Spoken English: Introduction To Phone Vowels And Consonant Sounds

Phoneme

Phoneme means sound. A phoneme is a distinct unit of sound in human language. It is the smallest indivisible unit of sound in human language that can combine with units of sound to form acceptable words in a language.

There are forty-four sounds in English language. These forty four sounds are made up of twenty vowel sounds and twenty-four consonant sounds.

Vowel Sounds

To produce vowel sound, the air stream flows from the lung to the mouth without obstruction.

Classification of Vowel Sound
All vowel sounds are voiced. When we say a sound is voiced, we mean in its production, there is a buzzing sound and we can feel vibration (the rapid quivering or shaking due to slight variation pitch) in the neck area (vocal cord).

In vowel sound, we have twelve monothong (pure vowel) and eight Diphthong. Also, we have five long vowel and seven short vowels. The difference between the long vowel is two dotted lines (: ) while the short vowel has no dotted line.

Diphthongs:- Are vowel sound that glide from one vowel to another ie double quality and with one another, however, it still functions as one vowel sound. Also, diphthong is two monothongs coming together to form a diphthong. Diphthong has two symbols vowel sound and it’s symbols. Some of which are:

Monothongs Symbols Meaning in Words

I: Meet, peace, key, receipt, piece
i Kick, minute, picnic
a: Car, farm, Psalm, heart
Ͻ Pot, Cock, mock, pop, wonder
ᴐ: Port, Court, caught, Paul Call
Ә bet, berry, leopard
U Cook, would, wood, could
U: fool, soup, fruit, screw, sue

diphthong
ei pay, tail, tale, state
ai right, style, sight
Ͻi boy, toy, joy, noise
ru home, no, know, go, boat
azb how, cow, now, bow, house
I here, near, bear
ed air, hair, her, there
ud poor, pure, tour, sure

From the topic, we are going to emphasis on the articulation (Production) of the following vowel sounds: (i ) (u) /e//

Vowel/u/ and u:/
Vowel /U/
To pronounce vowel u, the position of the tongue and the round shape of the lips are the same as in /u:/ but U is short vowel. E.g foot, could, full, pull hood, wood etc.

In Sentences:-
1. Pull off your shirt and put it on the table.
2. The woman next door is a cook.
3. I prefer sugar in my tea not honey
4. I tried but couldn’t reach you on phone.
5. A good cook is a good gift.

Vowel U:
Vowel U:, the back of the tongue is raised towards the roof of the mouth. The lips form a round shaper. U: is a long vowel. E.g. food, cooled, fool, pool, hewed, wood etc.

In Sentences
1. Is it true you were rude to the captain?
2. We have no clue to the riddle.
3. Very few people would welcome military coup today.
4. You will need a spoon to scoop rice from the pot.

Vowel (i) and (i)
To produce Vowel (i:) the front of the tongue is raised close to the roof of the mouth. The lips are spread (i) is a long vowel.

Vowel (i)
To produce this vowel, the tongue is in the same position as in (i: ). The lips are spread. (i) is a short vowel.
Examples:
i: i
leave lives
wheel Will
Seat Sit
Deep Dip
Reach Rich
Receipt resit
Beach bitch
Fleet flit
Wheat wit

In Sentences vowel (i: ) and (i) together put the book on your seat.
Leave the field at once
The Police seize the key of the car .
Fill out this form and give it to me.
This boy is picking up some oranges.

Vowel e
To produce vowel (e), the front of the tongue is raised a little from the floor of the mouth. The tip of the tongue touches the lower teeth. E.g. pen, bed, fried, read, spread head, several, guess, bet, collect, already.

In Sentences
1. The headmaster read the letter to the students.
2. You must dress well to meet the President.

Vowel 3

To pronounce it, the centre of the tongue is raised. The mouth is open but not quite as open as when you pronounce (e), (3:) as a long vowel. Examples:
Work begins on the first day of the term.
A Colonel is a Senior Officer in the army.
The early bird catches the warm.
It is certain that nurses are on duty.

Consonant Sound

In the production of consonant sound, there is some interference or obstruction to the flow of air either through a blockage or through a narrowing of the space between the organs of speech. Consonant sound are either voiced or voiceless.

