4. Students and audience will be able to recognize
various parts of speech organs and English
phonetic sounds.
Objective:
Abstract:
Many subjects related to the top have been placed
in this article:
• Phonetics and its types.
• Speech organs.
• Vowel sounds and their types.
• Consonant sounds and their types.
5. Phonetics: is the scientific study of speech sounds or Phonetics is the
scientific study of the production, transmission and
reception of speech sounds
Phonetics in itself has been divided in to three sub-branches:
Acoustic Phonetics: is the study of the physical properties of speech
sounds such as frequency and amplitude in their
transmission or it covers the frequency and
amplitude of speech sounds.
Auditory Phonetics: is concerned with the hearing of speech sounds and
with speech perception that is how sound is
received by the inner ear and psychologically
perceived by the brain?
Articulatory phonetics: It is concerned with the articulation of speech the
position, shape and movement of the articulators.
6. English has forty four speech sounds of course in British
English, but in American English there are forty three speech
sounds.
Generally, they are divided into tow major categories:
Vowels and consonants
Vowels themselves divided into monothongs, diphthongs, and
triphthongs.
Vowels: are speech sounds which are produced without any stricture in
the mouth. There twenty vowel sounds which are further divided
into two sub groups namely, pure vowel and diphthongs.
Note: Cardinal vowels are also included in monothongs.
7. Cardinal Vowels: A cardinal vowel is a vowel sound produced when
the tongue is in an extreme position, front or back,
high or low. Like (/i:/, /u/, /a:/)
English vowel sound No.1: /i;/ or /i/ in modern
American Phonetics
Lips: tense and in a “simile” position.
Jaw: Almost completely raised.
Tongue: High, near the roof of the mouth.
like: scene, eat, equal, etc.
English vowel sound No.2: /ɪ/
Lips: Relaxed and slightly parted.
Jaw: Slightly lower than for /i:/.
Tongue: High, but lower than for /i:/.
such as, ill, ink, inch, etc.
8. English vowel sound No.3: /e/ Americans substitute /ɛ/ sound instead of
/e/ sound
Lips: Slightly spread and unrounded.
Jaw: Open wider than for /eɪ/.
Tongue: High, near the roof of the mouth.
like in the, any, friend, leopard, etc.
English vowel sound No.4: Sheep sound /æ/
Lips: spread.
Jaw: Open wider than for /ɛ/.
Tongue: Low, near the floor of the mouth.
Such as, angry, and, have, etc.
English vowel sound No.5: /ɑ:/
Lips: Completely apart in a “yawning” position.
Jaw: Lower than for any other vowel.
Tongue: Flat, on the floor of the mouth.
Like in, honest, odd, oxen, etc.
9. English vowel sound No.6: /ɒ/
Lips: Open lip-rounding
Jaw: open, but not as open as in /ɔ/.
Tongue: The back of the is in the highest position.
Like in, ball, want, got, etc.
English vowel sound No.7: /Ͻ:/
Lips: in a tense oval shape and slightly protruded.
Jaw: Open more than for /oʊ/.
Tongue: low, near the floor of the mouth.
Like in, boss, taught, thought, etc.
English Vowel Sound No.8: /u:/
Lips: Tense and in a “whistling” position.
Jaw: Almost completely raised.
Tongue: High, near the roof of the mouth.
For instance, food, room, foot, etc.
10. English vowel sound No.9: /ʊ /
Lips: Relaxed and slightly parted.
Jaw: Slightly lower than for /u:/.
Tongue: High, but lower than for /u:/.
For instance, good, took, woman, etc.
English vowel sound No.10: The cut sound /ʌ/
Lips: Relaxed and slightly parted.
Jaw: Relaxed and slightly lowered.
Tongue: Relaxed and midlevel in the mouth.
Such as in trouble, does, oven, etc.
English vowel sound No.11: The cut sound /ə /
Lips: completely relaxed and barely move during its production.
Jaw: between open and close.
Tongue: the central part is highest.
Such as in upon, asleep, suppose, etc.
Note: This sound occurs in unstressed syllable.
