Phonology Phonology is The study of sound systems

Phonology

Phonology is… The study of sound systems within a language n The study of how speech sounds pattern n The study of how speech sounds vary n The study of how speech sounds contrast n

Definitions Phone: speech sound n Phoneme / / n n n Contrastive units in a langauge Never pronounced Realized by one or more allophones Allophone [ ] n n Pronounced (every sound you produce) Variation of a phoneme

Possibilities n Allophones of separate phonemes /t/ [t] n /th/ [th] Allophones of the same phoneme /t/ [t] [th]

Questions to ask when comparing phones What is the environment? n Is there a difference in meaning n Are they allophones of the same phoneme or do they belong to different phonemes? n

Types of Distribution n Contrastive distribution: difference in meaning, form a minimal pair, belong to separate phonemes n Example: ‘cat’ [kh. Qt] and ‘hat’ [h. Qt]

Types of Distribution Cont. n Free Variation: phones appear in exactly the same environments; no difference in meaning; are allophones of the same phoneme. • Example: ‘economics’ [i] or [E] initially

Types of Distribution Cont. n Complementary: phones appear in differing environments; are allophones of the same phoneme • Example: ‘top’ [thap] and ‘stop’ [stap]

Variation in sounds: The case of “t” in American English n Say the following words: n n top, stop, metal, and right What is the difference between the four “t”s? top [thap] the “t” is aspirated [th] n stop [stap] the “t” is unaspirated [t] n metal [m. ERl] the “t” is a flap [R] n right [rayt’] the “t” is unreleased [t’] n

The case of “t” in American English n n n The sound we perceive as “t” actually has four phonetic realizations Since in our mind, the abstract sound is still a “t” we call “t” a PHONEME. Phones go in brackets [t], phonemes go in slashes /t/ Every language has phonemes and variants of that phoneme, which we call ALLOPHONES Appearance of allophones depends on rules

Phonemes and Allophones n What are the rules for the different allophones of /t/? /t/ [th] [t’] [R]

Allophonic rules for /t/: n /t/ [th] word-initally and in front of stressed syllables n n /t/ [R] intervocalically, when second vowel is unstressed n n better, Betty, butter, cutie, buttocks /t/ [t’] word-finally n n table, treat, attend, until, attack set, right, caught, pit /t/ [t] elsewhere n stop, street, antics, Baltic

Phonemes are CONTRASTIVE n We’ve established phonemes are abstract ideals of our language’s sounds in our mind which are realized in different allophones n Phonemes are also what produce a change in MEANING between words. This why we say that phonemes are contrastive

Minimal Pairs n n Take the following pronunciations: n [brajth] [brajt’] = “bright” n Violating “allophone rules” results in funny pronunciation, not confusion in meaning When a switch in only one phone produces a change in meaning of a word, the two sounds CONTRAST so they must belong to different phonemes n n [brajt’] vs [brajd] vs [brajb] “bright/bride/bribe” So, we can say that in English, [t’], [d] and [b] all belong to DIFFERENT phonemes /t/, /d/, and /b/

Minimal Pairs n Pairs (or trios, etc) of words that only differ in one sound, while the other sounds remain the same are called Minimal Pairs n n Ex: cane/gain; decree/degree; back/bag What are some examples of minimal pairs to contrast the following sounds? n n n [p] v [b] [s] v [S] [l] v [®]

Phonemes and Allophones n n So, in a pair of words like flea [fli] and free [f®i] we can determine that the phones [l] and [®] are allophones of DIFFERENT phonemes In a pair of words like [phit] and [spit] we can determine that [ph] and [p] are allophones of the SAME phoneme. (since we can say [sphit] and it’s still understandable)