Introducing Phonetics

and Phonolog y

‘Davenport and Hannahs’ introductory textbook achieves the impossible.

In straightforward, accessible language it covers the full range of basic topics
that inform modern phonological investigation, from the phonetic properties of
speech sounds that are the basis for most feature systems to syllable structure
and prosodic morphology. The fundamentals of phonemic analysis are clearly
laid out, and different current theoretical approaches are both motivated and
critiqued, giving beginning students a thought-provoking taste of the issues that
drive modern research in phonology’.
Laura J. Downing, University of Gothenburg, Sweden

Intended for the absolute beginner, Introducing Phonetics and Phonology requires
no previous background in linguistics, phonetics or phonology. Starting with a
grounding in phonetics and phonological theory, the book provides a base from
which more advanced treatments may be approached.
It begins with an examination of the foundations of articulatory and acoustic
phonetics, moves on to the basic principles of phonology and ends with an outline
of some further issues within contemporary phonology. Varieties of English,
particularly Received Pronunciation and General American, form the focus of
consideration, but aspects of the phonetics and phonology of other languages
are discussed as well. This new edition includes revised exercises and examples;
additional coverage of typology, autosegmental phonology and articulatory and
acoustic phonetics; broader coverage of varieties that now features Australian
English; and an extended Chapter 7 that includes more information on the
relationship between phonetics and phonology.
Introducing Phonetics and Phonology, 4th Edition remains the essential
introduction for any students studying this topic for the first time.

Mike Davenport is the former Director of Durham University English Language

Centre, UK.

S.J. Hannahs is a former Reader in Linguistics at Newcastle University, UK.

Introducing Phonetics
and Phonolog y

4th Edition

Mike Davenport and S.J. Hannahs

Fourth edition published 2020
by Routledge
2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon, OX14 4RN
and by Routledge
52 Vanderbilt Avenue, New York, NY 10017
Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business
© 2020 Mike Davenport and S.J. Hannahs
The right of Mike Davenport and S.J. Hannahs to be identified as
authors of this work has been asserted by them in accordance with
sections 77 and 78 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or
reproduced or utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical,
or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including
photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or
retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers.
Trademark notice: Product or corporate names may be trademarks
or registered trademarks, and are used only for identification and
explanation without intent to infringe.
First edition published by Hodder Education 1998
Third edition published by Hodder Education 2010 and by Routledge
2013
British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Names: Davenport, Michael, 1954- author. | Hannahs, S. J., author.
Title: Introducing phonetics and phonology/Mike Davenport and
S.J. Hannahs.
Description: Fourth edition. | Abingdon, Oxon ; New York, NY :
Routledge, 2020. | Previous edition: London: Hodder Education,
[2010]. | Includes bibliographical references and index.
Identifiers: LCCN 2019045907 (print) | LCCN 2019045908 (ebook) |
ISBN 9780815353300 (hardback) | ISBN 9780815353294 (paperback) |
ISBN 9781351042789 (ebook)
Subjects: LCSH: Phonetics. | Grammar, Comparative and general –
Phonology.
Classification: LCC P217 .D384 2020 (print) | LCC P217 (ebook) |
DDC 414 – dc23
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2019045907
LC ebook record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2019045908
ISBN: 978-0-8153-5330-0 (hbk)
ISBN: 978-0-8153-5329-4 (pbk)
ISBN: 978-1-351-04278-9 (ebk)
DOI: 10.4324/9781351042789
Typeset in Times New Roman
by Apex CoVantage, LLC

IPA Chart, www.internationalphoneticassociation.org/content/ipa-chart,

available under a Creative Commons Attribution-Sharealike 3.0 Unported
License. Copyright © 2015 International Phonetic Association.
Contents

List of tables ix
List of figures x
Preface to the first edition xii
Preface to the second edition xiv
Preface to the third edition xv
Preface to the fourth edition xvi
The International Phonetic Alphabet xvii

1 Introduction 1
1.1 Phonetics and phonology 1
1.2 The generative enterprise 3
Further reading 6

2 Introduction to articulatory phonetics 7

2.1 Overview 8
2.2 Speech sound classification 14
2.3 Suprasegmental structure 15
2.4 Consonants versus vowels 16
Further reading 17
Exercises 17

3 Consonants 19
3.1 Stops 20
3.2 Affricates 27
3.3 Fricatives 28
3.4 Nasals 31
3.5 Liquids 32
vi Contents

3.6 Glides 35
3.7 An inventory of English consonants 37
Further reading 38
Exercises 38

4 Vowels 40
4.1 Vowel classification 40
4.2 The vowel space and Cardinal Vowels 41
4.3 Further classifications 43
4.4 The vowels of English 44
4.5 Some vowel systems of English 53
Further reading 57
Exercises 57

