DAN

MATEESCO

ENGLISH PHOMETIiCS

2 0 th Century Approaches

E d i t n r a U n i v e r s i t t i i di u B a c u r e ^ t i
- 2003 -

C onf. dr. DeanaBaciu

C onf. dr. A n drei A A vram

F L e ie re n i t i i n i f i c i:

Editura. U n iv e rs it ii din B u cu reti

os. Panduri, 90 -92 , B u cu reti - 76235; T e lefo n / F a x : 4 1 0 . z j .84
E -m a ii: e d itu ra @ u n ib u c .ro
In te r n e t w w w .ed itu ra -u n ib u c.ro

Tehnoredactare computerizat: V ictoria Jacob

Descrierea CEP a Bibliotecii Naionale

m ateescd, a n
English phonetics and phonological theory: 20-th
century approaches / Dan MatefiSCU
Bucureti: Eclituaa Universitii din Bucureti,
2002

208 p.

Bibiiogr.
ISBN 973-575-670-6
-IT ITT '34

H eaven and earth shall pass away, but m y w ords shall not pass
away. (M atthew , 24, 35)
Polom us: W hat do you read, m y lord?
H am let: W ords, w ords, w ords (Hamlet, H, 2 )
The other (p roject) was a schem e fo r en tirely abolishing all
words whatsoever: and this was urged as a great advantage in p oin t o f
health, as w ell as brevity. For, it is plain, that every w ord w e speak is
in- som e degree a dim inution o f our lungs b y corrosion; and
consequently contributes to the shortening o f our lives. A n expedient
was therefore offered, that since w ords are on ly names fo r things, it
w ill be m ore convenient fo r all m en to carry about them, such things
as w ere necessary to express the particular business they are to
discourse on. (S w ift, G u llivers Travels. A Voyage to B alnibarbi)
L a parole a t donne l hom m e pour dguiser sa pense.
(Talleyrand)
The Bystanders generally: H e wants prom otion, he does.
Taking dow n p eop le s w ords.
The G e n t le m a n : H ow do y o n do that, i f I m ay aslc?
The N o te Taken Sim ply phonetics. T h e science o f speech.
Thai s m y profession: also m y hobby. H appy is the man w ho can
make a livin g by his hobby.
(G . B . Shaw, Pygmalion, I, 1)

To m y d a u gliter. Cristina.

'
i

CONTENTS
Acknow ledgem ents ..................................................... .........................................

C h ap ter 1: In trod u ction ______________ ________________________________________

1.1.

]3

Language a fundamental dimension o f our existence ........

13

1.2- The lost paradise o f die original linguistic unity. The B ab el

myth and subsequent n o s ta lg ia ..................................................
I B . Language as sound and meaning. The linguistic sign. Ferdi
nand de Saussnre and Louis H je lm s le v ................................. ..

. 17

1.4. Language in the process o f communication ...............................

1.5. Language and writing .................................................................

24
27

]5

C h a p te r2 : A rticulatory, A uditory and A cou stic Phonetics. P lio n o lo g }'

2.1. Phonetics and p h o n o lo g y .................. .........................................
2.2. Articulatory phonetics ............................................... ................
2.3. Auditory p h onetics................ ......................................................
2.4. Acoustic phonetics.......................................................................
2.5. Synchronic, diachronic, comparative p h o n o lo g y .......................

33
33
35
43
47
54

2.6. Varieties o f E n glish The international spread o f English.

R egional variation. Accents. Standard English and R eceived
Pronunciation. ...........................
2.7. Sound Change. The gap between spelling and pronunciation.

54

The International Phonetic A lp h a b et Homonyms, hom o

phones, hom ographs._________________________________________

59

C h ap ter 3 : The Sounds o f E nglish. Consonants and Vowels. A n A rticu

latory Classification and D escription. A coustic Correlates ______
3.1. Consonants arid Vow els. Traditional distinctions. Chomsky

63

and H alles SPE definition ......................................................

(S3

3.2. Criteria fo r consonant classification. V ocal cord vibration.

3.3. Manner o f articulation. Plosives. Fricatives. A ffr ic a te s ............

66
61

3.4. Sonarants. Th e Approximants: glides and liquids ....................

3.5. Oral andnasal articulation.............................................. ...........
3.6. Force o f articulation................................................................ .

69
70
70

3.7. Place o f articulation........................................ ............... ............

3.8. The Description o f English consonants ............ ................... .....

71
74

S o n o rity .....................................................................................

C h a p ter

4:

A The A pproxim ants .................. .............................................

74

B. The English S top s ...............................- ................................

77

C- The English F rica tiv e s .................................................. - .....

81

D . The English A ffrica te s .................................. - ....................

85

The

Vowels o f English. A n A rticulatory

Classification.

A coustic Correlates. The D escription and D istribution o f

English M onophthongs and Diphthongs ---------------------------

89

4.1. The Y o v e ls : Criteria fo r Classifi c a tio n ------------------- :---------

89

42.. The Cardinal V ow el Charts ----- --------------------------- ----------4 3 . English V ow els. The description and distribution o f English
monophthongs and diphthongs ------------------------ -------- ------

94

A English simple vow els

a. English o a r vow els

____ ________ _____________________

--------- --------------------- ------ ---- -

b. English back vow els __ ___________________________ ____

98

98
98
100

c. English central vow els ................................... ................

102

B . English diphthongs.......................... ....................................

104

a. Centring diphthongs............................. ..........__________

105

b. Diphthongs to i l l .............................................................

107

. TT'phthongs to I \il ..........................................................

108

C. English .'xiphthongs....... ....................... .........................

109

C h ap ter 5: Ph on ologica l structure: The Phonem e and its aliaphones.

Segm ental specification: D istinctive Features in various phono

lo g ica l th eories ______________ ___________________________ _______

Ill

5.1. hidividnal sounds and classes o f sounds. The phoneme and

its contrastive function .................. .................. ........................

111

5.2. Allophones. Complementary distribution and free variation .'

5.3. The phonological idiosyncrasy o f linguistic system s_________

114
116

5.4.. Broad an dn airow tran scrip tion__________________________

5.5. Segmental and suprasegmental p h o n em es___________________

118
118

5.6. From the minimal unit o f linguistic analysis to the-bundle o f

distinctive features____________________________________________

119

5.7. Jakobson and H alle s feature s y s te m ________________________

5.8. Chomsky and H alle s distinctive featu res___________ ___ _____

123
126

5.9. Ladefbged s feature s y s te m _________________________________

5.10. The .use-of features fo r segmental specification and fo r the

132

description o f phonological processes ...__________________ ___

] ~g

C h a p te r 6: Segm ental change: cm outline o f some o f the m ost com m on

p h on olog ica lprocesses __________________________________________

6.1. Sounds in connected speed. Coarticulation____ ______________

141
141

6.2. Feature Changes. Assimilation. D ifferent types o f assimilation-

143

6 3 . V oicin g arid devoicing .............................................. .................

144

6.4.

146

N asa liza tio n ............................ ........... ................ ................ ....

49
152
] 54
57

6.5. Palatalization ..................................................................................

6 .6 . Lenitions and fo r tltio iis ............ .....................................................

6.7. Delitions and insertions ................................................................

6.8. M etath esis............... ............. .........................................................

C h ap ter 7: Beyond the segm ent- Syllable stru ctu re in E n glish .....................
7.1.

The

Syllable;

fundamental

p h onological

unit in

159

any

language. A tentative d e fin itio n ..................................................

59

7.2. T h e structure o f the syllable. Phonotactic constraints ...............

162

7 3 The importance o f segmental son ority fo r the syllable structure

7.4.

Constraints on o n s e ts .................................................................
7 3 . Constraints on c o d a s .....................................................................

171
~3
7 7

7.6. Syllabic consonants. N on -vo ca iic nuclei ....................................

7.7. Syllabification in English ............................................................

1 82
1 82

C h ap ter S: Suprasegm atialPhonology-. Stress, Rhythm , In to n a tio n ..........

t S7

5.1. Stess and prominence. T h e phonem ic (contrastive) function o f

stress.............................................................................................

87

8.2. Free stress and fix e d stress. T h e predictability o f accentual

patterns.................................... ....................................................

g o

S 3 . M etric patterns________________ ....................................................

gtj

8.4. M orphological processes and stress s h ift ....................................

19 ]

8.5. Prim ary and secondary stress.......................................................

192

8. 6. W e a k and strong forms. V o w e l reduction and d e iitio n .............

5.7. Rhythm ..........................................................................................
5.8. Intonational contours. T h eir pragm atic value ...........................

193
i 94

Bibliography

............ - ............... - ...... :.................................................................

95
199

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
It has lo n g been a custom to p re fix to any product o f our m in d
a lon g ( i f n ot altogether endless) lis t o f gratefu l thanks to the p e o p l e
w ho have assisted the author in brin gin g the respective w o r k into th e
w orld. H ow ever lon g the lis t m ay be, the author is u s u a lly c a r e f u l
and cautiously adds that i f som eone w as le ft o u t t h is w a s on b y
because o f an unexplainable and unpardonable slip o f t h e m e m o r y o r
because, i f exhaustive, the list w ou ld n ever e n d , in d e e d .
Consequently, excuses axe made in advance to preven t r e a c t io n s as
that o f the e v il (because disgruntled) fa iry in the fam ous S l e e p i n g
Beauty story. The list is also an opportunity o f d i s p l a y i n g th e
numerous intellectu al a ffin ities that the authors have a n d a w o n d e r f u l
occasion o f introducing th eir fa m ily to the p o t e n t i a l .r e a d e r ,
undoubtedly ignorant o f the author s luck o f having such u n iq u e a n d
w onderful p eop le around.
Though m y intellectual and em otional debts are as g r e a t as a n y
persons, I w ou ld rather not begin b y thanking Plato a n d m y g r e a tgrandparents fo r their contribution in shaping m y m ind or m y b e in g . 1
w ill m ention on ly three persons to whom I fe e l im m ensely in d e b t e d
not only fo r their help during the various stages in the c o m p o s i t i o n o f
this book, hut also fo r the feet that'they have always stood b y m e tcin
m y m ost need as K n ow ledge allegedly stands b y E v e r y m a n . I a m
grateful to professor Alexandra Conrilescu fo r h er constant affection,
generous friendship and uninterrupted guidance; to professor B e a n a
B acill fo r her friendship, encouragement and advice; and last, but n o t
least, to A n drei A . Avram fo r being a liv in g p r o o f that seJUsSS
friendship, n ob ility o f character and intellectual excellence c a n c o e x is t
in the same person.

CHAPTER 1

INTRODUCTION
1 .1 .

L a n g u a g e a fu n d a m e n t a l d im e n s io n o f o a r
e x is te n c e

The study o f language has been a constant preoccupation w ith

m ore or less professional researchers fo r thousands o f years. Since the
earliest tim es, m uch before the birth o f lingu istics as a distinct
scholarly discipline, peop le have been a w e

o f the essential role

language plays n ot on ly in th eir eveiyd a y life ,

but also

as a

characteristic feature o f mankind, rad ically differentiating human

beings fe r n

other species o f the anim al kingdom . T h e earliest

religions or sacred texts record the im portance g iven b y our ancestors

to language and their consciousness o f the fe et that human existence
its e lf cannot be conceived o f outside the dom ain o f language. I f w e
w ere to refer on ly to the b ib lica l tradition, the- very beginning o f the

Book o f the Genesis records the fe e t that the act o f creation its e lf is
intim ately linked to speech The creation o f ligh t is achieved through a
speech act w h ile all the subsequent stages o f creation are preceded by
G ods form ulating H is idea about what H e was g o in g to achieve, the
creation proper only taking place- after G od pronounces the m agic
form ula: L et there b e ... 1 The n ew ly created realities need names
and God, ex p licitly satisfied w ith H is w ork, duly proceeds to the
naming o f H is w orld. Creation is therefore preceded by, perform ed
through, and fo llo w e d

by,

a lin gu istic

anticipates, m aterializes and com pletes i t

expression,

w hich

thus

A fte r the creation o f man,

1 A n d God said L e t there be light and there was light . . . A n d G od said j

L e t there be a firm am ent ...A n d G od m ade the firm am ent... A n d G o d called the 1
firmament Heaven (Genesis, 1 , 4, 6,7,8)

13 I

rested the other liv in g creatures and aslced man to fin d names
- Thus Adam , w ho is made in the im age o f God takes over
im the im portant role o f instituting realities by m eans-of
ge. The very act o f creation cannot consequently he separated
hat o f nam ing -whatever has come to have existence, since
t a name the n ew ly created realities dont achieve a fu ll
gica l status. Th e Gospel o f Saint John notoriously begins by.
n m g the divine creator o f the universe w ith the word , the Greek

-lo g o s (w ord) being actually a synonym fo r G od (m ore precisely

3 c o f the Persons in the Trinity, H is son, Jesus Christ), fox the
2

o f whatever exists.*3 The essence o f the m yth seems thus to be

ne w hole w orld around us is language-based and that language is

Lly the very source o f the existence o f the w hole universe. A
__rse outside language, a universe w here realities don t have
s , seems to be an utter im possibility.
The fact that language acts as a fundamental link between
rives and the w orld around us and that in the absence o f language
elation to the universe and to our fellow s is dram atically impaired
lething that people have been (at least intu itively) aware o f since
begin n in g o f history. S u ffice it to m ention that different cultures
3

to associate speech problem s w ith intellectual deficiencies. See,

exam ple, the m eaning o f dumb (stupid) in English or the pretty

lar situation o f w ords lik e balbtut or ford in Romanian.The
_n o f language (b elieved to be divine in m ost ancient cultures), the
io n between language and thinking, the question i f w e can think
tout the help o f language (and i f w e can, what kind o f thinking, is

3 , the manner in w hich human beings (w ho are not, obviously,

w ith the ability to speak, but'have, how ever, an innate capacity

1 A n d oat o f fe e ground fe e Lo rd G od formed every beast o f fe e field, and

fo w l o f fe e air; and brought them unto Adam to see what he w ould call themwhatsoever Adam called every liv in g creature, feat was fe e name th ereof
= s e s i s , 2, 19)
3 In the beginning was fee W ord, and fe e W ord was w ife God, and fee
d was God. The W o rd was in fe e beginning w ife God. A l l fe e things were made
dm: and without Mm was not anything made feat was made (John, 1 , 1-3)

fo r language acquisition)

com e,

w ith

an

am azing rapidity,

to

successfully use language, beginning w ith the v s iy firs t stages o f their

existence (the acquisition of language actually parallels the birth o f the
childs self-consciousness and the latter can hardly be im agined
without the form er) have pu zzled researchers fo r centuries and none o f
these questions has actually received a satisfactory and universally
accepted answer.

1.2. The lost paradise o f the original lingiiistic

unify. The Babel myth and subsequent
nostalgia
Scientists and students o f language have been confronted,
since the earliest times, w ith an apparent paradox: on the one hand, the
diversity o f the languages spoken a ll

over the w orld

(several

thousands are'know n) is rea lly im pressive, on the other hand, in spite

o f the enormous differences am ong human idiom s, they display
striking and fundamental sim ilarities. T o quote again the biblical
tradition, the fam ous legend o f the B abel tow er speaks about a unique,
original language, spoken b y the firs t generations o f hum arts. (G enesis,
11).

It was only G od s jea lou sy and H is fear that human beings, i f

united, could rea lly succeed in their attempt o f bu ildin g a tow er that
should reach heaven, representing thus a real and very dangerous
challenge to divine pow er that put an end to the golden age o f the
linguistic unity o f mankind.4 N o longer speaking the same idiom and
fa ilin g

thus

to

understand

one

another

and

to

successfully

communicate am ong them, human beings ceased to be a significant

threat to God. Their'language is confounded and they are scattered

upon the face of all the

earth . The unitary vision o f the universe o f

the golden age was thus lost fo r ever and the u n ifyin g 2nd COhSTSUt

4 And the Lord said (Behold, the p eop le is one and they have one
language... and n o w nothing w ill be restrained from them, which they have
rmagmed to do. G o to, Jet as go down, and there confound their languages, that they
m ay not understand one another s speech (Genesis, 11, 6-7)

m
and understanding f the w orld around us was replaced by a
D
t
D
leidoscopic, m ulti-coloured one.
f

OfhLess las not always boon a source of concmior

stalgia for the lost unity. It has often been assumed to represen
I * of uomistetable identity, the basis of proud supe
anon to
the
Greeks, consioeret
anon
ro m
e others.
omens. Tie ancient
~
. , T1
.-enrage as m
the
m anifestation o l human
iguage
e supreme uu**^'**-*
.
,
.
r-_____ 4 - ^ - ^ ^ i - n r r n n r l C O D I H C W l L u . X l l l
,st appropriate
tool fo
r understanding
and. c o p in g with the
w
different from Gre
e other nations, speaking languages different fixnn Qret
ed -barbarian . lin g u istic difference (and h y p o th e tic a l super

languages spoken on earth could be traced back to a

w
Hi',
if.-!

K<W
>

led to - 'e ld ,verv- encouraging results) m any peop le

w CJ^V > ientists m ight go even further back m m story and
^
ia l unique la n g u a g e o f m ythical tunes much m the
h paleontologists m anaged to

n d-

'

their efforts to (recon stru ct it are also m the

-\A

v-

wf that human beings used to speak one and

' "he languages w e have today are actually

oO

- ,^r-

ne

.Thar

ide their.n ation distinct from and better 'than aie 0^ .

W o g y o fth e word itself-apparently leads ns to a rootm eam n
u n o l o g y o f th e w o r d its e lT .a p p m c a u y

The attempt, in the first h a lf o f the 20th century, o, ertatin

mst w ith irreducible differences.

an

jl1

as
linguistic sign

-itic ia l I an m ace, universally spoken [esperantd) was m tact a

^ T J o7 Z h e ie n t B m vft, on rn.pression o ffte n o s m lg r. fa

unitary w orld

apparently lost fo r ever. Staking

among various lin gu istic systems continue to

speak
Z J ..
. U s fr-o r ei g _____
n v m +i,m
th = u cnmp.nne
s o m e o n e unable
u n a b le to
s p
e c k properly,
p r o p e r ly ,
idiom was an imperfect vehicle fo r human thought

lost

aom a

,w 20th century linguists in the existence o f a

k

the very "ssence or

Reconstruct

tttives o f many an extinct species starting

,s thus
the foundation
is
nms ine
iounud-uujj. oujf- national
----x-pnde,

o f proto-languages (the study o f ^ d o

o f the beginnings. The divm e corse *

how ever, sH l very pow erful and i n M

soon g > ce to discouragement in fe r a l o f the obvious fiulure o f the w hole
teiprise, confronted w ith enormous difficulties.
m e Babel syndrome
also m am lested ^ its e lf

L ? r T fdfe

H- p e o p l e t a v t (

T c t

ft

w h en

we

when,

thnsiastic about the discoveries o f comparative linguistics a tfe e e n

gave a coherent and scientifi

the 19Ul century and having collected in evitab le evidence h a . fh -

EtetP

o f signs.. In Saussure s theory,

r
sibes o f the

& a dual structure,

Swiss linguist uses is that of a sb

linked (the metaphor the

5 H ow ever, as Um berto Ecu remarks in a documented

,uld act necessarily be

E co^ oints out (E co, 2002), already in
nstituie a source ox frustration.
ovu r
,/*, , , t
r tmv fh^se
S i s 10 5 a linguistic and tribal distinction is established b y G o d . . T *

the is le ; o f the Gentiles divided in fe e ir t o d s ; every one after b * tongue,

reversal o f fe e ^

in

,cs Qr~ck is perceived as some sort o f exotic, incomprebennole

- the
expression; fe
a t s Greek to me or fee Spanish word gnng
: _ -..r-r* T i l f t f . p u n .M i fe-A-pi. c o j i ' 1-' *-------

______ - ^r.-__ of erripcn Gr^elC

4

rich is apparently a corrupted form o f griego = Greek.

a l i t o n i d u d . Geneticists imuirtam,

f f c e w o r l i rilh m a a i; beings

to x e p r e s e n fe tiv e s o fx n a n k m d h ^ m v ^ ^ ^ ^
display a remaricabiy com mon E
p ^
reduced number o f individuals, a r ig m ^ y

to fee genetic diversity o f

i S

w h ie b te

taced baclc t0 a

Tn is has been contrasted

^
W e m ay v e ry w e ll

spoke a com m on language, muen

> .b *

w o B m re a ^

 M k lly inseparable). F or Saussure, any linguistic sign is made

------- lifia n t (English: signifier), that is an acoustic im age (the
al

skeleton

o f the w ord)

and a signifi (English:

a a concept, to w hich the respective acoustic im age sends.5*

not mistake, how ever, Saussures s im ag acoustique fo r
------ rinds w e produce when w e utter a.word. The Swiss linguist*
am s against possible misinterpretations o f Ms theory,

f being m ore con crete than the concept, the aconstic

.

m m arily a psychologic and not a material reality, which

he argues, by the fact that w e can speak to ourselves
tualiy articulating the words' whose acoustic im age is only
"

jut

m ind.9

are the essential features o f the linguistic sign in

opinion: its arbitrariness and the linearity o f the sign ifier.

rariness o f the linguistic sign has been one 'o f the most
d heatedly debated o f Saussure5s concepts. W hat he actually
:

Is by the arbitrariness o f the sign is the arbitrariness o f the

----- >Iding betw een its constituent parts, die signifier and the
This link is arbitrary in -the sense that there is no reason
= r

fo r w hich a particular string o f sounds should be

w ith a certain meaning. On the other hand, Saussure

warns against any misunderstanding o f bis term inology.

= ia t io n

betw een the acoustic im age and the concept is

in the sense that it lacks motivation; it is not arbitrary,

in the sense that it depends on the fre e . choice o f the
In reality, b e argues, w e have the very opposite situation:
association established, it becomes immutable,- that is it
changed. Languages tend to be very conservative systems
rot up to any o f the speakers in a linguistic community, and,
m ot even to the entire co llectivity its e lf to change the
n betw een the signifiera and the signifieds in the language
L e signe linguistique unit non une chose et un nom, mais un concept et
constique. (Saussure: 1965 : 98)
(L 5image acoustique) n est pas le son matriel, chose purement physique,
oreinte psychique de ce son, la reprsentation que nous en donne le
: de nos sens. (Saussure; 1965 ."98)

they use. F or any lingu istic com m unity language is

inherited, functioning on the basis o f laws

som ething

w hich the users o f the

language cannot m odify. This doesnt mean, o f course, that languages

are fossilized, systems, -given once and fo r alL T h e changes they
undergo, how ever, take place over lon g periods o f tim e and it is on ly a
historical perspective that enables us to id en tify and analyze these
changes. E ven so, no linguistic change ca n -b e given a birth
certificate w here the exact tim e o f its com ing into being and those
who fathered it are m entioned.10
A s fa r as the arbitrariness o f the linguistic sign is concerned,
tw o are, according to the Swiss lin gu ist the situations in w hich w e can
talk about som e sort o f m atch between the acoustic im age and the
concept it is associated w ith: the onomatopoeias and the exclam ations.
W ithin the first category, Saussure distinguishes betw een w ords that
contain suggestive sounds ( des sonorits suggestives) w hich can
very w e ll be the haphazard result o f phonetic changes, and genuine
onomatopoeias, in the case o f which w e can also speak on ly about an
approximate and partly conventiional im itation o f the sounds in
nature. A s fo f'w h a i he

calls exclam ations (interjections), their

variation, i f w e compare different languages, proves that w e cannot

actually talk about m otivation. A n d even i f w e admit that the tw o
categories m entioned above represent special situations, their lim ited
number and marg inal position in the language w ill not a llo w them to
he considered significant exceptions to the general rule.
A s pointed out above, Saussure s postulation o f the notion o f
arbitrariness

sparked a great deal o f controversy.

The relation betw een

the sounds that m ake up the w ord and the m eaning that w ord has was
not, o f course, a subject that the Swiss linguist analyzed fo r the first
tim e. A s early as in P la to s dialogue Cratylos, Socrates asks i f the
names w e use fo r things are selected so that they correspond to the
nature o f the things they

refer to OT if

HS Selection is entirely

!0 A b im p orre quelle poque et si haut que nous remontions, la langue

apparat toujours com me un hritage de ] !pocjue precedente. L acte par lequel, un
moment donn, les mots seraient distribus e u x choses, par lequel un contrat serait
pass entre les concepts et les images acoustiques cet acte, nous pouvons le
concevoir, mais il n a jam ais t constat. (Saussure: 1965 :98)

arbitrary.

W h ile

Craiylos

supports

the

first

point

of

view ,

Hennogeues, Socrates other interlocutor favours the second cne. .The

philosoplisr doesnt exp licitly opt for an}' o f the alternatives, offerin g
instead a number o f m ore, or less doubtful etym ologies. The notion o f
arbitrariness as lack o f m otivation postulated by Sanssure was
subsequently refined by linguists. It was argued'that there is some sort*
o f m otivation in t ie use o f any lexical item . What w e should talk
about is rather that this m otivation can have different degrees o f
obviousness. A

difference was established between absolute or

h e m a l m otivation, lyin g in the very nature o f the acoustic im age that

som ehow suggests the meaning o f the word, a case illustrated" by
onom atopoeic words and interjections (Saussure s objection that there
are differences between various languages in order to express pain,
fo r instance, a Romanian w ill say au w h ile an Englishman, w ill, say
rather ouch. , the w ord that is used to im itate a dogs barking is
ham in Romanian, w o o f in English and ona in French - was
dismissed as irrelevant) and relative or internal m otivation where the
m eaning o f the w ord can be analyzed starting from its structure in
w hich case w e can'talk about m orphological, semantic or phonetic
m otivation.The m orphological structure o f derived and compound
words can thus offer a clue to their m eaning.11 Since w e know, fo r
instance the meaning t <t both the w ord home and the su ffix less w e
wall he able to analyze the meaning o f homeless. Compounds w ill be a
m ore di fficu lt case since some o f them are, indeed, sem antically
transparent - everybody w ill be able to understand that a taxi driver is
som eone who

drives -a taxi, and a hothouse is some sort o f

construction where a high, temperature is preserved in sid e' other

compounds are opaque, since obviously a. hot dog is not a dog that is
hot and a red herring is not a red fish. E ven in such cases it can be
argued that an etym ological analysis o f the word can .lead to a
successful interpretation o f the w ord as it w ill uncover the semantic

11 It should be noticed, however, that such analyses account fo r the w a y in

which

the

w ord was

form ed

(derived

or

compounded), but the ultimate

comp oner h. o f the word free morphemes or affixes still remain unmotivated in
fht- T V'yrriait sense.

changes the w ord underw ent Thus a w ord that was form ed on the
bans o f a m etaphor becom es a fo s s ilize d expression and the initial
m otivation is lost. Phonetic changes also alter the structure o f words
ard again in itial m otivation is lo s t It is d ifficu lt fo r an Englishman
w ho is ignorant o f the etym ology o f the w ord to lin k the m odern
English w ord rely to the Latin religare and to see that it is related to

redly too. Th e m otivation is also lost i f som e w ords are n o t inherited or

are lost in the history o f a language. A n y Rom anian w ill understand
the w ord oier (shepherd) as referrin g to som eone taking care o f oi

(sheep, plu ral), w h ile its synonym p cu ra r w ill not be ea sily related to
the Latin w ord p cora (sh eep) as this w ord was not inherited in
R omanian. A n interesting but som ehow opposite case, w ill be that o f
the so-called fo lk etym ologies w h ich represent attem pts o f a
linguistic' com m unity to

assign som e sort o f m otivation to

an

otherwise opaque form by m odifying" the phonetic structure o f the

word and m aking it sim ilar to other w ords in the language. Thus the
French w ord crevisse becam e cray fis h in English. A n interesting
case is the ungram m atical form tran(s)versa instead o f traversa
(cross), a w ord o f French origin (traverser) in Rom anian. T h e w ord is
m ispronounced b y analogy w ith other Latinate w ords in Rom anian

where the p re fix tram (across) appears. H ow ever, in this w a y the real
origin o f the w ord is uncovered, since it was in itia lly form ed from

irons and versus.

The second essential feature, that defines the sign and that is
discussed b y Saussure is the lin earity o f the signifie r. B y this, the
Swiss linguists understands tEST*Doth in articulatoy term s and in
auditory ones the sign ifier is characterized b y duration. Th is duration
is unidim ensional and is conventionally represented as a lin e including
tbe successive moments in tim e. It takes tim e to utter a w ord and it
takes tim e to perceive and understand i t

Th e producing and tbe

analysis o f the sign ifier are processes that u nfold in tim e, that are
made up o f successive stages. On the contrary, the sign ified is
som ething o f w hich w e have an instantaneous perception. W e xan

compare this to our perception o f visual signs w hich is simultaneous

and m ultidim ensionaL This is m ore obviou s, Saussure argues, i f w e

3f the written aspect o f languages. A n y w riting convention is,

based on the principle o f linearity.
Ferdinand de Saussure s Cours de linguistique. gnrale
shed a couple of-years after his death, in 1915) by several o f Ms
^nrts, marked a turning point in the history o f modem lingrdsti.es
theory o f the linguistic sign (though much refined by other=3ts) remained a cornerstone fo r all subsequent theories o f
,ce. It is particularly relevant fo r understanding the importance
le o f phonetics among other linguistic disciplines. A s w e shall
rter, since phonetics is concerned w ith the stud}'- o f sounds, its
lis

clearly that o f the signifiant.

Another linguist s contribution to the understanding o f the

_ s t ic sign is particularly relevant fo r our discussion: the Danish
__st Louis H jeknslev, the m ost outstanding representative o f the
lafic school. H jelm slev, too, describes the linguistic sign as a
reality. H e distinguishes between the levels o f expression and
7it,

corresponding roughly to SaussureF signifier and signified,

-c tive ly . Another essential dichotom y H j elm slev uses, starring

his illustrious predecessor, is that between substance an&form .
linguistic sign, he argues, is not just the relation between a
file r and a signified, but the relation between expression form and
ent form . The term inology .nsed can he m isleading and it is
_ssary to point out thatyorw is understood, in this view , as the w ay
' hich a language structures the continuum represented b y what
= s m s le v calls sense at both the expression and content le v e l Each

12

thus established is necessarily associated w ith substance.1

2

12 Criticizing. Saussure s theory, that stresses rise importance o f form as an

reality, organizing a preexistent substance ( cette combinaison i. e. between
gnifier and foe signified produit une forme, non une substance , Saussure.

s, p. 157), Hjelmslev refines it, by pointing out that w e can speek not only
a necessary solidarity between expression and content, but, at each level,
an equally necessary solidarity between form and substance. By; segmenting
-ronthmum o f sense at each le v el expression and content, respectively a
j a g e creates forms necessarily associated with substance and b y that very fact
and substance depend on each other: " L a fonction smiotique est en elle-mme
solidarit; expression at contenu sont solidaires et se prsupposent l un l antre,
expression n est expression

que parce

qu elle est l expression

d'un contenu,

et

W e can illustrate H jelm sle v s theory b y concrete exam ples

pertaining to what he calls the le v e l o f expression and the le v e l o f
content respectively. B oth English and Rom anian, fo r instance, have
fron t vow els. The fa ct that English has four

front v o w e l phonemes and

that Romanian has on ly tw o is a result o f the differen t w ays in w hich

the tw o language-systems structure the same expression continuum
' (sense, in Efielm slev s termino lo g y ). Each fo rm (phonem e in our case)
is necessarily associated w ith a certain phonetic substance. A ll human
beings have the same anatomical features, but w h ile an Englishm an
w ill tell yon that he has ten toes and ten fin gers a Rom anian w ill speak
about his twenty degets. A gain, a differen t segm enting operates, this
tim e at th e conceptual level (the le v e l o f content), in the tw o languagesystems^-respectively.33 The idea that in any system represented by a
language w e deal w ith different segm entations o f an amorphous
continuum at -both the level o f expression and at that o f fo rm is

un contenu n est contenu que parce qn il est contenu dune expression... Si nous
conservons la terminologie de Saussure, fl nous faut alors bien v o ir et c'e s t ainsi
quil faut comprendre son point de vue que la substance dpend exclusivement de
la forme et qu on ne peut en aucun cas lui prter d existence indpendante...Le sens
devient chaque fois la substance d une form e nouvelle et n a d autre existence
possible que d tre la substance d une form e quelconque. "Nous reconnaissons donc
dans le procs du contenu une form e spcifique, la fo rm e du contenu, qui est
indpendante du sens avec lequel elle se trouve dans un rapport arbitraire et qu elle
transforme en substance du contenu. {H jelm slev, 1968: 72-76)
BIf elmslev s classical example is that o f the colour spectrum. Comparing
French to Cymric, Ejehnslev points out that the tw o languages operate different
segmentations- Thus vert in French is either gwyrdd or glas in Cymric, bleu
correspnds to glas, gris to either glas or Uwyd and brun to Ihvyd. There is no
overlapping between the forms recognized b y the tw o languages respectively:
I

vert
;
bleu

gw yrdd
glas

gris
llw yd
brun
(Hjeimsiev, 1968.- 77)

essential in H jelm slev s th eoiy.*14 A n y significant unit or any form at

both the lev el o f expression and the level o f content is thus defined by
the contrast in w hich it stands with all the other units in the system.
Saussure had already used the term difference when describing this
fundamental property o f all languages.13

1 .4 . L a n g u a g e in lie p r o c e s s o f e o n u n iiM c a tiO K

Language is obviou sly the main system available fo r us, not
only fo r knowing the w orld and understanding it, but also fo r
accumulating, storing and communicating information. Language can
thus be understood as the m ain system w e have /or communicating
am ong us. A ll the other systems o f conveying irirrm ation are actually
based on this essential, fundamental one. Communication by means o f
language can thus be understood as a com plex process actually
consisting o f several stages. A n y act o f communication basically takes
place between tw o participants: on the one hand w e have the source o f
the inform ation, the person w ho has to communicate something, the
sender o f the m essage that contains the inform ation, and on the other
hand w e need a second party, the recipient, the addressee o f
the message, the beneficiary o f the communication act, in 'o th er
words the person(s) to w hom the infoim aiion contained in the
m essage is addressed.
Since the sender has to convey a message, and the transmission
is to talcs place on the basis o f a system o f signs (a code), the first

14 C eci nous montre que les deux fonctife qui contractent la fonction
smiotique: rexpression el le contenu entrent dans le m m e rapport avec elle. C est
seulement eu vertu de ia fonction smiotique outils existent et qu on peut les
dsigner avec prcision comme la form e du cooienn et la ferm e de l expression. D e
mme, c est en vertu de ia form e du contenu et de la form e de T expression
seulement qu existent ia substance du contenu et la substance de l expression oui
apparaissent quand on projette la form e sur le sens, com me im file t tendu projette
sc
suruns surface ininterrompue. (1968:81)

14 'Tout ce qui prcde revien t dire que dans la langue il n y a que des
d if f r e ces... U n

systme linguistique est une srie de diffrences de sons

combines avec une srie de diffrences d ides. (1965:166)

thing ins sender has to do is to encode or c o d ify his m essage, in other

words to render the contents o f the m essage b y m eans o f the signs o f
the respective code (the language) .The n ext stage is obviously
represented by the transmission o f the m essage proper, w hich can be
achieved in several ways (depending, o f the type o f com m unication;
e.g. written or oral)- Once the m essage rea d ies the recipient, the
process should unfold in the opposite direction. That is, the m essage
gets ;to the recipient in an encoded fo rm so that the recipien t has to
decode it and grasp its m eaning.] 6
Rem em bering Saussure s theory o f the lingu istic sign and o f
the act o f communication, w e can refin e the analysis above and say
that the encoding and decoding processes them selves consist o f
several stages, respectively. W hen he wants to con vey his message,
the sender has to select the concepts (notions) he wants to transmit.
F or instance, i f he wants to convey th inform ation that the door is
open he should select the appropriate w ords sending to the concepts
o f door , the quality o f being and the idea o f openness . This
w ould represent the first stage o f the encoding o f the m essage, nam ely
16 Referring to the w ay in which communication is achieved, Saussure
distinguishes among psychological, p h y siologica l and physical processes: the first
category w ould include the mental association between the concept and its acoustic
image in fire brain o f the speaker and, conversely, the association between the
acoustic image that was conveyed to the listener and the concept in the latters brain.
Physiological processes w ill include the mechanisms o f phonation (articulation o f
the words) as far as the speaker is concerned, and audition, respectively, in the case
o f the listener. The propagation o f sound waves from the speaker s speech organs to
file listener s auditory system is a physical process. Saussure schematically
represents the process like this, the tw o participants acting as speaker/iistener by
turns (1965:28):
Audition

-f

Phonation

Concept

Concept
u

U
Im age acoustique
Phonation
Speaker/Listener

'

Im age acoustique
-

Audition
Listener/Spealcer

25

m&mantic encoding. Then the respective words should be given a

in accordance w ith the rules o f g rammar. It is obvious that i f we
The door was open instead o f the door is open w e do not
~ e y the same idea! The correct choice o f the appropriate tense
pertains, to the dom ain o f m orphology. I f on the other hand,, we
door open the is , the form

o f the m essage is clearly

ammatieal sin ce-it blatantly violates the-roles o f syntax (word

= r in the given case). .Both m orphological encoding and syntactic

zztaing can be considered as stages o f what w e can call grammatical

ceding. Once it has an appropriate grammatical form , the message
to be given a phonetic shape, in other words the ideas w e have to
~w ey must be put into sounds. This last type o f encoding is called

nological encoding. Som e linguists describe the translating o f

cepts into w ords and the assigning o f a phonological shape to
s e words respectively as tw o different types o f articulation and
y speak about the double articulation o f the language. Thus,
ording to Andr M artinet, the first articulation o f language w ill
h u de the segm enting o f the content le v e l by a given langnage:tem and the association o f acoustic im ages to the concepts thus
red. The m inim al units fo r this articulation are the words, having
th meaning and a phonetic structure. The next articulation w ill
p ly the segmentation o f the acoustic im age into contrastive units,
phonemes. Though devoid o f m eaning them selves, these units

cvs the essential function o f keeping different words apart Martinet

nvincingly argues that languages display remarkable econom y at the
vel o f the second articulation since acoustic im ages are decomposed
to a lim ited number o f significant units, the system making nse o f
e

latter's

extraordinary

com binatorial possibilities

instead

of

rsociating each acoustic im age to a different u n it17

A fter the transmission o f the message, the recipient has to decode
, perform ing the

same operations, but in the opposite order. H e first has

> decode the message phonologically, then to decode it grammatically

id then semantically, reaching thus the actual informational content

M artinet 1970:] 3-15. These notions w ill be subsequently explained in

we can say

Summarizing,

that the com m unication process

takes place 'according to th e'foilow rn g pattern:

R ecip ien t o f the i

Sender o f the

m essage

message

^
1. Semantic encoding o f the
message

1. Phonological decoding o f the

message

2.Graimnatical encoding o f the

message

2.Grammatica] decoding o f the

message

3. Phonological encoding o f the

message

3 .Semantic decoding o f the

message

>
Transmission o f the message

1.5. Language and writing

"Th e

im portance

o f language

and

o f its

study fo r

the

tmdersianding o f what essentially characterizes our very nature as

human Beings cannot be overestim ated. B y means o f the language
humans not only communicate in a fu ller and m ore efficien t -way than
any other species,IS but they are in fact the only creatures that can
transmit information, from a generation to the fo llo w in g ones. W e
have so far discussed linguistic com m unication only in its oral form
(w h ich isj o f course, relevant fo r the study o f phonetics), but fo r marry
thousands o f years n ow human beings have communicated in a w ritten
form as-w elL W h ile speech was probably an essential facu lty that
characterized-humans m om -the first stages o f their existence as a
different

species

from

the rest

o f the anim al kingdom , w riting 1

8

18 Scientists have extensively stndied'varions means through which animals

communicate with one another. Though they have sometimes been loo sely called
lang uag es , the different m odalities nsed.hy certain species o f mammals or b y birds
in order to communicate can in no w ay be compared to the com plex linguistic
system o f communication humans use.

