CHAPTER III
ENGLISH SOUND SYSTEM
3.1 Preliminaries
The goal of this chapter is to provide the readers with a detailed knowledge of English
sound system and its basic notions such as consonants, vowels, syllable and simple word
stress. It reviews the English sounds and their effective production to guide the learners
to produce effective speech patterns.
3.2 Classification of Speech Sounds in English
Every language has a limited number of speech sounds. All speech sounds including the
English sounds are usually classified into two broad categories: vowels and consonants.
There are 24 consonants and 20 vowels in English language. The air comes out freely
through the mouth in the production of vowels. There is no partial or complete closure
of the air-passage. There is no narrowing in the passage, which makes audible friction or
noise. Therefore, vowels are voiced sounds (Bansal and Harrison, 2009:8). “A consonant
is a speech sound in which the breath is at least partly obstructed, and which forms a
syllable combined with a vowel”. Many modern phoneticians and linguists, such as
Daniel Jones, Bloch, and Trager, agree that a consonant is a sound that is articulated by a
complete or partial closure of the breath. During the production of a consonant, the
movement of air from the lungs is obstructed because of the narrowing or the complete
closure of the air passage (Prasad, 2008:24). Thus, consonants are either voiced or
voiceless. Diagram (1) adopted by (MP, etal, 2009:59) shows English sounds
classification.
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Phonemes
Vowels
Semi Vowels
Diphthongs
Liquids
Consonants
Glides
Plosives
Front
Whisper
Mid Back
Centering Closing
Affricate
Nasals
Voiced
Voiceless
Fricatives
Voiced
Voiceless
Diagram (1): English sounds classification
3.3 Definition of Consonants and Vowels in Phonetic and Linguistic Terms
We have seen in the earlier chapter that there are two ways in which ‘vowels’ and
‘consonants’ are defined: in phonetic terms and in linguistic terms, i.e. in terms of the
production of sounds and their function in a given language, respectively. Crystal
(2008:103) defines the consonants phonetically as those sounds that are made by a
closure or narrowing in the vocal tract. The breath will either be blocked completely or
partially where audible friction at the edges of syllables singly or in sequences. Blake
(2008:133) also defines the consonants as the sounds that are normally of shorter
duration than vowels and occur at the margins of syllables. O'Connor (1980:149), Yule
(2006:239) and Ramamurthi (1998:164) add that most consonants are made by
obstructing the airflow at some point or constricting it. Roach (2000:10-11) explains his
point of view that it is not easy to define what the consonants and vowels are exactly.
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The most common view is that consonants are sounds in which it is difficult or
impossible for the air to pass freely through the mouth (from the larynx to the lips).
Verma and Krishnaswamy (1989:35) show that “a consonant is a sound characterized
by constriction accompanied by some measure of friction or closure followed by
release”. Gauran G (2002:3, 22) declares, “the consonants restrict the airflow at some
point and are weaker than vowels. They differ from vowels in that they had more energy
in the high frequency region compared to the low frequency region”. These definitions
are not dependent on any other criteria; nor related to any particular language. “But if
we want to define a sound as a vowel or a consonant in linguistic terms, then we must
study the function of the sound in a given language, that is, in relation to the grammar of
that language” (Sethi and Dhamija, 2002:14)
3.4 The Consonant Sounds
The word consonant has been derived from the Greek ʻconsonautemʼ that refers to the
sound that is articulated with the help of a vowel (Prasad, 2008:24). Therefore, the word
consonant descends from Latin meaning, from consonans (littera) “sounding together
(letter)” or “sounding with”, a loan translation of Greek symphonon. This means that a
consonant should occur with a neighboring vowel sound but this does not reflect a
modern linguistic understanding that describes and classifies the consonants depending
on the vocal tract constrictions. Sonorants refer to the consonants that act as vowels,
occupying the margin of a syllable, and sometimes act as consonants. For example, /m/
in ʻmudʼ /mʌd/ is a consonant but in ʻprismʼ /ˈprɪz.əm/, it occupies an entire syllable as a
vowel does. As originally imagined by Plato, symphona were specifically the stop
consonants, described as “not being pronounceable without an adjacent vowel sound”.
Thus, the term did not cover continuant consonants, which occur without vowels in a
minority of languages, for example at the ends of the English words bottle and button.
(The final vowel letters e and o in these words are only products of orthography; Plato
was concerned with pronunciation). However, even Plato's original conception of
consonant is inadequate for the universal description of human language, since in some
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languages, such as the Salishan languages, stop consonants may also occur without
vowels, and the modern conception of consonant does not require coocurrence with
vowels.It is not a vowel and is not followed by any vowel (http://en.Wikipedia.org/wiki/
(Consonant)).
3.4.1 English Consonants
As discussed earlier a consonant is a speech sound produced with differing amounts of
obstruction of the air stream in the mouth using combinations of adjustments of the lips,
teeth, tongue, and velum. The consonants are either voiced (articulated with vibration of
the vocal cords) or voiceless (articulated without vibration of the vocal cords) (Devito,
etal., 1975:40-41). Each consonant may occur in the initial position of English words
except /ŋ/ and /ʒ/ consonants. It is difficult to determine the number of the English
consonants because of the spelling system of English that is irregular and does not
represent sounds in a fully coherent manner. One sound may be spelled in several ways
as with /k/ may be spelled in (k) or (c) such as ʻkissʼ or ʻcatʼ, ʻcomeʼ and ʻcreamʼ. There
are also some sounds that are not given their own symbols at all such as /ʃ/. In addition,
we must take into consideration that English pronunciation varies from one dialect to
another.
3.4.2 Importance of Consonants in Teaching and Learning English Language
O'Connor (1980: 24) justifies the beginning with consonants rather than vowels.
Consonants contribute to make English understood more than vowels. They are
produced by certain interference of the organs of speech with the breath and this makes
their description and recognition easy. He states that the consonants form the bones, the
skeleton of English words and give words basic shape. Most languages shared the same
consonants and the same features with little differences. Radford and others (1999:39)
state that the description of the vowels is a little more complex than consonants because
the dialects of a language tend to differ most in their vowels. However, consonant
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sounds are considered important because no speech is possible without them.
(http://www.tutorvista.com/English/what-are-consonant-sounds).
3.4.3 General Criteria for the Description of Consonants
Vocalic and consonantal are the phonetic features used to describe the consonant
sounds. The vocalic feature concerns the passage of the breath through the oral cavity
and the position of the vocal cords. When the vocal cords are drawn together in such a
way that the breath moves through them making a vibration and then passes out of the
oral cavity without interference, the articulated sound is [+vocalic]. All the English
vowels as well as the consonants /l/ and /r/ have this feature. The other English sounds
are [-vocalic] since the air stream is fully (closure) obstructed for a while from passing
through the oral cavity as with the following sounds / p, b, t, d, k, g, tʃ, ʤ, m, n, ŋ /; or
there is partial closure that makes interference as with the following sounds / f, v, θ, ð, s,
z, ʃ, Ʒ, w, j /; or there is no vibration of the vocal cords although there is no real
obstruction in the vocal cords as with /h/ sound.
The consonantal feature refers to the movement of the vocal tract when some part of
them is spread apart from the prespeech position and an obstruction to the air stream is
formed in the oral cavity. This leads to the fact that [-vocalic] sounds are
[+consonantal], and [-consonantal] are [+vocalic]. These two phonetic features deal
with vocal tract activities which may be implemented independently of each other.
There is a possibility of being [+vocalic, +consonantal] or [-vocalic, -consonantal] at the
same time. Note that the property [consonantal] does not necessarily require that the
obstruction cause closure or actual interference with the air stream. An obstruction to
the air stream may happen allowing enough space for the breath to move around that
obstruction without interference as with /l/ and /r/ (Falk, 1978: 91-2). The phonetic
features [vocalic] and [consonantal] divide the English sounds into four groups as
follows:
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Phonetic features
+vocalic
-consonantal
- vocalic
+consonantal
English sounds
Common name of group
/ɪ, i:, e, ʌ, ᴂ, a:, ɒ, o:, u,
u:, ǝ, з:/
vowels
/p, b, t, d, k, g, m, n, ŋ,
f, v, ɵ, ð, s, z, ʧ, ʤ, ʃ,
Ʒ,/
consonants
+ vocalic
/l, r /
liquids
/ h, w, j /
glides
+consonantal
- vocalic
-consonantal
Table (5): The English sounds phonetic features
The following points are taken into consideration while describing consonants.
1. The pulmonic or non-pulmonic airstream set in motion by the lungs or by some other
means.
2. The egressive or ingressive airstream forced outwards or sucked inwards. Egressive is
a term used to refer to all sounds produced using outwards-moving airstream mechanism.
Ingressive is the opposite category and it is uncommon mode to produce speech (Crystal,
2008: 164).
3. The vibration of the vocal cords.
4. The position of the soft palate as oral, nasal or nasalized.
5. The place of articulation that refers to at what point or points and between what organs
does the closure or narrowing take place.
6. The manner of articulation that refers to what is the type of closure or narrowing at the
point of articulation.
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A more detailed description includes additional information dealing with the shape of the
rest of the tongue, the relative position of the jaws, and the position of the lip
(Cruttenden, 1994:28-9).
3.4.4 Classification of Consonants
The description of consonants according to the general criteria mentioned above will be
as follows:
3.4.4.1 Egressive Pulmonic Consonants
Most speech sounds are produced with egressive air pushed from the lungs. All English
sounds are egressive except / p, t, k / practically.
3.4.4.2 Voicing (Sonorization)
It has been stated already that this category shows us whether the consonant is voiced or
voiceless on the basis of articulatory phonetics. In the production of consonants the vocal
cords take two basic positions: 1) When they are drawn together they will vibrate because
the air pushes them apart repeatedly in order to pass through, then the consonant is
voiced. 2) When the vocal cords are spread apart, the air that is pushed from the lungs
will pass between them freely without obstacles and they do not vibrate, then the
consonant produced in this way is voiceless (Yule, 2006: 30). There is a tendency for a
voiceless sound to become voiced and vice versa in company with each other. Stops,
fricatives, and affricates come in voiced and voiceless pairs except for /h/ sound. Nasals,
liquids, and glides are voiced, as are vowels. The following 15 sounds are voiced
consonants in English: / b, d, g, v, ð, z, ʒ, m, n, ŋ, r l, j, w, dʒ / and the remaining nine
consonants are voiceless specifically / p, t, k, f, θ, s, ʃ, h, tʃ /.
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3.4.4.3 Aspiration
Aspiration is a short period after the explosion of the strong voiceless plosive consonant
sounds / p, t, k / when air leaves the mouth without voice. / p, t, k / have a special
characteristic that is ʻaspirationʼ. Aspiration makes the following sound lose some of its
voicing. For example, in ʻpoolʼ /pu:l/ the first part of the vowel /u:/ does not have voice.
This voiceless period is symbolized by h in /p h u:l/, ʻteaʼ/t
h
i:/ and ʻcartʼ /k h ɑːt/. This
short period occurs before the vowel starts. In a particular phonetic environment
aspiration of the plosive consonants followed by / l, r, w, j / devoices these former
consonants. When the voiced sound is produced with less voice or with no voice at all in
a particular phonetic environment, it will be called devoiced and symbolized by a small
circle under or above this sound. For example ʻpleaseʼ /pll̥ i:z/, ʻtwiceʼ /tww̥ais/, ʻqueueʼ
/ kjj̊ uː/ and ʻprayʼ /prɹ̥ eɪ/ (O'Connor, 1980:40) and (Crystal, 2008:39). The aspirated / p, t,
k / occur initially and medially before stressed vowels. They also occur finally in
emphatic speech (Francis, 1958:127).
