Table of Contents

Table of Contents 1

Phonetics and Area of Phonetics 2

Voiced and Voiceless Sound 5

Place of Articulation 6

Manner of Articulation 8

Phonology, Phones, Phonemes and Allophones 11

Phonological Rules 14

Phonological Analysis 15

References 16

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A. Phonetics

Phonetics is concerned with describing the speech sounds that occur in the languages
of the world. We want to know what these sounds are, how they fall into patterns and how
they change n different circumstances. The study of speech sounds is called phonetics. These
sounds are called phonemes. To describe speech sounds it is necessary to decide what an
individual sound differs from all others,

Phonetics aims to provide the set of features, or properties that can describe all sounds
human language. Phonetics is used to try to find out what people are doing when they are
talking and when they are listening to speech. When we speak, the physical sounds we
produce are continuous stretches of sound, which are the physical representations of strings
of discrete linguistic segments. Knowledge of language permits one to segment the
continuous sound into linguistic units-words, morphemes, and sounds. Sounds have two
kinds, they are consonants and vowels. We usually use them when we speak.

a. Consonants

Consonants are sounds which involve full or partial blocking of airflow. In English,
the consonants are p, b, t, d, ʧ, j, k, g, f, v, θ, dh, s, z, ʃ, zh, m, n, ng, l, r, w, and y. They are
classified in a number of different ways, depending on the vocal tract details.

b. Vowels

Vowels has two kinds. They are dipthongs and monothongs.

Dipthongs : oυ, eI, aI

Monothongs : a, u, æ, I.

c. Area of phonetics

The area of phonetics is alphabet symbol. A list of phonetics symbol can be used to
represent speech sounds. To differentiate between the spelling of word and the pronunciation,
we will sometimes enclose the phonetic symbol in brackets [ ]. Thus the word spelt boat
would be transcribed phonetically as [boυt].

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 The list of phonetics symbols for consonants and vowels.

Consonants Vowels

k - kin I - bet

g - girl Iә - ear

z - zip υ - put

ŋ - sing oυ- hoe

θ - thigh aυ- how

З - measure (ž) æ - pan

dЗ - judge (ĵ ž) u - boot

etc. etc.

By using these symbols, we can now unambiguously represent the pronunciation of

words. For example, words spelt with ou may have different pronunciations. To distinguish
between the symbols representing sounds and alphabet letters, we usually put the phonetic
symbols between brackets.

The position of vowels sounds of English

Front vowels Central vowels Back vowels

(tongue body is pushed (tongue body is (tongue body is pulled
forward) neutral) back)

High/close
/ / see / / boot
vowels
(tongue body / / sit / / book
is raised)

Mid vowels / / sofa,

(tongue body /e/ bait /o/ boat
is / / bet / / bird / / bought
intermediate)

/ / bat / / under / / father,

Low/open

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 vowels
(tongue body / / sock
is lowered)

The position of Consonants Sound of English

During production of these sounds, the airflow from the lungs is

Stops
completely blocked at some point, then released. In English, they
/Plosives/
are /p/, /b/, /t/, /d/, /k/, and /g/.

The flow of air is constricted, but not totally stopped or blocked. In

Fricatives English, these include /f/, /v/, / /, / /,
/s/, /z/, / /, / /, and /h/.

These sounds begin like stops, with a complete blockage of air/closure

of the vocal tract, and end with a restricted flow of air like fricatives.
Affricates
English has two affricates - the / / sounds of "church" and the / / of
"judge".

Nasals are sounds made with air passing through the nose. In English,
Nasals
these are /m/, /n/, and / /.

Lateral consonants allow the air to escape at the sides of the tongue. In
Laterals
English there is only one such sound - /l/

In the production of an approximant, one articulator is close to

another, but the vocal tract is not narrowed to such an extent that a
Approximants
turbulent airstream is produced. In English, these are /j/, /w/ and /r/.
Approximants /j/ and /w/ are also referred to as semi-vowels.

B. Voiced and voiceless sound

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 If the vocal cords are apart when the airstreams is pushed from the lungs, the air is not
obstructed at the glottis, and it passes freely into the supraglottal cavities (the parts of the
vocal tract above the glottis. The sound produce in this way are voiceless sounds. For
example, [p], [t], [k], and [s] in the English words seep [sip], seat [sit], and seek [sik] are
voiced sound.

