Phoneme

Phoneme is distinctive sound. Sounds are not always phoneme but all phonemes always sound.

• Segmental : consonant, vowel, and diphthongs.
• Suprasegmental : phoneme that can change the meaning.

Ø  Stress is significant because it can make different meaning.

Ex: ‘present : n, adj

Pre’sent : v

Ø  Pitch is level of voice (high, mid, low)

Ø  Juncture /pause : can change the meaning

Ex: about: approximately/ talk about something

A bout : around

Sound production

ü  A point of articulation: position of articulation / speech organ. Bilabial, Labio-Dental, Dental, Alveolar, Post-

Alveolar, Palatal, Velar, Glottal.

Manner of articulation: the way / how the air stream blockage is formed. Nasal, Plosive, Affricate,Fricative,Flap, Approximant, Lateral

ü  Voicing and aspiration:

Voicing and aspiration of stop consonants in English depend on dialect and context, but a few general rules can be given:

Voiceless plosives and affricates (/p/, /t/, /k/, and /tʃ/) are aspirated when they are word-initial or begin a stressed syllable – compare pin [pʰɪn] and spin [spɪn], crap [kʰɹ̥æp] and scrap [skɹæp].

In some dialects, aspiration extends to unstressed syllables as well.

In other dialects, such as Indian English, all voiceless stops remain unaspirated.

Word-initial voiced plosives may be devoiced in some dialects.

Word-terminal voiceless plosives may be unreleased or accompanied by a glottal stop in some dialects; examples: tap [tʰæp̚], sack [sæk̚].

Word-terminal voiced plosives may be devoiced in some dialects (e.g. some varieties of American English) – examples: sad [sæd̥], bag [bæɡ̊]. In other dialects, they are fully voiced in final position, but only partially voiced in initial position.