PHONETICS

As foreign learners, we may feel that a word “phonetics” is strange at the first time we heard. We will not catch any sense in our mind having relation to the word. Once we heard it, our mind will explores to interpret the entity of it, but the result is nothing, indeed. One of our respond as experiencing such situation maybe we ask to ourselves “what is it?” as hearing it at the first time. However, there is not any thing we know of it. One reason of why it happens is that a word “phonetics” is clearly a new thing that comes to us at the moment. And it is quiet normal situation for every body that ever has such situation. It is, actually, same when foreigners in our country who don’t know the meaning of “ote-ote” but they are told to interpret the meaning of it. They also won’t be able to get the entity of it. They will only guess that maybe ote-ote is a verb, adjective, or noun in language of Indonesia. Whereas, as we know, ote-ote is a noun, that is a kind of traditional snack in Java. After then, let’s dig up the meaning of “phonetics” now.

In general, scientists have given more than one meaning of phonetics, but substantially all of the meanings that they gave are same. Mr. Abbas, a professor at Unirow, for example, mentions that phonetics is the study of sound as general. By this meaning, he then explains that studying phonetics is not as simple as studying sound. Some one may says, “/a/, /b/, /k/.” and so on. However, by just saying the letters, it doesn’t describe a whole shape of phonetics any way. Phonetics, according to him, is more than it. It covers the functions of human’s organs of speech, the way sounds are produced, the way sounds move and be accepted by the ears, and so on. More over Wicky pedia said that phonetics is the study of actual physical properties of speech production and perception. Not so far from what Mr. Abbas said, this meaning, which is given by Wicky Pedia, also leads us to an interpretation that phonetics is not as simple as the study of sound partially, but more than it, it brings us to the world of integrated science that explains phonetics is the study of how sound is produced and perceived, and some analyses relating to it. For instance, we make a sound /d/. Phonetics will not only observe about how it is produced by the organs of speech, but also observe how it moves through the air, how it is received by the ears, and how it is perceived by the brain. But, it is only two kinds of what scientists say about phonetics because, in fact, there are still so many other ways how they explain the meaning of it.

From the definition above, scientists then grouped the study of phonetics into four areas. Those are: articulatory phonetics, auditory phonetics, acoustic phonetics, and forensic phonetics. Articulatory phonetics tends to discuss about how and where sounds are produced by human’s organs of speech. Auditory phonetics is phonetics which deals with the perception, via ear, of the speech sounds. Acoustic phonetics is phonetics which deals with the physical properties of speech as sound waves”in the air.” And forensic phonetics is phonetics which has application in legal cases involving speaker identifications and the analysis of recorded utterances. However, in this passage, the writer just wants to explain more about articulatory phonetics because the area of the study of articulatory phonetics is really important for us, as English teachers. One of its (articulatory phonetics) functions is to teach about how we and our students can pronounce words correctly.

Before we come to study further about articulatory phonetics, we firstly must know human’s organs that have roles in creating sounds. These organs are really important in the case of the appearance of the sounds we produce. All scientists say that, without one or more of these organs, the sound, which is produced, will be affected in the case of its perfection. Even just decreasing the ability of the organ will make the sound not as perfect as when the organ is normal. Then, those organs are: lips, teeth, alveolar ridge, palate (soft and hard palate), tongue, glottis, pharynx, nasal cavity, and larynx which contains two elastic cords name vocal cords. These organs then are known as human’s organs of speech. Look at picture below:

Lips are the most front parts of our organs of speech. They are elastic parts which don’t have any bone inside them. They are parts of the mouth which are used to shape the surface of the mouth when we pronounce sounds. Teeth are parts of speech that string strictly behind our lips and chicks. They are solid parts that stand from calcium. We use our teeth as pronouncing sounds like /θ/ and /ð/. Alveolaridges are parts of organs of speech which are functioned as the place where the teeth are. We use our alveolaridges as pronouncing sounds such /t/, /d/, etc. palate is part of our mouth which is located exactly at the upper part. We can call it as the ceiling of the mouth. Palate is distinguished into hard and soft palate. It is called as hard palate because its existence is really hard and the other is called as soft palate because its shape is so soft. While hard palate is located rather to the front, soft palate is behind the hard. We will use these organs as producing sounds like /k/, /ŝ/. Tongue is the part of the organs whose shape is really elastic. We can move it easily as using it to produce sounds. Even all of the sounds need its role as intending to create correct sounds. Uvula is soft bone that divides two holes: one hole is to nasal cavity and another hole is to the mouth. When we are producing sound and our Uvula touches the ceiling of the Larynx, we are then producing Oral Sound. And when producing sound but our Uvula does not touch the ceiling, we are producing Nasal sound. Glottis is something inside the neck under the Vocal Cords thatt is used when we produce a sound /h/. Pharynx is the hole that is to the mouth and to the nose. It is the organ that is devided by the Uvula . Nasal cavity is a hole inside the nose. We use this part as producing sound like /m/, /n/. And the last, larynx is the part of organs of speech which is located inside the neck. It has two cords named vocal cords, that can vibrate or apart. When the cords vibrate together, the sound produced is voiced sound, but it is voiceless sound when they apart each other.

