Phonetics

1. Phonetics: The Sounds of Language

2. What is phonetics?

Studies of speech sounds
Phonetics Includes
• how speech sounds are produced
• how speech sounds are characterized
• How speech sounds are classified
• How speech sounds are represented
2

3. Why Study Speech Sounds?

• Human communication depends on sound systems.
• Speech sounds allow us to express meaning.
• Languages organize sounds systematically.
• Sound patterns help distinguish words.
Communication Chain:
Speaker → Speech Sounds → Listener → Meaning

4. Two Branches of Sound Study

PHONETICS
PHONOLOGY
Physical sounds
Sound system
Production
Organization
Transmission
Patterns
Perception
Meaning distinctions

5. Key idea:

Phonetics = How
sounds are produced
• Phonology = How sounds
function in language
SONUS Reviving
5

6. What does phonetics study?

Articulation
• Vocal organs
• Airflow
• Voicing
• Sound perception
Speech organs:
lips, teeth, tongue,
alveolar ridge,
hard palate,
velum, vocal
cords.

7. What does phonology study?

• Sound organization
• Sound patterns
• Sound contrasts
• Mental sound categories
• Example:
• pin / bin
• /p/ ≠ /b/
• Meaning changes because
sound changes.

8. Types of phonetics

Articulatory Phonetics
• Physiology, Production, Classification, Naming, Transcription, etc.
• Primary concern in this chapter
Acoustic Phonetics
• Physical properties of sounds
• Properties of loudness, pitch, duration, quality, etc.
Auditory Phonetics
• Hearing & Perception
8

9. Spelling and speech

Orthography (spelling) does not represent the sounds of
the words in a language systematically.
English/Kazakh/Russian, known as using phonetic writing
system, has a great gap between pronunciation and spelling.
Phonetics (& phonology) always deals with
pronunciation instead of spelling.
9

10. Examples of pronunciation-spelling mismatch

Different letters, a single sound
• to too two through threw clue shoe
• Did he believe that Caesar could see the people seize the seas?
• The silly amoeba stole the key to the machine.
A single letter, different sounds
• dame dad father call village many
• My father wanted many a village dame badly.
A combination of letters, a single sound
• shoot, character, Thomas, physics, coat, glacial, either
Some letters have no sound
• mnemonic, autumn, resign, debt, bough, island, knot, gnash
An extreme case:
• “Ghoti” can be pronounced as fish
10

11. … So we need a phonetic alphabet

• International
Two
Phonetic
commonly
Alphabet (IPA)
used types
• U.S. conventions
11

12. IPA transcription

• Approved and provided by International
Phonetic Association
• Aiming to invent symbols which can
describe speech sounds of all languages
• Used mainly in UK and Europe
• See the full IPA chart below
• https://www.phonetizer.com/
SONUS Reviving
12

13.

13

14. U.S. Conventions

Many versions
• Fries(1945) system
• Kenyon(1958) system
• Prator & Robinett (1985) system
In Generative Phonology based on Ame. English
• Fries system is frequently used for consonants &
monophthongs
• but Prator & Robinett system for the diphthongs
SONUS Reviving
14

15. Meanings and Distinction of Basic Terminology

Phone
Allophone
SONUS Reviving
Phoneme
15

16. What Is a Phone?

Phone
• The minimal unit of speech sound
• Different phones have different quality
• Depending upon physical quality of sounds
• A substantial surface entity
• Transcribed in “[ ]” (eg. [p], [m])
SONUS Reviving
16

17. What Is a Phone?

Definition: A phone is any speech sound physically produced in actual communication.
Characteristics:
• Concrete
• Physical
• Observable
• Written in square brackets
Examples: [p], [b], [k]
Examples of Phones
Variation of /t/
• top → [t]
• stop → [t]
• water → [ɾ]
Speakers may pronounce sounds differently while remaining understandable.

18. What Is a Phoneme?

Phoneme
• The minimal unit that distinguishes meaning
• Phonemes do not carry meanings themselves.
• The unit that makes the connection between sound
and meaning
• The basic unit of the contrast in phonology
• An abstract entity
• Transcribed in “/ /” (eg. /p/ /m/)
18

19. What Is a Phoneme?

Definition: The smallest
meaning-distinguishing sound
unit.
Characteristics:
• Abstract
• Contrastive Function
• pat / bat
• fan / van
• sip / zip
• ten / den
• Mental category
• Distinguishes meaning
• Written between slashes
Examples: /p/ /b/ /t/
• Changing one phoneme
changes meaning.

