An Introduction to

English Phonetics
Richard Ogden

An Introduction to English Phonetics

Edinburgh Textbooks on the English Language

General Editor
Heinz Giegerich, Professor of English Linguistics (University of Edinburgh)
Editorial Board
Laurie Bauer (University of Wellington)
Derek Britton (University of Edinburgh)
Olga Fischer (University of Amsterdam)
Rochelle Lieber (University of New Hampshire)
Norman Macleod (University of Edinburgh)
Donka Minkova (UCLA)
Edward W. Schneider (University of Regensburg)
Katie Wales (University of Leeds)
Anthony Warner (University of York)
titles in the series include
An Introduction to English Syntax
Jim Miller
An Introduction to English Phonology
April McMahon
An Introduction to English Morphology: Words and Their Structure
Andrew Carstairs-McCarthy
An Introduction to International Varieties of English
Laurie Bauer
An Introduction to Middle English
Jeremy Smith and Simon Horobin
An Introduction to Old English
Richard Hogg
An Introduction to Early Modern English
Terttu Nevalainen
An Introduction to English Semantics and Pragmatics
Patrick Griffiths
An Introduction to English Sociolinguistics
Graeme Trousdale
An Introduction to Late Modern English
Ingrid Tieken-Boon van Ostade
An Introduction to Regional Englishes: Dialect Variation in England
Joan Beal
An Introduction to English Phonetics
Richard Ogden

An Introduction to
English Phonetics

Richard Ogden

Edinburgh University Press

 Richard Ogden, 2009

Edinburgh University Press Ltd
22 George Square, Edinburgh
www.euppublishing.com
Typeset in Janson
by Norman Tilley Graphics Ltd, and
printed and bound in Great Britain
by CPI Antony Rowe, Chippenham and Eastbourne
A CIP record for this book is available from
the British Library
ISBN 978 0 7486 2540 6 (hardback)
ISBN 978 0 7486 2541 3 (paperback)
The right of Richard Ogden
to be identified as author of this work
has been asserted in accordance with
the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.

Contents

List of figures and tables

To readers
Acknowledgements
1 Introduction to phonetics
1.1 What is phonetics?
1.2 What this book covers
1.3 Ways to talk about sounds
1.4 An overview of the book
Further reading

viii
xi
xiii
1
1
3
3
5
6

2 Overview of the human speech mechanism

2.1 The complexity of speech sounds
2.2 Breathing
2.3 The larynx and voicing
2.4 Airflow
2.5 Place of articulation
2.6 Manner of articulation
Summary
Exercises
Further reading

7
7
7
9
10
12
16
18
18
19

3 Representing the sounds of speech

3.1 Introduction
3.2 Phonetic transcription
3.3 Acoustic representations
3.4 Acoustic representations and segments
3.5 Representation and units in phonetics
Summary
Exercises
Further reading

20
20
20
29
35
36
37
37
38

vi

AN INTRODUCTION TO ENGLISH PHONETICS

4 The larynx, voicing and voice quality

4.1 Introduction: the production of voicing
4.2 How the vocal folds vibrate
4.3 Fundamental frequency, pitch and intonation
4.4 Phrasing and intonation
4.5 Voice quality
Summary
Exercises
Further reading

40
40
42
43
46
50
53
54
54

5 Vowels
5.1 Introduction
5.2 Reference points for vowels: cardinal vowels
5.3 The acoustics of vowels
5.4 Other vocalic features
5.5 Vowels in English keywords
5.6 Reduced vowels
5.7 Voiceless vowels
Summary
Exercises
Further reading

56
56
56
62
63
64
74
75
75
76
76

6 Approximants
6.1 Introduction
6.2 The palatal approximant [j]
6.3 A doubly articulated sound: the labiovelar
approximant [w]
6.4 Laterals
6.5 Rhotics
Summary
Exercises
Further reading

78
78
79

7 Plosives
7.1 Introduction
7.2 Overview of the production of plosives
7.3 Voicing and plosives in English
7.4 Glottalisation
7.5 Long closure
7.6 Place of articulation
7.7 Release features of plosives
7.8 Taps

