The Sound System of Language:

Phonology

by:
Lelit A. Locsin
Roxanne Marie Valasote
Sapphire Christy Mosquito
 Phonology

• the systems and patterns of speech sounds in

language.
 Phoneme
Is the smallest unit of speech sound that can be
used to make one word different from another
word.
 Allophones
• produced when there is a set of phones which all of them are
versions of one phoneme, they are the allophones of that phoneme.

Example:

/k/
/k/ = kite
/kh/ = sky

 
 Minimal Pairs
Are words that vary in one single sound. They are written
identically but they contrast in one phoneme place in the
same position.

Example:
/teIk/ vs. /teIp/ “take” vs. “tape”
(bet/bed),  (sight/side),  (pin/pen),
 (drug/drag)   (put/pot),  (look,  book)  
 Minimal Sets
When a group of words can be
differentiated, each one from the others,
by changing one phoneme.
Example: (sad,  sod,  said,  sighed,  sewed,
 sued,  seed)      
 Syllables
It is a unit of sounds which contain a vowel
sound. The number of times that you hear a
sound of a vowel is equal to the number of
syllables the word has.

The basic elements of a syllable are the onset

and the rhyme.
 Clusters
  A consonant cluster is a group of
consonants which have no intervening
vowel.
For example, /spl/ and /ts/ are consonant
clusters in the word splits.
 Co-articulation
Is the process of making one sound almost at the same time
as the next sound.

Involves:
• Assimilation: when two phonemes occur in sequence and one is
taken or copied by the other. The sound becomes similar or identical to
its neighbor sound.

• Elision: is the omission of syllables, sounds segments or words.

 Assimilation
two sound segments occurs in sequence and some
aspect of one segment is taken or copied by the
other. ( words are pronounced in a slang manner.)

Light blue /lai blu/ added bonus /added bonus

Gunpoint /gumpoint/
Let us go. Ten cups /teղ k^ps/ Handbag
/hambag/
Private balcony /private balcony/
 Elision
is the omission of a sound (a
phoneme) in speech. It is common in
casual conversation.

It may refer to the omission of an

unstressed vowel, consonant, or
syllable.
 Example
Elision of sounds can be seen clearly
in contracted forms like
isn’t (is not).