English Phonetics and Phonology

Chapter 1

INTRODUCTION
1.1 Phonetics and phonology
They are branches of linguistics that study speech sounds.
Phonetics studies physical aspects of speech sounds (the production and perception of speech
sounds, differences in sound quality, clear / l / vs dark / l /, / u: / vs / ʊ /, / p / vs / ph /, etc.).
Three main areas of phonetics:
- Articulatory phonetics: dealing with the way in which speech sounds are produced (sounds
classified according to the position of the lips and the tongue, how far open the mouth is, whether or
not the vocal cords are vibrating…)
- Acoustic phonetics: dealing with the transmission of speech sounds through the air
- Auditory phonetics: dealing with how speech sounds are perceived by the listener (clear / l / vs
dark / l /, / t/ vs / p / with or without aspiration…)
Phonology/ Phonemics studies the functional aspects of sounds and their relationships to one
another (/ i: /, /1 / => different meanings, / h, r, j, w / never in final position…).
Speech sounds: sounds produced by the vocal tract. (Tract: a system of organs and tissues that
together perform a specialized function)
1.2 Vowels and consonants
Vowels: sounds produced without an obstruction to the air flow/ air stream as it passes from the
larynx to the lips.
Ex: / ɑ: , i: , u: , O , ɜ: , 1 , ʊ , ɒ , ʌ , e , æ , ǝ /
=> 20 vowels = 12 pure vowels + 8 diphthongs
Consonants: sounds produced with an obstruction to the airflow or with audible friction.
Ex: / d
b f g h
j
k l m n p r s
ʃ t v
w
z

ʒ
ŋ θ ð/
=> 24 consonants

ʤ ʧ

1.3 Voiced and voiceless sounds
Voiced sounds: sounds produced with the vibration of the vocal cords.
=> 36 voiced sounds = 20 vowels + 16 voiced consonants
Voiceless sounds: sounds produced without the vibration of the vocal cords.
=> 8 voiceless sounds, all of which are consonants: / f
k p t θ ʧ s ʃ/
Notes:
1- It is important to distinguish between letters and sounds. In phonetics and phonology, only
sounds are paid attention to.
2- Letters do not have sounds but they can represent sounds in words.
3- A letter in isolation possesses no sound.
4- A letter can represent more than one sound, and a sound can be represented by more than one
letter.
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Ex: “a”: / $ / ancient, / æ / can, / ǝ / ago, / O / call
1.4 Accents and dialects
Accents: different pronunciation by people from different geographical places, from different
social classes, of different ages and different education backgrounds.
Dialects: varieties of a language, different from each other in pronunciation, vocabulary, grammar,
word order.
1.5 Received pronunciation (RP)
British standard English pronunciation regarded as the prestige variety and showing no regional

variation. It has often been referred to as “BBC English” because it is used by most BBC
newsreaders.

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Chapter 2

THE PRODUCTION OF SPEECH SOUNDS
2.1 ARTICULATORS ABOVE THE LARYNX
Speech sounds are produced by the airstream starting at the lung, passing through the larynx and
then going into the vocal tract which ends at the mouth and nostrils. There are muscles affect
speech sounds:
1. The muscles in the chest used for breathing produce the airstream for speech sounds.
2. The muscles in the larynx make modifications in the air from the chest to the mouth.
3. The muscles in the vocal tract change the shape of the vocal tract.
The different parts in the vocal tract are called articulators and the study of them is called
articulatory phonetics. There are seven articulators above the larynx:
1. The pharynx is a tube above the larynx. Its top end is divided into two: one part is the back of
the mouth and the other is the beginning of the way through the nasal cavity.
2. The velum or soft palate allows air to pass through the nose and the mouth. In speech the velum
is raised so that air cannot escape through the nose. When the sounds / k / and / g / are
pronounced, the tongue is contact with the lower side of the velum and they are velar
consonants.
3. The hard palate or the roof of the mouth is a smooth curved surface.
4. The alveolar ridge is between the top front teeth and the hard palate. Sounds made with the
tongue touching here (such as / t / and / d / are called alveolar.
5. The tongue is a very important articulator that can be moved into many different places and
different shapes. It is divided into 5 different parts: tip, blade, front, back and root.

tip

blade

front

back

root

6. The teeth (upper and lower) are at the front of the mouth, immediately behind the lips. Sounds
made with the tongue touching the front teeth are called dental.
7. The lips are important in speech. They are pressed together to produce the sounds / p / and / b /,
brought into contact with the teeth as in / f / and / v /, or rounded to produce the lip-shape for
vowels like / u: /. Sounds with the lips in contact with each other are called bilabial, while those
with lip-to-teeth contact are called labiodental.
Beside the seven articulators above, there are three other organs to remember:
1. The larynx could also be described as an articulator.
2. The jaws are sometimes called articulators; certainly they are moved lower a lot in a speech.
However, they cannot make contact with other articulators.
3. The nose and the nasal cavity are a very important part for making nasal sounds such as / m /, /
n / and / ŋ /.
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2.2 VOWEL AND CONSONANT
There can be two ways to distinguish a vowel from a consonant.
1. As for phonetics, vowels such as / i: / or / u: / are sounds in which there is no obstruction to the
flow of air as it passes from the larynx to the lips. Meanwhile, consonants such as / s / or / d / are
sounds in which there is obstruction to the flow of air as it passes from the larynx to the lips.

