Phonetics: Vowels, Consonants, and Sound Articulation
Phonetics and Phonology Fundamentals
Phonetics: The Study of Speech Sounds
Phonetics is a branch of linguistics that studies the characteristics of human sound making, especially those sounds made in natural speech. It provides methods for the description, classification, production, combination, and representation by written symbols. Phonetics also studies aspects like stress, rhythm, and intonation.
Phone: A Distinct Speech Segment
A phone is a speech segment that possesses distinct physical or perceptual properties, which are not necessarily meaningful on their own. Since a speech sound can be produced differently in various utterances, each variation constitutes a new phone, but these variations do not inherently represent different meanings.
Phonology: Sound Systems in Language
Closely associated with phonetics, phonology is another branch of linguistics. It deals with the way speech sounds behave in particular languages. Phonology focuses on how languages use differences between sounds to convey differences in meaning between words.
Phoneme: Minimal Meaningful Sound Unit
A phoneme is the smallest unit of speech that produces a change in meaning. It is the minimal contrastive unit in a language’s sound system.
Understanding Vowels
Defining Vowels
Vowels are sounds produced with no obstruction to impede the flow of air through the mouth as it passes out from the larynx and eventually out through the lips. All sounds that are not vowels are consonants.
Vowel Classification Criteria
Vowels are classified based on several features:
Tongue Height
This refers to the vertical position of the tongue. Vowels can be classified as:
- Close vowels
- Open vowels
- Intermediate vowels (e.g., close-mid, open-mid)
Tongue Frontness and Backness
This refers to the horizontal position of the highest part of the tongue during vowel production. Categories include:
- Front
- Central
- Back
Lip Rounding
This considers the shape of the lips when the sound is being made. Lip positions include:
- Rounded
- Spread
- Neutral
Vowel Length
This depends on whether the articulation of the vowel takes more or less time. Vowel sounds are categorized as:
- Long
- Short
Understanding Consonants
Defining Consonants
A consonant is a sound produced with a stricture (a narrowing or closure) at one or more points along the vocal tract.
Key Differences: Vowels vs. Consonants
The main difference between vowels and consonants is that consonants are produced with either a partial or complete obstruction in the flow of air at some point in the vocal tract, whereas vowels are produced with an open vocal tract.
Consonant Classification Criteria
Consonants are classified based on the following features:
Place of Articulation
This refers to the point of contact where the organs in the vocal tract produce the obstruction needed to create the consonantal sound.
Manner of Articulation
This feature refers to the way the organs in the mouth are involved in the stricture, specifically the degree of obstruction imposed upon the passage of air. Examples include:
- Trill: Approximant sounds where one articulator repeatedly taps another part of the mouth in a continuous movement. This trilling movement allows air to pass through with continuous and quickly alternating obstructions of the sound.
- Lateral: Consonants where the usual passage of air through the center of the mouth is blocked, and the air escapes along one or both sides of the tongue (e.g., /l/).
- Approximant: Sounds where one articulator moves close to another, but the vocal tract is not narrowed to such an extent that a turbulent airstream is produced (e.g., /j/, /w/ – also known as semi-vowels or semi-consonants).
Phonation (Voicing)
This indicates whether the vocal cords are vibrating during the articulation of a consonant.
- Voiced: The vocal cords are vibrating.
- Voiceless: The vocal cords are not vibrating (these sounds are sometimes called ‘voiceless’ or ‘unvoiced’).