Title
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Phonology and Phonetics Review
A review unit for students of phonology and
phonetics
phonetics phonology review
No Objectives metadata
Dr Pamela Rogerson-Revell
University of Leicester
One
January 2008
Subject Centre for Languages, Linguistics and Area
Studies
Home
Phonology & Phonetics Review: a practice and
review unit for students of phonology and
phonetics
These resources were developed by Pamela Rogerson-Revell with funding
from the Higher Education Academy’s Subject Centre for Languages,
Linguistics and Area Studies
Aim and objectives
Aim of the unit
This unit will help you review some of the key concepts and elements of English
phonology and phonetics.
Objectives
By providing a variety of multimedia resources and activities, this unit aims to help
you
a) review segmental and suprasegmental elements of English phonology
b) practice phonemic transcription and
c) analyse authentic speech data.
Getting started
fənetɪks 
Firstly, can you see the symbols in the word above?
If so, you’ll be able to read the phonemic fonts used in these resources.
If you can't then download Lucida Sans Unicode, free of charge from
http://www.phon.ucl.ac.uk/home/wells/ipa-unicode.htm
Install them to the fonts folder on your hard disk. The directory for Windows is
usually C:\WINDOWS\FONTS.
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Can you see the animation above?
If you can, you already have Flash Player and will be able to see the animations used
in these resources. If not, when you open a page when you are online you should be
prompted to download the player automatically (a message asking you for
authorisation will appear - just click ‘OK’ and it will be installed) Alternatively, go to
www.macromedia.com and download Flash Palyer from the website.
You may need to wait a while for some of the multimedia files to load.
Introduction
The nature of phonology and phonetics
If we hear a unknown language for the first time, we perceive a stream of unid
entifiable sounds , ie an auditory impression which we often use to make prejudged
reactions about the language - eg English-speakers often find French romantic,
sophisticated etc and German hard, gutteral, masculine etc)
Speech sounds are different from other sorts of vocal
sounds (vocalisations) because they make regular,
meaningful patterns. Speech is a series of meaningful
sounds and silences .
What do we understand by phonology?
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Phonology is the study of the sound patterns or system
within a particular language, or variety of language
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What do we mean by phonetics.?
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Click here to check
Phonetics is the study and description of the production of
speech sounds and silences across languages, - ie not
related to a specific language.
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Vocal tract
Human speech is a combination of sounds and silences generated by the speech
mechanism of the vocal tract into meaningful patterns.
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Click here to see a diagram of the vocal tract
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All speech begins as a silent breath of air, created by muscular activity in the chest.
The air then comes up from the lungs, via the vocal tract and exiting as a sound
wave.
Basically, the speech mechanism as four components: muscular activity, air, some
type of resistance or obstruction to the air which causes some sort of sound to be
made, and amplification to make the sound loud enough to be heard.
Changes to the air flow between the lungs and mouth and nose produce different
sounds.
Air starts off in the lungs, flows up through the trachea ( or windpipe), through the
larynx, past the epiglottis and through the pharynx. From there, the air can go either
through the mouth or nose.
The Vocal tract is the channel of air flow between the larynx and the mouth and
nose.
Articulators
There are quite a lot of terms, including technical terms, used to describe the
articulators involved in producing sounds:
everyday name technical term
lips
labia
teeth
tooth ridge
labial
dental
alveolar ridge
(hard) palate
soft palate
adjective
alveolar
palatal
velum
uvula
velar
uvular
upper throat
pharynx
pharyngeal
voicebox
larynx
laryngeal
tongue tip
apex
apical
tongue blade
lamina
laminal
tongue body
dorsum (back)
dorsal
tongue root
radical
Move your mouse over the image to see an explanation of the different articulators
Flash
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Anatomy[1].swf
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This articulatory anatomy diagram is reproduced with permission from the website of the
Phonetics Flash Animation Project; a collaboration between the Departments of Spanish and
Portuguese, German, Speech Pathology and Audiology and Academic Technologies at the
University of Iowa.(See Resources section).
