Chapter 2
Speech Sounds

1．Define the following terms.

phonetics：the study of how speech sounds are produced，transmitted，and perceived．It can be divided into three main areas of study—articulatory phonetics，acoustic phonetics and perceptual/auditory phonetics.

articulatory phonetics：the study of the production of speech sounds，or the study of how speech sounds are produced/made.

phonology：the study of the sound patterns and sound systems of languages．It aims to discover the principles that govern the way sounds are organized in languages，and to explain the variations that occur.

speech organs：those parts of the human body involved in the production of speech，also known as“vocal organs”.

voicing：the vibration of the vocal folds．When the vocal folds are close together，the airstream causes them to vibrate against each other and the resultant sound is said to be“voiced”．When the vocal folds are apart and the air can pass through easily，the sound produced is said to be“voiceless”.

International Phonetic Alphabet：a set of standard phonetic symbols in the form of a chart（the IPA chart），designed by the International Phonetic Association since 1888．It has been revised from time to time to include new discoveries and changes in phonetic theory and practice．The latest version has been revised in 1993 and updated in 2005，see p.28.

consonant：a major category of sound segments，produced by a closure in the vocal tract，or by a narrowing which is so marked that air cannot escape without producing audible friction.

vowel：a major category of sound segments，produced without obstruction of the vocal tract so that air escapes in a relatively unimpeded way through the mouth or the nose.

manner of articulation：ways in which articulation of consonants can be accomplished—（a）the articulators may close off the oral tract for an instant or a relatively long period；（b）they may narrow the space considerably；or（c）they may simply modify the shape of the tract by approaching each other.

place of articulation：the point where an obstruction to the flow of air is made in producing a consonant.

Cardinal Vowels：a set of vowel qualities arbitrarily defined，fixed and unchanging，intended to provide a frame of reference for the description of the actual vowels of existing languages.

semi-vowel：segments that are neither consonants nor vowels，e.g．[j] and [w].

vowel glide：vowels that involve a change of quality，including diphthongs，when a single movement of the tongue is made，and triphthongs，where a double movement is perceived.

coarticulation：simultaneous or overlapping articulations，as when the nasal quality of a nasal sound affects the preceding or following sound so that the latter becomes nasalized．If the affected sound becomes more like the following sound，it is known as anticipatory“coarticulation”；if the sound shows the influence of the preceding sound，it is perseverative“coarticution”.

phoneme：a unit of explicit sound contrast．If two sounds in a language make a contrast between two different words，they are said to be different phonemes.

allophone：variants of the same phoneme．If two or more phonetically different sounds do not make a contrast in meaning，they are said to be allophones of the same phoneme．To be allophones，they must be in complementary distribution and bear phonetic similarity.

assimilation：a process by which one sound takes on some or all the characteristics of a neighboring sound，a term often used synonymously with“coarticulation”．If a following sound is influencing a preceding sound，it is called regressive“assimilation”；the converse process，in which a preceding sound is influencing a following sound，is known as progressive“assimilation”.

Elsewhere Condition：The more specific rule applied first．It is applied when two or more rules are involved in deriving the surface form from the underlying form.

distinctive features：a means of working out a set of phonological contrasts or oppositions to capture particular aspects of language sounds，first suggested by Roman Jacobson in the 1940s and then developed by numerous other people.

syllable：an important unit in the study of suprasegmentals．A syllable must have a nucleus or peak，which is often the task of a vowel or possibly that of a syllabic consonant，and often involves an optional set of consonants before and/or after the nucleus.

Maximal Onset Principle：a principle for dividing the syllables when there is a cluster of consonants between two vowels，which states that when there is a choice as to where to place a consonant，it is put into the onset rather than the coda.

stress：the degree of force used in producing a syllable．When a syllable is produced with more force and is therefore more“prominent”，it is a“stressed”syllable in contrast to a less prominent，“unstressed”syllable.

intonation：the occurrence of recurring fall-rise patterns，each of which is used with a set of relatively consistent meanings，either on single words or on groups of words of varying length.

tone：a set of fall-rise patterns affecting the meanings of individual words.

2．Give the description of the following sound segments in English.

1）［ð］

2）［ʃ］

3）［ ］

4）［d］

5）［p］

6）［k］

7）［ ］

8）［ ]

9）［ ］

10）［ ］

1）voiced dental fricative

2）voiceless postalveolar fricative

3）velar nasal

4）voiced alveolar stop/plosive

5）voiceless bilabial stop/plosive

6）voiceless velar stop/plosive

7）（alveolar）lateral

8）high front unrounded lax vowel

9）high back rounded tense vowel

10）low back rounded lax vowel

3．Give the IPA symbols for the sounds that correspond to the descriptions below.

