Sound matter

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Ministry of Education and Science of the Kyrgyz Republic

Kyrgyz National University named after J. Balasagyn

Pedagogical Facility

Sound matter

Done by: Keneshbekova Aigerim

Group:Fl-2-19

Checked by:Sydykbaeva B.Sh

Bishkek 2021

Contents

Introduction

Chapter I. General characteristics about English sounds

1.1 About the Sounds of English

1.2 The classification of English consonant sounds

1.3 General characteristics of English vowels

Chapter II.Comparative typology of vowel and consonant sounds in the Kyrgyz and English languages

2.1 The vowels sound in the Kyrgyz language

2.2. Vowels in English

Conclusion

Bibliography

Introduction

Language has emerged and exists as a means of communication of people primarily in sound, oral form. The letter is only a conditional representation of the sound form of the language. Therefore, in order to master a language, it is necessary first of all to master its sound form, its phonetic structure, i.e., the system of sounds, verbal stress and intonation. The study of the phonetic structure of the language is engaged in phonetics. Phonetics is a branch of linguistics that studies the sound side of a language. It includes all the sound means of the language, that is, not only sounds and their combinations, but also stress and intonation. One of the most important indicators of a person's level of culture, his thinking, and intelligence is his speech. Speech is accessible to the listeners due to the materiality of their signs. These signs are audible in oral communication, and graphic in written communication. Therefore, the study of the sound side of the language is an integral part of linguistics. Phonetics can be called pronunciation grammar. The written language that appeared in the course of evolution allowed people to accumulate the acquired knowledge and use it to pass it on to subsequent generations. People who are far from science think that speech is produced directly by the speech organs: the lips, tongue, and vocal cords. In fact, speaking sounds, words, and sentences aloud is the final stage of the speech process. Our speech organs only carry out the orders coming from the brain, thereby putting mental speech into sound. The basis of speech, as a physiological process, is the human nervous system. Speech itself is a complex interconnected functional system of the use of sounds by native speakers of a particular language. A person spends his whole life improving his speech, mastering the riches of the language. In early childhood, he has a need for communication, which he satisfies through the simplest elements of speech. The need to express your thoughts expands with age.

There are thousands of different languages around the globe. And yet we are not only talking about "languages“, but also about” language" -- human language as a single thing. We have the right to do so because, for all the huge differences between languages, they all have a lot in common in the most important things. Each language is the property of a collective and thus a social and historical phenomenon. Every language is an indispensable condition for the development of human culture, an instrument of communication that is striking in its subtlety and perfection, an unsurpassed means of forming thought and transmitting it to other people. Every language uses human sounds to express its thoughts. Each language is divided into members: a normal utterance in any of the languages is divided into elements that are repeated in other combinations as part of other utterances. Each language has an extensive set of such repetitive elements and a flexible system of rules by which these elements are combined into meaningful utterances.

Chapter I. General characteristics about English sounds

1.1 About the Sounds of English

Despite there being just 26 letters in the English language there are approximately 44 unique sounds, also known as phonemes. The 44 sounds help distinguish one word or meaning from another. Various letters and letter combinations known as graphemes are used to represent the sounds.

A phoneme is a speech sound. It's the smallest unit of sound that distinguishes one word from another. Since sounds cannot be written, we use letters to represent or stand for the sounds. A grapheme is the written representation (a letter or cluster of letters) of one sound. It is generally agreed that there are approximately 44 sounds in English, with some variation dependent on accent and articulation. The 44 English phonemes are represented by the 26 letters of the alphabet individually and in combination. Phonics instruction involves teaching the relationship between sounds and the letters used to represent them. There are hundreds of spelling alternatives that can be used to represent the 44 English phonemes. Only the most common sound / letter relationships need to be taught explicitly. The 44 English sounds can be divided into two major categories - consonants and vowels. A consonantsound is one in which the air flow is cut off, either partially or completely, when the sound is produced. Incontrast, a vowel sound is one in which the air flow is unobstructed when the sound is made. The vowelsounds are the music, or movement, of our language. The 44 phonemes represented below are in line with the International Phonetic Alphabet.

