Speaking & Listening Skills(OEC) 2023

UNIT-1
INTRODUCTION TO PHONETICS

Introduction

The alphabet for Modern English is a Latin-script alphabet consisting of 26 letters, each
having an upper- and lower-case form. The word alphabet is a compound of the first two
letters of the Greek alphabet, alpha and beta. The alphabet originated around the 7th century
CE to write Old English from Latin script.

Vowels & Consonants

There are five different vowel letters: A, E, I, O and U. Vowels are very common in the
English language as they can be found in almost every word and syllable. A consonant is any
letter of the alphabet other than the vowels (a, e, i, o, u). Consonants are all non-vowel sounds
in the English alphabet.

A consonant is a letter that represents speech sounds that can only be made when the vocal
tract is partially or entirely closed. Consonants require specific positions of the lips, tongue,
and cheeks.

Sounds of Consonants
There are 21 consonants in the English alphabet—B, C, D, F, G, H, J, K, L, M, N, P, Q, R, S,
T, V, W, X, Y, Z.

Phonetics

Phonetics is a branch of linguistics that studies how humans produce and perceive
sounds, or in the case of sign languages, the equivalent aspects of sign. Linguists who
specialize in studying the physical properties of speech are phoneticians.

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Need for Phonetics

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1. Articulatory Phonetics-

2. Acoustic Phonetics

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3. Auditory Phonetics

Speech Organs

Speech organs, or articulators, produce the sounds of language. Organs used for

speech include the lips, teeth, alveolar ridge, hard palate, velum (soft palate), uvula, glottis
and various parts of the tongue. They can be divided into two types: passive articulators and
active articulators.

The main articulators are the tongue, the upper lip, the lower lip, the upper teeth, the upper
gum ridge (alveolar ridge), the hard palate, the velum (soft palate), the uvula (free-hanging end of the
soft palate), the pharyngeal wall, and the glottis (space between the vocal cords).

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Parts Of The Organs Of Speech

The organs of speech are made up of:

● Lips
● Tongue
● Alveolar ridge
● Teeth
● Hard palate
● Velum
● Uvula
● Glottis

Functions Of The Organs Of Speech

Each part of the organs of speech serve a particular function that is relevant to
producing sounds. The study of these parts of organs of speech provides a fundamental idea
about speech and sounds.

Thus, in furtherance of the aforementioned parts of the organs of speech, the following
provides as short description on each organ and their functions.

Lips- The lips as organ of speech create two different sounds which are mainly the labial,
bilabial and labio-dental consonant sounds. Thus, both the upper lips and the lower lips are
considered important apparatus in producing a speech sound.

Teeth- Just like the lips, the teeth as one of the organs of speech are important. Both the
upper teeth and lower teeth are used in producing sounds like dental and labio-dental
consonant sounds.

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Tongue- The tongue is considered the most important apparatus out of the organs of speech.
The tongue is effective in moving in different directions or shapes in order to make speech
sounds.
The tongue is divided into fiver parts. They are:
Tip
Blade
Front
Back
Root
Alveolar Ridge- This is the between the upper front teeth and hard palate. Thus, to produce
speech sounds, the alveolar ridge and the blade of the tongue are used.

Hard Palate- This is a bong plate located at the roof of the mouth. The interaction between
the hard palate and the tongue is necessary for the production of certain sounds. They are, d, t
and j.

Pharynx- This helps manipulate the vocal structure.

Uvula- This helps preventing air from escaping through the nose while producing sounds.

Speech Mechanism
Speech occurs when air flows from the lungs, up the windpipe (trachea) and through
the voice box (larynx). This causes the vocal cords to vibrate, creating sound. Sound is
shaped into words by the muscles controlling the soft palate, tongue and lips.

CONSONANT CLUSTERS

In linguistics, a consonant cluster, consonant sequence or consonant compound, is a group of

consonants which have no intervening vowel. In English, for example, the groups and are
consonant clusters in the word splits. In the education field it is variously called a consonant
cluster or a consonant blend. 

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Types of Consonant Clusters:

1. Initial

2. Middle

3. Final

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IPA SYMBOLS & TRANSCRIPTION

The International Phonetic Alphabet is an alphabetic system of phonetic notation based

primarily on the Latin script. It was devised by the International Phonetic Association in the
late 19th century as a standardized representation of speech sounds in written form.