1）voiceless labiodental fricative

2）voiced postalveolar fricative

3）palatal approximant

4）voiceless glottal fricative

5）voiceless alveolar stop

6）high-mid front unrounded vowel

7）high central rounded vowel

8）low front rounded vowel

9）low-mid back rounded vowel

10）high back rounded tense vowel

1）[f]

2）[ ]

3）[j]

4）[h]

5）[t]

6）[e]

7）[ ]

8）[ ]

9）[ ]

10）[u]

4．transcribe the following sentences into normal orthography.

1）

2）

1）On a clear day you can see for miles.

2）Some people think that first impressions count for a lot.

5．Discuss the following questions.

1）What organs are involved in speech production？

2）Why did George Bernard Shaw say he could spell the word fish as ghoti？

3）How is the description of consonants different from that of vowels？

4）To what extent is phonology related to phonetics and how do they differ？

5）“Assimilation is often used synonymously with coarticulation”．Discuss.

6）The pronunciation of tell is ［te ］，but that of teller is ［telə］．Discuss why the phoneme/l/ is realized as ［ ］ and ［l］ respectively in this situation.

1）Quite a few human organs are involved in the production of speech：the lungs，the trachea（or windpipe），the throat，the nose，and the mouth.

The pharynx，mouth，and nose form the three cavities of the vocal tract．Speech sounds are produced with an airstream as their sources of energy．In most circumstances，the airstream comes from the lungs．It is forced out of the lungs and then passes through the bronchioles and bronchi，a series of branching tubes，into the trachea．Then the air is modified at various points in various ways in the larynx，and in the oral and nasal cavities：the mouth and the nose are often referred to，respectively，as the oral cavity and the nasal cavity.

Inside the oral cavity，we need to distinguish the tongue and various parts of the palate，while inside the throat，we have to distinguish the upper part，called pharynx，from the lower part，known as larynx．The larynx opens into a muscular tube，the pharynx，part of which can be seen in a mirror．The upper part of the pharynx connects to the oral and nasal cavities.

The contents of the mouth are very important for speech production．Starting from the front，the upper part of the mouth includes the upper lip，the upper teeth，the alveolar ridge，the hard palate，the soft palate（or the velum），and the uvula．The soft palate can be lowered to allow air to pass through the nasal cavity．When the oral cavity is at the same time blocked，a nasal sound is produced.

The bottom part of the mouth contains the lower lip，the lower teeth，the tongue，and the mandible.

At the top of the trachea is the larynx，the front of which is protruding in males and known as the“Adam's Apple”．The larynx contains the vocal folds，also known as“vocal cords”or“vocal bands”．The vocal folds are a pair of structure that lies horizontally below the latter and their front ends are joined together at the back of the Adam's Apple．Their rear ends，however，remain separated and can move into various positions：inwards，outwards，forwards，backwards，upwards and downwards.

2）This is because gh is pronounced as [f] in enough，o as [I] in women，and ti as [ʃ] in nation.

3）In the production of consonants at least two articulators are involved．For example，the initial sound in bad involves both lips and its final segment involves the blade（or the tip）of the tongue and the alveolar ridge．The categories of consonant，therefore，are established on the basis of several factors．The most important of these factors are：（a）the actual relationship between the articulators and thus the way in which the air passes through certain parts of the vocal tract，and（b）where in the vocal tract there is approximation，narrowing，or the obstruction of air．The former is known as the Manner of Articulation and the latter as the Place of Articulation.

The Manner of Articulation refers to ways in which articulation can be accomplished：（a）the articulators may close off the oral tract for an instant or a relatively long period；（b）they may narrow the space considerably；or（c）they may simply modify the shape of the tract by approaching each other.

The Place of Articulation refers to the point where a consonant is made．Practically consonants may be produced at any place between the lips and the vocal folds．Eleven places of articulation are distinguished on the IPA chart.

As the vowels cannot be described in the same way as the consonants，a system of cardinal vowels has been suggested to get out of this problem．The cardinal vowels，as exhibited by the vowel diagram in the IPA chart，are a set of vowel qualities arbitrarily defined，fixed and unchanging，intended to provide a frame of reference for the description of the actual vowels of existing languages.

The cardinal vowels are abstract concepts．If we imagine that for the production of [ə] the tongue is in a neutral position（neither high nor low，neither front nor back），the cardinal vowels are as remote as possible from this neutral position．They represent extreme points of a theoretical vowel space：extending the articulators beyond this space would involve friction or contact．The cardinal vowel diagram（or quadrilateral）in the IPA is therefore a set of hypothetical positions for vowels used as reference points.

