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This is intended to get you intrigued rather than fully educated! It also points you to where you can learn more, if you wish.
Singers don’t just sing in their own language and are faced with the daunting task of learning (at least to pronounce) a number of foreign languages. One of the more recent additions to a singer’s armoury has been the use of phonetics which can cut across the language barrier and allow the singer to make the correct sound by using a “special” alphabet.
Every language has a unique set of sounds that are used to build words. Indeed when we each learnt to speak we were taught these sounds and shown the words that went with them – so we learnt to speak.
Linguists call these sounds “phonemes” (fo neemes) and these sounds differentiate between words at the lowets (smallest) level.
Think about the following set of words – only a letter has changed, but the sound is completely different.
Sat – Set / Sin – Sir / Ton – Top.
Indeed, there are some word games that require you to get from one word to another by altering only one letter at a time.
The number of phonemes in each language varies. English has some 44 (it depends on accent), whilst Italian has about 25, as does German. There are two tables at the end of this article detailing some of the English vowel and consonant phonemes.
Linguists use the IPA – the International Phonetic Alphabet to describe and analyse the sound systems of languages. In IPA each sound is given a unique symbol which allows us to capture similarities and differences that are hidden by the written form. Cat and Kit for example – the sound at the start of the word is the same, though the letters are different. Look at the letter Y in various words and you will find it completely different. In that previous sentence Y in you and Y in completely differ from each other. How about silly young youths?
The following link is to the IPA’s main site and is well worth time spent looking through it:
http://www.arts.gla.ac.uk/ipa/index.html
Vowels are sounds produced with no interruption or obstruction to the air flow coming up from the lungs – but they do take on their different sound qualities by very subtle changes in the shape of the vocal tract.
For example – the “ee” sound in mean has the lower and upper jaw quite close together and the tongue is raised towards the roof of the mouth. The “oo” in moon needs to have the back of the tongue raised. When producing the sound “ah” as in darn, the jaws are quite apart and the centre of the tongue is raised.
A diphthong is a long complex vowel sound with starts with one quality and end with another. English has several diphthongs, Italian has none!
Consonants are sounds that need an interruption or obstruction of the air flow. There are three basic classifications – voice, place and manner of articulation.
By voice we mean – are the vocal folds vibrating when the sound is produced – the b in bark and p in park are made by briefly closing the lips to stop the air flow, but the b is voiced and the p is not.
The place of articulation is where the air flow is obstructed. The vocal tract extends from the lips down to the glottis. See the figure at the end of this article.
There are a number of differing places of articulation, which are:
| Place of Articulation |
Word |
| Labial (lips) pip |
Pip |
| Labial-Dental (lips and teeth) |
Fish |
| Dental (placing the tongue between the teeth) |
This |
| Alveolar (the hard ridge behind the upper teeth) |
Ten |
| Post-Alveolar (between the hard ridge and the hard palate) |
Ship |
| Palatal (hard palate – roof of the mouth) |
Yet |
| Velar (soft palate) |
Cat |
| Glottal (glottis – the vocal folds and the opening between them) |
Hen |
|
| Manner of Articulation
|
| Plosive (a complete obstruction followed by release) |
Ten |
| Fricative (very close but not complete obstruction involving friction) |
Set |
Affricate (very close obstruction where the consonant begins as a plosive and ends as a fricative) |
Church |
| Nasal (complete obstruction of the mouth but with the velum open) |
Man |
| Approximant (some obstruction but not enough to cause friction) of which there are two types
|
| Liquids (the tongue touches the alveolar ridge) |
Let |
| Glides (a very slight closure akin to a vowel) |
Wet |
This diagram shows the positions mentioned in the table:
