1. Chapter 3 The Sounds
Of Language

2. Accent vs. Dialect Do you have an accent?
What is the difference between an accent and a dialect?
Accent: Manner of pronunciation, typically associated with a particular nation, locality, or social class.
Dialect: Manner of speech which differs in structure, grammar, pronunciation, and vocabulary
Different dialects are mutually comprehensible; different languages are not.

3. American Dialects

4. English is not spelled how it sounds
Heard looks like Beard but sounds like Bird
Dead looks like Bead but sounds like Bed
Meat looks like Great but sounds like Sweet
Moth looks like Mother but sounds like Cloth
Dear looks like Pear but sounds like Beer

5. Phonetics Our Concern Auditory Phonetics Acoustic Phonetics
- How sounds are made
How sounds are transmitted (Decibel etc.)
How sounds are heard

6. Production of Speech Sounds
Voiced or Voiceless - Whether they make the vocal cords vibrate or not
Place of articulation - WHERE the sound is produced
Manner of articulation – HOW the sound is produced

7. Voiced and Voiceless Sounds
Voiced Sounds
Voiceless Sounds
Vocal folds are drawn together. As air passes through trachea, creates vibrating sounds:
All vowels and diphthongs are voiced: a, e, i, o, u, and y (as in ‘pity’)
Consonants: b, d, v, l, r, z, j, and th (as in ‘them’)
Vocal folds are spread apart. Air passes out without restriction:
Consonants like: p, t, k, s, sh, ch, th (as in ‘thing’)

8. Places of Articulation

10. Manner of Articulation
How a sound is made
Important for explaining how to make sounds
For example, [d] and [z] are made in the same place of articulation, the alveolar ridge, but they have different manners of articulation.

11. Stops stop airflow, release
[b]
[t]
[d]
[k]
[g]
Bilabial
Alveolar
Velar
Voiceless
Voiced
Pin
Bin
Tin
Dig
Camera
Sing
Also called ‘plosives’
Produced by a form of brief stopping of the airstream

12. Fricatives restricted airflow
[θ]
[ð]
[s]
[z]
[ʃ]
[ʒ]
[h]
Labiodental
Dental
Alveolar
Palatal
Glottal
Voiceless
Voiced
voiced
Safe
Save
Bath
Bathe
Sink
Zoom
Shop
Casual
Who
Produced by almost blocking the airstream (air pushes through a very narrow opening)
Fish begins and ends with fricatives [f] and [ʃ]
Those begins and ends with fricatives [ð ] and [z]

13. Affricates stop + restricted airflow
Palatal
Voiceless
Voiced
Chip
Jam
Produced by a combination of a brief stopping of airstream with an obstructed release, causing some friction
cheap and jeep have affricate sounds [tʃ] and [dʒ]

14. Nasals lowered velum, air through nose
[ŋ]
Bilabial
Alveolar
Velar
Voiced
Man
Not
Ring
Produced when the vellum is lowered and the airstream is allowed to flow out through the nose
morning, knitting and name begin and end with nasals

15. Liquids air flows around sides of tongue
[ɹ]
Alveolar
Voiced
Lad
Red
The [l] sound as in led is formed by letting the airstream flow around the sides of the tongue as the tip of the tongue makes contact with the middle of the alveolar ridge.
The [ɹ] sound as in red is formed with the tip of the tongue raised and curled back near the alveolar ridge.

16. Glides tongue in motion, "semi-vowels”)
[j]
[h]
Bilabial
Palatal
Glottal
Voiced
Voiceless
Wait
Gem
Hand
Produced with the tongue in motion or ‘gliding’ to or from the position of a vowel
They are sometimes called semi-vowels or approximants
we, wet, you, yes, hi and hello

17. Glottal Stop and the Flap
Produced when the space between the vocal cords (glottis) is closed completely (very briefly) and then released
Uh oh! [ʌ ʔ ow]
The flap: [ɾ]
Butter or Manhattan