3.4.4.4 The Effect of Assimilation on Voicing
Assimilation is a modification that makes an element change to be similar to another
(Lehmann, 1976:115). The change of one sound into another is under the impact of a
neighboring sound (Abercrombie, 1967:133). Assimilation “varies in extent according to
speaking rate and style: it is more likely to be found in rapid, casual speech and less
likely in slow, careful speech” (Roach, 2000:139). There are different types of
assimilation and they are based on the direction, distance and degree of influence.
Assimilation is also classified according to whether it is obligatory or partial. It can be
classified according to the consonantal features affected as follows: place of articulation,
manner of articulation and voicing where complete assimilation occurs i.e. where voiced
consonants become voiceless and vice versa under the influence of a neighboring sound
in terms of voicing feature (Husein, 2005: 12). Assimilation is regressive and
progressive. For example:
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1. Regressive Assimilation
a) Voiced to voiceless
/d/ to /t/ and /ʃ/
ʻbad temperʼ /bæd ˈtempə r / → / bæt ˈtempə r/
ʻhad toʼ /hæd tu:/ → /hæt tu:/
ʻwould showʼ /wʊd ʃəʊ/ → /wʊʃ ʃəʊ/
ʻride shipʼ /raɪd ʃɪp/ → /raɪʃ ʃɪp/
/ð/ to /θ/
ʻsmooth threadʼ /smu:ð θred/ → /smu:θ θred/
ʻbreathe throughʼ /bri:ð θru:/ →/bri:θ θru:/
/v/ to /f/
ʻhave foodʼ / hæv fu:d/ → / hæf fu:d/
ʻwave forʼ / weɪv fɔː r / → / weɪf fɔː r/
/z/ to /s/ and /ʃ/
ʻplease sayʼ /pli:z seɪ/ → /pl:s seɪ/
ʻthese sidesʼ /ði:z saɪdz/ → /ði:s saɪdz/
ʻhis shirt' /hɪz ʃɜːt / → /hɪʃ ʃɜːt/
ʻIs sheʼ /ɪz ʃi:/ → /ɪʃ ʃi:/
b) Voiceless to voiced
/t/ to /d/
ʻwhat doʼ / wɒt du:/ → /wɒd du:/
ʻsit downʼ /sɪt daʊn/→ /sɪd daʊn/
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2. Progressive Voiced to Voiceless Assimilation
/j/ to /ʃ/
ʻwash your handʼ /wɒʃ jɔː r hænd/ → / wɒʃ ʃɔː r hænd/
ʻwish youʼ /wɪʃ ju:/ → /wɪʃ ʃu:/
3.4.4.5 The Place of Articulation
Parker and Riley (2005:112), Cruttenden (1994:29-30) and most of linguists review the
main places of articulation of consonant sounds as follows:
(i) Bilabial (from bi ʻtwoʼ + labial ʻlipsʼ): The primary constriction is at the two lips
articulators, e.g. / p, b, w /.
(ii) Labio-dental (from labio ʻlip ʼ+ dental ʻteethʼ): The active articulator is the lower lip
with the passive articulator the upper teeth, e.g. / f, v /.
(iii) Dental (from ʻteethʼ): The active articulator is the tip of the tongue with the passive
articulator the upper teeth, e.g. / θ, ð /.
(iv) Alveolar (from ʻalveolar ridgeʼ): The active articulator is the blade, or tip and blade
of the tongue with the passive articulator the alveolar ridge, e.g. / t, d, l, n, s, z /.
(v) Post-alveolar (from post ʻafter' or ʻbeyondʼ + alveolar ʻalveolar ridgeʼ): The active
articulator is the tip of the tongue with the passive articulator the backward part of the
alveolar ridge, e.g. the initial sound in 'read' that is /r/.
(vi) Retroflex (from retroʻbackwardsʼ+ flex ʻbendʼ): The active articulator is the bottom
of the tip of the tongue and the passive articulator is the front of the hard palate
immediately behind the alveolar ridge. The tip of the tongue is curled back in such a way
that only its lower part articulates, e.g. /r/ that is found in south-west British and
American English of pronunciation.
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(vii) Palato-alveolar (from palato ʻpalateʼ + alveolar ʻalveolar ridgeʼ): The blade, or the
tip and the blade of the tongue (active articulator) articulates against the alveolar ridge
(passive articulator), and the front of the tongue (active articulator) is raised towards the
hard palate (passive articulator), e.g. / ʃ, ʒ, tʃ, dʒ /.
(viii) Palatal (from ʻpalateʼ): The active articulator is the front of the tongue with the
passive articulator the hard palate, e.g. /j/.
(ix) Velar (from ʻvelumʼ): The active articulator is the back of the tongue with the
passive articulator the soft palate, e.g. /k, g, ŋ/.
(x) Uvular (fromʻuvulaʼ): The back of the tongue articulates with the uvula, e.g. /ʒ/ as in
French ʻrougeʼ.
(xi) Glottal (from ʻglottisʼ): The two vocal cords are the articulators for the glottal
sounds. The sounds are produced by an obstruction, or a narrowing causing friction, but
not vibration between the vocal cords, e.g. /h/.
3.4.4.6 The Manner of Articulation
The manner of articulation specifies the kind of closure or narrowing involved in the
production of a consonant sound. In other words, it specifies the kind of stricture (or
constriction) involved in the articulation of a sound. Depending on the stricture involved,
that is, on whether there is a complete closure, a partial closure, or only a narrowing that
causes audible friction, consonants are classified into plosive, affricate, nasal, lateral, and
fricative. Then there are ‘consonants’ in the production of which the narrowing is not
sufficient to cause noise and audible friction. These consonants are called frictionless
continuants or approximant and semi-vowels. It must be taken into consideration that
only in nasal consonants, the soft palate is lowered and at the same time, the oral passage
is blocked at some point, so that the breath goes out of the nose. The linguists like Jones
(1992: 25-7), Giegerich (1992: 18-25), Pennington (1996: 42-53) and Cruttenden
(1994:30-1) as well as the others classify the consonants according manner of articulation
as follows:
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(i) Plosive or stop: It involves a stricture of complete closure. The articulators are lips,
tongue, teeth, etc. e.g. / p, b, t, d, k, g /.
(ii) Fricative: It involves a stricture of close approximation. It means there is no closure
anywhere; there is only a narrowing, e.g. / f, v, θ, ð, s, z, ʃ, ʒ, h /.
(iii) Affricate: It involves a stricture of complete closure followed by a slow release. The
articulations are those that begin like plosives and end like fricatives, e.g. / tʃ, dʒ /.
(iv) Nasal: It involves a stricture of complete closure of the oral passage only, e.g. / m,
n, ŋ /.
(v) Lateral: It involves a stricture of partial closure. Since the air passes continuously, the
sound produced is a continuant and frictionless, e.g. clear /l/ and dark /ḻ/. In the
production of the former there is a contact between the tip of the tongue and the centre of
the teeth ridge; but there is no such contact, at least on one side, the airstream escapes on
one or both sides of the contact, e.g. the initial sound in ʻlearnʼ /lɜːn/. The latter that is
dark /l/ in production of which the back of the tongue is simultaneously raised towards
the soft palate, e.g. the final sound in ʻcallʼ /kɔːḻ/.
There are two more, namely, frictionless continuant or approximant and semi-vowel
which, in strictly phonetic terms, must be regarded as vowels, but since in many
languages they function phonologically as consonants, i.e. they appear at the edges of
syllables, they cannot function as the nucleus of a syllable, they are grouped along with
consonants. All of the approximant sounds characteristically involve a raised position of
the tongue-back as a secondary articulation. Liquids and glides are the voiced alveolar
and pre-palatal approximants sometimes. These groups differ phonetically from the
vowel sounds in either of two ways: 1) the articulation may not involve the body of the
tongue, e.g. /r/ sound in ʻredʼ that is post - alveolar and the voiced /v/ sound that is
labiodentals. 2) Where they involve the body of the tongue, the articulation represent
only brief glides to a following vowel.
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The manner of articulation category ʻapproximantʼ includes / r, l, w, j / consonants as
well as vowels. Nevertheless, there are two questions: 1) how do we distinguish these
consonants from each other, especially between /l/ that is articulated when the tongue
contacts the alveolar ridge and the absence of such contact in /r/ (as it is articulated as
retroflex)? To answer this question according to place of articulation, favored to say that
the sound /l/ is articulated with a firm voiced air stream through the mouth. The tonguetip or blade is raised to touch the alveolar ridge firmly. /l/ is a continuant sonorant
because its contact does not produce closure of the oral cavity. Its contact occurs in the
middle of the mouth and the airstream escapes freely along the sides that are not raised.
/l/ is a lateral approximant since the air stream escapes without friction. The sounds,
which do not have that lateral articulation of /l/, are called central or nonlateral. All
English sounds are central except /l/. The manner of articulation of /r/ is that of a central
approximant and it is not different from that like / w, j / significantly.
In one way or another, the retroflex position of the tongue is the feature of /r/ in many
English accents. Some English speakers (Scottish) articulate /r/ as a series of rapid
contacts of the tongue-tip with the back of the alveolar ridge (trill) or with a single tap in
that place of articulation occasionally. The most important feature refers to /r/ as a post
alveolar approximant. 2) What precisely is the difference between vowels and consonants
in the set of approximants? The vowel in ʻwooʼ /wuː/ is rather similar to the consonant
preceding it. It is a high back rounded vowel. This means that the tongue back is raised
highly towards the velum and the lips are followed-up. The consonant /w/ has narrowing
of the oral cavity both by lips and the tongue back (less obviously) towards the velum.
Therefore, the two descriptions really express the same fact: narrowing in the bilabial and
velar areas. The obstruction of the air stream does not produce closure and friction in the
case of both sounds. The vowel and the consonant in ʻyeʼ /jiː/ are also approximants, as
for place of articulation, the vowel is high front unrounded and the consonant is palatal.
The lips are spread and the tongue-front is raised towards the palate without producing
closure or friction in both sounds. The phonetic analysis or description of the previous
sounds predicts that their qualities are rather similar.
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(vi) Frictionless continuant: In the oral passage of air, if there is a narrowing of such a
degree that the sound produced is accompanied by audible friction, then the sound is
called a fricative. If, on the other hand, the narrowing is of a lesser degree, i.e. the
articulators do not come so close together, then no audible friction accompanies the
sound produced. Such a sound is a frictionless continuant, now more often called an
approximant, e.g. /r/.
(vii) Semi-vowel: Semi-vowels are essentially very short approximants. They are voiced
gliding sounds in which the organs of speech start at or near a ʻcloseʼ vowel and at once
glide apart to other vowel or to other sound, which is equal or greater prominence, such
as the syllabic sound /l̩ /. They differ from both approximants and vowels in that they are
momentary in nature. Thus, /j/ in ʻyesʼ /jes/ is a glide since it starts from /i/ and /w/ in
ʻwhenʼ /wen/ starts from /u/.
3.4.4.7 Obstruents and Sonorants
The categories of sounds are classified depending on their noise component. The sounds
whose narrowing on the air stream through the vocal tract is sufficient to cause noise are
obstruents. This category is composed of plosives, fricatives, and affricates. The voiced
sounds in which there is no noise component are called sonorants. They include voiced
nasals, approximants, and vowels.
3.4.4.8 Vocalic and Nonvocalic
We have seen that vocalic sounds are articulated “with an oral cavity in which the most
radical constriction does not exceed that found in the high vowels/ɪ/ and /u/ and with
vocal cords that are positioned so as to allow spontaneous voicing; in producing
nonvocalic sounds one or both of these conditions are not satisfied” (Chomsky and Halle,
1968:302). Vocalic sounds include the voiced liquids and voiced vowels. Nonvocalic
sounds include glides, nasal consonants, obstruents, voiceless liquids and voiceless
vowels.
