PHONETICS AND PHONOLOGY

¿What is phonology?

Specifically, it is a science that deals with phonemes in relation to their function in a language. The phoneme is the smallest unit of sound in the phonological system of a language. The linguistic science that studies the sound of the voice is known as phonology.

Sounds that serve a differentiating function are considered phonemes. Phonemes are represented between two slashes: //. In Spanish there are 24 phonemes: 5 vowels and 19 consonants.

There are two criteria for vowel phonemes: the place of articulation and the mode of articulation. Due to the place of articulation, vowel phonemes are classified into previous vowels “/ i /, / e /”, central “/ a /” and later “/ o /, / u /”. By way of articulation, vowel phonemes are classified into closed vowels "/ i /, / u /", middle "/ e /, / o /" and open / a / ".

Consonant phonemes are classified taking into account the action of the soft palate (oral and nasal), the action of the vocal cords (voiced and deaf), the mode of articulation (stops, fricatives, affricates), and the place of articulation ( bilabial, labiodental, dental, interdental, alveolar, palatal and velar).

The phoneme, sound model is represented in writing by letters. There is no exact correspondence between phonemes and letters, since different letters can represent a minimum phoneme. Due to these mismatches, the number of phonemes and the number of letters is very similar but not identical.

In relation to the above, minimal pairs are those words that mean different things but only differ in one sound. For example: the phoneme is what allows us to distinguish the words "step and case", just by exchanging the phoneme / p / for the phoneme / k /.

In 1886, the International Phonetic Association created an International Phonetic Alphabet, in which they represented symbols that allow describing the pronunciation of any human language.

Etymologically, the word phonology is of Greek origin "phonos" which means "sound"; "Logos" which expresses "study", and the suffix "-ia" which is synonymous with "quality or action".

Diachronic phonology:

Diachronic phonology studies the functional and structural changes and substitutions of the phonic elements of a language throughout history.

This branch of phonology was postulated at the linguists congress in The Hague in 1928 by Jakobson, Karcervsky and Trubetzkoy.

Synchronous phonology:

Synchronous phonology is responsible for investigating the phonological system of a language at a given time.

Generative phonology:

The function of generative phonology is to represent the phonemic of the morphemes of the language, and to propose a set of rules that identify the phonetic form of a language.

Phonology and phonetics:

Phonetics and phonology are two related sciences, the first deals with the study of sounds in speech, and the second studies sounds at the level of language.

¿What is phonetics?

Phonetics is the study of the physical sounds of human speech. It is the branch of linguistics that studies the production and perception of the sounds of a language with respect to its physical manifestations. Its main branches are: articulatory phonetics, acoustic phonetics, and auditory or perceptual phonetics. From another point of view, experimental phonetics is also discussed as a separate branch.

Branches of phonetics

Experimental phonetics:

Experimental phonetics studies the acoustic and physical properties of speech sounds, gathering and quantifying data on the emission and production of sound waves that make up articulated sound. It uses instruments such as the spectrograph, the nasometer, the glotograph, the palattograph, etc., which show either the sound waves of speech coming from the mouth or the nose or the larynx, already decomposed, or the different areas of the palate where the tongue has touched The set of data analyzed when measuring sounds depends solely on the precision of the instruments, as well as other related knowledge. In experimental studies, the speech of various informants is started and statistical means are used to establish general trends in the nature of sounds.

Thanks to experimental phonetics, it is known that most sounds, especially vowels, are made up of combinations of a few frequencies, the so-called formants, which allow the ear to recognize said sound. The existence of formants is related to the fact that these sounds are in fact sound waves. Other sounds such as fricatives lack formants and present a combination of aperiodic waves in a wide band of frequencies.

Articulatory phonetics:

It is the one who studies the sounds of a language from the physiological point of view; that is, it describes which oral organs are involved in their production, in what position they are found and how these positions vary the different paths that the air can follow when it leaves the mouth, nose, throat, so that different sounds are produced. It does not deal with all the activities involved in the production of a sound, but selects only those that have to do with the place and form of articulation. Phonetic symbols and their articulatory definitions are abbreviated descriptions of such activities. The most widely used phonetic symbols are those adopted by the International Phonetic Association in the International Phonetic Alphabet (AFI) which are written in square brackets.

The organs involved in the mobile joint are the lips, jaw, tongue, and vocal cords, which are sometimes called articulatory organs. With its help, the loudspeaker modifies the air outlet that comes from the lungs. The teeth, alveoli, palate and soft palate are fixed. Sounds are produced when they come into contact with two articulatory organs, for example, the bilabial (p), which requires contact between the two lips; also when a fixed and an articulatory organ are put in contact, and the sound is named with the organs that produce the articulation, or point of articulation, such as the labiodental sound (f) that requires contact between the lower lip and the upper incisors. When the tongue is the mobile organ, it is not mentioned in the name of the sound. Thus, the sound (t), which is produced when the tongue touches the back of the upper incisors, is called dental.

Different classes of vowels are emitted according to the position of the tongue varies, both from its vertical axis (high, middle and low), and from its horizontal axis (anterior, central and posterior). For example, in Spanish the vowels of the word flee are high vowels; that is, the [i] and the [u]. The middle vowels are the [e] and the [o]; that is, the vowels of the word but and the [a] of the word goes is a low vowel. Thus, the tongue goes from bottom to top to pronounce the two vowels followed by the word air, but descends to a middle position to pronounce its last vowel. It does the opposite way from top to bottom to pronounce door. Previous vowels of Spanish are [i] and [e]; that is to say, the vowels followed by the word skin; the back vowels are [o] and [u]; that is to say, the vowels of the word wall; the [a] is the central vowel. The tongue moves back and forth to emit the vowels of the total word, and goes the other way to emit the vowels of the word piélago. The positions held by the tongue to emit the vowels u, and constitute the vertices of the so-called uai vowel scheme.