27

certainly appeared much, later in the history o f mankind. The earliest

records o f humans trying to express their thoughts in -writing date back
to only several thousand years ago. E ven today there are many

languages that do n ot have a "Written form . The invention o f w riting

wus essential in- the process o f transmitting inform ation over great
distances, both in space and in tim e. It played a-tremendous role in the
developm ent and evolu tion o f human' avalization as it is m ainly
through -written records that inform atioii about civilizations that have
long been extinct m anaged to reach us. Such is the importance o f
-writing in m odem tim es that w e tend to neglect its relatively younger
age. W e forget that many languages in the past and even at present
w ere (o r are) exclu sively spoken and that w riting is, after all, a
secondary and relatively less important system o f sym bolization in the
absence o f w hich linguistic systems can function very w ell.I? The
prestige o f w riting is so great that the written form o f the w ord
influences our m ental representation o f the w ord and w e often tend to
reverse the natural precedent speaking has over w riting and to
consider w riting as bein g prim ordial and speaking only secondary.
Th is is due, as Saussure points out to the feet that graphic symbols
tend to make a m ore lasting im pression on our -intellect than the
sounds w e hear. T h ey g iv e .us the illu sion o f solidity and permanence
when, in reality, graphic conventions are b y far m ore superficial and
irrelevant fo r ihe basic features o f the language.*20

15 Our own language, Romanian- is (som ehow unfortunately) an example

that illustrates this p o in t T h e earliest, surviving text in Romanian dates from 1521
but the history o f the language its e lf stretches backm any centuries before -feat
20 The example o f Romanian can he again quoted. I h e Slavonic alphabet
was used until the second h a lf o f the 19 century when the Roman alphabet was
adopted- Turkish abandoned its traditional w riting in the 2 0 * century and adopted
the Roman alphabet too. These changes did. not in any w ay m odify the fundamental
characteristics o f the two- languages. Romanian was the same Romance language
even when the C yrilic alphabet was used, while Turkish remains an Altaic language
in sjru. o f its using the Romance alphabet A n unfortunate frustration o f the
correctness o f Saussure s theory about the undeserved ana deceptive preeminence
o f writing was the sterile debate about the spelling o f the central high vow el o f
Romanian. A rational simplification was recently reverted and a replaced i in noninitial position as it was argued that the Romance character o f the language is better

rendeiud by "file former Sign than by the latter. One can only remember Sanssnre s

In spite o f the apparent diversity betw een types o f graphic

sym bolism used in various languages, linguists distinguish only
between tw o differen t idnds o f w riting: ideographic and phonetic. T h e
tennm ology is suggestive o f th eir fundam ental principles respectively.
Idographie w riting.u ses ideogram s or pictogram s fo r the graphic
representation o f lingu istic sign. Th e graphem e tries to represent the
w ord in its entirety, the idea that it expresses. Ideographs in the strict
interpretation o f the term have no connection w ith the phonetic
structure o f the linguistic sign. T h ey are exclu sively associated w ith
the first arttculationas described above. Chinese is a classical exam ple
o f a language using such w riting. Linguists often quote am ong the
advantages o f ideographic w ritin g the fa ct that in spite o f the
enormous dialectal variety displayed b y a language as Chinese,
w riting constitutes a unifying elem ent- P eo p le speaking different
dialects o f the language can com m unicate b y referrin g to ideographs
common to all variants o f the language. Ph onetic w riting attempts to
g ive -a representation o f the phonetic structure o f the w ord. It is
therefore linked to. the second articulation as described above.
Phonetic w riting can, in its turn, be o f tw o lands: syllabic or
alphabetic. In -the form er case w e

deal w ith

conventions

fo r

representing the syllable structure o f the w ords, w h ile in the latter the
graphic symbols, tend to represent the phonem es as m inim al units at
the expression .level. H ow ever, w e w ill see that, fo r reasons that are
goin g to be explained in 'th e n ext chapter, not even in the case o f the
latter type o f W riting is there acm e to one correspondence betw een the
phonological structure o f th ew ords and the graphic signs w e use to
represent them. This leads us to the conclusion that no actual system

o f w riting is an exact illustration o f either o f the tw o m ajor classes

described above. Ideographic w ritin g can also use ideogram s that lost

vords, as an ironie and prem oratoiy comment o f such situations: Quand 11 y a

dsaccord entre la langue et T orthographe, le dbat est toujours d ifficile trancher
pour tout autre que le linguiste; mais com me celui-ci n a pas v o ix au chapitre, la
form e crite a presque fatalement le dessus (1 9 6 5 :4 7 )
90

valu e and have acquired a phonetic character. Chinese

21
am d Egyptian hieroglyphs offer such examples.
3 consider the chronological evolution o f w riting w e can
a n sition from direct, m ore or less concrete systems o f
tans'to increasingly abstract (though paradoxically sim pler)
manner in which human beings tried to convey their ideas
m ic representations was fatally very rudimentary in the
"T h e earliest systems o f w riting ( i f we can indeed speak o f
3 re actually visu al representations o f what m en saw. The
minting, fo r instance, painted on cave walls, are considered
Tem pts o f human beings to give their thoughts a graphic
s r stages in the developm ent o f w riting proper included the
m o f various systems o f so called pictorial writing, in w hich
Is, in itia lly figu rative representations o f reality, came to
l

increasingly higher degree o f abstractness. Cuneiforms

Mesopotamia illustrate a gradual transition from the direct

-tion o f objects to the m ore abstract representation o f words
iy

syllables. Egyptian hieroglyphs constitute the m ost

- r type o f ideographic w riting. W ith the transition from the

eroglyphs to later variants o f hieratic and dem otic (popular)
witness an effo rt towards sim plification which is paralleled
ter abstractness o f the representation and the loss o f the
eu rative character o f w riting. But even in d ie case o f
ic w ritin g proper the system interestingly and uniquely
pictorial representations w ith conventions suggestive o f the
structure o f the words. This is also the case o f Chinese
~ h e only surra vin g exam ple o f an ancient ideographic w riting
od em w orld. Even Chinese, writing, however,-m akes use o f
aphic
ig iy

symbols
com bines

that have - a phonetic character. (Japanese

Chinese

ideogram s

with graphic

muons illustrating the structure o f the Japanese language). A s

ou t earlier all ideographic types o f w riting tend to acquire
characteristics

because of the obvious

difficulties o f handling

Saussure spsalcs o f the m ixed character such systems o f w iiim s

965:47)

'

'

a system w hich uneconom ical!}' represents concepts rather than a

m ore lim ited number o f phonological units.
It was fo r this very reason that the invention o f the alphabet
by the early Sem itic civiliza tion o f the Phoenicians represented an
extraordinary step forward. T h e alphabet created b y the Phoenicians
was later m od ified h y the H ebrew s and the Greeks, the G reek alphabet
ly in g in its turn at the basis o f the Rom an and o f the Slavonic (C y rille )
ones. Alphabetic w riting had the enormous advantage o f econom y as
it made use o f a com paratively much m ore reduced number o f
sym bols (about 30) b y means o f w hich practically all the w ords in the
language could he represented. This was due to the fact that at the
expression le v e l languages are rem arkably organized and econom ical
systems as w e are goin g to see in a subsequent chapter. The '
sim plification

of

the

system

was

paralleled

by

an

increased

abstractness as the lin k betw een the graphic representation and the
linguistic sign was lost, the script rendering sounds rather than
meanings. The m ost econom ical and abstract kind o f w ritin g ever
invented, alphabetic w riting is currently used by the overw helm ing
m ajority o f present-day cM Iization s.
O f the tw o essential components that constitute the lingu istic
sign, the present book, w hich analyzes differen t aspects of, and
theories about, the production and interpretation o f speech sounds w ill
obviously deal w ith the sign ifier or the expression lev e l. The
fo llo w in g chapter is devoted to a m ore detailed presentation o f the
linguistic disciplines studying speech production, transm ission and
perception.

CHAPTER 2

ARTICULATORY, ACOUSTIC AKS5

AUDITORY PHONETICS. PHO N O LO GY
2.1. Phonetics and phonology
Tw o terms are (often lo o s e ly ) used to refer to lin gu istic
disciplines studying that part o f the lin gu istic sign w iden de Saussure
called the acoustic im age: phonetics and phonology. Th e im portance
o f sounds as veh icles o f m eaning is som ething p eop le have b e e n
aware o f fo r thousands o f years. H ow ever, system atic studies on the
speech sounds on ly' appeared w ith the developm ent o f m odem
sciences. The term phonetics used in connection w ith such studies
comes from Greek and its origins can be traced back to the verb

phnein, to speak, in its turn related to phn, sound. Th e end o f the

18* century witnessed a reviva l o f the interest in the studying o f the
sounds o f various languages

and the introduction

o f the term

phonology. The latter com es to he, h ow ever, distinguished from the

form er only m ore than a century later w ith the developm en t o f
structuralism w hich em phasizes the essential contrastive ro le

of

classes o f sounds w hich are labeled phonemes. T h e terms continue to

he used, how ever, indiscrim inately until the prestige o f p h on ology as a
distinct discipline is fin a lly established in the first h a lf o f the 20to
century. Though there is no u niversally accepted poin t o f v ie w a b o u t a
clear-cut border lin e betw een the respective domains o f phonetics and

phonology as, indeed, w e cannot talk about a p h on ological system

ignoring the phonetic aspects it in vo lves and, on the other hand, a n y
phonetic approach should take into account the p h on ological s y s t e m
that is represented b y any language, m ost linguists w ill agree a b o u t
some fundamental distinctions betw een the tw o.

ics w ill be almost unanimously acknowledged to be the

.ce which, studies speech sounds: the w ay in w hich they
(uttered, articulated), the w ay in which they are
e ir phyrsical characteristics, etc. Therefore, it is these
ile , measurable aspects o f the phonic aspects o f
.constitute the domain o f phonetics. On the other hand, it
ow ever, even fo r those whose perception o f linguistic
rather o f an em pirical and not o f a very scholarly kind,
m m unieating verbally, though they are producing a w ide
sounds,

people

are

actually

aware

o f using

_y drastically lim ited set o f sounds, in other words that

egard the obvious (m ore or less important) differences
w ay in w hich sounds are uttered and have in m ind only

imds that perform a certain function in language. From

;pective, it is not the sounds as such that are important,
e role they have in linguistic communication. A s w e shall
ffferent languages operate different distinctions and
different ways the m ore or less common stock o f sounds
found in various idioms. It is precisely this aspect o f
is o f interest fo r phonology , which, is thus understood to
much the sounds as such, but rather classes o f sounds that
ain function in the structure o f a given language:1 This
w ill be further analyzed in the chapter dealing w ith the
have already said that phonetics is concerned w ith various
evant fo r the physical characteristics o f sounds. Several
phonetics can further be distinguished, depending'on foe
omain o f interest o f foe respective field . Thus, one o f fo e
t branches o f phonetics is articulatory phonetics w hich
w ay in w hich human beings articulate

or litter tile

Sounds

use o f in verbal c o m m u n ication .

ote that what we referred to as phonetic, alphabetic writing-actnaDy

resent these classes o f sounds. That is why people using this type o f
at least som e intuitive awareness o f the phonological structure o f their

2 2 . Articulatory, phonetics
Articulatory phonetics, is a-branch o f phonetics w hich is largely
based on data provided by other sciences, among w iden the m ost
important tire Tmman anatom y and .physiology. Tins is a result o f the
feet that human beings do not possess organs that are exclu sively used
to-produce speech sounds, a ll organs in volved in the uttering o f sounds
having in fact, prim arily,'Other functions: digestive, respiratory, etc.2
This actually raises interesting questions about whether, w e had been
bom (destined, "program m ed^) to speak or speech developed rather
accidentally anyway, com paratively later in the evolution o f
mankind. Therefore, fundamental physiological processes like those
mentioned above take place simultaneously or alternatively with the
production o f speech sounds. W e can hardly think o f speaking as being
separated from the activity o f breathing, as the air that is breathed in
and out o f the lungs has a crucial role irith e process o f uttering sounds.
Breathing is a rhythmic .process including tw o successive stages:
inspiration and expiration. It is during the latter phase that speech
production takes place in m ost languages. Because w e speak w h ile w e
expel the air from our lungs, the sounds that w e produce are called

egresshe.

The

continuous

alternation

between

inspiration

and

expiration fundamentally shapes the rhytkm icity o f our speech.

W e have already m entioned the fact that oral communication is
based on sound waves produced b y the human body. The in itial
m om ent o f this rather com plex process is the expellin g o f the air from
our lungs. The lungs can therefore be considered the very place w here
speech production originates. T h e ; airstream fo llo w s a road that is
called the vocal' tract. WTe w ill fo llo w this tract o f the air that is
expelled from the lungs out o f the body. A s w e are goin g to see, this
tract includes segments o f the respiratory and digestive tracts and the

physiology
2

Of spealang is

therefore

intim ately

linked

to

the

W e can arguably speak about speech, organs fon ning a system, though,

technically speaking, different organs o f speech are actually pari o f different systems
in our body. A s pointed out above, non e o f these organs performs a vital function as
a speech organ, its main junction b.eing rather that perform ed as par t o f the other,
truly vital system.

.ysiology o f the respective vita l processes. The longs are pair organs,
oated inside the thoracic ca vity (the chest). They are form ed o f
ee, respectively tw o spongy lobes (the le ft lung is sm aller because
the vicin ity o f the heart within the thoracic cavity). The capacity o f

can contain iS-.-of

person, the capacity

- lungs (that is the total amount o f air that they

out 4500-5000 cm3 (4.5-5 litres) in an adult

ng generally sligh tly superior in the case o f m ale persons. The soled vzta! capacity (that is the m axim al amount o f air that can he
hanged w ith the environm ent during breathing is o f about 3500DO cm3. In other words, w e can never com pletely empty our lungs
air during expiration. During normal breathing, however, only
rat 10-15% o f the vital capacity is used, that is the quantity o f air
1 is exchanged amounts to about 400-500 cm3. The act o f speaking
mires a greater respiratory effo rt and consequently the amonnt o f air
reases to up to 30-80% o f the vita l capacity (30-40% during
ration and 45-80% during inspiration). Variations are due to
iferent position o f the body, to the quality, quantity and intensity
udssss)-of-the sounds-we articulate. Breathing is a complex process
Jt essentially consists in the exchange o f air between our body and
environm ent It leads to the oxygenation o f our body and to the
m ision o f the carbon dioxide resulting from the processes o f
ubusdon w ithin our body. It is basically achieved b y the successive
janding and compressing o f the volum e o f the tw o lungs, the air
vn g sucked in and pushed out respectively. This happens because
thoracic cavity its e lf m odifies its volum e, a com plex system o f
ies (the ribs), m uscles (o f w hich the m ost important are the
rcostal ones, that coordinate the m ovem ents o f the ribs, and the
phragm, that represents the flo o r o f the thoracic cavity) and
mbranes (pleurae)-being in volved in the process. The entire process
pntrolled by the respiratory centres in die brain.3
From each o f the lungs a bronchial tube starts. A t one end, the
_jications o f these tabes spread inside the spongy mass o f the

The nervous system (and the brain, primarily) also play an essential role in the .

-.ess o f sound articulation! The description o f the -way in which, the brain controls the
ich mechanism does not lie, however, within the scope o f this Study (see also p. 42).

palm m e lobes. T h ey are called bronchioles and their ro le is to

distribute and collect the air into and from the innerm ost recesses o f
the rings. These exchanges are m ade at d ie le v e l o f sm all air sacs
called

a lveoli and represent the nltim ate

ram ifications

o f the

bronchioles. A t the other end, the tw o bronchial tubes are jo in e d at the

basis o f the trachea, or the windpipe.

Th e

w indpipe

has

tubular

cartilaginous

-structure

(its

components are a number o f cartilages h eld together by membranous

tissue) and is about 10 cm lo n g and 2.5 cm in diam etre. Its elasticity
and the position o f the larynx can result in im portant variations in the
actual length o f the organ. T h e latter is an essential segm ent o f the
respiratory system but does n ot p la y an active role

in speech

production.
A s w e continue our jou rn ey w e com e across another organ that
has a crucial role in the process o f speaking: the larynx. Th e latter is a
cartilaginous pyram idal organ characterized b y a rem arkable structural
com plexity and situated at the top o f the trachea. A s all speech organs,
it prim arily perform s a vita l role, nam ely it acts as a va lve that closes,
thus blocking the entrance to the w indpipe and preventing fo o d or
drink b om entering the respiratory ducts w h ile w e are eating.4 Th ey
are instead directed down the pharynx and the esophagus. Th e larynx
is the first speech organ proper along the tract that w e are fo llo w in g ,

as it interferes w ith the ou tgoin g stream o f air (w hich, SO far, has

fo llo w ed its w ay rather unim pedediy) and establishes som e o f the
essential features o f the sounds that w e produce. H ow ever, it is not the
laiyn x proper (that is the organ in its entirety) that perform s this
important role w ithin the speech m echanism , but tw o m uscular fo ld s
inside it, called the vocal cords. A s m entioned above, the larynx
consists o f a num ber o f cartilaginous -structures that interact in an
ingenious w ay enabling the la iyn x to p e ifo im its im portant respiratory
and articulatory functions. Th e th yroid cartilage is m ade o f tw o (le ft
and righ t) rectangular fla t plates that fo rm

an angle anteriorly-",

resem bling the covers o f a b ook that is not en tirely open. The- aperture
4
A com plex system o f valves sim ilarly prevens air fro m entering our
Qgesive tube during inspiration.

angle, oriented posteriorly,, varies w ith the sex. It is a right angle

(90 ) w h ile in w om en it is, 120. The angle is m ore visible,
more acute, in the form er situation and the cartilage is
~ ly Jmown as A dam s apple . Posteriorly, each, o f the plates
cm horns (an in ferior and a superior one) called- cornua, through.
he, thyroid cartilage is connected w ith the cricoid one. The jo in t
two cartilages form , resem bling a sort o f hinges, allows tire
one to m ove anteriorly and posteriorly w ith respect to the
one, thus controllin g the degree o f tension in the vocal cords.
the main functions o f the thyroid cartilage is to protect the
and particularly the voca l cords. The cricoid cartilage is made
ag-shape'd structure, situated anteriorly and o f a blade situated
_ orly

and represents

the base

o f die

larynx,

controlling

m ication w ith the trachea. On top o f its blade, on d ie le ft and

:ide respectively, another pair o f cartilages are situated: the
m id

ones. The last im portant cartilage in the process o f

-soon or speech production is the epiglottis w hich is a spoon

i-c a r tila g e also playing an important role in keeping the food
from the respiratory tra ct It is between the arytenoid cartilages
e thyroid cartilage that the tw o vocal cords m entioned above
i. The vocal cords are each made o f a so-called vocal ligam ent
vocal muscle. Th ey are covered in mucous membranes or skin
.also

known as the vo ca l folds.

Th ey connect the low er part o f the

<i cartilage to the anterior part o f the arytenoid cartilages. The.

-ag between the fold s and the arytenoid cartilages-represents the
I aperture, m ore com m only called the glottis. The length of. the
fold s varies w ith the age and the sex. They becom e longer a the
f puberty and are longer in m en (24-26 m m ) than in wom en
D m m ). D uring

breathing, the tw o fo ld s part, lettin g the air com e

e larynx or go o u t D uring phonation they com e closer, haying

iportant role in establishing some o f the main characteristics o f
rands w e articulate.

B y the pretly com plex action o f aqiacent

cal structures (the cartilages described above and a number o f

eal m uscles) the tw o vocal cords can be brought together or
. They thus interfere to various extents w ith the outgoing

airstream. They can obstruct the passage com pletely, as in the case o f
the so-called glottal atop (see below , w hen a detailed description o f
consonants is given ), or their participation in the uttering o f a given
sound can be m inim al (as in the case o f m any hissing sounds). The
rapid and interm ittent opening and closin g o f the vocal cords, w hich
results in the vibration o f the tw o organs, plays a hey role in one o f the
m ost important phonetic processes, that o f voicing. Thus, vow els and
vow el-lik e sounds, as w ell as a number o f consonants, are produced
w ith the vibration o f the cords and are consequently voiced. The
absence o f vibration in the vocal- cords is characteristic fo r voiceless
obstruents. (M ore details about the process are given in the fo llo w in g
chapter). The amplitude o f the vibration is also essential fo r the degree
o f loudness o f the vo ice: thus the intensity o f the sound that is uttered
depends on the pressure o f the air that is expelled. The rate at w hich
the vocal cords .vibrate has also im portant consequences as far as the
pitch o f the vo ice is concerned; this is closely linked to the pressure
exerted on the voca l cords. W hen w e produce acute (high-pitched or
sh rill)) sounds the voca l cords com e closer to each other, w h ile during
the articulation o f grave sounds the vo ca l cords lea ve a greater space
between them. (Further details w ill be given below , w hen the acoustic
characteristics o f sounds are discussed.)
The next stop on our w ay along the vo ca l tract is ike pharynx,
an organ situated at a kind o f crossroads along the above-m entioned
tract It doesnt p lay an active part in the articulation o f sounds its

main role being to link the larynx and the rest o f the low er respiratory
system to its upper part, thus fu nctioning as an air passage during
breathing. It is also an important segm ent in the digestive apparatuses
it plays an essential role in deglutition (the sw allow in g o f fo o d ).
The pharynx branches into tw o cavities that act as resonators fo r the
air

Stream that the

voca l cords m ake vibrate: the nasal cavity and the

oral cavity.
B efore discussing the tw o respective cavities, it is im portant to
mention the role played during articulation by the velum or the soft
palate. The velum is the continuation o f the- r o o f o f the mouth also
called the palate. The harder, bony structure situated towards the

39

interior o f the mouth continues w ith the veJum into the rear part o f the

-OUth. The latter s position at the back o f the mouth can allow the
-stream to go out through either the mouth or the nose or through
Dth at l i e same tim e. Thus, i f the velum , is raised, blocking the nasal
a v ity , the air is directed out through the mouth and the sounds thus
roauced w ill be ora l

sounds. If

the velum is lowered^ w e can-

tticuiate either nasal sounds, i f the air is expelled exclusively via the

sal cavity, or nasalized sounds if, in spite o f the low ered position o f
ae velum , the air is still allow ed to go out through the mouth as w ell
' through the nose. I f v/e nip our nostrils or i f the nasal cavity is
~ocked because o f a coid, hay fever, etc, w e can -easily notice -the
portanee o f the nasal, cavity as a resonator and the w ay in which its
inditing affects norm al speech production. The distinction nasal/oral
=3 essential in all languages and it w ill further be discussed when a
_ etaiied analysis o f both English consonants and vow els is -given.
V/e have m entioned above the oral cavity as one o f the two
'ossible outlets fo r the airstream that is expelled by.our respiratory
.ystem. The oral cavity plays an essential role in phonation as it is
rere that the m ain features o f the sounds that w e articulate are uttered,
he cavity- its e lf acts as a resonator, and w e can m odify its shape and
volum e, thus m odifyin g the acoustic features o f the sounds w e
reduce, w h ile -various organs that delim it the oral cavity' or are
deluded in it (the tongue) are active or passive participants in the act
3 f phonation. I f w e fo llo w the airstream out through the mouth (oral
ca vity ) w e can easily notice the above-m entioned organs that play an
important role'in the process o f sound articulation.
Undoubtedly', the m ost im portant o f all is the tongue, which
lays a crucial role in oral communication, the very fact that in many
anguages (G reek, 'Latin, Rom ance languages) the same w ord is used
to refer to both'.'the anatomical organ-and language as a iundamenial
human activity show ing

that in many cultures the tw o

concepts came

to be assim ilated or at least considered to be inseparable. The tongue

is amm/dy in volved in the artkniLation o f m ost speech sounds, either
through an acu w

a com paratively' m ore passive participation. It is a

muscular, extrem ely m obile and versatile organ (b y fa r the most

dynamic o f' all speech organs) and it plays an essential ro le in the

producing o f consonants, w h ile its position in the m onth is also very
important fo r differentiating am ong various classes o f vo w els. W hen
an articulatory classification o f speech sounds is g iven b elow , the
upper surface o f the tongue w ill be ' d ivid ed , fo r practical and.
didactic purposes, into several parts: a) itsybre part, m ade up o f the tip

(apex) and the Made; b ) the fro n t, and back part (the dorsum ) - the
label dorsum is often applied to fron t and back together and c ) the

root (radix) o f the tongue (the rearm ost and lo w est part o f the organ,
situated in fron t o f the laiyn go-ph aiyn xan d the epiglottis. Th e sides or
runs o f the tongue also p la y an im portant ro le in the uttering o f certain
sounds. (A s w e are goin g to see in a subsequent chapter, the various
parts o f the tongue lend their names to the sounds they help produce:
thus, sounds uttered w ith the participation o f the tip o f the tongue w ill
be called apical from the Latin w ord apex, m eaning top or extrem ity
those in the production o f w h ich the blade is in vo lved w ill be called

laminai from the Latin w ord lamina having the same m eaning
w hile the back part o f the body o f the tongue, the dorsum , w ill g iv e its
name to dorsal sounds, produced in the vela r region .)
The tongue is a m obile articulator (the term active is usually
used) that influences the w ay in w hich sounds are produced. But m ore
often than not it does that w ith the help o f other articulators (fixed or

mobile he. passive or active) as w e ll, lik e the r o o f o f the m outh (the
palate), the lip s or the teeth. The palate essentially consists o f tw o
parts: the hard palate and the soft palate or the velum. W e have shown
the im portant ro le played by the velu m in differen tiatin g betw een it s
articulation o f oral and nasal sounds. The hard palate in fron t o f it
functions as a fix e d (passive) articulator. N o t less im portant are, at the
other end o f the m outh, the teeth and the lips. Just behind the teeth w e
can notice the alveolar ridge (the rid ge o f the gums o f the upper
teeth). W h ile the upper teeth are fix ed , the lo w er ja w (the m andible)
is m obile and its constant m ovin g perm anently m od ifies the size and
shape o f the oral aperture. 'The lips also play an im portant ro le in. the
articulation o f som e consonants b y interacting w ith each other or w ith

41

eth and their position ( rounded or spread) is also relevant

= d ia tin g betw een tw o m ajor classes o f vow els. They are
le articulators, though far less so than the tongue. Just like
they can y ie ld a variety o f configurations. .The low er lip
rate w ith the upper teeth to produce labio-dental sounds,
can interact to arhera!ate.bilabial sounds, w hile lip position
or spread) is essential in determining one o f die basic
ns. o f vo w els.
b rie f and

fa tally

schematic presentation. o f speech

has consciously neglected the essential role the brain plays

u laiion o f sounds..Speech production is a process that can
d quite easily as the m ajor articulators lend themselves to
. detailed scien tific observation. W e should not forget,
that our presentation above is obviously partial, since all

y processes are controlled b y the brain and we cannot

any kind

o f activity

o f the

articulators without the

~ on o f the brain that actually controls the entire process o f

duction. W e chose to leave aside the discussion o f the part
- the brain in the physiology o f articulation only because the
ty o f the analysis w ould have taken ns too far away from the
j f this study.

l i e graph represents a sagittal'

an through the vocal tract The

_rds are represented by a circle

v e l o f file larynx, the tongas is..
-, neutral, resting position.

23. Auditory phonetics

I f articulatory phonetics studies the w ay in w hich speech
sounds axe produced, auditory phonetics focuses on the perception o f
sounds o r the w ay in w h ich sounds are heard and interpreted. '
Rem em bering our conventional division o f linguistic com m unication
into several stages o f a process unfolding between tw o parties, the
sender o f the m essage and its addressee, w e m ay say that w h ile
articulatory phonetics is m ainly concerned w ith the speaker, auditory
phonetics

deals w ith the

other important participant in verbal

communication, the listener. It is again, obviously, a fie ld o f linguistic

study w hich has to rely h eavily on b iology and m ore sp ecifically on
anatomy and physiology. W e should say from the very beginning,
how ever, that the mechanism and ph ysiology o f sound perception is a
much hazier fie ld that the corresponding processes related to the
uttering o f die respective sounds. This is so because speech production
is a process that takes place roughly along the respiratory tract w hich
is, com paratively, much easier to observe and study than-the brain
where m ost processes linked to speech perception and analysis occur.
Our presentation so far has already revealed a fundamental
characteristic o f acoustic phonetics w hich essentially differentiates it
from both articulatory and acoustic phonetics; its lack o f unity. W e are
in fe et dealing w ith tw o distinct operations w hich, how ever, are
closely interrelated and influence each oth er on the one hand w e can
talk about audition proper, that is the perception o f sounds b y our
auditory apparatus and the transform ing o f the inform ation into a
neural sign and its sending to the brain and, on the other hand, w e can
ta TV about the analysis o f this inform ation b y fh e brain which
eventually leads to the decoding o f the m essage, the understanding o f
the verbal m essage.' W hen discussing the auditory system w e can5

5 It is obvious, even at an intuitive le v e l that bearing someone:s words and

undeistsnding them are two quite different processes. They are chronologically distinct,
since w e can taBc about two successive stages, and they also diner in nature since thev
involve different operations o f toe brain. W e should not m ale the m istake, however, o f
separating them completely since, as w e are going to see below, our understanding o f
what w e hear essentially influences the process o f hearing itself

onsequently talk about its peripheral and its central pari, respectively.
V e shall have a closer look at both these processes and try to show

vhy

they are both clearly distinct and at the same time they are

Tosely-relatecL
-B efore the sounds w e perceive are

processed and

inteipreted

- y fhe-hrain- 'the first anatomical organ they encounter is the ear. The .
=

ar has'a com plex structure and its basic auditory6 functions include
_e perception o f auditory stim uli, their analysis and .their transmission

urther on to the braim W e can iden tify three components: the quter,
h e m iddle and the inner year. The outer ear is m ainly represented b y
he auricle or the pinna and the auditory meatus or the outer ear canal,
n e auricle .is the only vis ib le part o f the ear, constituting its
mtermost part, the segment o f the organ projectm g-outside the skull,
t does not play an essential role in audition, which-is proved, by the
-act that the rem oving o f |he pinna does not substantially damage our
m ditoiy capacity. The. auricle rather plays a protective ro le'fo r the rest
m f the ear and it also helps us localize sounds.-'The meatus, or the outer
nr canal is a tubular structure playing a double role: it, too, protects
rh e next segments o f the ear particularly the m iddle ear and it also
functions as a resonator fo r the sound w aves that enter our auditory
system . The m iddle ear is a cavity w ithin the skull including a mimber
o f little anatomical structures that have an important role in audition.
O n e o f them is the eardrum. This is a diaphragm or membrane to
-which sound waves are directed from 'outside and which vibrates,
acting as both' a filter and a transmitter o f the incom ing sounds. The
m niddle ear also contains a fe w tiny hones: the m allet, the anvil and the
stirrup. The pressure o f the air entering our audnoiy system is
converted b y the vibration o f the membrane (the eardrum) and the
elaborate m ovem ent o f the little bones that act as some sort o f lever
system into mechanical m ovem ent w hich is further conveyed to the
oval 'w indow , a structure placed at the interface o f the m iddle and
inner ear. A s pointed out above, the m iddle _ear plays an- important

0 W e should n ot forget that the ear (m ore exactly the inner ear) also plays
an essential part in onr bod ys capacity o f keeping its balance. A s this function, o f
the ear obviously lies outside the x_ope o f this b ook w e are not going to discuss i t

protection role. The muscles associated w ith the three little bones
m entioned above contract in a re fle x m ovem ent w hen sounds having a
too high intensity reach the ear. Thus the im pact o f the too loud
sounds is reduced and the mechanism dim inishes the fo rce w ith which
the m ovem ent is transmitted to the structures o f the inner ear. It. is ir
the m iddle ear .too, that a narrow duct or tube opens. K n ow n as the
E u staciisn tube it connects the m idd le ear to the pharynx. Its main
role is to act as an outlet perm itting the air to circulate betw een the
pharynx and the ear, thus helping preserve the required am ount o f air
pressure inside the m iddle ear. Th e next segm ent is the inner ear. the
main elem ent o f w hich is the cochlea, a cp vity fille d w ith liqu id . The
inner ear also includes the vestibu le o f the ear and the sem icircular
canals.. The vestibule represents the central part o f the labyrinth o f the
ear and it 'gives access to the cochlea. The cochlea is a c o il-lik e organ,
lookin g lik e the shell o f a snail. A t each o f the tw o ends o f the cochlea
there is an oval w indow , w h ile the organ its e lf contains a liqu id . Inside
the cochlea there are tw o membranes: the vestibu lar m em brane and
the basilar membrane. It is the latter that plays a central ro le in the act
o f audition. A ls o essential in the process o f hearing is the so-called
organ o f C orti, inside the cochlea, a structure that is the real auditor}-'
receptor. S im p lifyin g a lot, w e can describe the p h ysiology o f audition
inside the inner ear as fo llo w s : the m echanical m ovem ent o f the little
bony structures o f the m iddle ear (the m allet, the a n vil and the stirrup)
is transmitted through the oval w in d ow to the liq u id in sid e the
snail-like structure o f the cochlea; this causes the basilar m em brane to
vibrate: the membrane is stiffer at one end than at the other, w hich
makes it vibrate differently, depending on the p itch o f the sounds that
are received. Thus, low -frequ ency (gra ve) sounds w ill m ake vibrate
d ie membrane at the less s t iff

(u pper) end, w h ile high-frequency

(acute) sounds w ill cause the lo w er and stiffer end o f the m em brane to
vibrate. The cells o f the organ o f C o rti,'a h igh ly sensitive structure
because it includes m any a b a te cells that detect the slightest vibratin g
m ovem ent, convert these vibrations into neural signals that are
transmitted via the auditory nerves to the
controller o f the entire process, the brain.

central receptor and

ay in w hich the human brain processes auditory

nd, in general, the mental processes linked to speech
d production are still largely unknown. W hat is clear,
rding the perception o f sounds b y man s auditory
it the human ear can only hear sounds having certain
id frequencies. I f the amplitudes and frequencies o f the
Tm d w aves are lo w er than the range perceptible by die
iply not heard. I f on the contrary, they are higher, the
:y g iv e is one o f pain, the pressure exerted on the
g too great These aspects are going to be discussed
the physical properties o f sounds are analyzed. A s to the
processes in volved b y the mteapretaiion o f the sounds
know ledge is even m ore lim ited. It is obvious that
icr goes hand in hand w ith the understanding o f the
p erceive in the sense o f organizing them according to
:ady existing in our m ind and distributing them into the
rustic im ages that Saussuie spoke o f It is at this level that
per interm ingles w ith psychological processes because our
_es, interprets, classifies and arranges the respective sounds
the linguistic (ph onological) patterns already existing in
It is intu itively obvious that i f w e listen to someone
n unknown language it w ill he very difficu lt fo r us not only
id w hat they say (this is out o f the question given the
; started from ) hut w e w ill have great, often insurmountable
in iden tifyin g the actual sounds the person produced. The
re fle x reaction o f our brain w ill be to assimilate the
sounds to the ones -whose mental images already exists in
according to a ve ry comm on cognitive reaction o f humans
sterling comprehension, is, after all, an essential part o f our mastering a
n age. In order to actually understand, what someone says in a g iv e r
need to be accustomed to d ie phonological structure o f the respectrrive .
nis w iti enable us to correctly interpret - acoustically speaking - even
a l structures whose meaning is unknown to us. Conversely, when
ronounces a word w e know say, in onr own mother tongne our
utomaticaHy correct the mistake and w e w ill be able to understand tire
career m eant to utter in spite o f its actual faulty pronunciation (see, also,
e)-

that .always have the tendency to relate, com pare

and contrast new

inform ation to already7.known inform ation. Our discussion o f the

phonem e in a subsequent chapter w ill analyze this in further detail.

