Phonetic Base English Speech Sounds

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Phonetic Base English Speech Sounds
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Phonetic Transcriptions

• IPA
• U.S. Conventions

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IPA transcription

• Approved and provided by International Phonetic
  Association
• Aiming to invent symbols which can describe
  speech sounds of all languages
• Used mainly in UK and Europe
• Full IPA chart here

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U.S. Conventions

• Many versions
• Fries(1945) system
• Kenyon(1958) system
• Prator Robinett (1985) system
• In Generative Phonology based on Ame. English
• Fries system is frequently used for consonants
  monophthongs
• but Prator Robinett system for diphthongs

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IPA vs. U.S. convention
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Meanings and Distinction of Basic Terminology

• Phone
• Phoneme
• Allophone

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Terminology (cntd.)

• Phone
• The minimal unit of speech sound
• Different phones have different quality
• Depending upon physical quality of sounds
• A substantial surface entity
• Transcribed in (eg. p, m)

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Terminology (cntd.)

• Phoneme
• The minimal unit that distinguishes meaning
• Phonemes do not carry meanings themselves.
• The unit that makes the connection between sound
  and meaning
• The basic unit of the contrast in phonology
• An abstract entity
• Transcribed in / / (eg. /p/ /m/)

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Terminology (cntd.)

• Allophone (phonetic variant)
• Segments which are derived from the same phoneme
• Reflects relationship between phoneme and phones
• Gives a criterion for speech sound grouping
• Guess to which allophone is closer, phoneme
  or phone?

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Terminology (cntd.)

• Examples for phone/phoneme/allophone
• Consider sounds in the words
• goose, geese
• Two g sounds are different
• pine, speak, stop
• Three p sounds are different

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Terminology (cntd.)

• Phonemes and allophones are language dependent
  concepts
• English and Korean liquids
• r/l are phonemes in English but allophones in
  Korean.
• English and Korean stops
• English has voicing contrasts but Korean doesnt.
• Korean has sub-manner contrasts
• eg) ph, p

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English Speech Sounds

• Consonants
• Sounds made by a closure or narrowing in the
  vocal tract so that the airflow is either
  completely blocked or so restricted that audible
  friction is produced
• Vowels
• Sounds articulated without a complete closure in
  the mouth or a degree of narrowing which would
  produce audible friction
• The air escapes evenly over the centre of the
  tongue.
• Semi-vowels
• Sounds functioning as a consonant but lacking the
  phonetic characteristics normally associated with
  consonants
• Their quality is phonetically that of vowel.

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English Consonants

• Criteria for distinction
• Voicing
• Place of articulation
• Manner of articulation
• Secondary articulation

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Voicing

• Related to phonation
• Voiced
• Vocal cords vibrating
• Examples
• Vowels, sonorants a, e, m, r
• Voiceless
• Glottis kept open
• Examples
• Voiceless obstruents p, t, k, s

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Places of articulation

• bilabial
• labiodental
• interdental
• (apico)dental
• alveolar
• alveopalatal (postalveolar, palato-alveolar)

• palatal
• (dorso)velar
• uvular
• pharyngeal
• glottal

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Manners of articulation

• Obstruents
• stop (plosive)
• complete closure
• release
• fricative
• partial obstruction
• turbulence airflow
• affricate
• stop fricative

• Sonorants
• nasal
• liquid
• lateral
• central
• flap(tap)
• trill (eg. French uvular trill R)
• approximant

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English Consonant chart
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Describing consonant symbols

• voicing-place-manner
• examples
• p voiceless bilabial stop
• z voiced alveolar fricative
• Class description
• p, t, k voiceless stops

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English Vowels

• Vowel Types
• Monophthong
• A vowel where there is no detectable change in
  quality during a syllable
• Diphthong
• A vowel where there is a single (perceptual)
  noticeable change in quality during a syllable

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Monophthongs

• Criteria for distinguishing between various
  vowels
• tongue height
• tongue backness
• tenseness
• lip rounding
• nasality
• length

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Vowel(monophthong) chart IPA symbols in
brackets
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Diphthongs

• Definition
• A diphthong is a phonetic sequence, consisting of
  a vowel and a glide, that is interpreted as a
  single vowel.
• Types
• On-glide diphthong Glide Vowel
• Off-glide diphthong Vowel Glide

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Diphthongs(cntd.)

• Examples of on-glide diphthongs

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Diphthongs (cntd.)

• Examples of off-glide diphthongs (American
  English)
• midwestern dialect
• ay ey aw y w
• California dialect
• ay aw y

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Describing vowel symbols

• Height-Backness-Tenseness-Rounding
• examples
• i high front tense (unrounded) vowel
• Q low front (lax) (unrounded) vowel
• Class description
• examples
• i, I, e, E, Q front (unrounded) vowels
• i, u high tense vowels

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Diacritics for secondary articulation
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Describing 2ndary articulation symbols

• Consonants
• voicing-(place 2nd)-place-(manner 2nd)-manner
• examples
• p voiceless bilabial stop
• pH voiceless bilabial aspirated stop
• pJ py voiceless palatalized bilabial stop
• pHJ voiceless palatalized bilabial aspirated
  stop
• Vowels
• Height-backness-tenseness-rounding-2nd
• Examples
• E) mid front lax unrounded nasalised vowel