CONTRASTIVA

1. ENGLISH PHONOLOGY
COURSE
BY: ROMMEL MARTÍNEZ LOZA , 2016.

2. To my father…
Your lessons remain clear
even after 32 years you
stopped teaching them to
me.

3. THE ENGLISH PHONETICS AND PHONOLOGY
PHONOLOGY: Phonology is science that studies sounds in particular language.
This area of language is very important, particularly for EFL teachers because many of them
mispronounced the English words and planted them on the students. For example, the word
“great” which is supposed to be pronounced /greit/ is pronounced /grit/, the word ‘answer’
which is supposed to be pronounced /ænsə/ pronounced / ænswə /.
PHONETICS: It is a branch of Linguistics that comprises the study of the sounds of human
speech, that is , the performance, the execution and so on. It approaches, for instance, the
different accents and variations of the pattern form.

4. PHONEMES AND OTHER ASPECTS
OF PRONUNCIATION
In any language we can identify a small number of regularly used sounds
(vowels and consonants) that we call phonemes; for example, the vowels in the
words “pin” and “pen” are different phonemes and so are the consonants at
the beginning of the words “pet” and “bet”.
Because of the notoriously confusing nature of English Spelling, it is
particularly important to learn to think of English pronunciation in terms of
phonemes rather than letters of the alphabet ; one must be aware, for example,
that the word “enough”, begins with the same vowel phoneme as that at the
beginning of “inept” and ends with the same consonant as “stuff”

5. ACCENTS AND DIALECTS
Languages have different accents: they are pronounced differently by
people from different geographical places, from different social classes,
of different ages and different educational backgrounds. The word
accent is normally confused with dialect. We use the word dialect to refer
to a variety of a language which is different form others not just in
pronunciation but also in such matters as vocabulary, grammar and word
order. Differences of accent, on the other hand, are pronunciation
differences only.

6. THE PRODUCTION OF SPEECH SOUNDS
Articulators above the larynx.
All the sounds we make when we speak are the result of muscles contracting . The
muscles of the chest that we use for breathing produce the flow of air that is needed for
almost all speech sounds; muscles in the larynx produce many different modifications in
the flow of air from the chest to the mouth. After passing through the larynx, the air
goes through what we call the vocal tract, which ends at the mouth and nostrils ; we call
the part comprising the mouth the oral cavity and the parts that leads to the nostrils the
nasal cavity. Here the air form the lungs escapes into the atmosphere. The different
parts that help to produce the sound of the language are called articulators and the
study of them is called articulatory phonetics.

7. ORIGIN OF LANGUAGE
Language is the highly developed form of animal signaling. It
provably developed in east Africa around 100.000 years ago, still its
origin has become a trendy topic. These predictions must have
existed. First, humans noticed actions and objects. Second, they
were able to produce a range of sounds and third they must have
reached the naming insight. These preconditions enabled humans to
build up a store of words. In addition, preferences tend to become
habits and habits become rules.

8. THE ROLE OF LANGUAGE
Language is used for persuading and influencing others, for
swapping news and conveying essential commands.
Language can be used to communicate feelings and
emotions, humans may use language for purely esthetic
reasons, in writing poetry, to release nervous tensions as
anger and frustration. A day to day interaction needs a
language.

9. THE SPELLING SYSTEM
The English alphabet has 26 letters but more than 40 sounds. The sounds of English consist
of vowels and consonants. There are some differences between English spelling and English
sounds.
They are:
• Same letter, different sounds: hat, aim, all, any, ant, above, orange.
• Same sound, different letters: baby, they, steak, veil, rain, may.
• Letters representing no sounds: right, design, how, island, bomb, wrong.
• More letters than sounds: knee (2), know (2), knight (3)
• More sounds than letters: fix, taxi, extra, exit. /x/ represents two sounds /k/ +/s/.

10. THE SPEECH MECHANISM

11. THE SPEECH MECHANISM
• The pharynx is a tube which begins just above the larynx and at its top end it is
divided into two, one part being the back of the mouth and the other being the
beginning of the way through the nasal cavity.
• The velum or soft palate is seen in the diagram in a position that allows air to pass
through the nose and through the mouth. Often in speech it is raised so that air
cannot escape through the nose. The other important thing about the velum is that
it is one of the articulators that can be touched by the tongue.

12. THE SPEECH MECHANISM
• The hard palate is often called the "roof of the mouth".
• The alveolar ridge is between the top front teeth and the hard
palate.
• The tongue is a very important articulator and it can be moved
into many different places and different shapes. Its parts are: tip,
blade, front, back and root.