5 Acoustic phonetics 59
5.1 Fundamentals 59
5.2 Speech sounds 64
5.3 Cross-linguistic values 74
Further reading 75
Exercises 75

6 Above the segment 77

6.1 The syllable 77
6.2 Stress 82
6.3 Tone and intonation 88
Further reading 93
Exercises 94

7 Features 95
7.1 Segmental composition 95
7.2 Phonetic versus phonological features 96
7.3 Charting the features 98
7.4 Conclusion 114
Further reading 115
Exercises 117

8 Phonemic analysis 119

8.1 Sounds that are the same but different 119
8.2 Finding phonemes and allophones 122
8.3 Linking levels: rules 125
 Contents vii

8.4 Choosing the underlying form 127

8.5 Summary 134
Further reading 135
Exercises 135

9 Phonological alternations, processes and rules 138

9.1 Alternations versus processes versus rules 138
9.2 Alternation types 139
9.3 Representing phonological generalisations:
rules and constraints 143
9.4 Overview of phonological operations 148
9.5 Summary 150
Further reading 150
Exercises 151

10 Phonological structure 153

10.1 The need for richer phonological representation 154
10.2 Segment internal structure: feature geometry, underspecification
and unary features 158
10.3 Autosegmental phonology 165
10.4 Suprasegmental structure 172
10.5 Conclusion 180
Further reading 181
Exercises 181

11 Derivational analysis 183

11.1 The aims of analysis 183
11.2 A derivational analysis of English noun plural formation 185
11.3 Extrinsic versus intrinsic rule ordering 189
11.4 Evaluating competing analyses: evidence, economy and
plausibility 191
11.5 Conclusion 201
Further reading 202
Exercises 202

12 Constraint-based analysis 205

12.1 Introduction to Optimality Theory 205
12.2 The aims of analysis 209
12.3 Modelling phonological processes in OT 210
12.4 English noun plural formation: an OT account 215
viii Contents

12.5 Competing analyses 219

12.6 Conclusion 222
Further reading 223
Exercises 223

13 Constraining the model 227

13.1 Constraining derivational phonology: abstractness 228
13.2 Constraining the power of the phonological component 231
13.3 Constraining the power of OT 238
13.4 Conclusion 245
Further reading 246

Glossary 247
References 254
Subject index 257
Varieties of English index 262
Language index 263
Tables

2.1 The major places of articulation 14

3.1 Stops in English 20
3.2 Fricatives in English 28
3.3 Typical English consonants 37
5.1 Typical formant values of French nasal vowels 68
5.2 Acoustic correlates of consonant features 74
5.3 Comparison of the first two formants of four vowels of English,
French, German and Spanish. 75
7.1 Feature specifications for English consonants 116
7.2 Feature specifications for English vowels 117
Figures

2.1 The vocal tract and articulatory organs 8

2.2 Open glottis 9
2.3 Narrowed vocal cords 10
2.4 Closed glottis 10
2.5 Creaky voice aperture 11
2.6 Sagittal section 12
3.1 Aspirated [ph] versus unaspirated [p] 23
4.1 The vowel space 42
4.2 Cardinal Vowel chart 42
4.3 Positions of [i] in German and English 43
4.4 High front vowels of English 45
4.5 Mid front vowels of English 46
4.6 Low front vowels of English 47
4.7 Low back vowels of English 48
4.8 Mid back vowels of English 50
4.9 High back vowels of English 51
4.10 Central vowels of English 52
4.11 RP (conservative) monophthongs 53
4.12 North American English (General American) monophthongs 54
4.13 Northern English English monophthongs 55
4.14 Lowland Scottish English monophthongs 55
4.15 Australian English monophthongs 56
5.1 Periodic wave 60
5.2 Wave at 20 cps 60
5.3 Spectrogram for [ðɪsɪzəspɛktɹəɡɹæm] 62
5.4 Waveform of [ðɪsɪzəspɛktɹəɡɹæm] 63
5.5 Vowel formant frequencies (American English) 65
5.6 Spectrogram of vowel formants 66
5.7 Spectrogram of diphthongs 67
5.8a Spectrogram of General American ‘There’s a bear here’ 69
5.8b Spectrogram of non-rhotic English English ‘There’s a bear here’ 70
5.9 Stops [ph], [p] and [b] in ‘pie’, ‘spy’ and ‘by’ 71
 Figures xi

