useful phonological terms

7/28/2019 Useful Phonological Terms

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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.

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