme – a member of a set of abstruct units which together from the sound system of a
given language and through which contrasts of meaning are produced
o Transcrpition – the use of sequences of phonetic symbols to represent speech
o Two types of transcription:
1. Phonemic (broad transcription) – the symbols used for transcription (phonemic
symbols); a word or a stretch of words is given in slants
2. Phonetic – can indicate minute details of the articulation of any particular sound by the
use of special symbols/by adding diacritics to a symbol; is provided in square brackets;
narrow phonetic transcription – contains a lot of information about exact quality of the
sounds; broad phonetic transcription – includes a little more information than a basic
phonetic transcription
o Three degrees of stricture (articulation which restricts the airstream to some degree):
1. Closure – the articulators are in the firm contact
2. Narrowing – the articulators are close together, but not touching and there is
turbulence in the airflow and audible friction
3. Approximation – the gap between the articulators is not sufficient to cause turbulence
and thus audible friction (approximants – w, r, j, l)
o Sonorants – sounds which are voiced and do not cause enough obstruction to the airflow to
prevent normal voicing from continuing (nasals, laterals, approximants, vowels)
o Obstruents – are made with some obstruction to the airflow in the vocal tract (plosives,
fricatives, affricates)
o Stops – sounds for which there is a complete closure in the oral cavity (plosives, affricates,
nasals)
o Plosive – a speech sound which is produced by completely closing the vocal tract at some point
o Three stages of plosive articulation:
1. The approach stage – the active articulator approaches the passive articulator
2. Hold stage/compression stage – the two articulators are in firm contact; air pressure
rises in the vocal tract
3. The release stage – the active articulator loses contact with the passive articulator and
moves away; the compressed air is released with an explosive noise
o Six plosive consonants and their closures:
1. At the lips for bilabial (p, b)
2. Tongue-tip against the alveolar ridge for the alveolars (t, d)
3. Back of tongue against the velum for the velars (k, g)
o The fortis plosives (p, t, k) – energetic articulation and are voiceless; the lenis plosives (b, d, g) –
weaker articulation and have potential voice; aspiration – one of the important distinguishing
features between these two classes of consonants in English
o An aspirated plosive – followed by a brief h-sound
o English /p t k/ are:
a) Aspirated – when at the beginning of a stressed syllable/a word; accented; followed by a
vowel
b) Unaspirated – when preceded by s at the beginning a syllable
o Types of release:
1. Oral release – typical, most frequent type of plosive release that occurs when a plosive
is followed by a vowel, semivowel or fricative; wide median release – when a plosive is
followed by a vowel; narrow median release – when a plosive is immediately followed
by a fricative; median – the release of air through the central part of the tongue
2. No audible release – when a plosive is in final position; release masking – plosive +
plosive/plosive + affricate clusters either within a word/at the word boundaries (the first
plosive has no audible release; masked by the hold of the second plosive)
 3. Nasal release – when a plosive is followed by the homorganic (same place of
articulation) nasal consonant; the closure is not released in the usual way; nasal release
of /t d/ is also heard in final leading into a syllabic nasal (true nasal release – the only
adjustment of the speech organs is the position of the velum; heterogenic (different
place of articulation) – bilabial plosive + alveolar nasal, alveolar plosive + bilabial nasal,
velar plosive + bilabial nasal; the plosive closure is not normally released until the
articulatory movements for the nasal consonant have been accomplished; occurs in fast
speech
4. Lateral release of /t d/ - the alveolar closure is maintained but the sides of the tongue
are lowered; homorganic with /l/ (they are all alveolar) – occurs when /l/ is
syllabic/initial in the next syllable/word, homorganic – the tongue takes up the alveolar
