PHONETICS

PHONOLOGY

1. Studies PHONIC SUBSTANCEthe raw

material speech sounds are made of.

1. Studies the SELECTION and FUNCTION of

phonic substance and its ORGANISATION
into a given FORM or PATTERN.

2. It is general to all human beings; it deals

with the complete range of vocal sounds
man can make and perceive, i.e. it is

2. It is SPECIFIC to each language, which

selects certain sounds and organises them
into a given system.

LANGUAGE UNIVERSAL.

3. It is closely connected with physical and

3.
physiological activity (e.g. muscular activity,
sound waves, etc.), i.e. the MATERIAL aspect
of language. For instance, a phonetic study of
[i] would indicate how it is articulated
tongue movement, vocal fold activity, etc.
It works with concrete facts.

It is closely connected with the linguistic,

ABSTRACT aspect of language, i.e. it is the
link between Linguistics and Phonetics. A
phonological study of /i/ would indicate
when to use it (syllable initial, medial,
final) and how it combines with other
sounds, i.e. restrictions and regularities.

4. Representation of PERFORMANCE
4.
VARIABLES or SIMPLIFIED forms of pronunciation, i.e. the SURFACE PHONETIC representations, thought to include more phonetic detail
than is stored mentally, e.g. [junv>sti].

Representation of IDEAL, CITATION or

LEXICAL forms, i.e. the UNDERLYING
PHONOLOGICAL representations, thought to be
analogous to the way pronunciations are stored
in the mental lexicon, e.g. /junIvsti/.

5. It is concerned with ALLOPHONES, which

are the VARIANTS or REALISATIONS or
MEMBERS of each phoneme. Functionally,
members of the same phoneme family.

5. It is concerned with PHONEMESsound

units which function contrastively in a given
language, i.e. those sound units which can
produce a difference in meaning. Functionally, a family of sounds which count as the
same.

6. It has to do with ALLOPHONIC (NARROW)

6. It has to do with PHONEMIC (BROAD)

TRANSCRIPTION:

TRANSCRIPTION:

[ tHa>It8]
[4aId8]
[l]
[l8 ]
[]

/taItl/
/raId/

/l/

[a>I]
/aI/
[aI]

7. ALLOPHONIC TRANSCRIPTION records

the actual realisation of each phoneme.
It provides a different symbol for each
allophone. Used for GENERAL PHONETIC or
IMPRESSIONISTIC analyses of unanalysed
data. Uneconomical but more precise.

7. PHONEMIC TRANSCRIPTION provides one

symbol for each phoneme. More
economical. Used when the phonological
oppositions of a given language have
been worked out. Normally shown in
dictionaries.

8. Substitution of allophones does not

produce changes of meaningonly a
foreign accent or another dialect.

8. Substitution of phonemes produces

changes of meaning.

9. Study of allophones gives us precise

9. Study of phonemes gives us the priorities
articulatory descriptions of the target
of pronunciation, i.e. those features which
language and their mastery leads to a (near)
are meaningfully essential (and therefore the
native pronunciation.
most important to learn first). Their mastery
leads to mere intelligibility.
10. Native speakers are normally unconscious
of the allophones of their mother tongue.

10. Native speakers are naturally conscious of

the phonemes of their mother tongue.