Category: Linguistics

  • Morphology

                Morphology is the study of the internal structure of the words. Morphemes are the minimal meaningful unit or a grammatical function. These morphemes come under the label morphology. There are two types of morphemes – free morpheme and bound morpheme. 

    Free Morpheme:

                Free morphemes are the words which can stand by themselves. Example – take, note.

    This free morpheme is further divided into two groups, namely – function and lexical morpheme. 

    1. Functional Morpheme:

             Prepositions, conjunctions and pronouns come under this type of morpheme.

    1. Lexical Morpheme:

             These are words having fixed elements which are added to some English words. Nouns, adjectives and verbs take this place. In words such as ‘talked’, talk is a fixed word wherein ‘ed’ joins it to form a lexical morpheme. 

    Examples – open, give, fix

    Bound Morpheme:

               The words that cannot stand on its own are said to be bound morphemes. 

    Example – res-ist-ed 

                This type of morpheme is further categories as inflectional and derivational. 

    1. Inflectional Morpheme:

             These are not meant to change the grammatical category but to indicate the aspects of the grammatical form. It says whether a word is singular or plural. Eg. talk, talked, talking. Here ‘talk’ is a verb where forms like ‘ed’, ‘ing’ are combined which still does not change the grammatical category of that particular word. 

    1. Derivational Morpheme:

          These morphemes can create new words in word forms which will change the grammatical category of a word. Some prefixes or suffixes can change the whole meaning of a word. Eg. Book+ish, dis+satisfaction

  • Consonants

    Consonants are those speech sounds in the production of which the air stream from the lungs is obstructed at some place. In describing the articulation or production of consonants, four points must be touched on, namely, –

    • Place of articulation, the place where this obstruction takes place.
    • Manner of articulation – i.e, what kind of obstruction is offered to the air stream from the lungs.
    • Whether a sound is voiced or unvoiced – i.e. whether the vocal cords vibrate or not
    • Position of the soft palate – i.e, whether the soft palate is raised so that the lung air escapes all through the mouth or lowered so that the lung air escapes all through the nose.

    Classification of Consonants

    • Manner of articulation
    • Stop Consonants – in the case of stop consonants, the air stream from the lungs is completely stopped at a point. When it is released suddenly we have plosive consonants. When it is released slowly we have the affricate consonants. So a stop consonant involves three features, namely, – stop, release and the accompanying stop sound.
    • Plosive – there are six plosives in English. They are /p, b, t, d, k, g/. /p, b/ are bilabial consonants or plosives. p is voiceless and b is voiced. The soft palate is raised so that the lung air goes out through the oral passage. Some of the commonest words in English that contain these sounds are /p/ – pen, upright, cap /b/ – bat, rubber, tub. /t, d/ are alveolar, i.e, the obstruction takes place between the tongue and the alveolar ridge. t is voiceless and d is voiced. Soft palate is raised so that the lung air passes through the oral passage. Some of the commonest words in English that contain these sounds are /t/ – tap, better, pot /d/ – dog, ladder, mad. /k, g/ are velar, between soft palate and the tongue. /k/ is voiceless and g is voiced. Soft palate is raised. Some of the commonest words are /k/ – kite, bucket, park /g/ – gun, begin, bag.
    • Note: when the plosives /p,t,k/ are followed by vowels, the release after a stop is accompanied by a puff of air. This is called aspiration. Aspiration is denoted by a superscribed /h/ above these. E.g. pen – /phen/, ten – /tten/ key – /khi:/
    • Affricates – there are two affricates in English. They are / tʃ, dʒ/.

    They are palate-alveolar. tʃ is voiceless and dʒ is voiced. Soft palate is raised, so that the lung air goes out through the oral passage. Some of the words in English that contain these words are / tʃ/ – chair, teacher, catch and /dʒ/ – jam, ledger, bridge

    Note: aspiration tʃ is aspirated before vowels.

    • Fricatives – (friction consonants) (close approximants). There are nine fricatives in English. They are /f/, /v/, /θ/, /ð/, /s/, /z/, /ʃ/, / ʒ/ and /h/.

    /f, v/ are labio-dental fricatives. /f/ is unvoiced and /v/ is voiced. The soft palate is raised so that the air from the lungs goes out through the mouth. /θ, ð/ are dental fricatives. /θ/ is unvoiced and /ð/ is voiced. The soft palate is raised. /s, z/ are alveolar fricatives. /s/ is unvoiced and /z/ is voiced, the soft palate is raised. /ʃ, ʒ/ are palato-alveolar. /ʃ/ is unvoiced and /ʒ/ is voiced. The soft palate is raised. /h/ is glottal (between the vocal cords) an unvoiced fricative.

