Week 3 – Part 1

Phonology

The following PowerPoint is to be used as a guideline for the important vocabulary and terminology to know as you do your readings, answering questions, and forming your thoughts and comments for your discussion with fellow classmates.

 

 Phonology—the sound system of a language.

Phonetics—the study of speech and sound.

Phones—the phonetic sounds that occur in a language. Phonemes—the abstract basic units that differentiate words. Allophones—predictable phonetic variants of one phoneme.

Phonology

Acoustic phonetics focuses on the physical properties of sounds

Auditory phonetics is concerned with how listeners perceive these sounds

Articulatory phonetics is the study of how the vocal tract produces the sound of language

Identity of Speech Sounds

Orthography, or alphabetic spelling, does not represent the sounds of a language in a consistent way.

International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA) the phonetic alphabet designed by the International Phonetic Association to be used to represent the sounds found in all human languages

The Phonetic Alphabet

The sounds of all languages fall into 2 classes: consonants and vowels.

Places of Articulation

Manner of Articulation

Articulatory Phonetics

Place of articulationThe horizontal relationship between the articulators. See pg. 236-237 for explanation.

Vocal Tract

See pg. 236-237

Vocal Tract

Stops

Stops are characterized by

involving complete closure in the oral tract, preventing the airflow from exiting through

the mouth

Stops in English

Place of Articulation

Voice Symbol Example

Bilabial – [p] ‘pig’

+ [b] ‘bear’

Alveolar

– [t] ‘tiger’

+ [d] ‘dog’

Velar – [k] ‘cat’

+ [g] ‘gorilla’

Fricatives and Affricates

Fricatives are classified by those sounds that produce a slight hissing noise when they are articulated (e.g. /s/ /f/ /v/). They also continuant consonants, which means they can be produced as long as you have airflow. Affricates, on the other hand, start as plosives and end as fricatives (e.g. only /tʃ/ /dʒ/). Plosive-fricative combinations must be homogranic (i.e. made with the same articulator) to be considered an affricate. What is more, there is a controversy as to whether affricates should be identified as one phoneme; this will be discussed in a later lesson.

Fricatives & AffricatesAffricates Fricatives

produced like plosives, in that they involve a closing stage, a closure stage and a release stage

produced when the active articulator is close to, but not actually in contact with, the passive articulator.

Phonetically, then, affricates are similar to a stop followed by a fricative, they do not, however, behave like a sequence of two segments

voiced or voiceless

Voiceless palato-alveolar [tʄ], as in ‘chimpanzee’, and its voiced counterpart [dʒ] as in ‘jaguar’

Labio-dental, dental, alveolar, palato-alveolar, glottal

Voiceless fricatives

Voiceless fricatives (produced with greater force, generating a louder friction noise, and shorten vowel sounds that precede them.)

/f/ = labiodental /θ/ = dental/s/ = alveolar/ʃ/ = post-alveolar

Voiced fricatives

Voiced fricatives (but produced with little or voicing in initial and final positions)/v/ = labiodental/ð/ = dental/z/ = alveolar /ʒ/ = post-alveolar (*never occurs in initial position)

Fricatives not voiced or voiceless

/h/ = glottal

AffricatesAffricates (voiced/voiceless pairs that have post-alveolar articulation)

/tʃ/ = slightly aspirated and shortens vowels when in final position /dʒ/ = produced with rounded lips

Glottal stop [ʔ]

glottal stop is voiceless since the vocal cords cannot vibrate when

they are in contact

Glottal egressive

• if the glottis is closed then raised, the air above it (in the vocal tract) will be pushed upwards, becoming compressed behind the blockage in the oral tract; this air exits on release of the closure in the oral tract

• ejectives – the stops produced through this mechanism

• ejectives are indicated by an apostrophe [p’]

Vowels

the articulators are far enough apart to allow the airflow to exit unhindered, that is, with open approximation

1. Vowel height: high, mid, low2. Vowels are classified horizontally: front, central, back3. Attitude of lips – rounded and unrounded when making

vowel sounds

Short and Long VowelsEnglish monophthongs include:

Short Long/ɪ/ = win /i:/ = sea/ʊ/ = put /u:/ = do/e/ = ten /ɜ:/ = word/ə/ = about /ɔ:/ = call/æ/ = cat /a:/ = card/ʌ/ = up/ɒ/ = bought

The classifications of 'short' and 'long' are relatively arbitrary and the length of the vowel can be slightly altered, depending on the context (e.g. whether a stressed or unstressed sound follows them).

