Phonology: A quick revision.

Phonology is the study of the sound system of a language. It deals with the organisation of
speech sounds in a particular language and the way they pattern.

Phonology is the study of sound structure in language. It is an abstract cognitive system

dealing with rules in a mental grammar.

Phonemes are not physical sounds. They are abstract mental representation of the
phonological units of a language.

Minimal pairs are the substitution of one sound with another bringing about a change of
meaning. For example, the sounds /p/ and /b/ when replacing /P/ in [pӕt] / with the
sound /b/ it becomes [bӕt].

Allophony is considered to be the actual phonetic realisation of phonemes. Allophones are

non-constructive, they do not change meaning, and they do not occur in the same place.

Complementary distribution: A phoneme may be realised by more than one speech sound
and the selection of each variant is usually conditioned by the phonetic environment of the
phoneme.

Phonology investigates sound differences within a language and investigates sound patterns
within a language.

Natural class: The grouping of several Phonemes that share one or more distinctive features

A natural class is a set of phonemes in a language that share certain distinctive features. A natural
class is determined by participation in shared phonological processes, described using the minimum
number of features necessary for descriptive adequacy.

A natural class is a set of sounds that have certain phonetic features in common. All the members of
a natural class are affected in the same way in the same environment. Similarly, all members of
a natural class have the same effect on other sounds that occur in their environment.

Define syllabic?

Syllabic is the role the sound plays in a syllable structure.

Syllable structure : Syllabic sounds constitute a syllable peak (sonority peak) take for example
the word fat. This word consists of an onset f and the rhyme. Rhyme is further divided to a nucleus
which is always a vowel and coda t.

Define sonorants?
Sonorants are sounds that have a resonance. These sounds are usually musical and they include
vowels, semi-vowels, nasal sounds and liquids.

Define consonantal?

Consonantal sounds are sounds that are produced with an approximant stricture. They involve vocal
tract constriction while being articulated, denoting a narrowing of the oral cavity. It includes all
consonants except semi-vowels.

Define nasal?

Sounds that are produced by the nasal cavity. The velum is lowered so that the air runs through the
nasal cavity.

Define lateral?

Laterals are sounds that are produced by raising the tip of the tongue to the alveolar ridge, letting the
air to pass from the sides with a small amount of restriction. They are distinguished from the central
airflow.

Define delayed release?

These are sounds that are produced by a complete stoppage of the air then a release of that air
instantly. They are to distinguish stops from affricates.

Outline for the final

Exercise 1: Write a paragraph (on one of the following concepts)

Phonology

In this paragraph, we will define phonology on the basis of its object of study, unit of analysis, and
methodology. Phonology is a subfield of linguistics that studies the internal structure of sounds in a
language. It is an abstract cognitive system dealing with sounds in a mental grammar. It is also worth
to mention that phonology studies the intuitive knowledge of native speakers of a language. Its main
unit of analysis is phonemes which are abstract symbolic sounds that represent but not the same as
physical sounds. The latter are called allophones. These allophones come in complementary
distribution, meaning that whenever one occurs in a specific phonetic environment the other do not.
To establish its phonemic inventory phonology relies on the minimal pair test which identifies
phonemes that are substituting each other bringing about a change of meaning.

or

Phonology is the study of the rule system that governs how particular speech sounds are used to
produce meaningful words. It investigates the systematic organization of sounds in a particular
language. In particular, phonology is concerned with phonemes. These are speech sounds that are
capable of creating a distinction in meaning between different words. If two speech sounds can
contrast to make a distinction in meaning then they are said to be phonemes. For example, the
words tin and din form what is known as a minimal pair. This means that they differ in only one
element, in this case either the initial consonant ‘t’ or ‘d’. We see that ‘t’ and ‘d’ are, therefore,
capable of contrasting different meanings and so they are considered to be phonemes. In English
there are around 24 consonant speech sounds that are capable of displaying this contrastive function,
i.e. there are around 24 consonant phonemes.

Phonemes

Abstract symbolic sounds that represents but not the same as physical sounds and illustrate them.

Minimal pair

When one sound substitutes another bringing about a change of meaning (illustrate).

Complementary distribution

When one sound occurs in a phonetic environment the other do not. They are therefore non-
contrastive that do not cause in change in meaning.( illustrate)

Phonological processes

The change that sounds undergo when they are brought together or when combining two
morphemes Illustrate some:

Assimilation: in assimilatory processes a segment takes the feature of a neighboring segment. A C

may take the feature of a vowel or vice versa, also one C may influence another or a Vowel may affect
another. Assimilation might be either regressive or progressive.

C taking feature of a vowel: Palatalization or labialization

V assimilating C features: nasalization or voicing

C assimilates C features: voicing agreed clusters or place

V assimilates V features: Vowel harmony or umlauting (fronting)

Deletion: a syllable structure process that affects the distribution of consonants and vowels within a
word by either deleting the consonant or the vowel. The effect of such process is either to break up
clusters of C or hiatus. or (if the language prefers open syllables?)

Epenthesis: a syllable structure process that affects the distribution of consonants and vowels within
a word by either inserting a consonant or a vowel. The effect of such process is either to break up
clusters of C or hiatus. or (if the language prefers open syllables?)

Coalescence: a syllable structure process that affects the distribution of consonants and vowels
within a word by replacing two segments by a single one which shares features of the original ones.
The effect of such process is either to reduce clusters of C or hiatus. or (if the language prefers open
syllables?)

Major class changes: a syllable structure process that affects the distribution of consonants and
vowels within a word by changing the major class membership of a segment. The effect of such
process is either to break up clusters of C and avoid hiatus.
Metathesis: syllable structure process that affects the distribution of consonants and vowels within a
word by interchanging two segments. The effect of such process is either to break up clusters of C or
avoid hiatuses.

Neutralization: is a phonological process in which a sound loses a feature in a certain environment.

Hence, segments which contrast in one environment have the same representation in the
environment of neutralization.

Dissimilation: a phonological process responsible for making sounds less similar to each other.

Distinctive features

Another aspect of morphology

Ordered rules

In a phonological rule we state the exact conditions under which a phonological process takes place.
Therefore, we say that these rules maps abstract underlying representations into surface
representations. However, when there are multiple rules in the data, we face the problem of which
rule should is ordered first and which is after. To solve this, we say that two rules are ordered if, for
some forms, applying the rules in one order results in different output from applying them in a
different one. If all orders lead to the same output, then the rules are not really ordered.

Markedness

Markedness refers to the naturalness of certain segments and phonological systems.

It also refers to the relationship between two segments in which one of them is more distinctively
marked than the unmarked one. Important to the notion of markedness is the assumption that the
unmarked member represents the less complex or the normal. For example; unmarked segments
such as oral vowels which are more natural and more normal than marked ones which are nasalized
vowels that have undergone a change. Both sounds are differentiated through their values for the
feature nasal.

Phonological rule

A phonological rule is a formal way of expressing a systematic phonological or morpho-

phonological process or diachronic sound change in language. These rules are written out in a
specialized notation that codifies the way in which a sound or group of sounds are altered by
appearing in a specific linguistic context. They may use phonetic notation or distinctive features or
both.

A phonological rule is a method for describing the way in which individual sounds are produced in
spoken language.

Natural classes

A natural class refers to a group of sounds in a language that share certain distinctive features. They
undergo the same phonological process that is to say if one is affected the other one is also affected.
Exercise 2: in simple English, transcribe the rules

Exercise 3: transcribe the following paragraphs into rules

Exercise 4: Phonological analysis