Acoustic phonetics:

It is the study of phonetics from the point of view of sound waves. It is the scientific measurement of the sound waves that are created in the air when we speak. Just as we attribute articulatory characteristics to phonemes, we can attribute acoustic characteristics to sounds: vowel / non-vowel and consonant / non-consonant, compact / diffuse voiced / deaf, nasal / oral, intercepted / continuous, strident / matte, grave / acute. These measurements are reflected in spectrograms, in which the different formants into which sounds are decomposed are reflected.

Auditory phonetics:

Auditory phonetics is one of the three basic branches of phonetics, together with articulatory and acoustic phonetics, which studies sound from the receiver's point of view, that is, it studies the mechanisms of perception of sound.

Auditory phonetics, also called perceptual phonetics, deals with the perception through the ear of speech sounds (George Yule). Consider phonetics from the listener's point of view. It studies how the ear reacts to sound waves (hearing), as well as the interpretation of these waves (perception).

The ear is a device whose mission is to collect energy, which carries an acoustic wave, in the eardrum and convert it into nerve impulses. It consists of three parts: outer ear, middle ear, and inner ear.

Voiced and Voiceless Sounds

There are 26 letters in the English alphabet, but there are 39 sounds (15 vowel sounds and 24 consonant sounds) produced by these letters.

A vowel is a sound in which the air coming out of the lungs is not blocked by the mouth or throat. All normal English words contain at least one vowel.

       

        The vowels are:

        A, E, I, O, U, and sometimes Y.

       'Y' can also behave as a consonant when it is at the beginning of a word.

A consonant is a sound made by stopping the flow of air through the mouth.

       

        The consonants are:

        B, C, D, F, G, H, J, K, L, M, N, P, Q, R, S, T, V, W, X, Y, Z

All the sounds produced in the English are either voiced or voiceless. Voiced sounds occur when the vocal cords vibrate when the sound is produced. There is no vocal cord vibration when producing voiceless sounds. To test this, place your finger tips hand on your throat as you say the sounds. When saying the voiced sounds, you should be able to feel a vibration. When saying the voiceless sounds you sound not be able to feel a vibration.

Sometimes it is very difficult to feel the difference between a voiced and voiceless sound. Another test may help. Put a piece of paper in front of your mouth when saying the sounds- the paper will should move when saying the unvoiced sounds.

All vowels in English are voiced. Some of the consonant sounds are voiced and some are voiceless. Some of the consonant sounds produced in English are very similar. Many times the difference between them is because one is voiced and the other is voiceless. Two examples are 'z', which is voiced and 's', which is voiceless. See the chart below for a listing of the voiced and voiceless consonants.   

        

  Voiced consonants            Voiceless consonant

          Sounds                                  Sounds

             b                                               p

             d                                               t

             g                                               k

             v                                               f

             z                                               s

             th                                             th 

             sz                                             sh

             j                                                ch

             l                                                 h

             m

             n 

             ng

             r

             w

             y

                   

Voiced Consonants:

Your vocal cords, which are actually mucous membranes, stretch across the larynx at the back of the throat. By tightening and relaxing as you speak, the vocal cords modulate the flow of breath expelled from the lungs.

An easy way to determine whether a consonant is voiced or not is to place a finger on your throat. As you pronounce a letter, feel the vibration of your vocal cords. If you feel a vibration the consonant is a voiced one.

These are the voiced consonants: B, D, G, J, L, M, N, Ng, R, Sz, Th (as in the word "then"), V, W, Y, and Z.

But if consonants are only single letters, what are Ng, Sz, and Th? They're common sounds that are produced by blending the two consonants phonetically.

Here are some examples of words that include voiced consonants:

traveled

gloves

shells

started

changed

wheels

lived

dreams

exchanged

globes

phones

listened

organized

Voiceless Consonants:

Voiceless consonants do not use the vocal cords to produce their hard, percussive sounds. Instead, they're slack, allowing air to flow freely from the lungs to the mouth, where the tongue, teeth, and lips engage to modulate the sound.

These are the voiceless consonants: Ch, F, K, P, S, Sh, T, and Th (as in "thing"). Common words using them include:

washed

coats

watched

books

seats

dropped

carts

Vowels

Vowel sounds (A, E, I, O, U) and diphthongs (combinations of two vowel sounds) are all voiced. That also includes the letter Y when pronounced like a long E.

Examples: city, pity, gritty.

Changing Voice:

When consonants are put in groups, they can change the vocal quality of the consonant that follows. A great example is the past simple form of regular verbs. You can recognize these verbs because they end in "ed." However, the consonant sound of this ending can change from voiced to voiceless, depending on the consonant or vowel that precedes it. In almost all cases, the E is silent. Here are the rules:

-If the "ed" is preceded by a voiceless consonant such as K, it should be pronounced as a voiceless T. Examples: parked, barked, marked

-If the "ed" is preceded by a voiced consonant sound such as B or V, it should be pronounced as a voiced D. Examples: robbed, thrived, shoved

-If the "ed" is preceded by a vowel sound, it should be pronounced as a voiced D because vowels are always voiced. Examples: freed, fried, lied

-Exception: If the "ed" is preceded by T, it should be pronounced a voiced "id" sound. In this case, the "e" is pronounced. Examples: dotted, rotted, plotted

-This pattern can also be found with plural forms. If the consonant preceding the S is voiced, the S will be pronounced phonetically as a Z. Examples: chairs, machines, bags

If the consonant preceding the S is voiceless, then the S also will be pronounced as a voiceless consonant. Examples: bats, parks, pipes.

