Phonetics

Linguistic sounds are produced by pushing air from the lungs out through the mouth, sometimes by way of the nasal cavity. The movement of the air can then be manipulated by the anatomy of the mouth and throat to produce different sounds. In actual writing, the same sound may often be spelt different ways. At this matter, George Bernard Shaw once pointed out that the word fish could as easily be spelt ghoti, since gh has the same sounds in enough, o has the same sound in women, and ti has the same sound in nation. This makes sounds very hard to study without a more precise indication of what sounds we are referring to. The solution is to adopt a phonetic alphabet called the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA). In the IPA, the word fish would be spelt /fɪʃ/. many IPA letters are the same as those of the English alphabet, so we place IPA spellings in square brackets to indicate that they are phonetic spellings. Note that many dictionaries give phonetic spellings as pronunciation guides, but not all dictionaries use the IPA.

Likewise, the system of Phonics does not use the IPA. When looking at phonetic spellings, make sure you know what system you are using. Note also that linguists in the United States do not always follow the accepted international standard.

Consonants

Consonants are produced by restricting and the releasing  the flow of air in three ways: vibrating th vocal cords, changing the part of the anatony which restricts the air flow, and changing the extend to which the air flow is restricted.

Consonants with relatively little vibration of the vocal cords are called voiceless consonants.

Consonants with relatively more vobration of the vocal cords are called voiced.

Consonants fall into the next categories, depending on what part of the anatomy is used to restrict the air flow.

Labial: Air flow is restricted with the lips.

Dental: Air flow is restricted with the teeth.

Labiodental. Air flow is restricted with the top teeth on the bottom lip (if both lips are used the sound is called bilabial)

Alveolar: Air flow is restricted by placing the tongue on the hard palate (alveolum).

Palatal: Air flow is restricted by placing the tongue on the soft palate behind the alveolum.

Velar: Air flow is restricted by placing the tongue far back in the mouth.

Glottal: Air flow is restricted by tightening the folds in the vocal cords (glottis).

Consonants can also be categorised by the extent to which the air flow is restricted:

Stop: Air flow is stopped and released quickly.

Fricative: Air flow is released gradually.

Africative: Air flow is stopped and released gradually.

Nasal: Air flow is channeled through the nasal cavity.

Liquid: Air flow is channeled around the sides of the tongue.

Glide: Air flow is only partially restricted (these sounds are often called semi-vowels).

Some languages have other categories, but only the ones above are the only ones that occurs in English. individual consonants can be made up of nearly any combination of the features above. For instance, /b/ is a vocal labial stop and /s/ is a voiceless alveolar fricative.

Vowels

Viwels are produced by directing the flow of air into different parts of the mouth. They can be adjusted by changing the position of the tongue, by rounding of the lips, and by the degree of opening of the mouth. All vowels are voiced.

The position of the tongue can be described in terms of how far forward the tongue is and how high it is. Vowels are categorised as follows, depending on the position of the tongue.

Front: The tongue is in the front of the mouth.

Central: The tongue is further back in the mouth.

Back: The tongue is in the back of the mouth.

High: The tongue is high in the mouth.

Mid: The tongue is lower in the mouth.

Low: The tongue is low in the mouth.

All vowels can be described in terms of their location on both vertical and horizontal axes. A look at the Spanish vowel system demonstrates this. Examine the underlined vowels and the descriptions of them below.

Niño "boy"              High Front Vowel

Burro "donkey"        High Back Vowel

Jose                      Mid front Vowel

Jose                      Mid Back Vowel

Mar "sea"               Low Central back

If you pronounce the High and Mid Back Vowels, you will find that you round your lips. These are called rounded vowels.

The English vowel system is more complicated than thge Sapanish one. In English we create extra vowels by opening the mouth more or less. When the mouth is relatively more open, tha vowel is called lax.

When the mouth is relatively more closed, the vowel is tense. Compare the following English words.

Machine      Tense High Front Vowel

Salute         Tense High Back Vowel

Chin            Lax High Front Vowel

Pull             Lax High Back Vowel

Ballet          Tense Mid Front Vowel

Foal            Tense Mid Back Vowel

Get             Lax Mid Front Vowel

For             Lax Mid Back Vowel