Vowels
English has twelve vowel sounds. In the table above they are divided into seven short and five long vowels. An alternative way of organizing them is according to where (in the mouth) they are produced. This method allows us to describe them as front, central andback. We can qualify them further by how high the tongue and lower jaw are when we make these vowel sounds, and by whether our lips are rounded or spread, and finally by whether they are short or long. This scheme shows the following arrangement:
Front vowels
- /i:/ - cream, seen (long high front spread vowel)
- /ɪ/ - bit, silly (short high front spread vowel)
- /ɛ/ - bet, head (short mid front spread vowel); this may also be shown by the symbol /e/
- /æ/ - cat, dad (short low front spread vowel); this may also be shown by /a/
Central vowels
- /ɜ:/- burn, firm (long mid central spread vowel); this may also be shown by the symbol /ə:/.
- /ə/ - about, clever (short mid central spread vowel); this is sometimes known asschwa, or the neutral vowel sound - it never occurs in a stressed position.
- /ʌ/ - cut, nut (short low front spread vowel); this vowel is quite uncommon among speakers in the Midlands and further north in Britain.
Back vowels
- /u:/ - boob, glue (long high back rounded vowel)
- /ʊ/ - put, soot (short high back rounded vowel); also shown by /u/
- /ɔ:/ - corn, faun (long mid back rounded vowel) also shown by /o:/
- /ɒ/- dog, rotten (short low back rounded vowel) also shown by /o/
- /ɑ:/ - hard, far (long low back spread vowel)
We can also arrange the vowels in a table or even depict them against a cross-section of the human mouth. Here is an example of a simple table:
| Front | Central | Back | |
| High | ɪ i: | ʊ u: | |
| Mid | ɛ | ə ɜ: | ɔ: |
| Low | æ | ʌ | ɒ ɑ: |
Diphthongs
Diphthongs are sounds that begin as one vowel and end as another, while gliding between them. For this reason they are sometimes described as glide vowels. How many are there? Almost every modern authority says eight - but they do not all list the same eight (check this for yourself). Simeon Potter, in Our Language (Potter, S, [1950] Chapter VI, Sounds and Spelling, London, Penguin) says there are nine - and lists those I have shown in the table above, all of which I have found in the modern reference works. The one most usually omitted is /ɔə/ as in bored. Many speakers do not use this diphthong, but use the same vowel in poured as in fraud - but it is alive and well in the north of Britain.
Potter notes that all English diphthongs are falling - that is the first element is stressed more than the second. Other languages have rising diphthongs, where the second element is stressed, as in Italian “uomo” (man) and “uovo” (egg).
Consonants
Some authorities claim one or two fewer consonants than I have shown above, regarding those with double symbols (/tʃ/ and /dʒ/) as “diphthong consonants” in Potter's phrase. The list omits one sound that is not strictly a consonant but works like one. The full IPA list of phonetic symbols includes some for non-pulmonic consonants (not made with air coming from the lungs), click and glottal sounds. In some varieties of English, especially in the south of Britain (but the sound has migrated north) we find the glottal plosive or glottal stop, shown by the symbol /ʔ/ (essentially a question mark without the dot at the tail). This sound occurs in place of /t/ for some speakers - so /botəl/ or /botl/ (bottle) become/boʔəl/ or /boʔl/.
We form consonants by controlling or impeding the egressive (outward) flow of air. We do this with the articulators - from the glottis, past the velum, the hard palate and alveolar ridge and the tongue, to the teeth and lips. The sound results from three things:
- voicing - causing the vocal cords to vibrate
- where the articulation happens
- how the articulation happens - how the airflow is controlled
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 orunvoiced. 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:
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 inlight).
- 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.
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 (so-called because the airflow is stopped) or plosive consonants(because it is subsequently released, causing an outrush of air and a burst of sound) are:
- Bilabial voiced /b/ (as in boat) and voiceless /p/ (as in post)
- Alveolar voiced /d/ (as in dad) and voiceless /t/ (as in tap)
- 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:
- Labio-dental voiced /v/ (as in vole) and unvoiced /f/ (as in foal)
- Dental voiced /ð/ (as in those) and unvoiced /θ/ (as in thick)
- Alveolar voiced /z/ (as in zest) and unvoiced /s/ (as in sent)
- 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:
- Bilabial /m/ (as in mine)
- Alveolar /n/ (as in nine)
- 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:
- Bilabial /w/ (as in water)
- Alveolar /r/ (as in road)
- Palatal /j/ (as in yet)
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+æ+ʃ/.
Some words have a single syllable - so they are monosyllables or monosyllabic. Others have more than one syllable and are polysyllables or polysyllabic.
Sometimes you may see a word divided into its syllables, but this may be an artificial exercise, since in real speech the sounds are continuous. 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 /læm-pəʊst/ or /læm-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.
Suprasegmentals
In written English we use punctuation to signal some things like emphasis, and the speedwith which we want our readers to move at certain points. In spoken English we use sounds in ways that do not apply to individual segments but to stretches of spoken discourse from words to phrases, clauses and sentences. Such effects are described asnon-segmental or suprasegmental - or, using the adjective in a plural nominal (noun) form, simply suprasegmentals.
Among these effects are such things as stress, intonation, tempo and rhythm - which collectively are known as prosodic features. Other effects arise from altering the quality of the voice, making it breathy or husky and changing what is sometimes called the timbre - and these are paralinguistic features. Both of these kinds of effect may signal meaning. But they do not do so consistently from one language to another, and this can cause confusion to students learning a second language.
Prosodic features
- Stress or loudness - increasing volume is a simple way of giving emphasis, and this is a crude measure of stress. But it is usually combined with other things like changes in tone and tempo. We use stress to convey some kinds of meaning (semantic and pragmatic) such as urgency or anger or for such things as imperatives.
- Intonation - you may be familiar in a loose sense with the notion of tone of voice. We use varying levels of pitch in sequences (contours or tunes) to convey particular meanings. Falling and rising intonation in English may signal a difference between statement and question. Younger speakers of English may use rising (question) intonation without intending to make the utterance a question.
- Tempo - we speak more or less quickly for many different reasons and purposes. Occasionally it may be that we are adapting our speech to the time we have in which to utter it (as, for example, in a horse-racing commentary). But mostly tempo reflects some kinds of meaning or attitude - so we give a truthful answer to a question, but do so rapidly to convey our distraction or irritation.
- Rhythm - patterns of stress, tempo and pitch together create a rhythm. Some kinds of formal and repetitive rhythm are familiar from music, rap, poetry and even chants of soccer fans. But all speech has rhythm - it is just that in spontaneous utterances we are less likely to hear regular or repeating patterns.
Paralinguistic features
How many voices do we have? We are used to “putting on” silly voices for comic effects or in play. We may adapt our voices for speaking to babies, or to suggest emotion, excitement or desire. These effects are familiar in drama, where the use of a stage whisper may suggest something clandestine and conspiratorial. Nasal speech may suggest disdain, though it is easily exaggerated for comic effect (as by the late Kenneth Williams in many Carry On films).
Such effects are sometimes described as changing timbre or voice quality. We all may use them sometimes but they are particularly common among entertainers such as actors or comedians. This is not surprising, as they practise using their voices in unusual ways, to represent different characters. The performers in the BBC's Teletubbies TV programme use paralinguistic features to suggest the different characters of Tinky-Winky, Dipsy, La-La and Po.
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