Phonemes By Prof Jare M R Head Dept

Phonemes By - Prof. Jare M. R. Head, Dept. of English, S. M. Joshi College, Hadapsar, Pune-28.

Phonemes A limited no. of distinctive sound units English - 44 phonemes Def. “The smallest contrastive linguistic unit which may bring about a change of meaning” – Daniel Jones “The phoneme is the minimal unit of distinctive soundfeature” – Bloomfield Phonemes can be found by minimal pairs. Two words that differ in only one sound are called a minimal pair Pet, bet, get, set, net, let /p, b, g, s, n, l/ Hat, hit, heat, hot, heart /æ, I, i: , o, a: /

Voiced and voiceless �Those speech sounds for which the vocal cords do not vibrate, are called voiceless sounds e. g. /p, t, k/ �The speech sounds for which the vocal cords vibrate are called voiced sounds e. g. /b, d, g/ �All the vowel sounds are voiced speech sounds

Allophones �Each phoneme may have a number of variants, these variants are called allophones �Allophones of a phoneme are not significant from meaning point of view �Allophones are the different phonetic realizations �E. g. /ph, th, kh / �Central /k/ in ‘calm’, retracted /k/ in ‘cool’, and fronted /k/ in ‘keel’ �Clear /l/ and dark /l/ �Allophones are phonetic variations.

Syllabic consonants �Syllable is made by one or more phonemes �Vowel is at the centre of the syllable e. g. dog, bad �Syllable formed without a vowel is called syllabic consonant e. g. /n/, /l/ cotton, mutton, battle, little etc.

Syllable structure �Syllable structure is represented by the “cvc” formula 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. V=a Vc = us Cv = sea Cvc = boss Ccv = play Cccv = straw 7. cccvc = street 8. cccvcc = strange 9. cccvccc = strands 10. vcccc = ancles 11. cvcccc = texts 12. ccvcccc = twelfths

Tonic syllable � Tonic syllable is the last prominent syllable in the tone unit where the tone change begin. Tone unit is a sequence of accented syllables, one or more of which are prominent. Facts on Tone unit & Tonic Syllable: Each tone unit contain only one tonic syllable. � Each tone unit carries one change of tone. � We mark Tone unit boundaries by placing a " rectangle " at the beginning of the Tone unit. � Tonic syllables must have a high degree of prominence. � Tonic syllables are syllables which carries a tone and also a type of stress. � Tonic syllables are also known as nucleus. � Prominence is extra emphasis given to accented syllables by means of key, volume and duration. � Unemphatic : He is reading a novel. (not a drama) � Emphatic : This is my book. (no doubt about it) � This is my book. (it is mine only, not of any other person)

Tone groups �A unit of an intonation pattern, having its own nucleus �may contain a single word, a phrase, a clause or a sentence. �Longer sentences are usually divided into tone groups �Division of groups corresponds to grammatical division of clauses and phrases. �Examples : � When he came, / - / I asked him to wait. � If you study, / - / you will get success. � The boy studied hard / - / but he failed

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