Phonology

Week 1
By. Natalia Anggrarini, M.Pd
Wiralodra University
Indramayu
The function and patterning of
sounds
The sounds of all language are patterning and organized in such ways
that linguists can discover some system that underlies their
appearance.
The study of phonology attempts to discover general principles that
underlie the patterning of sounds in human language.

Phonology itself: the systematic use of sound to encode meaning in any

spoken human language, or the field of linguistics studying this use.

Phonology proper is concerned with the function, behavior, and

organization of sounds as linguistic items.
Just as a language has syntax and vocabulary, it also has a phonology in the
sense of a sound system.
Describes beneath the word;
 syllable,
 onset and rhyme,
 phoneme,
 articulatory gestures,
 articulatory feature,
 or to units at all levels of language that are thought to structure sound for
conveying linguistic meaning.
Phonology is viewed as the subfield of linguistics that deals with the sound
systems of languages.

It should be carefully distinguished from phonetics.

Phonology describes the way sounds function within a given language or

across languages to encode meaning. In other words, phonetics is a type of
descriptive linguistics, whereas phonology is a type of theoretical linguistics
Phonetic : provide the means to describe the sound in language, how they are
produced and how they vary.

Phonology : how various sounds form pattern to create phonemes and their
allophones
The function of phonological rules

Every language has a set of phonological rules that are learned sub-
consciously by the native speaker. These rules can be applied to
individual sounds, but mainly they apply to groups of sounds called
natural classes (Fromkin, p.270).
The rules help us to understand, what may appear to be irregularities
in our language, to actually be predictable forms of speech. A non-
native speaker may not be aware of these rules and thus may have
difficulty with certain utterances. By being aware of these rules, a
non-native speaker may become more native like in his/her speech.
 There are three unit of analysis in phonology:
1. Syllable
2. Segment
3. Feature
 Segments in Contrast

 A segment is said to contrast (distinctive or be in opposition)

when their presence alone may distinguish forms with different
meanings from each other.
 Example [s] and [z]
 The contrast are often placed along the horizontal azis with the
respect to their place of articulation, and vertically with respect to
the manner of articulation.
Labial Alveolar Palato- Velar
alveolar
Stops and affricates
Tap [p] Pat [t] Chug [tʃ] Pick [k]
Tab [b] Pad [d] Jug [dʒ] Pig [g]
 The phonetics context in which a sound occurs is called its
environment.
 Pairs that show segments in nearly identical environments, are
called minimal pairs.
 Example

Words Transcription
Shoulder [ʃəʊldə]
Soldier [ʃəʊldʒə]
Author [ɔ:ɵə]
Either [i:ðə]
Vowel in contrast

 Contrasts among English vowels can be established with a few

sets of example
Language in constrast

 Sounds that are distinctive in one language will not necessarily be

distinctive in another.
 For example vowels [e] and [ӕ] ben and ban
 Japanese and finnish, short and long vowel contrast
Meeting II
Syllable

A syllable is a unit of organization for a sequence of speech sounds.

For example, the word water is composed of two syllables: wa and
ter.
A syllable is typically made up of a syllable nucleus (most often a
vowel) with optional initial and final margins (typically, consonants)
Segment level

Any discrete unit that can be identified, either physically or

auditorily, in the stream of speech.
Segments are called "discrete" because they are separate and
individual, such as consonants and vowels, and occur in a distinct
temporal order.
Other units, such as tone, stress, and sometimes secondary
articulations such as nasalization, may coexist with multiple
segments and cannot be discretely ordered with them.
These elements are termed suprasegmental.
Segments are linear divisions of the speech stream at the level below
syllables.
Segments are sometimes described as the smallest sound unit that can
be used to distinguish the meaning.
A segment is said to be contrast when its presence alone can
distinguish meaning between two different word.
Example :
Pin, bin, tin, kin, sin
those words differ only in their initial consonant segment
Beat, bait, bet, bat, boot, boat, bought
those words differ only in their initial vowel segment
Segments whose function is to contrast forms called as PHONEMES
Example: moon (m) and noon (n) , m and n are phonemes
Phonetic differences that are linguistically significant are
PHONEMIC
In phonetics, the smallest perceptible segment is a phone.

In phonology, there is a subfield of segmental phonology that deals with the analysis of
speech into phonemes (or segmental phonemes), which correspond fairly well to
phonetic segments of the analyzed speech.
a segment is a minimal sound element that can be isolated in the chain of speech,
Feature

Feature is the smallest building block of phonological structure,

corresponding as they do to articulatory or acoustic categories such
as voice or strident.
a distinctive feature is the most basic unit of phonological structure
that may be analyzed in phonological theory
Distinctive features are grouped into categories according to the natural classes of
segments they describe: major class features, laryngeal features, manner features, and
place features. These feature categories in turn are further specified on the basis of the
phonetic properties of the segments in question.
features traditionally have been specified by assigning them binary values to signify
that the segment being described by the feature either possesses that phonetic property
or it does not.
Therefore, a positive value, [+], denotes the presence of a feature, while a negative
value, [−], indicates its absence.
However, in recent developments to the theory of distinctive features, phonologists
have proposed the existence of single-valued features.
These features, called univalent or privative features, can only describe the classes of
segments that are said to possess those features, and not the classes that are without
them.
Major class features

