THE STRUCTURE OF THE SOUND SYSTEM OF ENGLISH

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 INTRODUCTION

Speech sounds are vibrations in the atmosphere. They are produced by the organs of the body associated with speech. The study of the physical features of speech sounds is called Phonetics while the study of the sounds of a particular language in combination is referred to as the Phonology of that language. In the third year of your degree course you will study Elements of Phonetics and The Phonology of English. In this course you will only learn about the Segmental and Non segmental phonemes of English and how they function in patterns in the language.

3.1 Sound Production

When we speak we make a string of noises which is perceived as a continuous flow of sound. This continuous flow is meaningful to anyone who understands the language. Every speech sound is produced as a result of exhaled air from the lungs passing through the passage between the vocal cords known as the glottis through the pharnyx and out through the mouth or nose. This exhaled air is called the pulmonic airstream. When the air from the lungs gets to the larnyx (the Adams Apple) and the space between the vocal cords (the glottis) is closed a lot of pressure builds up and forces the glottis to open and close very rapidly. This results in the vibration known as voice. Any sound produced with the glottis in this state is referred to as voiced. Examples of voiced sounds are /b, d, g, e, u: /. English vowels are produced with the glottis in this state and they are all voiced. If the pulmonic airstream (air from the lungs) gets to the larynx and the glottis is open, the air passes on to the pharynx without any vibration. Sounds that are produced with the glottis open are said to be voiceless. Examples of voiceless sounds are /p, s, t, k/.

When the air leaves the larynx, it gets to the pharynx and mouth. If the back part of the roof of mouth called the soft palate or velum is lowered, the passage to the mouth is blocked and the air escapes through the nose. These types of sounds are called nasal sounds. Examples of nasal sounds in English are /m, n, ŋ /. If the soft palate is raised when the air from the larynx gets to the pharynx, the air passes through the mouth and the sounds produced with the soft palate raised are called oral sounds. All English sounds except the nasals i.e. /m, n, ŋ / are oral e.g. /p, k, s, r/.

3.2 The Sounds of English

The sounds of all human language are classified as either vowels or consonants. They are called vowels if there is no audible obstruction to the air as it passes from the lungs to the outside through the mouth or the nose. Examples of vowel sounds in English are /a: / as in father; /i: / as in people and /e/ as in bed. Consonant sounds on the other hand are sounds which are produced with some form of obstruction of air along the speech tract by one or more organs of speech. The numbers of vowels and consonants vary from language to language.

In English, there are twenty vowel sounds and twenty-four consonant sounds. These sounds do not necessarily correspond with the letters of the alphabet. Though there are phonetic languages like Ibibio, Igbo or Yoruba where sounds and letters correspond so that a word is pronounced the way it is written, English is a classic example of a language which is not necessarily spoken the way it is written. In the following words the sounds and letters do not correspond:

/f/ (sounds and letters) (letters and sounds)

physics father /a:/

effect man /æ/

cough ago /。/

philosophy name /e /

Descriptions of the vowels and consonants of English are given below:

3.3 Consonants

Consonants are described using three criteria (i) whether they are voiced or voiceless (ii) organ of production (iii) manner of production

3.4 Organs of Production

The organs used to produce speech sounds are also very important because sounds, especially consonant sounds, are classified according to the organs used to produce them.

Considering the organs used to produce the sounds the following groups of consonants can be identified:

i. Bilabial: These are sounds produced using the two lips.

English has four bilabial consonants. These are /p. b, m, w/.

ii. Labio-dental: These are sounds produced with the lower lip and

the upper teeth. There are only two labio-dental consonants in English. These are /f/ and /v/.

iii. Dental: These are sounds produced with the tip of the tongue

coming between the two rows of teeth. English has two dental sounds. These are / θ / and / ð /.

iv. Alveolar: These are sounds produced with the tip of the tongue

touching the upper teeth. English has many alveolar sounds

namely /t, d, n, l, r, s, z/.

v. Palato-alveolar: These are sounds produced with the tip of the

tongue touching the upper teeth ridge and middle of the tongue simultaneously raised towards the hard palate. Palato-Alveolar

sounds in English include / tȓ d8/

vi Palatal: These are sounds produced with the front of the tongue

touching the hard palate. English has only one such sound which is /j/.

vii Velar: These are sounds produced with the back of the tongue touching the soft palate (the velum). There are three velar sounds in English. These are /k, g, ŋ /.

viii Glottal: Glottal sounds are produced in the glottis, that is, the

space between the vocal cords. English has only one glottal sound which is /h/.

