Content created: 2021-05-09
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A phoneme is a unit of sound understood by a speaker as distinctively different from other sounds. (In transcriptions, phonemes are conventionally set off with slashes: /p/.)
For example: The /k/ sound in “cat” differs phonetically from that in “scat,” but they are a single phoneme in English and English speakers typically detect no difference, although the difference is obvious to speakers of Hindi.
For example: The vowels in “bet” /bɛt/ and “bat” /bæt/ are heard as to distinct phonemes by native English speakers, but are often heard as identical by learners of English as a second language. See allophone.
An allophone is any of a limited number of ways in which a phoneme may actually be pronounced.
In many cases the selection of an allophone is phonologically conditioned (i.e., determined by adjacent sounded). For example: The English phoneme /s/ has two allophones that vary in voicing: an S sound and a Z sound. The /S/ in “Fred’s” is pronounced with a Z sound, and in “Pat’s” it is pronounced with an S sound. Same phoneme. Different allophones, depending on the preceding sound.
In some cases the selection of an allophone responds to other things (social class, formality of the discourse, even individual words). For example, the vowels in “class” and “mass” are identical for American speakers, but exhibit two different allophones of the phoneme /æ/ for most British speakers of English.
A vowel is a “voiced” speech sound (i.e., one made with vocal chords vibrating) made with a generally open speech track so that little friction is passed as air passes through it. “Aaaah, “eeee,” and “üüüüü” are vowels. (Caution: A,E,I,O, and U are letters representing vowels; English has more vowel sounds than vowel letters.)
Different vowels are produced by changing the shape of the mouth cavity through which the air passes, mostly by moving the tongue. It is therefore convenient to refer to vowels based on the position of the tongue (high/low, front/back) and lips (rounded/unrounded). For example, the vowel in “eat” is high, front, unrounded, whereas the vowel in “goat” is mid, back, rounded.
A consonant is a speech sound made by constriction of the vocal tract such that the flow of air produces audible friction —“fricatives”— or is briefly stopped and then released —“stops.” Consonants may be voiced or unvoiced.
Fricatives. The F in “fat” and the Z in “zoo” are fricatives. (The specialized word “sibilant” is sometimes used for S-like and SH-like fricatives.)
A lateral fricative closes the center of the mouth, routing the air around the sides of the tongue. L is a lateral fricative.
An affricate is a combination of a stop plus a fricative. Phonologically it is two sounds, but it may constitute a single phoneme (as Spanish or English CH sound).
These sounds may be voiced (with the vocal chords vibrating) or voiceless (with no such vibration).
Stops may be voiced (with vocal chords vibrating on release) or unvoiced/voiceless (without the vocal chords) and the may be aspirated (pronounced with an audible puff of air) or not. The T in “Tom” and both Ps in “pope” are unvoiced aspirated stops. The D in “dangle” and the G in “gather” are voiced unaspirated ones.