208 CHAPTER 5 Phonetics: The Sounds of Language

linguists therefore denote these sounds as [eɪ] and [oʊ] in a narrower tran-
scription. In this book we will stay with [e] and [o] for these vowel sounds.

Nasalization of Vowels
Vowels, like consonants, can be produced with a raised velum that prevents
the air from escaping through the nose, or with a lowered velum that permits
air to pass through the nasal passage. When the nasal passage is blocked, oral
vowels result; when the nasal passage is open, nasal (or nasalized) vowels re-
sult. In English, nasal vowels occur for the most part before nasal consonants
in the same syllable, and oral vowels occur in all other places.
The words bean, bone, bingo, boom, bam, and bang are examples of words
that contain nasalized vowels. To show the nasalization of a vowel in a narrow
phonetic transcription, an extra mark called a diacritic—the symbol ~ (tilde)
in this case—is placed over the vowel, as in bean [bĩn] and bone [bõn].
In languages like French, Polish, and Portuguese, nasalized vowels occur
without nasal consonants. The French word meaning ‘sound’ is son [sõ]. The n
in the spelling is not pronounced but indicates that the vowel is nasal.

Tense and Lax Vowels

Figure 5.5 shows that the vowel [i] has a slightly higher tongue position than
[ɪ]. This is also true for [e] and [ɛ]; and [u] and [ʊ]. The first vowel in each
pair is generally produced with greater tension of the tongue muscles than its
counterpart, and it is often a little longer in duration. These vowels can be
distinguished by the features tense and lax, as shown in the first three rows of
the following:

Tense Lax
i beat ɪ bit
e bait ɛ bet
u boot ʊ put
o boat ʌ hut
ɔ saw æ hat
a pa ə about
aɪ high
aʊ how
ɔɪ boy

Tense vowels may occur at the ends of words: [si], [se], [su], [so], [sɔ],
[pa], [saɪ], [haʊ], and [sɔɪ] represent the English words see, say, sue, sew, saw,
pa, sigh, how, and soy. Lax vowels do not ordinarily occur at the ends of words:
[sɪ], [sɛ], [sʊ], [sʌ], [sæ], and [sə] are not possible words in English.

Major Phonetic Classes

Biologists divide life forms into larger and smaller classes. They may distin-
guish between animals and plants; within animals, between vertebrates and in-
vertebrates; and within vertebrates, between mammals and reptiles; and so on.

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 Major Phonetic Classes 209

Linguists describe speech sounds similarly. All sounds are consonant sounds
or vowel sounds, though some play dual roles. Within consonants, all are
voiced or unvoiced, and so on. All the classes of sounds described so far in this
chapter combine to form larger, more general classes that are important in the
patterning of sounds in the world’s languages.

Noncontinuants and Continuants

Stops and affricates belong to the class of noncontinuants. There is a total
obstruction of the airstream in the oral cavity. Nasal stops are included, al-
though air does flow continuously out the nose. All other consonants, and all
vowels, are continuants, in which the stream of air flows continuously out of
the mouth.

Obstruents and Sonorants

The non-nasal stops, the fricatives, and the affricates form a major class of
sounds called obstruents. The airstream may be fully obstructed, as in non-
nasal stops and affricates, or nearly fully obstructed, as in the production of
fricatives.
Sounds that are not obstruents are sonorants. Vowels, nasal stops [m], [n],
and [ŋ], liquids [l] and [r], and glides [j] and [w] are all sonorants. They are
produced with much less obstruction to the flow of air than the obstruents,
which permits the air to resonate. Nasal stops are sonorants because, although
the air is blocked in the mouth, it continues to resonate in the nasal cavity.

Consonantal Sounds
Obstruents, nasal stops, liquids, and glides are all consonants. There is some
degree of restriction to the airflow in articulating these sounds. With glides
([j], [w]), however, the restriction is minimal, and they are the most vowel-
like, and the least consonant-like, of the consonants. Glides may even be re-
ferred to as “semivowels” or “semi-consonants.” In recognition of this fact,
linguists place the obstruents, nasal stops, and liquids in a subclass of conso-
nants called consonantal, from which the glides are excluded.
Here are some other terms used to form subclasses of consonantal sounds.
These are not exhaustive, nor are they mutually exclusive (e.g., the interden-
tals belong to two subclasses). A full course in phonetics would note further
classes that we omit.
Labials [p] [b] [m] [f] [v] [w] [ʍ] Labial sounds are those articulated
with the involvement of the lips. They include the class of bilabial sounds [p],
[b], and [m], the labiodentals [f] and [v], and the labiovelars [w] and [ʍ].

Coronals [θ] [ð] [t] [d] [n] [s] [z] [ʃ] [ӡ] [ʧ] [ʤ] [l] [r] Coronal
sounds are articulated by raising the tongue blade. Coronals include the in-
terdentals [θ] and [ð], the alveolars [t], [d], [n], [s], and [z], the palatals [ʃ]
and [ӡ], the affricates [ʧ] and [ʤ], and the liquids [l] and [r].

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 210 CHAPTER 5 Phonetics: The Sounds of Language

Anteriors [p] [b] [m] [f] [v] [θ] [ð] [t] [d] [n] [s] [z] Anterior sounds
are consonants produced in the front part of the mouth, that is, from the alveo-
lar area forward. They include the labials, the interdentals, and the alveolars.
Sibilants [s] [z] [ʃ] [ӡ] [ʧ] [ʤ] This class of consonantal sounds is char-
acterized by an acoustic rather than an articulatory property of its members.
The friction created by sibilants produces a hissing sound, which is a mixture
of high-frequency sounds.

Syllabic Sounds
Sounds that may function as the core of a syllable possess the feature syllabic.
Clearly vowels are syllabic, but they are not the only sound class that anchors
syllables.
Liquids and nasals may also be syllabic, as shown by the words dazzle
[dæzl ̩], faker [fekr̩], rhythm [rɪðm̩ ], and wagon [wægn̩]. (The diacritic mark un-
der the [l ̩], [r̩], [m̩ ], and [n̩] is the notation for syllabic.) Placing a schwa [ə]
before the syllabic liquid or nasal also shows that these are separate syllables.
The four words could be written as [dæzəl], [fekər], [rɪðəm], and [wægən].
We will use this transcription. Similarly, the vowel sound in words like bird
and verb are sometimes written as a syllabic r: [br̩d] and [vr̩b]. For consistency
we shall transcribe these words using the schwa—[bərd] and [vərb]—the only
instances where a schwa represents a stressed vowel.
Obstruents and glides are never syllabic sounds because an obstruent or glide
is always accompanied by a vowel, and that vowel functions as the syllabic core.

Prosodic Features

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Length, pitch, and stress (or “accent”) are prosodic or suprasegmental fea-
tures. They are features over and above the segmental values such as place or
manner of articulation, thus the supra- in suprasegmental. The term prosodic
comes from poetry, where it refers to the metrical structure of verse. One of
the essential characteristics of poetry is the placement of stress on particular
syllables, which defines the versification of the poem.

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Editorial review has deemed that any suppressed content does not materially affect the overall learning experience. Cengage Learning reserves the right to remove additional content at any time if subsequent rights restrictions require it.