Consonants
A consonant is a speech sound which obstructs the flow of air through the vocal
tract. Some consonants do this a lot and some do it very little: the ones that make
maximum obstruction ( ie plosives, which make a complete stoppage of air stream)
are the most consonantal. Nasal consonants are less obstructive than plosives as
they stop the air completely in the oral cavity but allow it to escape through the
nasal cavity. Fricatives obstruct the air flow considerably, causing friction, but do not
involve total closure. Laterals obstruct the air flow only in the centre of the mouth,
no the sides, so the obstruction is slight. Some other sounds, classed as
approximants, obstruct the air flow so little that they could almost be classed as
vowels if they were in a different context ( eg /w/ or /j/).
There are 24 consonants in standard southern British English. They are plotted on
the chart in Table 1 below.
Consonant practice
Activity
Use the interactive ‘speech animator’ to review the articulation of English
consonants.
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The ‘Speech Animator’ is reproduced with permission from David Brett (website in Resources
section).
IPA consonants
Activity
Use the interactive chart below to familiarise yourself with the consonants from the
International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA).
consonants
Chart reproduced with permission from Eric Armstrong’s Voice and Speech website (see
Resources section).
Vowels
The English vowel system
The RP variety of British English, with twenty vowel phonemes (standard American
English has fifteen), has a relatively large vowel system, which is characteristic of
Germanic languages (Swedish has even more vowels). There are seven short vowels,
five long vowels and eight diphthongs. The vowels and their corresponding
phonemic symbols are shown in the table below:
The articulation of the vowels is represented in the vowel chart below. The shape of
the chart is modelled on the shape of the phonetic space ie the shape of the oral
cavity produced by various positions of the tongue. For English, the phonetic space is
represented as a trapezoid but some languages would be represented by a triangle.
Cardinal vowels
As well as looking at the vowel system of a specific language, ie English vowel
phonemes, there is also a way of describing vowels irrespective of language, ie
phonetically. One system of such vowel reference positions is called the Cardinal
Vowel system. The Cardinal Vowels can be used to plot the exact location of vowels
in any specific language.
Activity
Use the interactive chart below to familiarise yourself with the IPA vowels.
Vowels
Chart reproduced with permission from Eric Armstrong’s Voice and Speech website (see
Resources section).
Vowel practice
Activity
Move your mouse over the image to see an explanation of the different diphthongs
of English.
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This interactive chart is reproduced with permission from David Brett (website in Resources
section).
Phonemic symbols
Activity
Use the interactive ‘’phonemic typewriter’ to review the articulation of English
phonemes. You can also use the typewriter as a quick way to copy and paste
phonemic symbols.
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phonemicClipboard.swf
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The ‘Speech Animator’ is reproduced with permission from David Brett (see Resources
section).
Test yourself
Consonants
Truefalse1
Title
Text
Answer
Answer *
Feedback Correct
Feedback Incorrect
In English there are four affricates, two voiced and
two voiceless
True
False
Yes. There are only two.
No. There are only two.
Truefalse1
Title
Text
Answer
Answer *
Feedback Correct
Feedback Incorrect
Plosives form the largest group of consonants in
English
True
False
Yes. There are more fricatives than plosives.
No. There are more fricatives than plosives.
Truefalse1
Title
Text
Answer *
Answer
Feedback Correct
Feedback Incorrect
In English, syllable-initial voiceless plosives are
aspirated.
True
False
Yes, that's right.
Sorry, no. They are aspirated.
Truefalse1
Title
Text
Answer
Answer *
Feedback Correct
Feedback Incorrect
There are two nasal consonants in English.
True
False
Yes. There are three.
No. There are three.
Vowels
Truefalse1
Title
Text
Answer *
Answer
Feedback Correct
Feedback Incorrect
Vowels are usually lengthened before syllable final
voiced consonants.
True
False
Yes, that's right.
No. They are usually lengthened before final voiced
consonants.
Truefalse1
Title
Text
Answer
Answer *
Feedback Correct
Feedback Incorrect
Unstressed syllables never have full vowels.
True
False
That's right. You can have a full vowel in an
unstressed syllable, such as window.