The IPA Chart

Its respective symbol of the International Phonetic Alphabet, or IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet), as it is used in the phonetic transcriptions that you can find in modern dictionaries for English learners.

This would come to be the phonetic system of A. C. Gimson, with a few extra symbols.

This table brings together British and American phonemes into a single symbol.

This means that a symbol can indicate a different phoneme in American English, and a different one in British.

See the notes for explanations of symbols unique to British pronunciation, and symbols unique to American pronunciation.

Vowels:

IPA	Examples
ʌ	cup, luck
ɑ:	arm, father
æ	cat, black
e	met, bed 1
ə	away, cinema 2
ɜ:ʳ	turn, learn 2
ɪ	hit, sitting
i:	see, heat
ɒ	hot, rock 3
ɔ:	call, four 4 5
ʊ	put, could
u:	blue, food
aɪ	five, eye
aʊ	now, out
eɪ	say, eight
oʊ	go, home 6
ɔɪ	boy, join
eəʳ	where, air 1 7
ɪəʳ	near, here 7
ʊəʳ	pure, tourist 7

Consonants:

IPA	Examples
b	bad, lab
d	did, lady
f	find, if
g	give, flag
h	how, hello
j	yes, yellow
k	cat, back
l	leg, little
m	man, lemon
n	no, ten
ŋ	sing, finger
p	pet, map
r	red, try 8
s	sun, miss
ʃ	she, crash
t	tea, getting 9
tʃ	check, church
θ	think, both
ð	this, mother
v	voice, five
w	wet, window
z	zoo, lazy
ʒ	pleasure, vision
dʒ	just, large

Notes:

1. Almost all dictionaries use the / e / symbol for the vowel in bed.

The problem with this convention is that the / e / in the IPA is not the vowel in bed; this is a different vowel found, for example, in the German word Seele.

The "appropriate" symbol for the vowel in bed is / ɛ / (don't confuse it with / ɜ: /). The same in the case of / eə / vs. / ɛə /.

2. In the symbols / əʳ / and / ɜ: ʳ /, the / ʳ / is not pronounced in British English, unless the sound comes before a vowel (as in answering, answer it) ).

In American English, / ʳ / is always pronounced, and sounds are sometimes written as / ɚ / and / ɝ /.

3. In American English the / ɑ: / and / ɒ / are a vowel, so calm (calm) and cot (cot) have the same vowel.

In American transcriptions, hot is written / hɑ: t /.

4. About 40% of Americans pronounce / ɔ: / in the same way as / ɑ: /, so caught and cot would have the same vowel. Search for cot-caught merger on Wikipedia.

5. In American transcriptions, / ɔ: / is usually written as / ɒ: / (for example: law = / lɒ: /), unless it is followed by / r /, in which case it would still be / ɔ: /.

6. In British transcriptions, / oʊ / is usually represented as / əʊ /.

For some British English speakers, / oʊ / is more appropriate (they use a rounded vowel - for others, the appropriate symbol is / əʊ /.

For American speakers, / oʊ / is usually more accurate).

7. In / eəʳ / / ɪəʳ / / ʊəʳ /, the / r / is not pronounced in British English, unless the sound comes after a vowel (as in dearest ((my) dearest), dear Ann ( dear Ann)).

In American English, / r / is always pronounced, and sounds are generally written / er / / ɪr / / ʊr /.

8. All dictionaries use the / r / symbol for the first network sound.

The problem with this convention is that the / r / in the IPA does not correspond to the British or American / r /; corresponds to the / r / "hard" found, for example, in the Spanish word rey or in the Italian word vero.

The "appropriate" symbol for the red consonant is / ɹ /.

9. In American English, the / t / is sometimes pronounced as a Frequently Asked_Ask_about_t_vibrant (flap t), which sounds similar to a / d /, and more precisely as a hard and fast / ɹ /, like the one you hear in the word in Spanish but.

The word letter is an example of a word pronounced with a vibrant t. Some dictionaries use the symbol / t ̬ / (the / t / with a curve underneath) to represent the vibrating t.

The mechanism of speech: The structure of the sound, Articulators of speech sounds and Points of articulators

The different mechanisms that come into operation in the speech apparatus are registered, controlled and directed by the nervous system, specifically by the brain. We also know that the larynx is the voice producing apparatus, the terminal station through which the person who speaks expresses her way of being, her culture, her conditioning, her biotype and her personality.

Now, in this section we will focus on describing the basic elements of the phonetic system of language, based on which human speech is organized, becoming the first operational or executive component of verbal expression. These elements are phonemes, which become the basic sound units of spoken language, playing a decisive role in the discrimination of the meaning of words and, also, in the differences from language to language.

These phonemes or elementary sounds of speech are divided into two groups:

The vowels

The consonants

The vowels:

As we know, the vowels are / a /, / e /, / i /, / o /, / u /. These phonemes are formed when the air that makes the vocal cords vibrate passes freely through the mouth, with no other modification than a greater or lesser opening of the mouth. The only thing that occurs in these vowel emissions is simply a proper molding of the mouth, tongue, soft palate, jaw and others, producing the different sounds that clearly and distinctively correspond to each of the five vowels.

