1. Articulatory Analysis of English Speech Sounds
Theoretical Phonetics
Lecture 2:
Articulatory Analysis of English Speech Sounds
Consonants
Vowels 1

2. Opposition vowels vs. consonants is a
Describing Speech Sounds
Opposition vowels vs. consonants is a
Linguistic universal
Presence/absence of obstruction
Concentrated or diffused muscular tension
Force of exhalation
Consonants
Vowels
Sonorants 2

3. CONSONANTS
Voicing
Place of Articulation
Manner of Articulation 3

4. Voicing Pulmonic egressive mechanism
State of the glottis: (do the vocal cords vibrate or not?)
* Voiceless *Voiced
The difference between voiced and voiceless sounds is functional:
A B
pull bull
ten den
cot got
fast vast
sink zinc
chew Jew 4

5. Place of Articulation
Passive Articulators 5

6. Place of Articulation
Active Articulators 6

7. Place of Articulation Chart7

9. Place of Articulation
Bilabial: voiceless stop /p/, a voiced stop /b/, and
a (voiced) nasal /m/
Labiodental: voiceless fricative /f/ and voiced fricative /v/
Dental: voiceless fricative /θ/ and voiced /ð/
Alveolar: voiceless and voiced alveolar stops /t|d/, voiceless and voiced alveolar fricatives /s|z/, voiced nasal /n/, voiced lateral approximant /l/, voiced central approximant /r/.
Post-alveolar: voiceless and voiced fricatives /∫ʒ/
voiceless and voiced affricates /t∫ | dʒ/ .
Retroflex: approximant /ɹ/
Palatal: approximant /j/ 9

10. Place of Articulation
Velar: voiceless stop [k], a voiced stop [g], and nasal [ŋ].
Uvular: further back than velar (nonexistent in English)
Pharyngeal: made by moving the tongue body down and back into the pharynx. Such sounds do not occur in English
Glottal: voiceless glottal fricative [h] 10

11. Two groups of manners of articulation

12. Manner of Articulation
e.g. dine nine line Rhine – voiced alveolar consonants
Plosives – complete obstruction of the outgoing airstream by the articulators, a build up of air pressure in the mouth, and finally a release of that pressure.
A stop is the first part of this sound (the stopping of the airstream).
In producing these sounds, the air is stopped for a brief moment. Say [POP]
There are three types of plosives in English.
STOPS / PLOSIVES: pin || bin tin || din kilt || gilt
/p || b/ /t || d/ /k || g /
bilabial lingua-alveolar lingua-velar 12

13. Manner of Articulation
FRICATIVES: voiceless /voiced
labiodental fricatives /f v/ fan || van
linguadental fricatives /Ө ð/ thin || then
lingua-alveolar fricatives /s z/ sink || zinc
lingua-palatal fricatives /∫ʒ/ shrill || genre
lingua-glottal fricatives /h/ happy, hello
AFFRICATES: /t∫ | dʒ/ chain || Jane 13

14. Manner of Articulation
NASALS: /m n ŋ/bilabial, lingua-alveolar, lingua-velar
LATERAL: /l/ peddle || paddle || huddle || kettle || battle || cattle
APPROXIMANTS: /r/ - alveolar (or post-alveolar) right, brown
/w/ - velar approximant (or labio-velar) why
/j / - palatal approximant use, youth
TRILL: coronal trill is most frequently alveolar [ɹ͇], but dental and postalveolar articulations [r̪] and [R̠] also occur
TAPS and FLAPS: produced with a single contraction of the muscles so that one articulator (such as the tongue) is thrown against another. Alveolar tap in AmE: lighter , rider 14

15. Table of consonants

16. Summary (a) THE AIRSTREAM MECHANISM
the way in which the moving body of air that provides the power for speech production is generated and the direction in which it moves.
(b) THE STATE OF THE GLOTTI S
Voiceless sounds are produced when there is a wide open glottis, with a big space between the vocal cords;
Voiced sounds are produced when the vocal cords are close together so that the air has to force its way through them, making them vibrate in the process.
(c) THE PLACE O F ARTICULATION
place in the vocal tract where the airstream is obstructed in the production of a consonant.
(d) THE MANNER OF ARTICULATION
the way in which the airstream is interfered with in producing a consonant. 16

17. Russian Phoneticians
Russian phoneticians classify consonants according to the following principles:
i) degree of noise;
ii) place of articulation;
iii) manner of articulation;
iv) position of the soft palate (oral || nasal);
v) force of articulation (fortis || lenis). 17