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3.4.4.9 Coronal and Noncoronal
Coronal sounds refer to those articulated with the blade of the tongue raised from its
neutral position. They include dental, alveolar, palato-alveolar, liquids sounds that are
produced with the blade of the tongue and the retroflex vowels that are before /r/ in many
English dialects. Noncoronal sounds refer to those articulated with the blade of the
tongue in the neutral position. They include the voiced uvular /r/, the consonants
articulated with lips or with the body of the tongue, the voiced glides / j, w /, and
nonretroflex vowels.
3.4.4.10 Anterior and Nonanterior
Anterior sounds are articulated when there is an obstacle in front of the palato-alveolar
place of the mouth. They include the consonants and liquids when they are formed with
an obstacle farther forward than that for /ʃ/, labials, dentals and alveolars. Nonanterior
sounds are pronounced when there is no such obstruction. They include palato-alveolar,
retroflex, velar, uvular, or pharyngeal sounds.
3.5 English Vowels
Earlier we mentioned that in the production of vowels in the pharynx and the mouth (the
oral tract), there is no obstruction and no narrowing of a degree that causes audible
friction. All vowels are soft, voiced and musical in effect. They are produced with a
primary articulation made by the front, centre or back of the tongue (the tip and blade of
the tongue do not participate) and located at the front, centre or back of the palate. It is
possible to articulate vowels in a voiceless method when there is no vibration in the vocal
cords, as in whispering a word that contains a vowel.
“A vowel is a sound produced by the unobstructed passage of the air stream without the
oral cavity being constricted enough to cause audible friction” (Verma and
Krishnaswamy, 2009:34). Such a definition of vowels might be adequate in
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distinguishing vowels from consonants. But it does not help us in distinguishing vowels
from vowels. Therefore, what distinguishes one vowel from other is the modification of
the tone resulting from modification in the shapes and sizes of the resonating chambers
through which the tone passes, viz: the pharyngeal cavity, the nasal cavity, and the
mouth. Mainly responsible for such modifications of the resonating chambers are the soft
palate, the lips, and the tongue. Vowels have a relatively open gap of articulation more
than that in consonants.
The sonorant sounds include voiced vowels, nasal consonants and voiced approximants.
The vowels have the greatest sonority (essentially are louder than consonants) since their
energy escapes out of vocal tract with relatively little of it being wasted by obstructions
along the way. They are easy to prolong because of their sonority and they form the
nucleus of the syllables. Werker and Polka (1993:83-101) explain that vowels are
produced more slowly as continuants. They are the most prominent, long lasting acoustic
cues and more prosodic information may be provided by using them. Thus vowels carry
information about stress, speaker identity and emotional tone (cited in Pennington,
1996:89-90).
3.5.1 General Criteria for the Description of Vowels
Vowels are produced with a voiced egressive air-stream passing through different mouthshapes. The various positions of the tongue and the shapes of the lips cause these
differences in the shape of the mouth. A detailed description of the position of the tongue
for the vowels will not help us to pronounce them correctly because it is very difficult to
observe or to feel the tongue differences (O'Connor, 1980:79). A good question arises
that is' in what ways do vowels differ from each other?' The following are the general
criteria to describe vowels (Ramamurthi, 1998:155-7), ((Devito, etal, 1975:48-51) and
(Parker and Riley, 2005:108-10) :
45
1. The shape and position of the tongue. They refer to two possibilities: 1) the vertical
distance between the upper surface of the tongue and the hard palate (high, middle or
low) and 2) the part of the tongue (front, center or back) which is raised highest.
2. The position of the soft palate refers to its raising so that the nasal cavity is shut off to
produce oral vowels, or lowering to produce nasalized vowels.
3. The shapes of the lips include three positions: spread that is formed with the corners of
the lips moved away from each other such as / ɪ, i: /, neutral is made where the lips are
neither rounded nor spread such as / ǝ, ʌ /, or rounded is formed where the corners of the
lips are brought towards each other and the two lips pushed forwards, e.g. / u, u: /.
Phoneticians make use of the system of cardinal vowels in order to standardize their
reference to vowels. This system must not be identified with the vowels of any actual
language. It refers to theoretical points on which the trained phonetician can scheme the
vowel sounds of particular languages. There are primary cardinal vowels that are most
familiar to most European languages speakers, they include / i, e, ɛ, a, u, o, ɔ, ɑ /, and
secondary cardinal vowels, that are less familiar, include / y, ø, œ, ɶ, ɒ, ʌ, ɣ, ɯ, ʉ, ɨ /. The
following diagram adopted by (Roach, 2000: 14) shows the set of vowels that do not
belong to any particular language.
Front
Close
Central
I•
Half- close
Back
•u
e•
Half-open
Open
•o
ɛ•
•ɔ
•ɑ
a•
Diagram (2): The primary cardinal vowels
46
The front primary cardinal vowels / i, e, ɛ, a / and the back /ɑ/ are articulated with spread
lips, while the other back cardinal vowels / u, o, ɔ / are articulated in different degrees of
the rounding of lips. The cardinal vowels are eighteen and may be transformed into their
nasalized counterparts when the soft palate is lowered. They are classified according to
lip shapes, with corresponding tongue positions1:
Unrounded vowels include / i, e, ɛ, a, ɑ, ʌ, ɣ, ɯ, ɨ /
Rounded vowels include / y, ø, œ, ɶ, ɒ, ɔ, o, u, ʉ /
The cardinal vowels inform the learner about the range of vowels that human beings are
able to articulate and to learn how to describe, classify and compare the vowels of any
particular language (Lyons, 1981:79-80 and Roach, 2000:13-14).
The raised part of the tongue
The front, the centre (the middle) and the back parts of the tongue are accountable for the
production of vowels. The vowels produced when each of these parts is raised are called
the front vowels, the central vowels, and the back vowels respectively, e.g. / i:, ᴂ /, / ɜ:, ʌ/
and / u:, ɔ: /.
Front vowels are those vowels in the production of which the front part of the tongue is
raised towards the hard palate, e.g. /i:/ in ʻmeetʼ and
/æ/ in ʻcatʼ.
Central vowels are those in the production of which the centre of the tongue is raised
towards an intermediary position in the mouth i.e. in between the hard palate and the soft
palate, e.g. /ɜ:/ in ʻbirdʼ and/ʌ/ in ʻcupʼ.
Back vowels are those in the production of which the back of the tongue is raised towards
the soft palate, e.g. /u:/ in ʻsoonʼ and /ɔ:/ in ʻballʼ. For classification of vowels see the
following table:
47
Front
Central
Back
i:
ɜ:
u:
ɪ
ǝ
u
e
ʌ
ɔ:
ᴂ
ɒ
ɑ:
Table (6): The classification of the vowels according to the raised part of the tongue
The height of the tongue
The vowels produced by raising the body of the tongue above the neutral position to the
highest point, are called high or close vowels, e.g. / i:, u: / and those produced without
such a raising of the body of the tongue are non high sounds. Thus the vowels produced
by lowering the body of the tongue below the neutral position are low or open vowels,
e.g. / ɑ:, ᴂ / and nonlow sounds are produced without such a lowering. The close or
open distinction does not enable us to distinguish between all of vowel sound. So there
is a need to mark two imaginary positions between close and open that are half-close,
e.g. / e, ɔ: / and half-open, e.g. / ɜ:, ʌ /. This is done in such a way that the positions
labelled as close, half-close, half-open, and open are the same distance as in diagram (3)
that is adopted by (Roach, 2000:15-20) .
48
Front
Close
Central
Back
• i:
• u:
•ɪ
•u
Half -close
• ɔ:
•ǝ
•e
• ɜ:
Half-open
•ʌ
•ᴂ
Open
• ɑ:
•ɒ
Diagram (3): The English vowels
3.5.2 Classification of Vowels
Fasold (2006:27) declares that “English divides its vowels into two sets, tense and lax
vowels. The tense vowels are longer, slightly higher, and articulated with greater
hardening of the tongue root than their lax counterparts” and they include / i:, e, ɔ:, u: /,
while lax vowels include / ɪ, ʌ, ɒ, u /. This distinction between tense and lax does not
apply on low vowels.
There are twenty vocalic phonemes, made up of the following vowels or vowel glides:7 short (pure): / ɪ, e, ᴂ, ɒ, u, ʌ, ǝ /
5 long (relatively pure): / i:, u:, ɑ:, ɔ:, ɜ: /
3 long or diphthongs (glides to /ɪ/): / eɪ, aɪ, ɔɪ /
2 long or diphthongs (glides to /u/): / ǝu, ɑu /
3 long or diphthongs (glides to /ǝ/): / ɪǝ, eǝ, uǝ /
49
3.5.2.1 Pure Vowels (Monophthongs)
The quality of the produced vowel remains stable and constant because the organs of
speech remain in a given position for a certain period of time and show only one
direction of movement in the production of a pure vowel (Ramamurthi, 1998: 159).
They are 12 in number. The length of vowels varies according to the quality of the
consonants that follow them in the same syllable. Phonetically, strong consonants
shorten the vowel that precedes them while weak consonants lengthen it. The long
vowels are realized as shortened sounds before voiceless stop consonant sounds, e.g. /i:/
in ʻseedʼ /si:d/ and ʻseatʼ /si:t/. That is a general important rule which applies to many
other pairs of consonants (O'Connor, 1980:27). This fact makes us illustrate the
complexity of the relationship between phonological analysis and phonetic transcription.
The pure vowels in English are as follows:
Pure (simple) Vowels
/i:/ as in sea
/i/ as in sit
/e/ as in sells
/æ/ as in apt
/ʌ/ as in blood
/a:/ as in father
/ɔ / as in hot
/ɔ:/ as in brought
/u/ as in put
/u:/ as in cool
/з:/ as in bird
/ә/ as in about
3.5.2.2 Diphthongs (Vowel Glides)
There are various definitions of a diphthong given by many linguists: Ramamurthi
(1998:159) describes the diphthong as a vowel glide when the tongue moves from one
vowel position towards another. Prasad (2008:21) also states that “A diphthong is a
speech sound in one syllable in which the articulation begins as for one vowel and
50
moves as for another”. In diphthongs, there is a combination of two vowels and a
transition from one vowel towards another. In the production of diphthongs, the organs
of speech start from the position of one vowel and moves towards the other. Diphthongs
differ phonetically from monophthongs because they are not steady-state sounds, i.e. a
diphthong consists of a deliberate or intentional glide. A diphthong forms a single
syllable when the glide of the vowel happens within one batch of the breath but when
there are more than one batch of breath the ear hears two separate syllables. Sometimes
two neighbouring vowels are not considered a diphthong as in ʻgoingʼ /gəʊ.ɪŋ/ the two
vowels (oi) cannot be the two sounds that belong to two different syllables (ʻgoʼ and
ʻingʼ). Otherwise, the vowels in the monosyllabic words are considered diphthongs, e.g.
/eɪ/ in ʻdayʼ /deɪ/ and /au/ in ʻnowʼ /nau/. There are two categories for dividing the
diphthongs depending on the prominence of any element of them: decrescendo or falling
when the first element is louder or more prominent than the second one and crescendo or
rising when the second element is louder and more prominent than the first. All English
diphthongs are falling and they are of two types according to the direction of the glide:
1) the closing diphthongs are those in which the glide is in the direction of the close
vowels /ɪ/ and /u/. They include / eɪ, aɪ, ɔɪ, au, oʊ / and 2) the centering are those in
which the glide is in the direction of a central vowel /ә/. They include / ɪə, eǝ, uǝ /.
Diphthongs may also be described as follows:
a) Fronting Diphthongs are the diphthongs with a front glide, e.g. /eɪ/, /aɪ/ and /ᴐɪ/.
b) Retracting Diphthongs are the diphthongs with a back glide, e.g. /au/ and /әu/ or /ou/.