20. What Are Allophones?

Allophone (phonetic variant)
• Segments which are derived from the same
phoneme
• Reflects relationship between phoneme and
phones
• Gives a criterion for speech sound grouping
• Guess to which ‘allophone’ is closer, ‘phoneme’
or ‘phone’?
20

21. Phonemes vs Allophones

PHONEMES
ALLOPHONES
• Distinguish meaning
• Abstract
Do not distinguish
meaning
• Mental categories
Physical
/p/ vs /b/
Actual pronunciations
[tʰ] vs [t]

22. Complementary Distribution

Examples:
Complementary
Distribution
Different
allophones
occur in
different
environments.
• top → [tʰɑp]
• stop → [stɑp]
Rules:
[tʰ] at beginning of stressed
syllables
[t] after /s/

23. Examples for phone/phoneme/allophone

• Consider sounds
in the words
• goose, geese
• Two [g]
sounds are
different
SONUS Reviving
• pine, speak,
stop
• Three [p]
sounds are
different
23

24. Functions of Allophones

Allophones help:
• Realize phonemes in speech
• Connect phonetics and phonology
• Improve speech fluency
• Support natural pronunciation
Phoneme → Allophone → Spoken Sound

25. Phonemes and allophones

• Phonemes and allophones are language
dependent concepts
• Liquids in different languages:
• r/l are phonemes in English/Kazakh/Russian but
allophones in Chinese.
• English and Korean stops
• English has voicing contrasts but Korean doesn’t.
• Korean has sub-manner contrasts
• eg) ph, p’
25

26. Free Variations

Different pronunciations occur without changing meaning.
Examples:
• either → /iːðər/ or /aɪðər/
Regional variations:
Bus
butter
city
water
26

27. Phonological Rules

Major Processes:
• Aspiration
• Assimilation
• Elision
• Coarticulation
These explain how phonemes become
allophones.

28. Articulatory Phonetics

How speech sounds are produced..

29. Principal speech organs

• Lung, Trachea(windpipe)
• Larynx
• Vocal folds (chords, cords)
• Glottis
• Vocal tract
• Pharynx
• Nasal tract
• Oral tract
29

30.

SONUS Reviving
30

31. Classification & Identification of English Speech Sounds

Classification & Identification of
English Speech Sounds
English Consonants
English Vowels

32. English Speech Sounds

Consonants
• Sounds made by a closure or narrowing in the vocal tract so that the
airflow is either completely blocked or so restricted that audible friction is
produced
Vowels
• Sounds articulated without a complete closure in the mouth or a
degree of narrowing which would produce audible friction
• The air escapes evenly over the centre of the tongue.
Semi-vowels
• Sounds functioning as a consonant but lacking the phonetic characteristics
normally associated with consonants
• Their quality is phonetically that of vowel.
32

33. English Consonants

Criteria for distinction
• Voicing
• Place of articulation
• Manner of articulation
• Secondary articulation
33

34. Voicing

Related to phonation
Voiced
• Vocal cords vibrating
• Examples
• Vowels, sonorants [a, e, m, r …]
Voiceless
• Glottis kept open
• Examples
• Voiceless obstruents [p, t, k, s …]
34

35. Places of articulation

bilabial
labiodental
palatal
(dorso)velar
interdental
(apico)dental
uvular
alveolar
pharyngeal
alveopalatal (postalveolar, palatoalveolar)
glottal
35

36. Manners of articulation

Obstruents
Sonorants
• stop (plosive)
• complete closure
• release
• fricative
• partial obstruction
• turbulence airflow
• affricate
• stop + fricative
• nasal
• liquid
• lateral
• central
• flap(tap)
• trill (eg. French uvular
trill [R])
• approximant
36

37.

