English Phonetics & Phonology Course (2013) PDF

AN INTRODUCTION TO ENGLISH PHONETICS AND PHONOLOGY Course book for the 1st year English students enrolled in the long-distance programme Elena Buja 2013  2 Introduction Phonetics s...

AN INTRODUCTION TO ENGLISH PHONETICS AND PHONOLOGY Course book for the 1st year English students enrolled in the long-distance programme Elena Buja 2013  2 Introduction Phonetics studies the physiological, physical and perceptual expressions of language. In this course it will not be assumed that everyone has had some exposure to linguistics. The basic terms and concepts of linguistics will become familiar, and most of them will be re-encountered and reviewed during this course. The emphasis in Phonetics will be on the systematic description of the sounds and processes of speech production, transmission, and perception. In the processes of description, the overall phonetic inventory of speech sounds that are used in the English language will be covered. In addition to their descriptions, sounds will be illustrated by means of native or recorded samples found on the sites indicated at the end of the course book. Aims of the course The course aims, first of all, to improve the pronunciation of English of the first year students by making them aware of the fact that languages have different phonemic inventories and by drawing their attention to the difficulties of English pronunciation for learners of EFL. In the first part, the focus will be on the phonetic characteristics of the individual sounds, whereas in the second part of the course it will be shown how these change in the pronunciation of words in discourse (connected speech). Further on, students will be offered an insight into the constituent elements of the English syllables, pointing to the differences in the structure of the onsets and codas in English and Romanian. Additionally, students will become familiar with the suprasegmental phonemes, i.e. word-stress and intonation, which tend to vary from one variety of English to another. Finally, a brief incursion in the varieties of English as a first language will be made. Competences By the end of the course, the student should be able to: - Identify and produce a broad range of the phonetic sounds observable in the world's Englishes. - Transcribe sample data using the International Phonetic Alphabet. - Demonstrate a basic knowledge of the articulatory system and its operation during the production of various speech sounds. - Demonstrate a familiarity with the technical descriptions of speech sounds.  3 - Start to identify various processes that affect sounds in connected speech. - Place word-stress appropriately both in individual words and in words placed in context. - Use intonation correctly, according to the purpose of communication/discourse function. - Identify the characteristics of different varieties of English. Resources For this course you may need: - access to the internet as you will have to send your assignments by e-mail; at the same time, you will be asked to access various sites that will help you practice the sound of the English language on your own; - a good ear (to be able to identify various processes that occur in connected speech and to identify differences in pronunciation among the varieties of English as a mother-tongue). - a whole bunch of MOTIVATIOQ Structure of the course - The material is structured in 10 units, each of them being covered in about 21/2 hours. - The students will have to write 2 assignments, which will be handed in as follows: -assignment 1 after unit 1 -assignment 2 after unit 6; - The assignments should be handed in in a printed form. To be on the safe side, students should also send them via e-mail. The teacher’s feedback on the students’ work will be provided by mail. Prerequisites Since it is the first step in the English Linguistics course, no prior knowledge of linguistics is required on behalf of the students. The terminology will be introduced and explained little by little. Disciplines the material in this course contributes to  4 Knowledge of phonetics will prove useful in approaching other subjects such as semantics, pragmatics, or speech therapy. Average time for individual study Each unit could be covered by the students in about 2 to 4 hours, depending on the length of the material and on the evaluation test. Evaluation The final mark will consist of: - the mark in the end-of term examination: 60% - the mark obtained for the two assignments: 40% (each assignment represents 20% of the final mark).  5 Contents Unit 1 Phonetics and phonology: an introduction....................................................................9 1.1. Introduction.............................................................................................................9 1.2. Competences.............................................................................................................9 1.3. Language: an introduction.....................................................................................10 1.4. The role of sound in communication......................................................................11 1.5. Phonemes vs. allophones........................................................................................13 1.6. Classification of the phonemes...............................................................................16 1.7. Phonetics vs. Phonology.........................................................................................17 1.8. The International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA).........................................................18 1.9. Summary...............................................................................................................21 1.10. Evaluation test......................................................................................................21 1.10. Send away assignment 1........................................................................................22 Unit 2 The organs of speech...................................................................................................23 2.1. Introduction............................................................................................................23 2.2. Competences...........................................................................................................23 2.3. The lungs........................................................................................................................... 24 2.4. The larynx...............................................................................................................24 2.5. The cavities.............................................................................................................25 2.6. Summary...............................................................................................................27 2.7. Evaluation test........................................................................................................27 Unit 3 The English vocalic sounds: the monophthongs.........................................................28 3.1. Introduction...........................................................................................................28 3.2. Competences...........................................................................................................28 3.3. Classification of speech sounds into vowels and consonants....................................... 29 3.4. Principles of classifying the vocalic sounds...........................................................30 3.5. The system of cardinal vowels................................................................................33 3.6. The English front vowels.........................................................................................34 3.7. The English back vowels.........................................................................................38 3.8. The English central vowels.....................................................................................44 3.8.1. The phonemic status of the schwa........................................................................47 3.9. Summary.................................................................................................................48 3.10. Evaluation test......................................................................................................49  6 Unit 4 The English diphthongs and triphthongs....................................................................50 4.1. Introduction...........................................................................................................50 4.2. Competences...........................................................................................................50 4.3. The diphthongs.......................................................................................................50 4.3.1. The principles of classifying the English diphthongs..........................................51 4.3.2. General characteristics of diphthongs................................................................52 4.3.3. Variants................................................................................................................52 4.3.4. Spelling................................................................................................................53 4.3.5.The English vs the Romanian diphthongs............................................................56 4.4. The triphthongs.......................................................................................................56 4.5. The ration between English and Romanian vowel phonemes................................59 4.6. Summary.................................................................................................................59 4.7. Evaluation...............................................................................................................59 Unit 5 The English consonants...............................................................................................61 5.1. Introduction............................................................................................................61 5.2. Competences...........................................................................................................61 5.3. Principles of classifying the English consonants...................................................62 5.4. The English plosives...............................................................................................64 5.5. The English fricatives.................................................................................................73 5.6. The English affricates................................................................................................83 5.7. The nasal sonorants...................................................................................................85 5.8. The lateral sonorant...................................................................................................88 5.9. The semi-vowels......................................................................................................89 