5.10 Formant transitions 72

5.11 Fully voiced stop 73
5.12 Voiceless unaspirated stop 73
5.13 Voiceless aspirated stop 73
7.1 Sagittal section showing [anterior] and [coronal] 101
10.1 An example of features organised in terms of a feature tree 161
10.2 A tree for the segment /t/ 161
10.3 Spreading and delinking 168
Preface to the first edition

This textbook is intended for the absolute beginner who has no previous knowl-
edge of either linguistics in general or phonetics and phonology in particular.
The aim of the text is to serve as an introduction first to the speech sounds of
human languages – that is phonetics – and second to the basic notions behind
the organisation of the sound systems of human languages – that is phonology.
It is not intended to be a complete guide to phonetics nor a handbook of current
phonological theory. Rather, its purpose is to enable the reader to approach more
advanced treatments of both topics. As such, it is primarily intended for students
beginning degrees in linguistics and/or English language.
The book consists of two parts. After looking briefly at phonetics and phonol-
ogy and their place in the study of language, Chapters 2 through 6 examine the
foundations of articulatory and acoustic phonetics. Chapters 7 through 12 deal
with the basic principles of phonology. The final chapter of the book is intended as
a pointer towards some further issues within contemporary phonology. While the
treatment does not espouse any specific theoretical model, the general framework
of the book is that of generative phonology and in the main the treatment deals
with areas where there is some consensus among practising phonologists.
The primary source of data considered in the book is from varieties of English,
particularly Received Pronunciation and General American. At the same time,
however, aspects of the phonetics and phonology of other languages are also dis-
cussed. While a number of these languages may be unfamiliar to the reader, their
inclusion is both justifiable and important. In the first place, English does not
exemplify the full range of phonological processes that need to be considered
and exemplified. Second, the principles of phonology discussed in the book are
relevant to all human languages, not just English.
At the end of each chapter there is a short section suggesting further readings.
With very few exceptions the suggested readings are secondary sources, typically
intermediate and advanced textbooks. Primary literature has generally not been
referred to since the intended readership is the beginning student.
Exercises are included at the end of Chapters 2 through 12. These are intended
to consolidate the concepts introduced in each chapter and to afford the stu-
dent the opportunity to apply the principles discussed. While no answers are
 Preface to the first edition xiii

provided, the data from a number of the exercises are given fuller accounts in
later chapters.
As with any project of this sort, thanks are due to to a number of colleagues,
friends and students. In particular we’d like to thank Michael Mackert for his
comments and critique. A number of other people have also given us the benefit of
their comments and suggestions, including Maggie Tallerman, Lesley Davenport,
Roger Maylor and Ian Turner. None of these people is to be blamed, individually
or collectively, for any remaining shortcomings. Thanks also to generations of
students at the universities of Durham, Delaware, Odense and Swarthmore Col-
lege, without whom none of this would have been necessary!
Mike Davenport & S. J. Hannahs
Durham, March 1998
Preface to the second edition

Whilst maintaining the basic structure and order of presentation of the first edi-
tion, we have added a new chapter on the syllable, stress, tone and intonation,
as well as adding or expanding sections in existing chapters, including a section
on recent developments in phonological theory. We have also made numerous
minor changes and corrections. We have been helped in this endeavour by many
colleagues, students, reviewers and critics. For his specialist help on the anatomy
of the vocal tract we’d like to express our thanks to James Cantrell. For help,
encouragement, and apposite (and otherwise!) criticism we’d also like to thank (in
alphabetical order): Loren Billings, Maria Cosy, David Deterding, Laura J. Downing,
Jan van Eijk, Andras Kertesz, Thomas Klein, Ken Lodge, Annalisa Zanola
Macola, Donna Jo Napoli, Kathy Riley, Jürg Strässler, Maggie Tallerman, Larry
Trask, and anonymous reviewers for Hodder Arnold. We’d also like to acknowl-
edge the help (and considerable patience) of staff at Hodder Arnold: Eva Marti-
nez, Lesley Riddle, Lucy Schiavone and Christina Wipf Perry. We apologise to
anyone we’ve left out (and to anyone who didn’t want to be included). None of
these people can be assumed to agree with (all of) our assumptions or conclusions;
nor (unfortunately) can they be held responsible for any remaining infelicities.
Mike Davenport & S. J. Hannahs
Durham & Newcastle, December 2004
Preface to the third edition