3.6 The English Syllable
Every language to configure parts of words that are called syllables or meaningful words
reflects a specific method of combining speech sounds. McMahon (2002:105) considers
that “it is less easy for speakers to reflect consciously on the internal structure of
syllables or to decide where one stops and the next starts”. A wide variety of crosslinguistic studies have supported phonologists construct a universal model for the
syllable. Certain options have to be selected by particular languages within them.
51
Cruttenden (1994:48) illustrates that the syllable refers to the concept of a unit at a
higher level than that of the phoneme or sound segment. It should be noted that most
alphabets have reached this state through a form of writing that symbolizes a group of
sounds-a syllabary.
3.6.1 The Syllable Meaning
Roach (2000:70) defines the syllable phonetically and phonologically. Phonetically, the
syllable refers to the way of its production and the way it sounds. Syllables involve a
centre that has little or no obstruction to airflow and which sounds comparatively loud at
the beginning (before the centre) and end of the syllable (after the centre). The greater
the obstruction to airflow is, the less loud the sound will be. Phonologically, the syllable
refers to the possible combinations of English phonemes2. The focus is on what may
occur in initial position of the first word in the beginning of a speech after a pause. The
word may begin with a vowel, or with one, two, or three (not more) consonants. The
focus is also, on how a word ends when it is the last spoken word before a pause. The
word may end with a vowel, or with one, two, three, or four consonants (there is no
English word ends with more than four consonants). Crystal (2008:467) states that a
syllable is a unit of pronunciation larger than a single sound and smaller than a word
typically. Syllabification refers to the division of a word into syllables. Resyllabification
refers to reanalysis that changes the location of syllable boundaries. Aslam and Kak,
(2007:63) define monosyllabic words as those that have only one syllable like ʻinʼ, ʻlipʼ,
or ʻteaʼ. Words as ʻprinterʼ, ʻprayingʼ or ʻterraceʼ contain two syllables are called bisyllabic and ʻverandaʼ, ʻimportantʼ or ʻbehaviorʼ contain three syllables; they are trisyllabic. Polysyllabic words include more than three syllables. Giegerich (1992:135-46)
adds that the rules of syllabification take into account the boundaries between words.
The single word is the range of syllabification precisely. Words are syllabified
individually and then group together into phrases and sentences.
52
It is not easy to provide an accurate definition to the syllable. Several phonetic and
phonological theories have attempted to define it. The phonetics of the syllable is rather
complex subject. In English and most other languages, a pulmonic air stream is required
for the production of the speech sounds; certain languages use alternative means of
producing an air stream occasionally. Egressive is the air stream, which is used for
speech sounds in English. It moves out of the lungs and up the trachea and does not flow
at a steady rate, but it occurs in a series of pulses. Bursts of activity on the part of the
chest muscles cause the pulsation that led to variation in the flow rate of air. Either
chest-muscle activity or constrictions in the articulatory tract may cause minor
retardations in the airflow or may be by both. It is the ʻpulseʼ or ʻmotorʼ theory of
syllable production that is adopted by R. H. Stetson (1892-1950).
A completely different approach is to consider syllabicity not as a quality of the sounds a
person hears but as something that the speaker produces. Each syllable corresponds to an
increase in the flow rate of pulmonic air. It means that every syllable starts by a pulse of
chest -a shrinking of the muscles of the rib cage that leads to push more air out of the
lungs (Ladefoged (1982:223). The problem with this theory is that it explains very little.
The air stream is inaudible, how can a word having four syllables be perceived ?To
answer this query ,there is a fact ,we must take into consideration, that (kinetic) energy
of the air-stream pulses is translated into acoustic energy in speech. The pulses of air
stream correspond to peaks in sonority. A sound sonority means its relative loudness
compared to other sounds, everything else such as pitch etc. will be equal. According to
the relative sonority, vowel speech sounds rank as a highest degree of sonority of all
speech sounds. The other sounds are between these two extreme points of the sonority
scale.
3.6.2 English Syllable Structure and Boundaries
The typical syllable basically contains a vowel segment preceded or /and followed by
zero consonant or more such as ʻaʼ, ʻseeʼ, ʻonʼ, ʻheadʼ, ʻstreetsʼ, ʻcryʼ etc. The vowel is
53
called nucleus or peak of the syllable. The peak of the syllable has syllabic element
which is more sonorous than surrounding segments. It may contain one (lax) short vowel
or (tense) long vowels as well as diphthongs. A minimum syllable is a single vowel in
isolation, e.g. the words ʻareʼ /a: / and ʻorʼ /ɔ: /.There is a silence before and after these
words. Some separated (consonants) sounds must be considered syllables such as /m/ or
/ʃ/ that indicate an agreement and asking for a silence successively (Roach, 2000:70).The
peak may be preceded by one or more consonants; this part of the syllable is called
onset. It is noted that the syllables do not need to have onsets in some English words e.g.
ʻIʼ, ʻisʼ and ʻeggsʼ because they begin with the syllabic element that is the peak. The
onset may have one, two or three consonants e.g. ʻmeʼ, ʻplaysʼ, or ʻspringʼ. A single
consonant before the peak is less sonorous than peak. If there are two consonants before
the peak, the first one will be less sonorous than the second that in turn will be less
sonorous than the peak. Fasold and Connor-Linton (2006:30-1) define sonority as
“relative openness of the vocal tract, which corresponds directly to the relative loudness
of a sound”. Therefore, depending on sonority, /s/ in the following examples ʻspeakʼ,
ʻstreamʼ, ʻsixthsʼ, and ʻsprayʼ has a particular status that is it may occupy an otherwise
unacceptable position of consonant in the onset. It violates the generalization which
onset sequences increase in sonority, and whenever an onset contains three consonants
then the first one of these will be /s/, which also violates the sonority generalization
(Giegerich, 1992:149-50). A consonant or a cluster of consonants may follow the peak;
this part of syllable is called coda. It is similar to onset except that while onset and peak
increase in sonority gradually, peak and coda decrease. It is a phonological unit which is
similar to the onset (Ibid: 139-40). So the integrated formula of the English syllable is:
onset - peak - coda.
A closed syllable has one or more consonants in the position of coda while an open
syllable does not have any consonant in the position of coda. There are English syllables
that contain only the nucleus and the coda; they do not contain an onset. This indicates
that a syllable cannot be without the nucleus whereas the onset and coda are optional
(Aslam and Kak, 2007:61-2). There is a problem e.g. ʻclampsʼ has three coda consonants
54
that are/ m, p, s / but /s/ is more sonorous than /p/ that is before it so that this violates the
previous rule since /s/ does not decrease in sonority.
The peak and the coda constitute the rhyme of a syllable that is a phonological unit. The
peak and coda function together rather than separately in a number of ways. The
syllables are divided into strong and weak. A strong syllable has a rhyme that includes a
syllable peak which is a long vowel, diphthong or a vowel followed by a coda. A weak
syllable has a syllable peak which is a short vowel and no coda unless the peak is /ǝ/ or
sometimes /ɪ/. The components of the syllable will be as follows in diagram (4):
Sy= syllable
On= onset
Pe= peak
Co= coda
Rh= rhyme
Sy
On
Rh
Pe
55
Co
Sy
On
Sy
Rh
Rh
Pe
Pe
Co
Diagram (4): The syllable components
There is no evidence for onset and peak being tied up together in a single unit similar to
that way peak and coda are in the rhyme. The possible complexity of the onset is a
variable in the structure of the syllable that is unrelated to the rest of the syllable
completely. The peak functions together with the coda not with the onset. The minimum
number of the positions of segments in the rhyme is two or single e.g. ʻtreeʼ, ʻcatʼ, ʻweʼ
or ʻtoʼ. These words will be analyzed in diagram (5):
Sy
Sy
Rh
On
Pe
(x)
T
Rh
r
On
Pe
Co
(x)
i:
k
56
æ
t
Sy
Sy
Rh
Rh
On
Pe
On
Pe
X
W
i
X
i:
Diagram (5): The syllable components of some English words
The word ʻweʼ is pronounced as strong form /wi:/ and weak form /wi/.
Sonority scale adopted by (McMahon, 2002:107) will be graded in diagram (6) as
follows:
More sonorous
Low vowels
[ɑ, æ]
High vowels
[I, u]
Glides
[j, w]
Liquids
[l, r]
Nasals
[m, n, ŋ]
Voiced fricatives
[v, ð, z, ʒ]
Voiceless fricatives
[f, θ, s, ʃ, h]
Voiced plosives (stops)
[b, d, g, dʒ ]
Voiceless plosives (stops)
[p, t, k, tʃ ]
Less sonorous
Diagram (6): The sonority scale of the English sounds
57
Hudson (2000: 226) declares that there are two additional possibilities of English
syllable structure determined by sonority scale:
1. Syllable-initial /s/ may precede the voiceless stops / p, t, k /, as in ʻsplashʼ / splæʃ /,
ʻstrictʼ /strɪkt /, and ʻsqueezeʼ/ skwi:z /.
2. Syllable-final / s, z, t, d /may follow stops in word-final syllables; these consonants
almost always represent the inflectional suffixes, as in ʻsprintsʼ /sprɪnts/, ʻbuildsʼ
/bɪldz/, ʻclaspedʼ / klæspt /,and ʻgrabbedʼ / græbd /.
It is very well known that indicating where one syllable ends and where the following
one begins is not easy. There are no certain rules in dividing words into syllables, but
the division of the syllables must represent a permissible cluster of sounds at the
beginnings and ends of words in a particular language. For example ʻexaminedʼ
/ɪgzæmɪnd / cannot be transcribed as / ɪ-gzæmɪnd / because /g/ and /z/ cannot occur in
the initial position of an English syllable (Kansakar, 1998:60). The number of the
syllables in an utterance is examined according to the previous sonority hierarchy by
revealing the number of peaks of sonority. The troughs of sonority represent the
boundaries between syllables, the sounds that follow the trough will ascend in sonority
up to the peak, and the sounds that follow the peak will descend in sonority up to the
trough. The sonority hierarchy does not explain where to put the trough of the
consonant itself with the preceding or the following syllable so that problems will arise
about its placement. Reducing the level of sonority may cause another problem like
non-peak /s/ mentioned previously. For example the word ʻsequelʼ both /si:/+/kwəl/
and /si:k/+/wəl/ are divisions according to the beginnings and ends of words under the
criterion that does a possible syllable division produce clusters of segments which
correspond to clusters at the beginnings and ends of words. Yet, /si:/ + /kwəl/ accords
better with the phonetic realization of segments in those positions: /w/ is devoiced
(voiceless) because it follows /k/ at the beginnings of words confirming the general
rule that is devoicing of /w/ or /r/ etc… occurs after / p, t, k / at the beginnings of
words and not when /w/ is a single consonant sound.
58
There is also ambiguity in some English words like ʻpetrolʼ /petrəl/ that has two
possibilities of the division of the syllable /pet/+/rəl/ agrees with the beginnings and
ends of words, but does not agree with the devoicing of /r/ after /t/ while /pe/+/trəl/
shows the devoicing of /r/ that follows /t/, however words do not end in /e/. In such
case, the previous criteria do not lead us to decide to which syllable /t/ belongs the first
or the second. The second criterion may overcome the first one, or /t/ may be regarded
as ambisyllabic that means /t/ belongs to both the preceding and the following syllable
(Cruttenden, 1994:50-1). The theory that syllables combine with peaks of sonority may
predict the right number of syllables for most of English words. There is only small
number of unexplained cases such as:
1. The two phrases ʻ hidden aims ʼ and ʻ hid names ʼ ,for example, are identical in
terms of phonemes and transcribed /hɪdnemz/.The problem is that despite this
segmental identity, ʻ hidden aims ʼ has three syllables and ʻ hid names ʼ has two. The
reason for this contradiction is obvious, but not provided by the sonority theory,
ʻhidden aims ʼ has three syllables that ʻ hidden ʼ has two and ʻ aims ʼ has one; ʻ hid
names ʼ is bisyllabic because it consists of two monosyllabic words.