2.4. coistic phonetics

The branch o f phonetics that studies the physical param etres o f
speech sounds is called acoustic phonetics. It is the m ost technical
o f all disciplines that are concerned w ith the study o f verbal
conrmumcalion. The data it handles are the m ost concrete, palpable,
easily measurable ones that can be encountered in the dom ain o f
phonetics in general/ The m ost important prin ciple o f physics on
w hich verbal com m unication-is based is that vibrating bodies send
w aves that are propagated in-the environm ent. Our articulatory organs
produce a number o f vibrations; these vibrations need a m edium to be
transmitted through. The medium through w hich speech sounds travel
is usually the air. '"(Experim ents have p roved that i f w e try to
communicate in vacuum the sounds that w e produce fa il to reach the
addressee since they lack

a m edium

through w hich th ey

can

propagate.) Classical prototypes o f a vibrating body that are norm ally

referred

to

in

order

to

describe

the

w ay

in

w hich

verbal

communication is achieved include the pendulum or the tuning fork.

W hen the form er is set in m otion or the latter is struck, they vibrate
constantly. The pendulum or each o f the prongs o f the tuning fo rk
m ove in one direction and then back to the -starting point and then in
the opposite direction to roughly the same extent and the m ovem ent is
continued decreasingiy until the-vibration dies out com pletely. It is
because -friction w ith the environm ent that the m ovem ent eventually7
dies ou t Ideally, i f the vibrating body w ere placed in vacuum the
energy o f . the in itial im pulse -would be kept constant and the
5 S i r is difficu lt to analyze in detail, to carefully observe the speech organs
in the process o f producing various sounds, the acoustic features o f sounds are m ore
easily observable. T h e sounds w e produce can; be rec o rd e d their features can he
analyzed, we- can even provide graphics representing the sounds w e articulate by
means o f special machines (see the discussion below)

47

-m snt w ould continue fo r ever. H ow ever, as the vibrating body is

traded b y air, its m ovem ent is' transmitted to the air molecules
id, that vibrate accordingly. The vibration o f the pendulum or o f

jio n g o f the tuning fo rk can be represented graphically by a

oidal curve. The vertical axis or the ordinate w ill measure the
atude or intensity o f the sound, w h ile the. horizontal one, or the
ssa w ill measure the duration in tim e o f the vibration.

I f the distance from the point o f rest is greater, w e say the

itude o f the vibration is higher. This is related to the amount o f
that is transmitted through, the air b y means o f the respective
- c wave. The higher the amplitude is, the louder the sound. The
entional w ay in which w e refer to the intensity or loudness or
itude o f sounds is that o f using the decibel scale. The decibel
: does not express the absolute intensity o f a sound, but the ratio
men the intensity o f a sound and a reference intensity. Thus, i f w e
; to compare the intensity o f tw o sounds, w e take the logarithm to
m ass 10 o f their ratio and m ultiply it by 10. F or

nnoe, i f a sound

00 tim es m ore intense than another, it means that 10 has to be

-d to the pow er 3 to get the ratio between them. I f w e m ultiply 3
_ 0 w e get 30, therefore the difference betw een the two sounds is o f
decibels (dB ). I f a sound is a b illion tim es m ore intense than
ter, this means that their ratio, is 10 raised to the pow er 9, so the
erence betw een them is o f 9 m ultiplied b y 10, that is o f 90 decibels
3 - The reference value fo r the- decibel scale is the standard intensity
sound w hich has a fix ed value close to the audible lim it o f sound,
is'valu e is -10'16 watts per square centim etre). Therefore, i f w e say
- a sound is 40 decibels it means it is ten thousand times m ore
nse titan the standard reference value.
A com plete' m ovem ent, that is one starting from the initial
_m t, going as fa r as the maximum amplitude, th en back to. the point
rest and beyond it to the m aximum amplitude in the opposite
notion and fin ally back again to the point o f rest is called a cycle.
higher the-num ber o f cycles per unit o f tim e (second) is, the
her the frequency o f the vibration is. The tim e it takes fo r a cycle to
com pleted is called the p eriod o f the vibration. Frequency is

measured in cycles per second ( cps)

or H ertz. Sounds having a

constant period (in other w ords sounds displayin g a regular vibration)

are called periodic sounds. The typ ical example fo r this land o f sounds
are m usical sounds. H ow ever, in the case o f other sounds; successive
periods va ry and these sounds are called aperiodic. In reality, periodic
vibrations are seldom sim ple, the vib ration bein g o f a m ore com plex
kind than that represented b y the sim ple sinusoidal w a ve (o r sine
w ave) described above. A

vibrating b o d y oscillates or vibrates at

various intensities, the ensuing vibration o f the entire body bein g a

w ave that is not sinusoidal and w ill d iffe r from any o f the sim ple sine
waves o f which it is the result. The sinusoidal com ponents o f any
com plex periodic sound are called the harm onics o f the respective
sound. The higher harm onics are in tegral m ulripies o f the lowest
harmonic

w hich

is

called

the fundam ental frequency

or

the

fundamental o f the respective sound. Thus, i f a sound has as its

fundamental frequency 200 cps and one o f its h igh er harm onics is of,
say, 400 cps, w e say that .the latter is the 2 nd harm onic o f the sound
since it is tw ice higher than the fundam ental. A harm onic h avin g 'the
frequency o f 800 cps w ill be the 4 Jl harm onic o f the sound, as it is fou r
times higher than the fundam ental.

We

should

alw ays

sp ecify

therefore, in the case o f periodic sounds, w hich are the frequency and
amplitude o f its fundamental and o f its higher harm onics. It is also
important to note that though the various rates o f vibration w ill result
in a given tim bre (ton ality) o f the sound, .which is differen t from any?
o f the harmonics, it w ill alw ays be the fundam ental that essentially?
defines (g ives the quality o f) a given sound. Th is hind o f specification
that includes the fundamental and -the harm onics o f a sound is called
the spectrum, o f the respective sound.
A n essential feature o f any? sound is its p itch . P itch is, rou gliiy
speaking, the w ay in w hich w e p erceive the frequ en cy o f a sound, it is,
in other w ords the perceptual correlate o f the frequ en cy o f that sound.
W e can say that the higher the fundam ental frequ ency o f a sound w ill
oe, the higher the p itch o f the respective sound is, or rather that w e
perceive the sound as having a higher pitch. Th is correlation is n o t
how ever, linear as there is not alw ays a direct proportionality between

49

the frequency o f a sound and our perception o f that frequency. P itch

has a very important role in intonation as w e shall see later. Pitch
differs a lot from one speaker to another. W om en, fo r instance, have
shriller voices than men, therefore the pitch o f their utterances w ill be
higher.9 H ow is it then that w e recognize a sound as being the same
even i f it is pronounced by persons w hose voices have very .different
pitches? The answer is that though the fundamental and the number o f
harmonics differ, obviously, in the tw o cases (the one w ith a low er
pitch having a low er number o f harmonics) the shape o f the spectrum
o f the two sounds is pretty much the same in the sense that the
harmonics with the greatest amplitude are at about the same frequency
in both cases. 'W h ile vow els and sonorants have spectra which
resem ble those o f periodic sounds ( o f the kind musical sounds are),
obstruents, and particularly th e voiceless ones, are aperiodic sounds,
which maires them pretty sim ilar to pure noises.
Three

are

then

the

essential

acoustic

paramtrs

that

characterize a given sound (a sound having a certain quality): its

a m p litu d e or intensity that wre perceive as loudness.;

its frequency.

that w e perceive as pitch, and its duration. A given sound, therefore,

say the vow el Id , can be pronounced w ith various degrees o f
intensity, the amplitude varies therefore, but fundam entally the sound
is the same. In spite o f frequency variations (that w e perceive as
variations in pitch) in the pronunciation o f the above-m entioned v o w e l
by different persons, w e w ill still iden tify the same sound. W e can
also vary the length o f the Vow 'd and w e wall still say that the sound
hasnt

fundamentally

changed

its

qualify.

The

anatomy

ana

physiology o f both the articulation and audition processes drastically

lim it the range o f sounds that w e

can produce and perceive,

respectively. In other w ords w e can on ly utter sounds within a certain

range o f intensify and loudness and their duration is also lim ited.
Conversely, our auditory system is able to perceive and analyze

s The frequency o f vocal cord vibration ranges, generally, between 80 and

200 H z in men, while the vibration o f w om ens v o c a l cords can reach 400 H z (see
Ladefoged. 1975: 163)

sounds whose frequency and intensity are situated betw een certain
values and w hose duration is lim ited.
'The vibrations o f a body can be transmitted, often w ith a
higher '.amplitude, by a phenom enon called resonance. Certain bodies
have the property o f transmitting vibrations in this w ay and they are
called resonators.'It is enough to think o f m usical instruments and this
physical process becom es clear fo r everybody. I f w e take a vio lin , fo r
instance, the strings p la y the role o f vibrating bodies, w h ile the body
o f the instrument acts as a resonator. A n d this is true n ot on ly fo r
string instruments, but fo r w in d instruments as w ell. I f w e take a flute
or a bassoon, w e shall easily see that the air that is pushed into the
instrument w hen w e b lo w tit makes vibrate the air already existing
inside the instrument and the body o f the instrument plays again the
role o f resonator.
A sim ilar process can be w itnessed in the case o f speech.
Rem em bering our description o f the m ain articulators above w e shall
again m ention the glottis as the first essential segm ent o f the speech
tract that shapes the

sounds-that we produce.

The vo ca l cords have the

role o f vibrating bodies w h ile the pharynx, the oral and the nasal
cavities, respectively; act as resonators. The versatility o f these
cavities (notably the oral cavity) that can easify m od ify their shape
and degree o f aperture, the m ob ility o f the tongue and the com plexity
o f the human speech producing m echanism enable human beings to
articulate a rem arkable variety o f sounds in term s o f their acoustic
features. The in itially w eak vibrations o f the vo ca l cords, having a
w ide range o f frequencies, are taken o ver and am p lified b y the above
mentioned resonators. The am plitude and frequency o f the sounds that
are further transmitted b y the resonators depend ve ry much on the size
and shape o f these resonators. Resonance does not characterize,
however,--only cavities that m o d ify the acoustic features o f a sound.

themselves, are characterized b y various degrees o f

resonance. -Resonat-qm can am plify or damp the form ants o f the given
sound, by---enhancing .o r suppressing various frequencies. Th is
Vibrating .bodies

accounts fo r the w ide ' V ariety in the param eteres o f sounds differen t
human beings are able to produce. Each o f the features o f the

51

itors o f an individual lias an im pact on the types o f sounds that

ual utters. The m usicality o f the sounds that w e produce-largely
Us on the characteristics o f our phonatory system, too. Vow els,
ice, have distinct and constant p diem s o f resonance (the
ding cavities assume certain shapes w henever a given sound is
1) and thus w e can always recognize the respective sound by its
- f i v e mark. The various positions o f the soft palate w ill direct the
-u g h either the oral or the nasal cavity or through both o f them.
g iv e the sounds w e produce a nasal or an oral character. A s
-d out above, the shape and degree o f openness o f the mouth can
"The tongue, the lips, the teeth, the m ovem ent o f the mandible
Iso influence speech production assigning various acoustic:
-teristics to the sounds w e articulate. The qualities o f the
hag bodies them selves (in our case the vocal cords) largely
n ee the tim bre o f the sound that is produced. Speech perception
idam entally relies on the vibrating characteristics o f various
oranes, on the possibility o f transmitting these vibrations andrrting them into neural impulses. Certain segments o f the
ry system, too, act as resonators, am plifying the basic features
e sounds that reach our ear, or, on the contrary, damping these
is, often in order to protect our' auditory organs, (see the

ssion o f audition above).

A s w e have said, acoustic phonetics is the branch o f phonetics
e daia are m ost liable to measurements, quantification, etc. I f w e
"hardly think o f apparatuses being used in other linguistic fields
syntax or semantics, fo r instance, the situation is different in the
o f phonetics, as scientists have devised various instruments that
sea to provide an im age o f the w ay in w hich people speak and
Ih ics representing the sounds w e produce. Such an instrument is
acoustic spectrograph , an appliance sim ilar in many ways to a

ograph. or to an electrocardiograph (devices that record seismic

heart activity respectively). It marks on paper the vibrations
-.ed by speech sound production. The graphs they produce are
ed n'P-cirogram s and represent the frequency o f the

sound on

the

leal and its duration on the h orizon tal The darker bands in the

spectrogram arc called the form ants o f the respective sounds and they
represent the frequencies at which a greater amount o f energy is spent.
N orm ally, tw o or three form ants at the m ost are used to describe a
certain sound. Formants are essential fo r the acoustic representation o f
sounds and all voiced sounds have a form ant structure.
D ifferen t classes o f sounds have, as shown above, different
acoustic parametres.

We have

already m entioned the fact that, of. the

tw o m ajor classes o f sounds, vow els and consonants, the form er are
closer, acoustically speaking, to m usical sounds, as their vibration
com es closer to the ideal lin e o f the p eriod ic constant vibration.
V ow els in their turn have distinct acoustic features. Front vow els, for
instance, are acute sounds, displaying higher frequencies in their
second f ormant (betw een

1800 and 2300 cps),

w h ile bade vo w els are,

com paratively, graver sounds, their second form ant ranging between

800 and

1000

cps.

We

can also distinguish betw een com pact a n d

diffuse vow els, depending on the w ay in w hich the m ain form ants are
close to -each other or are w ider apart in the spectrum o f the sound.
Thus, lo w or open vow els have their form ants grouped towards Lhe
m iddle o f the spectrum and are consequently compact, w h ile high or
close vow els are diffuse, the distance betw een their form ants being
greater. Consonants, on the other hand, can be clearly distinguished on
the basis o f their acoustic features. N on-peripheral (dental, alveolar,
alveopalatal, palatal) sounds are acute, as their form ants are situated
among the ripper frequencies' o f the spectrum, w h ile peripheral
consonants are1grave, as their f ormants are situated am ong the low er
frequencies o f the spectrum.301
0

10

Th e distinction was made b y Jakobson and H a lle (1956), w h o introduced

the respective features, acute/grave to differentiate between peripheral and non

peripheral consonants. Acoustic paramtrs o f sounds played an important ro le in
several notorious attempts m ade b y various phouoiogists to establish, a list o f socalled distinctive matures- Jakobson and H a lle s classification notably uses acoustic
characteristics to describe the features. M o r e details w ill be given in this b ook in the
chapter discussing distinctive features.

shronic. diachronic, comparative phonology

so fa r exam ined the interest o f phoneticians in what
the production, the perception and the physical
o f sounds and w e have b riefly presented various
netics dealin g w ith the respective data: articulatory,
ustic phonetics. Languages, however, are not given
ad thejr are subject to change as ah human things are.
changes a ffectin g a certain language are not easily
___ a short period, o f tim e and i f w e want to collect
=r-=?garding these phenom ena w e often have to refer to
or several .centuries. Pronunciation changes too and
m ot have recordings o f the w ay in w hich people spoke
specialists can, how ever, reconstruct d ie manner in
sed to be pronounced in the p a st A-Iinguistic approach
-d in data that pertain to the evolution, or changes in the
o f a given language over a longer period o f tim e
dom ain o f historical or diachronic phonology. I on the
ph on etician s approach focuses on aspects linked to the
,-ystem o f a language at a given moment in its evolution
>or her approach is synchronic and can be subscribed to

.synchronic phonology. I f a phonetician s analysis deals

regarding the pronunciation o f different languages or
-ts or regional varieties' o f one and the same language, in
.. he or she is interested in com paring phonetic features o f
tistic systems, the respective approach belongs to what is
rative phonology.

rariefses o f English. The international spread

o f English. Regional variation. Accents.
Standard English and Received Pronunciation
re are p e o p le w ho claim that Chinese rather than English
ge that has -the largest number o f speakers in the w orld

(though arguably so, since w e can hardly speak about a unique

language spoken b y the 1.2 'b illio n Chinese) English is indisputably
the m ost w id ely spread language on earth, as it is practically spoken
on all continents, either as m other tongue or first language or as a
second language

(often

an

o ffic ia l language

in

the respective

countries) b y hundreds o f m illion s o f people. A language having such

a w ide geographical spread cannot be expected to be the same in
places tens o f thousands o f kilom etres apart In other words, w e
cannot im agine that people in Sydney, Calcutta, Vancouver, Toronto,
Los

A ngeles,

the

Falkland

Islands,

Dar

es

Salaam,

Harare,

Johannesburg, Cork, Glasgow-, Y ork, Manchester, London or V ictoria

speak the same "kind o f English. The di f ferences are not alwaysproportional-to the distances, since General Am erican (the variety o f
Am erican English that is dialectally neutral, that is it is not influenced
by the souyihem or eastern A m erican accents and is spoken by the
m ajority o f the population o f the U S A ; .it is usually abbreviated G A ) is
much closer to standard B ritish English (see the explanation o f the
term below ) than are som e o f the northern accents11 spoken on the
very island o f Britain. This is so because dialectal (o r region al)
variation is typical o f any language, not only o f languages having such
a remarkable geographical spread as English- The fact that English
came into contact as a consequence o f the w orldw ide extent o f the
British colonial em pire w ith a w id e variety o f languages spoken by
native populations in various parts o f the w orld on ly contributed to an
even greater diversification o f the varieties o f English that are
currently spoken all over the w o r ld

Therefore, the distinctions

m entioned above can be o f differen t kinds, pertaining either to the

already m entioned regional variation, or to the separate evolu tion o f
the language in different parts o f the w orld to w hich geographical
distfmr.es and cultural factors la rgely contributed. In m any cases, the
interaction between English and one or

several local languages gave

birth to so-called pidgins. V ariation can also be noticed at individual

11
W e use the term accent -with the sense o f pronunciation typical o f a
certain dialect '(regional variant) o f a given language.

and the kind o f English spoken by a certain person often

prates his or her educational and social background, a situation
cularly relevant in a conservative country lik e Britain, where
d and cultural differences are more important than in. other parts
ne w orld. D ifferences' between the varieties o f English pertain,
ally, not only to the vocabulary or grammar, but, essentially, tc
ciation as w ell. Th ey are never that important, how ever, to
y the identification o f a different language and those speaking
an A m erican language, fo r example, axe doing it either out o f
ranee, or o f patriotism , or because o f com m ercial interests
people w ould be interested in being taught Am erican than
;h , 'for instance). I f variation in the case o f individual
;es is a natural and common phenomenon, institutionally and
^Lnistrafively it can hardly be accepted. Attempts at standardization
lo c a liz a tio n , .at preserving the unity and even the purity 12 o f
^language represent therefore a constant concern fo r different
ia l bodies and institutions in various countries. I f this is easier to
ve at the le v e l o f the w ritten language, difficu lties are m uch.
te r in the case o f the spoken language. Even at this level,
ever, the need fo r a standardized, m ore or less universally
table and recognizable variant is-even greater in the case o f
ish than in that o f other languages, since this is the officia l
ruage o f many countries in the w orld and is the m ost w id e ly used
page in international conferences/ meetings/ etc, being the main
^guage used b y U N organizations and having becom e since "World
H a kind o f lingua franca o f contemporary w orld, A variety o f
N is h

ignoring

the

aphical/national

natural
variants

diversity, o f various
of

the

language

dialects

thus

or

gradually

"W ished its e lf as the standard version o f the language. This variety
English is largely based on the southern dialects o f the language,
nnd w hich the literary language had been form ed, and its
12

The French, are notorious fo r their often exaggerated efforts to protect

preserve the purity o f f ie r i langt -;?<?. Similar attempts, less consistent and.
-raatic and having lit vs i f any scientific foundation and consequently being

political demagogy have been made in our country', tea.

pronunciation is com m only know n as R eceived Pronunciation. The

em ergence o f a southern dialect to this predom inant position can be
historically, explained

by

the

p o litica l,

econom ic

and

cultural

importance..o f London ever since early M id d le A ges. The language

spoken at Court b y the royal fa m ily and their refin ed entourage w as
early nvested w ith all th resp ect authority and influence that a
m odel needs. B ein g the language o f the educated upper segments o f
the English society, it was p erceived as the co rre ct version o f the
language, in opposition to other accents that w ere consequently
regarded- as corrupted form s

o f the norm .

T h e tw o traditional

universities, O xford and'C am bridge and, in m ore recent tim es, the
public schools la rg ely contributed to the grow in g prestige o f R eceived
Pronunciation. Th e ve ry term received suggests the id ea o f the general
acceptance o f this variety o f English, The in ven tion o f the radio and
the adopting o f R P b y the B B C also played an im portant ro le in the
im posing o f R P as the socially desirable norm fo r the pronunciation o f
the language. It also accounts fo r R P being know n as B B C English.
This prestige o f R P is not lin gu istically m otivated but is essentially
rooted in tradition and in the authority o f the educational system and
o f the upper classes, since it

has been fo r

a lon g tim e the

pronunciation taught in school, described by E n glish dictionaries and

phonetic books, dissem inated through the m edia, used b y the educated
people in academ ic circles, in pu blic speeches, conferences, etc. It is,
in one w ord, the kind o f English h avin g the highest social and cultural
status and that any "respectable15person is supposed to u se.'3 Starting
as the accent o f a lim ited social segm ent and h a vin g the essential
features o f a southern accent, R P transcended social and geographical
lim its and came to be recogn ized as the correct variant o f the
language, the norm as regards pronunciation. A s m entioned above,
m ore than other countries, England is a p la ce w here accent still1
3

13
It should be mentioned, how ever, that, according to statistics, R P
characteristic only o f about 3 % o f the overall number o f speakers o f the English
language, that many native speakers w ill consider it affected and that foreign
speakers rarely acquire it correctly. F o r m ost p eop le it functions as an ideal target
rather than an actual means o f communication.

57

is

important index

to

the

social

and

educational

speaker. This largely accounts fo r die survival o f

-ard pronunciation, o f the language in spite o f its
usance described in the note before. W ithin R P its e lf
m ain types can be distinguished; conservative R P,
Lvanced R P. Conservative R P is characteristic-for the
o f R P speakers and is die variant most resistant to
;d R P , on the contrary typifies attempts to change
a n a y b e suggestive o f future evolutions within R P.

_e m ost w id ely used, keeping the balance between the

. the innovative tendencies w ithin the accent It is the
s com m only used b y the media,
e other dialectal pronunciations o f British English w e
: dy som e o f the m ost im portant Cockney enjoys a
/ as it is the accent used in the south, notably in the
and

typifies

the

pronunciation

of

what

was

ed the w orking class. Some o f the m ost striking

o f Cockney are that it replaces voiceless stops by the
widens the diphthong [ex] to [a i]. Several accents o f
ufh-eastem England are collectively known as Estuary
Item

dialects, w hich include accents o f Northern

f Scotland are, generally, rhotic {r is pronounced in

la l or pre-consonantal position; e.g. in words like car or
_e. central open v o w e l [ a ] is generally pronounced as
[o ]. Irish people speak English w ith a very distinct

xts nd our outlook to varieties o f English spoken outside

s in various regions o f the w orld that w ere form erly
B ritish Em pire, Am erican English w ill of course have
position, Am ericans form ing the

largest community o f

__ speakers in the w orld. Various labels w ill be attached

sties o f the language, that have borrow ed the name o f

countries or geographical regions: Australian ''English,
Canadian English etc. Further subdivisions are, o f
>le, taking into account linguistic diversification even
sties m entioned above.

2.7. Sound Change. The gap between spelling and

pronunciation. The International Phonetic
Alphabet
Homonyms,
homophones,
homographs
As

shown

above,

the

invention

of

alphabetic

w ritin g

represented a huge step forw ard on the w ay to a sim p lified graphic

sym bolization o f the words o f spoken languages. E arly systems o f
spelling w ere generally

based on

one-to-one

correspondence

between th graphic representation and the spoken language, in other

words one and the same sound (or, rather, phonem e, as w e shall see
later) was always represented by one and the same graphic symbol(letter) and a graphic sym bol could only be pronounced in one w ay. (a
one-to-one

relation).

H ow ever, , as

the

pronunciation

o f m any

languages underwent im portant changes along centuries, the sp ellin g

did not always keep the pace w ith these transform ations. Th e exam ple
o f - English is, probably, the m ost relevant, am ong the m odem
European languages at le a s t T o the dism ay o f foreign students o f the
language, but probably no less to that o f prim ary school native
speakers as w ell, the gap created between the pronunciation o f w ords
and orthography in m odem E nglish is som etim es stunning: even
consonants, a usually safer ground than vow els, .can som etim es
reserve unpleasant surprises. H ow can an average E nglish speaker
account fo r the variation from a velar p lo sive to a palato-alveolar
affricate or fricative in exam ples

lik e get [g et], gem [d jem ] and

gendarme [3am dam x] or g ive [g iv ], gipsjr [dyrpsi]

and g te [ r t]

respectively? W h y should one and the same group o f letters ch be

read in three different way's in w ords like ch ild [tfa d d ], charade
[feTa.'cfj and character [T t rlk tB ]? H ow can w e account fo r th fa ct
feat words lik e four, cu ff, laugh, pharm acy and lieutenant use fiv e
different ways fo r representing one and fe e Same sound: f i l l The
explanation that present-day English spelling actually represents (or,
anyway, is much closer to ) the pronunciation o f late m iddle English
can hardly sweeten the p ill. The grim reality w e are confronted w ith is
that w e have to separately learn the pronunciation and the sp ellin g o f

59

o f the language as any correspondence w e m ight be tempted

dish

between

the tw o

can prove

utterly m isleading.14

ons have been made to sim p lify English orthography and

t . to the pronunciation o f the words. It is precisely the
rnaiy variety o f the language m entioned above thai seems to
Tver, one o f the m ajor obstacles in ibis direction, as,- it has
tied, spelling remains one o f the m ajor means o f preserving

y o f the language. I f it were adapted to the w ay people

the words, then one and the same w ord could have, so many
that different users o f English could hardly recognize i t
h e need was felt, then, fo r a handier, m ore accessible system
ic representation o f the sounds that should somehow parallel
oral spelling but be based on a m ore logical, one-to-one
nnence w ith the phonem ic system o f the language. The idea
-ailed phonetic alphabet was thus bom . A t the end o f the 19
a. group o f phoneticians led by a French lin gu ist Paul Passy,
he International Phonetic Association and devised a system o f
^representation o f sounds that was -actually the first phonetic
. Gradually, the system was enriched and im proved so that it
m ot be linked to any .particular language, but rather be apt to
Lt graphically the pronunciation o f words in any langnage
on earth. Since the members o f the association came from
s where the Latin alphabet is used (w hich is, anyway, the
nant alphabet on m ost o f the fiv e continents o f the w orld ), the
; used by the n ew ly devised phonetic alphabet are m ainly
om this alphabet. Diacritics are sometim es used to represent
ounds. A s far as English is concerned, som e o f its sounds (the
ta1 fricatives, fo r instance) .are represented b y symbols taken
e Greek alphabet, the respective

sounds being found in

the

anguage a s 'w e ll Ever since- the first phonetic alphabet was

one

o f the

main tasks

o f the International Phonetic

4 Bernard Shaws famous sarcastic suggestion that English people should

tent and spell the w ord fish as gh oti

(gh to represent the sound f as in

o represent the v o w e l x as in wom en and t i to represent fee paiaio-alveoiar

as in nation) is quoted by all phoneticians

Association Jaas been to keep it updated, enriching and adapting it to

the various different idioms, as w e ll as to p u b licize the changes
brought to the alphabet The alphabet o f the International Phonetic
Association, comm oniy. called the International Ph onetic A lphabet is
the o n e ,conventionally used b y a ll m ajor language dictionaries and
encyclopedias in ojier to represent the pronunciation o f both comm on
and proper names. It has proved to be an extrem ely useful tool, as it
has the m ajor advantage o f using one and on ly one (alw ays the sam e)
sym bol fo r the same sound disregarding thus sp ellin g pecu liarities that
are often so pu zzling and m isleading fo r students o f a language w hose
orthography

is

essentially

based

on

etym ological

principles.

Conventionally, the graphic sym bols used to represent pronunciation

are placed betw een square brackets.
The distance existing betw een the pronunciation o f w ords and
their spelling creates a special problem in languages lik e English, one
that is unknown to languages lik e Rom anian w here spelling is based^
on a phonem ic principle. A ll languages have w ords that have sim ilar
pronunciations but have en tirely differen t m eanings. "T h ey have
different origins, different m eanings and their phonetic sim ilarity is.
due to sound changes undergone b y w ords that w ere origin ally
entirely distinct These words are called homonyms, the w ord com ing
from Greek suggesting their sameness (G k.. homos = sam e). A ll
homonyms have both the same pronunciation and the same spelling in.
a language lik e Rom anian: e.g. mare (adj-, b ig) and mare (n., sea), a

semna (to resemble) and a semna (to sow ), p o t (1 st pers sg. and 3 1x1
pers, pi. o f the present indicative o f the verb a putea, can) and p ot.

(stake in a gam e o f cards), cear 3rd person sg. and plural present
subjunctive) and cear (wax). _The differen ce betw een sp ellin g and
pronunciation in English introduces a further distinction as w ords m a y .
have sim ilar pronunciations and b e homophones (o r hom ophonous''
lexical item s) but have different spellings. T w o English w ords w ill be
then homonymous, strictly speaking, i f they, are not only hom ophones,.
hut they are also hom ographs (th ey .are spelt in the same w ay). Thus,
the m odal verb may is a hom onym o f the noun M ay (the month o f th e ;

61

type is a hom onym o f the verb type as they are both

like pray and

homophones but not

hom ographs, w h ile pairs o f words

eet, sow and sew, w ill only be

s as they are not also homographs. W e can com e

te situation, w hen tw o words are homographs but are
ently: e_g. row (o f chairs) and row (quarrel) bow (the
(the synonym o f bend);

jow

the verb and sow the

:
i

TH E SOUNDS OF ENGLISH. CONSONANTS

AN D VOWELS. A N A R T IC U L A T O R Y
CLASSIFICATION AND D E S C R IP T IO N

OF CONSONANTS.
DISTRIBUTXON.ACOUSTIC CO RRELATES
3.1.

Consonants
and
Vowels.
Traditional
distinctions. Cttorasky and Ha lie s SPE
definition
-

The previous chapter has p rovid ed a b r ie f description o f the

human phonatoiy system insisting on the m ain articulatory organs and
differentiating betw een passive and active articulators. Articulatory'
phonetics has been denned as thatJbranch o f phonetics that studies the
sounds o f a language from the point o f v ie w o f their articulation, of
the manner in w hich they com e to be produced, uttered b v th e speaker.
The nextchapiers o f this b ook w ill g iv e the description and attempt a
classification o f the sounds o f E nglish in articulatory terms, presenting
also some acoustic correlates o f the m ajor classes o f sounds.
W hen tryin g to describe the- sounds o f English or o f any
language fo r that m atter one should start w ith the traditional
distinction betw een tw o

m ajor

classes

o f sounds: vow els

and

consonants, respectively. There is, o f course, no u niversally accepteddefinition" fo r either class is there any subject upon w hich
grammarians w ill

agree,

after aII? - but w e can reso rt at last fo r the

beginning, to etym ology, to explain what people -

in 811 intuitive

rather than scholarly manner have always understood b y

the tw o

concepts. The w ord vow el com es from the Tatm w ord vocalis, w hich
in its turn derives from vox, vocis, m eaning word, voice, (cf. also Rom.

63

other words, w e

always perceive 1vow els; as sound

related to the feature o f vo icedness: a v o w e lls a sound that

reduced w ith vocal

cord vibration. TlSTthis is

a feaiureTihat

s som e non-vocalic sounds is something that w ill be

a little b it later. On the other band, the word /consonant]
again, on a strictly etym ological basis that the respective
snt have an articulatory autonomy, or, to put it differently,
to sound together (Lot. consonans, present parrdciple o f
cf. also Lat. consona, Rom. consoana) or be pronounced in
n w ith other sounds. This is again something"tEat we- ;h e
in tu itively aware of, or at least w e w ere taught that this was
as- early as during our first language classes in prim ary
iiat this is a definition that causes some serious problems is
raeihing that wall be soon discussed.
pointed out before, these etym ological references are not
fu i in understanding the true nature o f the differences
: tw o classes o f sounds. Though always voiced, vow els are
ans the on ly voiced sounds in a language. On the other hand,
-hat dont have consonantal features, m ay very w e ll be
ed together with other sounds. Further difficu lties are created
biguous nature o f certain sounds that have both vocalic and
dal features.
he somewhat m toiiive criteria (seldom exp licitly expressed,
i 1had to he replaced by systematic and consistent attempts at
ih e true nature o f the differences between the tw o classes,
ccoroing to

Ferdinand de

Saussure, what distinguishes

om consonants is the higher degree o f aperture o f the oral

rom an articulatory point o f view , the tw o classes are not,
essentially d ifferen t It is only from an acoustic point o f
it -oistinctions

are relevant; the laryngeal

sound being

by the oral ca vil)7that functions prim arily as a resonator in

xsrmefu P ik e note.' that frequently fo r description o f single languages the

assumed, with, no attempt to define, i t The distinction is often presented
c clear-cut with ever' sound belonging to one or the other o f fee groups

the .case o f vo w els, w h ile in the case o f consonants it reduces the

resonance o f the laryngeal sounds, a n oise-lik e e ffe c t bein g produced
by the intercession o f oral articulators,2
Leonard B loom field

defines

vo w els

as

m odifications

of

voice-sound that in volve no closure, friction, or contact o f the tongue or

lips w h ile consonants (that include stops, trills, spirants, nasals and
laterals) are the other sounds. B loom field deplores the w ay in w hich
the tw o labels, vo w els and consonants respectively, are used and argues
that in the description o f individual languages it is convenient to use the
terms in a different w ay and to supplement this distinction made in
articulatory terms. H e suggests that the distinction should be refined by
adding tw o m ore classes: sonants sad semivowels. (1935:102)
A rgu in g in favou r o f a strict delim itation betw een the phonetic
(articulatory and acoustic) descriptions o f sounds and their phonem ic,
contrastive valu e in a given context, B ik e3 distinguishes betw een
contoid and vo co id sounds, a d ivision ex clu sively based on phonetic
characteristics that parallels the distinction consonants/vowels that are
categories o f sounds, not as determ ined b y their ow n phonetic nature,
but according to

their, grouping in

sp ecific

syllable

functions . A ccord in g to this interpretation w e

universal,

pu rely

phonetic

features

contextual

can talk

o f contoids

and

about

vocoids

re fle c tiv e ly , w h ile each particular language (ph on ological system )

w ill delineate its" ow n classes- o f consonants and vo w els.

2 L a form ule d une voy e lle est exactement com parable celle de n importe
quelle consonne sonore. A u point de vue de l articulation buccale, i l n y a pas de
distinction foire. Seul l effet accoustique est d iff re n t Pass un certain degr
d aperture, la bouche fonctionne principalement com me rsonateur. L e tim bre du
son laryng apparat pleinement et le 'b ra it buccal s efface. Plus la bouche se ferme,
plus le son laryng est intercept. (1965: 75)
J A phonetic system should be able, within fo e lim its o f foe accuracy and
finesse o f its articulatory, acoustic, or imitation-label procedures, to describe any
sound in isolation, or in nonsense syllables, o r as cut from fo e continuum o f speech,
without fo e necessity o f referring to other sounds in fo e con text to find criteria fo r its
classification. A phonetic science should b e able to define and describe its own units
by its own data... I f fo e phonetician first delimits supposed articulatory classes by
phonemic features, h o w can he then describe fo e phonem es w ith articulatory
methods? A n y such attempt presents a vicious circle o f phonemics to phonetics to
phonemics, with foe phonetician starting at phonemics. (1 9 4 3 :7 8 )

65

 tem porary lin gu istic. studies fo llo w Chomsky and

d Pattern o f English , 1968) in postulating the feet

ttion. betw een vow els and consonants consists in
e w e utter a v o w e l the outgoing airstream does not
bstacle or constriction in its w ay from the lungs out
-xt the articulatian o f the sound allow s spontaneous
the articulation o f a consonant always involves some
f the airstream .4
have decided that consonants are sounds that in volve
m owing, w hich can sometimes lead to a com plete
_re vo ca l tract, w e w ill easily notice that what w e have
c a ll consonants are fe r from being a homogeneous
er hand, it is obvious that consonants w ill be m ore
I in articulatory terms than, vow els since it w ill be
to point to the precise organs involved in the process
and to

the . place

where the

above mentioned

- js place.

riferia for consonant classification. Vocal

rd vibration. Sonority
ally, the three basic criteria used in the articulatory
_ _ sound are vocal cord vibration (voicin g), the place o f
the manner o f articulation.
is vo icin g is concerned, mention has been made in the
bing the articulatory organs that the v o c a l' cords
y elem ent in the articulation o f speech sounds. I f the
^vhen w e produce a sound, the sound thus- uttered is

sounds are denned as sounds produced wife an oral cavity in

constriction does not exceed that -found in the high vowels [T{
vocal cords that are positioned so as to allow spontaneous voicing;
v o c a lic sounds one or both o f these conditions are not satisfied.
3ds are defined as sounds produced with a radical obstruction in
egion o f the vocal tract; nonconsonantal sounds are produced
xd ical

bstruction (19&8:302)

called a voiced sound (Rom . sonor). If, on the contrary, the sound is
utteredm vithoui voca l cord vibration, then w e are taTlri-ng about a

voiceless sound-'(Rom. surd). W e have already said that all vow els are
voiced , w h ile as regards consonants, they fa ll into the tw o categories
m entioned above.
V oicin g is not, h ow ever, the only param eter that can be used to
classify consonants and other criteria w ill also he used to crossclassify this pretfy numerous and heterogeneous class o f sounds. I f
vibration o f the vocal cords constitutes an im portant criterion fo r
differentiating among various sounds, the outgoing airstream m ay
make the tw o cavities (ora l or nasal) m entioned in the second chapter
vibrate. This generates an acoustic phenom enon w e are fam iliar w ith
from everyday life , nam ely resonance. The higher or low er le v e l o f
resonance produced w hen a sound is uttered results into a higher- or
low er degree- o f prominence or sonority and leads to
distinction betw een tw o

classes

of

consonants:

a m ajor

sonorants and

obstruents. Sonorants w ill, o f course, he called those sounds having a

higher degree- o f sonority and resonance, w h ile obstruents w ill be
those consonants characterized by a com paratively lo w er sonority and
in volvin g a m uch low er resonance ( i f any). The le v e l o f sonority being
higher in the case o f sonorants (the vo w els them selves w ill hold the
highest position on a sonority scale), they w ill consequently he vo w el
or vo w el-lik e sounds. The obstruents w ill be those sounds having
predom inantly consonantal features, the class including the so called
genuine or .tine consonants, h i English, all sonorants are voiced, w h ile
obstruents may be vo iced or voiceless.