13. THE SPEECH MECHANISM

14. THE SPEECH MECHANISM
• The teeth (upper and lower) are only at the front of the mouth, immediately
behind the lips. The tongue is in contact with the upper side teeth for many
speech sounds. Sounds made with the tongue touching the front teeth are
called dental.
• The lips are important in speech. They can be pressed together brought into
contact with the teeth or rounded to produce the lip-shape for vowels.

15. THE SPEECH MECHANISM
• Articulators:
• Tip of tongue
• Blade of tongue
• Back of tongue
• Jaw
• Places of articulations:
• Teeth (upper)
• Alveolar ridge tooth
• Hard palate
• Glottis
• Uvula
• Lower lip

16. THE SPEECH MECHANISM

17. CONSONANTS
On the way out the air flow can be more or less obstructed, producing a
consonant, or is simply modified, giving a vowel. If you pronounce the first
sound of the word paper you close your mouth completely and that is the
utmost obstruction, whereas if you pronounce the first sound of the word
after the mouth is more open than normal, the air flows as freely as it possibly
can. Consonants are often classified by being given a so-called VPM-label.
VPM stands for Voicing, Place and Manner:

18. CONSONANTS
- voicing means that the vocal folds are used; if they are not, the sound is
voiceless (note that vowels always imply the use of vocal folds).
- place of articulation is the place where the air flow will be more or less
obstructed. - manner is concerned with the nature of the obstruction.

19. VOICING
The larynx is in the neck, at a point commonly called Adam's apple. It is like a
box, inside which are the vocal folds, two thick flaps of muscle. In a normal
position, the vocal folds are apart and we say that the glottis is open (figure a).
When the edges of the vocal folds touch each other, air passing through the
glottis will usually cause vibration (figure b). This opening and closing is
repeated regularly and gives what is called voicing.

20. VOICING

21. VOICING
• The only distinction between the first sounds of sue and zoo for example is that [s] is
voiceless, [z] is voiced. The same goes for few and view, [f] is voiceless, [v] is voiced. If you
now say [ssssszzzzzsssss] or [fffffvvvvvfffff] you can either hear the vibrations of the [zzzzz]
or [vvvvv] by sticking your fingers into your ears, or you can feel them by touching the front
of your larynx (the Adam's Apple).
• This distinction is quite important in English, as there are many pairs of sounds that differ
only in voicing. In the examples below the first sound is voiceless, the other is voiced:
pie/buy, try/dry, clue/glue, chew/Jew, thigh/thy. This distinction can also be made in
between two vowels: rapid/rabid, metal/medal, or at the end of a word: pick/pig, leaf/leave,
rich/ridge.

22. VOICED AND UNVOICED

23. PLACES OF ARTICULATION
• As we saw above [p,t,k] are all voiceless, so there must be another way to
distinguish between them, otherwise we would not be able to tell try apart
from pry or cry, or pick from tick or kick . Apart from the behaviour of the
vocal folds, sounds can also be distinguished as to where in the oral cavity
they are articulated (i.e. where in the mouth there is most obstruction when
they are pronounced)

24. PLACES OF ARTICULATION

25. PLACES OF ARTICULATION
Bilabial sounds are produced when the lips are brought
together.
Examples are [p], which is voiceless, as in pay or [b] and
[m] which are voiced, as in bay, may.

26. PLACES OF ARTICULATION
Labiodental sounds are made when the lower lip is raised
towards the upper front teeth. Examples are [f] safe (voiceless) and
[v] save (voiced).

27. PLACES OF ARTICULATION
Dental sounds are produced by touching
the upper front teeth with the tip of the
tongue. Examples are [S] oath (voiceless)
and [C] clothe (voiced).

28. PLACES OF ARTICULATION
Alveolar sounds are made by raising the tip of
the tongue towards the ridge that is right behind
the upper front teeth, called the alveolar ridge.
Examples are [ t,s ] too,sue, both voiceless, and
[d,z,n,l,r ] do, zoo, nook, look, rook, all voiced.

29. PLACES OF ARTICULATION
Palato alveolar sounds are made by raising
the blade of the tongue towards the part of
the palate just behind the alveolar ridge.
Examples [R,tR] pressure, batch (voiceless)
and [Y,d Y] pleasure, badge (voiced).

30. PLACES OF ARTICULATION
Palatal sounds are very similar to
palatoalveolar ones, they are just produced
further back towards the velum. The only
palatal sound in English is [ j] as in yes, yellow,
beauty, new and it is voiced.