2. The sonority theory does not explain the positions of syllable boundaries within
words such as ʻ phonology ʼ. The word ʻ phonology ʼ /f ə n ɒ l ə dʒ i / has four
syllables according to sonority theory, but it is difficult to identify the syllable
boundaries. Most speakers will agree on the following syllabification: pho.no.lo.gy-but
while this theory identifies the troughs between the syllable peaks, it does not predict
what appears to be quite a simple regularity: the consonant that constitute such a trough
is in each part of the following rather than the preceding syllable. So speakers do not
syllabify ʻ phonology ʼ as * phon.ol.og.y.
3. How many phonemes can a syllable contain and what phonemes can occur next to
each other in a syllable? In order to answer this question an absurd example is
necessary like : * /p1j æ u1m p / is impossible syllable in English since there is no
English syllable containing these many phonemes, but not because of any disagreement
with the sonority theory i.e. the string has one sonority peak only. A word like ʻ clampʼ
59
/clamp/ just about exhausts the potential of a single syllable. A new problem is here
that is if /clamp/ is permissible in English then why is */knap/ not?
Sonority theory thus must be modified by further constraints on possible English
syllables and the single peak criterion alone is not enough. The rules for the clusters of
phonemes and permissible number of phonemes in a syllable must be set out. */ken/
does not exist in English although it constitutes the decline of the sonority that the
beginning of a syllable requires.So we realize that English has syllabification rules in
addition to the single -peak criterion provided by the sonority theory. None of these
rules is in contradiction to the theory of sonority. They are modifications to this theory
of the syllable (Giegerich, 1992:130-7).
Ladefoged (2001:226-30) says that in spite of identifying the syllables almost by
everybody, roughly nobody can define them. It is easy to count the syllables but
difficult to state an objective procedure for locating their number in a word or phrase.
People sometimes disagree on the number of the syllables in an English word. This
may be due to dialectal differences in the way of speaking that particular word e .g.
ʻpredatoryʼ [ ̍ predətri] has three syllables, while other people say four syllables because
they pronounce it as [̍ ˈpred.ə.t ə r.i ].
Some people may emphasize on the phonological structure of words more than others
may do. Phonological views of the syllable focus on the methods sounds combine in
individual languages to produce typical sequences. According to this, there are two
classes of sounds established:
1. Sounds can occur on their own, or at the centre of a sequence of sounds. They
include /ɪ/, /a/, /u/, etc. They are generally vowels.
2. Generally Sounds cannot occur on their own, or at the edges of a sequence of
sounds. They include the consonants such as/p/, /g/, /f/, etc.
60
3.6. 3 Syllabic Consonants
A common writing system is syllabic writing and many languages still use it.
Cuneiform3 is the earliest writing of this type. Cuneiform characters have been derived
from pictographs and ultimately came to represent combinations of sounds and in some
cases single sounds. The Sumerians first developed this system of writing more than
5,000 years ago, and it spread all over the Middle East and Asia Minor. The
Babylonians and Akkadians have borrowed it. They have used cuneiform symbols to
represent the sounds of the syllables of their languages. This means that cuneiform has
been developed into a syllabic writing system. Some old systems of writing of Semitic
family of language (that includes Arabic and Hebrew) are syllabic, but they represent
the consonants only. Egyptian hieroglyphics are syllabic too. Another kind of syllabic
writing system uses a various symbol for each consonant with vowel combination
(Akmajian and etal, 1995:537).
In general, syllabic refers to a phonetic feature of those sounds that may compose the
nucleus of syllables; all vowels are syllabic. Liquids and nasals may be syllabic in such
words as ʻbirdʼ /bᵊrd/, ʻtowelʼ /tauᵊl/, ʻbuttonʼ /bʌtᵊn/, and ʻbottomʼ /bɒtᵊm/ (Fromkin
and etal, 2003:596). They add that syllabic is symbolized by the diacritic mark ʻˌʼ
under the sounds as / r̩ , l̩ , n̩, m̩ /. Occurring /ə/ before the syllabic liquids or nasals
reveals that these are separate syllables. So the transcriptions of the previous words are
/br̩ d/, /taul̩ /, /bʌtn̩/ and /bɒtm̩/ sequentially (Ibid: 258). In semiofficial registers /n/, /l/
and /r/ can be syllabic, but/r/ is only in some rhotic dialects. They exist in post tonic
stress positions and usually before a boundary of a morpheme, although there are a
small number of cases where a potential syllabic consonant may occur within a word
not at a morpheme boundary. For example, ʻbottleʼ [bɒtl̩ ] and ʻbottlingʼ [bɒtl̩ ɪŋ] (Roach
1991:79). Syllabic consonants in semiofficial registers are obligatory, otherwise, they
will be mispronounced, for example, /pi:pǝl/ rather than [pi:pl̩ ] for ʻpeopleʼ (Jones
1976:56).The feature vocalic can be replaced by a feature syllabic that discriminate all
sounds in order to compose a syllabic peak. Forming syllabic peaks will not include
obstruents4. Vowels are usually syllabic peaks (see 2.7). Liquids, glides and nasal
61
consonant sounds are nonsyllabic, but they may be syllabic under special
circumstances, e.g. between obstruents. Vowels convert to glides when they become
nonsyllabic. High vowels convert to high glides /w/ and /y/ and nonhigh vowels
convert to nonhigh glides /h/ (Chomsky and Halle, 1968:354). See the following
diagram that is adopted by them:
sonorant
syllabic
consononantal
Vowels
+
+
-
Syllabic liquids
+
+
+
Syllabic nasals
+
+
+
Nonsyllabic liquids
+
-
+
Nonsyllabic nasals
+
-
+
Glides: w, y, h, Ɂ
+
-
-
Obstruents
-
-
+
Diagram (7): The syllabic and nonsyllabic English sounds
What are the phonetic circumstances for possible syllabic consonants? Dobson
(1968:887-9) answers this question and he says that rapid and accurate articulation is a
precondition for possible syllabic consonants since in slower utterance , syllabic
consonants will not improve or if they improve , they will be replaced by a glide -vowel
before a non -syllabic consonant e .g. [l̩ ] by /ǝl/. It is unlikely that any period either type
syllabic consonants or vowel- consonant group has tried to exclude the other; free
variation between the two must always be in many phonetic circumstances in the old and
present English. However, the occurrence of syllabic consonants depends on the nature
of the preceding consonant even in rapid and accurate articulation of speech. The ease of
syllabic consonants articulation after consonants except liquids or nasals varies with the
62
degree and nature of the articulatory movement involved; if no movement is necessary,
articulation will be simple e.g.:
A bilabial + [m̩]
A dental + [n̩]
Labial continuants + [l̩ ] or [n̩]
Chomsky and Halle have proposed that syllabic [l̩ ] and syllabic [n̩] should be analyzed
in a standardized format. Nevertheless, a glide-vowel /ǝ/ interferes between the two
consonants when any slight movement occurs after a voiced consonant more than after a
voiceless one because the vocal cords already vibrate and it is difficult to achieve more
sonority for a syllabic consonant after a voiced continuant. However, syllabic
consonants can nearly follow any continuant in practice. In the following: Stop +
homorganic5 liquid or nasal, the latter position omits the ʻplosiveʼ part of the stop
consonant and at once, a homorganic liquid or nasal follow it, although it is preferable to
complete the explosion of the stop. When /l/ or /r/ follows a stop consonant, the
explosion occurs through the open part of the oral passage.
Stop + /l/ or /r/
When nasals follow a voiced stop consonant (a voiced stop + nasals), there is a while
(interval) for the explosion before the oral passage is closed and a glide -vowel /ǝ/ may
interfere during this . After non -alveolar stops , syllabic [n̩] compared with [l̩ ] is rare in
present English.
Roach (2000:89-90) explains that syllabic [r̩ ] is less common in BBC and there are
alternative pronunciations without the syllabic consonant where it occurs. Different
meaning may appear depending on whether /r/ is syllabic or not, as in ʻHungaryʼ that is
regularly pronounced /hʌŋgǝri/or [hʌŋgr̩ i] with syllabic [r̩ ] and ʻhungryʼ /hʌŋgri/. The
nasal consonant /m/ is most resonant while /ŋ / is least. Both /m/ and /ŋ/ are syllabic
because of assimilation and elision such as ʻhappenʼ [hæpm̩], although /hæpǝn/ and
[hæpn̩] are acceptable. Besides, syllabic velar nasal will be as in ʻthickenʼ/θɪkǝn/, [θɪkn̩]
63
or [θɪkŋ]. Syllabic [n̩] may follow /m/ but it is rare e.g. ʻcommonʼ [kɒmn̩], and it may
occur after /ŋ / e.g. ʻcondignʼ [kɒndɪŋn̩]. Syllabic consonants can be articulated in nonfinal position, e.g. ʻriddlesʼ [rɪdl̩ z], ʻmuttonyʼ [mʌtn̩i ], and ʻbottomlessʼ [bɒtm̩lɪs ]. /r/ is
always in pre -vocalic position but not restricted since syllabic
[r̩ ] may occur in the
following examples ʻgathersʼ [gæðr̩ z], and ʻthunderyʼ [θʌndr̩ i].
3.6.4 Consonant Clusters
Consonant clusters (sequences) are combinations of two or more consonants together to
form a syllable without a vowel interrupting them. They may occupy different positions
initially, medially and finally. They are pronounced simultaneously. They may constitute
the onset and the coda of the syllable. English selects the use of these clusters because
not all combinations are possible (Rajimwale, 2005:142-6).
There are either two or three consonants clustering in the initial position of the English
words as follows:
A. Two initial consonants in a cluster are of two main types:
1. One of / p, t, k, f, m, n, w, l, j / follows /s/, e.g. in
s+p
/sp/
speak, spy
s+t
/st/
stay, stool
s+k
/sk/
sky, scope
s+f
/sf/
sphere, sphinx
s+m
/sm/ smile, smoke
s+n
/sn/
snake, snoop
s+w
/sw/
swat, swear
s+l
/sl/
sleep, slim
s+j
/sj/
suit
64
2. One of / l, r, w, j / follow one of / p, t, k, b, d, g, f, θ, ʃ, v, m, n, h /. Some of the
clusters are not possible, e.g. / pw, dl /
/p/ + /l, r, j/
p+l
/pl/
place, play
p+r
/pr/
prime, price
p+j
/pj/
pure, puma
/t /+ /r, w, j/
t+r
/tr/
try, train
t+w
/tw/
twice twenty
t+j
/tj/
tuition, tube
/k/ + /l, r, w, j/
k+l
/kl/
class, climax
k+r
/kr/
crime, create
k+w
/kw/
quick, queen
k+j
/kj/
cure, cube
/b/ + /l, r, j/
b+l
/bl/
bless, black
b+r
/br/
bread, broad
b+j
/bj/
beautiful
/d/ + /r, w, j/
d+r
/dr/
draw, dry
d+w
/dw/
dwell, dwindle
65
d+j
/dj/
due, dew
/g/ + /l,r/
g+l
/gl/
glide, glow
g+r
/gr/
green, grass
/f/ + /l, r, j/
f+l
/fl/
floor, flame
f+r
/fr/
free, from
f+j
/fj/
fuse, fusion
/θ/ + /r, w/
θ+r
/θr/
three, throw
θ+w
/θw/
thwart, thwack
/ʃr/
shrine, shrill
/vj/
view
/mj/
music, Munich
/ʃ/ + /r/
ʃ+r
/v/ + /j/
v+j
/m/ + /j/
m+j
/n/ + /j/
n+j
/nj/
new, neutral
/h/ + /j/
h+j
/hj/
huge, hue
66
B. Clusters of three consonants initially
They include the following:
/spr/
spree, spray
/str/
stream, strong
/skr/
screen, screw
/spj/
spurious (this cluster is rare)
/stj/
student, stupid
/skj/
skewer
/spl/
splendid, splinter
/skw/
squash, squall
OʼConnor (1980: 66) says that the voiceless stop consonants / p, t, k / follow /s/ in initial
position of the words, so they will cut off /s/ and during the stop consonant, the third
consonant will be prepared, then the stop consonant is released straight into the third
one. Elgin (1979:93) ensures that English is very particular about clusters of three
consonants in initial position of the words so particular that the following is just
possible: The first phoneme must be /s/, the second must be a voiceless stop, and the
third must be a liquid.
