Classification of Speech Sounds

Classification of Speech Sounds

• English speech sounds fall into two primary categories: consonants and vowels.

Consonants

• Produced with constriction in the vocal tract, except for the sound /h/.

Classification of Consonants

• Three key factors for classification: place of articulation, manner of articulation, and voicing.

Place of Articulation

• Refers to the specific location in the vocal tract where the airflow is restricted during sound production.
• Examples include:
  • Labio-dental: between lips and teeth
  • Lingua-dental: tongue against teeth
  • Lingua-alveolar: tongue against alveolar ridge
  • Lingua-palatal: tongue against hard palate
  • Velar: back of the tongue against soft palate
  • Glottal: use of the vocal cords

Manner of Articulation

• Describes how the consonant sound is produced, including:
  • Stops: complete blockage of airflow
  • Fricatives: narrowing to create turbulent airflow
  • Nasals: airflow through the nose
  • Liquids: partial closure allowing airflow around the tongue
  • Affricates: combination of stops and fricatives

Voicing

• Indicates whether the vocal cords are vibrating during sound production.

Vowels

• Created with an open vocal tract and produced solely by the voice sound source.

Classification of Vowels

• Four main features guide vowel classification: tongue height, tongue advancement, tenseness or laxness, and lip rounding.

Tongue Height

• Defines how high the tongue rises in the mouth during sound production.

Tongue Advancement

• Refers to the positioning of the tongue from front to back within the vocal tract.

Tenseness or Laxness

• Describes the degree of tension in the oral cavity during vowel production; more tense vowels are often longer in duration.

Lip Rounding

• The extent to which lips are rounded during vowel production.

Frontal Vowels

• Front vowels include the sounds /i/, /ɪ/, /e/, /ɛ/, /æ/ with their respective properties:
  • /i/: high, front, tense, unrounded (as in "he")
  • /ɪ/: high-mid, front, lax, unrounded (as in "him")
  • /e/: mid-front, tense, unrounded (as in "eighteen")
  • /ɛ/: low-mid, front, lax, unrounded (as in "bet")
  • /æ/: low, front, lax, unrounded (as in "cat")

Stressed Vowels

• Use of diphthongs occurs whenever a stressed vowel is present.

Back Vowels

• Back vowels consist of /u/, /ʊ/, /o/, /ɔ/, /ɑ/ with their characteristics:
  • /u/: high, back, tense, rounded (as in "canoe")
  • /ʊ/: high-mid, back, lax, rounded (as in "book")
  • /o/: mid-back, tense, rounded (as in "notate")
  • /ɔ/: low-mid, back, tense, rounded (as in "caught")
  • /ɑ/: low, back, tense, unrounded.

Central Vowels

• Central vowels include /a/, /ɜ/, /ɝ/, /ə/, /ɚ/, /ʌ/:
  • /a/: dialect-specific "path vowel" (as in "nice")
  • /ɜ/: mid, central, tense, rounded (not often r-colored)
  • /ɝ/: mid-central, tense, rounded (stressed r vowel, as in "worker")
  • /ə/: the schwa, mid-central, lax, unrounded, and the most common vowel in English
  • /ɚ/: schwar, mid-central, lax, rounded, usually unstressed
  • /ʌ/: low, mid, back-central, lax, unrounded (as in "dumb").

Phonetic Transcription

• The fundamental rule in phonetics is to accurately transcribe what was said.

General Rule of Thumb (GROT)

• A guiding principle for phonetic transcription.

Use of Schwar

• Employ the schwar sound on the endings of words containing the letter "r" (e.g., mother, father).