Phonetics and

Phonology

Manal A. Allehyani
Phonetics Vs. Phonology
 Whereas syntax is about sentence formation, and semantics
about sentence interpretation, phonetics and phonology
cover the field of sentence utterance.

 Phonetics is concerned with how sounds are produced,

transmitted and perceived (we will only look at the
production of sounds). Phonology is concerned with how
sounds function in relation to each other in a language. In
other words, phonetics is about sounds of language,
phonology about sound systems of language. Phonetics is a
descriptive tool necessary to the study of the phonological
aspects of a language.
Why are phonetics and phonology
worth studying?

 Orthography
 Reading
 Speech disorders
 First language acquisition
 Second or foreign language teaching
What is phonetics
 Definition
 Three main directions in phonetics
 Goals of any phonetic theory
Definition
 Phonetics is the study of actual sounds of
language.
 The Three Main Branches of Phonetics
 Articulatory Phonetics : articulatory phonetics is interested in the movement of various parts
of the vocal tract during speech. The vocal tract is the passages above the larynx where air
passes in the production of speech. In simpler terms which bit of the mouth moves when we
make a sound.

 Acoustic Phonetics: This is the study of the sound waves made by the human vocal organs
for communication and how the sounds are transmitted. The sound travels through from the
speaker's mouth through the air to the hearer's ear, through the form of vibrations in the air.
Phoneticians can use equipment like Oscillographs and Spectographs in order to analyse
things like the frequency and duration of the sound waves produced. Acoustic phonetics also
looks at how articulatory and auditory phonetics link to the acoustic properties.

 Auditory Phonetics :This is how we perceive and hear sounds and how the ear, brain and
auditory nerve perceives the sounds. This branch deals with the physiological processes
involved in the reception of speech.
Goals of any Phonetic Theory
Any phonetic theory should account for:
1- Any kind of noise that the human vocal apparatus
is capable of producing (e.g. grunts, groans, and
laughter).
2- Linguistically significant sounds in language in
general.
3- Linguistically significant sounds in a particular
language (e.g. English).
Description of Consonants

 1- Place of Articulation

 2- Manner of Articulation
1- Place of Articulation
2- Manner of Articulation
Manner of articulation concerns the types of
obstruction that can take place in the vocal
tract. There are two main places where such
obstruction takes place. One is the glottis and
the other is the oral cavity. The two operate
independently from one another and may act
simultaneously.
Obstruction in the Glottis
1- Voicing and the glottis : in the production of speech,
the main importance of the larynx lies in the fact that it
contains the vocal bands (vocal cords). The vocal bands
consist of two horizontal folds of elastic tissue, one on
each side of the passage.
 In normal breathing, the vocal bands are open, but it is
possible to close them partially or completely during the
production of a sound.
 The bands may be brought together so they vibrate as air
passes through them. This vibration accounts for the feature
of voicing (e.g. [z], [v], and [b] are classified as voiced
sounds).
 If the vocal bands are open and not vibrating during the
production of a sound, it will be a voiceless sound (e.g. [s],
[f], and [t]).
 It is possible to completely close the vocal bands and release
them in a rather abrupt manner. The resulting sound is
referred to as glottal stop, symbolized as [ʔ].
Obstruction in the Oral Cavity
 Obstruction in the oral cavity has to do with the kind of
obstruction the air meets on its way out, after it has passed the
vocal folds.
Description of Vowels
 Vowels are described in terms of:
 1- Tongue Position
 2- Length
 3- Rounding
 4- Nasality
 5- Diphthong
1- Tongue Position
 Tongue position is described using two criteria: the height (how high is the
tongue) and the part of the tongue involved in the production of the sound.
 In English the tongue may either be high , i.e. when the speaker produces e.g. [i:,
u:] in [bi:t, bu:t] beat , boot , intermediate , e.g. [e, N:] in [bet, b N:t] bet ,
bought , or low , e.g. [z,a:] in [b zt, ba:t] bat , Bart .

 The part of the tongue involved in the production of a vowel can also be
illustrated with the examples above. If you say [i:] and then [u:] just after it, you
almost have the feeling that you are moving your tongue backwards. This is
because [i:] is a front vowel, and [u:] is a back vowel, or in other words, the
highest point in the pronunciation of [i:] is the front of the tongue, whereas the
highest point in [u:] is the back of the tongue.
2- Length

3- Rounding
4- Nasality

5- Diphthongs
The basic Unit in Phonology : The Phoneme
 A phoneme is a basic unit of a language's phonology, which is combined with other
phonemes to form meaningful units such as words or morphemes.