But if the vocal cords are together, the air airstreams forces its way through and
causes them to vibrate. Such sounds are called voiced sounds and are illustrated by the
sounds [b], [d], [g], and [z] in the words bad [bæd], dog [dαg], ande buzz [bΛz]. If you put a
finger an each ear and say ‘z-z-z-z-z’ you can feel the vibrations of the vocal words. If you
know say ‘s-s-s-s-s’ you will not feel these vibrations (although you hear a hissing sound in
your mouth). When you whisper, you are making all the speech sounds voiceless.

The voiced/voiceless distinction is as a very important one in English. It is this

phonetic feature or property that distinguishes between word pairs such as:

rope/robe fate/fade rack/rag

[roυp]/[roυb] [feIt]/[feId] [ræk]/[ræg]

The first word of each pair ends with a voiceless sound and the second word with a
voiced sound. All other aspects of the sounds of these words are identical; the position of the
lips and tongue is the same in each of the paired words.

The voiced/voiceless distinction is also shown in the following pairs; the first word
begins with a voiceless sound and the second with a voiced sound:

fine/vine seal/zeal [faIn]/

[vaIn] [sil]/[zil]

The initial sounds of the first words of the following pairs are also voiceless, and for
many speakers of English, the second words begin with voiced sounds. (we will discuss other
differences between the initial [p] and [b] sounds later, the phonetic transcriptions of many of
these words have been simplified to help the reader grasp basic concepts and may include
other details that will be discussed subsequent sections.)

peat/beat tin/din

[pit]/[bit] [tIn]/[dIn]
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 These past simple verbs all end in '-ed'. However, some of the verbs are pronounced
with a voiceless ’t’ sound and some are pronounced with the voiced 'd' sound. Here are the
rules:

• If -ed is preceded by a voiceless consonant sound (p, k, sh, etc.) -ed sounds as a
voiceless 't'. Remember that the 'e' is silent.
• If -ed is preceded by a voiced consonant sound (d, b, v, etc.) -ed sounds as a voiced
'd'. Remember that the 'e' is silent.
• If -ed is preceded by a vowel sound (often 'ay') -ed sounds as a voiced 'd' because
vowels are always voiced. Remember that the 'e' is silent.
• Exception: If -ed is preceded by 't' pronounce a voiced -id. In this case, the 'e' is
pronounced.
C. Place of Articulation

As stated earlier, different consonantal sounds result when we change the shape of the
oral cavity by moving the lips and tongue, the articulators, and change the place of
articulation in the oral cavity. The major consonantal place features are given below. As we
read the description of each class of sounds, pronounce them and try to feel which
articulations are moving and to where.

a. Bilabials [p], [b], [m]

When we produce a [p], [b], or [m] we articulate by bringing both lips together. These
sounds are therefore called bilabials.

b. Labiodentals [f], [v]

We also use our lips to form [f] and [v] as in fine [fain] and vine [vain]. To produce
these sounds we articulate by touching the bottom lip to the upper teeth, which is why the
sounds are called labiodentals, labio- referring to lips and –dental to teeth.

c. Interdentals [θ], [δ]

[θ] and [δ] are both represented in English spelling by th in the wodrs thin [θIn], ether
[iθә], then [δen], either [iδә]. To articulate these interdental (‘between the teeth’) sounds, we
insert the tip of our tongue between the upper and the lower teeth
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d. Alveolars [t] [d] [n] [s] [z] [I] [r]

Alveolar sounds are articulated by raising the front part of the tongue to the bony
tooth ridge called the alveolar ridge. If we say deal [dil], Neil [nil], teal [til], seal [sil], zeal
[zil], we should feel our tongue touch or nearly touch the tooth ridge as our produce the first
sounds in all these words and to produce the lateral [l], the tongue is raised to the alveolar
ridge with the sides of the tongue down, permitting the air to escape laterally over the sides of
the tongue.

The sound [r] is produced in a variety of ways. Its most usual variant in Australia and
New Zealand is quite vowel-like; the tongue is raised to the alveolar ridge but produces very
little obstruction to the air stream. In US varieties of English, it is common to curl the tip of
our tongue back behind the alveolar ridge while producing [r] – such sounds are also called
retroflex sounds. In some languages, the [r] may be an alveolar trill, produced by the tip of
the tongue vibrating against the roof of the mouth.

Palatals [∫] [t∫] [ ] [ ]

To produce the sounds un the middle of the words mesher [me∫ә] and measure [me
ә], the front part of the tongue is raised to a point on the hard palate just behind the alveolar
ridge. The voiceless [∫] sound the mesher (spelt sh) and the voiced [ ] sound in measure (spelt
s) are palatal sounds (sometimes also called alveopatalals).

