UNIT 1: PHONETICS AND PHONOLOGY

01. PHONETICS AND PHONOLOGY

01.01. SPEECH AND LANGUAGE
01.02. PHONEMES AND ALLOPHONES
02. LECTURE 1
03. LECTURE 2 (THE PHONEME AND DISTINCTIVE FEATURES)
04. THE INTERNATIONAL PHONETIC ALPHABET
04.01 TRANSCRIPTION SYSTEMS

01.01 SPEECH AND LANGUAGE

2 aspects in English pronunciation:
- SPEECH: physical activity carried on by people who use English for communication. Is
carried by airwaves and represented in spectrograms.
- LANGUAGE: abstract code handed down from the past with slight changes made by
each generation.
We use 2 disciplines:
- PHONETICS: deals with speech in it´s purely physical aspects.
Branches:
1 ARTICULATORY PHONETICS: production of different sounds.
Studies the way sounds are produced, articulated by the speaker
2 ACOUSTIC PHONETICS: sound transmission.
Physical properties of the sound waves which carries speech sounds between moth and ears
3 AUDITORY PHONETICS: sound process
Effects that waves have on the ear of the listener. And the way in which the human ear and brain
process and interpretate those sounds.
SPEAKER MESSAGE LISTENER
PRODUCTION TRANSMISSION RECEPTION
ARTICULATORY ACOUSTIC AUDITORY
PHONETICS PHONETICS PHONETICS

-PHONOLOGY: sound system of a specific language

PHYSICAL FACTS OF SPEECH

LINGUISTIC KNOWLEDGE
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01.02. PHONEMES AND ALLOPHOENES

The units of speech:
1. DISCOURSE / TEXT: any act of speech wich occurs in a given place and during a given
period of time
*discourse here means “spoken discourse” something with full meaning

2. UTTERANCE: it´s oral

- A discourse consists of at least one utterance
- It’s a stretch of speech produced by a single speaker, with silence before and after.
- Two utterances can be simultaneous (overlapping conversations)
- One person cannot produce two utterances at the same time
- Utterances are ephemeral physical events.
- They´re incomplete versions of a sentence (elision)

3. TONE UNIT:
- An utterance, consists of at least one tone unit
- Is a stretch of speech which has describable melody or intonation
- The melody, results from the speakers vocal cords vibration frequency which forms
different pitches:
High pitch = high vibration of cords
Low pitch = low vibration of cords

4. SYLLABLE:
- A tone unit consists of at least one syllable and usually more than one.
- Consists of a vocalic element (núcleo obligatorio) with or with-out non vocalic
elements among it.
- When a tone unit consists of several syllables, they differ in prominence, due to
combination of factors.
1 force with which air is expelled from the lungs
2 higher pitch or changing pitch
3 duration of the syllable

High pitch
duration of the syllable syllable

Low pitch

5. ALLOPHONE:
- A syllable consists of at least one allophone (sound) and usually more than one
- Realisation in speech pf the different phonemes of a language
- Is dynamic process

*golpe de sonido= énfasis = cambio de pronunciación = diferente alófono mismo fonema

6. ARTICULATORY FEATURE:
 UNIT 1: PHONETICS AND PHONOLOGY

- In the production or articulation of an allophone the vocal organs have a particular

configuration
- These features occurs simultaneously. No allophone can consist of a single feature.
1 distinctives: features that are present in all allophones
2 redundant: those present in one or several but not in all allophones
Place of articulation
Distinctives Manner of articulation
Voicing

Features
Redundant Aspiration

The units od language:

1. SENTENCE:
- Way in which express ourselves much of the time
- Basic elements of an English sentence S.V (O)
- Different types
1 statements
2 questions
3 commands

2. PHRASE:
- component of the sentences
- different types depending on the head NP, VP, ADJ.P, ADV.P, PP.

3. WORDS: component of a phrase

Major classes: nouns, verbs, adjetives, adverbs (they have lexical meaning by them
selves)
Minor classes: determiners, prepositions, conjuctions…(grammatical meaning)

4. MORPHEME: *smallest unit with meaning*

- Every word consists of at least one morpheme
1 BASE MORPHEME: cannot be divided into smallest meaningful units
2 AFIXES: only exists in combination with base
PREFIXES: Before the base
SUFFIXES: After the base
3 ALLOMORPHS: alteration of the morph. Different expressions of the same
morpheme, which has the same meaning or function

5. PHONEME: * representación gráfica de la pronunciación

* de fonema a alófono
* seat / si:t/ heat /he:t/
- unit of phonogy in a particular language which makes the connection between sound and
meaning: capacity of differentiating morphemes
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- a phoneme varies in pronunciation: its and abstracts unit which is realised in speech as
different segments in different positions
-phoneme + phoneme = morpheme = significate
- MINIMAL PAIRS- COMMUTATION: pairs of words which are different only in one
phoneme
PHONOLOGY: describes the sound system of English
- Establishes the phonemes of the language
- Tells in what possible sequence they can occur
- What pronunciation each phoneme has in its various positions of occurrence
Phoneme= letter (sometimes)
Phoneme= sounds ( phonemes are the realisation in speech. Is an abstract unit that
becomes real when they pronounce it. So the phoneme is the idea of the sound)

