INTRODUCTION TO LINGUISTICS & PHONETICS - CLASSIFICATION AND DESCRIPTION OF SPEECH SOUNDS: ENGLISH CONSONANTS

INTRODUCTION TO LINGUISTICS & PHONETICS - CLASSIFICATION AND DESCRIPTION OF SPEECH SOUNDS: ENGLISH CONSONANTS 

**** Consonant is a speech sound produced by completely or partly stopping the air being breathed out through the mouth. (Homby: Oxford Advanced Learner's A Dictionary) 

**** Consonant is a speech sound which is pronounced by stopping the air from flowing easily through the mouth, especially by closing the lips or touching the teeth with the tongue. (Cambridge University Press. : Cambridge Advanced Learner's Dictionary). 

**** English consonants are described by the IPA (International Phonetics Alphabets) based on: A. Voicing: B. Place of articulation; and C. Manner of articulation. 

*** Voicing: The aspects of voicing are: voiced consonants (those created by the vibration of the vocal cords during production); and voiceless consonants (those created by the absence of vibration of the vocal cords during production) 

***In phonetic chart of the English consonants, where symbols appear in pairs, the one to the right represents a voiced consonant Place of Articulation: Place of articulation refers to the places where the air stream from the lungs or the sound stream from the larynx is constricted (limited) by the articulators &Manner of Articulation: Manner of articulation refers to how the air stream from the lungs is directed to the mouth and modified by the various structures to produce a consonant phoneme. The Description of Manner of Articulation: Plosive Produced by the obstruction of air stream from the lungs followed by a release of the air stream. Such as: [p, b, t, d, k, g] Nasal Produced by the release of the air through the nasal cavity, Such as: [m Fricative Produced by the release of a friction like noise" created by the [f. air stream escaping through a variant of narrow gaps in the mouth Such as: v,0,0, s,z.J.3.h] Lateral Approximate Produced by the obstruction of the air stream at a point along the center of the oral track, with incomplete closure between one or both sides of the tongue and the roof of the tongue. Such as (1) 

Approximate Produced by proximity (closeness) of two articulation without turbulence (hard movement and friction like noise).Such as: [w, I (r), j] 

Affricate Produced by involving more than one of those manners of articulation. Firstly, produce the sounds in the alveolar ridge, then followed by or combined with fricative sounds. Such as: [tf, d3] 

Thus the description of a consonant will include five kinds of information: 

(1) the nature of the air-stream mechanism; 

(2) the state of the glottis; 

(3) the position of soft palate (velum): 

(4) the articulators involved; and 

(5) the nature of the stricture.

INTRODUCTION TO LINGUISTICS & PHONETICS - CLASSIFICATION AND DESCRIPTION OF SPEECH SOUNDS: ENGLISH CONSONANTS

INTRODUCTION TO LINGUISTICS & PHONETICS - MECHANISM OF SPEECH PRODUCTION

INTRODUCTION TO LINGUISTICS & PHONETICS - MECHANISM OF SPEECH PRODUCTION

Speech mechanism is a complex process unique to humans. It involves the brain, the neural network, the respiratory organs, the larynx, the oral cavity, the nasal cavity and the organs in the mouth. Through speech production humans engage in verbal communication Since earliest times efforts have been made to comprehend the mechanism of speech In 1791 Wolfgang von Kempelen made the first speech synthesizer. In the first few decades of the twentieth century scientific inventions such as x-ray, spectrograph, and voice recorders provided new tools for the study of speech mechanism. In the later part of the twentieth century electronic innovations were followed by the digital revolution in technology. These developments have made new revelations and have given new direction to the knowledge of human speech mechanism In the digital world an understanding of speech mechanism has led to new applications in speech synthesis. Speech mechanism studies in present times are divided into areas of super specialization which focus intensively on any specialized attribute of speech mechanism.