The alveopatalal region of the roof of the mouth is also the place of articulation for
the production of [t∫] and [ ], the sounds that begin and end the words church and judge.

Velars [k] [g] [ŋ]

Another class of sounds is produced by raising the back of the tongue to the soft
palate or velum. The initial and final sounds of the words kick [kIk], gig [gIg] and the final
sounds of the words back [bæk], bag [bæg] and bang [bæŋ]-[k], [g], and [ŋ]-are produced in
this way and are called velar sounds.

Uvular [ ] [q] [G]

Ovular sounds are produced by raising the back of the tongue to the uvula. The r in
French is uvular and is symbolized by [ ]. Uvular sounds are also found in other languages.
Arabic for example has two uvular sounds symbolized as [q] and [G].

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Glottal [h]

The [h] sound that starts words such as house [haυs], who [hu], hair [heә] is a glottal
sound. The glottis is open; no other modification of the airstream mechanisms occurs in the
mouth. The tongue and lips are usually in the position for the production of the following
vowel as the airstream passes through the open glottis.

Table for Place Articulation of English

Bilabial P b m

Labiodental f v

Interdental Θ δ

Alveolar t d n s z I r

Palatal ∫ t∫

Velar K g ŋ

Ovular q G

Glottal H

D. Manner of articulation

We have described a number of classes of consonants according to their place of

articulation, yet we are still unable to distinguish the sounds in each class from each other.
What distinguishes [p] from [b], or [b] from [m]? All are bilabial sounds. What is difference
between [t], [d], and [n], which are all alveolar sounds?

Speech sounds are also differentiated by the way the airstream is affected as it travels
from the lungs up and out of the mouth and nose. Such features or phonetic properties have
traditionally been referred to as manner of articulation or simply manner features.

These are several manner of articulation

Plosive

Plosive or oral stop, where there is complete occlusion (blockage) of both the oral
and nasal cavities of the vocal tract, and therefore no air flow. Examples include English /p t
k/ (voiceless) and /b d g/ (voiced). If the consonant is voiced, the voicing is the only sound
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made during occlusion; if it is voiceless, a plosive is completely silent. What we hear as a /p/
or /k/ is the effect that the onset of the occlusion has on the preceding vowel, as well as the
release burst and its effect on the following vowel. The shape and position of the tongue (the
place of articulation) determine the resonant cavity that gives different plosives their
characteristic sounds. All languages have plosives.

Nasal stop

Nasal stop usually shortened to nasal, where there is complete occlusion of the oral
cavity, and the air passes instead through the nose. The shape and position of the tongue
determine the resonant cavity that gives different nasal stops their characteristic sounds.
Examples include English /m, n/. Nearly all languages have nasals, the only exceptions being
in the area of Puget Sound and a single language on Bougainville Island.

Fricative

Fricative sometimes called spirant, where there is continuous frication (turbulent and
noisy airflow) at the place of articulation. Examples include English /f, s/ (voiceless), /v, z/
(voiced), etc. Most languages have fricatives, though many have only an /s/. However, the
Indigenous Australian languages are almost completely devoid of fricatives of any kind.

Sibilants

Sibilants are a type of fricative where the airflow is guided by a groove in the tongue
toward the teeth, creating a high-pitched and very distinctive sound. These are by far the most
common fricatives. Fricatives at coronal (front of tongue) places of articulation are usually,
though not always, sibilants. English sibilants include /s/ and /z/.

Lateral fricatives

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 Lateral fricatives are a rare type of fricative, where the frication occurs on one or both
sides of the edge of the tongue. The "ll" of Welsh and the "hl" of Zulu are lateral fricatives.

Affricate

Affricate which begins like a plosive, but this releases into a fricative rather than
having a separate release of its own. The English letters "ch" and "j" represent affricates.
Affricates are quite common around the world, though less common than fricatives.

Flap

Flap often called a tap, is a momentary closure of the oral cavity. The "tt" of "utter"
and the "dd" of "udder" are pronounced as a flap in North American English. Many linguists
distinguish taps from flaps, but there is no consensus on what the difference might be. No
language relies on such a difference. There are also lateral flaps.

Trill

Trill in which the articulator (usually the tip of the tongue) is held in place, and the
airstream causes it to vibrate. The double "r" of Spanish "perro" is a trill. Trills and flaps,
where there are one or more brief occlusions, constitute a class of consonant called rhotics.

Phonology, Phones, Phonemes and Allophones

1. Phonology

Linguists are interested in how sound system may vary, and in the ways they are
similar, in the phonetic and phonological universals found in all languages. Phonology is
concerned with this kind of linguistic knowledge. Phonetics is a part of phonology and
provides the means for describing speech sounds; phonology is concerned with the ways in
which these speeches sounds form system and patterns in human language.