However, because in some consonants such as / h / or / w / there is no obstruction of the
airstream, so the most important difference between vowel and consonant is not the way that
they are produced, but their different distribution.
2. As for distribution, there is no other vowel before or after a vowel, so there is no vowel cluster
in English. But before and after a consonant can be another consonant, so there is a consonant
cluster. For example, the word black / blæk / has a consonant cluster / bl /.
2.3 ENGLISH SHORT VOWELS
A. English vowels differ from each other in five ways:
1. The position of the tongue refers to the vertical distance between the upper surface of the
tongue and the palate.
 When the vowel / i: / is produced, the tongue is close to the roof of the mouth. So / i: / is a
close vowel
 When the vowel / æ / is produced, the distance between the surface of the tongue and the roof
of the mouth is much greater. So / æ / is an open vowel.
 When the vowel / e / is pronounced, the tongue is neither close to the roof of the mouth nor
far from the roof of the mouth. So / e / is a mid vowel.
As a result, / i: /, / e / and / æ / differ in the position of the tongue.
2. The shape of the tongue refers to the part of the tongue, between front and back, which is
raised the highest.
 When / i: / is produced, the front of the tongue is raised. So / i: / is a front vowel.
 When /u: / is produced, the back of the tongue is raised. So /u: / is a back vowel.
 When / ə / is produced, the central of the tongue is raised. So / ə / is a central vowel.
As a result, / i: /, / u: / and / ə / differ in the shape of the tongue.
3. The lip-rounding refers to rounding the lip.
 Rounded: back vowels are produced when the corners of the lips are brought towards each
other and the lips pushed forwards. So they are rounded vowels.
 Spread: front vowels are produced with the corners of the lips moved away from each other.
So they are spread vowels.
 Neutral: central vowels are produced when the lips are not noticeably rounded or spread. So
they are neutral vowels.

4. The length refers to the duration in the pronunciation. The sound /i: / is produced longer than
the sound /1 /. So /i:/ is a long vowel and /1/ is a short vowel. The length mark is made of two dots :.
5. The tense refers to the tense of the muscle of the face. Long vowels are produced with a little stretch
of the muscle of the face, so they are tense vowels. Meanwhile, short vowels are produced without any
stretch of the muscle of the face, so they are lax vowels.
B. Classifying vowels: tongue part - tongue height – length - lip shape – tenseness

4


Front

Central

i:

Back

Close/High

ɪ

ʊ

Mid

e

ə ɜ:

ɔ:

Open/Low

`

ʌ

ɒ ɑ:

There are seven short vowels in English.
1. The front-close-short-spread-lax vowel / 1 /
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.

The front-mid-short-spread-lax vowel / e /
The front-open-short-spread-lax vowel / æ /

The central-mid-short-neutral-lax vowel / ə /
The central-open-short-neutral-lax vowel / ʌ /
The back-close-short-rounded-lax vowel / ℧ /
The back-open-short-rounded-lax vowel /ɒ /

5

u:

Chapter 3

LONG VOWELS, DIPHTHONGS AND TRIPHTHONGS
3.1 LONG AND SHORT VOWELS
Besides the seven short vowels there are five long vowels in English. These vowels tend to be longer
than the short vowels in similar contexts.
8. The front-close-long-spread-tense vowel / i: /.
9. The central-mid-long-neutral-tense vowel / з: /.
10. The back-open-long-neutral-tense vowel / ɑ: /

11. The back-mid-long-rounded-tense vowel / ɔ: /

12.The back-close-long-rounded-tense vowel / u: /
3.2 DIPHTHONGS
Diphthongs are long vowel consisting of a movement or gliding from one vowel to another. A vowel
which remains constant and does not glide is called a pure vowel. In diphthongs the first part is
much longer and stronger than the second part; for example, most of the diphthong /# / consists of
the vowel / a /, and only in about the last quarter of the diphthong the glide to /1 / becomes
noticeable. As the glide to / 1 / happens, the loudness of the sound decrease.
English diphthongs can be divided into centring diphthongs and closing diphthongs.
 The centring diphthongs glide towards the central vowel / ə /:
 /^ /: the starting point is a little closer than /1 /.
 / eə /: it begins with the vowel / e /.
 / ə℧ /: it has a starting point slightly closer than / ℧ /.
 The closing diphthongs end with a glide towards a closer vowel
 Three of the diphthongs glide towards the vowel /1 /:
o / $/: the starting point is the same as the vowel / e /.
o / #/: it begins with the vowel similar to / ʌ /.

o / %/: the first part has same quality as / ɔ: /.
 Two diphthongs glide towards the vowel / ℧ /, so that as the tongue moves closer to the
roof of the mouth, there is at the same time a rounding movement of the lips.
o / ! /: it begins with the vowel schwa / ə /.
o / a℧ /: the starting point is a vowel similar to the vowel / ɑ: /.
3. 3 TRIPHTHONGS
A triphthong is a glide from one vowel to another and then to a third, all produced rapidly and
without interruption. There are five triphthongs which can be looked on as being composed of the
five closing diphthongs with the vowel / ə / added on the end.
 /$/
+
/ə/
/ $ə /


