Language is a system of systems. One is grammar and the other major system is phonology.

Spoken language consists of sounds and patterns of sounds.

Phonetics:

Phonetics is the precise study of human speech sounds – how they are produced, how they are
transmitted and how they are heard. As such, the study of phonetics crosses language
barriers, since it is concerned with all speech sounds and not just those of one particular
language.

Phonology:

Phonology is the broader study of major speech sounds, and their organization, in a particular
language. Fr the present purposes we can say that phonology deals with how English
organizes its elements of speech in to an integrated system.
Phonetics
After the air has left the larynx, it passes into the vocal tract. Consonants are produced by
obstructing the air flow through the vocal tract. There are a number of places where these
obstructions can take place. These places are known as the articulators.

 Lips (labial)
 Teeth (dental)
 Alveolar Ridge
 Hard Palate (Palatal)
 Soft Palate (Velar)
 Throat (Glottal)

LIPS:
If both of the lips are used to articulate a sound, then it is said to be a bilabial sound. Examples
of bilabial sounds include:
/p/,/b/ and /m/.
Two sounds use the lower lip together with the upper teeth and so are called labio-dental
consonants. These sounds are:
/f/ and /v/.

TEETH:
The two 'th' sounds of English are formed by forcing air through the teeth.
If you say the soft /th/ in /thin/ and then the hard /th/ sound in /then/, you can feel the air being
forced through the teeth. The tongue tip and rims are articulating with the upper teeth.
The upper teeth are also used when you say f and v. In this case however, air is being forced
through the upper teeth and lower lip.
ALVEOLAR
An alveolar sound is when the tongue tip, or blade, touches the bony prominence behind the top
teeth. The following sounds are alveolar:
/t/,/d/,/s/,/z/,/l/,/r/,/n/.
Four sounds are said to be palato-alveolar. This is partly because the blade of the tongue
straddles both the alveolar ridge and the front of the hard palate as air is forced through to
make the following sounds:
The in sheep.
The in genre.
The in cheap.
And the in jeep.

HARD PALATE:

This is the hard bit of the arched bony structure that forms the roof of the mouth. The /j/ sound
in yes is the clearest example of a palato sound.

SOFT PALATE:

The soft palate is toward the back of the mouth. It is where the roof of the mouth gives
way to the soft area behind it. It can just be felt with your tongue if you curl it as far
back and as high as you can.
The velar sounds are usually made when the back of the tongue is pressed against the
soft palate. They include the /k/ in cat, the /g/ in girl and the /ng/ in hang.
/w/ is also regarded as a labio-velar sound, because it simultaneously uses both lips
whilst raising the back of the tongue towards the velum. Try saying /wheel/ and /win/
and feel the position of your tongue.
GLOTTIS:

Glottal sounds are those sounds that are made in the larynx through the closure or narrowing of
the glottis. /h/ as in Helen is an example of a glottal sound. It is physically impossible to feel
the process using your tongue. It is as far back as you can get in your mouth.
The glottal stopis becoming a more widespread part of British English. You also use your
glottis for speech when you whisper or speak in a creaky voice.

FORTIS / LENIS:

Fortis sounds are those that are made with strong muscular effort, originating in the lungs. Lenis
is the opposite. The distinction is made because even voiced sounds can be made
voiceless and yet still remain distinct from one another. Try whispering /pick/ and then /big/.
You can still differentiate the two because the intensity of the burst of air is greater for /p/
than for /b/. Other fortis sounds include /t/ and /k/.
Other Lenis sounds include /d/ and /g/.
Can you think of any other sounds?????
In English, the fortis/lenis distinction happens to duplicate the voiced/voiceless one found in
minimal pairs. So all the voiced sounds are lenis and all the voiceless sounds are fortis
sounds.
 CONSONANT SYMBOL KEY WORD
ch Chain
j Jam
f F Fast
v V Van
List of consonant Phonetic symbols
th θ Three
That help us in seeing correct th δ this
Pronunciation from the dictionary s s Sing
z z Zero
sh ζ Shine
su Pleasure
CONSONANT SYMBOL KEY WORD
h h Hat
P P Pin m m Money
b b Bat n n Name
t t Tea ng ‫מ‬ Bring

