ENGLISH PHONOLOGY

The Sound System of American English

KEY TERMS
Phonetics-science of speech sounds, it is the study of sounds in human languages Phonology- A study of patterns of sounds is phonology Phoneme - a unit of sound significant in a specific language (E.g., /s/ is a phoneme in English ) Grapheme - The symbols (letters) used in a writing system such as our alphabet A,P,U Digraph - A single sound represented by two letters (e.g., th, sh,ch) Phonetic Alphabet - a collection of symbols used for writing words phonetically Horseshoes [horsuuz]

MORE TERMS
Accent-

The ways in which the words in a language are pronounced is accent Dialect- The grammar and vocabulary of a particular class or region is a dialect Basilect- local accent is termed as basilects ie accent of less privileged class Acrolect- are the accent of the privileged class The study of sound in general is the science of acoustics Articulation- The movement of lips and other speech organs

MORE TERMS
Allophone

- a variant of a phoneme; often not noticed by native speakers (e.g, spin, pin) Minimal Pair - Two words that are pronounced the same except for one sound (e.g., Sue, zoo) Voiced Sound - A sound produced with the vocal folds (cords) vibrating (e.g. voiced /z/ as opposed to voiceless /s/) Diphthong - a double vowel sound - two vowels appearing together as the nucleus of a syllable Syllable- Syllables are chunks or beats of sound Or sounds produced in a single breathe stroke, a cluster of speech sounds together to make a syllable, -help -hello -Liverpool

 syllables

thus formed come together to form a word, Each syllable obligatorily has a vowel in it, called nucleus. carefully computer a syllable may be defined as a unit potentially larger than the phoneme (unit of sound)but smaller than a word.

Thus

THE VOCAL TRACT

THE CONSONANTS OF ENGLISH

THE VOWELS OF ENGLISH

PHONETIC TRANSCRIPTION
Horseshoes Matches Book [horsuz] [mc\z] [buk]

Is
Pain medicine

[z]
[pen md\sn]

Thorns
Breathe

[ornz]
[bri]

ALLOMORPHS BASED ON PHONOLOGY

The plural morpheme

[s] after a voiceless consonant cats [z] after a voiced consonant dogs(z) [\z] after a sibilant matches(\z)

The past tense morpheme

[d] after a voiced sound, (stood) [t] after a voiceless sound (sat)

ALLOMORPHS BASED ON PHONOLOGY

The

negative prefix

[m] before a labial (e.g., impossible, immovable, imbalance) [] before a velar (e.g., incorrect, ingratitude)k & G [r] before /r/ (e.g., irreversible) [l] before /l/ (e.g., illogical)

Other

examples of assimilation

Conduct, compel, colleague, corrode Synergy, symmetry, syllogism Admit, abbreviate, account, annul, appeal, arrive, assign, attend, alleviate Submit, succeed, sufficient, suggest, support, surreptitious

VOWEL DELETION

Delete the last vowel of a morpheme if the following morpheme begins with a vowel
Anti- against, opposite Apo- away, from, off Cata- back, down, away Dia- through, between Meta- beyond, after Anti + pathy Apo + logy Cata + log Dia + meter Meta + morphic Ant + agonize Ap + androus Cat + egory Di + uretic Met + onymy

Works with some roots and suffixes:

auto- self miso- hate -ate adjective suffix auto + graph miso + gyny cre + ate aut + ism mis + anthrope cre + at + ion

Not if prefix is only one syllable: re + act; bi + ennial

E/O DELETION
Delete the e or o of a morpheme ending in er or or of a morpheme if the following morpheme begins with a vowel

Mater mother Member Meter Act Enter

Mater + nal Dis + member Dia + meter Act + or

Matr + ilineal Membr + ane Metr + ic Actr + ess Entr + ance

S DELETION
Delete an s after the prefix ex-

Spir Ser Secu Sist

In + spire In + sert Con + secu + tive Re + sist

Ex + pire Ex + ert Ex + ecu tive Ex + ist

N Deletion
Delete the n of the prefix an- before a consonant: Examples: a + theist, a + pathy, a + symmetry, a + trophy But not: an + emic, an + archy, an + orexic, an + hydrous

VOWEL ALTERNATIONS

/a/ changes to /e/ in other than first syllable E.,g, ann-ual/bi-enn-ial; apt/in-ept; damn-ation/con-demn /e/ changes to /i/ in other than first syllable E.g., reg-ular; incor-rig-ible; speculate/con-spic-uous