Q1
Introduction
English sound production includes consonants and vowels, the way sounds are articulated determines if they are consonants or vowels.
They differ in many ways such as the way each of them is produced in the mouth. Other differences are related to the status of the mouth when vowels or consonants are made and the way each is described and classified.
Discussion
Consonants are sounds that are produced by stopping the air in the mouth from free flow such as using the tongue to touch the teeth or closing the lips for example. The air here is totally stopped by lips and then it is soon closed: /b/; /p/; /m/. Vowels are sounds of speech that are produced when the air in the mouth flows out without the teeth blocking it or even the lips or the tongue. Examples are teach, books and sun as the middle sounds of these words are all vowels. Differences between vowels and consonants include the way they are put in the syllabus as a vowel occupies the nucleus of a syllabus while consonants are described based on manner and place of articulation. Vowels when produced, there is no complete closure while consonants are produced with closure in many positions.
There are 24 recognized consonant sounds in English which are divided into seven classes based on the manner of articulation. This includes stop/plosive sounds, affricate sounds, nasal sounds, approximant sounds and lateral approximant in addition to frictionless continuant.
Place of articulation refers to the point where the two articulators meet at together, there are points where articulators meet to make consonants such as Bilabial as the two lips are the articulators such as /p/; / b/; /m/. Another point is the labiodental that gathers lower lip and upper front teeth to produce /f/ and /v/, labial-velar is the point that includes simultaneous strictures at the lips and between the tongue back and soft palate such as /w/ sound while dental point is an active articulator is the tip of the tongue and the upper front teeth is the passive one such as /θ/ as in thought and /ð/ as in there. Alveolar point is the point where the tip of the tongue is the active articulator and the alveolar ridge is the passive such as /t/; /d/; /n/; /s/; /z/; /l/; /r/ and post alveolar sounds include active articulator which is the tongue blade and the alveolar ridge back is the passive one such as /ʃ/ in shop, tʃ in chips, /ʒ/ and /ʤ/. The palatal is tongue front is the active articulator and the passive is the hard palate such as j in yesterday. And the velar point makes the tongue back is active articulator and the passive is soft palate such as /k/; /g/; /ŋ/. Glottal point is such as sound /h/ where the vocal cords produce the sound.
A vowel occupies the syllabus nucleus as in the process of vowel production, The tongue height refers to the place of tongue's highest point that can form the vowel and there are three positions which are the high that is close to the mouth roof as in the sound /i:/ as in please, the low that is open as in /a:/ as in car and the mid such as /ɜː/ in bird. Pace of tongue also affects the vowels such as front vowels as /i:/ as in keen, the back as /u:/ in poor and central as the /ɜː/ bird. Vowels differ according to length and lips as the unrounded lip position as /i/ in chip and the rounded as in horse /ɔː/.
Conclusion
In conclusion, vowels and consonants are produced based on position of the tongue, teeth and other areas in the mouth and this affects the way people can use each of them to produce speech.
References
- Amer, W. (2020). ' An investigation into the Differences between English and Arabic Consonant and Vowel Sounds: A Contrastive Study with Pedagogical Implication.' http://site.iugaza.edu.ps/
wamer/files/2010/02/An- investigation-into-the- Differences-between-English- and-Arabic-Consonant-and- Vowel-Sounds-review.pdf - Mehler, J. Varela, S. Nespor, M. Hochmann, J. (2011). 'Consonants and vowels: Different roles in early language acquisition.' https://www.researchgate.net/
publication/51729788_ Consonants_and_vowels_ Different_roles_in_early_ language_acquisition
Q2
Introduction
Morphology is the study of the words of a language and how they are formed of parts of speech such as morphemes.
There are different types of English morphemes such as base words, suffixes, prefixes and affixes. Each morpheme has its function that can change the meanings based on its position and role in the words. A word can include many morphemes that their position decides their functions.
Discussion
Morphology is studying of the words and the parts related to them and the formation of words. Morphemes are the basic meaning units in morphology study, they can be like base words, suffixes and prefixes. Morphemes are essential for phonics in processes such as spelling and reading and they are important for comprehension and vocabulary.
Types of morphemes include free morphemes that can work alone as they are the stem or root of words such as the word that is a lexical word 'possible' and bound morphemes that should be connected and can't stand as main words alone such as ed. A word can include many morphemes such as for example, the word buyers that includes three morphemes which are buy, er and s and each of these morphemes can occur in another word keeping its meaning such as buying, fisher and sellers as each morpheme has its same specific job of meaning.
Affixes have specific functions as they work to form new words such as derivational affixes and they can also tell if the word is an object, a subject or other such as the inflectional affixes. They carry both simple and grammatical information that can make sentences clear and effective. Inflectional affixes can work as a conveyer for the grammatical meaning because they are able to build the many forms of one word while the derivational affixes work as for supplying the main part of the lexical and lexico-grammatical meanings which results in different words. A derivative can provide more derivation and can be homonymous to the meaning stem. Example is foolish which is derived from the fool as a stem, it is homonymous to the foolish stem and occur in the words foolishly and foolishness.
Conclusion
In conclusion, words are composed of main parts as the morpheme is the base word that bear meaning and it can be used in other words with affixes and suffixes presenting the same meaning. There are types of morphemes such as grammatical morphemes. Affixes can be used to send messages forming new words of the main word stem.
References
- Fokkens, A. (2009).' Introduction to Morphology.' http://www.coli.uni-saarland.
de/~afokkens/materials/ Introduction2Morphology2009. pdf
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