We use cookies to distinguish you from other users and to provide you with a better experience on our websites. Close this message to accept cookies or find out how to manage your cookie settings.
To save content items to your account,
please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies.
If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account.
Find out more about saving content to .
To save content items to your Kindle, first ensure no-reply@cambridge.org
is added to your Approved Personal Document E-mail List under your Personal Document Settings
on the Manage Your Content and Devices page of your Amazon account. Then enter the ‘name’ part
of your Kindle email address below.
Find out more about saving to your Kindle.
Note you can select to save to either the @free.kindle.com or @kindle.com variations.
‘@free.kindle.com’ emails are free but can only be saved to your device when it is connected to wi-fi.
‘@kindle.com’ emails can be delivered even when you are not connected to wi-fi, but note that service fees apply.
Phonetics is a fundamental building block not just in linguistics but also in fields such as communication disorders. However, introductions to phonetics can often assume a background in linguistics, whilst at the same time overlooking the clinical and scientific aspects of the field. This textbook fills this gap by providing a comprehensive yet accessible overview of phonetics that delves into the fundamental science underlying the production of speech. Written with beginners in mind, it focuses on the anatomy and physiology of speech, while at the same time explaining the very basics of phonetics, such as the phonemes of English, the International Phonetic Alphabet, and phonetic transcription systems. It presents the sounds of speech as elements of linguistic structure and as the result of complex biological mechanics. It explains complicated terminology in a clear, easy-to-understand way, and provides examples from a range of languages, from disorders of speech, and from language learning.
Speech is normally used for verbal interaction between at least two persons, called interlocutors. Researchers have measured rate of information transfer by speech across languages and have found a relatively constant value across languages. Spoken language is very different from written language in a number of important ways. Speech is perceived by hearers based primarily on the acoustic information contained in the speech signal, but modified by a number of factors, including top--down processing. Perception is made more complex by factors such as the necessity of segmenting and variance in the signal caused by individual differences and conditions of the speech environment. Speaker normalization is required by the hearer. The ear and hearing mechanism play an important role in speech perception. Rapid pressure variation of sound is converted to fluctuations in the viscous fluids of the inner ear or cochlea. This conversion occurs through the middle ear in which the principle of the lever, and the principle of collecting energy over a large area and concentrating it, play roles.
Speech consists of sound waves that propagate in the air from talker to hearer. Sound waves consist of rapidly changing pressure within the medium, normally air in the instance of speech. If the variations of pressure are regular, then the sound has a tonal quality. Most, but not all, speech sounds have this tonal quality. Sound amplitude relates to the amount of energy and is perceived as loudness. The speed of pressure variation is called frequency and is perceived as pitch. Individual sound waves combine additively, creating complex sound waves. Acoustic analysis of speech creates spectrograms, giving a visual representation of the original sound. In certain conditions, such as the interior of the vocal tract, sound reverberates in a self-additive way, giving rise to cavity resonance. The frequencies of this resonance can be modified by adjustments in the position of the speech articulators, creating different speech sounds, which occurs through the source--filter theory.
Airstream mechanism refers to the mechanism by which air pressure or airflow is created in order to power speech production. The most basic and universal is the pulmonic airstream mechanism, whereby the lungs power an egressive airflow that produces both an airstream and a heightened air pressure when the vocal tract is blocked. The glottalic airstream mechanism involves vertical movement of the larynx with closed glottis, pushing air upward or drawing air in. This mechanism produces ejectives (glottalized consonants) and implosives. The velaric airstream mechanism produces clicks and is powered by tongue movements. Esophageal speech is produced by a controlled release of air from the esophagus (i.e., belching) in which the vibration of the esophageal sphincter substitutes for the vibration of the vocal folds.
