Fonética y fonología del inglés

Profesor Dr. Darío Barrera Pardo

BOOKLET 2: PHONOLOGY

In this section of the course we will learn:

• The difference between phonetics and phonology

• What is a phoneme
• What is an allophone
• Minimal pairs
• Define and illustrate complementary distribution
• Define and illustrate free variation
• Develop our understanding of functional load

DEFINING PHONETICS

Phonetics studies the physical description of sounds

The branch of phonetics that deals with the physical nature of speech sounds is
called acoustic phonetics or the physics of speech … listening to speech
sounds and thinking exactly what they sound like is something many
phoneticians do routinely as part of their work. It can be called auditory
phonetics and it underpins much of the practical phonetic training or ear-
training. This is useful because it also serves to remind us that speech isn’t just
something we produce but also something we hear and pay attention to, listen to.
So phonetics is interested just as much in how we hear or perceive what is said
as in how we say it in the first place. Another dimension of auditory phonetics is
the study of speech perception”

Ashby, P. (2011). Understanding phonetics. Hodder Education. pp. 9-10

DEFINING PHONOLOGY

PHONOLOGY

“Phonetics is essentially the study of the physical aspects of speech … phonetic

research might investigate … the precise movements of the tongue in producing
the sound ‘s’. Phonology is concerned with the linguistic patterning of sounds in
human languages … phonologists are concerned with those abstract patterns in
the sound systems of languages that have to be learned by a child (or indeed
adult) acquiring the language. In this respect phonology is concerned with
something psychological, mental, or in contemporary terms, cognitive”

Spencer, A. (1996). Phonology: Theory and description. Blackwell. p.2

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“A linguistic system is built on the idea of contrasts. By selecting one type of
sound instead of another we can, for instance, distinguish one word from
another. Thus, we can distinguish the words cane and gain by choosing as the
first consonants either ‘k’ or ‘g’”

Spencer, A. (1996). Phonology: Theory and description. Blackwell. p.3

PHONEMES

“The first, most obvious question that a phonologist would ask when confronted
with an undescribed language is ‘what sounds does the language make us of?’ In
other words, the first aspect of the phonology of a language is the sound
inventory … once we have established the inventory of sounds used in a
language, we will wish to know what relationships those sounds have to each
other. An important distinction traditionally drawn is between those sounds
which are used contrastively and those which are variant pronunciations of
contrastively used sounds. Put simply, the contrastive sounds of a language are
those which, like ‘k’ and ‘g’ in English, can be used in that language to
distinguish one word from another. The sounds used contrastively are called
phonemes. However, a given phoneme may in fact be realized as a number of
different sounds depending on the phonological context in which it is found. Such
variant pronunciations are called conditioned variants or allophones of a
phoneme. The phenomenon itself is called allophony. A familiar case of
allophony is provided by the ‘p t k’ sounds of words such as pan, tan, and can.
These differ in quality from the corresponding sounds in span, Stan and scan …
such sounds as ‘p t k’ are called plosives. The initial plosives of pan, tan, can are
accompanied with a slight puff of air, aspiration. This aspiration, however, is
lacking in span, Stan, scan, which have plain plosives. However, the lack of
aspiration in the s- initial words is due to the presesence of the ‘s’ and is wholly
predictable. There are no words in English distinguished solely by the aspiration
of a plosive”

Spencer, A. (1996). Phonology: Theory and description. Blackwell. pp.4-5

KEY TO PHONETIC SYMBOLS

Keyword VOWELS
KIT ɪ
DRESS ɛ
TRAP æ
LOT ɑ
STRUT ʌ
FOOT ʊ

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 BATH æ
CLOTH ɔ
NURSE ɜ˞
FLEECE i
FACE eɪ
PALM ɑ
THOUGHT ɔ
GOAT oʊ
GOOSE u
PRICE aɪ
CHOICE ɔɪ
MOUTH aʊ
NEAR ɪɹ
SQUARE ɛɹ
CURE ʊɹ
LETTER ə˞
COMMA ə

