COMMUNICATIVE

ENGLISH

MODULE-2 INTRODUCTION TO PHONETICS

INTRODUCTION, PHONETIC TRANSCRIPTION, ENGLISH PRONUNCIATION,
PRONUNCIATION RELATED TO CONSONANTS AND VOWELS, SOUNDS
MISPRONOUNCED, SILENT & NON SILENT LETTERS, SYLLABLES & STRUCTURE,
WORD ACCENT, INTONATION PURPOSES OF INTONATION, WORDS OFTEN
MISSPELT.
PHONETICS: DEFINITION

• Study of the actual sound that make up the words of a language

• Every language has its own characteristics
• One of the most important thing in English is Spelling & Pronunciation
• We only have 26 letters in Alphabet
• English uses about 44 different sounds
• It can be difficult to know from the spelling how to pronounce
it(Psychology, Wednesday, Hour, Queue, Comb).
PHONETICS: CHART
PHONETICS: CHART EXPLAINED

• Vowels- A vowel is a letter that represents an open sound.

• Diphthongs- A sound formed by the combination of two vowels in a
single syllable, in which the sound begins as one vowel and moves
towards another (as in coin, loud, and side).
• Consonant Pairs- Consonant pairs because the sounds can all be put
into pairs where both are produced in a very similar way.
• Single Consonants- They are called single consonants because each
one is produced in a unique way unlike paired consonants
PHONETICS: EXPLAINED

• The Key to good pronunciation is to understand that making the sounds

of speech is a physical thing
• We as non-natives of English find it difficult to pronounce.
• Think about these questions.
Where does each sound come from?
Is the Jaw open or closed?
What shape is my mouth?
Where should my tongue be?
Is it voiced?
PHONETICS
PHONETICS
PRONUNCIATION GUIDELINES RELATED TO
CONSONANTS AND VOWELS
• There are 44 sounds in English with some variation dependent on
accent and articulation, represented by 26 letters of the alphabet
individually and in combination.
• The 44 sounds can be divided into 2 major categories based on the
manners and place of production. Consonants & Vowels
• These are guidelines and not rules, so there can be exceptions.
VOWELS

• Vowel sound is one in which the air flow is unobstructed when the sound is
made. That is, it is a sound that is made by allowing breath to flow out of the
mouth without closing any part of the mouth or throat. The vowel sounds are
the music, or movement, of our language. The letter A, E, I, O, U are vowels. A
vowel is classified as speech sound produced by a comparatively open
configuration of the vocal track, with vibration of vocal cards but without
audible friction
• There are 2 categories in vowels
1) Long vowels
2) Short vowels
VOWELS EXPLAINED

• Long vowels: Two vowel guideline. First vowel sounds like its alphabet.
• A is pronounced as A(more like its alphabetic phone)
• The second vowel is silent.
• Ex: Bake, These, Pie, Drone, Cute, Fame, Dream, Ice, Soap.
• Short vowel: One vowel guideline. The vowel sounds like a relative.
• Most of the vowels are half pronounced.
• Ex: Had, Bed, Him, Hot, Sum, Jam, Bend, Pin, Bus.
CONSONANT

• A consonant sound is one in which the air flow is cut-off, either partially or completely, when
the sound is produced. It is a sound made by blocking air from flowing out of the mouth with
the teeth, tongue, lips or palate.
1) Sound of “B” is made by putting your lips together.
2) Sound of “L” is made by touching your palette with your tongue.
• Sometimes Y is not a consonant
The letter Y makes a consonant sound when at the beginning of the word
Yatch and Yellow but a vowel sound when at the end of a word. Sunny, Baby.
• All the letters apart from vowels are known as consonants
• A consonant is the letter of the alphabet which represents a basic speech sound produced
by obstructing the breath in the vocal track.
CONSONANT EXPLAINED

• T is pronounced using the tongue (front part).

• K is pronounced using the tongue (back part).
• B is pronounced using the lips.
• H is pronounced in the throat.
• F is produced by forcing air through a narrow gap.
• M is pronounced using the nasal passage.
• Depending upon the stress with which a sound is pronounced, consonant
sounds are divided into voiced and voiceless.
CONSONANT(VOICED & VOICELESS)

• Voiceless: Past, Boy, Test, Day, Kite, Go, Chest, Joke, Find, Visit, Last,
Run
• Voiced: Thick, This, Sad, Zoo, Shoe, Pleasure, Heavy, Many, No, Ring,
Yesterday, Wet
SOUNDS MISPRONOUNCED

• The key to good pronunciation is to understand that making the sounds of

speech is a physical thing. For example like all people learning another language
Indian people will use the pronunciation from their native language on their
English speech. That’s why people call accent Hindi-English accent (Hinglish)
• The root of the language is so different from English. The speech sounds are also
pronounced very differently
• Different position of tongue, lip, teeth, jaw.
• Different muscle strength
• Different speed of muscles for speech sound
HOW TO PRONOUNCE

• Think about these questions.

