FAKULTI PENDIDIKAN DAN BAHASA

HBET1203
ENGLISH PHONETICS AND PHONOLOGY

NAMA:
ELIZABETH M. GONENTONG

NO MATRIKS:
830319125458001

NRIC:
830319125458

NO. TEL:
0135482925

E-MAIL:
yokie_83@yahoo.com

ENGLISH PHONETICS AND PHONOLOGY

TUTOR:
ENCIK RUDY B. NORDIN

PUSAT PEMBELAJARAN:
OUM TAWAU

SEMESTER MEI 2015

TABLE OF CONTENT

1.0
2.0

Introduction
Segmental Features
2.1
Assimilation
2.1.1 Place of Assimilation Bilabialisation
of Alveolar Sounds
2.1.2

Place Assimilation Palatalisation

of Alveolar Sounds

3
4
5
6

2.1.3

Place Assimilation Velarisation of

Alveolar Sounds

2.1.4

Assimilation of Voicing

2.2

Elision

2.3

Linking

3.0

The Importance of Segmental Features

Knowledge

10

4.0

Conclusion

12

ENGLISH PHONETICS AND PHONOLOGY

References

1.0

13

INTRODUCTION
Pronunciation refers to the production of sounds that used to make meaning. It
includes attention and focus to the particular sounds of a language (segments), aspects
of speech beyond the level of the individual sound such as intonation, phrasing, stress,
timing, rhythm (suprasegmental aspects), how the voice is projected (voice quality).
Overally, in its broadest definition means attention to gestures and expressions that are
closely related to the way we speak a language.
Developing a child's phonological awareness is an important part of emerge a
reader. Many research studies point out that kids who have weak phonological
awareness also have weak reading skills. Mostly, it depends on how the teaching
progress of segmenting and blending, step by step starting at the sentence level,
moving to syllable, and finally to individual phonemes.
Children who can segment and blend sounds easily are able to use this
knowledge when reading and spelling. Segmenting and blending individual sounds
can be difficult at the beginning. Speech segmentation is a subfield of general speech
perception and an important sub-problem of the technologically focused field
of speech recognition. It cannot be adequately by solving in isolation.
Speech

segmentation is

the

process

of

identifying

the

limitation

between syllables, words or phonemes in spoken natural languages. It is applies both

to artificial processes of natural language processing to the mental processes used by
humans. Florez (1998) defines segmental as the basic inventory of distinctive sounds
and the way that they combine to form a spoken language. She notes that
3

ENGLISH PHONETICS AND PHONOLOGY

pronunciation instruction has often concentrated on the mastery of segmental through
discrimination and production of target sounds via drills.
Speech segmentation is a subfield of general speech perception and an
important sub problem of the technologically focused field of speech recognition, and
cannot be reasonably solved in isolation. In the guise of most natural language
processing problems, one must take into consideration about the context, grammar,
and semantics, and even so the result is often a probabilistic division (statistically
based on likelihood) rather than a categorical one. Even though, it seems that coarticulation is a phenomenon which may happen between adjacent words just as easily
as within a single word.
This problem overlaps to some extent with the problem of text
segmentation that occurs in some languages which are traditionally written without
inter-word spaces such as Japanese and Chinese compared to writing systems which
indicate speech segmentation between words by a word divider like the space.
However, text segmentation is often much easier than speech segmentation even for
those languages, because the written language usually has little interference between
adjacent words. It often contains additional clues not present in speech (such as the
use of Chinese characters for word stems in Japanese).

2.0

SEGMENTAL FEATURES

The variation sounds segments that we have identified do not exist in isolation. Not only
that, the sounds are often string together to form words. Words are put together in connected
speech. There are three dominant segmental features in English that are assimilation, linking
and elison.
2.1

Assimilation
Assimilation has a precise meaning when its related to studies of languages. It is
a common phonological process by which the phonetics of speech segment
becomes more like another or nearby sound segment in a word. In the other
words, its when a letter (sound) is influenced by the letter (sound) before or after

ENGLISH PHONETICS AND PHONOLOGY

it so that it changes its sound or spelling. This can occur either within a word or
between words. There are four configurations found in assimilations:

Between adjacent segments.

Between segments separated by one or more segments intervening.