Each vowel is generated by a different number of vocal cord vibrations. Thus, the number of vibrations for the production of the / u / is greater than for any other; then in descending order it is followed by / o /, / a /, / e / and, with a smaller number of vibrations, / i /.

According to these characteristics, the technical ordering of the vowels is as follows: / u /, / o /, / a /, / e /, / i /. But, as we know, in the Spanish (or Castilian) alphabet the order is / a /, / e /, / i /, / o /, / u /.

These vowels, in turn, are divided into two types:

- Oral: / a /, / e /, / o /

- Nasal: / i /, / u /

In the emission of oral vowels, the soft palate comes into contact with the posterior part of the pharynx and the opening between the tongue and the palate is kept open (for the / a /) or semi-open (for the / e / and / or/). In contrast, when the soft palate falls and the opening between the tongue and the palate closes, the nasal vocalizations / i /, / u / occur.

These details are very useful to understand certain forms of nasalization or denasalization of vowels. According to this, there are people who speak "through the nose" nasalizing excessively or denasalizing. Likewise, there are children who, due to causes of a functional or organic nature in the phonation device and its components, turn a phoneme into nasal that should not be, that is, they transform an oral phoneme into a nasal, producing a forced nasalization called open rhinolalia (also known as rhinophonia or rhinolalia). On the other hand, other children tend to denasalize a phoneme that should be nasalized, giving rise to closed rhinolalia (hyperrinophonia or hyperrinolalia).

Finally, as a complementary reference, it should be noted that some specialists such as L. Fuentes (1985), usually classify vowels according to the timbre and position of the tongue when emitting them. Thus, the / i / and / e / are acute and to emit them the tongue is located in the front part of the mouth. The / a / has an intermediate timbre and to emit it the tongue is located in the central part of the mouth; and finally, the / u / and / o / are serious and are pronounced by placing the tongue at the back of the mouth, as seen in the Table of Vowel Phenomena.

The consonants:

Now let's see how consonants are formed: / b /, / c /, / d / and / z /. First of all, it should be noted that the pronunciation of these phonemes cannot be done without the help of vowels. These consonants are classified mainly taking into account two aspects:

- Point or zone of articulation.

- Mode of articulation.

1. By the point or area of ​​articulation:

Here, the places in the mouth where the articulatory organs contact or narrow for the production of sounds are taken into consideration.

The articulation of the consonants is generated by the approximation of the lower (mobile) organ to the upper (rigid and immobile), giving rise to the classification of said phonemes according to the points of articulation that we indicate below:

a) Bilabiales: By approximation of the lips (/ b /, / p /, / m /).

b) Labiodental: When it is pronounced with the lower lip on the teeth, as happens with the / f /.

c) Interdental: When pronounced with the tip of the tongue between the upper and lower teeth / z /.

d) Linguodental: When pronounced with the tip of the tongue on the teeth / t /, / d /.

e) Alveolars: When pronounced with the apex of the tongue on the alveolus / s /, / l /, / r /, / rr /, / n /.

f) Palatales: When pronounced with the forefoot of the tongue on the palate / ch /, / y /, / ll /, / ñ /.

g) Velares: When it is pronounced with the back of the tongue on the palate, as occurs with / k /, / g /, / j /.

It should also be noted some particularities such as the following:

a) The consonants / m /, / n / and / ñ / belong to the group indicated as nasal consonants.

b) The / s /, in addition to being alveolar (linguoalveolar), is hissing or hissing.

c) The / h / is a silent consonant. Words like "man", "Huacho", "egg", etc., are pronounced as "ombre", "uacho", "uevo".

d) The / z /, considered academically as interdental, is alveolar for Hispanic Americans, therefore, we pronounce it as / s /.

e) The / l / and / r / are liquid consonants when they are immediately preceded by the consonant called liquefying. For example: Braulio, white, the brave bullfighter, I toast to everyone. We observe here that the liquefier and the liquid are pronounced in the same joint.

2. By the mode of articulation

According to this criterion, consonants are usually divided into two large groups:

- The stops.

- The constrictive ones.

Plosive consonants:

These consonants are produced by the formation of an obstacle or complete occlusion of the oral organs, the sound suddenly being released when compressed air is released into the mouth, which is why it is also called plosives or explosives-

Let's see with an example: the / p / is a stop consonant that is generated when the lips are brought together and then abruptly parted, releasing the compressed air into the mouth, thereby exploding the / p /, the / b / , the / t /, the / d /, the / k / and the / g /, as a consequence of the occlusion made.

Constrictive consonants:

The emission of these phonemes occurs due to a narrowing or partial constriction of the organs of the mouth for the exit of air. For example, unlike the / p / which is stop, when you bite your lower lip and pronounce the / f /, you simply create a narrowing for the air outlet (constriction), partially obstructing your passage and leading to the emission of the / f /.

Now, let's also note the following: once the / p / is emitted, all sound after the explosion stops, instead you can prolong the sound of the / f / according to your breath / fffff… /, which is not possible with / p /, this being the difference between these types of consonants.

In this way, these consonants are produced by the partial constriction of the organs of the mouth, forming, in turn, different modalities of partial obstacles that give rise to the following subclasses:

Africadas: This type of phonemes belongs to / ch /, some also consider / g /, which we have classified as stop. This type of consonant is produced by a combination of an occlusion followed by friction.

