English Phonetics & Phonology

Peter Roach (2009)

Introduction
Lecture No. 1 (Second Year)
The speech sounds of a language are identified using minimal
pairs: A pair of two words which are similar in all sounds except
one sound, and this difference results in difference in meaning.

• The phonemes of a language are either consonants or

vowels.
Pet /pet/ === pot /pDt/
• The vowels /e/ and /D/ are two different phonemes in
English
Tab /tӕb/ === cab /kӕb/
• The consonants /t/ and /k/ are two distinct phonemes.
• The four phonemes in the pairs above should be included
in the list of English phonemes.

❖ Spelling in English is not of much help in pronunciation due to

the inconsistent relationship between spelling and
pronunciation.
❖ Symbols are needed to represent a language speech sounds.
❖ The process of writing phonemes in symbols is called
transcription.

❖ Languages have different accents:

▪ Different geographical places,
▪ Different social classes,
▪ Different ages and,
▪ Different educational backgrounds.
 English Phonetics & Phonology
Peter Roach (2009)

• Dialect refers to a variety of a language which is different

from others not just in pronunciation but also in vocabulary,
grammar and word order.
• Accent refers to differences in pronunciation only.

❖ The accent we use as our model is the one that is most often
recommended for foreign learners studying British English. It
has for a long time been identified by the name
1. Received Pronunciation (usually abbreviated to its
initials, RP),
✓ The name is old-fashioned and misleading?
• The word “received” means “accepted” or
“approved”, which implies that other accents
of English are not approved.
2. BBC Accent: Since it is most familiar as the accent used by
most announcers and newsreaders on BBC and British
independent television broadcasting channels. (Not ALL of
them).
3. Queen's or King's English

• Do we recommend British English as the best choice for

learners and other accents are inferior to it?
No, so why BBC?
a. BBC is the accent that has usually been chosen by British
teachers to teach to foreign learners,
b. It is the accent that has been most fully described,
c. It has been used as the basis for textbooks and
pronunciation dictionaries.
 English Phonetics & Phonology
Peter Roach (2009)
Introduction

Lecture No. 2 (Second Year)

Chapter 2: The Production of Speech Sounds

• The production of sounds requires pushing the air outside the

mouth or the nose via contracting muscles.
• The sounds in English are produced with a pulmonic egressive
airstream mechanism.
✓ Egressive ===== outward
✓ Pulmonic === air from the lungs

• The majority of human sounds are produced by an egressive

pulmonic airstream. This movement describes an
outgoing airstream produced by the lungs and is regarded as the
only airstream mechanism that uses lung air.
• However, some languages use an ingressive airstream mechanism.

❖ How do we exactly produce sounds?

1. The air passes through the larynx.
2. The air goes through the vocal tract:
a. The oral cavity == the mouth
b. The nasal cavity === the nose
3. Throughout its way out, the air is modified by the different speech
organs (lips, teeth, tongue, etc.)
❖ Why do we have different sounds?
 English Phonetics & Phonology
Peter Roach (2009)
• Because we have different speech organs that move in different
ways, take different shapes, and interact in different ways to
produce different sounds.
• To vary the sound quality in a way useful for speaking, two speech
organs normally move towards each other to contact each other
to create an obstruction that shapes the air in a particular fashion.

❖ Articulatory Phonetics:
 Articulatory phonetics is a subfield of phonetics that
studies articulation and ways that humans produce speech.
Articulatory phoneticians explain how humans produce
speech sounds via the interaction of
different physiological structures. Speech organs are
sometimes called articulators.

Active or movable articulators VS Passive or unmovable articulators

 English Phonetics & Phonology
Peter Roach (2009)
1. The pharynx: a tube just above the larynx, at its top end it is
divided into two parts: the back of the oral cavity and the
beginning of the nasal cavity.
2. The soft palate (velum) just like a valve that allows air to go either
through the mouth or through the nose. It can take two different
positions;
✓ Raised === nasal cavity is closed === oral sounds /k/
✓ Lowered ==== nasal cavity is open === nasal sounds /m/

It can be touched by the tongue to produce /k/ for example.