We are gratified and flattered that this book has maintained its popularity. We’ve
tried in this edition to correct further errors and to update and expand the con-
tent in the light of recent developments in phonological theory. We have added a
chapter on Optimality Theory and drawn explicit parallels between derivational
analysis and optimality accounts. We have also included a glossary of terms.
In preparing this edition, we’ve had the benefit of various comments from col-
leagues and students over the past few years. These include, in no particular order,
Mais Sulaiman, Tina Fry, Clare Wright, Magda Sztencel, Gosia Krzek, Paksiri
Tongsen, Yousef Elramli, Mohana Dass Ramasamy, Alex Leung, Robert Bell, Ali-
son Pennell. We would also like to thank staff at Hodder Education, in particular
Bianca Knights and Liz Wilson. We’d also like to thank Caroline McPherson for
her invaluable assistance in preparing the glossary. We apologise to any helpful
souls we have missed out, or any we have included against their will.
Mike Davenport & S. J. Hannahs
Durham & Newcastle, June 2010
Preface to the fourth edition

While this new edition has been updated in the light of recent theoretical research,
particularly in the later chapters, it remains what we originally set out to write:
an introduction to phonetics and phonology for students with no background in
phonetics, phonology or linguistics in general. And we’re pleased that it continues
to be useful for such students, despite the technical nature of the field.
Over the years since the publication of the last edition we have continued to
benefit from the comments of students and colleagues who have used the text-
book, including Danielle Turton, Míša Hejná, Twana Hamid, Zana Abdulkareem,
Adeline Charlton, Becky Musa, Tamader Hwaidi and numerous others. To them
and to the generations of undergraduate students, thanks.
Mike Davenport & S.J. Hannahs
Durham, January 2020
The International Phonetic Alphabet
Chapter 1

Introduction

This book is about the sounds we use when we speak (as opposed to the sounds
we make when we’re doing other things). It’s also about the various kinds of rela-
tionships that exist between the sounds we use. That is, it’s about ‘phonetics’ – the
physical description of the actual sounds used in human languages – and it’s about
‘phonology’ – the way the sounds we use are organised into patterns and systems.
As speakers of a particular language (English, say, or Hindi or Gaelic or Mohawk)
we obviously ‘know’ about the phonetics and phonology of our language, since
we use our language all the time, and unless we are tired or not concentrating (or
drunk), we do so without making errors. Furthermore, we always recognise when
someone else (for example a non-native speaker) pronounces something incor-
rectly. But, equally obviously, this knowledge is not something we are conscious
of; we can’t usually express the knowledge we have of our language. One of the
aims of this book is to examine some ways in which we can begin to express what
native speakers know about the sound system of their language.

1.1 Phonetics and phonology

Ask most speakers of English how many vowel sounds the language has, and
what answer will you get? Typically, unless the person asked has taken a course
in phonetics and phonology, the answer will be something like ‘five: A, E, I,
O and U’. With a little thought, however, it’s easy to see that this can’t be right.
Consider the words ‘hat’, ‘hate’ and ‘hart’; each of these is distinguished from the
others in terms of the vowel sound between the ‘h’ and ‘t’, yet each involves the
vowel letter ‘a’. When people answer that English has five vowels, they are think-
ing of English spelling, not the actual sounds of English. In fact, as we will see in
Chapter 4, most kinds of English have between 16 and 20 different vowel sounds,
but most speakers are completely unaware of this, despite constantly using them.
In a similar vein, consider the words ‘tuck’, ‘stuck’, ‘cut’ and ‘duck’. The first
three words each contain a sound represented in the spelling by the letter ‘t’, and
most speakers of English would say that this ‘t’ sound is the same in each of these
words. The last word begins with a ‘d’ sound, and in this case speakers would say
that this was a quite different sound to the ‘t’ sounds.

DOI: 10.4324/9781351042789-1
2 Introduction

An investigation of the physical properties of these sounds (their phonetics)

