PHONOLOGY 2016.
Students: Katherine Jeamileth Samayoa Velasquez. 31-1961-2014 Lic. Mrs. White.
Introduction. Ours probably want to know what the purpose of this course is, and what you can expect to learn from it. An important purpose of the course is to explain how English is pronounced in the accent normally chosen as the standard for people learning the English spoken in England.
The important of phonology is studying which sounds can be grouped into distinctive units within a language; these units are known as phonemes. while that in spot is not aspirated (pronounced [p]). However, English speakers intuitively treat both sounds as variations (allophones) of the same phonological category, that is of the phoneme /p/. (Traditionally, it would be argued that if an aspirated [pĘ°] were interchanged with the unaspirated [p] in spot, native speakers of English would still hear the same words; that is, the two sounds are perceived as "the same" /p/.) In some other languages, however, these two sounds are perceived as different, and they are consequently assigned to different phonemes. For example, in Thai, Hindi, and Quechua, there are minimal pairs of words for which aspiration is the only contrasting feature (two words can have different meanings but with the only difference in pronunciation being that one has an aspirated sound where the other has an unaspirated one).
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 produce many different modifications in the flow of air from the chest to the mouth.
You will need to look at it carefully as the articulators are described, and you will often find it useful to have a mirror and a good light placed so that you can look at inside of your mouth. ďƒź The pharynx is a tube which begins just above the larynx, it is about 7 cm long in women and about 8 cm 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 beginning of the way through the nasal cavity. ďƒź The velum or soft palate is seen in the diagram in a position that allows air to pass through the nose and through the mouth.
The hard palate is often called the roof of the mouth. You can feel its smooth curved surface with your tongue. The alveolar ridge is between the top front teeth and the hard palate. You can feel its shape with your tongue. The tongue is, of course, a very important articulator and it can be moved into many different places and different shapes. The teeth only at the front of the mouth, immediately behind the lips. The lips are important in speech.
Places of articulation. In articulatory phonetics, the place of articulation (also point of articulation) of a consonant is the point of contact where an obstruction occurs in the vocal tract between an articulatory gesture, an active articulator (typically some part of the tongue), and a passive location (typically some part of the roof of the mouth). Along with the manner of articulation and the phonation, it gives the consonant its distinctive sound.
The terminology in this article has been developed for precisely describing all the consonants in all the world's spoken languages. No known language distinguishes all of the places described here so less precision is needed to distinguish the sounds of a particular language. Place of articulation (passive) The passive place of articulation is the place on the more stationary part of the vocal tract where the articulation occurs and can be anywhere from the lips, upper teeth, gums, or roof of the mouth to the back of the throat. Although it is a continuum, there are several contrastive areas so languages may distinguish consonants by articulating them in different areas, but few languages contrast two sounds within the same area unless there is some other feature which contrasts as well.
The following areas are contrastive: The upper lip (labial) The upper teeth, either on the edge of the teeth or inner surface (dental) The alveolar ridge, the gum line just behind the teeth (alveolar) The back of the alveolar ridge (post-alveolar) The hard palate on the roof of the mouth (palatal) The soft palate further back on the roof of the mouth (velar) The uvula hanging down at the entrance to the throat (uvular) The throat itself, AKA the pharynx (pharyngeal) The epiglottis at the entrance to the windpipe, above the voice box (epiglottal)
Place of articulation (active) The articulatory gesture of the active place of articulation involves the more mobile part of the vocal tract, typically some part of the tongue or lips. The following areas are known to be contrastive: The lower lip (labial) Various parts of the front of the tongue (coronal): The tip of the tongue (apical) The upper front surface of the tongue just behind the tip, called the blade of the tongue (laminal) The surface of the tongue under the tip (subapical) The body of the tongue (dorsal)
Manners of articulations. In articulatory phonetics, the manner of articulation is the configuration and interaction of the articulators (speech organs such as the tongue, lips, and palate) when making a speech sound. One parameter of manner is stricture, that is, how closely the speech organs approach one another. Others include those involved in the r-like sounds (taps and trills), and the sibilancy of fricatives. 1. Stop, an oral occlusive, where there is occlusion (blocking) of the oral vocal tract, and no nasal air flow, so the air flow stops completely. Examples include English /p t k/ (voiceless) and /b d ÉĄ/ (voiced). If the consonant is voiced, the voicing is the only sound made during occlusion; if it is voiceless, a stop is completely silent. What we hear as a /p/ or /k/ is the effect that the onset of the occlusion has on the preceding vowel, as well as the release burst and its effect on the following vowel. The shape and position of the tongue (the place of articulation) determine the resonant cavity that gives different stops their characteristic sounds. All languages have stops.