International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA) symbols used in this chart

The phonetic symbols used in this IPA chart may be slightly different from what you will
find in other sources, including in this comprehensive IPA chart for English dialects in
Wikipedia.

It was difficult to decide which set of IPA symbols to use for English phonetic
translator and the IPA chart on this page. We eventually decided to follow the
recommendations from the book by Larry H. Small Fundamentals of Phonetics, 4th Edition.
The book provides a very good summary of all the content from other sources.

In the following table, you will find the features of the phonetic transcription used in this
book

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Transcription Transcription in most

Feature in Fundamentals of American English
Phonetics dictionaries

Syllabic consonants /l̩ /, /m̩/ and /n̩/ are displayed

/ˈlɪtl̩ / /ˈlɪt(ə)l/
with a little vertical line below.
/ˈstudn̩t/ /ˈstud(ə)nt/
Example words: little, student

Stressed /ˈər/ is written as /ɝ/, unstressed /ər/ –

/ˈfɝst/ /ˈfərst/
as /ɚ/.
/ˈʌðɚ/ /ˈʌðər/
Example words: first, other

Unstressed /eɪ/ is written as /e/, unstressed /oʊ/ –

/veˈkeɪʃən/ /veɪˈkeɪʃən/
as /o/. In the final position they remain
/ˈfoʊtoz/ /ˈfoʊtoʊz/
diphthongs /eɪ/ and /oʊ/ even if unstressed.
/ˈfoʊtoʊ/ /ˈfoʊtoʊ/
Example words: vacation, photos

No elongation symbol [ː] is used for the

/ˈit/ /ˈiːt/
phonemes /u/ and /i/.
/ˈɡɹup/ /ˈɡɹuːp/
Example words: eat, group

SYLLABLE

A syllable is an unbroken vowel sound within a word. Notice that we say a vowel sound, not
just a vowel by itself. A vowel sound contains whichever consonants (and other vowels) are
attached to a vowel to make a certain, distinct sound. For example, the word blanket has two
syllables: blan + ket.

SYLLABLE STRUCTURE

The admissible arrangement of sounds in words. synonyms: morphology, sound

structure, word structure. types: affixation. the result of adding an affix to a root word.

STRESS & INTONATION

Stress and intonation are important elements of speaking that can greatly impact how
a message is perceived by the listener. Stress refers to the emphasis placed on particular
syllables or words, while intonation refers to the melody or pitch changes used in speech to
convey meaning

The stress pattern of a word is the way all the syllables are stressed in it. There can be
main and secondary stress, or unstressed sounds. There are different ways to show the stress
pattern of a word. Large and small circles can be used, as in the examples above.

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English has three levels of stress:

● primary stress: the loudest syllable in the word. ...

● secondary stress: syllables which aren't completely unstressed, but aren't as loud as the
primary stress. ...
● unstressed syllables: syllables that have no stress at all.

INTONATION

Intonation and stress are closely linked. In fact it's impossible to dissociate them.
They go hand in hand. Intonation is about how we say things, rather than what we say, the
way the voice rises and falls when speaking, in other words the music of the language. Just as
words have stressed syllables, sentences have regular patterns of stressed words. In addition,
the voice tends to rise, fall or remain flat depending on the meaning or feeling we want to
convey (surprise, anger, interest, boredom, gratitude, etc.).

Falling Intonation (➘) (The pitch of the voice falls at the end of the sentence.)
Falling intonation is the most common intonation pattern in English. It is commonly found in
statements, commands, wh-questions (information questions), confirmatory question tags and
exclamations.
▪ Statements
▪ Nice to meet ↘you.
▪ I’ll be back in a ↘minute.
▪ She doesn’t live here ↘anymore.
▪ Dad wants to change his ↘car.
▪ Here is the weather ↘forecast.
▪ Cloudy weather is expected at the end of the ↘week.
▪ We should work together more ↘often
▪ I'm going for a walk in the ↘park.
▪ Commands
▪ Write your name ↘here.
▪ Show me what you’ve ↘written.
▪ Leave it on the ↘desk.
▪ Take that picture ↘ down.
▪ Throw that ↘out.
▪ Put your books on the ↘table.
▪ Take your hands out of your ↘pockets.