3.5 Manner of Production

Consonant sounds are also classified according to the way the organs of speech behave during their production. Six groups are often distinguished. According to Eka and Udofot (1996: 71-72) the twenty- four consonants of English can be classified as follows:

(i) Plosives or Stops are those sounds produced through the coming together of the organs of production to block the air passage coming from the lungs followed by a sudden release of the sounds through a sudden parting of the organs. English plosive sounds are /p, b, t, d, k, g/

(ii) Fricatives: These are consonant sounds produced by the narrowing of the space between the organs of production due to the movement of the organs towards each other. The sounds produced filter through the narrowed space with a hissing sound.

English has nine fricative sounds which are / f, v, θ, ð, s, z, f, 8, h /.

(iii) Affricates: Affricates are produced like plosives with the coming

together of the organs of production to obstruct the air from the lungs followed by a gradual release of the sound. English has two

affricates which are / tȓ / and / d8/.

(iv) Nasals: These are sounds produced with the soft palate lowered

and the sound released through the nose. English nasals are three in number. These are /m, n, ŋ /.

(v) Liquids: These are sounds produced with the tongue raised and air escaping through the sides of the tongue. English has two liquids: the lateral liquid /l/ produced with the tip of the tongue touching the alveolar ridge (teeth ridge) and air escaping through the two sides of the tongue and the rolled liquid /r/ which is produced with the tip of the tongue repeatedly touching the teeth ridge.

(vi) Semi-vowels (approximants). These are sounds produced with

the organs of production coming together but not completely as in the case of the other consonants. They are described as gliding consonants because they are “distinguished by the absence of friction and a quick smooth glide to the sound that follows” (Udofot and Eshiett 1996: 13). English has two semi vowels. These are /j/ and /w/.

3.6 Description of Consonants

Any consonant sound can be described using three criteria namely: voice or voicelessness, organ of production and manner of production. The twenty-four English consonant sounds can be described as follows:

/p/ Voiceless bilabial plosive as in pat, reap, leper

/b/ Voiced, bilabial plosive as in bed, labour, babe

/t/ Voiceless alveolar plosive as in table, cat, rat

/d/ Voiced alveolar plosive as in dance, lad, ladder

/k/ Voiceless velar plosive as in king, market, cook

/g/ Voiced velar plosive as in gold, big, bigger

/f/ Voiceless labio – dental fricative as in fish, infant, leaf

/v/ Voiced labio-dental fricative as in very, alveolar, leave

/t/ Voiceless dental fricative as in thin, bath

/ ð / Voiced dental fricative as in though, other, bathe

/s/ Voiceless alveolar fricative as in city, sister, rice

/z/ Voiced alveolar fricative as in zebra, business, prize

/ ȓ / Voiceless palato-alveolar fricative as in shoe, mission, push

/ 8 / Voiced palato-alveolar fricative as in vision, garage

/h/ Voiceless glottal fricative as in house, inhale

/ tȓ / Voiceless palato-alveolar affricate as in church, teacher, catch

/ d8/ Voiced palato-alveolar affricate as in joke, enjoy, judge

/m/* Bilabial nasal as in moon, lamp, calm

/n/* Alveolar nasal as in navy, nanny, none

/ ŋ /* Velar nasal as in bank, longing

/l/* Alveolar liquid (lateral) as in look, valley, pull

/r/* Alveolar liquid (rolled) as in wrong, marry, mirror

/w/* Bilabial semivowel as in woman, reward

/j/* Palatal semivowel as in yellow, student/stju---/

*Note that all nasals, liquids and semi-vowels are voiced.

3.7 Vowels

English has twenty vowels. Twelve of them are single sounds or monophthongs. Monophthongs are also referred to as pure vowels. Eight of the English vowels are double sounds or diphthongs. Vowels are produced without any audible obstruction of the speech tract by the organs of production. They are characterised by vocal cord vibration or voice. The tongue and the lips are the most important organs of production of vowels. Vowels are therefore described according to the part of the tongue used in its production and the height to which the tongue is raised towards the hard palate. The other criterion of description is the posture of the lips. In vowel production, the lips can be rounded or spread or neutral.

Description of Vowels

A vowel can be described as

(i) Front: If produced using the front of the tongue e.g. /i: / (ii) Back: If produced using the back of the tongue e.g /a: /

(iii) Central: If produced using the middle of the tongue e.g. /Λ/

Considering the height to which the tongue is raised towards (but not

touching the roof of the mouth), a vowel can be described as:

(i) Close: If the tongue is raised very high towards the palate e.g. /i: / (ii) Open: If the tongue is lowered and lying flat in the mouth e.g.

