PHONETICS AND

PHONOLOGY
Lecturer: Thy Le, M.A.
 ACCENT
Several ways in which the language can be
pronounced
 DIALECT
Variation in grammar and vocabulary
VARIETY
Language variation – pronunciation –
grammar and vocabulary
 Language variation

Regional variation social variation

differences differences
between one place between one social
and another group and another

gender, ethnicity,
religion, age, social
class
sociolinguistic pyramid
 the
Oxford BBC
prestige accent English English
Queen’s
English

RP
Received
Pronunciation ‘received’ - ‘socially acceptable’
● Non-regional pronunciation – NRP
● Estuary English
● General American - GA
ACOUSTICS
The study of sound in general is the science of
acoustics.
PHONETICS
The study of sound in human language.
PHONOLOGY
The study of the selection and patterns of
sounds in a single language.
 PHONETICIAN & PHONOLOGIST
● Phonetician: linguists who study phonetics.

● Phonologist: linguists who study phonology.

PHONETICS
 PHONETICS
The systematic study of the sounds of speech, which
is physical and directly observable.
 PHONETICS
Phonetics is sometimes seen as not properly linguistic,
because it is the outward, physical manifestation of the
main object of linguistic research, which is language (not
speech): and language is abstract.
 PHONETICS
×There is a primacy about the spoken form of language which means that for us to
understand questions:
● “what is the possible form of a word?”
● “how do you ask questions in this language?”
● “why does this speaker use that particular pronunciation, and not some other?”
=> an understanding of phonetics
EXAMINE SPEECH

ARTICULATORY PHONETICS The movements of the tongue,

lips and other speech organs

Examine speech ACOUSTIC PHONETICS The physical nature of the

speech signal

AUDITORY PHONETICS How the ear receives the

speech signal
PHONOLOGY
 PHONOLOGY
Phonology is concerned with the abstract or mental aspect of the
sounds in language rather than with the actual physical articulation
of speech sounds.
 PHONOLOGY
Phonology is about the underlying design, the blueprint of each
sound type, which serves as the constant basis of all the variations in
different physical articulations of that sound type in different
contexts.
PHONETICS AND PHONOLOGY
Phonetics and phonology both study language sound.

Phonetics examines how Phonology examines language

symbolic sound is manifested sounds as mental units,
as a continuous physical encapsulated symbolically, and
phenomenon. focuses on how these units
function in grammars.
PHONEMES
 PHONEME
The word ‘pet’ consists of the three phonemes
/p/, /e/ and /t/.

The word ‘man’ consists of the three phonemes

/m/, /æ/ and /n/.
 PHONEME
The phoneme is the smallest unit of sound which can differentiate
one word from another.
Phonemes are written between slashes.
/p/
/k/
/t/
 ALLOPHONES
Each phoneme is composed of a number of different sounds
which are interpreted as one meaningful unit by a native
speaker of the language.
Þ Allophonic variation
Þ The variants: Allophones
ALLOPHONES
[tʰ]: aspiration (the puff of air)
[ɾ]: flap
[ʔ]: glottal stop
[t̪ ]: dental consonant
=> These variations are all part of one set of phones, they are
referred to as allophones of the phoneme /t/
THE INTERNATIONAL
PHONETIC
ALPHABET
(IPA)