Speech Sounds: Phonetics and Phonology Explained

Posted on Jan 22, 2025 in Photography and Digital Creation

Phonetics and Phonology: Understanding Speech Sounds

Key Concepts in Phonetics

Phonetics is the study of the sounds of language. Phonology determines the phonemes of a language. Spelling is also an important aspect of language.

  • Phoneme: The smallest linguistic unit without meaning that a speaker intends to produce. Each phoneme can have different phonetic realizations.
  • Sound: The realization of phonemes. Each phoneme may have multiple realizations depending on the context. Each variation is called an allophone or variant. Phonic sounds are chained together, forming a sequence.
  • Grapheme: A letter or digraph that represents a particular sound. Each sound can be written in one or more different ways according to the provisions of spelling rules.

Articulation of Sounds

  • Vocal Cords: If the vocal cords vibrate, the sounds are called voiced. If the cords do not vibrate, the sounds are called voiceless.
  • Airflow: If the air escapes through the mouth, the sounds are oral. If the air escapes through the nose, the sounds are nasal.
  • Articulatory Organs:
    • Passive: Upper teeth, dental alveolus, hard palate.
    • Active: Tongue, lips, soft palate.
    If the airflow is modified by these organs, the sounds are consonants. If not, they are vowels.

Consonant Sounds

1. Place of Articulation

The part of the mouth where there is some obstruction of airflow. There are 6 points:

  • Bilabial: Lip contact (e.g., [b]).
  • Labiodental: Lower lip and upper teeth (e.g., [f]).
  • Dental: Upper teeth and tip of the tongue (e.g., [t]).
  • Alveolar: Tip of the tongue and alveoli (e.g., [h]).
  • Palatal: Tongue and hard palate (e.g., [ʎ], [g]).
  • Velar: Upper part of the tongue and soft palate (e.g., [k]).

2. Manner of Articulation

How the airflow is obstructed. There are 6 manners:

  • Occlusive: Total closure of the vocal components (e.g., [p]).
  • Fricative: Incomplete closure of the articulators, producing friction (e.g., [s]).
  • Affricate: A mixture of occlusive and fricative (e.g., [ts]).
  • Approximant: No occlusion, and the sound is not fricative (e.g., [j]).
  • Liquid: Airflow leaves through the sides:
    • Lateral: Exit through the sides (e.g., [l]).
    • Vibrant: Single or multiple vibrations (e.g., [r]).
  • Nasal: Occlusive, but the air leaves through the nose (e.g., [n]).

Vowel Sounds

Characteristics:

  • No obstacle to airflow.
  • Different degrees of oral cavity opening.
  • They are the nucleus of syllables.
  • They can be stressed or unstressed.

Diphthongs

Two vowels in the same syllable, always involving /i/ or /u/.

  • Falling: /i/ or /u/ after a vowel (vowel + /i/ or /u/).
  • Rising: /i/ or /u/ before a vowel (e.g., right [j], queen [w]).

Phonetic Phenomena

  • Compound Words: The last word determines the stress.
  • Learned Words: An unstressed ‘e’ before or after a vowel may not become a neutral vowel to differentiate vowels in contact (e.g., ‘other’ – the ‘e’ is not neutral and is closed).

Contact Phenomena in Consonants (Word or Phrase)

1. Devoicing

(e.g., ice car [b] to [p], absent [b] to [p]).

2. Voicing

A fricative consonant at the end of a syllable or word followed by a voiced consonant takes on the voicing of the following consonant (e.g., the men [s] to [z]).

3. Assimilation

  • Labialization: ‘n’ in contact with a bilabial or labiodental sound (e.g., to send [n] to [m]).
  • Palatalization: ‘n’ or ‘l’ before a palatal sound (e.g., to sting [n] to [ɲ], to fill [l] to [ʎ]).
  • Velarization: ‘n’ in contact with a velar consonant (e.g., bank [n] to [ŋ]).
  • Gemination: Doubling of a consonant (e.g., people [bbl], century [ggl], ticket [double lambda], week [mm]).
  • Elision: Omission of sounds that are represented graphically (e.g., h in home, t in fountain, d in deep, r in sing, c in blank, g in blood, s in indices, s in these, s in respective wheels).

4. Awareness

Pronouncing a spelling/sound that is silent in other contexts (e.g., t in twenty is silent, but in going there, it is pronounced).

Contact Phenomena in Vowels (Phrase)

(e.g., tall boy [nɔjˈal]).

1. Elision

The disappearance of a vowel in contact.

  • Vowel + unstressed neutral ‘a’ or ‘e’: The neutral vowel disappears (e.g., a happy song goes).
  • Vowel + unstressed neutral vowel: The neutral vowel disappears (e.g., old car).
  • Neutral vowel + neutral vowel: Only one neutral vowel remains (e.g., ancient house).

2. Synalepha

Formation of a diphthong.

  • Vowel + unstressed /i/ or /u/: (e.g., not expert [j], not trees [w]).

3. Hiatus

Vowel + stressed /i/ or /u/ (e.g., beacon sink [ai]).