Phonology

Phonology

• Articulatory and acoustic properties that sounds are made of

• articulation differences in [t] sounds in words tar, star, writer are less important to us than the distinction between the [t] sounds in general and the [k] sounds, because the [t] sounds does not distinct meaning

• the feature of a phoneme is present, we mark it with a plus sign (+) and if it’s not present, we use a minus sign (−).

Phonemes

• phonemes = sounds that can distinguish meanings (pan x tan), occur in overlapping distribution (can occur in the same place), contrast with one another, speakers are aware of them, abstract representations of speech sounds

• slash marks are conventionally used to indicate a phoneme, /t/, an abstract segment, as opposed to the square brackets, as in [t], used for each phonetic or physically produced segment

• overlapping distribution – two sounds are in overlapping distribution if they can occur in the same environment, sounds function for distinguishing meanings (fan/tan)

• complementary distribution – two sounds are in complementary distribution if they occur in different environment (t sound in star, written)

• phone = a physically produced speech sound, representing one version of a phoneme, it appears in a square bracket

• Allophones = actual pronunciations od a single phoneme as they occur in specific contexts (come x park), people may not notice the difference between them (when we have a set of phones, all of which are versions of one phoneme, we add the prefix “allo-” (= one of a closely related set) and refer to them as allophones of that phoneme)

• [tʰ], [D] and [t̪] are referred to be an allophone of one phoneme /t/

• Aspiration = puff of air made in pronouncing some sounds (tar, star), [tʰ]

• Nasalization = pronunciation of a sound with air flowing through the nose, typically before a nasal consonant, it can be represent with a small mark called„tidle“ over the symbol [ ı̃] in a narrow phonetic transcription

Minimal pairs and sets

• minimal pair (set) = two (or more) words that are identical in form except for a contrast in one phoneme in the same position in each word (e.g. bad, mad)

Phonotactic

• constraints (zábrany) on the permissible combination of sounds in a language

• words as lig, vig does not mean anything in English, so they represent “accidental” gaps in the vocabulary of English

Syllables

• A syllable must contain a vowel or vowel-like sound, including diphthongs

• C V C V C V – looks like string of sausages – C+V= one syllable (the most common type – consonant and vowel)

• Onset = the part of the syllable before the vowel (one or more consonants)

• Onset is followed by rhyme = vowels or vowels-like sounds

• Coda = consonants

• Nucleus = vowels

• Consonant cluster = two or more consonants in sequence

• The combination /st/ is a consonant cluster (CC) used as onset in the word stop, and as coda in the word post

Two types of syllables:

1. closed syllable = a syllable that ends with a consonant or coda

2. open syllable = a syllable that ends with a vowel (or nucleus) and has no coda