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English sound system
• 26 Alphabets
Phoneme & Grapheme
• 44 Phonemes
• Phonemes are sounds of a language through which we can distinguish different
words.
• pool/p(h)ool = pool
English
• pool = bridge
phool = flower
Hindi
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• Despite there being just 26 letters in the English language there are
approximately 44 unique sounds, also known as phonemes.
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• The 44 sounds help distinguish one word or meaning from another.
Various letters and letter combinations known as graphemes are used
to represent the sounds.
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Basic Introduction to Phonetics
• Study of human sounds.
• Sounds which can be used in the language (not sounds of sneezing, hiccups
etc.)
• Our linguistic knowledge allows us to ignore non-linguistic differences in
speech (rates of speed, coughs)
Human sounds
Consonants
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Vowels
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• Consonantal sounds: obstruction of airflow in vocal tract.
• p, t, k, s,
• Vowel sounds: little to no obstruction of airflow
• e, a, o, i
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• Speech Sounds
• Oral
• Nasal
• Oral sounds are those produced with the velum (soft palate) raised
to prevent air from escaping out the nose.
• p, d
• Nasal sounds are those produced with the velum lowered to
allow air to escape out the nose.
• m, n
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Consonants
• Three descriptive parameters
• voicing
• place of articulation and
• manner of articulation.
• /p/-bilabial, plosive, voiceless
• /b/- bilabial, plosive, voiced
• /m/- bilabial, plosive, nasal
• Left side in the chart = voiceless
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Lip Rounding
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Vowel length
• cream, seen: /kri:m/ , /si:n/
• /i:/ - long, high, front, unrounded vowel
• Link to interactive IPA Chart
• bit, silly: /bit/ , /sili/
• /i/: short, mid, front, unrounded vowel
https://web.uvic.ca/ling/resources/ipa/charts/IPAlab/IPAlab.htm
• Diphthong: Two vowels respectively but they are
considered a single unit.
• Triphthong:
a combination of three vowels
respectively but they are considered as single unit.
e.g. hɑ͜i (high),
bo͜u (Wife in Bangla),
mə͜i , nə͜i (in Hindi) /
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