Strong and weak syllables

The vowel (schwa). Close front and close back

vowels. Syllabic consonants.

Phonetics:
Phonetics is the scientific study of speech.
Phonetics has three main branches:
1. articulatory phonetics articulation of the speech: the
position, shape, and movement of articulators or
speech organs, such as the lips, tongue, vocal folds,
velum and others.
2. acoustic phonetics acoustics of speech: the
properties of the sound waves, such as their frequency
and harmonics
3. auditory phonetics - speech perception: how sound is
received by the inner ear and perceived by the brain.

Phonology:
Phonology is the study of how phonemes function in
language and the relationship among the different
phonemes in speech flow. It is the abstract side of the
sounds of a language.
Phonology focuses on three topics:
1) How do we represent the lexical contrasts between words;
2) What the constraints are on the sounds in lexical items in
a given language (or, as some would put it, what is a well
formed syllable);
3) How can we describe the relations between the underlying
lexical items and the observable phonetic output (or,
putting it another way, how can we formalize the sound
patterns of languages) (Ladefoged, 2004 : 11)

Vowels:

Sounds which are made with a

smooth, continuous, unobstructed
airflow through the oral cavity:
1. the height to which the body of the
tongue is raised, whether it is
high, low, or in between (mid);
2. how forward the body of the tongue
is, whether it is front (advanced),
central, or back (retracted);
3. whether the lips are rounded or
unrounded.

English language vowels:

1. Short vowels: [], [e], [], [], [], []; and [],
2. Long vowels: [i:], [u:], [:], [], [],
3. Diphthongs: [ ], [e], [], [e], [a], [],
[], [a],
4. Triphthongs : e + = e; a + = a; +
= ; + = ; a + = a

English language consonants:

Consonants sounds
which are made with
some obstruction to
the airflow in the oral
cavity

English consonants manner of articulation:

Stops /Plosives/ - [p], [b], [t], [d], [k], [g]

Fricatives - [f], [v], [], [], [s], [z], [], [ ], [h]
Affricates - [t], [d]
Nasals - [m], [n], []
Laterals - [l]
Approximants - [j], [w], [r]

English consonants - place of articulation:

Bilabial - [p], [b], [m], [w]

Labiodental - [f], [v]
Dental/Interdental - [], []
Alveolar - [t], [d], [s], [z], [n], [l], [r]
Alveo-palatal (or post-alveolar) - [], [ ], [t], [d]
Palatal - [j]
Velar - [k], [g], []
Glottal (laryngeal) - [h]

English consonants voice:

Voiced (lenis) - [b], [v], [m], [p], [], [d], [z], [n],
[l], [r], [], [d], [g], [], [h]
Voiceless (fortis) - [f], [], [t], [s], [], [t], [k]

Syllables:
The syllable is a very important unit.
Minimum syllable would be a single vowel in
isolation, e. g. the word are []
Some syllables have an onset, e. g. bar [b]
Syllables without an onset but with a coda, e. g.
am [m]
Some syllables have onset and coda, e. g. run
[rn]

Strong and weak syllables:

Stress is a major factor in determining whether a syllable will be
strong or weak (thus strong syllables are stressed and weak
syllables are unstressed).
In most dictionaries, the symbol used to indicate stress is []
placed before the stressed syllable, e.g., [kmpju t] . If a word
has more than one stressed syllable, the major one is called
primary stress [], and the other secondary stress [] [bdrum]
When we compare weak syllables with strong syllables we find
that the vowel in weak syllables tends to be:
1. Shorter
2. Lower intensity (loudness)
3. Different in quality
. Any strong syllable will have as its centre one of the vowel
phonemes but not [].

Strong and weak syllables:

Weak syllables can only have four types of centre:
1. The vowel []
2. A close unrounded vowel in the general area of
[]
3. A close rounded vowel in the general area of
[]
4. A syllabic consonant

The vowel [] (schwa):

The vowel [] (schwa):

Most frequently occurring vowel in English language.

Always associated with weak syllables.
In quality it is mid and central.
It is not articulated with much energy
Examples:
1. Spelt with a : attend [tnd]
2. Spelt with o: tomorrow /tmr/
3. Spelt with or: forget /fget/
4. Spelt with ar: monarchy [mnk]
5. Adjectival endings spelt ate: intimate /ntmt/
6. Spelt with e: settlement [stlmnt]
7. Spelt with er: stronger [str g]
8. Spelt with u: support [spt]
9. Spelt with ous: gracious [res]
10. Spelt with ough: thorough [r]

Close front and close back vowels:

[]

[]

Close front and close back vowels - examples:

Close front vowels []:

Final position, words spelt

with y or ey: happy [hp]
Prefix such as re, pre, de:
react [rkt]
Suffixes spelt ate, iou:
hilarious [hlrs]
In the following words when
unstressed, me, be, he, she,
the

Close back vowels[]:

Not so common
Frequently found in words
such as you, to, into, do
When? ->
1. unstressed
2. preceding a consonant
through , who -> unstressed
Before another vowel within a
word.

Syllabic consonants:
Syllables in which no vowel is found, a
consonant either l, r, or a nasal stands as its peak
A consonant is syllabic by a small vertical mark
[l], [n], [m], [], [r]

Syllabic [l]
Examples:
tunnel [tn],
bottle [bt],
cattle[kt],
couple[kp],
trouble [trb],
struggle [strg],
panel [pn],
petal [pet],
kennel [ken],
parcel [p:s]

Syllabic [n]:
Examples: In middle and final
positions: threatening[ret],
threaten[ret]
ribbon[rib] or [rbn], seven
[sev], heaven [hev], often[ f ]
rather than [sevn], [hevn], [f n]
One special rule:
Although syllabic [n] is preceeded in
these examples by another
consonant, its also possible for
another consonant to precede that
one:
-Exs: Boston [bst], Wilton
[wlt]; other sequences such as nd
or nt not possible in RP:
London [lndn], abandon
[bndn]

Syllabic [m] and []:

They can occur as syllabic as a
result of a process of
assimilation or deletion:
Uppermost [pst] or
[pmst]]

Thicken [k(syllabic)] or
[kn]; Happen [hpm]

Syllabic [r]:
In rothic accents (most American
accents):
Examples: particular [ptkjl] in
RP [ptkjl]
Other examples:
a) Where non-syllabic r is also
acceptable
history [hsti] or [hstri] not
usually [hstri]
wandered [wnd] or
[wndr] not usually [wndr]
b)Where r is also acceptable
buttering [bt] or [btr]
flattery [flt] or [fltri]

Combination of syllabic consonants:

Its also possible to find two syllabic consonants
together:
national [n],
literal[lt],
visionary [vnr]
veteran[vet]

References:
Ladefoged, P. (2004) Phonetics and phonology
in the last 50 years, Paper presented at: From
Sound to Sense: 50+ Years of Discoveries in
Speech Communication, MIT, 11-13
Roach, P. (1998). English phonetics and
phonology.
Vinagre, M. (2014). More on Syllabification
Principles
http://www.uiowa.edu/~acadtech/phonetics/eng
lish/english.html

Thank you!