Velar sounds /k/ and /g/

3. The hard palate (the roof of the mouth). It has a smooth curved
surface that can be felt with the tongue. It is the hard part of the
roof of the mouth (/j/). (palatal)
 English Phonetics & Phonology
Peter Roach (2009)
Lecture No. 3 (Second Year)

Chapter 2: The Differences between Vowels and Consonants

• We concluded last lecture that the sounds of a language can be

divided into vowels and consonants.
• The terms vowels and consonants are very familiar to most EFL
learners; however, they are scientifically not easy to define.
❖ The basic difference between vowels and consonants is
phonetically based. That is, it is related to the actual production of
these sounds.
✓ Vowels are produced with no obstruction to the air flow as
it passes from the larynx to the lips i.e. the air goes out
freely.
 There is no contact between the speech organs in the
production of vowels.
 Why do doctors ask their patients to say /a:/?
o Because it gives an unobstructed view of the mouth,
and the doctor can see clearly.
✓ Consonants are produced with various types of obstruction
to the flow as it passes from the larynx to the mouth or the
nose.
 The air does not go out freely; it is rather obstructed
by different speech organs.
 We have various interferences to the air stream
made by one or more speech organ.
 When we pronounce the vowel sound /i:/ we feel
that the air flow is pushed out freely without any
 English Phonetics & Phonology
Peter Roach (2009)
obstruction in the vocal tract. Yet, if we pronounce
the consonant sound /t/, for example, we can feel
that the air is trapped for a short time behind the
alveolar ridge before it bursts out with explosion.

There are other phonetic differences between vowels and consonants

such as:

• All vowels are voiced; whereas consonants can be voiced and

voiceless. There is always vibration in the vocal cords when any
vowel is produced. Yet, in consonants, vibration may happen as in
/d/ but not existent in /t/.
• All vowels are oral; whereas consonants can be oral or nasal.
All vowels are produced when the air is pushed outward through
the oral cavity or the mouth cavity (practice)
A consonant such as /r/ is oral, while a consonant such as /n/ is
produced when the air stream goes out through the nasal cavity.
❖ When applying the phonetic basis on vowel-consonant distinction,
we conclude that however this criterion applies to most sounds in
English; it does not apply to gliding sounds such as /w/ and /j/.
✓ These two sounds (w & j) are phonetically vowels; yet, they
are consonants?????

At this point, we need to consider the phonological basis for vowels-

consonants distinction.

Q: Do you think that the pronunciation of vowels is more difficult than

the pronunciation of consonants? Why (not)?
 English Phonetics & Phonology
Peter Roach (2009)

4th Lecture
Vowels & Consonants
Phonologically speaking, consonants are always found in the margins

(onset and coda) of the syllable, while vowels are found under the peak

or the nucleus of the syllable.

In the word "hat", for instance, we have two consonants (/h/ and /t/)

and one vowel that is /ӕ/. The consonant /h/ is under the onset and the

consonant /t/ is under the coda, while the vowel /ӕ/ is under the

nucleus of the syllable as in the tree below:

Rhyme

Nucleus coda

Onset
h ӕ t
Consonants (tr) ai zero coda

Based on syllable structure, explain whether the sound /r/ in the word

"try" is a consonant or vowel.


 English Phonetics & Phonology
Peter Roach (2009)

 The sound /w/ in the word "wind"

w (c) I (v) nd (cc)

Yard

j(c) a: (v) d (c)

❖ There are other ways that can be used to check whether a certain

sound is a vowel or a consonant. These are helpful in resolving the

problem of gliding sounds.

✓ The pronunciation of definite article "the"

/ðə / when the following word starts with a consonant

The book

/ðɪ/ when the following word starts with a vowel

The apple

Apply the rule to the words (year, weak)

✓ The use of the indefinite articles (a, an)

 when the following word starts with a consonant (a)

a book

 (an) When the following word starts with a vowel

An apple

Apply this rule to the words (yard, wise)

A yard /j/ is a consonant

 English Phonetics & Phonology
Peter Roach (2009)

A wise man /w/ is a consonant

❖ The description of vowels requires different criteria from those
used for consonants.
• Do you remember the criteria used for the description of
consonants?