    Some of the commonest words in English are

    /f, v/ – fan, van, before, never, calf, give

    /θ, ð/ – thin, then, nothing, mother, death, with

    /s, z/ – sun, zip, missing, lazy, pass, gaze

    /h/ – hot, behind (no word ends with /h/ sound)

    /ʃ, ʒ/ – ship, zone, wishing, pleasure, push, mirage

    Note: /ʒ/ does not occur in word initial position in English

              /h/ does not occur in word final position in English

    There are 24 consonants and 20 vowels. Some examples are given below.

              Consonants

                        /b/ – bag, bib

                        /d/ – den, lid

                        /f/ – fan, rough

                        /g/ – gun, bag

                        /h/ – hen, behind

                        /j/ – yet, beyond

                        /k/ – kite, pick

                        /l/ – love, bill

                        /m/ – man, gem

                        /n/ – neck, pen

                        /p/ – pen, cup

                        /r/ – run, rubber

                        /s/ – sun, pause

                        /t/ – ten, tent

                        /v/ – van, leave

                        /w/ – with, beware

                        /z/ – zen, breeze

                        /θ/ – thick, death

                        /ð/ – then, with

                        /ʃ/ – shell, bush

                        /ʒ/ – measure, garage

                        /ŋ/ – sing, singer

                        /tʃ/ – chair, teacher

                        /dʒ/ – jug, bridge

              Vowels

                        /i/ or /I/ – it, fit

                        /i:/ – eat, feet

                        /e/ – bet, bed

                        / æ/ – apple, bat

                        /a:/ – ask, past

                        / ɒ/ – dog, pot

                        / ɒ:/ – ball, hall

                        /u/ – put, full

                        /u:/ – do, food

                        / ʌ/ – love, fun

                        / ə/ – about, father

                        / ə: / or /ɜ:/ – girl, bird

              Diphthongs (Di – two; phthongs – round)

                        /iə/ – hear, near, fear

                        /eə/ – bare, fair

                        /ei/ – fail, bail, pray, game

    /ɔi/ – boy, coy

    /ai/ – five, dive, lie

    /əu/ – go, so

    /au/ – now, how

                        /uə/ – poor, tour, sure

  • Vowels and Consonants: Definition and Types Explained

    The speech sounds in English are broadly divided into two kinds namely, vowels and consonants.

    Vowel

    A vowel is a speech sound produced by the air from the lungs allowed to pass freely. /i:/ eg: feet.

    Consonant

    A consonant is a speech sound formed when air from the lungs is not allowed to pass freely. In other words, the speech sound is obstructed. The place where the obstruction takes place is called the place of articulation.

    Places of Articulation

    • Bi-labial
      – which is between the two lips /p, b/ eg: pit, bit
    • Labio-dental
      – lip and teeth, between the lower lip and the upper front teeth /f, v/ eg: five, veil
    • Dental
      – which is between the tongue and the upper front teeth / θ as in
      thick, ð as in this/θ, ð/ eg: (th sound)thin, (dh sound)that
    • Alveolar
      – between the tongue and the alveolar ridge /t, d/ eg: tail, dog
    • Palato-alveolar
      – between the alveolar ridge and the hard palate with the movement of the
      tongue from the alveolar ridge towards the hard palate / ʃ as in ship, ʒ as in vision/ eg: / ʃ , ʒ / sharp, treasure
    • Palatal – between the tongue and the palate /i,
      j/ eg: pin, yard
    • Velar – between soft palate and tongue /k, g/ eg: kite, goat
    • Glottal – between the vocal cords – /h/ eg: hill

