Please enable JavaScript.

Coggle requires JavaScript to display documents.

Phonology (Tip: follow the boxes by number/letter as guidance.) (1. What…

- - - - Voicing
        All vowels must be voiced – they are caused by vibration in the vocal cords. But consonants may be voiced or not. Some of the consonant sounds of English come in pairs that differ in being voiced or not – in which case they are described as voiceless or unvoiced. So b is voiced and p is the unvoiced consonant in one pair, while voiced g and voiceless k form another pair. We can explain the consonant sounds by the place where the articulation principally occurs or by the kinds of articulation that occurs there. The first scheme gives us this arrangement:
        
        B. Articulation described by manner
        This scheme gives us a different arrangement into stop (or plosive) consonants, affricates, fricatives, nasal consonants, laterals and approximants.
        • Stop consonants (because the airflow is stopped) or plosive consonants (because it is subsequently released, causing an outrush of air and a burst of sound) are:
        o Bilabial voiced /b/ (as in boat) and voiceless /p/ (as in post)
        o Alveolar voiced /d/ (as in dad) and voiceless /t/ (as in tap)
        o Velar voiced /g/ (as in golf) and voiceless /k/ as in (cow)
        • Affricates are a kind of stop consonant, where the expelled air causes friction rather than plosion. They are palatal /tʃ/ (as in cheat) and palatal /dʒ/ (as in jam)
        • Fricatives come from restricting, but not completely stopping, the airflow. The air passes through a narrow space and the sound arises from the friction this produces. They come in voiced and unvoiced pairs:
        o Labio-dental voiced /v/ (as in vole) and unvoiced /f/ (as in foal)
        o Dental voiced /ð/ (as in those) and unvoiced /θ/ (as in thick)
        o Alveolar voiced /z/ (as in zest) and unvoiced /s/ (as in sent)
        o Palatal voiced /ʒ/ (as in the middle of leisure) and unvoiced /ʃ/ (as at the end of trash)
        • Nasal consonants involve closing the articulators but lowering the uvula, which normally closes off the route to the nose, through which the air escapes. There are three nasal consonants in English:
        o Bilabial /m/ (as in mine)
        o Alveolar /n/ (as in nine)
        o Velar /ŋ/ (as at the end of gong).
        • Lateral consonants allow the air to escape at the sides of the tongue. In English there is only one such sound, which is alveolar /l/ (as at the start of lamp)
        • Approximants do not impede the flow of air. They are all voiced but are counted as consonants chiefly because of how they function in syllables. They are:
        o Bilabial /w/ (as in water)
        o Alveolar /r/ (as in road)
        o Palatal /j/ (as in yet)
        
        A. Articulation described by region
        Glottal articulation – articulation by the glottis. We use this for one consonant in English. This is /h/ in initial position in house or hope.
        • Velar articulation – we do this with the back of the tongue against the velum. We use it for initial hard /g/ (as in golf) and for final /ŋ/ (as in gong).
        • Palatal articulation – we do this with the front of the tongue on the hard palate. We use it for /dʒ/ (as in jam) and for /ʃ/ (as in sheep or sugar).
        • Alveolar articulation – we do this with the tongue blade on the alveolar ridge. We use it for /t/ (as in teeth), /d/ (as in dodo) /z/ (as in zebra) /n/ (as in no) and /l/ (as in light).
        • Dental articulation – we do this with the tip of the tongue on the back of the upper front teeth. We use it for /θ/ (as in think) and /ð/ (as in that). This is one form of articulation that we can observe and feel ourselves doing.
        • Labio-dental articulation – we do this with the lower lip and upper front teeth. We use it for /v/ (as in vampire).
        • Labial articulation – we do this with the lips for /b/ (as in boat) and /m/ (as in most). Where we use two lips (as in English) this is bilabial articulation.
      - D. Syllables
        When you think of individual sounds, you may think of them in terms of syllables. These are units of phonological organization and smaller than words. Alternatively, think of them as units of rhythm. Although they may contain several sounds, they combine them in ways that create the effect of unity.
        Thus splash is a single syllable but it combines three consonants, a vowel, and a final consonant /spl+Ê+ʃ/.
        Some words have a single syllable – so they are monosyllables or monosyllabic. Others have more than one syllable and are polysyllables or polysyllabic.
        In some cases it will be impossible to tell whether a given consonant was ending one syllable of beginning another. It is possible, for example, to pronounce lamppost so that there are two /p/ sounds in succession with some interval between them. But many native English speakers will render this as /lÊm-pəʊst/ or /lÊm-pəʊsd/.
        Students of language may find it helpful to be able to identify individual syllables in explaining pronunciation and language change – one of the things you may need to do is explain which are the syllables that are stressed in a particular word or phrase.