   

INTRODUCTION TO LINGUISTICS & PHONETICS - MECHANISM OF SPEECH PRODUCTION

INTRODUCTION TO LINGUISTICS & PHONETICS - BASIC CONCEPTS IN LINGUISTICS

INTRODUCTION TO LINGUISTICS & PHONETICS - BASIC CONCEPTS IN LINGUISTICS

This module presented such concepts in Linguistics that are basic and integral. This module divided these concepts according to their relevance to various sub fields of Linguistics. At first the module illustrated the concepts that are pertinent to general and applied linguistics. Next, it offered the concepts relevant to phonetics and phonology. After that it discussed the concepts belonging to the areas of morphology and syntax. Finally, it presented the concepts of semantics, pragmatics and discourse.

INTRODUCTION TO LINGUISTICS & PHONETICS - BASIC CONCEPTS IN LINGUISTICS

INTRODUCTION TO LINGUISTICS & PHONETICS - MAJOR SCHOOLS OF LINGUISTIC STUDY

INTRODUCTION TO LINGUISTICS & PHONETICS - MAJOR SCHOOLS OF LINGUISTIC STUDY 

Swiss linguist Ferdinand de Saussure is sometimes though of as the father of modern linguistics. Although Saussure was well known in his lifetime for his work in the history of Indo-European, his most influential work was not published until after his death when some of his students got together and, on the basis of their lecture notes, reconstructed the course in linguistics that he had taught in Geneva. The Cours de linguistique générale (Saussure 1969 [1916]) became one of the key texts in linguistics, and ushered in the era of structuralism. Which we might argue continues today. Saussure says there are two sides to generally used in English, they language: langue and parole. While the French terms are sometimes translated as language and speech respectively, though not without some danger of ambiguity. We have Functionalism, Gestalt psychology, Psychoanalysis, Behaviorism. Humanistic Psychology and Cognitivism as well to understand this concept.

INTRODUCTION TO LINGUISTICS & PHONETICS - MAJOR SCHOOLS OF LINGUISTIC STUDY

INTRODUCTION TO LINGUISTICS & PHONETICS - LEVELS AND SCOPE OF LINGUISTICS

INTRODUCTION TO LINGUISTICS & PHONETICS - LEVELS AND SCOPE OF LINGUISTICS 

The main scope of linguistics is Language. Linguists differ according to what they consider as included in the scope of linguistic studies. Some consider the proper area of linguistics to be confined to the levels of phonology, morphology and syntax. This can be called a Micro-linguistic perspective. However, some take a broader, or macro-linguistic view that includes the other levels of analysis mentioned above, as well as other aspects of language and its relationship with many areas of human activity. Phonetics is the study of human sounds and phonology is the classification of the sounds within the system of a particular language or languages. Phonetics is divided into three types according to the production (articulatory), transmission (acoustic) and perception (auditive) of sounds. Three categories of sounds must be recognised at the outset: phones (human sounds), phonemes (units which distinguish meaning in a language), allophones (non-distinctive unit). Sounds can be divided into consonant and vowels. The former can be characterized according to 1) place 2) manner of articulation and 3) voice (voiceless or voiced). For vowels one uses a coordinate system called a vowel quadrangle within which actual vowel values are located Phonotactics deals with the combinations of sounds possible and where sounds can occur in a syllable. The major structure for the organization of sounds is the syllable. It consists of an onset (beginning), a rhyme (everything after the beginning) which can be sub-divided into a nucleus (vowel or vowel-like center) and a coda (right- edge). Prosody is concerned with features of words and sentences above the level of individual sounds, e.g. Stress, pitch, intonation. Stress is frequently contrastive in English. The unstressed syllables of English show characteristic phonetic reduction and words containing this are called weak forms. It is essential to distinguish between writing and sound. There are various terms (homophony, homography, homonymy) to characterize the relationship between the written and the spoken form of words depending on what the match between the two is like.

 
INTRODUCTION TO LINGUISTICS & PHONETICS - LEVELS AND SCOPE OF LINGUISTICS