THE ENGLISH

PHONOLOGY
ENG 304
Dr. Alona Ehapon Manuel- Chatto
Professor

An-an L. Concepcion
Reporter
 English phonology refers to the study of the sounds
(phonemes) used in the English language and how they are
produced, perceived, and combined in words. It includes the
analysis of vowel and consonant sounds (such as long vs
short vowels or voiced vs voiceless consonants), stress
patterns (such as word-level stress vs syllable-level stress),
intonation (the melody or rhythm of speech), as well as
variations in pronunciation across dialects or regional
accents. English phonology is an important area of study for
linguists, speech therapists, and language teachers as it
helps us understand how English is spoken by native
speakers as well as how non-native speakers can learn to
produce accurate and intelligible pronunciation.
 PHONEMES AND
ALLOPHONES
 WHAT IS PHONE?
 In linguistics, a phone (from the Greek fōnḗ) is
a unit of speech sound in any language.

A phonetic transcription (phone) is enclosed

with square brackets ([ ]).
 EXAMPLE OF PHONE
The difference between the /p/ sounds in pun ([ph] with
aspiration) and spun ([p],without aspiration) never
effects the meaning or identity of a word in English.
pun- spun
In English, the different ways of pronouncing the vowel
in the word
can Long [æ]
short [æ]
Nasalization [ǽ]
These are all phones of the phoneme /æ/
WHAT IS A PHONEME?
A phoneme is a speech sound in a given language that, if
swapped with another phoneme, could change one word
to another.
Phonemes are enclosed in slashes such as /d/
it is the smallest unit of sound in a language which can
distinguish two words.
Example:
In English the word /pan/ and /ban/ differ only in their
initial sounds /p/ and /b/.
/ban/ and /bin/ differ in vowels /a/ and /i/
The English words rid and fit end with two different
phonemes, /d/ and /t/, and changing one with any other
would change one word into a different word.

rid - rim (swapping /d/ with /m/)

fit - fish (swapping /t/ with “sh” /∫/

 WHAT ARE ALLOPHONES?
 Allophones are the phonetic variation of phonemes.
Allophone are different pronunciation of words which do
not change the meaning of these words.
Let us consider the following allophones:
[ph] as in “pin” and [p] as in “spin”. Think also of the
consonant /t/ and the sound it makes in the word “stop”
[stðp]. Now compare it with the pronunciation of /t/ in
the word “top” ([‘thðp]). In the latter word, most native
speakers use the aspirated form of /t/.
 (released of breath)
THANK YOU AND GOD BLESS
US!