STUDENT GUIDE II

(SPEECH)
Linguistics and the Human Voice

Linguistics is the scientific study of language. Linguistics aims to understand how the
language faculty of the mind works and to describe how language itself works. Linguists
observe patterns within a language and across languages to try to understand what
principles drive our brains’ comprehension and production of language.

Linguistics spans a large number of subfields, each dealing with a different part of the
language faculty.

o Phonetics - the study of the acoustics and sounds of languages

o Phonology - the study of sound systems and how they pattern

o Syntax - the study of sentence structure

o Semantics -the study of meaning and formalizing it into a logical form.

o Morphology: Study of the forms of words.
o Pragmatics – the study of implied and inferred meanings.

ELEMENTS IN THE SOUND OF THE VOICE :

o Pitch – the relative highness or lowness of sound
o Intensity- loudness and softness of sound
o Quality- the characteristics that distinguishes one voice from another
o Duration or Rate- the period of time that sound lasts.
o Inflection- the movement of the voice, up or down
o Rhythm- requires that some words or syllables receive definite prominence
while others are relegated to the background.
o Phrasing-is used to convey thought rather than one of tone production.
o Intonation- the continuous elevation or depression of pitch in the delivery
of a syllable, word, phrase or sentence.
The F and V Sounds

f (four, lift, graph, tough)

v ( love, knives, grave, vine)

Consonant Fricatives
A consonant is any letter in the alphabet that is not a vowel (vowels = a, e, i, o, u). Fricatives are
consonants that are formed by stopping the air flow somewhere in the vocal tract, and then
forcing the air through to produce a friction sound. With the F and V sounds, the air is stopped
by pushing the bottom lip and top teeth together. The air is then pushed through to create the
sound.

There are 9 fricatives in the English language: v sound, f sound, voiced th sound, unvoiced th
sound, z sound, s sound, zh sound, sh sound, and h sound.

The voiced V sound (IPA symbol: v) is produced in almost the same way as the F sound. Hold
your lips and teeth in the same position. The V sound is different because it is voiced, meaning
you produce a sound with your vocal chords. It can be found in English words such as love,
knives, wolves, Valentine, and wave.

The only difference between these two sounds is that the F sound is a voiceless sound and
the V sound is a voiced sound.

In the English language, we use many voiced sounds. That means that the vocal cords
vibrate when you say that letter. You can hear a voiced V sound in words such as "vine" and
"cave."

The letter F is a voiceless sound because the vocal cords do not vibrate. Instead, we use a puff
of air to produce the sound. If you hold a piece of paper in front of your mouth when
pronouncing a voiceless sound, the paper should move from the puff of air.
You can hear the voiceless F sound in words such as "for" and "wife."

Practice the voiced V sound

Practice the voiced V sound by saying these words. Hold a piece of paper or your hand in front
of your mouth to make sure you are voicing the consonant and not using a puff of air. The
paper should not move.

 vacation

 five

 love
  knives

 wolves

 save

 van

 vine

 drive

 cave

Now practice the voiceless F sound

Use a piece of paper to practice the voiceless F sound. When you say this sound, you should
release a puff of air from your mouth that moves the paper. Your vocal cords should not
vibrate.

The F sound can be spelled in four different ways: f, ff, ph, and sometimes gh.

 four

 wife

 knife

 life

 family

 stuff

 phone

 graph

 laugh

 enough

Finally, practice the sounds side-by-side

Practice these two sounds side-by-side. Say one word from the V column, and then say one
word from the F column. Remember to voice the V sound and use a puff of air for the F sound!

V F
love free
vine rough
have cough
visit graph
 drive lift
save file
heavy phone
harvest fun

Challenge words: These words are a little more difficult. They have both sounds. The V sounds
are in blue. The F sounds are in green:

 five

 favorite

 favor

 flavor

 forgive

 lifesaver

 leftover

 forgive

Now say these sentences out loud.

The V sounds are in blue. The F sounds are in green:

1) His wife will drive the van.

2) I have five knives and four forks.

3) Will you phone before you visit the farm?

4) My family loves to laugh on vacation.

5) Save the four wolves who live in the cave.

6) Please forgive me for forgetting the leftover food!

Learn the American English Pronunciation of TH. There are two TH sounds:

1) Soft TH: this sound is "voiced." It vibrates a little bit. It is mostly used in common
words, and the tongue is in the same position as Hard TH.
2) Hard TH: this sound is not "voiced." It is made by putting the tongue between or just
behind the teeth. The tongue presses and then moves away. The tongue is thickly
pressed for a moment--the sound should not be the same as D.
TH – voiced dental fricative /ð/
Ok, ok, that doesn’t help a lot. This TH sounds like “this” and is a soft sound.
To pronounce this TH, place the tip of your tongue between your top and bottom teeth and
vibrate your vocal cords – it’s quite fun!
Words that have the /ð/ sound are:
– than
– then
– this
– weather
– smooth
– other
TH – voiceless dental fricative /θ/
Words with this TH are, for example, “thing” and “thought”. It is a much stronger sound.
To pronounce this TH, do the same: place the tip of your tongue between your teeth but just
blow air through your mouth without vibrating your vocal cords.
Words that have the /θ/ sound are:
– thank
– think
– therapy
– moth
– path
– youth

Intonation
Intonation describes how the voice rises and falls in speech. The three main patterns of
intonation in English are: falling intonation, rising intonation and fall-rise intonation.

Falling intonation

Falling intonation describes how the voice falls on the final stressed syllable of a phrase or
a group of words. A falling intonation is very common in wh-questions.

Where’s the nearest p↘ost-office?

What time does the film f↘inish?

We also use falling intonation when we say something definite, or when we want to be
very clear about something:

I think we are completely l↘ost.

OK, here’s the magaz↘ine you wanted.

See also:
 Questions: wh-questions
Rising intonation

Rising intonation describes how the voice rises at the end of a sentence. Rising intonation
is common in yes-no questions:

I hear the Health Centre is expanding. So, is that the new d↗octor?
Are you th↗irsty?

Fall-rise intonation

Fall-rise intonation describes how the voice falls and then rises. We use fall-rise intonation
at the end of statements when we want to say that we are not sure, or when we may have
more to add:

I do↘n’t support any football team at the m↘om↗ent. (but I may change my mind in
future).

It rained every day in the firs↘t w↗eek. (but things improved after that).

We use fall-rise intonation with questions, especially when we request information or

invite somebody to do or to have something. The intonation pattern makes the questions
sound more polite:

Is this your cam↘er↗a?

Would you like another co↘ff↗ee?