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The study of speech sounds, the use that the human voice makes of the sounds it can produce for the purposes of speaking. Speech sounds can be studied from the perspective of how they are produced by the human vocal organs; this is called 'articulatory phonetics'. They may also be studied from the perspective of the physical attributes of their sound; this is known as 'acoustic phonetics', or 'instrumental phonetics', since an array of instruments or machines is used to measure sound qualities. Besides the study of sound segments (phones), phonetics also studies the use that the human voice makes of pitch and tone, both in speaking individual words (as in tone languages ) and over longer utterances (as in intonation ).
The study of how speech sounds are used in a language to form syllables and words and to make differences of meaning. It studies the sounds ( phonemes ) that a language uses, classifies them (the phoneme inventory), examines their systematic variation ( allophones ), and considers the role of tone and pitch in conveying meaning. Some linguists draw a sharp distinction between phonetics (the study of human speech) and phonology (the use made by a particular language of human speech possibilities); but others see the difference as more about level of detail, so that it is quite legitimate to talk of 'English phonetics and phonology' (Roach 2000).
Sometimes used for stress . See also the Sociolinguistics section.
The branch of phonetics that treats speech sounds from the perspective of their physical properties; also sometimes called 'instrumental phonetics', because the properties of speech sounds are studied with the aid of instruments such as a spectrograph.
A consonant sound, beginning with a plosive closure, but concluding with a fricative release. English has two affricate sounds: /tʃ/ initially and finally in church ; /dʒ/ initially and finally in judge .
The (variant) phonetic realization (s) of a
phoneme
. For example, the /|/ phoneme in English has a 'clear' allophone [|] before vowels (
leak
), a 'dark' (velarized) allophone [
] at the end of words (
keel
), and a devoiced allophone [
]after voiceless plosives (
plain
). Note that phonemes are written between slash brackets / /, and (allo)phones between square brackets [ ]; see
transcription
.
A consonant sound produced by contact or near-contact of the tongue tip and the alveolar ridge, located just behind the gums of the upper front teeth. Alveolar sounds in English include: /t d s z l/.
A sound made using the tip of the tongue as the active articulator .
A sound produced by bringing articulator s towards each other but without constriction of the airstream. Their articulation is more like that of vowels (hence their alternative label of 'semi-vowel'), but they operate as consonants in the structure of syllable s. The approximants used in English are /w/ ( well ), /j/ ( yell ), /r/ ( real ).
The parts of the mouth (vocal tract) that are used in making speech sounds; a distinction is made between an 'active' articulator, especially the tongue, which moves, and a 'passive' articulator, such as the roof of the mouth, which is stationary.
The puff of air that may accompany the articulation of plosive consonants, e.g. in English when an unvoiced plosive occurs before a vowel, as in pin , ten , king . It is indicated phonetically by a superscript 'h', e.g. [p h In].
The movement of one sound to the place or manner of articulation of an adjacent sound. In 'regressive' assimilation, a following sound influences a preceding one, e.g. in bad boys the /d/ of bad assimilates to the bilabial articulation of the /b/ of boys , to give /bæb bɔɪz/. In 'progressive' assimilation, a preceding sound influences a following one, e.g. in this day , the /d/ of day becomes devoice d under the influence of the voiceless /s/ at the end of this .
A sound produced using the two (bi) lips (labia), e.g. /p b m/.
A system developed by the phonetician Daniel Jones (1881-1967) for charting the vowel sounds of a language on the basis of their auditory quality. The first eight (primary) cardinal vowels are the front vowels /i e ε a/ and the back vowels /u o ɔ ɑ/. The next eight (secondary) cardinal vowels are the rounded/unrounded counterparts to the first eight: /y ø œ Œ/ for the front ones, and /щ γ ʌ ɒ/ for the back ones.
A sound formed by an intake of air into the mouth, which is closed off at the hard palate ( velum ). Clicks are included in the phoneme inventory of some southern African languages, e.g. Xhosa. Non-speech clicks would include a kiss and the sound represented by tsk tsk or tut tut.