11. English vowel sound No.12: /ɜ:/ The bird-sound or the hesitation-sound
Lips: protruded and slightly parted.
Jaw: Slightly lowered.
Tongue: Midlevel in the mouth.
Like in early, urban, sir, etc.
Diphthongs: are sounds which are made of two vowel. Begin in the place of first vowel
sound and go towards the second vowel sound so it is also called glide vowels.
There are eight diphthongs English that the following diagram shows the production
place of them:
The English Diphthong No. 1: /eɪ/
Lips: Spread and unrounded.
Jaw: Rises with tongue and closes slightly.
Tongue: Glides from midlevel to near the roof of
The mouth.
For instance, apron, April, came, etc.
12. The English Diphthong No. 2: /əʊ/, its symbol in American is /oʊ/
Lips: Tense and very rounded.
Jaw: Rises with the tongue and closes slightly.
Tongue: Glides from midlevel to near roof of the mouth.
Such as in oat, oval, ocean, etc.
The English Diphthong No. 3: /ɑɪ/
Lips: Glide from an open to a slightly parted position.
Jaw: Rises with the tongue and closes.
Tongue: Glides from low to high near the roof of the mouth.
Like in by, lie, sigh, etc.
The English Diphthong No. 4: /ɑʊ/
Lips: Glide from an open position.
Jaw: Rises with the tongue and closes.
Tongue: Glides from low to high near the roof of the mouth.
Like in plough, crowd, pronounce, etc.
13. The English Diphthong No. 5: /ɔɪ /
Lips: Glide from a tense oval shape to a relaxed, slightly parted position.
Jaw: Rises with the tongue and closes.
Tongue: Glides from a low position to a high position near the roof of the mouth.
Like in, noise, toy, coin, etc.
The English Diphthong No. 6: /ɪə/
Lips: Glide from the a close position.
Jaw: lowers the tongue and opens.
Tongue: Glides from a low position towards the soft palate.
Like in, near, wear, fierce, etc.
The English Diphthong No. 7: /eə/
Lips: From spread to neutral position.
Jaw: Glides from close position to open.
Tongue: The front part of the tongue is raised.
such as in chair, mare, care, etc.
14. Consonant sounds: are speech sounds made by completely or partly
stopping the flow of air being breathed out through the mouth.
Generally, they are fallen into two major parts: voice and unvoiced
consonants.
Secondly, they have divided into six categories: plosives, affricatives,
nasals, lateral, fricatives, and semi-vowel or approximants.
In its turn each category into various parts:
Figure3. It shows voice and unvoiced consonants
16. Plosives: There are six plosive consonants in English. These are the sounds formed by
means of a complete closure of the air passage, which is afterwards released suddenly.
in plosives include bilabial (/b/ and /p/), alveolar (/d/ and /t/) and velar (/k/ and /g/).
The English Fricatives: There are ten fricative consonants in English. These are the
sounds formed by narrowing the air passage to such an extent that the air in escaping
produces audible friction.
In Fricatives include labiodental (/f/ and /v/), dental (/ð/ and /θ/), alveolar (/s/ and
/z/), post alveolar (/ʆ/, /ʒ/and /r/), and glottis (/h/).
The English Nasal Consonant Sounds: There are three nasal sounds in English. These
are the sounds formed by a complete closure in the mouth while the nasal passage is
open.
In Nasal sound include bilabial (/m/), alveolar (/n/), and velar (/ɳ/).
17. The English Affricates: There are two affricate sounds in English. These are the
sounds formed by means of a complete closure of the air passage which is afterwards
released slowly.
In affricatives include post alveolar (/ʤ/ and /ʧ/).
Lateral: Laterals are produced by a stricture of complete closure in the center of the
vocal tract, but the air passes out every one or both sides of the tongue.
in lateral includes alveolar (/l/) sound.
There are two types of /l/ sound in English. Light and dark.
Semi-vowels or approximants: Consonant sounds made by air passing between the
tongue or lip and another part of mouth without any closing of the air passage.
In approximants include bilabial (/w/) and palatal (/j/) sounds.
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