Phonetics & Phonology

basic terms
 Phonetics
►PHONETICS
►- the study of the sounds of human speech
►- the actual properties of speech sounds (phones),
and their production, audition and perception.
►Phonetics has three main branches:
►articulatory phonetics, concerned with the positions
and movements speech organs;
►acoustic phonetics, concerned with the properties of
the sound waves;
►auditory phonetics, concerned with speech
perception.
 Sound analysis
►The ability to analyse a word into its
individual sounds does not depend on the
knowledge of spelling.

►E.g.:
►Not and knot
►keep out and keepout,
►Hold on and I am holing don.
 Phonetic alphabet

►Are all sounds that people can make the

sounds of a language?
►International Phonetic Alphabet from 1888:

created to symbolize the sounds of all languages, a

standardized representation of the sounds of
spoken language.
 English spelling

►Considerably ambiguous.
►Even if words rhyme visually, in writing, they do not
rhyme in practice at all.
►E.g.:
►plough-cough,
►through-dough.
►But:
►see, sea, people, amoeba, fiend have the same long [i:]
vowel, but five different spellings.
 Consonantal vs. vocalic sounds
►Consonantal (spółgłoskowej) sounds are
pronounced :
►- with some restriction or closure in the vocal
tract,
►- with an irregular frequency of vibration (pol.
szumy)
►Parameters:
Place of articulation
Manner of articulation
Vocalic (samogłoskowe) sounds are pronounced:
- with the air flow never blocked,
- With a regular frequency of vibration.
► Parameters:
►Pitch
►Sonority
►Height
►Length
►Open vs. close, front vs. back, rounded vs. spread or
neutral, oral vs. nasal.
 Cardinal vowels
►The current system was proposed by Daniel
Jones;
►A set of reference vowels;
►Produced when the tongue is in an extreme
position;
►Divide into: primary and secondary.
►Video: Daniel Jones
 Monophthongs vs. Diphthong
►Diphthong involve a quick but smooth movement
(glide) from one vowel to another.

►Monophthongs have one target tongue position.

 Major Classes of sounds

►Non-continuants: a total obstruction of the

airstream in the oral cavity, e.g. stop sounds [p, t, k,
n]
►Continuants: air flows continuously out of the
mouth.
►Obstruents: the nonnasal stop, the fricatives
[s, z, ʃ, ʒ ] and the affricates [tʃ] [dʒ] form a
major class called obstruents.
►Sonorants: produced with relatively free airflow
through either the mouth or the nose. They have
greater acoustic energy than obstruents.
►Nasals: m,n
►Liquids: l, r
►Labials: p b, f, v.
►Coronals: articulated by means of raising the
tongue blade: t, d, n, s, z.

►Anterior: articulated with the obstruction located

in the front of the palato-alveolar region of the
mouth: p, b, m, f, v, t, d, n, s, z.
 Phonology
►Phonology is a subfield of linguistics which
studies the sound system of a specific language
(or languages).
►Phonology describes the way sounds function
within a given language or across languages.
►Distinctive units: Phonemes

►/p/ and /b/ are distinctive units in English

because we can find a minimal pair, e.g. pin and
bin.
►Phonological Environment the phonological
context in which each variant of the phoneme is
known to occur.
►Minimal pairs
►They are used to demonstrate that two phones
constitute two separate phonemes in the
language.
 Transcription
►Phonemic transcription vs. Phonetic transcription
►broad transcription (between slashes / /) and narrow
transcription (between square brackets [ ]).
 Phoneme
►Phoneme: the smallest unit of speech that
distinguishes meaning.
►Phonemes are abstractions of physical
segments.
►E.g. /t/in tip, stand, writer, and cat.
 Distribution

►Complementary distribution: allophones

►Contrastive distribution: minimal pairs

►Free variation (fakultatywna): e.g. router

[ruː.tər] [ˈraʊ.t̬ɚ]
video Intro to phonology
 Sounds in context
►In the longer units of words or sentences, the
sounds undergo the following changes:
►Linking: e.g. turn off-tur noff

►Elision: e.g. tell him-tell im

►Assimilation: e.g. handbag in rapid speech is

pronounced [hæmbæɡ]
►Palatalization: did you? as [dɪdʒuː] rather than
[dɪdjuː]
►Vowel reduction: the centralization and
weakening of an unstressed vowel: better, about.
 Weak or Strong forms

►Weak forms: no stress,

►Strong forms: stressed,

►E.g. function words and grammatical morphemes:

pronouns, prepositions, articles, auxiliary verbs are usually
weak forms.