18. Vowels vs Consonants
Phonetic point of view: degree of obstruction (yeast | east)
Phonological point of view: syllabic
E.g. cart | art; yeast | east

19. VOWELS
Three basic modifications to the shape of the vocal tract: height, rounding and backness.
1) Height: tongue position
Say the words in below carefully. Observe the position of the highest point of your tongue and your lower jaw.
HIGH (close) [i] seek [u] pool
MID [ι] sick [ ט] pull
[e] set [ ס] pot
LOW (open) [æ] sat [ ᾳ] part 19

20. VOWELS 2) Frontness/ backness: tongue position
three major degrees on the front/back dimension: front, central, and back.
There are five English front vowels:
[i] (beet) [ɪ] (wit): The two high front vowels, both involve moving the tongue forward and up relative to its rest position.
[e] (bed) [ɛ] (let): are also front vowels, but the tongue is less high in the oral tract.
[æ] (trap) is the low front vowel. 20

21. Vowels
The schwa [ə] is in the exact centre of vowel chart. Schwa is often referred to as the neutral vowel, the vowel in which the vocal tract is in its neutral state and most closely resembles a perfect tube. All the other vowels require that the vocal tract be deformed by moving the tongue body away from its neutral position, either up or down, backward or forward.
Back vowels: [u:] [o:] [a]

22. VOWELS
3) Rounding:
Another important difference among the vowels of English:
When you say [u], your lips are rounded. When you say [i], your lips are spread. Vowels can be categorized according to whether they are rounded or unrounded. In English,
the mid and high back vowels the front and central vowels
rounded unrounded.
/u/, /ʊ/, /o/, /ɔ/ /I/, /ɪ/, /e/, /ɛ/, /æ/, /ɑ/, /ʌ/, /ə/
Pronounce the words and observe your lips:
see – sue, tea – two, fen – fought, lap - log 22

23. VOWELS 4) Tense/lax [i] and [ɪ] [e] and [ɛ] [u] and [ʊ] [o] and [ɔ]
In each pair, one of the vowels is higher and less centralized (further front if a front vowel, further back if a back vowel), while the other is lower and closer to the position of [ə] on the horizontal dimension. The higher and less centralized vowel is referred to as tense; the lower and more centralized vowel is referred to as lax.
Tense: [i], [e], [u], [o]
Lax: [ɪ], [ɛ], [ʊ], [ɔ] 23

24. Systematic correlation24

25. VOWELS Stability of articulation: monophthongs || diphthongs
Say the following words, concentrating on the vowel sound:
pie buy my guy cry tie
die sigh shy high lie five
Now say the words below and again observe the shifting quality of each vowel:
a. cow now shout out [au]
b. toy boy boil coin [oi]
c. wait pay weight hay [ei]
d. air fare wear chair [eƏ] 25

26. Diphthong chart 26

27. Cardinal Vowels 27

28. Russian Phoneticians
Russian phoneticians suggest a classification of vowels according to the following principles:
1) stability of articulation;
2) tongue position:
Horizontal – front / front-retracted / central / back / back-advanced
Vertical –
1. close a) narrow: [i:] [u:];
b) broad: [i], [u], [i(ə)], [u(ə)];
2. mid a) narrow: [e], [з:], [ə], [e(i)], [з(u)];
b) broad: [ə], [٨];
3. open a) narrow: [ε(ə)], [ɔ:], [ɒ (i)];
b) broad: [æ], [a(i, u)], [ɒ], [a:]
3) lip position; 28

29. Russian Phoneticians
4) character of the vowel end (checked || unchecked)
Before fortis voiceless || Before lenis voiced or sonorant
Checked vowels: rectangular system
i u
e ^
ae o
Unchecked vowels: triangular system i: u: a:
5) length: 1. its own length; 2. the accent of the syllable in which it occurs; 3. phonetic context; 4. the position in a rhythmic structure; 5. the position in a tone group; 6. the position in an utterance; 7. the tempo of the whole utterance; 8. the type of pronunciation.
6) tenseness (tense || lax)

30. Revision questions
What is the main difference between consonants and vowels? Phonetically and phonologically.
Define the main parameters for the phonetic classification of consonants.
What is an active articulator and which ones do you know ?
What do you understand by manner of articulation?
What is the difference between voiced and voiceless?
What are the main parameters for the classification of vowels?
What do you understand by nasalization? 30