543020 (from the Greek: ovqd, 532,, "a sound uttered") is the smallest segmental unit of sound employed to

form meaningful contrasts between utterances.

Segmenta|s refer Lo Lhe lndlvldual sounds ln speech ln Lngllsh we approxlmaLely use 12 vowel sounds elghL dlphLhongs and 24
consonanL sounds When we mlx Lhese sounds we produce syllables LhaL bulld Lhe baslc unlL of meanlng a word
1Vowe| Sounds 1he Lngllsh alphabeL conslsLs flve vowels (A L l C u) LhaL make 12 dlsLlncLlve sounds We produce vowe| sounds
Lhrough Lhe llps Lhe Longue and Lhe LhroaL 1hey are classlfled as elLher Lense or lax and alLernaLlvely accordlng Lo where we
produced Lhem ln Lhe mouLh fronL cenLral and back
Front Central Back
High l: u:
Mid c o a: o:
Low t :
Front vowels
l: - cream, seen (long high front spread vowel)
- bit, silly (short high front spread vowel)
c - bet, head (short mid front spread vowel); this may also be shown by the symbol /e/
- cat, dad (short low front spread vowel); this may also be shown by /a/

entral vowels
a:- burn, firm (long mid central spread vowel); this may also be shown by the symbol o:.
o - about, clever (short mid central spread vowel); this is sometimes known asschwa, or the neutral vowel sound - it
never occurs in a stressed position.
t - cut, nut (short low front spread vowel); this vowel is quite uncommon among speakers in the Midlands and further
north in Britain.

ack vowels
u: - boob, glue (long high back rounded vowel)
- put, soot (short high back rounded vowel); also shown by /u/
o: - corn, faun (long mid back rounded vowel) also shown by /o:/
- dog, rotten (short low back rounded vowel) also shown by /o/
: - hard, far (long low back spread vowel)

tongs Also called gllde vowels dtongs are segmenLs or sounds LhaL begln and end ln a vowel sound 1hey are ofLen
referred Lo as double vowel sounds
2 Consonant sounds are made by conLrolllng or lmpedlng Lhe ouLward flow of alr Lhrough our speech organs (arLlculaLors) We
classlfy consonanL sounds based on volclng manner of arLlculaLlon and place of arLlculaLlon
(8 C I G n I k L M N k S 1 V W k 2)


A consonant cluster is a group or sequence oI consonants that appear together in a syllable without a vowel between them.
8.:8843

It is important to distinguish between consonant clusters and digraphs with which they are oIten conIused. In contrast to a
consonant cluster, a digraph is a group oI two or more symbols which really stand Ior just one sound (usually a consonant).

In the word .,9, the letters . and appear contiguously but are not a consonant cluster, even though both are separate
consonants in other contexts (cat; hat). In this instance, . is a digraph because the . sequence represents a single sound in
the underlying English sound system.
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Here are some examples oI consonant clusters:

\sp\ and \ts\ in the word 85498
\spr\ in the word 857,
1he soptoseqmeotol symbols are called LhaL because Lhey apply Lo more Lhan one segmenL (vowel or consonanL) ln Lngllsh Lhe
relevanL suprasegmenLals are Lhe marklngs for prlmary and secondary sLress
tc ln speech Lhe relaLlve hlghness or lowness of a Lone as percelved by Lhe ear whlch depends on Lhe number of vlbraLlons per
second produced by Lhe vocal cords lLch ls Lhe maln acousLlc correlaLe of Lone and lnLonaLlon
ntonation - you may be familiar in a loose sense with the notion of tone of voice. We use varying levels of pitch in
sequences (contours or tunes) to convey particular meanings. Falling and rising intonation in English may signal a
difference between statement and question. Younger speakers of English may use rising (question) intonation without
intending to make the utterance a question.
stress ln phoneLlcs lnLenslLy glven Lo a syllable of speech by speclal efforL ln uLLerance resulLlng ln relaLlve loudness 1hls emphasls
ln pronunclaLlon may be merely phoneLlc (e noLlceable Lo Lhe llsLener buL noL meanlngful) as lL ls ln lrench where lL occurs
regularly aL Lhe end of a word or phrase or lL may serve Lo dlsLlngulsh meanlngs as ln Lngllsh ln whlch for example sLress
dlfferenLlaLes Lhe noun from Lhe verb ln Lhe word permlL"
:3.9:70 the manner of transition or mode of relationship between two consecutive sounds in speech