English Phonetics and Phonology-Constantin Manea

8/10/2019 English Phonetics and Phonology-Constantin Manea

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ENGLISH PHONETICS AND PHONOLOGY

Tematica general a cursului:

1. Introductory Notions. Sounds and meanings. Communicationby means of language. Phonetics and its importance. Receivedpronunciation. Phonetics and spelling. Phonetic symbols.2. Main Compartments of Phonetics. he speechmechanism!tract. he articulatory classification of speechsounds. he cardinal vo"el system.#. $coustic Phonetics. $ classification of speech sounds inacoustic terms. $uditory phonetics%. he Phoneme. he &nglish phonemes. 'escription andclassification of &nglish vo"els. $ detailed description of the&nglish vo"el phonemes. he (ront )o"els. he *ac+ )o"els.he Central )o"els.,. Sounds in connected speech. Modifications of the phonemesin connected speech. $ssimilation and elision. -ea+/ forms and

-strong/ forms. Syllabification0. Suprasegmentals. Rules of stressing for compounds. )o"elreduction. Sentence stress table. Pitch and intonation.

Nuclear!+inetic!dynamic tones


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Constantin Manea

A HANDBOOK OF ENGLISH PHONETICSAND PHONOLOGY

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CHAPTER I

INTRODUCTORY NOTIONS

$nimal and human communication systems may have a lot incommon but the differences of compleity and organisation are glaring3 ifanimals 4 bees for instance 4 can transmit an unlimited number of signals

5every message representing a mere variant of a single message schema6 thediversity and richness of human messages are indeed outstanding3 humanlanguages are unlimited in this sense that one can go on "riting "ell7formedsentences in any natural language 4 &nglish for eample 4 "ithout everending the number of the possible "ell7formed sentences in that idiom. So ahuman spea+er may benefit by an unlimited number of discrete 5linguistic6signals. Secondly human language has an astonishingly great compleityeach sentence usable having in its turn a structure "hich holds on t"oseparate planes ! levels8 first there is a linear arrangement ! string 5of "ordseach having its o"n meaning and sound patterning63 then there is thegrammatical structure of each such element. hile systems ofcommunication used by animals are closed 5i.e.their elements form a finitecollection6 human languages are 9open7ended: 5i.e. they consist of sets

"hose number is actually infinite ! unlimited8 people can tal+ freely aboutvirtually anything and ne" items are permanently being introducedborro"ed or coined6. Novelty can hence be considered the +ey7"ord "henreferring to human 5linguistic6 communication. his novelty is of coursenovelty of meaning not 5usually6 of structure. (or instance sentencesoccurring to a human spea+er in given situations are not memorised or simplyrepeated in a parrot7li+e manner 5the eceptions are very rare and special8e.g.acting on a stage role7playing during a foreign language practical courseetc.6. his creative capacity is not a mere result of the human ability to ma+elogical or functional analogies. Nor can novelty or spontaneity and creativityin language use be accounted for by the argument that languages representsets of mere verbal habits.

;anguage is an instrument of communication3 "hen one person

"ants to convey a message to another 5"hen he or she has some idea he orshe "ants to transmit to another human being6 that person may use a varietyof means8 the "ord of mouth some other audible signal 5drums horns"histles Morse7+ey6 body signs or gestures semaphore flags or mirrorflashes "ritten "ords ideograms dra"ings or signs etc. It is only naturalthat the over"helming ma


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conveyed as spo+en material as the spo+en "ord has al"ays been the mostfre=uent means of communication3 it "ill be redundant to state that speechhas the central role in communication. In the process of communication themessage is at the very centre 4 "hich is an argument in favour of theessential part played by phonetics in the contet of linguistics. 9Phonetics isconcerned "ith the human noises by "hich -the message/ is actualised orgiven audible shape8 the nature of those noises their combinations and theirfunctions in relation to the message:. 5>. '. ?/ConnorPhonetics p. @6

9It is necessary to ac+no"ledge the centrality of -the message/ inorder to be able to place phonetics 4 the study of the sounds of spo+enlanguage 4 in the contet of linguistic studies generally.: $nd ?/Connor goeson "ith the presentation of the -model of a single act of communication thepassing of one message from a spea+er to a listener/.

ithin the frame"or+ of that model >.'. ?/Connor spea+s aboutthe three functions of the brain in the process of communication 5see alsobelo" Communication by means of language68

16 he creativefunction8 It is defined as the central function "ithinhuman speech communication as it ensures the forming of the message.Since the modus operandi! the rules of language functioning are stored in thebrain as a result of previous verbal eperience 5e.g. the permissiblegrammatical patterns the vocabulary items "hich can be correctly andlogically selected the +no"ledge about the "ay individual types of voicesand the regional varieties of the respective language sound +no"ledge of

se=uencing possibilities etc.6 "e can safely use them even though that+no"ledge is different from one person to another. he phases ofmanifestation of the creative function are represented by a person/s need tocommunicate by the communication medium available or most li+ely to bechosen "ithin the "ider contet and by the form the message should ta+e.

26 he forwarding function8 nervous impulses are sent from thebrain containing patterns of muscular behaviour ! activity directed to themuscles of the speech ! vocal organs 5the lungs the laryn the tongue the


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"ith respect to the time7parameter v. the domain grouping elementssuccessive in time 4 cf.the Eree+ "ord chronos9time:6. he distinction hedre" bet"een paradigmatic and syntagmatic can be represented as anintersection bet"een the aes of -selections/ and -combinations/ respectively5vi#.the -paradigmatic ais/ v.-the syntagmatic ais/ or the -ais of chainrelationships/6. In fact linguistic messages are transmitted in a linear manner5in +eeping "ith the principle of syntagmatic ordering6 and are perceivedglobally.

Saussure described linguistic features in terms of structures1 andsystems$ 5hence the name of -structuralism/ embracing several linguisticschools and currents dra"ing on some of his ideas6. Fe eplained thefunctioning and evolution of language starting from the principles ofopposition and analogy.

26 ;inguistic competencevs.linguisticperformance8a6 he first concept of the pair may be defined as the internal5iAed6

+no"ledge about sounds meanings and their interrelations "hich is specificto each user of the language.

b6 he latter notion represents language behaviour ! use in everydaylife. ;inguistic competence 5a6 cannot be directly observed3 yet 5b6 4 i.e.linguistic performance 4 represents its physical manifestation it is5materially6 observable. ;inguistic performance is becoming more and morevaluable as a matter of study for linguists8 a great deal of our progress inpoint of language study ! learning 5and of course teaching6 depends on ho"

performance ! practice is put to use.he terms -competence/ and -performance/ "ere proposed by the$merican linguist Noam Choms+y. Fe placed special emphasis on the ideasof generatingsentences and that of representing the process involved by

1Fere is "hat 'avid Crystal 5op. cit. p. ##16 says about structures8 9$ ;$NEG$E&for eample is a structure in the sense that it is a net"or+ of interrelated units theM&$NINEof the parts being specifiable only "ith reference to the "hole. In thissense the terms /structure/ and /system/ are often synonymous 5B6 More specificallythe term is used to refer to an isolatable section of this total net"or+ as in discussionof the structure of a particular ER$MM$IC$;area 5B6 and here /structure/ and/system/ are distinguished8 one might tal+ of the /structure of a particular system/.:2Fere are '. Crystal/s comments on the notion of syste 5op. cit. p. #%268 9In itsmost general sense the term refers to a net"or+ of patterned relationships constitutingthe organisation of ;$NEG$E&. ;anguage as a "hole is then characterised as asystem 5cf.the /linguistic system of &nglish/ etc.6 7 and often as a FI&R$RCFIC$;;Dordered arrangement of systems 5B6 ithin the totality the term /system/ may beapplied to any finite set of (?RM$;;Dor S&M$NIC$;;Dconnected GNIS5referredto variously as the /terms/ or /members/ of the system6 "here the interrelationshipsare mutually eclusive 5B6 and mutually definable 5B6:

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using transformationalrules 5or T rules6 "hich put t"o levels of structuralrepresentation in correspondence. 5hence the generic name attributed to suchChoms+yan grammars8 %T! i.e. -generative7transformational grammars/6.Fe also postulated the eistence of a&eep !tructure 5'S6# and a !urface!tructure5SS6%.his approach mainly applied to synta and phonology.

COMMUNICATION BY MEANS OF LANGUAGE

)erbal communication presupposes an interaction spea+er7listenerthe t"o being essential factors of human 5verbal6 communication. heact of communication ta+es into account and includes the follo"ingstages ! phases ! distinctly analysable operations8

$. of the message

*. of the messagetheyare bothdone by the

encoding

sendingspeaker ' transmitter

C. transmissionof the message 5through various media6

'. of the message

&. of the message

they are done by thereception

decoding

recipient ' listener

Fere is a brief description ! presentation of the contents of each ofthe five operations involved in the act of communication8

A! Enco"in# the ess$#e means giving -shape/ to a certainmessage consisting of ideas feelings etc. his consists in8 7$%the semantic

#Fere is the notion illustrated "ith the definition '. Crystal proposed 5 op. cit. p. @%689$ central theoretical term in R$NS(?RM$I?N$; ER$MM$R3 opposed toSGR($C& SRGCGR&. /'eep structure/ or /'eep grammar/6 is the abstractorganisation "hich specifies all the factors governing the "ay the sentence should beinterpreted. 5he basic notion has also been referred to in various theoretical contetsas '7SRGCGR& GN'&R;DINE structure *$S& structure R&M?& structure andINII$;structure6.:% he '. Crystal definition of sur&$ce structure8 9he /surface structure/ of aS&N&NC& if the final stage in the SDN$CIC R&PR&S&N$I?N of a sentence"hich provides the input to the PF?N?;?EIC$; C?MP?N&Nof the grammar and"hich thus most closely corresponds to the structure of the sentence "e articulate andhear.:5op. cit. p. ##H6