Sorry, no. You can have a full vowel in an unstressed
syllable, such as window.
Truefalse1
Title
Text
Answer *
Answer
Feedback Correct
Feedback Incorrect
There are no lip-rounded front vowels in English.
True
False
That's right.
No, there aren't.
Truefalse1
Title
Text
Answer *
Answer
Feedback Correct
Feedback Incorrect
/j/ and /w/ are semivowels.
True
False
Yes, that's right
No, they are semi vowels.
phonemes
Multichoice2
Title
Text
Answer
Answer
Answer
Answer
Feedback
Feedback
Feedback
Feedback
1
Which of these is the phonemic script for car?
/kɑ:r/
/kæ/
/kɑ:/
/ka/
/ka:r/ the /r/ is not pronounced in standard southern
British English
/kæ/does not exist in English
that's right
/ka/does not exist in English
Multichoice2
Title
Text
Answer
2
Which if these is the phonemic script for witch?
Answer
/wɪʃ/
Answer
/wɪtʃ/
Answer
/wɪʒ/
That word does not exist in English
That is ‘wish’
that's right
‘That does not exist in English
Feedback
Feedback
Feedback
Feedback
/wɪs/
Multichoice2
Title
Text
Answer
Answer
Answer
Answer
Feedback
Feedback
Feedback
Feedback
3
Which of these is the phonemic script for rude?
/ru:d/
/ri:d/
/rud/
/rɑd/
that's right
that is ‘read’
That word does not exist in English
That word does not exist in English
Multichoice2
Title
Text
Answer
4
Which of these is the phonemic script for women ?
Answer
/wɪmen/
Answer
/wʌmən/
Answer
/wʌmɪn/
That's right
the second syllable is not stressed
that's 'woman'
the first syllable is wrong
Feedback
Feedback
Feedback
Feedback
/wɪmən/
Multichoice2
Title
Text
Answer
Answer
Answer
Answer
Feedback
Feedback
Feedback
Feedback
Stress
Word Stress
Which of these is the phonemic script for judge?
/jʌdʒ/
/jʌj/
/juj/
/dʒʌdʒ/
the first consonant is wrong
only the vowel is right
That word does not exist in English
that's right
Stress placement in English is mobile. ie the syllable or syllables that are stressed can
vary depending on , for instance, the structure and function of a word. For English
stress placement rules exist, but they are rather complex, this means that although
first language speakers can usually predict accurately where to put the stress on an
unknown word it can be very difficult for second language learners..
Stress placement depends on:
1. whether a word is morphologically simple or complex or a compound
2. the grammatical category of a word
3. the number of syllables in a word
4. the phonological stucture of the syllables
Activity
See what you know about word stress patterns
Multichoice1
Title
Text
Answer
Answer *
Answer
Answer
Feedback Correct
Feedback Incorrect
Which of the following words is the odd one out - and
why?
biology
photographic
photography
geography
photographic is the odd one out because the stress
is on the second last syllable unlike in words ending
in 'phy' or 'gy' where the stress goes on the third last
syllable
No, sorry
Multichoice1
Title
Text
Answer
Answer
Answer
Answer *
Feedback Correct
Feedback Incorrect
Which of the following words is the odd one out and
why?
station
relation
information
relate
relate is the odd one out because the stress is on the
last syllable unlike all the other words ending in
'..tion' where the stress goes on the second last
syllable
Multichoice1
Title
Text
Answer
Answer *
Answer
Answer
Feedback Correct
Which of the following words is the odd one out and
why?
static
economy
economic
pneumatic
economy is the odd one out because the stress goes
on the third last syllable unlike all the words words
ending in 'ic' where the stress goes on the second
last syllable
Feedback Incorrect
Word and sentence stress
English rhythm is based not only on word stress but also on sentence stress or
accent. A clear distinction between words which are emphasised and words which
are not is essential to intelligibility, both for speech production and listening
comprehension.
Activity
Use the activities below to practice word and sentence stress
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stress[1].swf
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This activity is reproduced with permission from Cambridge University Press (see Resources
section).