The description of vowels requires the following criteria:

1. Lips rounding
2. Tongue Height
3. Tongue position (tongue advancement)

After we have mentioned the three criteria used in the

description of vowels, next time we will use them to describe
English vowels.
 English Phonetics & Phonology
Peter Roach (2009)
Introduction
Lecture No. 6 (Second Year)
The description of vowels:
There are three criteria used in describing vowels; these are:
1. Lips Rounding
❖ In the pronunciation of vowels, the lips can take on of two main
shapes;
✓ Rounded as in the vowel /u/
✓ Unrounded as in the vowel /i/.
2. Tongue Height
❖ Vowels are divided based on how high is the tongue inside the
mouth into three types;
✓ High (close),
✓ Half close (mid high) or half open (mid low)
✓ Low (open).
e.g. /i:/ is high /e/ is mid high /ӕ/ is low
3. Tongue Advancement
❖ Vowels can be divided based on which part of the tongue is most
raised inside the mouth into three basic types;
✓ Front /e/ when the front part of the tongue is the highest
part inside the mouth.
✓ Central /Ʌ/ when the central part of the tongue is highest
part inside the mouth.
✓ Back /ɔ/ when the back part of the tongue is highest part
inside the mouth.
Cardinal Vowels: The vowels that are nobody's vowels; they rather
represent a standard reference system. They are mapped on a four-sided
diagram that shows the range of vowels that human vocal device can make.
 English Phonetics & Phonology
Peter Roach (2009)
• The figure is recommended by IPA to show primary (more familiar to
speakers of most European) cardinal vowels, Secondary (less familiar). It
adopts extreme points.

Practice /i:/ and /a:/

Practice /i:/ and /u/

Practice /i/ and /u/

Front Central Back

Close (high)

Mid

Open (low)

Example Symbol Features

heed iː Close, Front, Long, unrounded
hid ɪ Close, Front, Short, unrounded
head e Half-open, Front, Short, unrounded
had æ Open, Front, Short, unrounded
Hudd ʌ Open, Central, Short, unrounded
hard ɑː Open, Back, Long, unrounded
hod ɒ Open, Back, Short, rounded
hoard ɔː Half-open, Back, Long, rounded
hood ʊ Close, Back, Short, rounded
who uː Close, Back, Long, rounded
heard ɜː Half-open, Central, Long, unrounded
ago ə Half-open, Central, Short (Schwa), unrounded
 English Phonetics & Phonology
Peter Roach (2009)
Lecture No. 7 (Second Year)

Short and long vowels

Vowels in English are divided into pure and gliding vowels.

Pure vowels are the vowels that remain in their position and they do not glide
to another vowel position.

Pure Vowels

Short Vowels Long Vowels

How are short vowels different from long vowels?

1. Quantity Difference
✓ Short vowels last for less duration than long vowels.
✓ This difference is indicated by having (:) at the end of the vowel
symbol.
✓ e.g. /ɪ/ is the short vowel in the word (wind) and /iː/ is the long
vowel in the word (week).
/ʊ/ === /uː/
✓ The two dots (:) is the length marker that refers to more length in
the pronunciation of the vowel.
2. Quality Difference
✓ Short vowel and long vowels do not vary in length but also in their
acoustic features.
✓ This difference is indicated via using different symbols.
✓ /ʊ/ === /uː/ /ɪ/ ==== /iː/
 English Phonetics & Phonology
Peter Roach (2009)
/ɒ/ === /ɔː/ /e/ === /ɜː/
✓ The difference between the two vowels in the pair /ʊ/ === /uː/ is
in length as indicated by the two dots (:), where /uː/ is longer
than /ʊ/. They are also different in their features as indicated in
the difference in the symbols used, where /uː/ is higher than /ʊ/.
We can see in the vowel chart that these two vowels are located in
different positions.

Notes:

• Vowel length is affected by following consonants.

Strong (voiceless) consonants make vowels shorter and weaker.
Weak (voiced) consonants make vowels longer and stronger.
Example (save) and (safe)
Voiced voiceless

• The vowel /ɜː/ is one of the most difficult vowels to pronounce by

foreign learners, but you can practice two techniques to pronounce it
correctly:
1. Keep your teeth close to each other.
 English Phonetics & Phonology
Peter Roach (2009)
2. Do not round your lips.

• The /ə/ (Schwa) is considered a distinct vowel and thus it should be

included in the list of English vowels. However, some scholars believe
that it is not a distinct vowel; it is rather the weak form of all other
vowels when they are pronounced in their weak forms.

