1 ARTICULATORS ABOVE THE LARYNX
All the sounds we make when we speak are the result of
muscles contracting. The muscles in the chest that we use for breathing produce
the flow of air that is needed for almost all speech sounds; muscles in the larynx
produce many different modifications in the flow of air from the chest to
the mouth. After passing through the larynx, the air goes through what we call
the vocal tract, which ends at the mouth and nostrils; we call the part
comprising the mouth the oral cavity and the part that leads to the nostrils
the nasal cavity. Here the air from the lungs escapes into the
atmosphere. We have a large and complex set of muscles that can produce changes
in the shape of the vocal tract, and in order to learn how the sounds of speech
are produced it is necessary to become familiar with the different parts of the
vocal tract. These different parts are called articulators, and the
study of them is called articulatory phonetics.
Fig. 3.1 is a diagram that is used
frequently in the study of phonetics. It represents the human head, seen from
the side, displayed as though it had been cut in half. You will need to look at
it carefully as the articulators are described, and you will find it useful to
have a mirror and a good light placed so that you can look at the inside of
your mouth.
i) The pharynx is a tube which begins just
above the larynx. It is about 2 cm long in women and about 5 cm in men, and at
its top end it is divided into two, one part being the back of the oral cavity
and the other being the beginning of the way through the nasal cavity. If you
look in your mirror with your mouth open, you can see the back of the pharynx.
ii) The soft palate or velum is
seen in the diagram in a position that allows air to pass through the nose and
through the mouth. Yours is probably in that position now, but often in speech
it is raised so that air cannot escape through the nose. The other important
thing about the soft palate is that it is one of the articulators that can be
touched by the tongue. When we make the sounds k, g the tongue is in contact
with the lower side of the soft palate, and we call these velar consonants.
iii)
The hard palate is often called the "roof of the mouth". You
can feel its smooth curved surface with your tongue. A consonant made with the
tongue close to the hard palate is called palatal. The sound j in 'yes'
is palatal.
iv)
The alveolar ridge is between the top front teeth and the hard palate.
You can feel its shape with your tongue. Its surface is really much rougher
than it feels, and is covered with little ridges. You can only see these if you
have a mirror small enough to go inside your mouth, such as those used by
dentists. Sounds made with the tongue touching here (such as t, d, n) are
called alveolar.
v)
The tongue is a very important articulator and it can be moved into many
different places and different shapes. It is usual to divide the tongue into
different parts, though there are no clear dividing lines within its structure.
Fig. 3.2 shows the tongue on a larger scale with these parts shown: tip,
blade, front, back and root. (This use of the word "front"
often seems rather strange at first.)
vi) The teeth (upper and lower)
are usually shown in diagrams like Fig. 3.2 only at the front of the mouth,
immediately behind the lips. This is for the sake of a simple diagram, and you
should remember that most speakers have teeth to the sides of their mouths,
back almost to the soft palate. The tongue is in contact with the upper side
teeth for most speech sounds. Sounds made with the tongue touching the front
teeth, such as English θ,
ð, are called dental.
vii) The lips are important in speech.
They can be pressed together (when we produce the sounds p, b), brought into
contact with the teeth (as in f, v), or rounded to produce the lip-shape for
vowels like u:. Sounds in which the lips are in contact with each other are called
bilabial, while those with lip- to-teeth contact are called labiodental.
The
seven articulators described above are the main ones used in speech, but there
are a few other things to remember. Firstly, the larynx could also be described
as an articulator - a very complex and independent one. Secondly, the jaws are
sometimes called articulators; certainly we move the lower jaw a lot in
speaking. But the jaws are not articulators in the same way as the others,
because they cannot themselves make contact with other articulators. Finally,
although there is practically nothing active that we can do with the nose and
the nasal cavity when speaking, they are a very important part of our equipment
for making sounds (which is sometimes called our vocal apparatus), particularly
nasal consonants such as m, n. Again, we cannot really describe the nose and
the nasal cavity as articulators in the same sense as (i) to (vii) above.
