English Sounds

a vowel or diphthong to constitute a syllable


CONSONANT SOUND PRODUCTION

Voiced

sounds are pronounced with the vibration of the vocal cords

Voiceless sounds pronounced without the vibration of the vocal cords

the mouth which the lowers parts (articulators) come in contact

with the production of the consonant sound

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

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

DENTAL – when the lower teeth approach the upper teeth /θ/ & /ð/

ALVEOLAR – when the tip of the tongue is raised close to the toothridge or the back of the upper front teeth /t/ & /d/

POST ALVEOLAR – when the tip of the tongue is articulated against the back part of the alveolar ridge /r/

palate /∫/

VELARS – when the back of the tongue closes

against the velum or soft palate /k/

GLOTTAL – when friction is produced by the air passing through the glottis /h/

produced by stopping the passage of the breath stream with

a build up of pressure behind the closure before releasing the breath

vl vd
Bilabial stops /p/ & /b/
Alveolar stops /t/ & /d/
Velar stops /k/ & /g/

is not completely stopped but passes through with friction or

a hissing sound

vl vd
Labiodental fricatives /f/ & /v/
Dental fricatives /θ/ & /ð/
Alveolar fricatives /s/ & /z/
Post alveolar fricatives /r/
Palatal fricatives /∫/ & /dz/
Glottal fricatives /h/

a fricative. Like fricatives, they are also continuants. They may

be prolonged as long as the speaker wishes.

Alveolar affricates /t∫/ & /dz/

4. NASALS – are produced with the air stream passing through the nose rather than the mouth

Bilabial nasal /m/
Alveolar nasal /n/
Velar nasal /ŋ/

stopped in the center by the tip of the tongue

against the alveolar ridge, while the air passes along one or both sides of the tongue

Alveolar lateral /l/

6. SEMI-VOWELS – in their production, there is lack of friction and the sounds are vowel-like in their voicing but they function as consonants

Bilabial /w/ - wear, win
/wh/ - why

Palatal /y/ - new, view

vibration of air in the oral cavity

All vowel sounds are

voiced oral sounds

The relationship of the vowels to one another is shown by the device known as the Vietor Triangle

differences among the vowel sounds in English and their relative

positions on the tongue

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

i: / Example : Bid
Lips loosely spread and slighly wider

apart than / ɪ / Example : Head

Open lip-rounding, wide open jaws, back of tongue low.Example : Hot

Lips neutrally open and slightly wider apart than / e / Example : Lamb

Lips neutrally open. Open jaws. Centralized quality. Example : Love

Lips loose, but closely rounded. Tongue not as tense as in / u: /. Example : Good

Lips in neutral position. Centralized. Tongue slightly higher than in /ʌ/. Example : about

Lips spread. Tongue tense (front raised) with sides touching upper molars. Example : Seat

Lips neutrally open and jaws far apart. Centre to back of tongue fully open.Example : Heart

12 Monophthongs

upper molars. Example : Four
Lips neutrally spread. Tongue slightly higher

than /ə/ (no firm contact with upper molars). Example : girl

Lips closely rounded. Back of tongue high. Tense compared with /ʊ/. Example : Shoe

is /e/ with tongue in mid position at front of

mouth as in "egg", "bed" or "Ted". Therefore you move the tongue up to make the diphthong.

THE FIRST THREE DIPHTHONGS have the vowel sound

in "pit" or "if" as the FINISHING POSITION. To make this sound, your tongue has to be high and towards the front of your mouth and your lips kept relaxed.

as in sky, buy, cry, tie. The starting position is /a/ , the same sound as in "car" or the noise "ah" which you make when you open your mouth at the dentist's. To make the diphthong you need a big jaw movement, less opening as you move the tongue up and front.

starting pas in boy, toy, coy or the first syllable of soya. The osition is

the sound in "door" or "or". Your tongue needs to be low, but you need to pull it back and make your mouth round. To make the diphthong, you relax the lip rounding and move your tongue forward and up.