After knowing about human’s organs of speech and their relation in creating sounds, we will then come to discuss about consonant and vowel sounds. Consonant sounds are sounds that are produced by human’s organs of speech and they make any stoppage when they, the sounds, are produced. As I have given some examples above, sounds like /k/, /p/, and /t/ are actually consonant sounds for we will feel any stoppage, (resisting the flowing of the air) in our mouth as creating these sounds. Consonant sounds consist of 24 sounds in English (it can be differ from other languages any way). Those 24 sounds are as in the chart bellow:

b	g	m	s	z	ŋ
ĉ	ĵ	n	t	ŝ	ž
d	k	p	v	ý	θ
f	l	r	w	ð	h

Then vowel sounds, on the other hand, are sounds that are produced by human’s organs of speech and they don’t make any stoppage when they are sounded. We also can take some examples like, I have given above, /æ/, /ə/, /а:/, /e/ and so on. There are 20 vowel sounds in English including diphthong sounds (two vowel sounds which are sounded at the same time or in turn almost at the same time). They are 12 sounds of single vowels and 8 sounds of diphthong. Completely, they are in the chart bellow:

a. Vowel Sounds

^	e	o	u
a:	ə	o:	u:
æ	з:	I	i:

b. Diphthong Sounds

e ə	u ə	eI	əu
I ə	oI	aI	au

After we know all about consonant and vowel sounds, we then come into what is named as qualification of sounds, qualified as voiced and voiceless sounds. Voiced Sounds mean that sounds that are pronounced with any vibration of the vocal cords, as the air passing trough the larynx, where the vocal cords are in the larynx. Voiced sounds also mean that the sounds which are produced have to be strong and clear on the way they are pronounced. When we pronounce /d/, for example, we have to pronounce it strongly and clearly, and mainly our vocal cords should vibrate themselves. Then, Voiceless Sounds are sounds that are pronounced causes vibration of the vocal cords as the air passes trough the larynx. Different from voiced sounds, voiceless sounds seem to be weak on the way they are pronounce. We can take an example of a sound /k/ to compare it with the voiced one. As we have known that /d/ is pronounced strongly and causes the vibration of the vocal cords, /k/ is not like that. It is pronounced weakly and doesn’t make any vibration of the vocal cords at all.

Scientists have some ways to differentiate voiced and voiceless sounds. The first way is by

The divisions of the voiced and voiceless sounds of consonant sounds are such being described in the chart bellow. However, the writer will only mention the consonant sounds for, as Dra. Endang Rasmujiatun (one of the lecturers of pronunciation at Unirow) said that, all the vowel sounds are voiced sounds.

a. Voiced Sounds

b	ĵ	r	ž
d	l	v	ý
g	m	w	z
h	n	ð	ŋ

b. Voiceless Sounds

ĉ	s	k	ŝ
f	t	p	θ

Articulation of Sounds

Articulation of sounds means simply as the way sounds are articulated. Then, articulation of sounds are distinguished into two forms, they are, point of articulation and manner of articulation. Point of articulation means the place where sounds are produced by the organs of speech. Manner of articulation, on the other hand, is the way how sounds are produced by organs of speech. From these definitions, we, then, can arrive to match the definition of point and manner of articulation sounds with those of consonant and vowel sounds. Therefore, in the next discussion, we will discuss about articulation of consonant sounds and articulation of vowel sounds.

Articulation of consonant sounds

As having been told above about the meaning of point and manner of articulation, we now are in charge to define the meaning of articulation of consonant. Articulation of consonant itself means the way how and where consonant sounds are produced. In this discussion, we really will know deeper, by analyzing, about point and manner of articulation of consonant sounds. Further more, the discussion about the two will be extended bellow.

