Phonology: The Sound Patterns of Language

Phonology: The Sound Patterns of Language

Babylen A. Soner

Ma Applied linguistics1

PHONOLOGY

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- is concerned with how sounds function in relation to eachother in a language.

-is about patterns of sounds, especially different patternsof sounds in different languages, or within each language,different patterns of sounds in different positions in wordsetc.

-describes the way sounds function within a given languageor across languages to encode meaning.

-is how speech sounds are organized and affect one anotherin pronunciation.

-The sound patterns of language

Phonemes are not physical sounds. They are abstract mental representations of the phonological units of a language.

The process of substituting one sound

for another word to see if it makes

a difference is a good way to identify

the phonemes of a language. These

words differ only in their vowel:

beat [bit] [i] boot [but] [u]

bait [bet] [e] boat [bot] [o]

bite [bajt] [aj] bot [bat] [a]

Can you think of any others?

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Punctuation Marks : phonemes use / / marks – allophones/phones use [ ] marks

Phonemically the words

bead and bean are transcribed

as /bid/ and /bin/

Phonetically the words are

transcribed to be pronounced

as [bid] and [bin]

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Non-language Examples

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Allophones –different versions of the same underlying representation

phoneme

Non-language Examples

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Allophones –different versions of the same underlying representation

phoneme

Phonemes: Looking for Minimal Pairs

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Phonemes are the psychological (abstract) representations or units of actual physical realizations of phonetic segments.

Review: • If two sounds are separate phonemes, then they are contrastive (in terms of meaning).• If the two phones are allophones of the same phoneme, then they are non-contrastive.

To determine whether a given pair of sounds is contrastive, look for minimal pairs

Minimal Pairs…

are two words with different meanings that are identical except for one sound segment that occurs in the same place in each word. Say the following word pairs and determine in which sound segment the difference occurs:

cab/cap rot/lot had/bad pin/bin zeal/seal

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Minimal Pairs

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A minimal pair is a pair of words that:• have different meanings

• are pronounced the same except for one sound

Examples:•[teɪk] vs. [teɪp] "take" vs. "tape“•[tim] vs. [dim] "team" vs. "deem“•[kapi] vs. [kaphi] "copy" vs. "ample" (Hindi)

Minimal Pairs

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Do [l] and [r] belong to the same phoneme in English? Look for minimal pairs!

[lif] "leaf“ [læk] "lack“[rif] "reef“ [ræk] "rack“

Since we have minimal pairs that contain [l] and [r], we can say that [l] and [r] are contrastive. Thus they are separate phonemes and are are NOT allophones of the same phoneme. Phonemes /l/ /r/

Minimal Pair Practice

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Use the following group of words to build five minimal pairs.

jeep, yes, tack, chips, they, mice, day, wading, bill, cheap, pill, tick, than, weight, waiting, do, tail, chess

(a) ______________&_______________(b) ______________&_______________(c) ______________&_______________(d) ______________&_______________(e) ______________&_______________

COMPLEMENTARY DISTRIBUTION

• Variants of a phoneme that never occur in the same phonetic environment*.

e.g. voiced [l] in slip [slɪp]

voiceless [l] in clap [klæp]

*Environment is the phonetic context in which a sound occurs.

Complementary Distribution

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Superman and Clark Kent are different "physical realizations" of the cartoon character. When Clark Kent is present, Superman is NOT.

Remember: When sounds are in complementary distribution, they cannot be contrastive. The replacement of one sound for the other does not change the meaning of the word.

Complementary Distributionis the relationship between two phonemically similar

segments. The sound is modified by theenvironment. Which variant occurs is determined by the immediate preceding letter.

For example: the letter l hasa complementary distribution in thewords glue and blue .

sat vat

mill will

rack rock

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Dataset: Standard Spanish

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Standard Spanish is an Indo-European language of the Romance family. Examine the phones [d] and [ð]. 1) Are these allophones of one phoneme, or separate phonemes? 2) Identify the type of distribution. 3) If they are separate phonemes, give minimal pairs that prove this.