Fricatives: The emission of these consonants occurs when the obstacle is partial and there is only one brush. To this type belong the consonants / f /, / z /, / s /, / y /, / j /.

Lateral: These consonants are / l / and / ll /, in whose emissions the air exits from one side of the oral cavity.

Vibrant: Among these we have the / r / and the / rr /, in whose emissions the tongue does not remain immobile, but its tip enters into vibration, which is why it is known as vibrating phonemes, both being linguoalveolar phonemes for their point of articulation.

Other specialists also tend to classify consonants as deaf and voiced. In deaf patients, the larynx, where the vocal cords meet, does not vibrate. On the other hand, vibrations are generated in the sound ones. This can be verified by resting the hand on the thyroid or Adam's apple and pronouncing the / s / in a prolonged way, observing that in this emission there is no vibration; but when the / m / is pronounced we will notice that there is vibration. As such, the first is deaf and the second voiced.

Consonants sounds: ¨voiced and voiceless

Voiced consonants require the use of the vocal cords to produce their signature sounds; voiceless consonants do not. Both types use the breath, lips, teeth, and upper palate to further modify speech. This guide presents the differences between voiced and voiceless consonants and gives you some tips for using them.

Voiced Consonants:

Your vocal cords, which are actually mucous membranes, stretch across the larynx at the back of the throat. By tightening and relaxing as you speak, the vocal cords modulate the flow of breath expelled from the lungs.

An easy way to determine whether a consonant is voiced or not is to place a finger on your throat. As you pronounce a letter, feel the vibration of your vocal cords. If you feel a vibration the consonant is a voiced one.

These are the voiced consonants: B, D, G, J, L, M, N, Ng, R, Sz, Th (as in the word "then"), V, W, Y, and Z.

But if consonants are only single letters, what are Ng, Sz, and Th? They're common sounds that are produced by blending the two consonants phonetically.

Here are some examples of words that include voiced consonants:

• traveled
• gloves
• shells
• started
• changed
• wheels
• lived
• dreams
• exchanged
• globes
• phones
• listened
• organized

Voiceless Consonants:

Voiceless consonants do not use the vocal cords to produce their hard, percussive sounds. Instead, they're slack, allowing air to flow freely from the lungs to the mouth, where the tongue, teeth, and lips engage to modulate the sound.

These are the voiceless consonants: Ch, F, K, P, S, Sh, T, and Th (as in "thing"). 

Common words using them include:

• washed
• coats
• watched
• books
• seats
• dropped
• carts

Vowels:

Vowel sounds (A, E, I, O, U) and diphthongs (combinations of two vowel sounds) are all voiced. That also includes the letter Y when pronounced like a long E.

Examples: city, pity, gritty.

Changing Voice:

When consonants are put in groups, they can change the vocal quality of the consonant that follows. A great example is the past simple form of regular verbs. You can recognize these verbs because they end in "ed." However, the consonant sound of this ending can change from voiced to voiceless, depending on the consonant or vowel that precedes it. In almost all cases, the E is silent. Here are the rules:

• If the "ed" is preceded by a voiceless consonant such as K, it should be pronounced as a voiceless T. Examples: parked, barked, marked
• If the "ed" is preceded by a voiced consonant sound such as B or V, it should be pronounced as a voiced D. Examples: robbed, thrived, shoved
• If the "ed" is preceded by a vowel sound, it should be pronounced as a voiced D because vowels are always voiced. Examples: freed, fried, lied
• Exception: If the "ed" is preceded by T, it should be pronounced a voiced "id" sound. In this case, the "e" is pronounced. Examples: dotted, rotted, plotted

This pattern can also be found with plural forms. If the consonant preceding the S is voiced, the S will be pronounced phonetically as a Z. Examples: chairs, machines, bags

If the consonant preceding the S is voiceless, then the S also will be pronounced as a voiceless consonant. Examples: bats, parks, pipes.

Connected Speech:

When speaking in sentences, the ending consonant sounds can change based on the following words. This is often referred to as connected speech.

Here is an example of a change from a voiced B in the word "club" to a voiceless P because of the voiced T in "to" of the following word: "We went to the club to meet some friends."

Here is an example of a change from a voiced D past simple verb changed to voiceless T: "We played tennis yesterday afternoon."

The English plosive, affricative, fricative, nasal and lateral consonants

Do you notice how I keep using the terms constriction and obstruction? I do this because there are many ways to make the air flow through your oral passage. 

For example, you can squeeze the back of your tongue against your velum to block the airflow. Or you can lightly touch that same place and let some air pass through.

Although both of these motions occur at the same place, they make different sounds because of the manner of articulation. This is part of the reason it is possible to have so many distinct consonant sounds at the same place of articulation. 

The manner of articulation is the way the airstream is affected as it flows from the lungs and out the nose and mouth. 

On this page I will cover six different manners of articulation in English that will distinguish one consonant sound from the next. There is a lot of information on this page, so don’t worry if you can’t remember everything now. You can always bookmark this page and refer back to it.

Looking at these sounds from a different perspective will help you develop your physical awareness of them. Make sure to try these movements out loud to yourself to really feel them.

Nasal

Nasal consonants are created when you completely block air flow through your mouth and let the air pass through your nose.

There are three nasal consonants in English.

• /m/ – “mad” and “clam” – oral passage is blocked by closing the lips (bilabial).

