PHONOLOGY

It’s all about the sound!

GHOTI = FISH
Say this!

The weather is far

better in Portugal
than in Germany.
 Influencing factors on pronunciation
• Country of origin
• Regional differences within each country
• Socio-economic status
• Other factors too!
• This unique individual style of speaking is what
linguists call our idiolect’.
• Phonemics rather than phonetics – change in
meaning when the sound changes e.g. Substitute ‘w’
in weather to ‘L’ and ‘b’ in ‘better’ to ‘w’ in the
example.
• Phonology is more concerned with how the
meaning of words change when the sounds
change.
• Weather – Leather
• Gone – Done
Some examples from you....?
Vowel Sounds
Position of Mouth in Sounds
Cross Section of Speech
Mechanism
ingressive-egressive & plosive-frictive
Sound Engineering Devices
• Phonology is the study of sound
system of languages.
• We breathe in/out air through our
lungs
• This produces vibrations in our larynx
• Next we use our tongue, teeth and
lips to create sounds
The Inside Story
Speech Mechanism
 Speech Organs
• Tongue
• Larynx
• Glottis
• Alveolar ridge
• Hard palate
• Soft palate
 Points of Articulation
• Bilabial sounds are produced when the lips
are brought together. Examples are [p], which
is voiceless, as in pay or [b] and [m] which are
voiced, as in bay, may.
• Labiodental sounds are made when the lower
lip is raised towards the upper front teeth.
Examples are [f] safe (voiceless) and [v] save
(voiced).
 Points of Articulation
• Dental sounds are produced by touching the
upper front teeth with the tip of the tongue.
Examples are [S] oath (voiceless) and [C]clothe
(voiced).
• Alveolar sounds are made by raising the tip of
the tongue towards the ridge that is right behind
the upper front teeth, called the alveolar ridge.
Examples are [t,s] too,sue, both voiceless, and
[d,z,n,l,r ] do, zoo, nook, look, rook, all voiced.
 Points of Articulation
• Palatoalveolar sounds are made by raising the
blade of the tongue towards the part of the palate
just behind the alveolar ridge. Examples [R,tR]
pressure, batch (voiceless) and [Y,dY] pleasure,
badge (voiced)
• Palatal sounds are very similar to palatoalveolar
ones, they are just produced further back towards
the velum. The only palatal sound in English is [ j]
as in yes, yellow, beauty, new and it is voiced.
 Points of Articulation
• Velar sounds are made by raising the back of
the tongue towards the soft palate, called the
velum. Examples [k] back, voiceless, and [g,
M] both voiced bag, bang. [w] is a velar which
is accompanied with lip rounding
• Glottal sounds are produced when the air
passes through the glottis as it is narrowed:
[h] as in high.
IPA
Consonants
 Fundamental Units
• Morpheme – Grammar
• Grapheme – Language
• Phoneme – Sound
• A phoneme is the sound segment of words or
syllables which helps us construct meaning
e.g. When you replace the middle sound in
‘bad’ with another phoneme ‘e’ it changes the
meaning ‘bed’ or ‘bid’ or ‘bird’...
 Phonemes
• Letters of the English alphabet – 26
• Phonemes – 44
• Consonants – 24
• Vowels – 20
• Pure vowels – 12 e.g. bit, bet
• Diphthongs – 8 e.g. boat, buy, bay
 Vowels

FRONT CENTRAL BACK

cream burn glue
bit about put
bet cut corn
Cat (schwa/neutral) dog
hard
 Diphthongs
• Vowel Glides
• Starts with one vowel sound but ends with
another
 Consonants
• Formed by controlling or impeding he
egressive flow of air
• plosives
• fricatives
• affricates
• nasals
• lateral
• approximants
 Syllables
• Units of rhythm e.g. Splash – single
syllable but 3 consonants + a vowel +
final consonant
• How many syllables does ‘banana’ have?
• Which one is stressed?
• Unstressed syllables are often reduced
• Many unstressed syllable take on the
‘schwa’
 Segmental
• What we say
• Minimal pair e.g. deer-gear, date-gate
• Dot -?
• Down-?
• Dye-?
• Pun-?
 Suprasegmental
How we say what we say
• Stress
• Intonation
• Tempo
• Rhythm
• Unique
Accent
• Personal
• Regional
• Cultural
now pronounce...
• Through
• Tough
• Though
• Cough
• Bough
• Rough
 Plosives
• complete closure in the mouth
• air is blocked for a fraction of a second
• then released with a small burst of sound
called a plosion
• Plosives may be bilabial [p,b] park, bark,
alveolar [t,d] tar, dark or velar [k,g] car,
guard. or glottal stop [football]
 Fricatives
• closure which is not quite complete
• the air is not blocked at any point- no plosion
• the obstruction is big enough for the air to make a
noise when it passes through it, because of the
friction.
• effect is similar to the wind whistling around the
corner of a house Fricatives may be labio­dental [f,v]
wife, wives, dental [S,C] breath, breathe, alveolar [s,z]
sink, zinc, palato-alveolar [R,Y] nation, evasion, or
glottal [h] help. [h] is a glottal fricative.
 Stress Timed Languages
• CATS CHASE MICE
• The CATS CHASE MICE
• The CATS CHASE the MICE
• The CATS might CHASE the MICE
• The CATS might have CHASED the MICE
• The PROFESSOR is READING. (syllables?)
 Sentence Stress
• Where do you live?
• Is Sally a doctor?
• When are you going to France?
• I gave him a dollar, but he wanted more.
• The movie was great!
• What shall we do with the lazy worker?
• He’s a judge. He’s a judge? He’s a judge!
• Would you like coffee or tea?
• What’s his name?
 Voiced & Voiceless
• Ssssssssssssssssss or Zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz
• Consider the following pairs of words – sounds
change meaning
• Pence – Pens
• Sue – Zoo
• Place – Plays
• Lacy - Lazy
 Stressed out!
• ONLY I hit him in the eye yesterday.
• I ONLY hit him in the eye yesterday.
• I hit ONLY him in the eye yesterday.
• I hit him ONLY in the eye yesterday.
• I hit him in ONLY the eye yesterday.
• I hit him in the ONLY eye yesterday.
• I hit him in the eye ONLY yesterday.
• I hit him in the eye yesterday ONLY.
• 1. ONLY I hit him in the eye yesterday. (No one else did.)
• 2. I ONLY hit him in the eye yesterday. (Did not slap him.)
• 3. I hit ONLY him in the eye yesterday. (I did not hit
others.)
• 4. I hit him ONLY in the eye yesterday. (I did not hit
outside the eye.)
• 5. I hit him in ONLY the eye yesterday. (Not other
organs.)
• 6. I hit him in the ONLY eye yesterday. (He doesn't have
another eye..)
• 7. I hit him in the eye ONLY yesterday. (Not today.)
• 8. I hit him in the eye yesterday ONLY. (Did not wait for
today.)
 Good?
That’s phonology
for YOU!!!