5.10. Summary...............................................................................................................91 5.11. Evaluation.............................................................................................................91 Unit 6 Sounds in connected speech.........................................................................................95 6.1. Introduction...........................................................................................................95 6.2. Competences...........................................................................................................95 6.3. Juncture..................................................................................................................95 6.4. Assimilation............................................................................................................98 6.5. Elision....................................................................................................................102 6.6. Summary...............................................................................................................103 6.7. Evaluation.............................................................................................................104 6.8. Send away assignment 2.......................................................................................105 Unit 7 The syllable..................................................................................................................106 7.1. Introduction.........................................................................................................106  7 2.2. Competences.........................................................................................................106 7.3. Phonetical and phonological definitions of the syllable......................................107 7.4. The structure of the English syllable....................................................................109 7.4.1. The initial segment................................................................................................109 7.4.2. The final segment...............................................................................................110 7.4.3. The intervocalic segment...................................................................................113 7.5. Summary...............................................................................................................114 7.6. Evaluation.............................................................................................................114 Unit 8 The suprasegmental phonemes: word-stress.............................................................115 8.1. Introduction.........................................................................................................115 8.2. Competences.........................................................................................................115 8.3. Features of word-stress........................................................................................116 8.4. Levels of stress......................................................................................................117 8.5. Position of stress...................................................................................................118 8.5.1. Stress in simple words...........................................................................................118 8.5.2. Stress in complex words....................................................................................121 8.5.2.1. Stress in derived words...................................................................................121 8.5.2.2. Stress in compound words..............................................................................125 8.6. Variable stress......................................................................................................126 8.7. Summary...............................................................................................................127 8.8. Evaluation.............................................................................................................128 Unit 9 The suprasegmental phonemes: intonation...............................................................130 9.1. Introduction.........................................................................................................130 9.2. Competences.........................................................................................................130 9.3. Form of intonation................................................................................................131 9.3.1. Primary accent..................................................................................................131 9.3.2. The tone-unit......................................................................................................133 9.3.3. The structure of the tone-unit............................................................................134 9.4. Pitch possibilities in tone-units............................................................................135 9.5. Graphical representation of English intonation.........................................................136 9.6. Functions of intonation.........................................................................................137 9.7. The use of the main tones in English....................................................................139 9.8. Final word on intonation......................................................................................140 9.9. Summary...............................................................................................................140 9.10. Evaluation...........................................................................................................141  8 Unit 10 Varieties of English...................................................................................................147 10.1. Introduction......................................................................................................147 10.2. Competences.......................................................................................................147 10.3. Regional aspects.................................................................................................148 10.4. Class dialects......................................................................................................148 10.5. Age differences in pronunciation........................................................................149 10.6. Received Pronunciation......................................................................................149 10.7. American English................................................................................................150 10.8. Canadian English...............................................................................................154 10.9. Australian English and Qew Zealand English....................................................154 10.10. Interference.......................................................................................................157 10.11. Summary...........................................................................................................160 Bibliography...........................................................................................................................161 Key to the exercises................................................................................................................164  9 Unit 1. PHOAETICS AAD PHOAOLOGY: IATRODUCTIOA Contents 1.1. Introduction.............................................................................................................9 1.2. Competences.............................................................................................................9 1.3. Language: an introduction.....................................................................................10 1.4. The role of sound in communication......................................................................11 1.5. Phonemes vs. allophones........................................................................................13 1.6. Classification of the phonemes...............................................................................16 1.7. Phonetics vs. Phonology.........................................................................................17 1.8. The International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA).........................................................18 1.9. Summary...............................................................................................................21 1.10. Evaluation test......................................................................................................21 1.10. Send away assignment 1........................................................................................22 1.1. Introduction In this unit we shall start our investigation by defining language, by presenting its basic characteristics and by showing some types of languages. Next, we shall make the distinction between language and speech, and we shall linger for a while on the role of speech in communication. Little by little, we will introduce some basic terms related to phonetics and phonology, such as phonemes, allophones, minimal pairs, free variation, and commutation test. Finally, the distinction between phonetics and phonology will be made. 1.2. Competences After having covered this chapter, the students should be able to distinguish between a phoneme and an allophone, should know what phonetics and phonology deal with. At the same time, they will be able to do and to read phonemic transcriptions. Time envisaged for covering Unit 1: 2 hours.  10 1.3. Language: an introduction The ability to use language is the most distinctive human characteristic, and yet most people take this ability for granted, never considering its complexity. It is the attribute that most clearly distinguishes our species from all others. By means of language we are able to specify our wishes, our needs and our feelings. Without language we would have to gesture and touch rather than tell. By means of language we can get in touch with people we shall never meet or with places we shall never visit. Language is the link between us, our ancestors and our descendants, it is something we inherit and at the same time send further to our descendants. 1.3.1. Origin of language. Language seems to have arisen in human beings about a hundred thousand years ago, but how this happened is very little known. Modern linguists have adopted an evolutionary hypothesis according to which over the millennia, both the human brain and those parts of the human body currently termed organs of speech have evolved so that speech is now part of the human nature. 