THE SOUND PATTERNS OF
LANGUAGE
Week 4 (14/10/2019)
REVIEW
• What are bilabials?
• What are labiodentals?
• What are velars?
• What is manner of articulation?
• What is the difference between voiced and voiceless
sounds?
PHONOLOGY
• Do we all speak in the same way?
• Do we speak the in the same all the times?
• Phonology is the description of the systems and patterns of speech
sounds in a language.
?WHY STUDY PHONETICS AND PHONOLOGY
• Of particular importance for learners of English as a
Second Language (ESL) because it has a practical
application
• English has a far larger repertory of phonemes than
languages like Standard Italian
• English is not a phonographic language, i.e. spelling
generally does give a clear indication of pronunciation
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STANDARD BRITISH ENGLISH
English
Pure Vowels 12
Diphthongs 8
Consonants 24
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ENGLISH IS NOT A PHONOGRAPHIC
LANGUAGE
Many sounds have several different spellings,
• e.g. go, though, foe, slow, boat;
• or George, Joe, badge, village
• Many “same spellings” have different sounds,
• e.g. <ough>: though, cough, bough, through, thought,
and enough.
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• Is Kurdish a phonographic language?
THE PROBLEM OF PRONUNCIATION FOR
LEARNERS OF ESL
• Learners cannot rely on the spelling of a word
• The problem is the opposite for native speakers – English
schoolchildren spend incredible amounts of time learning to
read and esp. to write. Many adults have very poor spelling.
• To learn to pronounce English correctly it is of great help to
learn to read phonemic transcription and/or have a CD
dictionary with sound
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IS ENGLISH SPELLING REALLY SO
?ERRATIC
• 83% of English words have predictable spelling
• However, the remaining 17% is comprised of
the most commonly used, everyday words
• Therefore the greatest difficulties are faced by
the learner at the start
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PHONETICS AND PHONOLOGY
• We begin with phonology and phonetics. It is important to
understand the difference between phonetics and phonology.
• Phonetics is the study of actual sounds of human languages,
their production and their perception. It is relevant to
linguistics for the simple reason that the sounds are the
primary physical manifestation of language.
• Phonology is the study of sound systems.
PHONETICS AND PHONOLOGY
• Languages are written in alphabets, and many use the
Latin alphabet. It turns out that not only is the Latin
alphabet not always suitable for other languages,
orthographies are often not a reliable source for
pronunciation.
• E.g. ص س
• سەوز
PHONETICS AND PHONOLOGY
• You spoke with the manager.
• You spoke with the manager?
IPA
• The International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA) is an
alphabetic system of phonetic notation based
primarily on the Latin alphabet. It was devised by
the International Phonetic Association in the late
19th century as a standardized representation of
the sounds of spoken language.
SOUNDS OF THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE
• There are forty-four sounds in the English
language (the standard version)-There are
twenty four consonants and twenty
vowels.
TRANSCRIBE
1. Room.
2. Language.
3. Picture.
4. Book.
5. Student.
6. Queue.
7. Establishment.
8. Antidisestablishmentarianism.
PHONEMES
• Phoneme: It is any meaning-distinguishing
sound in a language.
Fine and Vine.
NATURAL CLASS
• Phonemes that have certain features in
common tend to behave phonologically in some
similar ways. . /p/ is [-voice, +bilabial, +stop]
and /k/ is [-voice, +velar, +stop]
PHONES AND ALLOPHONES
• Phones are phonetic units and appear in square brackets.
• Allophones are different versions of the same phoneme.
E.g. tar VS star.
example allophone Phoneme
Tar ] th[ /t /
Writer ]r[
Butter ]?[
Eighth ]t[
MINIMAL PAIRS AND SETS
• Minimal pairs are pairs of words which are identical but
only one phoneme is different, occurring in the same
position.
E.g. pat and bat. Fan and van. Bet and bat.
• Minimal sets are groups of words can differentiated, each
one from the others, by changing one phoneme. E.g.
feat, fit, fat, fate, fought, foot.
PHONOTACTICS
• Phonotactis are constraints on the sequence or position
of English phonemes. (permitted arrangements of
sounds in a language and are obviously a part of every
speaker’s phonological knowledge.)
SYLLABLE
• A syllable must contain a vowel or a vowel-like sound, including diphthongs.
The most common type of syllable in language also has a consonant (C)
before the vowel (V) and is typically represented as CV. The basic elements
of the syllable are the onset followed by the rhyme. The rhyme consists of a
vowel, which is treated as the nucleus, plus any following consonants ,
described as the coda.
E.g. me, to, no> open syllables.
Up, cup, at, hat> closed syllables.
Green (CCVC), eggs (VCC), and (VCC)
SYLLABLE
syllable
onset rhyme
nucleus
Consonant
Consonant
s vowel
CONSONANT CLUSTER
• Both the onset and the coda can consist of more
than one consonants, also known consonant
cluster.
• Post, black, bread.
COARTICULATION EFFECTS
• It is unusual for language to have large
consonant clusters of the type just described.
• Coarticulation effects is the reduction of large
consonant clusters in casual conversation
speech.
ASSIMILATION
• When two sound segments occur in sequence
and some aspects of one segment is taken or
“copied” by the other.
• Have.
• I have to go.
NASALIZATION
• When we say words like pin and pan in everyday
speech, the anticipation of forming the final nasal
consonant will make it easier to go into the nasalized
articulation in advance.
• Can.
• I can go.
ELISION
• It is not pronouncing a sound segment that might be
present in the deliberately careful pronunciation of a
word in isolation.
E.g. You and me.
NORMAL SPEECH
• These processes of assimilation and elision
occur in everyone’s normal speech and should
not be regarded as some type of sloppiness or
laziness in speaking.
STUDY QUESTIONS
1. In French, the words /bo/ for beau (handsome) and /bÔ/ for bon (good)
seem to have different vowels. Are these two vowels allophones or
phonemes in French?
2. What is an aspirated sound and which of the following words would
normally be pronounced with one?
Kill, pool, skill, spool, stop, top.
3. Which of the following words would be treated as minimal pairs?
Ban, fat, pit, bell, tape, heat, meal, more, pat, tap, pen, chain, vote, bet,
far, bun, goat, heel, sane, tale, vet.
4. What is meant by the phonotactics of a language?
5. What is the difference between an open and a closed syllable?
