English Phonetics Unit Overview

The study of the production, transmission, and reception of speech sounds.

The system of sounds used in a particular language.

The study of how sounds are organized and used to create meaning in language.

The act of producing a speech sound using the mouth, tongue, and other vocal organs.

The system of organs involved in producing speech sounds, including the lungs, vocal cords, tongue, teeth, and lips.

The changes that occur to speech sounds when they are spoken in connected speech, such as assimilation, elision, and reduction.

The emphasis given to a particular syllable within a word.

The rise and fall of the voice in speech that conveys meaning and emotion.

A narrow phonetic transcription that shows all the fine details of how a sound is produced in a specific context.

A slight puff of air released when producing certain sounds, usually at the beginning of a word.

The actual sound produced in speech, a variation of a phoneme.

A basic unit of sound in a language that can distinguish words, like the difference between 'cat' and 'hat'.

The phenomenon where different sounds can be used in the same position without changing the meaning of a word.

A test used to determine if two sounds are separate phonemes by substituting one sound for another and seeing if it changes the meaning of a word.

The actual pronunciation of a sound in a specific word or context, a variation of a phoneme.

A theory that proposes that phonemes are a family of related sounds that can be differentiated by their position within words.

A scholar who studied the phoneme theory, emphasizing the distinct function of phonemes within a language.

Speech sounds produced without any obstruction to the airflow from the larynx to the lips.

Speech sounds produced with an obstruction to the airflow at some point in the oral cavity.

The length of a vowel sound.

The difference in the length of a vowel sound that can change the meaning of a word.

The English /i:/ vowel sound is a high, front, and unrounded vowel, similar to the vowel sound in the word 'see'.

The English /i/ vowel sound is a high, front, and unrounded vowel, similar to the vowel sound in the word 'bit'.

The English /e/ vowel sound is a mid, front, and unrounded vowel, similar to the vowel sound in the word 'bet'.

The English /æ/ vowel sound is a low, front, and unrounded vowel, similar to the vowel sound in the word 'cat'.

The English /a:/ vowel sound is a low, back, and unrounded vowel, similar to the vowel sound in the word 'car'.

A vowel sound produced with the tongue in a mid, front position, and the lips unrounded. It's a bit shorter than the similar vowel in Romanian.

A syllable ending with a vowel sound. These syllables are typically shorter and less complex than syllables ending in consonants.

A spelling pattern where the letters 'ui' represent the vowel sound /ɪ/, often found in words like 'build', 'biscuit', and 'guilty'.

A spelling pattern where the letters 'ee' represent a reduced vowel sound, typically found in unstressed words like 'coffee', 'Yankee', and 'agree'.

The spelling pattern 'ey' represents a vowel sound similar to 'ay', often found in words like 'money', 'journey', and 'monkey'.

A spelling pattern where 'ie' represents a vowel sound similar to 'i' in 'bite', commonly seen in words like 'auntie', 'bookie', and 'Charlie'.

A spelling pattern where a single 'a' represents a reduced vowel sound in unstressed syllables or words ending in '-ace', '-ate', '-ain'.

A vowel sound produced with the tongue slightly raised and retracted from the neutral position, as in the words 'bet' and 'set'.