The Sound Structure of English

phonology & phonetics

phonology : the structure that lies behind speech. principles that govern phonology: the distribution of sounds, and how they contrast

Phonetics: the nature and occurrence of speech sounds themselves (the physical manifestation of the actual sound)

Written and Spoken English

English spelling is unreliable as a guide to present-day pronunciation: fish should be spelled as ghoti. Reasons:

1. Influences from Latin & Germanic runic alphabet (adaptation of Greek and Latin symbols, so homophones were once pronounced differently).

2. Pronunciation changes are not represented in changed spellings

The Runic Alphabet

Rule-Governed Speech

1. Meaningful contrasts: Short & long vowels2. Predictable speech sounds: pray, rpay, blue,

lbue

Accent and dialect

Accent: features, patterns and phenomena belonging to variations in speech: <path>:

1. Northern British English: short vowel

2. Southern Standard British English: long vowel

3. ESL/EFL learner: /th/ as /t/ or /s/

Accent and dialect (Contd)

dialect: variations in accent + features of syntax and vocabulary

He caught the pike between_______weeds.

I need this plug mending.

Scots English: I need this plug mended.

Raising her little finger (pinkie)

Phonetic observation and phonologicalgeneralisation

phonological inferences are based on phonetic, that is, acoustic detail

1. Phonetic observation: a. pin, spin, nip b. tun, nut, stun c. kin, nick and skin

Phonetic observation and phonologicalgeneralisation (Contd)

2. Phonological generalisation: a. the speech sounds ‘p, t, k’ have identical

patterns of distribution within the syllable, i.e. they can occur pre-vocalically, post-vocalically, and after ‘s’,

b. in the same environments, each of these apparently different sounds seems to behave in exactly the same way

Contractiveness & Similarity/w/ /pɪn/

and /wɪn//ŋ/ /sɪn/ and

/sɪŋ/, sing.

/j/ /jɪn/ /wɪn/, /pɪn/,

/ʒ/ beige and baize

/r/ and /l/ /rɪp/ and /lɪp/.

/ʤ/ /pɪn/ /ʤɪn/, gin.

Consonant Physical Features

1. voiced or voiceless; 2. how it’s produced (i.e. whether it’s a stop,

or a fricative; 3. where it’s produced.

IPA

Place of Articulation

Manner of ArticulationObstruents (a high degree of air obstruction)

1. STOPS: the airflow from the lungs is completely blocked at some point.

2. FRICATIVES: The flow of air is constricted, but not totally stopped or blocked. The restricted airflow through the narrowed opening creates friction (this is where the term “fricative” comes from).

3. AFFRICATES: a combination of a stop and a fricative. These sounds begin like stops, with a complete blockage of air/closure of the vocal tract, and end with a restricted flow of air like fricatives.

Manner of Articulation Sonorants(relatively little obstruction of air)

NASALS: the flow of air cut off through the mouth and redirected through the nasal passage instead (sometimes called nasal stops)but because the air flows unobstructed through the nose, these sounds are classified as sonorants.

LIQUIDS: with little obstruction of air. Instead, we position our tongue in the vocal tract and let the air pass around it. Because it’s hard to pinpoint the obstruction, these sounds are less “solid” than some other consonants, which is why they’re called liquids.

GLIDES: These sounds, like liquids, are produced with very little obstruction of air. To produce glides, we bring articulators close together and then pull them apart, letting the sound glide off them. Glides are sometimes referred to as “semi-vowels” because they are mid-way between consonants and vowels, but they are classified as consonants. /y/ and /w/ are acoustically similar to /i/ and /u/.

Voiced vs. VoicelessVoiced Voiceless

/z/ /ʒ/ /d/ /b/

/r/ /p/ /t/ /k/

/v/ /ʤ/ /g/ /w/ /l/ /f/ /θ/ /s/

/ð/ /m/ /n/ /y/ /ng/ /∫/ / t∫/ /h/