3.3. Manner o f articulation. Plosives. Fricatives.

. Af&icaies
. True -consonants

or

obstnients can then be classified talcing

into accountm anner o f articulation features. Consonants have sJts M

been' defined.- as': sounds produced b y obstructing the vocal tract w h ile
expellin g the .airstream from the lungs. The w ay in w hich this
obstruction is achieved can be o f differen t kinds. I f a sound is

67

with, a com plete closure o f .the vocal tract follow ed by a

r___ elease o f the air, the articulation, is accompanied b y a burst, a
explosion. Such sounds axe consequently called plosives. A s
illation in volves a total obstruction (occlusion) o f the'tract," an
-ve name fo r such" a consonant is that o f Stop (Rom.

ocluztva).

be m entioned, how ever, that the two terms are not .exactly
nous, since nasal

sounds are

stops (the air stream is blocked)

io t plosive sounds as tbeir articulation is not accompanied by

Dsive burst W e must remember, then, that the articulation o f
live sound includes three distinct.phases: during the first one,
-a ile d the approach, the articulators are m oving together,
m g to b lock the airstream; during the second stage, called the

closure , the articulators com pletely block the speech tract

n g the air to go out and contributing thus to building up the
01

the airstream: during the third and last stage, called the

or plosion, the speech organs m ove sw iftly, releasing the air

explosion.
the stricture jo r narrowing o f the tract does not result,
=r, in a com plete blockage and a narrow passage is le ft fo r the
r o out, the pressure building up in the case o f plosives is absent
= sound is uttered not With a sudden burst, but continuously, the
ntion being accompanied by fic tio n between the airstream and
seen organs. Such sounds are therefore called fricatives. A
distinction betw een the latter and the stops is that they are-

-umt, nonabrupt sounds and their articulation can be, at least

hcaliy, continued indefinitely.
The last m ajor group o f consonants that can be identified on
s is o f the manner o f articulation is that o f the affricates.
a ie s com bine the features o f the tw o previous classes o f sounds,
"their articulation starts like that o f a plosive, b y a complete
sge o f the airsiream, but continues lik e that o f a fricative, as the
la g e does not in v o lve an abrupt release o f the air, but a gradual
l i e symbols used in the phonetic transcription o f these sounds in
sh are, as w e shall see, som ehow suggestive o f their ambiguous,
1 nature.

3.4. Soaoraais. The Approximasiis: glides aad

-liquids
N o t all continuant sounds are produced, h ow ever, w ith friction ,
as is the case o f fricatives, m entioned above. There are sounds in
English (and other languages as w ell, o f course) the pronunciation o f
w hich does not in volve a m ajor obstruction in the speech tract and
does not produce the auditory effe c t o f fric tio n that characterize
fricatives.

Such

sounds

are

com m only

ca lled

approxim ants or

frictionless continuants. The glides and the liquids are the tw o major
subclasses o f approximants.
The glides are sounds such as

[w] and [j] in E nglish w ords lik e

wife and young. A rticu laiority, they have a predom inantly vo ca lic
character since no m ajor obstacle can b e jd e n tifie d w hen analy zin g the
w ay in w hich these sounds are uttered, i f this is a feature that
emphasizes their vo ca lic character, th eir distribution is not, how ever,
that o f a vo w e l; they can never be syllable nu clei (they are not syllabic
in SPE term in ology) and th ey always precede a genuine v o w e l
Because o f their dual nature they are tradition ally called sem ivow els
or semiconsonants, the very coexistence o f the tw o names suggesting
the uncertainly and hesitation -o f specialists, confronted w ith their
ambiguous nature. A m ore detailed description o f glides w ill be given
later, w hen diphthongs are discussed.

Liquids constitute an im portant subclass o f sonorants. Their

high le v e l o f sonority places them , Hire the glides and the nasals,
between vo w els and genuine consonants. Liqu ids can b e lateral
sounds lik e {TJ the nam e com es from the fe e t that w hen w e utter
these sounds the air is released laterally on one or both sides o f the
tongne or rhotics like [r ] the nam e com es from the G reek w ord

rho, -designating the letter R in the G reek alphabet I f in standard

E nglish'the sound'has the features o f an approidm ant m ore exactly o f
a giide-Eke sound, being produced w ithout any kind o f friction , in
certain dialects o f English w hen this sound is uttered the tongue is
placed against the alveolar rid ge and caused to vibrate, generating a

69

aut sound as the tongue touches the passive

and repeatedly, interrupting the outgoing airstrearu.
] that appears in Spanish words like Rodrigo , real,
itejjection

b rrrrl that accompanies a shivering

led the rolled or trilled Jr]. I f when the sound is

sj rapidly touches w ith only one m ovem ent the

n w e have a tap or fla p type o f rhotic. I f the tip o f
even further back, the rhotic thus articulated is

I and nasal articulation

'

t criterion that can be used to distinguish among

sition o f the velum or so ft palate (see. in Chapter 2
non o f the main articulatory organs). I f the velum is
ow in g the air io escape through the nasal cavity, we
a nasal sound I f it is raised, blocking the nasal cavity
out through the oral cavity (the mouth) the sound is
iish nasal consonants are stops as the airstream is
ked w hen these- consonants are uttered, but they are
io s ive sounds as their release stage differs from, that
asal sounds are sonoranis and o f-a ll the members o f
day the low est degree o f sonority. A s far as English
em ed, nasality is a contextual feature as w e are going

ree o f articulation
param eter differentiaim g-am ong obstruents is force o f
greater articulatory effort and a greater air pressure
eater resistance at the place o f articulation (where the
:es p lace) characterize sounds called fo rd s consonants
nsonants are those obstruents the articulation o f which
ip a ra fively lesser effort and a low er air pressure than in

the case o f their fords counterparts. The duration o f articulation is also

longer in the case o f fords sounds than in the case o f the len is ones. In
a voiced

voiceless pair, such as

[t] / [d ], fo r instance, the feature

fortis always characterizes the voiceless consonant, w h ile the vo iced

one is lenis.
I f we. consider the fa ct that the source o f the 2irstream that has
an essential role in producing the sounds are the lungs, then w e can
say that a ll the sounds o f English are pulm onic (Latin pulm o,

pulmonis, m eaning lung). The direction o f the airstream. is from the

lungs out o f the body, in other words w e always speak during the
expiration, n ot during' the inspiration phase o f breathing. Therefore,
the sounds o f English are also egressive. There are, h ow ever,'
languages where the sounds are ingressive -as th ey are uttered w h ile
the speakers breathe in.

3.7. Place o f articulation

W e have so far examined English consonants taking into
account the manner in w hich they are articulated. Another equally
important criterion w e can use in classifying English consonants is the
-place where the obstruction is achieved, the place o f articulation. A
distinction has already been drawn between active and passive
articulators, w hich started from the com paratively higher or low er
degree o f m obility o f the organs in volved in the articulation. A s w e are
going to see, the names given to different classes o f consonants
identified on the basis o f their place ox articulation are actually taken
from the names o f the very organs in volved in the articulation and
creating the obstruction or constriction along the buccal tract In alm ost
all cases it is the passive articulator that lends its name to the sound. It
w iil be useful,

therefore, to rem em ber the b rie f description o f the speech

tract given in the previous chapter o f this course.

W e shall rem em ber that i f w e start from the exterior, the firs t
articulatory organs w e com e across are the lips. The sounds produced
w ith the participation o f the lips as active articulators are called labial

71

(from the Latin w ord labium, m eaning lip ). I f both lips are
utter the sounds, the term bilabial is used. English bilabials
plosive obstruents lik e [p ] and- [b ], nasal stops like jjn ] and
dike [w ].
Some sounds are articulated with, the'help o f both the lips (the
ne, m ore precisely) and the (upper) teeth. Such sounds are

labio-dental sounds (the w ord dental comes from the Latin

ens, dentis, m eaning tooth). The English labio-dentals are the
~es [fj and Fvj.
The dental sounds are the sounds in the production o f which
th participate as passive articulators. The only English dentals
e fricatives [ 0] and fi5], w hich are interdental sounds or, m ore

apico-interdental sounds (the term comes from the technical

tpex, designating the tip o f the tongue, w hich participates as an
articulator).
The sounds produced in the region im m ediately behind the teeth
cing the tip o f the tongue against the alveolar ridge are called
sounds, after the name o f the passive articulator. I f the active
re tongue, that is its apex) is also specified, w e can call them

alveolar. The class includes plosiveobstruenis lik e [f] and [d ] it

be noted that, unlike their Romanian counterparts, which are
the English sounds are m ore retracted - nasals like [n ], lateral

Elike [1], rhotics like [r ], fricative obstruents lik e [s] and [z ].

Alveopalatal sounds -are pronounced w ith the tip o f the. tongue
the alveopalatal region, ju st behind the alveolar ridge, in 1 he
(hate vicinity o f the hard palate. (A

further .distinction is

times made between postalveolar sounds, articulated ju s t behind

veolar ridge lik e the approxhnant. [j] and

palato-alveolar

is, articulated further hack, closer to the palatal region). W e

here sounds lik e the fricatives [j] and [ 3 ] ,as w ell as the tw o h affricate phonemes, [tj] and [ 3 ],

Retroflex sounds are pronounced w ith the tip o f the tongue

d back and tonching the r o o f o f the.m outh just behind the
veolar region.

The only E nglish p a la ta l phonem e is the approxirnant fj], a

ghde. H ow ever, many sounds com e to h ave a secondary' palatal
articulation due to the phenom enon o f coarticuJaiion w h ich w ill be
discussed later.

D orsa l sounds .w ill include those- sounds produced w ith the

body o f the tongue dorsum against the region o f the s o ft palate or
velum or in the uvular region. Consequently, th ey are also called velar
and icvular sounds respectively. O n ly the fo rm er class is represented
in English. It includes vela r nasal stops lik e [ij] and vela r p lo sive
obstruents lik e [k ] and [g ].
Further back w e com e across the pharyngeal region but
English.doesn t have any pharyngeal phonemes.
Sounds produced in the region o f the g lo ttis are called g lotta l
sounds. English has tw o glottal phonem es, the glotta l stop [?J and the
glottal fricative faj. The latter d iffers from its Rom anian counterpart
as its pronunciation is m ore retracted, the E n glish [h ] being actually a
hissing sound, articulated b y spreading the vo ca l fo ld s and lettin g the
air pass out through the glottis.
The

fo llo w in g

ta b le' sum m arizes

the

classification

of

consonants using the place o f articulation specifications. It also

m entions the passive and the active articulator fo r each group o f
sounds. It is from the form er that the articulatory la b el is derived.
T y p e o f consonant
place o f articulation

P a ssive a rtic u la to r

Bilabial

both bps

Labiodental

ripper teeth

A c t iv e a rtic u la to r
both bps
lo w e r bp

lnter( dental)

teeth -

tongue tip/biade

A lv e o la r

alveolar ridge

tongue tip/blade

Alveqpalatai/Palalo-

alveolar rid ge and bard palate

tongue blade

alveolai/Postalveolar
R etroflex

hard palate

tongue tip

Palatal

hard palate

tongue blade

V elar
! Uvular
| Pharyngeal
Glotial (laryngeal)

soft palate (velum )

tongue b od v ( dorsum)

uvula

tongue body

pharynx wall

tongue root

j larynx .

73

Z ___ e s c r ip t o o f

English Consonants

camined die m ain criteria w e can nse to classify

an articulatory point o f view , w e can now briefly
m ant phonemes o f English.

^pprosimants
Hides. There are tw o sounds in English;, [w ] and [j],
3g vo w el-lik e features as far as their articulation is
= m e d , but which d iffer from their vow el counterparts
m ad [i] respectively through their distribution, force o f
re la tio n and length. W hen w e articulate a glide the
il story organs start b y producing a vow el-lik e sound,
men th ey im m ediately change their position to produce
ler sound. It is to the gliding that accompanies their
lation that these sounds ow e their name. A s w e have
earlier, precisely because o f their ambiguous nature
are also called semivowels or semiconsonants. U nlike
=els, th ey cannot occur in syllable-final position, can
s r precede a consonant and are always follow ed by a
-fin e vo ca lic sound. Pw] is a labio-velar, rounded sound. A t the beginning, its
articulation is simar to that o f the vow el [n ], but then the
speech organs shift to a different position to utter a
different vocalic sound. The distribution o f the sound
includes

syllable-initial

position

before

almost

any

English vo w el (e.g. win [w in ], weed [w ad], wet [w et],

wag [w seg], work [w s:k ], won [w An], woo [w ia ], wood

[w ad], walk, [w eek] wander [w ands],)-or. a .diphthong
(e.g. way). B efore [r ], (e.g. write) the sound is no longs:
pronounced, [w ] can also occur after a plosive (e.g. twin,
queen) or a fricative consonant (e.g. swine). It can be
rendered graphically either by the letter w (the most
common case) (e.g. sweet) or by U (e.g. quite).

b.

Jj] is an unrounded palata) sem ivow el. The in itial stage

- o f its pronunciation is quite sim ilar to that o f the short
vo w el [i], but then the 'sound g lid es to a different
vocalic value. Iilc e [w ], Jj] cannot occur in final
position (as a quite sim ilar .palatal sound very often
does in Rom anian), is never fo llo w e d by a consonant
and occurs in fron t o f back, central and front vow els,
(e.g. yes, young, youth). It ican he preceded by a p lo sive
(e.g. tune) or a frica tive (e.g. fu m e). Th e sound m ay be
spelt y (as in year) w h ile p i words spelt w ith n, tte, uI,
ew , en and eau read as the lon g v o w e l [u :] the palatal
sound is often inserted. The insertion -is ob ligatory i f
the preceding consonant is: an oral p lo sive (p , b 5 1, d,
k, g ), a nasal stop (m , n ), & labio-dental fricative (f, v )
or a glottal one (h ). A w ord lik e beauty can only be
read [b ju rtr] .and n ot [buptr]. C f. also: pure, bureau,
tulip, deuce, queue, argue, mule, neutral, furious,
revue, huge. The palatal 'sound is not inserted after
affricates or after [r ] or {TJ preceded b y a consonant:

chew, June, rude, clue. W hen [1] is n ot preceded b y a

consonant or w hen the sound preceding [u :] is an
alveolar fiic a tiv e [s, z ] or a dental one, the usage
varies: c f suit [s ju :t], but also [s u :t]. In w ords lik e
unite, unique, university,' etc, w h ere u form s the
syllable alone the v o w e l ,is always preceded b y the
sem ivow el: jjn tn a ii].
2. The Liquids. These are approxim ant sounds, produced in
the alveolar and postalveolar ] region and include several
variants o f the lateral [ 1] and o f the rh otic [r ].
a.

The lateral |TJ. The. m ain variants o f [I] are a so-called

clear [I] and a dark PQ. The clea r [1] is distributed
in prevocalic positions. W hen this sound is articulated,
the tip o f the tongue touches the alveolar ridge and the

air is released either unilaterally or on both sides o f the

active articulator. Th e front part o f the tongue also

75

raises towards the hard palate. W ords lik e lake [iexk],

look [In k ], flu te [hs:t], lu rid [ I ju iw l] delight [dslait]
illustrate the distribution o f the consonant in syllable-

initial position 'o r after a p losive p lo t [p lo t], Blake

r.fb lex k ], clean [ia irn j, glue [g in :] or a fricative slot

[s lo t], fly [fia i] and in front o f a vo w el or the glide [j]

The dark [i] is distributed in w ord-final position or
. -before a consonant A s-in the case o tire clear [1] the tip
- of-the tongue touches the alveolar ridge and the air is
released laterally, but n ow it is the body o f the tongue
that raises against the soft palate, m odifying the
. resonance o f the sound and givin g it a.;more stifled
. character. W ords lik e k ill [M I], ru le 1 [rn:fy, belfry
[b e tfh j, belt [b e lt], silk [silk ] Alstrate the distribution
o f the sound either at the end o f the w ord (syllable) or
before a consonant
. The phoneme is spelt either 1 or li in' words like link or
call, for instance. In m any words, however, before
- plosive, sounds* lik e [k ] or [d ] cf. chalk, could; or
before nasals lik e [m ] or [n ] cf. calm, Lincoln; the
lab io-denial fricatives [fj and [v ] cf. calf, calves; the
lateral sound is,not pronounced.
The rhotic [r j. The class includes several variants
which are pretty differen t both in articulatoiy terms and
in auditory e ffe c t
The R P [ j] is a friction less continuar, articulated very
much like a fricative, but fa ction does not accompany
the. production o f the sound. The --tip or the tongue
slightly touches the back of- the alveolar ridge, w hile
- the body o f the'tongue is lo w in the mouth.
A flapped [r] is used by many-speakers o f F.ngtish,
especially w hen it occurs at the begin n in g'of unstressed
syllables. The tongue rapidly touches the alveolar ridge
w ith a tap.

A rolled [r ] is com m on in northern dialects and in

Scotland. It is -produced by- a quick succession o f flaps,
the tongue repeatedly 'and rapidly touching the alveolar
ridge and vibrating against i t 'T h is

sound is not

characteristic fo r R P .
The letter r

or double

rr

reproduces

the

graphically; right, barren In p ostvocalic

sound

w ord- or

syllable-final position the sound is not pronounced in

standard English cf. car, party. I f the w ord is,
how ever, fo llo w e d b y a v o w e l, [r ] is reinserted: the car

is mine. T h e same insertion takes p lace w hen an a ffix is

attached to a base ending in a (n orm ally) silent [ r ] : hear
[M b]

/hearing

jhuarnj];

M o o r ' [ xhob]

/Moorish

[m o a n j]. Th is type o f [r ] is called linking r .

B . T h e E n glish Stops
1.

The oral plosives, hr terms o f their p la ce o f articulation

they are bilabial, alveolar and velar.

a. [p ] is a voiceless, bilabial, fo rtis p lo sive. Its variants

include an aspirated p lo s iv e i f the consonant is
fo llo w e d b y a stressed v o w e l and occurs in syllablein itial position. B ein g a bilab ial stop, [p ] is produced
by com pletely blockin g the airstream at the le v e l o f the
lips

and

explosion.

by

suddenly releasing

E xcept

fo r

the

the

aspirated

air

w ith

variant,

an
the

phonem e is pretty sim ilar to its Rom anian counterpart

It is distributed in initial, m edial and fin a l position;

pane, appear, lip. It is spelt p : plane or p p 5: opposite

5 D ou blin g the consonants is strictly a problem o f spelling convention in

English. T h e English language does n o t have doable (gem inate) consonants.
Compare Eng lish innate [m eit] to Romanian nnscut [innaslcut].

77

o n ly exceptionally gh in hiccough The letter p is

.t w hen fo llo w e d by another obstruent or a nasal in
1-in itial

position; psalm., pterodactyl, pneumatic.

s the voiced, Ienis counterpart o f [p ], V oicin g and

e o f articulation axe the features that contrast the
phonem es, [b ] being lik e

[p] a bilabial sound. It is

ibuted in a ll three basic positions; initial, medial

fin al: bet, above, cab. It is spelt b: about or
a b b o t Th e letter is silent in fin al position after m :

b, crumb, dumb and in front o f t in words o f Latin

w here the sotmd has lon g been lost: debt, doubt,
tie. The variants o f [b ] include partially devoiced
phones in in itial position: big, blow, bring and
o ra lly or nasally released allophones when [b ] is
low ed by the lateral 1 : bless or by a nasal consonant

bon. It is not audibly released in final position: rib.

is a voiceless, apico-alveoilar, fortis plosive. lik e
j, it has. an aspirated variant that occurs before
essed vow els when the phoneme is distributed in
position: tube. I f preceded by s,
is tmaspiraied: stain. Its distribution
eludes all basic positions: try, attain, p it. It is laterally
liable-in itial

ow ever,

[t ]

r nasally released i f follow ed by [1] nr by a nasal

onsonant, repectively: little, written, utmost. The
m glish phonem e is m ore retracted than its Romanian
ounterpart w hich is rather a dental sound. It is spelt
1h

t: toe, w ith it: cutter or with th: Thomas, Thames.

d ] is the voiced, lenis counteipart o f [t], voicin g and

orce o f articulation differentiating between the tw o
sounds that share the same place o f

articulation in the

a lveolar region. B oth [t] and [d ] can becom e dentalized

in the vicin ity o f the dental fricatives, in words lik e

eighth

and

breadth.

The

sotmd is

distributed in

initial, m edial and fin a l position: dime, addition, pad. It

is partially ; d e v o ic e d 'in .in itial position: duke and
devoiced in fin al position: road. I t is laterally released
i f ' follow ed b y

[XJ: riddle

and -nasally released i f

fo llo w ed by [m ] or [n ]: admit, sudden.. It is spelt d:

read or dd: adder.

e.

k] is a voiceless, dorso-velar, ford s, p lo sive sound,

articulated w ith the dorsum o f the tongue against the
so ft palate. L ik e the other voiceless plosives described
above, it has an aspirated variant i f the sound is
distributed in syllable-in itial position, in . fr o n t o f a
stressed vo w el; cat. [k ] is distributed in initial, ineaial
and fin al position: coat, accuse, sack. It can be

" 'fo llo w e d by a nasal consonant and be consequently

'n asally released: thicken or by.the lateral liqu id and be
' ' ' 1 la tera lly released: fielde. in spelling, the sound can be
'' represented b y the letter c (e.g. comb) or b y cc (e.g.

accuse), b y k (e.g. k ill), by ck (e .g .p ic k ), b y c t (e.g.

architect), by qu (e.g. queen). A s in Rom anian, the
sequence pcs] can be rendered by the letter x (e.g.

extreme). In w ords lik e muscle and knave the letters c

an k are silen t
f

[ is the voiced, lenis pair o f [k ] and it has basically the

same features as its Rom anian counterpart - It is

, ... distributed in initial, m edial and final -position: -game,

begin, rag. Its aliophones include partially devoiced

. . v ariants in initial position: gain, devoiced variants in
final position: dog, laterally released, w h en 'follow ed by
PJ; giggle and nasally released when follow ed by [m ]:
.....dogmatic. In spelling, the COUSOmilt can be rendered by

g: get by gg: begged, or by g fo llow ed by h , as in

.-yghastly, -by ixa, ne or ui, as in guarantee, guess or
vlinguist, -respectively. The voiced counterpart o f pcs],
v- [g z] can also b e rendered by x in words like example.

79

g. H ie glottal stop [? ] is a glottal, voiceless, fortis sound

produced in the glottal region .b y bringing the vocal
cords

together

-and then, separating

them,

thus

com pletely. blocking and then suddenly releasing the

airsiream. It is a sound that Ms been

slight cough.

It

appears

compared with a

in' syllable-final position

especially when it separates two adjacent vow els that are

not part o f the same syllable (in a hiatus):-geography

[c g iT o g r e fljo r between a vow el and a syllable-final
voiceless Stop or affricate that it reinforces. In some
accents (notably Cockney), it replaces voiceless plosives
. like [k ] and [t] at the- end o f a syllable. E.g. sick guy
[sl?ga l] or quite righ t [kwalhralt].
Acoustically,

English

distinguished from

voiced

plosives

their voiceless

can

be

counteiparts b y

having a lo w frequency component determined b y the

feature voice. The release stages o f the three classses o f
stops in terms o f place o f articulation: bilabial, alveolar
and velar, respectively, d iffer as regards the noise burst
they

produce.

A lveo la r

plosives

display

higher

frequencies (3000-4000 cps) than the bilabial (around

.350 cps) and velar ones (around 700 cps).
The Nasal stops.
a. -[m] is a bilabial, voiced, lerds, nasal stop. A s in the
case o f all nasal sonorants, when w e articulate this
sound the velum -is low ered, blocking the oral cavity
and letting the air escape through the nose. There are
no .differences between the English sound and its
Romanian counterpart, [m ] is distributed in all basic
positions: initial, m edial and final: make, remote, dim.
It can be spelt w ith nr or m m : come, common. It should
be said, how ever, that English does not accept a
sequence o f tw o nasal sounds in the same syllable,
words lik e solemn and hymn d iffering

from

their

Romanian counteiparts as the Iasi, nasal sound is not

pronounced. I f an a ffix , is added, nevertheless, that

begins

b.

w ith - >a v o w e l, ... the

second

consonant

recovered. Com pare solem n

[so lem sitrj.

[so lem ]

to

is

solemnity

[a ] is an alveolar, voiced, lenis, nasal stop. The place o f

articulation is sim ilar ,to that o f [t ] and [d ], but [a ] is a
nasal sound, so the air is.released through the nose and
not through hie month. It-;is .sim ilar to its Romanian
counterpart It is distributed in nil. three basic positions
initial, m edial and fin al: name, renown,.can. It is spelt

or nn: dean, annual. The-solind is elided in fin al position

alter

[m ],

but recovered

in-, derived

words:

damn,

damnation. (See also solemn and solemnity above).

c.

[g ] is a velar, voiced, lenis, nasal stop, i t occurs in the

vicin ity o f the vela r oral p losives in w ords lik e lin k or

wrong. It is to be noted that in present-day E n glish the

velar oral p lo sive in the last w ord is no

longer

pronounced, but w e can fin d -the vela r nasai in fron t o f

[g j in connected speech in sequences lik e J can g e l it.
A sim ilar sound can be found, in Rom anian, in w ords
lik e banc, rang, but in our language it does not have
a phonem ic, contrastive valu e; A s pointed out above,
this phonem e has a lim ited distribution: it always
precedes the voiceless ve la r p lo sive

or occurs

in

syllable-fin al position in fron t o f an elided [g ].

C . T h e E n glish Fricatives
Fricatives are, as w e rem em ber, sounds 'that are produced
b y narrowing the speech tract and lettin g 'the air out,

process w hich is accom panied by friction ana in som e

cases-by a hissing sound.
[f j

is a. labio-dental, voiceless, fo riis

consonant. It is

produced b y pressing the lo w er lip against the upper teeth

81

he air out between them. The sound is sim ilar

ian counterpart The sound can be spelt f as in
=asrings, feud, loaf, stifle, f f - as'in effort, snuff,

ysics, graph, or even gh as in enough tough,

-utanant [ieff4enant] is aparticular case.
iced , lenis pair o f

[fj with .which it shares the

dental) and manner (fricative) o f articulation.

:t to remember that the English sound is a
and not a bilabial fiicaiive (as its
fo r

instance).

It

has

exactly

Spanish

the

same

cs as the Romanian soim d .lt is spelt w ith the

ceptionally, by ph in Stephen, nephew and f in
a English nouns voice their labio-dental final
nen they pluralize displaying the alternance f/v:

eaves, wffe/wives. Derivational affixes can also

nal consonant: life/liven.

interdental, voiceless, ford s fiica iive.

The

.oes not have any distributional variants. It

w ord-initial, m edial and final position. It is
with the tip o f the tongue between the teeth, the
g through the passage in between. It is a sound
pronounce for. Romanian speakers who often
fo r [s] or even [t]. The sound ea sts in other
languages too, -such as Spanish or Greek, the
ed in the IP A alphabet being in feet borrowed
G reek

alphabet

The

sound

y b y h: e.g. thin, method, path

is

rendered

The sound often

clusters d ifficu lt to pronounce; eighths [eitSs],

;p9s], lengths jlegB s].

vo iced pair o f [ 8 ] being an interdental, voiced,
s. In initial position it is only distributed in
cal words such as demonstratives: this, that,

ose, there; articles: the; adverbs: thus. It occurs

freety in m edial position: brother, b o th e rra th e r , heathen.

In fin al position it- often represents the -voicing o f [ 0 ] in
plurals lik e mouths -[m auSz], -wreaths [r i:5 z ] w inch m ay
prove d ifficu lt to pronounce, or in derived w ords Hire bath

[h a : 0 ] (notm )/bathe [b ei5 ] (verb) or breath [b reS ] (n .y

breathe [b ri:0 ] (v .). The sound is alw ays spelt tfa, lik e its
voiceless counterpart.
[s] is an alveolar, voiceless, fortis fricative, produced w ith
the blade o f the tongue against the a lveolar ridge, a sound
quite sim ilar to its Rom anian counterpart It is a hissing
sound distributed in all m ajor positions: at the beginning,
w ithin and at the end o f a w ord, It is in fact the only
obstruent sound in English that can occur in front o f
another obstruent, provided-the latter is voiceless: e.g. spot,
stop, skin, [s] is the plural alTomorph fo r nouns ending in a
.:voiceless consonant as w e ll as the allom orph o f the 3rd
person singular present in dicative m orphem e. It is spelt s,
ss or c in front o f e, i or y :-e ,g . sour, say, hiss, assign,

ce ilin g

cellar,

cigarette,

precise,

cypress,

bicycle.

Som etim es the spelling can he see, sci or scy (e.g. science,

scent, scene, scythe), s is silent in w ords luce corps, island,

viscount.
[z ] is the voiced, lenis,-- alveolar fricative that corresponds
to the voiceless [s]. It is quite sim ilar to its Rom anian
counterpart, but it plays a m ore im portant ro le in English
as it is one o f the m ain aHomorphs o f the plural m orphem e
(distributed after a vo iced consonant or a v o w e l). la k e its
voiceless counterpart, [z ] is a hissing sound, produced w ith
a high-pitched friction . Because when these sounds are
articulated.the aif IS CXpsIIed through a narrow groove
along the m iddle o f the blade they are also called grOOVPl?
fricatives. Together w ith the m ore retracted, alveo-palatal
fricatives and w ith the affricate sounds they are called

sibilants. The sound is spelt z. It is often spelt s when the

S3

' sound does not occur in initia l

positon e.g. nose, easy,

desire), and, exceptionally, iz in tzar. Sim ilarly, when it

marks the plural o f nouns ending in a voiced sound (e.g.

boys, balls, ribs) or when it is the voiced aliom orph o f the

3 rd person singular present indicative o f verbs ending in a
voiced

sound (e.g. plays, calls, adds') the spelling is s.

Exceptionally, the sound can be spelt double ss in words

lik e dissolve, possess.
[J] is an aiveqpalatal, voiceless, ford s fricative consonant
The uttering f this sound should not raise any particular
problem s fo r Romanians as its articulatory features are
sim ilar to those o f its counterpart in Romanian. The blade
o f the tongue is raised against the region- behind the
alveolar ridge and the air is forced out through a groove a
little w ider than in the case o f [s ], its m ore fronted
counterpart, [j] is distributed in all three main positions in
the word. It is often spelt sh in words lik e shoe, cushion or

push. It can also be spelt s (e.g. sure, sugar) or ss (e.g.

pressure, mission) or ci ( ancient, delicious), sci ( conscious)
ce (ocean), si'(pension, mansion), i i (tuition, retribution).
It is a variant O f [s j] in w ords lik e issue, tissue, in words o f
French origin the sound is spelt ch: champagne, charade,

charge, moustache, attache. The same spelling is used in

names lik e Charlotte, Chicago, . Chicoutimi,

propef

M ichigan.
[ 3 ] is the voiced counterpart o f [[]. It is an .alveopalataL,
voiced, lenis fricative and is pronounced very much like
the corresponding sound in Romanian. It is not, how ever, a
very com m on sound in English as it occurs m ainly in loan
(particularly French) w ords. It is never distributed in initial
position, but it can occur in m edial' (pleasure, treasure,

measure)' or -fin al position (garage, prestige). It can be

spelt either s when follow ed , by ti (visual) or i (decision), or

z i f fo llow ed b y u (seizure) or ge (massage, -espionage). In

w ords lik e casual

the alternative pronunciation [ z j ] is

possible,, w h ile in other cases the frica tive is replaced by

th e^ a in ica tefif;] (e.g. garage).

[h j is a glottal frica tive in English, a voiceless, ford s sound
produced .fry .letting the air pass fre e ly through the mouth
during expiration. Thus, its p lace o f articulation in the
glottal .region is -m ore retracted than in the case o f the
- Romanian, sound-which is rather a velar sound, closer to
the -variant occurring in Scottish English: loch p o x ], A
palatalized version-is used w hen the sound is fo llo w e d by a
-palatal: -humane P y m n em ]. U n lik e in m ost Rom ance
languages J r fre e ly occurs in in itia l position in English -

home, hiss, hut. "D ropping the fe s is even considered a

sign o f la ck o f education. In a sm all num ber o f words the
sound is, how ever, dropped even in standard English in
both in initial and m edial position : how , heir, honour,

honest, -vehicle, annihilate. It is also com m on (even fo r

educated people to drop the in itia l h in unstressed (w ea l:)
form s o f the personal pronouns (he, him ) possessive's (his,

herJ or the'verb have h is also silen t in fin al position in the

interjection ah or in w ords lik e shah. The conservative
spelling o f English' has preserved the letter h after r in
w ords o f Greek origin w here no h sound or aspiration is
heard nowadays (rhapsody, rhetoric, rheumatism, rhinal,

rhinoceros, rhombus, rhyme, rhythm).

B . T h e E n glish A ffrica tes
The affricate phonem es o f English are [if] and [ 0 3 ], They
differ.-from their Rom anian counterparts as they can be
- . distributed in all three basic position s (in clu din g the w ordfinal.-one) and can be fo llo w e d by any vo w el. Therefore,
-i.-they.--"are far less palatalized

than the

corresponding

Rom anian sounds that m ust be fo llo w e d b y either e or i.

Even w hen they are
affricates

d iffer

fo llo w e d b y i and e the English

considerably

from

the

corresponding

85

omanian. La order to realize the difference

English, sounds and their Romanian counteipaiis
;ll to compare the English word chin to the

in or the E n glish ism to foe Romanian gent

celess, fortis, alveo-palatal-sound produced with
the tongue raised against the region ju st behind
ridge. A s in the case o f any affricate sound, its
starts lik e that o f a plosive in our case [t] tely- blockin g the outgoing airstream and then
oy a gradual release o f the air, as fo r a fricative
'e iy sym bol used in the IP A alphabet fo r the
f the sound suggests the m ixed- nature o f the
e should m ake a difference, how ever, between
te proper (pitch {p rtfl and the sequence o f the
d the fricative [t ] -f- [f] (courtship pkortfip], right
fa :]). The phonem e is represented graphically by

m, chinchilla, rich ) or teh (kitchen, bitch ) or b y t

b y a ( creature, culture) when the plosive is
d.
In w ords lik e habitual, sanctuary the
adon

w ith

naliy,

we

an affricate
can

have

ce

is

a variant o f [tf]
or

cz

as

graphic

dons o f the sonnd in (violon ) cello or Czech

the voiced counterpart o f [tf], being an alveovoiced, lenis, affricate consonant' It can he
graphically b y j in either initial or m edial position
Illce ju stice, John, rejoice, pyjamas, by ge in all
sitions: gesture, agent, sage, b y g i in initial and
position: giraffe, rig id ; and g y in initial position:

tics. In certain w ords it can be spelt d followed by

ual, individual, procedura/al. In all these cases,
r, there is an alternative pronunciation [d j], In a
o f proper names or comm on nouns originating in
names ch is read [d 3 ]: Norwich, Greenwich,
ich. Another sp ellin g can be d g in words lik e

edge.

CHAPTER 4

THE' VOWELS O P ENGLISH.

A N ARTICULATORY C L A S S IF IC A T IO N .
A COU STIC CORRELATES. THE D ESCR IPTIO N
AND D IS T R IB U T IO N *QF E N G L IS H
M O N O P H T H O N G S A N O : DIPH TH O NG S

4.1. The Vowels. Criteria fo r ClassiScatioii

The chapter before has exam ined the consonant phonem es o f
English from an articulatory perspective. A fte r tryin g to establish a
general borderline betw een the tw o m ajor classes o f sounds
consonants and vo w els respectively by postulating som e m ajor
articulatory distinctions betw een them, an attempt was m ade to
analyze English consonants in . detail, discussing the distinctions
among them as w e ll as contrasting, them w ith the corresponding
sounds o f Rom anian.
W e w ill rem em ber then that i f consonants are distinguished
from vow els precisely on the basis o f an .articulatory feature that all o f
them arguably share a place along the- speech tract where the
aiistream m eets a m ajor obstacle or constriction it w ould be very
difficu lt to describe vow els

in the same terms as it w ill no lon ger be

possible to iden tify a place, o f articulation . A rticu latory criteria can

be, indeed, used to classify^ vo w els but

they w ill

be

less relevant or, in

any case, o f a different type than in the case o f consonants. A cou stic
and even auditory features on the other hand w ill p lay a much m ore
important role in accurately .describing- vow els-as vow els are sonorous
sounds, displaying the highest levels o f resonance o f all speech sounds.