/#/

+

/ #ə /

/ə/
6




/%/

+

/ə/

/ %ə /



/!/

+

/ə/

/ !ə /



/ a℧ /

+

/ə/

/ a℧ə /

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Chapter 4

VOICING AND CONSONANTS
4.1 THE LARYNX
The larynx is made of two large cartilages attached to the top of the trachea; when we breathe, the air
passes through the trachea and the larynx. The front of larynx comes to a point called the Adam’s
Apple. Inside the box made by these two cartilages are the two thick flaps of muscle called the vocal
folds:
 At the front they’re joined together and fixed to the thyroid cartilage.
 At the back they are attached to a pair of the small arytenoid cartilages. These cartilages are
attached to the top of the cricoid cartilage and can move to move the vocal folds apart or
together. Glottis is the opening between the vocal folds. If the vocal folds are apart the glottis
is open, and if they are pressed together the glottis is closed.
There are four positions for glottis to study the speech sounds.
1. Wide apart: This is for normal breathing and voiceless sounds / p /, / f /, / s /.
2. Narrow glottis: This is for voiceless glottal fricative / h /.
3. Position for vocal fold vibration: This is for voiced sounds. Because when vocal cords
press together, the air stream put them open, and then they press together again so they open
and close continuously to make the vocal cords vibrate.
4. Vocal folds tightly closed: This position prevents the air stream from going into and out of
the larynx.
4.2 RESPIRATION AND VOICING
When a speech sound is produced the airstream is often made to move out of the lungs, this is an
egressive pulmonic airstream. The pressure of the egressive pulmonic air below the vocal folds can
be varied. Three main differences are found:
1. Variations in intensity make voicing with high intensity for shouting and low intensity for
speaking quietly.
2. Variations in frequency make high and low frequency.
3. Variations in quality make differences voice qualities, for example harsh, breathy, and
creaky.
Voicing / Phonation: sounds heard when the vocal folds vibrate.
4.3 PLOSSIVES

A plosive is a consonant with the following characteristics:
1. Articulators move against each other to make a total obstruction to stop air.
2. The stricture is released for the airstream escaping.
3. The airstream escaping under a pressure makes a plosion.
4. There may be voicing during part or all of the plosive articulation.
There are four phases in producing plosives:
1. The closing phase is one with articulators moving to make a total stricture.
2. The compression phase is one in which the compressed air is stopped from escaping.
3. The release phase occurs when articulators move apart from each other to let air to escape.
4. The post-release phase is what happens immediately after the release phase.
Manner of articulation is the way how to release the air stream. Plosives are called so because a
plosion is made during their production.
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4.4 ENGLISH PLOSSIVES
Places of articulation are places where the airstream is stopped partially or totally. When plosive
sounds are produced, the airstream is stopped totally somewhere in the oral capacity. There are six
English plosives with the different places of articulation:
1. / p / and / b / are bilabial because two lips are pressed together.
2. / t / and / d / are alveolar since the tongue blade is pressed against the alveolar ridge.
3. / k / and / g / are velar because the back of the tongue is pressed against the velum.
Voicing refers to the vibration of the vocal cords. When a sound is produced with the vibration of
the vocal cords it is called the voiced sound. When a sound is produced without vibration of the
vocal cords it is called voiceless sound. So / p /, / t /, and / k / are voiceless; and / b /, / d /, and / g /
are partly or fully voiced or voiceless.
All of the English plosives occur at the beginning of the word (initial position), between other
sounds (medial position) and at the end of the word (final position)
1. In initial position:
a. In the closing phase / p /, / t /, / k / and / b /, / d /, / g / takes place silently.

b. In compression phase there is no voicing in p, t, k; in b, d, g there is normally very little
voicing.
c. In the release phase / p /, / t /, and / k / are followed by audible plosion. In the post release
phase there is a period during which the air escapes through the vocal folds, making a sound
like /h /. This is called aspiration. The release of /b/, / d /, and / g / are followed by weak
plosion. The most important difference between initial /p /, /t /, / k / and / b /, / d /, / g / is the
aspiration of the voiceless plosives / p /, / t /, and / k /.
In initial position / b /, / d /, and / g / cannot be preceded by any consonant, but / p /, / t /, and / k
/ may be preceded by / s /. When one of them is preceded by / s /, it is unaspirated.
2. In medial position:
The pronunciation of / p /, / t /, / k / and / b /, / d /, / g / depends on whether the syllable
preceding and following the plosive are stressed.
3. In final position:
/ b /, / d /, and / g / have little voicing. / p /, / t /, / k / and / b /, / d /, / g / is very weak and often
not audible. There difference between / p /, / t /, / k / and / b /, / d /, / g / is that vowels preceding /
p /, / t /, and / k / are much shorter.
4.5 FORTIS AND LENIS
The voiceless plosive / p /, / t /, and / k / are sometimes called fortis (meaning “strong”) and / b /, / d
/, and / g / are then called lenis (meaning “weak”). It is probably true that / p /, / t /, and / k / are
produced with more force
Naming of consonants: voicing property + adjective (indicating place of art.) + noun (indicating
manner of art.)
Ex:
/ k /: a voiceless velar plosive

9


Chapter 5

THE PHONEME
5.1 THE PHONEME
When an utterance is produced, a continuous stream of sounds is produced. The stream of sounds can be
divided into small pieces which are called segments. For example, the word “man” is produced with a
first segment / m /, a second segment / æ / and a third segment / n /. If we put one segment in the place
of one of other segments, we can change the meaning of the word. For example, if we substitute / æ / for
/ e / in the word “bed” we get a different word “bad”. Such a segment is called a phoneme.
There is an abstract set of phonemes as the basic of our speech, and the complete set of these phonemes
is called the phonemic system of the language. The phonemes themselves are abstract, but there are
mainly slightly different ways in which we made the sounds that represent these phonemes. For
example, the phoneme /b / in the word “bad” can be pronounced in two ways: with full voicing and with
no voicing. The two different ways of making / b / are two different realizations of the phoneme / b /.
One can be substituted for the other without changing the meaning. When we talk about different
realizations of phonemes, we sometimes call these realizations allophones.
Some of the realizations of a phoneme cannot occur in the same place. For example, the realization of
the phoneme / t / in the word “tea” is aspirated. But in the word “eat” the realization of the phoneme / t /
is unaspirated. The aspirated realization will never be found in the place where the unaspirated
realization is appropriate, and vice versa. When we find this strict separation of places where particular
realizations can occur, we say that the realizations are in complementary distribution.
5.2 SYMBOLS AND TRANSCRIPTION
Basically, the symbols are for one of two purposes: either they are symbols for phonemes (phonemic or
phoneme symbols) or they are phonetic symbols.
As for phonemic symbols, the number of phonemic symbols must be exactly the same as the number of
phonemes we decide exists in the language. One of the traditional exercise in pronunciation teaching by
phonetic methods is that of phonemic transcription, where every speech sound must be identified as one
of the phonemes and written with the appropriate symbol. In a phonemic transcription, then, only the
phonemic symbols may be used.
The phonemic system described here for the BBC accent contains forty-four phonemes. We can display
the complete set of these phonemes by the usual classificatory methods used by most phoneticians; the
vowels and diphthongs can be located in the vowel quadrilateral and the consonants can be placed in the