english kyrgyz consonant

1.2 The classification of English consonant sounds

Consonants sounds are those sounds which are produced with acertain degree of obstruction to airflow; hence they are minly classifiedaccording to how ans where the obstruction happens. Consequently, thefollowing criteria are used to classify consonants:

1- voicing: voicing is a fundamental term used in phoneticclassification of speech sound. Referring to the auditory result ofthe vibration of vocal cords. Sounds produced while the vocalcords are vibrating are called voiced sound, e.g. /b/, /z/, /ж/, /i/, /3/,/р/, /d/; those produced with no such vibration are called voicelessor unvoiced. E.g. /p/, /s/, /f/, /и/, /t/, /?/. A sound with is normallyvoiced, but which in a particular phonetic environment is producedwith less voice that elsewhere, or with no voice at all, is said to bedevoice (symbolized by a small circle beneath the symbol) .

2- Place of articulation: it is one of the main parameters used in thephonetic classification of speech sounds, referring to where in thevocal apparatus a sound is produced. It is usual to represent thisparameter horizontally, though as a result this dimension doe onitsome of the variations which can only be identified transversely,e.g. whether one or both sides of the tongue is involved in anarticulation or consonants correspond to main anatomical divisions,viz. labial, labio-dental, dental, alveolar, palatal, velar, uvular,glottal, but other places relative to these are recognized, such asterms of auditory criteria, using the horizontal scale of front andback, and the vertical scale of close and open; but because of thelack of a clear anatomical correlate it is less usual of talk aboutvowels in terms of articulatory 'places' or 'points'.

3- Mannarof articulation: It is one of the min parameters in thephonetic or phonological classification of speech sounds, referringto the kind of articulatory process used in the sound's production.The distinction between consonant and vowel is usually made interms of manner of articulation. Within consonant, severalarticulatory types are recognized, based on the type of closuremade by the vocal organs. If the closure is complete, the result is aplosive, affricate. If the closure is partial the result is fricative. Ifthe closure is very slight the result is gliding or semi- vowel.Within mannar of articulation also the passage of air is taken intoconsideration : whether air passed through the oral cavity outthrough the mouth or passes through the nasal cavity out of thenose; accordingly we have nasal sound which are only three inEnglish namely /m/, /n/ and /з/, all the rest of consonants are oraland all the vowels as well.Within vowels, classification is based on the position of thetongue, and the type of lip position. They are also classified accordingto the number of auditory qualities distinguishable in the sound (purevowel, diphthong, triphthong).Consonants are described

1.3 General characteristics of English vowels

Vowel sare open sounds because they involve noob struction to the flow of air from the lungs as it passesup through the wind pipe (trachea), through the voice box (larynx) and out of the mouth. Other than positioning the tongue, jaw sand lips there is not hing toob struct the air flow. All vowel sare produced with the vocal folds vibrating and are said to be voiced sounds.

Vowel sare commonly describe daccor ding to the following characteristics:

1. The portion of the tongue that is involved in the articulation: front, central or back.

2. The tongue's position relative to the palate: high, mid or low.

3. The shape of the lips: rounded or unrounded (spread).

4. The length or duration of vocalization: long or short.

A four-sided vowel chart is often used to demonstrate the front-back and high-low positions. The chart roughly represents the tongue position in theoral cavity

The vowels of American English are described in the following table. Click on the links to watch a short video of how each vowel is produced.

Diphthong

A diphthong is a long, complex vowel which starts with the sound quality of one vowel and ends with the sound quality of another one. Although they are classified as single phonemes, diphthongs are given a double symbol to show both the quality they start with and the quality they end with.

Chapter II. Comparative typology of vowel and consonant sounds in the Kyrgyz and English languages

2.1 The vowels sound in the Kyrgyz language

Vowel harmony, in essence, is a set of rules that mean that in any truly Kyrgyzword (i.e. isn't Russian, Persian, Tajik, Uzbek, Arabic, etc.), there will only betwovowels, and they will be of a related sound (i.e. lefts hift vowel sare open-jawe dand right-shift vowel sare the same sound, with your jaw closed further. Try it with “oh” and “oo” and you can see that your mouth stays mostly in the same position, just closes slightly). It also dictates which vowels will be use din the formation of a suffix. If that sounds confusing, don't worry. It doesn't make sense to describeit in text, so I'll walk us through a few examples.