Where the articulation of two adjacent sounds overlap, e.g. in the pronunciation of swoon , the lips are already rounded for /s/ (not normally part of its articulation, e.g. sleep ) in anticipation of the articulation of /w/ and /uː/.
In phonology, the basis for assigning two (allo)phones to the same phoneme , because their distribution does not overlap (i.e. is complementary). For example, [p] and aspirated [p h ] do not occur in the same environments (or create a minimal pair ); [p] but not [p h ] occurs after /s/, and [p h ] occurs elsewhere (e.g. word-initially and word-finally); so [p] and [p h ] are in complementary distribution and, because they are phonetically similar, they are regarded as allophones of the same phoneme. Compare free variation .
A class of sounds that are articulated with some impediment to the airflow through the mouth and that function in the margins of syllables . Consonants are further subclassified according to the nature of the obstruction to the airflow: plosive , fricative , affricate , lateral , nasal .
The /l/ in
leap
is a clear 'l', that in
peal
is dark, or 'velarized', articulated with the back of the tongue drawn up towards the
velum
. Clear 'l' is symbolized by /l/, and dark 'l' by [
]. Clear and dark 'l' are in
complementary distribution
in English.
A sound produced by contact or near-contact of the tongue tip with the back of the upper front teeth. Dental sounds in English are: /θ/ ( th in ), /ð/ ( th en ). In some languages, sounds like /t d n/ are dental rather than alveolar as in English.
When a voiced sound loses some or all of its voicing. For example, voiced plosives at the end of words in German are often devoiced ( Rad 'wheel' is pronounced /rɑt/); in English a voiced consonant at the beginning of a word may be devoiced under the influence ( assimilation ) of a preceding voiceless consonant ( nice game is pronounced /naɪs keɪm/).
In phonetic
transcription
, a small mark above or below a symbol to indicate some modification, such as a
secondary articulation;
e.g. the diacritic /
ω
/ indicates lip rounding, so [
] would indicate /s/ pronounced with
rounded
lips.
A vowel sound that involves a glide from one 'pure' vowel (monophthong) to another. In English, diphthongs tend towards either /ɪ/ ( make /eɪ/), or /ʊ/ ( found /aʊ/), or /ə/ ( pure /ʊə/).
A component of a sound that serves to distinguish phonemes from each other. A phoneme may be viewed as a bundle of distinctive features, expressed either in articulatory or in acoustic terms; e.g. /p/ is a voiceless (– voice), bilabial (+ labial), plosive (+ stop), consonant (+ consonant). It is suggested that a small number (around twelve) of distinctive features can serve to describe the speech sounds in every language.
The omission of a sound, especially as occasioned by the phonetic environment; e.g. in clusters of three consonants at word boundaries in English, where the middle consonant is /t/ or /d/, it is likely to be subject to elision, as in slept badly /slep bædli/.
The terms are now used interchangeably – a single strike of the tongue, usually against the
alveolar
ridge, e.g. in the American pronunciation of /t/ in words like
matter
/mæ
ər/. A flap is distinguished from a 'trill', which involves repeated taps; compare Spanish
pero
'but' (with a tap) from
perro
'dog' (with a trill).
In acoustic phonetics , relating to the 'frequency' of speech sounds, especially vowels; a formant is a peak in such frequency, determined by the position of the tongue in the mouth. Three formants are usually distinguished for each vowel sound, and they can be charted by means of a spectrograph.
The terms mean 'strong' / 'weak' and are applied to consonant sounds; they refer to the force with which a consonant is articulated. In English, the voiceless plosives /p t k/ are fortis consonants, whereas the voiced plosives /b d g/ are lenis consonants.
When two sounds may occur in the same environment without making a minimal pair or causing a change of meaning, e.g. substituting a glottal stop [?] for /t/ at the end of but .
