PHONETICS

PHONETICS

INTRODUCTION

Phonetics is the study of speech sounds in a language. There is no right way of speaking. The pronunciation of English varies from one country to another. Even within UK, there are variations. RP is treated as Standard English.

Languages like Telugu, Arabic and Spanish are consistent in their spelling. One letter represents only one sound, but English is different. English has a highly irregular phonetic system. There in no one to one correspondence between letters (26) and sounds (44) in English. It has many letters with two or more sounds; and many letters that are silent.

Ex:

One letter representing several sounds:	One sound represented by several letters:
Letter S à  send /s/; flash /ʃ/; busy /z/; measure /ʒ/ Letter C à Car /k/; cell /s/; chain /ʧ/;	Sound /ʃ/ à Shine /ʃʌɪn/; Passion /ˈpaʃn/; Special /ˈspɛʃl/ Sound /k/ à Chemistry /ˈkɛmɪstri/; Court /kɔːt/; kite /kʌɪt/; car /kɑː/, equal /ˈiːkw(ə)l/

There are 26 letters and 44 sounds in English. They are broadly classified into Vowels and Consonants. There are 24 consonant sounds and 20 vowel sounds, of which 12 are monophthongs (pure vowel sounds) and 8 are diphthongs (a combination of two vowel sounds). Phonetics symbols in English are represented using International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA).

Consonant Sounds (24):

Consonant sounds are sounds in the production of which there is either a closure or a narrowing of the air passage in the mouth cavity.

During the articulation of the consonant sounds the air from the lungs is either stopped or allowed to pass through a narrowed passage. (obstruction or friction)

They are two types.

1. Voiced (15): There is a vibration in the vocal cords. (vocal chords are partly closed)

2. Voiceless(9): there is no vibration in the vocal cords. (vocal chords are open)

Note: ALL VOWELS ARE VOICED SOUNDS.

Consonants
1	/p/	Pit, repair, apple, keep
2	/b/	Bit,  baby, number, tub
3	/t/	Time, hotel, student, boat,
4	/d/	Door, admire, lady, kind,
5	/k/	Cat, kind, equal, unique
6	/g/	Game, giggle, huge, rouge
7	/f/	Fan, often, deaf, laugh
8	/v/	Van, vivid, give, active
9	/θ/	Think, thought, author, bath
10	/ð/	That, father, breathe, bathe
11	/s/	Send, cinema, song, kiss
12	/z/	Zip, cause, reason, is, zoo
13	/m/	Man, common, name, team
14	/n/	Nice, napkin, funny, sun
15	/ŋ/	Ring, tongue,  finger, single
16	/l/	Leg, alone, nicely, file, all
17	/r/	Rat,  brief, hurry, turn, car
18	/w/	Wet, wall, twenty, twist
19	/h/	Hat, behind, vehicle, Sarah
20	/j/	Yet,  yes, yet, young
21	/ʃ/	Shop,  special, she, cash,
22	/ʒ/	Leisure, vision, fusion, visual,
23	/ʧ/	Chop, teacher, church, stretch
24	/dʒ/	Jane, knowledge, budget

Vowel sounds(20):

In producing vowel sounds, there is no closure or narrowing made at any point in the mouth cavity.

Thus, vowel sounds are produced when the air from the lungs comes out freely and in a continuous stream (without any obstruction or audible friction.) and the vocal cords vibrate to produce the sound.

There are 20 vowel sounds, of which 12 are monophthongs (pure vowel sounds) and 8 are diphthongs (a combination of two vowel sounds).

a) Monophthongs

If the quality of a vowel sound does not change, it is called a pure vowel or a monophthong. English has 12 pure vowels. The quality of a vowel sound is determined by the arrangement of the tongue, lips and lower jaw.

Monophthongs can be divided into two categories.

1 Long vowels- they are five

2. Short Vowels -they are seven

For example, /i:/ is a long vowel in eat and /i/ is a short vowel in ill.



-Of these 12 monopthongs

1. four are front vowels.

2. five are back vowels.

3. three are central vowels.

Monophthongs:
1	/i:/	Meat meet Eat eagle beam bee key free seed need seize
2	/ i /	Pit  It  ill  hit  sit  lick  many  busy  tick city party
3	/ ʊ /	Good Urdu book look good to should put full wood room pool
4	/u:/	Too  School   rule,  two,  root   suit  shoe  route  through  soup
5	/e/	Pet any end egg red lesson met dress bed fed fell head lead
6	/ə/	Ago Alone  among  aside  ever teacher love rather
7	/ɜ:/	Girl Urge early learn earn curd world bird burn  journal
8	/ɔ:/	Door All or horse short taught ought law draw
9	/æ/	Pat Add act cat rat bad mat match catch fact accent fan
10	/ʌ/	Luck Up Utter under bus but cut blood come honey rough
11	/ɑ:/	Car Arm art part  jar pass class palm balm
12	/ɒ/	Pot On orange got fought  shot  odd ox box cough

b) Diphthongs

Diphthong is the combination of two pure vowel sounds in a single syllable or word. There are 8 diphthongs. They are usually produced one after other without taking a break between them. The tongue glides or moves from one position other position

For Example, / aɪ /as in sky, is a combination of pure vowels namely / a / and / ɪ /

Diphthongs often form when separate vowels are run together in rapid speech during a conversation. Technically, a diphthong is a vowel with two different targets: that is, the tongue and other speech organs move during the pronunciation of the vowel.

Diphthongs:

Diphthongs:
1	/ ɪə /	beer  hear here ear beard idea museum  career clear peer year
2	/ eə /	Bear Parents, chair air dairy heir there square share pair wear
3	/ ʊə /	Tour,   Poor,   pure, sure, sensual, jury, fewer, cruel,   power, our
4	/ eɪ /	Day  pay, say, pain, wait, straight, male, Baker, obey, play
5	/ aɪ /	Sky Buy bye cry try shy ice kite lie I price tiger five sign like
6	/ ɔɪ /	Boy Oil boil toy coin join choice employee noise
7	/ əʊ /	Go  show no own home slow bone boat joke cold road ocean
8	/ aʊ /	Cow  how  Brown    about  our    mouth  ground  loud bough bow

EXERCISE:
Phonetic transcription (animals - 1)


/ˈpærət/
/sneɪk/
/kaʊ/
/bɜːd/
/ˈmʌŋki/
/hɔːs/
/ˈpeŋɡwɪn/
/ˈlaɪən/
/fɒks/
/biː/
/weɪl/
/ˈkrɒkədaɪl/


animals - 2

/ˈkæml/
/ɡəˈrɪlə/
/ˈiːɡl/
/maʊs/
/ˈbiːtl/
/kæŋɡəˈruː/
/ˈɒktəpəs/
/ˈsiːɡʌl/
/ˈbʌtəflaɪ/
/ˈtɜːtl/
/ʃɑːk/
/məˈskiːtəʊ/





food

/ˈæpl/
/ˈɒrɪndʒ/
/raɪs/
/steɪk/
/suːp/
/ˈʃʊɡə(r)/
/fɪʃ/
/ˈwɔːtə(r)/
/ɡreɪps/
/bred/
/tʃiːz/
/ˈaɪs kriːm/