Phonetics

Importance & Necessity of Phonetics

There are many reasons why we need to learn phonetics and Accent Training.

When we work in companies we need to interact with the clients, who are from USA, UK, Canada and Australia. The only language what they understand is English. If you don’t understand their language or if at all they don’t understand your language, company would be loosing the project and we would be loosing the job. What to speak of loosing the job, candidate will not be taken in to the company if he doesn’t have the knowledge of Phonetics and Accent.

The entire globe has become one village and the English language has become the window for the world. If we have knowledge of Phonetics and Accent, we can communicate effectively with the entire globe.

In the TOEFL and IELTS speaking section interviewers observe not what you speak, in fact how you speak is more important i.e. implementing knowledge of phonetics and accent.

The last reason is that it is a part of the syllabus.

Linguistics is the systematic study of language.

Phonetics is the branch of linguistics that deals with the production, transmission and reception of the sounds of human speech.

The science that deals with the sounds of the language is known as phonetics.

The air that flows out of your mouth is modified in to speech sounds by organs of speech which are in our body.

Organs of Speech

Parts of tongue

Sounds produced during the production of which air escapes through mouth are called oral sounds.

Eg:- peel, bag, saw, date, bush.

Oral Sounds

Sounds during the production of which air escapes through the nose are called nasal sounds.

Nasal Sounds

Sounds during the production of which air escapes through mouth and nose are called nasalized sounds.

Nasalized Sounds

When we make the sounds /k/ and /ɡ /, the tongue is in contact with the lower side of the velum and they are called velar consonants.

Sounds /t/ and /d/ are made by the tongue touching the alveolar ridge.

Sounds made with the tongue touching the front teeth are called dental sounds.

In making the two vowels the front part of the tongue is raised and so they are called front vowels.

/ i: / as in beat

In making these vowels the back part of the tongue is raised, so they are called back vowels.

1. / ʌ / as in cup

2. / ɜː / as in Learn

3. / ə / as in about

Stress is some thing which can be applied to syllables. It is a property of syllables.

Consonants

Consonants are divided in to 3 types depending on their a) manner of articulation b) place of articulation and c) voice of articulation or vocal cord vibration.

Consonants are divided in to 6 types depending on their manner of articulation.

1) Plosives :- it is a consonant formed by complete obstruction of the air stream by on of the articulators and a built of intra oral air pressure and release.

2) Fricatives:- it is a consonant produced by forcing the breathe stream through a construction formed by articulators in vocal folds.

3) Affricates:- it is a consonant formed by both fricative and stop manner of production.

4) Nasals :- nasals are consonants formed by complete closure of oral cavity by lowering the velum and allowing the air through nasal cavity.

5) Semi – vowels : it is consonant formed by continuous gliding motion of articulators in to the following vowels. /j/ and /w/.

Place of Articulation

Consonants are divided in to 7 types depending on their place of articulation.

1) Bilabial :- these are consonants formed by contact of upper and lower lips. /p/ and /b/

2) labio-dental :- it is a consonant produced by contact of lower lip with upper front teeth. /f/ and /v/

3) Dental :- it is a consonant formed by tongue contacting the teeth.

4) Alveolar:- it is a consonant produced with tongue contacting upper alveolar ridge. /t/ and /d/

5) Palato-Alveolar:- it is a consonant produced by tongue contacting hard palate.

6) Post- alveolar:- it is a consonant produced by the tongue contacting the roof of the mouth that lies immediately behind the teeth ridge. Eg:- the sound represented by the letter r in try and dry.

7) Palatal sound:- it is a consonant produced by the tongue touching the hard palate.

8) Velar:- it is a consonant produced by tongue contacting the velum. /k/ and /g /.

9) Glottal:- it is a consonant produced by completely or partially contacting glottis.

Voice of articulation:- consonants are of 2 types depending on the voice of articulation of vocal cards.

Voiced consonants are produced with the vibration of vocal cords in larynx.

Voiceless consonants are produced with out the vibration of vocal cords in the larynx.

During voice less sounds glottis is fully open for breathe

During voiced sounds, vocal cords are kept loosely together for vibration .

Classification of Consonants

Syllable:- the vowel in a syllable is its central element and is called the nucleus of a syllable. The consonant that begins a syllable is called releasing consonant and the consonant that comes at the end of the consonant is called arresting consonant.

The syllable cat /kæt/ has the structure of CVC. æ is its nucleus and /k/ and /t/ on either side of nucleus are releasing and arresting consonants.

The number of syllables in a word is the number of vowels in the word.

Intonation:- the rate at which the vocal cords vibrate is called the pitch of the voice. the more rapidly the vocal cords vibrate the higher will be the pitch. The patterns of the variation of the pitch of the voice constitute the intonation of a language.