Academic English Skills with Dr. Byrnes

/s/ and /z/ are called alveolar fricatives since they are produced near the alveolar ridge. /s/ is unvoiced and is the counterpart to the voiced /z/. To pronounce /s/ and /z/, the tip of the tongue approaches the alveolar ridge but doesn't quite touch it. The opening is wide enough for airflow to continue, but narrow enough for the escaping air to become turbulent, hence the hissing sound. /s/, /z/ minimal pairs fleece fleas  peace P's  ace A's  force fours  Pence pens  advice advise  fussy fuzzy  pierce peers  apiece appease  gross grows  place plays  arse R's  Guinness guineas  precedent president  ass as  hearse hers  purse purrs  basis basses  hence hens  race raise  Bruce brews  hiss his  rice rise  bus buzz  case K's  ice eyes  sap zap  cease seize  Joyce joys  sauce saws  lace lays  countess counties lice lies  sink zinc...

In the previous section, we learned that there are about 15 vowel phonemes in standard American English. Our goal is to learn all these sounds so that we can say words correctly. So, in this section, we aim to find a way to study them systematically.  Since vowel sounds are produced without any obstructing part in the mouth, it can be hard to describe how to pronounce vowel sounds. Some methods suggested are the shape of the mouth and the distance between the lips. These methods are limited however since they do not explain what is really going on inside of the mouth.  Vowel diagram with lips and tongues Tongue height To describe the production of vowel sounds systematically, linguists employ two measures: the height of the tongue and the originating location of the sound in the mouth. The way we move and shape our tongue plays a big part in giving each vowel its own sound. When we pronounce a vowel, even a small change in the position of the tongue can make a difference in th...

Lecture notes 1. What is a Vowel? A vowel is a syllable core : Every spoken word beat (syllable) requires a vowel sound at its center, known as the nucleus. Vowels can stand alone : Unlike consonants, vowels can form full syllables without any surrounding sounds. Blurry boundaries : Linguistic rules change by language; English views the sound /ju/ as a consonant-vowel blend, while Korean views it as two vowels. 2. Why School Classification Fails The "Long/Short" myth : Schools teach that vowels are strictly long or short, but short vowels can actually last just as long phonetically. Missing sounds : The traditional 5-letter system completely ignores vital American sounds like /u/ (blue) and /ʊ/ (book). Multi-use letters : Single letters are forced to make completely unrelated sounds across different words. 3. English is Not Phonetic No fixed rules : Unlike a purely phonetic language like Korean, you cannot reliably sound out written English. Historical mixing : English is an...