chart of table according to the place of articulation, the manner of articulation and voicing.
The best known set of symbols is that of the international Phonetic Association’s alphabet (the letter IPA
used to refer to the Association and also to its alphabet). The vowel symbols of the cardinal vowel
system (plus a few others) are usually included on the chart of this alphabet, which is produced of the
beginning of the book. it is important to note that in addition to the many symbols on the chart there a
lot of diacritics, marks which modify the symbol in some ways. Such a transcription would be called a
phonetic transcription; a phonetic transcription containing a lot of information about the exact quality of
the sounds would be called a narrow phonetic transcription, while one which only included a little more
information than a phonetic transcription would be called a broad phonetic transcription.
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There is a difference between phonemic symbols and phonetic symbols. Since the phonemic symbols do
not have to indicate precise phonetic quality, it is possible to choose among several possible symbols to
represent a particular phoneme.
5.3 PHONOLOGY
We study the abstract side of the sounds of language we are studying a related but different subject that
we call phonology. One by studying both the phonetics and the phonology of English is it possible to
acquire a full understanding of the use of sounds in English speech.
Study of the phonemic system
In a similar way, we have a more or less or less fixed set of “pieces” (phonemes) with which to play the
game of speaking English. There may be many slightly different realizations of the various phonemes,
but the most important thing for communication is that we should be able to make use of the full set
phonemes. In every language we find that there are restrictions on the sequence of phonemes that are
used. In phonology we try to analyse what the restriction and regularities are in a particular language,
and it is usually found helpful to do this by studying the syllables of the language.
Suprasegmental phonology
Many significant sound contrasts are not the result of difference between phonemes. For example, stress
is important: when the word “import” is pronounced with the first syllable sounding stronger than the
second, English speakers hear it as a noun, whereas when the second syllable is stronger the word is

heard as a verb. Intonation is also important: if the word ‘right‘ is said with the pitch of the voice rising.
It is likely to be heard as a question or as an invitation to a speaker to continue, while falling pitch is
more likely to be heard as confirmation or agreement. This example show sound contrasts that extend
over several segment (phonemes), and such contrasts are called suprasegmental. We will look at a
number of other of other aspects of suprasegmental phonology later in the course.
Note:
1. Segment: the smallest speech sound that a word can be divided into

Ex: man /mæn/ = /m/ + /æ/ + /n/, 3 segments
2. Phoneme: the smallest speech sound that can distinguish two words
3. Allophones: different realizations of phonemes, e.g. [th] in ten and [t-] in pet
4. Complementary distribution: the occurrence of the allophones of a phoneme in different positions, e.g.
[th] in ten, initial position; [t-] in pet, final position
5. Free variation: the replacement of a phoneme with another without changing the meaning, e.g. economics,
/e/ or /1/

6. Minimal pair: words having one different segment in the same position, e.g. bit, pit  /b1t/, /p1t/
7. Segmental phonemes: vowels + consonants

Segmental: (of speech) sequential; following in order of time or place
8. Suprasegmental phonemes = suprasegmentals: stress and intonation, capable of changing the meaning but
having nothing to do with the 44 phonemes in English

11


Glottis
Vocal Folds

Wall

of

the

Voiceless
(Open
Vocal
Folds)

Voiced
(Approximated
Folds)

Whisper
(Partially Closed Vocal Folds)

Vocal

12


Chapter 6

FRICATIVES AND AFFRICATES
6.1 Production of fricatives and affricates
As for manner of articulation: when fricatives are produced, air escapes through a small passage.
They are continuant consonant which means that they can continue being made without
interruption in their pronunciation.
Fricatives are consonants with the characteristic that, when they are produced, air escapes

through a small passage and makes a hissing sound. Most languages have fricatives, the most
commonly found being something like s. Fricatives are continuant consonants, which means that
you can continue making them without interruption as long as you have enough air in your lungs.
Fricatives: continuant consonants, i.e., consonants produced without interruption
Affricates are rather complex consonants. They begin as plosives and end as fricatives. A
familiar example is the affricate heard at the beginning and end of the word ‘church’. It begins
with an articulation practically the same as that for t, but instead of a rapid release with plosion
and aspiration, as we would find in the word ‘tip’, the tongue moves to the position for the
fricative ʃ that we find at the beginning of the word ‘ship’. So the plosive is followed
immediately by fricative noise. Since phonetically this affricate is composed of t and ʃ, we
represent it as T, so that we word ‘church’ is transcribed as T.
It is usually said that the plosive and the following fricative must be made with the same
articulators – to use a technical term, the plosive and fricative must be homorganic. The sounds
k and f are not homorganic, but t and ʃ, both being made with the tongue blade against the
alveolar ridge, are homorganic. This still leaves the possibility of quite a large number of
affricates, since, for example, t is homorganic not only with ʃ but also with s, so ts would also
count as an affricate.
Affricates: beginning with a plosive and ending with a fricative. The plosive and fricative must
be homorganic (made with the same articulators).
6.2 The fricatives of English
With the exception of glottal, each place of articulation has a pair of phonemes, one fortis and
one lenis. The lenis fricatives have very little or no voicing in initial and final positions, but may
be voiced when they occur between voiced sounds. The fortis fricatives have the effect of
shortening a preceding vowel, as do fortis plosives.
We will now look at the fricatives separately, according to their place of articulation.
f,v ( ‘fan’, ‘van’)
These are labiodental, that is, the lower lip is in contact with the upper teeth.

