Chapter five Sound Patterns Phonetics it is the

Chapter five: Sound Patterns

Phonetics : it is the scientific study of human speech sounds production. It is classified into A- Articulatory phonetics B- Acoustic phonetics C- Auditory Phonetics Phonology : it is the study of the sound system and function. -Phonemes : It is the smallest meaningful segment or unit that changes the meaning. Phone : is the realization of the phoneme , “uttering it”

-Complementary distribution and free variation Complementary distribution, as distinct from contrastive distribution and free variation, is the relationship between two different elements of the same kind, where one element is found in one set of environments and the other element is found in a non-intersecting (i. e. complementary) set of environments. It often indicates that two superficially different elements are the same linguistic unit at a deeper level. It is possible for more than two elements to be in complementary distribution with one another.

Free variation in linguistics is the phenomenon of two (or more) sounds or forms appearing in the same environment without a change in meaning and without being considered incorrect by native speakers. Ex / / ti: / , / tu: / ,

Distinctive features In linguistics, a distinctive feature is the most basic unit of phonological structure that may be analyzed in phonological theory. Distinctive features are grouped into categories according to the natural classes of segments they describe: major class features, laryngeal features, manner features, and place features. These feature categories in turn are further specified on the basis of the phonetic properties of the segments in question.

Since the inception of the phonological analysis of distinctive features in the 1950 s, features traditionally have been specified by binary values to signify whether a segment is described by the feature; a positive value, [+], denotes the presence of a feature, while a negative value, [−], indicates its absence. In addition, a phoneme may be unmarked with respect to a feature. However, in recent developments to theory of distinctive features, phonologists have proposed the existence of single-valued features. These features, called univalent or privative features, can only describe the classes of segments that are said to possess those features, and not the classes that are without them.

-Natural class : This class is a group of sounds which share common features such as nasal consonants. -Non-Segmental Phonology. Suprasegmental or non-segmental phonology analyses those features of speech which extend over more than one segment, such as intonation or (in some theories) vowel harmony. In speech, a segment is any one of the discrete units that occur in a sequence of sounds. Also known as the phonological segment or the phonetic segment. Linguist John Goldsmith has described segments as "vertical slices" of the speech stream.

Metrical Phonology. English language does not have tones , but it possess some non-segmental features which exists alongside the phonemes , each word and word group of words has its own rhythm , an interplay of stressed and unstressed syllables. This branch of phonology is known as “Material Phonology”.