AKNU - 2nd year - 3rd semester - CSS-2 - Sounds of English Language - Vowel Sounds and Consonant sounds

 UNIT-I

SOUNDS OF ENGLISH LANGUAGE

 

1.    Write a Note on the Vowel sounds and Consonant Sounds in the English language.

 

Ans: Speech sounds are commonly produced by shaping organs. The speech sounds in English language are divided into ‘Vowels’ and ‘Consonants’.

Vowel Sounds:

There are 20 vowel Sounds in English language. These are represented by five vowel letters a,e,I,o,u. Twelve (12) of them are pure vowels, and eight (8) are diphthongs.

 

(i)            Pure Vowels:

PHONETICS

Sl. No.	Phonetic Sound	Example Phonetic Script		English Word- Spelling	Other examples
I.              Vowel Sounds/ Pure Vowels
1	/i:/ as in eat		/l i:f/	leaf	feel, eel, teen
2	/i/  as India		/ sɪtɪzən/	citizen	ill, fit, me
3	/e/ as in bed		/helθ/	Health	egg, ten, men
4	/ æ / as in apple		/æbsnt/	Absent	apple, ant, cat
5	/ʌ/ as in umbrella		/ bʌt /	But	unwell, cut, shut
6	/ʊ/ as in full		/wʊmən/	Woman	book, foot, put, pull
7	/ɒ/  as in orange		/klɒθ /	Cloth	of, cot, short
8	/ə/ as in about		/æktə/	Actor	suppose, waiter
9	/ɑ:/ as in arm		/pɑ:k/	Park	aunt, ask, calm
10	/ɔ:/ as in order		/ k ɔ:l/	Call	all, tall, talk
11	/ u:/ as in cool /		/blu:/	Blue	food, two, room
12	/ə:/ as in earth / ɜː/		/ g ə:l /	girl	girl, her

 

 

(II) DIPHTHONGS:

The Diphthongs are those vowels that are produced by a glide from one pure vowel to another. They are eight in number. They are as follows:

 

I.              DIPHTHONGS (OR DOUBLE SOUNDS)				Other examples
13	/ei/ as in aid	/ beɪl /	Bail	age, make, day
14	/ai/ as in buy	/baɪnd/	Bind	either, fight, dry
15	/ɔɪ/  as in oil	/vɔɪs/	Voice	oil, coil, toy
16	/əʊ/ as in bold	/kəʊld/	cold	old, road, so
17	/ aʊ / as in out	/ paʊnd /	Pound	owl, town, cow
18	/ɪə/ as in hear	/klɪə/	Clear	wear, sheer, mere
19	/eə/ as in air	/tʃeə/	Chair	care, where
20	/ʊə/ as in fewer	/ʃʊə/	Sure	poor, sure, tour

 

CONSONANT SOUNDS

Consonants are sounds which are produced either by obstructing or by narrowing of the speech tract. There are twenty four (24) consonant sounds in English Language. They are as follows

Sl. No.	Phonetic Sound	Example Phonetic Script		English Word - Spelling	Other Examples
II.            Consonant  Sounds
1	/p/ as in pen		/ pæk/; /peɪpə/	Pack, paper	pet, apple,cap
2	/b/ as in bat		/ bæk/ / blæk/	Back Black	bat, table, tab
3	/t/ as in Tap		/ teɪlə/ / treɪn/	Tailor Train	two, utter, meet
4	/d/ as in Dog		/driːm/ /drɪŋk/	Dream Drink	do, thunder, pad
5	/ k /  as in Kite		/ kæmp/ / kærəktə/	Camp Character	cat, marker, duck
6	/ g / as in Good		/geɪm/ /graʊnd/	Game Ground	gate, ago, jug
7	/ f / as in fine		/fain/ /fæn/	Fine Fan	foe, refer, of
8	/ tʃ  / as in Church		/brɑːntʃ/ /tʃeɪn/	Branch Chain	chill, future, match
9	/ dʒ / as in bridge		/dʒɪm/ /dʒeɪl/	Gym Jail	jump, largest, bridge
10	/v/ as in Velvet		/vaʊəl/ /vælɪ/	Vowel Valley	van, river, brave
11	/ θ / as in Thin		/θriː/ /θred/	Three Thread	thing, method, myth
12	/ð / as in That		/fɑːðə/ /mʌðə/	Father Mother	that, brother, bathe
13	/ s / as in Sit		/spɔt / /slɪm /	Spot slim	so, possible, case
14	/ z / as in Zero		/bəzɑː/ /zenɪθ /	Bazaar Zenith	zoo, laser, rose
15	/ ʃ/ as in Ship		/dæʃ/ /ʃeɪp/	Dash Shape	Sure, assure, dash
16	/ ʒ / as in pleasure		/meʒə/	Measure	pleasure, garage
17	/ m / as in Man		/mis/	Miss	meet, tomato, jam
18	/ n / as in New		/nain/	Nine	now, any, pan
19	/ ŋ / as in song		/sIŋ/	Sing	singer, sing
20	/ l / as in Line		/laik/	Like	low, pillow, fall
21	/ r / as in Rod		/red/	Red	roam, career
22	/ h / as in Hot		/hi:t/	Heat	he, ahead
23	/ w / as in wine		/waid/	Wide	well, between
24	/ j / as in You		/jes/	Yes	you, pupil

 

Classification of Consonants:

 

Consonants are further classified in terms of how the sounds are made:

(i)            Plosives: Plosive sounds are produced when the vocal tract is blocked, building up air pressure, and then the airstream is abruptly released. Eg: /p/, /d/, /k/

(ii)          Fricatives: In the production of fricatives, airstream is directed through a narrow constriction in the vocal tract. Eg: /s/, /z/, /ʃ/

(iii)         Nasals: In the production of nasal sounds, air flows through the nasal cavity.             Eg: /m/, /n/, /ŋ /

(iv)         Affricates: Affricates begin as stops and conclude as fricatives. Eg:  / tʃ/, / dʒ /

Consonant Clusters:

Consonant clusters are groups of two or more consonant sounds that come before, after or between vowel sounds. Look at a few examples below:

span         /spæn/;          stop     /stɒp/  ;           break  /breɪk/

bump        /bʌmp/;          after    /ɑ:ftə(r)/;        anthem          /ænθm /