Our first stop is this glorio ustable of relationships:

What this table shows is the vowel pairings in Kyrgyz. What this means, is that if a Kyrgyz word's first vowel is ?, then every subsequent vowel in that word will either be ? or ?. The only exception to this rule is that if a word has a у, then the subsequent vowels can be either а or о (if it's а, then subsequent vowels can only be а or ы).

So the harmony makes sense in terms of the nouns' spelling, but what about with conjugation? Kyrgyz is a language that is all about endings. In fact, as far as I can tell, there aren't ANY prefixes in the language - every piece of meaning beyond an initial definition comes in suffixes. And each of these suffixes changes its vowels around based on the vowels in the rest of the word

Ok, enough lingusitics mumbo-jumbo; let's take a look at how this actually manifests in a very simple construction, which is the question ending. This is put on the last word in any sentence to turn it into a yes/no question. These examples are asking if something is/isn't an object.

This is the formula: word + б/п + right shift vowel

Inpractice:

Булл Кыргызстанбы? (BoolKyrgyzstanbuh, isthisKyrgyzstan?)Бул столбу? (Boolstolboo, isthis a stool?)Ал бугалтерби? (Alboogalterbee, ishe/sheanaccountant?)

Булг?лб?? (Boolgьlbь, isthis a flower?)

Бултамакпы? (Booltamakpuh, isthisfood?)

Булкитеппи? (Boolkeeteppee, isthis a book?)

There's actually 8 permutations of the ending in this situation, but I couldn't think of ones for the p-versions for the lesscommon vowels. The B versus P sound comes from the preceding consonant; ifit's voiced (think if you make a voice sound or justuseair to sound the letter; it's the difference between s and z, and between b/p, sh/zh, d/t etc.). Generally, I don't think about it, because if your vocal cordsare already active when you getto the consonant, then you'll voice the b, but if the yaren't then you'll make a p sound in stead. You can't eventell the difference in fast speech between many of the sepermutations, but it definite lygivesme a head achewhenit comestowritingitalldown.

So, nowweseethatthiscarriesthesoundpatternsthroughoutconjugations, let'stake a lookbackatmylastLanguageLessontoseehowthisworksonsomeofthelongerwords:

Rememberсаламатсызбы? Take a lookandyou'llnoticethatthevowelsareonly а and ы. Youmayalsonoticethequestionending I justtalkedabout. You'llalsonoticethatit'seasiertopronounce a longwordthatonlyusestwocloselyrelatedvowelsoundsratherthanjumpingaroundbetween a wholelotofdifferentvowelsounds; youcan, to a certainextent, leaveyourmouthinoneposition.

Vowelharmonyisconfusinginitially, becauseyouthinktoyourself, “GreatScott, howam I evergoingtohave a mindthatworksfastenoughtomaketherightconsonantandvowelcombinationcomeoutinrapidspeech? Especiallyifithastwoorthreeshiftingvowelsin a row? But, withsomepractice, younotonlymemorizecommoncombinations, butyoualsorealizethat a) someofthepermutationsarealmostneverused, thatnowordswillevershifttoan о, andthatthethreeRussiandipthongvowelsallfollowthelogicalpatternoftheirterminalsound.

Oh, andinhindsight, I forgottomentionthat “б,” whenit'sbetweentwovowels, ispronouncedlike “в” (veeinsteadofbee), sothere'sreally 12 questionendingstochoosefromintermsofhoweachonesounds. Don'tworry; I makemistakesonthemeveryday!

Example: Булсоткабы? (Boolsotkavuh, isthis a cellphone?)

Probably the most common example of this is the word for yes, ооба. On first look, one would think it's pronounced “ooba,” but it's actually pronounced “oh-vuh” or “oh-uh,” or if someone is just reacting to something, “OH.”

