Oral Sounds In English Language

Voiced and Unvoiced Sounds

Many sounds in English go in pairs. This means that they are the same but one is “voiced” while the other is “unvoiced” (voiceless).  When a sound is voiced, the vocal cords vibrate. When a sound is unvoiced, the vocal cords do not vibrate.

Why not put this to test? Put your hand to your larynx (the protruding part of your throat below your chin). Then make a long ‘mmmm’ sound. Can you feel the vibration? This is because ‘mmmm’ is a voiced sound.

Then still with your hand on your larynx, make a ‘ssss’ sound. There is no vibration. This because ‘ssss’ is an unvoiced or voiceless sound.

The pairs of unvoiced and voiced sounds in English are listed below.

Unvoiced	Voiced
/s/	/z/
/k/	/g/
/p/	/b/
/f/	/v/
/t/	/d/
/θ/	/ð/
/ʃ/	/Ʒ/
/t ʃ/	/dƷ/

The /θ/ and /ð/

These are two different sounds, both represented in spelling by ‘th’. Many Nigerians find them difficult because they are not found in Nigerian languages.

Examples of  the /θ/ sound

think, thank, thief, thirty, bath, breath, pathway

Examples of the /ð/ sound

northern, that, there, the, smooth, breathe, bathe

Test

From the words lettered A to D, choose the word that has the same sound

1. health

a. their

b. threaten

c. father

d. further

2. rather

a. seventh

b. enthusiasm

c. southern

d. path

Solution

1. b. threaten

2. c. southern

Oral Skills: Vowel Sounds

The central vowel /ә/

This short sound is very common, It only occurs in unstressed syllables (ones said with almost no force). It is the vowel you normally hear in these common words: a, an, the, and, but, of. When you have to make this sound, your mouth should NOT be wide open.

Read the following words and phrases aloud. The unstressed syllables are shown in italics, and all contain /ә/:

again	about	alone	away
Teacher	Mother	Tailor	Neighbour
an egg	the book	a glass of water
at school	at home	Poor but happy

Note that when the comes before another word beginning with a vowel, the sound is no longer /ә/ but /i/. Say the following:

He mixed the eggs together and poured them into the oil.

Vowel sounds present a considerable challenge to non-native speakers. Spoken English has an unusually high number of vowel sounds – from 5 written vowels (a, e, i, o, u) we produce 19 vowel sounds

Types of Vowel Sounds

A vowel sound is made by shaping the air as it leaves the mouth. There are four types of vowel in English:

• Short monothongs (2, 3, 4, 7, 10, 12 in the diagram)
• Long monothongs (1, 6, 8, 9, 11 in the diagram)
• Diphthongs (13 – 19 in the diagram)
• Weak vowels (1, 2, 5 , 9 in the diagram)

The /i/ and /i:/ sounds

We are going to revise the two sounds above.
Listen to these two lists of words and repeat:

 /i:/                  /i/

Eat	It
Feel	Fill
Heap	Hip
Sheep	Ship
Leaves	Lives
Seat	Sit
Beat	Bit
He’s	His
Least	List

Many learners of English need to distinguish between these sounds properly. The problem lies with the /i/ sound of the words in column 2. Many Nigerian languages do not have this sound. So let us compare the two sounds. the /i:/ of the words in column 1 is generally quite long and your tongue muscles are very tense or strained as you say it. In contrast, the /i/ of the column 2 words is usually short. Your tongue is brought near the top of your mouth, but your tongue muscles are quite lax as you say it; there is no tension in them. When you say /i/, your mouth is slightly more open than when you say /i:/.

Spelling: /i:/

The /i:/ sound is usually spelled as ‘ee’ or ‘ea’ but in some other ways als. Read the following:

need, meet, chief, police, green, please, piece, machine, meat, these, believe, deceive.

Spelling: /i/

The following words all contain the /i/ sound, which is usually spelled ‘i’. Say them:

is, quick, little, did, which, bitter, this, with, politics, fit, give, Philip

When a word is spelled with ‘i …e’ the sound of ‘i’ is usually /ai/, but the following words should be said with /i/.

river, driven, favourite, genuine, promise.

There are some unusual spellings of /i/, which we find in some very common words. Say the following:

busy, business, minute, women, pretty

This sound is very often found in unstressed syllables where the spelling is ‘-ed’, ‘- ied’, ‘-et’, ‘-age’, ‘-ess’, ‘-ies’, ‘-ing’, and ‘-y’. Say the following:

wanted, carries, market, manage, useless, ended, ladies, bucket, going, quickly, village, married

 Sounds  /s/ and /z/

The /s/ and /z/ sounds are another unvoiced – voiced pair: /s/ unvoiced and /z/ voiced. Although /s/ should not be a problem but some Nigerians have difficulty with /z/.

Now pronounce these words

/s/	/z/
Sink	Zinc
Cease	Seize
Police	Please
Price	Prize

Note that the usual spelling of /s/ is ‘s’ or ‘ce’ and the usual spelling of /z/ is z. However, ‘s’ in spelling often has a /z/ sound, not an /s/ sound, especially at the end of a word.

Pronounce the following words, giving ‘s’ at /z/ sound.

his  those  was  rains  years  names

knees  sings  praise  bodies  feeds  dogs

Sometimes a word can be spelt in one way but have two different pronunciations – one with /s/, one with /z/. And sometimes, though two words may have nearly the same sound or spelling, one contains /s/ while the other contains /z/

Read the following words or phrases line by line, carefully noting the difference

/s/	/z/
Used to	To use
A close friend	To close
A fine house	To house
Advice	To advise
Decease	Disease
The rain ceased	They seized their bags
Loose talk	Don’t lose your money
A diploma course	Cause and effect

 Practice:

1. spare

a. stomach

b. usual

c. busy

d. zone

2. please

a. sixth

b. ignorance

c. neighbors

d. police

3. miss

a. sugar

b. simple

c. sham

d. realize

4. tease

a. vest

b. zip

c. crisis

d. sir