reveals some interesting facts which do not quite match with the ideas of the
native speaker. In the case of the ‘t’ sounds we find that there are quite notice-
able differences between the three. For most speakers of English, the ‘t’ at the
beginning of ‘tuck’ is accompanied by an audible outrush of air (a little like a
very brief ‘huh’ sound), known as aspiration. There is no such outrush for the ‘t’
in ‘stuck’, which actually sounds quite like the ‘d’ in ‘duck’. And the ‘t’ in ‘cut’
is different yet again; it may not involve any opening of the mouth, or it may be
accompanied by, or even replaced by, a stoppage of the air in the throat, similar
to a very quick cough-like sound, known as a ‘glottal stop’. When we turn to the
‘d’ sound, the first thing to notice is that it is produced in a very similar way to
the ‘t’ sounds; for both ‘t’ and ‘d’ we raise the front part of the tongue to the bony
ridge behind the upper teeth to form a blockage to the passage of air out of the
mouth. The difference between the sounds rests with the behaviour of what are
known as the vocal cords (in the Adam’s apple), which vibrate when we say ‘d’
and do not vibrate for ‘t’. (We shall have much more to say about this kind of
thing in Chapters 2, 3, 4 and 5.)
That is, phonetically we have four very similar but slightly different sounds;
but as far as the speaker is concerned, there are only two quite different sounds.
The speaker is usually unaware of the differences between the ‘t’ sounds and
equally unaware of the similarities between the ‘t’ and ‘d’ sounds. This reflects
the phonological status of the sounds: the ‘t’ sounds behave in the same way as
far as the system of English sounds is concerned, whereas the ‘t’ and ‘d’ sounds
behave quite differently. There is no contrast among the ‘t’ sounds, but they as a
group contrast with the ‘d’ sound. That is, we cannot distinguish between two dif-
ferent words in English by replacing one ‘t’ sound with another ‘t’ sound: having
a ‘t’ without aspiration (like the one in ‘stuck’) at the beginning of ‘tuck’ doesn’t
give us a different English word (it just gives us a slightly odd pronunciation of
the same word, ‘tuck’). Replacing the ‘t’ with a ‘d’, on the other hand, clearly does
result in a different English word: ‘duck’.
So where phonetically there are four different sounds, phonologically there are
only two contrasting elements, the ‘t’ and the ‘d’. When native speakers say that
the ‘t’s are the same and the ‘d’ is different, they are reflecting their knowledge
of the phonological system of English, that is, the underlying organisation of the
sounds of the language.
In a certain respect phonetics and phonology deal with many of the same
things since they both have to do with speech sounds of human language. To an
extent they also share the same vocabulary (though the specific meanings of the
words may differ). The difference between them will become clear as the book
progresses, but it is useful to try to recognise the basic difference from the outset.
Phonetics deals with speech sounds themselves, how they are made (articula-
tory phonetics), how they are perceived (auditory phonetics) and the physics
involved (acoustic phonetics). (Note that terms in bold and italics are listed in
the glossary.) Phonology deals with how these speech sounds are organised into
 Introduction 3

systems for each individual language; for example: how the sounds can be com-
bined, the relations between them and how they affect each other.
Consider the word ‘tlip’. Most native speakers of English would agree that this
is clearly not a word of their language, but why not? We might think that there is
a phonetic reason for this, for instance that it’s ‘impossible to pronounce’. If we
found that there are no human languages with words beginning ‘tl . . .’, we might
take that as evidence for claiming that the combination of ‘t’ followed by ‘l’ at
the beginning of a word is impossible. Unfortunately for such a claim, there are
human languages that happily combine ‘tl’ at the beginnings of words, e.g. Tlingit
(spoken in Alaska), Navajo (spoken in Southwestern USA), Welsh (spoken in
Wales); indeed, the language name Tlingit itself begins with this sequence. So,
if ‘tl . . .’ is phonetically possible, why doesn’t English allow it? The reason is
clearly not phonetic. It must therefore be a consequence of the way speech sounds
are organised in English which doesn’t permit ‘tl . . .’ to occur initially. Note that
this sequence can occur in the middle of a word, e.g. ‘atlas’. So the reason English
doesn’t have words beginning with ‘tl . . .’ has nothing to do with the phonetics,
since the combination is perfectly possible for a human being to pronounce, but
it has to do with the systematic organisation of speech sounds in English, that is
the phonology.
We noted that phonetics and phonology deal with many of the same things. In
another very real sense, however, phonetics and phonology are only accidentally
related. Most human languages use the voice and vocal apparatus as their primary
means of expression. Yet there are fully fledged human languages which use a
different means of expression, or ‘modality’. Sign languages – for example Brit-
ish Sign Language, American Sign Language, Sign Language of the Netherlands
and many others – primarily involve the use of manual rather than vocal ges-
tures. Since these sign languages use modalities other than speaking and hearing
to encode and decode human language, we need to keep phonetics – the surface
manifestation of spoken language – separate from phonology – the abstract sys-
tem organising the surface sounds and gestures. If we take this division seriously,
and we have to on the evidence of sign language, we need to be careful to distin-
guish systematically between phonetics and phonology.

