English language

ENGLISH PHONETICS AND PHONOLOGY.
• What are the main articulating organs in English?
• The pharynx is a tube which begins just above the larynx. It is about 7 cm long in women and about 8
cm in men, 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 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 velum is one of the articualtors that can be
touched by the tongue. The tongue is in contact with the lower side of the velum in velar consonants.
• The hard palate is often calles the roof of the mouth. You can feel it smooth curved surface with your
tongue.
• The alveolar ridge is between the top front teeth and the hard palate. Its surface is really much rougher
than it feels, and is covered with little ridges. Sounds made with the tongue touching here are alveolar.
• The tongue can be moved into many different places and different shapes. It is usual to divide the
tongue into different parts: tip, blade, front, back, root.
• The teeth are inmediately behind the lips. Sounds made with the tongue touching the front teeth are
called dental.
• The lips can be pressed together, brought into contact with the teeth or rounded to produce the
lip−shape for vowels. Sounds in which the lips are in contact with each other are bilabial, while those
with lip−to−teeth contact are labiodental.
• Where and what is the glottis?
The glottis is the opening between the vocal folds and it is in the arytenoid cartilagues.
• What is an allophone? Give an example.
An allophone is a variation of the same sound, for example, the realisation of /t/ in the word tea is aspirated,
but in the word eat the realisation of /t/ is unaspirated.
• What is a vowel?
Vowels are sounds in which there is no obstruction to the flow of air as it passes from the larynx to the lips.
The difference between vowels and consonants is the way that they are produced.
Vowels differ from each other by the shape (the vertical distance between the upper surface of the tongue and
the palate) and position (the part of the tongue, between front and back, which is raised highest).
By the shape, vowels can be close or open, and by the position of the tongue, vowels can be front or back.
Primary cardinal vowels are the vowels that are most familiar to the speakers of most European languages,
and secondary cardinal vowels sound less familiar.
We can also classify vowels according to the lip−rounding, they can be rounded, spreed or neutral.
There are vowels that tend to be longer than the short vowels in similar contexts, to difference them, we use
two dots (:) after the long vowel.
1
FRONT CENTRAL BACK
CLOSE
CLOSE MIND
OPEN MIND
OPEN
• What is a phoneme?
The phonemes themselves are abstract, but there are many slightly different ways in which we make the
sounds that represent the phonemes, just as there are many ways in which we may make a mark on a piece of
paper to represent a particular (abstract) letter of the alphabet.
• What is a dipthong? What are the dipthongs in English?
Dipthongs are sounds which consists if a movement or glide from one vowel to another. A vowel which
remains constant and does not glide is called pure vowel.
DIPTHONGS
CENTRING CLOSING
ENDING IN ENDING IN ENDING IN
• What is a tripthong? What are the tripthongs in English?
A tripthong is a glide from one vowel to another and then to a third, all produced rapidly and without
interruption. There are five tripthongs formed by adding / / on the end of the five closing dipthongs.
−−
−−
−
• What is voicing and what causes it?
Voicing or phonation is the sound that we hear when the vocal folds vibrate. This is caused because the vocal
folds are in the correct position and the air below the vocal folds is under enough pressure to be forced
through the glottis.
• What is a plosive and what are the three stages of a plosive?
A plosive is a consonant articulation with the following characteristics:
− One or two articulators are moved against each other to form a structure that allows no air to escape from
the vocal tract.
− After this stricture has been formed and air has been compressed behind it, it is released; that is, air is
2
allowed to escape.
− If the air behind the stricture is still under preassure when th eplosive is released, it is probable that the
escape o air will produce noise loud enough to be heard. This noise is called plosion.
− There may be voicing during part or all the plosive articulation.
The three stages of a plosive are closure, compression and release or plosion.
• What do the terms fortis and lenis mean?
Fortis means strong, it is when you pronounce a sound with more force, and lenis means weak sound.
• What is a fricative?
Fricatives are consonants that, when they are produced, the air escapes through a small passage and makes a
hising sound. Fricatives are continuant consonants (you can continue making them without interruption as
long as you have enough air in your lungs).
• What is an africate?
An africate is a consonant which begins plosive and end as fricative.
• What is a nasal sound and how is it produced?
The basic characteristic of a nasal consonant is that the air escapes through the nose. For this to happen, the
soft palate must be lowered; air does not pass through the mouth and so this, the air escapes through the nose.
• Explain the difference between dark /l/ and clear /l/.
The consonant /l/ is a lateral consonant, one in which the passage of air through the mouth does not go in the
usual way along the centre of the tongue; instead, there is complete closure between the centre of the tongue
and the part of the roof of the mouth were contact is to be made. Because of this complete closure along the
centre, the only way for the air to escape is along the sides of the tongue.
The difference between the allophones clear and dark /l/ is that when we pronounce them, clear /l/ is at the firs
of the word and is longer and stronger than dark /l/ which is at the end.
• Describe the sound /r/.
