Chapter 36 — Aitchison Linguistics

[]() Phonetics: the study of speech sounds

Speech sounds may be described and classified mainly in two ways:

[]()in **articulatory** terms (means of production)
[]()in **acoustic** terms (analysis of sound waves).

The following brief descriptions are all articulatory.

[]() Consonants and vowels

The traditional distinction between consonantal-type sounds and vowel-type sounds is a useful one (though closer analysis shows that it is not as clear-cut or as easy to define as appears at first sight).

[]() English consonants

English consonantal sounds are those which are most easily described in terms of three variables:

[]()voicing
[]()place of articulation
[]()manner of articulation.

[]() Voicing

The vocal cords are thin strips of membrane in the throat (see

). If they vibrate as a sound is produced, it is said to be

voiced

, as in the production of [b d g v ð z 3 d3 m n

l r w j]. This vibration can be felt if a hand is placed on the outside of the throat as the sound is uttered. If the vocal cords do not vibrate as a sound is produced, it is said to be

voiceless

, as in [p t k f θ s ∫ t∫].

[]()

Figure 19.1.

[]() []() Place of articulation

The place of articulation describes the point at which the articulators actually touch, or are at their closest. The most important places for the production of English sounds are listed in below. See also .

[]()Table 19.1.

[]() Manner of articulation

The manner of articulation describes the type of obstruction caused by the narrowing or closure of the articulators.

[]()

Table 19.2.

[]() Identification of consonants

Any English consonant can be described and identified in the above terms:


e.g.	[s] is a voiceless alveolar fricative
	[b] is a voiced bilabial stop
	[t∫] is a voiceless palato-alveolar affricate.

This information can also be conveniently plotted on a chart ().

Table 19.3.

Note that w occurs twice, []()as a velar, and also (in brackets) as a labial. This is because it is technically a labial-velar approximant, with a double place of articulation.

The account in the Table is by no means a complete phonetic description. It represents the minimum necessary for distinguishing between English consonantal-type phonemes in articulatory terms. Note also that there are sometimes minor variations and disagreements as to how to describe a particular sound.

[]() Notes

Other common phonetic terms and symbols sometimes used to describe consonants are:

[]()Sibilant. A general term used to denote ‘hissing’ and ‘hushing’ sounds, e.g. \[s z ∫ 3].
[]()Liquid. A general term used to cover \[l] and \[r].
[]()Semi-vowel. A general term used to cover \[j] and \[w].
[]()Frictionless continuant. An older term for what is now usually called an approximant.
[]()
Syllabic nasals
\[
<Image src="../images/icon05.jpg" alt="Image" />
] [
<Image src="../images/icon06.jpg" alt="Image" />
]. Nasal consonants which constitute a whole syllable, as in some pronunciations of madam [mæd
<Image src="../images/icon05.jpg" alt="Image" />
], garden [g <Image src="../images/f594-01.jpg" alt="Image" />
<Image src="../images/icon09.jpg" alt="Image" />
d
<Image src="../images/icon06.jpg" alt="Image" />
]. Liquids can also be syllabic, as in funnel [f <Image src="../images/f94-01.jpg" alt="Image" />n
<Image src="../images/icon07.jpg" alt="Image" />
] and American English ladder [læd
<Image src="../images/icon08.jpg" alt="Image" />
].

[]() English vowels

Vowel-type sounds are those in which the sound depends mainly on variations in the position of the tongue. They are normally voiced.

English vowel-type sounds are most easily described in terms of two variables:

[]()height of the tongue
[]()part of the tongue which is raised or lowered.

In the description of

[]()

vowels,

lip-rounding

is usually added as a third variable. But in British English, front and central vowels are automatically unrounded, and back vowels (except [

]) are automatically rounded. So this distinction has been omitted. Note, however, that in describing French and German vowels, lip-rounding is a major variable.

Vowels are normally plotted onto a diagram which represents the possible limits of human vowels. This diagram is constituted by setting up four extreme points ( – ).

In , the following extremes are illustrated.

[]()\[i] **shows the tongue at its highest and farthest forward**
[]()\[a]**shows the tongue at its lowest and farthest forward**
[]()\[u] **shows the tongue at its highest and farthest back**
[]()\[ <Image src="../images/f594-01.jpg" alt="Image" />] **shows the tongue at its lowest and farthest back.**

[]()

Figure 19.2.

[]()

Figure 19.3.

Between these extreme

[]()

four points, [e] and [

] are marked equidistant between [i] and [a], and [o] and [

] are marked equidistant between [u] and [

These eight points were called the cardinal vowels by Daniel Jones, who devised this system, and the vowels of any language can be plotted onto this quadrilateral ().

[]()

Figure 19.4.

English vowel sounds are of two types:

[]()relatively **pure**, or unchanging vowels, as in set, sat, sit
[]()diphthongs, or gliding vowels, as in boat, bite, boil in which the tongue position alters as the sound is made.

The

pure vowels

are fairly easy to plot on the cardinal vowel diagram (though the placing is only approximate owing to the large amount of variation found in British vowel sounds). Two dots beside a vowel indicate

length

, e.g. [u

]

[]()

Figure 19.5.

A less accurate, but useful []()schematic diagram, is as follows:

[]()

Figure 19.6.

Diphthongs are shown by arrows linking the tongue positions:

[]()

Figure 19.7.

[]()

Figure 19.8.