• Where does each sound come from?
• Is the Jaw open or closed?
• What shape is my mouth?
• Where should my tongue be?
• Is it voiced?
 SOUNDS MISPRONOUNCED

Word Incorrect Pronunciation Correct Pronunciation

Athlete Ath-A-Leet Ath-Leet
Escape Ex-Cape Ess-Cape
Et Cetrera Ex-Set-Err-Uh Ett-Set-Err-Uh
Nuclear Nuke-You-Lerr New-Clee-Err
Prescription Purr-Scrip-Shun Pre-Scrip-Shun
Often Off-Ten Off-En
Walk Wa-Lk Waa-K
SILENT AND NON SILENT LETTERS

The English has many silent letters. Silent letters cause difficulties for
both native speakers and English learners, because they make the
spelling of words different from their pronunciation.
Lot of these strange ‘silent ‘ letters are due to the history of the English
Language . Not only it has absorbed plenty of vocabulary from other
Languages like French, Latin etc. but the eventual standardization of
sounds in the English Language has meant that certain words, whilst
keeping their older forms of spelling, have had their sounds refined and
softened.
• There are 15 guidelines for following or Practicing Silent Letters they
are as follow:
SILENT LETTER B

• 1)B follows the letter M in a word then the is Silent

• Ex: Comb, Bomb, Thumb
• 2)Whenever B precedes the letter T in a word then the B is silent
• Ex: Debt, Subtle
SILENT LETTER C

• 1)Whenever C & S are in a combination then the C is silent.

• Ex: Scissors, Fascinating
• 2)when ever C precedes the letter K & Q letter C is silent.
• Ex: lock, Acquire
SILENT LETTER D

• 1) Letter D is silent when it comes before N and G in a word

• Ex: Wednesday, Pledge
• 2) There are some words in which letter D is not pronounced
• Ex: Sandwich, Handsome
SILENT LETTER E

• 1) letter E is not Pronounced when it comes at the end of the word

• Ex: Table, Before
• 2) Whenever E letter occurs before the letter D and the word is in past
tense form then the letter E is Silent
• Ex: Bored, Fixed
SILENT LETTER G

• 1) Letter G is Silent when it comes before N

• Ex: Sign, Design
• But there is an Exception in this case when you read word
“SIGNATURE”, “MAGNET”
SILENT LETTER H

• 1)Letter H is silent when it comes after W

• Ex: Why, What, When
• 2)Some words start with letter H but the sound letter H is silent
• Ex: Hour, Honest etc
SILENT LETTER K

• 1) Letter K is silent when ever it is present before the letter N

• Ex: Knowledge, Knight
SILENT LETTER L

• 1) L is usually silent when it comes after the vowel A, O & U in a word

• Ex: Would, Calf
SILENT LETTER N

• 1) letter N is not Pronounced when it comes at the end of the word

after M
• Ex: Autumn or Column
SILENT LETTER P

• 1)P is not pronounced when it is in the combination of PS, PT, PN

• Ex: Pneumonia, Psalm
• 2)Sometimes PH is pronounced as F(Fa sound)
• Ex: Paragraph, Autograph, Elephant
SILENT LETTER S

• Letter S is silent when it comes before the letter L in a word

• Ex: Island, Aisle
SILENT LETTER T

• In Some word letter T is silent

• Ex: Often, Christmas, Castle, Listen
SILENT LETTER U

• Letter U is silent when it comes after letter G and a Vowel in a word

• Ex: Guide, Guest, or Guard
SILENT LETTER W

• 1)Letter W is silent when it is before letter R

• Ex: Wrestle, Wrong
• 2)W is silent in some words like WHOM, WHOSE, WHOLE, WHO
NON SILENT LETTER

• There are certain letters/alphabet in English with which we can hardly

find silent sounds Ex: F, J, M, Q, R, V
• You can find letter V is never Silent wherever it appears
• Ex: Vivid, Voice, Value
• H is usually silent in words that are of French origin Hour, Honest,
Honour etc. But with other words like Home, House we spell it
SYLLABLE AND STRUCTURE

• Syllable is a single segment of uninterrupted sound which is typically

produced with a single pulse of air from the lungs.
• A syllable is made up of either a single vowel sound (As in the
pronunciation of ‘OH’) or in a combination of vowel and consonant(s)
• (as in NO and NOT).
• Each new syllable will create a new Vowel sound.

Word No of Syllables Pronunciation

Mississippi Four(4) Miss+iss+ipp+i
Rugged Two(2) Rugg+ed
TYPES OF SYLLABLES
SYLLABLE DEFINITION EXAMPLES
TYPE
CLOSED A syllable with a short vowel , spelled with a DAP-PLE
single vowel letter ending in one or more HOS-TEL
consonants. BEV-ER-AGE
OPEN A syllable that ends with a long vowel sound , PRO-GRAM
spelled with a single vowel letter. TA-BLE
RE-CENT
CONSONANT- An unaccented final syllable that ends with LE DRIB-BLE
le(C-le) BEA-GLE
LIT-TLE
SILENT-e A syllable with a long vowel, spelled with one COM-PETE
(V+C+e) vowel+ one consonant + silent e. DES-PITE
VOWEL TEAM Syllable where two vowels together make a sound AW-FUL
TRAIN-ER
CON-GEAL
SPOIL-AGE
R- A syllable with r ( er, ir, or, ar, ur). Vowel IN-JUR-I-OUS
CONTROLLE pronunciation often changes before R. CON-SORT
D CHAR-TER
WORD STRUCTURE

• The study of word is called Morphology.