Std. Spanish English

translation


translation

[drama] drama [komiða] food

[dolor] pain [anda] scram

[dime] tell me [sweldo] salary

[kaða] each [durar] to last

[laðo] side [toldo] curtain

[oðio] hatred [falda] skirt

Dataset: Standard Spanish

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translation


translation

[drama] drama [komiða] food

[dolor] pain [anda] scram

[dime] tell me [sweldo] salary

[kaða] each [durar] to last

[laðo] side [toldo] curtain

[oðio] hatred [falda] skirt

1) Are these allophones of one phoneme, or separate phonemes? No minimal pairs found so the phones [d] and [ð] are NOT contrastive.

2) They are found in different environments, and are thus said to be in complementary distribution. [d] occurs everywhere, while [ð] occurs intervocalically (V___V, in between vowels)

3) They are allophones of one phoneme so no minimal pairs were found.

Dataset: SindhiSindhi is an Indo-European language of the Indo-Aryan family, spoken in Pakistan and India.

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Examine the distribution of the phones [p], [ph], and [b]. 1) Determine if the three are allophones of separate phonemes, or allophones of the same phoneme. 2) What is your evidence? 3) Is the relationship between the sounds the same as in English? Why or why not?

Sindhi gloss Sindhi gloss

[pənu] leaf [təru] bottom

[vəʤu] opportunity [khəto] sour

[ʃeki] suspicious [bəʤu] run

[gədo] dull [bənu] forest

[dəru] door [bəʧu] be safe

[phənu] hood of snake [ʤəʤu] judge

In Sandhi and English, /p/ and /b/ are separate phonemes. In English, [p ph] are allophones of the same phoneme, but in Sindi they’re phonemes.

Review: a comparison

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English Hindi Korean Spanish Sindhi[p ph] Allophones of

the samephoneme /p/

Allophones of differentphonemes/p ph/

[r l] Allophones of differentphonemes/r l/

Allophones of the samephoneme /l/

[d ð] Allophones of differentphonemes/d ð/

Allophones of the samephoneme/d/

[p ph b] [p ph] allophonesof the samephoneme /p/; /b/

Allophones of differentphonemes/p ph b/

The Pronunciation of MorphemesPronounce the plural forms of:

Child – Ox – Mouse – Criterion – Sheep

The old spelling rule to add s or es is misleading. These are special plurals that have to be memorized early in the use of English.

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The old English rule of adding s or es to make a plural

word is often misleading. There is no rule to predict how all plural words are formed in English.

Allomorph is the technical term describing the plural variance. The words may vary in shape or pronunciation, but not meaning. For example, s has 3 allomorphs: the -s sound in hats

the -z sound in dogs

the Əz sound in boxes34

• The following Minimal Pairs show

that English /p/ and /b/ contrast

in initial, medial , & final positions.

Initial Medial Final

pit/bit rapid/rabid cap/cab

Find similar sets of minimal pairs for

the following consonant pairs:

/k/ - /g/ /l/ - /r/ /s/ - /z/

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Morphophonemic Rules

determine the phonetic form

of the plural morpheme and

other morphemes. Like plurals,

some irregular past tenses

conform to no particular rule

and must be learned

individually.

For example: go / went sing / sang

hit / hit run / ran36

A Phoneme the basic form of a sound

Each phoneme has associated with it one or more

sounds, called Allophones, which represent the actual sound corresponding to the phoneme.

For example, notice the

differences as you pronounce:

Aspiration allophone [p] in pit

Without aspiration allophone

[p] in spit

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- Distinctive Features of Phonemes –

Phonetics provides the means to describe the phones (sounds) of language, showing how they are produced and how they vary.

Phonology tells us how various sounds form patterns to create phonemes and their allophones.

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Phoneme Feature Values

Voicing and/or Voicelessness is the presence of a single feature. This single feature may have two

values: + = voicing or -- = voicelessness.

Nasality presence or absence is

designated as + or -- also.

Determine the values of:

feel / veal cap / cab

m / b

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VoicingWhen verbs add -ed to become

past tense this ending becomes

voiced if the preceding sound is

voiced as in “planned” or

voiceless if the preceding sound

is voiceless as in “jumped.”