1.2 The generative enterprise

We have seen that we can make a distinction between on the one hand the surface,
physical aspects of language – the sounds we use or, in the case of sign languages,
the manual and facial gestures we use – and on the other hand the underlying,
mental aspects that control this usage – the system of contrasting units of the
phonology. This split between the two different levels is central to the theory of
linguistics that underpins this book – a theory known as generative grammar.
Generative grammar is particularly associated with the work of the American lin-
guist Noam Chomsky and can trace its current prominence to a series of books
and articles by Chomsky and his followers in the 1950s and 1960s.
4 Introduction

A couple of words are in order here about the terms ‘generative’ and ‘gram-
mar’. To take the second word first, ‘grammar’ is here used as a technical term.
Outside linguistics, ‘grammar’ is used in a variety of different ways, often being
concerned only with certain aspects of a language, such as the endings on nouns
and verbs in a language like German. In generative linguistics, its meaning is
something like ‘the complete description of a language’, that is, what the sounds
are and how they combine, what the words are and how they combine, what the
meanings of the words are etc. The term ‘generative’ also has a specific meaning
in linguistics. It does not mean ‘concerning production or creation’; rather, adapt-
ing a usage from mathematics, it means ‘specifying as allowable or not within
the language’. A generative grammar consists of a set of formal statements which
delimit all and only all the possible structures that are part of the language in ques-
tion. That is, like a native speaker, the generative grammar must recognise those
things which are allowable in the language and also those things which are not
(hence the rather odd ‘all and only all’ in the preceding sentence).
The basic aim of a generative theory of linguistics is to represent in a formal way
the tacit knowledge native speakers have of their language. This knowledge is termed
native speaker competence – the idealised unconscious knowledge a speaker has
of the organisation of his or her language. Competence can be distinguished from
performance – the actual use of language. Performance is of less interest to genera-
tive linguists since all sorts of external, non-linguistic factors are involved when we
actually use language – factors like how tired we are, how sober we are, who we
are talking to, where we are doing the talking, what we are trying to achieve with
what we are saying etc. All these things affect the way we speak, but they are largely
irrelevant to our knowledge of how our language is structured and so are at best only
peripheral to the core generative aim of characterising native speaker competence.
So what exactly are the kinds of things that we ‘know’ about our language? That
is, what sorts of things must a generative grammar account for? One important
thing we know about languages is that they do indeed have structure; speaking
a language involves much more than randomly combining bits of that language.
If we take the English words ‘the’, ‘a’, ‘dog’, ‘cat’ and ‘chased’, native speakers
know which combinations are permissible (the term is grammatical) and which
are not (ungrammatical); so ‘the dog chased a cat’ or ‘the cat chased a dog’ are
fine, but *‘the cat dog a chased’ or *‘a chased dog cat the’ are not (an aster-
isk before an example indicates that the example is judged to be ungrammatical
by native speakers). So one of the things we know about our language is how
to combine words together to form larger constructions like sentences. We also
know about relationships that hold between words in such sentences; we know,
for example, that in ‘the dog chased a cat’ the words ‘the’ and ‘dog’ form a unit
and are more closely related than say ‘dog’ and ‘chased’ in the same sentence.
This type of knowledge is known as syntactic knowledge and is the concern of
that part of the grammar known as the syntax.
We also know about the internal make-up of words. In English a word like
‘happy’ can have its meaning changed by adding the element ‘un’ at the beginning,
 Introduction 5

