ATC Study of Phonetics Discussion

We are shifting to a very different area in linguistics: the study of phonetics, which is the study of human language sounds and how they are produced.

Please Read Yule Chapter 3 and take your time, as I think this will be a very different way of looking at language than you are used to. We are focused on sounds, and sounds (especially in English) are not the same as spelling or letters. We use the International Phonetic Alphabet to have a symbol for each individual sound that occurs in human language. 

Please review the attached materials:

1. English vowels: a chart with the English vowels, including monothongs and dipthongs. 

2. IPA English consonant chart w vowels: this is the list of the phones (individual sounds) that are present in English. Please also look at the website linked here to view the entire IPA chart with the sounds that are present in all languages. 

3. Transcriptions: here you will find the transcription of my name (from the English spelling into the IPA symbols representing the sounds of my name). You will also find answers to the Yule study question in Chapter 3 about transcriptions. 

Website of IPA: http://www.phonetics.ucla.edu/course/chapter1/chapter1.html

Discussion Questions 

1. What is your reaction to the study of phonetics? What do you think is a main purpose for studying phonetics? 

2. Look at the transcriptions file and try to transcribe your name (first or last, or both!). You may need to look at the entire IPA chart (not just the English sounds on the IPA chart):   http://www.phonetics.ucla.edu/course/chapter1/chapter1.html (Please just try your best and have fun with this! The goal is for you to look at the IPA – I don’t expect you to be able to transcribe words with only one week to learn about phonetics.)