Topic 1

Topic 1  General Introduction to British English Phonetics

There are two forms of English:

1.  Spoken form
2.  Written form

For spoken / oral form, it involves the production of speech sounds and the mechanism involved.

Classification of speech sounds:

I. Vowels          

There are 20 vowel phonemes:

 7 short vowels 

 5 long vowels

 8 diphthongs

    

Vowel speech sounds (phonemes)

     In producing vowel speech sounds, there is no obstruction of 

     airstream. 

Features to classify them:

1.   The height of the tongue:  High /  Mid /  Low
2. The advancement of the tongue:  Front  /  Centre  /  Back
3. the tenseness of the tongue:  tense / lax
4.  lips rounding:  Unround  /  Half-round  /  Round
5. Length of monophthongs:  long / short

 

II.          Consonants   

There are 24 consonant phonemes

  Consonant speech sounds  (phonemes)

In producing consonant speech sounds, the airstream is completely / 

partially obstructed at 7 different places, namely:

1.    Bilabial

2.    Labiodental

3.    Interdental

4.    Alveolar

5.    Palatal

6.    Velar 

7.    Glottal

   

   The ways how an airstream is obstructed are the manners of articution.  

   They are classified into 5 categories:

1.     Stop/Plosive

2.     Fricative

3.     Affricative

4.     Glide

5.     Nasal  

   The vowel phoneme forms the nucleus of the speech sounds and they are usually flanked by consonant phonemes.  For example, for the words:  now /naU /; seat /si:t/;  hat /hæt/;  joy / dӡ Ɔ I / and so on.                                                          1.

Topic 2      Vowel Phonemes                                                    

    No.                   Phonemes                         Helping Words

1.                          /  i: /                                    E

2.                          /  I  /                                                      it

3.                          /  e  /                                   egg

4.                          /  æ  /                                 cat

 5.                        /  3:  /                                   sir  

 6.                        / ә /                                      ago   /  ә’gәU/

7.                        /  ʌ   /                                    up

8.                          /          u:  /                                  blue

9.                          /  ʊ  /                                  book

10.                        /   Ɔ:   /                                 awe

11.                         /   ɒ   /                                 dog

12.                         /  a:   /                                 R

13.                         / eI /                                      A

14.                      /  Ɔ I  /                                    oil

15.                      /  aI  /                                     I

16.                      /  I ә      /                                ear

17.                      /  e ә     /                                air  

18.                    /   U ә    /                                 tour

19.                         / ә U   /                                 O

20.                     /  aU    /                                  cow