This document provides an overview of phonetics and the sounds of language. It discusses sound segments and the identity of speech sounds. It describes the phonetic alphabet and how it is used to represent sounds. The document then focuses on articulatory phonetics, explaining places and manners of articulation for consonants. It discusses voiced and voiceless sounds, as well as nasal and oral sounds. Various ways of classifying consonants are presented. The document also covers vowels, including dimensions like tongue position and lip rounding. It describes concepts like tense/lax vowels, nasalization of vowels, and prosodic features. Tone and intonation are briefly discussed at the end.

1. PHONETICS :
THE SOUNDS OF LANGUAGE
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2. Sound segments
 Keep out
 Key pout
Do you find any difference in
pronouncing those two phrases?

3.  A napron  an apron
 Grade A  gray day
 I scream  ice cream
 Lack of breaks, no pause

4. Identity of speech sounds
 ignoring nonlinguistic in spoken
language.
 Man: how (cough) are you?
 Woman: fine. How about you?
 (cough) is nonlinguistic.

5.  acoustic phonetic  physical
properties of sounds
 auditory phonetics  concern with
how listeners perceive these sounds
 articulatory phonetics  the study
of how the vocal tract produces the
sounds of language

6. Phonetic alphabet
 Ortography doesn’t represent the
sounds of language consistently.
1. Combination letters represent single
sound
 think, shoot, read, either
2. Single letter represents multiple sounds
 Single letter x usually stand for 2
sounds ks
 Six, complex

7. 3. Some letter have no sound in
certain words (silent letter)
psychology, island, lamb
4. No letter represent sounds
the letter u represents a y sound
followed by a u sound
Cute [kyu:t] mute [myu:t]

8.  International phonetic alphabet (IPA)
developed a phonetic alphabet to
symbolize the sounds of all languages.
 Use square bracket [ ] in phonetic
symbols to distinguish them from
ordinary letter.

9.  The symbol [ə] in the sofa is used to
represent vowel in syllable that are
not emphasized and short duration.
 Other example: about, rider, etc.

10. Articulatory Phonetics
The kind of phonetics that we will be
dealing with, and this is the kind of phonetics
that most linguists refer to, involves the study
of what speech organs are involved in producing
the various speech sounds that we produce.
Because we are talking about how speech
sounds are articulated.

11. Consonants
• Produced with some restriction or
closure in the vocal tract that impedes
the flow of air from the lungs

12. Place of Articulation
• Where in the vocal tract the airflow
restriction occurs.
• There are eight major places of
articulation, they are:

13. The vocal tract, places of articulation.

14. Bilabial
• By bringing
both lips
together
• Ex:
[p, b, m]
Labiodentals
• By
touching
the bottom
lips to the
upper
teeth
• Ex: [f, v]
Interdentals
• By
inserting
the tip of
the tongue
between
the teeth.
• Ex: [θ, ð]

15. Alveolars
• The
tongue
raised to
the
alveolar
ridge.
• Ex: [t, d, n,
s, z, l, r]
Palatals
• By raising
the front
part of the
tongue to
the palate.
• Ex: [ʒ, ʃ, ʧ,
ʤ, j]
Velars
• By raising
the back of
the tongue
to the soft
palate or
velum.
• Ex: [k , g,
ƞ]

16. Uvulars
• By raising the
back of the
tongue to the
uvula.
• Ex: [R, q, G]
Glottals
• If the air is
stopped
completely at
the glottis by
tightly closed
vocal cords.
• Ex: [h, ?]

17. Manner of Articulation
The difference between the initial sounds
of the English word touch and such are
both voiceless, and they are both
produced with the air flow being
impeded at the alveolar ridge.

18. Stop/Plosive
• completely
blocking
• Ex: [p, t, k,
ʧ, ?, b, d, g,
ʤ]
Fricatives
• almost (but
not quite)
completely
stopping.
• Ex: [f, θ, s, ʃ,
h, v, ð, z, ʒ]
Nasal
• blocked
completely
somewhere
in the
mouth
• Ex: [m, n, ň,
ƞ]

19. Flap
• the
obstruction
is much
more
transitory
• Ex: [r]
Lateral
• the air to
flow around
the side of
the tongue
• Ex: [l]
SemiVowel
• Speech
sounds that
are on the
border line
between
vowels and
consonants.
• Ex: [w, j]

20. Voiced and Voiceless Sounds
1. Voiced [b, d, g, v, ð, z, ʒ, ʤ, m, n, ƞ, l, r, w, j]
If the vocal cords are together, the
airstream
forces its way through and causes them to
vibrate.
2. Voiceless [p, t, k, f, θ, s, ʃ, ʧ, h, ?]
When the vocal cords are apart so that
the air
flows freely through the glottis into the oral
cavity.

