ENGLISH PHONETICS AND PHONOLOGY

Introductory class
Profa. Me. Graziela Casagrande

The schedule

Classes are on Saturday from 1.00 to 2.40.

On March 31st there wont be a class. A make-up class will be arranged. Tests and assignments will be scheduled along the course.

The purpose

To understand how English is pronounced in the accent normally chosen as the standard both in American and British English; To present a general theory of speech sounds and how they are used in the language;

Why is this important? In lower level of study one is concerned simply with setting out how to form grammatical sentences. But people who are going to work with the language at an advanced level need a deeper understanding of it.

The syllabus

Some of the topics covered in this class are:

Segmental and suprasegmental features of the English language:

The production of speech sounds: articulators Phonetics: consonants and vowels; phonetic transcription (IPA) Phonological rules; Syllable structure: final consonants, consonantal clusters, syllabic consonants Prosody: word and sentence stress; intonoation;

Reference Material:
ROACH, P. English Phonetics and Phonology: a practical course. Second Edition. UK: Cambridge University Press, 1991.
UNKNOWN AUTHOR. Teaching Pronunciation: a handbook for teachers and trainers. 2001. [available for download from the Department of Education Training and Yourth Affairs website] CELCE-MURCIA, M.

Its important to know the difference between:

Segmental phonology x suprasegmental phonology

Phonetics x phonology

Phoneme x allophone

Stress x intonation

Segmental phonology x suprasegmental phonology

Segmental: segmental phonology analyses speech using the concept of distinct units of sounds which are called phonemes. Suprasegmental: suprasegmental phonology analyses features which affect phonemes, extending from one to another. It includes intonation and stress.

Phonetics x Phonology
Phonetics: it describes, classifies, and transcribes speech sounds; it can be articulatory (how it is produced), acoustic (its physical properties) or auditory (how sounds are percieved).

Phonology: it studies the sound inventory of a language that is, the sounds that distinguish meaning in a language. To determine whether a given pair of sound is contrastive, phonologists look for minimal pairs.: [tim] team /t/ and /s/ are contrastive sounds in English, whereas [t] [sim] seem and [th] are allophones of /t/, that is, different phonetic realizations of /t/.

Phoneme: the contrastive sounds of a language. In the sequence pen there are 3 phonemes and only one distinguishes from the sequence pin. We should always remember that pronunciation has to do with phonemes (sounds), and not letters of the alphabet. For example, the word enough begins with the same vowel phoneme of the word inept and ends with the same consonant sound as stuff. Allophony: the different pronunciations of a phoneme, which are called variants. Variants do not contrast meaning.

Phoneme: the voiceless stops in English are /p, t, k/ /pill/ /spill/ /till/ /still/ /kill/ /skill/ Phonetic fact: there is a burst of air in pill, till and kill that is absent in spill, still, and skill. [phIl] [spIl] [thIl] [stIl] [kIl] [skIl]
Why are aspirated stops considered allophones? Because although they are physically different, both aspirated and non-aspirated stops are considered the same sound. In English, aspiration is not employed to create a meaning difference.

An analogy would be the following:

There is a concept of shoe. This would be the phoneme. The different kinds of shoe would be allophones:

We must bear in mind that what is considered an allophone in a language, can behave as a phoneme in another one.
Aspiration, for example, is a phonemic feature in Hindi, which means that it constrasts meanings: [pal] [phal]

Another example of contrastive sound is /s/ and // in English:

[sel] [el] sell, shell

minimal pairs

So, /s/ and // are phonemes in English.

In Japanese, /s/ and // do not contrast meaning. You may say:

[simasu] instead of [imasu], but the meaning wont change. You might just be perceived as a foreigner and sound funny! CONCLUSION: sounds that affect meaning in a language are considered phonemes.

Stress x Intonation: suprasegmental features, because they apply to a sequence of segments.

Stress: its the intensity applied to a syllable. The proeminence of a syllable is considered relative, because a syllable is only strong when compared to a weak one. In phonetic transcription, stress is marked with a vertical line before the strong syllable. [bIrd]. There is also contrastive stress which differentiates words: black bird white house girl friend blackbird White House girlfriend

Stress x Intonation
Intonation: has many functions in the language, but the most important is to perform a role similar to punctuation. It demarks sentences and clauses, and distinguishes interrogations from declarations. It is also used to distinguish irony, doubt, anger, along, of course, with other paralinguistic aspects.

Sounds are the results of the work of different parts in the vocal tracts: these are called articulators.

Lips: they are very sounds Alveolar Ridge: important. Pressed together, they theby producedit by dividedfrom Teeth: sounds produced Tongue: is touching Velum: prevents air in four produce palatetouching brought b when the Nose: used m/;are called teeth alveolarthroughtip, blade, the tongue Hard /p,ridge producing different for flowing parts: the nose. innasal called dental. example. contact with d/, for n/ and the teeth alveolars /t,and by/m, they are touched root. front,consonants the Whenback produce /f,v/; when rounded, nasal vowels /, / /k/ and tongue, sounds like they produce the vowels /o, u/. /g/ are produced. These sounds are called bilabial or labiodental.

