Summary: English phonetics and phonology - Philip Carr

ENGLISH PHONETICS AND PHONOLOGY – PHILIP CARR


CHAPTER 1: ENGLISH PHONETICS: CONSONANTS (I)


Airstream = the passage of air from the lungs out through the oral and nasal cavities
• Can be modified at the Larynx, in which the vocal folds/cords are located
o Voiced / voiceless


Place of articulation
• Glottal = the space between the vocal cords / glottis
• Bilabial = a constriction between the lower lip and upper lip (pit)
• Labio-dental = a constriction between the lower lip and upper teeth (fit)
• Dental = a constriction between the tip of the tongue and the upper teeth (thin)
• Alveolar = a constriction between the tip of the tongue and the alveolar ridge (sin)
• Palato-alveolar = a constriction between the tip of the tongue and the palato-alveolar / post-
alveolar reion (ship)
• Palatal = a constriction between the front of the tongue and the hard palate (yes)
• Velar = a constriction between the back of the tongue and the velum (cool)


Manner of articulation
• Stops / plosives
o Form a stricture of complete closure (pit)
o Glottal stop = one further stop, complete closure between the vocal folds
▪ Scottish pronunciation of butter
• Fricatives
o Close approximation (fit)
o Bringing together two articulators to the point where the airflow is not quite fully blocked,
enough of a gap remains for air to escape
• Approximants
o Open approximation (yes)


CHAPTER 2: ENGLISH PHONETICS: CONSONANTS (II)


Voiced alveolar tap (flap) = during the articulation of this sound, the blade of the tongue comes into a
momentary constriction of complete closure with the alveolar ridge
• The sound that many American speakers have instead of [t] or [d] in words as:
betty, witty, rider, heady, etc




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, Voiced alveolar trill = the trills are produced by holding one articulator next to the other in a constriction
of complete closure, but without the same muscular pressure as one finds in stops
• In words as: rat, rope, reap, prude, true, creep


Laterals may be produced with an additional articulation: primary articulation and secondary
articulation
• Velarization = when a secondary articulation is velar (dark l)
• Palatization = when a secondary articulation is palatal (clear l)


Affricates = sounds produced with a constriction of complete closure followed by a release phase in
which friction occurs
Aspiration = a 'stronger puff of air'
Oral sounds = sounds in which the velum is raised
Nasal stops = sounds produced with the velum lowered and with air escaping through the nasal cavity
alone
Assimilation = processes in which one sound becomes similar to an adjacent sound
• Nasal stop articulation reflects the process of assimilation


Ease of articulation = a nasal is articulated in the same place as the following fricative, to save the
speaker the articulatory effort of moving from bilabial tot labio-dental articulation


CHAPTER 3: ENGLISH PHONETICS: VOW ELS (I)


The primary cardinal vowels
• Vowel space = the available space for articulations
• Dimensions
o High/low = depicts the height of the body of the tongue during the articulation of the vowel
(vertical axis in the diagram)
o Front/back = depicts the extent to which the body of the tongue lies forwards the front of
the vowel space (horizontal axis)
▪ Front - central – back
o Lip position = whether the lips are rounded or not




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