Major class features: The features that represent the major classes of sounds.
1. [+/− consonantal] Consonantal segments are produced with an audible
constriction in the vocal tract, like plosives, affricates, fricatives,
nasals, laterals and [r]. Vowels, glides and laryngeal segments are not
consonantal.
2. [+/− sonorant] This feature describes the type of oral constriction that
can occur in the vocal tract. [+son] designates the vowels and sonorant
consonants, which are produced without the imbalance of air pressure
in the vocal tract that might cause turbulence. [−son] alternatively
describes the obstruents, articulated with a noticeable turbulence
caused by an imbalance of air pressure in the vocal tract.
3. [+/− syllabic] Syllabic segments may function as the nucleus of a
syllable, while their counterparts, the [−syll] segments, may not.
Laryngeal features

Laryngeal features: The features that specify the glottal states of sounds.
1. [+/− voice] This feature indicates whether vibration of the vocal
folds occurs with the articulation of the segment.
2. [+/− spread glottis] Used to indicate the aspiration of a segment,
this feature denotes the openness of the glottis. For [+sg] the vocal
folds are spread apart wide enough for frication to occur; for [−sg]
there is not the same friction-inducing spreading.
3. [+/− constricted glottis] The constricted glottis features denotes the
degree of closure of the glottis. [+cg] implies that the vocal folds
are held closely together, enough so that air cannot pass through
momentarily. [−cg] implies the opposite.
Manner features
Manner features: The features that specify the manner of articulation.
1. [+/− continuant] Continuant features describe the passage of air through the vocal
tract. [+cont] segments are produced without any significant obstruction in the tract,
and so air passes through in a continuous stream. [−cont] segments on the other hand
have such an obstruction, and so occlude the air flow at some point of articulation.
2. [+/− nasal] This feature describes the position of the velum. [+nas] segments are
produced by lowering the velum so that air can pass through the nasal tract. [−nas]
segments conversely are produced with a raised velum, blocking the passages of air
to the nasal tract and shunting it to the oral tract.
3. [+/− strident] The strident feature applies to obstruents only and refers to a type of
friction that is noisier than usual. This is caused by high energy white noise.
4. [+/− lateral] This feature designates the shape and positioning of the tongue with
respect to the oral tract. [+lat] segments are produced as the center of the tongue rises
to contact the roof of the mouth, thereby blocking air from flowing centrally through
the oral tract and instead forcing more lateral flow along the lowered side(s) of the
tongue.
5. [+/− delayed release] This feature distinguishes stops from affricates. Affricates are
designated [+del rel].
Place features

Place features: The features that specify the place of articulation.

1. [ LABIAL ] Labial segments are articulated with the lips. As consonants, these include
bilabial and labiodental consonants.
[+/− round] [+round] are produced with lip rounding. [−round] are not.
2. [ CORONAL ] Coronal sounds are articulated with the tip and/or blade of the tongue.
These include a large number of consonants, which can be made with the tip, blade or
underside of the tongue (apical, laminal, or subapical consonant, respectively), making
contact with the upper lip (linguolabial), between the teeth (interdental), with the back of the
teeth (dental), with the alveolar ridge (alveolar), behind the alveolar ridge (postalveolar), or
on or in front of the hard palate ((pre)palatal). With postalveolar sibilants, additional tongue
shapes need to be distinguished, i.e. "domed" or slightly palatalized ("hushing" or "palato-
alveolar"), palatalized (alveolopalatal), and "closed" ("hissing-hushing").
[+/− anterior] Anterior segments are articulated with the tip or blade of the tongue at or in
front of the alveolar ridge.
[+/− distributed] For [+dist] segments the tongue is extended for some distance in the mouth.
3. [ DORSAL ] Dorsal sounds are articulated by raising the dorsum of the tongue. All
vowels are dorsal sounds. Dorsal consonants include palatal, velar and uvular consonants.

[+/− high] [+high] segments raise the dorsum close to the palate. [−high] segments do not.
[+/− low] [+low] segments bunch the dorsum to a position low in the mouth.
[+/− back] [+back] segments are produced with the tongue dorsum bunched and retracted
slightly to the back of the mouth. [−back] segments are bunched and extended slightly
forward.
[+/− tense] This feature (mainly) applies to the position of the root of the tongue when
articulating vowels. [+tense] vowels have an advanced tongue root. In fact, this feature is
often referred to as Advanced tongue root, though there is a debate on whether tense and
ATR are same or different features.

4. [ RADICAL ] Radical sounds are articulated with the root of the tongue. These include
pharyngeal and epiglottal consonants.
5. [ LARYNGEAL ] Purely laryngeal sounds do not involve the tongue at all. These
primarily include glottal consonants.
Minimal Pairs

Minimal pairs are pairs of words whose pronunciation differs at only

one segment, such as sheep and ship or lice and rice. They are often
used in listening tests and pronunciation exercises.
Theoretically it is the existence of minimal pairs which enables
linguists to build up the phoneme inventory for a language or dialect,
though the process is not without difficulty.
A basic test for a sound’s distinctiveness is called a minimal pair.
A minimal pair consists of two forms with distinct meanings that differ by only one
segment found in the same position in each form.
Example:
Labial : tap – tab
Alveolar : pat – pad
Palato alveolar : chug – jug
Velar : pick – pig
How minimal is minimal?

Although the normal definition of a minimal pair specifies that the

words differ in one segment, it allows that segment to be widely
different in terms of articulation.
Another tighter definition of a minimal pair might be words which
differ by only one feature, what you might call hyper-minimal pairs.
An example of such a hyper-minimal pair might be cheer versus jeer
which differ only in voicing.
These two words also belong to the same part of speech and so have
the same inflections. Moreover they belong in the same domain of
discourse, and are therefore highly confusable.
Language specific contrast

Contrasts are language-specific: sounds that are distinctive in one

language will not necessarily be distinctive in another.
Example: ben and ban
there is difference between the two vowel (e) and (ae)
Thanks