2. Nasal, a nasal occlusive, where there is occlusion of the oral tract, but air passes through the nose. The shape and position of the tongue determine the resonant cavity that gives different nasals their characteristic sounds. Examples include English /m, n/. Nearly all languages have nasals,
the only exceptions being in the area of Puget Sound and a single language on Bougainville Island.
3. Fricative, sometimes called spirant, where there is continuous frication (turbulent and noisy airflow) at the place of articulation. Examples include English /f, s/ (voiceless), /v, z/ (voiced), etc. Most languages have fricatives, though many have only an /s/. However, the Indigenous Australian languages are almost completely devoid of fricatives of any kind.
4. Affricate, which begins like a stop, but this releases into a fricative rather than having a separate release of its own. The English letters "ch" [tĘƒ] and "j" [dĘ’] represent affricates. Affricates are quite common around the world, though less common than fricatives.
5. Approximant, where there is very little obstruction. Examples include English /w/ and /r/. In some languages, such as Spanish, there are sounds that seem to fall between fricative and approximant.
Vowel and consonant.
The words vowel and consonant are very familiar ones, but when we study the sounds of speech scientifically we find that it is not easy to define exactly what they mean.
Inflectional endings. An inflectional ending is a group of letters added to the end of a word to change its meaning. Some inflectional endings are: -s
bat bats
-es
mix mixes
-ing snow
snowing
-ed peck pecked
An inflectional ending changes the meaning of the base word and creates a new word with a different meaning. -s
makes a noun mean “more than one”
-es
makes a noun mean “more than one”
-ing means an action is happening now -ed means an action already happened.
Back vowels. A back vowel is any in a class of vowel sound used in spoken languages. The defining characteristic of a back vowel is that the tongue is positioned as far back as possible in the mouth without creating a constriction that would be classified as a consonant. Back vowels are sometimes also called dark vowels because they are perceived as sounding darker than the front vowels.[1]
Near-back vowels are essentially a type of back vowels; no language is known to contrast back and near-back vowels based on backness alone. The back vowels that have dedicated symbols in the International Phonetic Alphabet are:
close back unrounded vowel [ɯ]
close back protruded vowel [u]
close-mid back unrounded vowel [ɤ]
close-mid back rounded vowel [o]
open-mid back unrounded vowel [ʌ]
open-mid back rounded vowel [ɔ]
open back unrounded vowel [ɑ]
open back rounded vowel [ɒ]
Assimilation. Assimilation has a very precise meaning when it‟s related to studies of languages. Is a common phonological process bye which the phonetics of a speech segment becomes more like another segment in a word. In other words it‟s when a letter (sound) is influenced by the letter (sound) before or after it so that it changes its sound and/or spelling. The word assimilation it self it‟s said to be assimilated; it is derived from the latin prefix ad- meaning to and simil- meaning like but, instead of being adsimilated, it has the easier pronunciation of assimilated.
A common example of assimilation is “don‟t be silly” where the /n/ and /t/ are assimilated to /m/ by the following /b/, in many accents the natural sound is “dombe silly”.
Assimilation can be synchronic being an active process in a language at a given point in time or diachronic being a historical sound change. There are 4 configurations found: the increase in phonetic similarity may be between adjacent segments or between segments separated by one or more intervening segments; the changes could be in reference to a preceding segment or a following one. Even when all four occur, it changes in regard to a following adjacent segment account for virtually all assimilatory changes. Assimilation to an adjacent segment are vastly more frequent than assimilation to a non-adjacent one.
Occasionally two sounds may influence one another in reciprocal assimilation. When such a change results in a single segment with some of the features of both components, it is known as coalescence or fusion.
1. / t / changes to / p / before / m / / b / or / p / 2. / d / changes to / b / before / m / / b / or / p / 3. / n / changes to / m / before / m / / b / or / p / 4. / t / changes to / k / before / k / or /g/ 5. / d / changes to / g / before / k / or / g / 6. / n / changes to /ŋ/ before / k / or / g / 7. / s / changes to /ʃ/ before /ʃ/ or / j / 8. / z / changes to /ʒ/ before /ʃ/ or / j / 9. /θ/ changes to / s / before / s /
Schwa.
