Conservatorio Superior de Msica de Murcia

Manuel Massotti Littel

UNIT 2: THE SOUNDS OF ENGLISH

ACADEMIC YEAR 2015/2016

Teacher: Mara del Valle

Sounds (phonemes) are not letters (graphemes)

 and letters are not sounds:

Hello, Im the English teacher. I like going to the cinema

and cooking, and I love teaching at this Conservatoire.

I work here since 2006. Are you ready to learn English

Phonetics?

Consonants

The international Phonetic Association was

established in 1886 in Paris.

Vowels

It promotes the scientific study of phonetics

and the various practical applications of that
science.

Stress, Vowel
lenght, etc

It provides the academic community worldwide with a notational standard for the
phonetic representation of all languages :

Tones

the International Phonetic Alphabet ,

or IPA ( [ ] ).

Diacritics

1st VOICING:
Does the sound vibrate or not?

3 parameters

2nd PLACE OF ARTICULATION:

Where is the sound produced?

3rd MANNER OF ARTICULATION:

How is the sound produced?

1st Voicing:

1st - Voicing:

VOICED

UNVOICED = VOICELESS

ball []
do
[]
gone []

Paul
to
con

[]
[]
[]

van []
teethe []
gin
[]
zoo []

fan
teeth
chin
Sue

[]
[]
[]
[]

A sentence to keep in your brain the voiced consonants:

the very large ball is measured , good morning!

2nd - Place of articulation:

Lips: bilabial
Upper teeth & lower lips:
labiodental
Teeth: dental
Alveolar ridge: alveolar
Back of alveolar ridge:

post-alveolar
Hard palate: palatal
Velum/soft palate: velar
Uvula: uvular
Pharynx wall: pharyngeal
Vocal folds: glottal

3rd Manner of articulation

(English consonants)
TOTAL CLOSURE

Plosive: Air is released

explosively [p] [t] [k] [b] [d] [g]

Nasal: Air escapes through the

nose [m] [n] []

INTERMITTENT CLOSURE

Roll or trill: The

tongue tip against the
alveolar ridge [r]

Affricate: Air is released slowly

[] []

PARTIAL CLOSURE

Lateral approximant:
Air escapes around the sides of a
closure [l]

NARROWING

Fricative: Air escapes

between 2 vocal organs
which are very close
[f] - [v] [ ] - [ ]
[s] - [z] [ ] - [ ]
[h]

[w]

we
why
twins
question
one

[j]

yet
beautiful
university

[w] and [j] are sounds in English which have

properties of both vowels and consonants. That is

why they are called Vowel-like consonants,
Semi-consonants or Semi-vowels

1st TONGUE:
Does it move forwards or
backwards?

3 parameters

2nd JAW:
Is it closed or opened?

3rd LIPS:
Are they rounded or spread?

THE VOWEL
TRAPIZIUM
The. vowel symbols are located at
the approximate position for the
tongue when producing them. All
vowels are voiced and the back
vowels are produced with liprounding while the front vowels
are not.