1.3.2. Properties of language. - Productivity is the most distinctive characteristic of language in that users can create sentences never known before, but perfectly understandable to their hearers/readers. - Arbitrarity refers to the lack of any necessary connection between a word for something and the thing itself. Thus, there is no link between the word ‘tree’ and the object we see in the park, along a road or in the woods. This is shown by the fact that the same thing/object acquires different names in different languages. Thus, the German term for ‘tree’ is ‘Baum’, the Romanian ‘copac’, the French ‘arbre’, etc. 1.3.3. Types of languages. In principle, we could speak of four types of languages or ways of human communication: a. Sign languages are used by the deaf. They are extremely interesting, exhibiting all the complexities of a language. b. Kinesics or body language is also considered a way of communication among humans. The way we use our bodies in sitting, standing, and walking is considered to express things we do not say. But this does not make it language proper. c. Spoken languages -The spoken language uses the channel of sound, generated by the speech organs and perceived by the ear, as its primary mode. Consequently, speech is non-directional, i.e. anyone within hearing can pick it up, and we can hear from sources that we do not see. - In the spoken language, any speaker can be a listener and any listener can be a speaker. When we speak, we get feedback of our own utterances through the ears. - Our speech acts are specialized, i.e. they have to do only with communication; they do not serve any other function. Speech is different from other sounds we make, such as a laugh or a cry of pain or fear. It is true that such sounds can communicate, but only by accident to those within earshot. Their main purpose is a reflexive one: they occur more or less involuntarily, like a hiccup, for example. d. Written languages, too, have many fascinating features, but they are regarded as secondary to spoken languages for a number of reasons. For instance, children are  11 explicitly taught to read and write sometime after they acquire a spoken language. On the other hand, many cultures have never used writing systems. 1.4. The role of sound in communication As mentioned earlier, one of the chief characteristics of human beings is their ability to communicate with their fellows. A man possessing the normal human faculties achieves this exchange of information mainly by means of two types of sensory stimulation: - visual: writing, waving flags, sign language, flashing of a mirror; - auditory: by foghorn, Morse-key, drum, by word of mouth (speech). In all ages, the vast majority of messages have been SPOKEN, i.e. transmitted by means of sounds generated by certain organs of the body, called articulators (or speech organs). The SPOKEN WORD is, by far, the most frequent medium of communication between people. But more important than HOW we communicate is WHAT we communicate, i.e. the message. The message is only one element of verbal communication. Any verbal communication presupposes interaction between a SPEAKER (the sender of the message) and a LISTENER (the receiver of the message). The simplified representation of the process of communication is given below: SPEAKER → MESSAGE → LISTENER The act of communication can be described in terms of 5 successive operations: SENDER MESSAGE RECEIVER 1. EACODIAG 5. DECODIAG 1.1. semantic SEMANTICS 5.3. semantic 1.2. grammatical GRAMMAR 5.2. grammatical 1.3. phonological PHONOLOGY 5.1. phonological 2. SEADIAG→ Articulatory phonetics Auditory phonetics← 4. RECEPTIOA 5. TRANSMISSION ↓ Acoustic phonetics 1. Encoding: the message that the speaker wants to convey has to be encoded, i.e. has to take a certain shape, in accordance with the CODE (the language used by the speaker and listener for communication). a. semantic encoding resides in the choice of the proper semantic unit(s) that the languages possesses for the expression of the respective ideas, thoughts, and concepts. Semantic encoding is revealed evidently when various languages are compared. Compare the following: English: to sit and to stand correspond to one unit in Romanian, i.e. a sta ; to know, used to express such ideas as I know him and I know that... corresponds to the Romanian îl cunosc, ştiu că... The same lack of correspondence can be noticed in the case of whole utterances as well. Thus, English uses ‘What’s your name?’ to inquire about one’s name, while Romanian uses ‘Cum te cheamă?’, which translates literally ‘How (they) call you?’.  12 b. grammatical encoding consists in the arrangement of the semantic units in a particular way, according to the patterns imposed by the language and in carrying out all kinds of changes (tense, agreement between subject and predicate, etc.). Assuming that the chosen semantic units are Mary, John, kiss, what the speaker has to do is to arrange them in a given order, i.e. Mary kiss John or John kiss Mary. The next step consists in deciding whether the action is habitual/continual and whether the time of the action is present/past/future and in showing this by means of the inflections on the verb. Example 1 a) Mary kissed John, b) Mary is kissing John, etc. Just like with semantic encoding, in the case of grammatical encoding, too, there will be differences in the way languages use necessary distinctions. Thus, English uses two separate forms to indicate that the action expressed by the verb is simultaneous with the moment of speech (see (a) above) or habitual (see (b) above). In Romanian there is no such distinction: Maria îl sărută pe Ion. c. phonological encoding: the string of morphemes making up the words, phrases or sentences is turned into a string of phonemes, i.e. phonological units. The speaker has decided on the kind of sounds and on their arrangement. The phonological units for each language are not numerous, but they can be combined into many ways to represent various morphemes. For example, the English segments [Q], [s], [t], [k] are used to represent various morphemes, e.g. stack [stQk], tact [tQkt], sat [sQt], cat [kQt], tack [tQk]. Every combination of phonemes representing morphemes follows well-defined rules. If the rules are not observed, the combinations become meaningless, e.g. [tsQk], [ktsQ], [Qstk]. The encoding of the message was presented as a series of 3 successive stages: semantic, grammatical and phonological. This separation of stages has been done for didactic reasons only. In fact, the 3 operations are performed simultaneously. 2. Sending: once the phonological encoding is fulfilled, the speaker proceeds to the actual production of the sounds. He sends instructions from the brain to the articulators to perform certain movements in order to turn each phoneme into sounds. As a result, the string of phonemes takes the material shape of a string of sounds. Although the speech organs are anatomically and physiologically the same for the speakers of all languages, the sounds differ from one language to another because each language has its phonological code. 3. Transmission: the continuum of sounds resulting from the articulation is now transmitted from the speaker to the listener under the form of sound waves. 4. Reception: the sound waves reach the listener’s ear where they produce vibrations. These are taken to the brain under the form of sensory innervations.  13 4. Decoding: the activities involved in the decoding of the message by the listener can be presented as being identical with those of the speaker during the encoding stage, but performed in reversed order. - There are (at least) 2 persons involved in the process of communication: 1. the speaker (sender of the message); 2. the listener (receiver of the message). - There are 5 stages involved in the process of oral communication: 1. encoding; 2. sending of the message; 3. transmission; 4. reception; 5 decoding. We mentioned the fact that both the speaker and the listener should use the same code, i.e. the same language, in the process of communication by means of sounds. But we have to make a first distinction between: - LAAGUAGE, as a body of internalized knowledge about sounds, meanings and the way they can be related to one another, and - SPEECH, as the concrete use of language, the actual production of specific utterances. Then, it is necessary to make a second distinction, namely between: - SOUADS, defined as the result of vibrations of an elastic medium, transmitted in the form of waves and received through air, and - SPEECH SOUADS, defined as certain acoustic effects voluntarily produced by the organs of speech; they are the result of definite actions performed by these organs; they require that the speech organs shall be placed in certain definite positions or moved in certain definite ways. 1.5. Phonemes vs. allophones Every language is a system of signs and symbols conveying a certain message. Linguistics is the science that analyzes this language system. The analysis takes place at 2 levels: - the level of expression: the expression is the material support of a sign (word), its concrete, observable manifestation: - in vocal noises resulting from the use of speech organs; - in letters on paper, blackboard, etc; - the level of content: content represents the thing which is signified, what it stands for or represents. At each level a further distinction can be made between SUBSTANCE and FORM: Example 2 substance (sounds) → Phonetics Linguistic EXPRESSION item form (phonemes) → Phonology (word) substance → Semantics CONTENT form →Syntax (For the sake of simplification we shall disregard the CONTENT- part of the linguistic sign.)  14 At the level of EXPRESSION, speech sounds represent the substance; if they are not organized according to a code, these speech sounds remain a sequence of vocal noises which have no linguistic function. In order to discharge their linguistic function of communication, speech sounds are organized at the level of form. e.g. [t], [n], [i], [p] = substance [tin], [tip], [pin], [nip], [nit] = form Briefly, if [t], [n], [p], and [i] are described as separate and pure speech sounds (alveolar, voiceless, plosive consonant, or alveolar, voiced, nasal consonant), the description is at the level of substance and is said to be phonetic. A phonetic description is always a physiological analysis of a given speech sound in terms of manner and point of articulation. Such a speech sound has no linguistic function because it does not play any role in the act of communication. It is independent of any context and it is studied by PHONETICS. If the same speech sounds [t], [n], [p], and [i] are placed in word-context – tin vs. pin -, the description is at the level of form. The analysis is phonological; [t] and [p] are called phonemes and they have a linguistic function since they determine the meaning of words. [t] and [p] represent two distinctive phonemes which do contrast significantly. If [t] and [p] are replaced with each other, the meanings of the two words will change. Thus, we can say that tin and pin make a minimally distinct pair (i.e. a pair of words differing in one phoneme only). On the other hand, the ts in tea, eighth and train do not contrast significantly; they belong to the same phoneme [t]. The differences between them concern the place of articulation. Being the realizations of one and the same t-phoneme in different word-contexts, they are called its ‘variants’, ‘members’ or ‘allophones’. Thus, we can distinguish a class of t- sounds as making up