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encoding 4 i.e. the choice of semantic ! meaning units3 among those therespective language possesses in order to render the "anted idea5s6 !concept5s6. 'ifferent languages "ill operate differently in selecting ! cuttingout the respective semantic units from the materials offered by realityitself. 5o give a fe" eamples elsh has a single "ord for a rather "iderange of colours and colour shades running from blui5e6sh to grey3 somelanguages have a large number of epressions meant to name colour shadesand nuances e.g.&ng.scarlet, crimson (r. vertolive(aunepaille vert )iletc.3 others only call them using phrases li+e8 dark ' light * blue ' green, etc.Some $frican languages have only three basic semantic units to designatecolours etc.6. &ven reality itself "hen perceived linguistically is segmentedin different manners8 referents5 the ob


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tenses no grammatical gender no plural forms etc. 4 it only uses syntacticrelationships based on a very strict "ord7order a.s.o.

he basic units that grammar "or+s "ith are the morphemes. heycarry meaning 5semantic proper or purely grammatical6. Morphemes may beeitherfree morphemes5i.e.independent units8 e.g.play is be me clear catfive, to6 or bound morphemes 5i.e.attached to the free morphemes in orderto8 16 form ne" "ords 4 these are the affies 5prefies and suffies e.g.un4re4 4less 4ness etc.63 26 ma+e up grammatical constructions ! patternsthrough inflection e.g. 4sfor verbs and nouns 4ingfor verbs etc.

he superordinated units are8 the "ords 5e.g.friendly, carelessness6the phrases, 5e.g. the cat, those houses there6 the sentences 5e.g.The cat isrunning fast after one of the mice it has seen6.

he operation of grammatical encoding presupposes a selection ofthe units "ithin the sets ! paradigms "hich are then ordered syntagmatically5i.e. in a linear manner or in a successive "ay6 according to the above7saidrules.

(c% hephonologicalencoding8 it operates on the physical plane3the message is given the form of sound units. Since each morpheme cannotpossibly be attributed ! allotted a separate ! distinct phoneme 5there arethousands of morphemes and only a relatively small number of soundshumans can really utter6 the languages use combinations of such minimalsound units in order to encode the message from a grammatical point of vie".?ne can thus notice the great economy of 5all6 natural languages. his is

"hat "e call thedouble articulationof natural languages8 on the one handthere is the grammatical and semantic information proper3 on the other handthe phonemes as minimal sound units. here are countless possiblecombinations of phonemes 5e.g."ith only four phonemes say8 !b! !i! !+!!n! "e can form scores of "ords in various languages 4 for &nglish "eshall have8 bin, kin, )ick, nib etc.6. So human languages can be said to haveat least t"o very important ! essential characteristics8 duality of structure andproductivity. 9*y -duality of structure/ 5or -double articulation/6 linguistsrefer to the fact that in all languages so far investigated one finds t"o levelsof -structure/ or -patterning/. here is a -primary/ level composed ofmeaningful units8 for simplicity let us call them words. $nd there is a-secondary/ level the units of "hich themselves have no meaning 5let usgrant that this is in general true6 but "hich enter into the formation of

primary units. he secondary units of spo+en languages are sounds3 and of"ritten languages letters 5if the languages in =uestion ma+e use of analphabetic "riting system6. his distinction of a -primary/ and a -secondary/

,he nounphraseis a /(alse (riend/ ! pitfall for Romanian learners of &nglish3 it maymean either /locuLiune3 epresie/ or /sintagm construcLie/.

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level of structure might not be dra"n in =uite the same terms by all linguistsand it re=uires some further development and =ualification. 5B6 *y the-productivity/ of human language 5another term is -creativity/8 cf.Choms+y1@0K6 is meant the ability that "e all have to construct and understand anindefinitely large number of sentences in our native language includingsentences that "e have never heard before and to do this for the most part-naturally/ and unreflectingly "ithout the conscious application ofgrammatical rules. It is generally agreed that 9o eplain ho" this is possibleis the root7problem of linguistic analysis: 5Faas8 1@00 p. 11H6. 95B6 hisproblem has been particularly important in the development of generativegrammar. 5B6 hese t"o important properties are universal in the follo"ingsense at least8 they have been found in all human languages so farinvestigated: 5;yons p. 126. So natural languages can be said to ma+einfinite use of finite means.

hephonemecan be defined as an abstract grouping of 5minimal6sound units having a certain functional load and a 5distinct6 semanticrelevance "ithin the phonological ! phonematic ! phonemic system of thelanguage considered. &ach language has a specific inventory of such soundunits 4 some phonemes may be specific to certain languages 5e.g. O for&nglish !Q! for Romanian Portuguese and Russian b5 for Findi etc.6

B!he sen"in# o& the ess$#e8 the brain sends nervous impulses !signals to the organs of speech "hich "ill respond through speechmovements that produce speech sounds. he string of phonemes is actualised

as a string of physical sounds. Sounds are produced as a continuum3 they areperceived as a continuous flow being discernible only through the spea+ers/o"n linguistic competence 5thus !L! "ill be recognised as a mere se=uence ofconsonant phonemes in &nglish e.g.cats!+Ots! and as a separate ! distinctphoneme in Romanian e.g.ho6 !hots!. In actual speech these phonemes donot occur as such3 actual sounds are different realisations of the phonemes ofthat language 4 compare the realisations of !+! in8skip, cat, lake.

he above phenomena represent the ob


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5i.e. starting from8 sounds 4 phonemes 4 morphemes 4 5grammatical6constructions 4 sense ! semantic interpretation i.e. understanding themessage itself6.

A Schematic Representation of the Act of Communication 5apud '.ChiLoran8 1@HH6 Speaker ListenerA!&ncoding of the A I R E!'ecoding of the message message1. semantic !emantics #. semantic2. grammatical %rammar -7orphology 2. grammatical

and !ynta"#. phonological Phonology 1. phonological

B!Sending of the 8rticulatory 8uditory D!Reception ofmessage Phonetics Phonetics message

8coustic PhoneticsC!ransmission of the message

he above graphic representation of an act of communication alsoindicates the linguistic sciences and disciplines studying each of its stages.

+$s a matter of fact the efficiencyof the sound system represented by

a natural language lies in its usefulness and acceptability as a means ofcommunication but that does not directly imply the necessity for every

speech sound or element to be produced and ! or received to perfection. hecontet probabilities of a grammatical nature specific probabilities ofcombination and interrelationing of sounds their arrangement in rhythmicgroups etc. can give an additional source for the correct understanding ofalmost every conceivable sentence in spite of the 5relative6 misrepresentationof the pronunciation of a certain sound ! phoneme. So "e can safely statethat all these elements "hich concur to realising a successful message fromthe phonetic and semantic standpoint are redundant"ith respect to the mainnecessities of the emitter ! spea+er 4 recipient ! listener interaction. $.C.Eimson 5The Pronunciation of 9nglish p. ,6 gives such eamples as8 /e sawthe lions and tigers "hich can be perfectly understood as part of aconversation about a Aoo even though lions is pronounced in a negligentmanner ! slurred and sounded as liars3 the meaning of the sentence These

men are working "ill be perfectly clear even if menmen is realised as manmOn3 dloves"ill be understood asglovespurely and simply because in&nglish there is no dl4se=uence at the beginning of "ords 5although thedistinction bet"een 4gl4and 4dl4"ill ma+e any &nglish spea+er differentiatebet"een beagle9prepelicar: and beadle 9paracliser:3 obscuration of vo"el

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=uality has 4 for many centuries 4 been characteristic of &nglish e.g. !i!!u! !e! reduced to !! and still the intelligibility of the &nglish "ords andphrases generally en


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as "ell as a phonological analysis of language are in point on this plane"hereas on the plane of content5s6 synta and semantics are at "or+.

Phonetics is the branch of linguistics dealing "ith epressionsubstance as opposed to PF?N?;?ED "hich concerns itself "ithepression form.

*ut languages should not be regarded only as form3 so PF?N&ICS"ill be defined as that branch of linguistics studying speech sounds from thepoint of vie" of8

16 their production 5see above8 -articulatory phonetics/6326 their transmission 5see8 -acoustic phonetics/ above63#6 their perception 5see8 -auditory phonetics/63

%6 their linguistic function 4 in point of patterning ! ordering 5phonology6. $ll these are interdependent. Some linguists dra" a dividing linebet"een phonology and phonemics. he more general term is thoughPF?N?;?ED.

Phonetics may be8 7%eneral Phonetics 5vs. !pecial Phonetics6 4studying respectively speech sounds as a general linguistic phenomenonversus sounds belonging to particular languages3

7!ynchronic Phonetics vs. &iachronic Phonetics 5 the soundsystem at a given moment versusthe historical study of the sound systemseen in its evolution6.

7Comparative -or Contrastive Phonetics8 Comparative Phoneticsboils do"n to ma+ing parallels bet"een the sound systems of different

languages3 much in the same "ay Contrastive Phonetics compares the soundsystems of t"o particular languages for didactic ! teaching purposes.79"perimental ' ;nstrumental Phonetics4 "hich uses special devices

and apparatuses in studying the sounds of human speech and may beconsidered as rather an investigation method than a phonetic discipline 5cf.also the notion of applied phonetics6.

$.C. Eimson details the compleity of the field of study ofphonetics and the intricacy of its relationship "ith the other linguisticdomains and disciplines8

9he PF?N&ICS of a language concerns the concretecharacteristics 5articulatory acoustic auditory6 of the sounds used inlanguages "hile PF?N?;?EDconcerns ho" sounds function in a systemic"ay in a partic language. he traditional approach to phonology is through

PF?N&MICS "hich anlyses the stream of speech into a se=uence ofcontrastive segments -contrastive/ here meaning -contrasting "ith othersegments "hich might change the meaning/ 5B6 he phonemic approach tophonology is not the only type of phonological theory but it is the mostaccessible to those "ith no training in linguistic theory besides being morerelatable to the "riting system. 5B6 *esides being concerned "ith the sounds

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of a language both phonetics and phonology must also describe thecombinatory possibilities of the sounds 5the PF?N?$CICS ?( SD;;$*;&SRGCGR&6 and the PR?S?'Dof the language that is ho" features ofpitch loudness and length "or+ to produce accent rhythm and intonation.$dditionally a study can be mader of the relationship bet"een the sounds ofa language and the letters used in its "riting system 5ER$PF?;?ED orER$PF&MICS6.