Since /t/ is not voiced and vowels

are voiced, a /t/ between vowels

often becomes voiced so that

“latter” and “writer” are

pronounced like “ladder” and “rider.”40

http://autism.lovetoknow.com/Activity Ideas for Autistic Kids

http://autism.lovetoknow.com/Activity Ideas for Autistic Kids

Aspiration/p/ /t/ and /k/ form the natural class of

voiceless stops. In English, voiceless

stops are aspirated if they are followed

by a stressed vowel and not preceded

by /s/.

This makes sense because aspiration

is a puff of air. This puff would occur

after a stop. It would occur into a

stressed syllable. If the consonant

were voiced or if some of the air had

leaked out because of a preceding

/s/, the aspiration would be less

pronounced.41

Detour: Aspiration in English

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PHONETIC FACT: There is a burst or puff of air after the /p/ in pill, till, and kill, that is absent in spill, still, and skill.

ASPIRATION: The period between the release of the closure of a consonant and the start of the vocal cord activity for the vowel that comes after it. This period is usually felt as a puff of air.

pill [phɪl] spill [spɪl]till [thɪl] still [stɪl]kill [khɪl] skill [skɪl]

Detour: Aspiration in English

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Aspiration Rule in English: Aspiration occurs on all voiceless stops [p, t, k] occurring as the first sound in a stressed syllable.

• Although aspirated stops and unaspirated stops are physically different , we consider both to be the same sound in English.• For English, aspiration is not employed to create a MEANING DIFFERENCE (unlike in Hindi, for example).• The diacritic (=special mark) for aspiration in the IPA is a superscript [h]• Narrow vs. broad transcription

Palatization

When a word that ends with a /t/ is followed by a

–ual, -ial, or -ion ending, the palatal vowel <y-> changes

the /t/ sound into a / ʃ / sound. Examples include:

addict addiction

act actual or action

part partial

predict prediction44

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Alveolar Palatal

LabialLabiodental

Dental

Velar

Uvular

Pharyngeal

Laryngeal

Places of Articulation

Active Articulators

Bilabial is one of the 5 active

articulators.

Put your lips together and say

the letters –

B P M

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Active Articulates

Labiodental is another

example of an active

articulate.

Put your lip to your teeth:

Now say - F V

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Active Articulates

The third example of an active articulate is

Interdental

Place your tongue on the

back of your incisors

Say the letter N

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Nasality is a nondistinctive feature for English vowels. There is no way to predict that the difference between the words

meat and beat. You simply learn the words.

• On the other hand, the nasality feature value of the vowels in bean, mean, comb, and sing is predictable because they occur before nasal consonants. When a feature value is predictable by rule for a sound, the feature is nondistinctive or redundant or predictable (the three terms are equivalent). Thus, nasality is a redundant feature in English vowels, but a nonredundant feature for English consonants.

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Feature Values : NasalityNasality occurs with a lowering of the soft palate or

velum so that air escapes both through the nose and the mouth.

The presence or absence of nasality is designated as[ +nasal ] or [ -nasal ]

Determine nasality for:/m/ /p/

mother patrolparrot milk

Can you think of any others?

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Aspiration of voiceless stops illustrates the asymmetry of the phonological systems of

different languages.

Both aspirated and unaspirated voiceless stops occur in English and Thai, but they function differently. Aspiration in English is not a distinctive feature because its presence or absence is predictable. In Thai, it is not predictable.

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In English, vowel length and consonant length

are nonphonemic.

Prolonging a sound in

English will not produce

a different word. In other

languages, long and short

vowels that are identical

except for length are

phonemic.

In such languages, length

is a nonpredictable distinctive feature.

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Natural classes of sounds are those groups of sounds described by a small number of

distinctive features.One example is where the [-- voiced], [--

continuant], which describes /p/, t/, /k/.

Any individual member of a natural class would

require more features in its

description than the class

itself, so /p/ is not only

[ -- voiced ], [--continuant]

but also [ + labial].

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Phonotacticst h e p e r m i tte d a r ra n ge m e nt o f s o u n d s

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big , r ig , f ig , dig , wig , l ig , vig

How do we know that ‘lig’ and ‘vig’ could be viewed as possible words in English? Our phonological knowledge of the pattern of sounds in English words

What about [tsɪg] or [tnɪg]? These words have been formed without obeying some PHONOTACTIC constraints on the sequence or position of English phonemes.