the t-phoneme. Example 1 /t/ = phoneme [t1] [ t2] [t3] = allophones tea eighth train Allophones, or actually produced speech sounds can be very different. The question arises: what is it that is common to all the allophones of the same phoneme? On what basis are they considered to be the realizations of the same phoneme? Here is the answer: speech sounds contain both phonologically relevant properties and phonologically irrelevant ones. It is the former which characterize all the allophones of a given phoneme, enabling them to be the realization of a particular phoneme. The phonologically irrelevant properties are due to: - linguistically conditioned environments, i.e. the actual word-context: e.g. [t] → [t1] in tea; → [t2] in eighth; → [t3] in train  15 - the degree of education of the speaker and his social class: e.g. house pronounced [haus] by educated people and [Qus] by uneducated ones; - age, to some extent: e.g. door pronounced [dç´] by the old generation, and [dç:] by the youngsters; - emphatic speech vs. non-emphatic speech: marvellous vs. maaaaaarvellous. All these have no importance as far as linguistic function is concerned. Because of these irrelevant properties, ‘speech sounds are never phonemes in themselves’ (Trubetskoy, 1969, quoted in Makarenko, 1975:12) In speaking of allophones and phonemes we are concerned with two kinds of reality: the concrete, measurable reality of the sounds uttered (allophones) and another kind of reality, an abstraction made in our minds, which appears to reduce this infinite number of different sounds to a ‘manageable’ number of categories (phonemes). The PHOAEME is defined as a family of sounds in a given language which are ‘phonetically similar, and do not occur in the same environment’ (Crystal, 1991:258). In order to understand this term better, let’s look at it this way: the word dog refers to any type of animal that includes many different subtypes ranging from the Golden Retriever to Chihuahua, with all sorts of dogs in between. The word dog, though it doesn’t tell us exactly what kind of dog, fits any type in the dog family. The same holds for sound families. Take the phoneme /p/, for example. It doesn’t sound exactly the same in port as in tip, but it is still in the family of /p/. An ALLOPHOAE can be defined as the actually produced sound. It is a variation of a phoneme. We can hear that allophones are slightly different from each other, but not different enough to become phonemes. Try saying the following sentence aloud: John can open a can of beer. Say the sentence again, this time paying attention to the pronunciation of the underlined words. The vowel in the first can seems to change slightly in the second. Now pronounce the first can as if it were a noun and the second as if it were a verb. The sentence may sound strange, but it doesn’t change the meaning. This is because the vowel sounds in these words are variations/allophones of the phoneme [Q]. The originator of the phoneme theory was a Russian scholar of Polish origin, Baudouin de Courtenay. Also interested in this theory was a British phonetician of the 20th century, Daniel Jones, who in his work entitled The Phoneme: its Qature and Use described the phoneme as ‘a family of sounds in a given language which are related in character’ (Jones, 1950, quoted in Makarenko, 1975:8). He emphasized the fact that the different members of the same phoneme are mutually exclusive, since they do not occur in the same position: the aspirated [ph] in park [pha:k] is not used in hiccough [hik√p], where a non-aspirated [p] is used in word-final position. The shortcoming of Daniel Jones’ phoneme theory lies in the fact that it did not take into consideration the distinctive function of phonemes. He did not consider the long vowels and the short ones as independent phonemes, but considered the latter to be members (allophones) of the former. According to him, pairs such as deep and dip, pool and pull would sound the same.  16 Nevertheless, it must be admitted that in certain situations, independent phonemes can be in a relation of non-distinctive opposition to one another, i.e. they are said to be in free variation. For instance, [u:] and [u] are phonologically opposed in pool/pull, fool/full. But such words as room, broom, groom may be pronounced either with [u:] or [u]: room [ru:m] or [rum], broom [bru:m] or [brum], groom [gru:m] or [grum]. Since the meaning does not change, we say that there is free variation between the two vowel phonemes in these words. It is worth mentioning that sounds which belong to one phoneme in a given language may constitute separate phonemes in another language. For instance, [r] and [l] are different phonemes in English. This can be proved by applying the commutation test, i.e. a process of sound substitution meant to show contrastivity: e.g. rain vs. lane, rip vs. lip, read vs. lead. In Korean and Japanese, on the other hand, there is only a single phoneme, which is sometimes r-like and sometimes l-like. /x/ → phoneme [r] [l] → allophones Allophones (phonemic variants) are of great importance in a language because they develop into new phonemes. Thus, in Old English the pairs [f] – [v], [n] – [N], [T] – [D] were allophones of one phoneme, each depending on the environment. Today, all of them are independent phonemes. On the other hand, a phoneme may cease to function as such. In present-day English the diphthong [ç´] has no phonemic independence. It has become an allophone of the vocal phoneme [ç:]. Nowadays, the diphthong is used only by people of the older generation. Let's remember... a) A phoneme is an abstract sound segment; an allophone is the concrete realisation (production) of a phoneme. b) A minimal pair is a pair of words that differ in one phoneme only, all the other sound segments being identical: /li:p/ vs /lip/. It proves to be a useful tool in establishing whether a certain sound segment is a phoneme or an allophone. c) The number and types of phonemes differ from language to language, and from one period of time to the other within the same language. 1.6. Classification of phonemes In any language we will find two types of phonemes: - segmental phonemes, i.e. phonemes into which larger strings can be segmented (vowels and consonants). For example, the word cat is made up of 3 phonemes [kQt]. - suprasegmental phonemes. The term ‘segmental phonemes’ is necessary in order to distinguish segmental phonemes from other sound phenomena of language, which have a phonemic function. For instance, the sequence of phonemes [QbstrQkt] may mean two things, depending on whether the first or the second part of the word/sequence is heard  17 as more prominent: [:QbstrQkt] (noun, its meaning is that of a ‘summary’) and [Qb:strQkt] (verb, its meaning being that of ‘extract, remove’). The suprasegmental phonemes are stress, intonation and juncture. These are called phonemes because they can change the meaning of identical strings of segments, and suprasegmental because they operate on the segmental phonemes. Stress has a phonemic status as it differentiates two words or two grammatical forms of the same word, which have exactly the same sequence of sound segments. e.g. import n. [:impç:t], vb. [im:pç:t]. Intonation has a phonemic function as well, in that a different melody may differentiate two utterances otherwise alike. e.g. – Who is going to teach phonetics next year? ÕElena. (high-fall showing certainty) ÃElena. (low-rise showing doubt) ^Elena (rise-fall; she is willing to do it). Juncture (transition). Other contrasts can be established in English between linguistic forms which are identical in sound but differ with respect to the manner in which the transition from one given phoneme to another is carried out. Thus, we can speak of two types of juncture, namely close (uninterrupted) and open (interrupted). For instance, the string of phonemes [´blQktai] can be interpreted either as ‘a black tie’ or ‘a blacked eye’, depending on where in the sequence we have a short pause in pronunciation. The discussion of suprasegmental phonemes is a tentative one. It will be enlarged later on in individual chapters (ch. 6, 8, 9). Let's remember... Phonemes are of two basic types: -segmental -suprasegmental (intonation, juncture, word-stress) 1.7. Phonetics vs. phonology PHOAETICS - the science of speech sounds - is one of the best-known areas of language study, and perhaps the oldest as well. Descriptions of the sounds of speech date from at least the 5th century B.C., when Panini, a Sanskrit grammarian, wrote an extensive series of rules describing the correct way to pronounce the Vedic hymns. In the twentieth century, phonetics came to be regarded as ‘the prime basis for any scientific study of language’ (Graddol et all, 1994: 28). Apart from its intrinsic interest, phonetics is a field of language study with immediate and obvious practical value. A knowledge of phonetics is generally recognized as essential in foreign-language teaching and learning, in identifying and correcting communication disorders such as certain kinds of aphasia (the loss of language abilities) and stuttering, and in developing appropriate pedagogical and curricular materials for elementary and secondary school English classes.  18 PHOAETICS is the science that studies the characteristics of human sound-making, especially those sounds used in speech, and provides methods for their DESCRIPTION, CLASSIFICATION and TRANSCRIPTION. In the first part of this course we will look at several aspects of phonetics. We will discuss first the physiology of sound production, that is, how speech sounds are produced by the human vocal mechanism. As a field of study, phonetics has several objectives. The first is to identify and describe the sounds of language. Phoneticians do not attempt to describe the speech sounds found in all the world's languages, but rather confine their descriptions to the sounds of one language. Then, using these descriptions, they aim to give a principled account (by 'principled' we mean one that will reveal the abstract structure of the phonetic system that lies behind the observed sounds) of the way(s) these sounds are used in natural language; for instance, how sounds change when they are juxtaposed with other sounds, and how they are added to or deleted from strings of sounds. Accordingly, we will begin our investigation of phonetics by identifying and describing the sounds of the English language. PHOAOLOGY is concerned with the range and function of sounds in specific languages. It examines some of the ways sounds are organized and altered in accordance with the rules of the English grammar. We will see that the grammar of English phonetics severely limits the numbers and kinds of sounds that can occur in sequence and that it also determines and specifies the different ways in which a given sound 'changes' when it appears in different phonetic environments. 