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This opportunity Admin will explain the material about phonetics. For more details about the phonetic discussion, please check the article below.
Phonetics is a branch of linguistics that comprises the study of the sounds of human speech. We can take two basic approaches to
phonetics. The Accoustic approach which looks at the physical properties of the
sound themselves. Or the Articulatory approach which looks at sounds in terms
of how they are produce or articulated
A. THE
PRODUCTION OF SPEECH SOUNDS
Speech is a n
incredibly complex activity. It involves coordinated efforts of all the
participating parts of the vocal tracts. One of the basic exsercises in voice
control is breath control, which involves training certain muscles involve in
air expulsion the first step in producing sounds. Air proceeds from the land
through the trachea to the larynx, commonly called the voice box,
which houses the vocal cords if the cords are slightly tensed the passage of
air sads the vocal cords vibrating which gives a basic sound quality to the air
streams. Which continues in to the pharynx
where basic voice quality is establized voice quality dertermines the
unique characteristics of each speaker voice, therefore an individual often can
be recognized by voice alone above the pharynx
is the uvula, which is a movable flap that control the passage of
air through the nasal cavity. The
uvula is always open when an individual breathes through the nose but it is
only open at certain times during the course of speech. For the most part, the
velum or soft palate is closed in
speech and the air moves through the oral cavity. The dimensions of which
change according to the interaction of the tongue and lips.
B.
CONSONANTS
Consonant is
a speech sound made by completely or partly stopping the flow of air being
breathed out through the mouth.
The
consonants grouped according to how the sounds are produced. English than has
sis groups of consonant sounds, there are stops, fricatives, affricatives,
nasals, liquids, and glides. The sounds within these groups can be further
classified according to the place of articulation that is the position of the
lips or tongue as the sounds are made.
Ø Bilabial
Bilabial segments are produced with the lips
held together, for instance the [p] sound of the English pie, the [b] sound in buy,
and the [m] sound in mine.
Ø Labiodental (interdental)
Labiodental
segments are produced by holding the upper teeth to the lower lip, like in the
[f] sound of English fie, and the [v]
sound of English vie.
Ø Dental
Dental consonants have the
tongue making contact with the upper teeth. An example from English is the [θ]
sound in the word thigh, thy.
Ø Alveolar
Alveolar consonants have
the tongue touching the area of the mouth known as the alveolar ridge. Examples
include the [t] in tin, [s] in sin, [d] in die, [n] in night.
Ø Palatal
Palatal consonants are
articulated at the hard palate (the middle part of the roof of the mouth). In English the palatal [j] judge, [y] young.
Ø Velar
Velar consonants are
articulated at the soft palate (the back part of the roof of the mouth, known
also as the velum). For instance in English [k] king, [g] gun.
1. Stops
In phonetics, a stop also known as a plosive or oral occlusive, is a consonant in which the vocal tract is blocked so
that all airflow ceases.
English contains the following stop
consonants.
Ø /t/ – “tab” and “rat”
– oral passage is blocked by pressing the tongue tip against the alveolar
ridge (alveolar)
Ø /d/ – “dip” and “bad”
– oral passage is blocked by pressing the tongue tip against the alveolar
ridge (alveolar)
Ø /k/ – “kite” and “back”
– block airflow with the back of the tongue against the soft palate (velar).
Ø /g/ – “good” and “bug”
– block airflow with the back of the tongue against the soft palate (velar).
By entirely closing of the flow of air
at some point in the mouth. Air pressure from the lungs builds up in suddenly
released in a sharp burst of sound. In the production of English sound the
mouth may be sealed off in the three mayor ways.
2. Fricatives
By forcing air through a narrow
opening in the oral cavity, a procces that creates audible turbulence in the
air stream fricatives are made. The contruction may be made in different places
of the mouth as the case with stops. When the lower lip is precced lighly
against the upper teeth and air is forced out between them two labiodental
fricatives [f] and [v] produced. The voiceless sound as [f] occurs in the
beginning of the word fine, and its voiced counterpart [v] occurs at the
beginning of vine.
The
next pair of fricatives are the interdentals [th]. The voiceless appers in
words like thin, though, pithy, teeth. The voiced is present in then, that, and
mother.
