Speech is made up of sounds. Writing is made up of letters. There is no one-to-one correspondence between letters and sounds in most languages.

Example “a” has 4 different sounds in: Cat /kæt/ Father /ˈfɑːðə/ 3. Walk /wɔːk/ 4. About /əˈbaʊt/

One sound may be represented by one letter. The second sound in sun, son, country and does is /ʌ/. “oo” may also represent /ʌ/ as in blood.

Every speech activity has two ends Production and reception. Speaker and listener. Auditory – with listener Articulatory – with producer (speaker) Acoustic – different shapes of air pressures produced when speaking.

Branches of Phonetics Phonetics Articulatory Acoustic Auditory

Articulatory phonetics Studies how speech organs move during the production of sounds. Organs of speech include lungs, larynx, soft palate, hard palate, tongue, teeth, lips.

Acoustic phonetics Studies the acoustic characteristics of speech, including an analysis and description of speech in terms of its physical properties, such as frequency, intensity, and duration.

Auditory phonetics Studies how speech sounds are heard.

Organs of Speech

In the production of English sounds, we make use of an aggressive pulmonic air-stream, i.e. the air is pushed out of the lungs through the mouth or nose.

Organs of speech are divided into: Mobile/active (lips, tongue, lower jaw, velum) Fixed/passive (larynx, pharynx, hard palate and alveolar ridge)

Articulatory Phonetics

Movement of one organ or part of it produces speech sound. Production of most sounds involve two active articulators. Some sounds involve one active articulator and one passive.

The active articulator moves and the passive articulator is passive during the production of sounds. The tongue is active while the palate is passive.

Classification of consonants Consonants are divided according to: Place of articulation: defined the location of an active articulator alone or in connection with another articulator. Manner of articulation: the type of obstruction made to the flow of air. Voicing: (+vibration) voiced or (-vibration) voiceless.

Bilabial Two lips coming together in producing three sounds: (two active articulators) /p/, /b/ and /m/ As in pen, bin, moon

Labiodental Lower lip + upper teeth Two sounds: /f/, /v/ as in fast, very

Dental Tip/blade of tongue + upper teeth Two sounds: and As in thin and then

Tea, dog, see, zoo, noon, light, right Alveolar Tip/blade of tongue + alveolar ridge 7 sounds /t, d, s, z, n, l, r/ Tea, dog, see, zoo, noon, light, right

Palato-Alveolar Tip of the tongue close alveolar ridge Front of the tongue concave to roof of the mouth Four sounds: /tʃ/, /dʒ/, /ʃ/ and /ʒ/ Chair, judge, shine,

Palatal Front of the tongue approximates to the hard palate One sound /j/ as in you, university

Velar Back of the tongue approximates to the soft palate Plosives /k, g/ Nasal Kite, girls, song.

Manner of articulation

Plosives Plosive sounds involve complete closure at some point in the mouth. Pressure builds up behind the closure and when the air is suddenly released, a plosive is made.

3 types of plosives Bilabial plosives (two lips): producing two sounds: /p/ and /b/. Alveolar plosives (tongue against alveolar ridge): producing two sounds: /t/ and /d/ Velar plosives (back of tongue against soft palate): two sounds: /k/ and /g/

Fricatives These are the result of incomplete closure at some point in the mouth. The air escapes through a narrowed channel with audible friction.

When you approximate the upper teeth to the lower lip and allow air to escape, you can produce the labio-dental fricatives /f/ and /v/. When you approximate the tip of the tongue to the alveolar ridge, you can produce the alveolar fricatives /s/ and /z/

Trills Tapping the tongue against a point of contact. When you roll the /r/ sounds in words like r.r.r.roaming, r.r.r.right, you are tapping the curled front of the tongue against the alveolar ridge.

Laterals These sounds also involve partial closure in the mouth. The air stream is blocked by the tip of the tongue but allowed to escape around the sides of the tongue.

The initial Ill sound in 'light' is a lateral; so is the final sound in ‘full’

Nasals Nasal sounds involve the complete closure of the mouth. The velum is lowered, diverting the air through the nose. In English, the vocal cords vibrate in the production of nasals and so English nasals are voiced.

There are three nasals in English /m/ as in 'mat', ‘my’, ‘morning/ /n/ as in 'no’ and as in ‘sing’, ‘ring’, ‘wing’.

Affricates Affricates represent a combination of sounds. At the beginning, there is complete closure as for a plosive. This is then followed by a slow release with friction, as for a fricative.

The sound at the beginning of 'chop' is a voiceless affricate. We make the closure as for /t/ and then release the air slowly.

The sound at the beginning and end of 'judge' is a voiced affricate.

Semi-vowels The sounds at the beginning of words like 'you' and 'wet' are made without closure in the mouth. they are vowel-like. They normally occur at the beginning of a word or syllable. They behave functionally like consonants. The semivowels are represented by the symbols /j/ and /w/.

Summary Plosives: bilabial /p/ and /b/ alveolar /t/ and /d/ velar /k/ and /g/ Fricatives: labio-dental /f/ and /v/ alveolar /s/ and /z/ Trills /r/

Laterals /l/ Nasals /m/, /n/ and Affricates: and semi- vowels: /j/ and /w/.