the basics

Phonetics has three main branches of study:

• articulatory phonetics, concerned with the positions and movements of the lips, tongue, and other speech organs in producing speech
• acoustic phonetics, concerned with the properties of sound waves
• auditory phonetics, concerned with speech perception

In SOU's English 490, the focus is on articulatory phonetics.

Articulatory phonetics is the study of speech sounds. It is concerned with the nature of speech sounds (also called "phones") and their production in the human vocal tract. Phones are actual speech sounds as uttered by human beings. For example, say "cat", and you have combined three phones to make a word: the kh sound of the C, the aaa sound of the A, and the final, tsking t sound of the T.

But that was an easy one, because it didn't really differentiate between alphabet letters and phones. This time, speak the word "taxi" which combines five phones to make a word, although it only has four letters: the initial, sputtering t sound, the following ahh vowel sound, a sharp, breathy k sound, a hissing sss sound, and a final, fading eee sound.

The 26-letter, A-Z English alphabet is a pretty good shorthand system for everyday writing, but as we saw with the word "taxi," it isn't exact enough for representing phonetic speech sounds.

The problem with using the English alphabet for phonetics becomes even greater when you consider that phonetics studies the speech sounds of all the world's languages, many of which do not use a Roman alphabet. If Americans, French, Russians, and dozens of other Roman alphabet users can't agree on what sounds the letters stand for, then the whole scheme is obviously useless for talking about the speech sounds of Chinese, Tagalog, and Arabic.

Despite the difficulties, the linguists of the International Phonetic Association (I.P.A.) have created an alphabet that can describe all the phones of the world's known languages in a predictable, consistent way. Since the Roman alphabet is the most widely used alphabetic writing system in the world, they used the Roman alphabet as the starting point, but added in a plethora of other symbols.

There are several hundred different phones recognized by the I.P.A. and transcribed in their International Phonetic Alphabet.

consonants, vowels, & pronunciation

The phones of English are divided into two main categories: vowels and consonants.

consonants

Consonants have an obstruction somewhere in the vocal tract as the speech sound is produced. Study the phonetics chapter of your textbook carefully so you understand how consonants are classified on the chart below.

To see a full-size image of the phonetic symbols for English consonants, or to print a copy for your class notes, click here for the Adobe PDF version.

One of the most challenging aspects of studying phonetics is the expansion of the alphabet to include new symbols, and the modification of familiar alphabet symbols to represent more than one speech sound.

There are 26 different phones represented on the American English consonant chart (above), some of which are not regular alphabet letters. For example, one of the least familiar is likely to be ð , the eth symbol, which represents the initial buzzing, tongue-between-the-teeth phone in "thy."

In an example of a modified alphabet symbol representing more than one speech sound, note the use of s to represent an alveolar fricative (the initial sound in "seal"), and š to represent a palatal fricative (the initial sound in "shill").

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vowels

Vowels are speech sounds that are produced without significant constriction of airflow through the vocal tract. Tongue position during pronunciation is the most critical factor affecting English vowels, although lip position plays a part, too.

Study the phonetics chapter of your textbook carefully so you understand how vowels are classified on the chart below. The California Polytechnic State University English phonetic alphabet glossary can also help you learn the vowels' classification system.

To see a full-size image of the vowel chart, or to print a copy for your class notes, click here for the Adobe PDF version.

The vowels in the above chart are examples of the simplest kind of vowel, a monophthong. Monophthongs are vowel sounds whose quality doesn't change over the duration of the speech sound. In other words, the tongue stays pretty much stationary throughout the vowel's pronunciation. All known languages have monophthongs.

In many languages, including English, there are other, more complex vowels, called diphthongs, which have a sound that glides from one vowel quality to another because the tongue moves around as it is spoken. The chart below lists six diphthongs. The arrow shows where the tongue is when the diphthong starts, and how it moves as the diphthong is pronounced.

To see a full-size image of the diphthong vowel chart, or to print a copy for your class notes, click here for the Adobe PDF version.

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pronunciation

You may be wondering by now how one pronounces some of the strange symbols in the phonetic alphabet. The chart below is a handy reference that provides pronunciation examples for some of the symbols you'll use in ENG 490. The chart includes American English consonants, regular vowels (monophthongs), and some common diphthongs.

Note: some speaker's pronunciations may vary, depending on their dialect.

To see a full-size image of the phonetic pronunciation chart, or to print a copy for your class notes, click here for the Adobe PDF version.

If English is not your first language and/or you need more information on pronunciations, check out Sounds of English, a website designed for learners of English and their teachers. It has lots of English pronunciation examples you can see and hear.