Changes are made in reference to a previous segment

Changes are made in reference to a following segment

There are two types of assimilation namely progressive assimilation and

regressive assimilation. Regressive assimilation happened if a sound changes in
reference to a following segment. But if it is traditionally called changes with
reference to a preceding segment then it is called progressive. Regressive
assimilation is known as right-to-left, leading, or anticipatory assimilation. As for
progressive

assimilation

is

also

known

as

left-to-right,

preservative,

perseveratory, lagging or lag assimilation. Many find these terms confusing and
twisted as they seem to mean the opposite of the intended meaning. The terms
anticipatory and lag are used here. Therefore, a variety of alternative terms have
arisen where not all of which avoid the problem of the traditional terms.
In rapid speech, for example, "handbag" is often pronounced [hmb].
As in this example, sound segments not only typically assimilate to a following
sound (which called regressive or anticipatory assimilation), but they may
assimilate to a preceding one (progressive assimilation). Assimilation most
commonly occurs between immediately adjacent sounds but it may also occur
between sounds separated by others.
Assimilation can be synchronic that is an active process in a language at a
given point in time that is a historical sound change. co-articulation is a related
process where one segment influences another to produce an allophonic variation,
such as vowels acquiring the feature nasal before nasal consonants when

ENGLISH PHONETICS AND PHONOLOGY

the velum opens prematurely or /b/ becoming labialised as in "boot". This article
describes both processes under the term assimilation.

2.1.1

Place of Assimilation bilabialisation of Alveolar Sounds

Place of assimilation involves alveolar stops which change their place of
articulation to bilabial or velar. It depends on the surrounding sound, or alveolar
fricatives. It may change their place of articulation to post alveolar when followed
by a post alveolar or palatal consonant.
Alveolar consist of the sounds of /t d n/ where as bilabials consists the
sounds of /p b m/. The alveolar stops /t d n/ may become bilabial if followed by
bilabial consonants (/p b m/) or they may become velar stops when followed by
velars (/k

g/) without

altering

their

voicing.

Thus

/t/

may

become /p/ or /k/ /d/ may become /b/ or /g/ and /n/ may become /m/ or //. For
example:
i)

/t/ changes to /p/ before [p], [b] or [m]

great person [greIt p3:sn] [greIp p3:sn] [greIp3:sn]

ii)

/ d / changes to / b / before [p], [b] or [m]

bad person

iii)

[bp3:sn]

/ n / changes to / m / before [p], [b] or [m]

ten persons

2.1.2

[bd p3:sn] [bb p3:sn]

[ten p3:snz] [tem p3:snz] [temp3:snz]

Place Assimilation Palatalisation of Alveolar Sounds

The alveolar fricatives /s z/ may become post-alveolar fricatives without altering
their voicing when followed by a palatal approximant (/j/) or a post-alveolar
fricative (/ /). Thus /s/ may become / / and /z/ may become / /.
Examples:
Is she
Dress shop

/ z i / > / i/
/dres p/ > /dre p/

ENGLISH PHONETICS AND PHONOLOGY

In RP English the alveolar fricatives do not become post-alveolar by
assimilation when the following sound is a post-alveolar affricate (/t d/). But in
other accents of English such assimilations are possible.
If speech is thought of as a string of sounds linked together, assimilation is
what happens to a sound when it is influenced by one of its neighbours. For
example, the word this has the sound -s at the end if it is pronounced on its own,
but when followed by // in a word such as shop it often changes in rapid speech
(through assimilation) to //, which gives the pronunciation i p.

2.1.3 Place Assimilation Velarisation of Alveolar Sounds

Another common place assimilation involves the alveolar stops /t/ changing to
velar stop /k/ to match a velar sounds such as /k/ or /g/ following it. In each
example stated that the alveolar stop /t/ precedes a velar stop /k/ or /g/. The
change of /t/ to /k/ is an example of place assimilation in which the alveolar stop
sound changes a velar stop in anticipation of a velar sound that follows. In
addition, this is also an example of regressive assimilation.
A similar process of regressive place assimilation can be observed in changes
of the /d/ to a /g/ sound before /k/ and /g/ in segment such as good, cook, ground
control, red guitar, hard copy and good girl. In all these examples, the voice
alveolar stop /d/ assimilates into a velar stop /g/. Similarly, the alveolar nasal /n/
becomes a velar nasal // before a velar /k/ or /g/ in segments such as human
capital, tin can, golden gate and town clerk.

