Lecture 1- Review of 1st Year Phonetics-

Phonetics_____________2nd Year LMD Lecture 1:

Section of English

REVIEW OF PLACE AND MANNER OF ARTICULATION OF CONSONANTS

Introduction In this lecture, you will revise the place and manner of articulation of consonants and the properties of English vowels. Thus, we will discuss the articulation of the human speech sounds.

1. Place and Manner of Articulation of Consonants 1.1. Place of Articulation The term place of articulation classifies speech sounds in terms of where in the vocal tract the shape of the vocal tract is altered. In this section, we will present the major places of articulation of English consonants as follows: Bilabial: bilabial sounds are those sounds made by the articulation of the lips against each other. Examples of such sounds in English are the following: /b/, /p/, /m/. Labio-dental: labiodental sounds are those sounds made by the articulation of the upper teeth towards the lower lip. Examples of such sounds in English are the following: /f/, /v/. Dental: they are interdental sounds are those sounds made by the articulation of the tip of the tongue between the teeth. Examples of such sounds in English are the following: /θ, ð/. Alveolar: alveolar sounds are those sounds made by the articulation of the tip of the tongue towards the alveolar ridge, the ridge of behind the teeth. For example: / t, d, s, z, n, l /. Palato-alveolar: sounds are those sounds made by the articulation of the front of the tongue towards the area between the alveolar ridge and the hard palate. Examples of such sounds in English are the following: / ʃ, ʒ, tʃ, dʒ /. Post-alveolar: is a place of articulation produced with significant raising of the front of the tongue toward the back of the alveolar ridge in a retroflex manner. For example: / r /.

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Phonetics_____________2nd Year LMD

Section of English

Palatal: palatal sounds are those sounds made by the articulation of the body of the tongue towards the hard palate. An example of such a sound in English is / j /. Velar: velar sounds are those sounds made by the articulation of the body of the tongue towards the velum. Examples of such sounds in English are the following: / k, g, ŋ /. Glottal: glottal sounds are those sounds made at the glottis. Examples of glottal sounds in English are the following: / h /.

1.2. Manner of Articulation Plosive: formed by a blockage of the vocal tract, followed by an explosive release of air. There are six plosive consonants in English, as follows: / p, t, k, b, d, g /. Fricative: formed by slight contact between articulators, allowing turbulent airflow. There are eight fricative consonants in English /f, v, θ, ð, s, z, ʃ, ʒ /. Affricate: formed by a blockage of the vocal tract, like plosive, followed by a gradual release of turbulent air, like a fricative. For instance: / tʃ, dʒ /. Nasal: formed by the lowering of the velum, allowing air to flow through the nasal cavity /m, n/. Lateral (approximant): formed by an obstruction of the passage of airflow in the centre of the air passage and the air flows to both sides of the obstruction in the tongue. E.g.: Lip; Valley / ˈvæli /. Approximant: Formed by the constriction of the vocal tract, but with no blockage of the airflow For example: / w, r, j /.

2. The International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA): 1.) The IPA is an alphabet used to write out sounds of human language. 2.) The IPA writes out vowels based on where the tongue is positioned making that vowel. 3.) The IPA’s alphabet utilises only the small letters / b, p, t, k, l, m, n/ as phonetic symbols to describe consonants’ place, manner of articulation and voicing. Page | 2

Phonetics_____________2nd Year LMD

Section of English

The following IPA table contains the consonant phonemes of the English language:

Bilabial

LabioPostPalatoDental Alveolar Palatal Velar Glottal dental alveolar alveolar

Manner of articulation

Plosive

p b f

Fricative

v

θ ð

t

d

s

z

ʃ

m

Lateral

h ŋ

n l

approximant

Approximant

ʒ

tʃ dʒ

Affricate Nasal

ɡ

k

w

r

j

N.B: Where symbols appear in pairs, the one to the left are voiced consonant. Shaded areas denote articulations judged impossible in English.

2.1. Tips for phonetic transcription: Most of the IPA symbols in the Table above are the same letters we use in spelling these words, but there are a few differences. One difference between spelling and phonetic usage occurs with the letter c, which is sometimes used to represent a /k/ sound, as in cup or back, and others to represent an /s/ sound, as in cent or receive. Furthermore, the phoneme /ŋ/ is used mainly to represent (ing) and other cases such as: King / kɪŋ /, Trying / traɪɪŋ /, Think / θɪŋk /, Hang / hæŋ /.

3. Vowels In phonetics, we represent the quality of vowels and diphthongs by placing them on a four-sided figure usually known as the Cardinal Vowel Quadrilateral, describing the English vowels in the RP. There are 7 shorts vowels, 5 longs ones and 8 diphthongs. As shown in the table below:

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Phonetics_____________2nd Year LMD

Section of English

Exercise 1: Write the words for the transcribed utterances in the following instances

1- /ðæt/ - /haʊˈevə/ - /əˈnʌðə/ - /ˈdɪfɪkəlt/ - /wɜ:ld/ - /ðeə/ - /ˈθʌrə/ - /wɪtʃ/ - /ˈeəriə/ - /kɔ:s/ /ˈʌndə/ - /ʃʊd/ - /ˈnevə/ - /bɪˈtwi:n/ - /ˈsʌmθɪŋ/ - /pɔɪnt/ - /hɪə/ - /prəˈvaɪd/ - /lɑ:dʒ/ - /ˈnʌmbə/ Exercise 2: /ɪ/ Dish /dɪʃ/, Hill /

/ə/ About / What /

/, Allow / /; Follow /

/ʊ/ Good /

/, Book /

/; /əʊ/ Soap /

Fear /

/; /ʌ / Cut /

Exercise 4: /aɪə/ Fire /

/; How /

/; /eə/ There / /; Liar /

/; /eɪ/ Bathe /

/; Their /

/;

/; Maths / /; /3ː/

/; Hair /

/; /əʊə/ Lower / ˈləʊə /; Slower /

/; /eɪə/ Layer /

/;

Fur /

/; /ɔɪ/ Envoy /

/; /ɔɪə/ Employer /

/;

/; Orange /

/.

/ ; Boy

/; /ɪə/ Junior / ˈdʒuːnɪə/ ; Here /

/; Dear /

/; Buyer /

/, Again /

/, Man /

/; /iː/ Seen /

/; /ɔ:/ More / /; Isle /

/; Head /

/; /ɒ/ Hot /

/; /æ/ Cat /

/; Sorry /

/; /u:/ Pool / /; High /

/, Check /

/, Hurry /

/; /aʊ/ Now /

/; Cheers /

/aʊə/ Power /

/; /e/ Net /

/; Sorrow /

Exercise 3: /aɪ/ Why /

/

/, Any /

/;

/; dare /

/.

/; Higher /

/

/; Mayor /

/.

Exercise 5: Transcribe the following words phonemically: Spying /

/ ; Cried /

Needed /

/ ;Cheese /

/ ; Lies / / ; Kings /

/ ; Crossed / / ; Loyal /

/ ; Blessings / /; Smile /

/; /.

Exercise 6: In this story, there are 12 incorrect words. The correct word is pronounced as the incorrect one, but the spelling is different. Find the correct words. (Adapted from English Pronunciation in Use, p11)

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