Title of the Lesson: English Phonology

Aim of the Lesson: The aim of this lesson is to teach students (a) the basic concepts of
phonology and (b) changes in consonants by giving examples.
Learning Outcomes:
1.Students identify and learn the basic concepts of phonology.
2. Students identify and learn changes in consonants by giving examples.

Mode of Delivery: Distance Education

Name of the Lecturer: Dr. Murat Hismanoglu
Duration: 3 class hours

What is Phonology?
Phonology is the study of the patterns of sounds in a language and across languages. Put more
formally, phonology is the study of the categorical organisation of speech sounds in languages;
how speech sounds are organised in the mind and used to convey meaning.

What is a phoneme?
A phoneme is the smallest unit of sound in a word that makes a difference in its pronunciation,
as well as its meaning, from another word. For instance, the /s/ in ‘soar’ distinguishes it from
/r/ in ‘roar’, as it becomes different from ‘soar’ in pronunciation as well as meaning.

What is an allophone?
Allophones are different ways to pronounce a phoneme based on its environment in a word.
For example, the two allophones of /l/ in “little” are actually produced slightly differently, and
the second one sounds slightly deeper. These different “l”s always occur in different
environments in words, which is known as “complementary distribution”.

Changes in Consonants
1.Assimilation
It is a common phonological process by which one sound becomes more like a nearby sound.
This can occur either within a word or between words. In rapid speech, for example, "handbag"
is often pronounced [ˈhambag], and "hot potato" as [ˈhɒppəteɪtoʊ].

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Types of assimilation:
1./ t / changes to / p / before / m / / b / or / p /
basket maker
best man
light bulb
sweet pepper

2./ d / changes to / b / before / m / / b / or / p /

bad pain
blood brother
good morning
gold medal

3./ n / changes to / m / before / m / / b / or / p /

action planning
iron man
pen pal
open book

4./ t / changes to / k / before / k / or /g/

credit card
short cut
fat girl
first class

5./ d / changes to / g / before / k / or / g /

bad girl
good cook
hard copy
red carpet

6./ n / changes to /ŋ/ before / k / or / g /

open court
golden gate
common ground
roman calendar

7./ s / changes to /ʃ/ before /ʃ/ or / j /

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bus shelter
dress shop
nice shoes
nice yacht

8./ z / changes to /ʒ/ before /ʃ/ or / j /

cheese shop
rose Show
these sheep

9./θ/ changes to / s / before / s /

earth science
fifth set
fourth season

2. Dissimilation
Dissimilation is a process in which sounds that are alike become different. An example of
dissimilation is the substandard pronunciation of chimney as chimley, with the second of two
nasals changed to an [l]. The ultimate dissimilation is the complete loss of one sound because
of its proximity to another similar sound. A frequent example in present-day standard English is
the omission of one of two [r] sounds from words like cate(r)pillar, Cante(r)bury, rese(r)voir,
terrest(r)ial, southe(r)ner, barbitu(r)ate, gove(r)nor, and su(r)prised."

3. Gemination
Gemination is found across words and across morphemes when the last consonant in a given
word and the first consonant in the following word are the same fricative, nasal or stop.
Examples for gemination are as follows:

• subbasement [ˌsʌbˈbeɪsmənt]
• midday [ˈmɪd.deɪ]
• life force [ˈlaɪfˈfôrs]
• egg girl [ˈɛɡ.ɡɝl]
• bookkeeper [bʊkˈkiː.pə(ɹ)]

4. Metathesis
Metathesis refers to the change of the order of sounds in a word. Examples for metathesis are
as follows:
Wasp used to be 'waps'; bird used to be 'brid' and horse used to be 'hros.'

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5. Inter-dentalization
It is the process whereby the place of articulation for /t d n l/ moves from the alveolar ridge and
the tongue tip is placed at the bottom of the upper, front teeth instead. This occurs in anticipation
of /θ/ or /ð/ and is common in typical speech (e.g., can they, get those, tell them)

6. Velarization
Velarization is a secondary articulation of consonants by which the back of the tongue is raised
toward the velum during the articulation of the consonant. The l in lick is clear (lik), while that
in kill is dark (kiɫ).

7. Glottalization
The glottal stop is also used widely in some accents of English. In Cockney (an accent used by
natives of East London) it famously features in words like butter and matter which are
pronounced [bʌʔə↓] and [mæ̃ʔə↓] respectively. Glottal reinforcement is also widely used in
Geordie (an accent used by natives of Tyneside, in north-east England).