As much as I've learned to love the harmony, I'm placed in the South, where Uzbek is a common language. Uzbek doesn't do vowel harmony, so it instead uses only one question ending: mi (ми). It's so easy to use that even some Kyrgyz people even use the Uzbek question ending instead of the Kyrgyz one. Just another example of the linguistic adventure that is the south of Kyrgyzstan. More on that another time!

2.2 Vowels in English

A vowel is a particular kind of speech sound made by changing the shape of the upper vocal tract, or the are ain the mouth above the tongue. In English it is important to know that there is a difference between a vowel sound and a [letter] in the [alphabet]. In English there are five vowel letter sin the alphabet.

The sound sof English are written with letter sin the English alphabet, ase ither vowels or consonants. All English words are written with vowel letter sin them.

These letters are vowel sin English:

A, E, I, O, U, and sometimes Y.

Itissaidthat Y is "sometimes" a vowel, becausetheletter Y representsbothvowelandconsonantsounds. Inthewords cry, sky, fly, my and why, letter Y representsthevowelsound /a?/. Inwordslike myth and synchronize, Y representsthevowelsound /?/. Inwordslike only, quickly, and folly, Y representsthevowelsound /i/.

Itcanalsobe a consonantsoundcalled a glide asinthebeginningofthesewords: yellow, yacht, yam, yesterday. Y is a consonantabout 2.5% ofthetime, and a vowelabout 97.5% ofthetime.[1]

The letter W can sometimes be the second part of a vowel sound as in words like suchas cow, bow, or how. In these words the vowel has the sound of /a?/. The letter W can beused as a consonantsoundatthebeginningofinthewords when, where, wet. Insomelanguages, likeWelsh, theletter W representsthevowelsound /?/, like cwm (a kindof valley).

InwrittenEnglishthesixvowellettersareusedtorepresentthe 13-15 vowel sounds (dependingonthevariety) inEnglish.[2] ThismeanstherearemanymorevowelsoundsthanlettersintheEnglishalphabet, andtheEnglishspellingsystemsdoesn'talwayshelpusfigureoutwhattheEnglishsoundsare. Thiscanbeconfusing.

· The rest of the letters of the alphabet are consonants:

B, C, D, F, G, H, J, K, L, M, N, P, Q, R, S, T, V, W, X, Y (sometimes), and Z.

A vowel is a syllabic speechsoundpronouncedwithoutanystrictureinthe vocaltract. Vowelsareoneofthetwoprincipalclassesofspeechsounds, theotherbeingthe consonant. Vowelsvaryinquality, in loudness andalsoin quantity (length). Theyareusually voiced andarecloselyinvolvedin prosodic variationsuchas tone, intonation and stress.

Theword vowel comesfromthe Latin word vocalis, meaning "vocal" (i.e. relatingtothevoice). InEnglish, theword vowel iscommonlyusedtoreferbothtovowelsoundsandtothewrittensymbolsthatrepresentthem (e.g. a,e,i,o,u, andsometimes y)

Vowels and vowel combinations

Thevowels A, E, I, O, U, Y alone, incombinationwithoneanotherorwith R, W representdifferentvowelsounds. ThechartbelowliststhevowelsoundsaccordingtotheAmericanvariantofpronunciation.

Theletter Y

Theletter Y canfunctionas a voweloras a consonant. As a vowel, Y hasthevowelsounds [i], [ai]. As a consonant, Y hastheconsonantsound [y] (i.e., a semivowelsound), usuallyatthebeginningofthewordandonlyinthesyllablebefore a vowel.

[i]: any, city, carry, funny, mystery, synonym;

[ai]: my, cry, rely, signify, nylon, type;

[y]: yard, year, yes, yet, yield, you.

Diphthongs

A diphth on gisoneindivisiblevowelsoundthatconsistsoftwoparts. Thefirstpartisthemainstrongcomponent (thenucleus); thesecondpartisshortandweak (theglide). A diphthongisalwaysstressedonitsfirstcomponent: [au], [ou]. A diphthongformsonesyllable. Americanlinguistsusuallylistfivediphthongs: [ei], [ai], [au], [oi], [ou].

The sound [o]

Thesound [o] isshortinBritishEnglish. InthesamewordsinAmericanEnglish, thesound [o] is a longsoundcoloredas [a:]. Thissoundisoftenlistedas [a:] inAmericanmaterialsfor ESL students. Insomewords, therearetwovariantsofpronunciationinAmE: [o:] or [o].