2.1.4

Assimilation of Voicing
Another type of assimilation which is very important is voicing. The vibration of
the vocal cords is not something that can be switched on and off very swiftly. As a
result, groups of consonants tend to be either all voiced or all voiceless. It can be
7

ENGLISH PHONETICS AND PHONOLOGY

seen on the plural morpheme which realise as the voiceless /s/ or the voiced /z/
according to the sounds that come before it. Consider the different endings of
dogs /dgz/ and cats /kts/.
The same process of progressive voicing assimilation can be seen in the past
forms of the regular verbs such as kissed / kst/ and sneezed /sni:zd/. In these
cases the fact of the final consonant of a word being voiced or not determines the
choice of whether the suffix will be voiced or voiceless. In the case of the suffixes
for plural nouns, for the third person singular in the present simple, for regular
verbs in the past simple and for the genitive the application of this rule is
predictable, with only a few exceptions (e.g. leaf @ leaves). However,
assimilation of voicing can radically change the sound of several common
constructions as shown below.
Have to /hv tu:/

/hft/

Has to /hz tu:/

/hst/

Used to /ju:zd tu:/

/ju:st/

2.2 Elision

The term of elision describes the disappearance of a sound. In connected speech,

it is for sound segment to be omitted or deleted. The omission can occur within
the words or across the word boundary. Below are some rules for elision.

The most common elisions in English are /t/ and /d/ specially when they appear

within a consonant cluster as shown below.

i)
They arrived the next day. (/t/ elided between /ks/ and /d/)
ii) When we reached Thailand, we stopped for lunch. (/t/ elided between // and /p/,
and between /p/ and /f/
iii)
He bought a lovely carved statuette. (/d/ elided between /v/ and /st/)

Complex consonant clusters are simplified.

i)
He acts like he owns the place! (/kts/ can be simplified to /ks/)
ii) Teachers use authentic texts to teach poem. (/teksts/ can be simplified to /teks/)
iii)
George the Sixths throne (/sks r/ simplified to /sks r/)
8

ENGLISH PHONETICS AND PHONOLOGY

i)

ii)

// can disappear in unstressed syllalbes.

I think we should call the police. (// can disappear in the first syllable of
police)
Ill love you forever, promise. Well, perhaps. (// can disappear)

2.3 Linking
There are commonly used supra-segmental features in everyday American
English conversation, which makes the target language fast and fluent. In rapid
speech, sound segments of a word are seldom discrete or clearly separated from
the sound of other words. They become linked or connected. This feature is called
linking. There are two kinds of linking of the supra-segmental features as shown
below.
i)

Consonants linked with vowels

When a word begins with a vowel, the final consonant(s) of the word before it
can link with the vowel. Then they combine to become a new syllable. For
example:
Take_it easy
Four apes

Tagit easy
f:r eips

Native speakers do not pronounce this sentence Take it easy. in three separate
words. Instead, they say it in two words like: Tagit easy. The /t/ sound in it
also disappear to form a quicker and shorter sentence.
ii)

Linking identical or similar consonants

When two identical or similar consonants meet in one sentence, the first
consonant disappears and only the letter one is pronounced. The combination of
two words making them sound like one word. The instances are shown below.

Red dress
It was so quiet

re dress
it waso quiet

ENGLISH PHONETICS AND PHONOLOGY

3.0

THE IMPORTANCE OF SEGMENTAL FEATURES KNOWLEDGE

Speaking as a second language can be very challenging because involving different types
of skills such as vocabulary, grammar, instruction and many more. Pronunciation could be
one of the most important skills in teaching English. If a speaker has a bad pronunciation,
the listener will have problems in understanding their speech or the worst part is that
misunderstanding.
Learners with good pronunciation in English are more likely to be understood even if
they make errors in other areas, whereas learners whose pronunciation is difficult to
understand will not be understood, even if their grammar is perfect. Fraser (2000a)
explains that being able to speak English includes a number of sub-skills of which
pronunciation is by far the most important (other sub-skills of speaking include
vocabulary, grammar, and pragmatics). She argues that with good pronunciation, a
speaker is intelligible despite other errors; with poor pronunciation, understanding a
speaker will be very difficult, despite accuracy in other areas (Fraser, 2000a, p. 7).
Teaching pronunciation has been granted the least attention despite with learning and
acquiring pronunciation is so difficult in many EFL and ESL language classroom.
The reason why pronunciation is important in English is that the orthography of
English word is non phonetic and our own language is phonetic. Normally, our students
tend to pronounce words based on the spelling of words, which is influence by their own
mother tongue. This results in mispronunciation. There are some students often
experience problems or confusion of spelling about which vowel (letter) to write in for
example hate, hard, ahead, hall, and hat. This confusion happens because learners expect
to find a one-to-one correspondence between sound and its spelling, and that it originates
from misinterpretation of the spelling system, rather than difficulty with the pronunciation
of the sounds (Wong, 1993).

