Mrs. Clarinda M.

Estrella Speech Communication

The sounds of General American English are classified into three namely:
1. Vowels (11) 2. Diphthongs (3) 3. Consonants (25)

THE ENGLISH VOWELS

Vowels are sounds which are produced with the vibration of air in the oral cavity All vowel sounds are voiced oral sounds The relationship of the vowels to one another is shown by the device known as the Vietor Triangle

VIETOR TRIANGLE
is a vowel triangle which shows the differences among the vowel sounds in English and their relative positions on the tongue
-

Contains two axes: a. horizontal axis from front to back of the mouth (front, center, back) b. vertical axis from the floor to the roof of the mouth (high, mid, low)

When a speaker enunciates a vowel, his or her air flow remains unblocked. This table, containing American English vowels, explains that the degree of elevation of a speakers tongue determines the sound of the spoken vowel.

VOWEL SOUNDS:
1. /iy/ - beat, me, key, seed, chief 2. /i/ - sit, give, rid, pick, live 3. /ey/ - ate, ray, face, weigh, great 4. /e/ - met, let, head, less, tell 5. /ae/ - cat, am, bag, land, class

6. /a/ - pot, block, got, cop, lost 7. / / - ball, talk, saw, draw, dawn 8. /ow/ - hope, go, wrote, home, soak 9. /u/ - look, good, would, sure, bush 10. /uw/ - moon, blue, rule, chew, suit 11. / / - luck, must, touch, gone, cup

VOWEL SOUND PRODUCTION

1.

TONGUE POSITION OR ADVANCEMENT refers to the part of the tongue that is most active in the production of vowels. Vowels are described in relation to the highest point of the hump formed. TONGUE AND JAW HEIGHT refers to the degree of closeness of the lower jaw to the upper or the tongue to the palate

2.

3. LIP POSITION refers to the amount of rounding or spreading of the lips.

a. rounded when the corners are brought forward b. unrounded (spread) when the corners are pulled back 4. TENSION refers to the degree to which the muscles of the speech tract are tense or lax during sound production 5. LENGTH refers to the duration (long or short) the vowel is held in a certain position

B. DIPHTHONGS
are those sounds which combine two vowel sounds and which blend them into one within a syllable
- Some

vowel sounds have diphthongal quality - Tend to be long because of the time needed to glide forward to another position

DIPHTHONG SOUNDS:
1. /ai/ - time, might, sigh, pie, height, rhyme, pint, fly guide, aisle, sigh, fried, buy, climb 2. / i/ - point, oil, soil, joy, ploy, coin, join, moist, poise, noise, voice, annoy, buoy 3. /au/ - now, brown, sound, blouse, mouth, plow, crown, ouch, howl, bough, proud, out

C. CONSONANTS

a consonant is a speech sound used with a vowel or diphthong to constitute a syllable

Consonant

sounds are those sounds which are produced with the partial or complete obstruction of the air column by some parts of the speech apparatus

In order to vocalize a consonant, a speaker must constrict his or her air flow at some point in the delivery, using either the tongue, mouth or throat. The table showing American English Consonants indicates the part of the mouth or throat in which each sound is produced.

CONSONANT SOUND PRODUCTION

A.

VOICING Voiced sounds are pronounced with the vibration of the vocal cords Voiceless sounds pronounced without the vibration of the vocal cords

THE CONSONANT SOUNDS OF ENGLISH CLASSIFIED ACCORDING TO VOICING:

1.

VOICED /p/ pen, /t/ ten, /k/ cod, /f/ fine, /th/ thigh, /s/ sue, /sh/ mission, /ch/ chew, /h/ hot VOICED /b/ Ben, /d/ den, /g/ God, /v/ vine, /dh/ thy, /z/ zoo, /zh/ vision, /j/ jew, /m/ men, /n/ neck, /ng/ bring, /l/ let, /r/ right, /y/ you, /w/ water, /hw/ what

2.

B. NATURE OR OBSTRUCTION OR MANNER OF ARTICULATION

1.

STOPS are the passage with a build the closure breath

produced by stopping of the breath stream up of pressure behind before releasing the vl /p/ vd & /b/ /t/ & /d/ /k/ & /g/

Bilabial stops Alveolar stops Velar stops

2. FRICATIVES are continuants produced when the air stream is not completely stopped but passes through with friction or a hissing sound
vl Labiodental fricatives /f/ & Dental fricatives // & Alveolar fricatives /s/ & Post alveolar fricatives /r/ Palatal fricatives // & Glottal fricatives /h/ vd /v/ // /z/ /dz/

3. AFFRICATES are produced when a stop combines with a fricative. Like fricatives, they are also continuants. They may be prolonged as long as the speaker wishes.
Alveolar affricates /t/ & /dz/

4. NASALS are produced with the air stream passing through the nose rather than the mouth Bilabial nasal Alveolar nasal Velar nasal /m/ /n/ //

5. LATERAL is produced when the air stream is stopped in the center by the tip of the tongue against the alveolar ridge, while the air passes along one or both sides of the tongue
Alveolar lateral /l/

6. SEMI-VOWELS in their production, there is lack of friction and the sounds are vowel-like in their voicing but they function as consonants Bilabial Palatal /w/ - wear, win /wh/ - why /y/ - new, view

C. POINT OF ARTICULATION refers to upper parts of the mouth which lowers parts (articulators) come contact with the production of consonant sound
1.

the the in the

BILABIAL when the lower lip touches the upper lip to produce the consonant sound * /p/, /b/, /m/ & /w/

2. LABIO-DENTAL when the lower lip comes in contact with the upper front teeth * /f/ & /v/

3. DENTAL when the approach the upper teeth * // & //

lower

teeth

4. ALVEOLAR when the tip of the tongue is raised close to the toothridge or the back of the upper front teeth * /t/ & /d/
5. POST ALVEOLAR when the tip of the tongue is articulated against the back part of the alveolar ridge * /r/

6. PALATAL when the tongue is arched towards the hard palate * //

7. VELARS when the back of the tongue closes against the velum or soft palate * /k/ 8. GLOTTAL when friction is produced by the air passing through the glottis * /h/