In addition to presenting the phonetics and phonemics of &nglishreference "ill need to be made from time to time to other components of thelanguage8

516 he ;&WIC?N 4 the "ords of a language the se=uence ofphonemes of "hich they are composed together "ith theirmeanings.

526 he M?RPF?;?ED4 the structure of "ords in particular theirinfleion 5e.g.start ' started4 here the past7tense morpheme isadded to the stem morpheme6. Statements can be made of thephonemic structure of morphemes 4 the M?RPF?PF?N&MICS .So the morphophonemics of &nglish plural morpheme involvethe M?RPF?PF?N&MIC $;&RN$I?NSillustrated by the !s!in cats the !A! in dogs and the !iA! in losses.

5#6 he SDN$W4 the description of categories li+e noun and verband the system of rules governing the structure of phrasesclauses and sentences in terms of order and constituency.

5%6 he S&M$NICS4 the meaning of "ords and the relationshipbet"een "ord meanings and the "ay such meanings arecombined to give the meanings of sentences.

5,6 he PR$EM$ICS 4 the influence of situation on theinterpretation of utterances.

Moreover various other aspects of linguistics "ill involve phoneticsand phonology. SD;ISICS concerns the variations involved in differentsituations and in different styles of speech. S?CI?;INEGISICS concerns theinteraction bet"een language and society 5e.g.the variation involved acrossclasses and bet"een the sees6. 'I$;&C?;?ED5often considered a branchof sociolinguistics6 concerns the variation in the same language in differentregions. PSDCF?;INEGISICS concerns the behaviour of human beings intheir producton and perception of language 5e.g.ho" far do "e plan ahead

and ho" much of an utterance do "e decode at a timeX6 ;$NEG$E&$CYGISII?N concerns children/s learning of their first language "hereas$PP;I&' ;INEGISICS principally concerns the ac=uisition of a secondlanguage.

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(inally it is clear that the various components of a language areal"ays undergoing change in time. he state of a language at any5SDNCFR?NIC6 moment must be seen against a bac+ground of its historical5'I$CFR?NIC6 evolution.: 5$.C. Eimson op. cit. pp. 07H6.0

NOTES,n what is normallyconsidered the lowest level of linguistic structure are our phonologicalhabits, which include both the raw material of speech4sounds themselves -tobe analysed on the etic level, in phonetics and their structural organisation-which we study at the emic level, in phonemics. >ur speech4habits arestructured, but the units of our phonological behaviour, the phonemes of ourlanguage, have in themselves no meaning. The term linguistic form, in itsbroadest sense, can refer to any meaningful se=uence of phonemes, from theshortest prefi" or suffi" to the longest sentence? but the morphological level oour linguistic habits involves the organisation of minimum forms, both as

morphs on the etic level, and as morphemes on the emic level. The09he structure of language is constantly changing throughout time3 in the usage ofevery individual some minute change ta+es place even from day to day as he learnsne" "ords ne" forms ne" pronunciations and allo"s older habits to fall intodesuetude. hen ta+en in the aggregate over the centuries these minute innovationsadd up to ma


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organisation of morphemes into longer combinations is dealt with in theanalysis of synta" -from %reek syn-


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phonemes 5and then the "ords "ord7groups and on6 out of the apparentlyunintelligible chaos of sounds one is faced "ith 4 "hich is done graduallyafter very careful and attentive listening. he net step for learners to ta+e"ill be pronouncing the sounds thus distinguished and selected 5first "ithouttheir normal contet6 and practising "ith them then analysing their sound=ualities their articulation 5the movements the tongue does 4 together "iththe lips and ones in the first edition of his9nglish Pronouncing &ictionary51@1H68 9hatmost usually heard in everyday speech in the families of South7&asternpersons "hose menfol+ have been educated at the great public boardingschools:3 so he referred to his model as the 9Public School Pronunciation:5PSP63 in later editions 4 e.g. that of 1@#H 4 he added the remar+ thatschoolboys in day7schools do not tend to lose their 9mar+edly localpeculiarities:. It "as in 1@20 that 'aniel >ones abandoned the term PSP infavour ofAeceived Pronunciation 5RP6 i.e. that +ind of standard ! model

rooted in the educated pronunciation of ;ondon and the Fome Counties"hich spread throughout the country being characteristic of upper7classspeech as early as the 1@ thcentury. So its origin and evolution can be said tobe t"o7fold8 both regionalandsociallydetermined 5i.e. the type of &nglishmost often heard among educated people in Southern &ngland 4 used by thema


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commonly heard in ?ford and Cambridge6.)ecei/e" Pronunci$tion to"$y8 his type of pronunciation "as

adopted as a standard for the **C ne"sreaders first of all because it is"idely understood throughout *ritain. Det o"ing to the fact that recently theformal rigidity of *ritish society has been lost 5and thus it is more difficult tocorrelate a certain type of pronunciation eclusively "ith one section ofsociety6 4 and moreover **C broadcasts have made lots of listenersconversant "ith RP 5or at any rate a very close approimation of it6 anumber of local variants being included ! -tolerated/ the old definition seemsno longer acceptable.

More recent editions of the 'aniel >ones 4 $. C. EimsonPronouncing &ictionary are conse=uently representative of the 9usagecurrent among spea+ers of the middle generations and the spea+ers of theyoung are li+ely at any time to be unstable often reflecting transitoryfashion.: he etent to "hich such tendencies are relevant is said amongother things 9by the analysis of recordings made by spea+ers of the relevantage7groups.: 59veryman1s 9nglish Pronouncing &ictionary 1@K6.

In addition there are the limits and structuring criteria provided by thenature of the phonological system itself 4 e.g.the number of the oppositionalsounds and phonemes their incidence in "ords etc. So the fact that no t"opeople pronounce eactly ali+e has regional historical social as "ell aspurely individual causes.

Conse=uently the simplest definition 'aniel >ones gave of RP "as8 9a

"idely understood pronunciation.:It follo"s that even if not a standard in the official sense RP ischosen in many places as the model to be observed 4 e.g.most boo+s on&nglish pronunciation are based on RP3 "hen "e refer to the 9correct "ay:of pronouncing a certain vo"el or consonant "e mean their RP definition.5Det "ith regard to pronunciation also $CC&P$*I;ID ought to be therule mainly "hen it comes to teaching a foreign language6.

In the Introduction to thePronouncing 9nglish &ictionary 'aniel>ones adds8 9It is thought by many that there ought to eist a standard and"e can see from several points of vie" that a standard speech "ould have itsuses. 5B6 $ standard pronunciation "ould also be useful to the foreignlearner of &nglish:.

Fe also discusses the opposition bet"een good speech and bad

speech8 9good speech: may be defined as a "ay of spea+ing "hich is clearlyintelligible to all ordinary people. $ person might use speech sounds entirelydifferent from those emitted by his ! her interlocutors and yet be perfectlyunderstood 5e.g. a Southern *riton can be perfectly understood by a Scot !Scotsman or an $merican etc.6. So that the 9goodness: or 9badness: of thesounds uttered does not eist in themselves 4 they are merely sub


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features3 yet a foreigner "ho tries to learn &nglish 4 at least in school 4 hasto comply "ith the general rules ! norms ofAP ' standard pronunciation.

Since &nglish pronunciation and spelling are rather "ide apart as aresult of historical evolution learners should have recourse to conventionalgraphical signs5such as !! !! etc.6 corresponding to the &nglish phonemesas regular letters may have different phonetic values 5e.g.cat, cent, indict3love move covegone wordsword3 or8send easesugar measure3 or theremay be t"o pronunciations of the same -graphical/ "ord 4 e.g.sow1 9asemna 5cQmpul 4 cu seminLe6:sow29scroaf:3 bough, bow1and bow2 etc.63the same vo"el is heard insit, enough, village, women, busy.

In spite of these appearances of a phonetic chaos

H

&nglish still has anumber of rather fied 4 or else consistent 4pronunciation rules5see8nne"D6 5as in8sheriff bed bad feet etc.6.

Initially &nglish "as phonetic 5as opposed to the etymological aspect4 i.e.historical diachronic in +eeping "ith tradition6 reflecting in a fairlyeact manner the pronunciation of the "ords. his older spelling "aspreserved through the "ritten documents in spite of the 5natural6 historicalevolution of living language. $s an eample "e can mention the "or+knight "hich in the 1%th century "as pronounced as !+ni"t!3 see "aspronounced differently from sea3 in the 1Kth century tea 4 thenpronounced !tei! 4 "as rhymed "ith obey. here have been timid attempts atreforming spelling 5e.g.in the 10thcentury many final e/s "ere eliminated8compare &dmund Spenser/s aerie Eueene "ith today/s "ords fairy and

=ueen6. Det printing contributed to -freeAe/ the older form3 this traditionalstream actually had a positive influence on the language 4 i.e.supradialectalunification. he capital "or+ of the great leicographer Samuel Johnson51H,,6 virtually fied ! -froAe/ &nglish spelling. It is true that there is an

H See /ebster1s 9ncyclopedic Fnabridged &ictionary p. 1H,%8 9$ll of us havetrouble at one time or another "ith our spelling. his boo+ is designed for those ofyou "ho are bright educated and hold responsible positions but "ho are 7 let/s faceit 7 bad spellers. If you are a secretary you +no" ho" often your boss ma+es amista+e in spelling3 if you are a student you +no" that even your teacher or professormisspells. 'octors la"yers Indian chiefs even presidents are +no"n to misspell.hyX;t1s >ur 9nglish +anguage. If you/re unsure of your spelling it/s by no meansyour fault. It/s due to the fact that very often there/s no rhyme or reason for thespelling of a great many "ords in the &nglish language. $s an eample ta+e the

sound of the letterf. It can be spelled ! spelt gh, ph, ft as "ell as f. he follo"ing"ords illustrate the above variation8 enough, phone, often, fun. None other than E.*.Sha" created the follo"ing spellings T;3 potato 4 %3>F%3PT9;%3BT98F. StumpedX Fere/s thesolution8;!3 4 gh as in enough3 oas in women3 tias in nation. Sure enough it/s;!3P>T8T>is even more fun 7 p as in hiccough3o as in though3t as inptomaine3a as in neigh3t as in debt3 o as in bureau.:

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undeniable advantage about maintaining an etymological spelling 4 itprovides good material for the philologists to study the history of the &nglishlanguage. *ut 9he outcome of the 17year7long evolution of the "rittenform of &nglish is -"ritten &nglish 5B6 often an inade=uate and misleadingrepresentation of the spo+en language of today. Clearly it "ould be un"iseto say the least to base our


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phonemes6. he correspondence bet"een the sound and the spelling ofspeech can be even "orse 4 in Irish Eaelic or in elsh ! Cymric for instance4 but it can also be better e.g.in languages li+e (innish Fungarian Spanishor Romanian. he reasons for devising this special type of phonetic notation !transcription are numerous8 there are regional ! dialectal differences bet"eenpeople pronouncing the same "ord or phrase 5e.g.a Coc+ney spea+er and aelshman saying no8 the realisation is for the former nau and for the latterno863 then the fact that there are nations "hose languages have not been"ritten before.