21. The voiced and voiceless
distinction
Rope/robe = [rop]/[rob]
Wreath/ wreathe = [riθ]/[rið]
fate/fade = [fet]/[fed]
Rack/rag = [ræk]/[ræg]
Fine/vine = [faın]/[vaın]
Seal/zeal = [sil]/[zil]
Choke/joke = [ʧok]/[ʤok]

22. Nasal and Oral Sounds
 The voiced and voiceless distinction
differentiates the bilabial b [b]
and p [p]
 Velum is where the flesh becomes
soft and pliable. The velum is
movable. And when it is raised all
the way to touch the back of the
throat, the passage through the
nose is cut off and air can escape
only through the mouth.

23. Oral sound and nasal sound
 Oral sounds are sound which is
produced with the velum
up, blocking the air from escaping
through the nose.
 Nasal sounds is the sound which is
produced when the velum is not in
its raised position, air escapes
through both the nose and the
mouth.
 The sound [m] is a nasal

24.  The same oral/nasal difference
occurs in raid [red] and rain [ren],
rug [rʌg] and rung [rʌ ]
Raise
d
[d] and
[g]
Down
[n] and
[ ]
VELU
M

25. Ways of
classifying
consonants
By
nasalizati
on
By Place
of
Articulati
on
By Voicing

26. Stop [p], [b], [m], [t], [d], [n], [k], [g], [
], [t⨜], [d3], [?]
Stops are consonant in which the
airstream is completely blocked
in the oral cavity for a short
period.
1. [p], [b] and [m] are bilabial stop
2. [t], [d] and [n] are alveolar
stop
3. [k], [g], and [ ] are velar stop

27.  Fricatives: [f], [v], [Ө],[
ᶞ], [s], [z], [⨜], [3], [x],
[⨜], [h]
The airflow is so severely
obstructed that it caused friction,
and the sounds are therefore called
fricatives.
1. [f], [v], are labiodental fricatives
2. [Ө],[
ᶞ] are interdental fricatives
3. [s],[z] are alveolar fricatives
4. [⨜], [3] are palatal fricatives
5. [x], [⨜] are denote velar fricatives

28. All fricatives are continuants
Affricates [t⨜], [d3]
These sounds are produced by a stop
closure followed immediately by a
gradual release of the closure that
produces an effect characteristics
of a fricative.
Liquids [l], [r]
There is some obstruction of the
airstream in the mouth , but not
enough to cause any real
constriction or friction.
Glides [j], [w]

29.  The glide [j] is a palatal sound,
the blade of the tongue is raised
toward the hard palate in a
position almost identical to that in
producing the sound vowel sound
[i] in the word beat [bit]
 Approximants. In books the sounds
[w], [j], [r], and [l] are
alternatively called
approximants.
 Trills and Flaps .
 trills : a trilled “r” is produced by
rapid vibrations of articulator.

30. Phonetic Symbols for American
English Consonants
 Vowel sound produced by little
restriction of the air flow from the
lungs out the mouth and/or the nose
 These are the dimensions over which
vowels are produced.
 Tongue position
 Lip rounding
 diphtongs

31.  Tongue position:
 In producing vowel sound [a] the back
tongue is low in the mouth
 The vowels [i] and [u] are produced with
slightly lowered tongue positions.
 The vowel [⨜] is produces with the front part of
the tongue low in the mouth. The vowel [e] and
[o] are mid vowels. Produces by raising the
tongue to a position midway.
 The vowel [a] the tongue is not strictly high nor
low, front nor back.

32.  Lip rounding
 Divided into two:
 Rounded : [u], [u:],[o], [o:]
 Unrounded : the other sounds
 Diphtongs
Vowel is divided into two monophtong
and diphtong.

33. Nasalization of Vowels
 Vowels, like consonant, can be produced
with a raised velum that prevents the
air from escaping through the nose, or
with a lowered velum that permits air to
pass through the nasal passage.
 When the nasal passage is blocked, oral
vowels result; when the nasal passage is
open, nasal vowels result.

34. Tense and Lax Vowels
 The first vowel in each pair is generally
[produced with greater tension of the
tongue muscles that its counterpart, and
they are often a little longer in duration
 Tense vs Lax Vowel :
beat – bit
bait – bet
boot – put
boat – bore
high – hat
how - hut

35. Different (tongue) Strokes for Different
Folks
 If you speak British English, there’s a
good chance that you have a low, back,
rounded vowel in the word hot that the
vowel chart lacks.
 Consonant is also vary form region to
region, if not from person to person.

36. Major Phonetic Classes
 Linguistic describe speech sounds
similarly. All sounds are consonant
sounds or vowel sounds.
 Within consonant, all are voiced or
unvoiced, and so on.

37. Noncontinuants and Continuants
 Stops and Affricates belong to the
class of noncontinuants. Nasal stops
are included although air does flow
continuosly out the nose.
 All other consonant, and vowels, are
continuants, in which the stream of air
flows continuously out of the mouth.

38. Obstruents and Sonorants
 Obstruents is the non-nasal stops, the
fricatives, and the affricatives form a
major class of sounds.
 Sonorants is sounds that are not
obstruents. They are produced with
much less obstruction to the flow of air
than the obstruents, which permits air
to resonate.

