some really basic concepts of phonology -...

Some Really Basic Concepts of Phonology

Marla YoshidaUniversity of California Irvine Extension

International ProgramsTeaching English as a Foreign Language Certificate Program

•Next slide •Previous slide •Title slide •Phonology •Phonemes/Allophones •Phonemic Alphabets

Thursday, March 1, 12

What is phonology?

•Phonology is the study of speech sounds in language.

•Phonologists study the sounds themselves and how they are produced, and also how they work together as a system in a particular language.



Consonants and Vowels•We usually divide the sounds of a language into two groups: Consonants and vowels.

•Consonants are the sounds in which the air stream meets some obstacles on its way up from the lungs. Words like “big,” “map,” and “see” begin with consonants.

•Vowels are sounds in which the air stream moves out very smoothly. Words like “apple,” “east,” “over,” and “out” begin with vowels.



Phonemes and Allophones•Every language has its own set of phonemes.

•Phonemes are the distinctive sounds of a language–the sounds that a native speaker of the language considers to be separate sounds.

•Changing from one phoneme to another changes the meaning of the word. Sometimes it makes a word meaningless.



Phonemes and Allophones•For example, if I say “rock” (/rak/), it means.....

•But if I say “lock” (/lak/), then it means...

•Because changing /r/ to /l/ changed one word into a different word, we can tell that /r/ and /l/ are separate phonemes in English. They function as different sounds.



Phonemes and Allophones•On the other hand, if I say “rock” with an American-style /r/, it means...

• If I say “rock” with a “rolled” /r/, it still means...

•Because changing one kind of /r/ to another kind of /r/ did not change the meaning of the word, we can tell that these two sounds are not separate phonemes in English. They’re just two variations of the same phoneme.•Next slide •Previous slide •Title slide •Phonology •Phonemes/Allophones •Phonemic Alphabets


Phonemes and Allophones•Variations of a phoneme that are still heard to be the same sound are called allophones of the same phoneme. They’re different sounds that function as the same sound.

•A phoneme is an abstract concept. It’s related to the way our minds perceive and categorize sounds–not so much to the physical sounds themselves.

•Consider this analogy....



Phonemes and Allophones•What color are these boxes?

•They’re all blue, right? And yet none of them are exactly the same color. So why do we call them all by the same name?

•We can call them all “blue” because English has a category “blue” that includes all these colors, not because they’re really physically the same.



Phonemes and Allophones•We could say that all these colors:

are “allocolors” * of the same “coloreme.” * We understand them as all being “blue,” even though they’re really different. They all belong to the language category of “blue.”

* These are not real words, so you don’t have to remember them.



Phonemes and Allophones• In the same way, allophones are groups of (usually) similar sounds that native speakers think of as being the same sound. Often we don’t even notice that they are actually different.



Phonemes and Allophones•Here’s another example: The words “car” and “key” both start with the same sound: /k/.*

•But if you listen carefully and feel the position of your tongue, you’ll notice that the sounds are not exactly the same.

* One is spelled with “c” and the other with “k,” but that doesn’t affect the sound. These are just two ways of spelling the same sound.



Phonemes and Allophones•When you say /k/ in “car,” your tongue touches much farther back in your mouth than when you say “key.” (Try whispering the two words to hear the difference better.)

•The sound of /k/ changes because it’s affected by the vowel that comes after it. /k/ sounds one way before the back vowel in “car” and a different way before the front vowel in “key.”



Phonemes and Allophones•We say that these two kinds of /k/ are two allophones of the phoneme /k/.

•These two allophones are in complementary distribution. That means we can predict which allophone we’ll hear based on its environment–the other sounds around it.

Complementary distribution is kind of like Clark Kent and Superman. They’re really both the same guy, but you never see them at the same time. When things are calm, you see mild-mannered reporter Clark Kent. When there’s trouble, he turns into Superman. The environment (trouble or no trouble) determines who will show up.



Phonemes and Allophones

•Every language has its own set of phonemes. No two languages have exactly the same system.

•Two sounds that are separate phonemes in one language might be heard as the same sound in another language–in that language, they’re just different allophones of the same phoneme.



Phonemes and Allophones•For example, in English, /s/ and /S / are separate phonemes. (“Seal” and “she’ll” are different words. Changing /s/ to /S / changes the meaning.)

•But in Japanese, these sounds are allophones of the same phoneme. They function as the same sound. [S ] comes before /i/, and [s] occurs before other vowels.(Did you notice that this is another case of complementary distribution? Clark Kent and Superman again!)



Sounds and letters

•Sounds and letters are not the same. Be careful not to confuse letters with the sounds they represent. When we talk about pronunciation, we’re talking about sounds, not letters.


sYou can’t see sounds!

•This is a letter:

•This is a sound:


The Phonemic Alphabet•A phonemic alphabet is a set of symbols that represent the sounds of a language. One symbol represents exactly one phoneme.

•Some of the symbols, like /g/ and /A /, look the same as letters used in ordinary spelling, but they don’t always represent the sounds we’re used to. Other symbols, like /D / and / ́ /, are not found in ordinary spelling.



The Phonemic Alphabet•Why do we need a phonemic alphabet? No language has a perfect spelling system. We seldom have exactly one symbol for exactly one sound, especially in English!

•For example, the letter “c” can spell at least three different sounds in English:

•/k/ in “cat”•/s/ in “city”•/tS / in “cello”



The Phonemic Alphabet•The next two slides show a phonemic alphabet for American English.

•This is not the only possible phonemic alphabet–there are many other variations. You may be familiar with different symbols for some of the sounds. That’s OK.

•Most phonemic alphabets are based on IPA–the International Phonetic Alphabet–but none of them are exactly like real IPA.



Phonemic symbols for consonants


Phonemic Symbols for American English Consonants

Sound Examples Sound Examples Sound Examples

/b/ boy, cab

/p/ pie, lip

/d/ dog, bed

/t/ toe, cat

/g/ go, beg

/k/ cat, kit, back

/v/ view, love

/f/ fill, phone, life

/D/ the, bathe

/T/ thin, bath

/z/ zoo, buzz, goes

/s/ see, city, bus, thinks

/Z/ leisure, beige

/S/ shy, dish, special

/h / his, ahead

/dZ/ joy, giant, budge

/tS/ cheek, watch, cello

/m/ me, seem

/n/ no, sun

/N/ sing, singer, think

/l/ long, full

/r/ run, car

/w/ win, swim, away

/y/ you, loyal


Phonemic symbols for vowels


Phonemic Symbols for American English Vowels

Sound Examples Sound Examples

/iy/ beat, see, machine

/I/ bit, him

/ey/ bait, made, they

/E/ bet, leg, head

/Q/ bat, has

/!/ but, mother

/´/ sofa, around

/uw / boot, blue, shoe

/U/ book, full

/ow/ boat, home, blow

/ç/ bought, saw

/A/ box, car, father

/ay/ bite, sight

/aw/ about, cow

/oy/ boy, noise


Summary

•We have learned about these basic concepts:•Phonology•Consonants and vowels•Phonemes and allophones•The phonemic alphabet

•Click on any of these terms to go back and read the explanations again.



some really basic concepts of phonology -...

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