Phonotactic constraints: restrictions on possible combinations of sounds, these constraints operate on a unit larger than the single segment/phoneme

Syllable structure:

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Phonotactics

syllable

onset rhyme

nucleus coda

consonant(s) vowel consonant(s)

Basic elements of the syllable:• onset – can be empty or have one or more consonants• rhyme – consists of the nucleus (a vowel or vowel-like sound) and coda (can be empty or have one or more consonants

Syllables and Clusters

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What must a syllable contain? At the minimum, A VOWEL or VOWEL-like sound

e.g. English – ‘a’, ‘I’, ‘a.bove’

Symbol for syllable


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syllableCV.CVC

onset rhyme ‘Ja.nice’

nucleus coda


open dʒ æ

closed n ɪ s


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syllable (open)

onset rhyme

nucleus coda

consonant(s) vowel consonant(s)V ‘I’ aΙ

V ‘a’ eΙCV ‘be’ b iCV ‘though’ ð oʊ


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syllable (closed)

onset rhyme

nucleus coda


‘of’ Ʊ v‘mug’ m Ʌ g


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σ (closed)

Onset Rhyme

Nucleus Coda

C C V C

CCVC ‘step’ s t ɛ p


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σ (closed)

Onset Rhyme

Nucleus Coda

C V C C

CVCC ‘tans’ t æ n s


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σ (closed)

Onset Rhyme

Nucleus Coda

C C V C C

CCVCC ‘plots’ p l a t sCCVCC ‘smooths’ s m u ð z

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syllable (open)CVV‘I’, ‘eye’

onset rhyme

nucleus coda

consonant(s) V V consonant(s)

a I

Syllables

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syllable (open)CVV‘go’

onset rhyme

nucleus coda

consonant(s) V V consonant(s)

g o Ʊ

Syllables

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Syllables: when vowel length is contrastive

A. Tagaloggaling /ga: . liŋ/ from /ga . liŋ/ excellencepito /pi: . toh/ whistle /pi . toh/ seven

B. Japanese

ojisan /ozisan/ uncle ojiisan /oziisan/ grandfathertsuki /tuki/ moon tsūki /tuuki/ airflow

The diacritic : means vowel lengthening = a aa


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In English, there are a wide variety of syllable types, as shown in the table below (from Language Files):

Languages generally prefer CV syllables, but some languages, like English, allow up to 3 consonants to start a word, as long as the first is /s/, the second /p/, /t/, or /k/, and the third /l/, /ɹ/, /j/, /w/


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Other languages don’t have as many syllable structures as English, as shown in the table below (from Language Files):

Single vowel can be a syllable;No consonant clusters consonant clusters at

beginning and end


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Determine the syllable structure of the words below. The first three are done for you. Remember that a single consonant or vowel can be spelled with more than one letter, some letters are not pronounced, etc., so focus on sound and not spelling.

1. up (VC) 7. map _____2. hat (CVC) 8. spring _____3. judge (CVC) 9. slick _____4. eggs _____ 10. stress _____5. and ______ 11. can.dy _____6. beat ______ 12. brea.thy _______

The Rules of Phonology

• The relationship between the phonemic representations of

words and the phoneticrepresentations that reflect

the pronunciation of these words is rule-governed.

Although the specific rules of phonology differ from language to language, the kinds of rules, what they do, and the natural

classes they refer to are the same throughout the world.

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Assimilation

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Assimilation: the process of making one sound (or gesture) to become more like a neighboring sound (or gesture) with respect to some phonetic property

[ɪ], [æ], [ʌ], etc. – in isolation, no nasal quality. But in a word in which it’s followed by a nasal, the vowel becomes nasalized (produced with a lowering of the velum so that air escapes both through nose as well as the mouth)

Assimilation

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[ɪ] [æ] [ʌ][b ɪ n ] [bæn] [bʌn]‘bin’ ‘ban’ ‘bun’

• Phonological rule: Any vowel becomes nasalized in English whenever it is immediately followed by a nasal, /m n ŋ/• The diacritic for nasalization in the IPA is a tilde [ ]. • This is another example of narrow transcription.

