What is Phonetics?

Phonetics is all about studying the sounds we make when we talk. There are three main
branches of this discipline.

Branches of Phonetics

Acoustic Phonetics
This is the study of the sound waves made by the human vocal organs for communication
and how the sounds are transmitted. The sound travels through from the speaker's mouth
through the air to the hearer's ear, through the form of vibrations in the air. Phoneticians
can use equipment like Oscillographs and Spectographs in order to analyse things like
the frequency and duration of the sound waves produced. Acoustic phonetics also looks
at how articulatory and auditory phonetics link to the acoustic properties.

Auditory Phonetics

This is how we perceive and hear sounds and how the ear, brain and auditory nerve
perceives the sounds. This branch deals with the physiological processes involved in
the reception of speech.

Articulatory Phonetics

Articulatory phonetics is interested in the movement of various parts of the vocal tract
during speech. The vocal tract is the passages above the larynx where air
passes in the production of speech. In simpler terms which bit of the mouth moves when
we make a sound.

VPM labels is a term that is used in phonetics, it means Voice Place Manner labels.
These labels are given to sounds, in order to describe where the sound is produced,
how and whether it is voiced or unvoiced (voiceless).
Voiced and Voiceless Sounds

Voiced sounds are sounds vibrate the vocal chords, you can feel this in the throat.
Whereas voiceless sounds don't vibrate the vocal chords. Why not give it a go! Place
two fingers on the front of your throat and make the /z/ sound as in buzz, do you feel
your vocal chords vibrating? Now try doing the same thing but making the /s/ sounds as
in grass, what do you feel now? The /s/ sound is a voiceless sound and the /z/ sound is
voiced.

Place of Articulation

Speech sounds are classified in terms of which articulators are used, in other words,
which bit of the mouth is used in making the sound. Here are some basic classifications
to get you started.
1.- Bilabial.

Sounds made using both lips. For example, /p/ as in pat or /b/ as in bat.

2.- Labiodental.

Sounds made using the lower lip and upper teeth. For example, /f/ as in fat or /v/ as
in vase.

3.- Alveolar.

Sounds made where the tongue touches the alveolar ridge. For
example, /d/ as in dad or /s/ as in sat.
4.- Dental.

Sounds made using the upper teeth and tongue. For example, /ð/ as in the /θ/
as in thing.

5.- Velar.

Sounds made using the back part of the tongue and the soft palate (velum). For
example, /k/ as in cat /g/ as in gate.

6.- Palatal.

Sounds made when the tongue is close to the hard palate or 'roof of the mouth'.
For example, /j/ as in yes.
7.- Glottal.

Sounds made using the glottis. For example, glottal stops /ʔ/.

Manner of Articulation
The way in which the articulators (e.g. the teeth, lips, tongue) obstruct
the airflow in the vocal tract to make a sound.

The different manners of articulation:

1.- Plosive (stop).

Sounds that are made with complete a complete stop of air flow in the
vocal tract. Sounds like /p/, /b/, /t/ and /k/.

2.- Nasal.

Sounds that are made where air escapes through the nasal cavity. Sounds
like /n/ and /m/.

In order for air to escape through the nose, the velum must be lowered,
as is demonstrated in the diagram below:

Fricative

A sound produced by a near complete stoppage of air. Sounds like /s/, /z/
or /f/.
Approximant

Sound made where one articulator comes close to another without causing
audible friction. Sounds like /w/ or /r/.

 Lateral Approximant: Where air escapes through the sides of the

tongue, however the tongue blocks the air from going through the
middle of the mouth. Sounds like /l/.

Affricate

A sound made that starts like a plosive and then releases into a fricative.
Sounds like /dʒ/ and /tʃ/.

Now we know if a sound is voiced or voiceless, the place of articulation

and manner of articulation we can start to make VPM labels (Voice Place
Manner labels).

For each sound we need to decide, if its voiced or voiceless and where and
how the sound is made. Here are a few examples:

/s/- Voiceless Alveolar Fricative

/b/- Voiced Bilabial Plosive

/m/- Voiced Bilabial Nasal

/θ/- Voiceless Dental Fricative

The IPA

The IPA is a system devised to create a standardised representation of all

the sounds spoken by a language. This is used in phonetic transcription. It

provides a clear and consistent way to transcribe words when phoneticians

transcribe dialects for example. Every single speech sound or 'phoneme'

has its own symbol corresponding to it. This helps us to transcribe words,

the exact way they are said.

The IPA looks very daunting at first glance so here is a bit of an easier
way to help you learn the IPA symbols on a basic level.

VOWEL SOUNDS

/æ/ as in cab /e/ as in pet /ɪ/ as in kit

/ɒ/ as in dog /ʊ/ as in look /ʌ/ as in putt

/ɪə/ as in fear /eə/ as in pear /ɔɪ/ as in toy

/aɪ/ as in buy /əʊ/ as in float /eɪ/ as in hey

/aʊ/ as in cow /uː/ as in room /iː/ as in leek

/ɜː/ as in third /aː/ as in arm /ɔː/ as in pour

/ə/ as in about
 CONSONANT SOUNDS

/b:/ as in bad /k:/ as in cat /d:/ as in dog /f/ as in frog /g/ as in gas /h/ as in help

/l/ as in leap /m/ as in man /n/ as in no /p/ as in pat /r/ as in rose /s/ as in sat

/t/ as in tap /v/ as in veil /z/ as in zoo /j/ as /w/ as /ʒ/ as in

in yellow in wash leisure

/dʒ/ as in /tʃ/ as in child /ʃ/ as in ship /θ/ as in thing /ð/ as in the /ŋ/ as in
large flying

The phonemes (sounds) given above are those from Southern British
English (SBE) which is similar to the Received Pronunciation (RP) accent
associated with royalty and those of a high social class.

Due to differences in accent, you might produce the words given with
different sounds than those shown. For example, if you're from the north,
it's likely that you will use the [ʊ] phoneme in both 'look' and 'put', where
SBE has two different vowels. That is just one of the many interesting
differences between regional accents.

Connected Speech Processes

When we speak we don't say each word and sound separately, pausing
between each word. We string all the words and sounds together and there
are processes that happen in between the words.

1.- Elision/Deletion.

This is where a phoneme is removed in the word. This can happen to weak
vowels in words like "potato" /pəteɪtəʊ/- [phteɪtəʊ] and where there are
lots of consonants together like in "acts" /ækts/ - [æks].
2.- Coalescence.

This is where two consonants that are next to each other are replaced by
one consonant that sounds a bit like both of them. e.g. "bet you" /bet ju/
- [betʃu].

3.- Liaison.

This is where an extra sound is put in between words to make them easier
to say. For example "more ice" /mɔː aɪs/ is often said with an extra /r/ in
the middle like [mɔːraɪs].

4.- Epenthesis.

This is where an extra sound is put in the middle of the word e.g. "hamster"
/hæmstə/ - [hæmpstə].

5.- Assimilation.

This is where one phoneme becomes more like another phoneme in place,
voice or manner. e.g. In "quite good" /kwaɪt gʊd/ the /t/ changes to a /k/
so is in a closer place to the /g/ that follows it. [kwaɪkgʊd]. There are two
types of assimilation:

- Regressive Assimilation: where the first phoneme of the pair changes

to become more like the second phoneme as shown in [kwaɪkgʊd].

- Progressive Assimilation: where the second phoneme changes to

become more like the first phoneme e.g. /ɪt ɪz/ - [ɪts].