A consonant sound formed by articulator s coming close together and friction occurring as the airstream is forced through the narrow gap. Fricatives in English include the initial sounds of: f ine , v ine ; th in , th en ; s ink , z inc ; sh eet , g ite – represented by the phonetic symbols /f v θð s z ʃ ʒ/.
An approximant , e.g. /j w/, that eases the transition between two vowels, especially at word boundaries, e.g. in blue eyes /blʊ w aɪz/. This is an example of an 'off-glide', where the glide /w/ follows from the /u/ of blue . An 'on-glide' anticipates the following vowel, as in tie it /taɪ j ɪt/.
Sound produced in the glottis , such as /h/ (hit) and the glottal stop /ʔ/, which substitutes for /t/ in some (e.g. London Cockney) pronunciations of words like butter .
Located in the larynx, the glottis is the site of the vocal cords . The 'state of the glottis' influences the quality of the speech sounds that are produced, e.g. whisper, creaky voice. In particular, whether the vocal cords are vibrating or not determines whether the sound is voiced or unvoiced.
Sounds made at the same place of articulation, e.g. in sing carols , the final sound of sing /ŋ/ and the initial sound of carols /k/ are homorganic, both being velar articulations.
Used of consonants that occur between vowels, e.g. /t/ is intervocalic in sitting /sɪtɪŋ/.
The variations in pitch that accompany speech and serve to organize it into tone unit s (information units). Intonation may distinguish between sentence types, e.g. statement, polar question, content question. It may also serve to express the speaker's attitude and emotional state, e.g. aggression, irritation, acquiescence.
A case of liaison , where an 'r' is inserted between vowels at word boundaries, even though one is not present in the spelling, e.g. in law and order . /lɔː r ænd ɔːdə/. Compare linking 'r' .
Invented in the late nineteenth century to provide a set of symbols that would represent the sounds of the world's languages on the basis of 'one symbol per sound'. The IPA is widely used by field linguists and language teachers, and it is now the standard method for representing pronunciation in dictionaries, at least in the UK. For more information, see the website of the International Phonetic Association: http://www.arts.gla.ac.uk/IPA/ipa.html.
A
secondary articulation
involving lip rounding, e.g. in the articulation of /t/ in
tool
[tuː
], anticipating the lip rounding of /uː/.
A sound produced with the bottom lip and the top teeth, e.g. /f/ ( foot ), /v/ ( vote ).
A speech sound made with the tongue in contact with the roof of the mouth and the air allowed to escape over the sides of the tongue, i.e. laterally. Lateral sounds are types of /l/, including the lateral fricative /
/, where the sides of the tongue are raised so that friction occurs as the air escapes between the tongue and the gums/teeth. The lateral fricative occurs in Welsh, represented by 'll' in spelling, e.g. in the word for 'lake',
llyn
.
The insertion of a sound at the end of a word to ease the transition to the pronunciation of the following word. For example, French nos 'our' is pronounced in isolation with the 's' silent /no/; however, when nos is followed by a word beginning with a vowel, liaison takes place and the 's' is pronounced, e.g. nos amis 'our friends' /noz ami/.
A case of liaison , where, for a particular accent, the 'r' in words like far is not pronounced, except as a linkage to a following word beginning with a vowel, e.g. far away /fɑː r əweɪ/. Compare intrusive 'r' .
A group of sounds that includes 'r' and 'l' sounds, made with the tongue tip ( apical ) against the alveolar ridge.
This refers to the type of constriction to the airstream in the articulation of consonants. Complete constriction occurs with plosive s, also called stops. Complete constriction, together with escape of air through the nose, occurs with nasal s. Complete constriction, together with escape of air over the sides of the tongue, occurs with lateral s. Partial constriction, together with friction, occurs with fricative s. Little or no constriction occurs with approximant s, also called semi-vowels.
The reversal of two sounds, e.g. where ask becomes aks in some dialects of English.
A pair of words that differ by a single phoneme , and have different meanings, used to establish that the sounds in question are separate phonemes of the language. For example, pump/bump are a minimal pair, to establish that /p/ and /b/ are separate phonemes in English.
