The International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA) is an alphabetic system used to represent sounds in spoken language. It was created by the International Phonetic Association to provide a standardized way to represent all sounds in all languages. The IPA is used by language learners, teachers, linguists, speech therapists, actors, and others. It represents sounds based on three factors - manner of articulation, place of articulation, and voicing. Consonants involve restricting airflow while vowels allow free airflow, and the specific sounds are determined by tongue, lip, and jaw positioning in the mouth.

1. The International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA) is an alphabetic
system of phonetic notation. It was devised by the
International Phonetic Association as a standardized
representation of the sounds of spoken language. The IPA
is used by foreign language students and teachers,
linguists, speech pathologists and therapists, singers,
actors, lexicographers, conlangers and translators.
Wikipedia.
“Lo-lee-ta: the tip of the tongue taking a trip of three steps down
the palate to tap, at three, on the teeth. Lo. Lee. Ta.”
Vladimir Nabokov

3. L’Association
phonétique
internationale
1886

4. A.C. Gimson, a student of
Jones, modified the
system to show vowel
qualities more accurately.
His 1962 An Introduction
to the Pronunciation of
English has been
“particularly influential in
the teaching of English as
a foreign language.”
Crystal 1993
Adrian Underhill in Sound
Foundations 1994
developed the layout of
the phonemic chart for RP

6. Tricky words /ɪ/=
• Enough /ɪˈnf/ʌ
• Maid/Made /meɪd/
• Sausages /ˈsɒs.ɪdʒɪz/ NA /ˈ ɪdʒ/sɑˈ.s
• Woman /ˈ wʊm.ən/
• Live(v)/ Live (adj.) /lɪv/ /laɪv/
• Epoch /ˈ ɒk/ NA/-pɑˈk
iˈ.p /
• Women /wɪm.ɪn/
• High /haɪ/
• Parachute /ˈ pær.ə.ʃuˈtNA /ˈper
/ -/

7. • Emotion /ɪˈm əʊ.ʃən/ NA/-ˈ moʊ-/
• Gesture /ˈdʒes.tʃə(r) / NA/-tʃɚ/
• Asked /ɑˈsktNA/æskt/
/
• Phone /fəʊn/ NA/foʊn/
• Gnome /nəʊm/NA/noʊm/
• Through /θruˈ/
• Marquee /mɑˈ(r)ˈ NA /mɑˈr
kiˈ/ -/
• Ghost /gəʊst/ NA /goʊst/
• ʌ
Thorough /ˈθr.ə/ NA/ˈ -/ θɝˈ

9. Question Time
What’s the difference
between a vowel and a
consonant?

10. Answer:
• Consonants- Restriction of air flow through
vocal tract
• Vowels- No restriction of air flow

13. Consonants
The unique sound of a consonant is dependent
on three different things:
• Whether it is voiced or unvoiced...
• How the air flows through the vocal tract
(Manner of Articulation)...
• And the positioning of the lips and tongue
(Place of Articulation)

15. English Consonants’ Place of Articulation
descriptions... (Drout 2006)
• Bi-labial i.e. [p] [b] [m]
• Labio-dental [f] [v]
• Inter-dental [θ] [ð]
• Alveolar [t] [d] [n] [s] [z] [r] [l]
• Alveo-palatal [ʃ] [ʒ] [tʃ] [dʒ]
• Palatal [j]
• Velar [k] [ɡ] [ŋ] [w]
• Glottal [h]

16. According to Michael Drout 2006,
there are six main categories of
manner of Articulation
• Stops [p] [b] [t] [d] [k] [ɡ]
• Fricatives [f] [v] [θ] [ð] [s] [z] [ʃ] [ʒ] [h]
• Affricates [tʃ] [dʒ]
• Nasals [m] [n] [ŋ].
• Approximants: Liquids [r] [l] semivowels [w] [j]
• Other e.g. Trill ‘Spanish R’ , the Glottal Stop in
oh-oh! and clicks as in ‘!Kung’ language of
Namibia/Angola

17. [p]
[ð]

18. • So [p] is a voiceless bi-labial stop
• And [ð] is a voiced inter-dental fricative

19. Approximants
ŋ

21. Vowel Quality
The characteristic sound of a vowel depends on
the shape and size of the resonant space in the mouth
-Underhill 1993
• The horizontal tongue position i.e. frontness
• The vertical tongue position i.e. height
• The lip position e.g. roundedness
• Vowel length (indicated by a colon on chart)

28. Games to help your students practice
(A few of my favourites)
• Hot seat
• Blind man’s phonemes
• Battleships
• Phonemic Crossword
• Join the dots
• Hear/Say
• Minimal pair line jump
• Blockbusters
• Say it right
• Phoneme Bingo
• Hancock: Pronunciation in Use 2003 USB stick!!
• What are your favourites?

29. Useful websites for learning the
Phonemes
• http://www.onestopenglish.com/section_flas
h.asp?catid=60030
• http://www.uiowa.edu/~acadtech/phonetics/
#
• http://www.teachingenglish.org.uk/try/resour
ces/pronunciation/phonemic-chart-0
• http://www.bbc.co.uk/worldservice/learninge
nglish/grammar/pron/

30. My Sources
• John McWhorther: Linguistics-The science of
Language 2006
• Michael Drout: A History of the English
Language 2006
• Adrian Underhill: Sound Foundations 1994
• David Crystal: The Cambridge Encyclopedia of
the English Language 1995