It should be added that this notation is different from the articulatorydescription 4 the image of "hich the former is in fact. 9he phoneticdescription and its underlying analysis is primary3 a notation secondary5though B nonetheless important6. hese priorities "ere not ho"everclearly seen in linguistics until the mid7thirties. $ great deal of the early "or+in language analysis "as ta+en up "ith arguing the pros and cons of aparticular notation 4 "hat "ere the merits of using symbol W over symbol Dfor the notation of a given soundX hat criteria should be borne in mind"hen using symbolsX It too+ some years before criteria for the underlyingphonetic analysis "ere discussed in anything li+e the same degree of detail.*ut despite the confusion the development and the use of phonetictranscription "as of ma


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International Phonetic Alphabet6. *y around 1KH phonetics had developedto such an etent that some +ind of special alphabet "as needed to recordspeech sounds. $n International Congress of ;inguistics met in Paris and"or+ed out this International Phonetic $lphabet in "hich the letters satnd ina one7to7one correspondence "ith the sounds3 its basic stoc+ "as made up ofthe common letters of the Roman alphabet plus various other 4 more or less9eotic:7 letters e.g.the Eree+ theta] the ?ld &nglish ^ [ the Febre"letter called


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2. ^iA f


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CHAPTER II

MAIN COMPARTMENTS OF PHONETICS

$s already mentioned in the introductory chapter phonetics is the9science of human speech7sounds.: Its study focuses on the "hole productionof "hat "e may call vocal noise substantiating the degree to "hich theseelements are characteristic of and relevant for the many diverse natural

languages analysed. he compartments of phonetics are in number of threeand they represent the three interdependent 5although fully distinct6standpoints from "hich the phenomena under study may be regarded.

*efore trying to outline the essentials of the pronunciation of&nglish it is important to point out that "e start here from the assumptionthat no"adays the basic motivation of students in their study of &nglish 4 orany other foreign language 4 is effective communication in that language.Real communication ho"ever involves both production and comprehensionof messages. It means that only spea+ing the language fluently is not enough.Gnderstanding it is e=ually important in order to achieve truecommunication. It is generally admitted that of the t"o aspects of learningpronunciation 4 perception and production 4 the most difficult tas+ to ac=uireis native7li+e audio7comprehension. Sometimes "hen a message is

transmitted by a native spea+er to an unsystematically trained foreignlistener everything seems to flood in upon the hearer so violently that he orshe is in most cases unable to understand "hat is being said to him or her3thus a prere=uisite to developing the ability to produce speech is developingthe ability to recognise speech 4 as long as a sound pattern has not been heardaccurately it cannot be reproduced accurately ecept by accident. Manyintermediate and even upper7intermediate students of &nglish are hardlya"are of the difference bet"een the vo"els in danceand dunce or hoopandhood for eample. Conse=uently learning ho" to articulate the foreignsounds has to go hand in hand "ith intensive listening to them. hisproposition has to be borne in mind during the "hole process of learning orteaching the pronunciation of a foreign language. In this section "e shalleamine some articulatory aspects of communication in &nglish.

Articu3$tory Phonetics8 Meaningful sounds ! vocal noises thathumans produce in order to communicate amount to the social instrument oflanguage.

hen "e start analysing the sounds humans use in speech it "ill beinconceivable to begin it "ith the analysis of the letters "e use in ourspelling3 the 20 letters of the Roman alphabet 5and even the 27odd

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symbols of the Chinese system6 "ill not be enough to mar+ all the range ofsounds &nglish ma+es use of 4 to say nothing of the great variety of soundsspea+ers of other languages can produce.

he only thing "e should normally do is base our investigation uponthe most reliable criterion the sounds themselves can suggest8 namely thephysical properties they display. In an impressionistic description soundsmay appear as 9flat: 9harsh: 9smooth: broad: 9soft: 9dar+: 9bright:9clear: 9scratchy: etc. but these terms can hardly be said to be reliable 4vi#.concrete. 5$s an eample one may invo+e the case of that 9pronunLareQndulcit: applying to Romanian regional accents and especially to theMoldavian variant although the significant use this sub7dialect ma+es ofpalataliAation is far from sounding 9soft:6. So auditory data "hen used in animpressionistic manner have little relevance for this +ind of analysis. heacoustic features of sounds "ill give us better results in this respect mainly ifanalysed by means of special e=uipment and techni=ues. ?n the other handthe data gathered by means of the analytical techni=ues based on the study ofthe anatomy of the organs performing phonation 5the organs of speech6 seemto be more eact3 this has been the main current in the linguistic traditionbeginning "ith the middle of the last century up to the bet"een7the7"arsperiod.

his type of analysis is conse=uently aphysiological or articulatoryone and the study of phonetics in this field is primarily based on the detaileddescription enumeration and classification of the body organs used in

ma+ing speech7sounds. So the main concern of articulatory phonetics is thestudy of the vocal organs "hich ma+e it possible for human spea+ers toarticulate the sounds of everyday speech. 5$s a matter of fact botharticulatory and acoustic phonetics may be given the more general label ofphysical phonetics as they investigate physical phenomena 4 as opposed toauditory phonetics "hich is based on a massive physiological or psychicconstituent6.

he parts of the body that man uses to this purpose are the speech5orvocal6 organs3 they are called


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this tas+3 in man these "ere turned into speech organs proper by "ay ofevolutionary mutations it seems3 the idea is that man simply could not bringforth a ne" set of organs specially meant for phonation ! production ofspeech3 it is merely the case of functional adaptations of a number of parts ofthe vocal apparatus.

he description based on the 4 mainly concrete 4 +no"ledge of theorgans of speech their relation to each other their activity 5the "ay in "hichthey are used in spea+ing6 can provide a universal frame"or+ for theclassification of speech sounds. 5!ee also Fall


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during speech the inspiration ! respiration ratio may become 1 to 1 up to 1to #. hen the lungs are refilled "ith air a speech pause occurs3 sophonation is grouped in breath units ! groups 5stretches of speech6 "hich gohand "ith the syntactic structure of the language itself. 'ynamic stress is allconditioned by the activity of the respiratory muscles.

he 3$ryn4continues the tr$che$5i.e.the "indpipe6 a cartilage organ"hich is visible as 9$dam/s apple: 5indeed it is the largest of the cartilagesin that region "hich actually ma+e up the laryn6. In the laryn are the vocalcords ! vocal folds 5resembling a pair of lips 4 and so also designated bysome phoneticians by the very name of -vocal lips/7 and opening through theglottis6. he epiglottis 5a shoehorn7shaped cartilage lying at the base of thetongue and covering the trachea "hen food is s"allo"ed6 is another organprotecting the bronchi and the lungs from any un"anted matter coming fromouter sources. he vocal cords ' folds act as a valve "hose variousmovements condition the very =uality of the vocalic sounds produced8 "hen+ept apart the person breathes3 "hen "ide apart one snores3 "hen looselybrought together one "hispers3 "hen tightly constricted and ready to vibratethe cords perform the act of phonation. he vibration of the vocal cords 4"hich can be easily felt "hen applying say one/s finger on the 9$dam/sapple: 4 is characteristic of -voiced/ sounds 5e.g.vo"els and the -voiced/consonants as "ell as the sonorants8 !b! !d! !g! !n! !_! !l! etc.6. (re=uencyof vibration is highly variable 5according to age se speech situation etc.6.It can go from 171, cycles per second 5cps6 4 "ith men 4 to 27# cps

4 "ith "omen and children the absolute etremities being 07H cps and1# cps respectively.he Su*r$#3ott$3 C$/ities8 he glottal ! laryngeal tone "hich is

obtained through the passage of the air7stream is modified by the resonance !vibration of the air in the supraglottal cavities "hich are the follo"ing8

a6 thepharynx3b6 the mouth5or the oral cavity63

c6 the nasal cavity. It may be added that there is a small labial cavity ofa secondary importance though 5having no part in producing characteristicsounds of Indo7&uropean languages6.

$%The Ph$ryn4lies bet"een the laryn the oesophagus the mouthcavity and the nasal cavity having at the end the epiglottis 4 an organ "hichregulates the flo" of food do"n the oesophagus and the passage of air

5through the laryn and trachea6. he pharyn can hardly be said to hold arole in producing &nglish sounds.'% The Mouth 5or the Or$3 C$/ity6 has the chief part in

pronunciation although its primary role is that of grasping holding andche"ing ! masticating food in "hich


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result of the movements ! positioning and shape of the organs inside the oralcavity some of "hich are fi"ed 5teeth hard palate ! roof of the mouthpharyngeal "all etc.6 "hile others are movable ' mobile 5e.g.the tongue6.

he movable ! moving organs are articulators3 the fied organs serveas points of articulation.

