PHONETICS AS A BRANCH OF A LINGUISTICS. DIFFERENCES BETWEEN PHONETICS AND PHONOLOGY

1. Phonetics as a branch of a Linguistics

A. Definition - Phonetics (from the Greek: phōnē, which means sound, voice, tone) is a branch of linguistics that comprises the study of the sounds of human speech, or — in the case of sign languages — the equivalent aspects of sign. 

It is the science of human speech sounds of their articulation, identification and organization in words and sentences. It is also deals with stress and intonation. It is concerned with the physical properties of speech sounds or signs (phones): their physiological production, acoustic properties, auditory perception, and neurophysiological status. 

THE ORGANS OF SPEECH AND THE FORMATION OF SOUNDS. CLASSIFICATION OF ENGLISH SPEECH SOUNDS

1. The organs of speech and formation of sounds

A. Speech organs (articulators) - all the sounds we make when we speak are the result of muscles contracting. 
The muscles in the chest that we use for breathing produce the flow of air that is needed for almost all speech sounds. Muscles in the larynx produce many different modifications in the flow of air from the chest to the mouth. After passing through the larynx, the air goes through what we call the vocal tract, which ends at the mouth and nostrils. Here the air from the lungs escapes into the atmosphere. We have a large and complex set of muscles that can produce changes in the shape of the vocal tract, and in order to learn how the sounds of speech are produced it is necessary to become familiar with the different parts of the vocal tract. These different parts are called articulators, and the study of them is called aticulatory phonetics. Articulators produce the sounds of language. Organs used include the lips, teeth, tongue, alveolar ridge, hard palate, velum (soft palate), uvula and glottis.

RESONANT SOUNDS. VOWELS

1. Resonant sounds 

A. Definition of resonant sounds - in phonetics and phonology, a sonorant or resonant is a speech sound that is produced with continuous, non-turbulent airflow in the vocal tract (a sound produced with the vocal cords so positioned that spontaneous voicing is possible); these are the manners of articulation that are most often voiced in the world's languages. Vowels are sonorants, as are consonants like /m/ and /l/: approximants, nasals, flaps or taps, and most trills (a vowel, a glide, or a liquid or nasal consonant).

In older usage, only the term resonant was used with this meaning, and sonorant was a narrower term, referring to all resonants except vowels and semivowels.

COMPLEX VOWELS AND VOWEL COMPLEXES: DIPHTHONGS AND TRIPHTHONGS

1. Diphthongs

A. Definition - a diphthong  (Greek: diphthongos, literally "two sounds" or "two tones"), also known as a gliding vowel, refers to two adjacent vowel sounds occurring within the same syllable. Diphthong is a sound which consist of a movement or glide from one vowel to another. A vowel which remains constant and does not glide is called a pure vowel, and one of the most common pronunciation mistakes that result in a learner of English having a "foreign" accent is the production of pure vowels where a diphthong should be pronounced.
Technically, a diphthong is a vowel with two different targets: that is, the tongue (and/or other parts of the speech apparatus) moves during the pronunciation of the vowel.
Perhaps the most important thing to remember about all the diphthongs is that the first part is much longer and stronger than the second part

OBSTRUENT TYPES AND CONSONANTS

1. Obstruent sounds

A. Definition - an obstruent is a speech sound such as [k], [d͡ʒ], or [f] that is formed by obstructing air flow. Obstruents contrast with sonorants, which have no such obstruction and therefore resonate. All obstruents are consonants, whereas sonorants include vowels and consonants.

THE SYLLABLE AND RHYTHM

1. Syllable

A. Definition - A syllable is a unit of organization for a sequence of speech sounds. For example, the word water is composed of two syllables: wa and ter. A syllable is typically made up of a syllable nucleus (most often a vowel) with optional initial and final margins (typically, consonants).

WORD ACCENT AND BOUNDARIES

1. Word accent: strong and weak forms

Accent (/ˈæk.sənt, ˈæk.sɛnt/) - is the phonetic prominence given to a particular syllable in a word, or to a particular word within a phrase. When this prominence is produced through greater dynamic force, typically signaled by a combination of amplitude (volume), syllable or vowel length, full articulation of the vowel, and a non-distinctive change in pitch, the result is called stress accent, dynamic accent, or simply stress. When it is produced through pitch alone, it is called pitch accent (although this term is often used with a somewhat different meaning; see below). When it is produced through length alone, it is called quantitative accent. English has stress accent.

INTONATION AND INTONATION STRUCTURES

1. Intonation

A. Definition - in linguistics, intonation is variation of spoken pitch that is not used to distinguish words; instead it is used for a range of functions such as indicating the attitudes and emotions of the speaker, signalling the difference between statements and questions, and between different types of questions, focusing attention on important elements of the spoken message and also helping to regulate conversational interaction. 