A manner of articulation that involves a constriction in the mouth, but the escape of air through the nose. In English, the following nasal sounds occur: bilabial /m/ (
mist
), alveolar /n/ (
nest
), velar /ŋ/ (
sti
ng
). A labio-dental nasal /
/may be heard as an allophone of /m/ before /f/, e.g. in
comfort
,
symphony
. Compare
oral
.
In an environment where a phonem ic distinction that applies elsewhere no longer does. For example, the distinction between voiced and unvoiced plosives (/b d g/ vs /p t k/) is neutralized after /s/ in English: the unaspirated voiceless plosive occurs ( spin , stint , skin ), but the voiced one does not (no /sb sd sg/).
The core phoneme of a syllable , usually a vowel, which may be preceded by an 'onset' and followed by a 'coda', both containing consonants. For example, in the syllable black /blæk/, the nucleus is the vowel /æ/. The term 'nucleus' is also used in intonation , to denote the syllable within a tone unit on which the main pitch movement occurs.
A speech sound formed by some obstruction or constriction in the mouth, either complete (as with plosives ) or partial, producing friction (as with fricative s). Besides plosives and fricatives, the other class of obstruent sounds is that of affricate s. Compare sonorant .
A sound made wholly in the mouth (vocal cavity), rather than using the nasal cavity; any sound that is not a nasal .
A sound formed by the blade of the tongue having contact or near-contact with the hard palate (roof of the mouth). The only palatal sound in English is the approximant /j/ ( yell ). In Spanish, the letters 'll' represent a palatal lateral , as in llave 'key', and the letter 'ñ' represents a palatal nasal /ɲ/, as in mañana 'tomorrow'.
A sound (only fricative s) made with the tongue tip in near-contact with the alveolar ridge and the tongue blade drawn towards the palate. Also called 'post-alveolar', these sounds are, in English: /ʃ/ ( sh ip ) and /ʒ/ ( lei s ure ).
Features of speech that are not strictly linguistic, such as loudness, voice quality (e.g. as a result of having a cold), pitch variation that is not part of intonation (e.g. high pitch caused by excitement).
A consonant sound articulated by the root of the tongue drawn to the back wall of the pharynx; they occur, for example, in Semitic languages such as Arabic.
What takes place in the larynx, particularly in relation to the vocal cords. Types of phonation, besides voicing, include 'creaky voice', 'breathy voice' and whisper.
A sound segment in a language. One task of phonology is to establish the phonemes of a language. The phonemes are the contrastive sounds of a language, such that the substitution of one phoneme for another causes a change of word or meaning. A phoneme may have a number of 'realizations', or allophone s, which may be in complementary distribution or in free variation . Alphabetic writing systems are attempts to symbolize at the level of phonemes (compare syllabic and logographic systems); however, English has 26 letters, but around 44 phonemes, so the relationship between sound and letter is not one-to-one.
This specifies the permissible phoneme combinations in a language, e.g. the possible consonant clusters in the onset and coda of a syllable .
This refers to the articulator s used in making consonant sounds, i.e. where in the vocal tract (mouth) the contact or near-contact of articulators takes place. The main places of articulation are, starting at the front of the mouth: bilabial (two lips), labio-dental (bottom lip + top teeth), dental (tongue tip + top teeth), alveolar (tongue tip + alveolar ridge), palatal (tongue blade + hard palate), velar (back of tongue + soft palate/velum), uvular (back of tongue + uvula), glottal (in the glottis).
A consonant sound made with a complete constriction of the airstream in the mouth, followed by the release of the air causing 'plosion'. Sometimes the plosion is accompanied by aspiration, as with the unvoiced plosives in English, except after /s/: compare pin [p h ɪn], where /p/ is aspirated, and spin [spɪn], where it is unaspirated. There are three pairs of unvoiced/voiced plosives in English: bilabial /p b/, alveolar /t d/, velar /k g/. Plosives are also called 'stops'; this label derives from the stopping of the airstream behind a constriction. In some contexts, plosives are 'unreleased', e.g. in sit down , the /t/ of sit is not normally released, because the articulation proceeds straight to the following /d/, which is homorganic with it.
