An introduction to phonetics whose aim is to familiarize the lay person with the sort of problems Spanish speakers encounter when learning English.

1. For learners of English with a focus on Spanish
speakers
By Morris A. Gevirtz

2. What communication is and isn’t
 Communication is the sending of singnals intended to be
perceived as intended that reflect some mental state of the
sender.
 The modes of communication are
 Sounds
 Intentionally communicative behavior
 Signs
 Acting out a behavior
 Simply doing something in the viewof another
 Communication is dependant on mutual knowledge.
 New ideas are communicated at the rate of ONE NEW IDEA
at a time, more or less.

3. Sound-Based Communication
 There are standard sounds and sound changes which,
by convention, have been associated with meaning.
 Meaning bearing units are expected to come in certain
order
 And to vary only by a certain amount without changing
meaning.

5. First phonetics notions
 The human sound signal is produced by means of 1-3
sound sources and 1-2 filters.
 Most vowels and consonants produced (are
differentiated) by means of the filter.
 The main filter is the mouth.
 The second filter is the nasal passage.
 The nasal passage is an on/off filter.
 The mouth-filter is much more complex.

6. Sound (noise) sources
 The vocal folds
 The sound of air hitting the trachea
 The tongue (hitting surfaces)
 The uvula
 The lips

7. First Notions Cont.
 With the tongue and lips speakers alter the sound
coming from the vocal chords.
 If you restrict the passage of air completely, then you
will produce a consonant when open your mouth.
 a stop.
 Followed by a little explosion
 By contrast, a VOWEL is a very minor closure of the air
passage.

8.  X ray video

9. Phonemes
 The IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) is an
attempt to have standard writing system to represent
all the MEANINGFUL sounds of human languages.
 Ask yourself if these are the same words:
 Casa, caza
 Paso, baso
 Ves, vez

10. Consonantal Phonemes
 In Spanish writing the sounds /θ/ contrasts as a unit of
meaning with the sound /s/.
 These two sounds are represented in the writing
system by different characters.
 /θ/ by ci, ce, z /s/ by s-
 However in Spanish there does not seem to be a
contrast between /ð/ and /θ/.
 [ð] shows up when /d/ is produced between vowels.
Ademán, adentro, idílico.

11. English Phonemes
 In English, depending on the dialect, there are 40-45
phonemes.
 24 are consonants, which for most dialects, are the same.
 African Englishes have fewer.
 Americans have about 15 vowel phonemes
 Australians have about 21 vowel phonemes.

12. IPA Chart
Supposedly all of the sounds
of human languages.
That is, all of the sounds
which could be phonemic!

13. Problems for Spanish Speakers
 There are more phonemic (contrasting) vowel sounds
in English.
 These sounds are represented in the writing system by
combinations of vowel-graphs and consonant-graphs
 There are more consonant sounds in English
 AND they are found in places where consonants are
NOT found in Spanish.

14. Structure Contrast
English
Spanish
• Many consonant groups
• Few
• Consonants appear at the beginning or
end of syllables, words.
• Consonants only rarely appear at the end
of syllables and especially words.
• Consonant groups can come at the end
of a syllable
• Syllable-final consonants are almost
always single and vowel-like
• Almost all consonants show a voicing
contrast
• Only three consonant pairs show a
consonant contrast
• There are three contrasting nasal
consonants in English
• There are three contrasting nasal
consonants in Spanish
Two in the beginning of syllable
Three in the beginning
Three at the end.
None at the end.
• Intonation peaks can apperar anywhere
in a sentence.
• Intonantions are usually fixed.

15. Outcomes
 English sentences are organized different.
 Theme vs. Rheme
 Spanish ears cannot parse English sentences.
 Spanish tongues have a hard time contrasting sounds.
 Spanish speakers have a hard time making
use of their knowledge to accelerate their
acquisition of English.

16. Low-noise sounds
 Semi-vowels
 Vowels