An approximant is an articulation in which the articulators approach each other but do not get sufficiently
close to each other to produce a complete consonant such as a plosive nasal or fricative.
To pronounce this sound, the tip of the tongue approaches the alveolar area in approximately the way it would
for a /t/ or /d/.
• Describe the sounds /j/ and /w/.
They are known as approximants. The most important thing to remember about these phonemes is that they
are phonetically like vowels but phonologically like consonants.
• Classification of the sounds and consonants.
3
Bilabial
Labiodental
Dental
Alveolar
Post−alveolar Velar
Glottal
Plosive
Fricative
Africate
Nasal
Lateral
Reflexive
• What is a continuant? Give three sounds which are and three which are not.
Continuant is a way of pronouncing that consists on that you can continue making the sound without
interruption as long as you have enough air in your lungs.
Continuant Not Continuant
• In the initial position what distinguishes fortis plosives from lenis plosives?
The most noticeable and important difference between initial /p/, /t/, /k/ and /b/, /d/, /g/ is the aspiration of the
voiceless plosives /p/, /t/, /k/, cannot be preceded by any consonant, but /p/, /t/, /k/ may be preceded by /s/.
When one of /p/, /t/, /k/ is preceded by /s/ it is unaspirated.
• In the initial position what distinguishes fortis fricatives from lenis fricatiives?
All the fricatives can be found in initial, medial and final positions.
But the sound /h/ being found in initial positin is noticeable with voicing−not the normal voicing vowels but a
weak, slightly fricative sound called breathy voice.
There are two rather sounds that need to be introduced; since they are said to have some association with /h/.
The first is the sound in words with wh which is pronounced like a voiceless fricative with the same lip,
tongue, and jaw position as /w/.
A very similar case is the sound found at the beginning of words such as huge, human, hue. Phonetically this
sound is a voiceless palatal fricative.
• In the final position what distinguishes fortis plosives from lenis plosives?
Final /b/, /d/, /g/ normally has a little voicing; if there is voicing, it is at the beginning of compression phase;
/p/,/t/, /k/ are voiceless.
The plosion following the release of /p/, /t/, /k/ and /b/, /d/, /g/ is very weak and often not audible. The
difference between /p/, /t/, /k/ and /b/, /d/, /g/ is primarily the facts that vowels preceiding /p/, /t/, /k/ are much
shorter. The shortening effet of /p/, /t/, /k/ is not noticeable when the vowel is one of the long vowels or
dipthongs.
• How could you describe the place and the manner of articulation of /h/?
/h/ − voiceless, glotal, fricative.
• What is egressive pulmonic airstream and which sounds in English use it?
4
The normal wqay for the airflow that pass between the vocal folds to be produced is for some of the air int he
lungs to be pushed out; when air is made to move out of the lungs we say that there is an egressive plulmonic
airstream. All speech sounds are made with some movement of air, and the egressive pulmonic is by far the
most commonly found air movement in the languages of the world.
• What happens if you are in bed with colg and blocked and you try to shout: Mummy!?
That you cannot pronounce correctly nasal sounds because the air cannot pass through the nose because of the
cold. So you roblably would pronounce an allophone of this sonund by using the glottis.
• What is assimilation?
The process by which a segment is modified by its neighbours. It is more likely to be found in rapid ans
casual speech. Sometimes the difference caused by assimilation is very noticeable, and sometimes is very
slight.
• What is dentalisation?
When the final alveolar consonants /t/,/d/,/n/ are followed by a dental sound are produce dentally.
And the
Eat then talk
What the hell
• What is labiodentalization?
The nasal sounds m and n followed by a labiodental sound (f/v) are neutralized (m), they sound exactly the
same. /m/ is not an English phoneme, is an allophone, a variation of the sound.
• What is yod coalescence?
This phenomenon takes place when we speak quickly. It is a way of assimilation. It is never obligatory.
What you want
Would you like
Miss you
Was your brother
• What is elision?
Taking away a sound to speak quicker, under certain circumstances sounds dissappear.
♦ Loos of weak vowel after p,t,k
♦ Weak vowels t, n, l, r became syllabic.
Tonight
5
Police
Correct
♦ 3 or 2 plosives + fricative, the middle plosive may dissappear.
Acts
Looked back
Scrpts
♦ Loss of final v in of before consonants
Waste of money
• What is linking?
It refers to a sound which is introduced between linguistic units, usually for case of pronounciation.
♦ Linking r.
When a word's spelling suggests a final r, and a word beginning with a vowel follows, the usual
pronounciation is to pronounce with r:
After
♦ Intrusive r.
The /r/ is introduced as a linking form after a vowel, when the following word begins with a vowel, when
there is not spelling pronounciation.
−
−
−
♦ Linking /w/ /j/
We link /j/ to facilitate our speech if a word finishes with:
B
Me or you
Be or
Day or night
I am
6
But this is not obligatory to add (because it is a way of speaking quickly) this if a word finishes with:
You or me
You or me
You or me
Go away
How are
• What is inestability of final alveolar sound?
1
•
7