Q: Do you think that vowel length is phonemic in English?

 English Phonetics & Phonology
Peter Roach (2009)
Lecture No. 8 (Second Year)

Diphthongs & Triphthongs

✓ We have stated that vowels are either pure or glidings.

✓ Pure vowels are either short or long.
❖ Gliding vowels are either diphthongs or triphthongs
• Pure vowels do not glide from one vowel position to another, while
glidings move from one vowel position to another and may be to a third
vowel position.
• A diphthong is a glide from one vowel position to another. Thus, we
have one move and two vowels involved. However, the diphthong is
considered one vowel.
• The first part of a diphthong is often longer and stronger than the
second part, so remember not to make the second part longer and
stronger than required.
• We have 8 diphthongs in English, though the diphthong /əʊ/ is
becoming rare. These diphthongs are provided in the figure below.

Diphthongs

Closing Why? Centering Why?

Ending in /ɪ/ Ending in /ʊ/ Ending in /ə/

(eɪ) (ɪə)
(aʊ)
(aɪ) (ʊə)
(əʊ)
(eə)
(oɪ)
toy
 English Phonetics & Phonology
Peter Roach (2009)

Triphthongs
❖ Triphthongs are the most complex vowels in English; hence, they are
difficult to pronounce and very difficult to recognize.
❖ A triphthong is a glide from one vowel to another and then to a third.
These vowels are pronounced rapidly without any interruption.
❖ All diphthongs end in /ə/.

1. (aʊə) as in /taʊə/ tower

2. (aɪə) as in /faɪə/ fire
3. (eɪə) as in /pleɪə/ player
4. (oɪə) as in /loɪəz/ lawyers
5. (əʊə) as in /grəʊə/ grower

Why triphthongs are difficult to learn for foreign learners?

1. The extent of the vowel movement is very small in present day English.
The extent becomes wide enough only in careful pronunciation. The
result is that the second vowel in the triphthong is difficult to hear and
distinguish from the diphthongs.
2. Does the triphthong contain one or two syllables? (fire)
 English Phonetics & Phonology
Peter Roach (2009)
Lecture No. 9 (Second Year)

Chapter Five (Phonemes & Symbols)

Though people often speak continuously i.e. they do not speak in individual
sounds, their speech can be made into small parts called segments.

e. g. the word (cat) can be divided into three segments /kӕt/ (k, ӕ, t)

Is it always easy to decide on the number of segments in a word?

e. g. the word (kite), it is clear that the first segment is /k/ and the last
segment is /t/, but what about the sound in the middle?

• Do we consider the vowel /aɪ/ as one sound or two?

The use of minimal pairs to identify the phonemes of a language is the

mechanism usually adopted.

20 vowels

Bad bed bud bid

/bӕd/ /bed/ /bɅd/ /bɪd/

However, the number of vowel letters is different. (a,e,I,o,u)

Phonemes are units of speech.

Letters are units of writing.

The change from one letter to another will also change the meaning.

E.g. pull ------ bull

• Is there one to one relationship between letters and sounds?

(A, a, e, ɒ)

• Discuss the difference between these symbols.

Sat ----- set

 English Phonetics & Phonology
Peter Roach (2009)
❖ The alphabet is something that its users know; they also know that it
has 26 letters. However, when the alphabet is used to write with, these
letters appear on the page in a practically infinite number of different
shapes and sizes.

❖ (back) the sound /b/ is pronounced without voicing, but some speakers
pronounce it with full voicing.

• Are these /b/ sounds different?

• Does it affect meaning?
✓ Realizations of the same phoneme
✓ We can change the pronunciation without changing the meaning.

Complimentary distribution VS free distribution

✓ Dark and light /l/ in the word (kill) is case of complimentary distribution
▪ When we change dark into light /l/, meaning is still the same.
Yet, the pronunciation will sound strange to native speakers.
▪ When the dark /l/ fits, the light /l/ does not fit.
▪ Each one of them has its own setting, and they cannot
substitute one another.
✓ (kill) and (hill) is a case of free distribution.
▪ When we change the first sound /k/ with /h/ meaning is
changed.
▪ The setting is free as they can substitute one another freely.

❖ Different realizations of the same phoneme are called allophones.