1.8. The International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA) To describe the sounds of English (or of any other language) one cannot depend on the spelling of words. The most appropriate means of representing sounds is through the International Phonetic Alphabet, devised by the International Phonetic Association in 1888. The members of this association found it necessary to develop an alphabet, which should be applied in transcribing all languages. ‘IPA is international, meaning it can be applied to any language; it is phonetic, meaning it is based on observed speech sounds; it is an alphabet, meaning it adheres without exception to the alphabet principle of one sound per symbol’ (Hahner et al. 1997:39). Besides the 26 letters of the Roman alphabet, the members of the Association had to develop a stock of letter-shapes (symbols) in order to be able to render sounds whose spelling required a group of letters. Each letter-symbol serves to sum up the way in which a given sound is produced and the association of the sound with the symbol must be consistent. IPA can be very useful to students (and not only) as they learn more about speech. First, by learning the IPA symbols, they will be learning to distinguish all the sounds of spoken English. Second, as they become familiar with IPA, they will begin to associate the symbols with actual movements of the speech mechanism, which will reinforce the sounds as they learn them. Third, IPA solves the problems created by English spelling: it provides us with a common framework for understanding speech sound variations. One of the traditional exercises in pronunciation teaching by phonetic methods is that of phonetic transcription. This has been defined as a kind of alphabetical writing in which each symbol represents one sound and never any other. This description is not strictly  19 accurate, for in a transcription we write /k/ at the beginning of [ki:p] and also at the beginning of [kuk], but the [k]’s differ from each other. Apart from this, when we compare one language with another or one dialect with another, we find that symbols often have to be used with somewhat different values in each language or dialect. The conclusion is that phonetic transcription is only a general term. Within the general term of phonetic transcription we distinguish between two types of transcription: phonemic transcription (also called ‘broad’ transcription) and phonetic transcription proper (or ‘narrow’ transcription). A) Phonemic transcription is a ‘broad’ transcription using the smallest number of symbols representing a given form of language without ambiguity. Every speech sound must be identified as one of the phonemes that exist in a language and written with the appropriate symbol. In a phonemic transcription only the phonemic symbols are used. This has the advantage that it is comparatively quick and easy to learn and use and that it combines simplicity with accuracy. The disadvantage is that as one continues to learn more about phonetics he/she becomes able to hear a lot of sound differences not perceived before. Students at this stage might find it frustrating not to be able to write down more detailed information. The phonemic system described for Received Pronunciation (RP, i.e. the Standard English language) contains 44 phonemes. The following is the list of symbols used in the phonemic transcription of the English sounds. THE VOWEL SYSTEM OF RP /i:/ as in sea, feet, me /´:/ as in bird, her, turn /i/ as in him, village /´/ as in butter, about /e/ as in get, head, Thames /ei/ as in shape, waist /Q/ as in sat, hand, bad /ai/ as in time, cry, die /√/ as in sun, blood, does /çi/ as in boy, noise, voice /a:/ as in father, car, calm /´U/ as in so, road, toe /ç/ as in dog, swan, cough /i´/ as in deer, here /ç:/ as in cord, saw, more /E´/ as in care, air, bear /u/ as in put, wolf, good /U´/ as in poor, sure, tour /u:/ as in soon, moon, shoe /au/ as in out, how, house THE CONSONANT SYSTEM OF RP /p/ as in pie /s/ as in so /b/ as in boy /z/ as in zoo /t/ as in tie /S / as in shoe /d/ as in dry /Z/ as in usual /k/ as in cook /h/ as in high /g/ as in good /m/ as in money /tS / as in China /n/ as in nun /dZ / as in jaw /N/ as in finger /f/ as in five /l/ as in alive /v/ as in view /r/ as in around /T/ as in thin /w/ as in one  20 /D/ as in this /j/ as in yellow B) Phonetic transcription As the same sound may not be produced in exactly the same way in all the contexts in which it occurs or in all languages, various diacritics are used to show subtle differences. For example, the sound [p] in park is slightly different from the [p] sound in tip. The first [p] is produced with a slight puff of air (called ‘aspiration’), and thus the sound is said to be aspirated, whereas the second one does not present this feature. This difference may be captured by the phonetic (narrow/allophonic) transcription, which mirrors all that is known about a sound in a given context/environment. Thus, the word park is transcribed phonetically as [pHa:k]. The diacritics modify the phonemic symbol in some way. The diacritical marks are also provided by the International Phonetic Alphabet. Here are some commonly used diacritics: - o placed below the symbol of a voiced consonant shows devoicing (e.g. bad [bQd ]); - h placed higher, immediately after a voiceless plosive consonant indicates aspiration (e.g. car [kHa:]); - j placed higher, after a consonant indicates palatalization (e.g. tJ, kJ); - w stands for a labialized pronunciation (e.g. tw, dw); - ÷ placed after the phoneme symbol indicates a pharyngealized pronunciation (e.g. t÷, d÷); - 9 placed below a consonant symbol shows a dental articulation (tª, dª). The students are not asked to know all the diacritics used1, but someone who knows them all could write a transcription that would be much more accurate in phonetic detail, and contain more information than a phonemic transcription. By making use of phonemic symbols and of the diacritical marks it is possible to represent the allophones of a phoneme in a schematic manner. The current practice in transcriptions is to enclose the symbols representing the allophones in square brackets [ ], while those representing phonemes between slants / /. No capital letters and no punctuation marks are used in transcriptions. A single vertical line ( ñ ) is used to separate clauses, and a double one (Ñ) to separate sentences. It is important to remember that the letters of the alphabet are used for spelling words, while the phonetic symbols are used to indicate the sounds that make up the words. For linguistic purposes, phonemic transcriptions are the most practical ones. They represent one of the traditional exercises in pronunciation teaching. There are two different kinds of transcription exercises: a. transcription from a written text – the student is given a passage of a text written in orthography and must use phonemic symbols to represent how s/he thinks it would be pronounced by a speaker of RP; b. transcription from dictation – the student must listen to a person or a tape-recorder and write down what s/he hears. 1 For further diacritics, see the International Phonetic Alphabet (revised to 1993, updated 1996) in Radford et al., 1999:137, or Clark, J. and Yallop, C, 1995:425.  21 Callary (1994:304) gives the following piece of advice: ‘When doing phonetic transcription, one of the most important things to remember is to transcribe the words as you actually say them in normal conversational speech, not how you think they should be pronounced or how they are written in the regular alphabet. After you have determined your normal pronunciation, you must then select from the phonetic alphabet the symbols that represent that pronunciation’. 1.9. Summary In this first unit we have introduced the students to the basic terminology of the subject matter. We started by mentioning the participants and the main stages in the process of communication, making the distinction between the spoken and the written message. Based on this, further distinctions were pointed out: speech vs. language, phoneme vs. allophone, phonetics vs. phonology. Finally, the students were introduced to the phonemic and phonetic transcriptions, an important tool that will help them improve their pronunciation. 1.10. Evaluation 1. What are the participants and the stages involved in the act of communication by means of language? 2. What does grammatical encoding consist of? 3. By what means can a message be transmitted following its semantic and grammatical encoding? 4. What does a speaker turn into sounds? 5. How are sounds perceived by a hearer? 6. What is a ‘minimal pair’? 7. Give the phonemic transcription of the following fragment: ‘Once there was a little girl who lived with her mother at the edge of the forest. The little girl always wore a red cloak and hood that her grandmother had made for her. That’s why everyone, even her mother, called her Little Red Riding Hood. One day, Little Red Riding Hood’s mother said to her: ‘Grandmother is not feeling well. I have packed a basket with fruit and cake and honey. Will you take it to her?’ 8. Here is the phonetic transcription of a conversational passage. Try to render it in normal spelling.  22 Ñjç:r ´ ga:dn´ré a:ntju: Ñd´ ju: n´u eniTiN ´baut bizi lizizÑ Ñ´baut wÅtñ bizi lizizÑ wÅtÅn ´:T ´ DeiÑ Ñ´Uñ ai Tç:tju:d n´UÑ Dei´ haus pla:ntsÑ aiv dZ√sbi:n givnw√n baimai sist´rñ ´nai wÅnt t´ n´U hau t´lUk a:ft´ritÑ Ñaim´freid ai d´Unt n´U m√tS ´baut haus pla:ntsÑ b´taiv gÅt ´ buk s√mwE´ D´t mait helpÑ lets si:Ñ a: jesÑ hi´r it izÑ D´ kE´r ´v haus pla:ntsÑ mmÑDQt luks ju:sflÑ Ñd´ju: hQp´n t´ n´U D´ lQtin neim´vitÑ Ñaim´freid ai d´VntÑ bizi liziz Di ´Unli neim aiv h´:dÑ ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 1.11. Send away assignment 1. Transcribe phonemically the following text. Send the assignment to the teacher according to the deadline provided in the calendar. On the last house in a little village the storks had built a nest, and the mother stork sat in it with her four young ones, who stretched out their necks and pointed their black beaks, which had not yet turned red like those of the parent birds. A little way off, on the edge of the roof, stood the father stork, quite upright and stiff; not liking to be quite idle, he drew up one leg, and stood on the other, so still that it seemed almost as if he were carved in wood. ‘It must look very grand,’ thought he, ‘for my wife to have a sentry guarding her nest. They do not know that I am her husband; they will think I have been commanded to stand here, which is quite aristocratic;’ and so he continued standing on one leg. Hans Christian Andersen, The Storks  23 Unit 2. THE ORGAAS OF SPEECH Contents 2.1. Introduction...........................................................................................................23 2.2. Competences...........................................................................................................23 2.3. The lungs........................................................................................................................... 24 2.4. The larynx...............................................................................................................24 2.5. The cavities.............................................................................................................25 2.6. Summary...............................................................................................................27 2.7. Evaluation test........................................................................................................27 2.1. Introduction Unit 2 of this course-book presents the parts of the human body that are responsible for the production of speech sounds. We shall see that the production of speech sounds is, actually, a secondary function of these organs. 