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The description of the systems
and patterns of speech sounds in a
language.
Phonology?
What Is
It is concerned with the abstract setof sounds in a language that allows us
to distinguish meaning in the actualphysical sounds we say and hear.
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Phoneme
The meaning distinguishing
sounds in a language.
The abstract unit or sound-type
(in the mind)
abstract unit sound-type
meaning distinguishing
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Phones
A set of phones, all of which are
versions of one phoneme.
Allophones
Different versions of a phoneme
produced in actual speech.
Different versions
set of phones
one phoneme
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Minimal Pairs and Sets
Two words identical in form but
contrasting in one phoneme,occurring in the same position
PatBat
Fan Van
BetBat
Examples:
Pairs
identical
contrastingsame position
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Minimal Pairs and Sets
Each word in a group differentiated
from the other words in the samegroup by changing one phoneme.
Feat, fit, fat, foot
Big, pig, rig, fig
Examples:
Sets
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Phonotactics
The set of allowed arrangements
or sequences of speech sounds ina given language.
allowed
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Syllables
A syllable must contain either:
The phonological building blocks
of words.
1.) Vowel
2.) Vowel-like sound
3.) Diphthong
building blocks
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Syllables
3 Parts:
One or more consonants
preceding the rhyme.
Rhyme(Rime)Consists of a vowel.Treated as the nucleus.
Onset
CodaConsonant(s) succeeding
the rhyme.
vowelnucleus
succeeding
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Syllables
vowelnucleus
preceding
succeeding
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Syllables
Contains an onset and a nucleus but no
coda.
2 Kinds:
Open Syllables
Closed Syllables
A coda is present.
onset nucleus no
coda.
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Syllables
Consonant
Clusters
When an onset and the coda consist
more than one consonant.
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Coarticulation Effects
The process of making one sound
almost at the same time as the nextsound is called coarticulation
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Assimilation
When two sound segments occur in sequence
and some aspect of one segment is taken or
copied by the other, the process is known as
assimilation.
We can realize that this regular process
happens simply because its quicker, easier
and more efficient for our articulators as theydo their job.
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Example
I have to go.
In this phrase, as we start to say the /t/ soundin to, which is voiceless, we tend to produce a
voiceless version of the preceding sound,
resulting in what sounds more like /f/ than
/v/. So, we typically say hafta *hfta].
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Any vowel becomes nasal whenever it
immediately precedes a nasal.
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This type of assimilation process occurs in a
variety of different contexts. By itself, the
word can may be pronounced as [kn], but,
when we say I can go, the influence of thefollowing velar [g] will almost certainly make
the preceding nasal sound come out as the
velar nasal rather than the alveolar nasalsound.
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Elision
You and me
We may, for example, pronounce and as [nd]
by itself, but in the normal use of the phrase
you and me, we usually say [n],as in [junmi].
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In the last example, illustrating the normal
pronunciation ofyou and me, the [d] sound of
the word andwas not included in the
transcription. (Thats because it isnt usuallypronounced in this phrase.)
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In the environment of a preceding nasal [n]
and a following nasal *m+, we simply dont
devote speech energy to including the stop
sound *d+. (This isnt laziness, its efficiency.)
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There is also typically no [d] sound included in
the everyday pronunciation of a word like
friendship [frnip]. This process of not
pronouncing a sound segment that might bepresent in the deliberately careful
pronunciation of a word in isolation is
described as elision.
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Normal speech
These two processes of assimilation and elision occurin everyones normal speech and should not beregarded as some type of sloppiness or laziness inspeaking. In fact, consistently avoiding the regular
patterns or assimilation and elision used in a languagewould result in extremely artificial-sounding talk. Thepoint of investigating these phonological processes isnot to arrive at a set of rules about how a language
should be pronounced, but to try to come to anunderstanding of the regularities and patterns whichunderlie the actual use of sounds in language.
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Sources:
McMahon, April. 2002.An Introduction to English Phonology.
Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, Ltd.
Yule, George. 2006. The Study of Language.
New York: Cambridge University Press.