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Phonology

Phonology. Phonology is…. The study of sound systems within a language The study of how speech sounds pattern The study of how speech sounds vary The study of how speech sounds contrast. Definitions. Phone: speech sound Phoneme / / Contrastive units in a langauge Never pronounced

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Phonology

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  1. Phonology

  2. Phonology is… • The study of sound systems within a language • The study of how speech sounds pattern • The study of how speech sounds vary • The study of how speech sounds contrast

  3. Definitions • Phone: speech sound • Phoneme / / • Contrastive units in a langauge • Never pronounced • Realized by one or more allophones • Allophone [ ] • Pronounced (every sound you produce) • Variation of a phoneme

  4. Possibilities • Allophones of separate phonemes /t/ /th/   [t] [th] • Allophones of the same phoneme /t/ [t] [th]

  5. Questions to ask when comparing phones • What is the environment? • Is there a difference in meaning • Are they allophones of the same phoneme or do they belong to different phonemes?

  6. Types of Distribution • Contrastive distribution: difference in meaning, form a minimal pair, belong to separate phonemes • Example: ‘cat’ [khQt] and ‘hat’ [hQt]

  7. Types of Distribution Cont. • Free Variation: phones appear in exactly the same environments; no difference in meaning; are allophones of the same phoneme. • Example: ‘economics’ [i] or [E] initially

  8. Types of Distribution Cont. • Complementary: phones appear in differing environments; are allophones of the same phoneme • Example: ‘top’ [thap] and ‘stop’ [stap]

  9. Variation in sounds: The case of “t” in American English • Say the following words: • top, stop, metal, and right • What is the difference between the four “t”s? • top [thap] the “t” is aspirated [th] • stop [stap] the “t” is unaspirated [t] • metal [mERl] the “t” is a flap [R] • right [rayt’] the “t” is unreleased [t’]

  10. The case of “t” in American English • The sound we perceive as “t” actually has four phonetic realizations • Since in our mind, the abstract sound is still a “t” we call “t” a PHONEME. • Phones go in brackets [t], phonemes go in slashes /t/ • Every language has phonemes and variants of that phoneme, which we call ALLOPHONES • Appearance of allophones depends on rules

  11. Phonemes and Allophones • What are the rules for the different allophones of /t/? /t/ [th] [t] [t’] [R]

  12. Allophonic rules for /t/: • /t/ [th] word-initally and in front of stressed syllables • table, treat, attend, until, attack • /t/  [R] intervocalically, when second vowel is unstressed • better, Betty, butter, cutie, buttocks • /t/  [t’] word-finally • set, right, caught, pit • /t/ [t] elsewhere • stop, street, antics, Baltic

  13. Phonemes are CONTRASTIVE • We’ve established phonemes are abstract ideals of our language’s sounds in our mind which are realized in different allophones • Phonemes are also what produce a change in MEANING between words. This why we say that phonemes are contrastive

  14. Minimal Pairs • Take the following pronunciations: • [brajth] [brajt] [brajt’] = “bright” • Violating “allophone rules” results in funny pronunciation, not confusion in meaning • When a switch in only one phone produces a change in meaning of a word, the two sounds CONTRAST so they must belong to different phonemes • [brajt’] vs [brajd] vs [brajb] “bright/bride/bribe” • So, we can say that in English, [t’], [d] and [b] all belong to DIFFERENT phonemes /t/, /d/, and /b/

  15. Minimal Pairs • Pairs (or trios, etc) of words that only differ in one sound, while the other sounds remain the same are called Minimal Pairs • Ex: cane/gain; decree/degree; back/bag • What are some examples of minimal pairs to contrast the following sounds? • [p] v [b] • [s] v [S] • [l] v [®]

  16. Phonemes and Allophones • So, in a pair of words like flea [fli] and free [f®i] we can determine that the phones [l] and [®] are allophones of DIFFERENT phonemes • In a pair of words like [phit] and [spit] we can determine that [ph] and [p] are allophones of the SAME phoneme. (since we can say [sphit] and it’s still understandable)

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