[o]: lot, rock, rob, bother, bottle, college, comment, document, modern, popular, respond, John, Tom;

[o:] or [o]: gone, coffee, office, borrow, orange, sorry, loss, lost, want, wash, water.

Theneu tralsound

Transcriptionsymbolsfortheneutralsoundare [?] (caret) instressedsyllables (fun, son) and [?] (schwa) inunstressedsyllables (about, lesson). InAmerican ESL materials, theneutralsoundisoftenshownas [?] (schwa) inbothstressedandunstressedsyllables.

Definition

There are two complementary definition sof vowel, one phonetic and the other phonological.

· In the phonetic definition, a vowel is a sound, such as the English "ah" /??/ or "oh" /o?/, produced with an open vocal tract; it is median (the air escapes along the middle of the tongue), oral (at least some of the airflow must escape through the mouth), frictionless and continuant.There is no significant build-up of air pressure at any point above the glottis. This contrasts with consonants, such as the English "sh" [?], which have a constriction or closure at some point along the vocal tract.

· In the phonological definition, a vowel is defined as syllabic, the sound that forms the peak of a syllable . A phonetically equivalent but non-syllabic sound is a semivowel. In oral languages, phonetic vowels normally form the peak (nucleus) of many or all syllables, whereas consonants form the onset and (in languages that have them) coda. Some languages allow other sounds to form the nucleus of a syllable, such as the syllabic (i.e., vocalic) l in the English word table [?t?e?.bl?] (when not considered to have a weak vowel sound: [?t?e?.b?l]) or the syllabic r in the Serbo-Croatian word vrt [?r??t] "garden".

The phonetic definition of "vowel" (i.e. a sound produced with no constriction in the vocaltract) does no tal ways match the phonological definition (i.e. a sound that forms the peak of a syllable). The approximants [j] and [w] illustratethis: botharewithoutmuchof a constrictioninthevocaltract (sophoneticallytheyseemtobevowel-like), buttheyoccurattheonsetofsyllables (e.g. in "yet" and "wet") whichsuggeststhatphonologicallytheyareconsonants. A similardebatearisesoverwhether a wordlike bird in a rhotic dialecthasan r-coloredvowel /?/ or a syllabicconsonant /??/. TheAmericanlinguist KennethPike (1943) suggestedtheterms "vocoid" for a phoneticvoweland "vowel" for a phonologicalvowel,sousingthisterminology, [j] and [w] areclassifiedasvocoidsbutnotvowels. However, MaddiesonandEmmory (1985) demonstratedfrom a rangeoflanguagesthatsemivowelsareproducedwith a narrowerconstrictionofthevocaltractthanvowels, andsomaybeconsideredconsonantsonthatbasis. Nonetheless, thephoneticandphonemicdefinitionswouldstillconflictforthesyllabic /l/ in table orthesyllabicnasalsin button and rhythm.

The traditional view of vowel production, reflected for example in the terminology and presentation of the International Phonetic Alphabet, is one of articulatory features that determine a vowel's quality as distinguishing it from other vowels. Danie lJones developedthe cardinalvowel systemtodescribevowelsintermsofthefeaturesoftongue height (verticaldimension), tongue backness (horizontaldimension) and roundedness (liparticulation). The sethreeparametersareindicatedintheschematicquadrilateral IPA voweldiagram ontheright. Thereareadditionalfeaturesofvowelquality, suchasthe velum position (nasality), typeof vocalfold vibration (phonation), andtonguerootposition.

Thisconceptionofvowelarticulationhasbeenknowntobeinaccuratesince 1928. PeterLadefogedhassaidthat "earlyphoneticians... thoughttheyweredescribingthehighestpointofthetongue, buttheywerenot. Theywereactuallydescribingformantfrequencies."(Seebelow.) The IPA Handbook concedesthat "thevowelquadrilateralmustberegardedasanabs tractionand not a directmappingoftongueposition."

