Phonetics

Phonic level of language is studied by two complementary disciplines_ phonetics and phonology.

1.Phonetics – deal with the material of speech itself.Speech sounds are studies from 3 differents point of view, which correspond with 3 main branches of phonetics.

1. Articulary phonetics – Studies speech sound from the speakre´s point of view in terms of the articulatory organs and processes involved.
2. Acoustic phonetics- studies speech sounds from the point of view of the transmission of the speaker´s output in terms of physical charakteristics/ wave form, intensity, periodicity, noise/
3. Auditory phonetics – studies speech sounds from the point of view of the hearer in terms of physiology and psychology of perciption.

Add1 * Articulary phonetics has a long tradition compared to other subdisciplines of phonetics. Phonetically it is possible to lasify speech sounds into 2 great classes- vocoids and contoids.
Vocoids- are those speech sounds which generally speaking have the following charakteristic : the air stream and usually the vocal cords are vibrating
Contoids- are those speech sounds which have the following charakteristic: the air stream is not allowed a completely free passage.
Most of the sounds called consonants in English belong to the class of the above defined contoids. They can be classified according to the following criteria:
a/ the kind of stricture i.e. manner of the articulation
b/ the place of articulation
c/ the opposition voiced- voiceless depending on the vibration of vocal cords
d/ whether sound will be oral or nasal

Out of number of consonant modification occuring in languages the most typical for English affects voiceless plosives/ p,t,k,/ at the beginning of syllable when followed by a streses vowel/ as in pin, kin, tin,until/
Vowel usually described based on frame of reference called Cardinal Vowel Scheme.
Cardinal vowels are not sounds of any particular language, they are artificial constructs. All english vowels are voiced.
In their classification 3 criteria are usually taken into account.
1/the duration of the sound- opossiotion short – long.
2/ the kind of opening made by lips- spread, neutral, rounded
3/the position of the highest part of the tongue- high –low, front-central-back, respectlively.

A Dipthong is a combination of two vowels produced one immediately after the other.

The most coplex English sounds of the vowel type are the Thriptongs.
A thripthong is a glide from one vowel type to another and then to a third all produced rappidly and without interruption.
Add2* Acoustic phonetics
As mentioned above acoustic phonetics studies the transmission of sounds wave through the air.
The physicall properties of speech- sounds. The properties that characterize sound wave are:
1/Amplitude – the greater the amplitude the loudes the sound
2/ Frequency- the number of oscillations per second. The higher the frequency the higher in scale the pitch.
3/ Simplicity or complexity- complex sound waved involve waves of different frequencies superimposed on one another.

Acoustic phonetics in a highly technical study which depends heavily on very sophisticated measuring instruments.
Speech- is essentialy a continuum of articulation. A whole set of phonologically elements can then be defined as the domain of various suprasegmental elements- this set to calle dthe phonological hierarchy. The relations between the various elements of the phonological hierarchy are simple: a sentence consists of one or more intonation- group of each consists of a sequaency of one or more syllables.

Syllable- there are 2 theories about the ways in which syllables are formed phonetically
1/ one called prominence theory/ in any flow of speech some sounds are more prominent then others/
2/ the second theory, called pulse theory,/ claim that syllables can be detected by means of pulses of muscular/
Length – is the comparative duration of time taken for the utterance of a syllable
Pitch – is the accoustic result of the speed of vibrations of the vocal cords on the voiced parts of utterances
Stress – is characterized from the articulatory point of view by greater intensity
Another important feature of the utterances from the point of the view of stress and rhytm is the so- called juncture.
It is related to such differences in pronounciatons between nitrate- night rate. The distinction is not in the sounds of the phonemes or their allphones, but in the transition between the syllables of each pair.In english there are roughly 40 words that can be pronounced both strong and weak. We mush distinguish between weak form on the one hand, and contracted forms. We can say that the strong form is used in the following cases.

1/ at the end of sentence „Chips are what Iam fond of.“
2/ when a weak form word is being contrasted „ the letter fro him not to him“
3/ for the purpose of emphasis – „ you must give me more money“
4/ when a weak form word is being ,,quoted,, „ You shouldn´t put „and „ at the end of the sentence.

The most important part of intonation is played by pitch. We descirbe pitch in terms of high and low reffering to the end of the pitch scale.

We can distinguish a level tone „ falling tone and a rising tone“. A syllable carrying a tone in a tone- unitis called Tonic syllable.
Other components of the tone- unit are the head, the prehead and the tail. Transcription is characteristic of the english language that the spelling differs from the pronounciation.For instance the sound represented by ee in been but differently represented in key, people, receive, field.This fact is related to the historical development of english. Systems of transcription make use of symbols whose only purpose is to indicate on paper precisely the sound or sounds features into which an utterance has been analyzed. Such transcription whole sole aim is accuracy of phonetic detail called narrow transcriptions to be distinquish from broad transcriptions. An example of a narrow is the International Phonetic Alphabet. / that was devised to provide a precise and universal means of writing down the spoken forms of utteranceas they are spoken without reference to their ortographic representation , grammatical status or meaning.

Zdroje:

Essentials of English Linguistics- Pavol Stekauer -