81
83
89
94
94
94
96
96
96
99
104
106
106
109
114

CONTENTS

Summary
Exercises
Further reading

vii

116
116
117

8 Fricatives
8.1 Introduction to fricatives
8.2 The production of fricatives
8.3 Details of English fricatives
8.4 Non-lexical fricatives
Summary
Exercises
Further reading

118
118
118
120
131
136
136
136

9 Nasals
9.1 The production of nasals
9.2 Details of English nasals
9.3 Nasalised vowels
9.4 Syllabic nasals
Summary
Exercises
Further reading

138
138
140
146
148
152
152
153

10 Glottalic and velaric airstreams

10.1 Airstream mechanisms
10.2 The velaric airstream mechanism
10.3 The glottalic airstream mechanism
Summary
Exercises
Further reading

154
154
154
162
168
169
169

11 Conclusion

170

Glossary

173

Further reading
Index

Figures and tables

Figures

2.1
3.1
3.2
3.3
3.4
3.5
3.6
3.7
4.1
4.2
4.3
4.4
4.5
5.1
5.2
5.3
5.4
5.5
5.6
5.7
5.8
5.9
5.10
5.11
5.12
5.13
6.1

The International Phonetic Alphabet (revised to 2005)

xiv
Cross-section of the vocal tract
10
Waveform of a vowel
30
Three types of sound
31
Spectrogram of the word spend, with periodic, aperiodic
and transient sounds marked
32
Expanded version of part of Figure 3.3
32
Waveform of part of a voiceless fricative
34
Transient portion (T) for the initial plosive of spend
35
Spectrogram of a production of took off his cloak (RP) (IPA) 38
The larynx (from Catford 1977: 49)
41
f0 on a linear scale
45
f0 on a logarithmic scale
45
1. hello [h\l], 2. hello [h/l], 3. hello there
47
[h/l ]
Creaky voice
51
The vowel quadrilateral
59
Spectrogram of cardinal vowels 18
63
RP monophthongs
69
Australian monophthongs
70
American English monophthongs
70
RP closing diphthongs
70
RP centring diphthongs
71
Australian diphthongs
71
American English diphthongs
71
trap vowels
72
strut vowels
73
face vowels
73
goose vowels
74
A yacht
80
viii

6.2
6.3
6.4
6.5
6.6
7.1
7.2
7.3
7.4
7.5
7.6
7.7
7.8
7.9
7.10
7.11
7.12
7.13
8.1
8.2
8.3
8.4
8.5
8.6
8.7
8.8
8.9
8.10

FIGURES AND TABLES

ix

A win
An alveolar lateral with varying secondary articulation,
from palatalised to velarised
Leaf
Feel
To lead and to read
The phases of a plosive
Waveform and spectrogram of the underlined portion
of a good (hobby) [ d hbi]
Voicing for plosives
Fully voiced [], in gig, [i]
Vocalic portion, closure, plosive release, vocalic portion
from a bit, [ bit]
Vocalic portion, closure, plosive release, aspiration, vocalic
portion from a pit, [ phit]
Friction, closure, release and vocalic portion from a spit,
[ spit]
Preaspiration
Glottalisation in kit, [kh t h], as spoken by a New Zealand
speaker (IPA)
A sequence of [kt], with two audible releases
t], with [k] release inaudible.
A sequence
sii],ofas[kproduced
by a speaker from southern
City, [
Michigan (IPA)
Material for exercise 2
Annotated waveforms for the first 300 ms of sip as
produced by an RP speaker (IPA)
Annotated waveforms for the first 300 ms of zip as
produced by an RP speaker (IPA)
Spectrograms of sip (left) and zip (right) (RP) (IPA)
Fie (New Zealand) (IPA)
Vie (New Zealand) (IPA)
Fie (left) and vie (right) as spoken by a New Zealander
(IPA)
Spectrogram of looser, with friction (FRIC) and the offset
and onset of voicing (V off, V on) marked
Spectrogram of loser, with friction (FRIC) and the offset
and onset of voicing (V off, V on) marked
Sigh and shy as spoken by a male Australian speaker.
Note the lower frequency energy for [] than for [s] (IPA)
Kids do i[]. Speaker: 18-year-old male, Dublin (IViE file
f1mdo)

82
87
88
88
93
97
99
100
101
101
102
103
105
105
113
113
115
117
121
121
122
123
123
124
126
126
129
133