Phonetics is the science explaining what happens as people talk -- that is to say, what happens as we produce the sounds of speech. Speech is a functional part of language, as language is most commonly used in human interaction. Language, in an abstract sense, is something common to all neurotypical humans. This abstract sense of “language” contrasts with specific languages, each one unique. The level of phonetic analysis of language is separate from, but overlapping with, phonology. Phonology focuses more on contrasts, whereas phonetics focuses more on differences. Phonetic variables can be used at very different levels of the grammar in different languages. Traunmüller distinguishes four types of information in speech: phonetic (linguistic), affective, personal, and transmittal. Dialect, register, and the hyperspeech--hypospeech continuum affect specific aspects of phonetic production in a given language. The science of phonetics uses terminology often consisting of ordinary words whose meanings are frequently different from the technical sense.
Vowels are one of two principal types of speech sound, the other being consonants. Vowels are typically produced with voicing, and with a vocal tract open at least as much as it is for the vowel [i]. Vowels are classified by height and frontness/backness, these terms referring to the highest point on the surface of the tongue. This range of space within the oral cavity is called the vowel quadrangle, based on its shape. Other characteristics are also used in the classification of vowels, besides these two principal ones. These include rounding/labialization, tenseness/ATR, nasalization, duration/length, and syllabicity. The group of front unrounded and back rounded vowels comprise what are called cardinal vowels or primary vowels; these are the most common vowels in the world’s languages. Secondary vowels include front rounded and back unrounded vowels. Nasalization of vowels involves opening the velopharyngeal port during their production.
The word consonant means 'with a sonant' or vowel. Consonants are one of two main types of speech sounds, the other being vowels. In the production of consonants, the vocal tract is blocked, the vocal tract is seriously constricted, or the airflow is diverted through the nasal passage. The term articulation is used for the movements and adjustments required to produce an individual speech sound. Consonants are classified by (1) whether the vocal folds are vibrating, (2) where in the vocal tract articulation takes place, and (3) the manner of articulation (the type of articulation). Manners of articulation include plosives, nasals, fricatives, and approximants, the latter of which can be broken down into laterals and glides. Other manners of articulation include trills. Consonants may be produced with a secondary articulation in addition to the primary articulation.
Individual speech sounds are modified by the phonetic environment in which they are found in connected speech. In this book, the term accommodation is used generically for any and all articulatory modifications that arise from the phonetic environment. The term assimilation is used for accommodation that crosses phonemic boundaries, and coarticulation is used for sub-phonemic accommodations. Accommodation occurs not due to laziness, but through these forces: (1) the fundamental constraints on producing a number of segments in rapid, connected succession, and (2) the efficiency of speech production – not producing gestures, or extending gestures beyond what is required for the production of highly intelligible speech. Accommodations might be informally called shortcuts, and some shortcuts are required by physical constraints and some are not; others are required by the grammatical rules of the language in question, defined by language-specific rules.
Suprasegmentals are phonetic elements that are not restricted to individual segments, but whose influence extends across a number of segments. What is phonetically the same type of suprasegmental may play a role at a very different place in the grammatical structure of a given language. One type is prominence, involving extra loudness and duration of the segments that are affected. In English, prominence is primarily grammatical stress playing a role in word pronunciation, but also emphasis, playing a role in the structure of a phrase or sentence. In English, an unstressed syllable contains a reduced vowel, normally realized as schwa. Another type of suprasegment involves variation in fundamental frequency. If this occurs at the level of the word (especially where words are restricted to a single syllable), the phenomenon is tone. Where F0 variation plays a role in the grammatical structure of the phrase or sentence, the phenomenon is intonation. Articulatory set (setting) is considered as a suprasegmental.
This chapter provides a short overview of the phonemes of General American English, shared in large part with the phonemes of Canadian English. American English phonemes are comprised of the following: 6 plosives, 9 fricatives, 2 affricates, 3 nasal consonants, 4 approximants, and a non-rhotic flap, and 13 vowels. General American English, like all varieties, makes use of stress, emphasis, and intonation.