Difference between

phonology & phonetics

• Phonology: Studies patterns of sounds in a SPECIFIC LANGUAGE ->
more related to theory, the cognitive properties of language
• Phonetics: Related to the physical aspect of how the language is
produced (in the human body) -> related to actual practice
PHONETICS
3 BASIC ASPECTS STUDIED IN PHONETICS:

• ACOUSTIC PHONETICS: properties of physical sound waves, how we

hear it
• AUDITORY PHONETICS: how speech is perceived
• ARTICULATORY PHONETICS: how the vocal tract produces sounds
PRODUCTION OF SPEECH
ARTICULATORS
• Pharynx
• Soft palate/velum
• Hard palate
• Alveolar ridge
• Tongue
• Teeth (upper and lower)
• Lips (upper and lower)
• Homophones: words that sound similar
- Son/sun –
- be/bee –
- bean/been –
- knows/nose –
- plain/plane
• Homographs: Words that are identically written that have different meanings
- Bat (murciélago) / bat (de béisbol)
- Bar (drinks) / bar (barra de chocolate)
- Bear (oso) / bear (verbo “to carry”)
- Ring (de boxeo) / Ring (anillo)
- Left (izquierda) / Left (verbo “dejar)
- Park (parque) / Park (verbo estacionar)
- etc
• Segments: vowels and consonants divided (dividir la palabra en
“silabas” pero de acuerdo a los sonidos, no a las letras/grafemas)
• If we replace a segment for another one, it can change the complete
meaning of a Word
Example: Path – Bath

This is known as MINIMAL PAIRS. Minimal pairs are words that have
only ONE different sound
In the case of Path & Bath, the only diffence is the P and B sound
More examples: SANDING / SENDING
• PHONEMES: Smallest unit of sound – mental representation of speech
sounds. They only exist in the speaker’s mind.
Example: /t/ /g/
• ALLOPHONES: Variations of phonemes.
Example: /t/ changes in “water” if we use an american or a british
accent, that’s an allophone

PHONEMES CHANGE MEANING

ALLOPHONES DON’T CHANGE MEANING
PHONEMES
• A phonetic transcription [kjhkj ] can indicate minute details of the
articulation of any particular sound by the use of differently shaped
symbols or by adding little marks (known as diacritics) to a symbol.

• A phonemic transcription /hjghjg /shows only the phoneme contrasts

and does not tell us precisely what the realisations of the phoneme
are.
• PHONETIC TRANSCRIPTION Example: English /t/. 
• Typically, a word-initial /t/ is realised with a little puff of air, an effect
termed aspiration, which we indicate by [h], e.g., tea [thi:] 
• In a phonemic transcription we would simply show both as /t/, since the
replacement of one kind of /t/ by another does not result in a word with a
different meaning.
• /ti:/

• IN SUMMARY, PHONEMIC TRANSCRIPTION IS LESS DETAILED THAN

PHONETIC TRANSCRIPTION
SUPRASEGMENTALS: speech features
• STRESS: donde se carga la voz, como el “acento” en español.
Example: in’sult -> verb to insult
‘insult -> an insult (noun)

• SYLLABLE-TIMED LANGUAGES: their syllables have similar lenghts

(SPANISH)
• STRESS-TIMED LANGUAGES: the most important syllables are
longer(with stress) (ENGLISH)
• EXAMPLE: i THINK he was RIGHT
STRESS IS INDICATED BY:
LEVELS OF WORD STRESS
• Primary stress: /ˌɔː.ɡən.aɪˈzeɪ.ʃən/
• It is the stronger degree of stress.
• It is very important in compound words.

• Secondary stress: /ˌɔː.ɡən.aɪˈzeɪ.ʃən/

• It is the weaker of two degrees of stress in the pronunciation of a word.
• It is important primarily in long words with several syllables.
• 3 o + syllables: stress at the beginning – first syllable: . ‘culture, ‘hesitant, ‘motivate

• 4 o + syllables: stress in the antepenultimate syllable : credi’bility, com’municate

• WORDS WITH A PREFIX: stress in the syllable that follows the prefix:
in’tend, ex’pose, con’nect, un’veil, un’happy

• ACCORDING TO THE WORD’S ENDINGS, THE STRESS IS IN THE ENDING:

• ade (nouns) pa’rade , -ain (verbs) ab’stain,, -ee (nouns), -eer, -esque (adjs/nouns), -esce (verbs), -
ess (verbs), -ette (nouns), -ique (nouns/adjs), -oon, -self/-selves, e.g. pa’rade, ab’stain,
interview’ee, engi’neer, gro’tesque, conva’lesce, as’sess, statu’ette, cri’tique, lam’poon, her’self,
your’selves.
Stress on syllable preceding ending – acento en la silaba anterior a la base escrita aquí
• -ative . al’ternative, -itive, -cient, -ciency, -eous, -ety, -ian, -ial, -ic, -ical, -ident, -inal, -ion, -ital, -
itous, -itude, -ity, -ive, -ual, -ular, -uous, -wards /wedz/, e.g. al’ternative, ‘positive, ‘ancient,
de’ficiency, ou’trageous, pro’priety, pe’destrian, super’ficial, melan’cholic, ‘radical, ‘accident,
‘criminal, o’ccasion, con’genital, infe’licitous, ‘multitude, incre’dulity, a’ttentive, per’petual,
‘secular, con’spicuous, ‘outwards. Note that many of these lead to antepenultimate stressing.
REMEMBER!
• Verbs tend to be stressed nearer the end of a word and for nouns to
be stressed nearer the beginning
REMEMBER TO CHECK IF THE WORD IS A VERB BEFORE COUNTING
THE SYLLABLES TO KNOW WHERE THE STRESS IS
Example: REcord -> logro
reCORD -> grabar
Word Stress in Sentences
• English words can be classified into content and function/grammatical
words.
• Within sentences,
• All words of more than one syllable are stressed (most of the time).
• Words of one syllable are generally not stressed if they are purely
grammatical/function words like pronouns, prepositions, and articles.
• Content words such as full verbs, nouns, adjectives, and adverbs are generally
stressed.

However, what really is stressed are the syllables of the content words.
Strong and week words
• We normally we use the weak form but if the word is stressed
because it is especially important, or because we want to show a
contrast, we use the strong form.

• STRONG: STRESSED
• WEAK: LESS STRESSED

ARE YOU GOING TO EAT THAT?

INTONATION
• Intonation involves the tones when we speak, what people use these
movements for and their intention

Pitch: movimientos de la voz al hablar (high or low – agudo/grave)

• Tone: variation in the pitch of the voice while speaking.
• Synonym: pitch movement.
• The shortest piece of speech we can find is the single syllable.
• Utterance: a continuous piece of speech beginning and ending with a
clear pause.
Fall Tone

• Used to demonstrate that you don’t want to keep talking, the

convo is over – it is also used to answer “Wh” questions (what,
where, who, etc)

\
yes \
no \
stop \
eighty a\gain
Rise Tone
• Used to demonstrate that you want to keep talking, to ask a question
• It often suggests a question
• It’s also typically used in Yes/No questions

/
yes /
no
/
sure /
really to/night
A. Do you know John Smith?
B. /yes (invites A to continue talking)
B. \yes (end of the conversation)
Other Tones
• Fall-rise: the pitch descends and then rises again
• Rise-fall: the pitch rises and then descends

\/
Yes
/\
Yes
Fall-rise
• It is used to express limited agreement or response with reservations. 
• Often suggesting uncertainty or hesitation
HESITATION = DUDAR,

some
\/
nearly per\/haps
\/
Rise-fall
• Used to convey strong feelings of approval, disapproval or surprise.
• Often used when you’re surprised or impressed.

oh
/\
lovely 
/\
i/\mmense
Level Tone
• Used to express a feeling of saying something routine, uninteresting
or boring.
• For instance, when answering routine questions for some purpose like filling
in a form.

_yes
_no
Contrasts

\
yes /
yes \/
yes yes
/\

Fall ˋyes finality, closing

Rise ˊyes unfinished, inviting
Fall-rise ˇyes reservation, limited agreement
Rise-fall ˆyes surprise, strong feelings
Level _yes impatience, repetitiveness
PRACTICE!!
• Listen and decide if the Word said is the same or is different

• 1) SIX/SIX = SAME
• 2) FAT/HAT = DIFFERENT
• 3) BEST / VEST = DIFFERENT
• 4) COW/COW = SAME
• 5) CHOKE/JOKE=DIFFERENT
Strong or weak?
Stress Maze

• Follow the path that will

take you out of the maze.
• You may go through a
room only if the word
has the stress pattern
which is written to the
left of the mazes (Oo for
the nouns and oO for the
verbs).
Listen and decide whether B uses a rise-
falling tone or a falling one.