Point of articulation of consonant sounds

It has been easy to define the meaning of point of articulation of consonant sounds for we have discussed more in the previous study. It, easily, means where the consonant sounds, such /k/, /p/, /d/, are produced. To know it more, the scientists have classified it into several groups. Although, the scientists have been successfully classified it, they, any way, have some differences in the case of their result of experiment, the amounts of their classification are different one another. However, in this composition, the writer just will use his study with his lecturers. The classifications are: bilabial, labiodental, dental/interdental, alveolar, alveo-palatal, palatal, velar, and glottal. Look at the chart below!

Kinds	Explanation
Bilabial	Imagining the sounds which will be produced through this way, we will suddenly arrive at imagination to both of our lips because it, actually, has meaning as sounds which are produced with the point of articulation between our upper and lower lips. When the sounds which are clssified into this kind are produced, there is some construction between our upper and lower lips, such when we pronounce /p/. Then, the sounds which are grouped in this kind are: /p/, /b/, /m/, and, /w/.
Labiodental	Labiodental, which comes from the fusion between labio and dental, means that the sounds which are produced with the point of articulation between our upper teeth and our lower lips. When we pronounce the sounds which are covered by this kind, we will use our upper teeth and our lower lips. The sounds which are grouped in this kind are: /f/, and /v/.
Dental	Dental or some people may call it as interdental is sounds which are produced with the point of articulation is between our tongue tip and our upper and lower teeth. When pronouncing the sounds which are still in the area of this kind, we will feel the construction between our upper and lower teeth with our tongue tip. The sounds which are still in this area are: /θ/, and/ð/.
Alveolar	Point of articulation of the sounds which are covered in alveolar is between the tongue tip and the alveolaridge. We will feel some contruction betwee our tongue tip and alvelaridge as pronouncing sounds like /t/, /d/, or /ĉ/. Further more, sounds which are included in alveolar are: /t/, /d/, /ĉ/, /ĵ/, /n/, /l/, /s/, and /z/.
Alveo-palatal	Alveo-palatal means that point of articulation of the sounds is between the tongue tip and the area between the alveolaridge and hard palate. As pronouncing the sounds included in alveo-palatal, we will feel any touch between our tongue tip and the area between our alveolaridge and har palate. And the alveo-palatal sound is only /r/
Palatal	Remembering palatal, we will suddenly remember hard palate or soft palate because palatal itself means that the point of articulation of the sounds is between the front part of the tongue and the hard palate. As pronouncing palatal sound, we will feel some contruction between the surface of our hard palate and the front part of our tongue. Sounds of palatal includes /ŝ/, /ž/, and /ý/. sound which is produced with the point of articulation is between the front of the tongue and hard palate.
Velar	Velar means that place where the sounds are produced is between the back part of the tongue and the soft palate. By this definition, we may suddenly imagine that we will feel some touch between our soft palate and the back part of our tongue as pronouncing the sounds included in velar. The sounds of velar, however, are /k/, /g/, /ŋ/.
Glotal	Saying glottal, we will derectly remember glotish beause the two are almost similar morphologically. Besides, glotal also means that the point of articulation of the sounds is in our glotish. We will feel the air flow through our glotish as pronouncing the sound of glotal. And glotal, anyway, has only one sound, that is, /h/.

Manner of articulation of consonant sounds

As the writer has told before, manner of articulation means how sounds are articulated by human organs of speech.while point of articulation talk about where the sounds are produced, manner of articulation deals with how the way sounds are articulated. For example, we will vibrate our tongue as pronouncing /r/. The vibration of the tongue means the way how /r/ is produced. Hence, we also will say that rollingour tongue as articulating /l/ is another kind of manner of articulation anyway.

Manner of articulation is distinguished into 7 forms according to Mr. Mansur, phonetics lecturer at Unirow. They are: stops, fricative, affricate, nassal, lateral, vibrant, semi-vowel. See the chart below!