• /n/ – “no” and “man‘ – oral passage is blocked by pressing tongue tip against the alveolar ridge (alveolar).

• /ŋ/  –  “going” and “funk” – Oral passage is blocked by pressing the the back of your tongue against the soft palate (velar).

Stop:

Like nasal consonants, stop consonants occur when the vocal tract is closed completely. But for stops the airflow is NOT redirected through the nose. Instead, the air quickly builds up pressure behind the articulators and then releases in a burst.

English contains the following stop consonants.

• /p/ – purse and rap – oral passage is blocked by closing the lips (bilabial).

• /b/ – “back” and “cab” – oral passage is blocked by closing the lips (bilabial).

• /t/ – “tab” and “rat” – oral passage is blocked by pressing the tongue tip against the alveolar ridge (alveolar)

• /d/ – “dip” and “bad” – oral passage is blocked by pressing the tongue tip against the alveolar ridge (alveolar)

• /k/ – “kite” and “back” – block airflow with the back of the tongue against the soft palate (velar).

• /g/ – “good” and “bug” – block airflow with the back of the tongue against the soft palate (velar).

Fricative:

While nasal and stop consonants involve a complete blockage of the vocal tract, fricative sounds involve only a partial blockage of the vocal tract so that air has to be forced through a narrow channel.

For example, you create a /t/ stop consonant when you block airflow completely with your tongue against the alveolar ridge. But if you let up with the tongue a bit and let the air seep through, you make an /s/ fricative consonant.

The English fricative sounds are as follows:

• /f/ – “fro” and “calf“- air is forced through the upper teeth and lower lip (labiodental)

• /v/ – “vine” and “have” – air is forced through the upper teeth and lower lip (labiodental)

• /θ/ – “thick” and “bath” –  air is forced through upper teeth and tongue (dental)

• /ð/ – “the” and “rather” – air is forced through upper teeth and tongue (dental)

• /s/ – “suit” and “bus” – air is forced through tongue and alveolar ridge (alveolar)

• /z/ – “zit” and “jazz” – air is forced through tongue and alveolar ridge (alveolar)

• /ʃ/ – “shot” and “brash” – air is forced through the tongue and point just beyond alveolar ridge (post-alveolar)

• /ʒ/ – “vision” and “measure” – air is forced through the tongue and point just beyond alveolar ridge (post-alveolar)

• /h/ – “happy” and “hope” – actually /h/ isn’t a fricative. It’s technically not even a real consonant sound since there’s no constriction/obstruction of airflow.

Affricate:

When stop consonants mix with fricative consonants, the result is an affricate consonant. Affricate consonants start as stop sounds with air building up behind an articulator which then releases through a narrow channel as a fricative (instead of a clean burst as stops do).

The English affricate sounds are:

• /tʃ/ – “chick” and “match” – air is blocked with tongue just beyond the alveolar ridge (post-alveolar), then released as a fricative.

• /dʒ/ – “jam” and “badge” – air is blocked with tongue just beyond the alveolar ridge (post-alveolar), then released as a fricative.

Approximant:

Approximants are when two articulators come close together but not quite close enough to create air turbulence.  

The resulting sound is more like a fast vowel than anything else. For example, the /w/ approximant is like a fast /u/ sound (say /u/ + /aɪ/ really fast and you get the word “why”). Notice how your tongue never actually comes in contact with the top of your mouth.

There are three English approximants:

• /w/ – “wet” and “howard” – back of tongue raises to velum (but not too close!) and lips are rounded (velar)

• /j/ – “yes” and “bayou” – tongue raises to hard palate (but not too close!) (palatal)

• /ɹ/ – “right” and “roar” – tongue raises to hard palate (but not too close) (alveolar/post-alveolar)

Lateral:

Lateral consonants are when the tongue blocks the the middle of your mouth so that air has to pass around the sides. You create this when you 

There is one lateral consonant in English

• /l/ – “luck”- place the tip of the tongue at the alveolar ridge (alveolar)

You might want to return to this after you spend some more time thinking about your English sounds and fidgeting around with your speech organ. So feel free to bookmark these pages for further reference.

Why is this information important? Because these same phonetic concepts are going to apply to your target language.

Your target language is going to have sounds that are completely new to you. 

The best way for you to master the articulation of these new sounds is to understand these basic concepts behind them.

Now that you can decipher place and manner of articulation, the last feature we need to study is phonation.

The classification of English vowels: monophthongs (short vowel and long vowel)

Short	Long	Diphthong
Bit /ɪ/	Beach /i:/	Flight /aɪ/
Check /e/	Girl /ɜ:/	Face /eɪ/
Cat /æ/	Far /ɑ:/	Toy /ɔɪ/
Cup /ʌ/	Corn /ɔ:/	Home /ɔʊ/
Dog /ɒ/	Lagoon /u:/	House /aʊ/
	Good /ʊ/
	Banana /ə/

So, the pronunciation of vowels in English can vary drastically. As the table above shows, there are short and long vowel sound types and there are also diphthongs. However, there is a particular sound and it is the phoneme of the schwa / ə / which is a neutral sound and always denotes the weak syllables of a word, that is, those that are not stressed.

The short vowels are characterized by a short duration in their pronunciation, unlike the long ones, where three of the vowels are followed by the phoneme / r / and the production of the sound can be prolonged a little more than the short ones. Perhaps the ones that most resemble vowels in Spanish are short vowels, although they are not completely the same.

Vocal sounds:

Let's look at some examples of each short vowel in contrast to a long one.

