Speech Sounds in English-Vowel Sounds-Diphthongs & Consonant Sounds-Phon...

Chapter: I- Speech Sounds

 First of all, we come to know from this chapter that in English language, many a time the letters of the Alphabet used to make words do not match the speech sounds produced by them. This fact leads to a lot of difficulty for the learner of English, as a second language, in the beginning.

 

For example, the letters ‘gh’ sometimes produce ‘ph’ / f / as in laugh /lɑːf/, rough /rʌf/, though: /ðəʊ/, ghost: /ɡəʊst/, etc.

 

 But this problem has been solved by the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA).

Now we can easily understand the correct pronunciation of words by reading the phonetic transcription given in dictionaries these days.

What is Phonetics?

According to Professor Peter N. Ladefoged, Phonetics is the ‘the study of speech sounds and their physiological production and acoustic qualities.’

 What is Phonetic Transcription?

This is the visual representation of speech sounds that is made in accordance with the IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet). This is used everywhere in the world to understand the speech sounds represented by the alphabet of English language.

 

What is Phoneme : /ˈfəʊ.niːm/?

 

A phoneme is the smallest possible unit of speech sound. Phonemes are combined to form meaningful units called words.

 

Examples:

 

 

Words	Sounds
Tail/fail       Miss/Hiss Hat/Sat	/teɪl/: /feɪl/ /mɪs/ /hɪs/ /hæt/ /sæt/

/b/    b, bb               ball, blubber

 

/d/ d, dd, ed            dog,  ladder, pulled

 

/f/ f, ph                    Fish, phone

 

/g/ g, gg              Go, egg

 

Q. How many phonemic sounds are there in English?

Ans. In English language, there are 44 phonemic sounds. These include 12 vowel sounds, 8 diphthongs and 24 consonant sounds.

Q. How many vowels sounds are there in English?

Ans. There are 20 vowel sounds including 12 vowel sounds, 8 diphthongs in English.

Q. How many consonant sounds are there in English?

Ans. There are 24 consonant sounds in English language.

 

Let’s discuss them in detail: Vowel Sounds: In Spoken English language, a vowel sound is produced by keeping the vocal tract open. (A)Phonetic symbols for vowels (12):

 1. /i:/ heap, sleep weep, meat

2. / ɪ/ - hit, shit, kit

3. /e/ - red, head, ten 4. /ə/- about, leather, weather

5. /ɜː/- gird, bird, curd

6. / æ/- fat, glad, bag

7. / ʌ /- us, bus, hush

8. /ɑː/- smart, heart, army 

9. / ʊ/ - good, book, foot

10. /u:/ - shoot, root, hoot

11. /ɒ/- job, got, modern

12. /ɔː/ -shore, more, store