Assimilation

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‘I can go’ [aj kæn goʊ ] [ajkəŋgoʊ ]

The influence of the velar sound /g/ causes the alveolar nasal /n/ to assimilate, become like, into a nasal. Thus, in rapid speech, you hear the velar nasal /ŋ/

It is a common phonological process by which the phonetics of a

speech segment becomes more like that of another segment in a

word (or at a word boundary).

Let´s see some examples…

Family (fam-i-ly/fam-lee)

Telephone (tel-e-phone/tel-phone)

Separate (sep-are-rate/sep-rat)

Chocolate (choc-o-late/choc-lat)

Mathematics (math-e-mat-ics/math-mat-ics)

Diamond (di-a-mond/di-mond)

Elision

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Elision (deletion): the process of not pronouncing a sound segment (consonant, vowel, or whole syllable) that might be present in careful pronunciation

‘You and me’ [ju ænd mi]

[juənmi]

‘above his hat’ [əbʌv hɪz hæt ]

[əbʌvɪzhæt ]

Is the omission of one or more sounds (such as a vowel, a consonant, or a

whole syllable) in a word or phrase, producing a result that is easier for the

speaker to pronounce. Sometimes, sounds may be elided for euphonic

effect.

Let´s see some examples…

Comfortable: /ˈkʌmfərtəbəl/ → /ˈkʌmftərbəl/

Fifth: /ˈfɪfθ/ → /ˈfɪθ/

Him: /hɪm/ → /ɪm/

Laboratory: /læˈbɔrətɔri/→ /ˈlæbrətɔri/ (American English),

/ləˈbɔrətri/ (British English)

Temperature: /ˈtɛmpərətʃər/ → /ˈtɛmpərtʃər/, /ˈtɛmprətʃər/

Vegetable: /ˈvɛdʒətəbəl/ → /ˈvɛdʒtəbəl/

Dissimilation Rules

• Dissimilation rules make sounds less

• similar. Sometimes it is easier to articulate dissimilar sounds:

• Say the “tongue twister:”

• The sixth sheik’s sixth sheep is sick.

• Now say,

• The fifth sheik’s fourth sheep is sick.

• Which is easier for you to say? Why?

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EpenthesisEpenthesis is the addition of one

or more sounds to a word.

Excrescense occurs if the sound

added is a consonant.

Anaptyxis occurs if the sound

added is a vowel.

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ExcrescenseAn example of

Excrescense – addition of an

extra consonant to a word

Hamp – ster Hamster

Can you think of other

examples of Excrescense?

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Anaptyxis

An example of

Anaptysix – addition of

An extra vowel to a word

Pic – a – nic basket

Can you think of other examples?

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Epenthesis can also occur as a Poetic Device where the meter of a piece of literature requires extra syllables.

For example: In “The Umbrella Man” movie/song the word adds a 4th syllable: um – buh – rel – a

Can you think of others?82

Metathesis RulesPhonological rules may

also reorder sequences

of phonemes, as in

ask/aks nuclear/nucular

animal/aminal

spaghetti/pusketti

Can you add any others to

This list?

Dog lovers have metathesized the Shetland Sheepdog into a sheltie.

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The more we look at languages, the more we realize that what appears at first to be irregular and unpredictable

phonetic forms are actually rule-governed.

We learn, or construct, these rules when we are acquiring the language as children. The rules form an important part of the sound pattern that we acquire from birth.

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PhonologicalRules

The function of the

phonological rules

in a grammar is to

provide the phonetic information necessary for the pronunciation of utterances.

Input Phonemic representation of words

Phonological Rules

Output Phonetic representation of words

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From One to Many – From Many to One

Rarely is a single phoneme realized

as one and only one phone.

Consider the vowels in the

following pairs of words:

A - compete B - competition

medicinal medicine

solid solidity

In column A, all underlined vowels are stressed with a variety of vowel phones; in column B, the underlined

vowels are pronounced as schwa. 86

The Flap RuleFlap is a rapid movement of the tongue tip from a

retracted vertical position to a horizontal position, during which the tongue brushes the alveolar ridge.

