Phonetics

Objectives for this entry.

•       To define phonetics

•       To determine the importance of the phonetic alphabet

•       To identify organs of speech

•       To learn about phonemes and graphemes correspondence

Defining Phonetics

The study of physical properties of sound.

Sounds may not be represented systematically by spelling.

Why not just spelling?

Sounds may not be represented systematically by spelling because:

There is the same spelling for different sounds.

There is a combination of letters representing one sound.

Some letters are silent.

Phonetic Alphabet

•       One symbol represents one sound

•       Each speech sound has a distinct symbol

•       Cross-linguistically applicable

IPA

Video time

Watch the videos and respond to the questions. 

Questions to answer

1. 1) What is articulatory phonetics? 2) Why do we need the IPA? 3) What do gray spaces mean in the IPA chart? 4) Repeat the words as you hear the presenter emphasizing vowels and diphthongs.

Questions to answer

1. 1) What is the difference between vowels and consonants? 2) How do we describe consonants? 3) What is voicing? 4) What is a place of articulation? 5) What is the manner of articulation? 6) Give some examples of place or articulation? 7) What are fricative sounds? 8) What are affricate sounds? 9) Repeat after the presenter the many sounds.

9. 
   

Last video 

Questions to answer

1) How do linguistics describe vowels? 

2) How many types of vowels are there in American English? 

3) What are the meaning of these concepts height, backness, and roundedness? 

4) Practice the different sounds from the video. 

IPA Symbols for transcription

Diphthongs (Complex Vowels)

•       Complex because they are two-part vowels

•       But count as a single sound because two vowels are articulated together. Examples:

•       [ɑɪ] =bite                           

•       [ɔɪ] = boy

•       [eɪ]= bait

Other important symbols

•       [s] = sap

•       [z] = zip

•       [θ] = think

•       [ð] = this

•       [ʃ]= shine

•       [ʒ] = vision

•       [ʧ]= touch

•       [ʤ]= judge

•       [ɹ]= ring

•       [l]= leaf

•       [j] = yes

•       [w]= with

•       [i]=sheep

•       [ɪ]=ship

•       [ɛ]= end

•       [u]= boot

•       [ʊ]=put

•       [ɔ]= open

•       [æ]=ash

•       [ɑ]= father

•       [ə]=about

•       [ʌ]= but

9.