3. Phonology
The study of the sound patterns in languages
Phonemes (vowels and consonants)
Prosody (stress, rhythm and intonation)
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4. PHONETICS
The scientific study of speech sounds –
their description, classification and transcription
(i) Articulatory phonetics: How speech sounds are articulated -- i.e. what speech organs are involved,
and what physical gestures or configurations are required to produce the sounds in question.
(ii) Acoustic phonetics: The physical properties of the sound waves generated by speech -- e.g. the
frequency of oscillation (how many cycles per second), amplitude (how loud), and duration (for how long).
(iii) Auditory phonetics: How speech sounds are perceived by the hearer as having certain auditory
properties that differentiate them from each other, such as the quality of the sound (is it [i] or [e]?), the
pitch (high or low), loudness, length, and so on.
5. PHONETIC CLASSIFICATION
Two broad distinctions:
(i)Vowels: sounds which are made with a smooth,
continuous, unobstructed airflow through the oral cavity
(e.g. [i:] as in see or [u:] as in too)
(ii)Consonants: sounds which are made with some
obstruction to the airflow in the oral cavity (e.g. [s] as
in see or [t] as in too)
6. What is the difference between phonetics
and phonology?
Phonology deals with the sound systems of languages
Phonetics deals with the physical realisation of the
elements of the sound system, e.g. how the sound is physically
produced (articulatory phonetics), or the acoustic characteristics of
the speech sound (acoustic phonetics)
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7. Key concepts: the phoneme
The smallest speech sound that has linguistic value
When a series of phones are similar in terms of articulation
and can be distinguished from another group in terms of
meaning and collocation, the group is given a name e.g.
/t/. This is a phoneme.
The phoneme is an abstract term, specific to a particular
language.
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8. Key concepts: phonetic
Each time a speech sound is produced it is different.
Each time you produce a /t/ it will be ever so slightly
different.
Hence the concept of the phone: a physical realisation of a
speech sound.
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15. Vowels
1. The height to which the body of the tongue is raised,
whether it is high, low, or in between (mid);
2. How forward the body of the tongue is, whether it is
front (advanced), central, or back (retracted);
3. Whether the lips are rounded or unrounded.
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ACTIVITY 1: Pronounce the following words to yourself before
answering these questions:
(i) Do the highlighted letters in each of the following sets of words represent
the ‘same’ sound?
a) city, cotton, species, cello.
b) gold, ginger, gnaw, high
c) can, can't, ancient, sofa.
d) bus, news, vision, Asia.
e) sit, site, machine, racial.
f) rough, stuff, cough, through.
g) kick, charisma, unique, cut.
h) may, lame, fail, hey.
i) chef, shell, mission, special.
19. ii) How many sounds do the highlighted letters
represent in each of the following words?
tax, thing, schedule, school, are, though, chrome.
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ACTIVITY 4
(i) Transcribe the following words, using the phonetic
alphabet given above. Remember: don't confuse letters
(or the spelling) with sounds. [NB. Some of you may
pronounce certain words differently, which will naturally
lead to differences in transcription. There's nothing wrong
with that.] Compare your transcriptions with each other,
and with those given in a standard dictionary (such as the
Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English).
(1) rough, (2) debt, (3) psyche, (4) schedule, (5) judge, (6)
yacht, (7) march, (8) useful, (9) queen, (10) chalk
21. Activity 5
Given below are some phonetic transcriptions. Can you
pronounce them aloud, and identify the words that they
represent?
22. Foreign accents and borrowed words
Borrowed words
often pronounced according to phonological rules of
borrowing language
Foreign accents
result from application of native language phonology to
target language phonology especially if language learned as
adult
25. 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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26. 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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27. 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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28. Even the predictable combinations in English
are different to those of other languages
<ai> usually corresponds to /ei/, e.g.
pain, paid, almost never to /ai/
<ch> usually, but not always,
corresponds to /tò/ at the start of a
word, e.g. cheese but not choir
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29. 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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30. Why is English spelling so erratic? (1)
Not enough vowel letters for vowel sounds
English does not use accents, umlauts etc.
English spelling reflects many archaic forms of
pronunciation e.g. night in the past, was
pronounced with a fricative
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31. Why is English spelling so erratic? (2)
English has always resisted spelling reforms and academies to
set standards.
English spelling became fixed in the 16th-17th c. with the arrival
of printing. Many of the printers were Flemish and had little
knowledge of the language.
English has borrowed extensively from other languages and has
tended to maintain original spelling.
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