When /t/ or /d/ occurs between a stressed and an unstressed vowel, they both become a “flap.”

The following words sound similar:

auntie/Annie metal/medal

planter/planner coating/coding

futile/feudal waiter/wader

latter/ladder matter/madder

Can you name any others?87

Neutralization Neutralization is a merger of a contrast in certain

contexts or specified environment

Some examples of neutralization

Before /g/ are:

bag egg

Greg keg

leg peg

Can you name any others?

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Slips of the Tongue

Unintentional speech errors show phonological rules in action. We all make speech errors, and they tell us something about language and its use. Consider:

Intended Utterance Actual Utterance

gone to seed god to seen

stick in the mud smuck in the tid

speech pronunciation preach seduction89

Word Stress

In many languages, including English, one or more of the syllables in every content word is stressed.

(the words to, the, of, a are functional/support words). A

stressed syllable, marked by an acute accent (‘) is more prominent in the following examples:

Pervert noun as in My neighbor is a pervert.

Pervert verb as in Don’t pervert the idea. Can you think of other examples?

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Stress can be shown by placing a 1 over the primary stressed syllable, a 2 over the syllable with secondary stress, and leaving unstressed vowels unmarked. Place the appropriate stress marks on these words:

fundamental introductory secondary

Stress is the property of the syllable rather than a segment. To produce a stressed syllable, you may change the pitch, make the syllable louder, or make it longer. We often use all three of these phonetic means to stress a syllable.

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In English we place primary stress on the adjectival part of a compound noun.

But, we place stress on the noun when

the words are a noun phrase consisting of

an adjective followed by a noun. Consider

where you would place the primary stress:

Compound Noun Adjective + Noun

tightrope tight rope

redcoat red coat

hotdog hot dog

White House white house92

Pitch and Intonation

Pitch plays an important role in tone & intonation.

Say: John is going home.

What’s in the tea, honey?

Falling pitch at the end indicates a statement.

Pitch rising at the end may indicate a question.

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Phonolactic Constraints are language

specific combinations of phonemes.

In Japanese, the /st/ consonant cluster

is not allowed – while it exists in English

In English, the sounds /kn/ and /gn/

are not permitted at the beginning

of a new word – however, they do

exist in both German and Dutch

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Lexical Gaps

Advertisers often use possible but

nonoccurring words for new

products –

Xerox Bic Kodak Spam

Other words like creck and cruck

are nonsense words found in the lexicon – often called Lexical Gaps

Can you name some others?

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Why Do Phonological Rules Exist?• Because languages have general principles that

constrain possible sequences of sounds.• The rules specify minimal modifications of the

• underlying forms that bring them in line with

• the surface constraints.

• Thus, we find different variants of a particular

• underlying form depending on the phonological

• context.

• One example is the English past-tense rule.

• Can you think of any others?

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VOWELS

Definition:

Vowels are defined from the phonetical and phonological points of view

- Phonetically: deals with the way a sound is produced, so, vowels are sounds articulated without any closure in the vocal tract or a degree of narrowing (oral or nasal)

- Phonologically: deals with the place vowels have in a word, so vowels are sounds occurring at the center of the syllable and receive the stress with most intensity.

English Vowel Features

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CLASSIFICATION OF VOWELS

ACCORDING TO PHONETIC FEATURES

• Changes in movement during articulationSimple Complex

/ æ / / e / / i:/ / ɔ:ɪ /

• The tension of the tongue musclesTense Lax

/ əʊ / / əʊ / / ɪ / /ɔ: /

• The position of the lower jawHigh Mid Low

/ ɪ / / u: / / e / /ɔ:ɪ / /æ / / a /

• The position of the tongueFront Central Back/ i: / / a: / /u: /

• The position of the lipsRounded Unrounded/ uʊ / / ɪ /

VOWELS ACCORDING TO LENGTH

- Short: /ɪ/, /e/, /æ/, /ʌ/, /ɒ/, /ʊ/ - Long: /ı:/, /ɜ:/, /ɑ:/, /ɔ:/, /u:/

VOWELS ACCORDING TO THE PLANES OF THE MOUTH.

