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ING507 Linguistics The Nature of Language LECTURE 5: THE SOUND PATTERNS OF LANGUAGE

2What is this?

"Uans appona taim uas tri berres; mamma berre, pappa berre, e beibi berre.  Live inne contri nire foresta.  NAISE AUS.  No mugheggia.  Uanna dei pappa, mamma, e beibi go bice, orie e furghetta locche di dorra.

Bai ene bai commese Goldilocchese.  Sci garra natingha tu du batte meiche troble.  Sci puscia olle fudde daon di maute; no live cromma.  Den sci gos appesterrese enne slipse in olle beddse.“

Bob Belviso, quoted in Espy (1975)

3Phonetics and Phonology

In phonetics, we looked at the physical production of speech sounds in terms of the articulatory mechanisms of the human vocal tract. Physical properties of some sounds: [t] voiceless alveolar stop

[i] high front tense vowel

[eɪ] a diphthong, a combo of one mid and one high vowel

When we considered the human vocal tract, we did not have to specify whether we were talking about a fairly large person, over six feet tall, weighing 200 pounds, or rather a small person…..

4Phonetics and Phonology (cont’d)

Physically different individuals would inevitably have physically different vocal tracts, in terms of size and shape.

Since every individual has a physically different vocal tract, every individual will pronounce sounds differently.

Each individual will not pronounce the word “me” in a physically identical manner on every occasion. How do we manage consistently to recognize all those versions of me

as the form [mi], and not [ni] or [si] or [ma] or [mo] or something else entirely?

5What is phonology?

Phonology is the description of the systems and patterns of speech sounds in a language. E.g. speak / *sb.. -- splint / *slpint

It is concerned with the ways in which speech sounds form patterns and systems in human language.

It deals with the abstract or mental aspect of the sounds in language rather than with the actual physical articulation of speech sounds.

6What is phonology? (cont’d)

When we think of the [t] sound in the words tick, stick, writer and eighth as being the same, we mean that, in the phonology of English, they would be represented the same way.

In actual speech, these [t] sounds are very different. tick [tʰık]

stick [stık]

writer [raıtər] / [raıDər]

eighth [eıtθ]

Q: Can you think of any other sound in English that behaves like /t/ in English?

7Phonemes

Each one of the meaning-distinguishing sounds in a language is described as a phoneme.

How do we know [t] and [d] are phonemes in English? We need to find minimal pairs: ten – den

ten [tɛn] / den [dɛn]

How about [b] and [p]? Are they phonemes in English? _________________________________________

What about [g] and [k]? Are they phonemes in English? _________________________________________

8Phonemes (cont’d)

An essential property of a phoneme is that it functions contrastively. There are two phonemes /f/ and /v/ in English because they are the only basis of the contrast in meaning btween the words: fat and vat

fine and vine

This contrastive property is the basic operational test for determining the phonemes which exist in a language.

If we substitute one sound for another in a word and there is a change of meaning, then two sounds represent different phonemes.

9Phonemes (cont’d)

Place of articulation, manner of articulation, voicing are the distinguishing features of phonemes.

If the feature is present, we mark it with a plus (+) sign. If it isn’t present, we use (-) minus sign. /p/ [-Voice, +Bilabial, +Stop]

/k/

/v/

10Phonemes and Allophones

The phoneme is an abstract unit or sound-type in the mind, there are different versions of that unit regularly produced in actual speech in the mouth.

/t/ – phoneme (t-ness)

[tʰ] [t] – allophones

tar star

The first sound in the word tar is pronounces with a stronger puff of air than is present in the first sound in the word star. You should feel some physical evidence of aspiration (puff of air)……

11Phonemes and Allophones (cont’d)

The crucial distinction between phonemes and allophones is that substituting one phoneme for another will result in a word with a different meaning as well as a different pronunciation. [b] ban, bat, robe

[v] van, vat, rove

Substituting allophones only results in a different and perhaps unusual pronunciation of the same word. pot [pʰat] - [pat]

spot [spat] - [spʰat]

12Phonemes and Allophones (cont’d)

Exercise: Look at the data from Thai and decide whether [t] and [tʰ] are different phonemes or allophones of the same phoneme?

