UNIT ONE
Modes of phonation
1. Phonetics – definition Sound formation pattern
2. Branches of Phonetics 1. Initiation – Source of air: pulmonic, vocal &
atmosphere
- Auditory 2. Phonation – Voice ----- /s, z/
- Acoustics 3. Articulation --- sound production
- Articulation
1. Organs of speech
2 Places of Articulation
3 Manner of Articulation
3. The difference between written and spoken Language
IPA Table
- Introducing Speech sounds of the world languages.
- Introducing all the content of the table.
- Description of English Consonant sounds
Phonetic transcription
Practicing with the natural languages
English Vowels
i ---- beet, beat, be, receive, key, believe, amoeba, people
I—bit, consist, injury, bin
e—bate, bait, ray, grant, eight, gauge, they
Ɛ --- bet, serenity, says, guest, dead, said
ᴂ----- pon, act, laugh, comrade
u---- boot, lute, who, sewer, through, to too, two, move
ʋ--- put, foot , butcher, cooed
ʌ---- cut, tough, omong, oven, does, cover, flood
o --- coat, go, grow, though , toe own, over
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ᴐ--- cought , stalk, core, saw, ball, awe
a---- father, palm, sergeant honor, hospital, melodic
ə ---- sofa, alone, symphony, suppose, the, America
aj----bite, sight
aw, ----- about, brown, doubt
ᴐj ----- boy, toy
Unit Two
Phonology:
- Is the language –specific selection and organization of sounds to signal meanings.
- Is the sound patterns of particular languages.
- Focuses on sound grammar that speakers need to know.
- “fnil” and “snil” English speakers could agree that both words nonexistent but “snil” is
possible word.
- “fnil”- is systematic gap Kn
- “snil” is an accidental gap jat lat , dat,
Phonology is a narrowed down phonetics.
Phonetics is universal, while phonology is language specific.
Explaining universal tendencies like assimilation is an alliance of phonetics and phonology.
A single system for English would be too abstract and would conceal many meaningful differences.
- A speaker- by-speaker account of description is too detailed, and neglect what unifies speakers as
users of the same system.
Standard British English, Scottish English, Us English, New Zealand English, … are all abstractions.
These can provide a level of accuracy which a monolithic ‘English’ system could not.
IPA. Is highly important for phonetic dealings and phonological abstractions in that the orthographic
system creates confusion by allowing many sounds to one spelling and many spellings to one sound.
Example: plough, cough, through, dough and
one sound- many spelling see, sea, people, amoeba, field (i:)
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The difference between phonetics and phonology
Phonetics Phonology
- Universal - Selective
- All physical sounds - Significant sounds
- Individual sounds - sound grammar
- Production of sounds - abstract sound
- All languages - a single language
Sound distribution:
1. Complementary 2. Contrastive 3. free variation
Phone, Phonemes and allophones:
1. Criteria to be an allophone.
1. Their distribution must be predictable. We can be clear where can appear and the
other not. Then they are in complementary distribution.
2. If exceptionally substituted with one another there will be no change in meaning.
3. Context/environment: allophones do not appeer in the same context.
A. (-at): Pat bat, mat, fat, vat, that, tat sat , gnat, rat chat cat hat
These all initial sounds belong to different phonemes/different sets of allophones.
B. (-ip): sip, zip, dip, tip, lip,
C. /-ot/: cot, dot, shot, jot
D. /ra-/ : rang, ran, ram, rat, rack , rag, rap, rash
ᵑ only at the end of a word not on set, but h- appears only at the beginning of syllable. They don’t have
minimal pairs. However they are not allophones because they do not share any phonetic feature.
2. Minimal pairs
Call Tall Fat Cat Leave lead
Saver Safer Very Ferry Veal Feel
Lot Rot Loliy Lorry
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3. Free Variation
- There is more than one possible pronunciation in the same word or context- this is free
variation. Example:: butter /t/ʔ/d/ economic Ɛ/ i either/ neither i/ ai
This may be because of dialect. Are there similar free variations in Amharic?
Natural Class
The major class features identify several categories of sounds. Features notation can also show why
certain sounds behave similarly in similar contexts.
Example: p, t, k /p t k/ /f ϴ s/
They all aspirated at word initial position - Voice - voice
-nasal - Plosive
- Continuant - nasal
Phonetic and phonemic transcription:
Orthographic Phonetic Phonemic
Distinctive and non-distinctive features
/P/ /M/
-Voice + voice
-Nasal - continuant
+ labial + nasal
-Alveolar + anterior
+Stop - coronal
-Fricative + consonantal
-Approximant - strident
+ central + syllabic
articulated set /matrix of binary features.
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Activity
Produce feature matrices for all the following English sounds. Example: /b/ is /- syllabic, + consonantal,-
sonar ant,- continent, + voice,- lateral, – nasal, anterior , -Coronal, strident,
( l, r, d, s , ϴ, , n, w)
UNIT THREE
English Suprasegmental (prosodic) features:
1. pitch- frequency of a sound.
2. Tone: ∆ pitch A sound that can carry or bring meaning change. Walaytta is a
tonal language. Example: ‘mata’ can be read in many different ways to mean grass, milk,
near, etc.
3. Intonation: rise and fall of a voice across a sentence.
Signaling: Emotion, Question and Statement
4. Stress: emphasis (loudness) (prominence)
Length--- long duration
Pitch (frequency)
Stress Fixed
free
(the vowel in the syllable is pronounced with found mental frequency)
Produce, convert, export, invent The first syllable stress indicates noun and 2nd syllable
stress is a verb indicator.
UNIT FOUR
English phonotactics
1. Syllable (σ) man
- One pulse of speech. σ
- It always contains one
loud sound which is onset rhyme m ᴂn
usually vowel.
Nucleus coda ᴂ n
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[smaIl] [smajə l] [k Ɛc ʌp] [k Ɛ cʌp]
smile bottle, little, ketch up
- Number of syllables depends on pronunciation.
- Syllable boundary depends on pronunciation.
2. Phonotactics is the constraints of consonant distribution in a syllable.
#P ---yes p # --- yes #sp --- yes # ps ---no. only this is wrong in Eng.
3. Onset: Onset is possible for all consonants in English but ŋ.
- If the on-set contains two consonants all plosive and fricative sounds occur before (ɹ).Example:
through, crime etc.
- Many plosive and fricative precede (1) . Example: play
- approximants: /j/ humid, furious, humid, coupon, …, /w/ Quick, twice, …..
- If three consonants- limited examples- spring, splash, strike, scratch
4 Coda:
- All consonants occur singly but/h/ /ј/ and /w/
- /l/ and /ɹ/ can precede many consonants. Example: help, bold, self, serf, discard, etc
- Plosives ax, sixth, taps
- Three consonants optional twelfth , unkempt, (1fϴ) (mpt)
5. Phonological Processes:
- Fast and causal speech or connected speech is a reason for the process to happen. These are:
a. Assimilation: odd message ------- (ob message), sit close------ (sik close) ---k k.
b. Reduction /deletion: laboratory—labratory, February---[f Ɛb ɹi], veterinary—[vƐʔnɹi], connect
----- [knƐkt].
c. Insertion: something--- sompthing,
d. Metathesis: asks------ aks, spaghetti-------pasketti
6. The Help of Phonetics and Phonology in Language Teaching:
Major Applications of English phonology in ELT
Where do you think phonology can help?
- It helps to introduce how English sounds are made.
- Teach letter sounds clearly.
- Prioritize pronunciation as needed.
- Target phonological awareness.
