43

34. SOUNDS IN CONTEXT.

34.1. Phonemes. The descriptions of sounds you studied – vowels, diphthongs and consonants – refer to the
ideal sounds spoken in isolation “A phoneme may be described roughly as a family of sounds consisting
of an important sound of the language (generally the most frequent used member of that family which is
called the principal member or norm) together with other related sounds which „take its place‟ in
particular sound-sequences or under particular conditions of length or stress or intonation... Phonemes
are capable of distinguishing one word of a language from other words of the same language” (Jones, D.
1967:49, 51).

34.2. Allophones. But when the sounds are in an utterance, in context, they suffer certain modifications
called allophones or subsidiary members that are the realizations of those phonemes in actual speech.
Such modifications are produced in the point, as well as in the manner of articulation and on the vibration
of the vocal cords. The most important allophones in English are produced in consonants. They are
represented with different diacritics or symbols above or below the sound embraced in square brackets.

34.3. Allophones produced in the manner of articulation of consonants.

 [ Pʰ ]Aspiration affects voiceless plosive consonants /p, t, k/ when followed by a vowel in
prominent syllables when not preceded by /s/: /pʰeɪpə/, /tʰɪkɪt/, /kʰæmpɪŋ/. 
BUT:/steɪ/

 [ PL ]Lateral plosion affects any plosive consonant, voiced and voiceless, followed by a lateral
consonant / I / in the same syllable or at syllable boundary: /ətlLæntɪk/, /dedLlaɪn/, /ətL liːst/,
/æpLl/, /lɪtLl/, /iːgLl/, /bʌbLl/

 [ P ̼ ]Nasal plosionaffects any plosive consonant, voiced and voiceless, followed by the nasal
consonants /n/, /m/ in the same syllable or at syllable boundary: /ɪt ̼meɪ bi/, /gɑːd̼n/, /dɪd̼nt/,
/tɒp ̼mɒdl/

 [ P◡P ]No audible plosion: a) When any plosive consonant, voiced or voiceless, is followed by
another plosive consonant of a different point of articulation – non-homorganic – within the word or at
word boundary, the release of the articulators of the former is produced without plosion: /ðæt◡gaɪ/,
/ɪgzæk◡t/, /trʌk◡draɪvə/ 

b)When any plosiveconsonant is followed by a word beginning with /w/,that is, only at word
boundary, e.g. /ʤʌst◡wʌns/, /hɑːd◡wɜːk/, /wɜːld◡waɪd◡web/

However, this allophone is not produced when the plosive and /w/ belong to the same syllable, e.g.
/twenti/, /twaɪs/ 

c) [ P ̚ ] When any plosive consonant is in final position in the utterance, that is, followed by a pause:
/wi hæd ə lɒŋ wiːkend /̚ /aɪ swɪʧt ɒn ðə laɪt /̚ /haʊ meni dɪd hi pɪk /̚

 [ P¯P ]No release: When any plosive consonant is followed by its homorganic plosive, either voiced
or voiceless – both having the same point of articulation, for example /p, b/ the articulators are not
released or separated from its position in order to produce the next homorganic plosive:
/ ʃi əgriːd¯tu/, /hi θɔːt¯tə hɪmself/, bɪg¯keɪs/, /stɒp¯ pleɪɪŋ/
 44

34.4. Allophones produced in the point of articulation of consonants.

a) Alveolar consonants /t, d, n/ are very much influenced by neighbouring consonants. Spanish speakers
must pay close attention to them because some are unusual in their mother tongue.

 [ A̪ ] Dental articulation: When any alveolar consonant is followed, in any context – within the word
or at word boundary – by the dental consonants /θ/or/ð/, the point of articulation of the former
becomes dental. We only mark this allophone for /t, d, n/:
/ ɪn̪ ðə mɪdl/ /send̪ ðəm/ /ɒn̪ ðə sevn̪θ/

 [ Aʳ ] Post-alveolar articulation: When any alveolar plosive consonant is followed by a syllable

beginning with the post-alveolar /r/,and, of course,at word or syllable boundary:
/bedʳruːm/, /bredʳ rəʊl/ /ətʳ rest/

 [ ɬ ] Dark articulation: When / l / is followed by a consonant or when it is in final position in the

word and when it is the nucleus of a syllable (syllabic consonant), it has a retracted articulation.
/ɔːɬweɪz/, /bɔːɬd/, /sentrəɬ/ /gɜːɬ/ /lɪtɬ/

BUT: When the lateral is in final position in a word and it is followed by a word beginning with a
vowel, it becomes „clear‟ because it is the initial consonant of the next syllable /ɔːl əv əs/

b) Other consonants also undergo an influence from their neighbouring consonants:

 [ Nɱ ] Labio-dental articulation: When the nasal consonants /m, n/¸ are followed by the labio-
dentals /f, v/¸ in any context, they are pronounced with labio-dental articulation:
/frəmɱ venɪs/, /ɪnɱfəmeɪʃn/, /ɒnɱ veri fjuː/ /aɪmɱ faɪn/

34.5. Allophones produced in the matter of voicing of consonants.

 Devoicing, i.e., the partial loss of voicing because of the influence of neighbouring sounds or
the silence that occurs at initial position, during pauses and in final position, is the most
frequent allophone you will encounter. It affects only voiced consonants, not vowels.

A voiced consonant, whether within the syllable or at syllable boundary, becomes devoiced
when it is preceded or followed by:
a) a voiceless consonant, e.g.: / kɒnstəntli /, /əʊn pleɪs /
° ° ° ° °
b) a pause (initial, middle and final position), e,g.:
/ wel / aɪ əraɪvd ɪn ðə iːvnɪŋ / ən faʊnd a smɔːl həutəl /
° ° ° ° ° °

 Half-voicing, occurs when voiceless glottal fricative /h/ is preceded and followed by voice
sounds, i.e., the partial voicing of the voiceless glottal fricative /hʱ/, is less frequent and
only affects this phoneme, e.g.:
 45

/ ʃi hʱæz hʱər əʊn hʱəʊm /, / aɪl hʱæv ə hʱʌzbənd hʱu ɪz əz sʌksəsfl /

BUT, once you have marked the half-voicing allophone, you cannot mark devoicing of any
neighbouring voiced consonant also.

Identifying allophones produced in the matter of voicing.

i)  First listening for comprehension:
a)  Before you listen to the text read the following questions. Try to answer them in note
form as you listen.

 What is the man describing?

 Why are the family doing this?

b)   Discuss your answers with your partner and come to an agreement.

ii)   Second listening. On your own, listen to the text again and mark the pauses you hear.

iii)   Third listening. On your own, listen to the text one more time and mark all the point of
articulation allophones using the correct diacritics.

Listen, everyone. Kate will be waiting at the station. She’ll call as soon as Mum has left the
station to say that she’s on her way home. She’s likely to be feeling a bit sad. Now, the
lights are going to be off, and I want everyone to hide in the kitchen with the food and
drink. The kids can go behind the sofa – not a sound, OK… so when Mum opens the door
and walks into the sitting room, everyone will shout ‘Happy retirement!’.

34.5 On your own. Mark the allophones on the texts below|

Text Nº 1:













 46

34.5.1 Transcribe the text above in normal spelling.

Text Nº 2:












Text Nº 3
/