The front，center，and back of the tongue are distinguished，as are four levels of tongue height：the highest position the tongue can achieve without producing audible friction（high or close）；the lowest position the tongue can achieve（low or open）；and two intermediate levels，dividing the intervening space into auditorily equivalent areas（mid-high or open-mid，and mid-low or close-mid）.

4）Both phonetics and phonology study human speech sounds but they differ in the levels of analysis．Phonetics studies how speech sounds are produced，transmitted，and perceived．Imagine that the speech sound is articulated by a Speaker A．It is then transmitted to and perceived by a Listener B．Consequently，a speech sound goes through a three-step process：speech production，sound transmission，and speech perception.

Naturally，the study of sounds is divided into three main areas，each dealing with one part of the process：Articulatory Phonetics is the study of the production of speech sounds，Acoustic Phonetics is the study of the physical properties of speech sounds，and Perceptual or Auditory Phonetics is concerned with the perception of speech sounds.

Phonology is the study of the sound patterns and sound systems of languages．It aims to discover the principles that govern the way sounds are organized in languages，and to explain the variations that occur.

In phonology we normally begin by analyzing an individual language，say English，in order to determine its phonological structure，i.e．which sound units are used and how they are put together．Then we compare the properties of sound systems in different languages in order to make hypotheses about the rules that underlie the use of sounds in them，and ultimately we aim to discover the rules that underlie the sound patterns of all languages.

5）Speech is a continuous process，so the vocal organs do not move from one sound segment to the next in a series of separate steps．Rather，sounds continually show the influence of their neighbors．For example，if a nasal consonant（such as [m]）precedes an oral vowel（such as [æ] in map），some of the nasality will carry forward so that the vowel [æ] will begin with a somewhat nasal quality．This is because in producing a nasal the soft palate is lowered to allow airflow through the nasal tract．To produce the following vowel [æ]，the soft palate must move back to its normal position．Of course it takes time for the soft palate to move from its lowered position to the raised position．This process is still in progress when the articulation of [æ] has begun．Similarly，when [æ] is followed by [m]，as in lamb，the velum will begin to lower itself during the articulation of [æ] so that it is ready for the following nasal.

When such simultaneous or overlapping articulations are involved，we call the process ‘coarticulation'．If the sound becomes more like the following sound，as in the case of lamb，it is known as ‘anticipatory coarticulation'．If the sound shows the influence of the preceding sound，it is ‘perseverative coarticulation'，as is the case of map.

Assimilation is a phonological term，often used synonymously with coarticulation，which is more of a phonetic term．Similarly，there are two possibilities of assimilation：if a following sound is influencing a preceding sound，we call it ‘regressive assimilation'；the converse process，in which a preceding sound is influencing a following sound，is known as ‘progressive assimilation'.

Anticipatory coarticulation is by far the most common cause of assimilation in English．For example，

In both ex.1a and 1b，the words differ in two sounds．The vowel in the second word of each pair is“nasalized”because of the influence of the following nasal consonant．In ex.2，the nasal /n/ is“dentalized”before a dental fricative．In ex.3，the alveolar nasal /n/ becomes the velar nasal [ ] before the velar stop [n]．In this situation，nasalization，dentalization，and velarization are all instances of assimilation，a process by which one sound takes on some or all the characteristics of a neighboring sound.

Assimilation can occur across syllable or word boundaries，as shown by the following：

Ex.4

a．pan[ ]cake

b．he can[ ] go now

Studies of English fricatives and affricates have shown that their voicing is severely influenced by the voicing of the following sound：

Ex.5

The first column of symbols shows the way these phrases are pronounced in slow or careful speech while the second column shows how they are pronounced in normal，connected speech．It indicates that in English fricatives and affricates are devoiced when they are followed by voiceless sounds．This however does not occur with stops and vowels.

6）The word teller is formed by adding a suffix -er to the base word tell to form a new word．We are all familiar with the rule that governs the allophones of the phoneme /l/：when preceding a vowel，it is [l] and when following a vowel it is [ ]．However，in teller it has a vowel both before and after it，so how do we decide that it should be pronounced as [l]，not [ ]？

We notice that tell is a monosyllabic word while teller is disyllabic．In a polysyllabic word，we follow the Maximal Onset Principle（MOP）for the division of syllable．By MOP，the [l] must be placed in the onset position of the second syllable instead of the coda position of the first syllable．Thus，the phoneme [l] is realized as it should be before the vowel in the second syllable．The same is true with telling，falling，and many others．We can see from this that the phonological structure of a complex word is often different from its morphological structure，i.e．how the word is formed．In word-formation it is tell + -er while in syllable structure it is \[te+lə].

6．In some dialects of English the following words have different vowels，as shown by the phonetic transcription．Based on these data，answer the questions that follow.