d d Day l l Light
r r Reader
k k Key
y j Yet
g g get
w w wet
 Vowel Phonemes

Pit

Pet

Pat

Pot

Luck

Good

Ago

Meat

Car

Door
Sound Symbols Cow

Bear Sky Girl

Tour Boy Too

Go Beer day
SYLLABLE:
A syllable is a sound, or group of List A (C = Consonant, & V = Vowel)
sounds, produced by a single
Syllable Structure
chest pulse and containing a
vowel. Go CV
You will notice that each syllable YOU CV
contains a vowel. If a syllable
consists of a single phoneme, that PLAY CCV
phoneme must be a vowel. We STAR CCV
have also seen that a syllable
cannot contain more than one STRAW CCCV
vowel. If there happen to be two SQUARE CCCV
vowel letters in writing, those
List B
letters will invariably represent just
a single sound. So the rule is: AT VC
When Two Vowels are Walking, US VC
then first does the talking
The following words have a single ASK VCC
vowel; TASK CVCC
So, may, the, words, have, one,
read. JUMPS CVCCC
Where as emphasis has three PREANCED CCVCCC
syllables; em / pha / sis.
There are various syllable TEXTS CVCCCC
structures:
 Word Number of Syllables

Blue blue 1

ball ball 1

quite quite 1

quiet Qui – et 2

Orange Or - ange 2

Table Ta - ble 2

Expensive Ex – pen - sive 3

Interesting In – ter – est - ing 4

Realistic Re- al – ist - ic 4

Unexceptional Un – ex – cep – tion - al 5

We can say that each syllable is made up of at least one phoneme. There are few examples
of syllables containing phonemes.

1 phoneme: a; u/tter; a/gainst.

2 phonemes: so un/til re/turn
3 phonemes: try dis/play tur/ning

There are 26 Alphabets of English Language but we have 44 consonant speech sounds and
20 vowel speech sounds to which we call phoneme. In fact a phoneme is the smallest
meaningful unit of sound.
 WORD STRESS:
In English, we do not say each syllable with the same force or strength. In one
word, we accentuate ONE syllable. We say one syllable very loudly (big, strong,
important) and all the other syllables very quietly.
Let's take 3 words: photograph, photographer and photographic. Do they sound
The same when spoken? No. Because we accentuate (stress) ONE syllable in each
word. And it is not always the same syllable. So the shape of each word is
different.
Word Total Syllables Stressed Syllables
PHO TO GRAPH 3 1
PHO TO GRAPHER 4 2
PHOTO GRAPH IC 4 3

This happens in ALL words with 2 or more syllables: TEACHer, JaPAN, CHINa, aBOVE,
converSAtion, INteresting, imPORtant, deMAND, etCETera The syllables that are not stressed
are ‘weak’ or ‘small’ or ‘quiet’. If you use word stress in your speech, you will instantly and
automatically improve your pronunciation and your comprehension.
Try to hear the stress in individual words each time you listen to English Your first step is to HEAR
and recognise it. After that, you can USE it!

There are two very important rules about word stress:

1. One word, one stress. (One word cannot have two stresses. So if you hear two stresses, you
have heard two words, not one word.)
2. The stress is always on a vowel.
 Stress on first syllable

Most 2 syllable nouns CHIna, TAble, EXport

Most 2-syllable adjectives SLENder, CLEVer, HAPpy

Word stress is not used Stress on last syllable

in all languages. Some
languages, Japanese or Most 2-syllable verbs to exPORT, to deCIDE, to beGIN
French for example,
Stress on penultimate syllable
pronounce each syllable
with eq-ual em-pha-sis. Words ending in -ic GRAPHic, geoGRAPHic,
There are some rules geoLOGic
About which syllable to Words ending in -sion and teleVIsion, reveLAtion
stress. But...the rules are -tion
Rather complicated! Words ending in -cy, -ty, deMOcracy, dependaBIlity,
Probably the best way to -phy and -gy phoTOgraphy, geOLogy
learn is from experience.
Words ending in -al CRItical, geoLOGical
Listen carefully to
Spoken English and try Compound words (words with two parts)
to develop a feeling for
the "music“of the For compound nouns, the BLACKbird, GREENhouse
language. stress is on the first part

