Phonetics

You might find the following whatdotheysay? when you are given a coursework in Phonetics:

Introductory Phonetics

QUESTIONS:

1 a) List down 5 speech organs used in articulation and explain how speech can be produced.

b) Using relevant examples differentiate between voiced and voiceless sounds.

2 a) Outline the characteristics of English pronunciation.

b) Using very clear examples examine factors that affect pronunciation of learners of English as a second language.

3 a) What are the main criteria used to describe speech sounds?

b) Draw and label the vocal tract.

1 a) Five speech organs

There are many parts of the body that are involved in speech production including the lungs. Others include:

The teeth

The tongue

The lips

The velum

The nose

The teeth are important in speech production as they are used in regulating the amount or air out of the mouth. For example when producing the sound [th], you place your tongue between the teeth and let the air flow out softly. Without the teeth, you may experience great difficulties in producing a lot of sounds. The [ch] sound is hard to produce without the teeth because to produce it you bring your upper teeth together with the lower and release the tongue backwards. The sounds produced in this way are dental sounds.

The tongue is another important organ of articulation. The tongue is the soft part of the mouth that moves around used for tasting and speech mainly. In fact without the tongue it is impossible to communicate. People whose tongues have been cut off can only produce certain voices which cannot be understood. The sounds [th], [z], and [r], for instance, cannot be produced without the tongue. The sound [z] also involves the vibrating of the tongue as well as the vocal cords. The same applies to [r].

The lips are also important organs of articulation. The lips are the two fleshy parts of the mouth. They are more noticeable with the Africans who have what they call full lips. Some other peoples of the world have very thin lips. There are many sounds that would be difficult to produce without the lips. When the air rises through the vocal cords and leaves them vibrating, passes the velum area and through the oral cavity on top of the tongue, and when the lips are together, the sound [m] is produced. The sounds [p], [v], [f], and [b] are all produced with great aid of the tongue and are therefore called labials.

The velum is another organ used in articulation. It is the soft upper part of the mouth near the back of the tongue. When the back of the tongue is raised to the velum, sounds known as velars are produced. [ng], [k] and [g] are all very important sounds in the English language making the velum an important articulation organ.

The nose is that organ between the eyes that is used for breathing. The nose is no doubt one of the most important organs in articulation as the air that is pushed out of the lungs is brought in through the nose, unless it is the case of those who use the mouth for the same. Still, there are some sounds that are produced in the nasal cavity and are called nasal sounds. A good example is the [ng] sound and the [n] sound.

b) Voiced and voiceless sounds

Voicing refers to the articulatory process in which the vocal cords vibrate. To produce any sound, that is sound that can be written down, the airstream from the lungs must get out through the oral or nasal cavity and there must be some obstruction in one way or the other, except where vowels are produced. When you produce sounds and the vocal cords vibrate, those sounds are said to be voiced sounds and the reverse is true. When the airstream from the lungs moves up through the windpipe and through the opening between the vocal cords, a sound is produced. It is either voiced or voiceless. If the vocal cords are together, the airstream does not stop there but forces its way up and in the process vibrating the vocal cords. A voiced sound is produced. The most common examples of voiced sounds include [z], [g], [d], and [b]. These sounds are symbolically written the way they are, like [z], to distinguish them from the English letters, which have several possible pronunciations depending on context.

On the other hand, a stream of air moving upwards and passing through the windpipe and through the opening between the vocal cords will produce a voiceless sound if the two cords are not constricted or completely closed. The air will move up freely to meet some other blockage through which the needed sound will be produced. It is important to note that each sound is produced because the airstream had been interrupted, except for vowels, of course. Examples of sounds produced in this way are [p], [t], [k], and [s]. To produce [p], the airstream is obstructed at the lips; for [t] the tip of the tongue touches the alveolar ridge; for [k] the back of the tongue touches the velum and for the [s] the airstream is just regulated, that is a small gap is left through which the air escapes leaving behind the hissing sound [s]. All sounds produced in this way do not involve the vibration of the vocal cords and are called voiceless sounds.

2 a) Characteristics of English pronunciation

English pronunciation is stress timed. This means that the stress you put on a word is important in determining the meaning of the word. Depending on where you place the stress, the word “import” can be a noun or a verb so it is important to know how the stress words in English. In a sentence the stress matters a great deal since with stress one notices the importance of the words that are stressed by the speaker. It is not easy to notice stress on paper not unless it has been indicated by stress marks and one is familiar with them. In speech, you notice stress by the extra force used in uttering out a word, not necessarily aloud, to make the listener observe it.

It is also characterized by intonation. Intonation is the rise and fall in sound. A statement can become a question, even when it does not look like one just because the intonation has changed. It is important to note intonation since one may ask you a question and since he has not used the proper syntax of questions you may fail to answer when the other person is actually waiting for an answer.

In English, a word may not necessarily be read the way it is written. Chef is read as [shef] and many others are read the way they are not written. That is a major characteristic of the English language and one of the things that gives learners a hard time learning it.

English pronunciation is among the most unique of pronunciations. It is not predictable. You cannot say that since you can pronounce a certain word right then you can pronounce another one right. An example is the word ‘enough’ where the last two letters form the sound [f]. In another word like ‘fish’ you will notice that the same sound, [f], is formed but by different letters. “Dough” has the same last letters as “enough” but they are not read in the same way. So, as a learner, just because you can read “cash” does not mean you can read “cease”.