2. VOWEL AND CONSONANT
The
words vowel and consonant are very familiar ones, but when we
study the sounds of speech scientifically we find that it is not easy to define
exactly what they mean. The most common view is that vowels are sounds in which
there is no obstruction to the flow of air as it passes from the larynx to the
lips. A doctor who wants to look at the back of a patient's mouth often asks
them to say "ah"; making this vowel sound is the best way of
presenting an unobstructed view. But if we make a sound like s, d it can be
clearly felt that we are making it difficult or impossible for the air to pass
through the mouth. Most people would have no doubt that sounds like s, d should
be called consonants. However, there are many cases where the decision is not
so easy to make. One problem is that some English sounds that we think of as
consonants, such as the sounds at the beginning of the words 'hay' and 'way',
do not really obstruct the flow of air more than some vowels do. Another
problem is that different languages have different ways of dividing their
sounds into vowels and consonants; for example, the usual sound produced at the
beginning of the word 'red' is felt to be a consonant by most English speakers,
but in some other languages (e.g. Mandarin Chinese) the same sound is treated
as one of the vowels.
If we
say that the difference between vowels and consonants is a difference in the
way that they are produced, there will inevitably be some cases of uncertainty
or disagreement; this is a problem that cannot be avoided. It is possible to
establish two distinct groups of sounds (vowels and consonants) in another way.
Consider English words beginning with the sound h; what sounds can come next
after this h? We find that most of the sounds we normally think of as vowels
can follow (e.g. e in the word 'hen'), but practically none of the sounds we
class as consonants, with the possible exception of j in a word such as 'huge'. Now think of English
words beginning with the two sounds bI; we find many cases where a consonant
can follow (e.g. d in the word 'bid', or l in the word 'bill'), but
practically no cases where a vowel may follow. What we are doing here is
looking at the different contexts and positions in which particular sounds can
occur; this is the study of the distribution of the sounds, and is of
great importance in phonology. Study of the sounds found at the beginning and
end of English words has shown that two groups of sounds with quite different
patterns of distribution can be identified, and these two groups are those of
vowel and consonant. If we look at the vowel-consonant distinction in this way,
we must say that the most important difference between vowel and consonant is
not the way that they are made, but their different distributions. It is
important to remember that the distribution of vowels and consonants is different
for each language.
We
begin the study of English sounds in this course by looking at vowels, and it
is necessary to say something about vowels in general before turning to the
vowels of English. We need to know in what ways vowels differ from each other.
The first matter to consider is the shape and position of the tongue. It is
usual to simplify the very complex possibilities by describing just two things:
firstly, the vertical distance between the upper surface of the tongue and the
palate and, secondly, the part of the tongue, between front and back, which is
raised highest. Let us look at some examples:
i) Make a vowel like the i: in the English word
'see' and look in a mirror; if you tilt your head back slightly you will be
able to see that the tongue is held up close to the roof of the mouth. Now make
an { vowel (as in the word 'cat') and notice how the distance between the surface
of the tongue and the roof of the mouth is now much greater. The difference
between i: and as is a difference of tongue height, and we would describe i: as
a relatively close vowel and as as a relatively open vowel.
Tongue height can be changed by moving the tongue up or down, or moving the
lower jaw up or down. So we would illustrate the tongue height difference
between i: and ae as
in Fig. 3.3
ii)
In making the two vowels described above, it is the front part of the tongue
that is raised. We could therefore describe /i:/ and /æ/ as comparatively front vowels. By changing the shape
of the tongue we can produce vowels in which a different part of the tongue is
the highest point. A vowel in which the back of the tongue is the highest point
is called a back vowel. If you make the vowel in the word 'calm', which
we write phonetically as /ɑ:/, you can see that the back of the
tongue is raised. Compare this with /æ/ in front of a mirror; as is a front vowel and /a:/ is a back vowel. The vowel in 'too'
/u:/ is also a comparatively back vowel, but compared with a: it
is close.
Close i: u:
It
has become traditional to locate cardinal vowels on a four-sided figure (a
quadrilateral of the shape seen in Fig. 7 - the design used here is the one
recommended by the International Phonetic Association). The exact shape
is not really important - a square would do quite well - but we will use the
traditional shape. The vowels in Fig. 7 are the so- called primary cardinal
vowels; these are the vowels that are most familiar to the speakers of most
European languages, and there are other cardinal vowels (secondary cardinal
vowels) that sound less familiar. In this course cardinal vowels are printed
within square brackets [ ] to distinguish them clearly from English vowel sounds.