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θ, ð (‘thumb’, ‘thus’)
The dental fricatives are sometimes described as if the tongue were placed between the teeth. In
fact , however, the tongue is normally placed behind the teeth, with the tip touching the inside of
the lower front teeth and the blade touching the inside of the upper teeth. The air escapes through
the gaps between the tongue and the teeth.
s, z (‘sip’, ‘zip’)
These are alveolar fricatives, with the same place of articulation as t and d. The air escapes
through a narrow passage along the centre of the tongue, and the sound produced is
comparatively intense.
ʃ, ʒ (‘ship’, ‘measure’)
These fricatives are called post-alveolar, which can be taken to mean that the tongue is in
contact with an area slightly further back than that for s, z
h (‘head’, ‘ahead’)
The place of articulation of this consonant is glottal. This means that the narrowing that
produces the friction noise is between the vocal folds. If you breathe out silently, then produce h,
you are moving your vocal folds from wide apart to close together.
Phonetically h is a voiceless vowel with the quality of the voiced vowel the follows it.
Phonologically, h is a consonant. It is usually found before vowel. As well as being found in
initial position it is found medially in words. When h occurs between voiced sounds (as in the
words ‘ahead’ and ‘greenhouse’), it is pronounced with voicing – not the normal voicing of
vowels but a weak, slightly fricative sound called breathy voice.
Fortis fricatives :
- with greater force than the lenis
- louder friction noise
- in final position, shortening a preceding vowel
Lenis fricatives :
- devoiced in initial & final positions
- fully voiced in medial position
6.3 The affricates

T, dʒ are the only two affricate phonemes in English. The place of articulation is the same as for
ʃ, ʒ; that is, it is post-alveolar. When T is final in the syllable it has the effect of shortening a
preceding vowel. T and dʒ often have rounded lips.
6.4 Fortis consonants
* / p, k, t /:
- In initial position: a vowel or one of l, r, j, w that follow are devoiced (partly or
utterly voiceless), because the vocal cords are not ready to vibrate. In, for example,
potato, pen, play, train, cure, queen, / ǝ e l r j w / are devoiced. / ǝ e / in this
context can also be called “voiceless vowels”.
- In final position: shortening preceding vowels or / l m n ŋ /. Compare, for
example, bat-bad, coat-code, right-ride, belt-bell, bolt-bold, sink-sing.
14


Chapter 7

NASALS AND OTHER CONSONANTS
7.1 Nasals
The basic characteristic of a nasal consonant is that the air escapes through the nose.
The consonants m and n are simple and straightforward with distributions like those of the
plosives. However, ŋ is different matter. The place of articulation of ŋ is the same as that of k, g.
1. In initial position we can find m and n occurring freely, but ŋ never occurs in this
position
2. Medially, ŋ occurs quite frequently. When we find the letter ‘nk’ in the middle of the
word in its orthographic form, a k will always be pronounced; however, some words with
orthographic ‘ng’ in the middle will have a pronunciation containing ŋg and others will
have ŋ without g.
ŋ occurs without a following g if it occurs at the end of a morpheme; if it occurs in the
middle of a morpheme it has a following g. (‘finger’ -> /f17g9/; ‘singer’ -> /s179/).
But ‘longer’ lɒŋgə; ‘longest’ lɒŋgəst

3. A third way in which the distribution of ŋ is unusual is the small number of vowels it is
found to follow. It never occurs after a diphthong or long vowel, and in fact there are
only five vowels ever found preceding this consonant: 1, e, æ, ʌ, and ɒ.
7.2 The consonant l (Lateral)
A lateral consonant is one in which the passage of air through the mouth does not go in the
usual way along the centre of the tongue; instead, there is complete closure between the
centre of the tongue and the part of the roof of the mouth where contact is to be made.
Because of this complete closure along the centre, the only way for the air to escape is along
the sides of the tongue
We find l initially, medially and finally. The realization of l found before vowels sounds
quite different from that found in other contexts. For example, the realization of l in the word
‘lea’ li: is quite different from that in ‘eel’ i:l. The sound in i:l is what we call a ‘dark l’; it
has a quality rather than similar to a ‘u’ vowel, with the back of the tongue raised. The sound
in li: is what is called a ‘clear l’; it resemble an ‘i’ vowel, with the front of the tongue raised.
The ‘dark l’ is also found when it precedes a consonant, as in ‘eels’ i:lz; ‘clear l’ will never
occur before consonants or before a pause, but only before vowels; ‘dark l’ never occurs
before vowels. That ‘clear l’ and ‘dark l’ are allophones of the phoneme l in complementary
distribution.
Another allophone of l is found when it follows p or k at the beginning of a stressed syllable.
The l is then devoiced, i.e. produced without the voicing found in most realization of this
phoneme. The situation is similar to aspiration when a vowel follows p, t or k in stressed
syllable; the first part of the vowel is devoiced.

