Introduction to Phonetics

Phoneme

Speech sound, that when changed, changes the meaning of a word

IPA

International phonetic alphabet

• represents sounds of words, not their spellings

• allows for consistent and reliable representation of speech sound production

• has 1:1 relationship between a symbol and its pronunciation

• each symbol represents 1 specific speech sound

• can be used to transcribe all languages of the world

• e.g. /j/ = “ye”

Minimal pair

Words that differ by only 1 phoneme

e.g. top and mop

Allophones

• Family of sounds

• phonemes may be produced slightly differently in different words

• changing allophones doesn’t change meaning of words

• e.g. 1st sound in “lot” and last sound in “pool” = different allophones of /l/ phoneme

Phonemic transcription

Involves transcribing only phonemes

uses / /

Phonetic/allophonic transcription

Involves transcribing allophones

uses [ ]

Syllables

• basic building blocks of words

• each syllable contains 1 vowel sound (monophthong or diphthong)

• consist of onset and rhyme

Onset

All consonants that precede vowel

e.g. top (1 consonant = singleton), frame, split (many consonants = cluster)

syllables may not contain an onset (no initial consonant before vowel) e.g. each, am, I

Rhyme

Consists of everything after the cluster

Broken into nucleus and a coda

Nucleus

Typically a vowel

e.g. cat, crush, found

In some rare cases, nucleus is a consonant e.g. puddle & button can be produced with a syllabic consonant in the 2nd syllable - use glottal stop

Coda

All consonants that follow nucleus

e.g. dog (singleton), best, paints (cluster)

Open syllables

Syllables that don’t contain a coda (no final consonant)

e.g. spa, fly, sleigh

Closed syllables

Syllables with a coda (final consonant/s)