CHAPTER 1

UNIT 1 INTRODUCTION

Introduction to Phonetics
Articulatory phonetics
Acoustic phonetics
Auditory phonetics
Sound producing systems & speech organs
The speech production mechanism

The study of speech sounds can be treated from two basic points of view: phonetics and
phonology. The terms phonetics and phonology are commonly used in discussions of the sounds
of English and of English pronunciation in general. These terms sometimes can be used with
clear distinction and sometimes with confusion or interchangeably. There is an important and
fundamental distinction, but at the same time there is an obvious and equally fundamental
connection. To put it briefly at this stage, one could say that phonetics and phonology are two
ways of looking at the same thing with their own different subject matters and tasks. For the
definition of each term we would like to present the aim and tasks of phonetics first, then we
will look into those of phonology.

Phonetics

Phonetics is the study of the sounds made by the human vocal apparatus, in particular of those
sounds used in speech. We can call these speech sounds. It is customary to recognize different
branches of phonetics.

1. Acoustic phonetics:

Acoustic phonetics studies the transmission of speech sounds through the air from the speaker
to the hearer and is thus concerned with measuring and analysing the movement and vibration
of the air. This involves investigation within the framework of physics, and an acoustic
phonetician deals with speech wave forms and studies their frequency and amplitude in much
the same way as a physicist or acoustic engineer.
Amplitude (or loudness, size of pressure differences)
- usually measured in decibels (dB)

Frequency (or pitch)

usually measured in cycles per second, or Hertz (Hz)

Two sine waves may have

the same frequency and
different amplitudes, and
vice versa.

Wavelength
usually measured in centiseconds or miliseconds

2. Auditory phonetics:
Auditory phonetics is the study of the hearing of speech sounds and deals with such questions
as how we perceive and recognize different speech sounds. Such investigations take place
largely within the framework of psychology.

The human hearing system

the outer ear: modifies the incoming sound signal
and amplifies it at the eardrum

the middle ear: improves the signals and transfer

it to the inner ear

the inner ear: converts the signal from

mechanical vibrations into nerve impulses and
transmit it to the brain via the auditory nerve.

3. Articulatory phonetics
Finally, articulatory phonetics is the study of the production of speech sounds by the human
vocal apparatus, of how a speaker produces, by means of the organs of speech, the sounds he
or she uses in speech and of how we can classify and describe such sounds. From our point of
view as teachers and learners of language this is obviously the branch of phonetics which
concerns us most, and this course will be concerned mainly with articulatory phonetics.
Henceforth, when we talk about phonetics, we shall take this to refer to articulatory phonetics.

Phonetics, then, deals with all speech sounds. It tries to describe how they are made, to classify
them and to give some idea of their nature. Phonetic investigation shows that human beings are
capable of producing an enormous number of speech sounds. The range of articulatory
possibilities is vast. Yet we notice that each language uses only some of the sounds that are
available. What is more, each language has its own particular selection from all the available
sounds, so that no two languages have exactly the same set of speech sounds. Even more
importantly, each language organizes and makes use of the sounds in its own particular way.

The study of the selection that each language makes from the vast range of possible speech
sounds and of how each language organizes and uses the selection it makes is called phonology.
We see here the source of much of the confusion, because both phonetics and phonology are
concerned with the same subject matter, that is, with speech sounds as produced by the human
vocal apparatus, but they look at this subject matter from different points of view.

Phonetics tends to be a more general discipline; in that it is concerned with speech sounds
without reference to their function or role in any particular language. Because of this, it is
sometimes claimed to be an autonomous discipline, to be pursued without reference to
phonology and other aspects of linguistics. But even in general phonetics there are many notions
and concepts, such as that of the syllable, which it is virtually impossible to discuss without
bringing in phonological and other linguistic considerations. Phonology, on the other hand,
tends to be more particular, in that it is usually concerned with the patterning of sounds in a
particular language. It always needs to make reference to phonetics. Phonology can, of course,
have a more general dimension, as when it is concerned with the universal aspects of sound
patterns and systems and of rules involving sounds, since it appears that many principles
governing the way sounds are used and organized apply to all languages, although of course
details differ from language to language. Similarly, phonetics can be more particular, as when
it confines itself to dealing only with the sounds of a particular language. In the latter case,
however, there is inevitably a close relationship with phonology, as it is difficult to study the
sounds of one language without taking into account their relationship to one another and the
way they work together. One might sum up the relationship between phonetics and phonology
by saying that phonetics provides the descriptive and classificatory framework for phonology.
In other words, phonetics describes and classifies the speech sounds while phonology studies
how they work together and how they are used. Or, we could say that phonetics is concerned
with what speech sounds are, their nature, while phonology is concerned with what they do,
their function. The distinction between phonetics and phonology is the familiar distinction
between form and function which is to be found in many fields of study.

In summary, systems of sounds can be studied from two basic points of view.

1 Phonetics is the study of the sounds of language according to their production in the vocal
organs (articulatory phonetics) or their effect on the ear (acoustic phonetics). All phonetics are
interrelated because human articulatory and auditory mechanisms are uniform. Systems of
phonetic writing are aimed at transcribing accurately any sequence of speech sounds; the best
known is the International Phonetic Alphabet.

