The importance of Phonology

Activity 1.1

MODULE 1. PHONOLOGY
Student: Yonequet A. Brito Macín
Universidad Virtual de Estudios Superiores
What is Phonology and what is it for?

Phonology is the theory about speech sounds and how they are used in language,
it deals with the mental representation and computation of these sounds. Its aim is
to discover the principles that govern the way sounds are organized in languages
and to explain the variations that occur.

Phonology also concerns itself with the principles governing the phoneme systems
—that is, with what sounds languages 'like' to have, which sets of sounds are most
common (and why) and which are rare (and why)

What is the impact of phonology on the pronunciation of English learning?

The necessity to understand what phonology is has the same importance as

grammar. If you are in a low level, you just need to figure out few things about the
language but if you are getting to higher levels as teaching or researching you
need to go deeper understanding areas of linguistics.

It has been proved that reading and spelling require a level of metalinguistic
speech that is not natural or easily acquired.

English uses an alphabetic writing system in which the letters, singly and in
combination, represent single speech sounds. People who can take apart words
into sounds, recognize their identity, and put them together again have the
foundation skill for using the alphabetic principle (Liberman, Shankweiler, &
Liberman, 1989; Troia, 2004). Without phoneme awareness, students may be
mystified by the print system and how it represents the spoken word.
What are the differences between phonetics and phonology? Provide 4
examples.

Phonetics is the study of the Phonology is the study of the

• Production • Selection
• Transmission, and • Organization, and
• Reception of speech sounds. • Functional classification of sounds of
a particular language.
• Descriptive linguistics • Theoretical linguistics
• All speech sounds (universal) • Sounds of a particular language
• Studies ‘phones’ • Studies ‘phonemes’
• Limited scope • Broader scope
• Articulation/Production • Function
• Description • Distribution

You are missing the examples

What is the study of the phonetic system?

Phonetics deal with the configurations of the vocal tract used to produce speech
sounds (articulatory phonetics), the acoustic properties of speech sounds (acoustic
phonetics), and the manner of combining sounds to make syllables, words, and
sentences (linguistic phonetics); It is the study of pronunciation. In other words, it is
the science that helps us to pronounce words and sentences correctly.

How many phonetic alphabets exist?

There is a lot of variety when it comes to International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA)

systems for any given language or dialect because the IPA symbols are not
extremely precise.

Talking about phonetic alphabets there are several of them, every dictionary
includes a guide for you to check the pronunciation of the words.

So how many are?

Reflection:

I have learned about phonetics before, but I never thought that it was something
different or that it could have some separate characteristics to what phonology is.

For example, I thought Phonology was the science that had to study the sounds of
speech and now I find out that it had to classify the sounds that Phonetics study
into the studied language.

I am overly excited to know more about phonology, that is something that I do not
feel related consciously. I think that I was used to think that phonetics was the only
way to explain pronunciation and when I would find any rare pronunciation, I would
have said that it simply had no reason to be like that, but now I will look for what
phonology says about the different kind of functions of the linguistic situation and
how it is classified.

Thanks to what I read and my research I can understand in a better way what
these sciences are what they have to offer to English Language. I think that for us,
the teachers, learning about this can offer us a better form to understand the
language and the reasons behind the correct pronunciation or intonation in our
manner to talk this Second Language which we are going to teach, cause I have
proved how efficient it is to talk about this things with our students so they can
have a better pronunciation and fluence on their talking, and also they can advance
well in their learning at having basic ideas of phonetics in account.

References: Yes, it is very interesting, i am glad you

learned more about this topic.

Phonology – All About Linguistics. (n.d.). School of English. Retrieved February 6,

2021, from https://all-about-linguistics.group.shef.ac.uk/branches-of-

linguistics/phonology/

David Crystal, How Language Works. Overlook Press, 2005

David Crystal, The Cambridge Encylopedia of the English Language, 2nd edition.

Cambridge University Press, 2003

A. (2014, March 14). Phonetics & phonology (The way Vowels and Consonant of

English are articulated). Slideshare.

https://pt.slideshare.net/AishaKoukab/phonetics-phonology-how-vowels-

and-conso?next_slideshow=1

Moats, L. (2019, August 29). Why Phonological Awareness Is Important for

Reading and Spelling. Reading Rockets.

https://www.readingrockets.org/article/why-phonological-awareness-

important-reading-and-spelling

Ladefoged, P. N. (n.d.). Phonetics | linguistics. Encyclopedia Britannica. Retrieved

February 6, 2021, from https://www.britannica.com/science/phonetics

J.J. Ohala, in Encyclopedia of Language & Linguistics (Second Edition), 2006

A. (2018, May 31). Are there more than one International Phonetic Alphabets

(IPA)? Fluent Forever.

https://help.fluent-forever.com/hc/en-us/articles/360004358712-Are-there-

more-than-one-International-Phonetic-Alphabets-IPA-

Roach P. (2009) English Phonetics and Phonology. United Kingdom: Cambridge

University.
Lacy de P. (2006) The Cambridge handbook of Phonology. United Kingdom:

Cambridge University.