Fonología y Lingüística del
Inglés para Profesionales del
Habla-Lenguaje y Audición
Jose Galarza MA, CCC-SLP
EBS Healthcare
jose.galarza@ebshealthcare.com
Fundamental Concepts
The rules of a language are learned as one
acquires a language. These rules include:
• Phonology - the sound system.
• Morphology - the structure of words.
• Syntax - the combination of words into sentences.
• Semantics - the ways in which sounds and meanings are
related.
• Lexicon – the mental dictionary of words.
Components of GAE - Consonants
24 consonant phonemes – two versions of /r/
• Syllable-initial position and r-colored vowels
The symbols used to transcribe the consonants
of English are:
• /p, b, t, d, k, g, m, n, ŋ, f, v, θ, ð, v, s, ʃ, ʒ, h, tʃ, dʒ ,
l, r, w, j/
English Phonemic Inventory
Source: ASHA
International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA)
Consonants
Source: antimoon.com
Place - Bilabials
Bilabial Sounds
• Upper and lower lips.
– /p/ (pie), /b/ (by), /m/ (my), /w/ (why)
Place - Labiodentals
Labiodental Sounds
• Upper teeth and lower lip.
– /f/ (fear, fairy), /v/ (veer, very)
Place - Dentals
Interdental Sounds
• Pronounced with tongue between teeth.
– /θ/ (thistle), /ð/ (this)
Place - Alveolars
Alveolar Sounds
• Tongue touching or near the alveolar ridge
(hard ridge just behind the teeth).
– /t/ (teeth), /d/ (dear), /n/ (near), /s/ (sear),
/z/ (zero), /l/ (lead), /r/ (read)
Place - Velars
Velar Sounds
• Back of the tongue touches the soft
palate(velum).
– /k/ (kind), /g/ (go), /ŋ/ (king, gong)
Place - Palatals
Palatal Sounds
• Tongue touching the roof of the mouth behind
the alveolar ridge.
– /ʃ/ (sheer), /ʒ/ (azure), /tʃ/ (church),
/ʤ/ (judge), /j/ (you)
Place - Glottal
Glottal Sounds
• Air flows through the glottis
(= opening between vocal chords).
– /h/ (house)
Place of Articulation
Nasal Consonants
Oral Consonants
m
p/b
f/v
θ/ð
n
t/d
s/z
l
r
ʃ/ʒ
j
tʃ/ʤ
ŋ
k/g
h
Manner of Articulation
• Refers to the interaction between the various
articulators and the airstream.
• The air is temporarily trapped then released.
• The various manners of articulation are:
Plosives
Affricates
Nasals
Liquids
Fricatives
Glides
Manner - Plosive
• The airflow is completely blocked in the oral cavity,
and the stop is suddenly released.
• Air pressure increases behind the closure and is then
released explosively.
• The place of the block can vary (place of
articulation).
• If the vocal cords vibrate even during closure, the
stop is voiced.
• p/b, t/d, k/g
Manner - Nasals
• Total obstruction of airflow in the oral cavity.
• Air flows through the nasal cavity.
• The shape and position of the tongue determine
the resonant cavity that gives different nasals
their characteristic sounds.
• /m/, /n/, /ŋ/
Manner - Fricatives
• No total obstruction of airflow in the oral cavity.
• Airflow through the small aperture between
articulators causes friction.
• Friction can appear at various places along the
vocal tract (place of articulation).
• The vocal cords can vibrate (voiced fricatives) or
not (voiceless fricatives).
• f/v, θ/ð, s/z, ʃ/ʒ,h
Manner - Affricates
• Plosive followed by fricative therefore air is
released with less force than a plosive.
• English: only alvelopalatal (alveolar – palatal)
affricates produced.
• Voiced or voiceless, depending on whether the
vocal cords vibrate or not.
• tʃ/dʒ
Manner – Liquids
• No real friction in the oral cavity; the airflow is
redirected around raised tongue.
• /l/ is a lateral sound; air passes on two sides of
the tongue.
• Various pronunciations of /r/
Manner – Glides
•
•
•
•
Little or no obstruction in the mouth.
Glides resemble vowels.
Glides usually precede or follow a vowel.
A [glide + vowel] or [vowel + glide] unit is a
diphtong (as in you, toy, wow,etc.).
• Glides are voiced.
• j, w
Voiceless
and
Voiced
Sounds
Voiceless Consonants
Voiced Consonants
Vocal folds are not vibrating.
Vocal folds are vibrating
(air passing through them).
p
b
m
w
f
v
θ
ð
t
d
s
z
l
r
n
ʃ
ʒ
j
tʃ
ʤ
k
g
ŋ
h
Components of
General American English (GAE)
18 Vowels
• Tense vowels are lengthened or diphthongized
in stressed syllables.
