English Phonology Lesson 3 October 31, 2018
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Definition ď Ź
The study of how speech sounds form language patterns is phonology.
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The word phonology refers both to the linguistic knowledge that speakers have about the sound patterns of their language and to the description of that knowledge that linguists try to produce. 2
Phonology tells you what sounds are in your language and which ones are foreign.
It tells you what combinations of sounds comprise a possible word in your language and whether it as an actual word like black, or a non-word (in English) like blick; it tells you what combination of sounds is not a possible word in your language like *mbick.
It also explains why certain phonetic features are important to dentifying a word, for example voicing in English, as in pat versus bat. 3
Phoneme ď Ź
The phoneme is the basic linguistic unit of phonology.
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It is the basic form of a sound as sensed mentally rather than spoken or heard i.e. contextualised (= phone).
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Meaning? ď Ź
Phonemes are also the smallest linguistic units without their own meaning.
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They (only) mark the differences between larger units in which they occur (i.e. words ).
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Allophones
Each phoneme – a mental abstraction in itself – is manifested by one or more sounds, called allophones, which are the perceivable sounds corresponding to the phoneme in various environments (contexts). For example, the phoneme /p/ is pronounced with the aspiration allophone [ph] in pit but without aspiration [p] in spit. Phonological rules operate on phonemes to make explicit which allophones are pronounced in which environments. 6
Phonology is “language specific”
It studies the function of sounds in a language system.
Its basic unit is the phoneme, with phone as the concrete realization of a phoneme and allophone as the contextually conditioned variant of a phoneme.
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Minimal Pair
A minimal pair is a pair of words with different meanings that are phonologically identical except for one sound segment that occurs in the same place in each word. For example, cab [kæb] and cad [kæd] are a minimal pair that differ only in their final segments, whereas cat [kæt] and mat [mæt] are a minimal pair that differ only in their initial segments. 8
Examples: beat [bi:t] [i:] bit [bɪt] [ɪ] boot [bu:t] [u:] but [bʌt] [ʌ] bait [beit] [ei] bet [bɛt] [ɛ] bought [bɔ:t] [ɔ:] bout [baʊt] [aʊ] bat [bæt] [æ] bite [baɪt] [aɪ]
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Distinctive features
Any of a set of phonetic properties such as voicing, place of articulation or manner of articulation, serving to characterize and distinguish between the specific sounds or phonemes in a language. A positive value, [+], denotes the presence of a feature, while a negativevalue [−], indicates its absence. 10
For example: /p/ has to be defined as an unvoiced bilabial stop (plosive) to account for all the oppositions found with the other consonants in English. Hence we can say that 1) voiceless 2) bilabial 3) stop are the distinctive features of /p/.
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Complementary Distribution ď Ź
Two sounds (phonemes) are in complementary distrubution if they never occur in the same context.
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Example: A good example is provided by the allophones of the /l/ phoneme in English: ‘Clear l’ which occurs before vowels, eg. lap, lord, liquid. ‘Dark l’ which occurs elsewhere (i.e. before consonants or before a pause), eg. call, trial, milk.
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Free Variation ď Ź
If two sounds that are different from each other can occur in the same phonological context and one of those sounds may be substituted for the other, they are said to be in free variation.
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For example: The phoneme /t/ in butter can be realised as a glottal stop [d], by speakers of some non-standard British accents, but the same speakers may realise the phoneme as [t] when they aim at a more standard pronunciation (these are also allophones)
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Vocalic phonemes (vowels) in free variation include /i:/ and /e/ as the initial sound in the words economics and evolution /i:/ and /aI/ as the initial sound in either.
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The Vocal Tract
The production of any sound involves the movement of air. Speech is produced by air from the lungs being processed or modified by all speech organs above the lungs: the glottis, pharynx, nose, tongue, lips. The individual sound is identified by the closure or narrowing of these organs. Linguists call the mouth the oral cavity to distinguish it from the nasal cavity. 18
Speech Organs
The source of energy for speech production is the steady stream of air that comes from the lungs as we exhale. The lungs consist of alveoli (= air sacks). The act of breathing air in and out is controlled by various muscles of the rib cage, and by muscles of the abdomen and the diaphragm which is the muscular band that separates the chest from the abdomen; it plays a role in respiration and therefore in speech. During speech it is relaxed. 19
The larynx is the upper part of the windpipe’) or the “voice box”. There is a protuberance at the front (= Adam’s apple)
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The larynx contains the vocal cords (or the vocal folds). These are the two horizontal bands of ligament and muscle. They vibrate during the articulation of vowels and of voiced consonants. The space between the vocal folds is called the glottis. 21
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The tubular part of the throat above the larynx is the pharynx. The trachea, colloquially called the windpipe, connects the pharynx and larynx to the lungs, allowing the passage of air.
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The epiglottis is a flap in the throat that keeps food from entering the windpipe and the lungs. Esophagus or the food pipe connects the vocal tract and the stomach. The alveolar ridge is a small protuberance just behind the upper front teeth that can easily be felt with the tongue. 23
The hard palate is a thin horizontal bony plate of the skull, located in the roof of the mouth. The soft palate (also known as the velum, palatal velum, or muscular palate) is the soft tissue constituting the back of the roof of the mouth. The soft palate is distinguished from the hard palate at the front of the mouth in that it does not contain bone. The uvula is a conic projection from the posterior edge of the middle of the soft palate. 24
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Finally we have the teeth, tongue and the the lips, all of which are capable of rapid movement and shape changing.
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The tongue is a muscular organ in the mouth that is at the same time the most important speech articulator. 25
UPPER ARTICULATORS: upper lip, upper teeth, upper surface of the mouth and the pharyngeal wall.
LOWER ARTICULATORS: lower lip, lower teeth, tongue
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Bare Handed Speech Synthesis https://dood.al/pinktrombone/
https://dood.al/pinktrombone/
https://www.youtube.com/watch? v=l_qd116njyk
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Activity 1: What are the pl. forms? AB cab cad bag love boy cam can call bar spa
C cap cat back cuff faith
D bus bush buzz garage match badge
child ox mouse criterion sheep
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Commentary:
The final sound of the plural nouns from column A is a [z]—a voiced alveolar fricative. For column B the plural ending is an [s]—a voiceless alveolar fricative. And for column C it’s [əz]. Note also that there is a regularity in columns A, B, and C that does not exist in D. The plural forms in D—children, oxen, mice, criteria, and sheep—are special cases that are memorized individually: irregular plurals. This is because there is no way to predict the plural forms of these words 30
Activity 2: Write the phonological transcription for the following words: 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8.
physics merry weather coat yellow marry tease Mary
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Activity 3: choose the odd one out: a) your court neighbor pour b) would should shoulder could c) accountant country count fountain d) drought ought bought thought e) enough cough rough tough f) anonymous mouse enormous furious g) trouble double doubt country h) through group soup though
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Activity 4: transcribe the following minimal pairs: 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10.
sheep : ship bean : bin meal : mill lead : lid Jean : gin seek : sick chip : cheap carp : cup shark : shock coals : curls 33
1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10.
lay : lie joke : jerk pain : pine foil : file hope : hoop pack : back big : pig chill : Jill fought : thought thumb : sum 34
https://www.englishclub.com/pron unciation/minimal-pairs.htm
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