Aspects of connected speech
Various features contribute to characterise natural connected speech:
o rhythm
o weak forms ( reductions)
o assimilation
o elision ( contractions)
o linking
These features combine to produce "concatenation" or linking together of sounds in
connected speech.
Activity
Use the interactive exercises below to practice and review aspects of connected
speech
here
These activities are from David Brett’s website (David’s website is in the Resources section).
Intonation
Intonation generally refers to linguistically significant variations in pitch level across
an utterance or part of an utterance. Intonation in English is an important vehicle for
meaning. It helps the listener to get a clearer picture of what the speaker intends to
mean. Intonation in English fulfills many, overlapping functions including attitudinal,
grammatical, discursive and pragmatic. However, there is still much to be learned
about how we acquire and use intonation systematically and how it can be taught to
second language learners.
Activity
Divide the following utterances into tone units and decide where the tonic or
nucleus might fall in each tone unit:
Textentry1
Title
Text
Feedback
The first student to finish can go early
//The first student to finish// can go early//
Textentry1
Title
Text
Feedback
Sadly, Maurice has gone away
//Sadly// Maurice has gone away//
Textentry1
Title
Text
Feedback
The person who was watching me left a ticket behind
// The person who was watching me //left a ticket
behind//
Textentry1
Title
Text
Feedback
Alan couldn't make it so Ken took his place
//Alan couldn't make it //so Ken took his place//
Pitch curves
Activity
Use the interactive ‘’pitch curves’ exercise to practice analysing pitch movement
across phrases.
Pitch curves
The ‘’Pitch Curves’ activity is reproduced with permission from David Brett (see Resources
section).
More intonation practice
Activity
For more practice, try the exercises below by John Maidment . These are from the
web tutorials by University College London’s Department of Phonetics and
Linguistics (the link is in the ‘Resources’ section).
Intonation exercises
Speech transcription
If we want to represent speech sounds in writing we can transcribe the sounds using
either:
a) phonemic symbols / /
b) phonetic symbols [ ]
a) phonemic symbols represent the phonemes of English - eg / / ( and all its
allophonic variations) They are generalisations, not auditory realities. There are 44
phonemes in English
b) phonetic symbols represent auditory realities and are not related to a specific
language: they are international (IPA = International Phonetic Alphabet) .
Phonetic transcription is much more precise than phonemic transcription. A broad
phonetic transcription gives some more information than phonemic transcription
and a narrow transcription gives much more information than phonemic
transcription.
Diacritics are symbols used to add more, precise information to phonetic symbols, eg
the symbol [̚~ ] shows that the sound is nasalised.
Phonemic transcription does not represent precise phonetic qualities and therefore
it is possible to use several possible symbols to represent one phoneme. We will
follow the IPA consonants and use length marks for vowels , ie as Roach and
Longman dictionary ( ie recognises qualitative and quantitative differences )
Activity
Use the interactive exercise below to practice transcribing phrases phonemically.
Phonemic transcription
This activity is reproduced with permission from David Brett (see Resources section).
More transcription practice
Activity
If you want more practice transcibing speech phonemically or phonectically, go to the
Speech Accent Archive website where you can find many speech samples from
speakers of Englsih from a variety of language backgrounds. You can practise
listening to the speakers and transcribing what they say and then compare one
speech sample with another to extend your recognition and transcription skills.
Elisions
When native speakers of English talk naturally, quite a lot of sounds are not actually
pronounced. This process is called elision or gradation
Activity
Listen to each of the recordings below and try to write down the phrases you hear
(don’t do a phonemic transcription).
Now listen again and mark any elisions you hear. Put a bracket around any elided
sounds.
When you have finished ,look at the transcription, compare it with your own and
listen to the recording while reading.
Audio 1
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Transcript 1
D(o) y(o)u know if (h)e (i)s busy this afternoon
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Audio 2
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Transcript 2
If I (ha)d known about the party I (woul)d (h)ave
come
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Audio 3
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Audio 4
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WS330011.WMA
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Click here to see a transcript
Transcript 4
D(o) y(o)u know what time (h)e (wi)ll be back
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Transcript 3
D(id) y(ou )ask (h)er who (h)e was with
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Click here to find more practice exercises on aspects of connected speech
from David Brett (David’s website is in the Resources section).
