Chapter 2 Speech Sounds

 2.1. In order to understand how OE was pronounced and how certain OE sounds changed before, during, and after the OE period, it is necessary to know the basic principles of phonetics, the science of speech sounds. How the sounds of speech are produced, what kinds there are, how they affect each other, how and why they change - these are the questions that need to be answered. The following brief account will touch only on features relevant to OE.

Speech Production

2.2. The sounds of speech are produced by air expelled from the lungs and modified variously by organs in the throat, the mouth passage, and the nose passage. The air leaves the lungs through the trachea or windpipe but produces no sounds before entering the larynx ("Adam's apple," the cartilaginous "box" at the top of the trachea). In the larynx the air meets two membranes (vocal cords, bands, or folds) which are attached along its inner sides from front to back. When stretched, these membranes draw together, closing the air passage or leaving only a slit between; when relaxed, they leave a wide opening. (This passage between the vocal cords is called the glottis.) The air coming from the lungs, when impeded by the vocal cords, causes them to vibrate, producing the sound called voice. But when the cords are relaxed and the glottis is open, the air is unimpeded and produces no vibration, hence no sound. All speech sounds are either voiced to some degree or voiceless. In the latter, the sound we hear is produced somewhere above the vocal cords (in the throat, mouth, or nasal passage).

Consonants and Vowels

2.3. When the air from the lungs enters the mouth passage (oral cavity) it may produce sounds of two main types: if it is shut off at some point and then suddenly released, an explosive or stop sound is produced - for example, [k]. However, if it encounters such a narrow aperture that, in forcing its way through, the friction becomes audible a spirant (or fricative) sound is produced - for example, [s]. Sounds made in either of these ways, or by impeding the breath in other ways, are consonants. Consonants accompanied by vocal cord vibration are voiced; others are voiceless.

2.4. When air from the lungs, after producing vibration in the larynx, encounters no stoppage or constriction in the throat or mouth but passes freely through, vowels are produced. The difference in the quality of vowels (for example the audible difference between [o] and [u]) is due to modifications made in the shape of the oral cavity, tongue position, and action of the lips as the breath passes through. (Pronounce the vowels of toe and too, noting the differences in each of these three factors.) Vowels, as their name implies, are voiced.

Classifying Consonants

2.5. Consonants are classified by three factors taken together:

  1. presence or absence of voice
  2. the organ or organs chiefly involved in producing them,
  3. their type - stop, spirant, etc.

Organs involved in producing the consonants, in addition to the larynx, are:

Usually the tongue articulates with one or more of these organs, either pressing against it or coming close enough to form a narrow aperture with it. The areas of the tongue which do this are the tip, the blade(behind the tip), and the back.

2.6. In addition to stops and spirants, already described, the class of consonants includes:

2.7. The accopanying Diagra 3 shows the consonants of OE and MnE. The sounds of these consonants are given in the symbols of the International Phonetic Association (IPA).1 A MnE keyword, with its relevant part printed in boldface type, is also supplied to indicate the value of the IPA symbol. The consonants are arranged from left to right on the diagram according to their relative position of articulation from the front to the back of the mouth. Most of the sounds indicated occur in both OE and MnE; however, EWS did not have [g] and [ȝ] and MnE does not have [ɣ] and [x].

Diagram 3
BilabialLabio-dentalInter-dentalAlveolarPost-alveolarPalatall Velar
Voiced Stop[b] bine[d] dine[g] grind
Vcless Stop[p] pine[t] tine[k] kind
Voiced Spir[v] vine[ð] thy[z] zing[ȝ] azure[ɣ] N Ger magen
Vcless Spir[f] fine[θ] thigh[s] sing[ʃ] ashes[x] Ger machen
Voiced Affr[ʤ] gin
Vcless Affr[ʧ] chin
Nasal[m] mine[n] nine[ŋ] long
Sonorant[l] line
Sonorant[r] rye
Glide[j] yet[w] wine
_____________________________________________________________________________

2.8. Any of the consonants may be designated or identified by naming its three characterizing features as they appear on the diagram. Thus, [p] is a voiceless bilabial stop; [n] is a (voiced) alveolar nasal, and so on. (When a feature is the same for a whole class of sounds it need not be mentioned - e.g., voice for nasals, sonorants, and glides.)

Exercise 1. Following the examples given for [p] and [n], write descriptions for the other consonants of Diagram 3.

FOOTNOTES

1Enclosing a symbol in square brackets indicates that it is being used phonetically, i.e., consistently and exclusively to represent a given sound. The phonetic alphabet of the IPA is premised on this one-to-one correspondence. Thus, in a phonetic transcription using the IPA alphabet, the symbol [f] will be used to represent the final consonant of all four words laugh, luff, lymph, aloof, where our English spelling has four separate ways of representing the same sound.

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