I! hePoints of Articulationare8 the teeth the teeth ridge ! thealveolar ridge and the hard palate3 the soft palate ! the velum ends "ith theuvula 5Rom. 9omuorul:6.

II!heArticulators 4 of "hich the tongue is the most important3its surface "as 5didactically6 divided into8 the tip the blade 5they formtogether the ape"63 thefront3 the back3 the rootof the tongue the lateral partsare thesides! the rimsof the tongue.

4 the lips4 "hich help in producing labial sounds3 4 the(aws8 the lo"er


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THE A)TICULATO)Y CLASSIFICATION OF SPEECH SOUNDS

he articulatory description of sounds has been the most importantbranch of phonetics3 it aims at describing observing and classifying thespeech sounds in articulatory terms.

Voelsand consonantsare the t"o main classes into "hich soundsfall. )o"els 5\ ;at. vocalis6 are those sounds that are -voiced/ or pronouncedto the fullest of voice as opposed to consonants 5\ ;at. consonare6 "hich-sound together "ith/ the vo"els to form syllables. It "ill be more precise tosay that not only vo"els are -voiced/ 5see also such sounds as !d! !b! !g!!v! !A! ![! !m! !n! !l! !r! "hich are opposed to !t! !p! !+! !f! !s! !`!respectively 4 the latter sounds having no -voice/. So much that thosetraditional names "ere replaced by certain linguists 5li+e Z. ;. Pi+e in 1@%#6"ith the similar class7terms of Vocoids and !ontoids respectively 5i.e.vo"el7type sounds vs. consonant7type sounds6. he second group "ill bedivided into8 obstruents 5non7sonorous contoids6 and sonorants 5sounds"hich are essentially characterised by -voice/ ! vibration8 e.g. !m! !n! !l!!r! !_! !"! !

$lthough vo"els ! vocoids are better described in auditory termsand contoids in articulatory terms the latter parameters ! criteria are useful indefining both classes. Fere is a short presentation of these criteria as appliedto the t"o classes of sounds8

I!Contoi"Soun"sare described and classified according to81. he source and directionof the air7stream8 there are pulmonicsounds 4 i.e.coming from the lungs and egressivesounds 4 i.e.emitted fromthe inside to the outside3 non7pulmonic and ingressive sound are very rare innatural languages and do not occur in &nglish or in any other Indo7&uropeanlanguage.

2. Vibration " activity of the vocal cords 8 there are voiced andvoiceless sounds i.e. )?IC&sounds or sounds having vibration and 7)?IC&sounds or sounds having no vibration respectively3

#. Position of the soft palate8 "hen raised sounds are oral3 "henlo"ered sounds are nasal3

%. Position of 5and organs " partsof the mouth cavity that areactive

in6 articulation. $ccording to this criterion speech sounds "ill be describedas8 4 Bilabial or simply labial5"hen articulated by the lips8 e.g.!p!!b! !m!63

4 +abio4dental5"hen articulated by the lo"er lip and the upper teeth8e.g.!f! !v!63

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4 ;nterdental ' 8pico4dental 5the ape of the tongue is set against theupper teeth or bet"een the teeth8 e.g.!]! !^!63

4 8pico4alveolar 5their Romanian correspondents are called-dental/6

articulation is done by the ape set against the alveolar ridge 4 e.g.!t! ! ! !s! !A!3 4 $pico7postalveolar 5"hen articulated by the tip of thetongue set against the bac+ part of the alveolar ridge6 4 e.g.!r!3 4 Palato4alveolar 5"hen the ape is set against the alveolar ridge

and the front of the tongue also touches the anterior part of the hardpalate63 e.g.!`! ![! !t`! !d[!63

4 Palatal5"hen the front of the tongue touches the palate8 e.g.!

4 &orso4velar or velar 5the bac+ part of the tongue is set against thesoft palate8 e.g.!+! !g! !_! 63

4 %lottal5produced at the level of the glottis through either anarro"ing of the air passage 7!h!7 or a complete closure !constriction 4 the so7called -glottal stop/ !X!6.

,.#anner of articulation4 according to "hich criterion there are thefollo"ing types of 5contoid6 sounds8

4 Plosives ' !tops 5also called occlusives6 "hich are articulated "itha complete closure follo"ed by an -eplosion/ or sudden release8e.g. !p! !t! !+! !g! the glottal stop !X!3

4 8ffricates8 "hen the initially complete closure is slo"ly released8

e.g.!t`! !d[!3 4 )asals8 the obstruction is continued "hile directing the air7streamthrough the nose ! the nasal cavity8 e.g.!n! !m! !_!3

4 ricative sounds8 the air7stream escapes through a rather narro"passage the result being friction e.g.!f! !v! !]! !^! !s! !A! etc.3

4 5hrough intermittent closure68 Aolled sound e.g. !r! "henpronounced in the Scottish 5or Romanian Italian Russian etc.6"ay3 the &nglish !r! sound is produce "ith a -tap/ and may "ell bedescribed as a frictionless continuant3

4 5hrough a lateral escape of the air7stream68+ateral e.g. !l!3 the !r!and !l! sounds are grouped together under the name of -li=uids1.Fere is "hat 'avid Crystal says in connection "ith the 5relative6

intrinsic difficulty of sound defining by means of articulatory observation8

9$ll these sounds 5i.e. labials and alveolars or dentals6 are =uite easy todistinguish largely because "e can feel the movements of the vocal organsvery clearly and indeed see much of "hat is going on if "e care to loo+ in amirror. he further bac+ in the mouth "e go ho"ever the more difficult itbecomes to sense changes in our articulation and the more "ee need trainingin order to be able to understand "hat is going on. It may come as a surprise

#


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to learn that the initial consonants in &nglish keep andcar are articulated in=uite different positions the tongue touching the roof of the mouth furtherfor"ard in the first + sound than in the second. $nd there are many othersounds e=ually difficult to distinguish.: 5'avid Crystal+inguistics p. 1H6.

0. $orce of articulation8 this criterion refers to the force ! tensenessadded to the articulation of contoid ! consonant sounds "hich in turn "illdetermine a larger or a smaller =uantity of air sent by the lungs and furtherpropelled into the mouth. hose sounds involving a smaller air volume arecalled -lenis/ as opposed to -fortis/ 5implying a higher volume of air. In&nglish all voiceless contoids are fortis 5as they need a larger amount ofrespiratory ! articulatory effort to be uttered6 and are opposed to the lenisconsonants8 i.e.the voiced stops 5e.g. !b! !g! the glottal stop etc.6 and thesonorants 5e.g.!l! !m! !_! etc.

H. here is a further class of consonantal ! consonant7type soundsvi#. the semi-voels 5e.g.!"! !

$ detailed table ! chart including the description of the &nglishcontoids as distinguished by8.C. %imson5apud. '. ChiLoran op. cit. 1@HH68

P3$ce o&$rtic!

M$nnero& $rtic!

Bi3$'i$3

L$'io"ent$3

Dent$3

2inter"ent$3

A

3/eo3$r

Post($3/eo3$r

)etro&3e4

P$3$to($3/eo3$r

P$3$t$3

.e3$r

2Dorso(/e3$r U

/u3$r

G3ott$3

P3osi/es5Sto*s%

pb td c < +g X

A&&ric$tesoun"s

trdr

t`d[

N$s$3s n _)o33e"5Intermit7tentclosure6

r R

F3$**e" rL$ter$3 l 5{6Fric$ti/esoun"s

f v ] s A r r ` [ < h

G3i"es " l { "

#1


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II!.ocoi" Soun"s, hese sounds "ill be characterised as pulmonicegressive and oral 5in &nglish there are no nasal vo"els li+e those in (renchPortuguese or Polish for instance8 !! !! etc.6. he air escapes freelythrough the mouth the final =uality of the sounds being established by thefollo"ing parameters8

1.Point of the tongue " Position of the tongueachieving the =ualityof the sound. In +eeping "ith thepart of the tongue which is raised vocoidsfall into8 front !i8! !i! !e! !O! bac+ 4 !u8! !u! !o! !o8! !u! !u8! and centralvo"els 4 !V! !8! !!.

In point of opening 5i.e.ho" high the tongue is raised to"ards the

palate or ho" lo" it lies in the mouth to "hich the relative position of the


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he =ualities of the 9landmar+s: the Cardinal Lowels actuallyrepresent are modified according to the phonatory characteristics of eachlanguage so that rounded nasal unrounded higher or lo"er vo"el =ualitiescan be obtained3 e.g.a rounded series "ill be represented in (rench EermanFungarian ur+ish and other languages by !y! !! !! !!3 nasal8 (r. !! !!unrounded ! spread vo"els8 &ng. !O! Rom. !Q! or !!3 high8 &ng. !u8! etc.

THE CARDINAL VOWEL CHART

!%I&'%I()"PA%A#'&'%

Front B$c6 Hi#h Lo7 CA)DINAL.O-EL

!i! MID8 !e! MID8 !! !a!

!! MID8 !o! MID8 !o! !u!

Compare the Cardinal )o"el Chart above "ith the &nglish Simple)o"els8

!i8! !u8!

!i! !u! !8! !e! !! !o8!

!V! !O! !o! !8!

he invariantvalues ascribed to each of the eight elements of theCardinal )o"el System 4 as the degrees of opening are e=uidistant4 serveas standards ! -pegs/ ! -landmar+s/ according to "hich vo"els in variouslanguages can be better defined and described.