– The tense vowels are /i, e, u, o, ɔ, a/
• The schwa is used very often:
– a, about; e, believe; i, compatible; o, oblige; u, circus
Components of GAE - Vowels
Components of GAE - Vowels
GAE Location
GAE Vowels
GAE Examples
High-front
i
seat, meet
ɪ
sit, his, syllable
Mid-front
e
ɛ
raid, play, grey
red, said
Low-front
High-back rounded
æ
u
ʊ
o
ɔ
a
ʌ
ə
bad, flag, land
blue, school, two
book, look
boat, sew, choke
tall, caught, awful
drop, shock, hot
cut, shove,
upon, soda
Mid-back rounded
Low-back
Central (stressed)
(unstressed)
Components of GAE - Vowels
GAE Location
[r]-colored vowels
Diphthongs
GAE Vowels
GAE Examples
ɝ
ɚ
ɪr
ɛr
ʊr
ɔr
ar
ei
ai
aʊ
ɔi
oʊ
fur, were, sir
never, color
ear, cheer, here, pier
air, share
tour, sure
four, shore, door
car,
pay, paid
my, hide, applied
out, mouse, cow
boy, coin, Illinois
low, load, although
Syllable Structures
• Syllable structures range from a single vowel
(e.g., I) to CCCVCCC (e.g., sprints).
• Words range from 1 to 9 or 10 syllables.
• Abundance of monosyllabic words due to
possibility of using singleton consonants and
clusters at both the beginning and end of the
word (e.g., sky, ask, steel, least).
Phonological Processes
• Patterns that young children use to simplify
adult speech.
• All children use these processes while speech
and language are developing.
• By age 5, most children stop using
phonological processes and their speech
sounds more like the adults around them.
Syllable Structure Processes
Sound changes that cause sounds or syllables to be
reduced in number, deleted, or repeated.
• Final Consonant Deletion is the deletion of the final
consonant or consonant cluster in a syllable or word.
– “soap” /sop/ is pronounced “sew” /so/
– “pig” /pɪg/ is pronounced “pi” /pɪ/
Syllable Structure Processes
• Cluster Reduction is the deletion of one or more
consonants from a two or three consonant cluster.
– “spot” /spat/ is pronounced “pot” /pat/
– “clown” /klaʊn/ is pronounced “cown” /kaʊn/
• Syllable Reduction is the deletion of a syllable from a word
containing two or more syllables. The deletion usually
occurs in the unstressed syllable.
– “computer” /kəmpjutɚ/ is pronounced “puter” /pjutɚ/
Substitution Processes
Sound changes in which one sound class replaces
another class of sounds.
• Gliding occurs when /r/ becomes /w/ or /l/ becomes
/w/ or /j/.
– “rail” /rel/ is pronounced “whale” /wel/
“leap” /lip/ is pronounced “weep” /wip/
Substitution Processes
• Vocalization occurs when one of the following, /l/,
/ɝ/, or /ɚ/, is replaced by a more neutral vowel.
– “seal” /sil/ is pronounced “sio” /sio/
– “computer” /kəmpjutɚ/ is pronounced “computa” /kəmpjutʊ/
• Fronting (Velar and Palatal) is the substitution of
sounds in the front of the mouth, usually alveolars, for
velar or palatal sounds.
– “key” /ki/ is pronounced “tea” /ti/
– “gate” /get/ is pronounced “date” /det/
Substitution Processes
• Deaffrication is the deletion of a stop component
from an affricate leaving only the continuant aspect.
– “cheese” /tʃiz/ is pronounced “sheese” /ʃiz/
– “jar” /dʒar/ is pronounced “zhar” /ʒar/
• Stopping is the substitution of a stop consonant for a
fricative or an affricate.
– “sail” /sel/ is pronounced “tail” /tel/
– “knife” /naif/ is pronounced “knipe” /naip/
Assimilation Processes
Sound changes in which one sound or syllable influences
another sound or syllable.
• Prevocalic Voicing is the voicing of an initial voiceless
consonant in a word.
– “peach” /pitʃ/ is pronounced “beach”/bitʃ/
• Postvocalic Devoicing is the devoicing of a final voiced
consonant in a word.
– “bag” /bæg/ is pronounced “back”/bæk/
Summary
• Fundamental components of General American
English, with an emphasis on phonology.
• Consonants, vowels, and diphthongs with the
International Phonetic Alphabet and key words.
• Articulation by describing place, manner, and
voicing and phonological processes.
Resources
http://www.asha.org/practice/multicu
ltural/Phono.htm
(Has audio clips for each sound)
http://www.yorku.ca/earmstro/ipa
/diphthongs.html
International Phonetic Alphabet
Learning English Pronunciation
http://www.omniglot.com/writing/ipa
.htm
http://www.antimoon.com/how/p
ronunc.htm
ASHA Phonemic Inventories
(Has audio clips for each phoneme)
http://web.uvic.ca/ling/resources/ipa
/charts/IPAlab/IPAlab.htm
Diphthongs and Triphthongs
Merriam-Webster Dictionary
http://www.merriamwebster.com/