Sometimes the term "schwa" is used for any epenthetic vowel, but different languages use different epenthetic vowels (Navajo uses [i]). In English, schwa is the most common vowel sound.[5] It is a reduced vowel in many unstressed syllables especially if syllabic consonants are not used. Depending on dialect, it may be written using any of the following letters:
'a', as in about [əˈbaʊt] 'e', as in taken [ˈtʰeɪkən] 'i', as in pencil [ˈpʰɛnsəl] 'o', as in memory [ˈmɛməri] 'u', as in supply [səˈplaɪ] 'y', as in sibyl [ˈsɪbəl]
Schwa is a very short neutral vowel sound, and like all other vowels, its precise quality varies depending on the adjacent consonants. In most varieties of English, schwa occurs almost exclusively in unstressed syllables (there is also an open-mid central unrounded vowel or "long schwa", represented as ɜː, which occurs in some non-rhotic dialect stressed syllables, as in bird and alert).
Reduction.
In phonetics, vowel reduction is any of various changes in the acoustic quality of vowels, which are related to changes in stress, sonority, duration, loudness, articulation, or position in the word , and which are perceived as "weakening". It most often makes the vowels shorter as well.
Such a vowel may be called reduced or weak. An unreduced vowel may be contrasted as full or strong. Phonetic reduction most often involves a centralization of the vowel, that is, a reduction in the amount of movement of the tongue in pronouncing the vowel, as with the characteristic change of many unstressed vowels at the ends of English words to something approaching schwa. A well-researched type of reduction is that of the neutralization of acoustic distinctions in unstressed vowels, which occurs in many languages. The most common reduced vowel is schwa.
Whereas full vowels are distinguished by height, backness, and roundness, according to Bolinger (1986), reduced unstressed vowels are largely unconcerned with height or roundness. English /ə/, for example, may range phonetically from mid [ə] to [ɐ] to open [a]; English /ɨ/ ranges from close [i], [ɪ], [e], to open-mid [ɛ]. The primary distinction is that /ɨ/ is further front than /ə/, contrasted in the numerous English words ending in unstressed -ia. That is, the jaw, which to a large extent controls vowel height, tends to be relaxed when pronouncing reduced vowels. Similarly, English /ɵ/ ranges through [ʊ] and [o]; although it may be labialized to varying degrees, the lips are relaxed in comparison to /uː/, /oʊ/, or /ɔː/. The primary distinction in words like folio is again one of backness. However, the backness distinction is not as great as that of full vowels; reduced vowels are also centralized, and are sometimes referred to by that term. They may also be called obscure, as there is no one-to-one correspondence between full and reduced vowels.
Elision In linguistics, an elision or deletion is the omission of one or more sounds (such as a vowel, a consonant, or a whole syllable) in a word or phrase. Sometimes sounds are elided to make a word easier to pronounce. The word elision is frequently used in linguistic description of living languages, and deletion is often used in historical linguistics for a historical sound change. In English as spoken by native speakers, elisions come naturally, and are often described as "slurred" or "muted" sounds. Often, elisions are deliberate. It is a common misconception that contractions automatically qualify as elided words, which comes from slack definitions: not all elided words are contractions and not all contractions are elided words (for example, 'going to' → 'gonna': an elision that is not a contraction; 'can not' → 'cannot': a contraction that is not an elision). Examples of elision in English: Word
IPA before elision
IPA after elision
comfortable /ˈkʌmfərtəbəl/
/ˈkʌmftərbəl/
laboratory
/ˈlæbrətɔːri/ (American English), /ləˈbɒrətri/ (British English)
/læˈbɔːrətɔːri/
temperature /ˈtɛmpərətʃər/
/ˈtɛmpərtʃər/, /ˈtɛmprətʃər/
family
/ˈfæmɪli/
/ˈfæmli/
vegetable
/ˈvɛdʒətəbəl/
/ˈvɛdʒtəbəl/, /ˈvɛtʃtəbəl/
fifth
/ˈfɪfθ/
/ˈfɪθ/
him
/hɪm/
/ɪm/
going to
/ˈɡoʊ.ɪŋ tuː/
/ɡənə/ (gonna)
it is, it has
/ˈɪt ɪz/, /ˈɪt hæz/ /ɪts/ (it's)
I have
/ˈaɪ hæv/
/aɪv/ (I've)
is not
/ˈɪznɒt/
/ˈɪzənt/ (isn't)
big league
/ˈbɪɡ liːɡ/
/ˈbɪɡli/ (bigly)
Contractions. 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.
