LING131 “Introduction to Linguistics”
Worksheet “Phonetics”
(please do the worksheet after you have read the chapter)
Student’s name Nuray Sartayeva
1. Phonetics is a discipline in linguistics that studies the speech sounds of a particular language. What
are the branches of phonetics (name 3)?
1) Articulatory Phonetics -branch of phonetics that studies how speech organs produce sounds
2) Acoustic Phonetics – branch of phonetics that is concerned with aspects of speech as frequency,
intensity, and duration of sounds
3) Auditory Phonetics- a branch of phonetics that studies how the sounds of speech are perceived by
a listener
Describe what each branch of phonetics studies. Which branch of phonetics does this chapter discuss?
1) branch of phonetics that studies how speech organs produce sounds
2) branch of phonetics that is concerned with aspects of speech as frequency, intensity, and duration of
sounds
3) branch of phonetics that studies how the sounds of speech are perceived by a listener
This chapter discusses acoustic phonetics.
2. The first part of the chapter is about the speech anatomy: the physical production of speech requires
intricate coordination between several parts of the upper body, from the stomach all the way up to
the nose. Human speech organs have always been used for survival functions. Later these organs
have become highly specialized for use in language (O’Grady 2010: 2). Based on your knowledge of
human anatomy and the function of speech organs fill in this table.
Organ
Lungs
Vocal cords
Tongue
Survival function
To deliver oxygen to the body, and extract
carbon dioxide from it
to create seal over passage to lungs
To taste, digest, and swallow food
Teeth
Lips
Nose
To chew food
For facial expressions and to hold food
inside the mouth
to assist in breathing
Speech function
to supply air for speech
Vibrate to produce speech sounds
To help the airflow pass through the
mouth and produce different sounds
To correctly pronounce and form sounds
to articulate vowels and consonants
Allows airflow to pass into nasal cavity
3. Write down the names of the vocal organs numbered in the picture on the next page:
1)Upper Lip
2) Teeth
3) Alveolar Ridge
4) Hard Palate
5) Soft Palate/Velum
6) Uvula
7) Epiglottis
8) Lower Lip
9) Lower Teeth
10) Blade
11) Front
12) Centre
13) Back
14) Tongue root
4. The speech organs are called articulators and they create the place of articulation for the speech
sounds. All the articulators can be divided into active (those that move) and passive (those that are
stationary).
List active articulators: lower lip, uvula, glottis, tongue
List passive articulators: hard palate, velum, alveolar ridge, lower and upper teeth, nasal cavity, velum,
epiglottis, esophagus, upper lip
5. List the places of articulation of consonants: lips, alveolar ridge, soft palate, hard palate, epiglottis,
teeth
6. How do we call the consonant sounds based on their place of articulation (continue the list): bilabial,
alveolar, postalveolar, palatal, velar, labiodental, dental, glottal
7. Which articulators participate in the production of voiced sounds? What makes the difference
between voiced and voiceless sounds?
The difference between voiced and voiceless sounds is in vocal fold vibration. When the vocal folds
vibrate, you produce a voiced sound, and when they don’t, the sound is voiceless.
8. Describe the mechanism of articulation of oral and nasal sounds. Which sounds in English are nasal?
Nasal sounds are produced when the velum is lowered, and air goes through the nasal cavity. Oral
sounds are produced when air goes through the mouth cavity. Sounds that are nasal in English are m,
ng, n
9. There is another dimension for describing the consonant sounds - the narrowness of the constriction
in the vocal tract. This dimension/parameter is called ‘manner of articulation’. It is based on how
open the vocal tract is in the articulation of certain sounds. Which sounds in English are articulated
with the complete closure of the vocal tract?
Sounds in English that are articulated with the complete closure of the vocal tract are m, p, b, k, g, ng,
n, t, d.
Which sounds are articulated with the most open vocal tract (there is no obstruction for the
airflow)?
Sounds that are articulated without obstructing the airflow are u, ʊ, o, ɔ, i, ɪ, e, ɛ, æ and others.
How do we classify the speech sounds into consonants and vowels?
Consonants are sounds that are produced with complete or partial closure of the vocal tract,
obstructing airflow. Vowels are sounds that are articulated with a relatively open vocal tract.
10. The majority of the languages of the world are spoken only. The speakers of these languages do not
have and do not use the writing system. They don’t write letters, messages, books, etc. Other
languages, though, utilize various writing systems. English, Russian, and Kazakh, for example, have
the writing systems called the alphabet. The alphabets use letters to write (e.g. a, c, t, h). What do
these letters represent? Is the letter representation (spelling) the exact equivalent of how we
pronounce words? For example, compare how we spell and how we pronounce the following words in
English: knight, though, birch. Or compare the pronunciation of these words: tape, fat, car, mall. In
these words you spell the same letter ‘a’ but in each word it is pronounced differently, right? In this
course we are not interested in letters and spelling. We are only interested in the pronunciation of
sounds and words. When we discuss the examples, we only discuss how they are pronounced. So, if
you are asked what the vowel in the word ‘cake’ is, you think of how this word is pronounced and
then identify the vowel. So, how many sounds (not letters!) are there in the words ‘knight’ and
‘though’?
Both “knight” and “though” consist of 3 sounds. However, their transcription is different. The former is
transcribed [naɪt ] and the latter is [ðəʊ].
11. Have you heard the term “transcription” before? In what situations was this term used? What is the
difference between the terms ‘orthography’ and ‘transcription’? Which of them our course focuses
on?
I am familiar with the term transcription because it is widely used in learning English. It is often used
when referring to speech sounds and pronunciation. Transcription focuses on how the word is
articulated, picking out single sounds, whereas orthography focuses only on spelling and can represent
a single sound with multiple letters. Our course focuses on transcription.
12. What is the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA)? We use it for transcribing words in various
languages. Why is it called ‘alphabet’?
IPA is a phonetic alphabet designed specifically to accurately represent sounds and pronunciation.
13. Study Tables 2.1. and 2.2. of the chapter. The first one represents the IPA symbols for all the English
consonants. The second one represents the IPA symbols for the English vowels.
14. Important! Tables 2.1. and 2.2. of the chapter represent the classification of the English consonants
and vowels based on the dimensions/parameters discussed in the chapter. Please make sure you know
these classification well!