None the less, the concept that vowel qualities are determined primarily by tongue position and liprounding continues to be use dinpedagogy, as it provides an intuitive explanati on of how vowel sared is tinguished.

Height

Theoretically, vowel heightreferstotheverticalpositionofeitherthetongueorthejaw (dependingonthemodel) relativetoeithertheroofofthemouthortheapertureofthe jaw. Inpractice, however, itreferstothefirst formant (lowestresonanceofthevoice), abbreviated F1, whichisassociatedwiththeheightofthetongue. In closevowels, alsoknownas highvowels, suchas [i] and [u], thefirstformantisconsistentwiththetonguebeingpositionedclosetothepalate, highinthemouth, whereasin openvowels, alsoknownas lowvowels, suchas [a], F1 isconsistentwiththejawbeingopenandthetonguebeingpositionedlowinthemouth. Heightisdefinedbytheinverseofthe F1 value: Thehigherthefrequencyofthefirstformant, thelower (moreopen) thevowel.[a] In JohnElsing'susage, where frontedvowels aredistinguishedinheightbythepositionofthejawratherthanthetongue, onlytheterms 'open' and 'close' areused, as 'high' and 'low' refertothepositionofthetongue.

The InternationalPhoneticAlphabet definessevendegreesofvowelheight, butnolanguageisknowntodistinguishallofthemwithoutdistinguishinganotherattribute:

· close (high)

· near-close (near-high)

· close-mid (high-mid)

· mid (true-mid)

· open-mid (low-mid)

· near-open (near-low)

· open (low)

The letters [e, ш, ?, ?, o] are typically used forei ther close-midor true-midvowels. However, if more precisionis required, true-midvowels may bew ritten with a lowering diacritic [e?, ш?, ??, ??, o?]. The Kensiu language, spokenin Malaysia and Thailand, is highly unusual in that it contrasts true-mid with close-mid an dopen-midvowels, with out any difference in other parameters like backnes sorroundness.

It appears that some varieties of German have fivev owelheightsthatcontrastindependentlyoflengthorotherparameters. The Bavarian dialectof Amstetten hasthirteenlongvowels, whichcanbeanalyzedasdistinguishingfiveheights (close, close-mid, mid, open-midandopen) eachamongthefrontunrounded, frontrounded, andbackroundedvowelsaswellasanopencentralvowel, for a totaloffivevowelheights: /i e ?? ?/, /y ш њ? њ/, /u o ?? ?/, /д/. Nootherlanguageisknowntocontrastmorethanfourdegreesofvowelheight.

Theparameterofvowelheightappearstobetheprimarycross-linguisticfeatureofvowelsinthatall spokenlanguages thathavebeenresearchedtillnowuseheightas a contrastivefeature. Nootherparameter, evenbacknessorrounding (seebelow), isusedinalllanguages. Somelanguageshave verticalvowelsystems inwhichatleastat a phonemiclevel, onlyheightisusedtodistinguishvowels.

Vowelbacknessisnamedforthepositionofthetongueduringthearticulationof a vowelrelativetothebackofthemouth. Aswithvowelheight, however, itis defined by a formantofthevoice, inthiscasethesecond, F2, notbythepositionofthetongue. Infrontvowels, suchas [i], thefrequencyof F2 isrelativelyhigh, whichgenerallycorrespondsto a positionofthetongueforwardinthemouth, whereasinbackvowels, suchas [u], F2 islow, consistentwiththetonguebeingpositionedtowardsthebackofthemouth.

The InternationalPhoneticAlphabet definesfivedegreesofvowelbackness:

· front

· near-front

· central

· near-back

· back

To them may be added front-central and back-central, corresponding to the verticallynes separating central from front and back vowel spaces in several IPA diagrams. However, front-central and back-central mayalsobeusedastermssynonymouswith near-front and near-back. Nolanguageisknowntocontrastmorethanthreedegreesofbacknessnoristhere a languagethatcontrastsfrontwithnear-frontvowelsnorbackwithnear-backones.

AlthoughsomeEnglishdialectshavevowelsatfivedegreesofbackness, thereisnoknownlanguagethatdistinguishesfivedegreesofbacknesswithoutadditionaldifferencesinheightorrounding.

