Phonology

What is Phonological Knowledge?

We all have instinctual knowledge of the phonemes of our own language

It allows us to produce sounds that form meaningful utterances (even if they are new)

It allows us to recognize and understand a foreign accent

What is phonology?

The study of the structure and systematic patterns of sounds in human language

It allows us to make up new words that “sound right”

It allows us to make up new words that “sound right”

It allows us to add appropriate sounds to make plurals, past tense, etc.

It allows us to know what is and what is not a sound in our own language.

Branches of Phonology

Phonemics: narrow study of sounds

Ex. [ph] in peak, [p] in speak

Phonetics: broad study of sounds

Ex. /p/ in speak and peak

Essential Terms in Phonology

Phonemes Allophones Minimal pairs Distinctive features Syllable structure Phonotactics Morphophonemics

Phonemes

Distinctive or contrastive sound (phonological segment) in the sound system of a language. PHONE A Phonetic Segment Occurring in Language

PHONEME A Segment that differentiates meaning

How to distinguish phonemes?

Place of articulationEx. /p/ VS /t/

pop VS top Manner of articulation

Ex. /b/ VS /m/Bob VS mob

VoicingEx. /s/ VS /z/

Sue VS zoo

An Allophone

An Allophone is: A predictable phonetic variant of a phoneme It is rule-governed An Allophone is Predictable, Nondistinctive

and Redundant

Allophone

An alternative pronunciation or a variant of a phoneme.

Ex. /p/ - [ph] pen- [p] spy

/t/ - [th] top- [t] stop- [?] bitten- [D] butter

Aspiration in English

Aspiration in English is another example of a predictable, allophonic rule

Occurs with certain consonants at the beginning of a word (if the syllable is stressed)

Presence/Absence of Aspirated Consonant does not change the meaning of the word

Minimal Pairs

A pair of words that differ by just one phoneme in the same position and have different

meanings.

Ex. sip VS zip

tip VS dip

Distinctive Features

Phonetic properties or features that distinguish phonemes from one another

Distinctive Features of English Consonants

Syllabic Consonantal Sonorant Obstruent Voiced Continuant Nasal

Lateral Distributed Affricate Labial Round Coronal

Distinctive Features of English Vowels

High Back Low Round Tense Lax

Phonotactics

Study of the sound and phoneme combinations allowed in a given language.

Phonotactic Constraints: the rules that characterize permissible syllable structures in a language.

What is a syllable?

A phonological unit that is composed of one or more phonemes.

Examples of Phonotactic Constraints

1) After Consonants like /b/, /g/, /k/, or /p/ another stop is not permitted

2) If a word begins with /l/ or /r/ Every speaker knows the next letter will be a

vowel 3) If word begins with /c&/ or /j&/

The next letter will be a vowel 4) No more than three consonants Allowed

Even this restricted to the following sequence: /s/ + /p, t, k/ + /r, l, w, y/

Phonotactic Constraints in English

VC : on, at, out VCC : ant, oust CV : to, shoe CCV : spy, snow CVC : tin, chap CVCC : part, tenth CCVC : spin, cloud, pride CCCVC : splash, spread, split CCCVCCC : scripts, sprints

Syllable Structure

Syllable Structure

Syllable Structure of “book”

Syllable Structure of “pumpkin”

Syllable Structure of “splints”

Morphophonemics

pertaining to the alternation or change of one phoneme to another in a particular environment. For example, the

change of the phoneme /k/ to /s/ before front vowels, which can be seen in the words "electric" and

"electric-ity", is morphophonemicA study of a phonemic difference among allomorphs of

the same morpheme. It describes changes in pronunciation modified by neighboring sounds.

Morphophonemic Rule: the rule that assigns the phonetic form, determined by both morphology and phonology

English Plural Morphemes /s/

voiceless phonemes + [s]Ex. books, rats, forks

voiced phonemes + [z] Ex. jobs, dogs, pumpkins

tense vowels, or diphthongs + [z] Ex. toes, zoos, boys

[+strident] + [әz]Ex. churches, garages, judges, courses

Negative Prefix in-

[In] + vowels or alveolar

Ex. inexpensive, intolerant [Im] + labials

Ex. impossible, immature [Iŋ] + velars

Ex. incomparable, incomplete