Appunti fonologia inglese

English is a tough stuff

• Vowels (20)
• Consonants (24) breath is obstructed, at least partially, by teeth, lips or tongue
• Diphthongs (8, combination of two vowels)

5 vowels letter >>> 20 vowels sound (in Italian 7 vowel sounds)

Consonant because they sound with something else (vowels)

Y could be both consonant (yolk) and a vowel (funny)

W in very rare words could be a vowel such as in the Welsh cwm. 21 consonant letters >>> 24 consonant sounds

Phonemic transcription uses slashes

Vocal folds (corde vocali)

The tongue is the most mobile, flexible muscle in human body

Hard palate has bones (front part) and can't move, soft palate is mobile (back part)

All sounds are produced according to physical laws (both music instruments and voice), we use air and we modulate it

In the larynx, vocal folds set up vibrations in the air which passes through cavities which can modify the sounds.

The tongue is very important and mobile

Consonant system

The sound of a consonant results from three factors:

• Vibration of vocal folds (voicing)
• Where the articulation happens (place of articulation)
• How the airflow is controlled (manner of articulation)

Place

It is important to identify where the articulation happens:

• Lips (labial)
• Teeth (dental)
• Alveolar ridge (alveolar)
• Hard palate (palatal)
• Soft palate (velar)
• Throat (glottal)

Manner

It is necessary to determine the nature and extent of the obstruction involved (type of obstruction)

Plosive

Fricatives: they come from restricting, but not completely stopping the airflow. It is a type of consonant formed by forcing air through a narrow gap so that a hissing sound is created.

Nasal consonants: closing articulators but lowering the uvula. Three nasal consonants:

• Bilabial (mine)
• Alveolar (nine)
• Velar (gong)

Lateral consonants: the air escapes from the sides of the tongue

Affricates: a kind of stop consonant (combination of sounds)

Approximants: do not impede the flow of air

Vowels

Speech sounds articulated without any closure of articulators in the vocal tract, so the airstream flows through freely. All vowels are voiced.

Short and Long vowels

The English vowel system: diphthongs

They are sounds that consist of a movement from one vowel to another without any interruption. The first part is always longer and stronger than the second part.

Closing diphthongs: the movement is from a semi-open or open vowel to a semi-closed one.

Centring diphthongs: with a movement from a "peripheral" vowel towards the central vowel.

Syllable

It is a unit of speech, either a whole word or just a part of it, usually containing a vowel. It is a phonological structure composed of speech sounds. Words are made up of syllables.

We must be able to identify the position of stressed syllable in order to understand the meaning of a word.

Stress is the relative prominence of syllables. It is usual to distinguish lexical stress and sentence stress. The first one may be thought as a syllable's potential to receive prominence, the other one indicates the actual degree of a prominence. The two often coincide, but not always.

Ex: restoration (two diacritic marks indicate secondary and primary stress respectively)

C V C >>> English

C V >>> Italian

Lexical words are pronounced in a strong form (stressed words) in order to communicate something, on the other hand, grammatical words are pronounced softly because they only are linking elements.

Mary went to Paris

Mary went out with Paul

Mary did n