2.2. Competences Once the students have read the information in this unit, they will be able to identify correctly the articulators involved in the production of each an every sound. As future teachers of English, they will be capable of correcting the pronunciation of their students by pointing out which articulators move and how they move to produce speech sounds. Time envisaged for covering Unit 2: 1 hour. Speech sounds are produced by modifying the stream of air coming from the lungs. In English, all speech sounds are made on the outgoing breath. Air is pushed by the lungs through the trachea and into the oral/mouth or nasal cavity, or in some cases into both. Different modifications of this flow of air cause different sounds to be articulated. The simplest act of articulation requires the coordination of hundreds of muscles of various organs of speech. The totality of speech organs is referred to as the vocal tract or the speech mechanism. The speech mechanism may be divided into three main parts according to the role they have in the production of speech sounds: - lungs, representing the sound source,  24 - the larynx with the vocal cords, acting as sound generator, - the cavities (i.e. the pharynx, the mouth and the nose cavity) performing the function of resonators. 2.3. The lungs, whose primary biological function is related to breathing, generate the air stream required for the production of speech sounds. We fill our lungs with air, which is expelled immediately by contracting the muscles of our chest. The lungs need refilling at short intervals, and this determines the short pauses we make when speaking. These pauses in speech coincide with the syntactic divisions of an utterance. Thus, speaking does not seem to interfere with breathing. 2.4. The larynx. The first point at which the air stream from the lungs may be modified is at the larynx. But where is the larynx located? Take the thumb and forefinger of one hand, and very gently pinch ‘Adam’s apple’ (i.e. the thyroid cartilage). With your forefinger, you can trace the outline of the thyroid cartilage which forms the outside wall of the larynx. Lying within the larynx (also known as the voice box) are the vocal cords or vocal folds. These are two bands of elastic tissue that start vibrating when air is forced out of the lungs. For speech, the vocal folds assume one of two basic positions: a) they can be tensed and drawn close together so that there is only a narrow opening between them (this opening is called glottis). In forcing its way out through the narrowing, the airflow will make the vocal folds vibrate. This situation is characteristic of voiced consonants (b, d, z, v) and vowels (a, i:, u). b) they can be relaxed and spread relatively far apart. When the air comes out of the lungs, it passes through the open glottis, and consequently there will be no vibration of the vocal cords. This is characteristic of the production of the voiceless consonants (e.g. p, t, s, f). Figure 1. Articulators above the larynx. (The drawing represents the human head, seen from the side, displayed as if it had been cut in half. You will need to look at it carefully while the articulators are described)  25 2.5. The cavities The air stream, having passed through the larynx, is now subject to further modification according to the shape assumed by the upper cavities of the pharynx and mouth, and according to whether the nasal cavity is brought into use or not. These three cavities in our neck and head function as the main resonators; they are open chambers filled with air. They are actually very sophisticated resonators, because we can change their size and shape and, thereby, change the tones they resonate. The vocal resonators are used to transform the buzz of the vocal folds into voice. They selectively amplify the buzz and not only do they make our voice louder but they also give it its unique characteristics. Let us have a brief look at each of them. A. The pharynx is a tube that begins just above the larynx. It is about 7 cm long in women and about 8 cm long in men, and its top end is divided into two, one part being the back of the mouth and the other the beginning of the way through the nasal cavity. If you look in a mirror with your mouth open, you can see the back of the pharynx. Figure 2. Sub-divisions of the tongue The resonance characteristics of the pharynx are controlled by the constrictor muscles. From the pharynx the air escapes in one of three possible ways, determined by the position of the soft palate: ►when the soft palate is lowered, like in normal breathing, the air can pass both through the mouth and the nose. ►when the soft palate is raised the air comes out through the mouth only. ►the soft palate is lowered and a complete obstruction is formed at some point in the mouth, so that in spite of the fact that the air enters all or part of the mouth cavity, it cannot escape through the mouth, but is directed through the nasal cavity. B. The mouth is the most important of the three cavities, and this is due to the fact that its shape determines finally the quality of the majority of the speech sounds. The organs inside this cavity may be divided into movable and fixed. ►the movable parts are called articulators; they are on the move most of the time. The articulators are described below. - The TOAGUE can be moved into many different places and different shapes. It is usual to divide the tongue into different parts, though there are no clear dividing lines within the tongue. They are: the tip, the blade (these two parts form the apex which is approximately opposite the alveolar ridge), the front of the tongue (which is actually the central part and is opposite the hard palate) and the back of the tongue (next to the soft palate). In the  26 articulation of sounds, various parts of the tongue can come into contact with different fixed or movable parts of the mouth cavity. Thus, the tip can touch the teeth (as in the production of [T]), the alveolar ridge (in the production of [t], [d]), the front of the tongue can touch the hard palate (as in the production of [S]), whereas the back of the tongue can form a total obstruction by its contact with the soft palate, raised in the case of [k], [g]; - The LIPS are important in speech. They can be pressed together (when we produce the sounds [p], [b]), brought into contact with the teeth (as in [f], [v]), or rounded to produce the lip-shape for vowels like [u]. Sounds in which the lips are in contact with each other are called bilabial, while those with lip-to-teeth contact are called labio-dental. In producing vowel sounds the lips can assume different shapes, as seen below: close rounding [u] open rounding [Å] spread [i:] neutral [e] Figure 3. Shapes assumed by the lips These different shapes have a strong influence on sound quality. -The JAWS. Certainly we move the lower jaw a lot in speaking, but the jaws are not articulators in the same way as the others because they can not themselves make contact with other articulators. But by changing the distance between the jaws, we obtain important modifications in the production of certain speech sounds; a great distance between the jaws corresponds to a great distance between the tongue and the hard palate. ►the fixed parts are called points of articulation. These are: - The TEETH: they are shown in Fig. 1 only at the front of the mouth, immediately behind the lips. This is for the sake of a simple diagram, and one should remember that most speakers have teeth to the sides of their mouths. The tongue is in contact with the upper side teeth for many of the speech sounds. Sounds produced with the tongue touching the front teeth are called dental, whereas those produced by pushing the tip of the tongue through the upper and lower teeth are called interdental; - The ALVEOLAR RIDGE: this is the area immediately behind the upper teeth. Its surface is really much rougher than it feels, and is covered with little ridges. You can see these if you have a mirror small enough to go inside your mouth (such as those used by dentists). Sounds made with the tongue touching here (such as [t], [d]) are called alveolar. - The HARD PALATE (bony dome) extends further behind the alveolar ridge. Its surface is smooth and curved. Sounds produced with the tongue touching this area are called palatal (e.g. [j], [S], [Z]). Two further things should be mentioned in connection with the speech organs. First, one should not forget that despite their involvement in the production of speech sounds their  27 primary function is a biological one: they keep the human body alive. Second, the speech organs are dealt with within articulatory phonetics, so called because it deals with the ways in which the human vocal apparatus is manipulated as sounds are produced. The basic assumption of articulatory phonetics is that different sounds result from, and are best described in terms of, the different configurations of the vocal tract as different sounds are uttered. C. The nose is the third cavity that acts as a resonator. The airstream coming from the pharynx is directed towards the nasal or oral cavity by the soft palate (velum). When the soft palate is lowered, the air stream escapes through the nose. The sound produced in this ways are the nasal sounds /m, n, Ƞ/. When the soft palate is raised, the air is pushed out through the mouth cavity, and the sounds produced in this manner are called oral sounds. There are also situations in which the air stream escapes both through the nose and the mouth. ‘This results in the partial nasalization of sounds which are oral by nature’ (Chitoran, 1977:34). 2.6. Summary This unit has shown they way the speech organs, especially those above the larynx, contribute to the production of speech sounds. The Latin denomination of the speech organs proves to be of great importance once the sounds need to be defined, as the latter get their names according to the articulators involved, as will be shown in the following unit. 2.7. Evaluation 1. Define articulatory phonetics. 2. List the speech organs. 3. Is there any organ in the human body which is, in fact, a speech organ proper? 4. What is the primary function of the so-called speech organs? 5. What is the role of the lungs in speech production? 6. How does the air escape from the lungs? 7. What is the role of the vocal folds? 8. Give the names of the supra-glottal cavities which act as resonators.  28 Unit 3. THE EAGLISH VOWEL SOUADS Contents 3.1. Introduction............................................................................................................28 3.2. Competences...........................................................................................................28 3.3. Classification of speech sounds into vowels and consonants....................................... 