THE PHONOLOGY AND THE PHONEME

1. Phonology 

Definition - is a branch of linguistics concerned with the systematic organization of sounds in languages. It has traditionally focused largely on the study of the systems of phonemes in particular languages (and therefore used to be also called phonemics, or phonematics), but it may also cover any linguistic analysis either at a level beneath the word (including syllable, onset and rime, articulatory gestures, articulatory features, mora, etc.) or at all levels of language where sound is considered to be structured for conveying linguistic meaning. Phonology also includes the study of equivalent organizational systems in sign languages.

PHONOLOGICAL THEORIES

The history of phonology may be traced back to the Ashtadhyayi, the Sanskrit grammar composed by Pāṇini in the 4th century BC. In particular the Shiva Sutras, an auxiliary text to the Ashtadhyayi, introduces what can be considered a list of the phonemes of the Sanskrit language, with a notational system for them that is used throughout the main text, which deals with matters of morphology, syntax and semantics.

PHONOLOGICAL SYSTEMS. THE ENGLISH PHONEME SYSTEM

1. Phonology

Like many languages, English has wide variation in pronunciation, both historically and from dialect to dialect. In general, however, the regional dialects of English share a largely similar (though not identical) phonological system.

SUPRASEGMENTAL PHONOLOGY

Syllable components
as a directed graph

Suprasegmentals - some contrastive elements of speech cannot be easily analyzed as distinct segments but rather belong to a syllable or word. These elements are called suprasegmental, and include intonation and stress. In some languages nasality and vowel harmony are considered suprasegmental or prosodic by some phonologists.

FUNCTIONS OF INTONATION. DISCOURSE PHONOLOGY

1. Functions of intonation

All vocal languages use pitch pragmatically in intonation — for instance for emphasis, to convey surprise or irony, or to pose a question. Tonal languages such as Chinese and Hausa use intonation in addition to using pitch for distinguishing words.

Many writers have attempted to produce a list of distinct functions of intonation. Perhaps the longest was that of W.R.Lee who proposed ten. J.C. Wells and E.Couper-Kuhlen both put forward six functions. Wells's list is given below; the examples are not his:

TRANSCRIPTIONS AND INTERNATIONAL PHONETIC ALPHABET (IPA)

1. Transcriptions

A. Definition - Phonetic transcription (phonetic script or phonetic notation) is the visual representation of speech sounds (or phones). The most common type of phonetic transcription uses a phonetic alphabet, such as the International Phonetic Alphabet.

Лигатура (Ligature)

Произход на понятието лигатура (Ligature) - етимология.

Понятието лигатура (Ligature) има латински произход от ligo - връзвам, свързвам, ligare - свързвам, ligatura - връзка, свързаност. Това, за което ние ще говорим, е типографската лигатура като начин за изписване на букви, при което две или повече графеми (буквени, цифрови, препинателни) знаци се изписват слято, като един цялостен символ със самостоятелно значение.

Английска фонетика или как се произнасят звуците в английски език

I. Фонетика на английски език.

Науката фонетика е част от лингвистиката, която изучава в подробности звуковата система на човешката реч. В различните езици по земята се среща различна фонетика, в т.ч. и много екзотична, като например цъкането в някои африкански езици. За да се постигне съвършено произношение в определен език, фонетиката може да стигне до конкретното движение на говорните органи, при произнасянето на определени по характерни звуци.

Английска азбука (The English Alphabet) с транскрипция за произношение на буквите

1. Английската азбука 
Английската азбука всъщност е латинска азбука. Англичаните не са имали късмета със свои св. св. Кирил и Методий и не знаят, че практически е възможно да си създадат и да пишат със своя, собствена азбука. Така че понятието "The English Alphabet" би следвало да се превежда като "Азбуката, която използват англичаните", а всъщност това е латиницата. Още повече, че използват в езика си 46 звука, а са принудени да ги изразяват със само 26 букви, колкото съдържа Латинската азбука и отделно, за всеки звук трябва да обясняват произношение.

Транскрипция на английски език (английското произношение)

I. Графични символи за звуково произнасяне.

Транскрипцията в английски език е система от графични символи, които позволяват да се възпроизведе звуково всяка дума и да бъде запомнено нейното произнасяне. Често правилната транскрипция се пренебрегва и тогава се стига до неправилно произношение, като това на един известен наш футболист на световен спортен форум.

Правила за четене на английски звуци

Правилата за четене в английския език имат своите особености. Значителният недостиг на букви за точното изписване на звуците води до това, че:

Съгласни звуци в английски език (Consonant sounds in English)

Английски съгласни звуци.

В английски език съгласните звуци (Consonant sounds in English) се произнасят по-силно и енергично. В края на думите те звучат ясно и по-отчетливо.  Съгласните са звуци, които се образуват с прекъсване или изменение потока на въздуха с помощта на езика, устните, зъбите. По своето звучене те се делят на звучни (voiced consonants) и беззвучни (voiceless consonants).