• https://resources.linguisticdiscovery.com/IPA-Ch
art-2a150a282bc1808cb3a3e9dcb62b196c
37

38. Describing consonant symbols

voicing-place-manner
• examples
• [p] voiceless bilabial stop
• [z] voiced alveolar fricative
Class description
• [p, t, k] voiceless stops
38

39. English Vowels

Vowel Types
• Monophthong
• A vowel where there is no detectable change
in quality during a syllable
• Diphthong
• A vowel where there is a single (perceptual)
noticeable change in quality during a syllable
39

40. Monophthongs

Criteria for distinguishing between
various vowels
• tongue height
• tongue backness
• tenseness
• lip rounding
• nasality
• length
40

41. Vowel(monophthong)

front
unr
high
mid
rnd
central
unr
rnd
back
unr
rnd
tense
lax
tense
lax
low
41

42. Diphthongs

Definition
• A diphthong is a phonetic sequence, consisting
of a vowel and a glide, that is
interpreted as a single vowel.
Types
• On-glide diphthong: Glide + Vowel
• Off-glide diphthong: Vowel + Glide
SONUS Reviving
42

43. On-glide diphthongs

Letters
IPA
Description
ai
[aj]
an open vowel with palatal off-glide
ei
[ɛj]
a front mid vowel with palatal off-glide
oi
[oj]
a back mid vowel with palatal off-glide
au
[aw]
an open vowel with labial off-glide
ia
[ja]
an open vowel with palatal on-glide
ie
[jɛ]
a front mid vowel with palatal on-glide
ii
[ji]
a front close vowel with palatal on-glide
io
[jo]
a back mid vowel with palatal on-glide
43

44. On-glide diphthongs

Letters
iu
IPA
[ju]
ua
[wa]
Description
a back close vowel with palatal onglide
an open vowel with labial on-glide
ue
[wɛ]
a front mid vowel with labial on-glide
ui
[wi]
a front close vowel with labial on-glide
uo
[wo]
a back mid vowel with labial on-glide
uu
[wu]
a back close vowel with labial on-glide
iy
[jə]
uy
[wə]
a central mid vowel with palatal onglide
a central mid vowel with labial on44
glide

45. Secondary Articulation: Main Types and Symbols

• Labialization (lip rounding added): Indicated by a superscript [ʷ] (e.g.,
[sʷ, kʷ]).
• Palatalization (high front tongue position added): Indicated by a
superscript [ʲ] (e.g., [tʲ, kʲ]).
• Velarization (back of the tongue raised toward the velum): Indicated by a
superscript [ˠ] (voiced velar approximant / gamma-like) or a tilde/slash
through the letter such as [ɫ] for a "dark L".
• Pharyngealization (narrowing of the pharynx): Indicated by a superscript
[ˤ] (reversed glottal stop) or a tilde through the consonant.
• Nasalization (nasal cavity used as a secondary resonance chamber):
Indicated by a superscript tilde [̃] (e.g., [˜]).
• Labio-palatalization (simultaneous labialization and palatalization):
Indicated by a superscript [ᶣ].
45

46. Phonological Rules

Major Processes:
• Aspiration
• Assimilation
• Elision
• Coarticulation
These explain how phonemes become
allophones.

47. Aspiration

Definition: A burst of air after voiceless stops.
Examples:
• pin → [pʰɪn]
• top → [tʰɑp]
• cat → [kʰæt]
Hand test:
• pin = strong air
• spin = little air

48. Assimilation

Definition: One sound becomes similar to a neighboring sound.
Example:
handbag → hambag
/n/ changes under the influence of /b/.
Functions:
• Easier articulation
• •More fluent speech

49. Elision and Coarticulation

Elision = sound omission
• friendship → frenship
• •camera → camra
Coarticulation:
• Sounds influence one another
• Speech is continuous rather than isolated

50. Phonemes and Language Learning

Challenges for L2 learners:
Japanese learners: /r/ and /l/
Arabic learners: /p/ and /b/
Teaching strategies:
• Minimal pairs
• Listening activities
• Pronunciation training
• Phonemic awareness

51. Phonemes and Writing Systems

English spelling is often irregular.
Examples:
• though
• through
• thought
• tough
Solution:International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA)

52. Summary

✓ Phonetics studies speech sounds
✓ Phonology studies sound systems
✓ Phones are actual sounds
✓ Phonemes distinguish meaning
✓ Allophones are variants of phonemes
✓ Minimal pairs identify phonemes
✓ Phonological rules explain sound variation
✓ Essential for language teaching and learning

53. References

• Yule, G. (2010). The Study of Language (4th ed.).
Cambridge University Press.