There
is another important variable of vowel quality, and that is lip-position.
Although the lips can have many different shapes and positions, we will at this
stage consider only three possibilities. These are:
i) Rounded, where the corners of the lips are
brought towards each other and the lips pushed forwards. This is most clearly
seen in cardinal vowel no. 8 [u].
ii)
Spread, with the corners of the lips moved away from each other, as for a
smile. This is most clearly seen in cardinal vowel no. 1 [ I ].
iii) Neutral, where the lips are not
noticeably rounded or spread. The noise most English people make when they are
hesitating (written 'er') has neutral lip position.
3. ENGLISH
SHORT VOWELS
English has a large number of vowel sounds; the first ones
to be examined are short vowels. The symbols for these short vowels are:
I,e, ɔ,
ʊ,
ʌ,
Ə and æ.
Short vowels are only relatively short;
as we shall see later, vowels can have quite different lengths in different
contexts.
Each vowel is described in relation to
the cardinal vowels.
/I/
(example words: 'bit', 'pin', 'fish') The diagram shows
that, though this vowel is in the close front area, The lips are slightly
spread,
/e/ (example words: 'bet', 'men', 'yes') This is a front vowel
between cardinal vowel [a] and n [e]. The lips are slightly spread.
/æ/ (example words:
'bat', 'man', 'gas') This vowel is front, but not quite as open as cardinal
vowel [e]. The lips are slightly spread.
/ʌ/ (example words:
'cut', 'come', 'rush') This is a central vowel, and the diagram shows that it
is more open than the open-mid tongue height. The lip position is neutral.
/ɔ/ (example words:
'pot', 'gone', 'cross') This vowel is not quite fully back, and between
open-mid and open in tongue height. The lips are slightly rounded.
/ʊ/ (example words:
'put', 'pull', 'push') The nearest cardinal vowel is [u], but it can be seen that u is more open
and nearer to central. The lips are rounded.
There is one other short vowel, for which the symbol is Ə. This central vowel - which is called schwa - is a
very familiar sound in English; it is heard in the first syllable of the words
'about', 'oppose', 'perhaps', for example.
4. LONG VOWELS, DIPHTHONGS AND TRIPHTHONGS
English Long vowels
If we compare some similar pairs of long and
short vowels, for example /i:/ with
/
I /, or / u: / with
/ʊ/, or / æ / with /ɑ:/, we can see distinct
differences in quality (resulting from differences in tongue shape and
position, and lip position) as well as in length. For this reason, all the long
vowels have symbols which are different from those of short vowels; you can see
that the long and short vowel symbols would still all be different from each
other even if we omitted the length mark, so it is important to remember that
the length mark is used not because it is essential but because it helps
learners to remember the length difference. Perhaps the only case where a long
and a short vowel are closely similar in quality is that of /ɜ:/ and /Ə/ but /Ə/ is a special case.
/I:/ (example words: 'beat', 'mean', 'peace') This vowel is
nearer to cardinal vowel no. 9 [ I ] (i.e. it is closer and more front) than is
the short vowel of 'bid', 'pin', 'fish'. Although the tongue shape is not much
different from cardinal vowel no. 9, the lips are only slightly spread and this
results in a rather different vowel quality.
/Ə:/ (example words: 'bird', 'fern',
'purse') This is a mid-central vowel which is used in most English accents as a
hesitation sound (written 'er'), but which many learners find difficult to
copy. The lip position is neutral.
/ɑ:/ (example words: 'card', 'half, 'pass') This is an open vowel
in the region of cardinal vowel no. 4 [a], but not as back as this. The lip
position is neutral.
/ɔ:/ (example words: 'board', 'torn', 'horse') The tongue height
for this vowel is between cardinal vowel no. 6 [ɔ] and no. 7 [o], and closer to the latter. This vowel is
almost fully back and has quite strong lip-rounding.
/u:/ (example words: 'food', 'soon', 'loose') The nearest
cardinal vowel to this is no. 8 [u], but BBC /u:/ is much less back and less
close, while the lips are only moderately rounded.
