The sound patterns of

language

Phonology
Chapter 4
◼ There are systematic differences
between:
✓ What speakers memorize about the sounds
of words.
✓ The speech sounds that speakers produce
when they utter.
Definition of Phonology
◼ The description of the systems and
patterns of speech sounds in a
language.

◼ It is concerned with abstract or mental

aspects of speech sounds rather than
with actual physical articulation of
speech sounds.
Phonology
◼ What knowledge do we possess about the
phonological rules in our language?
• Which sound sequences might be a word in
our language
thrim/blamp vs. gdit/rpukn
• How to pronounce words we never heard
before
• Change foreign words to pattern like the
words in our language
• We know how to apply rules to words we
never heard before
What is the difference between
phonetics and phonology?
◼ Phonetics deals with the physical properties
of the elements of the sound system, e.g.
how the sound is physically produced.

◼ Phonology deals with the sound systems and

patterns of speech sounds in a language.
◼ How speech are organized into systems in
different languages
◼ How sounds are combined
◼ The relation between them and how they affect
each other.
The phoneme
◼ The smallest speech sound that
distinguishes meaning. It serves to
create meaning differences, e.g. /t/ is
different than /d/.
◼ The phoneme is an abstract term,
specific to a particular language.
◼ It forms the structure of sound system
in a language.
Phonemes
◼ Consonant chart lists phonemes in
English
◼ The terms that are used in creating the
chart are called ‘features’ which are
marked by sign + & -
◼ E.g [b] + voice + bilabial +stop
[s] – voice + alveolar + fricative
Phonemes
◼ /p/ [- voice, + bilabial, + stop]
/k/ [- voice, + velar, + stop]

◼ Natural class: a set of sounds with phonetic

features in common, such as /p/, /t/, /k/ in
English, which are all voiceless stops.

◼ Phonemes that have certain features in

common behave phonologically in some
similar ways.
 The allophone
◼ Each phoneme may have different versions
depending on the context in which it is found.
◼ different articulations of /t/ e.g. Star, tar, butter
◼ /s/ in seen and soon.
◼ ‘seen’ is produced with spread lips, as /i/ follows.
◼ ‘soon’ is realised with rounded lips, to prepare for the
following rounded vowel, /u/.
◼ The second one, rounded /s/ is a variation, or
allophone of the phoneme.
◼ Allophones are what we actually produce and
hear.
Allophones of /p/
Pool spool
◼ The phoneme /p/ is different in each
word.
◼ [pʰ] in ‘pool’ as it is aspirated
◼ [p] in ‘spool’ as it is unaspirated
 Allophones of /k/
Kill Skill
◼ The phoneme /k/ is different in each
word.
◼ [kʰ] in ‘kill’ as it is aspirated
◼ [k] in ‘skill’ as it is unaspirated
 Allophones of /l/
love poll
◼ The phoneme /l/ is different in each
word.
◼ [l] in ‘love’ as it is light l
◼ [ł] in ‘poll’ as it is dark l
 Allophones of /t/
◼ There are more [t]’s than
you know word transcriptio context
n
◼ Example: the [t] in time is
aspirated, but that in stop is 1 stop [stɔp] After [s]
not.
2 time
aspiration= (the puff of air) [tʰajm] Syllable
pause + air release prior to initial
next sound 3 butter bʌɾər Between
◼ All these are allophones of vowels
the phoneme /t/.
◼ These differences are
usually expressed using
phonological rules.
Phonemes and allophones
The difference between a
phoneme and an allophone
◼ If one allophone is exchanged with another,
e.g. if seen is produced with lip rounding, the
word, while perhaps sounding a bit strange,
is still comprehensible.

◼ If one phoneme is swapped with another,

e.g. seen is produced with a /b/, instead of a
/s/, the meaning of the word changes- they
function contrastively
Finding Phonemes
*A minimal pair is a pair of words that
have different meanings and which
differ in only one sound.
e.g. pin-bin seal-zeal royal-loyal
*If there are more than two words than it
is a minimal set (a group of words)
e.g. bin-bean-ban
feat-fit-fat
Minimal pairs
◼ Four golden rules for minimal pairs:
• They must have the same number of sounds
• They must be identical in every sound except
for one
• The sound that is different must be in the
same position in each word
• The words must have different meanings
Phonotactics
◼ Constraints on the sequence or position
of phonemes
◼ Permitted arrangements of sounds.
◼ Phonological knowledge of the pattern
of sounds in English will allow you to
find some combination of sounds as
acceptable and some as not.
e.g lig, vig but not fslg or nglsb
 Syllables and clusters

◼ Syllable: a phonological
unit that contains more
than one phoneme. Syllable
◼ Syllables must contain a
vowel or a vowel like onset rhyme
sound.
◼ Open syllable: a syllable consonant(s) nucleus coda
that ends with a vowel (or
nucleus) and no coda as vowel consonant(s)
in me, no.
◼ Closed syllable: a
syllable that ends with a
consonant sound (or
coda) as in Sam, dip.
Consonant cluster
◼ Both the onset and the coda can consist
of more than one consonant sound,
also known as a consonant cluster.
◼ In English: CCVC → flat /flæt/
◼ CCCVC→ stress /strɛs/
◼ Differs from one language to another.
◼ Not the letters but the sounds should
be taken into consideration.
Co-articulation
◼ Our talk is often fast and spontaneous;
articulators move from one sound to
another without stopping.
◼ Co-articulation: one sound becomes
more like its neighboring sound.
◼ Assimilation & nasalization & elision
Assimilation
◼ The process whereby a feature of one
sound becomes a part of another during
speech production. (A rule that makes
neighboring sounds similar by spreading
a phonetic property from one sound to
another.)

E.g. hᵆv to = hᵆf to voiced v sound turns

to voiceless f sound.
Elision

◼ I can go

◼ The velar sound [g] will almost make

the preceding nasal sound come out as
[ŋ] (velar nasal) rather than the
alveolar nasal [n]
Elision
◼ Note the [d] in “you and me” or in
“friendship”
◼ The [d] is usually omitted in spoken
English elision
Key terms
◼ Phonology
◼ Phonemes & allophones
◼ Minimal pairs and sets
◼ Phonotactics
◼ Syllables
◼ Co-articulation effects