 The phoneme can be described as "The smallest contrastive linguistic unit which may bring
about a change of meaning". In this way the difference in meaning between the English
words kill and kiss is a result of the exchange of the phoneme /l/ for the phoneme /s/.

 Phonemes are abstract units of a set of speech sounds (i.e. phones)which are perceived as
equivalent to each other in a given language.

 Notation: Phonemes are conventionally placed between slashes in transcription, whereas

speech sounds (phones) are placed between square brackets. Thus /pʊʃ/ represents a
sequence of three phonemes /p/, /ʊ/, /ʃ/ (the word push in standard English), while [pʰʊʃ]
represents the phonetic sequence of sounds [pʰ] (aspirated "p"), [ʊ], [ʃ] (the usual
pronunciation of push).
Phones and allophones
 Phones are the actual speech sounds. It is a speech segment
that possesses distinct physical or perceptual properties, and
serves as the basic unit of phonetic speech analysis. A
phonetic transcription is enclosed within square brackets ([ ]),
rather than the slashes (/ /) of a phonemic transcription.

 In phonology, an allophone is one of a set of multiple

possible spoken sounds (or phones) used to pronounce a
single phoneme. For example, [pʰ] (as in pin) and [p] (as in
spin) are allophones for the phoneme /p/ in the English
language. Changing the allophone used by native speakers for
a given phoneme in a specific context usually will not change
the meaning of a word but the result may sound non-native or
unintelligible.
Minimal pairs and near minimal pairs to discover phonemes
 Minimal pairs and near minimal pairs are the simplest
procedures to discover which sounds of a language are
contrastive (i.e. different phonemes not allophones).
 Minimal pairs : a set of two or more words that have the
same sounds except for one sound and are different in
meaning (e.g. sin , pin, bin, and chin).
 Near minimal pairs: words that have the same sounds except
for 2 sounds and have different meanings (e.g. /fIʃin/
(fishin’)and /vIžin/ (vision)).
 Complementary distribution to discover
allophones
 Complementary distribution is the relationship between two
different elements, where one element is found in a particular
environment and the other element is found in the opposite
environment. It often indicates that two superficially different
elements are in fact the same linguistic unit at a deeper level. For
instance, in English, [p] and [pʰ] are allophones of the phoneme
/p/ because they occur in complementary distribution. [pʰ] always
occurs when it is the syllable onset and followed by a stressed
vowel (as in the word pin). [p] occurs in all other situations (as in
the word spin).
 Free Variation
 There are instances where phonetic variants are both non-contrastive and
not in complementary distribution. It is the phenomenon of two (or more)
sounds or forms appearing in the same environment without a change in
meaning and without being considered incorrect by native speakers. In
these cases, a speaker may use two or more of the allophones in the same
environment. For example, the word stop may be pronounced with a plain
unaspirated [p], [stɑp], or with a glottalized [pˀ], [stɑpˀ].

Phonemic Fluctuation:

It is the situation when two different phonemes alternate
without causing a difference in meaning. For example;
‘either’ is pronounced as [i:ðər] and [ayðər].
 Phonological Features
 I. Major Class Features

 II. Manner of Articulation Features

 III. Place of Articulation Features

 IV. Laryngeal Features

I. Major Class Features
o Syllabic [syl.]: it is a feature that characterizes sounds that can serve as peaks of syllables.
[+ syllabic] sounds include vowels , glides, and nasals.

 Sonorant [son.]: it is a feature that characterizes sounds produced without an extreme

constriction in the oral cavity.
[+Sonorant] nasals, liquids, glides, vowels. [-
Sonorant] stops, fricatives, affricates (obstruents).

o Consonantal [cons.]: it is a feature that characterizes sounds produced with an obstruction

