Phonology Gabriela Estefany Jimenez Martinez Lic. Julio Blanco.
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Index Phonology………………………………………………………….…3-5 The international Phonetics Alphabet………………….…. 6 The Production of speech sound ……………………… 7 - 14 Place of Articulation……………………………..………… 15 – 18 Manner of articulation…………………......…….………. 19 -22 Consonant Chart………………………………………………………23 Vowels sound……………………………………………………. 24 -26 Diphthongs………………………………………………………… 27- 29 Threephthongs………………………………………………….………30 Inflectional Endings……...……………………………………. 31- 33 Back vowels ……………………………………………………….………34 Assimilation – Ellision ……………………………………………35-50
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PHONOLOGY
The phonology is really importante because has the purpose to explain how the sounds Work in a particular languaje. But to understand how the phonology Works, is necessary to uderstand the difference between Phonology and Phonethics. Some definitions for this conceps are: Phonology: the study of the distribution and patterning of speech sounds in a language and of the tacit rules governing pronunciation. 2. the phonological system or the body of phonological facts of a language. Phonetics: The branch of linguistics that deals with the sounds of speech and their production, combination, description, and representation by written symbols. The system of sounds of a particular language.
The Difference between phonology and phonetics: Phonetics deals with the production of speech sounds by humans, often without prior knowledge of the language being spoken. Phonology is about patterns of sounds, especially different patterns of sounds in different languages, or within each language, different patterns of sounds in different positions in words etc.
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CONCEPTS RELATED WITH PHONOLOGY: There are many different concepts related with phonology those concepts are: Phoneme: The smallest phonetic unit in a language that is capable of conveying a distinction in meaning, as the m of mat and the b of bat.
Stress: The relative force with which a sound or syllable is spoken. The emphasis placed on the sound or syllable spoken most forcefully in a word or phrase.
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Accent: A characteristic pronunciation, especially: - One determined by the regional or social background of the speaker. - One determined by the phonetic habits of the speaker's native language carried over to his or her use of another language.
Dialect: is a form of the language that is spoken in a particular part of the country or by a particular group of people. There are many different dialects of English and they have different words and grammar.
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The International Phonetic Alphabet. The International Phonetic Alphabet (commonly—though unofficially—abbreviated IPA) is an alphabetic system of phonetic notation based primarily on the Latin alphabet. It was devised by the International Phonetic Association as a standardized representation of the sounds of spoken language.
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The production of speech sounds. All the sounds we make when we speak are the result of muscles contracting. The muscles in the chest that we use for breathing produce the flow of air that is needed for almost all speech sounds; muscles in the larynx, the air goes through What we call “the vocal tract”, wich ends at the mouth and nostrils. Here the air from the lungs escapes into the atmosphere. We have large and complex set of muscles that can produce changes in the shape of the vocal tract, in order how the sounds of speech are produce it is necessary to become familiar with different parts of the vocal tract. These differents parts are called “Articulators” and the study of them is called “Articulatory phonetics”.
The pharynx: a tube wich begins with just above the larynx. It is about 7cm long in women and about 8cm in men, and at its top end it is divided into two, one part being the back of the mouth and the other being the begining of the way through tha nasal cavity.
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The velum or soft palate: is seen in the diagram in a position that allows air to pass through the nose and thorugh the mouth. Another thing that is important about the velum is that is one of the articulators that can be touched by the tongue. When we make the sounds “k” and “g” the tnogue is in contact with the lower side of the velum, and we call these “velar consonants”
The hard palate: is often called “the roof of the mouth” you can feel its smooth curved surface with your tongue.
The alveolar rigde: is between the top front teeth and the hard palate.
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The tongue: is, of course, a very important articulator and it can be moved into many differents places and differents shapes. It is inusual to divide the tongue into differents parts: Tip, Blade, front, back, and root.
The teeth ( upper and lower): are ussually shown in the diagrams only at the front of the mouth, immediately behind the lips.