10

ENGLISH PHONETICS AND PHONOLOGY

For instantce, a speaker need to be taught the standard way of saying the sounds that
form words and groups of words. This mean that English speakers from British, Australia,
America and many more will make and expect to hear sounds and groups of words in a
sentence that fit with any one of the standard varieties of English. Therefore, even if there
is flexibility in the way speaker pronouncing English. Therefore, speakers should enhance
their pronunciation skills if they want to be understood clearly and to be able to
understand what others saying. Speaker should understand that if their speak naturally,
they would be able to improve their listening skills. Normally, we often judge people by
the way they speak. Learners with poor pronunciation may be judged as uneducated,
incompetent or lacking in knowledge, although listeners are only reacting to their
pronunciation.
In addition, in the real world and working environment, speaker of ESL need to know
about segmenting. They will need to deal with people who can speak English with good
pronunciation. Thats why we need to know about segmental features in our daily life
because it effected our daily routine which counter with different kinds of people. Such
learners may avoid speaking in English, and thus experience employment difficulties,
social isolation and limited opportunities for further study, which may affect their
settlement in certain country. It is an advantages for those who eperienced with non native
ESL teacher. Moreover, if speaker wants to open their own bussiness, they need English
to communicate with partners and costumers in order to develop good communication
with each other. This is the reality of life.

11

ENGLISH PHONETICS AND PHONOLOGY

4.0

CONCLUSION
Learning to pronounce the sounds of English in natural speech is a crucial part of
learning English pronunciation. People may immediately convey ourselves just by the
way we speak. Many learners may have difficulty with sound combinations, particular
sounds or with putting particular sounds in particular positions specially as ESL
speaker. These publications do not always stress on is that how sounds are made in
English is just that theory. In fact, each individual sound will be made in a slightly
different way according to what is next to it in spoken discourse.
There is a broad definition of pronunciation in both suprasegmental and
segmental features. Eventhough these different aspects of pronunciation are treated in
isolation in this concept, it is important to remember that they all work in combination
when we speak and it is often stringed together. Thus it is best learned as an integrated
part of spoken language.
Therefore, the teaching of pronunciation has been a broad framework to be
handle. There are some research establish that pronunciation could be the hardest part
of language and the most challenging part for teacher to teach in the language
classroom. Nevertheless, by careful integration and preparation, teacher can contend
by playing an important role in supporting the learners overall communicative power.

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ENGLISH PHONETICS AND PHONOLOGY

REFERENCES

Abdullah, P. D. (2011). HBET1203 English Phonetics and Phonology. Selangor Darul Ehsan:
Meteor Doc. Sdn. Bhd.
Gang Liu, J. H. (2014). Supra-Segmental Feature Based Speaker Trait Detection, 96-99.
Mark Hasegawa-Johnson, Elabbas Benmamoun, Eiman Mustafawi,Mohamed Elmahdy and
Rehab Duwairi . (t.t). On The Definition of the Word Segmental.
Segmental Features in Phonology. (2011, November 11). Didapatkan dari
http://webservices.itcs.umich.edu/mediawiki/lingwiki/index.php/Segmental_Features_
in_Phonology
Stanley, K. (2002, September). The Role of Linguistic and Language Acquisition Theory in
Teacher Development. Didapatkan dari http://www.tesl-ej.org/ej22/f1.html
What

is
Phonetics?
(2015).
Didapatkan
dari
https://sites.google.com/a/sheffield.ac.uk/all-aboutlinguistics/branches/phonetics/what-is-phonetics

All

about

Linguistics:

13