Gilmara Johnson
Carolyn Singleton
Stacy T. Feldstein
Participants will identify the sounds of American
English, the symbols that represent them and their
particular characteristics by listening to language
patterns and sounds and analyzing language the
groups.
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
9.
10.
11.
12.
13.
An Arabic student asks, “Where is my baber?”
A Chinese student says, “Watch out for broken grass!”
A Serbian student says, “I vant to eat.”
A Czech student says, “I leave in Yanuary”
A Farsi student says, “When will you co back?”
A French student says, “I will stay with zem.”
A German student says, “I sink so.”
A Japanese student says, “It is bery good”.
A Korean student says, “I drive a zeep.”
A Spanish student says, “He is chort”
A Filipino Student says, “It is my pavorite”
A Turkish student asks, “Do I get a stigger?”
A Vietnamese student says, “I got two book.”
The study of speech sounds
Mom: “Hold on”
Toddler: “I’m holing don, I’m
holing don.”
 Languages differ to a greater or lesser degree in the
inventory of speech sounds that words are built from.
 Our linguistic knowledge makes it possible to ignore
non linguistic differences. (Background noise,
interference)
 Orthography = alphabetic spelling
 Phonetics = way for the same sound to be spelled
with the same letter every time, and for any letter to
stand for the same sound every time.
 Sofa
 represents vowels in syllables that are not emphasized
in speaking and whose duration is very short
 general,
 about
 reader
 reserved for the vowel sound in all reduced syllables
 Bilabial:
 Labiodental:
 Interdental:
 Alveolar:
 Palatal:
 Velar:
 Uvulars:
 Glottal:
p
f
θ
t
ʃ
k
ʀ
h
b
v
ð
d
ʒ
g
q
ʔ
m
n
t
ŋ
ɢ
s
ʃ
z
dʒ
l
r
 the constriction occurs by raising the front part of the
tongue to the palate.
 mission [mɪʃən]
 Measure [mɛʒər]
 cheap [tʃip]
 judge [dʒʌdʒ]
 yoyo [jojo]
 sounds produced by raising the back of the tongue to
the soft palate or velum
 The initial and final sounds of:
 kick [kɪk]
 gig [gɪg
 final sounds of:
 back [bӕk]
 bag [bӕg]
 bang [bӕŋ]
 produced by raising the back of the tongue to the uvula,
the fleshy protuberance that hangs down in the back of
our throats.
 The r in French is often a uvular trill symbolized by [ʀ].
 The uvular sounds [q] and [ɢ] occur in Arabic. These
sounds do not ordinarily occur in English.
 [h]
 flow of air through the open glottis, and past the tongue
and lips
 a vowel sound always follows [h]
 [ʔ]
 air is stopped completely at the glottis by tightly closed
vocal cords
 glottal stop: interjection “uh-oh” [ʔʌʔo]
Bilabials
Alveolars
Velars
/p/
/t/
/k/
/b/
/d/
/g/
/m/
/n/
/ŋ/
Voiced
Voiceless
Air obstruction
Air flows freely
Vibration of vocal cords
No vibration of vocal cords
zzzzzzzzzzzzz
sssssssssssssssssssssss
m
b
Velum down
Air escapes
through nose
and mouth
Nasal sound
Velum up
Air escapes
through
mouth only
Oral sound
Activity:
/t/ /s/= Describe place and manner of articulation
What distinguishes them?
Stops
Continuants
The airstream is completely
blocked in the oral cavity
The airstream flows continually
through the mouth
Affricates: A stop closure
followed immediately by a slow
release
Fricatives: the airstream is
forced through a constriction in
the vocal tract causing friction
Liquids: some obstruction of
airstream, no real constriction
/l/, /r/
Glides: (or semi-vowels)little
obstruction of the airstream /j/,
/w/
 Test questions: Listen to the questions 8, 9,
10,11,12,13,14,15
#1 The first sound in each:
 a. judge [dʒ]
 b. Thomas [t]
 c. though [ð]
 d. easy [i]
 e. pneumonia [n]
 f. thought [θ]
 g. contact [k]
 h. phone [f]
 i. civic [s]
 j. usual [j]
#2: last sound in each
 a.fleece [s]
 b. neigh [eI]
 c. long [ŋ]
 d. health [θ]
 e. watch [tʃ]
 f. cow [aʊ]
 g. rough [f]
 h. cheese [z]
 i. bleached [t]
 j. rags [z]
 a. physics [fIzIks]
 k. coat [kot]
 b. merry [meri]
 l. Rodman [radmən]
 c. marry [mæri]
 m. heath [hiθ]
 d. Mary [meri]
 n. “your name” [stesi]
 e. yellow [jɛlo]
 o. touch [tətʃ]
 f. sticky [stIki]
 p. cough [kɔf]
 g. transcription
 q. larynx [lærIŋks]
[trænskrIpʃən]
 h. Fromkin [frəmkIn]
 i. tease [tIz]
 j. weather [wɛðər]
 r. through [θru]
 s. beautiful [bjutəfəl]
 t. honest [anəst]
 u. president [prɛzədənt]












[hit] = heat
[strok] = stroke
[fez] = phase
[ton] = tone
[boni] = bony
[skrim] = scream
[frut] = fruit
[pritʃər] = preacher
[krak] = crack
[baks] = box
[θæŋks] = thanks
[wɛnzde] = Wednesday
 [krɔld] = crawled
 [kantʃiɛntʃəs] =






conscientious
[parləmɛntæriən] =
parlimentarian
[kwəbɛk] = Quebec
[pitsə] = pizza
[bərak obamə] = Barack
Obama
[dʒɔn məken] = John
McCain
[tu θaʊzənd ænd et] = two
thousand and eight