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Unit 3-Phonetics

This document provides an overview of phonetics and phonology. It begins by defining phonology as the study of sound features used in a language to communicate meaning, including phonemes, word stress, sentence stress, and intonation. It then discusses phonemic script and dictionaries' use of symbols to represent pronunciation. The document also covers word stress, sentence stress, intonation, minimal pairs, and the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA). It provides details on the phonemic chart and its sections on monophthongs, diphthongs, and consonant pairs/single consonants. In summary, the document gives a comprehensive introduction to phonological concepts and the IPA phonemic chart.

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Marlene
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425 views7 pages

Unit 3-Phonetics

This document provides an overview of phonetics and phonology. It begins by defining phonology as the study of sound features used in a language to communicate meaning, including phonemes, word stress, sentence stress, and intonation. It then discusses phonemic script and dictionaries' use of symbols to represent pronunciation. The document also covers word stress, sentence stress, intonation, minimal pairs, and the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA). It provides details on the phonemic chart and its sections on monophthongs, diphthongs, and consonant pairs/single consonants. In summary, the document gives a comprehensive introduction to phonological concepts and the IPA phonemic chart.

Uploaded by

Marlene
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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UNIT 3

Phonetics &Phonology

Phonology is the study of the sound features used in a language to communicate meaning.
In English these features include phonemes, word stress, sentence stress and intonation.

The phonemes of a language can be represented by phonemic symbols. These help the reader
know exactly what the correct pronunciation is.

A phonemic script shows in writing how words are pronounced.


Dictionaries use phonemic script to show the pronunciation of words. The symbols are often
grouped into consonants and vowels. Vowels are sometimes divided into single (monophthongs)
ones and diphthongs.
In dictionary entries for words another symbol usually accompanies the phonemic script. This can
be ′, as in /′bju:tIfl/. This sign is used to show word stress.

Word stress
Firstly you can practice deciding how many syllables are in a word. Remember that the length of
the word often does not reflect the number of syllables. Saying words out loud can help make sure
you are counting correctly. 

Secondly decide which syllable do we stress, i.e. say with more energy. In a dictionary, this is often
marked with a ' before the syllable which is stressed, e.g. be'fore. Other syllables are said with less
energy.

Sentence stress is a characteristic of connected speech. Characteristics of connected speech


are contractions and vowel shortening in unstressed words and syllables.

The most important word in the sentence, i.e. the word that is vital to the meaning, is usually said
with primary/main stress. This means that it is said higher, longer or louder. In the above
sentence about Yuri we can change which word has the main stress depending on what part we
want to highlight. This is called contrastive stress. 

Yuri ate sushi for lunch. (not noodles)


Yuri ate sushi for lunch. (not dinner)
Yuri ate sushi for lunch. (not Yuka).

The contrast between main stress, secondary stress and unstressed words (weak forms) gives
English its rhythm.  

Intonation is another important part of pronunciation.


How we say something is as important (or maybe more) that what we say.  Imagine your friend
invites you to their house for dinner. Instead of cooking you a delicious meal like they promised,
they serve you a cup of instant ramyen! You might say 'delicious!' but how you say it could mean:
a) It really is delicious! Ramyen is my favourite food and this particular one is really tasty.
(Genuine)
b) This is not delicious. Where is my lobster? (Sarcasm)
c) I have never tasted ramyen before so I have no idea if this is delicious or not. (Doubt)

These different meanings are conveyed by the intonation i.e. the change in the voice level.

Phonology

Phonology deals with the system and pattern of speech sounds in a language. Phonology of a
language is the system and pattern of speech sounds.

Phonological knowledge permits us to;


 produce sounds which form meaningful utterances,
 to recognize a “foreign” accent,
 to make up new words,
 To know what is or is not a sound in one’s language
 To know what different sound strings may represent

What is phonetics?
 Phonetics is the science of speech.
 We all speak.
 But how many of us know how we speak?
 Or what speech is like?
 Phonetics seeks to answer those questions.

Phonetics vs Phonology

Phones
• A speech segment that possesses distinct physical or perceptual properties
• A particular occurrence of a speech segment
• The basic unit revealed via phonetic speech analysis
Phonemes
In human language, a phoneme is the smallest unit of speech that distinguishes meaning.
• Phonemes are not the physical segments themselves, but abstractions of them.
• The /t/ sound found in words like tip, stand, writer, and cat are examples of phonemes

Phones vs Phonemes

Phonemes
• We use slashes / / for phonemes
• We use brackets [ ] for phones.
• The vowel “phoneme” in the words bead and bean is represented as /i/
• The “phone” is represented as [i]

Rules of Phonology
• Delete a word-final /b/ when it occurs after
a /m/as in: But not!
bomb crumb bombard crumble
lamb tomb limber tumble

Minimal Pairs

Minimal pairs are pairs of words or phrases which differ in only one phonological element, such as
a phone or a phoneme, and have a distinct meaning.
• E.g. bit > pit, tip > dip, fan > van
They are used to demonstrate that two phones constitute two separate phonemes in the language.