3. Affricates
This is a convenient place to review
the status of affricates in English. An affricateis simply a sequence of a stop
followed by a homorganic fricative. Some such sequences, for example the dental
affricate [tT] as in eighth or the alveolar affricate [ts] as in cats,
have been given no special status in English phonology. They have been regarded
just as consonant clusters comparable with those at the end of lapse and
sacks (which are not affricates, as the stops and the fricatives are not
homorganic). But, as we noted in the discussion of symbols for transcribing
English, it is appropriate to regard the sequences [tS] and [dZ] as different
from other sequences of consonants. They are the only affricates in English
that can occur at both the beginning and the end of words. In fact, even the
other affricates that can occur at the end of words will usually do so only as
the result of the formation of a plural or some other suffix, as in eighth.
From the point of view of a phonologist considering the sound pattern of
English, the palato-alveolar affricates are plainly single units, but [ts] as
in cats is simply a sequence of two consonants. One way to convince
yourself that the affricates [tS] and [dZ] are phonetic sequences of stop
followed by fricative is to record yourself saying itch and badge and
then play them backwards (use the Wave Surfer “reverse” function to do this).
The fricative stop sequence is usually pretty easy to hear in the backwards
versions.
4. Nasals
The
nasal consonants of English vary even less than the fricatives. Nasals,
together with [r, l], can be syllabic when they occur at the end of words. As
we have seen, the mark [ `] under a consonant indicates that it is syllabic.
(Vowels, of course, are always syllabic and therefore need no special mark.) In
a narrow transcription, we may transcribe the words sadden, table as
["sœdn`, "teIbl` ]. In most pronunciations, prism, prison can
be transcribed ["prIzm`, "prIzn`], as these words do not usually have
a vowel between the last two consonants. Syllabic consonants can also occur in
phrases such as Jack and Kate ["dZœk N` "keIt].
The
nasal [N] differs from the other nasals in a number of ways. No English word
can begin with [N]. This sound can occur only within or at the end of a word,
and even in these circumstances it does not behave like the other nasals. It
can be preceded only by the vowels /-I, ”, œ, Ø- / and / A / (American English)
or / Å / (British English), and it cannot be syllabic (except in slightly
unusual pronunciations, such as bacon ["beIkN`], and phrases such
as Jack and Kate mentioned above). One way to consider the different
status of [N] is that in the history of English, it was derived from a sequence
of the phonemes / n / and / g /. Looking at it this way, sing was at an
earlier time in history / sIng /, and sink was / sInk /. There was then
a sound change in which / n / became the new phoneme / N / in those words where
it occurred before / g / and / k /, turning / sIng / into / sINg / and / sInk /
into / sINk /. Another change resulted in the deletion of / g / (but not of / k
/) whenever it occurred after / N / at the end of either a word (as in sing)
or a stem followed by a suffix such as -er or -ing. In this way,
the / g / would be dropped in singer, which contains a suffix -er,
but is retained in finger, in which the -er is not a suffix. The
second change has been undone in the case of some speakers from the New York
area who make singer rhyme with finger.
5. Liquid
The
consonants [l] and [r] as hear in lealt and roar, are coliquid. Both sound are
normally voiced and [l] sound is formered by touching the tip of the tongue to
the alveolar ridge and allowing air to escape to each side. The [r] sound in
English is formered by curling the tip of the tongue up behind the alveolar
ridge and flipping it forward and upward withot actually touching the alveolar
ridge.
6. Glides
The
last two consonants are the glides [w] and [y]. A [w] is formered with the back
of the tongue arched high and the lips in a rounded poision. Much as they are
making the sound “oo” (ass in too). The
[y] glide muh like the [w] is formered with the tongue and lips at the same
position as they are making the sound “ee”.
C. VOWEL
Vowels are voiced continuous sounds
involving no interruption in the flow of air through the oral cavity. Different
vowel sounds result from changing the shape of the mouth: each vowel is
associated with a different configuration of the tongue and lips. For example,
to say “ee” represented phonetically as [i], the lips are somewhat pulled back
and the tongue is arched up toward the palate. To say “oo” as in woo and sue,
represented as [u], the tongue is raised toward the back of the mouth and the
lips are rounded and pushed forwad. For “ah,” as in father and cot, represented
as [a], the tongue is flattened and lowered.