/ ɪ /:

You must put your mouth as if you were going to pronounce the e of Spanish, but a little more closed and then you pronounce a very soft and short i. As in the words:

Bit, vehicle, film, skin, industry, city, thing, fish, win, swim, thin, biscuits

/ i: /:

The mouth is slightly more closed than the / ɪ /, the lips are more extended to the sides, and you should pronounce the vowel i so that it sounds higher than the short vowel. Here are some examples of words with the phoneme / i: /:

Team, feel, beach, sheet, shear, hear, clean, deed, heat, feet, sweet, Aberdeen

/and/:

Perhaps it is the vowel phoneme that most closely resembles Spanish, the position of the lips is the same and you must produce a short sound of the letter e in Spanish. As in the words:

Pet, fresh, breakfast, recipe, set, tell, bed, Belgium, record, event

/ ɜ: /:

This sound is quite common in the English language. It can seem a bit complicated to pronounce words like work, shirt, or learn. Fortunately, it is always accompanied by the phoneme / r / (at least in American English). To pronounce it, you must leave your mouth in a neutral position. It is difficult to find a similarity with Spanish because there is no sound that resembles it. However, you can try to pronounce these words and verify your pronunciation with one of your tutors.

Clerk, world, girl, stern, third, bird, curtain, worst, burglar, murder, early, earth

/ æ /:

For this sound, imagine that you are going to pronounce the vowel e in Spanish, so you put your mouth in that same position, but instead of pronouncing e, you pronounce the vowel a. In other words, it is to pronounce the a with the lips extended to the sides. As in the following words:

Cat, hat, map, cap, animal, panda, hand, Spanish, language, grammar, thanks

/ ʌ /:

In contrast to the / æ / phoneme, your lips are not so extended to the sides, your mouth is slightly open and you should produce a very soft sound from the vowel a in Spanish. You will notice a difference when you pronounce / æ / with a wide opening of the mouth and when you pronounce / ʌ / with a slight opening of the mouth. Practice saying these words that contain the sound:

Cup, cut, some, come, puppy, much, mother, love, but, hug, up, funny, culture

/ ɑ: /:

This phoneme is very similar to the previous one (/ ʌ /). However, it is also usually followed by the phoneme / r /. You will notice that when you have to pronounce the / r / you will feel that the vowel sound comes from the back of your throat. As in those words:

Start, calm, farm, charming, Clark, bark, palm, far, alarm, art, heart, harm, hard

/ ɒ /:

You find this sound in the word dog, it is a short vowel, which is similar to the o in Spanish, but with a wider opening of the mouth. Let's see some examples:

Teapot, novel, soft, chocolate, hot, frog, blonde, cot, common, knowledge, shop

/ ɔ: /:

It is an o, which is generally followed by / r /, you must round your lips for its pronunciation and you feel that the sound is coming from the back of your throat, and it is not as open as / ɒ /. These are some examples:

Corn, ball, small, call, torn, short, sport, storm, fork, court, store, born, pork

/ ʊ /:

Although this vowel is not the most common in English, it occurs in words like book, foot, and tooth. It may sound similar to the u of Spanish, but it is necessary that you do not round your lips so much and thus you will notice a small difference when producing the sound. Other examples are:

Cookies, would, should, put, woman, look, cook, pull, push, bullet, sugar, wood

/u:/:

Unlike / ʊ /, you need to round your lips much more and produce a longer sound. Unlike the other long vowels, spelling or phonetically, this sound is not followed by / r /. You can practice it in the following words:

Choose, cool, lose, moon, include, school, student, crew, screw, soup

Diphthongs:

Fortunately for Spanish speakers, diphthongs are not that complicated. Actually, the diphthongs of the English language are almost the same except / ɔʊ / which does not exist in Spanish, but whose pronunciation is not difficult at all.

Let's see some examples:

/ aɪ /:

Fly, I, might, fight, like, bright, lime, shine, five, time, tie, mind

/ eɪ /:

rain, face, race, fate, stain, blame, eight, break, afraid, pay, brain, game, stay

/ ɔɪ /:

boy, join, boil, oil, foil, point, choice, soil, noise, coin, destroy, voice

/ ɔʊ /:

home, cold, stone, low, go, no, toast, coke, blow, foam, coal, mow

/ aʊ /:

about, trout, house, cow, loud, how, gown, down, town, clown, sound

Schwa:

The schwa / ə / is by far the most common vowel phoneme in English. It is present in words like computer, animal, entertainment, doctor, breakfast, etc. The most important thing to know is that there is no polysyllable word that has the accented schwa sound, this vowel sound is always weak, almost mute, and on many occasions you use it and do not realize it. The schwa is like a small whisper that comes out of your mouth when you pronounce certain syllables of many words in English. Like the following:

Diamond, refrigerator, kitchen, possible, fabulous, excellent, restaurant, focus

Vowel sound in the Vietor triangle

Most of my students ask me about the differences in the sounds of  the vowels of American English. Why are there so many? Well, it's because in American English, there are 11 vowel sounds. This picture is what we call the Vietor Triangle, and symbols on it are called the IPA or International Phonetic Alphabet. These symbols are actually helpful not just in studying English, but many other languages as well, so it pays to know what they stand for. 