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The lips: are important in speech. They can be pressed together (when we produce the sounds “p”, “b”) brought into contact with the teeth ( as in f, v) or rounched to produced the lip shape to produce the sound like u: Sounds in wich the lips are in contac with each other are called “bilabial”, while those with lip-to-teeth contact are called “labiodental”
The uvula: small nub on the lower border of the soft palate. Movable tip at midline of the free borde ron the soft palate.
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All the articulators described above are the main ones used in speech, but there are three other things to remember. Firstly the larynx could also be described as an articulator a very complex and independent one. Secondly the Jaws are sometimes called articulators; certainly we move the lower jaw a lot in speaking. But the jaws are not articulators as the other articulators in the same way as the others, because they cannot themselves make contac with the others articulators.
The Vocal Folds: There are two thin sheets of tissue that stretch in a V-shaped fashion from the front to the back of the larynx. These are called the vocal folds. (You'll often hear vocal "cords," which is doesn't accurately convey the way the muscle works.) The space between the vocal folds is known as the glottis. The vocal folds can be positioned in different ways to create speech sounds.
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The vocal tract with the nasal and oral cavities When the air passes up through the vocal folds, it is expelled through the mouth (oral cavity).The tongue, lips, teeth, and various regions of the mouth constitute points of articulation in the oral cavity. In oral sounds most air is expelled via the oral cavity (mouth). Typically the velum is raised at the back of the mouth to block the passage of air into the nasal cavity. ORAL CAVITY
NASAL CAVITY
In nasal sounds, on the other hand, the velum is lowered, to allow air flow through the nasal cavity.
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Consonants are discrabed by three things VOICE, PLACE OF ARTICULATION, MANNER OF ARTICULATION.
VOICE. In phonetics and phonology, voice refers to the speech sounds produced by the vocal folds (also known as the vocal cords). Also known as voicing.
Voice quality refers to the characteristic features of an individual's voice. Voice range (or vocal range) refers to the range of frequency or pitch used by a speaker.
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VOICING: "If the vocal folds vibrate we will hear the sound that we call voicing or phonation. There are many different sorts of voicing that we can produce--think of the differences in the quality of your voice between singing, shouting, and speaking quietly, or think of the different voices you might use reading a story to young children in which you have to read out what is said by characters such as giants, fairies, mice or ducks; many of the differences are made with the larynx. We can make changes in the vocal folds themselves--they can, for example, be made longer or shorter, more tense or more relaxed or be more or less strongly pressed together. The pressure of the air below the vocal folds (the subglottal pressure) can also be varied [in intensity, frequency, and quality]."
VOICELESS: Voiceless consonants do not use the voice. They are percussive and use hard sounds. Once again, you can test if a consonant is voiceless by putting your finger on your throat. You will feel no vibration in your throat, just a short explosion of air as you pronounce. Pronounce each of these consonant sounds and feel NO vibration in your throat.
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PLACE OF ARTICULATION. Most consonant sounds are produced by using the tongue and other parts of the mouth to constrict, in some way, the shape of the oral cavity through which the air is passing. The terms used to describe many sounds are those which denote the place of articulation of the sound: that is, the location inside the mouth at which the constriction takes place.
Bilabial = two lips. Bilabial consonants are produced by creating a closure with both lips.
Labiodental = lower lip and upper teeth. Labiodental consonants are produced by raising the lower lip to the upper teeth.
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Interdental = tongue between the teeth, or just behind the upper teeth (also called "dental").
Alveolar = tongue tip at the alveolar ridge, behind the top teeth. English alveolar consonants are formed by raising the tip of the tongue to the alveolar ridge, which lies right behind the teeth. There are both fricatives and stops.
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Palatal = the front or body of the tongue raised to the palatal region or the domed area at the roof of your mouth.
Velar = the back of the tongue raised to the soft palate ("velum"), the area right behind the palate.