15


7.3 The consonant r (Post-alveolar approximant)
An approximant, as a type of consonant, is rather difficult to describe; informally, we can say
that it is an articulation in which the articulators approach each other but do not get
sufficiently close to each other to produce a ‘complete’ consonant such as a plosive, nasal or

fricative. The difficulty with this is that articulators are always in some positional relationship
with each other, and any vowel articulation could also be classed as an approximant-but the term
‘approximant’ is usually used only for consonant.
The important thing about the articulation of r is that the tip of the tongue approaches the
alveolar area in approximately the way it would for a t or d, but never actually makes contact
with any part of the roof mouth. The tongue is in fact usually slightly curled backwards with
the tip raised; consonants with this tongue shape are usually called retroflex. The ‘curling –back’
process usually carries the tip of the tongue to a position slightly further back in the mouth than
that for alveolar consonant such as t and d, which is why this approximant is called ‘postalveolar’. A rather different r sound is found at the beginning of a syllable if it preceded by p, t
or k; it is then voiceless and slightly fricative.
One final characteristic of the articulation of r is that it is usual for the lips to be slightly rounded.
The distributional peculiarity of r in the BBC accent is very easy to state: this phoneme only
occurs before vowels.
7.4 The consonants j and w (Palatal and bilabial approximants)
These are the consonants found at the beginning of words such as ‘yet’ and ‘wet’. They are
known as approximants. They are phonetically like vowels but phonologically like consonants.
From the phonetic point of view the articulation of j is practically the same as that of a front
close vowel such as i:, but is very short. In the same way w is closely similar to u:. They only
occur before vowel phonemes; this is a typically consonantal distribution.
The j and w sounds are devoiced (that is, become voiceless) and are slightly fricative. For place
of articulation, we regard j as palatal and w as bilabial

16


Chapter 8

THE SYLLABLE
8.1 The nature of the syllable
Syllables may be defined both phonetically and phonologically.

a. Phonetically, syllables consist of a centre with little obstruction to airflow and a
loud sound; before and after them there is greater obstruction to air flow or less
loud sound.
b. Phonologically, a syllable consists of a rhyme and onset. The rhyme consists of a
peak (a nucleus) and a coda. The peak is a vowel, a sonorant like / n / or a liquid
like / r /. The onset is a cluster of consonants before the rhyme, and the coda is a
cluster of consonants after the peak.
syllable
onset

rhyme

peak

coda

Syllable: a unit in speech longer than a sound but shorter than a word.
8.2 The structure of the English syllable
8.2.1 The onset
The onset of a syllable consists of maximum three consonants.
- No consonant in an onset: If a syllable begins with a vowel, the syllable has a
zero onset.
are
/ ɑ: /.
-

One consonant in an onset: If a syllable begins with one consonant, that initial
consonant may be any consonant phoneme except / ŋ /; and / ʒ / is rare
car
/ kɑ: /

-

Two consonants in an onset: When there are two or more consonants together
they are called a consonant cluster. Initial two-consonant clusters are of two
sorts in English:


The first has the pre-initial consonant / s / and one of the following initial
consonants.

/ p / spin

/ sp1n /

/ f / sphere / sf^ /
/ l / sleep / sli:p /
/ r / sringe / srinʒ /

/ t / stay

/ st$ /

/ k / skin

/ sk1n /

/ m / small
/ w / swim

/ smɔ:l /
/ swim /

/ n / snow
/ j / suit

/sn! /
/ sju:t /

17




The second is composed of one of the initial consonants / p /, / t/, / k /, / b/, /d /, / g/, / f /,

/ θ /, / s /, / ʃ /, / h /, / v /, / m /, / n / and / l / and one of the post-initial consonants:
/ l /, / r /, / w / and / j /.
The post-initial consonant / l /
/ p / play / ple1 /
/ k / clear

-

/ kl1ə /

/ b / black

/blæk /

/ g / glass / glɑ:s /
/ f / fly/ fla1 /
The post-initial consonant / r /
/ p / pray / pre1 /
/ t / tray
/ tre1 /

/ s / sleep

/ sli:p /

/ k / cry

/ kra1 /

/ b / bring / br1ŋ /

/ dr1ŋk /

/ g / green

/ gri:n /

/ f / fry
/ fra1 /
/ θ / throw
/ ʃ / shrew / ʃru: /
The post-initial consonant / w /
/ t / twin
/ tw1n /

/ k / quick

/ θr! /

/ s / sringe

/ sr1nʒ/

/ kw1k /

/ d / dwell

/ dwel /

/ θ / thwack / θwæk /
/ s / swim
The post-initial consonant / j /
/ p / pew
/ pju: /
/ t / tume
/ b / beauty / bju:ti /
/ d / dew
/ s / sew / sju: /
/ h / huge

/ sw1m /

/ ʃ / schwa

/ ʃwɑ: /

/ tju:m /
/ dju: /
/ hju:dʒ /

/ k / cue
/ f / few

/ kju: /
/ fju: /

/ d / drink

Three consonants in an onset: the onset is composed of the pre-initial consonant / s /,
one of the initial consonants / p /, / t /, / k / and one of the post-initial consonants / l /,
/ r /, / w /, / j /.
The initial consonant / p /
/ l / splay / sple1 /
/ r / spray
/ spre1 /
/ j / spew
/spju: /
The initial consonant / t /
/ r / string / str1ŋ /
/ j/ stew
/ stju: /
The initial consonant / k /
/ l / sclerosis
/ sklər!s1s /
/ r / screen