Keyword CONSONANTS
PEA p
TEA t
KEY k
BEE b
DEEP d
GUY ɡ
ME m
KNEE n

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 RANG ŋ
FEE f
VEAL v
THIEF θ
THEY ð
SEA s
ZEAL z
SHE ʃ
VISION ʒ
LEE l
WE w
YEST j
REST ɹ
HEAT h
CHEAP tʃ
JEEP dʒ

ACTIVITY: find at least two words that have the following consonant phonemes:

1. /tʃ/ 2. /w/ 3. /θ/ 4. /v/

Find at least two words that have the following vowel phonemes:

1. /i/ 2. /ɪ/ 3. /oʊ/ 4. /ʌ/

PHONEME, ALLOPHONE, & DISTRIBUTION

It is essential to know which are the sounds of a language you are learning. In
the KEY TO PHONETIC SYMBOLS above, some of the consonant symbols are
familiar to speakers of Spanish, like /p/, /k/, /m/, or /f/. Others, like /v/ or
/ʒ/, do not exist in Spanish. But how do we know these sounds belong to English
phonology? There is a simple way to find out: do a minimal pair test. That is, can
you find minimal pairs on which the sounds are present? Let’s try first for /v/:

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[Remember the definition for minimal pair: a pair of words in which ONLY one
sound is different]

vote — boat, cave — case, invert — insert, gave — game, curve — curl and so on

/voʊt boʊt/, /keɪv keɪs/ /ɪnˈvɜ˞t ɪnˈsɜ˞t/ /ɡeɪv ɡeɪm/ /kɜ˞v kɜ˞l/

And now for /ʒ/:

rude — rouge, closer — closure, dilution — delusion, eraser — erasure and so on

/ɹud ɹuʒ/, /ˈkloʊzə˞ ˈkloʊʒə˞/ /dɪˈluʃən dɪˈluʒən/ /ɪˈɹeɪzə˞ ɪˈɹeɪʒə˞/

Since we found minimal pairs in which both sounds /v/ and /ʒ/ are present, we
can affirm that these two sounds are PHONEMES in English. In short, if a sound
occurs in minimal pairs, it is a phoneme of the language in question.

But sounds are not always phonemes. A good example is how the letter t is
pronounced around the English speaking world. In North American English, look
at how this sounds in these two examples: (you can check this out in
https://youglish.com/)

attack [əˈtʰæk]
better [ˈbɛɾə˞]

Obviously, the t sounds very different in words like this. But we know and native
speakers will tell you that it is the same sound /t/. These then are variants of the
phoneme /t/, which technically we call ALLOPHONES. In attack, the t is
aspirated, and in better the t is called a flap.

The key idea in allophones is that they have a certain DISTRIBUTION or context.
A distribution depends on the sounds that precede and follow the sound. Let’s
see this with an example.

The letter l is pronounced variously in English. Listen to how these words are
pronounced:

1. leaf 4. late
2. feel 5. tale
3. felt 6. false

In leaf and late, the l sounds like in Spanish ley, for instance. However, in both
feel and tale, it sounds rather different. It is very similar to the Catalan
pronunciation of words like Puyol, Catalunya. The same happens in felt and
false.

How can we explain this? Look at the distribution of the l in these words:

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What follows the l in leaf and late? A vowel lif leɪt
What follows the l in feel and tale? A pause, silence fil teɪl
What follows the l in felt and false? A consonant fɛlt fɔls
So we can say that when l is followed by a vowel it has a ‘light’ pronunciation (like
in Spanish), but when l is followed by a pause or a consonant it has a ‘dark’
pronunciation (as in Catalan). The light and dark distributions are
complementary (one never appears in the place of another). And this is called
complementary distribution.

Allophones normally appear in complementary distribution. However, sometimes

two (or more) allophones can appear in the same place, as is the case of final t in
English (listen to the final t in these words):

late [the t can be perfectly heard]

late [the t does not seem to be there]

In the first case, t is fully articulated [leɪt], but in the second case it is unreleased
[leɪt̚]. However, in both cases the word late has the same meaning, so what we
have is that t can be pronounced in final position in two ways: fully articulated or
unreleased. Note that these two variants have the same distribution (final
position of the word), so they are allophones in free variation.