/a: /

(iii) Half-Open or Half-Close: If the tongue lies halfway between the two extremes.

When considering the posture of the lips a vowel can be described as

(i) rounded: if the vowel is produced with rounded lips e.g. /u: / (ii) unrounded: if the vowel is produced with spread or neutral lip posture e.g. /e/ and /a/

It is important to know the part of the tongue and the tongue height as well as the lip posture of a particular vowel in order to be able to produce the vowel properly.

English Monophthongs

English monophthongs are conventionally numbered 1 – 12 as follows:

1. /i: /

as in leap, people, seed

2. / /

as in lip, sit, village

3. /e /

as in fed, friend, bed

4. /æ/

as in fan, anniversary

5. /a: /

as in father, heart, arm

6. /Ǥ /

as in hot, watt, wander

7. / Ǥ: /

as in wash, cord, war

8. / T / as in could, cook, pull

9. /u: / as in two, stool, through

10. /Λ / as in much, love, blood

11. /3: / as in girl, early, bird

12. /。/ as in again, water, director

English Diphthongs

/a / as in fight, rhyme, eye

/au/ as in house, now, couch

/e / as in late, tail, day

/ 9T / as in so, home, know

/ G括/ as in oil, joy, destroy

/ Ι。/

as in here, ear, atmosphere

/ Q9/ as in air, tear, affair

/ Tk / as in poor, tour, sure

English Triphthongs

English also has triphthongs but these occur in careful and slow pronunciations. A triphthong can be described as a combination of three vowel sounds pronounced together one after the other. For example a careful pronunciation of the vowel in the word ‘tower’ begins with the sound /a/and a quick smooth movement to the vowel /u/ and ends with the vowel /。/ ; thus / a u 。/. In English, there are five triphthongs. These are

/a 。/ as in fire, tyre

/au 。/ as in tower, flower

/e 。/ as in layer, player

/ 。u 。/ as in sower, lower

/Gλ。/ as in loyal, royal

As already noted, it is only the slow and careful English speaker whose speech can feature these complex vowels. In rapid or normal speech triphthongs are often reduced to long vowels and diphthongs with the middle vowel heard slightly or not at all.

SELF ASSESSMENT EXERCISE (SAE) 1

1. Describe how human speech sounds are produced

SELF ASSESSMENT EXERCISE (SAE) 2

1. Differentiate between vowels and consonants.

2. How many vowels and consonants are there in the English Language?

4.0 CONCLUSION

In this unit you studied the structure of the sound system of English. You also learnt some interesting facts about the nature of English speech sounds, and how they are produced. This therefore validates the fact that the sounds (vowels and consonants) of English form an indispensable aspect of the structure of the Language.

5.0 SUMMARY

In this unit the following main points have been made:

Speech sounds are vibrations produced by the human organs of speech;

The study of speech sounds and their properties is called phonetics while the study of the sounds of a particular language is known as phonology.

Speech sounds are produced when exhaled air passes through the various speech organs and are modified by them on their journey outside through the mouth and sometimes the nose.

All human speech sounds can be classified into two broad

groups: vowels and consonants.

Vowels are produced without obstruction to the air in the vocal tract while consonants are produced with obstruction at some point of the vocal tract.

English has 44 sounds: 20 vowels and 24 consonants.

Consonants are described according to organ of production;

manner of production and whether they are voiced or voiceless Vowels are described according to the part of the tongue used in its production i.e whether front, central or back; the height to

which the tongue is raised towards the roof of the mouth; that is whether raised high up or pressed down low and the posture of the lips during production i.e. whether rounded or neutral or spread.

6.0 TUTOR MARKED ASSIGNMENT (TMA)

1. Discuss the criteria used for the description of English vowels and consonants.

7.0 REFERENCES / FURTHER READINGS

Eka, D. and Udofot, I. (1996) Aspects of Spoken Language. Calabar: Bon Universal.

Udofot, I. and Eshiett B. B. (1996) An Oral English Course for Schools and Colleges Calabar: Bon Universals.

Gimson, A.C. (1980) An introduction to the pronunciation of English. London: Edward Arnold

http:/ / en.wikipedia .org/ wiki / Inter national_Phonetic_Alphabet_f or_English

Jones, D (1969) The pronunciation of English (9th edition) Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

O’Connor. J. D.(1970) Better English Pronunciation. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press .