CPMT (Content and Pedagogy for Mother Tongue) Santa Monica Institute of Technology

MODULE WEEK NO.3

Andrada Building,Cabili Avenue,Poblacion Iligan City
Tel.No.:221-2678
[email protected]

Bachelor of Elementary Education

COURSE CODE: CPMT (Content and Pedagogy for Mother Tongue)
1st Semester of A.Y. 2020-2021

Introduction

The study of the phonology of a language is concerned with the way the words or
utterances are pronounced.It highlights the significant sounds of the language.The English
language has more vowel phonemes than those in any Philippine languages.

Have you considered determining the number of phonemes that your mother tongue has?
Language learners in the Philippines have been studying English and Filipino as
official languages in the country and apparently gained ample knowledge about linguistic
systems.However,not so many have paid attention on studying the structures of their own
language.Since we are using mother tongue in academic discourse,the necessity to take a closer
at it is gaining ground.

Focus on your own mother tongue and study the features that make it distinct from
other Philippine languages.How is your language written and sounded?Do find out.

Rationale

The Philippine languages at present are no longer written using alibata but in the
Roman alphabet.However,the Philippines languages have their own peculiar features that set
them apart from English of any language.
Intended Learning Outcomes
At the end of this module the students should be able to:
•Identified the alphabet of a one’s mother tongue
•Compared the phonemic structure of one’s mother tongue with other known languages;and
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Lesson 3.1 The Sounds of Language
•Determined the phonemic structures in your mother tongue and the correct enunciation of
each.
Activity
A. Take a look at these scribbles.Can you decipher the message?

B. Try to give at least five examples for each category of phonemes in your mother
tongue.Underline the letter or the syllable you have identified as the representative of the
phoneme.

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Discussion

The Alphabet

Being literate in the Philippines requires the learning of the English

alphabet.Through the centuries,our country has been exposed to several influences and is still
undergoing a transformation that introduces language issues.Even the languages used in the
country have incorporated the foreign sounds and other important phonemes coming from the
Spanish language or the other languages of the colonizers.At present,all Philippine languages
basically adopted the English alphabet and with the incorporation of selected sounds from the
Spanish phonemes.One’s mother tongue that is not English will definitely have its own features
specific to its nature.

What exactly is an alphabet?

An alphabet is a standard set of letters or graphemes which is used to write or code

ideas.The general rule is that the letters represent the basic significant sounds(phonemes)of the
spoken language.

The writing systems of some languages use syllabaries in which a character

represents a morpheme.In the past,the alibata was the representative script of the Philippine
languages.This is reported to be related to the scripts of India.Alibata is a term that takes the
first two letters of the Maguindanao(alif and bet)used in the southern Philippines and derived
from Arabic.Its is said to be also called baybayin which means “to spell”in
Tagalog.However,the Philippine languages are presently written using the Roman alphabet.

Basically,the alphabet of a language has corresponding sounds.Let’s take a closer

look at the alphabet in your mother tongue.Are there phonetic features that set it apart from
the commonly known English phonemes?The following exercise aims to assist you in studying
your own mother tongue.As you perform the task,reflect on your mother tongue,that means
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you can be an advocate in helping others appreciate the wonderful gift that has been endowed
to you and your speech community-your language.

Phonemes

A phoneme is the smallest uit of sound in a language which can distinguish

meaning.For example: In English,the words,can and fan,differ in their initial sounds:can
begins with the phoneme /k/ and fan with /f/. Fan /æ/ and fin /I/ are phonemes.English is often
considered to have 44 phonemes with 20 vowel sounds nd 24 consonants.

In HIligynon,the sila (they) and pila (how much/many)differ in their initial

sounds.Sila begins with the sibilant /s/ while pila has the bilabial phoneme
/p/.Therefore,/s/,/p/,/I/,and the schwa sound /ə/ are phonemes in Hiligaynon language.

You may have noticed that each symbol of a phoneme is placed inside slashes
(/ /).You may also have seen phonemes placed inside brackets ([ ]). The phoneme placed inside
slashes is considered broad transcription and will be used for the purpose of this
book.However,if you need to closely conduct a narrow transcription that will include as much
detail as you deem necessary,then the phonetic transcription would require you to use
brackets.

Under the Generative Phonology framework,the slashes of the brackets represent

two distinct phases of phonological processing.The slashes denote the mental phonemic
transcription of the sound considered as a single unit in the brain.When this phoneme is
transformed into its final (in brackets) it then passes through the articulators and finally
enunciated.This is evident with contrastive sounds such as /p/ and [ph].
For the purpose of identifying the phonemes of your mother tongue,the slashes can
be employed at the start.
Phonemes may either be voiced or voiceless.A phoneme is voiced when it is
produced with a vibration in the vocal cords while the phoneme is voiceless when it is produced
without any vibration in the vocal chords.