    Manner of Articulation

    • Plosive
      – In this kind of articulation, the air from the lungs is completely stopped at
      certain point. When it is released suddenly the air comes out with a plosion,
      e.g. /p, b/ eg: pit, bit
    • Affricate
      – The air from the lungs is completely stopped at some point. When the air
      released rather slowly the air comes out with an audible friction. E.g. / ʈʃ as in check, dʒ as in jungle/.
      Both are called stop consonants.
    • Fricative
      – A flexible organ of speech moves very close to a fixed organ of speech
      leaving a very narrow space between them. The air from the lung goes out
      through this narrow space producing an audible friction. e.g. /s, z/
    • Lateral
      – It’s a flexible organ of speech in contact with a fixed organ of speech. On the
      sides of the point of contact, there are gaps through which the lung air passes.
      E.g. /l/ lion
    • Nasal
      – It’s the soft palate that is lowered sufficiently so that the mouth passage is
      completely closed. All the air from the lungs goes out only through the nose
      (nasal passage), e.g. /m, n, ŋ / mind, nose, sing
    • Flap –
      A movable or a flexible organ of speech executes (produces) a single tap
      against a fixed organ of speech. E.g. /ri:d/ read
    • Roll
      – A flexible organ of speech executes a series of taps against a fixed organ of
      speech. E.g. /tri:/ tree

  • The Organs of Speech

    There are a lot of organs which help a person speak with proper pronunciation and clarity. Some organs are helpful in differentiating the sounds through articulation.

    Lungs

    They act as the main source of energy for speech. It has small air pockets called alveoles in which oxygen is stored. When the air in the alveolus is pushed up, the displaced air comes up the windpipe (trachea) and reaches the larynx. The air passes through the larynx and reaches pharynx. By adjusting the various parts in the mouth different speech sounds are produced before the lung air goes out into the atmosphere either through the mouth (oral passage) or the nose (nasal passage).

    Larynx

    It is the protruding part of the throat commonly called Adam’s apple. It is also known as the soundbox of the body.

    Vocal cords

    They are two elastic strips placed across the larynx facing each other. They are fixed at one end (far end) and free at the other. In the case of normal breathing, the vocal cords are drawn apart leaving a gap between them through which the air passes freely from the lungs. This gap between the vocal cords is known as glottis. Sometimes while speaking, the vocal cords are brought into contact with each other gently. In this position, the air from the lungs pushes through these vocal cords setting them in vibration. Speech sounds that are produced with the vocal cords vibrating are known as voiced sounds, e.g. /z/. sometimes, speech sounds are produced with the vocal cords, not in contact with each other and hence not vibrating such speech sounds which are known as voiceless sounds. E.g. /s/

    Glottal Stop /p/

    It happens when the vocal cords are brought into contact with each other rather firmly and thus stopping the air from passing through them.

    Lips

    The two lips are flexible organs of speech. They can combine with each other to produce certain sounds, e.g. /p, b/. sometimes the lower lip can combine with upper front teeth to produce certain sounds, e.g. /f, v/

    The Roof of the Mouth

    It consists of the upper front teeth, alveolar ridge, palate or hard palate and soft palate.

    Teeth

    The upper front teeth are fixed part of speech. The upper front teeth can combine with the lower lip to produce some sounds like /f, v/. they can also combine with the tongue to produce certain sounds like /ð/ as in this, either, θ as in thing, myth.

    Alveolar Ridge

    It is a hard, bulging, bony part found immediately behind the upper front teeth. This can combine with the tongue to produce certain sounds like /l, t, n/

    Palate

    It is also known as a hard palate.it is the hard-concave part of the roof of the mouth. Sometimes it can combine with the tongue to produce certain sounds, e.g. /j/

    Soft Palate

    It is soft, loosely hanging, the fleshy part after the hard palate. This can be in 3 positions.

    • In between the wall of the mouth and back of the tongue. This is the position of the soft palate in the case of normal breathing. This position is also known as a neutral position. It can be raised sufficiently to be in firm contact with the wall of the mouth.  Then the nasal passage is completely blocked, and all the lung air passes out only through the oral passage (mouth).
    • It can also be lowered sufficiently to be in firm contact with the back of the tongue. Thus, the oral passage is completely locked and all the air from the lung passes out only through the nasal passage (nose).
    • Certain sounds are produced with soft palate and the tongue combining with each other. E.g. /k, g/. the tip of the soft palate is called vellum.

    Tongue

    It is the most flexible part; the prime organ of speech. The tongue is divided into 4 parts namely, the tip, the blade, the front, and the back. The tip of the tongue can move in the direction of the back part of the upper front teeth in the production of certain sounds. / ð, θ/

    The Blade

    It can combine with the alveolar ridge to produce certain sounds, /t, s, n/

    The Front

    The front of the tongue can combine with the hard palate to produce certain sounds, /I, i:, j/

    The Back

    The back of the tongue combines with the soft palate to produce certain sounds, /k/.