Sound System of a Language

Phonology
Miss Caroline Val Madin Language Dept., IPG Tawau

We all have instinctual knowledge of the phonemes of our own language It allows us to produce sounds that form meaningful utterances (even if they are new) It allows us to recognize and understand a foreign accent

The study of the structure and systematic patterns of sounds in human language

It allows us to make up new words that sound right It allows us to add appropriate sounds to make plurals, past tense, etc. It allows us to know what is and what is not a sound in our own language.

Phonemes Allophones Minimal pairs Distinctive features Syllable structure Phonotactics Morphophonemics

Distinctive or contrastive sound (phonological segment) in the sound system of a language. PHONE
A Phonetic Segment Occurring in Language

PHONEME
A Segment that differentiates meaning

Place of articulation Ex. /p/ VS /t/ pop VS top Manner of articulation Ex. /b/ VS /m/ Bob VS mob Voicing Ex. /s/ VS /z/ Sue VS zoo

An Allophone is: A predictable phonetic variant of a phoneme It is rule-governed An Allophone is Predictable, Nondistinctive and Redundant

An alternative pronunciation or a variant of a phoneme.

Ex. /p/ /t/ - [ph] pen [p] sp y - [th] top [t] stop [?] bitten [D] butter

Aspiration in English is another example of a predictable, allophonic rule Occurs with certain consonants at the beginning of a word (if the syllable is stressed) Presence/Absence of Aspirated Consonant does not change the meaning of the word

A pair of words that differ by just one phoneme in the same position and have different meanings. Ex.

sip VS zip tip VS dip

Phonetic properties or features that distinguish phonemes from one another

Syllabic Consonantal Sonorant Obstruent Voiced Continuant Nasal

Lateral Distributed Affricate Labial Round Coronal

High Back Low Round Tense Lax

Study of the sound and phoneme combinations allowed in a given language.

Phonotactic Constraints: the rules that characterize permissible syllable structures in a language.

A phonological unit that is composed of one or more phonemes.

 1) After Consonants like /b/, /g/, /k/, or /p/ 2) If a word begins with /l/ or /r/
The next letter will be a vowel another stop is not permitted

3) If word begins with /c&/ or /j&/

Every speaker knows the next letter will be a vowel

4) No more than three consonants Allowed

Even this restricted to the following sequence: /s/ + /p, t, k/ + /r, l, w, y/

VC VCC CV CCV CVC CVCC CCVC CCCVC CCCVCCC

: : : : : : : : :

on, at, out ant, oust to, shoe spy, snow tin, chap part, tenth spin, cloud, pride splash, spread, split scripts, sprints

pertaining to the alternation or change of one phoneme to another in a particular environment. For example, the change of the phoneme /k/ to /s/ before front vowels, which can be seen in the words "electric" and "electric-ity", is morphophonemic A study of a phonemic difference among allomorphs of the same morpheme. It describes changes in pronunciation modified by neighboring sounds.

Morphophonemic Rule: the rule that assigns the phonetic form, determined by both morphology and phonology

voiceless phonemes + [s] Ex. books, rats, forks voiced phonemes + [z] Ex. jobs, dogs, pumpkins tense vowels, or diphthongs + [z] Ex. toes, zoos, boys [+strident] + [z] Ex. churches, garages, judges, courses

 [In]

+ vowels or alveolar

[Im] + labials [I]

Ex. inexpensive, intolerant Ex. impossible, immature

+ velars

Ex. incomparable, incomplete