Sounds of English: vowels

How are vowels different from consonants?

Try saying this phonemes in isolation: Practice /p/ // /t/ pat diiference bet. Pet, pat /p/ /i/ /t/ peat /p/ /I/ /t/ pit /p/ /e/ /t/ pet /p/ // /t/ pot /p/ // /t/ put

Sounds of English: vowels

Vowels are sounds in which there is no obstruction to the flow of air as it passes from the larynx to the lips. How do vowels differ from each other?

Sounds of English: vowels

By the shape of lips and position of the tongue.

TONGUE:

1) the vertical distance between the tongue and the palate; 2) the part of the tongue, from front to back, which is raised the highest.

Sounds of English: vowels

See it yourself:

The vowel /i:/ as in see is produced by raising the tongue close to the rood of the mouth. The vowel // as in cat is produced by lowering it and distantiating it from the roof of the mouth.

/i/ is considered a close vowel, while // is an open vowel. Also, because the front part is raised, /i/ and // are both considered front vowels.

Sounds of English: vowels

If we take both /i/ and //, but change the part of the tongue which is raised, well have back vowels: /u/ and //, closed and open, respectively. So this is how the four vowels seen so far are distributed in the vowel system of English:
CLOSED OPEN

FRONT
BACK

/i/ /u/

// //

Sounds of English: vowels

EXTREME VOWEL POSITIONS

The primary cardinal vowels are the vowels that are most familiar to the speakers of most European languages. Their distribution is represented in a diagram which resembles the human mouth:

Sounds of English: vowels

LIPS We have seen so far that vowels can be classified according to their tongue height and frontness and backness. But lips also play an important role in classifying vowels. They can be shaped in three different ways: ROUNDED SPREAD NEUTRAL

Sounds of English: vowels

ROUNDED LIPS: this is most clearly seen in cardinal vowel [u]; SPREAD LIPS: corners of the lips spread away from each other, as in a smile. This is seen in cardinal vowel [i] NEUTRAL LIPS: the lips are not noticeably rounded or spread. The noise most English people make when they are hesitating (written er) is an example of neutral lips.

Sounds of English: vowels

Vowels are then produced by:

1. Raising and lowering the body of the tongue; 2. Pushing the tongue forward or pulling it back; 3. Rounding the lips

Sounds of English: vowels

Raising and lowering the body of the tongue; How high is the tongue? HIGH MID LOW Pushing the tongue forward or pulling it back; Is the tongue advanced or retracted? FRONT CENTRAL BACK Rounding the lips; Are the lips rounded? ROUNDED UNROUNDED Is the tongue tense or lax? TENSE LAX

Sounds of English: vowels

http://www.uiowa.edu/~acadtech/phonetics/

REVIEW
This is what we have seen so far: Difference between: phonetics x phonology segmental x suprasegmental phoneme x allophone stress x intonation vowels x consonants Use of articulators to produce sounds; How vowels are produced.

Vowels
When a vowel is produced, there are three things happening:

Tongue height: Tongue frontness: Lip roundness:

CLOSED

high front round

OPEN

mid central unround

low back

FRONT
BACK

/i/ /u/

// //

Vowels
When vowels are produced: There is nothing in the vocal tract that narrows the passage of air. That is, vowels are produced without having any articulators touching.

They are the most audible (sonorant) segments.

Vocal cords play a major role. That is why vowels are, almost always, VOICED. They can be monophthong or diphthong

Open/ close HIGH

FRONT

NEAR FRONT
I
(bit, sit)

CENTRAL

NEAR BACK u
(boot)

BACK
Round LAX
(book)

i
(beat, seat)

Unround TENSE

Unround LAX

Round TENSE

MID

(extra, bet)

(but)

(paw)

Unround LAX LOW

(at, glass)

(about)

Round LAX
(pot)

MONOPHTHONGS
http://pages.uoregon.edu/l150web/vowel.html http://www.stuff.co.uk/calcul_nd.htm

In the vowel quadrant diagram below, fill in the phonemic symbols for the English vowels:

In the vowel quadrant diagram below, fill in the phonemic symbols for the English vowels:
Big These Bread Build book Blood His Said Ten good Short Went Son Soup hot Cup talk Young Bad Saw Be Beach Tree Have Man Men Give Pour Hand Put Food Sue All Odd Waffle apple

u
/

http://www.oupchina.com.hk/dict/phonetic/home.html www.dictionary.com

In the vowel quadrant diagram below, fill in the phonemic symbols for the English vowels:
Big Build Give His Bread Said Ten Went Men Blood Son Cup Young Be Beach These Tree Bad Have Hand Man apple Short Saw Pour All talk Good Book Put Food Soup Sue Odd Waffle hot

I
/

Beware of heard , a dreadful word That looks like beard and sounds like bird. And dead it's said like bed not bead . For goodness sake, don't call it deed ! Watch out for meat and great and threat. They rhyme with suite and straight and debt.