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 Phonology is like grammar, it is used in two ways – as the mental representation of
linguistic knowledge and the description in this knowledge. Thus the word phonology refers
either to the representation of the sounds and sound patterns in a speaker’s grammar, or to the
study of the sound patterns in a language or in human language in general.

Phonology has three explanations in the phonological units of language.

a. Contrast Sounds
Most of the words in a language differ both in form and meaning, sometimes by just
one sound. The importance of phonology is shown by the fact that one can change one word
into another simply by changing one sound.

The forms and meaning of the following in English words:

sip fine chunk

zip vine junk

Each word differs from the other words in both form and meaning. The difference
between sip and zip is ‘signalled’ by the fact that the initial sound of the first word is s [s] and
the initial sound of the second word is z [z]. The forms of the two words-that is, their sounds-
are identical except for the initial consonants. [s] and [z] can therefore distinguish or contrast
words. We also see from the contrast between fine and vine and between chunk and junk that
[f, [v], [t∫], [dЗ] must be phonemes in English for the same reason.

b. Minimal Pairs and Minimal Sets

The phonological difference between the two words, for example [I] and [i] in the pair
crick and creek in each pair is minimal, because they are identical in form except for one
sound segment that occurs in the same place in the string. For this reason, such pairs of words
are referred to as minimal pairs.

c. Free Variation
The substitution of the glottal stop doesn’t change the meanings; [dõυnt] and [dõυn?]
do not change in the meaning. A glottal stop is therefore not a phoneme in English since it is
not a distinctive sound. These sounds [t] and [?], are in free variation.
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 Phonology is just one of several aspects of language. It is related to other aspects such
as phonetics, morphology, syntax, and pragmatics. Here are Comparisons between Phonology
and phonetics.

Phonetics Phonology

- Is the basis for phonological - Is the basis for further work in

analysis morphology, syntax, discourse,
- Analyzes the production of all and orthography design.
human speech sounds, regardless - Analyzes the sound patterns of a
of language particular language by:
 Determining which
phonetic sounds are
significant, and
 Explaining how these
sounds are interpreted by the
native speaker.

2. Phonemes

Phonemes are the linguistically contrastive or significant sounds (or sets of sounds) of
a language. Such a contrast is usually demonstrated by the existence of minimal pairs.
Minimal pairs are pairs of words which vary only by the identity of the segment (another
word for a single speech sound) at a single location in the word (e.g. [mæt] and [kæt]). If two
segments contrast in identical environment then they must belong to different phonemes.

A paradigm of minimal phonological contrasts is a set of words differing only by one

speech sound. In most languages it is rare to find a paradigm that contrasts a complete class
of phonemes (eg. all vowels, all consonants, all stops etc.)

We can illustrate the difference between a phoneme and a phonetic segment, if

phonemes are not the actual sounds; we usually call it a phone, by referring to the difference
between oral and nasalised vowels in English. It was noted that both oral and nasalised
vowels occur phonetically in English. The following examples show this.

Bean [bĭn] bed [bid]

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Roam [rŏυm] robe [roυb]

Nasalised vowels occur in English syllables only before nasal consonants. If one
substituted oral vowels for the nasal vowels in bean and roam, the meanings of the two words
would not be changed.

Allophones

The different phones that are the realisation of a phoneme are called allophones of
that phoneme. Allophones are the linguistically non-significant variants of each phoneme. In
other words a phoneme may be realised by more than one speech sound and the selection of
each variant is usually conditioned by the phonetic environment of the phoneme.
Occasionally allophone selection is not conditioned but may vary form person to person and
occasion to occasion.

A phoneme is a set of allophones or individual non-contrastive speech segments.

Allophones are sounds, whilst a phoneme is a set of such sounds. to distinguish between a
phoneme and its allophones (the phonetic segments or phones that symbolise the way the
phoneme is pronounced in different contexts), we will use slashes // to enclose phonemes and
continue to use the square brackets [ ] for allophones or phonemes, for example [i] and [ĭ] are
allophones of the phoneme /i/; [i] and [ĭ] are allophones of the phoneme /i/, and so on. Thus
we will represent bead and bean phonemically as /bid/ and /bin/. The rule for distribution of
oral and nasal vowels in English shows that phonetically these words will be pronounced as
[bid] and [bĭn].