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FUNCTIONAL LOAD

“even salient accent features can have varying effects on intelligibility.

Suppose, for example, that a learner has trouble pronouncing the difference
between /ɹ/ and /l/ to the point of randomly substituting one for the other,
perhaps saying Is this long? instead of Is this wrong? when asking for validation.
A listener might be baffled on hearing the first utterance because it is a perfectly

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possible sequence of words, but does not make sense in the context in which it is
uttered. Making many errors of this type has the potential to compromise
communication because plenty of confusable word pairs differ only in the sounds
/ɹ/ and /l/: write-light, fry-fly, and berry-belly, to name a few. You can probably
think of scores of other pairs like these, many of them involving commonly-used
words. In linguistic terms, the /ɹ/-/l/ difference is said to have a high FUNCTIONAL
LOAD in English because it does a lot of work in the language in terms of keeping
words distinct from one another.
Now let’s consider another pair of sounds that can be difficult for many
English learners to keep apart: /ð/ and /d/. While they and day are
distinguished by these consonants, you won’t be able to think of very many other
because they are relatively uncommon: Now suppose that a speaker says
/dæts/my house. Because /dæts/is not a word, listeners are likely to realize
quickly that the speaker is intending to say something else. In most cases, it
won’t take much time or cognitive processing effort to determine that the target
word is that’s. In fact, even speaker of some native English dialects in the United
Kingdom and the United States use the /d/ pronunciation, without a detrimental
effect on communication. Because /ð/-/d/pairs are rare and don’t involve words
that can be easily confused, the distinction is considered to have low functional
load”
Munro, M.J. (2021), Applying phonetics: Speech science in everyday life. Wiley-
Blackwell. pp. 144-145
☞ IDEA: Look for how many minimal pairs there are for English consonants,
using this site: https://englishphonetics.net/english-pronunciation-
tools/minimal-pair/english-minimal-pair-list.html

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PHONOLOGY AND PHONEMES

1. Each member of the group writes a definition for the following terms:

a) phonology b) phoneme c) minimal pair

2. The members of the group share their definitions.

3. The sounds p pʰ and b appear in Sinhdi, spoken in India. Analyze the examples and answer the
question below.

[pʌnu] ‘leaf’ [pʰʌnu] ‘sneak’

[tʌru] ‘bottom’ [bod] ‘door’
[bʌnu] ‘forest’

Are they phonemes? Explain your answer.

4. In this exercise you have to find as many words as possible which begin and end with the
consonants given below. Follow the model. Note that the consonants at the beginning and end are
sounds, not letters!

Model: /t/ _______ /p/ type, top, tip, tape, tap

/taɪp, tɑp, tɪp, teɪp, tæp/
pull
fan pool
fun parcel
a. /f/ ________ /n/ fine b. /p/ ________ /l/
phone

soup
c. /b/ ________ /t/ d. /s/ ________ /p/ soap
step
bite
bat
boat

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5. Put what follows in standard orthography and answer the 8 questions using phonemic script

ˈfæst ˈfækts ˈkwɪz

ˈænsə˞ ðə ˈfɑləwɪŋ ˈkwɛstʃənz ǁ ðə ˈænsə˞z məst bɪ ɪn fəˈmimɪk ˈskɹɪpt ǁ

Example: ˈwɪtʃ ɪz ðə ˈsmɔləst ˈsteɪt ɪn ðə juˈnaɪtɪd ˈsteɪts ǁ

[Which is the smallest state in the United States?] Answer: ˈɹoʊd ˈaɪlənd [Rhode Island]