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Glottal = at the larynx (the glottis is the space between the vocal folds).
The airflow can be modified at various points within vocal organs to produce distinct speech sounds. The point where a sound is produced is referred to as its place of articulation.
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MANNER OF ARTICULATION.
The manner of articulation is the way airstream is affected as it flows from lungs and out of the mouth and nose. Plosives or Stops: Basically, these are consonants where air is blocked at the place of articulation to accumulate pressure and it is then released in one instant.
FRICATIVES: The distinctive feature of fricatives is that, when producing them, you use your vocal apparatus to partially block the airflow at the place of articulation in such a way that only some air passes through. By restraining the airflow, it creates some friction between the air and your vocal apparatus which is what produces the distinctive kind of sound of the fricatives.
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AFFRICATE: An affricate is a consonant that begins as a stop and releases as a fricative, generally with the same place of articulation (most often coronal). It is often difficult to decide if a stop and fricative form a single phoneme or a consonant pair.
APPROXIMANTS Approximants can be considered half way between vowels and fricatives. When pronouncing an approximant, the air flows smoothly through the vocal apparatus so that very little friction is created.
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LATERALS: The key feature of laterals is that the airflow passes to the sides (of the tongue, usually) when pronouncing them.
NASALS: First, there are the nasal consonants. The distinctive feature of nasal consonants is that you let air out of your nose as you pronounce them.
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RETROFLEX: A retroflex consonant is a coronal consonant where the tongue has a flat, concave, or even curled shape, and is articulated between the alveolar ridge and the hard palate.
VOICING, PLACE OF ARTICULATION AND MANNER OF ARTICULATION CHAPTER.
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CONSONANT CHART:
Vowels sounds
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VOWEL SOUND In phonetics, a vowel is a sound in spoken language, with two competing definitions. In the more common phonetic definition, a vowel is a sound pronounced with an open vocal tract, so that the tongue does not touch the lips, teeth, or roof of the mouth, such as the English "ah" /ɑː/ or "oh" /oʊ/. There is no build-up of air pressure at any point above the glottis. This contrasts with consonants, such as the English "sh" [ʃː], which have a constriction or closure at some point along the vocal tract. In the other, phonological definition, a vowel is defined as syllabic, the sound that forms the peak of a syllable.
Vowel classification
We can classify the vowel sounds considering four different criteria:
TONGUE HEIGHT: It refers to how high or low our tongue is. Thus we can say that /i/ is a high vowel sound, /e/ is intermediate, and /a/ is low. You may notice the movement of the tongue if you pronounce these three sounds.
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TONGUE POSITION: When we make a vowel sound, our tongue is in a specific position inside our mouth. For example, if you make the vowel sound /i/ and then /u/, you will notice that your tongue moves back, and if you make the sound /i/ and then /a/, your tongue moves down.
LIP ROUNDING: It refers to the position of our lips, when we make the vowel sounds. When we make the sound /i/, the corners of our mouth are further apart, so we can say that this is a spread vowel sound. When we pronounce /u/, our lips are rounded, and for the sound /a/ our lips are neither spread nor rounded, so we say that it is an unrounded vowel or neutral.
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LENGTH As you can notice in the chart, there are two types of /i/. One of them has a colon (:), which means that it is a long sound. So there is a difference you may perceive when you hear the words heat /hi:t/and hit /hIt/. The first one is longer. The same happens with the other sounds that you can see in the chart. Summarizing, we can give different labels to each vowel sound. For example, the sound /i:/ is front, high, long and spread whereas the sound /i/ is front, high, short and neutral.
Short vowels and long vowels:
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DIPHTHONGS A diphthong is a speech sound that begins with one vowel sound and changes to another vowel sound in the same syllable.