There are two, three or four consonants clustering in the final position of the English
words as follows:
A. Clusters of two consonants finally
Final consonant clusters are more than initial clusters. This so because of the following:
1. Regular plural forms of nouns are made by adding /s/ or /z/ to them, as in ʻbooksʼ
/buks/ or ʻeggsʼ /egz/, etc.
67
2. /t/ or /d/ are added to regular verbs to form their past tense, as in ʻwashedʼ /wɒʃt/ and
ʻcleanedʼ /kli:nd/, etc.
3. Some nouns and numbers are formed by adding /θ/ as in ʻdeathʼ /deθ/, ʻstrengthʼ
/streŋθ/ and ʻfifthʼ /fɪfθ/ that in their turn can have plural forms by adding /s/ as /streŋθs/
and /fɪfθs/.
Some examples of possible consonant clusters are:
stop+stop
/p+t/
/pt/
kept, helped
/k+t/
/kt/
looked, protect
/tʃ+t/
/tʃt/
watched, attached
/b+d/
/bd/
robbed, barbed
/g+d/
/gd/
begged, dragged
/dʒ+d/
/dʒd/
judged, pledged
Any stop consonant is pronounced by making a closure to compress the air inside the
mouth and then it explodes. When there are two stop consonants following each other,
the closure of the second consonant is made while the closure of the first one is still in
position. Therefore, there are two closures, but as there is no explosion of air for the first
stop, the first stop is incomplete, because the second closure prevents the compressed air
from bursting out of the mouth. Then the second closure will open to make the
compressed air explode out of the mouth. This means that there are two closures but just
one explosion for both stop consonants.
stop+nasal
/t+n/
[t n̩]
written, Britain (syllabic [n̩])
/d+n/
[dn̩]
certain, wooden (syllabic [n̩])
68
/k+n/
[kn̩]
taken, mistaken (syllabic [n̩])
If the nasal consonant is syllabic or not, the explosion of the stop consonant that is
before it will be nasal explosion because the soft palate is lowered so the air bursts out
through the nose.
stop+lateral
/t+l/
[tl̩ ]
little, battle (syllabic [l̩ ])
/d+l/
[dl̩ ]
middle, muddle (syllabic [l̩ ])
Whenever /l/ is preceded by a stop consonant in medial or final position of the word, the
explosion of that consonant will be lateral because the air passes out laterally between
the sides of the tongue and the palate and at the same time, the tongue tip touches the
alveolar ridge (O'Connor, 1980:64-73).
Other examples are:
/f+t/
/ft/
left, laughed
/s+t/
/st/
dust, fast
/n+t/
/nt/
went, elephant
/s+p/
/sp/
gasp, wasp
/l+p/
/lp/
help, gulp
/m+p/
/mp/
bump, ramp
/l+b/
/lb/
bulb
/r+b/
/rb/
barb, garb
/ð+d/
/ðd/
clothed, mouthed
/l+d/
/ld/
held, weld
69
/n+d/
/nd/
find grand
/s+k/
/sk/
ask, task
/l+k/
/lk/
milk, bulk
/n+tʃ/
/ntʃ/
bunch, crunch
/n+dʒ/
/ndʒ/
strange, range
/l+v/
/lv/
resolve, delve
/r+v/
/rv/
carve, swerve
/d+θ/
/dθ/
breadth, width
/f+θ/
/fθ/
fifth
/p+θ/
/pθ/
depth
/ŋ+θ/
/ŋθ/
strength
/n+θ/
/nθ/
tenth, eighteenth
/p+s/
/ps/
grips, slips
/θ+s/
/θs/
deaths
/l+s/
/ls/
tools, hills
/n+s/
/ns/
hens, mince
/f+s/
/fs/
puffs, cuffs
/b+z/
/bz/
robes, sobs
/m+z/
/mz/
bombs
/ð+z/
/ðz/
baths
/v+z/
/vz/
halves, wolves
/ŋ+z/
/ŋz/
hangs, rings
70
B. Clusters of three consonants finally
/d+s+t/
/dst/
amidst
/s+k+t/
/skt/
masked
/m+p+t/
/mpt/
unkempt
/n+s+t/
/nst/
against
/l+p+t/
/lpt/
helped
/l+s+t/
/lst/
whilst
/n+dʒ+d/
/ndʒd/
deranged
/l+v+d/
/lvd/
resolved
/p+t+s/
/pts/
adopts
/p+θ+s/
/pθs/
depths
/s+k+s/
/sks/
tasks
/n+t+s/
/nts/
wants
/m+p+s/
/mps/
lamps
/l+d+z/
/ldz/
fields
/l+v+z/
/lvz/
wolves
/n+d+z/
/ndz/
sends
C. Clusters of four consonants finally
/k+s+t+s/
/ksts/
texts
/l+f+θ+s/
/lfθs/
twelfths
/k+s+θ+s/
/ksθs/
sixths (Rajimwale, 2005:145-6)
71
Longer consonant clusters occur in phrases where one word may end with a consonant
cluster and the next word may begin with one. The following are examples about these
clusters (O'Connor, 1980:77):
/s+t+j/
/stj/
nice tune
/naɪs tju:n/
/k+s+ð/
/ksð/
fix this
/fɪks ðɪs/
/s+t+s+k/
/stsk/
vast scale
/vɑ:st skeɪl/
/l+s+k+w/
/lskw/
small square
/smɔ:l skweǝ/
/g+s+p+l/
/gspl/
big splash
/bɪg splæʃ/
/n+t+s+p+r/
/ntspr/
bent spring
/bent sprɪŋ/
/k+s+t+s+w/
/kstsw/
mixed sweets
/mɪkst swi:ts/
/n+t+s+k+r/
/ntskr/
bent screw
/bent skru:/
/k+s+t+s+p+r/
/kstspr/
next spring
/nekst sprɪŋ/
/l+f+θ+s+t+r/
/lfθstr/
twelfth street
/k+s+t+s+s+t+j/
/kstsstj/
the text's stupid
/twelfθstri:t/
/ðǝ teksts stju:pɪd/
3.7 English Word Stress
A word is not a united group of a definite number of independent sounds, but it is
mainly a continuous series of many unlimited sounds. Alphabetical symbols just bring
out certain characteristic points of this series in an imperfect way (Abercrombie,
1964:107). Stress means the intensity or prominence given to a syllable. It can be
described as ʻemphasisʼ on a syllable or word in the form of prominent, relative loudness
(Verma and Krishnaswamy, 2009:41). It is a dynamic feature of language and a prosodic
or supra-segmental feature that refers to the intensity given to an uttered sound in
comparison with other sounds in a unit. One or more syllables may receive stress in the
72
English content words such as nouns, verbs, adjectives and adverbs (Ramamurthi,
1998:178-9).
Word stress has been used in various and sometimes ambiguous methods in phonetics
and linguistics. It is used as equivalent to loudness occasionally, as prominent meaning
by loudness or length rather than pitch and sometimes it refers only to syllables in words
in the lexicon and meaning as “having the potential for accent on utterances”
(Cruttenden.1994:25). Therefore, some phoneticians and linguists use the word accent
instead of stress. Both stress and accent are not synonymous. Accent is general when
many languages have accentual systems in which the syllables are identical in vowels
and consonants. So in order to distinguish between stress and accent a dependence on
the differences in pitch level, or in duration, or in relative loudness or prominence is
necessary. A stress system is an accentual system where the differences are significant in
relative loudness or prominence. Many different theoretical studies deal with English
stress thoroughly (e.g. Chomsky and Halle, 1968, Halle and Vergnaud, 1987, McCarthy
and Prince, 1993, Burzio, 1994, Jenkins, 2000 and others). The researcher will just state
the basic rules of the stressed syllables in simple words as they relate to this current
study.
The stdy of English stress is based on two views production and perception. Anybody
may realize the production of stressed syllable by using more muscular energy than in
unstressed one (Roach, 2000:94). Thus, Crystal (2008:454) defines the stress as a term
that is used in phonetics to refer to the degree of force or energy used in pronouncing a
syllable. Ladefoged (1982:104) states that a stressed syllable is articulated by pushing
more air out of the lungs in one syllable related to others. A stressed syllable involves
greater respiratory energy than surrounding unstressed syllables. It may involve an
increase in laryngeal activity too. Stress can always be defined with regard to something
that a speaker does in one part of an utterance related to another. Therefore, to define
stress according to a listener's opinion is difficult.
73
The perception of stress is realized by one distinguished feature that is prominence. All
stressed syllables are prominent. So, Fasold, (2006:31) declares that “linguistic stress is
a prominence relation between syllables: certain syllables are longer, louder, higherpitched, or more clearly articulated than those around them”. Fromkin and others
(2003:318) also describe the stressed syllable as one that can be marked by an intensive
accent (') and is realized as more prominent than unstressed syllables. Brown (1977:47)
ensures that “in general, stressed syllables will be marked by standing out in pitch
against the surrounding unstressed syllables”.
Nevertheless, Ladefoged (1982:104) shows that a stressed syllable is generally, but not
always louder and on a higher pitch than an unstressed one. The listener has to detect
that a stressed syllable frequently has a longer vowel. However, the speaker will
discover that to tap on a stressed syllable is easy. This is so, because the production of a
syllable requiring energy is easy. The listeners identify the stress pattern of other people;
they put all the available signs together in a particular utterance to infer the motor
activity (the articulations) they will use in order to articulate the same stresses. They
sometimes realize an utterance by reference to their own motor activities. When we
listen to speech, we consider what we must do to produce similar sounds; this is called
the motor theory of speech perception.
Generally, loudness, length, pitch and quality combine together to produce prominence,
though one or two of these factors will be fair enough to make prominence but Roach
( 2000:95) states that these factors do not have the same significance because pitch has
the strongest impact, and length has an impact too while loudness and quality are
significantly lower.
3.7.1 The Functions of Stress
English stress may occur on the antepenultimate (the third from the last), penultimate or
final syllable. It may vary within different (derived) forms of the same word
74
e.g.ʻdemocratʼ ['demǝkræt], ʻdemocracyʼ [dɪ'mɒkrǝsi] and ʻdemocraticʼ [demǝ'krætɪk].
The position of the primary or main stress can vary within the same word itself; so the
final syllables of numbers will be stressed if they are isolated e.g., ʻthirteenʼ [θɜ:'ti:n],
but the stress will shift to the first syllable to preserve eurhythmy6 when they are
followed by another stressed syllable e.g., ʻthirteen pintsʼ ['θɜ:ti:n 'paɪnts]. Stress has
various functions in English (Davenport and Hannahs, 2005:80). It may be used to give
special emphasis to a word (phrasal stress) or to contrast one word with another.
