CHAPTER 3 DIFFERENC BETWEENPHONOLOGY AND PHONETICSPhonetics vs. Phonology1. Phonetics vs. phonologyPhonetics deals with the productionof speech

Gghh,klmll,ll,;,;,;Mmmllllllmlmlmmmmlml, ..,.’.

sounds by humans, often withoutprior knowledge of the language

being spoken. Phonology isabout patterns of sounds, especiallydifferent patterns of sounds indifferent languages, or within eachlanguage, different patterns ofsounds in different positions inwords etc.2. Phonology as grammar of phoneticpatternsThe consonant cluster /st/ is OK atthe beginning, middle or end ofwords in English.At beginnings of words, /str/ is OKin English, but /ftr/ or / tr/ arenot (they are ungrammatical)./ tr/ is OK in the middle of words,however, e.g. in "ashtray"./ tr/ is OK at the beginnings ofwords in German, though, and /ftr/is OK word-initially in Russian, butnot in English or German.

3. A given sound has a differentfunction or status in the soundpatterns of different languagesFor example, the glottal stop [ ]occurs in both English and ArabicBUT...In English, at the beginning of aword, [ ] is a just way of beginningvowels, and does not occur withconsonants. In the middle or at theend of a word, [ ] is one possible

pronunciation of /t/ in e.g. "pat"[pa ].In Arabic, / / is a consonant soundlike any other (/k/, /t/ orwhatever): [ íktib] "write!", [da íia] "minute (time)", [ a ] "right".4. Phonemes and allophones, orsounds and their variantsThe vowels in the English words "cool", "whose" and"moon" are all similar but slightly different. Theyare three variants or allophones of the /u/ phoneme.The different variants are dependent on the differentcontexts in which they occur. Likewise, the consonantphoneme /k/ has different variant pronunciations indifferent contexts. Compare:  

keep /kip/The place ofarticulation is fronterin the mouth

[k+h

]

cart /k t/The place ofarticulation is not sofront in the mouth

[kh

]

coot /kut/

The place ofarticulation is backer,and the lips arerounded

[khw

]

seek /sik/There is lessaspiration than ininitial position

[k`]

scoop

/skup/

There is no aspirationafter /s/ [k]

These are all examples of variantsaccording to position (contextualvariants). There are also variantsbetween speakers and dialects. Forexample, "toad" may be pronounced[tëUd] in high-register RP, [toUd]or [tod] in the North. All of themare different pronunciations of thesame sequence of phonemes. But thesedifferences can lead to confusion:[toUd] is "toad" in one dialect, butmay be "told" in another.

5. Phonological systems

Phonology is not just (or evenmainly) concerned with categoriesor objects (such as consonants,vowels, phonemes, allophones, etc.)but is also crucially about relations.For example, the English stops andfricatives can be grouped intorelated pairs which differ invoicing and (for the stops)

aspiration:  

Voiceless/aspiratedph

th

kh

fs

hVoiced/unaspiratedbd

vzð

(unpaired)

Patterns lead to expectations: weexpect the voiceless fricative [h]

to be paired with a voiced [ ], butwe do not find this sound as adistinctive phoneme in English. Andin fact /h/ functions differentlyfrom the other voiceless fricatives(it has a different distribution inwords etc.) So even though [h]is phonetically classed as a voicelessfricative, it is phonologicallyquite different from /f/, /s/, / /and / /.

Different patterns are found inother languages. In Classical Greeka three-way distinction was madebetween stops: 

Voiceless/aspiratedphthkh

Voiced/unaspirated p t kVoiced (andunaspirated) b d

In Hindi-Urdu a four-way pattern isfound, at five places of

articulation:  

Voiceless aspirated phth

h chkh

Voiceless unaspirated p t c k

Voiced unaspirated b d etc.Breathy voiced ("voicedaspirates") b d et

c.CONTRASTING DIFFERENCE BETWEENPHONETICS AND PHONOLOGY:Phonetics relates to the sounds oflanguage, while phonology studieshow those sounds are put together tocreate meaning. Phonemes, or unitsof sound that are used in alllanguages to create words, are thefocus of the study of phonetics.Phonology studies the rules in anygiven language that govern how thosephonemes are combined to createmeaningful words. Phonetics andphonology study two different

aspects of sound, but the conceptsare dependent on each other in thecreation of language.

Each unit of sound, regardless oflanguage, is called a phoneme.Phonetics attempts to understand howeach one of these phonemes isphysically formed and produced byhumans. These units can becategorized by how they are producedand whether they are voiced orvoiceless. This aspect of phonetics

is commonly used by linguists aswell as speech specialists tounderstand how humans create speechsounds and why speech problemssometimes occur.The phonetic alphabet is acollection of symbols meant torepresent the actual sound of eachphoneme as it is pronounced indifferent situations. For example,a consonant may have two differentsymbols because it has two differentways of being pronounced dependingon the word it is used in. Thesephonetic symbols are commonly foundin dictionaries as a guide to how tocorrectly pronounce unfamiliarwords. Each symbol can represent oneletter or a group of letters thatcombine to make one sound.

Phonology is the study of howphonemes are put together and howthey create meaning for the speakerof any given language. Some phonemesmay have slightly different meanings

or uses in two different languages,and phonology is an attempt tounderstand these changes in meaning.In addition, historical ordiachronic phonology studies how thephonemes of a word can change overtime and how this affects wordmeaning. Phonology also examines thepatterns of how phonemes are used ina language. For example, some ofthese units are only used in themiddle or at the end of a word butnever at the beginning.Phonetics and phonology differ inthat phonetics studies theproduction of sounds, and phonologystudies the combination of sounds.Phonetics can be used to explore thesounds that are used in anylanguage, but phonology looks atonly one language at a time. Bothdepend on each other because withoutthe production of sounds there would

be no words, but without the rulesto put them together, sounds wouldhave no meaning. They work togetherin important ways, but both covertheir own specific part of languageproduction.