Diphthongs
In terms
of length, diphthongs are similar to the long vowels described above. Perhaps
the most important thing to remember about all the diphthongs is that the first
part is much longer and stronger than the second part; for example, most of the
diphthong /aI/ (as in the words 'eye', 'I') consists of the a vowel, and
only in about the last quarter of the diphthong does the glide to I become
noticeable. As the glide to /l/ happens, the loudness of the sound decreases. As a result,
the /I/ part is shorter and quieter. Foreign
learners should, therefore, always remember that the last part of English
diphthongs must not be made too strongly.
The total number of diphthongs is eight (though /uƏ/ is increasingly rare). The easiest way to remember them is
in terms of three groups divided as in this diagram
The centring diphthongs
glide towards the /Ə/ (schwa) vowel, as the symbols indicate.
The
closing diphthongs have the characteristic that they all end with a glide
towards a closer vowel. Because the second part of the diphthong is weak, they
often do not reach a position that could be called close. The important thing
is that a glide from a relatively more open towards a relatively closer vowel
is produced.
Three of the diphthongs glide
towards /I/, as
described below:
Two diphthongs glide towards U, so that as the
tongue moves closer to the roof of the mouth there is at the same time a
rounding movement of the lips. This movement is not a large one, again because
the second part of the diphthong is weak.
/ʊƏ/ (example words: 'load', 'home', 'most') The vowel position
for the beginning of this is the same as for the "schwa" vowel /Ə/ , as found in the first syllable of the word 'about'. The
lips may be slightly rounded in anticipation of the glide towards /ʊ/, for which there is quite noticeable lip-rounding.
/aʊ/ (example words: 'loud', 'gown',
'house') This diphthong begins with a vowel similar to aI. Since this is an
open vowel, a glide to /ʊ/ would necessitate a large movement, and the
tongue often does not reach the u position. There is only slight lip-rounding.
3.3 Triphthongs
The most complex English sounds of the vowel type are the triphthongs.
They can be rather difficult to pronounce, and very difficult to recognise.
A triphthong is a glide from one vowel to another and then to a third, all
produced rapidly and without interruption. For example, a careful pronunciation
of the word 'hour' begins with a vowel quality similar to /ɑ:/, goes on to a glide
towards the back close rounded area (for which we use the symbol /ʊ/), then ends with a
mid-central vowel (schwa, /Ə/). We use the symbol /aʊƏ/ to represent the pronunciation of 'hour',
but this is not always an accurate representation of the pronunciation.
The triphthongs can be looked on as being composed of the
five closing diphthongs described in the last section, with O added on the end.
Thus we get:
eI + Ə = eIƏ Əʊ + Ə = ƏʊƏ
aI + Ə = aIƏ aʊ + Ə = aʊƏ
ɔi + Ə = ɔiƏ
The principal cause of difficulty for
the foreign learner is that in present-day English the extent of the vowel
movement is very small, except in very careful pronunciation. Because of this,
the middle of the three vowel qualities of the triphthong (i.e. the /I/ or /ʊ/ part) can hardly be heard and the resulting sound is
difficult to distinguish from some of the diphthongs and long vowels. To add to
the difficulty, there is also the problem of whether a triphthong is felt to
contain one or two syllables. Words such as 'fire' /faIƏ/ or 'hour' aʊƏ are probably felt by
most English speakers (with BBC pronunciation) to consist of only one syllable,
whereas 'player' /pleIƏ/ or 'slower' /sleʊƏ/ are more likely to be heard as two syllables.
We will not go through a detailed
description of each triphthong. This is partly because there is so much
variation in the amount of vowel movement according to how slow and careful the
pronunciation is, and also because the "careful" pronunciation can be
found by looking at the description of the corresponding diphthong and adding /Ə/ to the end. However, to help identify these triphthongs,
some example words are given here:
/eIƏ/ 'layer', 'player' / ƏʊƏ/ 'lower', 'mower'
/aIƏ/ 'liar', 'fire' / aʊƏ/ 'power', 'hour'
/ɔiƏ/ 'loyal', 'royal'
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