Short Vowels

/ɪ/ tongue position is close and front; the lips are slightly spread/ʊ/ tongue position is a bit close and near the back; the lips are rounded/e/ tongue position is between close-mid and open-mid, and it is front;

the lips are slightly spread /æ/ tongue position is open and front; the lips are slightly spread/ʌ/ tongue position is more open than open-mid and central; the lips are

neutral /ɒ/ tongue position is between open-mid and open and it is back; the

lips are slightly rounded/ə/* tongue position is between close-mid and open-mid and it is central;

the lips are neutral * /ə/ will be discussed in much greater detail later in this course, as it

signifies weakness

Long Vowels

In addition to length, they differ from short vowels in tongue placement and lip positioning.  /i:/ tongue position is more close and front than /ɪ/; the lips are only

slightly spread/u:/ tongue position is more less close and back; the lips are only

slightly rounded/ɜ:/ tongue position is open-mid and central; the lips are only slightly

spread/ɔ:/ tongue position is between open-mid and close-mind, and back;

the lips are strongly rounded/a:/ tongue position is more open and mostly back; the lips are neutral

• Nasal vowels – vowels produced with a lower velum

• Oral vowels – vowels produced with a raised velum

• Nasalized vowels – a vowel preceding a nasal stop will be produced with the velum lowered in anticipation of the following consonant, as in ‘bean’. That is the vowel assimilates to the nasality of the following stop

Nasal Vowels vs Oral Vowels

Vowels

Problems with Vowels cont.Another potential problem is the difficulty of hearing the difference between /ə/ and an unstressed /ʌ/. To solve this problem, phonologists have proposed that the schwa (/ə/) phoneme replace the /ʌ/ phoneme, and that /ʌ/ be made into an allophone for the other. The only problem with this proposal is that the schwa phoneme often replaces many other vowel phonemes to signify a weak sound (e.g. the 'a' in about and the second 'o' in photograph are pronounced as a /ə/). Consequently, other phonologists assert that /ə/ should be adopted as an allophone of these unstressed sounds rather than its own phoneme.

Liquids and Glides

Liquids [l] [r] – some obstruction of the airstream in the mouth, but not enough to cause ay real constriction or friction.

Glides [j] [w] – the initial sounds of you [ju] and we [wi] are produced with little obstruction of the airstream.

Diphthongs

Diphthongs are special types of vowels in which the sound is produced by producing one vowel sound and ending in another vowel sound. Thus, diphthongs are typically vowels that are composed of two different vowel sounds.

Diphthongs Diphthongs consist of one vowel sound that glides into another vowel sound. This collision creates a unique speech sound. Often learners mistakingly pronounce them without this glide, and therefore, they need to be guided away from this error. One way to impress this upon them is to inform that the first segment is always stronger than the second. This, hopefully, will raise their awareness and encourage a less 'foreign-sounding' pronunciation.

Diphthongs symbol pronunciation/ɪə/ = ear starts in the close and front and then glides down to a central and open position/eə/ = air starts between close-mid and open-mid and the glides across to the central

and open position/ʊə/* = sure starts a bit close and near the back and then glides down to the central and

open position  /eɪ/ = day | starts between close-mid and open-mid, and in front position and glides up

to a close position/aɪ/ = time starts between front and back, and in open position and glides up to a close

position/ɔɪ/ = toy starts between a open-mid and close-mid, and in back position and glides

up to a close position /əʊ/ = go starts in the open and central position and glides up to the back position/aʊ/ = how starts in the open and mostly back position and glides up to the back

position

* usually replaced with /ɔ:/, but can still be helpful in highlighting the differences sometimes heard between 'more' and 'moor'

SOURCES

Fromkin, Victoria, et al. An Introduction to Language. 9th ed. Boston: Wadsworth, 2011.

Davenport, Mike & Hannahs, S.J. Introducing Phonetics and Phonology. 3rd ed. London UK. Hodder Education.