English Phonetics and Phonology:)

 

BASIC TERMINOLOGIES

1.       Phoneme

2.      Vowel Phonemes/Vowels

3.      Consonants

4.      Syllable

5.      Stress

6.      Elision

        

PHONEME

Any of the perceptually separate components of speech sounds in a language is referred to as a phoneme. Phonemes are what allow us to distinguish one word from another. Phonemes can be classified into two groups:

i. Vowels

ii. Consonants

Vowels are speech sounds produced when the mouth is open and the flow of air is not blocked by the tongue, teeth, or lips. The following categories are used to categorize vowels:

• Monophthongs
• Diphthongs 
• Triphthongs 

CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD THE LIST OF MONOPHTHONGS

CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOD THE LIST OF DIPHTHONGS &

TRIPHTHONGS

CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD THE LIST OF CONSONANTS

When the stream of breath is entirely or partially obstructed / impeded through the articulators such as the tongue, teeth, or lips, speech sounds called consonants are produced. In English, there are twenty-four consonants, each of which is generated in a different way depending on the airflow limitation that moulds the oral cavity.

SYLLABLE

A syllable is a unit of pronunciation that consists of one vowel sound, with or without surrounding consonants, that makes up the whole or part of a word; for example, the word desert has two syllables while interact has three.

A syllabic unit consists of a vowel sound that may be preceded or followed by one or more consonants. The nucleus of a syllable is the vowel, which is the core and obligatory element; consonants, on the other hand, are the syllable's optional unit. A syllable is made up of three basic components, which are as follows:   

Onset (a part of syllable that precedes a vowel ; for example, in a word seat, /s/ is an onset)

 Nucleus (the vowel in the middle of a syllable; for example, in a word seat, /i:/ is a nucleus

          Coda (a part of syllable that follows a vowel; for example, in a word seat, /t/ is a coda).  

           The combination of nucleus and coda in a syllable is called rhyme/rime.

 

   STRESS

Stress refers to the emphasis placed on a specific syllable or phrase in speech, which is usually achieved through a combination of louder volume, higher pitch, and a longer time of pronunciation. A stressed or accented syllable is one that is uttered with a lot of emphasis. Syllables can be classified as either predominantly stressed or secondarily stressed, with some syllabic units having no stress at all. These syllabic units are referred to as unstressed syllables.

Primary stress on syllables refers to the highest level of emphasis, which is indicated in IPA by a raised vertical line ( ˈ ) placed high up before the syllable in question. Secondary emphasis on syllables, on the other hand, refers to a word's accent on a syllable that has a weaker effect than the syllable that is predominantly stressed. The aforementioned diacritic mark is put below and before the syllable it refers to to indicate a secondary or weak stress. For example, in the word feasibility /əˌveɪləˈbɪləti/, the fourth syllable is primarily stressed, the first syllable is secondarily stressed,  and the rest of the syllables are unstressed.