Classification Of Speech Sounds 4734

III. CLASSIFICATION OF SPEECH SOUNDS

Speech sounds traditionally classified into 2 main groups, i.e. vowels and consonants

Principles

 Production  Etymology  Sonority (Daniel Jones )  Syllabicity – Vowels - always syllabic. BUT: [m], [n],

[], [l], [r] are sounds of complete sonority as well and, hence, syllabic in certain situations, i.e. only in wordfinal position or in middle position: e.g. hidden [hi-dn], temporary [tem-pr-ri], bottom [btm], little [li-tl].

 Context  Distribution of sounds (e.g. [h] followed only by what we call ‘vowels’)

Summary

vowel = a speech sound ‘produced by modifying a relatively free-flowing air stream’ (Callary, 1994:313), the vocal cords vibrate, the muscular tension is spread over all organs of speech. Possessing much sonority, vowels are syllabic, forming syllable nuclei. consonant = a speech sound in the production of which the air-flow is obstructed to different degrees and in different places along the vocal tract.