39. Consonantal
 Obstruent, nasal stops, liquids, and glides
are consonants.
 Labial : sounds are those articulated with
the involvement of the lips
 Coronals : sounds are articulated by raising
the tongue blade.
 Anteriors : sounds are consonants
produced in the front part of the mouth.
 Sibilants : the friction created by sibilant
produces a hissing sound.

40. Syllabic Sounds
 Vowels are syllabic, but they are not
the only sound class that anchors
syllables.
 Liquids and nasals can also be syllabic.
 Obstruent and glides are never
syllabic sounds because they are
always accompanied by a vowel.

41. Prosodic Features
 Length, pitch, and stress are
prosodic, or suprasegmental features.
The terms of prosodic comes from
poetry, where it refers to the metrical
structure of verse.
 Speech sounds that are identical in
their place or manner features may
differ in duration. Tense vowels are
slightly longer than lax vowels.

42. Tone and Intonation
 Tone : Languages that use the pitch of individual
vowels and syllables to contrast meanings of words.
 More than half the world’s languages are tone languages.
 There are two kinds of tones
1. Register tone : the pitch os level across the
syllable
2. Contour tone : the pitch changes across the
syllable, whether from high to low or vice versa.
 In a tone language it is not the absolute pitch of the
syllables that is important but the relation among the

43. Tone
 Tones generally have a lexical function, that is,
they make a difference between words.
 But in some languages tones may also have a
grammatical function, as in Edo spoken in
midwestern Nigeria.
 Tone on monosyllabic verbs followed by a direct
object indicates the tense and transitivity of
the verb.
 Low tone means present tense, transitive.
 High tone means past tense, transitive.

44. Intonation
 Language that are not tone languages,
such as English, are called Intonation
Languages.
 In intonation language, pitch is not used
to distinguish words from each other.
 Intonation may effect the meaning of
whole sentences, so that sentence : “John
is here” with falling pitch at the end is
interpreted as a statement, but with
rising pitch at the end is interpreted as a

45. Phonetic Symbols and
Spelling Correspondences

47.  the table shows the sound/spelling corespondence for
American English consonants and vowels.
 Some of these pronunciations may differ from our
own. For the example : we may (or may not)
pronounce the words cot and cought identically. In the
form of English describe here, cot and caught are
pronounced differently, so cot is one of the examples
of the vowel sounbd [a] as in car. Caught illustrates
the vowel [ɔ] as in core.
 English is a worldwide language and is spoken in
many forms in many countries, that is why there will
be other differences in the way it pronounces.

48. The phonetics of signed
languges
 Like other human languages, signed languages are also
governed by a grammatical system that includes syntatctic
and morphological rules.
 Signed languages and spoken languages are the same in
another ways. Signs can be broken down into smaller units
analogous to the phonetic features.

49.  Just like spoken languages that distinguish sounds
according to place and manner of articulation, signed
languages also distinguish signs according to the place
and manner in which the signs are articulated by the
hands.
 Signs of ASL, for the example, are formed by three
major features :
1. The configuration of the hand (handshape)
2. The movement of the hand and arms toward or away from
the body
3. The location of the hands in signing space

51.  English is not language in which vowel or
consonant length can change a word.
 When we speak, we also change the
pitch of our voice.
 In many language, certain syllables in a
word are louder, slightly higher in pitch,
and some what longer in duration.

52. THE “PHONETICS” OF SIGNED
LANGUAGES
• Signed language are governed by a grammatical
system
 Signs can be broken down into smaller units
analogous to the phonetic features
 Signed languages distinguish signs according to
the pace and manner in which the signs are
articulated by the hands

53. The signs of ASL are formed by three major
features:
1. The configuration of the hand (hand shape)
2. The movement of the hand and arms toward or
away from the body
3. The location of the hand in signing space

54.  ASL has over 30 hand shapes, but not all
signed languages share the same hand
shapes
 Example:
1. T hand shape of ASL doesn’t occur in European
signed languages
2. Chinese signed language has a hand shape formed
with an open hand with all fingers extended
except the ring finger which ASL doesn’t have it.

55.  Signs can also be undirectional or bidirectional
 A change along one of these parameters can result in different
words
 The are two-handed and one-handed signs
 One-handed signs are formed with the speaker’s dominant hand,
whether left or right
 A different in handedness doesn’t affect the meaning of the sign

56. SUMMARY
 The science of speech sounds is called phonetics
 The major phonetic alphabet in use is the
International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA) which
includes modified Roman letters and diacritics
 Speech sounds: Vowels and Consonants
 Consonants have some obstruction of the airstream in
the vocal tract. It classified according to their
manner
of articulation. In the voiced sounds, the vocal chords
are together and vibrating whereas in voiceless
sounds they’re apart and not vibrating

57. consonants, may be
nasal or oral, although most vowels in all languages are
oral
 In many languages, the pitch of the vowel in the syllable
is
linguistically significant
 Intonation languages in which the rise and fall of pitch
may
contrast meanings of sentences
 English also uses stress to distinguish different words
 In sign languages there are “phonetic”features analogous
to
those spoken languages
 In ASL, these are hand shape, movement, and location