The main function of stress is to explain the syntactic relationships between words or
parts of words (Ladefoged 1982:104-5). Elgin (1979:88) shows that there are many pairs
of noun- verb, such as ʻconvertʼ ['kɒnvɜ:t] to [kǝn'vɜ:t], ʻrejectʼ ['ri:dʒekt] to [rɪ'dʒekt],
and ʻinsultʼ ['ɪnsʌlt] to [ɪn'sʌlt]. The nouns have the stress on their first syllable while the
verbs have it on the last in these pairs. Stress exists in the differentiation of sequences of
noun preceded by adjective, e.g. ʻblack boardʼ ['blæk, 'bɔːd ] and compound words that
have the same segmental phonemes e.g. ʻblackboardʼ ['blækbɔ:d]. The compound words
have the stress on the first syllable. Gilbert (1984:19) cited in Ibrahim (1986:4) reported
that stress has an important role in keeping (memorizing) and remembering lexical
items. The patterns of stress are the main part of the pronunciation of English words.
The native speakers store vocabulary according to stress patterns. When the listener
hears a wrong pattern, he/she may spend some time looking for stored words in the
wrong category. The listener may realize that something is wrong; he/she may forget the
original cluster of sounds. Because of that, a mistake of a stress pattern can cause great
confusion.
3.7.2 Stress Levels
Stress levels or stresses mean the contrasting degrees of prominence where the accentual
system of English is of this kind according to Hockett (1970:47) cited in Prasad
(2008:39).There are at least three various levels of stress: the primary or main stress that
is borne by the most prominent (stressed) syllable. It is marked with a vertical line on the
75
syllable in transcription [']. The unstressed syllables are not prominent. This current
study deals only with stressed syllables in isolated words to cover stress placement and
levels more clearly than in connected speech. Secondary stress is an intermediate level,
weaker than primary stress but stronger than unstressed syllables. It is marked in
transcription with a low vertical line [ˌ] e.g., ʻphotographicʼ [ˌfǝutǝ'græfɪk].
If the unstressed syllables contain the following vowels /ǝ, ɪ, i, u/ or a syllabic
consonant, they will sound less prominent than unstressed syllables containing any other
vowels e.g., in ʻpoeticʼ[pǝu'etɪk] the first syllable is more prominent than the first
syllable of ʻpatheticʼ [pǝ'θetɪk]. Thus, a tertiary and a fourth level of stress may be given.
A tertiary level is marked by using the symbol [˳]. For example in ʻindivisibilityʼ
[ɪndɪ˳vɪzɪ'bɪlǝti] there are seven syllables, the syllable ['bɪl] carries the primary stress so
it is the strongest, the first [ˌɪnd] carries the second stress, while the third syllable [˳vɪz]
carries tertiary stress that is weaker than the latter two but stronger than the second,
fourth, sixth, and seven unstressed syllables (Roach, 2000:96 and Prasad, 2008:40).
3.7.3 Stress Change
Stress is an important phonetic feature of English; therefore, any change in stress pattern
of an utterance may change its meaning thoroughly (Falk, 1978:106). There are many
examples about the words that have the same orthography where stress is on the first
syllable in the nouns but on the second in the verbs e.g. ʻimportʼ ['ɪmpɔ:t] and [ɪm'pɔ:t].
Sentence stress is also significant and the emphasis on any word as the most important
will lead to different meaning and implication. Each English word consisting of more
than one syllable has a fixed pattern of stress while sentence stress is not as fixed as that.
Stress is on either the first or the second syllable of English disyllabic words containing
two syllables. A basic rule explains that if the second syllable of the verbs, adjectives
and adverbs is strong, it will be stressed, but if weak, it will be unstressed. In the nouns,
the stress is on the first syllable when the second one contains a short vowel and vice
versa such as:
76
damage
['dæmɪdʒ]
believe
[bɪ'li:v]
carry
['kæri]
reply
[rɪ'plaɪ]
lengthy
['leŋkθi]
mistake
[mɪ'steɪk]
money
[ˈmʌni]
balloon
[bəˈluːn]
Secondary stress is on one syllable of English words containing three or more syllables,
the primary stress is on the last syllable but the first syllable has the secondary stress.
Thus, the secondary stress precedes the primary stress by two syllables. For example:
examination
[ɪgˌzæm.ɪˈneɪ.ʃ ə n]
preposition
[ˌprep.ǝ'zɪʃ.ǝn]
advantageous
[ˌæd.væn'teɪ.dʒǝs]
There are two secondary stresses in some very long words e.g. ʻindividualityʼ
[ˌɪndɪ.ˌvɪd.ju'æl.ǝ.ti]. Secondary stress may precede the primary stress by three syllables
as in the following examples in which stressing is according to the analogy of ʻcivilizeʼ
and ʻvulnerableʼ in technical language:
civilization
[ˌsɪv.ǝl.aɪ'zeɪ.ʃǝn]
vulnerability
[ˌvʌl.nǝr.ǝ'bɪl.ɪ.ti] /
In order to determine the quality of the vowels it is important to know the placement of
stress in the English words. The vowels are weak in unstressed syllables especially /ǝ/
and sometimes /ɪ/ e.g. the word ʻeconomicʼ [ˌi:.kǝ'nɒm.ɪk] has primary stress on the
third syllable and secondary stress on the first syllable because they have full vowels and
they also have the last syllable while the unstressed syllable that is the second has /ǝ/, in
ʻeconomyʼ[ɪ'kɒn.ǝ.mi], the stress is on the second syllable, there is no secondary stress,
because it has a full vowel and the last syllable, but the first and third syllables are
77
unstressed because they have weakened vowels /ɪ/and /ǝ/. Here the stress shifts to the
second syllable. Stress also has an impact on the use or omission of consonant sounds in
the same as the vowel sounds. The following are useful rules about this impact:
1. Some English words have voiceless /h/ when they are stressed but they will lose /h/ in
weakly stressed positions i.e. /h/ is deleted before a weakly stressed vowel. For example
ʻI like his tieʼ [aɪ 'laɪk ɪz'taɪ]. ʻhʼ in orthography is silent between a strongly stressed and
a weakly stressed vowel e.g. ʻvehicleʼ ['vi:.ɪ.kl̩ ]. This assimilation occurs in unstressed
syllables only.
2. There is a tendency to voice /s/ before a stressed vowel in some English words e. g.
ʻabsolveʼ [ǝb'zɒlv], ʻdiseaseʼ [dɪ'zi:z] and ʻpossessʼ [pǝ'zes]. This means that there is
effect of stress on the voicing of some consonants.
3. There is also a tendency to voice both/k/ and /s/ that are included in the letter ʻxʼ
before a stressed vowel in some English words e.g. ʻexistʼ [ɪgˈzɪst ], ʻexactʼ [ɪgˈzækt ]
and ʻauxiliaryʼ [ɔːgˈzɪl.i. ə r.i].
4. The prefix ʻexʼ enables us to illustrate several rules that are concerned with the impact
of stress on the voicing of consonants. There are three divisions of ʻexʼ:
a) ʻexʼ will be pronounced /eks/ if it has primary or secondary stress e.g. ʻexcellentʼ
['eksǝlǝnt], ʻexhibitionʼ [ˌeksɪ'bɪʃǝn] and ʻexerciseʼ ['eksǝsaɪz].
b) ʻexʼ is pronounced /ɪks/ when the stress is marked on the second syllable that begins
with a consonant e.g. ʻexcuseʼ [ɪk'skju:z], ʻexcludeʼ [ɪk'sklu:d] and ʻexplainʼ [ɪk'spleɪn].
c) ʻexʼ is pronounced /ɪgz/ when the stress is marked on the second syllable that begins
with a vowel e.g. ʻexhaustʼ [ɪgˈzɔːst], ʻexampleʼ [ɪgˈzɑːm.pl ̩] and ʻexoticʼ [ɪgˈzɒt.ɪk].
Thus, the voiceless /k/ and /s/ are pronounced as the voiced /g/ and /z/.
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The following points highlight the placement of stress:
Stress on words beginning with prefix ʻreʼ
1. ʻreʼ has full stress and pronounced /ri:/ when it means ʻagainʼ and on both syllables
(in disyllabic verbs) when it is joined to the root with a hyphen e.g. ʻre-signʼ ['ri:'saɪn],
ʻre-callʼ ['ri:ˈkɔːl ], ʻreinstateʼ [̍ riː.ɪnˈsteɪt ] and ʻredecorateʼ ['ri:'dekǝreɪt].
2. There are two distinguished cases when ʻreʼ does not mean ʻagainʼ:
a) ʻreʼ is pronounced /re/ when it has a primary or secondary stress e.g. ʻrecognizeʼ
['rekǝgnaɪz], ʻrecollectʼ [ˌrek.ǝ'lekt] and ʻrecommendʼ [ˌrekǝ'mend].
b) ʻreʼ is pronounced /rɪ/ when it is unstressed e.g. ʻrememberʼ [rɪ'membǝ], ʻreflectionʼ
[rɪ'flekʃǝn] and ʻrefusalʼ [rɪ'fju:zl̩ ].
Stress on Disyllabic Words
Stress will be on the root of disyllabic words with a weak prefix e.g. ʻagainʼ [əˈgen] or
[əˈgeɪn],
ʻaheadʼ
[əˈhed],
ʻbecomeʼ
[bɪˈkʌm],
ʻbecauseʼ
[bɪˈkəz]or[bɪˈkɒz],
ʻmisleadʼ[ˌmɪsˈliːd], ʻdishonestʼ [dɪˈsɒn.ɪst] and ʻbilingualʼ [baɪˈlɪŋgwəl].
English two-syllabic verbs may be divided into two main kinds:
a) Verbs in which the stress is on the first syllable e.g. ʻutterʼ [ˈʌtə r], ʻlimitʼ [ˈlɪmɪt] and
ʻopenʼ [ˈəʊpə n]. They are fewer in number than the following verbs in point (b).
b) Verbs in which the stress is on the second syllable e.g. ʻacceptʼ [əkˈsept], ʻselectʼ
[sɪˈlekt] and ʻbeginʼ [bɪˈgɪn].
Stress on words ending with suffix ʻateʼ
The disyllabic words ending in ʻateʼ suffix has stress on the last syllable when it is a
verb, but on the first syllable when it is a noun or an adjective. ʻateʼ suffix will be
pronounced /eɪt/ if it is stressed and /ɪt/ (/ǝt/ is also possible) if it is not e.g. the verbs
ʻcreateʼ [krɪ'eɪt], ʻdebateʼ [dɪ'beɪt] and ʻdictateʼ [dɪk'teɪt] while the nouns and adjectives
are ʻclimateʼ ['klaɪmɪt], ʻpalateʼ ['pælɪt], ʻprivateʼ ['praɪvɪt] and ʻsenateʼ ['senɪt]. Here the
voiceless /t/ shortens the vowel before lt.
79
When ʻateʼ occurs in final position of a word containing more than two syllables, the
primary stress is on the antepenultimate syllable e.g. ʻcertificateʼ [sǝ'tɪfɪkɪt]. If ʻateʼ is
the final syllable of the verbs, it will have some degree of stress and pronounced [eɪt]
and [ɪt] or [ǝt] in nouns and adjectives as follows:
The word
verb
noun
separate
['sepǝreɪt]
advocate
['ædvǝkeɪt]
['ædvǝkɪt]or['ædvǝkǝt]
estimate
['estɪmeɪt]
['estɪmɪt]or['estɪmǝt]
duplicate ['dju:plɪkeɪt]
adjective
['sepǝrɪt]or['sepǝrǝt]
['dju:plɪkɪt]or['dju:plɪkǝt] ['dju:plɪkɪt]or['dju:plɪkǝt]
Stress on words ending with suffix ʻainʼ
The primary stress is on the last syllable in the verbs ending in ʻainʼ e.g. ʻmaintainʼ
[meɪnˈteɪn], ʻobtainʼ [əbˈteɪn] and ʻretainʼ [rɪˈteɪn].