##


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ACOUSTIC PHONETICS

he sounds uttered by the spea+ers are transmitted as sound waves.$coustic phonetics studies :sound "aves "hich is the physical "ay in "hichsounds are transmitted through the air from one person to another: 5'.Crystal+inguistics p. 10H6. So in this case the phonetician is interested inthe manner in "hich the air vibrates bet"een the mouth of the spea+er 5thesender ! transmitter of the message6 and the ear of the listener 5 therecipient6. hese sound "aves are studied as far as their physical =ualitiesare concerned by acoustics. his discipline of physics "ill characterise anddescribe the speech sounds in physical terms. hus speech sounds aredefined as the observable product of vibration of the air 5 i.e.the air7pressurecaused by phonation6. he phonetician/s tas+ "ill be very close to that of thephysicist and the tools he ! she uses must enable him ! her to measure andanalyse the movement of air in acoustic terms. 9his generally meansintroducing a microphone into the communication chain converting the airmovement into corresponding electrical activity and analysing the result interms of fre=uency of vibration and amplitude of vibration in relation totime: 5?/Connor op. cit. p. 106.

he properties of the above7mentioned vibration 5producing sound"aves in the neighbouring medium 4 vi#.the air6 are8 natureandfre*uency

to "hich specific properties of the medium are added. he vibration thatengenders speech sounds may be8 periodic 5vs. non7periodic6 and on theother hand comple"5vs. simple6.

!imple periodicvibrations can only be called those pure ! musicaltones 5i.e. having a constant fre=uency6 produced by a tuning for+ forinstance. hen one stri+es a tuning for+ the t"o prongs vibrate3 themaimum "idth of that vibration depends on the physical properties of thefor+ and is also proportionate to the force "ith "hich the for+ "as struc+8that "idth is +no"n as the amplitude of the vibration. he vibration of asound may be simple or double 5the latter is called a period or a cycle8 i.e.acomplete movement coming bac+ to the starting point of the vibration6. herate of vibration is called its fre*uency. ith solid bodies it can varyaccording to the "eight the volume the shape and the tenseness of the

respective body or cavity. he rate of vibration determines the pitch ! the toneof that sound3 it is measured in cycles ! second 5cps6 4 i.e. the number ofcycles performed by a vibrating body in one second 5in acoustics the term !unit FerA -3# is used63 the number of cps depends on the length of theprongs 5plus of course the physical properties of the for+6.

$s said before vibrations also have a specific amplitude of

#%


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movement "hich conditions the intensity of the sound ! acoustic po"er 5andis measured in atts6. hen the po"er ! energy of sounds is compared thedecibel is used -db4 i.e. "hen the =ualities of perception of the human earare considered3 9a d* is actually a unit that measures the ratio of any t"oamounts of electric or acoustic energy


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as "ell as adding -voice/ to voiced consonants "hile most consonants areborn from the vibrations caused by the various strictures ! obstacles createdalong the vocal tract.

Some speech sounds are characterised by tone 5comple regularvibrations6 4 the vo"els3 some others can be said to be pure noises 5 i.e.irregular vibrations68 the voiceless consonants3 the voiced consonants are theresult of a mied type of vibration 5tones noises6.

he 5comple6 glottal tone is modified by the changing shape of thesupraglottal cavities "hich act as resonators 4 the final sound =uality beingthe result of the harmonics thus added. &ach sound has it o"n spectrum offre=uencies made up of formants. Sounds can be -pictured/ by 5sound6spectrographs3 the spectrograms thus obtained give valuable informationabout the 5main6 formants of a sound3 "hole se=uences of sounds can beanalysed in this "ay.

he reverse procedure is speech synthesis "hich is the blending of5the relevant6 features of sounds 9read: on spectrograms in order 5re6producespeech.

A CLASSIFICATION OF SPEECH SOUNDS IN ACOUSTIC TE)MS

his description and classification of sounds in acoustic terms canbe a valuable tool as far as the articulatory definition of speech sounds isconcerned.

$n essential division in acoustic terms "ill distinguish pure tones5or musical sounds6 from noises3 this division does not run in parallel "iththe traditional division into vo"els and consonants3 vo"els may also havenon7vocalic components "hile "ithin the class of noises there may be pureand partial noises 5i.e.voiceless consonants vs. voiced sonorants6.

$s it had been felt that the articulatory classification of sounds "as notcompletely accurate since sometimes sounds having a certain articulatorydescription could in practice be produced in more than one "ay3 and since itseemed that not everything in the field of describing and classifying soundsrelied "holly on the mechanism of sound production 5especially "ithin thedomain of the vo"els "here an overall description is rather elusive6considerable efforts "ere made to establish a set of categories ! classes ofacoustic features usable for sound classification. *efore the 1@%/s the

oppositions put for"ard by researchers "ere rather primitive and vague 5e.g.those relying on such descriptions as acutegrave compact etc.6 and so theysounded rather impressionistic. $fter the development of spectrography andthe emergence of thesound spectrograph many advances "ere made "ithrespect to the degree of ob


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classification of speech sounds. hus vo"els are classed into compact anddiffuse5i.e.having the main formants grouped in the middle of the spectrum7e.g. !O! !8! vs. vo"els having formants "ide apart at the etremities ofthe spectrum e.g.!i8! !u8!6.

$ second division "ill oppose acuteandgravevo"els depending on"hether the second formant has a high or a lo" fre=uency respectively3 thus!i8! !i! !e! !O! 5acute vo"els6 "ill be opposed to !u8! !u! !8! !o! !o8! 5gravevo"els6.

e can easily notice these acoustic cross7classifications can be madeto correspond to the articulatory aes of classification 5close vs.open or highvs.lo" and front vs.bac+6.

(or consonants a number of acoustic features 5although not veryconsistently studied6 can be noted8 sharp consonants 4 e.g. !d! !t!7 asopposed to grave consonants 4 e.g. !b! !p! in "hich lo"er fre=uenciesprevail3 to this sharp ! lo" ais is added the compact ! diffuse ais 4 e.g.!+! !g! are compact vs. !t! !d! !p! !b! "hich are diffuse.

AUDITO)Y PHONETICS

his is the last of the three main compartments of phonetics. Its ob


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communication. he selection of those relevant sound features is done in+eeping "ith the linguistic system 4 the natural language 4 to "hich thelistener belongs. hus for instance a Romanian "ill hardly distinguishbet"een !i! and !i8! !u! and !u8! or catch the specificity of the &nglishinterdental !]! mista+ing it for !f! !s! or maybe !t!. Personal eperience anduse of a 5foreign or native6 language have an essential role in creatingauditory feedbac+ as "ell as +inaesthetic feedback5i.e.a"areness in point ofperceiving and reproducing the correct sounds6.

9Sounds may be characterised


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CHAPTER III

PHONOLOGY

A+ &,' P,()'#'

$lthough sounds have a certain constancy in pronunciation "hichpermits the spea+ers to recognise them as such they are not identical3 there

are variations depending on8 16 the phonetic contet 5compare the differentvalues of !t! in8 Tom, ten, twig, still, little, cotton, Tuesday, pretty, eighth 3 26geographical appurtenance3 #6 repetition of the same sound by the sameperson during speech 4 in the same contet. 5See also though "ithin adifferent contet the distinction the S"iss linguist (erdinand de Saussureestablished bet"een langue and parole i.e. language and speechrespectively6. 9&ach of us uses an infinite number of different speech sounds"hen "e spea+ &nglish. Indeed it is true to say that it is difficult to producet"o sounds "hich are precisely identical from the point of vie" ofinstrumental measurement8 t"o utterances by the same person of the "ordcatmay "ell sho" =uite mar+ed differences "hen measured instrumentally.Det "e are li+ely to say that the same sound se=uence has been repeated:. 5$.C. Eimson op. cit. p. %6

hese differences are not apparent3 they do not affect communication8spea+ers al"ays grasp the same meanings in spite of the differences3 unli+esuch cases as83elp the poorvs.3elp the boor5"here the difference lies in arelevant 5articulatory6 phonetic trait ! feature 4 in our case -voice/ "hich in&nglish as in other languages can separate meanings of "ords8 !p! and !b!are separate ! distinct phonemes6. It is the tas+ of phonemics ! phonology toclass the features of speech sounds into distinctive and non7distinctiverelating them to the possible changes in meaning that can be noticed 4 unli+ephonetics "hich studies the "ay sounds 5proper6 differ from one another. othese classes are added combinational rules or patternings of conventions.Fere is "hat $. C. Eimson says about that functioning of language as asystem of conventions8 9his pattern of conventions covers a system ofsignificant sounds 5the PF?N&M&S6 the infleion and arrangement of

-"ords/ and the association of meaning "ith "ords. $n utterance an act ofspeech is a single concrete manifestation of the system at "or+. $s "e haveseen several utterances "hich are plainly different on the concrete phoneticlevel may fulfil the same function i.e. are the -same/ on the systematiclanguage level. It is important in any analysis of spo+en language to +eep thisdistinction in mind 5B6: 5Eimson op. cit. p. %6

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he introductory presentation of phonology by 'avid Crystal5+inguistics pp. 1H71H16 is really 4 and authoritatively 4 memorable8 9In theearly period of $merican anthropological linguistics there "as a verymar+ed emphasis on the use of phonetic methods to obtain some +ind ofrelatively ob


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by only a fe" hundred people must be investigated no less carefully andthoroughly than that of a language "hose spea+ers number many millions8the Cabinet Minister has no phonetic priority over the cabinet ma+er. (romthis it "ill be inferred rightly that notions of -correctness/ of "hat is -good/or -bad/ in pronunciation are not uppermost in the phonetician/s mind in his"or+ of description classification and assessment. Fe ta+es his data from hismany sources and "or+s on "ithout as+ing "hether the pronunciationsconcerned are -slovenly/ or -careful/ -beautiful/ or -ugly/. 9e have threetypes of variation8@

1. Lariation tolerated from one repetition of an utterance to another3 inother "ords variation tolerated "ithin the norm of pronunciation of a givensound in a given position "ithin one variety of speech.

