2. Phonetics

3. 2. Phonology 2.1 The phonic medium of language Sounds which are meaningful in human communication constitute the phonic medium of language.

4. 2.2 Phonetics 2.2.1 What is phonetics? Phonetics is the study of the phonic medium of language; it is concerned with all the sounds that occur in the world’s languages.

5. Phonetics looks at speech sounds from three distinct but related points of view: From the speaker’s point of view: how a speaker uses his speech organs to articulate the sounds, which results in articulatory phonetics.

6. From the hearer’s point of view: how the sounds are perceived by the hearer, which results in auditory phonetics.

7. From the way sounds travel:how sounds travel by looking at the sound saves, the physical means by which sounds are transmitted through the air from one person to another, which results in acoustic phonetics.

8. By studying sound waves with the help of spectrographs, acoustic phoneticians find that the same sounds we claim to have heard are in most cases only phonetically similar, but rarely phonetically identical.

9. 2.2.2 Organs of speech articulatory apparatus Throat pharyngeal cavity The oral cavity mouth Nasal cavity nose

10. The pharyngeal cavity: Vibration of the vocal cords results in a quality of speech sounds called voicing, which is a feature of all vowels and some consonants in English.

11. When the vocal cords are drawn wide apart, letting air go through without causing vibration, the sounds produced in such a condition are voiceless.

12. 1.lips 2.teeth 3.teeth ridge (alveolus) 4. Hard palate 5.soft palate(velum) 6.uvula 7.tip of tongue 8. Blade of tongue 9. Back of tongue 10.vocal cords 11.pharyngeal cavity 12. Nasal cavity

13. The nasal cavity The nasal cavity is connected with the oral cavity. The soft part of the roof of the mouth, the velum, can be drawn back to close the passage so that all air exiting from the lungs can only go through the mouth. The sounds produced in this condition are not nasalized.

14. If the passage is left open to allow air to exit through the nose, the sounds produced are nasalized sounds.

15. Broad and Narrow Transcription A broad transcription is one that only takes account of the sound differences that are important to distinguish words from each other in a language. A broad transcription is the transcription with letter- symbols only.

16. The distinction between / p h / and /p/ does not make a difference between words in English. If we substitute /p/ for /p h / in /p h in/ we produce a peculiar pronunciation of pin but not a new word;

17. But the substitution of p for t does make a difference of word: pin/pin/ and tin/tin/ are different words in English.

18. A narrow transcription attempts to represent more or less accurately the way in which a particular speaker pronounces his words. A narrow transcription is a transcription with letter symbols together with diacritics.

19. Assimilation rules: Word-final alveolars become dental before dental fricatives;

20. Bilabial and alveolar nasals become labio-dental before labio-dental fricatives;

21. Word-initial /l/ and /r/ becomes voiceless after fortis consonants.

22. Word-final labio-dental fricatives may become bilabial before bilabial plosives;

23. Word-final /l/ is non-velarised if followed by an initial vowel;

24. Word-final lenis plosives and fricatives are not devoiced I followed by a vowel or voiced consonant;

25. Word-final /t,d/ become bilabial before bilabial consonants;

26. Word-final /t,d/ become velar before velar plosives;

27. Word-final /n/ becomes bilabial before bilabial consonants;

28. Word-final /n/ becomes velar before velar plosives

29. Word-final /nt,nd/ both become bilabial before bilabials and velar before Velars.

30. Word-final /s,z/ become palato-alveolar before palato-alveolar fricatives and the palatal frictionless continuant;

31. Word-final /t,d,s,z/ become palato-alveolar affricates (/t,d/) or fricatives(/s,z/) before /j/ and /j/disappears;

32. Word-final /d/ becomes a nasal before a nasal, at the place of articulation of the nasal;

33. Word-final /v/ becomes a nasal before a nasal;

34. Word-final lenis fricatives become fortis before an initial fortis consonant;