• What are the allophones of /k/ sound in the word (cook) /kʊk/
 English Phonetics & Phonology
Peter Roach (2009)
Lecture No. 10 (Second Year)

Chapter Five (Phonemes & Symbols)

Free distribution: means we can freely change one phoneme for another with
a change in meaning. The setting is free and change is possible.

Complementary Distribution: means we cannot freely change one allophone

with another. When one form or allophone is correct, the other is not. The
setting is restricted, so no allophone can take the setting of the other.

Symbols & Transcription

Symbols are classified into:

1. Phonemic Symbols
2. Phonetic Symbols

❖ The number of phonemic symbols should be exactly the same as the

number of phonemes of the language. However?

✓ Phonemes = symbols: for each phoneme, there should be a symbol.

❖ However, there are cases such as the sounds /tʃ/ (/t/ and /ʃ/), /dƷ/ (/d/
and /Ʒ/, which include a symbol of two characters.
This will be explained in details later on.
❖ Transcription: is to write utterances in symbols. Every sound should be
identified as a distinct phoneme and written with the correct symbol.

❖ We can test students' ability in transcribing utterances into symbols in

two ways:
1. Transcription from dictation: students listen to a teacher or a
recording and write what the teacher says in symbols.
2. Transcription from a written text: the student is given a passage on
written in orthography, and they must transcribe what is written as
they think it would be pronounced.

✓ Identify the sound

✓ Write with the appropriate symbol.
 English Phonetics & Phonology
Peter Roach (2009)

There are two types of transcription.

1. Phonemic transcription:
• To transcribe without details (broad)
• We don’t use diacritics (marks which modify the symbol in some way or
another, they are placed above and below the symbol to give more
details about the features of the sound being described).
• We use slanting lines / / (slashes)
• It is easier and quicker to do compared to the other type.

Examples: (Tom likes mutton)

/tom laɪks mɅtƏn/ or / tom laɪks mɅtn/

2. Phonetic Transcription:
• To transcribe with details (narrow)
• We need to use diacritics
• We use square brackets [ ]
• It is more difficult and slow to perform compared to phonemic
transcription.

Examples: (Tom likes mutton)

/thom laɪks mɅtƏn/ or /thom laɪks mɅtn/
0 .

Transcribe the following phonemically and phonetically:

• (Katy sends her mother a nice present)
• (Call me, please)
 English Phonetics & Phonology
Peter Roach (2009)
Lecture No. 11 (Second Year)

Phonetics is a branch of linguistics that studies the sounds of human speech. It

is concerned with the physical properties of speech sounds their actual
production, acoustic properties, auditory perception, and neurophysiological
status.

Phonology is a branch of linguistics that deals with the systematic organization

of sounds in spoken languages. It covers aspects above the level of segments
such as the syllable, tones, intonation, etc. It is concerned with how phonemes
function in the language and the relationship among different phonemes. It
deals with the abstract side of the sounds of a particular language.

Phonemes Sequences and Syllable Structure

We cannot arrange sounds one after the other freely; we rather have certain
restrictions i.e. sequencing sounds is not random but rather controlled by
rules. These rules are either universal or language specific.

Universal rules:

Universal rules are the rules that apply to all languages such as the rule that
requires the existence of a vowel in the syllable.

• If there is no vowel, there is no syllable.

• The number of vowels decides the number of syllables in a word.
• Almost all languages need a vowel to be the nucleus or the heart of the
syllable.

Language specific Rules:

Language specific rules are the rules that apply to one language but do not
necessary apply to other syllables.

❖ Consonant Sequences:
• Languages show different structures and frequencies of consonant
clusters.
• Some languages allow consonant sequences with various structures and
in different positions.
 English Phonetics & Phonology
Peter Roach (2009)
In English:

✓ English permits consonant sequences initially, medially, and

finally.
✓ English may have up to 3 consonants under the onset position on
condition that the first of the three is the sound /s/.
(Street, spring)

✓ English may have up to 4 consonants under the coda.

(Sixths, texts)

 Do all languages show the same structures and at the same positions?
✓ No, that is why we call these rules language specific.

In Arabic:

✓ Initial consonant sequences are not permissible.

✓ Only clusters of 2 consonants maximally are permissible
(identical sounds).

