The description of the systems and patterns of speech sounds in a language.

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

What Is Phonology?

Phoneme
The abstract unit or sound-type (in the mind)

The meaning distinguishing sounds in a language.

Phones
Different versions of a phoneme produced in actual speech.

Allophones
A set of phones phones, all of which are phoneme versions of one phoneme.

Minimal Pairs and Sets

Pairs
Two words identical in form but contrasting in one phoneme, occurring in the same position

Examples:
Pat Bat Fan Van Bet Bat

Minimal Pairs and Sets

Sets
Each word in a group differentiated from the other words in the same group by changing one phoneme.

Examples:
Feat, fit, fat, foot Big, pig, rig, fig

Phonotactics
The set of allowed arrangements or sequences of speech sounds in a given language.

Syllables
The phonological building blocks of words. A syllable must contain either: 1.) Vowel 2.) Vowel-like sound 3.) Diphthong

Syllables
3 Parts:
Consists of a vowel vowel. Treated as the nucleus nucleus.

Rhyme(Rime)

Onset

One or more consonants preceding the rhyme.

Consonant(s) succeeding the rhyme.

Coda

Syllables
vowel nucleus

preceding
succeeding

Syllables
2 Kinds:
Open Syllables
Contains an onset and a nucleus but no coda.

Closed Syllables

A coda is present.

Syllables
Consonant Clusters
When an onset and the coda consist more than one consonant.

Coarticulation Effects

The process of making one sound almost at the same time as the next sound is called coarticulation

Assimilation
When two sound segments occur in sequence and some aspect of one segment is taken or copied by the other, the process is known as assimilation. We can realize that this regular process happens simply because its quicker, easier and more efficient for our articulators as they do their job.

Example
I have to go. In this phrase, as we start to say the /t/ sound in to, which is voiceless, we tend to produce a voiceless version of the preceding sound, resulting in what sounds more like /f/ than /v/. So, we typically say hafta *hfta].

 Vowels are also subject to assimilation. We would typically pronounce [i] and [] without any nasal quality at all.

Any vowel becomes nasal whenever it immediately precedes a nasal.

This type of assimilation process occurs in a variety of different contexts. By itself, the word can may be pronounced as [kn], but, when we say I can go, the influence of the following velar [g] will almost certainly make the preceding nasal sound come out as the velar nasal rather than the alveolar nasal sound.

Elision
You and me We may, for example, pronounce and as [nd] by itself, but in the normal use of the phrase you and me, we usually say [n],as in [junmi].

 In the last example, illustrating the normal pronunciation of you and me, the [d] sound of the word and was not included in the transcription. (Thats because it isnt usually pronounced in this phrase.)

 In the environment of a preceding nasal [n] and a following nasal *m+, we simply dont devote speech energy to including the stop sound *d+. (This isnt laziness, its efficiency.)

 There is also typically no [d] sound included in the everyday pronunciation of a word like friendship [frnip]. This process of not pronouncing a sound segment that might be present in the deliberately careful pronunciation of a word in isolation is described as elision.

Normal speech
These two processes of assimilation and elision occur in everyones normal speech and should not be regarded as some type of sloppiness or laziness in speaking. In fact, consistently avoiding the regular patterns or assimilation and elision used in a language would result in extremely artificial-sounding talk. The point of investigating these phonological processes is not to arrive at a set of rules about how a language should be pronounced, but to try to come to an understanding of the regularities and patterns which underlie the actual use of sounds in language.

Sources:
McMahon, April. 2002. An Introduction to English Phonology. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, Ltd. Yule, George. 2006. The Study of Language. New York: Cambridge University Press.