89

consonants, 'w ill d iffer in terms o f quality the

d iffe r from one v o w e l to another depending on
articulators, but in a w ay which is distinct from
in the case o f consonants where there is another
ietween the various speech organs - and in terms
on again in a w ay distinct from consonants as
ous, continuant sounds.
o f a vo w el is g iven b y the w ay in w hich the tongue
tor, as in the case o f consonants is positioned in
th e activity o f the lips.- This position o f the tongue
e o f the resonating cavities above the larynx and
:s the quality o f the resulting sound. The great
:ongue and the absence o f any definite place o f
the case o f consonants accounts fa r the great
that can be found" in any language and fo r the fact
than consonants are m ore intim ately linked to the
each and every language. It w ill he therefore much
a .student o f a foreign language to acquire the correct
el system, than those o f the consonant system o f the

be then the criteria that can be used to distinguish

or low on the vertical axis and fronted or retracted

an articulatory basis:- the position o f the tongue in

l axis and-the position o f the lips. M any languages

:e a functional distinction between vow els produced
Lr out either through tire nasal cavity or through the

height. I f w e consider the position o f the tongue in the

entity tw o extrem e situations: one in which the body o f

ed, alm ost touching the ro o f o f the oral cavity and in

be dealing w ith high or close vow els the name
the position o f the tongue high in the mouth or close to
the opposite position when the body of-the tongue is

very low in th e m outh leavin g the cavity w id e open as in the case when,
the doctor wants to exam ine our tonsils and asks us to say " a h The
vow els thus produced w ill be called open or low vow els since the
tongue is

lowered in the mouth and the oral cavity' is open. I f the tongue

is placed in an interm ediate position, raised on ly h alfw ay against the

palate, w e shall call the vow els m id vow els. A further, m ore refined
distinction w ill differentiate between tw o groups o f m id vow els: closemid/mid close or half-close or high-mid/mid high vow els and openmid/mid open or half-open or low-mid/mid low vow els.
Tongue f r ontr.ess/backness. I f w e consider the position o f the
tongue along the horizontal axis w e can id en tify three classes o r
vow els: fro n t vow els uttered w ith the fron t part o f the tongue
highest, central vo w els i f it is rather the central part o f the tongue
that is highest, m odifyin g the shape o f therarticulator and back vow els
the rear part o f the tongue is in vo lved in articulation.
. The p osition o f the lips. A s I have m entioned earlier, the
position o f the lip s is another m ajor criterion that is nsed 0
distinguish, am ong vo w els. W hen wre pronounce a v o w e l, our lip s can
be rounded, and then the resulting sound w ill b e rounded, ox thejr
.can be spread and then w e shall say that the v o w e l that w e have
articulated is unrounded. A s w e are goin g to see later, roundness
m ay-be m ore or less relevant, depending on the particular language
w e are talkin g about.
The cavity through w hich the air is released oral or nasal
establishes an im portant distinction betw een oral and nasal vow els.
There are nasal or nasalized vo w els in all languages, but again this
distinction w ill he m ore im portant in languages like, say', French,
w here it has a functional:

contrastive, phonem ic value, than in

English

or in Romanian w here the feature is ju st contextual. M ore w all be said

about that later:
A s m entioned above, quantity is an im portant feature that w e
have to take into account when w e discuss not only consonantal

91

 vo ca lic ones as w ell. In fact, this is a feature that is much

riant fo r vow els, because when w e talk about duration in
w e can contrast, fo r instance, ncn-duraiive sounds o f t ie
- e to continuant sounds o f die kind fricatives are or simple
~e consonants, w h ile in the case o f vow els much,

more

tinofinn.s can be established among various sounds. The feet

s vary in length is something w e can intuitively become
w e contrast the v o w e l o f p eel [p i:I] fo r instance, to that o f
= U 3 w e are goin g to see later, how ever, the contrast between
w els is not lim ited sim ply to duration and, m oreover, vo w el
= ? - iy much, a contextual feature. Thus, what w e consider to be
f one and the same phoneme, the lon g v o w e l [i:] w ill vary
l y in length in words lik e sea, seed and seat. It is obvious
phonetically less trained ear that the vo w el is longer in case
= n syllable-final position and it becomes shorter and shorter
on the voiced n ess.or the voicelessness o f toe follow in g
The picture becom es even m ore com plex i f w e compare
-E n g contexts to seal, seen or seem. On toe other hand all-toe
ss o f [i:j m entioned above w ill be keprt apart from toe
f toe short v o w e l [i] in words lik e Sid, sit, sill or sin which
reir turn in length depending on toe nature o f toe fo llow in g
W e shall then say that vo w el length is not always a reliable
feature when w e try to contrast vow els since it-is SO much
b y toe con text Other features w ill b e added to obtain a
.eh and closer to reality representation. Th e next features w e
to exam ine w ill then be toe degree o f muscular tension
d articulation and toe position o f the ro o t o f the tongue.

iscular tension can va ry considerably when w e produce

-rocaIic sounds and this is something w e can easily becom e
w hen w e contrast toe lon g vo w el [i:] in seat and toe short
xl

sit, toe

exam ples

analyzed above. Long vow els

axially m arked in toe IP A alphabet b y a colon are always

w ith a higher degree o f muscular tension in toe speech
olved in their articulation. W e w ill say that these vow els are
us toe articulators are so when w e utter them. Conversely,

when w e -examine the w a y th e -v o w e l o f s it is produced, the

articnlatoiy organs are .less strained, la x er than in the previou s case.
W e w ill consequently describe these vo w e ls as being lax. A s w e shall
see later, unlike in Rom anian,1 v o w e l -duration, associated w ith
tenseness, has a phonem ic, contrastive v a lu e in: English.
The position o f the tongue r o o t : Th e m ore advanced or
retracted position o f the root o f the tongue differen tiates betw een

vowels having different degrees o f openness. Th e vo w e ls pronounced

w ith the ro o t o f die tongue pushed fo rw a rd o f its norm al position w ill
be- specified as advanced tongue ro o t

(A T R ) vo w els. C onversely,

non-advanced tongue rp ot vo w els w ill b e. articulated w ith the ro o t,

o f the tongue in its comm on, resting position. Th e first group o f
vow els w ill be com paratively tenser and higher than the vo w els in the
second group.

'

' :

V o w e l quantity duration,- length com bines w ith stability o f

articulation to make the distinction betw een simple or "pure vow els
or monophthongs on the one hand and diphthongs on the other.
Monophthongs are com paratively shorter vo w els that preserve the
same quality throughout the entire duration o f their articulation. A

.diphthong combines tw o different v o ca lic elem ents jo in ed together in

a unique articulatory effo rt and consequently bein g part o f the same
syllabic u n it In any diphthong one o f th e-voca lic elem ents w ill be
stronger

than

the

other,

fr o m . w hich

or

tow ards

w hich

the

pronunciation glides. I f the w eaker elem ent, com es first and w e have a
glide towards the dominant vocalic'- elem ent, the diphthong is a rising
one: it is the kind o f diphthong w e have in Rom anian w ords lik e iatac,

iubire, iepure, iobag meandre, boala etc.-This is a type o f diphthong

that does not exist in English, a language that on ly has fa llin g
diphthongs, that is diphthongs in w hich the g lid e is from the dominant
vocalic, elem ent to the w eaker one. (e.g . h o g buy in English or boi, bai
in Rom anianN IB . these exam ples =do .not suggest that the diphthongs
in the tw o languages are iden tical!). It is often d ifficu lt to decide w hen
w e deal w ith a genuine diphthong (that is ;a sequence o f tw o vow els
pronounced together) and when w e deal w ith a sequence o f a v o w e l

ce. In other words, shall w e describe die vocalic

e diphthong ai or shall w e rather interpret it as the
>y the g lid e j? M any linguists opt fo r the second
go as fa r as interpreting- long vow els lik e i: in
a succession o f r+j. The duration o f the glide can
fo r a differentiation, since glides w ill arguably
ounce than the second vocalic elem ent in a fellin g
o w e l is v e ry short, however, it is often difficu lt do
the glid e. Th e scope o f this study w ill not allow" us
etail, so fo r the sake o f sim plicity w e w ill adopt the
ipproach that considers lon g vow els monophthongs
ces as that o f buy genuine diphthongs.
I

Cardinal Vowel Charts

e m entioned above, vow els are sounds m ore difficult
:ulatoiy term s than consonants and the nnmber o f
>e produced b y human speech organs is fe irly great
English Phonetics (1918, reprinted in 1987), the
ihonetician D aniel Jones claims that a good ear can
over fifty vow els, exclusive o f nasalized vowels,
ed w ith retroflex m odification, etc. (p. 29) I f was
devise a conventional system that could he used fo r
specification o f v o w e l features. On the basis o f some
riant criteria m entioned above a cardinal vowel chart
'e l Jones had a m ajor contribution to it ) feat
reference points to which fe e features o f any vo w el
spoken, on earth could be related A s cardinal points
geographic orientation, so cardinal vow els were
phoneticians m ore accurately fin d their w ay in the
c sounds. A n d ju st like- in the case o f cardinal points
, fe e cardinal vo w el positions w ere ju st abstract, ideal
inch did not describe any existing, real v o w e l The
es used in establishing fe e cardinal vo w el positions
axis w ife the opposition high/Iow (close/open) and
axis w ith the opposition fixmt/back. The idea was to

establish, extrem e positions fo r vo w el quality and use them as a

reference system fo r all the other vow els. The human oral ca vity was
represented under the form o f a trapezoid, conventionally facin g le f t
Front

Central

Back

The primary cardinal

vow el dhart

Cardinal vo w el 1 is the highest and the m ost fronted v o w e l that

can he ideally produced h y the human phonatoiy system. It is marked
in the IP A alphabet by the sym bol [i]; the English v o w e l o f s ill does
not exactly correspond to this position, being in fa ct m ore retracted
and m ore open. The diam etrically opposed p osition is that o f v o w e l 5,
which is the low est (m ost open) back vo w el, fo r
conventional notation [a] is used. N

owt that

w hich

the

tw o o f the basic positions

are established w e can proceed to the identification o f the rem aining

comers o f the trapezoid.

Starting from v o w e l 1, b y

gradually

increasing the aperture betw een the tongue and the r o o f o f the mouth
w e obtain the low est front vo w el [a ]. In betw een, the interm ediate
cardinal position o f 2 - m id-close v o w e l [e ] - and 3 - m id-open v o w e l
[e ] are established. Conversely, by raising the tongue from, position 4
w e can obtain increasingly closer vow els until w e get to position 8 [u ]
which is the highest cardinal back vo w el. In between, position 6 an 7

are held by the back m id-open VOWel [o ] and by the back m id-close
vo w e l

[o] respectively,
Though, as

have m entioned, the cardinal

vowels are

ideal

constructions, w e can establish their closest equivalents am ong the

'owels.

U lus, accorcing to D aniel

Jones

(1987: 3 5 ),

the

nxespondences can be established.

ordinal vo w el [ij: the nearest equ ivalent the vo w el i in the

=ench w ord si.

ardinal vowel [e]: die nearest equivalent the vowel e of the

~ench word th.
ordinal vo w el [s j: t ie nearest equivalent the vow el e o f the
;ench w ord mme.
ardinal vow el [a ] : the nearest equivalent: the vow el a o f the
urench w ordZc
ardinal vo w el [a ]: the nearest equivalent: the vow el a o f the
reach, w ord pate, or the vo w el o f the English w ord lo t
ironounced w ithout lip rounding.
Cardinal vo w el [o j: the nearest equivalent'the vow el o in the
iennan w ord Sonne.
ardinal vow el [o ]: the nearest equivalent: the vow el O o f the
trench w ord rose.
lardinal vo w el [u ]: the nearest equivalent the vow el u in the
German w ord gut.
: eight vo w el positions thus established form the so-called

owe! chart. N otice that fiv e o f the vow els are pronounced
-fi lips and are consequently unrounded,-while three o f the
is axe rounded vow els. I f w e m od ify the feature rounded fo r
fit vow els and pronounce the first fiv e w ith rounded lips and
ree w ith spread lips w e obtain the secondary/ cardinal vowel
nch is the reverse o f the first in terms o f-th e feature

m rom ded. Thus, in this newly-established set all front

re round. Since English does not have any front rounded
s chart is not relevant fo r the study o f the voca lic system o f
W e should remember, how ever, that i f in English (and in
actually) the features front and unrounded always go
this is not the case o f all languages, French and German
ch a number o f front rounded vow els.

'

[0]

PR O N T

10

[c e ]

C LO S E

16 [ lu]

H A L F -C L O S E

15 [y ]

H A L F -O P E N -

(rounded)

14 [ a ]

BACK

(unrounded)

re p ]

12

O PE N

13 [ d ] (rounded)

The secondary cardinal v o w e l chart

Though the classical standard v o w e l chart on ly includes the

eight prim ary vow els, the central vo w els are also com m on ly included
in present-day representations o f the chart
The central low est position is h eld by a va riety o f & that does
not exist in standard English. A little higher, in a m id-open position,
w e fin d the vo w el [ a ], w hich frequ ently appears in English- w ords lik e

utter. cut, etc.

I f w e raise the tongue higher in the m outh, narrow ing the
passage le ft fo r the air to go out betw een the b o d y o f the tongue and
the r o o f o f the mouth w e get the central m id v o w e l [a ]. T h e position
adopted by th etongue w hen w e articulate this sound is considered to
he the neutral, resting position, the v o w e l bein g actually placed right
in the centre o f the im aginary space w e h ave constructed to represent
the oral cavity w here sounds are produced. Th e v o w e l is com m only
called schwa [jw a ] w hh a H eb rew w ord used to designate a diacritic
marking a m issing vo w el. It is a ve ry com m on v o w e l in many
European languages, not on ly in English, and its particular im portance
fo r the English language lies in the fact that it appears v e ry frequently
in syllables w here the vo ca lic elem ent is not stressed. Th e lon g, tense
and-always stressed [ 3 :1 is the highest E nglish central vo w e l. Ever;
closer than it is the cardinal [1 ], a vo w e l close to the Rom anian one in

gand [gtn d], w hich doss not exist in English.

97

gSisSi Vowels. The description and

irritation o f English monophthongs and
Us.thongs
abiished the v o w e l chart as a basic system o f
n o w proceed to a b rie f description o f the vo w el
sh and o f their distribution in a manner sim ilar to
e o f consonants.
^ lisb simple ( "pure ) vowels or monophthongs.
sh fro n t vow els. There are four front vow el
jn em es in English: [:], [i], [e] and [a;]
is a close (h igh ), long, tense, unrounded vow el. The
rra tk m

o f [i:]

can be compared to that o f die

anian vo w e l in pinral norms like genii and the'

d is roughly sim ilar to the French vow el o f die
nch w ord prcise, though not so close. The vo w el
-distributed in a ll three basic positions; word-initial:

s t;

w ord-m edial:

dean -and w ord-final: sea. As

eady m entioned, it is longer i f it occurs in syllable

al position and shorter i f it is fo llow ed by a voiced
und, the shortest variants being those fo llo w ed by a
-xceiess obstruent. I f fo llo w e d b y a nasal stop it is
salized: e.g. bean, beam.

It is spelt e: economy,

zamark, or ee: eel, see, feet, or ea each, seal, 'plea,

ex possible spellings are ie: fiend, ei: seizing, i:
achine , or, exceptionally: ey: key; sty: quay [M :], ec:
=*opZs, oe: Oedipus or eau: Beauchamp [hfctfam]
. This is a m ore retracted front vow el, and its degree
openness is close to that o f the cardinal half-close
siiion. [i] is a short, lax, unrounded vow el, its length
.g, as in d ie case o f tire

preceding vow el,

cording to the nature o f the fo llow in g consonant

The

length

decreases

if

the

fo llo w in g

sound

is

voiceless. It is distributed in all three basic positions:

initial, m edial and fin al: ink, M il, aptly. A fte r the
schwa, it is the com m onest English v o w e l in unstressed
positions. The v o w e l is spelt i (e.g . ill, tick )

or y;

syntax, party. Other spellings are possible as w e ll, as in

the exceptional exam ples minute [n u m t] (N B . The
adjective having the same spellin g is read

[m a m ju it],

private [p ra rv ii], women [w tm m ]. A s it com m only

represents a reduced-unstressed vo w e l, other spellings
are also possible fo r instance day [d e i] is reduced to
[d i] in the names o f the

days o f the w eek : P iid a y

[fr a id i]
3.

[e ] This is a short, lax, unrounded v o w e l w hose degree

o f openness is interm ediate betw een cardinal half-close
and half-open. It is a com m on v o w e l in English,
distributed in in itial position: end, ox'm edial position:

tell. It never occurs in w ord-fin al position as it is

norm ally reduced to [i] or [a ] i f it is unstressed or
diphthongizes to [e i] in loan words lik e attach, fia n c
or caf i f it is stressed- It can occur, nevertheless, in
syllable-final position, under stress, -as in telegraph
[te lig ra f], p e ril [p e ril]. The vo w el is spelt either e in
words- lik e elf, fe ll, or ea in lead (n. = plum b), head or
bread. It can be exceptionally spelt a in ate (the past
tense o f eat), many, any, Thames ox P a ll M all.4
4.

[ ] is the low est front v o w e l o f English. It is a short,

lax, unrounded vo w el, a little higher than the cardinal
v o w e l [a ]. It is a very com m on v o w e l in E n glish and,
contrary to the perception o f m any foreign learners o f
English, it is a: short, not a lon g vo w el. In fact, the basic
difference betw een this v o w e l and the preceding one is

the degree o f

openness, [as] being low er. Rom anian

speakers o f English find it particularly d ifficu lt to make

99

the difference betw een the tw o vow els (w hich is a

contrastive, phonem ic one) sim ply because Romanian
does not recognize this contrast between front lo w
vow els as being ,a functional one-. Constant training
can, how ever, lead to a correct pronunciation o f the
English sound. The vo w e l is distributed in syllabi einitial, m edial and fin al position (e.g. ant .[sn i], cat
[kast], rapid [r a p id ]), but not in w ord-final position. It
is usually spelt a: act, fat, and on ly exceptionally ai:

p la it jjplaet], p la id [plaea].
b. English back vow els. There are fiv e back vow el pho
nemes in standard English: [a :], [o ],'[a ;], [o ] and [u :j
1.

[a :] in R P does not coincide w ith cardinal vow el 5 [a]

It is a m ore' advanced, low , long, tense, unrounded
vo w el. It is distributed in all three basic positions: are,

cart, fa r. It is norm ally spelt by the letter a follow ed by

a silent r in syllable or w ord-final position: ja r, carpet.
It is often fo llow ed by a silent -1 in words lik e palm,

calm, balm. Som etim es f or f f can fo llo w : after, staff;

or ss: pass, class, or s or n follow ed by another
consonant: past; demand; or th in w ord-final position:

path, bath or, exceptionally, otherletters: aunt [a:n t],

Berkeley

[foarkli],

sergeant' [sarcftsni],

hearth

fh s :9 ], father

memoir

[m em w a:],

[fa:5 a],

barrage

[bsera:3 ].
[o ] is a genuine; back vowTel in R P . It is short, lax, open
and slightly rounded. It is only distributed in initial and
m edial position: on, pot, and never in fin al position. In
some accents o f English the vo w e l is pronounced pretty
close to the cardinal v o w e l 5 [a ]. In some varieties o f
Am erican English it is still open and a little hit fronted,
com ing very close to [a :] so that it is often difficult to
distinguish p o t from p a rt, fo r instance. The vow el is

usually spelt o. O ther sp ellin gs are possible; on, a and

an in rare cases lik e cou gf.w a n t; or laurel.
3.

[or] is closer and lon ger than

[o j. It is a Jong, tense

vo w el, m ore rounded than jo ], the degree o f aperture

being betw een open and half-open. The vowel is
distributed in all three basic positions: awful, caughi,

flaw . It is usually spelt either a w or a ir awl, drawn,

thaw, august, taught. T h e sequence o r is also read fori
i f it occurs

in fin al position or is fo llo w e d by either a

consonant or a silent e: fo r, sore, p ort. T h e sound is

exceptionally spelt oo in flo o r, door, oa in hoard

broad, coarse and hoard, tragh in (n)ought, sought;

wrought, and a in water or wrath and on in course,
source.
4. . [u ]

is

short,

lax,

rounded

vo w el

w hich

is

considerably, closer than [a :] its degree o f aperture

bein g a little b it higher than the cardinal h alf-close. The
v o w e l n ever

occurs

in

in itial

position

and

only

exceptionally in fin a l position, in the weak, unstressed

form o f the preposition rq, the verb do or the pronoun

who. -W e can then say that its distribution is restricted

to m edial position. The usual spelling fo r [o ] is the
letter a in w ords lik e push, cushion, p u ll, put. The letter

o can also represent the sound after w : w o lf Worcester.

In quite a fe w w ords double oo is the spelling fo r the
sound, fo llo w e d by k: look, b o o t, by t.fo o t, soot, by d:
wood, stood ; b y the lateral 1: w ool, or a nasal: room ,

broom, groom ; on appears as the spelling o f the sound

in verbal form s lik e would, could,
5.

should

[n :] is the highest back v o w e l o f English. It is a long,

tense, rounded vo w el. It occurs in aU three basic

positions, though pretty infrequ ently in initial position:

oom, oomph, ooze, ugh, uhlan; rude, baboon; crew,

101

iatoo. Rom anian speakers o f English should

bear that the v o w e l is closer and tenser than the
ng sound fo r w hich it must not be mistaken. The
usually spelt

or oo: rule, root, taboo. O can

spellin g o f [n :]. in fin al position in file stressed

o f to, who, etc, and in the noun ado. h i words

ute, through, routine, soup, douche., the sound is

to . In shoe, canoe, manoeuvre it is rendered by
e sound is often preceded by the palatal Q] which
onally inserted in w ords like suit [surt/symt] or
[firu :t/ frju :t], and obligatorily in beauty and its
fiv es , in.feud, music, mutiny, deluge, etc.
ily

notice that all English front vow els are

e back ones, w ith the exception o f [a :] which is

a back voweL, since its pronunciation in
a little m ore advanced than that o f cardinal vow el
erent degrees- o f roundness. This means that only
v o w e l chart is relevant fo r English, as there are
ow els or back unrounded vow els in this language

Iish central vow els. There are three central vow el

nem es in English: [a ], [ 0 ] and [ 3 :].
(A LB. F o r technical reasons, I havefollow ed Daniel
es and the majority o f phonetic transcriptions in use
hoosmg this symbol to represent the vowel o f the
lish w ord cut however, strictly speaking, this

ib o l is used in the IP A alphabet to represent

ondary cardinal vowel 14, the unroimdsd
mterpart o f prim ary cardinal vowel 6 [ 0] see
ove) is a central half-open, short,- lax, unrounded
w el. It is the low est standard English vow el and is
ibuted in w ord-initial and m edial position: utter,
btle. It never occurs in w ord or syllable-final

position. It is usually spelt 'either u: wider, but, or o:

come, front, honey.; in a number o f w ords it is spelt on:

courage, southern, rough, tough , and exception ally et
ui blood and flo o d and o e: in does. M an y Rom anian
speakers o f English, fin d

it difficult

to

acquire

the

correct pronunciation o f [ a ] m istaking it fo r som e

variant o f a -oro.
2 [a ] is the com m onest E n glish vo w el. I t is a central, m id,
lax, unrounded v o w e l ih& schwa m entioned before
fo r the pronunciation o f w hich the tongue adopts the
neutral position in relation to w hich a ll the other
articulatory positions can he described. The v o w e l
freely

occurs in

unstressed

a ll basic positions, but only in

syllables:

aside,

collide,

rather.

Its

pronunciation doesn t norm ally raise any problem fo r a

Rom anian speaker o f English. It should he noted,
how ever, that one o f the m ost d ifficu lt to acquire o f the
ph onological features o f English is the change o f the
vow el

quality- w ith

the . stress

sh ift

(in

w ay

comparable to Russian). Thus, m ost E nglish vo w els, i f

unstressed, w ill h e reduced to schwa only to resume
their basic value i f the stress shifts back on them: cf.

Satan [sertan], Satanic [sataeruk], Satanism [seitenizm ]

or feta l [fa ta l], [fataeliti], fatalism [feita h zm ]. It w ou ld
he superfluous to list all the possible spellings o f [sa],
since the v o w e l can he, as I have said, the reduced form
o f any sim ple v o w e l or even diphthong (see. fatality,
above) in E n glish and can consequently be rendered in
w ritin g by any v o w e l letter w ith the exception o f y
w hich only represents the' sem ivow el j or the vo w el i.3
3. [3 : ] is a central, m id, lon g, .tense central vow el. It is the
' tense counterpart o f the schwa and since it only occurs
in stressed syllables, in com plem entary distribution
w ife 'fe e preceding vo w e l, som e phoneticians, including

103

D aniel Jones, argue that the tw o sounds are positional

variants o f the same raid central v o w e l phoneme: It is
distributed in all three basic positions, very often in
m onosyllabic w ords: err, first, curtain, fu r, refer. It is
com m only spelt ir, n r, er, or y r in final position or
fo llo w e d b y a consonant or ea r .when fo llow ed by a

bird,

consonant:

bum, fern,

myrtle,

learn.

Other

spellings include ou r in words lik e courtesy, journal,

journey, s c rage, and, exceptionally, o in colonel

s are the

English

sim ple

vow els

or monophthongs

contxastively in the same context:

a.

the fron t vow els: eat [b it], b it [b it], bet [bet], 'bat [bast]

b.

the central vowels: B urt [bs:t], but [bat] the weak,

unstressed form , butt [DAt]

c.

the back vow els: boot [b u t], butch [b u t], bought

[b e t], hot [hot], B art [b a t].

- can n ow summarize the information w e have on the English

~

zels (monophthongs] and include it in the follow in g table:

Front

j Tense
T

_________________ 1

Lax

Central
Tense

Lax

|
j

*-

0
u

Back
Tense

L/Sx

u:

t)

o:
a;

0 .

"T h e English diphthongs.

rihihongs have already been described as sequences o f two
nnounced together, the tw o vocalic elements being members
_ns .syllable. W e have shown that it is often difficu lt to3
3

a genuine diphthong ftom a sequence o f a vo w el and a

I, that w e can often pronounce diphthongs and even long

such sequences and it is often the shorter duration o f the

less pfom inent vo w el in the diphthong that transform s it into a

senrivocalic ^ m s n l

there is. fo r instance, a differen ce, both in

quantity and quality reiw een the second vo ca lic elem ent in the
English diphthong [a r] - that occurs, say, in the w ord buy, and the
sem ivow el QJ in the Spanish interjection ay! [ajj].
A ccord in g to the position o f the m ore prom inent elem ent in the
diphthong w e have already divided diphthongs into fa llin g diphthongs
- i f the pzominant elem ent com es first and ris in g diphthongs i f th e
less prom inent elem ent com es fir s t A ll English.-diphthongs belon g to
the first category, as it has already been pointed o u t Diphthongs can
then be opening diphthongs i f the degree o f aperture increases w ith
the glid e or closing diphthongs i f the less prom inent v o w e l is closer
than the fir s t

W e can also differentiate betw een wide diphthongs -

those in w hich the g lid e im plies a m ore radical m ovem ent o f the
speech organs (e.g. [a i]) and narrow diphthongs - i f the tw o voca lic
elements occupy neighbouring positions (e.g . [e i]) on the v o w e l chart
There are also centring diphthongs i f the g lid e is from a m arginal
vo w el in the v o w e l chart either back or fron t - to a central vow el.
(See the three E nglish diphthongs g lid in g towards schwa; [is ] in dear,
[re ] in chair and [u a] in m oor to w hich w e should add

[oa], no

longer m et in present-day standard E n glish).

A . The centring diphthongs: [la ], [ea ], [o a ], [os]

a.

[is ]

is a centring, fa llin g , narrOM, opening diphthong

that starts at about the position o f the short, lax [1] and
glides towards schwa. T h e diphthong is distributed in
all three basic positions: ear, deer, tier. I f the first
elem ent o f the diphthong does not. have the norm al
prom inence and length, it can b e reduced to a g lid e and
the diphthong is changed into [ja ]. There are several
possible spellings fo r the diphthong: eer as in deer,

p eer or career-, e a (r ) as in ear, weary, idea, tear (n.

lacrim a ), heard, e ir as in weird, ie r as in .fierce or

p iercef ere as in here or mere. E xceptionally w e can

have i a

as in . m ediaflj, labid(t), genial, ea as in

in

as in delirium; eo as in theory and

v; e as in hero or in the diphthongized, version

erious, serial.
a centring, fa llin g, narrow, in most cases
diphthong. The degree o f openness o f the first
varies, in some dialects o f English the sound
nite close to [a e]. In the more conservative
ciations, closer to R P , the articulation o f the
n g starts somewhere in the vicin ity o f cardinal
2 [s ]. Then fo llow s a glide towards a variant o f
wa. There are dialects where the glide to [e ] is
ort and sometimes the diphthong is changed into
nophthong,

long,

tense

vo w el

[s:J.

The

ong is distributed in a ll three basic positions: h r,

, fa re . It can be spelt a ir: air, fa ir, chair, dairy,
a re: fare, mare, care, care', ear: bear, wear, tear
er: aerial, aeroplane; ere: there; eir: their, heir,
rds lik e prayer, layer, mayor, the spelling is ay
red b y either o r or er. The vow el o f Mary and
e d w ords such as Maryland or Maryport is
a lly diphthongized to [sa].
is a centring, fallin g, narrow, opening diphthong,
the case o f the tw o diphthongs analyzed before the
was from a front vo w el towards the centre o f the
ary

vo w el

chart, in the case o f [ua] the

illation starts w ith a fairly back, close vow el [o ].

is ' distributed on ly in word-m edial: jew el or wordposition: sure. The m ost common spellings o f the
thong are: trre and o r endure, mature, cure,
(w ords where the sem ivow el [f] is inserted before
diphthong), sure, poor, moor, or. n r follow ed by
vo w els than e: curious, duration . In a number o f
s w e can have the spelling on: our, gourd, bourse.
diphthong can also occur in words where the su ffix

e r is attached to a base ending in [Q )o ] few er, newer,

chewer, doer, pursuer.

d.

[oe] is a diphthong that has not su rvived in present-day

R P. 11 used to render the vo w el o f words lik e flo o r,

door, pore, score, shore, coarse, hoarse, oar, course
n ow pronounced [o :]. It still does that in various
dialects o f English, though "the general tendency seem s
to "be to m onophthongize such diphthongs. This has
been the fate o f [u s] as w ell, w hich in m any variants o f
E nglish is pronounced [or] in w ords lik e poor, sure etc.
B. The diphthongs to [i]: [ax], [ox], [ex]
<x

[ax] is a falling, wide, closing diphthong. It is the

diphthong that actually implies the amplest articulatory
movement o f the speech organs that shift from

the

position o f an open vow el which is fairly central (the

position varies between cardinal vow els 5 and 4 ) to a
front, close, lax. vow el (not far from the position o f
cardinal vow el 1. Historically, the vow el originates in [i:],
that subsequently low ered to [e ij, than centred and
low ered again to finally become [s i]. The diphthong is
distributed in all three basic positions: isle [a il]; bite
[bait], cry [krai]. It can.be spelt i as in ice, dime, loci, or y
a in dyke, fly , or ie as in die, lie, pie, or in inflected form s:

spies, spied; ye as hi dye, fye; ei as in height, either,

neither, and, exceptionally n v in Truy, guy. N ote also the
pronunciation o f ayfeJJzi], eye [ax] and aisle [ail],

b.

[a l] is fa llin g, wide, closing diphthong. It starts from a

back, m id vo w el, situated betw een cardinal vo w els 6 2H
7 and ends in a front, close, lax vo w el, som ewhere in
the vicin ity o f cardinal vo w e l 1. L ik e the preceding
diphthong, it

also

in volves

an am ple articnlatoiy

m ovem ent mom a back vo w el to the front part o f the

107

im aginary vo w el chart It is distributed in all three

basic positions: ointment, boil, toy. It can be spelt either
oi: oil, to il or oy. oyther, Boyle, coy.

c.

[e i] is a fa llin g, narrow , closing diphthong. It starts

with- a fro n t m id vow el - between cardinal vpw els 2
[e ] and 3 [el and glides to a higher vo w el value,
closing.

Often the second elem ent is very -short,

sometimes ven dropped, the diphthong being reduced

to a lon g vow el monophthong [s :]. In Cockney the
diphthong starts w ith a low er and central vow el, being
- pronounced [ ax] : late p/ut], say [ s a i ] , day [cU i], The
diphthong Is distributed in all three basic positions:

eight; plate, play. It can be spelt a: ace, lace; ai: aid,

maid; ay: aye, clay; eh eight, reign, ey: they, grey, ea:
brale, steak. Exceptionally, there are .spellings like
gaol [ctjeii], bass [b eis], gauge [geidy], Italfpermy
[hapni-]. The diphthong also occurs in a small number
o f French loan words ending in et or : ballet, bouquet,

chalet, caf, fianc, attach, resum.

The diphthongs to [u ]. There are tw o diphthongs in R P

ending in a glide to [u]: [so] and [a u ].

a.

[su ] is the counterpart o f [e i] in the bade area o f the

vow el chart The diphthong starts w ith a central mid
vow el and glides to a. back d ose one. It is a railing,
narrow', closing diphthong. It is distributed in all three
basic posrncus: old, gold, flaw-. It has various spellings:
o: old sold, no; oz: oak, roast, oe: toe, ow . own, known,

row; on: poultry, dough; eau: beau, bureau, and,

exceptionally, an: gauche; oc: brooch; ew : sew; oh: oh.
b. [a u ] is z fa llin g, wide, closing diphthong. It starts ns an
open, fa irly front vo w el (in the vicin ity o f cardinal
vo w el 4 ) and glides . awards [u ] It is distributed in all

three basic positions: ouch, loud, hough. It can be sp elt'

by on: oust, doubt, plough, .or w: owl, howl, how and,
exceptionally ea in M acLeod.
H ere

are

the

E nglish

com p lex

vo w e ls

(diphthongs)

distributed contrastively in the same context:

a) centring diphthongs: beer [b is ],

bear [bee], b oor

[h u e], boar [boa]

b ) diphthongs to [ 1]: buy [b a s], boy [b o l], bay [b e i]

c) diphthongs to [v ]: bow, beau [b s v ], bow, bough [b a o ]

English triphthongs. Th e very- existence o f triphthongs in
present-day E nglish is a controversial problem . Th ere is hardly any
phonetic evidence fo r the surival o f the respective structures at least in
RP. The controversial sequences occur w b efore the rh otic r w hen he
non-centrig diphthongs are fo llo w e d b y schwa. Thus [a i], [or], [ea],
[a o ], . [a u ] becom e [a ia ], [oia], [e ie ], [au a], [a u a ] in fir e , employer,

layer, mower, pow er. A s R oca and Johnson poin t out (1999: 200-201),
the actual pronunciation o f these v o ca lic sequences tends either to
'break them into the diphthong and the fo llo w in g sim ple v o w e l
(schw a) - e.g buyer [bar-a], or to reduce the diphthong to a sim ple
vo w el fo llo w ed by schwa e.g. buyer [b a a ], Triphihongal sequences
are quite com m on in Rom anian as p roved by exam ples lik e leoarc,

aripioar, beai, vreau, i-ai, miau, luai, luau, miei. leoaic. (V asiiiu ,
1965: 134)

CHAPTER ' 5

PHONOLOGICAL STR U C TU R E ;
TH E PHONEME A N D THE A L L O P H O N E .
SEGMENTAL S PE C IF IC A T IO N :
D IS T IN C T IV E F E A TU R E S
I N V A R IO U S PH O N O LO G IC A L T H E O R IE S

5.1. Individual s o u n d s and classes o f sounds.

phoneme and its contrastive function

T he

The preceding chapters offered a tentative description o f

English sounds from

an articulatory perspective, also p rovid in g

certain acoustic correlates o f consonants and particularly vow els.

From the very b egin n in g-of the book w e used the w ord sound to
loosely refer to one o f tire tw o -sides o f the Saussurian sign, the one
that the Swiss linguist called le signifi. H ow ever, this is not the w ay
in w hich phonologists, and, indeed, our ow n brain, deal w ith the w ide
variety o f signifies that a given lin gu istic system includes. It is clear
that human beings produce a great variety o f sounds, but on ly a part o f
th an are genuine speech sounds, that is sounds that are used fo r verbal
communication and are consequently o f interest fo r the present
discussion. W ith our inventory drastically lim ited, can w e s till say that
all sounds that w e produce w hen w e speak are interpreted as actually
discrete and entirely different phonetic sequences? i f this w ere the
case w e w ould have indeed

difficu lties in dealing w ith such a

w ide variety (in fact, theoretically an in fin ite number o f sounds) fhst
w e articulate. A closer analysis o f the phonation process w ill reveal
that, indeed, different speakers pronouncing, say, the w ord pen w ill
fa il to identically pronounce its com ponent parts, the sounds p, e and

111

y. Eye, m ore, one and the same speaker, I f asked to

- respective w ord 1 0 tim es w ill actually produce ten
ep tfb ly different variants. The use o f phonographs has
lc evidence fo r this n ow unquestionable reality.

lestion that we have to ask ourselves then is this: do

;ss really matter? A re they significant fo r us, or do w e
overlook the above m entioned

variations and interpret

segment as identical, or, indeed, irrelevanfiy different,

t tim e w e perceive it? Besides, it is intuitively obvious

nt the sound p in the English word p ill is different from

xmd in spill. -In the first case the force o f the plosive
er and a sort o f h sound accompanies its articulation,
phenomenon is called aspiration. N othing of.the kind
- second-case. A gain , i f asked whether w e deal w ith the
n the tw o words any speaker o f English w ill give an
=swer without any hesitation and nobody w ill question
jx

the tw o sounds in spite o f their obvious dissim ilarity,

at w e are so careless and neglect such often important

nile i f aslced to compare the sound p in p ill to the sound
other case where w e obviously deal w ith sounds that
im m ediately

that the tw o sounds are distinct? A re

types o f differences so to say? A re some differences

1

than others? These m ight seem pretty trivial questions

but the answer that linguists gave .to them actually

= a ig point in the history o f linguistic disciplines. W hat w e

ie w ith it has beer, explained is not individual,.
3eatable

units, but rather categories. W e know this from

rophers in particular from A ristotle

and language

op tion in this respect Linguists have argued therefore,

o f the sound p in p ill and sp ill respectively, as w e ll as
different people s or one and the same person s
o f the same w ord, in spite o f the obvious differences,
v to group all the variants o f the p sound in one and the
W hen w e compare the initial sounds o f p ill and b ill on

the other hand, the differences are no lon ger neglected and the tw o
sounds are allotted to tw o differen t categories. W hat is the reason w e
do that fo r? It is &fu n ction a l one, it w as argued. The tw o w ords p ill
and b ill are distinguished as discrete w ords p recisely because the
interpretation o f the tw o sounds is d iffe re n t (A good parallel would
probably be one w e are all fa m ilia r w ith and is linked to our prim ary
school m em ories. W e w ere a ll asked to com pare tw o drawings - two
representations o f a human being, le t s say, that d iffe r in only one,
often sligh tly perceptible - detail: a square button opposed to a round
one, m aybe. Those buttons having d ifferen t shapes that keep the two
drawings apart are the phonem es o f our situation). Th e tw o sounds w e
are t alking

about have

a contrastive

valu e, th ey

establish

am

opposition, they keep apart the tw o w ords, their differen ce actually

results in a semantic difference. T h e presence or absence o f aspiration
in the -different variants o f p as w e ll as the variations that w e m ay
perceive

when

we

com pare

successive

pronunciations

of

the

respective words are unimportant, o r w e consider them to be so as

long as the m eaning o f the w ord the sound is part o f is interpreted as
being the same. Our in tellect then apparently w orks on tw o different
planes. A real one where the differences betw een the actual sounds are
perceived, and an ideal one, w here these differences are analyzed and
are either considered to be im portant, or functional, or contrastive and
are consequently recognized, or, on the contrary, are interpreted as
unimportant and overlooked. It is the historic m erit o f structural
linguistics to have postulated this distinction and to have introduced
the notion o f invariant in grammar. O n the ideal plane, then, w e w ork
w ith such abstract constructs, categories that don t have a concrete
reality and to w hich the concrete, actually occurring sounds are
allocated. The abstract construct w as called phoneme. The sym bols for
phonemes are put in slashes: Jp/ and fb ! in our exam ples above. The
m aterializations, instantiations, realizations o f a phonem e in actual
speech w ere called its aJlophones. T h e sym bols fo r allophones axe put
in square brackets: [pland

in onr exam ples above fo r the aspirated

and unaspiraied variants o f Jp!, respectively'.

