Understanding Phonetics and Phonology

Posted on Feb 12, 2025 in Linguistics and Applied Languages

Phonetics and Phonology: Sounds of Language

Place of Articulation

The location of a consonant’s obstruction in the vocal tract:

Bilabials: Involve closure or constriction of the two lips.
Labiodentals: Involve constriction of the upper teeth and lower lip.
Dentals: Involve constriction of the tongue tip and the upper teeth.
Alveolars: Involve constriction of the tongue tip and the alveolar ridge.
Post-alveolars: Involve constriction of the tongue tip and the palate, just behind the alveolar ridge.
Palatals: Involve constriction of the tongue body and the palate.
Velars: Involve constriction of the tongue body and the velum. ([w] is considered a velar as well as a bilabial because it involves constrictions at both the lips and velum.)
Glottals: Involve constriction of the glottis (in this case, sufficient constriction to create a fricative, but not enough to cause voicing).

Manner of Articulation

The degree of obstruction of airflow involved in a given consonant:

Stops or Plosives: (p – b, t – d, k – g) These involve complete closure in the mouth. Pressure builds up behind the closure, and when the air is suddenly released, a plosive is made.
Fricatives: (f – v, s – z, S – 3, h) These involve incomplete closure at some point in the mouth. The air escapes through a narrowed channel with audible friction.
Affricate: (t – d½) Affricates are a combination of sounds. Initially, there is a complete closure like a plosive. This is then followed by a slow release with friction, as for a fricative, as in chop and judge.
Nasals: (n-m, ÷) These involve complete closure of the mouth. The velum is lowered, diverting the air through the nose. Vocal cords vibrate in English nasals.
Laterals: ( l ) These involve partial closure in the mouth. The airstream is blocked by the tip of the tongue but allowed to escape around the sides of the tongue. The words light and full have the lateral sound. The sound is voiced.
Approximants: (r -w-j) /r/ A variant of it is that sound in which the tip and teeth ridge leave enough gap for the air to escape. This is, therefore, called by a different class-name, Approximant. The English R in very and marry is an approximant.

Phonology and Phonetics

Phonology: The study of sound patterns of languages or of the pronunciation patterns of speakers.

Phonetics: The inventory and structure of the sounds of a language.

Diphthongs: Vowel sounds combined. The tongue moves from one position to another; the first sound is usually sustained the longest.

Vowels: Voiced sounds which are always formed with the mouth at least partially open. They are usually louder than consonants because the sound passes directly from the vocal cords with relatively little obstruction.

Phonemes (individual sounds): The smallest unit of sound in the sound system of a language. Every language has a finite number of phonemes.

Key Terminology

Vowels: Single voiced sounds. Example: / i / ship; / i:/ sheep

Diphthongs: Two voiced sounds combined. Example: page; buy; how

Consonants: Some voiced sounds, when you use your voice; some voiceless sounds, when you use no voice, just air.

Long Vowels: A long vowel sound is the same as its name. When a single vowel letter is at the end of a word (or syllable), it usually says its long sound (or its name), as in go and be.

Vowel Examples

/ i:/ sheep
/ i/ ship
/e/ bed
/ æ/ bad
/a:/ car
/ o/ hot
/ o:/ saw/course
/u/ good
/ u:/ food
/ʌ/ cup/up
/ ɜ:/ bird
/ə/ alone

Diphthong Examples

/ei/ page
/ai/ buy
/oi/ boy
/au/ how
/əu/ no
/iə/ hear
/eə/ hair
/uə/ tour