• In Studying word structure, we start by looking at a few key concepts
• Root word (agri, astro, cardio)
• Prefixes
• Suffixes
WORD ACCENT

• Word accent(also called word stress or lexical stress) is the way in which a
language is pronounced.
• Every person will have an accent if they are beginner or native speaker. Accent
is caused due to a relative emphasis or prominence given to a certain syllable
in a word, or to a certain word in a phrase or sentence. Accent has various
domains:
• 1) The Word
• 2)The Phrase
• 3) The Sentence
WORD ACCENT
• In phonetics, Accent is that property of a syllable which makes it stand out in relative to its
neighbouring syllables. The emphasis on the accented syllable relative to the unaccented
syllables may be realized through greater length, higher or lower pitch, a changing pitch
contour(a way in which something varies (tone), greater loudness, or a combination of
these characteristics.

• The Emphasis when speaking is typically caused by factors such as:

• Increased loudness
• Vowel length
• Full articulation of the vowel
• Change in pitch

Causes of Word Accent

1) First Language (Indian person having influence of Regional language)
2) Regional Dialect: In place where only one language is dominant, there are still differences across
states/Towns
3) Foreign Language
4) Social class and/or Education level
 RULES OF WORD ACCENT
Key to proper pronunciation is the accent. The accent is the stress placed
in varying degrees upon the vowel sounds in a syllables. The primary
accent refers to the vowel sound with the greatest punch or stress.
Secondary accents have minimal influence on pronunciation and spelling
Accent Description
Rules
Rule -1 Each syllable with 2 or more syllables has one syllable whose vowel is accented.
Accents are very important to spelling rules. Accented means that the sound of
the vowel is stressed, or louder, than those in other syllables. Ex. For-GET
Rule-2 The primary accent is usually on the root before a double consonant. Ex. FOR-GET-
TING
Rule-3 The primary is usually on the first syllable in two syllable words. Ex. Pay-ment

Rule-4 The primary accent is usually on the second syllable in three – syllable words that
are formed by a Prefix- Root- Suffix Ex. In- Vest –ment

Rule-5 The primary accent is usually on the second syllable in four – syllable words. Ex.
In-TEL-li-gent.
 STRESS SHIFT AND INTONATION
• When we stress syllables in words, we use a combination of different features. Experiment now with the
word COMPUTER. Say it loud. Listen to yourself. The second syllable of the three (P-U) is stressed
• A stressed syllable Combines 5 features:
• It is longer : Com-pu-ter
• Its Louder : Computer
• It has a change in pitch from the syllables coming before and afterwards. The pitch of a stressed syllable is
usually higher.
• It is said more clearly. The vowel sound is pure. Compare the 1st and last vowel sounds with the stressed sound.
• It uses larger facial movements. Look at lips and jaw movement.

• In English, we don’t say each syllable with the same force or strength. In one word , we vocalize one
syllable. We say one syllable very loudly(big, strong, important) and all the other syllable very quietly.
• For example let us take 3 words; Photograph, Photographer, Photographic.
• They don’t sound the same when spoken because we vocalize(stress) one syllable in each word and its
not always the same syllable.
STRESS SHIFT AND INTONATION
PHO-TO-GRAPH 3 syllables Stress on 1st syllable
PHO-TO-GRAPH-ER 4 syllables Stress on 2nd syllable
PHO-TO-GRAPH-IC 4 syllables Stress on 3rd syllable

This happens in words with 2 or more syllables: TEACHer, JaPAN,

CHINa,

There are 2 very important rules about word stress:

• One word, one stress.(one word have two stresses. So if you hear
two stresses, you have heard two words, not one word)
• The stress is always on a vowel.
• English is classified as stress based language which means the
meaning of words can be altered significantly by a change of stress.
• Word stress is not used in all languages. Some languages, Japanese or
French for ex pronounce each syllable with equal emphasis
INTONATION PURPOSE
• “I never said he ate your chocolate”
• Has 7 different meaning depending on the stress and intonation

Stressing Meaning
on
I Implies that I(speaker) never said it.
never Emphasizes on Never. There was never an occasion when I said that
said Means that I never SAID it. He might have eaten your chocolate, but
I didn’t say that
he Means I didn’t say it was him that ate your chocolate. only that
someone else did
ate Means I didn’t say he had eaten it. Perhaps he took it and threw it
away or did something else with it
your Means it wasn’t your chocolate he ate. It could have been someone
else’s chocolate
Chocolate Emphasizes that it was not your chocolate he ate. He ate something
else belonging to you
WORDS OFTEN MISSPELT

Correct Wrong
Absence Abcense, Absense
Burglar Buglar, Burgler
Business Bussiness, bisness
Column Colomn, colum
Garage Geryeg
Niece nise
Principle Principal
THANK YOU