113

uses. Complementary distribution and

iation
then theoretical constructs, classes o f sounds the
display

obvious

phonetic

sim ilarities

the

respective members being never contrastive or

as, in a given linguistic context, this difference
and represents the basis on w hich a semantic
t ceases to be allophom c and becom es phonemic,
spective sounds are members o f distinct classes
noticed that allophom c differences or variations
lands. I f they result from the occurrence o f the
t environm ents or contexts (w e w ill call this the
e

respective

phonem e)

we

w ill

talk

about

lion and w e w ill say that the allophones are in

tribution. The w ord com plem entary actually
that the contexts in w hich the allophones o f a
never be the same and they cover the w hole
vironrrients in w hich the sound can occur (fo r an
think o f com plem entary angles in geom etry). In
ven context X only a certain allophone w ill occur,
ntext Y . another allophone is expected to occur and
n ly contexts in w hich the allophones can occur. It
that the occurrence o f allophones is always
a certain context w e can only expect one and on ly
the phoneme. In our particular exam ple, in the
the voiceless p losive

/p/ is fo llo w e d by a stressed

liable-in itial position w e can safely say that the

e [p b] w ill com e up. I f on the

other hand, p

is not

i is preceded b y s as in 'spill, w e can safely predict

d variant o f p w ill occur. The occurrence o f

s is, on the contrary, totally unpredictable since it is

ental characteristic o f phonemes that they "are
and the same con text There is no w ay in which w e
re that in the context -tl w e w ill have p ill, n il chiR,

fill, gill, Jill, sill, Mil, mill, hill, d ill or till (tine lis t can continue). A n y
two words such as p ill and b ill, m entioned above, or k ill and hill,
etc. that help us discover w hich sounds have a contrastive valu e in a
given language are said to form a m inim al p a ir. Th e fo llo w in g criteria
must he m et b y the tw o w ords in order that they fo rm a m inim al pain
they should have the same number o f sounds, and these sounds should
be identical, w ith the on ly exception o f the contrasting sound that
should b e distributed in the same context in both w ords; the words
must also have different meanings.
I f variation is not associated w ith positioning, and is rather
unpredictable, without being phonem ic how ever, w e talk about fi-ee

variation or random variation. O ne rip e o f random variation that w e

encounter is when w e compare differen t realizations o f one and the
same phoneme b y various speakers or in the speech o f one and the
same person in different situations. It differs from the preceding type
because it is context-free and it d iffers from phonem ic variation
because it is not contrastive. T o g iv e an exam ple, i f a person
pronounces the w ord rock as elih eu frsk j o r [ro k h ], then-we talk-aboui
free variation W e can have a differen t type o f free variation when w e
deal w ith realizations o f differen t phonem es in the same context
without a change o f meaning. E .g.: lid and le ! in the respective
pronunciations o f economics: /ukanomiks/ vs. /ekanounks/; or Id and

/a/ in the respective pronunciations o f again /agent vs. /egend.

W ith this w e have actually highlighted the basic strategy
through w hich w e can bring out the contrast betw een tw o different
phonemic entities; in one and the same context w e replace or
substitute one elem ent fo r another and analyze the effect this has on
the meaning- o f the entire sequence. The m ethod is predictably called

substitution (another term often used is commutation) and it represents

the

main

strategy

through

w hich

structuralist

grammarians

emphasized difference in language. H a vin g established this, w e can

refine our. discussion o f the SailSSUlian sign. W hat the Swiss linguist
callecl le signifiant is actually a string o f phonemes and not o f SOUIldS,
inextricably linked to a certain notion or con cept So w e can say that
at the le v e l of-th e signifiant languages perform a truly rem arkable
thing. Instead o f selecting an acoustic im age (to use the Saussurian

115

d every concept in the system - [p ] fo r cat, fo ] fo r

y actually com bine a 'lim ited set o f phonemes and
ifly large number o f signifiants fo r all the concepts in
exploitin g 3-3 combinatorial possibilities o f elements

ayfng elementary mathematical knowledge w ill be

are enormous languages manage to be extrem ely
gfne w h at-terrib le-effort would be needed to learn
erent sounds that -would sym bolize the concepts o f a
s is perform ed at the level o f speech, the same
noticed in the evolution o f w riting: from various
representations human w riting developed to
the syllables o f words, w h ile the alphabetic
a representation o f the phonemes o f the language. I
ends3 because even in the spelling systems that come
to-one representation o f the phonemes such a thing is
Rom anian, fo r instance, the phoneme Itei can be
er the letter c or by ch i f distributed before a front
by q in the conservative spelling o f certain Latin

idem The letter e, on the other hand, w ill get an

i f fo llo w e d im m ediately by on e. o f the two front
A alphabet is such an alphabet, but it is not used to
f auy language. (S ee chapter 2 above).

e phonological
stems

rosy

of .linguistic

im portant reality becom es evident fo r us: i f human

g ica lly apt to produce a w id e (but still fin ite) variety
as, each natural language w ill operate a -particular
stic system. It feliovre from that that differences
idered important (functional, contrastive, phonem ic)
guage, may not'be considered in the same w ay b y other
exam ple at hand is vowel length. It is evident that
ifferen t lengths in both Romanian and English. But

w h ile in Rom anian v o w e l length doesn 't p la y any role, in E n glish it

clearly does so, since it is v o w e l length that distinguishes, say, seat
from sit. Another exam ple o f the differen t interpretation o f the same
phonetic reality by the tw o languages is the treatm ent o f the vela r
nasi 'ijj. Any peak - o f Rom anian i f asked to ca reftO y analyze the
sound spelt n in b a i-M and banc respectively w ill ackn ow ledge the
difference bin w ill not consider it art im portant one, because in
Rom anian the distinction betw een the alveolar nasal and the velar one
is never contrastive or functional. In English, h ow ever, it is, as
m in im a l

pairs lik e sin [sin ] and sing [sag] prove. Consequently, w h ile

Romanian treats the tw o sounds as allophones o f the same nasal

phoneme, In!, English w ill grant both [m] and [rj] the status o f
allophones o f tw o different nasal phonem es, In/ and / 5 / respectively.
Aspiration, m entioned above, is another good exam ple. W h ile in
E n g lis h

it doesn 't have a phonem ic valu e as it is associated to

positional variants o f one and the same phonem e, in H indi, fo r

exam ple, it is the basis o f a phonem ic contrast since p a l w ith an
unaspiraied p lo sive means to take care o f, w h ile p h a l (pronounced
w ith aspiration) means the edge o f a kn ife (Spencer, 1996: 5).
Rem em bering the distinction betw een phonetics and phonology
discussed in the second chapter o f the book, w e can now say that w h ile
phonetics deals w ith the m ore or less universal characteristics o f sounds
(in articulatory, acoustic or auditory term s) phonology w ill rather focus
on the particular w ay in w hich the sound systems o f different languages
are organized. The phonological rules, constraints, the sound patterns o f
a given linguistic system w ill then be the dom ain o f phonology.
Sim plifying, w e can say that phonetics deals w ith actual sounds and
their characteristics, w h ile phonology w ill be concerned w ith matters o f
a m ore abstract nature, as it analyses phonemes, phonem ic features
phonological patterning. W e w ill actually see that the boundary
between, the tw o

disciplines is far from being

so clear-cut as w e w ould

like it to be since it is im possible to speak o f the phonetic characteristics

o f sounds outside o f a phonological context and on the other hand w e
cannot talk about phonological processes w ithout m aking use o f the
phonetic characteristics o f sounds.

117

d narrow transcription
on should be made in this context W e have
apter about various ways o f representing the
w ritin g and we loosely called them phonetic
w e actually represent by a system as that
the phonemes o f a given language and it is
call this a phonemic transcription, usually
dies. The term broad transcription is also used,
o ignore the details and represent classes o f
unds proper. B y contrast, a transcription that
er the allophonic variants o f the phonemes and
ation as possible about the sounds that actually
ontext w ill be called a narrow, or phonetic
a transcription is conventionally put in square
e

fo r reasons

o f economy, but often quite

ie graphic sym bol is used fo r both the phoneme

ariants, various diacritics or additional symbols
the difference. For instance, w hile the phoneme
y the letter p, its aspirated allophone w ill be
e sym bol follow ed by a small h: p h, w hile the
p '. The sym bol that w e chose to represent the
tys be the one representing its m ost widespread
ounts fo r the fact that the unaspirated rather than
.one o f /p/ is represented by its graphic symbol,
v o w e l phonemes w ill he represented by the
al and not their nasal aliophones, etc.

aemtal and sitprasegmenial phonemes

far described the sounds o f English, w e tried to list
ain articulatory features, w e even postulated the
ses o f sounds that w e called phonemes and w e
in functional terms emphasizing their contrastive
en w e talked about classes o f sounds (phonemes)

w e considered them as actually defining unique ph on ological units in

o f the phonetic variations displayed by their respective members
which w e chose to ignore. W e can say then that w e analyzed
individual, separate segments, ph on ological units in isolation. The
study o f such segments outside o f a larger ph on ological context is the
domain o f segmentalphonology. M any changes undergone b y sounds,
m any contrasts in language, m any ph on ological processes, actually
take place or can be noticed at a higher lev e l, a le v e l that w ill in volve
sequences or strings o f sounds, or even o f w ords and phrases. This
w ill be the dom ain o f suprasegmental phonology and part o f the
fo llo w in g chapters w ill be devoted to a b rie f analysis o f such
phenomena.

Stress,

rhythm,

intonation

are

ob viou sly

such

phonological realities, that m anifest them selves at a suprasegmental

le v e l Stress and intonation contours can even have phonem ic
(contrastive) value since on ly difference in stress placem ent
establishes the distinction betw een en voy (the noun) and en voy (the
verb). The same w ord, phrase or sentence pronounced w ith different
intonational contours could express surprise, satisfaction, m atter-offactness. The last chapter of-the book w ill discuss such cases in further
detail.

5.6. From the minimal unit of linguistic analysis to

the bundle o f distinctive features
The discovery3 o f the phoneme thrilled linguists enormously.
Scholars w orking in the domain o f humanities have always liv e d w ith
the com p lex o f the extraordinary achievem ents o f their colleagues
studying exact or natural sciences. I f mathematicians w alked on such
a rigorous and strictly organized ground, i f biologists lik e Lin n w ere

able to SO convincingly classify and explain the extraordinary variety

o f liv in g creatures w hy should linguistics 8Hd llteraiy sciences, fo r
exam ple, w ork w ith vague and slippery concepts? Couldn t em pirical
observation be organized in this fie ld too, couldnt general principles
be enounced and. rules be discovered and form alized ju st as in the
domains o f say, physics or algebra? A n d i f this was not possible did

119

II? So .that -when the phoneme was discovered an

n h e m ind o f enthusiastic researchers. I f languages were
systems

of

levels

that

w ere

M erarchically

and

o r g a n i z e d i n - other words the elements o f one level

ed (etym ologically decom posed) into sm aller elements
tely -inferior level and so on until the low est level is
linguists actually hit the ultim ate 'and smallest unit in

phoneme? I f physicists and chemists had discovered

m inim al structure in the universe that could not be
iposed

(the

reality

later

proved

to

he

bitterly

wasnt the status o f the phoneme in linguistics exactly

e ra ember

the

presentation in the first chapter o f this

m ages in .th e process o f communication, the reasoning

-a lo n g the fo llo w in g lines: sentences could be analyzed
_zi the syntactic level, that could be further split into
_oiph em es at the m orphological le v e l to be finally
mtto-phensmes at--the-phonological level. The phoneme
- pin the m inim al unit in

language.

U nlike

words,

prases and sentences at the superordinate levels it w ill

_.d o f m eaning, since le signm ant is only accidentally a
mne, but rather a com bination or string o f phonemes^ but
m jsseniial role, (a contrastive one as w e saw) in keeping
. ally differen t sequences.
_heless, from the perspective on the phoneme presented
w ly found atom o f language didnt seem to have much
a ll T o say that p in p o t is not n in not may, o f course,
but it is not very illu m inating about d ie true nature .o f
since it amounts to saying what p and n are not rather
ey are. i f w e agree that they are different, is this
ely functional, or does i f rather have some phonetic
"w ell? A n d i f it does, what is it based on? H ow are they
all? In terms o f our discussion o f the tw o sounds w e
OSt o f their characteristics or features are commonpwith

o/ one important feature: voicin g or vocal cord

waver, acknowledging the fact that each phoneme could

be analyzed (that is decom posed') in term s o f characteristic features

actually amounted to doing away w ith the m yth o f the atom ic
phoneme.

The

unbreakable atom

component features.

Thus it

could

cam e to

be split into
substance and be

kfter a ll
h ave

understood n ot on ly in functional term s its oppositional valu e but

also as a com bination ox, to use the established term , a bundle o f

distinctive fea tw eslW h at does distinctive m ean? Som e o f the features

w e m entioned earlier seem to be m ore relevant than others, in certain
contexts at least, since /p/ and lb / to refer to the actual exam ple w e
discussed before have lots o f features in com m on (p lo sive, bilabial,
obstruent sounds) and on ly d iffe r in one; because this feature that j
differentiates or distinguishes them, it w as called distinctive feature.
N o w that the concept o f phonem e unbreakabiiity w as dead,
linguists enthusiastically set about in ven toryin g and describing the
distinctive features, the new m inim al units at the ph on ological level.
(Phonology was again a pioneer in the fie ld

as the fashion

subsequently spread to other lingu istic disciplines see com ponential

analysis in semantics, fo r instance). Th is actually becam e one o f the
main tasks o f phonologists: iden tifyin g the exact set o f features that
are relevant fo r any language and describing the w ay these features
are relevant fo r phonological processes. It p roved to be, how ever, a
. difficu lt task since there w ere several criteria that could be used in
analyzing the features (articulately, acoustic, auditory) and some
features w ere particularly relevant fo r som e languages w h ile in other
languages not on ly w ere they not distin ctive, but could n ot be
identified at a ll when exam ining the phonemes o f the respective
languages. Should specialists continue to aim at designing a set o f
universal features ox rather start from

the idea

o f the highly

idiosyncratic character o f each language and design individual sets p f

features? A s the idea o f language universals w as v e ry dear to linguists
and, m oreover, there was much . em pirical support fo r

such a

hypothesis, a universal set o f features w as established based on

fimdamenial sim ilarities am ong languages w h ile som e other features
w ere specified as being relevant fo r a m ore lim ited num ber o f
languages. (A s w e are goin g to see later, a feature lik e guttural vail
not he relevant fo r any European language; but this is not the case o f

121

tores. N asality, for instance is distinctive and

when w e analyze French vow els, w hile in
manian and F.ngiish it is a purely contextual
;es allophones o f vow el phonemes distributed in
s had an oppositional' value and the contrasts
d to be o f a binary kind (o f the type either...or)
least in itia lly - devised in the same way. W hen
oppositions, w e have in mind a polarity. The
tw o poles and an elem ent characterized b y it
it one o f the poles. T o g ive a clearer example, I
'c opposition, o f this kind: dead/alive. A lo n g the
life w e can only encounter the tw o situations
omething is alive, than it is not dead and i f it is
o interm ediate degrees are allowed as in the case
ot w here it is clear that i f something is not hot
fo llo w that it is cold: it can be warm, cool, etc.
1 perspective

'and there are very fe w "natural or

a that can accurately he described in these terms.

com plex, allow ing fo r infinite degrees and it can
an either... or opposition. M any features w ere fe lt
tely describable in terms o f scalar values. Instead
s the opposite values o f the feature, a hierarchy
ees was introduced. Therefore, instead o f the +/above, m any features w ere later described using
arked a variable degree o f the characteristic (see
o w in vow els, discussed in a previous chapter). It
e tw o poles as it allow s fo r different degrees o f
-m id, open-m id vow els). H ow ever, it seem ed very
cient to overlook such details and sim p lify matters
e features to be specified by either + or

A lon g

fo r exam ple, w e have tw o values or specifications,

clearly m arking the presence o f the feature, -while
is absence. Thus the voiceless p losive /p/ w ill be
w hile its vo iced counterpart fb ! w ill receive the

specification [T w ic e ]. S till, som e features are n ot rea lly analyzabie in

binary term s at'alL H ow are w e to reduce -the m ultitude o f places o f
articulation o f consonants to binary oppositions? Can w e saj', fo r
exam ple, that a sound is non-alveolar? Th ere is no such p lace o f
articulation, so non-alveolar can m ean b ilab ial, p alata l, v elar, etc.
Place o f articulation features thus do not have ju st tw o values or
specifications. Therefore, a specification such as [-a lveo la r] w ou ld be
meaningless. C learly such features fa iled -to establish oppositions o f l
the type presented above and w ere'con sidered, m later approaches, /
iirisg^featnfesTas they on ly had one valu e or specificatioiL
M ost o f the rem aining part o f the chapter w ill b e devoted tc a
sketchy presentation o f the distinctive features in various influential
approaches.

5.7. Jakohson and Halle s feature system

Traditionally/

speech

sounds

w ere

alm ost

exclu sively

described in articulatory terms, in a w av very m uch sim ilar to that w e

used in the preceding chapters o f this book. The reason fo r w hich
articulatory rather than acoustic or auditory characteristic p revailed
and fo r which articulatory phonetics has had a lon ger history than its
younger sisters, acoustic and auditory phonetics are obvious and have
been cursorily m entioned in the introductory chapters o f this book.
Intuitively w e are m ore readily aware o f the w ay w e articulate sounds
w e can even touch, fe el, w atch our speech organs perform the
necessary m ovem ents fo r producing the required sounds. B efore the
recent developm ent o f technological means b y which, sounds could be
represented, visualized, m apped on com plex diagrams w e

could

hardly speak; o f acoustic phonetics as a discipline on its ow n rig h t

Auditory

phonetics,

2S

it

involves

psych ological

and

even

ph ysiological processes that are still larg ely unclear, has alwSVS bSSU
a shadier ground. W ith fire developm ent o f the phonem e theory and o f
the stnictaralist approaches to language, the iden tification and analysis
o f distinctive features witnessed a sudden boom . The influential w ork

123

School linguists in the first decafi.es o f the 20th century

ter by.on e o f the m ost distinguished representatives o f
Oman .Jalcobson, -who published in

1952 a booh

Gunnar.Fant and M o m s H a lle, entitled Preliminaries

lysis. It was the first m ajor attempt by the structural

sties to g ive a com prehensive and articulate, coherent
distinctive features in language. Four years later.

H alle ..refined .the theory in their Fundamentals o f

56). Jakobson and H a lle s features depart from the
preaches as they, attempt to describe sounds from an
occasionally auditory) perspective (w hich were sim ply
a previously, as I have pointed out). The principle o f
fo r the first tim e clearly stipulated. The features were
being universal rather than language specific. They also
e the gap between the traditionally irreconcilable classes
d consonants by fin din g or at least attempting to find
ruinators fo r their respective descriptions. Am plitude (or
t-eh-tpr frequency) and duration (len gth) are The three
at define speech sounds. Largely relyin g on data made
technical developm ents, the authors built up a system o f
- they tabulated and.baptized the. featu re,matrix o f the
nonemes. Thus, m alting use 'o f only nine binary features
entafive description o f all the phonemes o f English. These

"wocaiic/non-vocahc
consonantal/non-consonatal
compact/diffuse
grave/ acute
fia tp la in
nasal/oral
tsnse/lax
continuant/inteirupted
strident/meliow
features belonged to a more- comprehensive category,
zyfeatures.

Th e

first

tw o,

vocalic/non-vocalic

and

consonanial/'non-

consorantal obviou sly distinguish betw een vo w e ls and consonants.

A coustically, jH-voca lic] sounds w ere described as h avin g a w elldefined form ant strucuire, w h ile a rticu latoiily they are characterized
by

voca l

cord

vibration

and

fre e

passage

of

the

airstream.

A coustically, consonantal sounds w ere characterized by a low erin g in

the first form ant, w h ile articu latoiily an obstruction is m et by the
outgoing airstream. W h ile

- consonantal] consonants
- vocclic ].

vo w els

w ere

as [+ voca lir,

described

received the sp ecification f consonantal',

The lateral 1 (and, later, the

other liqu id , r )

was

controversially described as [+ voca lic; +consonantalj w h ile the glottal

fricative h received the specification [- voca lic ; - consonantal], a label
also used for-glid es;
The feature compact/diffuse, supposedly com m on to both
vow els and consonants, distinguishes betw een open and lo w vow els
and front and back (post-alveolar) consonants respectively. The name
o f the feature com es from its acoustic characterization. D iffu se sounds
have energy spread w id e ly (d iffu se ly ) across the spectrum, w h ile in
the case o f com pact sounds th en ergy is concentrated in the central
area o f the auditory spectrum (it is com pact). A rticu la toiily, the
.diffuse sounds (clo se vow els and fron t consonants) are characterized
by a backward-flanged shape o f .the resonator (the oral ca vity), w h ile
compact sounds (op en vo w els

and postalveolax consonants) are.

characterized by a forw ard-flanged shape o f the resonator.

W ithin

the

nasdl/oral,

opposition

[f-nasaT]

sounds

are.

characterized acoustically by a reduction o f the intensity o f the sound

the presence o f a nasal form ant and a dam ping o f the oral ones, w hile
articulatoiily w e witness blockin g o f the oral ca vity and the release
o f the air through the nasal cavity.
The

feature

continuant/interruptcd

(abrupt)

keeps

apart

fricative sounds the pronunciation o f w hich, as w e saw, can be

continued
articulatoiy

indefin itely,
terms

by

from

stops

instantaneous

w hich

are

release.

characterized

A cou stically,

in

stop

aracterized b y a sudden spread o f energy

XL

feature that differentiates among affricates

ao-dentaf alveolar and alveo-palatal) on the
ident] and slit fricatives (the dental ones)
oustically, strident sounds

have

irregular

o rily they are rough-edged hecanse o f an

increases turbulence at the place o f
em ber that strident sounds w ill require the
them and the -s morpheme.
es

are

only represented

by the feature

ecificaiion characterizes sounds w hich are

e ffo r t A cou stically they evince

a greater

spectrum and have a longer duration, w hile

e a greater deform ation o f the vocal tract
be thus specified, w h ile voiced ones w ill be

es include the grave/acute and flat/plaxn

characterizes both vow els and consonants and
Is from front ones and peripheral from
+ grave] sounds are characterized acoustically
ncy) and include back vow els and labial and
e sounds w ill display h igh frequencies and
entaL, alveolar and palatal consonants,
opposition contrasts rounded to unrounded
display acoustically a low ering o f the higher
atorily characterized b y lip rounding.

and Halle s distinctive features

entally different theoretical fram ework many
oposed by Jalcobson and H alle can be recognized

n Noam- Chom sky and M orris H a lle s Sound Pattern o f English

'(1968), a book that represented-a turning poin t in the developm ent o f
phonological theory in-the 20th century. Th e ph onological analysis is
carried out from a generative perspective, w hich rad ically m od ifies the
intepretations

o f the phonological processes.

The task

o f the

phonologist was n ot longer to id en tify and classify the elem ents in a

given corpus, but rather to devise a system o f rules that explain the
phonological structure o f sentences and the ph on ological changes
undergone b y vaious -segments. The classical variant o f A m erican
Structuralism, often called Item and Arrangem ent ph on ology was
repudiated in favour o f a fle x ib le system that should a llo w the linguist
to explain the ph onological structure o f a given language. From,
essentially classificatoiy and descriptive, the m odel tends to becom e
explanatory.

Generative

transform ational

gram m ar

was

later

developm ent o f earlier structuralist thories in the 20th century, o f

w hich it is in m any ways a continuation, but from w hich it essentially
departs in som e fundam entai aspects. A t the tim e w hen SPE was
published, m ost generativists w ou ld s accept the "staudard~model o f
the late fifties and early sixties w hich considered the syntactic
component as central w ithin

gram m ar w h ile

the sem antic and

phonological components w ere interpretative ones. The ph onological

component was structured m uch lik e the syntactic one. A n underlying

representation was postulated w h ich consisted o f a string o f highly

abstract phonological segments that w ere converted b y p h on ologica l
rules into surface representations that m irrored pretty fa ith fu lly the
actual pronunciation o f phonetic sequences. W e w ill com e hack later
in this chapter to this type o f interpretation o f ph on ological changes.
The features used b y Chom sky and H a lle w ere defined prim arily in
articulatory terms and not in acoustic ones as th ey w ere in the
Jakobsonian m odel. This was not a return to the tradition , but a
reinterpretation

of m ost of Jakobson s

features. Chom sky and H alle

them selves argue that the priority given to an articulatory nfiwripfjtTP_

is a circumstantial one rather than one pertaining to the essence o f

their theoretical approach (1968: 299). Th e features m ore numerous
than Jalcobsons w ere subdivided into fiv e groups.

127

a) sonorant/nonsonorant (obstruent

features:

K ) vocalic/nouvocalic -

c) consonautal/non-consonantai
a) coronal/noncoronal

V) anierior/ttojiantsrior
c) body o f tire tongue features.

1) lagh/nonbigh
2) loW nonlow
3 ) back/nonbaek

(T.roimded/nonronnded
j e) distributed/uondistribmed

"V | f) covered/noncovered
a) glottal CODStacdDDS
b) secondary apertures:
1) nasal/nonnasal
2) lateral/noxiateral
(stop)
w to tm te n e o n s / d d ^ d re to S P

c) sn p p lo m e a W

1 15

1) suction
' 2) pressure

d) tense/ndntense (lax)
a) heightened subglotiai-pressure

itures:

features:

b j vuiceii/nonvoiced
c) strident/nonstndent

a) stress
b ) pitch
c) length

s a br of p r o s e d of the SPE cM * * ' =

,
fnh.res dealt fh tte fimdammtal
T lco to n ^ a V n o n c o w n a n ta l distincdons. As

explained earlier in this book, the distinction suggested b y Chom sky

and H alle was essentially an articulatory -one: the uttering o f vo w els
did not in vo lve any m ajor obstruction in the w a y o f the airstream,
w hile a m ajor constriction at som e poin t a lon g the vo ca l tract was
always associated w ith the articulation o f consonants. Just as w ith
Jakobson, liqu ids w ere described as bein g { f consonantaL; + voca lic],
glides w ere -consonantal;

-voca lic ], a com bination o f features that

also characterized the glottal frica tive h and the glotta l stop ?
Th e distinction sonorant/obstruent w as introduced t i e form er
being described as sounds allow in g spontaneous voicin g. V ow els,
glides, liquids and nasals w ere naturally included, though it is not J
clear w h y b and the glottal stop received the same specification. A
refinem ent o f these features is suggested in the epilogu e o f the booh
where, vo w els are described as syllabic and vocoid (v o w e l-lik e in
nature) w h ile glides are characterized as non-syllabic and vocoid.
Thus, the

articu latory' sim ilarity ' betw een vo w e ls

and glid es

is

captured, the difference being one o f distribution (in thegrosition o f

syllable nuclei see the chapter on syllable).

Syllabic/nonsyllabic. 'Consonants are "described as contoids

(consonant-like in nature) and vo w els as vocoids w h ile the same
distinction syllabic/nonsyllabic that differentiated betw een vo w e ls and
glides operates in the case o f consonants too. It keeps apart syllabic
consonants (nasals and 'liq u id s)

and nonsyllabic ones (the true

consonants or obstruents). W e m ust m ention that +/- syllabic is a

different type o f feature since it refers to the p ossib ility o f occurrence
(distribution) o f a sound in a given position (con text) - i.e. syllable
nucleus. That is w hy the introduction o f this feature was considered by
many phonologists to be a shortcom ing o f the SPE system as it is
based on a criterion that differs from the m ain ly articulatory criteria
that operate in the case o f the other features.2

2. Cavityfeatures w ere essentially place o f articulation features.

a) Coronal sounds (a n ew feature actually originating in
Jakobson s grave/acute opposition ) w ere defin ed

as

sounds produced w ith the blade o f the tongue raised hum

129

DOsition (dental, alveolar, palaio-alveolar

ds (another apparently new feature, which
x, be associated to Jakobson s compact/
-were sounds produced in front o f the
.ar region.

. ,

the tongue features actually distinguished

having different degrees o f aperture as a
higher or low er position o f the tongue in the
, how ever, extended, not very convincingly,
for, -c o ro n a I\

consonants and, as it was

r t it was irrelevant fo r coronal and anterior

authors argued that it could be at least used to
-ubsidiaiy consonantal - articulations such as
an, velarization and phaiyngealization
e ro u rid e d fu n ro u n d e d made a distinction
unds (prim arily vow els) pronounced w ith
ed or spread bps.
nrure d is trib u ted J n on d istrib u ted

differentiated

unds produced with a constriction that extends

derable distance along the direction o f the air
sounds articulated with a constriction. that
y fo r a short distance in the direction o f the an
from laminal and retroflex from nonretroflex
, respectively are thus distinguished,
e co v e re d / n o n co v e re d refers to the position or
jngeal w alls: in the case o f covered sounds the
narrowed and tensed* w h ile noncovered sounds
Haled without such a narrowing or tensing.

m strictions in volve the com plete closure Or the

nres in volvin g

secondary apertures m ainly

ate between:
Vnormasal sounds, the opposition being based on
differen t cavties nasal and oral respectively
gh w hich the air is released.

2.

lateral/nonlateral sounds, the

opposition bein g

again based on the type o f release: the air is or is

not allow ed to flo w laterally.

3. Manner o f articulation features essentially distinguished

between stops and fricatives on the one band and plosives
and affricates on the other.
a)

contimupTt/noncontimuml. Continuant sounds are pro

duced w ith a prim ary constriction that does not entirely
block the air flo w , w h ile the articulation o f noncontinuant
sounds (stops) involves such a com plete closure.

b ) instantaneous' release/delayed release is a feature that

keeps sta rt plosives from affricates. It refers then to
sounds produced w ith a com plete closure o f the tract,
but w hich

d iffe r

in

the

m anner

o f the release:

instantaneous or abrupt in the case o f plosives and

delayed in the case o f affricates
The tw o featureas then com bine to describe the respective
consonant

classes.

Stops

are

characterized

+ instantaneous release], w h ile fricatives are

affricates are [- continuant, ^delayedrelease],
c) supplementary'

m ovem ents

as

[-continuant,

[+continuanf]

characterise

and

sounds

articulated w ith tw o simultaneous closures, such as

clicks, the iabiovelars or the g lo b a lized sounds.
d) The feature tense/lax parallels the feature long/short in
vo w els and voiceless/voiced in consonants. It describes
the higher or low er m uscular articulatory
required by the uttering o f the respective sound.

effo rt

4. Of the source fea tu res

a) the heightened subglottalpressure feature

accounts for

aspiration in the tense voiceless stops.

b ) voiced/unvoiced is a fundam ental feature characteristic
o f sounds in any language and has already been
discussed in detail.

131

~
~

________ Lure strident/nonstridenl was described as being

acoustically by greater (or low er) noisiness
stria ted to obstruent continuants and af&icaies.
form er class, the dental fricatives o f English are
-dent, w M Ie l i e alveolar ones are strident

titures w ere only listed, without being described

ou t'it, our investigations o f these features have .
in f w here a discussion in print would he useful .
i.riry and H alle s features are still w idely used in
even at present Phonologists have, however,
--ware o f the inadequateness o f the binary principle
lu ation s when a m ore refined analysis o f a
was needed. Even with Chomsky and H alle some
not binary and a feature like syllabic was o f a
ire as pointed out above. Instead o f the initial
or scales were- built to m ore accurately describe
phonemes.

In

order

to

explain

syllable

rial binary opposition obstment/sonorr/il was

a scale o f sonority (see the chapter on syllable).

g o d s fe a t u r e s y s te m
ed, one o f the m ost distinguished j/l-^n.eticians o f
=stahlished an equally w ell-know n system o f
lgh ly theoretical stance was often departed from
Lc approach was adopted as phonologists fe lt the
system to the phonetic reality. Laaefoged s
-me essentially described in articulatory terms and
iany o f them being

m ultivalued features. H ere

^ sen tation o f Ladefoged s feature system:

= x e glottalic , in Laaefoged s words, specifies the
by quantifying the m ovem ent, i f any, o if the

glottis. There are three p h on ological p o ssib ilities fo r this

feature:
a ) [ejecn ve], w hen the glottis is m o vin g upward;
b ) [pulm onic], w hen there is n o m ovem en t o f the glottis;
c ) [im plosive], w hen the glottis m oves dow nw ard.
The feature velaric sp ecifies the degree o f use o f velaric

2.

aiistream m echanism

in

sound .

Th e ph on ological

possibilities fo r sp ecifyin g sounds are:

a) I+cIick]
b) [-click ]
The feature- can then be used as a binary one to distinguish
phonem es in certain languages.
The feature voice , fo r which. L a d efo g ed also suggests 'the

3.

term glottal stricture describes the degree o f approxim ation

o f the arytenoid cartilages, (see above the subchapter
dealing w ith articulatory -phon etics and-the ph ysiology' o f
speech production). L a d efo g ed id en tifies fiv e
values

fo r

a language

lik e

B eja,

spoken

in

different
Sudan.

H ow ever, m ost languages, he acknow ledges, wall only

distinguish tw o values [+ voice] and [-v o ice ] respectively;
a) [g lotta l stop]
b ) [,laryngealized]

c ) [voice]

d)

[m urm ur]
e ) [voiceless]
4.

- The

feature aspiration

sp ecifies

the relation

betw een

vo icin g and the tim in g o f articulation or the tim e o f onset

o f articulation w ith respect to release o f articulation. There
are three values that can establish oppositions:
a) [ aspirated]
b ) [ imaspirated]
c ) [voice]

e specifies the distance from the glottis to

ran constriction o f the vocal tract . The
her- o f different places o f articulation that
any language spoken in the -world is six.
-wever, contrasts between adjacent terms

[labiodental], [ labiodentalfj and [dental], so

Wishes eleven values fo r this feature:

eolar]

a!}

bial describes the degree o f approxim ation o f

the lips. It has tw o values:
fo r sounds lik e [p, b, m ]

stop or articulatory stricture refers to the

d ilatory closure. Ladefoged differentiates
e phonological possibilities fo tth is feature:

e]
~mant]
nasal refers to the degree o f low ering o f the
There are tw o phonological possibilities fo r this

9. The feature la tera l measures the degree o f laterality or the

proportion o f the airstream that is flo w in g over the side o f
the tongue. Languages distinguish betw een tw o values:
a) [fla te ra l]
b ) [- lateral]

10. The feature tr ill refers to the degree o f vibration o f an

articulator. A s an articulator can he either vibrating or not
vibrating there can be only tw o values, respectively:
a) [+ trill]
b ) [-tr ill]
11.

The feature tap has as a possible scale the rate o f m ove

m ent o f an articulator. It is also described in binary terms,
as having tw o values:
a) [+tap]
b ) [-tap]

12.

The feature sonorant, as described by L a d efoged differs

from the others as it is defined in acoustic and not
physiological (i.e. articulatory) terms. L ik e the preceding
features it has tw o values:
a) [-:sonorant]
b ) [son ora n t]

W ith the help o f this feature, L adefoged explains the

peculiar -situation o f consonants that becom e syllabic in
English. -Thus, i f a [+sonorant] is distributed in fin al
position

after

[stop]

or

[frica tive]

it

becom es

\fsyllabic].
co

. The feature

sibilant

is

defined in

acoustic term s as

specifing the amount o f h igh-frequency energy and m alting

a difference betw een dental fricatives on the one hand [, v,
0, S] and alveolar and palato-alveolar fricatives [s, z, J, 3 ]
on -the other hand. It explains v o w e l epenthesis in the
plural or the third person singular o f the presnt indicative

135

ig lish verbs, the v o w e l being inserted i f the last sound

-e the a ffix is a [+sibilqnt] sound. There are then tw o

S fo r this feature:

. .

sibilant]
sibilant]
feature- grave is also acoustically based and specifies

mount o f acoustic energies in the low er as opposed to

nipper frequencies . A s w e have showed above in the
chapter devoted to the acoustic features o f sounds, this
ire differentiates betw een consonants articulated at the
entities o f the vo ca l tract (labials and velars) that are

ave] and alveolar and palato-alveolar consonants that

[-grave].

