Unit 2 – Task 4- speech sounds and semantics

Laura Maria Andela Vidal

Code: 107503668

Group: (518017_90)

Presented to:

Harold Enrique Rodríguez Diaz

UNIVERSITY NATIONAL OPEN AND DISTANCE (UNAD)

ESCHOOL OD SCIENCES THE EDUCATION (ECEDU)
DEGREE IN FOREIGN LANGUAGES WITH AN EMPHASIS IN ENGLISH

CEAD La Plata

November, 2021
 Phonetics

English phonetics is a group of symbols that represent all the different sounds of a language.
With a language like English having many irregularities in its spelling and little logic to connect
spelling and pronunciation, phonetics offers an admirable solution, here is why phonetics is
closely related to anatomy, physiology, physics and neurology.

/ə:/

Schwa. It is a very common phoneme in English and is found in many words. It is a

reduced vowel, often in the final syllable. We also find it in some words where it is the
only vowel and it is between two consonants.
Examples
father /ˈfɑːðə(r)/ (padre), mother /ˈmʌðə(r)/ (madre).

/ʌ/

This phoneme is a short vowel close to 'a'. In English it is often associated with the
grapheme 'o' before the consonants 'w' or 'c' and after 'n'.
Examples

onion /ˈʌnjən/ (cebolla), wonderful /ˈwʌndə(r)f(ə)l/ (maravilloso), money /ˈmʌni/

(dinero), monk /mʌŋk/ (monje), month /mʌnθ/ (mes), summer
/ˈsʌmə(r)/ (verano), up /ʌp/ (encima), to cut /kʌt/ (cortar).

Phonology

Phonology is the aphonic system of languages, it refers to the great variety of sounds that a
speaker can emit, they represent the same thing although the pronunciation forms are different
from the acoustic point of view, at the same time they have the possibility to differentiate the
sounds that indicate a difference of meaning. Each time a word is pronounced, it is not
pronounced in the same way, because each pronunciation depends on the other sounds that
surround it. The sounds acquire different values according to the functionality they occupy in a
given environment, however there are some aspects that do not differ and that allow us to
recognize them without confusion in any position.

Examples
  In Spanish caro and carro are distinguished because the first word has the phoneme /ɾ/
and the second has the phoneme /r/. If we change the phoneme, then we change the
meaning.
 In Spanish casa and caza are distinguished because the first word has the phoneme /s/ and
the second has the phoneme /z/. If we change the phoneme, then we change the meaning.

“The phoneme: the same but different”

This phrase implies that the phoneme studies the sounds of a language, which is divided into two:
phonetics, which studies the sounds and how they are made, and phonology, which describes the way in
which the sounds work in a specific language or perhaps in several languages in general, but at an abstract
or mental level.

Video

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1R25hm79gx_ojBDTPuDu8B42coxIH9v-Z/view?usp=sharing