PHONOLOGY

• Phonetics = deals with the production of speech sounds by humans, often without prior knowledge of the language being spoken

• Phonology = is about patterns of sounds, especially different patterns of sounds in different languages, or within each language, different patterns of sounds in different position in words, etc.

• PHONEME = the smallest unit of meaningful sound in a language

• ALLOPHONE = different articulation of the same phoneme; ex: lip position of /ʃ/ in shoe and she

• MINIMAL PAIR = two items whose meanings alter when just one phoneme is changed; ex: pin/bin

• Syllable = a unit of pronunciation which is (usually) longer than a sound, but (usually) less than a word

• Monosyllable = a word consisting of a single syllable

• Discrimination = the ability to distinguish between two sounds when both are heard together

• Stress = the effect of emphasising certain syllables by making them louder or longer, or by increasing their pitch; there are word stress and sentence stress (aka prominence)

• Nuclear stress/Tonic syllable = where the greatest movement happens in a sentence; in a typical sentence most syllables are not stressed except one

• Accommodation = the process of ‘squeezing together’ the syllables that occur between stressed syllables, so that each segment of an utterance takes the same time to produce

• Differentiation/Recognition and production = the stages for teaching word and sentence stress

• Stress-timed language = a language where stressed syllables tend to occur at regular intervals and syllables are NOT assigned the same stress, e.g., English

• Syllable-timed language = a language where each syllable tends to take the same length of time to say, e.g., French or Japanese

• Tone groups = parts of a sentence, each with one stress

CONSONANTS (= a speech sounds where the airstream from the lungs is either completely blocked, partially blocked, or where the opening is so narrow that the air escapes with audible friction):

• Voicing (= if the vocal chords are vibrating or not)

  • voiced (/b/, /d/, /g/, /ʤ/, /v/, /ð/, /z/, /ʒ/, /m/, /n/, /ŋ/, /l/, /r/, /j/, /w/)

  • voiceless/unvoiced (/p/, /t/, /k/, /ʧ/, /f/, /θ/, /s/, /ʃ/, /h/)

• Place of articulation (= where the obstruction of the airflow is taking place; where the sound is formed)

  • bilabial (the lips are brought together) ex: /p/, /b/, /m/

  • labio-dental (upper teeth or lower lip) ex: /f/, /v/

  • dental (the tip of the tongue is placed behind the upper teeth) ex: /ð/, /θ/

  • alveolar (the blade of the tongue is placed on or close to the alveolar ridge) ex: /t/, /d/, /n/, /l/, /s/, /z/

  • palato-alveolar (the front of the tongue is placed just behind the alveolar ridge) ex: /ʧ/, /ʤ/, /ʃ/, /ʒ/, /r/

  • palatal (the middle of the tongue is pushed against the hard palate) ex: /j/

  • velar (the back of the tongue is placed against or close to the soft palate) ex: /k/, /g/, /ŋ/, /w/

  • glottal (produced by a strong airflow through the glottis) ex: /h/

• Manner of articulation (= how the airflow is affected; what happens to the air)

  • plosive/stop (when the air is blocked completely and then released suddenly; explosion) ex: /p/, /b/, /t/, /d/, /k/, /g/

  • fricative (when the air is partially blocked and friction is created; friction) ex: /f/, /v/, /θ/, /ð/, /s/, /z/, /ʃ/, /ʒ/, /h/

  • affricative / affricates (a sequence of the above two: the air is first blocked and then released more gradually than in a plosive, causing friction; explosion ending in friction) ex: /ʧ/, /ʤ/

  • nasal (when the air is pushed through the nasal cavity rather than the mouth; through the nose) ex: /m/, /n/, /ŋ/

  • lateral (when the air is pushed around the sides of the tongue, the tip of which is in contact with the alveolar ridge) ex: /l/

  • approximant (when two organs of speech come close to one another but not close enough to block the airflow or cause audible friction) ex: /r/, /w/*, /j/*

VOWELS A sound made with uninterrupted air flow whose quality is determined by tongue height and position, lip rounding and length. For example, /aʊ/ in 'house'.:

• Monophthongs  (a single vowel sound. Example: the sound /u/ in “book”). 

• front (/i:/ meat, /e/ dress, /æ/ hat)

• central (/ɪ/ him, /ə/ ago, /Ʌ/ cut, /ʊ/ put, /ɜ:/ bird, /ɑ:/ far)

• back (/u:/ moon, /ɔ:/ north, /ɒ/ hot)

--------------------------

• close/high (/i:/, /ɪ/, /ʊ/, /u:/)

• mid (/e/, /ə/, /ɜ:/, /ɔ:/)

• open/low (/æ/, /Ʌ/, /ɑ:/, /ɒ/)

--------------------------

• short (/ɪ/, /ʊ/, /e/, /Ʌ/, /æ/, /ɒ/, /ə/)

• long (/i:/, /u:/, /ɜ:/, /ɔ:/, /ɑ:/)

• Diphthongs (a phoneme containing two vowels, the first (onglide) gliding into the second (offglide). Example: the sound /ei/ in “play”, made up of two vowels /e/ and /i/. 

  • centring (/ɪə/ ear, /ʊə/ sure, /eə/ there)

  • closing (/eɪ/ pay, /ɔɪ/ boy, /aɪ/ sigh, /aʊ/ how, /əʊ/ go)

• Assimilation (= when a phoneme changes its quality due to the influence of a neighbour sound)
  Ex: handbag /n/ -> /m/
  Ex: danced /d/ -> /t/

  • Coalescent
    (when both sounds affect each other)
    Ex: Would you…? /d/ + /j/ => /ʤ/

• Catenation/Liaison (= the way sounds are fused together at word boundaries)

  • Intrusion
    (when an extra sound, i.e., a semi-vowel, is introduced between two vowel sounds, one at the end of a word and the second at the beginning of the next word;

occurs between 2 vowel boundaries and help link the vowel sounds together smoothly)
Ex: pie and chips /paɪjən(d)ʧɪps/, China and Japan /ʧaɪnərənʤəpæn/, and go away /gəʊwəweɪ/

• Consonant vowel linking/catenation

(when a consonant sound at the end of a word links with a vowel sound at the start of the next word so that the word boundaries become unclear)
Ex: first of all /fɜ:stəvɔ:l/ -> ~festival

• Juncture

(when the utterances are phonemically identical but there are 2 possible interpretations of the sounds heard)
Ex: I scream vs ice-cream /aɪskri:m/

• Elision
  (= the omission of sounds/syllables because a similar sound occurs immediately afterwards)
  Ex: pie and chips /paɪjən(d)ʧɪps/, I walked to work /aɪwɔ:k(t)təwɜ:rk/

• Weak forms
  (= when a word is unstressed, the vowel is reduced to a schwa; however, other vowel sounds can also be weak)
  Ex: and /æ/ -> /ə/, been /i:/ -> /ɪ/

• Contraction
  (= when two single syllable words combine into one syllable; one of the words is a weak form)
  Ex: is /ɪz/ + not /nɒt/ => isn’t /ɪznt/

• Word stress - indicates which syllables are stressed - or emphasised - in a word. Example: 'Photograph' has word stress Ooo (stress on the first syllable), 'photographer' has word stress oOoo (stress on the second syllable).

• Sentence stress - the way a speaker highlights certain words in each sentence. It helps the listener focus on important parts and understand the speaker's meaning. Example: He's had a HEART ATTACK.