English Language Phonetics

English Language Phonetics.

However, recently a new term Estuary English has caught the attention of the British society. It is not a new dialect, as some might think. This name has been given to the speech of those whose accents are a compromise between traditional RP and popular London speech, also known as Cockney. Estuary English is very likely to become the new prestige British accent.

If we put one sound in the place of another, we can change the meaning of a word. For example, if we change the vowel in the word ‘bed’, we get a different word ‘bad’. Two words, distinguished by a single sound, are called a minimal pair. A set of words that differ only in one sound is called a minimal set (such as ‘bed’-‘bad-‘bid’). Through forming minimal pairs and sets, we can eventually determine those speech sounds which are phonologically significant in a given language. Just as there is an abstract alphabet as the basis of our writing, so there is an abstract set of units as the basis of our speech. These units of sound, which can change the meaning, are termed phonemes, and the complete set of these units is called the phonemic system of the language.

The allophones of a particular phoneme typically have phonetic similarity. They have many features in common. Moreover, they are produced in much the same way by the speaker and sound much the same to the listener.