Ladefoged

explains

the . diachronic

^form ation o f the O ld English velar fricative [x ] into

M odem English, labio-dental [f) in words lik e rough

tough by the sim ilarity betw een the tw o classes o f

s tive s that- are h o ik frgra ve]. There is no articulatoryon for w hich such change should have happened and it
irm ly in acoustic terms that w e .can account fo r it, he
^uiies . 1 There are tw o values fo r the feature:
[--gra ve ]

[-grave]
te feature height was introduced b y Ladefoged to
erenfiate am ong vow els. It is a feature that does not
nally lend its e lf to a binary intexpretaiion as there are
yeral degrees o f aperture that are relevant for vo w el
scriptioh. In m ost languages there are at' least three
lues. Ladefoged lists four:

[4 height]
interesting discussion o f a sim ilar change in Rom anian see Andrei

e de etim ologie , 2000, p . 37 f T n e change o f po~ into co- m

lained b y the tw o plosives, the lab ial [p ] and tile velar fic] sharing

b ) [3 height]
c)

[2 height]

d ) [7 height]
A s he remarks, the physical scale

corresponding to the

v o w e l height in articulatory term s is the inverse o f

die

frequency o f the first form an t

16. The feature back is applied fo r v o w e l specification and can

b e defined in acoustic term s as the in verse o f the difference
betw een the frequency o f form ant tw o and that o f fonmani
one. V o w els are generally distinguished in term s o f the
binarity:
a) [+ back]
b ) . [-back]
though

L ad efoged

acknow ledges

the p ossib ility

of a

ternary distinction:

{fron t], [central] and [back].

17. Round is another feature used fo r the sp ecification o f
vow els and it refers to the degree o f rounding o f the lips.
A s in English the feature. [+back] is associated w ith

l+raund], that is, i f w e k n ow that a v o w e l is [+back] w e

can sa fely predict that it is also [ +round\ (w ith the
exception o f the v o w e l [a:J that is [+bacJc] but [-roun d ]') the
feature is redundant fo r E n glish vo w els. Th e feature is
binary and its values are:
a) [+back]
b ) [-back]
IS. Th e feature -wide describes variations in the width o f the
phaiynx.and is a binary feature, too, its values being:
a ) [+wie\
b ) [-w ide]
L a d efoged describes it as bein g predictable from the values
o f other features, fo r instance height.

137

^
V S
^ ^ t lt ia s t w

to
o s p a c ffi^ :

-!e> t+v.sq tw o values.

of

features

for

S o * * r .e <
^gical processes

segmental

of

* g s . From
b e the
, . ^ QnS or
or changes,
changes.
=^ribe
thC segmeu
alternations
-various phonological
featm es as
^ e ent
nt ^
=gm

d _^ ^

en
^ la
language.
nttin
in the
n g n a g eTne
-^

- from any

be +he m inim al set

-- tits
e eelf w
as
nt descnptious fo r

p t a K t oo Of
evety phoneme
f
should get the

= r f t , no- i S* ^S Z S
S * *S
t o * oC a n^to s )
a^cuts-w ere
considered
^ ^
= w orking os a bipolar
W
a Thus i f /p/
b e contrasreu
_h
eved . Thus,
~ be contrasted to
sieved.
Thus iiif P ^
^
05, both labial p l o s iv e s ^
lc B
-* along t o f e t o e
fib m any
out was only used to Keep
4
nrruage. Som e features, it was noticed, coni
Eanguage.
a n g u to . Some realm
i f w e know that
that a
a
_.
thATh T or instance i f w e Kn
E rom otners. r u i ^
,
-, f satorss
m d V-consoruMaTl (a y o w d ,
)>

lik e [+voiae\ autom atically result from the previou s ones, since w e
know that all vow els are voiced. In the case o f E n glish vo w els w e can
also add [- nasal] since there are no nasal v o w e l phonem es in English,
English vow els being only contextually nasalized. Snch features in the
specification o f a segment that can "be in ferred

from the others

and

need not be included in a m inim al sp ecification o f the respective

segment are called redundant features. A ru le that helps us enrich the
specification o f a segment w ith its redundant features is called a

redundancy>rule.
The adding, deletion or changing o f features during a
phonological process, (transform ation, change) are considered to be
the result o f the application

o f certain p h on olog ica l rules. A

transformation affects certain elem ents in a g iven context. T h e rule

bringing about that transform ation can apply autom atically, that is
whenever the conditions fo r its application are m et and then w e call
about an obligatory change. Other changes can, h ow ever, be optional,
that is the application o f the rule depends on the rate o f speaking,
style, etc. D eletions o ffe r good exam ples in this respect. Th e deletion
o f the velar before the nasal is obligatory in (Icjnife in present-day
English, w hile the deletion o f the fin al consonant cluster in the
conjunction is optional in bread a(na) butter. There is an ordering

constraint fo r 'the application o f ph onological rules, in other words

they dont apply at random but only in a certain succession, since the
application o f a rule can create the conditions fo r another rule to apply
or, on the contrary, can lim it or even b lock the application o f another
rule altogether. In the first case w e talk about a feed in g order; in the
second case w e have a bleeding order.
H ere is the comm onest w ay in w hich the representation o f
transformations or structural changes is form alized:

x
where

is

the

target

y/
of,

or

the

elem ent

affected

by,

the

transformation, the arrow sym bolizes the transform ation, Y is the

result o f the transformation, the slash separates the change proper
from the context where it takes place, the dash sym bolizin g the-

139

elem ent, A being its left-hand context, that is

id B its right-hand context, that is whatever
concrete exam ple, i f w e want to show that n
flo w e d by k or g w e w ill represent this

carm er notation (the elem ent affected by the

I t o f the transform ation, and k and g axe B , the
itic e that w e disregarded A , the left-hand
n t fo r onr transform ation. Th e phonemes w ill
sented by their IP A sym bols, but distinctive
,stead to specify-the respective segments and
tions th ey undergo. The fo llo w in g chapter,
e m ost com m on ph onological processes that
:ch w ill exam ine in further detail such changes
re features that are m odified.

CHAPTER

SEGMENTAL CHANGE:
a n o u t l in e o f s o m e

OF THE M O S T C O M M O N
PHONOLOGICAL PROCESSES

5.1.

Sottids

in

connected speech.Coartgcuiation

W e have so fa r described various sounds, w e analyzed and

classified consonants, vo w els and other classes and subclasses o f
sounds. W e even talked about functional classes o f sounds that w e
labeled phonemes and further decom posed into distinctive features.
W e have, nevertheless, spoken o n ly about individual, sounds. W hen
w e talked about groups or classes o f sounds w e actually operated
various generalizations extending the features o f a particular sound to
a hypothetical superordinate category. This means that our analysis
only dealt w ith isolated sounds, sounds that w e picked up as w e do
with a beetle that w e keep in an insectarium , and w e xaruine hoping
to draw from its individual characteristics conclusions about the traits
o f its entire fa m ily or species. H ow ever, this is not h ow speech works.
W e saw from the ve ry beginning o f this book that speech is a dynam ic
process and that w hen human beings talk th ey do not utter each and
every sound separately, but d eliver a continuous flo w o f sounds that
are actually often d ifficu lt to distinguish fo r an ear that is not
accustomed to the ph on ology o f the respective language. It was
actually one o f our first exam ples o f the differen t concerns o f
phonetics and phonology, as it was clear that w hen w e listen to an
unknown idiom our m ind cannot understand w hat the ear perceives,
winch in fact demonstrates that, m entally, w e operate w ith classes o f

141

escribed
1CS- r i n ^ e T in a r3 i.id

J te m o fil

a ^

rcsp=otive features

fea t hSm tivdy, 0 .

something th
WC

<S* T

i t e

ernes, we saw

Uopbnes

rc
us

O t -

nT1 the way a sonnd

other examples w

. - ' n f & e -voiced labiodental

-rommciauon ot
contrast it to

pi:sl we wJl eas y

^

r - l o

jafher- pronounced
i s* * ^

s c ^

* t *o a

* e example
way we

b: ; s same phoneme is the

consider to
occu rren ce o f the

*P

n id r is a vo iced s

pbonedc nm t
fticafave

^11

r t , J

= ff ^ s ls S v o ic d c s s . It is dear
ve becomes itsell

somehoW been

011 T i l i a ^ o r r p h e c c u n e n c ^
gr sound. This ^
discussion it s
ligh t o f oar
S u e a e e the
i*
io n o f a soon
e c ia lly when w e speak
jrbhotning sound, <*P
^
toTC
S f p l

to each other

,o h * " / d o

r n

r . r . r , r =

"

__ w e call this
^

c a a r tic u la tio n .

i i

612. F e a t u r e C iia s g e s . A s s im ila t io n . D if f e r e n t ty p e s

o f a s s im ila tio n

Assimilation can be o f several lands. A s it always in volves a

transfer o f feature(s) betw een tw o neighbouring segm ents w e can
conventionally m ark the tw o successive sounds b y X and Y . Taking
into account the direction o f the process, w e can then talk- about

progressive assimilation i f the latter w orks forw ards (conventionally

from le ft to right, that is from X to Y ) or, in other w ords, i f the feature
passes, from a sound to the fo llo w in g one. I f w e have the opposite
case, as in our exam ple before backwards, from righ t to left, from Y
to X w e have regressive assimilation. V ery often there is a mutual
influence betw een the tw o sounds and then w e speak about reciprocal

assimilation. In this latter case the tw o sounds can fo se com pletely

and g iv e birth to a different sounds this type o f assim ilation is called

coalescence. The various possibilities axe illustrated below . The

direction o f the arrow' indicates the direction o f the feature m ovem ent.
X - 5- Y

progressive assim ilation (X lends a feature to Y )

X 4- Y

regressive assimilation (X borrows a feature from Y )

reciprocal assim ilation

coalescence (X and Y m erge into a different sound Z )

4-

Z
I f w e consider the extent to which the features o f a segment
influence the features o f an adjacent one w e can talk about p a rtia l

assimilation i f ju s t some o f the features are transferred, or total or

complete assimilation -if cme o f the sounds bsCOIRSS indistinguishable
from the other.
In certain cases assim ilation can be diachrordcally established
and consequently obligatory , in others it can be optional it appears,
say, in rapid, careless speech, but when w e talk at a low er rate and

n d distinctly pronounce the sounds, it may not take

iu s ,

in the exam ple above, w e can separate die

the verb from that o f the fo llo w in g noun and thus

tiort from taking place. The adjective sure, on the
o n ly he pronounced w ith a palatoalveolar fricative in
ish, a sound that results from t ie coalescence o f the
ffz rh e palatal jj].
/eiy com m on process in any language - so important
_ct that the term coarticulation, that is pronouncing
has becom e a (not very adequate) synonym fo r it
in volve the transfer o f different types o f features. In a
approach
-

in

phenology,

called

f'

-* 1

autosegmentol
--- L-------------.

aciiiv
c and devoiemg
~
hon in volvin g the'featu re [+ / - voice]. In a certain
can ccn .vy ien tiy witness the voicing or devoicing o f
ardan typ i ally voices the alveolar, fricative [s] before
as words o f French origin like zbir (from sbire) or

te) prove.
plural and past tense aHomorphy is phonologically
or 'the past tense morpheme ed

depends on the

fv cn tia l approach in phonology the generative one

A component was considered to consist o f tw o distinct

e; lying one, where an underlying representation (U R )
and a surface one where a surface representation (S R )

o f die respective structure was given . Th e transition fro m the deeper,

underlying representation w hich was considered to be basic to the
surface one w hich was considered to be derived, w as p erform ed by a
number o f ph onological rules that converted the U R in to the SR.
.

U nderlying
Representation

P h on ological 4- rules

Surface
Representation

In the case w e are discussing w e have

tw o

options. Either w e

consider the form [s ] as basic and d erive the vo ic e d allom orph from it,
or w e consider the vo iced fo rm to be the one appearing -in the
undedying representation and postulate that the vo iceless variant is
derived from i t F o r reasons that w ill becom e clear later on, w e will
choose the second varian t W e w ill then say that in the case o f a noun
ending in a vo iced sound (w ith the exception o f the vo iced sibilants
[z ], [ 3 ] and [cfe]) - say, bid - when w e add the plural m orphem e that is
voiced , because there is agreem ent in the feature [v o ic e ] in both the
last sound o f the base and the su ffix,

the underlying representation

surfaces as such, w ithout undergoing any change. If, h ow ever, w e add

the same su ffix to a noun ending in a vo iceless p lo s iv e or, in a num ber
o f cases, in the voiceless frica tive [ f j e.g. bit, or roof, resp ectively because the last sound o f the noun is voiceless, a process o f d evoicin g
takes place as the su ffix is assim ilated b y the vo iceless obstruent in the
root in the ro o t
[g n d j

-fvoice

[a ]

+ vo ice

'

z ? z
no change

[gridz]

[grits]
m m
z ^ s
devoicing

on

uns ending in [f], how ever, file process

is the fricative is voiced by the plural
on o f the plural o f w o lf and wife:
^

[selvz]

Ucnvz]

f - * v
voicing
f assim ilation o f the in flexion by the root
tense morpheme to a voiced or voiceless
and d constitute an exception; see the
esis b elow ). A gain w e w ill consider the
to be basic. Thus, fo r the past tense o f the
et the fo llo w in g derivations:

\gra3bd\

[d]
-voice

d -> d
no change

[n p t]

->

devoicing

OH
affect the nature o f the release, nasalization
e pronunciation o f English vow els. 'T h is
I is fo llo w ed by a nasal consonant; e.g. bin,
hould remember, however, that all English

vo w el phonemes .are oral and that nasality is on ly a contextual,

allophonic feature in English vow els (rem em ber, that in French, fo r
insance, nasal vow els -.are phonemes in th eir ow n righ t as m inim al
pairs lik e paie /pai / pente /pi/, tra it JtrsJ train ftr l, robe /rob/
rhombe /rob/ contrasted on the basis o f nasality, clearly p rove).
A ssim ilation can affect the place o f articulation as w ell. Nasal
sounds often assim ilate to the place o f articulation o f the follow in g
plosive. The case o f the Latin prefix in is illustrative. W hen fo llo w e d by
a root beginning w ith a liqu id HI or M it was assim ilated b y the
respective liquid. Latin words lik e iUegitimus, illiteratus, iUicitus or

irrationalis, irregularis and irreligiosus exem plify the process. The

nasal Ira} in the root also assimilated the consonant o f the p refix: e.g.

immaterialis, itnmaturus, immediatus, immemorialis. N o tice that the

process led to the creation o f geminate (double) consonants in file Latin
words. The gem inate consonant was preserved in m odem Rom ance
languages such as French in corresponding w ords lik e illgitim e
/iilejxtiin/,

illettr,

illicite;

irrationnel

/irrasjtmsl/,

irrgulier

religieux; immatriel /imm&ierjE]/, immature, immdiat, immmoriel.

H ow ever, in English and Romanian the consonant didnt survive as a
gemmate one, the current English spelling w ith a double consonant
suggesting the origin o f the w ord rather than its actual pronunciation.
E.g. in English: illegitimate /ilegmmrt/, illiterate, illic it; irrational
Arsefanal/, irregular,, irrelegicus; immaterial/ imetrerrel/, immature,

immediate, immemorial. Romanian fo llo w s the same pattern in this

respect ilegitim, ilicit, imaterial, imatur, imediat, imemorial, iraional,

iregularitate. H ere fo llo w s the illustration o f the process in Latin:

[zn ] -**- zJj / # [+lateral]

iUegitimus, illiteratus; illicitu s

[m] -

[ zr] ' / # [+consonantaI]

r+approxim ant]
[-lateral]

irrationalis, irregularis, irreligiosus

147

/ #

[--consonantal]
[4-nasal]
[-coronal]
[+anierior]

immatunis, bm eiatus, immemorialis

a bilabial obstruent, InJ in the prefixe languages m entioned above. A Similar
sound in the p refix is follow ed b y a velar
hanges into A)/. H ere are some examples

Romanian
[ im ] / # [+consonantal]
[-vo ca lic]
[+instantaneous release]
[-coronal]
[+anterior]

imposibil, imbatabil
>

[ *y]

/ # [--consonantal]
[-sonorant]
[-anterior]
[-coron al].

incapabil, ingratitudine

w
ve form alize

the phonological transfor-

prefix in when fo llow ed by different types

1

# marks w ord boundaries, in other worns,

of a Word. In our particular cases, it

shows

ating the nasal in the p refix is word-initial,

ortant concept introduced by Chomsky, and
<. that the scope o f this book doesn t

N otice, h ow ever, the d ifferen t behaviou r o f another negative

prefix in English, un, in sim ilar

contexts. A ssim ila tion

doesnt w ork in

any o f these cases across the boundary and the nasal in the p refix
remains unchanged

un + Ipl:

unpredictable

un +/bl:

unbelievable

un + Imb.

unmentionable

un + 11:

unlawful -

un + rl:

unrepresentative

un + IkJ:

unclear (a lveo lar, n ot velar nasal]

un + !g h

ungovernable (a lveo la r, not vela r nasal)

6.5. Palatalization
A nother type o f assim ilation to the p la ce o f articuiation that is
very7 frequent in both English and Rom anian is palatalization. W e can
hardly overestim ate the im portance o f this type o f assim ilation- It
ranges from contextual allophonic variants o f non-palatal phonem es to
different types

o f coalescence, the palatal sem ivow el

and the

preceding sound m erging into an en tirely n e w phonetic unit.

In Rom anian, the

palatalization

o f obstruents

(plosives,

fricatives and affricates) nasals o r liq u id s can m ark number, gender or

person oppositions in the noun, the a d jective or the verb:

lup/luff, rup/nqJ, krib/hrib1, sorb/sorb bilabial p lo sives

g rof/ grof, grav/grab
dsem/cQerri, an/ari
pol/pol, mor/mor

labiodental fricatives
nasal stops
liquids

alveolar fricative
palatoalveolar fricative
afncate
velar fricative

retracted articulation and

le is :

ie also results from the coalescence o f ifae

-v e :

r d j-

_
J

-rTt>\CJT

ennpar in

coronals
velar
= can have p a l l e d aBophonea o f ataoat
r ^ a ls and liquids - as m

ta l [tra itfjn n a l]
[d jju :k ]

rvv [v ^ in ]
iim e [rrzij um]
?ar [rega a ]

nuclei [frjn W ia i]

bilabial plosives
alveolar plosives
labiodental fricatives
alveolar fricatives
velar plosives
glottal fricative
nasal stops
liquids

inert]
-e v e r the change can be phonem ic and tt~
sound w ith the palatal sem ivow el - m

m ost cases as a result o f a ffix a tio n - can result either into a

palaioalveolar sound:
t+ j

J : create/creation [k rceit] / [k n e rjn ] ,

d+j - 3 : divide!division [d rv a id ] / [drvrgn ]

s+j - J: press/pressure [p re s] / [p re fa ],
z+ j -> 3 : seize/seizure [s i:z ] / [s i: 3 a]
or into an affricate and in this case palatalization is also called

affrication:
t+j -a- t [ : create!creature [k r ie it] / [k r ir fa ]
d+j -> eg: grade!gradual [g rerd ] / [graecfenal];

proceedJprocedvre [p ra sird ] / [presberca]

Som etim es, when w e have a sequence o f an a lveo la r p lo sive
and the affricate sound we- can have tw o p a rallel form s, both o f them
acceptable: one with the palatalized p lo s iv e

and one w ith the

affricate sound:

sanctuary [saepktjuan] / [ssenldfuarr]; habitual [hahxtjualj /

[habit/oal]

graduate [grasdju et] / [grasdju et]; individual [in d m d ju a l] /

[m d iv id 3o a l]
W e witness the same alternation in sequences w here an
alveolar fricative can be changed either into its palatalized version or
into a m ore retracted palatoalveolax frica tive:

issue [is ju :] / [ijn :]

Rounding is a type o f assim ilation in v o lvin g m anner o f
articulation

features.

It affects

sounds

that

are

contextual!}'

pronounced w ith rounded lip s because o f the vic in ity O f 2 TOUHGSd

vo w el or the rounded glid e [w ]. Consider, fo r instance exam ples like

twin, too, dwell, door where the alveolar p losives are rounded and,
consequently, a rounded allophone w ill occur w hen the phonem e is
distributed in the above m entioned positions.

in a g i v 0^
=

from a

be f n ^ t i a i i o n s o f 4 P 55

seven - * /eftsJ
eight - ojto1

^mixie now UUJ _

^ D~Lin
LL certain
- envixonments.
.-nm nm ents.
^ts

M d fo r t it io n s
c that in volve changes m fee

r tio ia to c - e ffo r tto & c a n v

/bibios/ b o o iff -V M vios/

=1

c!

sound in volvin g a

is compulsory m
- a the pronunciation, o
zzivreng examples, ri

to dsvoice and

lia b le - fin a l voiced

sy

m _ r-a-ij-tral &2V5
d a y 5 vs* aSe L^ * 15 *

A sim ilar process in vo w e ls w ill in v o lv e the changing o f a

tense vo w el into a la x one or a la x one into a tense one. W e talk in
such cases o f the ph onological processes o f laxing and, respectively,

tensing. D iachronically, these processes had a m ajor in flu en ce on the

pronunciation o f English vo w els, hut the scope o f this b ook w ill not
allow us to go into details. S u ffice it to say that m any E n glish derived
words illustrate the phenom enon. I f w e com pare the ad jective sublime
and the norm sublimity or the verb suffice to the adjective sufficient w e
w ill easily notice that the firs t m em ber o f each pair includes a
diphthong (a tense v o w e l), w h ile the in flected w ord has a :1m:
monophthong in the r o o t A cco rd in g to Chom sky and H a lle, this is
explained by the existence in the underlying representation o f a tense
v o w e l which surfaces as such (diphthongized, in fa ct) in the case o f
the first members o f the pairs, and undergoes a process o f laxing in the
derived word.
U .fL sn b llm "

safolsim

itr

- 4-

so fo lim lii

laxing

C onversely, in the pair, courage - courageous, w e have a

com m on underlying lax v o w e l w hich is le ft unchanged in the first
word, but undergoes tensing and diphfhongization. in thp derived one:
(1968: 73)
U .R . barrage

b o ra g e + 0

liA n d s

- k o rA g e + os

-> k a re id js s

tensing .

D erivation can trigger n ot on ly the m odification o f vo w els in

the root, as in the exam ples above, but also cause consonantal
altematioiLS in the m orphem e the a ffix is attached to. Thus, in pairs
like

perm it/pennissive,

demorarat/democracy,

m clude/inclusive

decide/decisive or fenatic/fanaiicisai, m edic/m edicine w e notice the

replacem ent o f d b y s. In the exam ples discussed above under
assim ilation, the h igh v o w e l in the a ffix coalesced w ith the consonant
in the root and the process resulted into a palaloalveolar sound. Since
these changes are caused b y m orph ological processes and the nature

153

r s &

z z z * *

=>gy-V are very feqpeD-t

-*

^ vo^ 5 i s h

TO' w ls t a -v e

**^?%SZ**wi lmsH
zad).
fV,at affects English
-O tw * .

^
& llo d
s l p o rtio n , w if 1 ^ p i b n i c
3

h the cbang
o f the sound,

f ^ e just
f a i l l e to

= e r tiom S -'
_ J l+ e

- a n have drastic
^ p le te dropf ing 0It
deletion or elision. I

III

^ a given
ay affset vow els
consonants as

elision or it ^
eVsion. Itm a y h e m
a l With consonant el ^
-

d l I)S.tiie SO ohlJ a to ry ,Z trig g ^ ed

OXxt can h . ^

-e c tiv e language f

below M

-which are

_ ^ ctiT S 5tram ts of a certain

./represented thus:

cop ter

->

a / A - B

where 0 represents the fa ct that the sound is lost.

H ere are a fe w concrete examples'.
v o w e l elision: /ju nvasitb

/jum vesti/

/pairs/-?/plis/

optional
L a t tabu la - > OJF. tab le > Eng. /teibl/
diachronic
consonant elision:

/paostman/

/peusmen/

optional
O.E. cniht [k n ict]

- ->

'knight [n art]

diachronic
N otice that the conservative spelling o f E nglish still represents
sounds that have no longer been pronounced fo r centuries. The first
exam ple fo r each case illustrates optional, contextual elision, w h ile the
diachronic ones are, o f course obligatory.
Th e opposite o f deletion or elision is insertion or epenthesis.
A ga in , depending on the bin d o f sound that is inserted w e can have
consonant or v o w e l insertion. Th is is a process that also takes p lace
because in a certain context a phonetic sequence is either d iffic u lt to
pronounce or violates the phonotactic rules o f the language and then
a v o w e l is introduced to break up the unacceptable consonant
clusters w h ile a g lid e or a consonant can be inserted to separate
sequences o f vo w e ls that w ou ld be d ifficu lt to pronounce in
succession w ith a hiatus.
H ere is the
epenthetic process:

general

form alized

representation

of

an

0 -> X / A B
155

p ^ tte iT e d

_ant.

-,

; M _

v *n

vowel epenthesis
:z a tio n

=] + M

-ense
+ L<?fo
i rm e n

~*ation

/abilxsi'
/aadsnst''

3
^k

_roSSSS For instance,

3 6 3 10

^ t - a la b le i i l ^

n g ^ t f e t e f

r 6ldS? | r ^ tfe
o n t o gtt
1^

= nm t I
=

=-

w ord b e g te

t e i w . t e i " - 6' '

^ o n f , t e p i^

r o o s

J lia .

ionic, cmhy

sa

a p A

J L *W -

'
= a ses t i r o w .

hlieatory insertion-

* *

- * #

cents o f t e g l t e t e o i s P

..

X f c is called an in tr u a v e f.
- A .y to W

^ "

'

Wise? 'I: is fc'llo w rd by a vo w e l, the sylla b le-fin a l ribotic, w hich

is

-.amcoally

dropped

in

non-rhotic

accents,

is

com m only

resuscitated . This r is called " Uniting " r (see, also, the description
o f the riioiics above, in Chapter 3 ):

The car is mine [k a :r izm a io ]. Towr answer fjo :r a :n so ]

6.8. Metathesis
Reversing the order o f sounds or groups o f sounds w ith in a
Wrord is a process that is called metathesis. It can be based on a
diachronic process, as the frequently cited E n glish b ird and horse
which com e from OE brid and hros respectively or, in trench.from ags
w hich comes mom the L a i. form aticus (com pare the Italian form a gio,
that doesnt display the change), or in Rom anian castravete w hich
comes from the Bulgarian krastavet or the alternative variants p rito c i
and p itro ci, a verb referring to a tech n ology fo r producing w ine. It can
also be the result o f mispronunciation. See the nam e o f the Rom anian
villa ge

o f Potigrafu,

clearly

com ing from

Tipogra fii printer .

Caragiale s works represent a rich source o f sim ilar exam ples o f

m efatheticai mispronunciations.

H is

uneducated

characters

often

mispronounce w ords that axe unknown op sound exotic to them . E .g.:

proper names lik e Galibardi instead o f G aribaldi ( Conn Leonida fa
cu reactiuned) or M arcu A oleriu instead o f M a rc Aureliv. (C) noapte

fu rivm as ); com m on nouns lik e zavragii ( Conu Leonida), p le b icis or

remuneraie (O scrisoare pierduta).
H ere is the general representation o f m etathesis:
AB

BA / X -Y

157

. BEYOND TH E SE G M E N T:
SYLLABLE STRU CTURE I N E N G L I S H

7.1. The Syllable: a fundamental phonological unit

in any language. A tentative definition
Syllables are som ething w e are m ade aware o f from the very
first days w e go to school. The first verse w e learn b y heart, the first
words w e learn, to spell are inextricably linked to syllables and
syllabification. I f som ebody asks u sabout the structure o f a foreign
word, or o f a w ord w e m ight not have acquired too- w e ll w e m ay be
uncertain about the sounds that make it up, but w e ll d efin itely be on a
safer ground and feel m ore at ease i f asked h o w many syllables that
w ord has. Scholars have proved that even a ch ild s in itial efforts to
articulate and m em orize the phonetic structures o f the w ords o f its
m other tongue axe closely linked to the syllabic configurations o f
those words. H istorically speaking, the first attempts human beings
made to g ive their thoughts a graphic form see the first chapter o f
this course where different types o f w ritin g w ere b riefly described w ere fiindam enialiy associated w ith syllables since it was the syllables
o f w ords rather than their component sonnds/phonemes that the
earliest farm s o f w ritin g tried to render.
W h y is the syllabic rather than the phonological structure o f the
words m ore obvious

for us? What makes then

syllables so im portant in

any human language, whai is their m agic role that seems to transcend
that o f the mere sounds which as w e kn ow fo m de Saussure are
intim ately linked.to the concepts the words/tingiristic signs'stand for?
These are some o f the questions w e are goin g to try to answer.

= s- ^

^ T ^ i i rioif0p S X i y te

or specialists as
cted to have
3 lc cannot he reasonably
f a syllabic structure 01
f
rcep n on o f t h j y
e a leam ed
su pp osed to he d
^ reah a
tixsy Study, h s - j
which a scientifically v

m d acceptable

define syllables are o f

= * used to a sm
3
^
^
om
^ia rl 1y^ aware
or
w
neu
^
+
w
f w o r d s i s & e fa ct that +>,?.
the
^bic structure o
^
but ^

^ ta m o B o to n o ^

resonmce, quantity

* 4 b intensity lo^
f ;
u n d s tte tm A e u p t e s ^ o r

^ a m that
^
^

^ S l N ^ A c t o a l l y p eakin g, and then

-verbally- A eons
j
tive feature, we
f 0UTFT ^ Z c m ore sonorons ih an otirers
;u sounds th
^ ^ th er tire oral or
re so ^ te ^
J
m ention bas
Srd * e ^ ^ f e a t e = o f s o n o n ?
= 311(1

tbat these paramtrs axe

^ d e r ^ t e

diffrence betweeu vorrels

= md
t e W een several subclssses o f
stan ce, or
_stance,
or betw een_ nraTlte. A comparison
companson
obstru en ts m d
^ so n o
^ so m ds and
^

are

produced

,W iH rs t

t o

n
and

transmitisd

ft it S s

and t ie o t o

w els' are 4 = closest to m usical sounds.

There are several features that vo w els h a ve on the basis o f w h ich this
sim ilarity can be established. Probably the m ost im portant one is the
one that is relevant fo r our present discussion, nam ely the h ig h d egree
o f sonority or sonorousness these sounds have, as w e ll

as

their

continuous and constant nature and the absence o f any secondary,

parasite acoustic effe ct this is due to the fa ct that there is no
constriction along the speech tract w hen these sounds are articu lated
V ow els can then be said to be the purest sounds human beings
produce when they talk.

By

particularly obstruents) w ill

sound rather lik e

contrast, m ost

consonants
noises

(and

since the

obstruction along the vo ca l tract has various im pure auditory effects

the articulation can be accom panied b y friction , by an im plosion etc.
Once w e have established the grounds fo r the preem inence o f
vow els over the other speech sounds, it w ill be easier fo r us to
understand their particular im portance in the m ake-up o f syllables.
The flo w or stream o f sounds that w e produce w hen w e speak and
w hich is propagated through the air to reach the auditory sysiem o f
our conversational partners can then be analyzed as a succession o f
various vocalic and consonantal sounds that fo llo w a fier one another
alm ost uninterruptedly. H ow ever, w e h ave ju st m entioned the fact that
this flo w is not a constant, invariable one and w e all k n ow that when
w e speak or w e listen -to som eone speaking what w e

call the

m odulations o f the human v o ic e fo llo w certain rules o f the language

o f w hich w e are norm ally in tu itively aware.
O ne fundamental d ivision w ou ld be the Saussurian one, the
one that is sem antically, based and establishes certain boundaries often alm ost im perceptible ph onetically - w here each and every w ord
(lingu istic sign) begins o r ends. Sim ilar segm entations can. b e operated
at higher or low er levels. A t a superordm ate le v e l w e can talk about

rhythmic groups, stress patterns , and intonation w ith in the m ore

inclusive syntactic sequences o f a phrase or even

an utterance

(sentence). Th e phenom enon playin g an essential ro le w ill be stress as

w e are goin g to see in a subsequent chapter about prosody. A n d ju st as
in the case o f syllable structure, everyth ing w ill fundam entally be a
' question o f prom inence.

On a subordinate le v e l, w e can id en tify the

syllables that m ake up the w ord and i f w e continue our analysis, the

161

Jlabification and syllable

division or *y
following pages-

jnain concemot

r r

C la r it y

existing

**.

en in the Wt1^L , J* sounds to ns we

^ certain languag^

*22

=^on. i f

^ su

m a tter o f

~ CD

-ti^p it is not

yt fd t y * 5

=
iol S v e r i n e T ? ?
= mceS-
Jo f all human idiom s w ill b
n o m in a to r o f au
syllable is at
B b y the realization t h a ^ S7 ^
^

^
Cairy5ng * * Vry
=3flTge
L * ^ the E N A structures m
^ n gu age. Just
^ unique,
-C fo rm atio n
^ of a given
e. structure a ih 57 , dcai identity ot
contribute to the phonological 1
Th=

rules

to

= * * CmSZ Z a m B fio m * e & *

n o u a g e s (the term
art o f

*T h e? w in be e x u u ^

Sn-e o f

tn a more detailed examination

_ hwever,
how ever, fto a m ore u

m general. A s 1 have already P

there is

no generally accepted defin ition

o f a syllable since the criteria

w e can use can be so-d ifferen t Som ething that everybodj'- w ill accept
w ill be, how ever, that prom inence plays

an im portant part in

identifying the number o f syllables in an utterance. A s w e have seen,

vow els are the m ost sonorous

sounds human beings

produce and w hen

w e are asked to count the syllables in a given w ord, phrase or sentence

what w e are actually counting is rou ghly the number o f vo ca lic
segments sim ple or com p lexthat occur in that sequence o f sounds.
The presence o f a vo w el or o f a sound having a high degree o f
sonority w ill then be an obligatory elem ent in the configuration o f
what w e call a syllable. I have m entioned other sonorous sounds
beside the v o w e l because, as w e are goin g to see, E nglish syllables
can arguably contain, as their m ost sonorous elem ent, other sounds
- that vow els.
Since the vo w e l or another h igh ly sonorous sound is at the
core o f the syllable, it is called the nucleus o f that syllable. Th e sounds
either preceding the v o w e l or com ing after it are necessarily less
sonorous than the vow els and unlike the nucleus they are optional
elements in the make-up o f the syllable. The basic configuration or

template o f an English syllable -w ill be therefore (C }V (C ) the

parentheses m arking the optional character o f the presence o f the
consonants in the respective positions. The part - o f the syllable
preceding the nucleus is called the onset o f the syllable. The non vocalic elements com ing after the nucleus are called the coda o f the
syllable. The nucleus and the coda together are often referred to as th e .

rhyme o f the syllable b y analogy w ith the last part o f a w ord that
rhymes w ith the end o f the w ord in the next lin e in a p iece o f poetry. It
is, how ever, the nucleus, that is the essential part o f the rhym e and o f
the w hole syllable, as I have already pointed ou t Th e preem inence o f
the nucleus over the other elem ents in the syllable has been likened to

that

of

heads over

the other elem ents in a syntactic structure. In a

conventional tree-like representation o f the structure o f 8. syllable w e

-will then have in show that the position o f the nucleus is hierarchically
m ore important than 'that o f either the onset or the coda. Thus, the
rhyme w ill be the first projection o f the nucleus, 'the node optionally
dominating a coda, w h ile the m axim um projection w ill be the syllable

in. sister position to the rhyme; the

diagram w ill took
able in- a' tree-like
fo r Rhyme, N for
O fo r Onset, R

N .C o
^ lia b le bel in the w ord belfry or toe
R lik e that:

y i

J f\

N Qo

him [spnnt] w ill have this

liable

i .n

sented above are syllables containing all

.as, coda) o f toe type C V C . A s _ I have

very w e ll have syllables in English toai

e r words., they end in toe nucleus, thai is

the vo ca lic elem ent o f the syllable. A syllable that doesnt have a coda
and consequently ends in a v o w e l having the structure (C )V , is called
an open syllable. One having a coda and therefore ending in a
consonant - o f the type (C )V C is called a closed syllable. The land o f
syllable that is preponderant in a given language leaves its print on the
acoustic features o f the respective idiom . F o r instance, the higher
degree o f m usicality o f Rom ance languages such as Italian, to give
only one exam ple is la rgely due to the fa ct that, statistically',

open

syllables are m ore numerous in these languages than in Germanic

languages, such as English or German it s e lf w here the number o f
closed syllables is dom inant
The syllables analyzed above are all closed syllables. A n open
syllable w ill be fo r instance [m e i] in either the m onosyllabic w ord man
or the polysyllabic maiden H ere is the tree diagram o f the syllable:
S
/ \
0
R

I
N

1\
m

e i

English syllables can also have no onset and begin directly'

w ith the nucleus. H ere is such a closed syllable: [o p t]
S

1
R

!\
N

1
.o

Co

!\
p

I f such a syllable is open, it w ill only have a nucleus (the

v o w e l), as [ea ] in the m onosyllabic noun a ir or the polysyllabic

aerial.

165

the description, o f the

tQ

Zn mat quantity or

and lon g vow eis 311(1

l ab
Lles asas wwelln f en
ell- A^

- on ^jZnW be called a light

<rvllable is still open,
^ d ip h th on g ,I

^ e r bow many c o n s o n ^ ^
tto t
- m g rJp-'mss. fa e x

l\
PI Co

l\

o P r
b.

/ I
O

I
N

!
S

c.
Y o w s i quantity helps, as w e have seen, distinguish open ligh t
syllables from open heavy syllables. W e can conventionally consider
the duration o f a lon g v o w e l or o f the diphthong to be tw ice as iarig as
the duration o f a short monophthong. Consequently, w e can enrich our
analysis o f the syllable w ith a supplementary le v e l that w ill not refer
to the quality o f the vow els (o r even consonants; consonants are
considered to have the duration o f a short m onophthong), but to their
quantity.

This

is

particularly

helpfu l

in

understanding

certain

diachronic processes that altered the pronunciation o f various English

vow els, b y either changing lon g vow els into diphthongs or turning
diphthongs into lon g monophthongs. It is n ot the purpose o f this book
.to g ive a detailed description o f such diachronic transformations, but it
w ill be useful to rem em ber tire conventional representation-of, this
additional level, that w e are goin g to call tier, that represents the

quantity o f the sounds in a syllable. A s it is duration that it describes,

the name usually em ployed fo r it is the tim ing tier, to distinguish it
from the next and last tier, the one that actually gives the value o f the
respective sounds and w hich is called the melody tier. I f w e us the
letter X to note the conventional duration o f a tim e unit (a consonant
or a short vo w e l), a diphthong, a lon g v o w e l or a gem inate consonant
w ill be represented b y tw o X X .