/
aɪ
/
This diphthong is pronounced as a long I sound sliding into a long E sound. Again, this sound can vary from dialect to dialect. Some dialects pronounce the long I sound in the following words as one single sound. Some dialects pronounce the vowel sound more like the "AH" sound you would here in "ball". Others pronounce it as two vowel sounds. Try saying these words with two vowel sounds: (the diphthong is in red)
sky
try
eye
/
ɔɪ/
This diphthong is pronounced as a long O sound that quickly slides into a long E sound. Try saying these words: (the diphthong is in red)
boy
toy
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annoy
/
ɪə/
This diphthong is pronounced as a long E sound sliding into an Ur sound. Try saying these words: (the diphthong is in red)
pier
hear
steer
/
eə
/
This diphthong is pronounced as a long A sound sliding into an Ur sound. Try saying these words: (the diphthong is in red)
bear
hair
fair
stairs
pair
wear
where
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/
aʊ/
This diphthong is pronounced as a short A sound sliding into an "oo" sound. Try saying these words: (the diphthong is in red)
brown
cow
how
frown
now
wow
/
oʊ/
This diphthong is often just pronounced as a single long O sound. As a diphthong, it has a long O sound sliding into an "oo" sound. Try saying these words using the two vowel sounds: (the diphthong is in red)
yellow
coat
float
though
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TRIPHTHONGS • A triphthong is a glide from one vowel to another and the to a third, all produced rapidly and without interruption. For example, a careful pronunciation of the word ‘hour’ begins with a vowel quality similar to ‘ɑ:’, goes on to ‘ʊ’ then ends in ‘ə’.
• It says /aʊə/ • Triphthong : 5 closing diphthongs with ‘ə’ added on the end. – eɪ + ə = eɪə . as in layer, player – aɪ + ə = aɪə. as in lire, fire – ɔɪ + ə = ɔɪə, as in loyal, royal – əʊ + ə = əuə, as in lower, mower – aʊ + ə = auə, as in power, hour.
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INFLECTIONAL ENDINGS: Just like the -ed ending, there are three ways of saying the plural “s” ending in English: [s] [z] [ɪz]
[s] Voiceless sounds that cause the plural “s” to be pronounced as [s] include: [p], [t], [k], [f]
Example weeks [wiyks] bits [bɪts] backs [bæks] briefs [briyfs]
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[z] Voiced sounds that cause the plural “s” to be pronounced as [z] include:
[b], [d], [g], [l], [r], [w], [m], [n], [v], [y]
Example webs [wɛbz] beds [bɛdz] bags [bægz] bells [bɛlz] jars [jɑrz]
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[ɪz] The sounds that cause the plural “s” to be pronounced with an additional syllable [ɪz] include: [tʃ] [dʒ] [s] [z] Example
watches [WA tʃɪz] bridges [BRɪ dʒɪz] judges [dʒʌ dʒɪz]
[t] Put your hand on the front of your neck and say the sound [t]. What do you feel? You should feel nothing at all, meaning, there is no vibration in the vocal chords when you say [t].
[d] Now, put your hand on the front of your neck and say the sound[d]. What do you feel? You should feel a vibration now. That’s because the vocal chords vibrate when you say the sound [d]. *This vibration or lack of vibration is what causes the plural “s” to sound like a [s] or [z].
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Back Vowels
The back vowels are the vowels that are articulated near the rear of the vocal cavity.
1. /u/ (the phoneme spelled oo in food): high back vowel. 2. /U/ (the phoneme spelled u in put): high back vowel. This vowel is articulated slightly further forward and slightly lower than is the preceding vowel /u/. 3. /o/ (the phoneme spelled oa in boat): mid back vowel. 4. /Ă´/ (the phoneme spelled au in caught): mid back vowel. This vowel is articulated slighter further forward and slightly lower than is the preceding vowel /o/.
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ASSIMILATION Assimilation is when two sounds come together and change or melt into a new sound. Assimilations may happen inside a word, or between two words, when the final sound of a word touches the first sound of the next word (because when we speak we join all the words together). When speaking, people make many assimilations, most of them can only be noticed by the trained ear of an academic speaker and are not important for us. But there are 4 assimilations that are very important, because the sound changes a lot and the student of English can notice the difference and feel confused about it.