1）How may the classes of sounds that end the words in columns A and B be characterized？

2）How do the words in column C differ from those in columns A and B？

3）Are ［ ］ and ［aI］ in complementary distribution？Give your reasons.

4）What are the phonetic transcriptions of（a）life and（b）lives？

5）What would the phonetic transcriptions of the following words be？

（a）trial　　（b）bike　　（c）lice　　（d）fly　　（e）mine

6）State the rule that will relate the phonemic representations to the phonetic transcriptions of the words given above.

（Based on Fromkin，et al.2003：332）

1）All the sounds that end the words in column A are voiceless（[-voice]）consonants and all the sounds that end the words in column B are voiced（[+voice]）consonants.

2）All the words in column C are open syllables，i.e．they end in vowels.

3）The two sounds are in complementary distribution because [ ] appears only before voiceless consonants and [aI] occurs before voiced consonants and in open syllables.

4）（a）[l If]　　（b）[laIvz]

5）（a）[traIl]　　（b）[b Ik]　　（c）[l Is]　　（d）[flaI]　　（e）[maIn]

6）/aI/→ [ I]/ [-voice]

[aI] in other places

7．The following words contain different forms of the negative prefix in-．Group the data according to the variants and try to determine which kinds of base word take which kinds of prefix variant and what kind of mechanism is responsible for the variation．Formulate a rule and then test it against words that are formed in this way but are not mentioned here.

（Based on Plag，2003：42）

As far as orthography is concerned，there are four variants：in-，im-，ir-，and il-，but closer scrutiny shows that in- may be pronounced as [I ] before velar consonants，so there are five groups of words according to their variation on pronunciation：

（1）[In]：inharmonic，ingenious，inoffensive，indifferent，inevitable，innumerable

[In] or [I ]：incomprehensible，incompetent，inconsistent

[Im]：impenetrable，impossible，immobile

[Il]：illiterate，illegal，illogical

[Ir]：irresponsible，irresistible，irregular

It is clear that the first sound of the base word governs the distribution of the variants，because the final consonant of the prefix in- must assimilate to the first segment of the base word．As a result of this，we find [Im] before labial consonants like [m] or [p]，[Il] before the lateral [l]，[Ir] before [r]．When the first consonant of the base word is the velar consonant [k]，it is [I ] in rapid speech and [In] in careful speech．In all other cases [In] is always the case．Assuming an underlying form /In/，the rule for the prefix in- looks roughly like this（in the simplest notation）：

（2）

This rule system could be further simplified if we eliminate the first rule，as the realization [I ] is actually optional．Unlike the other rules，this variation is due to a more general mechanism of assimilation in fast speech，which happens naturally．For example，in conference is also often pronounced as [I k nfərəns] in fast speech，and the nasal in thank and think is also realized as a velar.

We can test these rules by looking at other base words which can take the prefix in-，such as correct，moveable，legible，rational，and adequate．When prefixed，they are respectively pronounced [In]correct（or [I ]correct），[Im] moveable，[Il]legible，[Ir]rational，and [In]adequate，which further support the rules above.

（Based on Plag，2003：200-1）

8．In Old English，the fricatives /f/，/ ，ð/，and /s/ each represented two separate sounds：

Voicing is predictable by context．Study the words below and state the rule.

（Based on Fennell，2001：60-64 and Mitchell ＆ Robinson，2002）

In Old English，there are no voiced fricative phonemes．All voiced variants，which appear only between voiced sounds，are allophones of their voiceless counterparts．The rule can be stated as follows：

9．Estuary English（EE）is a name given to the form（s）of English widely spoken in and around London and，more generally，in the southeast of England along the river Thames and its estuary．The websites below contain much information about this variety of English．Find out what EE is like.

http：//www.phon.ucl.ac.uk/home/estuary

http：//www.ic.arizona.edu/～lsp/EstuaryEnglish.html

See also Gimson（2001：Chapter 7）for some discussion on the changes of British English pronunciation.

（Free answer）

10．Here is the official IPA website．See what you can find there.

http：//www.arts.gla.ac.uk/ipa/ipa.html

（Free answer）

11．Based on your observation of Chinese students learning to speak English，discuss some of the typical phonetic and phonological difficulties they may encounter and make suggestions as to how you may help them tackle the problems．Make use of，as far as possible，what you have learned in this chapter.

（Free answer）

12．The discussion of phonological processes and phonological rules in this chapter are all illustrated with English examples．Consider relevant facts in Chinese and see if they work in the same way.

（Free answer） 4P1lNFGLLWUAaFs3pQV5WKMRvNp2aV2zeW1Fjg+6K4KR5cp5FbMbkrze7bJUkJPr