This is used variously to refer to features of speech that relate to more than a single segment (phoneme). Traditionally, it refers to the patterns of stress and intonation that occur in speech. It is also used to refer to the structure of syllables, as well as to features that may accompany a syllable, e.g. the feature of nasality that accompanies a word like man , so that the whole syllable/word is characterized by nasality, including the vowel, because the initial and final consonant are both nasal (the nose is not blocked off at all during the articulation of man ).
The form of a function word in connected speech, when the vowel has been reduced to schwa and phonemes have been elided. For example, and in its full form is pronounced /ænd/, but it is often reduced to /ənd/ or /ən/, or even /n/; similarly have /hæv/ is reduced to /həv/, /əv/, or /v/.
A consonant sound formed by curling the tip of the tongue behind the alveolar ridge. Retroflex consonants may be plosives, fricatives, nasals, laterals, or approximants. Retroflex consonants may be voiced or unvoiced, and retroflex plosives may be aspirated or unaspirated. They are common in languages in the north of the Indian subcontinent, e.g. Panjabi, Gujerati, Bengali, Hindi/Urdu. The IPA symbols for retroflex consonants are similar to those for alveolar consonants, but with a tail, e.g. /
/.
An accent of English in which the 'r' of spelling is pronounced when it comes after a vowel or before a consonant, and not just before a vowel, e.g. in words like far , cart and not just in red . The /r/ phoneme is pronounced in a wide variety of ways by speakers of English.
The formation of the lips when articulating a vowel sound. Vowels may be rounded, with the lips made round, as in /u/ b oo t , or /ɔ/ in b ought . Vowels may be unrounded, with the lips spread, as in /i/ b ea t , or /e/ b e t . In English, front vowels /i e æ/ tend to be unrounded and back vowels /u ɔ ɒ/ rounded. Rounded front vowels occur in French, e.g. tu /ty/, and in German, e.g. Söhne /zønə/ 'sons'.
The neutral sounding vowel, symbolised by /ə/, which is the most common vowel in unstressed syllables in English, e.g. at the beginning of about /əbaʊt/ and at the end of later /leɪtə/.
An articulatory feature of a sound additional to its primary articulation. For example, a dark 'l' has the primary articulation of an alveolar lateral , and a secondary articulation of velarization.
Another term for approximant.
A group of sounds, of the 's' variety, that generate a large amount of acoustic noise, including /s z ʃ ʒ/.
A class of speech sounds that is produced without restriction to the airstream and can thus be sustained, e.g. vowel s, nasal s, lateral s. Contrast: obstruent.
Another term for plosive , taking its name from the complete constriction that impedes the airflow, rather than the plosion of the release phase.
This refers, firstly, to the relative prominence of syllable s in the pronunciation of a word. In some languages stress is always on the same syllable, e.g. in Hungarian on the first syllable, in Polish generally on the penultimate syllable. In English, word stress is variable, e.g. in ˈdanger on the first syllable, in deˈfence on the second. In words with multiple syllables, a secondary stress may occur in addition to the primary stress, e.g. on the final syllable in ˈeduˌcate , or on the first syllable in ˌeduˈcation . Word stress is sometimes called 'accent'. The second use of 'stress' is to refer to the syllables that receive prominence in the intonation pattern of an utterance or part of an utterance ( tone unit ).
In a stress-timed language, such as English, the main stresses of words in connected speech fall at approximately equal intervals; whereas in a syllable-timed language, such as French, the syllables are approximately equidistant.
Features of pronunciation that accompany segments ( phonemes ), such as stress and intonation .