E. Phonological Rules

There are many phonological rules in language, but we will only discuss a few from
English. Phonological rules can be classified into four major kinds. They are assimilation,
dissimilation, insertion, and deletion.

a. Assimilation
Rules of this kind describe processes where a sound becomes more similar to a
neighbouring sound. Nasalization is an example of assimilation. When nasalization happens,
a vowel right before a nasal consonant becomes more similar by obtaining a nasalized

13
quality; in other words, it takes on the feature nasal. The rules applies if the nasal is the final
consonant in the syllable or if it is followed by another consonant.

e.g. dam [dǽm] and damp [dǽmp].

b. Dissimilation
This type of rule refers to processes whereby two neighbouring sounds become less
similar. An example is the rule of fricative dissimilation. This rule always caught my
interest because Germans, like speakers of many other languages, can not easily pronounce
the th sound.

A classic example of dissimilation occurred in Latin and the results of this process
show up in modern-day English. There was a derivational suffix –alis Latin that was added
to nouns to form adjectives. When the suffix was added to a noun which contained the
liquid /l/ the suffix was changed to –aris, that is, the liquid /l/ was changed to the liquid /r/.
these words come into English as adjectives ending in –al or its dissimilated form –ar as
shown in the following examples:

-al -ar

anecdot-al angul-ar

annu-al annul-ar

ment-al column-ar

pen-al perpendicul-ar

spiritu-al simil-ar

ven-al vel-ar

c. Insertion
In this kind of process a sound is added that is not present in slow pronunciation or
spelling. For example, when we pronounce the word hamster at a regular speed, most of us
will say and hear hampster wit a p.

d. Deletion
There are types of pronunciation processes where sounds are left off. For example,
when pronouncing the word police, the word often sounds like pleace and may be confused
14
 with please if one is not used to hearing voiced s, as was the case for me (we don’t use
voiced [z] in my Southern German dialect)

e. Movement (metathesis)

Phonological rules may also move phonemes from one place in the string to another.
Su\ch rules are called metathesis rules. They are less common, but they do exist. In some
dialects of English. For example the word ask is pronounced [aks], but the word asking is
pronounced [askiŋ]. In these dialects a metathesis rule switches the /s/ and /k/ in certain
contexts. It is interesting that in old English the verb was aksian, with the /k/ preceding
the /s/.

F. Phonological Analysis

Phonological analysis is also usually called discovering phoneme, to do a phonetic

analysis, the words to be analysed must be transcribed in great phonetic detail since we in
advance which phonetic features are distinctive and which are not.

We probably did not know that the l in leaf and the one in feel are two different
sounds. There is only one /l/ English, but more than one l phone. The /l/ that occurs before
back vowels and at the end of words is produced not only as a lateral but with the back of the
tongue raised toward the velum and is therefore a velarised l.(without more training in
phonetics you may not hear the difference; try to sense the difference in your tongue position
when you say leaf, lint, lay, let as opposed to lude, load, lot, deal, dill, dell, doll ).

Consider the following finish words:

1) [kudot] ‘failures’

2) [kate] ‘cover’

3) [katot ‘roofs’

4) [kade] ‘envious’

5) [madon] ‘of a worm’

6) [maton] ‘of a rug’

7) [ratas] ‘wheel’

15
8) [radon] ‘of a track’

The voiceless/voiced alveolar stops [t] and [d] represent is different phonemes or they
are allophones of the same phoneme. (2) and (4) are a minimal pair: [kate] ‘cover’ and [kade]
‘envious’. (5) and (6) are a minimal pair: [madon] ‘of a worm’ and [maton] ‘of a rug’

By:

3rd Group of C Class

Nurizzi Rifqi Ferdian (09320104)

Khoirun Nisa’ (09320108)

Muh. Ulil Abshor (09320129)

Aris Syaiful Anwar (09320126)

Novi Aisyah (09320107)

Muh. Victor (09320133)

Siti Fatimah (09320106)

Sunniatul Mardiyah (09320102)

Nurul Widad (09320110)

References

Collins P. 1989 {http://Ladefoged, Peter; Ian Maddieson (1996). The Sounds of the World's
Languages. Oxford: Blackwell. ISBN 0-631-19814-8.) Online 09 Oktober 2010

Crystal D. 1985 (http://esl.about.com/od/speakingenglish/a/voiced.htm) Online 09 Oktober

2010

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Fromkin, Victoria. dkk.2002. An Introduction to Linguistics Fourth Edition. Australia:
Thomson Learning Australia.

http://webspace.ship.edu/cgboer/phonetics.html

Pullum. G.K. (http://susandi.wordpress.com/seputar-bahasa/fonologi/) Online 09 Oktober

2010

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