1.

High vowels: are those in the production of which the have:

tongue is high in the mouth. It is raised above its rest

position.

2. Low vowels: are those made with the tongue below its

rest position.

3. Mid vowels: are those made with the tongue neither high

nor low in the mouth.

1. Front vowels: are those in the production front of the tongue is the highest point.
2. Back vowels: are those in the production of which the back of the tongue is the highest point

3. Central vowels: are those made with neither the front nor the back of the tongue. The tongue is neither high
nor low in the mouth when central vowels are produced.

1. Rounded vowels: are those made with rounded lips. The corners of the lips are brought towards each
other and the lips are pushed forwards.
e.g.
2. Unrounded vowels: are those made with the lips spread. The corners of the lips are moved
away from each other as for a smile.
e.g.
3. Neutral vowels: are those made with the lips neither rounded nor spread.

Long vowels and short vowels

• Long vowels: /i…, ±…, å…, ø…, u…/

• Short vowels: /æ, e, ¨, Å, √, ˆ, \/

• Long vowels tend to be longer than short vowels in similar contexts. The symbols consist of one single
vowel plus a length mark made of two dots. They are different from short vowels not only in length but
also in quality, resulting from differences in tongue shapes and lip positions.

• Diphthongs
• 1. Definition: A diphthong is a glide from one vowel to another, and the whole glide acts like one of
the long simple vowels.
 Triphthongs
• A triphthong is a glide from one vowel to another and then to a third, all produced rapidly without
interruption.
• There are five triphthongs in English. They are composed of the five closing diphthongs with /\/ added
at the end.
 • /aˆ\/

• /eˆ\/

• /øˆ\/

• /\¨\/

• /a¨\/

CONSONANT
1. Classification:
In order to form consonants, the air-stream through the vocal cords must be obstructed in some way.
Therefore, consonants can be classified according to the place where the air-stream is obstructed
(the place of articulation) and the way in which the air- stream is obstructed (the manner of
articulation).
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1. How are consonant sounds produced?

When we are making sounds, if two articulators come together, obstructing the air-stream
and the air-stream cannot get out freely, we have consonant sounds
e.g. /k/, /f/, /b/, /m/
According to voicing.
 1. Voiced consonants: are produced when the vocal cords are vibrating.

e.g.

2. Voiceless consonants: are produced when the vocal cords are not vibrating.

2. How are voiced sounds produced?

When we are producing sounds, the air-stream goes through the vocal cords. If the vocal cords
come together, obstructing the air-stream, the air-stream cannot get out through them freely and it
makes them vibrate, then we have voiced sounds.
e.g. /d/, /v/, /m/

3. How are voiceless sounds produced?

When we are making sounds, the air-stream goes through the vocal cords. If the vocal cords come
apart, they are open. The air-stream can go out through them freely and it does not make them
vibrate, then we have voiceless sounds.
e.g. /s/, /t/, /ß/

• The place of articulation is the location of the obstruction of the air-stream in the articulation of
consonants. It describes the point at which the articulators actually touch or are at their closest. The
most important places of articulation for the production of English consonants are listed in the table
 below.

• Manner of articulation is the way in which the air-stream is obstructed or altered in the production
of speech sounds. It describes the types of obstruction caused by the narrowing or closure of the
articulators.

Phonemes
• A phoneme is the smallest segment of sound which can distinguish two words.
• Take the words ‘pit’ and ‘bit’. These differ only in their initial sound. ‘pit’ begins with /p/ and ‘bit’
begins with
/b/. This is the smallest amount by which these two words could differ and still remain distinct forms. Any
smaller subdivision would be impossible because English doesn’t subdivide /p/ or /b/. Therefore, /p/ and
/b/ are considered two phonemes.
 Phonemes
• There are 44 phonemes in English. They can be divided into two types: consonants (24) and
vowels (20).
• Each phoneme is meaningless in isolation. It becomes meaningful only when it is combined with
other phonemes.
• Phonemes form a set of abstract units that can be used for writing down a language
systemmatically and unambiguously.
• Reasons: A letter can be represented by different sounds.

• A phoneme can be represented by different letters or combinations of letters.

Minimal pairs
• Pair of words such as ‘pit’ and ‘bit’, ‘pit’ and ‘pet’, ‘back’ and ‘bag’ which differ by only one
phoneme in identical environment are known as minimal pairs.

Allophones
• Allophones are the variants of phonemes that occur in speech.
• Reasons: the way a phoneme is pronounced is conditioned by the sounds around it or by its
position in the word. For example: /t/

[t˙] tea

• /t/ [t '] stay

[t-] get there

• A phonemic transcription is a transcription in which each phoneme is represented by one phonemic

symbol. In other words, in a phonemic transcription, every speech sound must be identified as one
of the phonemes and written down with an appropriate symbol.

• A phonetic transcription is a transcription which contains a lot of information about the exact quality of
the sounds. It shows more phonetic detail such as aspiration, length, nasalisation ..., by using a wide
variety of symbols and in many cases diacritics.

SYLLABLES
• , a syllable is a unit which consists of a vowel as the centre and/or consonant(s) before and after
it.
• A syllable can be part of a word or it can coincide with a word.

Syllable onset
• If the first syllable of the word begins with
 • A vowel → Zero Onset
e.g. ease our

• One consonant → initial consonant

e.g. send church

• Two or more consonants together → an initial consonant cluster.

e.g. clear spring

1. Initial two-consonant clusters

• Pre-initial /s/ + initial consonant

e.g. slight smoke

• Initial + post-initial /j, w, l, r/

e.g. queue twin try

2. Initial three-consonant cluster

• Pre-initial /s/ + initial /p, k, t/ + post-initial /l, r, w, j/

e.g. scream stew

squid string
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 • If a syllable ends with:

• A vowel → zero termination

e.g. no car

• A consonant → final consonant

e.g. meal late

• More than one consonant → final consonant cluster

e.g. ask next

tests texts

SYLLABIC CONSONANTS
• Definition:
A syllabic consonant stands as the peak of the syllable instead of a vowel.
It is usual to indicate that a consonant is syllabic by means of a small
vertical mark
1. Word stress: is an extra force put on a
particular syllable of the word. It is usually fixed. For
example:

invite entertain

2. Sentence stress: is an extra force put on a

particular word in a sentence. Sentence stress is not fixed. It
depends on the speaker’s feelings and attitudes and the
message that he wants to get across to the listener. For
example:

John bought a new car yesterday.