6. The purpose of this vowel triangle is
to show the differences among the
vowel sounds in English and their
relative positions on the tongue.
7. /iy/-- beat me key
/i/--- sit give rid
/ey/--- ate ray face
/e/--- met let head
/ae/--- cat am bag
seed chief
pick live
weigh great
less tell
land class
8. /a/--- pot block got cop
/ow/--- hope go wrote home
/u/--- look good would bush
/uw/--- blue moon rule chew
/ /--- luck must touch cup
11. It should be noted that some phoneticians
use any one mid-vowel sound, in the
presentation of the English vowels. This is so
because the two other mid-vowels, /з/ and /^/,
hardly show the difference when produced.
12. III. BACK VOWELS
Phonetic Symbols Key Words Transcription
/u/ boot / but /
/Ʊ/ book / bƱK /
/o/ boat / bot /
/ɔ/ ball / b ɔl /
/ɒ/ box / bɒks/
/ɑ/ bɑlm / bɑm/
15. EXAMPLE: LIGHT
The vowel sound in the word is a
diphthong. It starts with the position /a/
and moves smoothly on to the /i/ position
within one syllable.
16. ENGLISH DIPHTHONGS
Examples:
/ai/ /au/
time point now
might oil bough
height toy blouse
rhyme annoy plow
pie hoist howl
fried joy town
Diphthongs tend to be long because of the time need to glide forward to another
position.
17.
18. CONSONANT
•Speech sound used with a vowel or diphthong to
constitute a syllable. Consonant sounds are those
sounds which are produced with the partial or
complete obstruction of air column by some parts
of the speech apparatus.
19. 3 DIMENSION OF VARIATION IN THE
PRODUCTION OF SOUND:
A.Voicing
Consonants may be voiced or voiceless.
Voiced sounds- pronounced with vibration of the vocal
cords
Voiceless- pronounced w/o vibration of the vocal cords
20. VOICELESS
p pen
t ten
k cod
b Ben
d den
VOICED
n neck
ng bring
f fine
th thigh
s sue
sh mission
g God
l let
r right
z zoo
v vine
dh thy
y you
w water
ch chew zh mission hw what
h hot j Jew m men
21. NATURE OF OBSTRUCTION OR MANNER OF ARTICULATION
CONSONANTS MAY BE CLASSIFIED INTO THE FF:
1.STOPS- are consonants sounds produced by stopping
the passage of the breath stream with the build up of
pressure behind the closure before releasing the breath.
bilabial stops- /p/ & /b/
alveolar stops- /t/ & /d/
velar stops- /k/ & /g/
24. AFFRICATES
•Are produced when a stop combines with a fricative. Like
the fricatives, they are also continuants.
Alveolar affricates-- / tλ/ & /dz/
25. NASALS
•are produced with the air stream passing through the
nose rather than the mouth.
bilabial nasal- /m/
alveolar nasal- /n/
velar nasal- /ŋ/
26. SEMI-VOWELS
•in their production, there is lack of friction and the sounds
are vowel-like in their voicing but they function as
consonants.
bilabial- /w/ as in wear, win
/wh/ as in why
palatal- /y/ as in new, view
27. POINTS OF ARTICULATION
•This refers to the upper parts of the mouth which the
lower parts, called the articulators, come in contact with
in the production of the consonant sound. As regards
their point of articulation, consonants may be:
1. bilabial-when the lower lip touches the upper lip to
produce the consonant sound. /p/, /b/, /m/,
& /w/ are bilabials.
28. 2. LABIO-DENTAL
•When the lower lip comes in contact with the
upper front teeth. /f/ & /v/ are labio-dentals.
30. ALVEOLAR
•When the tip of the tongue is raised close to the
toothridge or the back of the upper front teeth. /t/ and /d/
are examples of alveolars.
31. POST-ALVEOLAR
When the tip of the tongue is articulated
against the back part of the alveolar ridge
as in /r/.
36. ACCORDING TO VOICING, CONSONANTS MAY BE:
•Voiced- when produced with vibration of the vocal
cords
•Voiceless- when produced without the vibration of
the vocal cords.
37. ACCORDING TO THE MANNER OF ARTICULATION
CONSONANTS MAY BE CALLED:
STOPS- WHEN PRODUCED WITH COMPLETE OBSTRUCTION
OF THE AIR PASSAGE,
FRICATIVES- WHEN PRODUCED WITH PARTIAL OBSTRUCTION,
AFFRICATES- WHEN A STOP AND FRICATIVE COMBINE,
NASALS- WHEN VIBRATED THROUGH THE NOSE,
LATERAL- WHEN AIR PASSES ALONG THE SIDES OF THE TONGUE IN
ITS PRODUCTION, AND
SEMI-VOWELS- WHEN THERE IS LACK OF FRICTION AND ARE VOWEL-LIKE IN
VOICING.
38. POINT OF ARTICULATION
BILABIAL - UPPER AND LOWER LIPS
LABIO-DENTAL - UPPER TEETH AND LOWER LIP
DENTAL - UPPER AND LOWER TEETH WITH TONGUE BETWEEN
ALVEOLAR - ALVEOLAR RIDGE AND TIP OF THE TONGUE
POST-ALVEOLAR - TIP OF THE TONGUE AND PALATE
PALATAL - TONGUE AND PALATE
VELAR - BACK OF TONGUE AND VELUM
GLOTTAL - GLOTTIS
39. ACTIVITY: READ THE FF. WORDS OBSERVING THE CORRECT ARTICULATION OF THE
CONSONANT SOUNDS INDICATED IN THE BRACKETS:
•STOPS
/p/ - power, prayer, priest, pen, pearl, paint, please
/t/ - tank, teacher, time, tree, table, talent, true
/k/ - key, cat, king, cause, cup, care, kind
/b/ - bread, bank, bridge, bright, but, bike, brother
/d/ - day, dance, drama, dew, dawn, drum, dream
/g/ - gun, grace, go, gold, gas, guide, grow