With regard to allophonic variation in standard British English, a main variation is the
glottalization of the voiceless alveolar plosive /t/ when it occurs in syllable-final position, e.g.

hat /hæt/ → [hæʔ]

8. Palatalization
Palatalization refers to the secondary articulation of consonants by which the body of
the tongue is raised toward the hard palate and the alveolar ridge during the articulation of the
consonant.
English, in fact, has at least three kinds of alternations that fall under the general definition of
palatalization processes.

The first process - called coronal palatalization involves an alternation between alveolars /t/,
/d/, /s/, /z/ and palato-alveolars /tʃ/, /ʤ/, /ʃ/, and /ʒ/ as shown is (1).

(1)
/t/ - /tʃ/
perpetuity - perpetual
/d/ - /ʤ/
residue - residual
/s/ - /ʃ/
grase - grasious
/z/ - /ʒ/

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please - pleasure

The second process – called velar softening is exhibited by alternations between velar stops
/k/ and /g/ and coronal fricatives or affricates /s/ and /ʤ/ respectively as shown in (2)

(2)
/k/ - /s/
medication - medicine
critic - critisize
/g/ - /ʤ/
analog - analogy
pedagogue - pedagogy

The third process – called spirantization exhibits alternations between the alveolar stop /t/
and the alveolar fricative /s/ (or /ʃ/ in conjunction with coronal palatalization). The latter
segment occurs before suffixes with an unsyllabified /i/ as shown in (3).

(3)
/t/ - /s/
secret - secrecy
regent - regency
emergent - emergency
/t/ - /ʃ/
part - partial

Palatalization with /u:/ sound

In some words the palatal sound /j/ precedes the sound /u:/ for the combined pronunciation of
/ju:/. The following examples show the case clearly:
cue
few
due
cute

9. Neutralization
English has many examples of phoneme neutralization. ... The English words "hat," "hot" and
"hut" have three vowel phonemes. The first word has a low front vowel, the second a low back
vowel and the third a mid central one. However, in word final position, this phonemic contrast
is neutralized.
In English, the contrast between the voiced and voiceless alveolar plosives is neutralized
between a stressed vowel and an unstressed one. The words ‘’medal’’ and ‘’metal’’ and

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‘’ladder’’ and ‘’latter’’ cannot be distinguished by pronunciation alone. This is another example
of phoneme neutralization.

10. Affrication
It refers to the act or process of changing a consonant sound to an affricate like /ts/ and /dz/.
Examples of affrication are as follows:
Don’t you have a seat? /doʊntʃjuw/
Can’t you have a seat? /kæntʃjuw/
Wont’ you have a seat? /woʊntʃjuw/

Did you have a seat? /dıdʒjuw/

Could you have a seat? /kʊdʒjuw/
Would you have a seat? /wʊdʒjuw/
Should you have a seat? /ʃʊdʒjuw/

11. Labialization
Labialization refers to the production of a sound with the lips rounded. In English, the existence
of neighboring rounded vowels like /u:, u, o, o/ causes consonants to get labialized as seen in
the following examples:
cook /kwʊk/
look /lwʊk/
hook /hwʊk/
tool /twʊl/

12. Flapping of /t/ intervocalically

In American English, /t/ sound changes into /D/ in between two vowels. The following
examples show the case clearly:
eating /i:Dıŋ/
writing /raıDıŋ/
kettle /keDə/
metal /meDəl/
water /wɔ:Dər/

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References
What is phonology? Available Internet Address: https://all-about-
linguistics.group.shef.ac.uk/branches-of-linguistics/phonology/
Assimilation in English. Available Internet Address: http://phonetics-
cediel.blogspot.com/2011/08/assimilation-in-english.html

Demirezen, M. (1986). Phonemics and Phonology: Theory Through Analysis. Ankara: Bizim
Büro Basımevi.

Dissimilation and haplology in phonetics. Available Internet Address:

https://www.thoughtco.com/dissimilation-and-haplology-phonetics-1690469.

Gemination. Available Internet Address:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gemination#:~:text=Gemination%20is%20found%20across%20
words,d%3A%20midday%20%5B%CB%88m%C9%AAd.

Glottalization. Available Internet Address: https://www.sltinfo.com/allo101-glottalization/

Neutralization. Available Internet Address: http://lgzsoldos.blogspot.com/2010/03/phoneme-

neutralization-in-english.html

Palatalization. Available Internet Address: http://ingles-

americano.blogspot.com/2012/06/palatalization.html