Suprasegmental Phonology

✓ Stress
✓ Intonation
✓ Rhythm

All these are dealt with in next chapters.

Q1: Give an example on language specific rules, you may refer to English
and Arabic.
 English Phonetics & Phonology
Peter Roach (2009)
Lecture No. 12 (Second Year)

Fricatives:

• They are the sounds produced with air escaping through a narrow
opening making a hissing sound (friction).
• Fricatives are continuant sounds (unlike plosives).

 How to pronounce fricatives?

✓ Tow articulators come in partial contact with each other
forming a narrow passage for the air to go out with friction.

Affricates:

• They are complex consonants as they begin like a plosive and end like a
fricative. (church)

 How to pronounce affricates?

✓ Two articulators become in complete contact with each other
(stop), and then a partial contact is made to produce the
friction sound. (complete closure= partial closure)
✓ /tʃ/ /t/ requires a complete closure, /ʃ/ requires a partial
closure.

❖ Do we consider each sequence of stop+ fricative an affricate?

✓ Of course no. To make a sequence of a stop+ fricative an
affricate, they should be produced in the same position
(homorganic).
• t (stop) + ʃ (fricative)= the affricate /tʃ/ chair / tʃe:/
• (both sounds are produced with a contact between the tongue and the
alveolar ridge).
• d (stop) + Ʒ (fricative = the affricate /dƷ/ gam / dƷӕm/
• (both sounds are produced with a contact between the tongue and the
roof of the mouth)
 English Phonetics & Phonology
Peter Roach (2009)

❖ Do we consider the sequence of /k/ (stop) and /f/ (fricative) an

affricate? (Breakfast)
✓ No, because they are not produced in the same position (they
are not homorganic)
✓ The sound /k/ is velar.
✓ The sound /f/ is labiodental.

 Are the sounds /tʃ/ and /dƷ/ to be considered as one or two

phonemes?

• Fricatives are found to be in pairs one is voiced and the other is

voiceless. (Except the sound /h/).

Textbook- p. 40 (figure)

Fortis VS Lenis fricatives:

❖ Fortis (voiceless) are pronounced with greater force and their friction
noise is louder than lenis (often voiced).
❖ Fortis fricatives shorten the preceding vowel (ice – eyes) /ais/ and /aiz/.
 English Phonetics & Phonology
Peter Roach (2009)
Lecture No. 12 (Second Year)

Chapter 7: Nasals

• They are the sounds produced when the air goes out through the nose.
 When?
✓ When the soft palate is lowered and the nasal cavity is open. At the
same time, the oral cavity is blocked.
✓ Nasal sounds are /m, n, ŋ/

• While in other sounds, the air passes through the mouth, thus, they are
called oral sounds.
 How about the position of the soft palate in the pronunciation of orals
sounds?
✓ Raised and blocks the nasal cavity.

• There are three types of closures in the pronunciation of nasals.

1. Bilabial /m/, lips
2. Alveolar /n/, the tongue-tip and the alveolar ridge
3. Velar /ŋ/, the tongue-back against the soft palate

✓ The first one is similar to /b/

✓ The second is similar to /d/
✓ The third one is similar to /g/

The sound /m/ and /n/ can be found in all positions

Initial medial final

/m/ must smart name

/n/ note mint son

❖ These two sounds are very frequent and pose no serious problems to
foreign learners including Arab learners.
 English Phonetics & Phonology
Peter Roach (2009)
❖ The sound /ŋ/ is not that frequent and somehow difficult to
pronounce; thus, it often poses problems to foreign learners
including Arab learners.
❖ This sound cannot occur initially, yet, it can be found medially and
finally.

Initial medial final

/ŋ/ X singer bang

❖ Sometimes we have the sound /ŋ/ alone and sometimes the sound /ŋ/
is followed by /g/ (/ŋg/).
 How to decide?

• The sound /ŋ/ usually results from pronouncing the letters (ng).
• If the (ng) letters are in the end of a morpheme, we have the sound /ŋ/
alone without a following /g/ sound (sing, singer)
✓ The word (singer is made of two morphemes (sing-er), so the (ng)
letters are not in the middle but in the end of the morpheme.
• If the letters (ng) are in the middle of a morpheme, they result in /ŋ/
followed by /g/. (Finger). The word finger is made up of one morpheme,
and the letters (ng) are in the middle of the morpheme.