wʌn ǁ ˈwʌt ɪz ðə ˈlɑɹdʒəst ˈænɪməl ɑn ˈɜ˞θ ǁ

tu ǁ ˈwɪtʃ ɪz ðə ˈbɪɡəst ˈsteɪt ɪn ðə juˈnaɪtɪd ˈsteɪts ǁ

θɹi ǁ ˈwʌt ɪz ən ˈæləfoʊn ǁ

fɔɹ ǁ ˈwɪtʃ ɪz ðə ˈbɪɡəst ˈkʌntɹɪ ɪn ðə ˈwɜ˞ld ǁ

faɪv ǁ ˈneɪm ˈtu ɑˈstɹeɪlɪən ˈsɪtɪz ǁ

sɪks ǁ ˈhaʊ ˈmɛnɪ ˈkæləɹɪz dəz ə ˈdʒɪn ən ˈtɑnɪk ˈhæv ǁ

ˈsɛvən ǁ ˈwɪtʃ ɪz ðə ˈmoʊst ˈkɑmən ˈvaʊəl ɪn ˈɪŋɡlɪʃ ǁ

eɪt ǁ ˈwʌts ðə ˈɑpəzɪt əv ˈwɔɹ ǁ

6. Fonética y fonología del inglés: Homophones

Find homophones for the following words, and try to transcribe them. The first two are done for you.

Homophones Transcription Homophones Transcription

deer dear /dɪɹ/ right

nose knows /noʊz/ sees
shore sole
pair sale
guest mail

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7. The sounds s and ʃ appear in Rhodian, an alien language. Analyze the examples and answer the
questions below.

Pronunciation Meaning Pronunciation Meaning

asa sky neʃpe water
esia home aseb sun
taʃka person noʃma hand
siuba planet koʃle cloud

Are these two sounds phonemes or allophones? If they are allophones, are they in complemenary
distribution or free variation?

Worked answer:

1. We cannot find minimal pairs, so they are not phonemes. Therefore they are allophones

2. The sound /s/ appears between vowels, that is its context or distribution. The sound /ʃ/ appears
followed by a consonant, that is its context or distribution.

3. One sound never appears in the context of the other sound, so they are in complementary
distribution.

8. Now do the same with the sounds k and h, that belong to the alien language Endorian.

Pronunciation Meaning Pronunciation Meaning

helam leg lokba to run
ahuwa warrior henzo river
kenzo deep sea kelam twon
lohba to fly korna stranger

Are these two sounds phonemes or allophones? If they are allophones, are they in complemenary
distribution or free variation?

Your answer:

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7. The sounds s and h appear in Andalusian Spanish. Analyze the examples and answer the
questions below.

Pronunciation Meaning Pronunciation Meaning

moska fly dehde from
toh cough mohka fly
desde from tos cough
mas more mah more
asno donkey ahno donkey

Are these two sounds phonemes or allophones? If they are allophones, are they in complemenary
distribution or free variation?

8. Farsi (the main language in Iran) has the sounds [r] and [ɾ]. Are [r] and [ɾ] phonemes or
allophones? If you think they are allophones, what are their contexts?

NOTE: [r] is the sound in Spanish “carro”; [ɾ] is the sound in Spanish “caro”

rah ‘road’ siɾini ‘pastry’

aziɾa ‘because’ bazgir ‘towel’
farsi ‘Persian’ omr ‘life’
ruz ‘day’ biɾan ‘pale’

9. Below is a set of English proverbs. The proverbs are listed below, but they are jumbled.

(1) Sort them out

(2) transcribe them

1. When the cows A. catches the worm

2. Birds of a feather B. jump over the moon
3. All dressed up C. do as the Romans do
D. flock together
E. and no place to go

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 PRONUNCIATION JOURNEY!

LEFT RIGHT

1. I don’t want to sleep slip

2. That’s a high heel hill

3. What a terrible scene sin

4. It was a good peach pitch

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 BINGO!
1.

dead dense said letter mess

end mass latter shell gas
leather laughed BINGO dad pet
pat guess better dance left
sad shall lather batter and

BINGO!
2.

sit pit dead beat head

bit heed net read peat
knit did BINGO seat neat
pet fill hid bet deed
fell feel rid set read

© 2023 DBP laɪk̚ noʊ ˈʌˑðə˞

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