Roundedness

Roundedness isnamedaftertheroundingofthelipsinsomevowels. Becauseliproundingiseasilyvisible, vowelsmaybecommonlyidentifiedasroundedbasedonthearticulationofthelips. Acoustically, roundedvowelsareidentifiedchieflyby a decreasein F2, although F1 isalsoslightlydecreased.

Inmostlanguages, roundednessis a reinforcingfeatureofmidtohighbackvowelsratherthan a distinctivefeature. Usually, thehigher a backvowel, themoreintenseistherounding. However, insomelanguages, roundednessisindependentfrombackness, suchasFrenchandGerman (withfrontroundedvowels), most Uraliclanguages (Estonian has a roundingcontrastfor /o/ andfrontvowels), Turkiclanguages (with a roundingdistinctionforfrontvowelsand /u/), and Vietnamese withbackunroundedvowels.

Nonetheless, eveninthoselanguagesthereisusuallysomephoneticcorrelationbetweenroundingandbackness: frontroundedvowelstendtobemorefront-centralthanfront, andbackunroundedvowelstendtobemoreback-centralthanback. Thus, theplacementofunroundedvowelstotheleftofroundedvowelsonthe IPA vowelchartisreflectiveoftheirpositioninformantspace.

Differentkindsof labialization arepossible. Inmidtohighroundedbackvowelsthelipsaregenerallyprotruded ("pursed") outward, a phenomenonknownas endolabialrounding becausetheinsidesofthelipsarevisible, whereasinmidtohighroundedfrontvowelsthelipsaregenerally "compressed" withthemarginsofthelipspulledinanddrawntowardseachother, a phenomenonknownas exolabialrounding. However, notalllanguagesfollowthatpattern. Japanese /u/, forexample, isanexolabial (compressed) backvowel, andsoundsquitedifferentfromanEnglishendolabial /u/. Swedish and Norwegian aretheonlytwoknownlanguagesinwhichthefeatureiscontrastive; theyhavebothexo- andendo-labial closefrontvowels and closecentralvowels, respectively. Inmanyphonetictreatments, bothareconsideredtypesofrounding, butsomephoneticiansdonotbelievethatthesearesubsetsof a singlephenomenonandpositinsteadthreeindependentfeaturesof rounded (endolabial) and compressed (exolabial) andunrounded. Thelippositionofunroundedvowelsmayalsobeclassifiedseparatelyas spread and neutral (neitherroundednorspread).Othersdistinguishcompressedroundedvowels, inwhichthecornersofthemoutharedrawntogether, fromcompressedunroundedvowels, inwhichthelipsarecompressedbutthecornersremainapartasinspreadvowels.

Front, raised and retracted

The conception of the tonguemo vingint wodirections, high-lowand front-back, is not supported by articula to ryevidence and does not clarify how articulation affects vowel quality. Vowels may in stead be characterized by the three directions of movement of the tongue from its neutral position: front (forward), raised (upwardandback), and retracted (down war dand back). Front vowels ([i, e, ?] and, to a lesserextent [?, ?, ?, ж], etc.), can be secondarilyqualifiedascloseoropen, asinthetraditionalconception, butthisreferstojawratherthantongueposition. Inaddition, ratherthantherebeing a unitarycategoryofbackvowels, theregroupingposits raisedvowels, wherethebodyofthetongueapproachesthevelum ([u, o, ?], etc.), and retractedvowels, wheretherootofthetongueapproachesthepharynx ([?, ?], etc.):

· front

· raised

· retracted

Membershipinthesecategoriesisscalar, withthemid-centralvowelsbeingmarginaltoanycategory.

Nasalization

Nasalization occurswhenairescapesthroughthenose. Vowelsareoftennasalisedundertheinfluenceofneighbouringnasalconsonants, asin English hand [hжЮnd]. Nasalisedvowels, however, shouldnotbeconfusedwith nasalvowels. The latter refers to vowels that are distinct from their oral counterparts, as in French /?/ vs. /?Ю/.

In nasal vowels, the velum is lowered, and some air travels through the nasalc avityas well as the mouth. Anoralvowelis a vowel in which all airescapes through themouth. Polish and Portuguese alsocontrastnasalandoralvowels.

