Some aspects of phonetics.

1. English School UNIVERSIDAD DE PANAMÁ April 19, 2020
Professor Lucy Chau 1
Phonological rules
Whether written or spoken,
they control how sounds
c h a n g e d u r i n g v o c a l
communication (Mingher,
2015). They can explain how a
language sounds and thus, let
us be able to produce its
c h a r a c t e r i s t i c s o u n d s .
Remember, not all languages
share all the same sounds, and
even the same language could
b e s p o k e n d i f f e r e n t l y ,
depending on the culture. A
good example is Spanish from
America and Spain, which
accents are different.
These rules tell us how
phonemes are produced and
show us the organs of speech
involved in such sounds.
What is phonetics?
According to Encyclopedia
Britannica, it is “the study of
speech sounds and their
physiological production and
acoustic qualities”. This
definition includes not only the
study of the speech sounds,
but how are they produced
and their quality. Sounds are
u s u a l l y re p re s e n t e d b y
phonetic symbols.
PHONETICS
English language | Phonetics | Laboratory
In order to represent the different sounds in a language,
phonetic symbols play an important role. Even if you don’t
know the meaning of a word, if you know how to read these
symbols, you are able to pronounce it. The International
Phonetic Alphabet (IPA) is the set of symbols that most
modern dictionaries use. Those symbols represent (using as a
base the Latin and Greek alphabets) phonemes and other
features of the spoken language, such as length, stress, and
intonation, among many other.
Phonologists have been working for decades in rules to
describe the possibilities in the production of sounds, in order
to make more precise predictions of use. This Generative
Theory, is meant to work as sets of formulas to explain how
spoken languages processes work, which - at the same time -
are formed from the ‘underlying representations’ speakers
mentally have of sounds.
Mingher, Iman. “Phonological Rules”. University of Babylon, 2015.

2. English School UNIVERSIDAD DE PANAMÁ April 19, 2020
Consonant sounds
One of the two groups of sounds in the English language is
Consonant sounds. They differentiate from vocal sounds in the
air constriction. While vowel sounds will flow air without any
constriction, in these sounds the air will be dosed by the lips (1)
(3), teeth (5) (6), nose(4) or the tongue (2).
In order to describe consonant sounds, linguists usually refer to
them using the voicing, place and manner of articulation criteria.
Which one is a voiceless, bilabial stop? Yes, it is /p/.
Articulatory phonetics
It is a subfield of phonetics that explains how the organs of
speech work together so speech could be produced by human
beings. It involves the airflow, the movement of some active
organs (lips or tongue) and their interaction with rigid ones.
Articulatory phonetics have been a clue to understand this
amazing instrumental system we have to produce speech.
Talking mechanics
When talking, we use all those muscles and parts of our
face, but the brain will register them as a learning when you
practice sounds. When you learn a sound, the brain helps
you to imitate many features, such as the tone, the length of
a sound, articulation and other. As a person learns how to
speak in a new language, the brain will work fast, until you
don’t notice all the movements you do to speak.
Professor Lucy Chau 2
Image from the book Pronunciation Pairs
Describing criteria for
Consonant sounds
Voicing
It refers to the vocal cords
function in the sound. When
the air passes through open
vocal folds, it is a voiceless
sound, but when they vibrate,
it is a voiced sound. You can
feel the vibration if you put
your fingers on your Adam’s
apple.
Place of articulation
Where the constriction of
airflow happens. For bilabial
s o u n d s , b o t h l i p s ; f o r
labiodental sounds, the upper
teeth and the lower lip;
interdental sounds, with the
tongue between the teeth;
alveolar sounds right behind
the upper front teeth; palatal
sounds, at the roof of the
mouth or hard palate; velar
sounds happen at the soft
palate; and glottal sounds at
the glottis.
Manner of
articulation
It describes how the airflow is
constricted in the vocal track.
We have stop, fricative,
affricate, nasal, liquid, glide,
and tap sounds, a rapid
movement of the tongue,
which mostly happen in North
American English. Each
manner has an explanation in
articulatory phonetics.