6. ARTICULATORY FEATURE

02. LECTURE 1
Phonetics, is an empirical science which studies human speech sounds.
Tells how sounds are produced.
Phonetics has three main branches:
- Articulatory phonetics
- Acoustic phonetics
- Auditory phonetics
Important roles in the teaching of foreign languages and speech therapies.
Phonemes are the basic units of phonology
- The similar but non- contrastive sounds are called allophones

Distintive component
Allophones aspirated: stress vowel (vocal oclusiva)
Unaspirated (preceded by s /speɪn/ )
Allophones free- variations: final position /t/
/´¬aitH/
/´¬aiT/ no audible lable
/´¬ ait=/ glottal
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Comportamientos regulares i.e CCC VV

/streŋθ/ 1ºpos: aspirada sonora
/ˈsplen.dɪd/ 2ªpos: oclusiva sorda
/spred/ 3ªpos: líquida
/ˌek.skləˈmeɪ.ʃən/

03. LECTURE 2 (THE PHONE AND DISTINCTIVE FEATURES)

-PHONE: discrete unit with a particular phonetic character
-ALLOPHONE: non-contrastive, variant of a phoneme which usually occurs in a specific
phonetic contest.
1 distintive composition:
Dark /dɑːk/ (l) before vowel
Clear /klɪər/ (l) after vowel
2 free variation: depends of context and accents
/pH/ exploded
/p¬/ unexploded
-MINIMAL PAIRS: pairs distinguished by only one phoneme
-COMMUTATION TEST: studying the sound system of a language looking for minimal pairs
applying these method
-NEUTRALIZATION (aislación): * necesidad en algunos casos del contexto, para diferenciar
1 only affects phonims
2 cancellation of a phonological position
3 lose aspiration /sp=ɪn/ /sbɪn/ no se diferencian al ser neutralizados
*signo de no aspiración = elevado)

+ sustitución por ∂ por popularidad

04.THE INTERNATIONAL PHONETIC ALPHABET

- what is a transcription /tranˈskrɪpʃən/ ?

Is the visual representation of speech sounds or phones and by means of symbols

2 types:

1 PHONEMIC /BROAD TRANSCRIPTIONS

2 PHONETIC / NARROW TRANSCRIPTIONS ( more detailed)

Vowels and diphthongs (double
vowels)
iː seat /siːt/, feel /fiːl/
ɪ sit /sɪt/, in /ɪn/
e set /set/, any /ˈeni/
æ sat /sæt/, match /mætʃ/
ɑː march /mɑːtʃ/, after /ˈɑftə(r)/
ɒ pot /pɒt/, gone /ɡɒn/
ɔː port /pɔːt/, law /lɔː/
ʊ good /gʊd/, could /kʊd/
uː food /fuːd/, group /gruːp/
ʌ much /mʌtʃ/, front /frʌnt/
ɜː turn /tɜːn/, word /wɜːd/
ə away /əˈweɪ/, collect
/kəˈlekt/, until /ənˈtɪl/
eɪ take /teɪk/, wait /weɪt/
aɪ mine /maɪn/, light /laɪt/
ɔɪ oil /ɔɪl/, boy /bɔɪ/
əʊ no /nəʊ/, open /ˈəʊpən/
aʊ house /haʊs/, now /naʊ/
ɪə hear /hɪə(r)/, deer /dɪə(r)/
eə air /eə(r)/, where /weə(r)/
ʊə tour /tʊə(r)/,
endure /ɪnˈdjʊə(r)/
UNIT 1: PHONETICS AND PHONOLOGY
Consonants
p pull /pʊl/, cup /kʌp/
b bull /bʊl/, rob /rɒb/
f ferry /ˈferi/, life /laɪf/
v very /ˈveri/, live /lɪv/
θ think /θɪnk/, bath /bɑːθ/
ð then /ðen/, with /wɪð/
t take /teɪk/, set /set/
d day /deɪ/, red /red/
s sing /sɪŋ/, rice /raɪs/
z zoo /zuː/, days /deɪz/
ʃ show /ʃəʊ/, wish /wɪʃ/
ʒ pleasure /ˈpleʒə(r)/, occasion
/əˈkeɪʒn/
tʃ cheap /tʃiːp/, catch /kætʃ/
dʒ jail /dʒeɪl/, bridge /brɪdʒ/
k case /keɪs/, take /teɪk/
ɡ go /ɡəʊ/, rug /rʌɡ/
m my /maɪ/, come /kʌm/
n no /nəʊ/, on /ɒn/
ŋ sing /sɪŋ/, finger /ˈfɪŋɡə(r)/
l love /lʌv/, hole /həʊl/
r round /raʊnd/, carry /ˈkæri/
w well /wel/
j young /jʌŋ/
h house /haʊs/
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Cuando se añade -ing a las trasncripciones no se modifica la

palabra base solo se añade -In(G)

VOCABULARY:
- TO UTTER: pronunciar en voz alta /ˈʌt.ər/
- SIEVE:criva /sɪv/
- - BLADE: cuchilla /bleɪd/
- DEVOICED: desonorizar /diːˈvɔɪs/
-CLUSTERS: group of consonants /ˈklʌs.tər/
-RP: received pronunciation (Br.E)
-GA: general americam (Am.E)
-WISHING WELL: pozo de los deseos
-TOMCAT: gato macho