/ skri:n /
/ w / squeak

8.2.2

/ skwi:k /

/ j / skewer

/ skj@ /

The coda

The coda of a syllable consists of maximum four consonants.
-

A zero coda: there is no final consonant in a syllable
stay

-

One final consonant: there is any final consonant except / h /, / r /, / w / and / j /

cat
-

/ ste1 /

/ kæt/

sing

/ s1ŋ /

Two-consonant clusters: there are two sorts of two-consonant final cluster:

18




The first consists of a final consonant preceded by a pre-final consonant from the
set / m /, / n /, / ŋ /, / l /, and / s /

bump


-

/ bʌmp /

The second consists of a final consonant followed by a post-final consonant from
the set / s /, / z /, / t /, / d /, and / θ /
bets
/ bets /

Three-consonant clusters: There are two types of final three-consonant cluster:
 The first consists of a pre-final consonant, a final consonant and a post-final
consonant.

helped
banks

/ he l
/ bæ ŋ
Pre-final



p
k

t /
s /

final

Post-final

n
l

d
f

Pre-final

Final

z/

θ/
Post-final

The second consists of a final consonant, a post-final 1 consonant and a post-final
2 consonant of the set / s /, / z /, / t /, / d /, and / θ /

fifths
next
lapsed

/
/
/

f1
ne
læ

f
k
p
Final

-

bondz / bɒ
twelfth / twe

θ
s

s

s /
t /
t /

Post-final 1 Post-final 2

Four-consonant clusters: There are two ways to analyze this cluster.
 The first way is considered as consisting of a pre-final consonant, a final consonant,
a post-final 1 consonant and a post-final 2 consonant.

twelfths
prompts

/
/

twe
prɒ

l
m

f
p

Pre-final



Final

θ
t
Post-final 1

s
s

/
/

Post-final 2

The second way is considered as consisting of a final consonant, a post-final 1
consonant, a post-final 2 consonant and a post-final 3 consonant.

sixths
texts

/
/

s1 k
te k
Final

s
s

Post-final 1

19

θ
t
Post-final 2

s
s

/
/

Post-final 3


To sum up, we may describe the English syllable as having the following maximum
phonological structure:
ONSET
Preinitial
s

initial

PEAK
postinitial
l rw j

Vowel

CODA
Pre-final
l m n ŋ s

final

post-final 1

post-final 2

post-final 3

s z t d θ

s z t d θ

s z t d θ

8.3 Syllable division
1. Maximum onsets principle: this principle states that where two syllables are to be
divided, any consonants between them should be attached to the right-hand syllable, not
the left, as far as possible within the restrictions governing syllable onsets and coda
extra
/ 'ek . strə /
2. The maximal onsets principle must be modified to allow a consonant to be assigned to
the left syllable if that prevents a short vowel from occurring at the end of a syllable.
better
/ 'bet . ə /

20


Chapter 9

STRONG AND WEAK SYLLABLES
9.1 STRONG AND WEAK
Phonetically, compared with strong syllables, the vowel in weak syllables tends to be




shorter,
of lower intensity
and different in quality.
father / 'fɑ:ðə /: the second and weak syllable is shorter and less loud than the first.
The vowel cannot occur in strong syllables.

In term of stress, strong syllables are stressed and weak syllables are unstressed.
 A strong syllable takes one of the vowels as its peak except / ə /, / i / and / u /. If the
vowel is short, the strong syllable must have a coda.
open
/ '! . pən /
better / 'bet . ə /
Strong syllable



Strong syllable

A weak syllable ends with the vowel at the end of a word. However, weak syllables
can be in word final position with a coda if the vowel is / ə /.
better
/ 'bet . ə /
happy
/ 'hæp . i /
Weak syllable

thank you

Weak syllable

open

/ θæŋ . ' kju /
Weak syllable

/ '! , pən /
Weak syllable

Inside a word, the vowels / ə /, / i / and / u / are peaks without coda in the weak syllable.
photograph
/ 'f! . tə . grɑ:f /
influence

/ '1nf . lu . əns /

radio

/ 're1 .

di . ! /
Weak syllable

In addition, the vowel / i / acts as a peak without coda if the following syllable begins with a
consonant.
architect
/ 'ɑ: . ki . tekt /
Four types of peak in weak syllables
-

/ǝ/
/i/

/u/
a syllabic consonant

9.2 THE ə VOWEL (“SCHWA”)
In quality, the vowel / ə / is mid, central and lax. Some letters in spelling can have been
pronounced with / ə / if this letter is not a strong pronunciation.
1. Spelt with ‘a’; strong pronunciation is / æ /
character / 'kæ . rək . tə /
2. Spelt with ‘ar’; strong pronunciation is / ɑ: /
21


particular / 'pə .'t1 . kju . lə /
3. Adjective suffix ‘ate’; strong pronunciation is / e1 /
intimate

/ '1n . t1 . mət /

4. Spelt with ‘o; strong pronunciation is / ɒ / or / ! /
potato

/ pə . 'te1 . t! /

5. Spelt with ‘or’; strong pronunciation is / O /
forget
/ fə . 'get /
6. Spelt with ‘e’; strong pronunciation is / e /
violet

/ 'vɑ1 . ə . lət /

7. Spelt with ‘er’; strong pronunciation is / ɜ: /
stronger
/ 'strɒŋ . gə /
8. Spelt with ‘u’; strong pronunciation is / ʌ /
support
/ sə . 'pOt /
9. Spelt with ‘ough’; strong pronunciation is / ʌ /
thorough
/ 'θʌ . rə /
10. Spelt with ‘ou’; strong pronunciation is / ~ /
callous
/ 'kæ . ləs /
9.3 CLOSE FRONT AND CLOSE BACK VOWELS
Two other vowels are commonly found in weak syllables:
 The close front / i / in the general region of / i: / and / 1 /



