Phonetics

PHONETICS 

Phonetics is the systematic study of speech sounds in a language.

The accent is the music of language. Pronunciation of individual words, the way in which words glide into each other, and intonation patterns determine the variety of accents. English, for instance, can be spoken in the British way, the American way, the Indian way, the African way, the Canadian way, and the Australian way.

The music of the English language is different from that of the Indian languages.

 

Human beings produce sounds by using certain body mechanisms. These mechanisms have primary functions to perform such as breathing, smelling, chewing, swallowing and shall also play vital role in the production of speech sounds.

A body from head to abdomen is needed for the production of spoken language. There are 3 groups of bodily organs that are used to produce speech sounds. One group lies in the trunk, the other is in the throat, and the last one is in the head. These 3 groups of bodily organs are respectively known as: 

1. Respiratory system : The respiratory system comprises the lungs, muscles of the chest, and windpipe 

2. Phonatory system: This consists of the larynx (Adam’s apple) and the glottis. The larynx is also called the voice box

3. Articulatory system: The articulatory system comprises the roof of the mouth, the tongue, and the lips.

 

Vowels and consonants are sounds, not letters. Depending on your accent and how thinly you slice them, there are about 20 vowels and 24 consonants.

 

As we all know, the basic components of any spoken language are sounds and written language are symbols or letters of the alphabet.

 Almost all the Indian languages  Telugu, Hindi etc. are much more Phonetic i.e., there is one to one correspondence between the letters and the sounds.

The case with English language is completely different. English is not a Phonetic language because there is no one to one relationship between the letters of the English alphabet and their sounds

Sometimes one letter stands for different sounds. An example of the first type is the letter u in the words

Cut

Put

Rude

Minute

Bury

university.

An example of the second type may be the

k-sound represented differently in different words by the letter

k in kit,

ck in rock,

c in cut,

cc in acclaim,

ch in chemistry

qu in queen.

To overcome the problem International Phonetic Association(IPA) has introduced some symbols to represent the sounds of the languages of the world.

International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA)

 

The English alphabet has 26 letters out of which 5 are vowels and the rest are consonants. These letters and letter combinations give rise to 44 sounds. These 44 sounds are divided into 20 vowelsounds (i.e., 12 pure vowels and 8 diphthongs) and 24 consonants. They are as follows 

 

 

There are altogether 24 consonant sounds. They are as follows 

1. /P/ -         pencil        power       put          pen     reply     gap

2. /b/  -    ball           bunch       beauty     bet      table

3. /t/  -         table       tale        teeth   text      attain            fit

4. /d/  -       doll        dog        dance   do        wonder         bad

5. /k/ -     kite        kettle     cat       car        sky walk

6. /g/ -         goat       big    go        ago   mug

7. /t ʃ /  -    chain   chair     church   chin     merchant       match

8./dʒ / -    jam       jump    jug    large                                                    

9. /m/ -        mug     calm   man        tomato   dam

10. /n/ -       nurse  manner    hen      neat    many      ban

11. / ŋ / -     ring    sing         bang    bangles  

12. /l/ -     leaf       tall         leg       life     place  bill    full   nil

13. /f/  -       fan       tough    rough   file     refer   half     

14. /v/ -       van       visit      five     liver   dive

15. /[θ] /      thick     truth      cloth        myth      mathematic

16. / ð / -    that       then       mother     brother     father

17. /s/  -       sink       cell       miss          son          basket   base

18. /z/ -        zero        zoo         buzz        laser  

19. / ʃ / -       shine      ship       caution     sugar      assure   dash

20. / ʒ / -       pleasure             vision                measure   

21. /h/ -         hat        hot         hotel       has        behave

22. /r/ -        car         radio     carrot   parrot

23. /w/ -       water     wet        wall      wait      between

24. /j/ -         you       yes         young    pupil

 

 

Vowel sounds:

Short Vowels:

/I/    -  ఇ    -     pit            sit          pretty    ill     bill     pity

/e/   - ఎ      -    pet      bed    ten      end   bend

/æ/   -                 -    rat           bat   mat     bag       add   land

/ʌ/   -   అ       -     cup        but     turn   burn   up  

/ɒ/  -          -    pot     got    not      on    

/ʊ/ -   ఉ  -     put   book    woman 

/ə/  -    అ -    about    allow    suppose   writer

 

 

Long Vowels

/i:/  -  ఈ   -  bee   people    each    neat     fee

/ ɑ: / -  ఆ   -   father     ask   heart    farm    farmer

/ ɔ: /-       - core    door     fout    all    caught

/ u: /- ఊ -  too    shoe   move    loose 

/ ɔ: /- అ(   - bird    burn  word

 

Diphthongs:

/ eɪ / - ఎఇ  -  day    make   baby   late  

/ aɪ /  - ఐ  -    buy   eye    ice   nine   ice     night  fly

/ ɔɪ /  - ఒఇ  -   boy  oil    employ     coin   toy  

/ əʊ / - అఉ  -  low   go   flow    joke

/ aʊ /  - ఔ -  how    now   cow  

/ ɪə / - ఇఅ – hear   near   fear   ear    clear

/eə/-  ఎఅ -  there   care    hair share

/ʊə/   - ఉఅ  - pure    sure