PHONOLOGY IN ENGLISH TEACHING

BY ;

1. NI KOMANG TRISNAWATI
2. PAULUS MUDA KONDO
3. NI LUH GEDE WIWINTARI

ENGLISH EDUCATION DEPARTMENT

FACULTY OF LANGUAGE EDUCATION AND ART
IKIP SARASWATI TABANAN
2023
A.Phonology meaning

Phonology describes sound contrasts which create differences in meaning within a

language. Phonological systems are made up of phonemes (we'll come back to phonemes in a
bit), and each language has its own phonological system. This means that the study of phonology
is language-specific.

 For example, the phoneme /ɛ/ is different from the phoneme /i:/, so if we use the
word set [sɛt] instead of seat [si:t], the meaning of the word will change.

Note: slash marks are used to indicate a phoneme /t/ (an abstract segment i.e. the representation
of the sound), as opposed to the square brackets [t], used to indicate a phone (a physical segment
i.e. the actual sound produced)

B. Phonological awareness

Phonological awareness is the ability to be aware of, identify and manipulate phonological
units (phonemes) in elements of spoken language such as syllables and words.

Phonological awareness comes from the analysis of the following language elements:

 Phonemes
 Dialects and accents
 Phonotactics

1. Phonemes

A phoneme is the smallest unit of meaningful sound. Phonemes are the basic
phonological units and form the building blocks of speech sounds. Phonemes are single
sounds represented by a single written symbol.

As you can see, these words are very similar, but each pair contains one phonemic
difference which creates different meanings.The rules for identifying minimal pairs are:

 The words in the pair must have the same number of sounds.
 Two or more words in the pairs must be identical in every sound except for one.
 In each word, the sounds must be in the same position.
 The words must have different meanings.

2. Dialects and accents of English

People can pronounce sounds in different ways. This can depend on multiple factors, for
example:
  Social class
 Ethnic group
 Speech or voice disorders
 Education
 Geographical area

Dialects are variations of the same language spoken by people in particular areas or social
groups. Dialects differ in pronunciation, grammatical patterns, and vocabulary. It is
important to remember that whilst these factors impact speech, people can have different
dialects and speak the same language.

 For example, Scottish, Irish, Yorkshire, Cockney, Welsh English, may all be said
to be dialects of the UK English language.
 Regional dialects may differ in their pronunciation or use particular grammatical
patterns or vocabulary. For example, the British English dialect does not
pronounce the /r/ in words like 'car' [ka:] whereas the American English dialect
often pronounces the /r/. Thisna-na [bəˈnɑːnə].- In American English it is
pronounced be-nah-na [bəˈnænə]. is called rhoticity.

Accents have developed because of regional phonological differences. Sometimes

accents are based on the pronunciation of words by non-native speakers. A foreign
accent is marked by the phonology of other languages.
Examples of phonological differences are:

 The word potato: - In British English it is pronounced po-tayh-to [pəˈteɪtəʊ].- In

American English it is pronounced po-tay-to [pəˈteɪˌtoʊ].
 The word laughter:- In British English it is pronounced la-fte [ˈlɑːftə].- In
American English it is pronounced la-fter [ˈlæftər].

 The word banana:- In British English it is pronounced be-na-na [bəˈnɑːnə].- In

American English it is pronounced be-nah-na [bəˈnænə].

3. Phonotactics

One of the branches of phonology is phonotactics.

‘Phonotactics is the study of the rules governing the possible phoneme sequences in a
language.

- Oxford English Dictionary

 Within phonotactics, we can look at syllables. A syllable is a phonological unit that
involves one or more phonemes. Syllables can show us how phonemes appear in
particular sequences.

Each syllable has:

 a nucleus - always a vowel,

 an onset and a coda - usually consonants.

These are the rules concerning phoneme sequences in syllables:

 The nucleus of a syllable is essential for the word and is the vowel in the middle
of the syllable.
 The onset is not always present but you can find it before the nucleus if it is.
 The coda is also not always present but you can find it after the nucleus if it is.

C.Phonology in the English language

As we've said, each language has its own phonology. That is, its own set of phonemes.
These phoneme sets are often shown through phonemic charts.A phonemic chart for a language
contains all of the phonemes that exist in that language. It is much more specific than the IPA
(International Phonetic Alphabet) chart which includes all possible speech sounds across all
languages.

1. Phonological rules

Each language's phonological system contains rules which govern the

pronunciation of phonemes.

Phonological rules are related to the spoken or written principles which control the
changes of sounds during speech.

These describe the process of articulation (how a speaker produces speech sounds
stored in the brain). Phonological rules help us understand which sounds change,
what they change to, and where the change happens.
Examples of phonological rules can be divided into four types: assimilation,
dissimilation, insertion, and deletion.

2. Examples of phonology in linguistics

 We'll now look at the phonological rules: assimilation, dissimilation, insertion
and deletion. Examples of these phonological rules occurring in the English language
are given below.

Pay attention to the examples with '/' and '[' that are used in studying phonology.

1. Assimilation

Assimilation is the process of changing one feature of a sound to make it

similar to another.

This rule can be applied to the English plural system:

 The -s can change from voiced to voiceless depending on whether the

preceding consonant is voiced or unvoiced.

So, the English plural -s can be pronounced in different ways depending on

the word it is part of, for example:

 In the word snakes, the letter 's' is pronounced /s/.

 In the word baths, the letter 's' is pronounced /z/.
 In the word dresses, the letter 's' is pronounced /ɪz/.

2. Dissimilation

Dissimilation is the process of changing one feature of a sound to make it

different.his type of rule makes two sounds more distinguishable. It can help non-
native speakers to pronounce words.

Example :

The pronunciation of the word chimney [ˈʧɪmni] as chimley [ˈʧɪmli], with

the change of [n] to an [l].

3. Insertion

Insertion is the process of adding an extra sound between two others.

For example, we usually insert a voiceless stop between a nasal and a voiceless
fricative to make it easier for English speakers to pronounce a word.
  In the word strength /strɛŋθ/, we add the sound 'k' and it becomes
/strɛŋkθ/.
 In the word hamster /hæmstə/, we add the sound 'p' and it becomes
/hæmpstə/.

4.Deletion

Deletion is the process of not pronouncing a sound (consonant, vowel, or whole

syllable) present in a word or phrase, to make it easier to say.

For example :

In the phrase “you and me” [ju: ənd mi:] it is possible not to say the
sound /d/.

 You and me [ju:ənmi:].

This also occurs in some words:

 /h/ in him [ɪm].

 /f/ in fifth [fɪθ].

D. Conclution

 Phonology is the study of the “sound system” of language. It refers to the phonemes used
in a language and how these are organised.
 A phoneme is the smallest meaningful unit of sound.
 Dialects are variations of language associated with a geographic area and social
class. Accents feature regional phonological or phonetic differences.
 Phonotactics studies the constraining rules of phoneme combinations.
 Each language has a phonological system (set of phonemes) which can be shown in
a phonemic chart.
 Phonological rules (assimilation, dissimilation, insertion and deletion) help us
understand which sounds change, what they change to, and where the change happens.
 Reference

https://www.studysmarter.co.uk/explanations/english/phonology/