 Exception
❖ Comparative and superlative degrees of adjectives.

Long / loŋ/ longer /loŋgƏ/ longest /loŋgƏst/

❖ The rule is that comparative and superlative forms of adjectives should

be treated as single-morpheme words.

 How do you pronounce the sound /ŋ/?

 Is it voiceless or voiced?
 English Phonetics & Phonology
Peter Roach (2009)
Lecture No. 14 (Second Year)

Chapter 7:

The consonant /l/

The sound /l/ is a very special sound that is different from all other English
sounds.

❖ It is called lateral, why?

• It is called lateral because when we pronounce it, the center of the mouth
is closed by the contact between the tongue and the alveolar ridge. Yet,
the sides of the tongue are not in contact with the roof of the mouth. Only
the tongue- tip is in contact. The air will not go from the center of the
mouth as it is the case in all other sounds; it rather goes out through the
sides of the mouth.
❖ So, the sound /l/ is not central sound as all other English oral sounds.

❖ How to practically prove that /l/ is lateral?

✓ Produce alternations of /d/ and /l/ to feel the difference.
✓ Produce the sound /l/ and suddenly take the air inside, you will
feel cold air in the sides of the tongue not in the center of the
mouth.

❖ The sound /l/ is approximant.

• Approximant sounds are the sounds produced when two articulators
come close to each other, but there is no clear contact between them.
 However, in /l/ is the contact is clear than the ones found in other
approximants such as /r/ and /j/.

❖ The sound /l/ is also special in terms of distribution, how is that?

• The sound /l/ is found initially, medially, and finally.
✓ Light==== sleep ===== skill
• The sound /l/ has two allophones light (clear) and dark.

❖ When do pronounce /l/ as light and when do we pronounce it as dark?

✓ Before vowels, /l/ is light such as (long, lesson, lose)
✓ After vowels, /l/ is dark such as (ball, kill, bottle)
 English Phonetics & Phonology
Peter Roach (2009)
❖ Light and dark /l/ are in complementary distribution, how?
❖ What is the description of /l/?

The consonant /r/

❖ The consonant /r/ is also special in terms of pronunciation and

distribution.
• It is realized in different forms in various accents of English.

• It is a post-alveolar approximant.
✓ In the pronunciation of /r/ sound, the tongue is raised to be close to
the roof of the mouth; yet, the contact is not clear.

❖ What is the difference between the pronunciation of /d/ and /r/?

• We need to focus on the pronunciation of the sound /r/, because even

though it is found in many languages, its pronunciation is different.

❖ Do we have /r/ sound in Arabic?

❖ Is it similar to the one we have in our language?

✓ Don’t raise your tongue more than required.

✓ Don’t keep your tongue down inside the mouth.

❖ What is the description of /r/?

Rohtic Vs Non-rohtic accents of English

• Rohtic accents such American and Scots pronounce /r/ sound in final
position i.e. after a vowel.
• Non-rohtic accents such as RP do not pronounce /r/ sound in final
position.

✓ The word (car) is pronounced as:

1. /ka:r/ in American English
2. /ka:/ in British English
 English Phonetics & Phonology
Peter Roach (2009)
Lecture No. 14 (Second Year)

Chapter 7: The Consonants /j/ and /w/

These two sounds are problematic, how?

• They are pronounced like vowels; yet, they are considered consonants.
✓ They are phonetically (in terms of their actual pronunciation) vowels.
✓ They are phonologically (in terms of their distribution) consonants.

Let's start with the pronunciation of these sounds.

❖ When these sounds are produced, there is no obstruction to the air flow
as it is the case in the pronunciation of vowels.
✓ There is approximation between speech organs, but there is no
clear contact between them and the air goes out freely.

❖ In the pronunciation of /w/, the two lips approximate each other

without a clear contact between them, so the air flow goes out without
being obstructed.
 /w/ is a bilabial, approximant, and voiced sound.

❖ In the pronunciation of /j/, the tongue is raised to approximate the area

between the end of the alveolar ridge and the beginning of the hard
palate. However, there is no clear contact between them, and the air
goes out without being obstructed.

 /j/ is a post-alveolar, approximant, and voiced sound.

❖ In what way the sounds /w/ and /j/ resemble vowels?