2. Lariation of pronunciation of a sound according to the position inwhich it occurs. e may subdivide this type 5though it is probably impossibleto dra" a hard and fast boundary bet"een the sub7types6 as follo"s8

5a6 )ariation "hich could be attributed to the phonetic influence ofneighbouring sounds3 thus the = of callis articulated further bac+ than the+ of keelbecause the vo"el "hich follo"s is a bac+ vo"el 5as opposed tothe front vo"el of keel6. 5ry saying keelafter you have positioned yourmouth to say calland you "ill find difficulty in pronouncing the "ord.6

5b6 )ariation "hich "ould need to be specified ad hoc3 "hen notfollo"ed by a vo"el as in keel the pronunciation of Standard &nglish !l! isusually accompanied by a bunching7up of the bac+ part of the tongue. his

gives the sound the so7called -dar+/ resonance "hich is absent "hen the !l! isfollo"ed by a vo"el as in leak. It "ould hardly be possible to attribute thedifference bet"een the !l dar+! of !+i8l cu dar+! and the !l! of !li8+! to anyfeature of neighbouring sounds.

#. Lariation of pronunciation from speaker to speaker3 here "e musteclude variations "hich involve the use of distinctively different sounds 4the stressed vo"el of $merican tUmeitu tomatois the same vo"el as thatof $merican pUteitupotato "hereas that of *ritish tUm8tu is not thesame as that of *ritish pUteitu so the ei78 variation in tomatois to beecluded from this type.

$s the discipline of phonetics developed during the second half of thenineteenth century and the tas+ of phonetic transcription became more andmore comple it "as noticed that this tas+ could be greatly simplified by

treating variations of types 1 and 2 as automatic and not noting them in thetranscription.o approach the matter from a rather different vie"point it is clear

@his detailed presentation of the types of variation is made by &. C. (udge in)ew3ori#ons in +inguistics pp. HK7H@

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that every native spea+er of a language has an intuitive +no"ledge of "hich5ob


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phonetic transcription using the s=uare brac+ets e.g.d6. he sign mar+sthe boundaries of an utterance. Eenerally the transcription of an allophonictype is called narrow transcription and the 9phonemic: type is called broadtranscription.

here are numerous diacritical signs that can help the phonetician toindicate the actual characteristics of the various allophones8 e.g. !5! foraspiration !! for the lac+ of aspiration !8! for the nasal description of asound !o! for devoicing !! for a dental sound !"! for a labial sound. Fere aresome illustrations of their use8 !t5ei+! 5aspirated !t!63 !+Ot! 5unreleased!t!6 !U+ot8n! 5nasal !t!6. he truth is that the various boo+s be they

dictionaries handboo+s phonetic guides manuals or treatises available areby no means consistent in using such special signs and mar+s.2. Phonemes are also oppositional unitsof sound. he procedure ! the

test of substitution 5or commutation6 4 i.e.replacing form units to see if insimilar contets changes of meaning occur 5e.g. the cats 8 the bats6 led tooppositions revealing the functional character of phonemes3 hence they aresignifying ! relevant units. his procedure is also called the minimal pair test5here is the apt description 'avid Crystal gave it8 9he minimal pair testbriefly is a techni=ue "hich establishes "hich sounds in a language -ma+e adifference/ and "hich do not. It "or+s li+e this. Dou ta+e a "ord 4 on itso"n to begin "ith 4 and you alter one of its sounds8 if you get a different"ord thereby 4 that is if a spea+er of the language tells you the "ords nolonger are the same 4 then you have a -minimal pair/ and the t"o sounds

"hich alternate to produce the t"o "ords are considered important sounds inlanguage. hey are part of the sound7system and "ould be called-phonemes/ by most linguists. &amples "ould be !pet! and !bet! or !set!and !sOt! and so on. Sooner or later you "ould come to the end of thepossible substitutions you could ma+e and you "ould assume that yourinventory of the important sounds "as complete. It is more complicated inpractice than this of course 5B63 and certain assumptions the test ma+es canbe criticised 5for eample it assumes certain norms of perceptual ability inthe person "ho


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units oppositional ! contrasting 5and binary6 relevant and distinctivefunctional 5"ithin a particular system of similar units6 abstract rather thanconcrete coming in groups ! classes 5'aniel >ones called them -families/6rather than in isolation sensitive to the distribution "ithin larger utterances.

&ach natural language ma+es use of only a restricted number of classesof articulation out of the enormous number of potential articulations "hichcould be performed by humans3 this restricted number normally rangesbet"een 2 and H units 5Kphonemes6. 'ifferent languages use phonemes"hich differ through their numbers type and distribution 5 i.e.in +eeping "ithdifferent rules of permissible se=uencing6. Fere are some eamplesillustrating the above remar+s8 &nglish Spanish and Eree+ have theinterdental sound !]! unli+e most other &uropean languages3 Eerman andEaelic both have !! 5also8 !?!6 as in the Scottish "ord lochla+e3 &nglish hast"elve vo"els 5some 4 mainly $merican 4 phoneticians say it has only nineor even as fe" as eight6 Romanian has seven and Spanish only five3 Eermancan have rather long consonant se=uences li+e the one in3erbst 5RussianCAech Serbo7Croatian and even Romanian can display such rich consonantse=uences as "ell e.g.optspre#ece6 unli+e Italian and Spanish3 &nglish hasthe !_! phoneme but its use is restricted to the medial and final positions"hile it is not a phoneme in Romanian only a positional variant ! allophoneof !n! 5as in lMng63 (rench has the phoneme !! "hile &nglish does not etc.he stoc+ of phonemes specific to every natural language is ac=uired bynative spea+ers at the same time as the set of rules concerning their

distribution from early childhood. 9$ language and its phonemes and otherstructural parts are no more biologically inherited than a person/s habits ofdressing or his table manners.: 5&rnst Pulgram ;ntroduction to the!pectrography of !peech p. 1K6.

$s a matter of fact 9vie"s of the phoneme fall into four main classes85i6 he -mentalistic/ or -psychological/ vie" "hich regards the

phoneme as an ideal sound at "hich the spea+er aims3 he deviates from thisideal sound partly because it is difficult to produce an identical repetition of asound 5B6 and partly because of the influence eerted by neighbouringsounds 5B6. his vie" originated "ith the Polish linguist >an *audoin deCourtenay 51K%,71@2@6 and something rather li+e it appears to have beenadopted by Sapir. )ariations of types 1 and 25a6J -see footnote abovearehandled "ell though it is still not an easy matter to devise operational tests

for establishing such -ideal sounds/3 for this reason the $merican linguist;eonard *loomfield 51KKH71@%@6 and his follo"ers re


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cannot be dealt "ith at all by the -psychological/ vie" 5tending in factto"ards the -abstract/ vie" 4 class 5iv6 belo"6.

5ii6 he -physical/ vie" "hich regards the phoneme as a -family/ ofsounds satisfying certain conditions notably8

5a6 he various members of the -family/ must sho" phoneticsimilarity to one another in other "ords be -related in character/ 5>ones81@, p. 16.

5b6 No member of the -family/ may occur in the same phoneticcontet as any other3 this condition is often referred to as the re=uirement ofcomplementary distribution.

he etreme form of the -physical/ vie" 5as propounded in 1@, by'aniel >ones 1KK171@0H6 ecludes all reference to non7phonetic criteria inthe grouping of sounds into phonemes 5B6. (urthermore the fact thatmembers of different phonemes are capable of differentiating meanings5&nglish p and v as in pan and van6 "hereas members of the samephoneme 5&nglish + and =6 are not is said to be a corollary of thedefinition of the phoneme and not its basis5>ones 1@,8 1#71,6. $nd yet itis not easy to see ho" e and O in ur+ish could be assigned to the samephoneme on any other grounds than that substitution of one for the other doesnot give rise to different "ords and different meaning 5for instance theapparently contrasting bana gel and bana gOl both mean -come here/63 infact any cases in "hich type 1 variation is sufficiently "ide "ill cause troubleunless the differentiating function of phonemes is ta+en as a basis and not a

corollary of the definition.Phonemic groupings are further subones 1@,81@#72,6. >ones restricts his phoneme theory to sounds of a single language"here -a language is to be ta+en to mean the speech of one individualpronouncing in a definite and consistent style/ 51@,8 @6. his is a legitimaterestriction to impose on a technical term but it means that >ones/s theorycannot account for the fact that people "ho spea+ very differently from each

other may yet be said to -spea+ the same language/ in the generally acceptedsense of the term language.5iii6 he -functional/ vie" "hich regards the phoneme as the minimal

sound unit by "hich meanings may be differentiated 5cf. *loomfield 1@##8H@ 1#06 4 a +ind of converse of the -physical/ vie" since meaningdifferentiation is ta+en to be a defining characteristic of phonemes. hus +

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and = in &nglish do not differentiate meanings and hence cannot bedefinitely assigned to different phonemes but both form allophones of thephoneme !+!3 they do differentiate meanings in $rabic and hence must beassigned to different phonemes in $rabic. Moreover "e cannot say thatphonemes are sounds or families of sounds since in every sound only acertain number of the phonetic features are involved in the differentiation ofmeanings3 it is these so7called distinctive features of the sound "hich ma+eup the phoneme corresponding to it. (or eample every segment of the&nglish "ord UlOd ladder includes the phonetic feature of voicing5vibration of the vocal cords6 but this is a distinctive feature only in the thirdsegment Jhere is considerable controversy about "hat phonetic feature is involvedin the !t!7!d! opposition in &nglish. *et"een vo"els 5as here6 the voicing difference isimportant "hereas in initial and final positions the pronunciation of !d! may "ell bevoiceless as "ell as that of !t!. In initial position aspiration "ould be a more importantfeature "hile length of the preceding vo"el "ould constitute the chief difference infinal position 5the vo"el of bead is longer than that of beat6.4 its absence here"ould give rise to a different "ord 5latter6 "hereas if any other segments aregiven a voiceless pronunciation 5one in "hich the vocal cords do not vibrate6the result is merely a peculiar version of ladder. he distinctiveness of such afeature thus depends on a contrast bet"een it and other possible featuresbelonging to the same set8 thus "hen distinctive voicing contrasts "ithvoicelessness. Some approaches have ta+en these oppositions as the basicelements of phonological structure rather than the phonemes8 see in particularthe "or+ of N. S. rubetA+oy 51K@71@#K6 5rubetA+oy 1@#@8 07H,3 1@%@8

0K7KH6 and R. >a+obson 5>a+obson Falle 1@,06.he -functional/ vie" avoids the difficulties "hich beset the -physical/

vie" as a result of "ide variations of type 13 furthermore since non7distinctive features are ecluded from phonemes variations of type # can beconveniently handled provided they are not too great.