position for /l/ during the hold stage of the plosive
o The glottal stop – plosive made at the glottis (made by the vocal folds); weak cough/the noise
one makes when lifting a heavy weight; doesn’t have the status of a phoneme, but it plays an
important role as reinforcement (glottal reinforcement/replacement (glottal
replacement/glottalling) of English stops (plosives and affricates – p, t, k, tʃ); widely used where
the following syllable begins with a nasal or contains a syllabic nasal
o Glottal reinforcement – one of the most significant phonetic markers of final fortis stops; /p t k/
- regularly glottalised before another consonant or at the end of a syllable; to strengthen /tʃ/ at
the end of the syllable
o Glottal replacement (glottalling) – glottal stop is substituted for /t/; found at the end of the
syllable if the preceding sound is a vowel or sonorant and when is followed by another
consonant (except syllabic /l/ or a vowel)
o Affricates – the same approach phase of the articulators as plosives; the same kind of hold
phase; much slower parting of the articulators during the release phase; during the slower
release – the two articulators produce audible friction
o /tʃ/ and /dʒ/ - phonemic affricates which are considered to be compound phonemes
(homorganic sequence of plosive + fricative); palato-alveolar (post-alveolar); their closure –
released relatively slowly → producing friction at the same place of articulation (homorganic)
o /dʒ/ - voiced speech sound shares the features of devoicing in initial and final positions by
plosives
o Free phonemic variations - /t/ and /d/ + /j/; omit plosive element in the consonant clusters /ntʃ/
and /ndʒ/
o The articulation of a fricative – two articulators are close to each other, but they do not make a
complete closure so the airstream passes friction; this turbulence may or may not be
accompanied by voice
o Four pairs:
1. /f v/ labiodental
2. /θ ð/ dental
3. /s z/ alveolar
4. /ʃ ʒ/ palato-alveolar
 5. /h/ glottal (which has no phonemic counterpart)
o /f θ s ʃ/ - fortis; /v ð z ʒ/ - lenis; /h/ - normally fortis, but may have lenis allophone for which is
used different symbol
o /v ð z ʒ/ - be fully voiced only when they occur between voiced sounds
o The voiced fricatives are partially devoiced:
a) Initially (with silence preceding) only the latter part of the friction is likely to be voiced
b) Finally (with silence following), the friction is typically devoiced
c) The voiceless series /f θ s ʃ/ remain completely voiceless in all postions
o Silence can be marked with the # in square allophonic brackets
o “marked” sounds /θ ð/; - dental/interdental – the tongue tip may protrude between the teeth
(American English); TH-fronting/stopping - /θ/ →/f/, /ð/ →/v/ or /d/
o –(e)s, s may be pronounced in 3 different ways:
1. Following /s z ʃ ʒ tʃ dʒ/ → /ɪz/
2. Following all other voiceless consonants → /s/
3. Following all other voiced consonant sounds and after vowel sounds → /z/
o “H dropping” – omission of /h/ in pronunciation (Cockney)
o Nasals – no voiced/voiceless pairs; 3 nasal consonants : bilabial /m/ (corresponding plosives by
place /p b/), alveolar /n/ (corresponding plosives by place /t d/), velar /ŋ/ (corresponding
plosives by place /k g/
o Velar nasal does not occur initially
o The syllabic function of vowels - /n/ (most often, /m/ (less commonly), /ŋ/ (occasionally)
o Important allophonic features of nasals are:
a) Devoicing - /m n ŋ/ may be somewhat devoiced when a voiceless consonant precedes
b) Place of articulation variation - /n/ nay be also realized as dental and post-alveolar
o The production of approximants – the airstream escapes freely through a relatively narrow
opening in the mouth without friction but with voice; /l r/ - liquids; /j w/ -semivowels
o Consonantal clusters with a preceding obstruent:
a) If the preceding consonant is voiceless → devoicing
b) The first consonant is unvoiced plosive → devoicing phenomenon is result of the
aspiration of the plosive
o The articulation of /l/ - the tongue takes on different positions; clear /l/ - palatalized, occurs
before vowels and also before /j/; dark /l/ - velarized, occurs before consonants/simply after
vowels, often syllabic; may be realized as either dental or post-alveolar