English pronunciation is liable to change depending on the dialect of the person. If a Nigerian man entered the room and asked for his [moni], it would be better to give that man his [mani] because that would be what he is asking for. The American will talk of [skejiule] while the Englishman will talk of [shediul] which are both correct pronunciations. So the pronunciation of English words is variable.

English pronunciation is not static. It changes from time to time. The words that we have in English today were not all pronounced the way they are today five hundred years ago. In fact, many of the words have evolved and molded over time.

It is affected by the origin of the word. If the word comes from Latin, most likely the word remains with the same pronunciation as it had in Latin. Many words from French also remain with their original pronunciation. That is why we have words like chauffeur, chef, entrepreneur, en route, entourage, ennui, genre, etc having very different pronunciation from other English words.

b) Factors that affect the pronunciation of learners of English as a second language

One of the main factors affecting learners of English as a second language is the influence of the first language (L1). Any learner of any other language as a second language will have the effects of L1 on the L2 (second language). Bantu speakers who do not have the different pronouns for different sexes tend to misuse the pronouns he and she. Bantu languages and indeed many other African languages lack specific pronouns for specific sexes so a woman may be called he, and her possessions called ‘his…’ Swahili for instance has ‘a’ for ‘he’, ‘she’, and even ‘it’. An animal in Swahili is given the same pronoun as any other living thing because it is living. Any living thing in Swahili is referred to as ‘a’ like in the following examples:

Mtoto amekula.

Mbuzi ameenda.

Aisha amelala.

Ahmed amekuja.

Mvua imenyesha.

For non-Swahili speakers, any pronoun works for any word. They may say ‘Mtoto imelala’ which is wrong. The point is that the L1 affects pronunciation. Luganda speakers will have a problem with words with the sound [l] where they may read it as [r] and vice versa.

Apart from the L1 influence, the nature of the English language is the greatest factors that affects learners of the language as L2. It is stress timed, has silent letters, complex pronunciation, etc. All these are going to be discussed here. The stress-timed nature of the English language gives students a hard time too when learning it as an L2. Words like import the verb and the noun are all read the same way because there is no way of differentiating them when in print, and also because the students do not know where to stress and where not to so they may read [im'port] instead of ['import]. This can only be blamed on the nature of the English language since most other languages are not the way this one is.

Learners of English as a second language find difficulties in it since English is not read the way it is written. You do not read enough as [enog] but as [inuf]. How the letters ‘gh’ form a [f] sound leaves many learners of the language in wonderment. A word like ‘yatch’ is read as [yot] leaving a lot to be answered in the student’s head. They may generalize and say that since the ‘c’ in cow is like a [k] sound, then all the others will be the same. This leads to another problem of over-generalization.

Over-generalization is the other problem that affects pronunciation of learners of English as a second language. Like mentioned above, learners tend to think that since you read enough as [enuf], then whenever you see ‘gh’ you have to read it as an ‘f’. You can imagine how such a student would read ‘fought’ trying to make the ‘f’ sound.

Another major factor affecting the pronunciation of learners of English as a second language is the the presence of silent letters in many English words. For example, ‘knife’ does not have the [k] sound. Likewise, pneumonia does not have the [p] sound.

English has a complex spelling system which is not standard because English is known as a vacuum cleaner of languages. The many languages that form English leave some of their effects on it. In Bantu languages, spelling is one of the easiest tasks. You spell the word the way it is read and you get it right. Words like ‘pneumonia’, ‘xylophone’, ‘elephantiasis’ are not easy to spell and hence not easy to pronounce right.

Different letters in English represent different sounds depending on the context. The letter ‘z’ can be either [z] or [tsa] as in ‘pizza’ read as [pitsa]. These and many more affect the way L2 learners of English pronounce words in English.

3 a) The main criteria in describing speech sounds

In English language, and indeed many other languages, there are four main criteria used in describing speech sounds. These are oral and nasal, voiced and voiceless. All speech sounds in English must fall under these categories.

Voiced sounds are produced when the air travelling from the lungs passes through the glottis and finds the vocal cords tight together. This results to the production of voiced sounds because the vocal cords are going to vibrate when that air passes through them. When you want to know what vibration of the vocal cord is, place two of your fingers on the voice box and try saying the sound [z]. This produces a vibration in the area that we have called the larynx. This is a voiced sound. On the other hand, when you place two of your fingers in the Adam’s apple and try to produce the [s] sound, you will feel no movement in the larynx. This is a voiceless sound being produced.

A different criterion that can be used to distinguish among sounds is the position

of the velum or soft palate. If the velum is lowered, thus allowing the air to escape through the nasal cavity, we are dealing with a nasal sound. If it is raised, blocking the nasal cavity and letting the air out through the oral cavity (the mouth) the sound is called oral. English nasal consonants are stops as the airstream is completely blocked when these consonants are uttered, but they are not considered plosive sounds as their release stage differs from that of oral stops. Examples of oral sounds are [p] and [b] – these when said are said in the mouth unlike [ng] where the velum is raised until we feel the sound coming out of the nasal cavity.