giving ‘unhappy’. Or it could have its function in the sentence changed by adding
‘ly’ to the end, giving ‘happily’. Indeed, it could have both at once, giving ‘unhap-
pily’, and again, native speakers ‘know’ this and can recognise ungrammatical
structures like *‘lyhappyun’ or *‘happyunly’. In the same way, speakers recog-
nise that adding ‘s’ to a word like ‘dog’ or ‘cat’ indicates that we are referring to
more than one, and they know that this plural marker must be added at the end of
the word, not the beginning. This type of knowledge about how words are formed
is known as morphology and is the concern of the morphological component of
the grammar.
The grammar must also account for our knowledge about the meanings of
words, how these meanings are related and how they can be combined to allow
sentences to be interpreted. This is the concern of the semantics.
Finally, as we have seen in this chapter, we as native speakers have knowledge
about the sounds of our language and how they are organised, that is, phonologi-
cal knowledge. This is the concern of the phonological component of the gram-
mar (and, of course, of this book).
So a full generative grammar must represent all of these areas of native speaker
knowledge (syntactic, morphological, semantic and phonological). In each of
these areas there are two types of knowledge native speakers have: that which is
predictable and that which is not. A generative grammar must therefore be able
to characterise both these sorts of knowledge. As an example, it is not predictable
that the word in English for a domesticated feline quadruped is ‘cat’; the relation-
ship between the animal and the sequence of sounds we use to name it is arbi-
trary (if it wasn’t arbitrary then presumably all languages would have the same
sequence of sounds for the animal). On the other hand, once we know what the
sounds are, it is predictable that the first sound will be accompanied by the outrush
of air known as aspiration that we discussed above, whereas the last sound will
not. Our model of grammar must also make this distinction between the arbitrary
and the predictable. This is done by putting all the arbitrary information in a part
of the grammar known as the lexicon (which functions rather like a dictionary).
The predictable facts are then expressed by formal statements known as rules or
constraints, which act on the information stored in the lexicon.
So, to return to our feline quadruped, the lexicon would contain all the arbitrary
facts about this word, including information on its syntactic class (that it is a
noun), on its meaning (a domesticated feline quadruped!) and on its pronunciation
(a ‘c’ sound followed by an ‘a’ sound followed by a ‘t’ sound). This information,
known as a lexical entry, is then available to be acted upon by the various sets of
statements in the components of the grammar. So the syntax might put the word
in the noun slot in a structure like ‘the big NOUN’, the phonology would specify
the actual pronunciation of each of the three sounds in the word, the semantics
link the word to its meaning etc. In this way, the grammar as a whole serves to
‘generate’ or specify allowable surface structures that the lexical entries can be
part of, and can thus make judgements about what is or is not part of the language,
in exactly the same way that a native speaker can. If faced with a structure like
6 Introduction

*‘the very cat dog’ the syntactic component of the grammar would reject this as
ungrammatical because the word ‘cat’ (a noun) is occupying an adjective slot,
not a noun slot; if faced with a pronunciation which involves the first sound of
‘cat’ being accompanied by a ‘glottal stop’ (see Section 3.1.5), the phonological
component would similarly reject this as ungrammatical, since this is not a char-
acteristic of such sounds at the beginning of words in English. The components
of the grammar thus serve to mediate between, or link, the two levels of structure:
(1) the underlying, mental elements of the language (that is, linguistic structures
in the speaker’s mind which the speaker is not consciously aware of) and (2) the
surface, physical realisations of these elements (that is, the actual sounds made by
the speaker when uttering a word).
The nature of the organisation of the phonological component of a generative
grammar is the concern of the second part of this book, Chapters 7 to 13. To begin
with, however, we concentrate in Chapters 2 to 6 on the description, classification
and physical characteristics of speech sounds, that is, phonetics.

Further reading
For general introductions to generative linguistic theory, including phonetics and
phonology, see for example Fromkin, Rodman and Hyams (2014), Frommer and
Finegan (2014), Akmajian, Farmer, Bickmore, Demers and Harnish (2017),
Kuiper and Allan (2017), Yule (2016).
Chapter 2

Introduction to articulatory
phonetics

The medium through which most of us experience language most of the time
is sound; for all non-deaf language users, the first exposure to language is
through sound, and in non-literate, hearing societies it is typically the only
medium. Humans have a variety of ways of producing sounds, not all of
which are relevant to language (for example: coughing, burping etc.). How
sound is used in language, that is, speech sounds, is the focus of this book,
and one obvious place to start out is to look at the physical processes involved
in the production of speech sounds by speakers – the study of articulatory
phonetics.
This chapter examines the major aspects of speech production:

• the airstream mechanism – where the air used in speech starts from and which
direction it is travelling in
• the state of the vocal cords – whether or not the vocal cords are vibrating,
which determines voicing
• the state of the velum – whether it is raised or lowered, which determines
whether a sound is oral or nasal
• the place and manner of articulation – the horizontal and vertical positions of
the tongue and lips.

In Chapters 3 and 4 we look in some detail at different speech sounds, begin-

ning with the various types of consonants and then moving on to vowels. The
primary focus is on speech sounds found in different varieties of English, partic-
ularly Received Pronunciation (RP) and General American (GenAm). RP refers
to a non-regional pronunciation found mainly in the United Kingdom, some-
times known non-technically as ‘BBC English’ or ‘the Queen’s English’. Gen-
eral American refers to a standardised form of North American English, often
associated with broadcast journalism and, thus, sometimes known as ‘network
English’. Although the focus is on English, exemplification will also come from
other languages.

DOI: 10.4324/9781351042789-2
8 Introduction to articulatory phonetics

2.1 Overview
Speech sounds are created by modifying the volume and direction of a flow of
air using various parts of the human respiratory system. We need to consider the
state of these parts in order to be able to describe and classify the sounds of human
languages. Figure 2.1 illustrates the parts of anatomy we need to examine.