 English Phonetics & Phonology
Peter Roach (2009)
Let's talk about the distribution of these sounds.

❖ These sounds have a consonantal distribution. This means that they are
often treated as consonants.
❖ In the structure of the syllable, these sounds occupy the onset position,
which is normally occupied by consonants not by vowels.
❖ The onset position is before the vowel in the syllable i.e. if /w/ and j/ are
vowels, how can we have them in the same syllable one after the
other?!!!

E.g. (wind) (yard)

σ σ

O R O R

N Co N Co

W ɪ n d j a: d

❖ What is the article (a, an) we use with nouns beginning with /j/ and
/w/?
--------- weak
a an
--------- yacht
a an

❖ If we have the article (the) before nouns beginning with /j/ and /w/,
how do we pronounce (the)?
/ðɪ/ or /ðƏ/

The weak

The yacht
 English Phonetics & Phonology
Peter Roach (2009)
Lecture No. 16 (Second Year)

Chapter 8: The Syllable (σ)

❖ The syllable is the minimum unit in phonology.

❖ It is made of two basic components:

1. The onset: consonant(s)

2. The rhyme: it is made up of two components:
a. The nucleus: vowel
b. The coda: consonant

Onset Rhyme

Nucleus Coda

Consonant(s) Vowel Consonant(s)

Types of syllables based on syllable structure:

1. Minimum syllable: it is made up of the nucleus only i.e. a vowel only.

e.g. (eye)= /ai/ the syllable contains a vowel only.

Onset Rhyme

Nucleus Coda

∅ ai ∅

2. The CV syllable: it is the syllable that contains a consonant plus vowel.

Consonant+ vowel
 English Phonetics & Phonology
Peter Roach (2009)
e.g. the word (buy)

Onset Rhyme

Nucleus Coda

b ai ∅

❖ Why do we call it the basic syllable?

1. It is the first syllable uttered by babies at approximately the age of 8
months. /ba, ma, da, na/
2. It is the first syllable people suffering from language loss regain after
recovery.
3. It is the only syllable type that is found in almost every language.

4. The maximal syllable: it is the syllable that has 3 consonants under the
onset followed by a vowel and ended with 4 consonants under the coda.

CCC+V+CCCC

e.g. students /stju:dnts/

Onset Rhyme

Nucleus Coda

s t j u: d n t s

Which part of the syllable is obligatory and which is optional?

 English Phonetics & Phonology
Peter Roach (2009)
Lecture No. 17 (Second Year)

Chapter 8: The Syllable

The Structure of the Syllable (p.57)

Language Specific Constraints (phonotactics)

❖ The onset can be branching (it consists of more than one consonant)
1. Zero onset (no consonants under the onset)
2. One consonant (any consonant except /ȝ/ and /ŋ/)

Consonant Clusters: A sequence of two consonants or more without a

vowel between them.

3. Two consonants
a. A sequence of /s/ (pre-initial)+ /t, w, m, l, j/ (initial), (sting, swim,
slip)
b. A sequence of one of 15 consonants /t, k, f, p/ (initial)+ /l, w, r, j/
(post-initial) (fly, tube, quite, try)

4. Three consonants (s+c+c)

The sound /s/ (pre-initial) followed by /p, t, k/ (initial)+ /l, r, w/ (post-

initial) (spring, string, square)

Onset Rhyme

Nucleus Coda

s p r i ŋ

s t r i ŋ
 English Phonetics & Phonology
Peter Roach (2009)

The Coda

1. Zero coda (no consonants under the coda)

2. One Consonant: (final) consonant (except /h, w, j, (r)/
Final Clusters
a. Two consonants
❖ (pre-final) /m, n, l, s, ŋ/+ (final) (pump, bent, belt, bank)
❖ Two consonants (final)+ (post-final) (beds, test, eighth)

b. Three consonants
❖ (pre-final)+ (final)+ (post-final) (slept, bonds, banks)
❖ (final)+ (post-final 1)+ (post-final 2) (fifths, next)

Onset Rhyme

Nucleus Coda

n e k s t

c. Four consonants

❖ (Pre-final)+ (final)+ (post-final 1)+ (post-final 2)

(texts, twelfths)
σ

Onset Rhyme

Nucleus Coda

n e k s t