Like the consonants, each vowel is
associated with a phonetic symbol. Traditionally, vowels have been described
along two dimensions: tongue height and the front or back of the
tongue. Table 5-2, which is commonly called a vowel chart, shows the spatial relationship among vowels in terms of
these two dimensions.
To represent these variations in
vowel sounds, symbols called diacritics or diacritic marks may be used. Thus,
arrows may show how a vowel differs from the Standart English form. For
example, [a] indicates a slightly fronted pronunciation of [a], and [il]
indicates a slightly lowered pronunciation of [i]. Similarly,
dots may be used to show the length of a vowel: one dot following a vowel
indicates slight lengthening. [a]: and two dots indicate greater lenght.
[a:]. A horizontal line above a vowel also may indicate a long vowel. [i]. in
this text we will rarely need diacritics.
D. DISTINCTIVE FEATURES
Sounds can be
classified in a variety of ways to suit a variety of theoretical pursuits.
Perhaps the most important of the theoretical approaches is distinctive feature
theory. Its purpose is to isolate and identify the relationship between sounds
and to provide a universal phonetic system to describe the sounds found in all
the world’s languages.
A feature is
ideally a binary attribute, that is a phonetic aspect that is either present or
absent in a specific sound. For example, one of the distinctive features is
(voiced). Thus such sounds as [b], [m], [a] and [l] can be characterized
as(+voiced) whereas such sounds as [p], [f] and [s] are characterized as
(-voiced). When the features are used for classification, however they are
always either present (+) or absent (-).
The three
sounds [p], [t] and [k] all share the feature [-voiced]. Therefore, additional
features must be indicated in order to distinguish them from each other. Two
additional features are required [anterior] and [coronal]. The feature
[+anterior] designates those sounds formered in the front of the mouth. That is
at the alveolar ridge, the teeth or the lips. The feature [+coronal] specifies
those sounds mad with the front half or blade of the tongue. with these features
we can now differentiate the voiceless stops [p], [t] and [k].
E. SUPRASEGMENTAL
Stress and
intonation are called suprasegmentals because they relate to aspects of
pronunciation that go beyond the production of individual (segmental) sounds.
1.
Stress
Pitch, length and
loudness are components of stress. A syllable generally consists of a vowel
accompanied by one or more consonants and the most common syllable form in
English is a consonant plus a vowel. Native speakers generally recognize at
least three levels of stress, primary, secondary and unstressed. The
distinction between stressed and unstressed syllables in words like cattle is easy
to hear. In multisyllabic words three levels of stress often may be perceived.
For instance, the word California has primary (or greatest) stress on the third
syllable, secondary stress on the first syllable and no stress on the remaining
two syllables.
2.
Intonation
The other major
suprasegmental is intonation which in English is described as a rising or
falling pitch over a group of words. Intonation alone does not normally
distinguish between any two words in English. However it does serve to distinguish
among sentences as in the following examples:
a)
Mary
had soup for lunch.
b)
Mary
had soup for lunch.
c)
Mary
had soup for lunch?
d)
Mary
had soup for lunch?
The first sentence
indicates that Mary had soup, rather some other food for lunch. The second
sentence indicates that Mary had soup for lunch and not some other meal. The
third and fourth sentences are the corresponding questions. It is important to
note that intonation like stress exists in varying degress. It is not as simple
and uniform as the notation used in these examples suggests.
Hope the above article useful and can help you in understanding the phonetics materials by understanding the example of the review.
Thank you 😊
Reference
Crane, L Ben &
Edward Yeager & Randal L. Whitman, An
Introduction to Linguistics. (Boston Toronto: Little, Brown and Company).
Peter Roach, English Phonetics and Phonology a practical
course, accessed from http://faculty.mu.edu.sa/public/uploads/1441293905.9281English%20Phonetics%20and%20Phonology%204th%20edition%20Peter%20Roach.pdf. Pada tanggal 28 maret 2017.
MICHAEL DOBROVOLSKY, Phonetics: The Sounds of Language, accessed from http://catalogue.pearsoned.co.uk/assets/hip/gb/uploads/Katamba9781405899307_Ch2.pdf,
pada tanggal 28 maret 2017.
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