Kinds	Explanation
Stops	Stops actually means that the way to articulate the sounds is by stopping of the airstream (very briefly) and then letting it to go abruptly. When we pronounce /p/, for example, we will clearly find the sample of stops, or other scientists say plossives. The sounds, which are covered in this kind, are /p/, /b/, /t/, /d/, /k/, and/g/.
Fricatives	The sounds included in fricatives are /f/, /v/, /s/,/z/, /θ/, /ð/, /ž/, and /ŝ/. They are articulated by almost blocking the air stream and having the air push through the nerrow opening.
Affricates	Affricates, actually, is difined as the combinationbetween stops and fricatives. Affricates sound such /ĉ/ is articulatedby combining a brief stopping of the airstream with an obstructed release which causes some friction. We will find affricates sounds in the words such cheap and judge.
Nassal	Knowing nassal, we will suddenly remember nasal cavity, space inside the nose. This kind extremely means that the way sounds are produced by the airstream goes out through the nassal cavity. The nassal sounds are: /m/, /n/, and/ŋ/.
Lateral	Lateral is a type of manner of articualation where the sound is pronounced by rolling the tongue and pushing the airstream to go out from both sides of the tongue. Lateral sound is only /l/.
Vibrant	Vibrant means that how sound producedis by vibrating the tongue. Vibrant sound is /r/ only. We have to vibrate our tongue to produce this sound, otherwise we will not pronounce the vibrant sound. We can find this sound in the words like roll, ring, bring, so on.
Semi-vowel	Semi-vowel sounds are considered as half vowel and half consonant sounds. When we say that vowel is produced without any stoppage in our mouth, semi-vowel gives some or little resistence in the purpose to resist the airstream. As remembering that these sounds are produced with little stopage, we may then think of that these are consonant sounds. However, when we say that there is some resistence of the airstream, but it is not total stopage such as in sound /t/. The air keeps going away through the mouth.it is why scientists then define the sounds as semi-vowel. The sounds of semi-vowel are /ý/, and /w/. We can find these sounds in the words such yellow, work, and york.

Phonetic Description of Consonant Sounds

Phonetic description of consonant sounds means that how we can describe the shape of the consonant sounds that we hear. From the previous dicussion,we can describe that /b/ is voiced sound. It also can be described as bilabial and plossives anyway.

Consonant sounds can be described through three classification, those are, voiced or voiceless, point of articulation, and manner of articulation. Voiced or voiceless describes that whether the consonants are grouped into voiced or voiceless sounds. Such in the case of /b/ sound above, we can say that it is voiced sound because we will vibrate our vocal cords as producing this sound. Then, Point of articulation, such we have discussed above, means that where the sounds are produced in the mouth. In the case of /b/ sound, we must have known that it is articulated with both of our lips. Therefore, we call it bilabial. Finally, manner of articulation, indeed, means how sounds are produced in our mouth. /b/ is a part of stops sound because it is produced with any stops in our mouth. Hence, we can easily say that the phonetic description of sound /b/ is “voiced bilabial stops”; /ĉ/ is “voiceless alveolar affricates”; and so on. See what have been told above!

Articulation of vowel sounds

After discussing about articulation of consonant sounds, we may think of that articulation of vowel sounds are same with that of consonants. We may feel that the sounds that are produced are at the same location, that is, in the mouth. We also use the same organs of speech as producing the sound. However, they are different each other. While we articulate the consonant sounds with some stoppage, we won’t make any stoppage as producing vowel sounds. We will let the air flow freely through the air stream in our mouth. Besides, we will also always vibrate our vocal cords as producing vowels, but sometimes we don’t vibrate our vocal cords as producing consonant sounds, such as we produce /k/, /s/, /t/, so on. It means that all vowel sounds are voiced, so we will not discuss about voiced or voiceless sounds in this point. More over, because we let the air flow freely through our mouth as creating vowels and we also produce the sounds almost on the same way, we then will not discuss about the difference of manner of articulation of each vowels again.

Discussing about articulation of vowel sounds, Sunjono Darjowijoyo classified it into 4 classifications: the height or lowness position of the tongue; the front or back position of the tongue; the strength of the muscle around the mouth; and the shape (roundness) of the mouth. The height or lowness position of the tongue conveys how close our tongue with the upper part of the mouth as pronouncing the vowels. When the distance between our tongue with the ceiling of the mouth is so close, it means the position of the tongue conveys high level or we can say it is high, yet it is low when the distance is so wide. There are three levels the position of the tongue based on its closeness to the ceiling of the mouth: high, middle, low.

The front or back position of the tongue means that vowels are also articulated with how front or back the position of the tongue as pronouncing the vowels. When we create a vowel sound then the position of our tongue is so close to our front teeth, we classify it as front level, but when we create the sound and the position of our tongue makes wide gap to our front teeth, we classify it as back. There are also three levels the position of the tongue based on the front or back position of the tongue: front, centre, and back.

The strength of the muscle around the mouth means that we will make different strength of the muscle as pronouncing each vowel. Sometime we give more pressure to our muscle as pronouncing any vowels, such /i:/ or /æ/. However, other times we give no pressure to our muscle as pronouncing other vowels, such /e/, or /I/. We classify the strength of the muscle around the mouth into 2 classifications: tense and lax.

Finally, the roundness of the mouth classifies the shape of our mouth as pronouncing vowels. When we create a sound /u/, for example, we must make the shape of our mouth rounded, but we will make it wide as producing vowel such /æ/. The roundness of the shape of the mouth is only classified into two: rounded or spread.