Minimal Pairs
In phonology, minimal pairs are pairs of words or phrases in a particular language, which differ in
only one phonological element, such as a phoneme and have a distinct meaning.
• eg: /pit/ and /bit/

Orthography and Sounds


• The English language is not phonetic.
• Words are not spelled as they are pronounced
• There is no one to one correspondence between the letters and the sounds or phonemes.

Connected speech

Spoken language in which the words join to form a connected stream of sounds
Some other characteristics of connected speech are contractions and vowel
shortening in unstressed words and syllables, e.g. The schwa sound as in London.

The IPA.
The International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA) is a system that allows the sounds of any spoken
language to be consistently represented. It is often used by linguists, classical singers, actors,
lexicographers, and language learners to study the pronunciation of a language or dialect, and by
speech therapists to assess and correct speech impairments.
Speech sounds are commonly described in terms of place and manner of articulation; that is,
where and how they are produced. The image below shows the vocal articulators - the parts of the
oral cavity that can be used in the production of speech.

The IPA is a system for transcribing speech.


THE PHONEMIC CHART

In spoken form, most of the English language can be broken down into 44 separate sounds. The
phonetic chart shows us how these sounds relate to each other. There are three sections to the
chart.

 Single Vowel Sounds (long and short sounds)


 Diphthongs
 and the Consonants Pairs and Single Consonants (voiced and unvoiced)

MONOPHTHONGS (SINGLE VOWEL SOUNDS)

The first section is single vowel sounds. These are also sometimes called monophthongs. When
we think about the alphabet we normally think of there being 5 vowels A, E, I, O, U.

On the top row we have the sounds


 /I/
 /ɪ/
 /ʊ/
 /uː/
With all these sounds the mouth is almost closed and the sound is made at the top of the
mouth. That is why they are on the top row.
On the second row we have the sounds
 /e/
 /ə/
 /ɜː/
 /ɔː/
Now the mouth is open a little more and it feels like the sounds comes straight out through the
middle of the mouth. That is why they are on the middle row.

On the bottom row we have the sounds


 /æ/
 /ʌ/
 /ɑː/
 /ɒ/
To make these sounds our mouths should be almost wide open and it feels like the sound is
coming from the bottom of the mouth. That is why they are on the bottom row.

The columns are also important because they give us an idea of the position of the tongue.

With the left column the tongue is at the front.


 /iː/
 /e/
 /æ/
The tongue moves back a little for the second column.
 /ɪ/
 /ə/
 /ʌ/
Back a little more for the third.
 /ʊ/
 /ɜː/
 /ɑː/
And now finally at the back
 /uː/
 /ɔː/
 /ɒ/

THE DIPHTHONGS

The second section is the diphthongs, on our charts that is the section in red. Diphthongs are
also vowel sounds, but they are combinations of two vowel sounds that appear together
within the same syllable producing a new unique sound.
They’re arranged according to the second sound.

In the first column we have the /ə/ sounds


 /ɪə/
 /ʊə/
 /eə/
In the second column we have the /ɪ/ sounds. We should note that the symbols for these
diphthongs are written with the /ɪ/ symbol but the sound is often the longer but similar /i:/.
 /eɪ/
 /ɔɪ/
 /aɪ/

And in the third column we have the /ʊ/ symbol. Again sometimes the sound is more similar to the
longer /uː/.
 /əʊ/
 /aʊ/

CONSONANT PAIRS
The third section is the consonant sounds, The first 2 rows are sometimes called consonant pairs.
This is because the sounds of each pair are produced in a very similar way.

Let´s look at the first pair.


 /p/ and /b/

The sound is similar but the physical shape of mouth is almost exactly the same. The only
difference is /b/ is voiced which means that we use our vocal chords to produce the sound. If you
feel you neck when you say the sound you should feel some vibration. Now if you say /p/, if you
say it correctly you will not feel that vibration.

The same is true of the next pair


 /t/, and /d/

/d/ is voiced and /t/ isn’t.

 /ʧ/ and /ʤ/
 /k/ and /g/
 /f/ and /v/
 /θ/ and /ð/
 /s/ and /z/
 /ʃ/ and /ʒ/

SINGLE CONSONANTS
Finally in the bottom row we have the single consonants
 /m/
 /ŋ/
 /h/
 /l/
 /r/
 /w/
 /j/

So you can see now, that the phonetic chart is not just a random collection of symbols but useful
tool learning correct pronunciation. 

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