29 3.4. Principles of classifying the vocalic sounds...........................................................30 3.5. The system of cardinal vowels................................................................................33 3.6. The English front vowels.........................................................................................34 3.7. The English back vowels.........................................................................................38 3.8. The English central vowels.....................................................................................44 3.8.1. The phonemic status of the schwa........................................................................47 3.9. Summary.................................................................................................................48 3.10. Evaluation test......................................................................................................49 3.1. Introduction This unit introduces students to the classification of speech sounds into the two major groups (i.e. vowels and consonants), focussing further on on the English monophthongs. We shall mention the principles according to which vowels could be described; we will also show that there is no one-to-one correlation between the vocalic sound and its graphical representation in the English words. More importantly, the differences between the English and the Romanian vowel sounds will be highlighted, making the students realize that unless they pronounce the English words with the appropriate vowel length, all kinds of misunderstandings may arise. 3.2. Competences When the students have completed this unit, they will know the difference between a vowel and a consonant, they will be able to describe, distribute and spell the English monophthongs, as well as pronounce them correctly, without any trace of interference of the vocalic sounds of their mother tongues. They will also know that in English, unlike Romanian, vowel length has a phonemic status.  29 Time envisaged for covering Unit 3: 2 1/2 hours. 3. 3. Classification of speech sounds Speech sounds are traditionally divided into vowels and consonants. But the principles of this division, which should be universal and applicable to any language, are not quite well defined. a. The most common view is that vowels are sounds in the production of which there is no obstruction to the flow of air as it passes from the larynx to the lips, while consonants represent sounds in the production of which the air flow is obstructed to various degrees and at various points in the oral cavity. One problem with respect to this view is that some English sounds that we consider consonants, such as the sounds at the beginning of the words hay and want, do not really obstruct the flow of air more than some vowels do. Another problem is that different languages have different ways of dividing sounds into vowel and consonant. For instance, the sound [r] in red is felt to be a consonant by most English speakers, but in some other languages (some dialects of Chinese), the same sound is treated as a vowel. b. The etymology of the word consonant (Latin con (= with) + sonore (to sound)) suggests the idea that by a consonant was understood a sound used with another sound (a vowel). But any sound can be produced in isolation – [a:], [ai], [u:], [f], [m], [l], etc. Therefore, we can not take etymology as a basis for separating vowels from consonants. c. Daniel Jones (1964) attempted to define vowels and consonants according to the criteria of sonority. According to him, the major distinction between vowels and consonants is 'a distinction based on acoustic considerations, namely on the relative sonority or carrying power of the various sounds. Some sounds are more sonorous than others, that is to say they carry better or can be heard at greater distance when pronounced with the same length, stress and voice-pitch. Thus, the sound [a] pronounced in the normal manner can be heard at a much greater distance than the sound [p] (...) pronounced in the normal manner. It so happens that the sounds defined as vowels (...) are on the whole more sonorous than any other speech sounds (...): and that is the reason why these sounds are considered to form one of the two fundamental classes’ (Jones: 1964:23-24). A shortcoming of Jones’ assertion is the fact that he made a contrast in terms of sonority of vowels and voiceless consonants [p], [t], [k]. Indeed, the latter have no sonority at all, being pronounced without vocal cords vibration. But in English there are other consonants – the semi-vowels [w], [j], the sonorants [m], [n], [N], [l], [r] and voiced consonants [b], [d], [g], which possess sonority in a lessening degree. Consequently, neither sonority can be used as a basis for separating vowels and consonants. d. Closely connected with sonority is the criterion of syllabicity. Vowels, being more resonant and sonorous than consonants, are always syllabic. Some scholars say that the number of syllables in an English word correlates exactly with the number of vowel  30 phonemes, but we can not disregard the fact that such consonants as [m], [n], [N], [l], [r] are sounds of complete sonority as well and, hence, syllabic in certain situations. But while vowels are always syllabic in any position, the above-mentioned consonants are syllabic only in word-final position or in middle position: e.g. hidden [:hi-dn], temporary [:tem-pr-ri], bottom [:bÅ-tm], little [:li-tl]. e. The criterion of context as a basis for separating vowels from consonants must also be mentioned here because it is very satisfactory for the English language. It consists in taking a word which begins with the sound to be tested and using before it successively a/an, the [D´]/[Di] and to [t´]/[tu]. If the sound to be tested accommodates itself to the pronunciation [´n], [Di], [tu], satisfying the sense of fitness of the English-trained hearer, it is a vowel. If [´], [D´], [t´] seem more appropriate, then the sound is a consonant. e.g. a boy [´ bçi], the boy [D´ bçi], to buy [t´ bai] an act [´n Qkt], the act [Di Qkt], to act [tu Qkt] The shortcoming of this criterion consists in the fact that the consonants used as tests are limited in English, since some sounds are not used initially. This is the case of [u] and [N]. f. The criterion of distribution of sounds is not so important for the purpose of this chapter, but it is, nevertheless, worth mentioning. Study of sounds found at the beginning and end of English words has shown that two groups of sounds with quite different patterns of distribution can be identified, and these two groups are those of vowels and consonants. If we look at the vowel - consonant distinction in this way, we must say that the most important difference between a vowel and a consonant is not the way that they are made, but their different distributions. Thus, in a word beginning with [h], the h-sound will be followed by sounds we normally think of as vowels (e.g. hen, house, ham, hill, hut, hot), but never by what we consider a consonant. Let's remember... We shall refer to the vowel as a speech sound ‘produced by modifying a relatively free-flowing air stream’ (Callary, 1994:313), the vocal cords vibrate, and the muscular tension is spread over all organs of speech. A consonant, on the other hand, is a speech sound in the production of which the air flow coming from the lungs is obstructed in various degrees and places along the vocal tract. There are many interesting theoretical problems connected with the vowel - consonant distinction, but we will not return to this issue. For the rest of this course it will be assumed that the sounds are clearly divided into vowels and consonants. 3. 4. The Principles of Classifying the English Vowels We begin the study of English sounds by looking at vowels; in this respect, it is necessary to say something about the ways vowels differ from each other.  31 English vowels are classified according to the following principles: a. The stability of articulation: according to this we have monophthongs (whose articulation is stable) and diphthongs2 (produced by the movement of the tongue from one vowel position to the next). There are 12 monophthons [i:, i, e, Q, a:, Å, ç, u, u:, √, ´, ´:] and 8 diphthongs [ei, ai çi, i´, E´, u´, ´u, au]. b. The height to which the tongue is raised. According to it, there are: - close vowels - in their production the tongue is held as high as possible: [i:], [u:]; - open vowels – in their production the tongue is held as low as possible: [a:]; - half-close vowels – the tongue occupies 1/3 of the distance between ‘close’ and ‘open’: [e]; - half-open vowels – the tongue occupies 2/3 of the distance between ‘close’ and ‘open’: [Q]. c. The part of the tongue which is raised. According to this principle vowels are classified into: - front vowels – when the front part of the tongue is raised in the direction of the palate. The front vowels are: [i:], [i], [Q] and [e]; - back vowels – when the back part of the tongue is raised against the palate. The back vowels are: [a:], [Å], [ç], [u], and [u:]; - central vowels – vowels intermediate between front and back (the middle/central part of the tongue is raised against the palate). There are 3 central vowels in English, namely [√], [´], [´:]. Fig.1. Tongue height for [i:] and [Q] Fig.2. Tongue position for [ç], [ç:], [u], and [u:] d. Lip-rounding is an important variable of vowel quality. Although the lips can have many different shapes and positions, we will, at this stage, consider only three possibilities. These are: 2 The word diphthong comes from the Greek di meaning ‘twice’ or ‘double’ and phthongos meaning ‘sound’ or ‘voice’. So diphthongs are literally ‘two sounds’.  