The close back / u / in the general region of / u: / and / 3 /

In strong syllables, it is easy to distinguish / i: / from / 1 /, and / u: / from / 3 /, but in weak
syllables, the difference is not clear. For example, although it is easy to decide which vowel
one hears in “beat” or “bit”, it is much less easy to decide which vowel one hears in the
second syllable of words such as ”easy” or “busy”.
- The weak vowel / 1 / can be found in some following spelling contexts.
a. Spelling “y” or “ey”
 in the final-word position:
happy
/ 'hæ . pi /
valley / 'væ . li /
 in morpheme-final position followed by suffixes beginning with vowels
happier
/ 'hæ . piə /
b. In prefixes spelt “re”, “pre”, “de” if they precede a vowel and are unstressed.
react / ri . 'æct /
preoccupied / pri . 'ɒ . kjə . pɑ1d /
c. In the suffixes spelt “iate”, “ious” when they have two syllables
appreciate
/ ə . 'pri: . ʃ i . $t /
hilarious
/ h1 . 'leə .ri .əs /
22


d. In the following words when unstressed: he, she, we, me, be, and the before a vowel.
In most other cases of syllables containing a short close front unrounded vowel we can assign

the vowel to / 1 / phoneme:


In the first syllable

resist

/ r1 . 'z1st /



In the middle syllable

incident

/ 1n . s1 . dənt /



In the final syllable

optic

/ 'ɒp . t1k /

-





The weak vowel / u / is found:

in words which are unstressed and are not preceding a consonant: you, to, into, do
in unstressed words through and who in all positions
before another vowel within a word:
influenza
/ 1n . flu . 'en . zə /

9.4 SYLLABIC CONSONANTS
The consonants / l /, / r /, / m /, / n / and / ŋ / stand as the peak of the weak syllables instead of
the vowel. They are called syllabic consonants marked “X “for example ‘cattle’ / 'kæt . L /
SYLLABIC l
It occurs after another consonant. If the preceding consonant is an alveolar, as in bottle / 'bɒt . L/,
muddle / 'mʌd . L /, tunnel / 'tʌn . L /, the articulatory movement from the preceding consonant to
the syllabic L is quite simple. The sides of the tongue, raised for the preceding consonant, are
lowered to allow air to escape over them. The blade of the tongue does not move until the
articulatory contact for the L is released. The most obvious case is a word ending with one or
more consonant letter followed by ‘le’ or ’les’.
 with alveolar consonant preceding:
cattle, bottle, wrestle, muddle
 with non-alveolar consonant preceding:
couple, trouble, struggle, knuckle.
Such words lose their final letter ‘e’ when a suffix beginning with a vowel is attached,
but the l remains syllabic: bottle–bottling, muddle–muddling, struggle–struggling.
 We also find syllable L in words spelt, at the end, with one or more consonant letters
followed by “al” or “el” such us panel, petal, kernel, pedal, papal, parcel, babel, ducal.
SYLLABIC n
 The syllabic N occurs in words in which weak syllables which are composed of a plosive
or fricative plus / ən / are common except in initial position such as tonight, canary with

an / ə / before / n /. In medial and final word positions, a syllabic N is pronounced such as
threatening or threaten.
 Syllabic N occurs after / f / or / v / such as seven or heaven.

23


SYLLABICS m, ŋ
These syllabic consonants occur because of the assimilation such as happen / 'hæp . X m / or
thicken / θ1k . X7 /.
SYLLABIC r
Syllabic R is less common in BBC, and in most cases where it occurs there are perfectly
acceptable alternative pronunciations without the syllabic consonant.
particular
/pRt1kəlR/
or
/pət1kjələ/

24


Chapter 10

STRESS IN SIMPLE WORDS
Stress is the degree of force used in producing a syllable.
There are three types of stress in English: word, phrase and sentence stress.
Stress has several different functions in English. It can be used to
 give special emphasis to a word or to contrast one word with another;
 indicate the syntactic relationships between words or parts of words.
10.1 THE NATURE OF STRESS

It is possible to study stress from the point of view of production and perception.
 As for the production, when we produce a stressed syllable, the muscles of our lungs,
used to expel air pressured under the glottal, and speech apparatus are more active than
for the articulation of unstressed syllables.
 And from a perceptual point of view, in common all stressed syllables are more
prominent than unstressed ones. Four factors give prominence to stressed syllable:
- Loudness: stressed syllables sound louder than unstressed ones.
- Length: if the vowel of stressed syllables sounds longer than the one of unstressed
syllables. The vowels in stressed syllables have full duration, whereas unstressed ones
are likely to be shortened.
- Pitch: Each syllable has its own pitch which refers to the frequency of vibration of
the vocal folds. If all syllables are said with low pitch except for one with high pitch,
then the high-pitched syllable will be heard as stressed and the others as unstressed
- Quality: a syllable will tend to be prominent if it contains a vowel that is different in
quality from the neighboring vowels.
Generally, these four factors work together in combination, though a syllable may sometimes be
made prominent by means of only one or two of them.
10.2 LEVELS OF STRESS
There are four levels of stress.
1. Primary stress
The primary stress is a pitch movement from a higher to a lower pitch to form the
prominence of a stressed syllable. A primary stress is marked in transcription by placing a
small vertical line ( = ) high up, just before the syllable it relates to.
High pitch

______________________________

Low pitch

_______________________________

On the second syllable of the word / ə=r~nd / the voice pitch does not remain level but it
usually falls from a higher to lower pitch to form the prominence which gives a primary
stress to the word.
25