Chapter 2, Phonetics
Session 1: The Elusive Phoneme
CHAPTER GOALS
• Define “phoneme”
• Explain the differences between consonant and vowel phonemes
• Explore and reproduce the English consonant phoneme and vowel phoneme charts
• Pronounce all the consonant and vowel phonemes in isolation, using the consonant and vowel
charts for reference
• Reproduce the consonant and vowel charts from memory
• Categorize consonants by specific distinctive features (e.g., nasal/oral; stop/continuant)
• Categorize vowels by features of articulation (e.g., tense/lax, front/back)
• Transcribe the phonemes in familiar words, using either the International Phonetic Alphabet
(IPA) or a phonics symbol system
• Translate words written in IPA or with phonics symbols into standard spelling
• Identify spelling errors that reveal misperceptions of speech sounds
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Topics for Session 1
• Definitions
• Why begin by studying phonemes?
• Phoneme counting
• Why phoneme identification is elusive
• The value of phonetic transcription
• Two categories of speech sounds, consonants and vowels
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What Is a Phoneme?
• One of a finite number in a language system (English has 43/44)
• The smallest unit of speech that can change a word’s meaning
• Words that differ only in one phoneme (minimal pairs) are evidence for the
existence of phonemes.
• built, belt, bolt (/i/, /e/, /o/)
• built, build, guild (/t/, /d/, /g/)
• A phoneme is not a letter!
• Phonetics is the branch of linguistics concerned with speech sound
production and perception.
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Why Start with the Study of Speech
Sounds?
1. Spoken word recognition, pronunciation, and interpretation depend on
accurately processing phonemes.
2. Alphabetic writing systems like English represent phonemes (as well as
other aspects of language).
3. Proficient reading and spelling are strongly associated with the ability to
identify, remember, separate, combine, and manipulate phonemes, and to do
so rapidly and without effort.
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Don’t We Know All the Phonemes
Already?
Most speakers cannot list all the phonemes in English because:
a. We use them unconsciously in speaking and listening.
b. We have to learn them and become metalinguistic thinkers to teach phoneme
awareness to others.
c. Knowing how to spell actually hinders adults’ awareness of phonemes; we
have to divorce what we know about spelling to develop awareness of
phonemes in spoken words.
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Count the Phonemes (Exercise 2.1)
ice mix
mix Was there variation in how everyone
counted the sounds?
sigh pitched
pitched
day straight
straight Why would variation occur in a
aide measure literate group of students or
choose measur
soothe professionals?
sing
eher
thorn soothe
boy
quake her
shout
boy
shout
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Reasons Differences of Opinion Occur
1. We are wired to pay attention to meaning, not the details of speech
2. We don’t speak in individual phonemes
3. The “smushing” or coarticulation of phonemes in speech obscures their
identity
4. Phonemes are abstractions or categories of sound perceived to be the same
sound—for example, /d/ in desk, dress, ladder, and procedure is not
pronounced the same way
5. Spelling deceives us; for example, the letter “x” stands for two phonemes
(/k/ and /s/) and the letters “ng” stand for one (/ng/)
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Exercise 2.2: What is the Third
Phoneme?
choose pneumonia kitchen
writhe vision square
sink folk
Note: Some sounds have no unique letters; and some letters correspond to no
sound.
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Two Classes of Phonemes
• Every language has consonants and vowels.
• English consonant and vowel classifications vary from one language text to
another.
• So, even the experts do not agree on a classification system!
• Regional variation complicates matters
• How to describe a given sound varies from linguist to linguist
• The vowel and consonant systems of this text are based on Fromkin, Rodman,
& Hyams (2014), An Introduction to Language.
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Why Learn to Use IPA
• The International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA) uses one unique symbol to
represent each possible speech sound in human languages.
• Using IPA for phonetic transcription makes us pay attention to the phonemes
in words, separate from the letters.
• Phonic symbols, on the other hand, use the 26 Roman alphabet letters, often
in combination, to represent sounds.
/sh/, /ng/, /th/, /oo/, /oi/
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The Word “Conscience” in Phonic
Symbols and Phonetic (IPA) Symbols
“conscience”
/k/ /o/ /n/ /sh/ /e/ /n/ /s/
[k a n tʃ ə n s]
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Can You Read This?
alðo ðə prabləm ʌv dɪslɛksia ɪz nat ə kəndɪtʃən ʍerɪn pipəl si θɪŋz bækwɛrdz ðə
sɪmptəmz ʌv rivɛrsəlz hæv bɪn ovɛrpled ɪn ðə prɛs
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Preparing to Learn the Consonant
System
• In the next session, we will learn the consonant phonemes of English.
• Prepare by making or cutting out a set of consonant phoneme tiles for
manipulation.
• Have a blank consonant chart ready to fill in.
Watch the video!
Speech Sounds of English: A Tutorial for Speech to Print
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