18. VOWELS Food/Boot Feed Book Fit Above (Schwa- Un-stressed syllable)
Note
Fade
Fed
Above
Fought
Fad
Father
hot

19. Vowels: Diphthongs and R-controlled
Sound made by combining two vowels, when the sound starts as one vowel sound and ends as another [aɪ] = fight [aʊ] = foul [eɪ] = fate [oʊ] = foe [ɔɪ] = foil
[ɚ] = fighter (used in unstressed syllables)
[ɝ] = first (used in stressed syllables)
ex. girl, world, third, hurl, sure
“sound of the angry dog”

20. caught/cot Individual Variation
Do you pronounce these the same or differently?
caught/cot

21. Yankee or Dixie? How much of each are you?
Y’all
Car-ml
Pajamas, like in Job
Route, like in Rout
Caught = [kawt]
Aunt = *Ain’t
You (se) guys
Car-a-mel
Pajamas, like in Jam
Route, like in Root
Cot = caught
Aunt = Ant

22. Phone The basic unit of phonetics is called a phone. Any human speech
sound is a phone.
Phones are often expressed
by placing brackets around
an IPA transcription, like [dæns]
for the American pronunciation of dance.

23. Phonology
The study of systems and patterns of speech sounds in languages
The basic unit in phonology is the phoneme, which is any sound in language that distinguishes meaning (ex: in rat and mat, /r/ and /m/ are phonemes that change the meanings of the words)
Phonemes are often expressed by placing slashes around the IPA transcription: /b/

24. Phone Phoneme Any possible human speech sound in any language
The smallest identifiable unit in speech
Transcribed within brackets [b] [o]
A contrastive unit in the sound system of a specific language
A minimal unit that serves to distinguish between word meanings
Transcribed within slashes /b/ /o/

25. IPA: International Phonetic Alphabet
universal system to transcribe the sounds of speech
used since 1888
represents each sound with a single symbol
symbols are enclosed in square brackets [ ]
enables linguists to transcribe languages accurately

26. IPA: International Phonetic Alphabet
Transcribe SOUNDS, not letters! Annie How many letters? How many sounds? [ æ n i ] The complete IPA is available as a word file on our class website.

27. IPA: International Phonetic Alphabet
SYMBOL
WORD
EXAMPLE
IPA TRANSCRIPTION
[i]
fee
[ f i ]
[I]
fit
[ f I t ]
[ej]
fate
[ f ej t]
[ɛ]
let
[ l ɛ t ]
[æ]
bat
[ b æ t ]
[u]
boot
[ b u t ]
[ʊ]
book
[ b ʊ k ]

28. IPA: International Phonetic Alphabet
SYMBOL
WORD
EXAMPLE
TRANSCRIPTION
[ p ]
spit
[ s p I t ]
[ b ]
bib
[ b I b]
[ t ]
stuck
[ s t ʌ k]
[ d ]
dip
[ d I p ]
[ k ]
skip
[ s k I p ]
[ g ]
get
[ g ɛ t ]

29. IPA: International Phonetic Alphabet
SYMBOL
WORD
EXAMPLE
TRANSCRIPTION
[ θ ] theta
thick
[ θ I k ]
[ ð ] eth
though
[ ð o w ]
[ə] schwa
the
[ð ə]
[ ɾ ] flap
hitting
[h I ɾ I ŋ]
[ ŋ ]
sang
[ s æ ŋ ]
[ t ʃ ]
chip
[ tʃ I p]
[ dʒ ]
judge
[dʒ ʌ dʒ]

30. PHONETICS & PHONOLOGY

31. Phonetics
The general study of the characteristics of speech sounds
This includes whether sounds are voiced or voiceless sounds as well as their manner and place of articulation
The International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA) is used to help accurately describe sounds

32. Phonology
The study of systems and patterns of speech sounds in languages
The basic unit in phonology is the phoneme, which is any sound in language that distinguishes meaning (ex: in rat and mat, /r/ and /m/ are the phonemes which change the meanings of the words)
Phonemes are often expressed by placing slashes around the IPA transcription: /b/