Fonetika a fonologia 4_11_2010

Speech element

The smallest phonic elements are speech sounds ehich are divided into vowels and consonants
according to their inherent sonority or carrying power(i.e. capacity to be better heard at a certain
distance)

-vowels can be defined as voiced sounds in forming of which no obstruction is placed to the air-
stream.

consonants in english are all other sounds:voiced sounds formed by means of a complete
obstruction,voiced sounds formed by a partial obstruction,all voiceless sounds,nasal sounds.From the
acoustic point of view speech sounds are characterized by:sound quality,pitch of
voicee,loudness,duration(intensity) and formants(characteristic tone of phoneme)

in desciribing speech sounds any classificatory chart should take into consideration these essential
factors:

-presence of absence of voice

-the tension of articulating organs

-the place of articulation

-the manner of articulation

-the position of the soft palate.

WE begin the study of English sounds by looking at the vowels.efore we describe and explain the
definition of the vowel we have to mention another term related to this phenomenon-the term
monophthong that is used in phonetic classification of vowel sounds on the basis of their manner of
articulation.The term vowel covers also diphthongs because diphthongs comply with the acoustic
definition of the vowel.The difference between monophthongs and diphthongs is the fact that in the
production of diphthongs there is noticeable change in the quality,there are two recogniable vowel
sounds in a diphthong.

We need to know in what ways vowels differ from each other.The first mater to consider is the chape
and position of the tongue:

-firstly,the vertical distance between the upper surface of the tongue and the palate

-secondly,the part of the tongue between front and back which is raised highest.

Vowels are produces when the air stream is voiced through the vobration of vocal cords in the larynx
and then shaped using togue and the lips to modify the overall shape of the mouth.

The vowels can be classified:1.according to the movement of the tongue in the horizontal
dierction:front,central,back.

2.according to the movement of the tongue in the vertical direction:close,hlaf-cloes,half-open,open

3.according to the position and shape of the lips:rounded(with cloes-lip rounded or open-lip
rounded) and unrounded(lips are spread or in neutral position)

4.according to the tension of the articulating organs:tene and lax.For practical purpose short vowels
in English can be considered as lax and long vowels as tense.

5.according to the duration:short,medium(half-long),long and prolong

6.according to the completeness of articulation:full and reduced.

The vocalic system of English is different from he Slovak one.In the Slovak language there are five
vowels:a,e,i,o,u which differ either in quality(a-e.u-i,o-u..) or in quantity:a-á,e-é,u-ú.

IN slovak and english vowels are articulated in a different manner and in different places than the
corresponding Slovak vowels.There are twelve vowels different in timbre.The lenght both in Slovak
and English viwels has a distinctive function:)sud-súd),(heat-hit) but otherwise there are great
differences between quantity in Alovak and quantity in English.The traditional division of vowels into
short and long is valid only for Slovak where a long vowel is approximately double the lenght of a
short vowel.Lenght in English is of a suprasegmental character.It depends largely on the following
consonantal element,on the position in the word,on stress and rythm.Sometimes the teaditional
short vowels may be in fact longer than the traditional long vowels.