The skeletal tim e

slots that w e mark

b y X and are n ot included in the onset are also called moras. H ere are
som e examples:
The syllable [p ot] w ill be represented lik e that:

167

timing tier
m elody tier

reoresented w ith a nucleus tw ice

will have a diphthong as a nucleus

i\
N Co

!\ \
A /l
ei

A
n

tsj Vvill lo o k lik e that:

s
O

i\

Co

I l\ !\

XX XX

V i l

t f

a; ts

N o tice that the tw o elem ents making up the a ffricate the stop
and the fricative occupy a sin gle tim e slo t on the tim e tier and are
represented separately on the m elod y tier, w h ile each segm ent in a
consonant cluster is allotted a differen t tim e unit.
N o w that w e have exam ined som e o f the basic syllable
configurations, le t us have a closer lo o k at the phonotactics o f English,
in other w ords at the w ay in w h ich the E n glish language structures its
syllables. W e w ill rem em ber from the v e iy beginning that E nglish is a
language having a syllabic structure o f the type (C )V (C ). (Th is is
exactly the structure o f the Rom anian syllab le). This generalization
captures the reality that in English as in Rom anian both onsets and
codas are optional elements and that w e can have syllables lik e, say,

fi-, i-, if- in English and ma-, a-, am- in Rom anian. In other w ords, the
m axim um syllable tem plate w ill b e a llow ed in Rom anian. This
freedom is com m on to m any languages in the w orld, but it is

no

means a im ivem al^phonotactic feature. Th ere are languages that w ill

accept no coda, or, in other w ords, that w ill on ly have open syllables.
Other languages w ill have codas, but the onset m ay he ob ligatory or
n o t Theoretically, there are nine possibilities:
1.

The onset is obligatory and the coda is not accepted: the

syllable w ill be o f fire type C V ; this is actually the m ost
comm on type o f syllable in any language. It is the basic
syllabic structure, the one p eop le first acquire in infancy
w hen they start to speak. That is w h y it is often called the

lop

i e o n ly possible
-sfSH ffifom A focam

'5 H

. 9 9 9 - 2 4 7 ). Japm-sse, too,
iy y y :
-t

- j,.

,aV

pvrasdans,

very few .
con m g m tow

. TOw d -w ffl meerted to

vow

"RnGrllsh

,nsonan
,ns

^
, ^

^
becom e
vn ll becom e

T S * - *

e o n i* ^ accordance w f r
coda is accepted-This IS a

_^

CC ) m a is fitnnd in

-tance) as an obligatory syllable

no coda is accepted (to

, hot
^ L m

o t t h e s y n a h l^

in JNeW
, , rrcs\T
w ill consequently be (C ) ^

neither obligatoxy ^

* ey are both optional and th

r 'W fC ) AS already pomted-out,
P n d is b and R om an ian
s s s both Engltsn
l

^ ^ fo th e r

exclusively

T *

~ in nther -words the

if n f o t o

words, t o t e arc only

*-*-*

,1c- V C .

(S t o s l syllables - b o *

"

K7

7.3 T h e im p o r t a n c e o f s e g m e n t a l s o n o r it y f o r th e
s y lla b le s tr u c tu r e

W e have already shown that prom inence or sonority is a

feature that .creates a hierarchy among speech sounds, the vow els
occupying the highest position on the scale. The nucleus or the vo w e l
o f the syllable is then the m ost sonorous elem ent w ithin the syllable,
or d ie sonority peak o f the syllable, all the. other consonantal elements
in either the onset or the coda being situated lo w er in the hierarchy. I f
w e w ere to represent the variation in sonority o f the sounds in an
utterance

we

w ill

get

som ething

of

an

undulating,

sinuous

representation w ith ups and downs, generated by the succession ofvo w e l nuclei and consonantal onsets and codas. On the scale o f

sonority m entioned above, the highest position w ill be h eld b y vowels,

then come the glides and liquids fo llo w e d by the nasals as the least
sonorous o f the sonarants. A m on g the obstruents, the frica tives and
the affricates are a degree higher than the plosives, w hich are at the
bottom o f the scale. W ithin each class o f obstruents, vo iced sounds axe
obviou sly m ore sonorous than their voiceless counterparts, w h ile an
open vo w el w ill be m ore sonorous than a m id one and the latter w ill
have a higher degree o f sonority than a close one. H ere is how* the
above m entioned scale loolcs (the b igger the figu re on the left, the
higher the degree o f sonority):

6. V ow els
SO N O RAN TS

5. Glides

(6-3)

4. Liquids
3. Nasals

O B S TR U E N TS

(2- 1)

2 Fricatives/A ffr icates

1. Plosives

t -upiT-, to US in explaining the

ta variros
^ t tc n a m e w e n s e fc t h e ^
- n a lin g * stmctnre is, s

j it Is highly language specific,

p ria d p te xepfesM l
a t o sonority a '= !JW,te
^ p h t o n g o r a d ip it iio o g ^ n
ft e , occupy M e t P os*
o f vow els as syllable

1 1

-nin^ m ost peutMu ...----w -n'rrr.vi

^31 g o f sounds Bee
P-p ,O T cannot
c^B O t
=

i any l * -

cnIy

J o w ords Bxe y h S i ^
s sh w ord begins w ith * 1 *

c a t e s can occur in l i a b l e f i d
J io t e

cctch, bndS

either by a p a l* senna or a fern

sh0w that a ll languages im pose

^ a u d codas. Some o f them s ^ o
pos w ill xu1' O 1 certam
;
=
,
r evi ew o f the r e a c tio n s

J a b le division or
that these co n s u l As
1

- Z

analyze w ill 1,5

p hT
eithex sylla b ifies or bj

w ord and i f
ci y t e
n w assigned to eittuj. xn
sonants m D be assign
_
, _d7 4.x,p. -fmlnwme one. v 'e
.
n-n^P.L

w ill call this the syllabification algorithm . In order that this operation
o f parsing take place accurately w e ll h a ve to

decide i f onset

form ation or coda form ation is m ore im portant, in other w ords, i f a

sequence o f consonants can be acceptably sp lit in several w ays, shall

w e g ive m ore im portance to the form ation o f the onset o f the
fo llo w in g syllable or to the coda o f the p reced in g one? A s w e are
goin g to see, onsets have p riority over codas, presum ably because the
core syllabic structure is C V in any language.

7.4. Constraints on onsets

One-consonant onsets. I f w e exam ine the constraints im posed
on English one-consonant onsets w e shall n otice that on ly tw o English
sounds cannot be distributed in syllable-in itial position : n and 3 . A s
far as the first one is concerned, the constraint is natural since the
sound only occurs in English w hen fo llo w e d b y a ve la r stop, I*; or g (in
the latter case, g is no lon ger pronounced and su rvived only in
spelling). A s far as 3 is concerned, it is a. rare sound in Engiish
anyway and is on ly distributed in-w ords o f fo reig n origin usually
French; e.g. gendarme. .N o tice, how ever, that the constraint refers
rather to w ord-initial position since the v e ry w ord usual, used above,
proves that in polysyllab ic words, the sound can occur at the beginning
o f a syllable as is the case o f the second

syllable

o f the w ord -sum

3 u al] or the second one o f measure pleasure,

etc: sure [ 30 ],

A ccord in g to Spencer (1997.-83), the dental v o ic e d frica tive [S ] is in a

special p osition since it on ly appears at the begin n in g o f the w ord in
gram m atical words lik e the definite article the, the dem onstratives

this, that, these, those, there, .etc. H ow ever, i f w e consider syllablein itial position in general, it can be the onset o f syllables form ed by
the adding o f the su ffix -m g to verbs ending in [5 ] lik e breathe or

bathe, or it can be the onset o f syllables h a vin g a. nasal as nucleus as is

the case o f the last one o f rhythm [ri-o m ] heathen [iiI:-o n ] etc.

173

; h e a succession o f W o
B-ue picture is a little more
= 11

b e accepted, as Prove

b e tided ou t W ell need to

in d w b a t m le s o p era te^
- 2
= b er

< = fe 4 e 0
th e C n o e a ^ ^
e - o f

rea p ed w e -n u w e a

fe a i fe e s e q u e n c e ^ ruled
T ie degree o f sonority fee*1 th
t o b e a rule that transcends
^ c e n eiA er Roxnauian nor any
- c e p t such a sequence, and
r S v e t s a l . l t h a s u c w d ly b r
= d it the Sonority Sequent ig

= ombinahons in i * T
= > d w t o the eoudumon d a r t
b v English are those that h w = s

7 ftT n o t ah S+Obstnxrt

t is an obstruent other
consonant is
, -, ^

-ts

several gapscan s u m m a r i z e * * *

have

^ ita lic iz e d a r e ruled o n t.

sr j l
01

Or

sl

h i hr

Thus, words like please, blot, prim e, brim, train, drink, climb,

glue, crew, grace, fly, freak, throw, slot, shrink are p erfectly w e llform ed, w hile tl, l, vl, vr, 8 l, , dr, f l, jl , j r are im possible in
English

Romanian alloy's all w ell-form ed E n giish

onsets: p lic i, prost,

bleg, brici, tren, 'drag, clasic, glas, crac, gros, flea c, fresce, slobod,
w ith the exception, o f Or and Jr (the interdental fiic a tiv e does not exist
in Rom anian,-w hile the second sequence occurs on ly in loan wbrds,
especially German: rapnel). A d d ition ally, y l and vr are licensed- see
words like: vlag, vreasc, though such com binations tend to b e rare
and are restricted (especially the form er) to a couple o f Slavonic
words and S lav proper names. Th e situation o f zl, hi, hr is sim ilar:

zloat, zlot, hlamid, hrean.

I f we

continue . our analysis b y

exam ining the possible

obstruent+ glide combinations, w e w ill get the fo flo w in g picture:

pj
bj

pw p tw Tg kw f l fw Of 8w sj
bw dj du> gj gw vj vw oj 5w zj

sw Jj

zw 3

Jw hj :hw
3W

Thus, w ords like, pure, tune, twist, cure, queen, future, They,
thwart, suitable, sweet, hue, beauty, duty, dwell, argue, Gwen, review
are good examples o f th e licensin g o f the respective sequences, vj, is a
special case, since its occurrence is lim ited to a couple o f w ords o f
French origin Eke view, revue. Th e best p r o o f that this sequence is not
considered a natural one in E nglish is that the French phrase deja vu is
read [d e 3 c :v n :]. gw is in a quite -similar situation, its (Estribption
being in feet lim ited in E n glish to the French loan bourgeois
/ busgwa:/ and its derivatives, j w is here distributed in syhableinitial, but not in w ord-initial position.
I f the first position-is occupied b y 2 113531 (other than y which,
as w e saw, is actually the only E nglish consonant that cannot appear
in onsets) w e can have-the fo llo w in g com binations, o f w hich on ly m j
(mute) and n j ( nuclear) are Ecensed:
ml

mr

mj

mw

nl

nr

nj

aw

175

nentioned onsets are not licensed,

3jd

mr like mreaj or mlatin are

ids
or
1UD vAL

are allowed after

i 1__ +n
iy be follow ed, b y a glide leads us to
glides

6^

on English, onsets, nam ely that the

is t and second elem ent in the onset
Thus, plosives only have 1 on our
w niie iiquids (4 ) and glides (5 ) are
sr and consequently the sequences
allow ed. Sequences o f nasals and
T fricatives and nasals.like vn zs&fin
and are consequently ruled ant W e

ority distance.
bstruent clusters., the first consonant
;ar that sequences lik e s f or st which
_ish
isn raise hserious
u tu u o ^problem
-------- s as to the
p - fThe
i 'U.n -ff
t mor "vn
nl /dTfhS
enouncedinbefore.
fonner
violates
principle, since s and / are^ both

on a par as far as sonority is

^ sequences as st m entioned above

hndam ental

Sonority

Sequencing

ed to be a rule o f Univers.al Grammar,

in sonority mom 2 to 1. Since the
ission does not a llo w us to go into a

j that s represents a particular case. It

be fo llo w ed b y a voiceless p losive or

sic, sf. spot, stick, sky, sphinx. There

ent in the feature voice between the
also .be fo llo w ed b y a nasal: sn or sm
ds tim e the m inim al sonority distance
is fo llo w ed b y a liquid at semivowel

Three-consonant onsets. Such sequences w ill be restricted to

licensed two-consonant onsets preceded b y the voiceless frica tive J.
The latter w ill, how ever, im pose som e additional restrictions, as w e
w ill rem em ber drat j can only be fo llo w e d b y a voiceless sound in
two-consonant onsets. In other w ords not on ly the sequence o f
consonant 2 and consonant 3 should be a va lid one, but also s +
consonant 2. Therefore, on ly spl, spr, str, skr w ill be allow ed, as
words lik e splinter, spray, strong, screw p rove, w h ile sbl, sbr, sdr,

sgr, s9r w ill be ruled o n t Though M ,fl and_/r are accepted and so are
sk and sf, the sequences sH, sfl and sfr are not. Rom anian accepts all
w ell-form ed English

onsets: splin, spre, strident; scroafa

and,

additionally, sJd: scla\ and fr: sfruntat. In the sequence sdr the initial
sound is voiced : zd reli zdravn. I f the third position is occupied b y a
glid e w e get the fo llo w in g accepted com binations in English: spj, stj,

skf, skw: spurious, student, skewer, squash. N o tice that sfw w hich is in
principle acceptable (as both st at tw are licen sed) does never occur.
Sum marizing, w e can present the possib le com binations in the
fo llo w in g table:

pi
s

spleen

Pi

pr

spray

tr

spume straw stew

tw

id

Itr

kj

lew

screu>

skew

squirt

7.5. Constraints ob codas

Simple codas. I f w e consider one-consonant codas, or sim ple
codas in E nglish w e w ill n otice that w ith the exception o f the tw o
glides, w and j , o f h and o f r in non-rhotic accents, any English
n on -vocalic segm ent can be distributed in fin a l position. J w ill be
again a special case as it on ly occurs in French loan w ords as

garage, mirage, espionage, camouflage, massage, barrage, prestige,

beige, cortege, rouge.
Complex codas.' E ven a superficial lo o k at the possible
consonantal combinations in syllable-final position in other w ords in
the last (option al) elem ent o f the syllable, the coda w ill show that

onsets.
^
t a lk * * * *
=rveQn m ^
_ +u.P
=b= end, > i f L fo t
^ s s ^ r is S c e f
ftance, as w 1
v,p. same
m e degree
r.. w it __+
o the
degree
X tta o s w e
? t a v e o s b * l > 't e f i ta B

'o * * * * * X
n r m a a s te n ta * * =

= * .

* * * * "

= iM nons am posafcle m
3 h e r is almost double. 7b-

number

___ innsroages

^ +o
T tavoui
o o r open r f W
m \

rtrllables are

m-wevsr, with a

n s o s p n o W c n J l^ ^ f
^ ^ o T ^ ^ s p p e = ^ T

G e n d l i 85 * * *

= f a i * ^ g i n t i 1eeocta;e.g=ns to be nsm g

= * t e T Er w t| - J t *&
zml; tl:
be
^
[ , e * r ] . Tbese =

L e s lie n n e l e i t o ^
reduced number o i P
group as follows:
^ another

consonant This secona

T S lv e o le r n n s a U s r e n t e d

kiln or almost any obstruent help, bulb, kilt, cold, bulk, g o lf,
valve pv], health [10], else ps], Charles pz], Welsh pj],
m ilch R tf], divulge pd3].

b) the rhotic r shares the same contexts in rhotic accents: firm ,

fern , carp , curb, cart, card, cork, dwarf, carve [rv], hearth

[r0], horse [r s ], 'M ars [rz]5 harsh [rj], birch [rtj], dirge
[rets], and, additionally, rg: burg.
c ) nasals fo llo w e d b y an obstruent that shares the same place
o f articulation: mp, m f nt, nd, ns, nz, n tf ndg, nk: camp,

lymph, ant, and, lens, cleanse, pinch, range, lin k N o tice,

that in the sequences mb and pg, the last sound was lost in
m odem English: dumb [Laid ], sing [sig]'

d) sequences o f two -obstruents: a non-coronal stop followed

by a coronal one: "kept, p a ct [kt], or a fricative followed by
a coronal stop: least, rift, a plosive followed b y s: oops,
tax [ks].
e) In morphologically complex codas s can follow any
voiceless obstruent (with the exception o f the strident
coronal sounds, the sibilants [s, 2, f i 3 , f , cff\j) to form the
plural o f nouns or the 3rd person singular o f the present
indicative o f verbs, while z does the same after voiced
obstruents and sonorants; t forms the past tense o f the
regular verbs and is added after voiceless obstruents, while
d does, .the same thing after voiced obstruents and sonorants.
Neither sound can he reduplicated, in such cases an
epenthetic vowel being needed. [ 6\, too, appears in
morphologically complex codas, either &S R derivations:
suffix: length RegS], depth [dep8] in width [widS] we
have its voiced pair or as an affix forming ordinals: tenth
[ten d ], fifth [fifb j.

179

r^aiphologically simple codas

n f a nasal followed
=2x [nks], adjunct, m l f 07^
that in Hie case o f m pt the oral
R a t i o n with the preceding n^
sequences of.three o b s tr u ^ &
o m z^ i [dst]. M o r p h o l o g y

p.onant -licensed combmahons

sgical realizations of ^ - * ^ a
a ffix e s cfepifo IP 05]-

can odlj
only he morphologically
*
i o
T+Ue.
WB H
ist ID.
=oimed coda
f the Vrnri
land we
met
m
=>Y can
a
1

^
is
)
tempts, [m p is], glmipsea Lm i

i t

];
J

a * difficult to pronounce,

= pped: e.g-fetansfl. [temS]

3S

. Norn-vocalic

nuclei

= mentioned the quite large nom ^r

-^ u sn t and a nasal or a liquid c^tid
refo rm ed coda as they violated the
Sequencing-Indeed, i f we consider
analyse it as a monosyllabic wor
= f -while the nudens is .represented
tw o-consonant cluster i53wn
me latter sequence since n je a d
we witness an increase ftom the
_ Such exam ples axe quite numerous
=pted solution is to postdate _the
only vowels, hut cert** sonorants
_r can represent the peak of sonority

and consequently the nucleus o f the syllable. Thu s, the w ord topple,
instead o f being interpreted as a m on osyllabic one and get the
fo llo w in g representation:

i\
N

Co

l\

p i

w ill be divided into tw o syllables and represented thus:

S

/ l
p

/ I
R

O R

. I
N

The same interpretation w ill be assigned to sequences o f

obstruents- liqu id l lik e supple [sA -p I], table [te i-b l], cattle [kae-tlj,
fiddle [r-dl], siclde [si-M J, bagel [b e i-g l], siffle [s i fl], shovel Qa -v I],
castle [k a :s i], hazel [k e iz l] or obstruenl+nasal m: chasm p tse-zm ],
rhythm [ri-S m ]; obstruent+nascd n: deepen [d fc-p n ], ribbon [rr-b n ],
cotton [k o -in ], ridden [r i- d n ], bacon [b e i-im ], waggon [w fe -g n ],
soften [s o -fo ], raven [re r-v n ], fasten

[fa .'-sn ], brazen [b rei-zm ],

heathen [b i:-5 ii] cushion [k u -jh ], vision [viz-g n ], In rhotic accents,

the liqu id r can also be a syllable nucleus: brother [b rA 6 r ].
In all the cases above w e deal w ith non -vocalic elem ents
(sonorants: nasals or g lid es), occupying the position o f the nucleus.
Such consonants axe called syllabic consonants. T h eir rela tively h igh
degree o f sonority allow s them to replace the vo w els in this otherw ise
typically vo ca lic position. M o st languages

(Rom anian included) do

181

3 not unique in this respect

mcludcs such sonads.
o f the feature +/- syllabi

the three main components

nd the rh ym e- of which,
^xatary, Ictus have a lo o t ^
^ r d s into syllables works.
3 a process that has major
we write the words when
obably the situation in which
men0n and this awareness is

_b n t also on some im port

seem,
nigb
p h t secu
i, we
v- w ill see that
3 I process, does not always
Babies in writing, a process^
3e morphological
ox
ne
moipnoju&ivax structure
- _
^ - a-,s y_B a b k athat
a t is
also
1 a

vow el or tne
the nucleus
_ The vowel

M-rrrFtfl 3Xl^holesyhableisstnrctared^

_jhole syuame ^

.. i
nrcceding
aBcelemehts
p r e s e ts *Itwin

comes after tne

.
the nuu
___w o rd -frss
a do, however,
i f the word has

easily i l ft s 9 *
The
intervocalic
or m tem
-the m
tervo^oua-------xLa r\-nOpt< OX
=ae codas or the onsets o f ^
w o r d s , i f w e have to s y lla b ify
. two consonants to the co a o
3 two consonant ^
. two
____syllables
nr shall or shall
tween the
^

. .co o n cvllable? Here are tire

a)
S
1
R
1
t
N
1

s
-o

/ I

t
1

i\
N Co

1
r

! !\
e

k t

h)
S

/ \
0 R

/ I
R
!
N

i\
N Co
1
i1 J
e k

c)
S

1
R

!
N
r e

Th e last o f the three solutions c ) [re -k te ] clearly contravenes

the phonotactic roles o f English that w e have ju st review ed, since its
second syllable has an unacceptable onset in English: k t W e are le ft
W I& v ariants a) and b ) w hich are both in accordance w ith the rules
m entioned above. Phonological evidence that the scope o f this book
w ill not a llo w us to present even b riefly is in favou r o f the second
variant Indeed, languages apparently tend to g iv e p rio rity to the
form ation o f onsets over coda form ation. Several hypotheses have

m * * * b rfoK -5te o f Hie universal core s y ~ ^ ^ t o b e m o r e fa p o r S n t

.p r o v e d b y th e fact that f t .

- J W e w ill consequently adopt

nrioct^ to onset formation and

Onset MaxmrizadoiL This
b e h a v e a number o f consonant
^
together the mmommn
acceptable onset according to

a g e and the re m a in n ig number

of the preceding sylUable.

= f the

word conscript w ill look

-he intervocalic consonant duster Hi

brnal structure a c c e p t

^ jir is r u lr fo u t b y ft b s o r d ^ f i j syllable,

str formed 8

syftabi&d thus
zjsidered to bo mongrel
-a. stop

and a fo ca tive in the

//
O
N Co

A s m entioned above, syllabification doesnt alw ays m irror the

m orphological structure o f w ords as the next exam ple -

tainted -

proves:
S

/ \
R

J\

i\
N Co

Co

A !
t

e i n

id

The w ord is a com plex one, m ade up o f the verb taint, to

w hich the past tense m orphem e ed is added. This is h ow w e d ivid e the
word in w riting, taking into consideration the tw o m orphem es that
make it up. Ph on ologically, how ever, w hen w e sy lla b ify the w ord, the
obstruent t goes to the onset o f the second syllable. A n even clearer
exam ple

o f the

fact

that

syllabification

doesnt

overlap

the

m orphological structure o f w ords is the differen t behaviour o f two

m orphologically identical w ords:

helpful [h e lp fu l]

[h d p les j. H ere is h ow the tw o w ords sylla b ify:

S

/ I
O

i\
N

Co

1 l\
h

D l

and

helpless

N CO
3

m. w h ile g f is not a valid

usonants are split between
-n s e t and therefore the tw o
of

the

second

syllable.

ra e base help, to w hich two

attached. In w riting, both
-3

t ave to divide the word.

-erunziu form o f trie vsr^ a

2 3 g urc-and, fo llo w in g the
3

ile phonologically w e w ill

CHAPTER

S U PR A S E S M E N TA LS : S T R E S S ,
RH YTH M , I N T O N A T I O N

S.l

Stess and prominence. The

(contrafive) function o f stress

phonemic

' In the preceding chapter w e conducted our analysis beyond the

lim it o f phonological units and described syllables as sequences o f
sounds establishing a collocation relationship betw een the elem ents
they were made up of. W ith this w e w ent beyond the lim it o f m ere
segments and entered the domain o f snprasegmental phonology. E y
assuming syllables to be hierarchical structures, com binations o f
sounds in w hich some elements (the nucleus) w e r e m o r e im portant
than others, w e departed from- the strictly linear representation o f
phonological combinations and adopted a non-linear approach.
:

The last chapter o f this study' is concerned w ith such notions as

stress, rhythm and intonation . A s w e axe soon goin g to see a fa c t that

is obvious even intuitively such ph on ological realities are relevan t at
a level o f a higher com plexity than that o f the m ere segm ent and are
considered to be typical suprasegmentals. A nother term used to refer
to them is prosodic elements. Prosody is a w ord com ing m o m G r e e k
and referring roughly to d ie m usicality

Etymology is

o f phonetic sequences.

relevant in this case since, as w e are goin g to see. w e

w ill be able to draw numerous parallels between tOEdJity in human

speech and tonality in music. Such prosodic elem ents are often called
m etrical elements and w e can speak o f m etrical p h on ology analyzing
such suprasegmental phenomena. A parallel is drawn here w ith poetry
where the m e tre is an essential elem ent w hen w e discuss the prosodic

1S7

ole will again not allow us to go

ejjtaiy information in this field
e even a very general image o f
,n for a specialist tc give a very
a schoolchild will he intuitively
in a word or in more complex
lence, or emphasis, that is parts
-,d as having a higher degree o f
Lers. Thus, if asked where the
5ay. tu n ic [tjtuiik], an English
lie first syllable* wnile if asked
-aiding word in French, tunique
on the second syllable. If we
-will see, indeed, that besides a
-uenee -of the first syllahle - a
nded vowel in English and the
vowel in French, the main
; in the placement o f stress. The
j l be also -relevant for the
. they would perceive accent as a
3t mere sounds. A suggestive
itual pattern o f the two words,
mboldened letters represent the
n tunic; tunique (the last two
rny phonetic materialization),
ids prominence we are talking
A stressed syllable will be heard
zed by a higher intensity ox
rh w ill display a change in p itch
sted stress placement ih two
the same thing within the same
e interesting facts. Compare, for
- due to the difference in

stress placem ent o f the Rom anian verb urc clim b . I f w e p lace the
stress on the first syllable and read it urc,, w e interpret it as the third
person singular in d icative present form ; if, h ow ever, w e p lace the
stress on the second syllable, and read it urc, w e h ave the third
person sin gu lar.of the in dicative sim ple p erfect form . A pretty sim ilar

exam ple w ould be fent/fent, the reading w ith the stress on the first
syllable interpreting the sequence as a norm ( fe in t, dodge ) w h ile
the reading w ith the stress on the last syllable interprets it as the third
person singular sim ple-perfect o f the corresponding verb ( he fein ted
h e dodged ). The obvious conclusion is that stress has contrastive,
phonem ic valu e' as segments lik e p and b had in our analysis in the
fifth chapter, and that w e can consider it, in certain situations, a
suprasegmental phonem e. Our enthusiasm w ill be soon tem pered try
the observation that these are' rare cases in Rom anian, a language
w here stress seldom perform s such a function. I f w e turn to English.

. how ever, p len ty o f exam ples w ill com e up, underlying the decisive
role played b y 'th e stress in distinguishing m em bers o f verb/noun
pairs, form ed by the extrem ely productive - in E n glish process o f
conversion; e.g. in crease (v ) / increase (n ); im p la n t (v ) / im plant (n );
dispute (v ); dispute (n ); contrast (v ); contrast (n ).

8.2.

and fixed stress. Tlhe predictability

o f accentual patterns
F r e e stress

B efo re w e get a closer look at this contrastive valu e o f stress in

English w e should say a fe w general things about stress in this
language. U nfortunately fo r fo reign students o f the language, English,
like Rom anian, is a language w here stress placem ent is com pletely
unpredictable. W e can therefore say that in such languages w e have a

fre e stress system. In languages lik e Hungarian, or C zech, fo r instance,

stress always fa lls on the first syllable o f the w ord. In French and
Turkish, it is the last syllable that is always stressed, w hile, in Polish
the last but one. Such languages are systems that have positionally

fixed stress. In Spanish, there are strict rules fo r stress placem ent

189

stress is a relational and

prms o f prominence o f
s. Therefore, there are no
stress.at all and w e can
feature to a greater extent
pnglisTi where, as w e are
degrees o f stress.

le tric structure can be used

patterns, a term inology
cture. The basic metrical
rain tw o or several syllables.
A dissyllabic structure w ith

trochee. I f in a two-syllable
le w e talk about an iamb. In
cent on the fu st one and then
amphibrach, or on the last
exam ples o f English words
s.
+

troch ee'

iamb

dactyl
O
e

amphibrach
anapest

not on ly unpredictable, as the

m ob ility o f the accent on even

fou r syllables with, the stress on the first: in.tri.ca.cy, cu.stoana.iy;

four syllables w ith the stress on the second: ie.cLp ro.cal, pa.raane.tre;
four syllables w ith the stress on the third: con .fi.den .tiai; dis.po.si.1ion
four

syllables

w ith

the

stress

on

the

last:

m is.tm .der.staiid;

nxLs.a-ppreiend;
fiv e

syllables

w ith

the

stress

on

the third:

c 0m .p le.m en .taj3.',

con.stLta_tio.nal, xe.gu.l-ii.ty;
fiv e

syllables w ith the stress on the fourth:

i.m m gin a.tioii, un-der.de.veJLopped;

re.pre.sen.ta.tion,

m ore than fiv e syllables: un.de.si.ra.biJi.ty.

8.4. Morphological processes and stress shift

It can establish phonem ic contrasts lik e those m entioned
previously and, even m ore, the shift o f the stress triggers a change in
the value o f the vo w els o f the sequence. This happens m ostly during

m orphological processes such as affixation. A ffix e s are o f tw o

categories: a) affixes that do not m od ify the accentual pattern o f the
base and affixes that trigger stress sh ift in the base. Chom sky and
H alle (1968: 66-67) distinguished betw een w ord boundaries # that
-blocked the operation o f ph on ological rules and form ative boundaries
+ that do not b lock phonological. processes. Thus, the w ord fa ta l
[ fe rte l] has the stress on the first syllable, w hich

contains a

diphthong, that is a tense v o w e l having the duration o f tw o skeletal

slots (m oras) on the tim ing tier. Th e second syllable, w h ich is not
stressed, has a short, la x v o w e l schwa. I f w e derive the w ord fatality)
[fs tm lltl] w ith the su ffix ity, the stress shifts onto the second syllable
and the vo w el in the first one becom es lax, is reduced to schwa and

Occupies ju st one slot on the tim ing tier. The v o w e l o f the second
syllable, n ow under stress, gets a n ew

phonetic value,

as it is

no longer

reduced to schwa. This is consistent vrith what w e know about the

distribution o f [ej-w h ich , w e w ill rem em ber, on ly occurs in unstressed
syllables. This means that the boundary betw een the su ffix ity and the
verb is a form ative boundary + and not a w ord boundary #.

191

ary stress
-toe correct pronunciation or the

foreign speakers is that Eng^h

_ j l words liave a prim ary stress,
ictable, as 'w e b are -seen- In
a r have a secondary stress
_ r y stress, bnt fo r the pnxposeo,

= S t our presentation to -the &

are not always aware o f the

_ presence is clearly felt by

according to the pnnexp^s
the vow els o f the
syllables (syllables

= 11

1 ^ 3 ,5,6)

be reduced to schw a H ow ever,

xecond syllable, far from being

jWS{ The feet that the vo w el has

oh prim ary stress doesnt fab on
^

t o t the second syllable o i the

. conventionally mark by,-

Tilay a phonemic role, contrasting

_ A t a m ore com plex lev el stress
'com pounds ^ p h ra s e s . T h u s m

assign prim ary stress to toe mrst

weaker-stress (a tertiary one m
m eaning a teacher o f Englishi .
_

w e assign prim ary stress to the

s to Engbsh, w e interpret hxxs as a
English . W ith ou t.analyzing such
non) w e w ill say that they can be

P la cem en t roles that assign primary

on the rig id in n o im phrases.

S.6. Weak and strong forms. Vowel reduction and

delition
Stress or emphasis also p lays an im portant ro le in the
selection

o f the so

called

strong and weak form s

o f m any

gram m atical" w ords o f English. They are thus ca lled because it is

not their lex ica l content that p rim a rily m atters, but the ro le they have
in the sentence. (W e w ill rem em ber, h ow ever, the general tendency
o f schwa to replace any E n glish v o w e l in unstressed syllable.
V o w e l reduction is not, therefore, a process restricted to the w eak
form s o f a lim ited set o f w ords.)

Auxiliary verbs lik e do, have, be, will, shall, modals lik e can
and must, prepositions, pronouns, pbssessives and adverbs have
parallel form s: a sfrorig one, w hen the w ord is stressed or emphasis is
placed on i t and a w eak one, w hen the w ord is not under stress or any
kind o f emphasis. The latter form usually has its v o w e l reduced to
schwa -(on ly [i] is not reduced to schw a) i f not elided altogether,
elision often applying to many o f the consonants o f the w ord, too. The
auxiliary have fo r instance, w hose strong form is haev, can be reduced
to k s y or even sim ply the frica tive .consonant v . H ere are som e
exam ples:
[S em ]-*-[5 sm ];

I saw them , n ot you . vs. I dont lik e th(e)m .

[k m n ]^ {k a n ]^ [k ii]

Y es, I can. V s. I c (a )n 'td l you an interesting

rr&2e v ]-^ [h s v ]-> [v ]

I h ave obeyed y o g , I swear. H a ve you m et m y

story. '
w ife? T h eyv e left,

[to]-+[ra]

W here
London.

are you g o in g
.

to ?

I m

goin g

to

W ho are you w aitin g fo r ? P m w aiting fo r

John.
A r e you taking m e fo r a fo o l? T h eyre trying
to help.

i f the- preposition is

i y the form that occurs is

_ of rhythm w
3 . to

should go

m etric units- A . m eric

a sequence o f syllables
ner syllables that w ere not
3 3 structures results into
as in music, is based on
3 Snts,

strong beats which

listening to recordings o f
311 im m ediately notice an
the two languages.

They

- languages. In-Romanian,

:o have roughly the same

not only have their vowels
=>n is severely shortened. A
- duration as the several
e x t accentual peak-follows,
utterance gives is one o f a
m arked units (die stressed
mortant unstressed syllables
-g is a certam feelin g 0
ju g

one after another m

dtion from stressed segments

ia t have together fee. same

feeling feat & & have been

am musical character. .Smce
m e patterns based on fe e

io n ,

-irrespective

of

its

- r3ythm that feeydisplay is

called syllable-timed. In the other type o f language - o f w h ich English

is illustrative the tim e unit is n ot the syllable, but the stressed
syllable. Such a type o f rhythm is consequently called stress-timed. It
is this type o f rhythm and not stress alone that is also largely
responsible fo r the reduction o f vow els in English unstressed

syllable

which are thus shortened to fit the narrow tim e slots le ft fo r them. The
correct use o f these rhythm ic patterns is one o f d ie things that are m ost
difficu lt to acquire fo r a foreign learner o f E nglish and the im proper
extension

to English o f different rhythm ic patterns borrow ed from

one s m other tongue is one o f the elem ents that a n ative English
speakers w ill im m ediately recognize as in d icative o f a fo reign accent.

8 .S. I n t o n a t io n s ! c o n to u r s . T h e ir p r a g m a t ic v a lu e
Variation in pitch leads to dif ferent international contours.
Intonation is an essential suprasegmsntal elem ent in any language and
it can-have, as already pointed out, contrastive values, the same
utterance,

though

preserving

the

same

denotational

m eaning,

suggesting different attitudes o f the speaker i f differen t intonationa]

contours are used. There are languages in A sia (C hinese fo r instance)
where pitch variation changes the very m eaning o f the w ord. Thus, the
same phonetic

sequence

{signifiant)

is

associated

to

different

meanings {signifis) i f various pitch changes are used. Such languages

are.called tone languages. The system atic character o f intonation is
also important to m ention, in the sense that w ithin a certain linguistic
system a certain inionational pattern w ill b e used and recogn ized by
the speakers o f that language as h avin g a given function. Thus, a
-rising intonational contour w ill characterize interrogative structures or
utterances, or w ill express surprise dissatisfaction, etc. In languages
lik e Romanian, fo r instance intonation S the Only elem ent that marks
the contrast between an interrogative sentence (a rising contour) and
its affirm ative .counterpart E .g.: E l a venit cu ecf! T(rnterrogative) vs.
E l a venit cu ea. ^ a ffirm a tive ). Several tone groups are distinguished
in English h v phoneticians Thus, J. D . O Connor and G. F. A rn old

195

oUps characterized by distinct

t e r that it is the nucleus o f the
o f that change in pitch:
Ling nuclear tones and sounds
- can be used in 'statements,
serious, intense and urgent)
; speaker sounds serious), in
i definiteness is suggested by
k ern o longer sounds detached,
cvol'vem er.t through its greater
i

statements that invite the

ier

to

the

conversation.

In

to in vite the listener to repeat

It im plies a lo w rise in piten.
onational contour, that is also
mcleus, statements uttered w ife
sounding soothing, reassuring,
ay express'the interest o f the
fall-rise intonational pattern. It
ress contrast, w h ile in questions
nt

Commands

-fain

warning

having

this

note, vvhile

fa ll nuclear tons and shares the

teness

o f fe llin g

intonational

dition to the high drop -presented

Com m ands sound rather as

renuine orders.
,_
acterized b y a high rise in the
rterronative pattern in European

8. The Jacknife is a rise -fa ll intonational pattern, expressing

definiteness, com pleteness and often the

fact that the

speaker is im pressed or awed.

9.

7ns H igh D ive includes a h igh fa ll fo llo w e d by a low rise.

It is used ' then it is the firs t part o f a w ord group that

Domains an im portant idea and n ot its

second,

w inch is

of

secondary im portance.
10. The Terrace m aintains a le v e l intonation and is
used to express non -finality.

typically

B I

B L I

0,6

P H Y

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English Phonetics and Phonology.

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ftTmlifi*.

cf La n gu a ge: It; Nature,

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G enerative Theory

of

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zhonological Tneory. A Historical

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