2.1.1 Airstream mechanism

We can start with the airflow itself – where is it initiated and which direction is it
travelling in? The major ‘initiator’ is the lungs, and the most common direction is
for the air to flow out from the lungs through the trachea (windpipe), larynx (in the
Adam’s apple) and vocal tract (mouth and nose); all human languages involve this
type of airstream mechanism, known as ‘pulmonic egressive’ (= from the lungs
outwards), and for many, including English, it is the sole airstream mechanism
employed for speech sounds. A number of languages also employ other possi-
bilities; the air may be moving inwards (an ingressive airstream mechanism), the
flow itself may begin at the velum (soft palate) or the glottis (the space between

Figure 2.1 The vocal tract and articulatory organs

 Introduction to articulatory phonetics 9

the vocal cords) – velaric and glottalic airstreams, respectively. This gives a pos-
sible six airstream mechanisms:

• pulmonic egressive – used in all human languages

• pulmonic ingressive – not found
• velaric egressive – not found
• velaric ingressive – used in e.g. Zulu (S. Africa)
• glottalic egressive – used in e.g. Navajo (N. America)
• glottalic ingressive – used in e.g. Sindhi (India).

However, as can be seen from the list, two of the possible types – pulmonic
ingressive and velaric egressive – are not found in any human language (it is
unclear why this is so).
Having established the starting point of the airflow and the direction it is travel-
ling in, we can then look at what happens to it as it moves over the other organs
involved in speech sound production. For what follows, we will assume a pul-
monic egressive airstream mechanism; sounds produced with other airstream
types will be discussed in later sections.

2.1.2 The vocal cords

As air is pushed out from the lungs, it moves up the trachea into the larynx. In the
larynx the airflow encounters the vocal cords. The vocal cords are actually two
folds of tissue, but when visualized from above (as in laryngeal examination),
they appear as white cords surrounded by pinkish areas (hence the popular term
‘vocal cords’). These flaps run from the arytenoid cartilages in the back to a point
on the inner surface of the thyroid cartilage in the front. When the vocal cords are
apart, as in Figure 2.2 (which shows an open glottis), then the air passes through

Figure 2.2 Open glottis

Note: In this and subsequent fgures showing states of the glottis the bottom of the diagram
corresponds to the front of the larynx. Note that all the fgures in this chapter are schematic rather
than anatomically accurate representations.
10 Introduction to articulatory phonetics

unhindered, resulting in what is known as a voiceless sound, such as in the initial

and final sounds in the word ‘pass.’ (Since English orthography is not a system
of phonetic representation, a single sound may be represented by more than one
orthographic symbol, as in the final sound in ‘pass’, represented in English spell-
ing by the double ‘s’.) Lying above the true vocal folds are the false folds. The
false vocal folds can also be set into vibration to produce some sounds, such as
with a hard cough, but are not normally associated with speech production. The
thyroid cartilage, located at the front of the larynx, causes the protrusion known
as the Adam’s apple in the front of the throat.
If, however, the vocal cords are brought together by muscular contractions, as
in Figure 2.3 (which shows a narrowed glottis), then as the air is forced through,
air pressure causes the vocal cords to vibrate. This vibration (voicing) is main-
tained by aerodynamic and elastic forces until movement of the arytenoid car-
tilages separates the vocal cords. (This is a simplification of the complexities
involved in the production of voicing; the reader interested in greater detail
should consult one of the works listed in the Further Reading section at the end
of this chapter.)
This vibration results in a voiced sound, as in all three sounds in ‘buzz’. You
can feel (as well as hear) the difference between voiceless and voiced sounds by
placing your finger against your Adam’s apple and then making prolonged ‘sss’
(as in ‘hiss’) and ‘zzz’ (as in ‘his’) sounds: for the ‘zzz’ sound you should be able
to feel the vibration of the narrowed vocal cords, while for ‘sss’ the vocal cords
are wide apart and there is no such vibration.
These two positions – open and narrowed – are the most common in the lan-
guages of the world, but the vocal cords may take on a number of other configura-
tions which can be exploited by languages. For instance, they may be completely
closed (see Figure 2.4), not allowing air to pass through at all and thus causing a
build-up of pressure below the vocal cords; when they are opened, the pressure is
released with a forceful outrush of air (similar to a cough).
The sound so produced is known as a glottal stop, which is found in many kinds
of British English – e.g. Cockney, Glasgow, Manchester etc. – as the final sound

Figure 2.3 Narrowed vocal cords Figure 2.4 Closed glottis