Speech analysis
Now you can practise analysing suprasegmental features of natural speech, rather
than segmental or phonemic transcription. Focus on how the speakers chunk speech
into tone units through the use of pauses, stress placement and tonicity. Try to note
also whether they use a falling (\) or rising (/) tone at the end of tone units. Use the
symbols in the key below to mark up your transcription.
Activity
Now listen to each of the recordings below and try to do your own suprasegmental
analysis. Listen as many times as you like and:
a. Write down what you hear – word for word (don’t write phonemically)
b. When you’ve written all the words down, listen again several times and mark
pauses
c. Now listen again and mark all the stressed words
d. Listen again and mark tonic words
e. Finally, listen again and decide if the final word before each pause has a
falling or rising tone
f. When you’ve done as much as you can, look at the transcription, compare it
with your own and listen to the recording while reading.
Audio 1
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Transcript 1
I was ‘born in ‘nineteen ‘forty two/ - in - - Salisbury/ - England\
- which is -south ‘west/ – and I was ‘there because my ‘father
was in the ‘army during the war/- and ‘Salisbury Plain /- was
the ‘place where ‘all the ‘military training/ -‘went on/ – and
‘still does\ - I was – ‘educated ‘in – Sussex/ - which is ‘southern England /– I lived in ‘Sussex/ for ‘most of my
‘formative years/ but I was ‘educated under the British
‘system/ – of boarding ‘schools\
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Audio 2
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england 5 talk.mp3
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Transcript 2
er – my ‘name is ‘Jo Clayton – I’m British/ - at the ‘moment I
‘live in Tulsa/ - in ‘Oklahoma/ - but I ‘come from – - Lancashire
‘actually/ - I was ‘born in Lancashire\ - and ‘then ‘moved to
London/ - which is in the ‘south of England/ - about/ – ‘when I
was about/ – twenty\
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Audio 3
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England 7 talk.mp3
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Transcript 3
when I was sixteen/ - and I ‘d ‘taken my ‘school exams/ - with
a ‘whole bunch of ‘us/ -‘that’s an American ‘expression/ - isn’t
it\ - erm / -- they ‘didn’t ‘know ‘what to do with us – for the
‘last ‘two weeks /– at the school/ – ‘so they ‘sent us ‘all off
/- on an archeological excavation\ – for two weeks\
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Audio 4
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England 10 talk.mp3
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Transcript 4
OK/ – I’m a ‘student from Manchester/ - I was born/ – and
raised/ – in Manchester/ – erm my ‘dad’s Irish /– my ‘mum’s
English/ – erm/ – I ‘studied in Greece/ – for some time /– and
I’ve ‘travelled ‘quite a lot /– erm/ – I’m ‘now ‘doing my
masters/ – in Dublin/
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Recording and text file used by permission of the International Dialects of English Archive
(see Resources section).
You can find lots more similar recordings on the IDEA website.
Glossary
Allophone: Phonetic variations in sounds which do not change meaning. For instance, the
various ways that /r/ can be produced in English are allophones, they are still all recognised
as the same phoneme.
Alveolar Ridge: The small boney ridge behind the upper front teeth.
Alveolar: A sound produced near or on the alveolar ridge.
Assimilation: A process where one sound is iinfluenced by the characteristics of an adjacent
sound.
Bilabial: A sound that involves contact between the two lips.
Continuant A sound which involves the continuous expulsion of air, as opposed to a stop
sound where the air is blocked by one or more articulator.
Dental: A dental sound is made when the place of articulation is on or near the teeth.
Elision or Ellipsis: The deletion of certain sounds in connected speech.
Egressive The normal direction of airflow is out through the mouth or nose called egressive.
Final position: The position of a sound at the end of a syllable or word.
Fortis: A fortis sound involves greater effort, ie muscular tension, to produce and are usually
voiceless.
Fricative: A term applied to the manner of articulation of consonants where the constiction
of the air flow between articulators causes friction.
