Phonetics and Phonology

phonetics

the study and classification of speech sounds

phonology

the study of speech sounds within a specific language

phonological investigation

phones, phonemes, allophones

phone

any individual sound

phoneme

smallest distinctive sound unit

allophone

variant production of a phoneme that does not distinguish meaning

minimal pairs

check a sounds status of a phoneme that does

articulartory phonetics

the system of describing speech sounds in terms of how they are produced

acoustic phonetics

the study of the transmission and the physical properties of speech sounds

auditory phonetics

the study of the perception of speech sounds

IPA

International Phonetic Alphabet

BE / RP

British English / received pronounciation

AE / GA

American English / general american

consonants

Speech sounds that occur when the airflow is obstructed in some way by your mouth, teeth, or lips.

criteria for phonetic description of consonants

1. Voiced vs. Voiceless

2. Place of Articulation

3. Manner of Articulation

obstruents

plosives, fricatives, affricates -> strong obstruction

sonorants

nasals, laterals, rolls, semi-vowels -> no such obstruction

approximants

liquids and glides -> get close but no friction caused

liquids

rolls / trills, laterals

glides

semi-vowels

bilabial

both lips - /p/, /b/, /m/, /w/

labiodental

lips and teeth - /f/, /v/

dental

teeth - /θ/, /ð/

alveolar

alveolar ridge - /t/, /d/, /s/, /z/, /n/, /l/

post-alveolar

right behind alveolar ridge - /r/, /ɹ/, /ɻ/

palato-alveolar

between the hard palate and the alveolar ridge - /tʃ/, /dʒ/, /ʃ/, /ʒ/

palatal

hard palate - /j/

velar

soft palate / velum - /k/, /g/, /ŋ/, /(w)/

glottal

glottis - /h/, /ʔ/

plosive

stopping and suddenly releasing air- /p/, /b/, /t/, /d/, /k/, /g/

fricative

friction due to narrow space - /f/, /v/, /θ/, /ð/, /s/, /z/, /ʃ/, /ʒ/

affricate

plosive followed by fricative - /tʃ/, /dʒ/

nasal

nose - /m/, /n/, /ŋ/

lateral

tongue - /l/

roll

tongue narrows airway and releases - /r/, /ɹ/, /ɻ/

semi-vowels

almost no air blockage - /j/, /w/

vowels

no obstruction of air flow

tongue position / involvement

front, central, back

mouth open-ness

close, close-mid, open-mid, open

close vowels

/iː/, /uː/, /ɪ/, /ʊ/ - seat, boot, sit, book

mid vowels

/e/, /ɜː/, /ɔː/, /ə/ - bed, sir, caught, a(bout)

open vowels

/æ/, /ʌ/, /ɑː/, /ɒ/ - bad, bud, car, hot

roundedness

produced by rounding the lips

vowel criteria

length, openness, position / part of tongue, roundedness

monophthongs

simple vowels composed of a single configuration of the vocal tract

diphthongs

sound formed by the combination of two vowels in a single syllable

schwa

The vowel sound sometimes heard in an unstressed syllable - /ə/

centring

all end in schwa

minimal pair

two words that differ only by a single sound in the same position and that have different meanings

phonemic brackets

/ /

phonetics brackets

[ ]

clear l

/l/ [l] - light, bliss

dark l

/ɫ/ [ɫ] - milk, ball

complementary distribution

allophone production that is tied to a particular phonetic environment

phonological description

segmental phonology, suprasegmental phonology

segmental phonology

the description of speech sounds in terms of speech segments (i.e. on the level of individual sounds)

suprasegmental phonology

the description of speech sounds in terms of prosodic features like intonation and stress (i.e. level of prosody)

structure of the syllable

onset, nucleus, coda

nucleus + coda

rhyme

maximum onset principle

assign as many consonants to onset as possible

resyllabification

a phonological process in which consonants are attached to syllables other than those from which they originally came

e.g. "my bike is" pronounced as "mai. bai. kis"

phonotactic constraints

restrictions on possible combinations of sounds

stressed syllable

part of the word that is emphasized when said aloud

unstressed syllable

the part of the word that you don't emphasize or accent

primary stress

the most prominent stress of a word -

secondary stress

the second most prominent stress in a word -

stress systems

Germanic: stem / root syllable

French: final syllable

Latin / Greek: movable stress

functions of stress

differentiate word classes, phrases from compounds, emphasize important content or new information

intonation

the rising and falling pitch of the voice

intonation structure

onset - nucleus - coda

what happens to unstressed vowels in english?

reduced to schwa or ɪ or deleted