The best way to test whether a phoneme is voiced or not is by putting a sheet of
paper in front of your mouth as you enumerate the sound of the phoneme.If the sheet of paper
moves due to the release of the air from the oral cavity,then it is voiceless;however if the sheet
does not move,the phoneme is voiceless.

There are segmental phonemes and suprasegmental phonemes.Under the segmental

phonmes are the vowel phonemes,consonant phonemes,diphthongs,and
triphthongs.Stress,accent,and junctures are examples of the suprasegmental phonemes.

Segmental Phonemes

Vowel Phonemes - are sounds produced by the articulators without any oral
impediment.The sound produced may depend on the position of the tongue or how the tongue
is raised.Examples /a/,/e/,/u/.

Consonant Phonemes - are the sounds that are produced with certain oral
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impediments.Some consonants phonemes are completely blocked and they are called stops
(e.g /p/,/b/).Others are partially blocked called laterls (e.g. /I/) or where the opening is narrow
allowing the escape of air with a friction called fricatives (e.g. /f/,/v/).Some of the sounds are
produced with the airstream blocked in the mouth but released through the nose.These are the
nasals (e.g. /m/,/n/,/ŋ/).

Diphthongs - are sounds considered as one distinctive vowel of speech sound but
involves two vowels with one gliding to the other phoneme.Examples of these are
/ai/,/ou/,.Triphthongs on the other hand consist of three vowel phonemes and considered as a
particular vowel of a speech sound.There are words in the English language that have
diphthongs or triphthongs.

Accent

Another phonological feature of a language that affects meaning is accent.

Accent refers to the emphasis given to a syllable in a word by means of loudness,vowel

length,pitch,or a combination of these.Accent could affect intended meaning: hence,it should
be used appropriately.

In Hiligaynon,the grammatical particles have one primary accented syllable.Accent or

stress given to a syllable can lead to lexically significant effects
seen by the following examples

Morphophonemics

Another feature of a language is morphophonemics.Morphophonemics of morphology

studies the interaction between morphological and phonological or phonetic processes.It
focuses on the sound changes that take place in morpheme(minimal meaningful units) when
they combine to form words.That is,the pronunciation changes when morphemes come
together in word formation.

There are several types of morphophonemics changes.Some of these are:

• Stress shift

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•Vowel loss
•Metathesis
•Assimilation of one sound to another
• Consonant change

1. Stress shift

The first kind of morphophonemic change is stress.A shift in the stress can affect.There
may be words that may shift its stress from its original place when there is an affixation.

• Stress shift to the right

Stress is shifted to the right when a suffix is added to the base form of the word as shown
in the examples.

• Stress shift to the Left

There may be words where stress is shifted to the left when the suffixation is
accompanied by a vowel loss in the stem to the suffix.

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2. Vowel Loss

The next type of morphophonemic change is the loss of the vowel phoneme.This is when
the stressed vowel is lost when certain roots have a suffix and stress is shifted to the right.

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3. Metathesis

Is the transposition of sounds or letters in a word.It is the re-arranging of sounds or

syllable in a word,or of words in a sentence.

In Hiligaynon,there is such a transposition.The loss of the vowel in the stem final

syllable may bring two consonants together.

4. Assimilation of the nasal sound to the consonant that follows:

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When the velar nasal ng or enunciated as /ŋ/ is in the final position,it is somehow
changed to the point of articulation as the following initial position of the stem.
Example:
--ng /ŋ/ + b-- = --mb--
--ng/ŋ/ + l-- = --nl--
--ng/ŋ/ + d-- = --nd--

This type of change occurs in verbs or gerund--like words involving the

mang---- or pang---- affix.

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5. Consonant change

In some instances,some consonants are replaced by others.

Exercise

Identify the following phonemes as either voiced or voiceless by writing it in the appropriate
box.

Assessment

Given the following five words in selected languages,write the phonemes in the space
provided.Write five words in your mother tongue and identify the phonemes in each word by
writing the symbol using the IPA symbols in Module 2,Lesson 2.1

Reflection

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1.What have you realized regarding the alphabet in your mother tongue?
2.What do you consider as the unique phonological features of your alphabet?

Resources and Additional Resources

DepEd K to 12 Curriculum Guide in Mathematics

DepEd K to 12 Curriculum Guide in Science
MOther Tongue:for Teaching and Learning,F.F.L.,Lorimar Publisher

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