Stress words ending with suffixes ʻfyʼ,ʻiseʼ and ʻizeʼ
The primary stress is on antepenultimate syllable in verbs ending in ʻfy', ʻiseʼ or ʻizeʼ
e.g. ʻamplifyʼ [ˈæmplɪfaɪ], ʻpersonifyʼ [pəˈsɒnɪfaɪ], ʻidentifyʼ [aɪˈdentɪfaɪ], ʻrecognizeʼ
[ˈrekəgnaɪz], ʻfamiliarizeʼ [fəˈmɪliə raɪz], ʻitalicizeʼ [ɪˈtælɪsaɪz] and ʻadvertiseʼ
[ˈædvətaɪz].
Stress on words ending with suffix ʻuteʼ
The stress is on the last syllable of two-syllabic verbs ending in ʻuteʼ e.g. ʻcommuteʼ
[kəˈmjuːt], ʻimputeʼ [ɪmˈpjuːt] and ʻdeputeʼ [dɪˈpjuːt], but in some verbs of three or more
syllables the primary stress will be on the antepenultimate syllable e.g. ʻconstituteʼ
['kɒnstɪtjuːt], ʻsubstituteʼ ['sʌbstɪtjuːt] and ʻinstituteʼ[ˈɪnstɪtjuːt].
80
Stress on words ending with suffixes ʻasisʼ and ʻitisʼ
The primary stress is on the penultimate syllable of (nouns) such as the names of
diseases ending in ʻasisʼ and ʻitisʼ e.g. (amoe'biasis, elephan'tiasis, gas'tritis, bron'chitis,
appendi'citis and myo'sitis).
Stress on words ending with suffix ʻatorʼ
The primary stress is on the penultimate syllable of three-syllabic nouns ending in ʻatorʼ
e.g. ʻcreatorʼ [kriˈeɪtər], ʻtranslatorʼ [trænsˈleɪtər] and ʻcollatorʼ [kəˈleɪtǝr].
It will be on the fourth syllable from the last in the nouns that have four or more
syllables e.g. ʻcalculatorʼ [ˈkælkjʊleɪtər], ʻgeneratorʼ [ˈdʒenəreɪtə r] and ʻalligatorʼ
[ˈælɪgeɪtə r].
Stress on words ending with suffixes ʻeerʼ and ʻetteʼ
In the nouns ending in ʻeerʼ and ʻetteʼ, the primary stress is on the last syllable e.g.
ʻcareerʼ [kəˈrɪə r], ʻengineerʼ [ˌendʒɪˈnɪər], ʻnoveletteʼ [ˌnɒvəlˈet] and ʻbrunetteʼ
[bruˈnet].
Stress onwords ending with suffixes ʻgamyʼ, ʻgamistʼ, ʻgraphyʼ and ʻgrapherʼ
In the nouns ending in ʻgamyʼ, ʻgamistʼ, ʻgraphyʼ and ʻgrapherʼ, the primary stress is on
antepenultimate syllable e.g. (al'logamy and ho'mogamy) and ʻbigamistʼ [ˈbɪgəmɪst],
ʻpolygamistʼ [pəˈlɪgəmɪst], ʻbibliographyʼ [ˌbɪbliˈɒgrəfi], ʻbi'ographyʼ [baɪˈɒgrəfi],
ʻgeographerʼ [dʒiˈɒgrəfər] and ʻphotographerʼ [fəˈtɒgrəfər].
There is a group of contrasts in the words ending in ʻlogyʼ and ʻaphyʼ as the following:
biology
[baɪˈɒl.ə.dʒi]
biological
[ˌbaɪ.əˈlɒdʒ.ɪ.k əl]
philology
[fɪˈlɒl.ə.dʒi]
philological
[ˌfɪl.əˈlɒdʒ.ɪ.kəl]
psychology
[saɪˈkɒl.ə.dʒi]
psychological
[ˌsaɪ.kəlˈɒdʒ.ɪ.kəl]
geography
[dʒiˈɒg.rə.fi]
geographical
[ˌdʒi.əˈgræf.ɪ.kə l]
photography
[fəˈtɒg.rə.fi]
photographic
81
[ˌfəʊ.təˈgræf.ɪk]
orthography
[ɔːˈθɒg.rə.fi]
orthographic
[ˌɔː.θəʊˈgræf.ɪk]
The words ending in ʻicʼ, ʻicalʼ, ʻicallyʼ, ʻiousʼ, ʻialʼ and ʻiallyʼ have primary stress on
the syllables preceding these suffixes such as:
Ic
democratic
[ˌdem.əˈkræt.ɪk]
economic
[iːkəˈnɒm.ɪk]
[ˈklæs.ɪ.kə l]
periodical
[ˌpɪə.riˈɒd.ɪ.kə l]
[ˈtek.nɪ.kli]
theoretically
[θɪəˈret.ɪ.kli]
[ˌser.ɪˈməʊ.ni.əs]
ambitious
[æmˈbɪʃ.əs]
[ɪˈsen.t ʃəl]
preferential
[ˌpref.ərˈen.tʃə l]
ical
classical
ically
technically
ious
ceremonious
ial
essential
ially
commercially
[kəˈmɜː.ʃəl.i]
initially
[ɪˈnɪʃ.ə l.i]
Stress on words ending with suffix ʻmentʼ
The suffix ʻmentʼ is used to form nouns; it is unstressed and pronounced /mǝnt/
e.g. and ʻsupplementʼ ['sʌplɪmǝnt]. However, if it is used to form verbs, there will be
two distinguished cases:
a) The stress is on the last syllable of disyllabic words and pronounced /ment/ e.g.
ʻcementʼ [sɪ'ment] and ʻfomentʼ [fǝu'ment].
82
b) The primary stress is on antepenultimate syllable in the words that have more than
two syllables, but the last syllable will have some degree of stress. It is pronounced
/ment/ e.g. ʻexperimentʼ [ɪkˈsperɪment], ʻimplementʼ [ˈɪmplɪment].
We must take into account that some inflectional suffixes do not have an impact on the
stress in the main words such as:
ed
remind
[rɪˈmaɪnd]
reminded
[rɪˈmaɪndɪd]
reward
[rɪˈwɔːd]
rewarded
[rɪˈwɔːdɪd]
figure
[ˈfɪgər ]
figures
[ˈfɪgər z]
success
[səkˈses]
successes
[səkˈsesɪz]
survive
[səˈvaɪv]
surviving
[səˈvaɪvɪŋ]
happen
[ˈhæpə n]
happening
[ˈhæpə nɪŋ]
es
ing
Some derivational suffixes also do not have an impact on the stress in the main words
like ʻageʼ, ʻanceʼ, ʻenʼ, ʻerʼ, ʻessʼ, ʻfulʼ, ʻhoodʼ, ʻiceʼ, ʻishʼ, ʻiveʼ, ʻlessʼ, ʻlyʼ, ʻnessʼ, ʻorʼ,
ʻshipʼ, ʻterʼ, ʻureʼ and ʻzenʼ.
Some two- syllabic English words have two different patterns of stress (lexical stress) as
verbs, nouns or adjectives. These words have the same orthography. Stress is on the last
syllable in the verbs and on the first syllable in the nouns or adjectives such as the
following:
83
Words
Verbs
Nouns
Adjectives
[ˈæbsənt]
absent
[æbˈsent]
object
[əbˈdʒekt]
[ˈɒbdʒɪkt]
perfect
[pəˈfekt]
[ˈpɜːfekt]
accent
[əkˈsent]
[ˈæksənt]
contrast
[kənˈtrɑːst]
[ˈkɒntrɑːst]
conduct
[kənˈdʌkt]
[ˈkɒndʌkt]
export
[ɪkˈspɔːt]
[ˈekspɔːt]
decrease
[dɪˈkriːs]
['diːkriːs]
refuse
[rɪˈfjuːz ]
[ˈrefjuːs ]
transfer
[trænsˈfɜːr ]
[ˈtræns.fɜːr ]
survey
[səˈveɪ]
[ˈsɜːveɪ]
[ˈpɜːfekt]
Stress on words ending with suffixes ʻionʼ and ʻsiveʼ
The primary stress in words ending in ʻionʼ and ʻsiveʼ is always on the final vowel
before the latter endings or on the penultimate syllable except the following words
ʻlionʼ, ʻscionʼand ʻZionʼ. For example:
religion
[rɪˈlɪdʒən]
opinion
[əˈpɪnjən]
companion
[kəmˈpænjən]
protection
[prəˈtekʃən]
station
[ˈsteɪʃə n]
intention
[ɪnˈtenʃə n]
population
[ˌpɒpjʊˈleɪʃə n]
determination
[dɪtɜːmɪˈneɪʃə n]
revolution
[ˌrevəˈluːʃən]
occasion
[əˈkeɪʒən]
discussion
[dɪˈskʌʃən]
aggressive
[əˈgresɪv]
84
exclusive
[ɪkˈskluːsɪv]
explosive
[ɪkˈspləʊsɪv]
The primary stress will be on the antepenultimate syllable in words ending in ʻityʼ e.g.
ʻnationalityʼ [ˌnæʃə nˈæləti], ʻabilityʼ [əˈbɪlɪti] and ʻelectricityʼ [ɪlekˈtrɪsɪti].
One primary stress is familiar in most English words, although one or more secondary
stresses are possible to accompany it. This is a single stress, but two primary stresses
within one word may occur sometimes. It is a double stress e.g. ʻarchbishopʼ ['ɑːtʃ
'bɪʃəp] but [ˌɑːtʃˈbɪʃəp] is possible too. The latter stress is rare in simple words while in
some compound words it is common. Most of the previous rules credit on the following
sources (Christophersen, 1956:153-65), (Kansakar, 1998:70-2) and (Prasad, 2008:39-46)
3.8 Concluding Remarks
1. It is difficult to determine the number of the English consonants because of the
irregular spelling system of English that does not represent sounds in a fully coherent
manner.
2. Consonantal and vocalic phonetic features deal with vocal tract activities that may be
implemented independently of each other.
3. According to the relative sonority, vowel speech sounds rank as a highest degree of
sonority of all speech sounds.
4. English syllables do not require having onsets in some English words because they
begin with the syllabic element that is the peak. They may begin with a vowel.
5. If the English syllable has onset, it may have one, two or three consonants.
6. English syllable may have one or more consonants in the position of coda or it may
not have coda.
85
7. English stress may be used to give special emphasis to a word or to contrast one word
with another.
8. The main function of English stress is to indicate the syntactic relationships between
words or parts of words.
9. Any change in English stress pattern of an utterance may change its meaning
thoroughly.
10. English stress may affect the voicing of some English consonants.
86
Notes
1. The formant figures given are provided by Dr. J.C. Wells, University College, London, from
unpublished thesis on the formant structure of RP vowels.
2. The study of the possible phoneme combinations of a language is called phonotactics (Roach,
2000:71).
3. Cuneiform is of a form of writing used for over 3,000 years until the 1st century BC in the
ancient countries of the Middle East.
4. “Obstruent is a term used in the phonetic classification of speech sounds to refer to sounds
involving constriction which impedes the flow of air through nose or mouth, as in plosives,
fricatives and affricates”. Chomsky and Halle use this term in their distinctive feature approach
in the same field but its status is that of phonological opposition to sonorant (Crystal,
2008:338).
5. Homorganic is a general term in the phonetic classification of speech sounds. It refers to the
sounds that are articulated at the same place of articulation (Crystal, 2008:231) e.g. /p, b, m/ or
/l, r/
6. Eurhythmy is a principle proposed in metrical phonology for the interpretation of metrical
grids, indicating which grids are possible and preferable. Particularly, it ensures that strings
result in a preferred grid configuration, such as the tendency towards a particular spacing of
stressed syllables (Crystal, 2008:176).
87