1. Topic 3:
Phones,
Phonemes,
and
Allophones
Place of Articulation
Manner of Articulation
Definitions of phones and
phonemes
Vowel Nasalization in English as
an Illustration of Allophones
Allophones of /t/
Discussant: Irish Claire Espiña
19. AFFRICATES
–Can be describe as “STOPS” +
“FRICATIVES”
• Consonant Sounds Produced:
ch=[tʃ] j=[dʒ]
church chapter lunch
germ edge journal
20. NASALS
– Produced when the vellum is lowered
and the airstream is allowed to flow out
through the nose
• Consonant Sounds Produced:
[m] [n] [ŋ]
morning knitting name
21. LIQUIDS & GLIDES
–Both terms describe articulations
that are mid-way between true
consonants and vowels
[l] [r]
life like red rest
23. PHONES vs. PHONEMES
o PHONES
– Any distinct speech sound
or gesture, regardless of
whether the exact sound
is critical to the meanings
of words.
– Transcribed within
brackets [m] [n]
oPHONEMES
– A minimal unit that
serves to distinguish
between word
meanings
– Transcribed within
slashes /m/ /n/
24. PHONES
Example:
A. pin
B. spin
The change never affects the meaning of a word in
English so they are classified as phones and not
phonemes.
ASPIRATED
[pʰ]
UN-ASPIRATED
[pʰIn]
remains as [spIn]
25. PHONEMES
Consider the following sentence:
(1) /ðə kæt ɪz ɒn ðə mæt/
the cat is on the mat
If we change the first consonant of the noun cat and insert /h/ instead
we get the sentence:
(2) /ðə hæt ɪz ɒn ðə mæt/
the hat is on the mat.
which does not have the same meaning.
The two strings of sound [kæt], and [hæt] differ only because of their
initial sound and thus are potentially two different words.
The substitution of one sound for another changes the meaning
completely.
26. PHONEMES
Now if we say:
(3) a. the cat is on the mat
b. the mat is on the cat
Is there a difference in sound?
Is there a difference in meaning?
Obviously the set of sounds uttered in (3a) and (3b) is identical. So the
difference lies in the order in which these sounds appear: /k/ and /m/
permute in (3b). We see that the order of appearance can alter meaning.
In (3a) and (3b) the relationship between the cat and the mat is inverted.
In our examples we produce
in a string of sounds. These segments are called phonemes.
28. Vowel Nasalization in English as
an Illustration of Allophones
Vowels become nasalized when
followed by nasals.
WHAT ARE THESE NASALS?
[m] [n] [ŋ]
29. WORDS
be [bi] bead [bid] bean [bĩn]
lay [le] lace [les] lame [lẽm]
baa [bæ] bad [bæd] bang [bæ ̃ŋ]
Vowel Nasalization in English as
an Illustration of Allophones
Oral vowels
Non nasal consonants
Nasalized vowels
Nasal consonants
Oral vowels occur before non nasal consonants.
Nasalized vowels occur before nasal consonants.
30. Whether you speak or hear the vowel in bean with or without
nasalization does not matter. bean pronounced [bĩn] and bean
pronounced [bin] would convey the same word, because
nasalization is an inessential difference insofar as what the word
actually is, we tend to be unaware of it.
Contrast this situation with a change in vowel height. For
example, the words bead and bad. The [i] in bead and the [æ] in
bad are sounds from different phonemes. Substitute one for
another and you get a different word (or no word).
Vowel Nasalization in English as
an Illustration of Allophones
35. ALLOPHONES OF /T/
Allophone is a phonetic variant of a phoneme.
Aspirated [tʰ]
Phonemes /t/ Un-aspirated [t] Allophones
Flap[ɾ]
The aspirated [tʰ] occurs at the beginning of a word or a stressed
syllable tick [tʰɪk]
The un-aspirated [t] occurs directly before or after /s/
stick [stɪk]
The flap [ɾ] occurs between a stressed vowel and an unstressed vowel.
bitter [bɪɾər]
36. Examples:
letter = [let̬ər]
get in = [ɡet̬ ɪn]
thirty = [θɜrt̬i]
flutter = [flʌt̬ər]
stop = [stap]
stew = [stu]
step = [step]
steer = [stɪr]
top = [tʰap]
tan = [tʰæn]
tip = [tʰɪp]
ten = [tʰen]
When it comes to speech production, the power source is air that comes from the lungs and the vibration occurs in the
vocal cords or vocal folds that is housed within the larynx [also called the voice box] which Vibrates open and closed during phonation
• Palatine UVULA –dangly bit of flesh hanging at the back of your throat
- keeps our throat lubricated and helps to articulate speech sounds and create uvular sounds that is evident in some other languages like french, arabic and western african languages
The variable action of the tongue on all of the structures listed above results in our ability to articulate different speech sounds
WHERE THE SOUND IS PRODUCED….
Modern English has only one palatal glide represented by the symbol /j/ as in you, cube, and onion
Semivowel
Glottis is the space between the vocal chords
-ALSO CALLED PLOSIVES
-produced by a brief stopping of the airstream
Air pushed through a very narrow opening which produce a friction or hissing sound
FISH – Starts and ends with fricatives [f] [h]
THOSE – [ð] [z]
Voiceless affricates
Voiced affricates
Glides occur when the air stream is unobstructed, producing an articulation that is vowel-like, but moves quickly to another articulation making it a consonant. Sometimes glides are described as semivowels.
A change in phones does not affect the meanings of the words
A phoneme is a speech sound that can make one word different from another in meaning
The word pin has three phones; in that word, the initial sound is aspirated and so can be represented as [pʰ]; the word's phonetic representation would then be [pʰɪn].
Basically the change in p sound in p as aspirated and the p sound with no aspiration does not change its meaning.
Pronounced with the H sound or with the audible breath
In contrast, a phoneme is a speech sound that, in a given language, if it were swapped with another phoneme, would change the meaning of the word.
In contrast, a phoneme is a speech sound that, in a given language, if it were swapped with another phoneme, would change the meaning of the word.
The problem with nasalizing vowels is that the vowels become indistinct and may sound as another kind of vowel than the other one, however this does not really happen all the time but if you are to speak in a huge crowd you could have problems with clarity and understandability
There are questions to be asked when dealing with the chart alone
First: Is your mouth open, close or in the middle
Second: What’s the position of your tongue?
Third: What shape are your lips?
The sounds on the top row the mouth is almost closed
The sounds on the bottom our mouth is almost open
The sounds on the left our tongue is near our front teeth
The sounds on the right our tongue is moved back
The sounds on the top row the mouth is almost closed
The sounds on the bottom our mouth is almost open
The sounds on the left our tongue is near our front teeth
The sounds on the right our tongue is moved back
Flap R = flap t, which sounds like a short d or, more precisely, like the quick, hard r sound heard in some languages, e.g. in Spanish pero or Polish teraz.
alveolar tap. It is also called the flapped t, tapped t or tap t