‟s: what‟s, (s)he‟s, it‟s; potential ambiguity because he‟s can be either he is or he has ‟re: we‟re, you‟re; more rarely they‟re, what‟re ‟ve: I‟ve, we‟ve , you‟ve, they‟ve; potential ambiguity because have may either be a full verb or auxiliary ‟d: I‟d, we‟d , you‟d, (s)he‟d, they‟d; rarely it‟d; potential ambiguity should/would vs. had ‟ll: I‟ll, we‟ll , you‟ll, (s)he‟ll, it‟ll, they‟ll
The other type main type of contraction involves a reduced form of the negation particle not in conjunction with an auxiliary as in:
isn‟t, doesn‟t, don‟t, hasn‟t, haven‟t, won‟t, shan‟t, can‟t, wouldn‟t, couldn‟t, shouldn‟t, oughtn‟t, needn‟t, mustn‟t, daren‟t. Another contraction of the same kind, that is still stigmatised, is ain‟t, which is extremely versatile in that it may represent all present tense variants of either be or have. A tentative reconstruction of how this came to be could look like this, assuming is and have as base forms: [ɪznt] ⇒ [ɪnt] (⇒ [ənt]) ⇒ [eɪnt] [havnt] ⇒ [avnt] ⇒ [ant] ⇒ [ənt] ⇒ [eɪnt]
At least the two forms [ɪnt] and [ant] still exist in the local Lancashire accent, which makes this reconstruction somewhat likely because we can assume similar forms for at least some other accents.
Contractions involving weak forms of pronouns are relatively rare, although it has been claimed that the Anglo-Saxon genitive s in e.g. John‟s may actually historically have developed out of John his. One commonly accepted contraction of this type, however, is let‟s, whereas forms like giz (representing both give us and give me) tend to be restricted to regional or lowerclass accents.
An odd one out in terms of contractions is dunno to represent (I) don‟t know because it involves three words, rather than just two.
Derivations. In linguistics, morphological derivation is the process of forming a new word on the basis of an existing word, e.g. happiness and unhappy from the root word (base words) happy, or determination from determine. It often involves the addition of a morpheme in the form of an affix, such as -ness, un-, and -ation in the following examples. Derivation stands in contrast to the process of inflection, which is the formation of grammatical variations upon the same word, as with determine/determines/determining/determined Derivational morphology often involves the addition of a derivational suffix or other affix. Such an affix usually applies to words of one lexical category (part of speech) and changes them into words of another such category. For example, the English derivational suffix -ly changes adjectives into adverbs (slow → slowly). Examples of English derivational patterns and their suffixes:
adjective-to-noun: -ness (slow → slowness)
adjective-to-verb: -ise (modern → modernise) in British English or -ize (final → finalize) in American English and Oxford spelling
adjective-to-adjective: -ish (red → reddish)
adjective-to-adverb: -ly (personal → personally)
noun-to-adjective: -al (recreation → recreational)
noun-to-verb: -fy (glory → glorify)
verb-to-adjective: -able (drink → drinkable)
verb-to-noun (abstract): -ance (deliver → deliverance)
verb-to-noun (agent): -er (write → writer)
Prefixes and suffixes Prefixes and suffixes are sets of letters that are added to the beginning or end of another word. They are not words in their own right and cannot stand on their own in a sentence: if they are printed on their own they have a hyphen before or after them. Prefixes Prefixes are added to the beginning of an existing word in order to create a new word with a different meaning. For example:
word
prefix new word
happy un-
unhappy
cultural multi- multicultural work
over- overwork
space
cyber- cyberspace
market super- supermarket
Suffixes Suffixes are added to the end of an existing word. For example: word suffix new word child -ish
childish
work -er
worker
taste -less
tasteless
idol -ize/-ise idolize/idolise like -able
likeable
The addition of a suffix often changes a word from one word class to another. In the table above, the verb like becomes the adjective likeable, the noun idol becomes the verb idolize, and the noun child becomes the adjective childish.