- ACCORDING TO THE VERTICAL PLANE OF THE MOUTH: HIGH, MID and LOW VOWELS. These names correspond to the position of the lower jaw. It was explained before.

- ACCORDING TO THE HORIZONTAL PLANE OF THE MOUTH: FRONT, CENTRAL and BACK VOWELS. These names correspond to the position of the tongue and it was explained before.

SEMIVOWELS AND GLIDES

Sound functioning as a consonant, but lacking the PHONETIC characteristic normally associated with consonants (such as FRICTION or CLOSURE) but functioning as them.

They are: / y /, / w /, / r / and / : /

- GLIDES WITH / y /: The / y /-glide is a movement in the point of articulation of the vowel toward a higher and more in front position.

yellow

- GLIDES WITH / w /: The / w /-glide is a movement toward a position that is higher and farther back in the mouth, with accompanying lip-pounding.

water

- GLIDES WITH / r / AND / : / :The / r /-glide is a movement toward a central retroflex position from some other position.

here there

NASALIZATION

What is it?

We call nasalization to the change of an oral vowel to a nasal one because of the effect of a neighboring sound.medal, neighbor, nasal, mother

When does it occur?

It occurs when a vowel is preceded by a nasal consonant.

Compare:mate / late pen / men

DISTRIBUTION

It is the total set of context or environments, in which a sound unit can occur. • Vowel allophones,• Minimal pairs, • Diphthongs and triphthongs.

VOWEL ALLOPHONES: LENGTHENED and UNLENGTHENED ALLOPHONES.They are articulated in such a way that the vowel sound is the longest within the syllable. The length or duration of a vowel depends on the type of consonant sound that follows in an adjacent position. We use a dot [ : ] to indicate that a vowel is lengthened.

sell, begin, singer

UNLENGTHENED VOWEL ALLOPHONES: This type of sounds are relatively short within the syllable, and it determines that the syllable is UNSTRESSED.

rip, pick, set, left

• MINIMAL PAIRS, phonologically : a pair of words which differ in only one phoneme. men, man

• A minimal pair with vowel contrast is a pair of words which differ only by a vowel sound. For example, in the words SIT and SAT, the difference is in the vowel sound of each word / i/ and / e / respectively.

DIPHTHONGS:

DIPHTHONG: combination of two vowel sounds within a single syllable.

Two elements: stronger, weaker = Elements of the diphthong

Diphthongs are made with the tongue beginning in one position and gliding to another before the sound closes.

ARTICULATORILY: - Distance the tongue travels: “WIDE”= long glide

“NARROW” = short glide

- Direction of the tongue: "CLOSING" = closer position "CENTRING“= central position

AUDITORILY: According to the prominence of the elements: "FALLING“ = when the first element is more prominent than the second "RISING“ = when the second element is more prominent than the first.

In English, all diphthongs are considered generally "falling".

PITCHSEGMENTAL PHONEMES (vowles and consonants)

SUPRASEGMENTAL PHONEMES special features of speech add meaning to what we say. They are PITCH, STRESS and JUNCTURE.

What is PITCH?The height of tone, produced by the tension of the vocal cords. Permits the ordering of sounds on a scale running from low (grave) to high (acute).

INTONATION PATTERNS:A RISE IN PITCH.- occurs on the last syllable and reaches a point below the next higher pitch,. In the drill material, the rise is represented by a rising arrow ( ).

Is it yours?A FADING AWAY INTO SILENCE, not accompanied by a terminal rise. There is often a fall in pitch, especially if the phrase ends on pitch 1. The "fading away" is represented by a break or space in the "staff" and the absence or an upturned arrow.

We are going to the movies

A SLOWING DOWN OR SUSTENSION OF THE VOICE, not accompanied by a pitch rise or a fading away. Sometimes this kind of phrase-ending contour has been described as a "SHIFTING OF GEARS". A dotted vertical line is used to represent this kind of contour.

I would like to talk about …. er…

STRESS

Defined as the loudness, intensity or articulatory energy with which a syllable is spoken.

The same as pitch, it helps to add meaning to what wesay.

Stress also helps to differenciate the meaning orgrammatical function of a word

To emphasize or contrast informationpresent / present

There are four contrasting degrees of stress in English.