32 - rounded, where the corners of the lips are brought towards each other and the lips are pushed forwards. This is most clearly seen in [u:]; - spread, where the corners of the lips move away from each other, as for a smile. This is most clearly seen in [i:]; - neutral, where the lips are not noticeably rounded or spread. The noise most English people make when they are hesitating (written ‘er’) has neutral lip position. e. Duration (length). Vowels may be either long or short. But the actual length of vowels varies considerably according to their position in word contexts. The long vowels are fully long only when situated in final position or when followed by a voiced consonant. e.g. bee [:bi:], been [:bi:n] When followed by a voiceless consonant, long vowels are reduced (shortened). e.g. beat vs. bead. f. Degree of muscular tension. This principle is closely related to the previous one (i.e. length). Long vowels require a tenseness of the muscles of the tongue and lips; therefore they are called tense vowels. In the production of the short vowels the muscles do not make such a great effort, they are lax. Consequently, the short vowels will be called lax vowels. g. The position of the soft palate may affect the vowel quality. In the articulation of normal vowels the soft palate is raised. The result is that no air can pass through the nose. When vowels are pronounced with the soft palate lowered and the air can pass through the nose as well as through the mouth, they are said to be nasalised. A vowel may be slightly nasalised if it follows or precedes a nasal consonant within a word or at word boundaries: e.g. man [mQ‚n]. Nasal pronunciation is common in London dialectal speech and in American English. h. Distribution refers to the position(s) in which the respective vowel can or cannot appear. Long vowels can be used in any position: - initial: art [:a:t] - medial: heart [:ha:t] - final: car [:ka:]. Short vowels are restricted in their use to: - initial position: utter [:√t´] and - medial position: blood [:bl√d]. They cannot be used in word final position, with the exception of [i] (city [:siti]) and [´] (sister [:sist´]). Let's remember... The English vocalic sounds are classified/described according to a number of principles, such as: - stability of articulation; - part of the tongue which is raised - height to which the tongue is raised - duration (length)  33 - lip-rounding - degree of muscular tension - position of the soft palate - distribution 3.5. The system of cardinal vowels We have used the terms front, back, close open. They are, to some extent, vague since they can be interpreted differently in different languages. For instance, both the Romanian [i] and the English [i] are front vowels. Still, there is some difference between them, so it is quite a problem for us to guess what precise vowel is indicated by the term. In order to compare vowels of different languages it is necessary to have some standard vowels which would represent certain well-defined tongue positions. This brought about the establishment of a set of so-called cardinal vowels which can conveniently be used as points of reference. The scale of 8 cardinal (primary) vowels can be arranged on a diagram according to two main dimensions, namely: - the relative position of the tongue; - the specific part of the tongue used for the production of the vowels. Front Central Back Close i U 1 8 e o Close-mid 2 7 Open-mid ɛ3 6ç ə4 5A Open Figure 3. Diagram of cardinal vowels. This diagram was suggested by Henry Sweet and devised by Daniel Jones, both being British phoneticians. It represents a practical method of describing and classifying vowel phonemes. On the basis of this diagram we can define cardinal vowel no. 1 ‘i’ as the vowel which is as close and as front as possible, while cardinal vowel no. 5 ‘a’ as the vowel which is as open and as back as possible. When one is familiar with the extreme vowels, s/he has learned a way of classifying and comparing vowels. For instance, the English vowel [Q] as in cat, is not as open as cardinal vowel no. 4 [´]. Now, using the diagram of cardinal vowel sounds and the principles of classification explained before, we will examine some of the English vowels.  34 3.6 The English front vowels English has a large number of vowel sounds (12 pure vowels); the first ones to be examined are the front vowels. [i:] * [i:] is the closest of the English front vowels, but not so close as cardinal vowel no.1. In its production the lips are spread. It is long and tense. Its length differs, nevertheless, according to different phonetic contexts: - longest in word final position: me [mi:], sea [si:], bee [bi:]; - relatively shorter before voiced consonants: beam [:bi:m], mean [:mi:n], seal [:si:l]; - shortest before voiceless consonants: beat [:bi:t], feet [:fi:t]. This is due to the fact that voiceless consonants require more energy for their production. By way of compensation, the preceding vowel loses some of its length. Distribution: [i:] can be used in all basic positions: - initial position: ease [i:z], evil [i:vl]; - medial position: beast [bi:st], feet [fi:t]; - word-final position: me [mi:], tea [ti:]. Spelling: -ee (in stressed position): feed [fi:d], tree [tri:], seem [si:m], absentee [Qbs´n:ti:], week [wi:k]; -e: me [mi:], evening [:i:vniN], scene [si:n], cathedral [k´Ti:dr´l]; -ea: leave [li:v], meat [mi:t], peak [pi:k], please [pli:z]; -ie: believe [bi:li:v], niece [ni:s], yield [ji:ld]; -ei/ey: ceiling [:si:liN], conceive [k´n:si:v], key [ki:]; -i: -in loan-words, esp. in stressed suffixes: -ine [i:n] as in marine [m´:ri:n], - ique [i:k] as in antique [Qn:ti:k]; -in native words: police [p´:li:s], ski [ski:]; -oe, ae in words of Greek origin: Oedipus [:i:dip´s], Caesar [‘si:z´], formulae [‘fç:muli:]. Exceptional spelling: quay [ki:], people [‘pi:pl], Beauchamp [‘bi: tS´m] [i] *  35 [i] differs from cardinal vowel no. 1 in that it is more open and nearer to the centre. The tongue is not so high as for [i:]. As compared to [i:], [i] is not so close it is almost half- close). [i] is not on the line of front vowels, but near it, because for its production the front of the tongue is retracted. [i] is front-retracted, almost half-close; it is short and lax. In a special phonetic context (when pronounced with complicated tone (rise-fall-rise)), [i] sounds longer than [i:] pronounced with a simple tone. Example Compare: I ~ live and lords do no more vs. I leave next week But in similar phonetic contexts (in minimal pairs pronounced with the same intonation), [i:] is longer than [i]. These two vowels function as different phonemes, thus distinguishing one word from another otherwise alike. e.g. sheep [Si:p] vs. ship [Sip] lead [li:d] vs. lid [lid] feet [fi:t] vs. fit [fit] Free variation (i.e. substitutability of one sound for another in a given environment, with no consequent change in the word’s meaning): there is free variation between [i:] and [i] in the following words: eleven [i:levn] or [i::levn], between [bi:twi:n] or [bi::twi:n] Variants: a. [i] in word-final position is pronounced by some speakers as [i:]: pretty [:priti:], Derby [:da:bi:]. This form is used by a number of educated people from the south- east of Britain and also by some Americans. b. [i] in word-final position is pronounced by public speakers as a more open vowel, ‘moving’ it in the direction of [e]: city [:site], pretty [:prite]. Distribution: [i] can appear in any position: - initial: it, ill, industry; - medial: bit, sill, fin - final: city, coffee Spelling: -i and y - in graphically closed syllables (i.e. syllables that end in a consonant letter): rid, with, lynch [lintS], skin, mirror, syllable rhythm; - in graphically open syllables (i.e. syllables that end in a vowel letter): live, lily, fuzzy; - ui: guilty [gilti], biscuit [biskit], build [bild]; - ee (in unstressed position): coffee [‘kçfi], Yankee [‘jQNki]; - ey (in final position): money [‘m√ni], journey [‘dZ´:ni]; - ie: auntie [‘a:nti], bookie [‘buki], Charlie [‘tSa:li];  36 - a (in weakly stressed affixes or words ending in –ace, -ate, -ain): delicate [‘delikit], affricate [‘Qfrikit], furnace [:f´:nis], menace [‘menis], fountain [‘fauntin], mountain [‘mauntin]; - e (in –ed adjectivized participles): learned [‘l´:nid], wicked [wikid] - e (in word-final position in words of Greek origin): apostrophe [´’pçstr´fi], catastrophe [k´’tQstr´fi], syncope [‘siNk´pi]. Exceptional spelling: England [:iNgl´nd], character [:kQrikt´], busy [:bizi], lettuce [:letis], minute [:minit], women [:wimin], sieve [:siv], breeches [:britSiz], Greenwich [:grinidZ], forehead [:fçrid], pigeon [:pidZin], pretty [:priti]. Aote: the diphthong [ei] may be reduced to [i]: Wednesday [:wenzdei] or [:wenzdi], yesterday [:jest´dei] or [:jest´di]. 1. Find as many minimal pairs as possible (in all basic position) for the following vowel phonemes: [i:] vs. [i]; 2. Read aloud the following minimal pairs based on the contrast between [i:] and [i]: feel - fill; bead - bid; read - rid; scheme - skim; steel – still; been – bin; greed – grid; leap – lip; feet – fit; reap – rip; seal – sill; deep – dip. leave – live; peel – pill; reach – rich; feast – fist; peach – pitch; least – list; deal – dill; Gene/Jean–gin. eat – it cheap – chip cheek – chick peak – pick [e] * [e] is a front, half-open, lax vowel. In its production the lips are unrounded (they are in neutral position). Example English [e] vs. Romanian [e]. Normally, there should be no difficulty for Romanians in acquiring this English vowel sound, since the 2 types of [e] are quite similar. English Romanian set set check cec net net  37 Distribution: - initial position: egg, every, exit - medial position: debt friend, breakfast Variants. In present day RP there is: -a general tendency to pronounce a closer variety of [e] in order to keep the opposition [e] – [Q] clear; -a tendency to diphthongize [e] towards [´] or [i], before a voiced consonant: e.g. i bed [be d]. Spelling: -e as in ten, press, insect; -ea as in weapon, death, deaf, measure, realm; -ai as in against [´:genst]/[´:geinst], said [sed]; -eo as in leopard [:lep´d], Leonard [:len´d], Geoffrey [:dZefri], jeopardy [:dZep´di]; -ei as in Leicester [‘lest´], leisure [:leZ´], heifer [:hef´]; -u as in bury [‘beri]; -ue as in guess [ges], guest [gest]; -ay as in says [sez]; -ie as in friend [‘frend]; -a (in a few words): ate [et], any, many, Thames [temz], Pall Mall [pel mel]. Q] [Q * [Q] is a front vowel, but not quite as open as cardinal vowel no. 4 [a]. In its production the lips are slightly spread. For practical reasons it can sound as long as [Q:], especially before voiced consonants. ‘The tendency of lengthening [Q] may be considered as an attempt to keep the [Q]/[e] opposition clear’ (Chiţoran, 1978:159). Distribution: This vowel sound can appear only in: - initial position : ant, abstract, anchor; - medial position: cat, shadow, fashion. It generally appears in stressed syllables. Variants - in RP [Q] is closer to [e] than to [a]. As a result of the [e] – [Q] proximity, the two vowel phonemes are kept apart by lengthening the latter, i.e. [Q], or by diphthongizing it towards [´]: bad [bQ´d]; - when followed by [l], [Q] acquires an opener quality, quite close to [a:]: e.g. ballot, ballet. Spelling: a both in graphically closed syllables (mad, badly, jam) and in graphically open ones, in words of non-Germanic origin (family [‘fQ -m´ – li], cabin [‘kQ-bin].  38 Exceptional spelling: Balaam [:beilQm], Caedmon [‘kQdm´n], Aelfred [‘Qlfrid] (the last two examples are proper names that have retained their Old English spelling). Find as many minimal pairs as possible (in all basic position) for the following vowel phonemes: [e] vs. [Q]; Describe the simple front vowels in the following sentences and explain the difficulties encountered by Romanians in acquiring their correct pronunciation: a. Maggie’s bag is easy to carry. b. He felt extremely well after such a big meal. Let's remember... The English front vowels are: /i:/, /i/, /e/ and /Q/. The English /i/ and /e/ are different from the Romanian counterparts in that they are much closer. The English /Q/ does not have a Romanian counterpart, consequently Romanian speakers of English need to keep their jaws open when producing it. Describe the simple front vowels in the following sentences and explain the difficulties encountered by Romanians in acquiring their correct pronunciation: a. Maggie’s bag is easy to carry. b. He felt extremely well after such a big meal. 3.7. The English back vowels These vowels are called ‘back’ because in their production it is the back part of the tongue which rises to different heights in the mouth cavity. [a:] * [a:] is a back, open, long, tense, unrounded vowel. It is not quite as back as cardinal vowel no. 3 [a]; that is why we can say that it is back advanced. If one compares the Romanian [a] to the English