Phonetics and Phonemes

Kamis, 02 Mei 2013

 THREE KEY WORDS
The three keyword in this unit are phonetics, phoneme and phonology. These words are similar due to the fact that they are constructed on the basis of the same root ‘phone’ which means ‘sound’. Thus, they are all concerned with ‘sound’ in some way. Phonetics’ refers to the study of human speech sound. It primarily deals with how speech sounds are produced by means of human speech organs. Meanwhile, ‘phoneme’ refres to the smallest element of sound in a language; also the name given to the symbol representing the sound. The word cat, for example, has three phonemes: /kæt/. Finally, ‘phonology’ refers to the study of speech sound, focusing on the sound patterns of given language. Sounds are basic to language. It is justified from the development of baby’s language : truly, sound come first. In this unit, more technical information is introduced in terms of individual sounds and how they are produced. Despite the title being ‘phonetics’, it is impossible without looking at phonology, because the phonemes do not have much interest unless they are related to a language.

AIR AND SOUND
Prior to describing the actual organs used to produce speech sounds. It is useful to think about air and sound. Actually ‘sound’ is a short form of sound waves, which are all about the vibrations of the air. When something causes the air to vibrate, sounds are made. In other words when we ‘speak’, we are causing the air to vibrate in the form of sound waves.






 . The air itself comes from the lungs; and from the air that we ush out through our speech organs – these organs are all in or around oral and nasal cavities. Basically, our speech organs are used to make the air vibrate and produce different sounds. The air usually comes out through the mouth , but sometimes it comes out through the nose which the sounds are called nasals.

THE IPA AND SOUNDS IN ENGLISH
It is not comfortable to hear a linguist telling you that it is a foscinating area of study to phonetics especially with complexity of IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet). The IPA is very consistent in representing the speech sounds on the principle of one symbol – one sound, one sound – one symbol. This alphabet was invented in 1889 as a way of recording all sounds in all languages.
We would not discuss all sounds. Instead, we will focus on 44 sounds in English.

 English Phonemes

The whole set of English phonemes is divided into 24 consonants, 12 vowels and 9 diphthongs.

The English Consonants

The list in below represents the sounds for the consonants in English. The symbols start with sounds that are made at the front of th mouth, and move to those that are made at the back.


 They are classified into (1) place of articulation, (2) manner of articulation, and (3) voicing. There are 8 pieces of articulation which is described below :
1. Bilabial A consonant is called ‘bilabial’ when the two lips press tightly againts each other.
2. Labio- dental A consonant is called labio – dental when the lower lips touches the upper teeth.
 3. Dental A dental consonant is produced by pressing the tip of the tongue againts the upper teeth.
4. Alveolar An alveolar consonant is produced when the tip of tongue touches the teeth – ridge.
5. Palato – alveolar A consonant is siad to be palato – alveolar when the tongue touches a point between the teeth – ridge and hard palate.
 6. Palatal A consonant is called ‘palatal’ when the tongue touches the hard palate.
 7. Velar A velar consonant is produced when the back of tongue touches the soft palate.
8. Glottal A glottal consonant does not involve the tongue; instead, it is produced between the glottis.

 There are 7 manners of articulation, each of which describe below :
1. Plosive A plosive sound or stop is produced when the air escape through the mouth with a slight explosion.
 2. Fricative A fricative sound is produced by letting the air go out through narrow opening in the mouth.
 3. Affricative An affricative sound is produced by a graduale release of the air through a tighly narrow opening in the mouth.
4. Nasal A nasal sound is produced by letting the air go out through the nose.
 5. Lateral A lateral sound is produced by letting the air go out through one or both sides of the tongue.
6. Liquid A liquid sound is produced by letting the air pass through the tip of the tongue.
7. Semi – vowel A semi vowel is produced by letting the air go out through the opening between the lips. 

There are 2 types of voicing, namely voiced and voiceless. A consonant is labeled as voiced, when there is noise, and vibration of the vocal cords; while it is labeled as voiceless; when there is no such vibration of the vocal cords. One of the most reliable test of voicing is to put a piece of paper in front of your mouth. Then, say any of those consonant, when there is more force of air, the consonant is voiceless.





 The English Vowels Below is a list of vowels in English consisting of symbols and examples. It should be noted that a vowel is classified into three variables, named : (1) how high the part of the tongue is raised, (2) which part of the tongue is raised, and (3) the lip-position, whether they are rounded or unrounded.


 When there is a deliberate glide from one vowel position to another vowel position, the sound is called a diphthong such as shown in the following table.

 IMPLICATIONS FOR THE CLASSROOM
The discussion above obviously has shown that each language has its own phonemes. Therefore, the teacher should be aware of this fact, and thereby teach the students how to produce the speech sounds of the target language. It is hypothesized that foreign speech sounds which exist in the mother tounge will facilitate learning. Conversely, those which do not will cause learning problems. Learning how to produce speech sounds involves mechanical activities. Thus, only by tireless practice can the students master the production of speech sounds.

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