– / ' / called the PRIMARY, LOUD or HEAVY STRESS;– / ^ / called the SECONDARY or MEDIUM STRESS;– / ` / called the TERTIARY, THIRD or LIGHT STRESS;– / ◡ / called the WEAK or MINIMAL STRESS.

- WORD STRESS: It's the stress given to one or more syllables in an individual word when it stands alone.

One-syllable words or any other word said in isolation, so it is not necessary to use a stress mark when transcribing them.

If a word has two or more syllables, at least one of them is stressed.

- SENTENCE STRESS: It is the stress given to different words in a sentence to bring out the meaning of connected speech.

The same sentence can be said using different stress depending on what you want to say.

yes How are you?yes? How are you?

- MAJOR-MINOR STRESS DISTINCTION: (useful).

Major stress: nouns, verbs, adjectives and adverbs,. Minor stress: personal pronouns, short prepositions,

auxiliary verb, articles and the like, except when these have special contrastive (or shifted) stress.

- CONTRASTIVE OR EMPHATIC STRESS: primary stress can be put on any word in the phrase to show contrast or emphasis. This is not the only means of showing contrast, but it is an extremely common device. For example, it is possible to say:

HER DRESS IS PRÉTTY, HER DRESS ÍS PRETTY,HER DRÉSS IS PRETTY, or HÉR DRESS IS PRETTY.

JUNCTURE

This is another suprasegmental phoneme, known as the manner of transition from one segmental phoneme to another.

Juncture is an extremely important sound feature in English. Let's note its role differentiating phrases such as:

A NODE from AN ODE

WHITE SHOES from WHY CHOOSE

NIGHT RATE from NITRATE

A NAME from AN AIM

INTERNAL JUNCTURE identifies a type of juncture that occurs within a phrase. We can distinguish:

1. INTERNAL CLOSE JUNCTURE: is the normal transition from one phoneme to the next within an utterance. For example, in the word TRAIN, the close juncture is determined by the manner of transition / t/ to / r /.

2. INTERNAL OPEN JUNCTURE (+) it is a manner of transition which contrasts with close juncture. It keeps meanings apart. This is a manner of transition from one phoneme to the next in two uterances. Let's analyze the following pairs of phrases:

A NAME AN AIMNIGHT RATE NITRATESHORE TRAIN SHORT RAIN

TERMINAL OR EXTERNAL JUNCTURE: The term TERMINAL JUNCTURE refers to a juncture that occurs AT THE END OF SENTENCES AND PHRASES. We also have:

DOUBLE BAR JUNCTURE/ /:This is a terminal juncture that means A RISE IN PITCH. Also called RISING JUNCTURE, ocurs in QUESTIONS. are you OK? a:+ ju:+əʊ keɪ ||

DOUBLE CROSS JUNCTURE/#/:This is a terminal juncture that indicates a fading away into silence.

let’s go lets +gəʊ #

SINGLE BAR JUNCTURE/ /:This is a terminal juncture that is marked by a sustention of the voice. This pause determines a change in the sense or meaning of the expression. Let's see these two questions:I CAN TELL MARY I CAN TELL, MARYaɪ +kæn + tel meri:# aɪ +kæn + tel | meri:/

TRANSCRIPTIONS

What is to transcribe?

Transcribing means to put what we say into speech sounds.

What do we use to transcribe?

We use the English Phonetic Alphabeth which is the set of symbols that represent speech sounds.

When transcribing:

do not use capital letters (we do not use letters, but symbols) most of the times the symbol is the same letter. do not use periods or punctuation marks. write the word as it is pronounced, not as it is written do not use other phonetic symbols

PHONETIC TRANSCRIPTION.- is a graphic representation of speech sounds which records as many differences in sound as it is possible to perceive.

This is also called narrow or allophonic. This is written within square brackets [ ].

PHONEMIC TRANSCRIPTION, it is also a graphic representation of speech sounds, which records only those differences in sound that are significant in the particular language.

It is also called phonemic or broad This is written between diagonal bars or slanted lines / /.

Phonology: The Sound Patterns of Language

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Transcript of Phonology: The Sound Patterns of Language