For compound adjectives, the bad-TEMpered, old-

stress is on the second part FASHioned

For compound verbs, the to underSTAND, to overFLOW

stress is on the second part
 Sentence Stress in English:
Sentence stress is the music of spoken English. Like word stress,
sentence stress can help you to understand spoken English, especially
when spoken fast.
Sentence stress is what gives English its rhythm or "beat". You remember
that word stress is accent on one syllable within a word. Sentence stress
is accent on certain words within a sentence.
There are two types of Words:
• Content words
• Structure words
Content words are the key words of a sentence. They are the important
words that carry the meaning or sense
Structure words are not very important words. They are small, simple
words that make the sentence correct grammatically. They give the
sentence its correct form or "structure".
If you remove the structure words from a sentence, you will probably still
understand the sentence.If you remove the content words from a
sentence, you will not understand the sentence. The sentence has no
sense or meaning. e.g;

SELL CAR GONE FRANCE

Now these words are conveying some meaning these are content words
where as structure words that will grammatically correct the sentence do
not convey any meaning.

will you SELL my CAR because I ‘ve GONE to FRANCE

 So in a sentence we stress content words. Why is this important for
pronunciation? It is important because it adds "music" to the language. It is the
rhythm of the English language. It changes the speed at which we speak (and
listen to) the language. The time between each stressed word is the same.
Rules for Sentence Stress:
The basic rules of sentence stress are:
1. content words are stressed
2. structure words are unstressed
3. The time between stressed words is always the same

Content Words Stressed Structure Words Un-stressed

Main verbs SELL, GIVE, EMPLOY
Pronouns he, we, they
Nouns CAR, MUSIC, MARY
Prepositions on, at, into
Adjectives RED, BIG,
INTERESTING
Articles a, an, the
Adverbs QUICKLY, LOUDLY,
NEVER Conjunctions and, but, because
Negative auxiliaries DON'T, AREN'T, Auxiliary verbs do, be, have, can, must
CAN'T

But sometimes we can stress a word that would normally be only a structure word, for example to
correct information.

"They've been to Mongolia, haven't they?"

"No, THEY haven't, but WE have.
Intonation:

The messages that we convey to one another depends just as much on how we
say something as on what it is that we actually say. However, it is possible to
use the same words to convey a huge variety of meanings, moods or intentions.
In the study of intonation, pitch, loudness and length are the most important
factors. They work together to give certain syllables prominence over the others.
The concepts of intonation are very closely related to those in stress, the difference
being that stress is concerned with individual words, whereas intonation extends
over a phrase or utterance.
Intonation in fact tells you something about speakers feelings or attitude.
The words themselves carry the bulk of the meaning, but intonation
pattern allows the speaker to add personal comment. Like we say,
My fault? & My fault? (Mmmmmmy fault??????)
The stress on any word changes the meaning.
Now the bold words will show the stress on a single word in the following
examples.

It sounded dreadful.
Did you like it?
Well, it did sound rather strange.
Isn’t it wonderful!
I don’t think so.
It’s your fault.
My fault?
Listen to him!
Pardon?
Expressing expressions is actually intonation. We have different expressions!