31. PLACES OF ARTICULATION
Velar sounds are made by raising the back of
the tongue towards the soft palate, called the
velum. Examples [k] back, voiceless, and [g, M]
both voiced bag, bang. [w] is a velar which is
accompanied with lip rounding.

32. PLACES OF ARTICULATION
Glottal sounds are produced when the air
passes through the glottis as it is narrowed: [h]
as in high.

33. MANNER OF ARTICULATION
The manner of articulation has to do with the kind of obstruction the
air meets on its way out, after it has passed the vocal folds. It may
meet a complete closure (plosives), an almost complete closure
(fricatives), or a smaller degree of closure (approximants), or the air
might escape in more exceptional ways, around the sides of the
tongue (laterals), or through the nasal cavity (nasals).

34. MANNER OF ARTICULATION
Plosives are sounds in which there is a complete closure in the
mouth, so that the air is blocked for a fraction of a second and then
released with a small burst of sound, called a plosion (it sounds like a
very small explosion). Plosives may be bilabial [p,b] park, bark,
alveolar [t,d] tar, dark or velar [k,g] car, guard. There is a fourth kind of
plosive, the glottal stop. The word football can be pronounced without
interruption in the middle as in [fTtbN:l] or with a complete closure of
the glottis instead of [t]: [fT>bN:l].

35. MANNER OF ARTICULATION
Fricatives have a closure which is not quite complete. This means that the air is
not blocked at any point, and therefore there is no plosion. On the other hand
the obstruction is big enough for the air to make a noise when it passes through
it, because of the friction. This effect is similar to the wind whistling around the
corner of a house. Fricatives may be labiodental [f,v] wife, wives, dental [S,C]
breath, breathe, alveolar [s,z] sink, zinc, palato-alveolar [R,Y] nation, evasion, or
glottal [h] help. [h] is a glottal fricative. As it has no closure anywhere else, and as
all air passes between the vocal folds, this means that [h] is like aspiration
unaccompanied by any obstruction.

36. MANNER OF ARTICULATION
Affricates are a combination of a plosive and a fricative (sometimes they are
called "affricated plosives"). They begin like a plosive, with a complete closure,
but instead of a plosion, they have a very slow release, moving backwards to a
place where a friction can be heard (palatoalveolar). The two English affricates
are both palatoalveolar, [tR] which is voiceless, chin, rich, and [dY] which is
voiced, gin, ridge. The way an affricate resembles a plosive followed by a fricative
is mirrored in the symbols. Both consist of a plosive symbol followed by a
fricative one: [ t+R], [d+Y].

37. MANNER OF ARTICULATION
Nasals resemble plosives, except that there is a complete closure in the mouth,
but as the velum is lowered the air can escape through the nasal cavity. Though
most sounds are produced with the velum raised, the normal position for the
velum is lowered, as this is the position for breathing (your velum is probably
lowered right now when you are reading this). The three English nasals are all
voiced, and [m] is bilabial, ram, [n] is alveolar, ran, and [M] velar, rang. In the
section on places, the dotted line on the pictures of bilabial, alveolar, and velar
articulations illustrate the three nasals.

38. MANNER OF ARTICULATION
Laterals are sounds where the air escapes around the sides of the tongue. There
is only one lateral in English, [l], a voiced alveolar lateral. It occurs in two
versions, the so called "clear l" before vowels, light, long, and the "dark l" in other
cases, milk, ball. Words like little, lateral have one of each type. "Dark l" may be
written with the symbol [4]. "Clear l" is pronounced with the top of the tongue
raised, whereas for "dark l " it is the back of the tongue which is raised. Here
again, as with aspirated and unaspirated voiceless plosives, even though "clear l"
and "dark l" are phonetically different, they cannot be said to be different
sounds from the point of view of how they function in the sound system.

39. MANNER OF ARTICULATION
Approximants are sounds where the tongue only approaches the roof of the
mouth, so that there is not enough obstruction to create any friction. English
has three approximants, which are all voiced. [r] is alveolar, right, brown,
sometimes called post-alveolar, because it is slightly further back that the other
alveolar sounds [t,d,s,l]. [j] is a palatal approximant, use, youth, and [w] is a velar
approximant, why, twin, square. [w] always has lip-rounding as well, and therefore
it is sometimes called labio-velar.

40. MANNERS OF ARTICULATION
CONSONANTS
OBSTRUENTS SONORANTS
PLOSIVES FRICATIVES AFFRICATES NASALS LATERALS
APPROXIMA
NTS

41. CONSONANT SOUNDS