along the central line of the oral cavity.
[+Consonantal] obstruents, liquids, and nasals.
[- Consonantal] vowels and glides.
II. Manner of Articulation Features
 Continuent [cont.]: it is a feature that characterizes sounds produced without
stopping the air flow in the oral cavity.
[-cont.] stops, affricates, and nasals.
o Delayed release [d.r.]: it is a feature that characterizes sounds produced with
gradual release of air.
[-d.r.] stops.
o Strident [str.]: it is a feature that characterizes sounds produced pushing the air
through a narrow opening creating turbulence.
[+str.] fricatives [f, v, s, z, ʃ, ʒ] and affricates [tʃ and dʒ].
o Nasal [nas.]: it is a feature that characterizes sounds produced with the velum
lowered so that the air escapes through the nasal cavity.
[+nas.] only [m, n, and ɳ]
 Lateral [lat.]: a feature that characterizes sounds produced by lowering of one or
both sides of the tongue.
[+lat.] only [l]
III. Place of Articulation Features
 Anterior [ant.]: it is a feature that characterizes sounds produced with a primary
obstruction located at or in front of the alveolar region.
[+ant.] labials, dentals, and alveolar sounds
[-ant.] alveopalatals, palatals, and velar sounds.
o Coronal [cor.]: it is a feature that characterizes sounds produced with the front
(tip or blade) of the tongue raised from the neutral position.
[+cor.] interdentals, alveolars, and alveopalatal sounds.
[-cor.] labials and velars.
 High [hi.]: it is a feature that characterizes sounds produced by raising the body
of the tongue from neutral position.
[+hi.] high vowels [i, I, u, ᴜ], alveopalatals, velars, and glides.
[-hi.] labials, alveolars, and dental sounds.
 Low [low.]: it is a fearture that characterizes sounds produced by lowering the
body of the tongue from the neutral position.
[+low.] low vowels are [æ], [ɑ], and [ᴐ]
Back [bk.]: it is a feature that characterizes sounds produced
with the body of the tongue moved back and slightly raised
from neutral position.
[+bk.] back vowels are [ᴜ], [u], [ə] and [ʌ],
oral glides [w], and velars.
 Tense [tns.]: it is a feature that characterizes sounds produced
with a more deliberate gesture that involves considerable
muscular activity at the base of the tongue.
[+tns.] vowels [i, e, u, o, ᴐ, ɑ].
[-tns.] vowels [I, ᴜ, ɛ]
 Round [rd.]: it is a feature that characterizes sounds produced
with lip rounding.
[+rd.] vowels are [u, ᴜ, o, ᴐ].
IV. Laryngeal Features

 Voiced[vd]: it is a feature that characterizes

sounds produced with a vibration of the vocal
bands in the larynx.
Phonological Processes
 Assimilation
 Deletion
 Epenthesis
 Metathesis
Assimilation
 Definition: is a linguistic process by which a sound becomes similar to an
adjacent sound.
 Degree of assimilation: Partial or complete. In Partial assimilation, a sound
takes on some of the characteristics of a neighboring sound (e.g. the plural /s/ in
cats and cabs takes the voicing feature of the preceding sound, [kæts] Vs.[kæbz]).
In complete assimilation, a sound takes on all the characteristics of a neighboring
sound resulting in a process called geminatation (e.g. [gImmi ‘give me’], [lɛmmi
‘let me’], and [gubbaI ‘good bye’].
 Direction of assimilation: Assimilation is either progressive (i.e. the assimilated
sound follows the conditioning sound), or regressive (i.e. the assimilated sound
precedes the conditioning item).

Conditioning Sound →Assimilated Sound = Progressive assimilation

Assimilated Sound ← Conditioning Sound = Regressive assimilation
Deletion
 Definition: Sounds that occur in some contexts are lost in
others. Deletion changes the syllable structure of a word.
 Subtypes of Deletion:
 A. Haplology: An entire syllable is lost when it is
identical to another syllable (e.g. adjectives ending in –ly,
such as lively and friendly). When these are used as
adverbs, the addition of the adverbial suffix –ly results in
two identical syllables (i.e. livelyly and friendlyly).
Haplology resolves such cases by deleting one of the
identical syllables resulting in friendly and lively.
 B. Aphesis: refers to the loss of an unstressed initial
vowel or syllable (e.g. about →bout / around →
round/ because →cause).

 C. Syncope: is the loss of a medial vowel or syllable

(e.g. evening →ev’ning/ every→ev’ry).

 D. Apocope is the loss of a final vowel or syllable

(e.g. singan →sing / finde →find).
Epenthesis
 Definition: epenthesis is inserting a sound
segment. Both vowels and consonants may be
inserted (e.g. the vowel in the plural /Iz/ in buses
[bʌsIz], the vowel in the past tense /Id/ in waited
[wetId], the consonant [p] in attempt →[ətɛmpt]/
comfort → [cʌmp]fort/ non standard
pronunciation of chimney → chimbly and
family→fambly).
Metathesis
 Definition: it is changing the linear order of the
segments by permutations of one type or another.
That is, two segments reverse positions (e.g. ask
→aks ‘ask’ / prIslraᴵb→pIrskraᴵb ‘prescribe’/
hʌndrId→hʌndIrd ‘hundred’).
References
 Wolfram, Walt, and Robert Johnson. 1982.
Phonological Analysis: Focus on American English
 Phonetics and Phonology: Reader for First Year
English Linguistics by Claire-A. Forel & Genoveva
Puskás University of Geneva
 Phonetics and Phonology
 Handouts of Dr. Mahasen Abu-Mansour and Dr.
Rawiah Kabrah