[paa] ‘forest’ [pʰaa] ‘to split’

[tam] ‘to pound’ [tʰam] ‘to do’

[kat] ‘to bite’ [kʰat] ‘to interrupt’

Answer:

13Minimal pairs and sets

Phonemic distinctions in a language can be tested by way of minimal pairs and sets of words.

When two words such as pat and bat are identical in form except for a contrast in one phoneme, occurring in the same position, the two words are described as a minimal pair. fan – van /f/ - /v/

bet – bat /ɛ/ - /æ/

site – side /t/ - /d/

rich – ridge /ʧ/ - /ʤ/

ban – pan /b/ - /p/

14Phonotactics

Phonotactics is the linguistic term for possible phoneme combinations in a language. big, rig, dig, fig

There are no such words as lig and vig in English. However, they could be viewed as possible English words. Our phonological knowledge of the pattern of sounds in English

words would allow us to treat these forms as acceptable.

So lig and vig could exist in English but they happen not to = accidental gap.

15Phonotactics (cont’d)

It is no accident that forms such as [bizm], [fsɪɡ] or [rnɪɡ] in English do not exist or are unlikely ever to exist.

There are sounds that appear at the end of a word but never at the beginning. ________________

Knowledge of sound distribution or phonotactics: Which one sounds ok? /glark/ or /tlark/

/ʔip/ or /mip/

The words /tlark/ and /ʔip/ were formed without obeying some constraints on the position of English phonemes. Such constraints are called the phonotactics (i.e. permitted arrangements of sounds).

16Syllables

A syllable is composed of one or more phonemes and it must contain a vowel sound. Every syllable has a nucleus, usually a vowel, or a syllabified liquid or nasal.

The basic elements of the syllable are the onset (one or more consonants) preceding the nucleus and the rhyme that includes a nucleus and any following consonant(s) called the coda.

17Syllables (cont’d)

There are generally two types of syllables: The syllable that does not have coda is known as an open syllable.

see [si], I [aɪ], too [tu]

If the coda is present, it is called a closed syllable.

cup [kʌp], grace [grejs], child [tʃaɪld]

Consonant Clusters

Both onset and coda can consist of more than one consonant known as a consonant cluster. The combination /st/ is a consonant cluster (CC) used as an onset in

the word steam [stim], and as coda in the word best [bɛst].

18Syllables (cont’d)

There are many CC onset combinations permitted in English phonotactics as in:

black, bread, trick, twin, play, clean, crayon

What can we say about the first and the second consonant of these words?

_________________________________

English can actually have larger onset clusters, as in the words:

stress, splat, spring, splash (consisting of three inintial consonants)

Do you think the phonotactics of these consonants is difficult to describe?

/s/ + (/p/, /t/,/k/) + ( /r/, /l/, /w/ )

19Coarticulation effects

Our talk is fast and spontaneous and it requires our articulators to move from one sound to the next without stopping.

The process of making one sound almost at the same time as the next is called coarticulation.

There are two well-known articulation effects: assimilation and elision

Assimilation

When two phonemes occur in sequence and some aspect of one phoneme is taken or ‘copied’ by the other, the process is known as assimilation.

This process is occasioned by ease of articulation in everyday talk.

20Coarticulation effects (cont’d)

Assimilation (cont’d)

Think of the word have [hæv] and how it is pronounced in the sentence I have to go in everyday speech. As we start to say the /t/ sound in to, which is voiceless, we

tend to produce a voiceless version of the preceding sound.

What is the voiceless version of the sound /v/?

[aɪ hæftə goʊ]

Think of the phrase I miss you and how it is pronounced in rapid speech. [aɪ mɪs yu] [aɪ mɪʃ yə]

How about the sentence I can play and might be?

21Coarticulation effects (cont’d)

Elision (the omission/delition of a sound)

Omission of a sound segment which would be present in the deliberate pronounciation of a word in isolation is technically described as elision.

In consonants clusters, especially in coda position, /t/ is a common casualty in this process, as in the typical pronunciation for: He must be [hi mʌst bɪ] [hi mʌst bɪ]

Handbag [hændbæg] [hænbæg]

He passed his exam [hi pæst hɪz ɪgzɛm] [hi pæst ɪz ɪgzɛm]

How about the word aspects and the phrase you and me?

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