Phonation

Voicing describeswhetherthe vocalcords are vibrating during the articulation of a vowel. Most languages have only voiced vowels, but several Native American languages, suchas Cheyenne and Totonac, contrast voiced and devoiced vowels. Vowels are devoiced in whis pered speech. In Japanese and in Quebec French, vowels that are between voice lesscons on ants are often devoiced.

Modalvoice, creakyvoice, and breathyvoice (murmuredvowels) are phonation typesthatareusedcontrastivelyinsomelanguages. Often, theyco-occurwith tone orstressdistinctions; inthe Monlanguage, vowelspronouncedinthehightonearealsoproducedwithcreakyvoice. Insuchcases, itcanbeunclearwhetheritisthetone, thevoicingtype, orthepairingofthetwothatisbeingusedfor phonemiccontrast. Thecombinationofphoneticcues (phonation, tone, stress) isknownas register or registercomplex.

Tenseness

Tenseness isusedtodescribetheoppositionof tensevowels vs. laxvowels. Thisoppositionhastraditionallybeenthoughttobe a resultofgreatermusculartension, thoughphoneticexperimentshaverepeatedlyfailedtoshowthis.

Unliketheotherfeaturesofvowelquality, tensenessisonlyapplicabletothefewlanguagesthathavethisopposition (mainly Germaniclanguages, e.g. English), whereasthevowelsoftheotherlanguages (e.g. Spanish) cannotbedescribedwithrespecttotensenessinanymeaningfulway.

OnemaydistinguishtheEnglishtensevs. laxvowelsroughly, withitsspelling. Tensevowelsusuallyoccurinwordswiththefinal silent e, asin mate. Laxvowelsoccurinwordswithoutthesilent e, suchas mat. In AmericanEnglish, laxvowels [?, ?, ?, ?, ж] donotappearinstressedopensyllables.

Intraditionalgrammar, longvowels vs. shortvowels aremorecommonlyused, comparedto tense and lax. ThetwosetsoftermsareusedinterchangeablybysomebecausethefeaturesareconcomitantinsomevarietiesofEnglish Inmost Germaniclanguages, laxvowelscanonlyoccurin closedsyllables. Therefore, theyarealsoknownas checkedvowels, whereasthetensevowelsarecalled freevowels sincetheycanoccurinanykindofsyllable.Tonguerootposition.

Conclusion

Correct pronunciation of each speech sound is crucial for better intelligibility and for setting the standard in pronunciation teaching and learning. In the discussion of teaching the pronunciation of English at the junior and senior secondary school level, one should remember that it usually involves continuation and not necessarily the beginning of the learners' experience with English. Consequently, the phonetic aspect involves handling potential discrepancies inthe level of pronunciation.

The situation may be complicated even further by the fact that in addition to the possible discrepancies, students often represent problems that result from their own wrong conclusions and predictions concerning the interpretation of the spelling. These pronunciation problems are highly individual and, on the whole produce an overall image of people whom it is almost impossible to handle as a group. Even though the image presented here may seem exaggerated, the reality of working at a secondary school always presents at least some of the problems outlined above.

It is because of the difficulties presented in this study that certain issues discussed throughout it become so crucial. The first and, in some cases, most important teaching solution is the use of phonetic transcription. The benefits coming from it go far beyond the advantages described in Chapter 1, such as the chance it offers of making learners aware of different sounds absent from the native phonetic system without the necessity of devoting lengthy explanations to it, or a way of ensuring that new vocabulary items are learnt correctly, without misinterpretations of the spelling, or making the student capable of using the dictionary independently of the...

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4. Ladefoged, Peter, A Course in Phonetics, fifth edition, 2006. Boston, MA: Thomson Wadsworth

5. Ladefoged, Peter, Elements of Acoustic Phonetics, 1995. University of Chicago

6. Ladefoged, Peter; Maddieson, Ian (1996). The Sounds of the World's Languages. Oxford: Blackwell.

7. Ladefoged, Peter, Vowels and Consonants: An Introduction to the Sounds of Languages, 2000. Blackwell

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