occurs in grunting noises and the weak forms of "the"

and "a", as the FINISHING POSITION. To make the neutral vowel sound keep your tongue fixed in the centre of your mouth, lips fairly relaxed and just grunt!

as in beer (the drink), pier, hear. The starting position is

as in "if" or "pit" with tongue front and high and lips relaxed.

as in bear (the animal), pair and hair. The starting position is  

as in "egg" or "bed" with tongue in mid position at front of mouth. To make the diphthong, using a small controlled movement, pull your tongue slighty back from mid front to the mid central position in your mouth.

as in "tour", "poor" (talking posh!) or the first syllable of "tourist". The starting position is 

with tongue pulled back but small mouth aperture as 

in "hook", "book" or "look".To make the diphthong, this time the small controlled tongue movement goes from the back postion to the mid central position, losing the lip rounding and relaxing your mouth from the tight starting position.

but small tight mouth aperture as in "hook", "book" or

"look") as the FINISHING POSITION.

as in "oh", "no", "so" or "phone". The starting position is the neutral vowel sound, also known as "shwa“

which sounds like a grunt, as in the 

weak form of "the" or "a". To start in this way, the tongue should be fixed in mid central position in your mouth with lips relaxed. To make the diphthong, it is a short controlled movement in the opposite direction of 5) above: from the centre to the back moving your relaxed lips into a tighter small round aperture. Your cheeks should move in a bit!

 as in all the words of "How now brown cow!". The starting position is the vowel sound

as in "at" "bad" or "rat" with tongue front but also low

(i.e. mouth open). To make the diphthong the journey for your tongue from front low (mouth very open) to back high (small tight mouth aperture) is a very long excursion. Your jaw will move a lot too.

that appear together in a syllable without a vowel between

them, such as the /sp/ combination in speak, spot, or the /skr/ combination in scrape, scream.

Consonant Cluster : 1) s+ (initial) p,t,k,f,m,n,w,l,y,r / s:pre-initial/others :initial 
2) s+other consonant s+ (post-initials) l,r,w,j =pre-initial+initial+post-initials
 
The consonant clusters which constutute the coda are also not arbitrarily formed, they can be described as:
”any consonant except for h,r,w,j may be final consonant. There may be 2 kinds of  Final Cluster : pre-final+final/final+post final, Pre-finals(m,n,nasal,l,s : bump,belt) / Post-finals (s, z, t, d, /q/ : bets,beds)”

CONSONANTS CLUSTERS

clusters.

while articulating the words. When a word or a syllable

in word is produced louder, more lenghty, with higher pitch or with more quality, it will be perceived as stressed. The prominence makes some syllables be perceived as stressed. Words including long vowels and diphthongs or ending with more than 1 consonant are stronger, heavier and stressed.

 Rules of Word Stress in English

There are two very simple rules about word stress:

One word has only one stress. (One word cannot have two stresses. If you hear two stresses, you hear two words. Two stresses cannot be one word. It is true that there can be a "secondary" stress in some words. But a secondary stress is much smaller than the main [primary] stress, and is only used in long words.)

Here are some more, rather complicated, rules that can help you understand where to put the stress. But do not rely on them too much, because there are many exceptions. It is better to try to "feel" the music of the language and to add the stress naturally.

We can only stress vowels, not consonants.

many two-syllable words in English whose meaning and class change

with a change in stress. The word present, for example is a two-syllable word. If we stress the first syllable, it is a noun (gift) or an adjective (opposite of absent). But if we stress the second syllable, it becomes a verb (to offer). More examples: the words export, import, contract and object can all be nouns or verbs depending on whether the stress is on the first or second syllable.

a few words, native English speakers don't always "agree" on

where to put the stress. For example, some people say teleVIsion and others say TELevision. Another example is: CONtroversy and conTROversy.

4 Stress on ante-penultimate syllable (ante-penultimate = third from end)