Sounds & Symbols

Topic 1  General Introduction to British English Phonetics

There are two forms of English:

1.  Spoken form
2.  Written form

For spoken / oral form, it involves the production of speech sounds and the mechanism involved.

Classification of speech sounds:

I. Vowels          

There are 20 vowel phonemes:

 7 short vowels 

 5 long vowels

 8 diphthongs

    

Vowel speech sounds (phonemes)

     In producing vowel speech sounds, there is no obstruction of airstream. 

Features to classify them:

1.   The height of the tongue:  High /  Mid /  Low
2. The advancement of the tongue:  Front  /  Centre  /  Back
3. the tenseness of the tongue:  tense / lax
4.  lips rounding:  Unround  /  Half-round  /  Round
5. Length of monophthongs:  long / short

II.          Consonants   

There are 24 consonant phonemes

  Consonant speech sounds  (phonemes)

In producing consonant speech sounds, the airstream is completely / 

partially obstructed at 7 different places, namely:

1.    Bilabial

2.    Labiodental

3.    Interdental

4.    Alveolar

5.    Palatal

6.    Velar 

7.    Glottal

   

   The ways how an airstream is obstructed are the manners of articution.  

   They are classified into 5 categories:

1.     Stop/Plosive

2.     Fricative

3.     Affricative

4.     Glide

5.     Nasal  

   The vowel phoneme forms the nucleus of the speech sounds and they are usually flanked by consonant phonemes.  For example, for the words:  now /naU /; seat /si:t/;  hat /hæt/;  joy / dӡ Ɔ I / and so on.                                                          1.

Topic 2      Vowel Phonemes                                                    

    No.                   Phonemes                         Helping Words

1.                          /  i: /                                    E

2.                          /  I  /                                                      it

3.                          /  e  /                                   egg

4.                          /  æ  /                                 cat

 5.                        /  3:  /                                   sir  

 6.                        / ә /                                      ago   /  ә’gәU/

7.                        /  ʌ   /                                    up

8.                          /          u:  /                                  blue

9.                          /  ʊ  /                                  book

10.                        /   Ɔ:   /                                 awe

11.                         /   ɒ   /                                 dog

12.                         /  a:   /                                 R

13.                         / eI /                                      A

14.                      /  Ɔ I  /                                    oil

15.                      /  aI  /                                     I

16.                      /  I ә      /                                ear

17.                      /  e ә     /                                air  

18.                    /   U ә    /                                 tour

Add caption

19.                         / ә U   /                                 O

20.                     /  aU    /                                  cow

          Table 1     

                                                                                                                  

  Vowel Phonemes in Description   

                                        Physiological rest of the tongue                

                                                    

                          i:                                                         u:

        High

                                                                           

                            I                                                                 ʊ

                         ______________________________

                          3:                                    

        Mid                                                                                               The Vowel

                            e                      ә             (Ɔ)  Ɔ:                              Quadrilateral

                                                                                  
                                                                         ʌ                     ɒ

        Low

                              æ                                                           (a)a:

 

                                   
                                Front                       Centre                      Back

(I have not learnt the skill to draw the Quadrilateral Vowel Chart in the blog.  When I copy and paste, most of the lines just disappear.)

      The Vowel Quadrilateral Chart shows the cross-section of the tongue.  The vertical line shows the height of the speech sounds:  High, Mid or Low.  The horizontal line shows the advancement of the tongue:  Front, Centre or Back.       

     The vowel phonemes are arranged based on the position and height from high to low and from front to back according to the Vowel Quadrilateral Chart . 

    There are 12 monophthongs:  7 short vowels and 5 long vowels with colon marked immediately after the symbols like /i:/. 

There are 8 diphthongs  arranged according to the second phoneme in the combination:  / I /, / ə / and / ʊ /.   It involves the glide of the first sound to the second speech sound.  For example, the diphthong / eI /, it is / e / phoneme glide to / I /   phoneme; .   /Ɔ I/ involves the glide from /Ɔ/ to/ I  / /aI/of course involves the glide from /a / to /I/ .

       

                       

                                                        I   

 e                       Ɔ 

                           a        

                                                       

      

                                                            Diagram  1

                             I

                                                                   ʊ

                                e              ə

                                  

                                Diagram 2

     In diagram, you see the glide of all the other sounds to /  ә     / and so we get //  I ә; eә;  U ә/               

 

                                               

                 ʊ

                                                               

                                                ə

                                                                 a

                                                                

                                        Diagram 3

In diagram 3, it is the glide to /U/, so we get the diphthong sounds: //   әU; aU     /

For triphthongs:  just add / ə / to the diphthongs No. 13, 14, 15, 19 and 20 to produce / eIə /,  / Ɔ Iə/,    / aI ə/       / ә U ə/ and / aUə/         vowel speech sounds.