Glottal: Sound made where the vocal folds are the articulators.
Glottis: The space between the focal folds or cords.
Initial position: Tthe position of a sound at the beginning of a syllable or word.
Ingressive Speech produced by breathing in is called ingressive.
Intervocalic: A sound that comes between vowel sounds, as for the / t / in butter.
IPA :The International Phonetic Association
Labial: A sound articulated with the lips.
Labiodental: Place of articulation involving the upper lip and the lower teeth, such as /f/.
Larynx (also known as the voice-box): An organ at the top of the windpipe, containing the
vocal cords which produce voice.
Lateral: Describes a manner of articulation of consonants where contact between
articulators restricts central air flow so that the air escapes around the sides or laterally, as
in /l/
Lenis:. A lenis sound is pronounced with less muscular tension than a fortis sound and is
usually voiced.
Medial position: A consonant is in medial position (or intervocalic position) when it comes
between vowel sounds, as the /t/ in butter.
Nasal: A consonant sound, produced with the soft palate lowered so that air passes through
the nasal cavity, such as /n/.
Palatal: A sound produced on or near the hard palate.
Palato-alveolar: Describes sounds produced just behind the alveolar ridge.
Palate: The roof of the mouth whcih can be subdivided into the hard and the soft palate
(velum)
Phoneme: An abstract unit representing the smallest distinctive speech sound that
distinguishes one word from another.
Plosive (also described as a ’stop’): Describes a manner of articulation of consonants where
the air is compressed behind a closure within the mouth, before being released as the
sound is produced, such as /p/ pr /t/.
Prosodic: describes features of speech above the level of phonemes or segments, such as
stress and intonation.
RP: Received Pronunciation. A term used to define a variety of southern English which is
commonly used as the standard pronunciation model, despite the fact that few people
speak it in its full form.
Stress: Refers to the relative prominence of a syllable within a word (ie word sress), or a
word within in a sentence (ie sentence stress). .
Tone unit: a chunck of speech, either a phrase or word, that is gnerally marked by pauses at
its boundary
Tonic syllables: The syllable within a tone unit that carries the most prominence.
Sonorant: refers to sounds where there is no constriction of the air flow by the articulators,
as for example with vowels.
Syllable: A phonological unit describing the number of speech sounds into which a word
may be divided. Syllable structure can vary considerably from language to language.
Unvoiced / voiceless sound: describes sounds where the vocal cords do not vibrate.
Velar: A velar sound is produced at the velum, or the soft palate.
Velum: The soft palate, ie tThe part of the palate that is just behind the hard palate. A sound
produced in this area is called a velar sound.
Vocal cords or folds: Voice-producing part of the larynx.
Voiced sound: a sound produced with vibration of the vocal chords
Resources
Pronunciation animations One of Cambridge University Press’s ELT resources sites.
Clickable IPA vowels chart to hear what they sound like
Common mistakes in English by language background Ted Powers website on
common pronunciation errors by language group
David Brett’s excellent interactive Flash-based resources for phonology and
phonetics
Easily confused phonetic symbols
John Wells' list of common errors when using the International Phonetic Alphabet.
International Phonetic Association
Phonetics information and resources (e.g. downloadable IPA charts and sound files).
Paul Meier’s Dialect Services Fascinating online resources from the international
voice and dialect coach.
Peter Ladefoged's phonetics resource page includes language maps, IPA symbol
search, sound index and a phonetics of English course
Phonetics Flash Animation Project This site contains animated diagrams of speech
sounds for English, German and Spanish. Developed by the University of Iowa.
Phonetics resources a wide range of useful and interesting resources from the
University of Aberdeen.
Speech Accent Archive hundreds of samples of English accents recorded with
detailed transcriptions and notes on phonological features for each accent.
Speech Internet Dictionary Comprehensive dictionary of phonetics and phonology
edited by John Maidment
Voice and Speech Sounds lots of interactive voice and speech resources, including
phonetics charts by Eric Armstrong, University of York, Canada.
Web Tutorials in phonetics by John Maidment. Lots more from University College
London’s Department of Phonetics and Linguistics.
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