This is the first lecture in the course. No prior lecture is required.
The first hurdle in mastering English phonetics is recognising that English is not a phonetic language. As Roach (2022, p. 4) observes, the English writing system is historically irregular — the same sound can be spelled in multiple ways, and the same spelling can represent different sounds depending on context. Unlike some indigenous Nigerian languages where one letter consistently represents one sound, English frequently uses different letter combinations for the same sound (Gut, 2019, p. 98).
Consider these three words: rough, physics, fan. They look nothing alike — yet the letters gh, ph, and f all produce exactly the same sound: /f/. This fundamental mismatch between script and sound is the central challenge of English phonetics for learners in Nigerian tertiary institutions (Oyebola & Gut, 2020, p. 166).
The Golden Rule: In this course, we listen to what we hear, not what we see. The written word is a guide — the spoken sound is the truth.
The English alphabet contains 26 letters. These are the graphemes — the written symbols — from which all English words are constructed (Ladefoged & Johnson, 2020, p. 2):
Despite having only 26 letters, English has 44 distinct sounds — phonemes. This gap of 18 between letters and sounds explains why English spelling so often misleads the learner (Roach, 2022, p. 9). These 44 phonemes divide into 20 vowel sounds and 24 consonant sounds (Cruttenden, 2021, p. 22).
Vowels are produced with an open vocal tract — the airstream from the lungs passes through the mouth without obstruction or narrowing sufficient to cause friction (Skandera & Burleigh, 2019, p. 25). English has 20 vowel sounds: 12 monophthongs and 8 diphthongs.
Diphthongs are gliding vowels in which the tongue moves from one position to another within the same syllable (Ladefoged & Johnson, 2020, p. 21).
Consonants are produced with some degree of closure or narrowing in the vocal tract that obstructs or impedes the airstream (Davenport & Hannahs, 2020, p. 19). The key distinction between consonants is voicing — whether the vocal cords vibrate during production. Voiced consonants cause a buzz felt at the throat; voiceless ones produce only a rush of air (Roach, 2022, p. 31).
| IPA Symbol | Example Word | Voicing |
|---|---|---|
| /p/ | pen | Voiceless |
| /b/ | bat | Voiced |
| /t/ | top | Voiceless |
| /d/ | dog | Voiced |
| /k/ | cat | Voiceless |
| /g/ | get | Voiced |
| /f/ | fan | Voiceless |
| /v/ | van | Voiced |
| /θ/ | thin | Voiceless |
| /ð/ | this | Voiced |
| /s/ | sun | Voiceless |
| /z/ | zoo | Voiced |
| /ʃ/ | she | Voiceless |
| /ʒ/ | measure | Voiced |
| /tʃ/ | church | Voiceless |
| /dʒ/ | judge | Voiced |
| /m/ | man | Voiced |
| /n/ | net | Voiced |
| /ŋ/ | sing | Voiced |
| /h/ | hat | Voiceless |
| /l/ | leg | Voiced |
| /r/ | red | Voiced |
| /w/ | wet | Voiced |
| /j/ | yes | Voiced |
To produce the 44 phonemes, the human body employs a coordinated system of organs sometimes collectively referred to as the vocal tract. Understanding this mechanism helps learners identify and correct first-language interference — the tendency to superimpose the phonological habits of one's mother tongue onto English (Oyebola & Gut, 2020, p. 170). As Ladefoged and Johnson (2020, p. 7) note, conscious awareness of articulator position is the first step toward deliberate self-correction.
Figure 1: Cross-section of the human vocal tract showing the principal organs involved in speech production.
Adapted from Ladefoged & Johnson (2020, p. 8) and Cruttenden (2021, p. 6).
Each organ plays a specific and critical role. The lungs supply the airstream that powers all speech sounds (Skandera & Burleigh, 2019, p. 16). The vocal cords in the larynx vibrate to produce voiced sounds and remain apart for voiceless ones. The tongue — the most mobile articulator — shapes vowels by adjusting its height and position, and forms consonants by contacting or approaching the palate, alveolar ridge, or teeth (Roach, 2022, p. 18). The lips are essential for bilabial sounds such as /p/, /b/, and /m/, while the teeth are necessary for dental fricatives: /θ/ as in thin and /ð/ as in this — sounds that frequently pose difficulties for Nigerian students due to first-language interference (Gut, 2019, p. 105).
One of the most direct demonstrations that English orthography does not reliably represent its phonology is the existence of silent letters — graphemes that appear in the spelling of a word but contribute no sound to its pronunciation (Davenport & Hannahs, 2020, p. 5). Silent letters are largely historical relics — remnants of earlier pronunciations or borrowings from Latin, Greek, and French that were retained in spelling long after the sounds disappeared from speech (Cruttenden, 2021, p. 20).
Write each word in your notebook. Identify the silent letter, cross it out, and read the word aloud pronouncing only the sounds that remain. Then write the full IPA transcription beside each word.
Mastering the 44 sounds is the first and most critical step toward International Intelligibility. As Jenkins (2022, p. 14) argues, intelligibility — not native-like accent — is the appropriate target for speakers of English as an additional language. The goal of this course is not to make the student sound British or American, but to ensure their speech is sufficiently clear to be understood by any English speaker, regardless of background (Deterding, 2018, p. 329).
A student who understands the relationship between the 26 letters and the 44 sounds — who knows why the p in psychology is silent, why rough ends with an /f/, and where the tongue must be placed to produce /θ/ — has established the phonological foundation on which all further language work in this course will build (Aremo, 2021, p. 522).
Lecture 1.1 — Foundations of English Sounds
How many distinct phonemes does the English language have, and how does this number compare to the number of letters in its alphabet?
[1 mark]
Define the term phoneme and explain, with two examples drawn from this lecture, how changing a single phoneme alters the meaning of a word.
[2 marks]
Write the full IPA phonetic transcription of each word below and identify the silent letter in each: Debt · Column · Pneumonia · Subtle
[4 marks — 1 per word]
Distinguish between orthography and phonology. Using evidence from the lecture, explain why this distinction is particularly significant for first-year students in Nigerian tertiary institutions.
[2 marks]
A diphthong is best described as:
[1 mark]
From memory, list any six of the 12 monophthong vowel sounds of English. For each, write the IPA symbol and one example word that contains that sound.
[3 marks — ½ per correct entry]
Which of the following is a voiced consonant sound?
[1 mark]
Draw a simple cross-section of the human head and label any six organs of speech. For each labelled organ, state one specific sound or category of sounds it produces.
[3 marks — ½ per correct label and function]
What is first-language interference? Give one specific phonological example affecting Nigerian students' pronunciation of English and propose one practical correction strategy.
[2 marks]
Provide the full IPA transcription of the word Psychology. Then write a short paragraph (4–5 sentences) explaining: (a) which letter is silent and why it exists in the spelling, and (b) what the word illustrates about the relationship between the English alphabet and the English sound system.
[2 marks]
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