Here's one thing you should remember when you're practicing your vowel sounds. Make sure that your tongue is relaxed. When I say relaxed, I mean it does not move from its resting position in your mouth. It may move sideways a little, but it stays in one place. 

 i - long e sound. This is made by extending your lips to either side of your face as in a smile (or a grimace) and making a small opening between your upper and lower lips and teeth. Make the sound a little long by counting 2 beats or 2 seconds.

ex: eat, seed, reed, feed

I - short i sound. This sound is made in almost the same way as i, but shorter. Move your lips slightly sideways and make a slightly wider opening of the mouth. Now for one beat, say I.

ex: sit, rid, lid

e or Ɛi - long a sound. This sound is made by with your lips moving sideways, more in a grimace than a smile, and the mouth slightly wider than when we made I sound. Then, keeping the same lips position, make the  mouth a little smaller by closing it slightly.

ex: sate, rate, lay

Ɛ – short e sound. This sound is made with your lips in a slight grimace and the mouth is open wider than in Ɛi.

ex: set, let, met

æ – short a/American a. – This one’s a bit tricky. Start with short e sound’s position and add a bit of a ya (ja) sound at the end of it (Note: [j] in IPA is pronounced as a [y] sound as in yet, and not jet.

ex: sat, lap, mat

a – normal a. – Just drop your jaw and you’re all set. ^^

ex: pot, got, not

Ɔ – Italian a or Short o – Open your mouth wide as in a, but gently round your lips like o.

ex: straw, flaw, maw

O or oƱ – Long o. – Gently round your lips and go from big to small, until your lips are puckered like you’re kissing someone. Sustain for two beats.

ex: go, flow, mow

U or u:  –Long u. – It’s the same position as long u, only make the sound for a shorter amount of time. U or u: - Long u sound. – Pucker up like you’re kissing someone, and sustain the sound for two beats.

ex: goo, flew, moo

u or Ʊ  - Short u sound. – Pucker up like you’re kissing someone,and keep it short, but sweet.

ex: book, foot, pull

ə - The Schwa sound. – This is the most common sound in American English. It’s ubiquitous – which means you’ll find it everywhere! Open your mouth very slightly, and grunt, like when someone pushes you gently.

ex: but, stunt, gut

^ - Another grunt sound. This is extremely similar to the schwa sound, the only difference being it is stressed.

ex: cup, bug, rug

What’s the difference between the schwa (ə) and (^)?

In American English, there is no difference whatsoever in sound. So usually, we use only the schwa sound when we practice pronunciation. Only in British English are both used. You can find this in the book, American Accent Training by Anne Cook (page ix). Fabulous book! ^^

What are tense and lax or long and short vowels?

Tense or short vowels are usually produced by moving a lot of your facial muscles. A lax or long vowel, is of course, the opposite of this.

I'm sorry, I almost forgot to address the first question. Why is it inverted?

The inverted triangle is to help us remember that for each sound, our mouth opens a little wider as we go down until we reach the middle part, or a. Then, our mouth gets smaller as we go up the right side until we get to the center of the triangle.

The English diphthongs and triphthongs

Diphthongs:

The word “diphthong” comes from the Greek and means “two sounds”. In Phonetics a diphthong is a vowel in which there is a noticeable sound change within the same syllable (A single or simple vowel is known as a monophthong).

The process of moving from one vowel sound to another is called gliding, which is why another name for a diphthong is a gliding vowel but they are also known as compound vowels: complex vowels or moving vowels.

The sound change that turns a single vowel into a diphthong is called diphthongization. Diphthongs are sometimes referred to as “long vowels” but this is misleading. While vowels and sounds do change in a diphthong, they do not necessarily take more time to say than a monophthong.

Examples of Diphthongs:

/eɪ/ as in day, pay, say, lay

/aɪ/ as in sky, buy, cry, tie

/ɔɪ/ as in boy, toy, coy or the first syllable of soya

/ɪə/ as in beer, pier, hear

/eə/ as in bear, pair, and hair

/ʊə/ as in tour, poor or the first syllable of tourist

/əʊ/ as in oh, no, so, or phone

/aʊ/ as in all the words of “How now brown cow!”

Transcription of Diphthongs:

Diphthong  Word  Phonetic Transcription

/eɪ/    day      /deɪ/

/aɪ/      tie     /taɪ/

/ɔɪ/      toy     /tɔɪ/

/ɪə/     hear    /hɪə/

/eə/    hair    /heə/

/ʊə/    poor   /pʊə/

Triphthongs:

A triphthong is a glide from one vowel to another and the to a third, all produced rapidly and without interruption. For example, a careful pronunciation of the word ‘hour’ begins with a vowel quality similar to ‘ɑ:’, goes on to ‘ʊ’ then ends in ‘ə’.

• It says /aʊə/

• Triphthong : 5 closing diphthongs with ‘ə’ added on the end.

– eɪ + ə = eɪə . as in layer, player

– aɪ + ə = aɪə. as in lire, fire

– ɔɪ + ə = ɔɪə, as in loyal, royal

– əʊ + ə = əuə, as in lower, mower

– aʊ + ə = auə, as in power, hour.

Occurrence:

A combination of three vowel sounds in a single syllable forming a simple or compound sound :also ,a union of three vowel characters representing together a single sound:a trigragh:as eye.-ieu in adieu.eau in beau,are examples of triphthongs.

Transcription of Triphthongs:

Triphthong  Word  Phonetic Transcription

/eɪə/    player     /peɪə/

/aɪə/    fire         /faɪə/

/ɔɪə/    royal     /rɔɪəl/

/əuə/   mower   /məuə/

/auə/   hour      /hauə/

YULIETH LOSZA ROSAS   2020