The Sound System
Denise E. Murray, MaryAnn Christison · 2019
English spelling is inconsistent when it comes to the relationship between a word’s spelling and its sound. A corpus is a collection of written or spoken texts that can be used to help discover rules, such as the rules that govern the sound system. The term International Phonetic Alphabet is often used generically when referring to any system that follows the one sound/one symbol correspondence. In order to learn how speech sounds are made and to diagnose problems in speech that may interfere with successful communication, English language teachers need to understand how speech sounds are made and become familiar with the parts of the vocal tract that are used to make speech sounds. There are eight different places of articulation for English sounds—bilabial, labiodental, interdental, alveolar, palatal, velar, labiovelar, and glottal. Bilabial sounds are produced with both lips together, such as the initial sounds in the words pet, bat, and mice.