Chapter 04: The Sound Patterns of English

Phonology

the study of systems and patterns of speech sounds in a language

abstract set of sounds in a language that allows us to distinguish meaning in the actual physical sounds we say and hear

(i.e. a "t" is not always pronounced the same way -> water, tube, eight)

Phonotactic restraint

phone= sound tact - touch: "Sound touching" The restrictions on possible combinations of sounds, often in particular environments.

English "allows" certain combinations of sounds; others are not part of English, such as

two combined stops as in "Ptolemy."

Sound substitution

The process by which known linguistic sounds are used to replace unknown sounds while speaking a foreign language.

Since English doesn't permit two stops to be spoken after each other, the word Ptolemy is pronounced: either "Tolemy" [toʊləmi] or Petolemy [Pətoʊləmi] based on the phonotactic restraint rules for English.

Phones

A physically produced speech sound [ ], representing one version of a phoneme //-- The smallest perceptible segment of speech sound.

Phoneme

The smallest meaning differentiating unit.

Phonemes are the basic form of a sound as sensed mentally rather than spoken or heard--like a sound address in our minds. The words [tʰɑp] [stɑp] [lɪɾl̩] [kʰɪʔn̩] [hʌnr̩] & [tɑp ̚] (tap, stop, little, kitten and hunter & top) all have a variation of the sound [t] which native English speakers consider to be "t")--not a different sound. All of these [t] sounds, though slightly different based on the above environments, go to the same mental phoneme address /t/ NOTE: for phones or sounds, we use [ ]. For Phonemes, we use / /

Allophone

One member of a particular phoneme class--i.e. [tʰ] [t] [ɾ] [ʔ] [n] & [p ̚] as in the words [tʰɑp] [stɑp] [lɪɾl̩] [kʰɪʔn̩] [hʌnr̩] & [tɑp ̚] are variants of the same phoneme /t/ Allophones therefore, are the the perceivable sounds corresponding to the same phoneme in various environments.

Minimal pair

Two words that differ only by a single sound in the same position and that have different meanings. The minimal sound differences can occur initially, as in [tim] vs. [bim] "team" vs. "beam"

centrally, as in [kæp] vs. [kip] "cap" vs. "keep"

or finally, as in [teɪk] vs. [teɪp] "take" vs. "tape"

Minimal pairs are linguistic tools used to isolate phonemes!

Consonant clusters

multiple consonants

-> if 3 in row, 1st must be /s/, 2nd /p/, /t/, or /k/ (voiceless stop), 3rd /l/, /r/, or /w/ (liquid or glide).

Minimal Pairs and Sets

Minimal Pair -> fan-van, bet- bat, pat-bat -> minimal sound contrasts

Minimal Set -> big-pig-rig-fig-dig -> changing one phoneme, always in the same position

Coarticulation Effects

Those effects of sound combining which characterize normal connected speech

The process of making one sound almost at the same time as the next sound is called co-articualtion.

Assimilation

change in one sound due to the connecting sounds

-> "n" in "I can" -> "ng" in "I can go"

Elision

a sound is not pronounced at all due to context

-> i.e. he must be -> hemasbi ("t" lost), every -> evry

Weakening

vowels become schwa in unstressed syllables--Often in mono-syllabic FUNCTION Words

"There were rather a lot of them" Here, all function words would have weak vowels

[thəɹ wəɹ ɹæðəɹ ə lat əv ðəm]

Syllables

A syllable must contain a vowel-like sound or diphthongs.

The most common type -> CV - consonant, vowel

Basic element of a syllable:

onset - (one or more consonants)

rhyme - vowel which is treated as a nucleus + any following consonant (coda)

Open Syllables - me, no, to - onset, nucleus, no coda

Closed Syllables - up, at, hat - onset, nucleus, coda

Basic structure of a syllable in English -> page 45

Syllables - Consonant Clusters

Both the onset and the coda can consist of more than one consonant.

/st/ -> consonant cluster (used as onset in the word stop and used as coda in the word post)

larger onset clusters - stress - /str/

Liason

The smoothing out of syllable boundaries in speech by adding a phoneme that is not heard in isolation.

Linking phonemes in English

voiced palatal glide [ j ] "the [y] exercise" or "My [y] apple

voiced bilabial glide [w] as in "no [w] apple"

voiced alveolar retroflex liquid [r] "mother [r] and father

Connected speech

Continuous speech flow that occurs in normal conversation--and is subject o co-articulation effects, such as weakening of structure words, assimilation, elision, and liason.