2. THE SOUNDS OF GENERAL AMERICAN
ENGLISH ARE CLASSIFIED INTO 3
NAMELY:
1. VOWELS
2. DIPHTHONGS
3. CONSONANTS

3. TRIVIA!
There are eleven (11) English
vowels, (3) three diphthongs and
twenty-five (25) consonants.

4. Vowels are sounds which are
produced with the vibration of air
in the oral cavity. All vowel
sounds, then are voiced oral
sounds.

5. THE VICTOR TRIANGLE

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 seed chief
/i/--- sit give rid pick live
/ey/--- ate ray face weigh great
/e/--- met let head less tell
/ae/--- cat am bag 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

9. SUMMARY:
I. FRONT VOWELS
Phonetic Symbols Key Words Transcription
/i/ beat /bit/
/I/ bit /bIt/
/e/ bait /bet/
/ε/ bet /bεt/
/ae/ bat /baet/
/a/ bask /bask/

10. II. Mid-Vowels
Phonetic Symbols Key Words Transcription
/з/ birth /bзrθ/
/∂/ (schwa) above /∂b^v/
/^/ but /b^t/

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/

14. DIPHTHONGS
•Sounds which combine two (2) vowel
sounds and which blend them into one
within a syllable

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.

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
f fine
th thigh
s sue
sh mission
ch chew
h hot
VOICED
b Ben n neck
d den ng bring
g God v vine
l let dh thy
r right y you
z zoo w water
zh mission hw what
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/

22. FRICATIVES
•are continuants produced when the air
stream is not completely stopped but passes
through with friction or hissing sound

23. FRICATIVES
Labiodental fricatives /f/ & /v/
Dental fricatives /θ & / ð/
alveolar fricatives /s/ & /z/
post alveolar fricatives /r/
palatal fricatives /∫/ & /dz/
glottal /h/

24. AFFRICATES
•Are produced when a stop combines with a fricative. Like
the fricatives, they are also continuants.
Alveolar affricates-- / t∫/ & /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.

29. DENTAL
•When the lower teeth approach the
upper teeth. /θ/ & /ð/ are 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/.

32. PALATAL
•When the tongue is arched towards the
hard palate like the consonants / ∫ /.

33. VELARS
•When the back of the tongue closes against the
velum or soft palate as when we say /k/.

34. GLOTTAL
•When friction is produced by the air
passing through the glottis as in /h/.

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

40. NASALS
/m/ - mind, music, merry, moon, milk, mirror, mother
/n/ - nice, name, neighbor, night, nun, new, known
/ng/ - rank, ring, sing, sink, prank, bring, blink

41. FRICATIVES
/f/ - friend, farm, free, fruit, phone, leaf
/v/ - vow, vine, view, vein, drive, victory
/θ/ - think, thank, mouth, truth, month
/ð/ - there, that, though, then, them

42. FRICATIVES
/s/ - soul, sea, sound, sung, silver
/z/ - zip, zest, zoom, zero, size
/∫/ - shine, ocean, fish, nation, sugar
/zh/ - Asia, pleasure, leisure, measure

43. PRONOUNCE THE FF. PAIRS OF WORDS & PHRASES
CORRECTLY. TRANSCRIBE IT IN IPA.
/ i / - / I /
heat / / hit / / leap / / lip / /
least / / list / / steal / / still / /
feet / / fit / / feel / / fill / /
peal / / pill / / cheap / / chip / /

44. PHRASES
•leap with ease sheep in the ship
•Reach the rich feel and fill the jar
•Sit in the seat live but never leave
•Beat or bit peel that thing

45. •TRANSCRIBE THE WORDS/PHRASES IN
THE PREVIOUS SLIDE.