The symbols are as follow:-
(P) Put, happy, pick, top, deper
(b) beat, bite, ruber, rub
(t) take, meat, latter, teach, tea, seat
(d) dog, dig, bid, ladder, hide, ridder
(k) key, cake, cool, kit, school, come
(g) get, target, giggle, rag
(ts) choice, chase, church, cheap
(d3) John, Judge, fridge, rejoice, page
(f) Fight, Physics, suffer, sophisticated, enough, cough, fork
(v) Voice, leave, vanity, van, live
(0) Think, thank, path, author, mouth
(s) see, peace, sip, place, cell, loose
(z) zoo, buzz, bees, reason, lose
(s) shop, brush, machine, nation

(h) hat, how, harm, high, here
(m) man, sum, lump, number
(n) name, none, moon, sinner
( ) sing, shouting, boring
(l) Like, film, below, all
(r) road, marry, hurry write
(j) yes, yet, yatch, you
(w) way, wood, sweet, win, wet
Note: Most consonant sounds are in pairs form instance (p) and produce exactly the someway. Other parts are (k) and (g) (s) and (z) (s) etc.
The only difference between members of these pair is voicing, where the first of the pair is voiceless, the second one is raced. Mnnrjw are voice but they do not have voiceless counterpart. The sound h is voiceless but do not have a voice d counterpart.

From the topic given, we are asked to emphasized the articulation of the following consonants sound: (p) (b) (k) (g), (f) (v) (0) (r ) (d) (t)

Consonant (p) and (b)
Consonant (P)
The air for this sound is in the mouth. There is no activity in the voice box. The lips are pressed hard together. The air in the mouth, pops out suddenly with force. (p) is a voiceless sound. E.g pat, pass, help, map, wrap, tap, replace, hope, pen.

In Sentences
1. Please lend me your pen.
2. We gave present to the school principal
3. If you press hard, the seeds will pop out.
4. The pupils are proud of their school

Consonant (b)
To produce, the air from the lungs passes through the voice box. The lips are pressed together, the air pushes out suddenly but gently because there is activity in the voice box (b) is a voiced consonant. Examples: bat, bust, bass, robe, rub, abode, bribe, probable.
In Sentences
1. When he was thirsty, he took of sprite.
2. Put the rice bowl in the compound.
3. Peter placed two apples in the basket.
4. Our dinner had been beans and bread for breakfast.

Consonant /k/and/g/
/k/
It is produced by trapping and releasing air between the back of the tongue and the corresponding part of the roof of the mouth. There is no activity on the voice box consonant ki is faint like a whispering. K is a voiceless consonant sound. E.g. kettle, key, king, chemist attack, back.

In Sentences
1. The king prays for good government.
2. Next week, thee will be quiz competition.
3. The boy kicked the ball against the keg.
4. The scheme of work has been written.
(g)
It is produced the same way as /k/. the only difference between /g/ and k is that while k is voiceless, /g/ is voiced. E.g beg, dagger, guest, good, baggage, guard etc.

In Sentences
1. Give my regard to your uncle.
2. He picked his bag and baggages.
3. Guess what! I drank three glasses of the juice.

Consonant /f/ and /v/
Consonant f and v belong to the group of consonants called fricatives because in producing, air is trapped between two articulators with audible friction.
(f)
Is produced by the lower lips and upper lips are being involved in their pronouncement. He major difference between f and v is voicing f is voiceless. Examples: funfare, fan, five, fork, photo, physics, enough, tough etc.

(v)
Is produced in the same way as f. The main difference is the voicing v is voiced. Examples van, view, very, save, above, leave etc.

In Sentences
1. It is very hot here, please turn on the fan.
2. This is a photograph of my father.
3. The maths test was difficult, it was tough.
4. We shall visit Freetown in February.

Consonant /t/ and /d/
Consonant t

To produce /t/, the front of the tongue is presented hard behind the roof of the upper teeth. There is no activity in the voice box. The air in the mouth is released suddenly with force and the sound is faint t is a voiceless consonant.
Examples:-
1. I want to take some time to visit Abuja.
2. Please, turn off the tap, don’t waste water.
3. The cat is looking at the rat.
4. Peter visited his auntie yesterday.

Consonant /d/
The tongue position for /d/ is the same as for /t/ but activity is going on in the voice box. The air is released suddenly but with less force. The sound is clearly heard /d/ is a voiced consonant. Examples:
1. What is today ‘s date?
2. This medal is made of metal.
3. We waded through puddles and pot holes on the road.
4. The Deputy President joined the debate.