The sound /j/ is usually found in the letter Y, the letter I and the letter U (when it is or was in the past pronounced /ju:/) 1- /t/ + /j/ = /tʃ/ (T+Y=CH) Nice to meet you meet + you /mi:t ju:/ = /mi:tʃu:/ picture 1 /pɪktjʊə*/ → 2 /pɪktʃʊə*/ → 3 /pɪktʃə*/ (1= old fashioned pronunciation, 2= transitional pronunciation, 3= present pronunciation, the vowel /ʊ/ weakened and disappears) 2- /d/ + /j/ = /dʒ/ (D+Y=J) would you like some tea? soldier /səʊldjə*/ = /səʊldʒə*/
would
+
you /wʊd
ju:/ = /wʊdʒu:/
3- /s/ + /j/ = /ʃ/ (S+Y=SH) special /spesjəl/ = /speʃəl/ it's just you = it's jus' you /dʒʌs ju:/ = /dʒʌʃu:/ (in conversational English "just" often loses its final T and it sounds "jus", so S + Y = SH) 4- /z/ + /j/ = /ʒ/ treasure /trezjʊə*/ → 2 /treʒʊə*/ → 3 /treʒə*/ (1, 2, 3= see comments to the word "picture" above) learning centres such as universities as + universities /əz ju:nɪvɜ:*sɪtɪz/ = /əʒu:nɪvɜ:*sɪtɪz/
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SCHWA SOUND. The Schwa sound (IPA symbol: É™) is a short and weak vowel sound. You can hardly hear it, actually.
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LINKING Sounds link Linking is a way of joining the pronunciation of two words so that they are easy to say and flow together smoothly. In English there are different ways that this happens.
Consonant to vowel linking - when the first word ends with a consonant sound and the second word begins with a vowel sound.
Vowel to vowel linking - when certain vowels come next to each other an extra sound is added to make the link smooth.
Linking 'r' In standard British English (RP) the letter 'r' after a vowel sound at the end of word is often not pronounced. However, when the following word begins with a vowel the /r/ sound is pronounced to make a smooth link.
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CLUSTERS Definition: A consonant cluster is a group or sequence of consonants that appear together in a Word.
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REDUCTION Reductions occur when sounds are reduced or completely eliminated in words when spoken. Reductions of 'of' There are three changes the can occur with the word 'of'. A. The 'o' in of is often pronounced using the schwa sound- uh. (see section on vowels) some of becomes some uh 'He likes some of the books' becomes He likes some uh the books. B. If a vowel follows 'of' it is often pronounced with a schwa + v (uhv) most of becomes most uhv 'Most of all, you can't drink' becomes Most uhv all, you can't drink. C. If the sound of the letter before 'of' is a 't' there is a flap in addition to the reduction. ouf of becomes oud dah 'He's out of money' becomes He's oud dah money. Reductions of 'and'
And is often reduced to 'n'.
movies and books becomes movies n books 'I like movies and books' becomes Reductions of 'or'
I like movies n books.
Or is often reduced to 'r'.
pencil or pen becomes a pencil r pen. 'Either a pencil or pen' becomes
Either a pencil r a pen will do.
Reductions of 'for' For is often reduced and changed to fer for lunch becomes what's fer lunch. What's for lunch' becomes
What's fer lunch.
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ELLIPSIS the omission of one or more words that are obviously understood but that must be supplied to make a construction grammatically complete - a sudden leap from one topic to another - marks or a mark (as …) indicating an omission (as of words) or a pause.
GAPPING •
GAPPING
•
John can play the guitar, and Mary (can play) the violin.
. VERB PHRASE ELLIPSIS (VP-ELLIPSIS) John can play the guitar; Mary can (play the guitar), too.