▪ Wh- questions (requesting information.)(questions beginning with 'who', 'what', 'why',

'where', 'when', 'which', and 'how')
▪ What country do you come ↘from?
▪ Where do you ↘work?
▪ Which of them do you ↘prefer?
▪ When does the shop ↘open?
▪ How many books have you ↘bought?

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▪ Which coat is ↘yours?
▪ Whose bag is ↘this?
▪ Questions Tags that are statements requesting confirmation rather than questions
Not all tag questions are really questions. Some of them merely ask for
confirmation or invite agreement, in which case we use a falling tone at the
end.

▪ He thinks he’s so clever, doesn’t ↘he?

▪ She's such a nuisance, isn't ↘she?
▪ I failed the test because I didn't revise, did ↘ I?
▪ It doesn't seem to bother him much, does ↘ it?

▪ Exclamations
▪ How nice of ↘ you!
▪ That's just what I ↘need!
▪ You don't ↘ say!
▪ What a beautiful ↘ voice!
▪ That's a ↘surprise!

Rising Intonation (➚) (The pitch of the voice rises at the end of a sentence.)
Rising intonation invites the speaker to continue talking. It is normally used with yes/no
questions, and question tags that are real questions.
▪ Yes/no Questions
(Questions that can be answered by 'yes' or 'no'.)

▪ Do you like your new ➚teacher?

▪ Have you finished ➚already?
▪ May I borrow your ➚dictionary?
▪ Do you have any ➚magazines?
▪ Do you sell ➚stamps?
▪ Questions tags that show uncertainty and require an answer (real questions).
▪ We've met already, ➚haven't we?
▪ You like fish, ➚don't you?
▪ You're a new student ➚aren't you?
▪ The view is beautiful, ➚isn't it?
We sometimes use a combination of rising and falling intonation in the same sentence. The
combination is called Rise-Fall or Fall-Rise intonation.
Rise-Fall Intonation (➚➘) (The intonation rises and then falls.)
We use rise-fall intonation for choices, lists, unfinished thoughts and conditional sentences.
▪ Choices (alternative questions.)
▪ Are you having ➚soup or ➘salad?
▪ Is John leaving on ➚Thursday or ➘Friday?
▪ Does he speak ➚German or ➘French?
▪ Is your name ➚Ava or ➘Eva?
▪ Lists (rising, rising, rising, falling)
Intonation falls on the last item to show that the list is finished.

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▪ We've got ➚apples, pears, bananas and ➘oranges.
▪ The sweater comes in ➚blue, white pink and ➘black.
▪ I like ➚football, tennis, basketball and ➘volleyball.
▪ I bought ➚a tee-shirt, a skirt and a ➘handbag.
▪ Unfinished thoughts (partial statements)
In the responses to the following questions, the rise-fall intonation indicates
reservation.
The speaker hesitates to fully express his/her thoughts.

▪ Do you like my new handbag? Well the ➚leather is ➘nice... ( but I don't like
it.)
▪ What was the meal like? Hmm, the ➚fish was ➘good... (but the rest wasn't
great).
▪ So you both live in Los Angeles? Well ➚Alex ➘does ... (but I don't).
▪ Conditional sentences
(The tone rises in the first clause and falls gradually in the second clause.)

▪ If he ➚calls, ask him to leave a ➘message.

▪ Unless he ➚insists, I'm not going to ➘go.
▪ If you have any ➚problems, just ➘contact us.
Fall-Rise Intonation (➘➚) (The voice falls and rises usually within one word.)
The main function of fall-rise intonation is to show that the speaker is not certain of the
answer they are giving to a question, or is reluctant to reply (as opposed to a falling tone used
when there is no hesitation). It is also used in polite requests or suggestions.
▪ Hesitation/reluctance:
▪ So you'd be willing to confirm that? ...Well ... I ➘sup➚pose so ...
▪ You didn't see him on Monday? I don't quite ➘re➚member ...
▪ Politeness-Doubt-Uncertainty: (You are not sure what the answer might be.)
▪ Perhaps we could ➘vis➚it the place?
▪ Should we ➘cop➚y the list?
▪ Do you think it's ➘al➚lowed?

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