2 Each language uses a limited number of all the possible sounds, called phonemes, and the
hearer-speaker is trained from childhood to classify them into groups of like sounds, rejecting
as nonsignificant all sorts of features actually phonetically present. Thus, the speaker of English
ignores sounds that are very important in another language, e.g., French or Spanish. Phonemes
include all significant differences of sound, among them features of voicing, place and manner
of articulation, accent, and secondary features of nasalization, glottalization, labialization, and
the like. The study of the phonemes and their arrangement is the phonemics of a language. The
term Phonemics can be used as another term for Phonology.

Phonetics which is aimed at providing sets of features and properties for describing speech
sounds has 3 approaches:

1. Acoustic phonetics deals with the transmission of speech sounds through the air (How the
sound waves are measured)

2. Auditory phonetics deals with listeners’ perception (How speech sounds are perceived with
the ears, nerves and brain)

3. Articulatory phonetics deals with the physiological mechanism of speech production (How
speech sounds are produced using articulators).
Phonology which studies the function o speech sounds and how they are organized into
phonological patterns is aimed to answer these questions:

1. How many distinctive sounds are there in a particular language system?

2. Which rules that govern the interaction between these sounds?

ARTICULATORY PHONETICS

VOCAL TRACT & ARTICULATORS

Trachea

Names of articulators
Perhaps readers and learners may get confused with the terms used for the articulators. The
table below will help the make clear the common names and what each of them mean.
 Normal name Fancy name Adjective
Lips Labia Labial
Teeth Dental
Alveolar ridge Alveolar
Hard palate palatal
soft palate Velum Velar
Uvula Uvular
Upper throat Pharynx Pharyngeal
Voicebox Larynx Laryngeal
Tongue tip Apex Apical
Tongue blade Lamina Lamina
Tongue body Dorsum Dorsal
Tongue root Radical

In phonetics, the terms velum, pharynx, larynx, and dorsum are used as often or more often than
the simpler names.
alveolar ridge
A short distance behind the upper teeth is a change in the angle of the roof of the mouth.
(In some people it's quite abrupt, in others very slight.) This is the alveolar ridge. Sounds
which involve the area between the upper teeth and this ridge are called alveolars.
(hard) palate
the hard portion of the roof of the mouth. The term "palate" by itself usually refers to
the hard palate.
soft palate/ velum
the soft portion of the roof of the mouth, lying behind the hard palate. The tongue hits
the velum in the sounds [k], [g], and [N]. The velum can also move: if it lowers, it creates
an opening that allows air to flow out through the nose; if it stays raised, the opening is
blocked, and no air can flow through the nose.
uvula
the small, dangly thing at the back of the soft palate. The uvula vibrates during the r
sound in many French dialects.
pharynx
the cavity between the root of the tongue and the walls of the upper throat.
tongue blade
the flat surface of the tongue just behind the tip.
tongue front/ body/ dorsum
the main part of the tongue, lying below the hard and soft palate. The body, specifically
the back part of the body (hence "dorsum", Latin for "back"), moves to make vowels
and many consonants.
tongue back/ root
the lowest part of the tongue in the throat
epiglottis
the fold of tissue below the root of the tongue. The epiglottis helps cover the larynx
during swallowing, making sure (usually!) that food goes into the stomach and not the
lungs. A few languages use the epiglottis in making sounds. English is fortunately not
one of them.
vocal folds/ vocal cords
 folds of tissue stretched across the airway to the lungs. They can vibrate against each
other, providing much of the sound during speech.
glottis
the opening between the vocal cords. During a glottal stop, the vocal cords are held
together and there is no opening between them.
larynx
the structure that holds and manipulates the vocal cords. The "Adam's apple" in males
is the bump formed by the front part of the larynx.

UNIT 2
THE SPEECH PRODUCTION MECHANISM

The articulation process is the modification of sound waves produced by the airstream,
phonation, and oral-nasal processes. In other words, this process is a composition of 3
fundamental components involving aspects of speech sound production known as initiation,
phonation and articulation.

Initiation mechanism
At this initial moment, we need to have an airflow as a source of energy to make a speech sound.
Airflow generated from the lungs is called “pulmonic” and airflow out of the lungs is called
“egressive”. The vast majority of speech sounds in the world’s languages, in fact, all sounds in
most languages are made with “pulmonic egressive airflow”. However, it is possible to speak
with “ingressive pulmonic airflow” (going in the lungs). Although “ingressive pulmonic
airflow” is possible in the production of speech sounds, no language in the world seem to make
distinctive use of this mechanism. There are two good reasons why egressive airflow is the
norm in all languages:
1. Ingressive airflow does not allow vibration in the vocal folds (phonation). It’s hard to make
the distinction between “pea” and “bee” when they are uttered with ingressive airflow.
2. Egressive airflow is easy because speaker can use the pressure of full lungs to control slow
sustained exhalation. With ingressive airflow, filling the lungs in a slow controlled inhalation
is harder and it is a problem for getting the oxygen into the bloodstream quickly and efficiently.
Ingressive or egressive?
Fig. 1 Egressive pulmonic airflow & Ingressive pulomonic airflow