ANSWER ELLIPSIS Q: Who has been hiding the truth? A: Billy( has been hiding the truth)
SLUICING Indirect Questions John can play something, but I don’t know what (he can play). Direct Questions A: Something unusual happened. B: What (happened)?
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NOMINAL ELLIPSIS •
“He bought a red car, but i like the blue (car)”
“examples, to compare:
Gapping I ordered the linguini, and he [ordered] the lobster.
Verb phrase ellipsis I’ll order the linguini and you can [order the linguini], too . Answer ellipsis Who ordered the linguini? I did [order the linguini].
Sluicing I’ll get something to drink, but I’m not sure what [I’ll get to drink].
Nominal ellipsis I ordered two drinks, and Bill [ordered] one.He bought a red car, but i like the blue (car)”
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THE VOWEL CHART
The International Phonetic Alphabet is an alphabetic system of phonetic notation based primarily on the Latin alphabet. It was devised by the International Phonetic Association as a standardized representation of the sounds of spoken language.
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Contraction represents a special form of elision, one that involves fixed grammatical patterns and which has become so established that even language purists don’t object to its use in spoken language. Contractions are also accepted in written representations of spoken materials and to some extent even in ‘proper written English’ nowadays.
One very common form of contraction involves different forms of the auxiliaries be, have, will & shall.
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DERIVATION.
A phonological derivation is the set of stages used to generate the phonetic representation of a word from its underlying representation. Discussion Here is a diagram of the stages in a derivation. Phonological rules influence each stage of a derivation:
Examples;
Here are some examples of the derivations of words having the negative prefix /In/:
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MINIMAL PAIRS. A minimal pair is a pair of words with ONE phonemic difference only. As an example for English vowels, the pair "let" + "lit" can be used to demonstrate that the phones [ɛ] (in let) and [ɪ] (in lit) do in fact represent distinct phonemes /ɛ/ and /ɪ/. An example for consonants is the minimal pair of "pat" + "bat".
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HOMOPHONES. Homophones, also known as sound-alike words, are words that are pronounced identically although they have different meanings and often have different spellings as well. These words are a very common source of confusion when writing. Common examples of sets of homophones include: to, too, and two; they’re and their; bee and be; sun and son; which and witch; and plain and plane. VocabularySpellingCity is a particularly useful tool for learning to correctly use and spell the soundalike words. Example: The toys are over there on the floor. The wind gust blew away their papers. Did they say they’re coming to my party?
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HOMOGRAPHS
Homographs are words that are spelled the same, but have different meanings and are often pronounced differently as well. Some examples of homographs are: Examples: bass as in fish vs bass as in music bow as in arrow vs bow as in bending or taking a bow at the end of a performance close as in next to vs close as in shut the door desert as in dry climate vs desert as in leaving alone
Currently, VocabularySpellingCity cannot distinguish between homographs, as we are unable to have two pronounciations for the exact same word. We are looking for possibilities in the future.
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STRESS: In phonetics, stress is the degree of emphasis given a sound or syllable in speech. Also called lexical stress or word stress.
ˌPRIMARY ˈSTRESS technical the strongest force that is put on a part of a long word when you say it, like the force given to ‘pri’ in ‘primary’. It is shown in this dictionary by the mark ('). When stress is being discussed, the mark indicates primary stress and indicates secondary stress. • When is primary stress placed on the first word of the compound and when on the second? • Obviously, single-syllable words present no problems - if they are pronounced in isolation they are said with primary stress.
SECUNDARY STRESS: (or obsolete: secondary accent) is the weaker of two degrees of stress in the pronunciation of a word; the stronger degree of stress being called primary.
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ELISION Definition
In phonetics and phonology, elision is the omission of a sound (a phoneme) in speech. Elision is common in casual conversation.
More specifically, elision may refer to the omission of an unstressed vowel, consonant, or syllable. This omission is often indicated in print by an apostrophe. Verb: elide.
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