Comprehensive Study Guide to Phonetics and Phonology

Articulation and Classification of English Consonants

Consonants are classified based on their point of articulation within the vocal tract. The alveopalatal area is situated behind the alveolar ridge, precisely where the roof of the mouth begins to rise. Sounds like the initial and final sounds in chip $[tʃ]$ and judge $[dʒ]$ are articulated in this region. Moving further toward the back, the highest part of the roof of the mouth is known as the hard palate, and the sounds produced here are referred to as palatals. In English, a primary example of a palatal sound is the palatal glide $[j]$, which serves as the initial sound in words like yes and yellow.

Velar sounds are produced further back in the mouth at the velum, also known as the soft palate. This area consists of soft tissue located behind the hard palate. Common examples of velar sounds include those found in the words sing, stick, and twig. Additionally, the sound heard word-initially in wet $[w]$ is classified as a labio-velar sound. This classification arises because the articulation involves two simultaneous actions: the tongue is raised toward the velum while the lips are rounded. Finally, glottal sounds are produced using the vocal folds, or the glottis, as the primary articulators. These are represented by the symbols $[h]$, as in heave or hog, and the glottal stop $[?]$, which is often heard in the middle of words like better and bottle in certain dialects.

Properties and Classification of Vowels

Vowels in English are described using four distinct properties: height, backness, roundedness, and tenseness. Height refers to the vertical position of the tongue in the mouth. For instance, the vowel $[i]$ in leak is classified as a high vowel, whereas the vowel [
e] in lack is a low vowel. Backness describes the horizontal position of the tongue. The vowel [
e] in pat is a front vowel because the tongue is moved forward, while the vowel $[a]$ in pot is a back vowel. Roundedness indicates whether the lips are rounded or unrounded during production. The vowel $[i]$ in beat is unrounded, while the vowel $[u]$ in boot is produced with rounded lips.

Tenseness is a property that varies in its function across languages, but in English, it determines where a vowel can appear in a syllable. Tense vowels can occur in open syllables, meaning they can end a syllable without a following consonant, as seen in words like flee and flew. Conversely, lax vowels cannot appear in open syllables and typically require a following consonant, as in flip or flood. Examples of this distinction include the tense vowel $[i]$ in lead and its lax counterpart $[I]$ in lid. A general rule for English is that monosyllabic words spoken in isolation cannot end in lax vowels; if a word ends in a vowel, it must be tense.

Specific Vowel Categories and Diphthongs

Diphthongs are complex, two-part vowels that are treated as a single sound unit within the phonological system. In English, diphthongs begin with a vowel and transition into a glide. Examples include $[aj]$ in bite, $[ɔj]$ in toy, and $[ej]$ in bait. Simple vowels are also categorized by their features. For example, $[i]$ is a tense, high, front, unrounded vowel, while $[I]$ is its lax counterpart. Mid-front vowels include the tense $[e]$ and the lax $[E]$. Back vowels include the tense, high, rounded $[u]$ in boot, the lax, high, rounded $[U]$ in put, the tense, mid, rounded $[o]$ in boat, and the tense, back, unrounded $[a]$ in cot.

Central vowels in English include $[A]$ and $[ə]$, which are mid, central, lax vowels. Although they sound very similar, they have different distribution patterns. The symbol $[A]$, often called the caret, appears only as a stressed vowel in words like duck, cup, cut, and but. In contrast, the symbol $[ə]$, known as schwa, occurs only as an unstressed vowel, such as in the first syllable of about, the second syllable of sofa, the last syllable of teacher, or the middle syllable of telephone.

Manners of Articulation and Voicing

Consonants are further categorized by voicing and the manner of articulation. Voicing refers to whether the vocal folds are vibrating. If air passes freely through an open glottis, the sound is voiceless. If the vocal folds are close together and forced to vibrate by passing air, the sound is voiced. All vowels are voiced by default. To test for voicing, one can place fingers on the larynx to feel for vibration, put fingers in the ears to listen for resonance, or cover one ear while speaking. The manner of articulation distinguishes how the airflow is obstructed. Oral sounds occur when the velum is raised, blocking the nasal cavity, while nasal sounds occur when the velum is lowered. Oral sounds are usually voiced.

Stops are sounds produced by completely halting the airflow in the mouth, such as $[t]$ and $[d]$. These cannot be sustained like fricatives. Stops can be nasal or oral, though the closure always occurs in the oral cavity. Fricatives, like $[s]$ and $[z]$, are made by forcing air through a very constricted space. Affricates involve a complete closure followed by a slow release of air. Both fricatives and affricates are divided into stridents, which are noisier, and non-stridents, which are quieter. Approximants, or liquids, involve less constriction and no friction. In English, $[l]$ is a lateral approximant because air flows over the sides of the tongue, and $[r]$ is a retroflex approximant because the tip of the tongue is curled back. Glides are transitional "semi-vowels" made with very little obstruction.

Articulatory Processes and Coarticulation

Speech is not a sequence of isolated sounds but a continuous flow where articulators are often active simultaneously to facilitate rapid speech. This is known as coarticulation. For instance, in the sequence $[pl]$, the tongue moves toward the alveolar ridge for the $[l]$ while the lips are still closed for the $[p]$. These adjustments are called articulatory processes. One major process is assimilation, where a sound adopts features of a neighboring sound. Voicing assimilation is seen in English plurals: the marker is pronounced as $[-z]$ after voiced sounds, $[-s]$ after voiceless sounds, and $[-əz]$ after sibilant sounds. Assimilation can be regressive (influenced by a following sound) or progressive (influenced by a preceding sound).

Other processes include vowel nasalization, where a vowel becomes nasalized before a nasal consonant like $[n]$, $[m]$, or $[Ł]$ (marked with a tilde $\tilde{X}$). Dissimilation occurs when two sounds become less alike, such as pronouncing fifths $[fɠfθs]$ as $[fɠfts]$. Deletion removes a segment, such as schwa deletion in suppose $[səpowz] \rightarrow [spowz]$. Epenthesis inserts a segment, as in pronouncing something with a $[p]$ sound. Metathesis reorders segments, such as in some pronunciations of prescribe. Tapping is an assimilation process where $[t]$ or $[d]$ becomes a tap $[ɾ]$ between vowels when the first vowel is stressed, such as in butter compared to buttress.

Phonology, Allophones, and Canadian Raising

Phonology is the study of sound systems and the linguistic knowledge speakers have regarding abstract units of speech. A phoneme is a functional sound unit, and its physical variations are called allophones. For example, in English, the phoneme $/p/$ has two allophones: the aspirated $[ph]$ and the unaspirated $[p]$. They are in complementary distribution because $[ph]$ only occurs at the beginning of a stressed syllable. Liquid devoicing is a related process where liquids like $/l/$ and $/r/$ become devoiced (marked with a small circle ${!}$) when they follow a voiceless stop in a stressed syllable before a vowel.

Canadian raising is a specific phonological process in Canadian English where the diphthongs $/aj/$ and $/aw/$ change their quality before voiceless consonants. The diphthong $/aj/$ is pronounced as $[Aj]$ before voiceless consonants (the low starting point raises to a mid-point). Similarly, the phoneme $/aw/$ becomes $[AW]$ before voiceless consonants, as in about, doubt, or mouse, while remaining $[aw]$ in voiced environments like loud or arouse. Finally, segments are organized by sonority, or their resonance. Vowels are the most sonorous, followed by glides, liquids, and nasals, all of which are considered sonorants. Obstruents (stops, fricatives, and affricates) are the least sonorous. The high sonority of vowels allows them to serve as the core support for syllable structures.