Word creation with prefixes and suffixes Some prefixes and suffixes are part of our living language, in that people regularly use them to create new words for modern products, concepts, or situations. For example: word
prefix or suffix new word
security bio-
biosecurity
clutter de-
declutter
media multi-
multimedia
emailer
-er
Minimal Pairs. In phonology, minimal pairs are pairs of words or phrases in a particular language that differ in only one phonological element, such as a phoneme, toneme or chroneme,[1] and have distinct meanings. They are used to demonstrate that two phones constitute two separate phonemes in the language. Many phonologists in the middle part of the 20th century had a strong interest in developing techniques for discovering the phonemes of unknown languages, and in some cases setting up writing systems for these languages. The major work of Kenneth Pike on the subject has the title Phonemics: a technique for reducing languages to writing.[2] The minimal pair was an essential tool in the discovery process, arrived at by substitution or commutation tests.[3] Modern phonology is much less interested in such issues, and the minimal pair is consequently considered to be of little theoretical importance. 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 English consonants is the minimal pair of "pat" + "bat". The following table shows other pairs demonstrating the existence of various distinct phonemes in English. All the possible minimal pairs for any language may be set out in the same way. Minimal Pairs /ɪ/ and /i:/
as in sit and seat
Below is a list of words that vary only by one having the sound /ɪ/ and the other the sound /i:/. You can use this list to practise the sounds, or as a list of words to be careful in pronouncing. As indicated by the /:/ part of its symbol, /i:/ is a longer sound than /ɪ/ and pronouncing it this way can help distinguish between the two in the pairs of words below. You will also notice, however, that /ɪ/ does not have a dot over it, making it a different mouth position from /i:/. The sound /i:/ is said with the mouth much more spread, something like a broad smile. This is why we say "cheese" rather than "chiz" (or "whizz") when we take photos. Elementary bin bean chip cheap his he‟s it eat sit seat
Minimal Pairs /e/ and /ɪ/ as in desk and disk Below is a list of words that vary only by one having the vowel sound /e/ and the other the vowel sound /ɪ/. You can use this list to practise the sounds, or as a list of words to be careful in pronouncing.
Both sounds are short, with /ɪ/ being pronounced with a wider mouth, almost in a kind of smile. This makes it much closer to the long sound /i:/ than it is to the short sound /e/. Elementary dead did desk disk
Pre-Intermediate belt built fell fill head hid left lift
Intermediate bed bid beg big bell bill
Upper-Intermediate
bend binned
bent bint cheque chick deck dick fen fin get git jest gist Minimal Pairs /ð/ and /z/ as in with and whizz Below is a list of words that vary only by one having the sound /ð/ and the other the sound /z/. You can use this list to practise the sounds, or as a list of words to be careful in pronouncing. /ð/ is similar to the sound /θ/ in "thing" and so is also pronounced with your tongue touching or between your teeth. It can be useful to practise by sticking your tongue right out of your mouth. You can check if you are doing so with a mirror or by putting a finger in front of your lips that should get moist each time. /ð/ in "that" uses your voice, which is why it is sometimes confused with the voiced sound /z/. /z/ is pronounced with the mouth in the same position as with /s/, but using the vocal cords. The tongue is well inside the mouth, and it can also help to spread the lips thin and wide to make the sound unlike /ð/.
Elementary with whizz Pre-Intermediate then Zen Intermediate clothe close (v) clothing closing
Upper-Intermediate bathe bays breathe breeze lithe lies loathe lows scythe size seethe Cs seethe seas
Advanced bathe baize lathe laze
scythe sighs soothe sues tithe ties
Minimal Pairs /æ/ and /e/ as in bad and bed Below is a list of words that vary only by one having the vowel sound /æ/ and the other the vowel sound /e/. You can use this list to practise the sounds, or as a list of words to be careful in pronouncing. If these two sounds are the same in your language, it may be difficult for you to pronounce them differently because:
native speakers pronounce /æ/ in several different ways
/æ/ is quite similar to /e/
The clearest difference is that /e/ is spoken with a wider, more stretched mouth. You can make this clear by seeing how your mouth gets wider and wider as you go from /æ/ to /e/ to /i:/. Elementary bad bed man men Pre-Intermediate and end
axe X bag beg had head ham hem Intermediate band bend bat bet dad dead flash flesh gas guess Upper-Intermediate axe ex fad fed gassed guest manned mend Advanced bland blend cattle kettle dab deb flax flecks vat vet
Minimal Pairs initial /k/ and /g/ as in came and game Below is a list of words that vary only by one beginning with the sound /k/ and the other beginning with the sound /g/. You can use this list to practise the sounds, or as a list of words to be careful in pronouncing. /k/ and /g/ are pronounced with identical mouth positions, but /k/ is pronounced without using the vocal chords and with more air released. Elementary came game card guard Pre-Intermediate cave gave clean glean Intermediate cap gap cash gash course gorse crab grab croup group crow grow
Upper-Intermediate cane gain clad glad clamour glamour clue glue Advanced cab gab caf gaff cape gape clam glam cob gob coo goo cussed gust kale gale kilt gilt kit git kraut grout
Homophone.
A homophone is a word that is pronounced the same as another word but differs in meaning, and may differ in spelling. The words may be spelled the same, such as rose (flower) and rose (past tense of "rise"), or differently, such as carat, caret, and carrot, or to, two, and too. Homophones that are spelled the same are also both homographs and homonyms. Homophones that are spelled differently are also called heterographs. The term "homophone" may also apply to units longer or shorter than words, such as phrases, letters or groups of letters that are pronounced the same as another phrase, letter or group of letters.