A consonant that functions as the nucleus of a syllable , which is normally a vowel. The word button /bʌtən/ in English is often pronounced /bʌtn/, where the /n/ is a syllabic consonant as the nucleus of the syllable /tn/. Similarly, the final /l/ in giggle may be syllabic: /gɪgl/.
Phonemes combine into syllables, and syllables combine into words. The 'nucleus' of a syllable is normally a vowel; it may have one or more consonants initially as 'onset', and one or more consonants finally as 'coda'. In English, up to three consonants may form an onset, e.g. on (none), son (one), flop (two), strong (three); and up to four consonants may form a coda, e.g. to (none), top (one), tint (two), tilts (three), sixths /sɪksθs/ (four). There are restrictions on the possible clusters of consonants in the onset and the coda, e.g. the first consonant of a three-consonant cluster as onset must be /s/: specifying the possibilities is the province of phonotactics . The structure of the syllable in English could be expressed as: (C) (C) (C) V (C) (C) (C) (C). Other languages have much more restricted potential for consonant clustering; in Korean, for example, a syllable may begin or end with a maximum of one consonant.
A language in which changes of pitch on a word may signal a change of meaning. The most well-known tone language is Chinese, but many languages of sub-Saharan Africa, of South America, and of East Asia are also tonal. Within Europe, Lithuanian exhibits tonality, and there are vestiges of it in Swedish, Serbian and Croatian.
An intonation pattern is divided into tone units, which serve to chunk the information in an utterance. A tone unit contains a nucleus , which is the stressed syllable of the most significant word in the tone unit and is marked by a moving pitch (fall, rise, fall-rise, rise-fall). The nucleus is preceded by a 'head', usually uttered with a level pitch; and it may be followed by a 'tail', which continues the direction of the nuclear pitch.
The representation in phonetic symbols, usually from the IPA , of the pronunciation of a word or utterance. Transcriptions vary in the amount of phonetic detail that they contain, which depends on the purpose for which the transcription is being made. A 'broad' transcription usually represents phonemes only, together with word or sentence stress ; it is usually enclosed within slash brackets / /. A 'narrow' transcription will include varying degrees of phonetic detail, e.g. allophon ic variation; it is usually enclosed within square brackets [ ].
The uvula is the extension of the soft palate that hangs down at the back of the mouth and is used for blocking off the nasal cavity. A uvular consonant is made with the back of the tongue in contact or near-contact with the uvula. Uvular consonants are found in Arabic, but not usually in English, though the /k/ of car comes close to being uvular.
A consonant sound produced by the contact or near-contact of the back of the tongue with the soft palate ( velum ), e.g. /k g/ in English.
A secondary articulation that involves drawing the back of the tongue towards the velum , while making the primary articulation elsewhere in the mouth, e.g. for a dark 'l' .
The technical word for the soft palate, the part of the roof of the mouth beyond the hard palate and ending in the uvula . It functions in the production of velar consonants.
More technically the 'vocal folds', are a pair of fleshy membranes in the glottis that function in the production of speech sounds. Brought together, they produce a glottal stop; slightly ajar, they vibrate to produce voicing for voiced sounds; fully open, they allow normal breathing and the production of unvoiced sounds. Their manipulation also produces whispering, creaky voice, etc. – see phonation .
A speech sound is either voiced, made with the vocal cords vibrating, or unvoiced, made without vibration of the vocal cords. Vowel sounds are normally voiced, while consonant s often occur as an unvoiced and voiced pair, e.g /p b/, /f v/.
A sonorant speech sound that is made by a configuration of the mouth without constriction of the airstream. The quality of a vowel sound is determined by: (a) the height of the tongue, on a scale of 'close' to 'open', or 'high' to 'low'; (b) where in the mouth the sound is made, front, central or back; and (c) the rounding of the lips, whether rounded or unrounded/spread. For example, /i/ is a 'close front spread' vowel, /ɒ/is an 'openback rounded' vowel, /ə/ is a 'mid central spread' vowel. Vowels normally function as the nuclei of syllables . See also cardinal vowels .