5iv6 he -abstract/ vie" "hich regards phonemes as essentiallyindependent of the phonetic properties associated "ith them 4 this enablesany type # variations to be handled.: 5&. C (udge Phonology in )ew3ori#ons in +inguistics pp. H@7K16

+Ty*es o& *honees8 he phonemes a natural language recognises and

can analyse as relevant are8 A! Segmental3 B! Supra--segmental. hedifference bet"een the t"o types of phonemes lies in the fact that the

segmental ones deal "ith the organisation and description of the =ualitativefeatures of utterances "hereas those in the second group 4 the so7calledsuprasegmental phonemes 4 concern features relative to length pitch andloudness3 they may generate phonemic oppositions. he features of pitchlength and loudness generally form part of utterances "hich are longer than

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the single segment 5hence their namesuprasegmental orprosodic features !phonemes6.

he inventory of the segmental phonemes in a language is obtained byapplying the test of commutation3 one can thus find as many minimal pairsas possible 5minimal pairs are pairs of "ords "hose meaning differs througha single phoneme ! relevant sound unit e.g.cot, got, hot, lot, not etc.6.

he final result of this test for &nglish "ill be as follo"s8A! -Voels and lides " Diphthongs8 2 5out of "hich 12 are 9pure:

vo"els and K are glides ! diphthongs6. Fere is their complete inventory8 i8i e O 8 o o8 u u8 V 8 the vo"els3 and ai ei

oi au u i u the diphthongs.7!onsonants and semiconsonants " Semivoels8 2% unitsvi#.p bt d + g f v s A ] ^ ` [ t` d[ h m n _ rl


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pitch levels and "ith shifting of pitch.he total inventory of the phonemesin &nglish amounts to ,0 classes !

groups ! sets of functional items i.e.phonemically relevant units. ?ther prosodic ! suprasegmental elements also largely contribute tothe overall realisation of speech although the precise "ay in "hich they aredistinctive is some"hat vague and less understood3 thus rhythm 5viA. theregular -beat/ in speech6, tempo, voice =uality 5either -crea+y/ -breathy/ or-"hispery/6 may convey meaning and clearly have a distinctive linguisticmeaning6.

#. he third point of vie" in "hat regards phoneme analysis isconsidering their internal material composition 4 besides the fact that theyare oppositional functional units.

Roman >a+obson defined the phoneme as the totality of thephonologically relevant properties of a sound unit or as a bundle ofdistinctive features.

Such distinctive 5minimal6 units are8 voice 5e.g. !b! "ill becharacterised as )?IC& vs. !p! "hich is 7)?IC&63 orality vs. nasality5e.g.!t! 8 !n!63 interrupted vs. continuant 5e.g.!b! vs. !v!6 etc. hey are theminimal elements ! components of the epression level of the language for"hich the respective phonemes are analysable. hey are not material i.e.articulatory features ! characteristics implying the physical dimension butthey are rather seen as abstract =ualities. hese distinctive features have incommon the properties of being8 1. binary3 2. universal3 #. in a relatively

small number.Roman >a+obson used auditory criteria in his attempt to describedistinctive features. hus he established t"o main groups of features8inherentandprosodic.

$mong the inherent features the distinction holds bet"een thefollo"ing sets of features8 1. Sonority3 2. onality and #. Protensity features.

9"amples:1. vocalic vs. non7vocalic3 consonantal vs. non7consonantal3 nasal vs. oral3

compact vs. diffuse3 abrupt vs. continuant3 strident vs. non7strident3 voicedvs. voiceless3 2. grave vs. acute3 sharp vs. non7sharp3 flat vs. non7flat3

#. tense vs. la 5for vo"els and consonants ali+e63 fortis vs. lenis 5forconsonants63 aspirated vs. non7aspirated 5for consonants6.

/+ &,' ').IS, P,()'#'S

here are 2 vocalic sounds ' vowel phonemesin *ritish &nglish 5thepresent phonological description "ill prefer the latter term vi#.phoneme6.

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heir identification "as achieved starting from functional criteria 4 throughta+ing into account the principle of opposition as "ell as that of theirposition of occurrence in "ords 5i.e. initially medially finally6.

he main problem raised by their identification "as related to themultiplicity of their phonetic interpretation3 for instance the -long/ vo"elsmay be interpreted as diphthongs e.g.!ones/s descriptionin number of 2 out of "hich 12 monophthongs 5or simple ! 9pure: vo"els6

and K diphthongs 5a more conservative variant of pronunciation "ill implythe acceptance of a @th diphthong8 !o!6. )o"els are egressive pulmonicsounds3 their 5initial6 tone is obtained by the passing of the air7stream throughthe glottis 4 i.e. bet"een the vocal cords ! vocal folds. he vibration of thevocal cords is modified by the resonance of the pharyn and the oral cavity.

$s mentioned before the description and classification of the &nglishvo"els ta+es into account criteria relating to the articulatory field such as8

1. he position of the soft palate32. he position of the lips3#. he 5precise6 part of the tongue "hich is raised3%. he degree of opening bet"een the 5raised part of6 the tongue and

the hard palate3,. ;ength ! relative duration

0. enseness3H. Stability ! continuity ! constancy of articulation.

+;! he divisions ! distinctions operated in +eeping "ith the first

criterion present no interest for the &nglish language3 the oral ' nasal

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opposition does not determine 5relevant6 minimal pairs "ithin the field of the&nglish vo"els3 in &nglish there are no nasal vo"els having phonemic status3there are only cases of 9nasal colouring: 4 vo"els "hich are onlyincidentally and unsystematically nasal mainly o"ing to their respectiveenvironments3 conse=uently the oral ones "ill not have a phonemic statuseither.


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9long: ! 9short: distinction8 short vo"els are said to be la "hereas longones ought to be tense3 yet matters are largely settled by contet ! vicinitye.g. !i8! inPeteis tense although it "as determined to be shorter than thela !i! in a voiced contet li+e bid !bid!.

! !tability ' constancyof articulation "ill lead to establishing the t"omain classes of the vo"el sounds in &nglish8 that of the simple 5or pure6vo"els also called monophthongs and that of the diphthongs 5or glides6 onthe other hand. Stability of articulation is a fact in the first class 5although avery relative fact it has to be said6 "hereas the diphthongsmar+ a change of=uality from the first to the second element 5"hich represents a sort of9target:8 the second element is the 9glide: proper. $ diphthong is composedof a 9nucleus: and a 9glide:. In &nglish all diphthongs are falling 4 i.e.having the nucleus 5that is the very bul+ of its sonority6 in initial position.5Compare this situation "ith the fact that in Romanian there can be 9nuclei:preceded by the "ea+er element e.g.!ea! "hich is said to be 9urctor: 9rising:6.

here are eight diphthongs in &nglish8 a6 Elides to !i! namely8 !ei! !ai! !oi!3 b6 Elides to !u! namely8 !au! !u!3 c6 Elides to !! namely8 !i! !! !u!.

$ccording to the amount of movement implied there are8 idediphthongs 5!ai! !au! !oi!6 vs.narrodiphthongs. hen the first element 5thenucleus6 is opener than the glide the diphthong is a closingone 5!ei! !ai!

!oi! !au! !u!6 "hile an openingdiphthong has an opener element as itssecond element 5the glide68 !i! !! !u!. hese are also called -centring/diphthongs 5because !!vi#.the 9target: of the diphthongal movement is acentral vo"el6.

A DETAILED DESC)IPTIONOF THE ENGLISH SIMPLE .O-EL PHONEMES

$. &he $ront Voels8;!he first vo"el is 2i,2. It is a front close tense unrounded ! spread

long vo"el. In achieving its articulation the front of the tongue is raisedagainst the palate3 the tongue is tense its rims touching the upper molars. he

lips are spread. he opening bet"een the


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'istribution8 it may come in initial position8 e.g.eel, easy in medialposition8 meet, receive or finally8 see, sea, tea, trustee. It usually occurs instressed syllables e.g.greedy, referee3 eceptions 5"hen under secondarystress68 refill, cantilever.

In point of 5positional6 variants vo"el phoneme no. 1 may be8 fullylong !i8! 5"hen in final position of before a voiced consonant68 see, receive3 itmay also have a reduced variant !i.! "hen before a voiceless consonant8Pete, beat, people. here is also a diphthongiAed variant of !i8! "hen thephoneme is follo"ed by a -dar+ l/ ! velar l 5mar+ed as !{!6 as in8seal, peal,wheel. ;ocally these diphthongiAed variants may start from an !! or even !{!

5the closest Romanian e=uivalent of that sound is !Q!6.$s far as its spelling is concerned there are the follo"ing possibilities8ee, e, ea, ie, ei, i as in8 demobee, epoch, scene, read, relieve, receipt, ceiling,police. &ceptionally it may be spelt as in8 =uay, key, people plus someproper names such asBeauchamp.

closer to Rom. !! &ng. !!63 even in &nglish it is often replaced by !! morespecifically "hen it is in unstressed position8 goodness is fre=uentlypronounced !Ugudns! rather than !Ugudnis! possible is sounded as !Uposbl!.etc. his vo"el phoneme is definitely la8 there is no tenseness as in Rom.!i!.

Regarding its distribution it resembles the preceding vo"el as it mayoccur in all positions both in stressed and unstressed syllables e.g.interest,big, city.

)o"el no. 2 has the follo"ing variants8 an opener realisation 5"hen itis comparable to !! e.g.happiness !UhOpins!6. here is also a slightly longervariant "hen it is in a voiced contet8 comparepick and big5the phoneme inthe latter "ord is audibly longer6. hen follo"ed by -dar+/ l ! velar l8 !{! it isoften diphthongiAed8 bill,

English Phonetics and Phonology-Constantin Manea

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