1. Expressionless and without feelings…

2. Surprised and annoyed…
3. Very direct and personal criticism …
4. Indicating a very personal disagreement …
5. Asking for a repetition in a rather annoyed fashion …
6. Inviting others to join in the speakers criticism of what some body is saying
7. Asking for another persons opinion
8. Being hesitant and then half agreeing
9. Very enthusiastic
10. Being very critical of what has been heard …
Now intonation has different patterns:
Tune 1: Falling
• (=I’m OK, in response t the question how are you?)
Tune 2: Rising High Are you OK?
•
Tune 3: Rising Low I agree
•
Tune 4: Falling Rising I agree, but…..
• it expresses some doubt…
Tune 5: Rising falling I didn't,t expect that
•
How to pronounce “The” in English:
Normally, we pronounce "the" with a short sound (like "thuh"). But when "the" comes before a
vowel sound, we pronounce it as a long "thee".

Vowel Sound We Write We Say

A The apple Thee apple
E The egg Thee egg
I The ice cream Thee ice cream
O The orange Thee orange
U The ugli fruit Thee ugli fruit

So we use a long "thee" before a vowel sound, not necessarily before a vowel. Some times
Consonants produce the sound of a vowel then:

We write with We say with

The house Consonant (h) Thuh house Consonant sound
The hour Consonant (h) Thee our Vowel sound
The university Vowel (u) Thuh youniversity Consonant sound
The umbrella Vowel (u) Thee umbrella Vowel sound
 How to pronounce “ed” in English
The past simple tense and past participle of all regular verbs end in -ed. For example:
Work Worked Worked
In addition, many adjectives are made from the past participle and so end in -ed. For example:
• I like painted furniture.
The question is: How do we pronounce the -ed?
The answer is: In 3 ways - / Id/ or / t/ or / d/

If the base verb ends in one example base example pronounce extra
of these sounds: verb*: with -ed: the -ed: syllable?

unvoiced /t/ Want Wanted

/Id/ Yes
voiced /d/ End Ended
/p/ Hope Hoped
/f/ Laugh Laughed

unvoiced /s/ Fax Faxed /t/

/S/ Wash Washed
No
/tS/ Watch Watched
/k/ Like Liked
all other Play Played
voiced sounds, /d/
for example... Allow Allowed
beg begged
Pronunciation Tips:
These English pronunciation tips will help you get the most out of your Pronunciation Power
program.
Tip 1
Do not confuse pronunciation of words with their spelling! For example, "threw" and
"through", although spelled differently, are pronounced the same. Also, identical letters or
letter clusters in words do not always produce the same sound. For example, the "ough" in
"though" and "through" represents a different sound in each word.
Learn to practise what you hear, not what you see.

Tip 2
Imagine a sound in your mind before you say it. Try to visualize the positioning of your
mouth and face. Think about how you are going to make the sound.

Tip 3
In addition to listening for specific sounds, pay attention to pauses, the intonation of the
instructor's voice and patterns of emphasis. This can be just as important as the
pronunciation of sounds.

Tip 4
The English language has many different dialects, and words can be pronounced
differently. It is important, however, that you pronounce words clearly to ensure effective
communication.

Tip 5
you must practise what you are learning! Remember that you are teaching your mouth a new
way to move. You are building muscles that you do not use in your own language. It is like
going to the gym and exercising your body. Use the program to exercise your mouth a little
bit each day.
Tongue-Twisters

A tongue-twister is a sequence of words that is difficult to pronounce quickly and correctly. Even
native English speakers find the tongue-twisters on this page difficult to say quickly. Try them
yourself. Try to say them as fast as possible, but correctly!
A proper copper coffee pot.

Mixed biscuits, mixed biscuits.

A box of biscuits, a box of mixed biscuits and a biscuit mixer!

Peter Piper picked a peck of pickled pepper.

Did Peter Piper pick a peck of pickled pepper?
If Peter Piper picked a peck of pickled pepper,
Where's the peck of pickled pepper Peter Piper picked?

Pink lorry, yellow lorry.

Red leather, yellow leather, red leather, yellow leather.

She sells sea-shells on the sea-shore.

The sixth sick Sheik's sixth sheep is sick.

[Sometimes described as the hardest tongue-twister in the English language.]

Swan swam over the pond,

Swim swan swim!
Swan swam back again -
Well swum swan!

Three gray geese in green fields grazing.

We surely shall see the sun shine soon.