Phonation mechanism
The term “Phonation” refers to all movements of the vocal folds in producing speech sounds –
and in particular to the sounds that involve vibrations of the folds. The vocal folds can be
manipulated in many ways, but linguists usually recognize five phonation modes which are
relevant to speech production (Only four will be mentioned in this course). A phonation mode
is a category of vocal setting that allows a particular type of voice quality.
In this section we will see the structure of vocal folds and how they move.
The structure of the larynx
The larynx is positioned in the top of the trachea. Primarily it is a valve which regulates the
respiration, but additionally it is a sound source. The larynx houses the vocal folds which open
and close. The larynx is very complex structure – a delicate web of bone, cartilage, muscle and
ligament. The vocal folds themselves are made up of loose bands of muscles that can move
over each other to allow high speed vibration.
Vibration cycle of the folds
Vibration is the opening and closing of the vocal folds, which repeats up to 400 times per
second. What kind of mechanical structure allows for such rapid movement and fine control?
The Aerodynamic Myoelastic theory suggests that, rather than any mechanical muscular action,
the airflow itself and the elasticity of the folds combine to produce this action (Known as
“mucosal wave”. Here is how the cycle works:
When the folds close, the pressure of the air below them increases. When this pressure exceeds
the pressure holding the folds together, they burst apart and air flows again. This air flow again
drops the pressure (the Bernouli effect), and the folds get sucked back together again.
It’s these pressure changes created by regular puff or air coming through the folds that produce
sound, not the folds clapping together or vibrating.
The vocal folds have a certain thickness, and the lower edge of the folds open before the upper
edge, so the opening moves upward. Then the lower edge of the folds closes before the upper
edge, so the closer moves upwards.

Fig. 2 The structure of the larynx Fig. 3: Vibration cycle of the vocal folds
The vocal folds are held together along their full length with enough tension to allow
vibration:

1. The vocal folds momentarily block airflow from the lungs.

2. The air pressure underneath the vocal folds increases.
3. The increased pressure forces the vocal folds up and apart.
4. As the pressure falls again, the vocal folds snap back together.
5. Go to 1.

Fig. 4 The opening and closing of vocal folds in vibration cycles

Each repetition of this cycle causes a "glottal pulse". The number of times this occurs in a
second is the fundamental frequency of voice.

Varying the tension of the vocal folds results in different rates of vibration (and so different
pitches).

Phonation modes
With different movements of the vocal folds, different phonation modes can be created. By
phonation mode, it means a category of vocal setting for a particular type of voice quality.

Fig. 5 Vocal folds are wide apart Fig. 6 Vocal folds are narrowing for vibration
Four phonation modes or glottal states
We mention here 4 phonation modes due to the work of glottis and vocal folds. In doing this,
we try to answer the main question: Are the vocal fold vibrating or not? A simple answer is:
Segments with vocal fold vibration are voiced, all others are voiceless.

As we will see, there's more than one way the vocal folds can vibrate. There's more than one
way they can fail to vibrate.

voiceless sounds are This mode can be thought

Voiceless mode produced with the Voiced mode of as “normal” vocal fold
ligament folds and vibration” involving
arytenoids are held wide opening and closure along
apart to allow non- the full length of the folds,
turbulent airflow between e.g. [b] in bad, [d] in bad
them, e.g. [s] in sad, [f] in
fat
Fig. 6 Vocal folds for voiceless mode Fig. 7 Vocal folds for voiced mode

Whisper voice whisper mode involves Creaky voice creaky mode involves the
holding the length of the vibration in the vocal folds
ligament folds closed, but with very low
while holding the frequency, and the folds
arytenoids open. In being closed for more
whisper mode airflow is time; also, the folds being
forced through a much bunched up & thick allow
smaller opening than in slow vibration at a slow air
voiceless mode flow rate
Fig. 8 Vocal folds for whisper voice Fig. 9 Vocal folds for creaky voice
Note: Some Vietnamese learners of English tend to utter voiceless sounds with grave accent ` as
in sờ or sì at the beginning of a word (e.g. “stress”) and thus fail to perform voiceless sound [ s ].

Articulation mechanism
For shaping the sounds, we need resonating cavities such as nasal cavity and oral cavity which
are responsible for the passage of the airstream. Besides these two resonators, the velum should
be mentioned here as the one that allows the airstream to go out through either the mouth or the
nose to be defined as oral sounds or nasal sounds.
Along with the resonators mentioned above, the articulators such as the tongue, the alveolar
ridge, the hard palate, the glottis, the lips and the teeth play an important role in yielding a
variety of configurations of sounds. Each of them may interact in the process of articulation
depending on the active role or passive role they assume.

3 fundamental components
involving aspects of sound production

Initiation mechanism phonation mechanism articulation mechanism

The lungs larynx & vocal folds Articulators & cavities
for for for
energy source vibration shaping sounds with
pulmonic airflow voicing sounds different quality &
constriction

Fig. 10 Three fundamental components involving aspects of sound production