linguistic anthropology. bilabial stop alveolar stop /p/ (“pot”) /b/ (“bot”) /t/ (“tot”)...
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Linguistic Anthropology
Bilabial StopBilabial Stop Alveolar StopAlveolar Stop
/p/(“pot”)
/b/(“bot”)
/t/(“tot”)
/d/(“dot”)
Some English Phonemes
voiceless
voiced
Velar StopVelar Stop Glottal StopGlottal Stop
/k/(“kill”)
/g/(“gill”)
/Ɂ/(“uh-oh,” “Hawai’i”)
Some English Phonemes
voiceless
voiced
Labiodental FricativeLabiodental Fricative Interdental FricativeInterdental Fricative
/f/(“fine”)
/v/(“vine”)
/ɵ/(“thing,” “with”)
/ð/(“that,” “smooth”)
Some English Phonemes
voiceless
voiced
Alveolar FricativeAlveolar Fricative Alveopalatal FricativeAlveopalatal Fricative
/s/(“sue”)
/z/(“zoo”)
/ʃ/(“shoe,” “wish”)
/ʒ/(“vision,” “beige”)
Some English Phonemes
voiceless
voiced
Glottal FricativeGlottal Fricative Alveopalatal AffricateAlveopalatal Affricate
/h/(“happy”)
/ʧ/(“chop,” “watch”)
/ʤ/(“job,” “cage”)
Some English Phonemes
voiceless
voiced
Bilabial NasalBilabial Nasal Alveolar NasalAlveolar Nasal
/m/(“mother”)
/n/(“nope”)
Some English Phonemes
Velar NasalVelar Nasal
/ŋ/(“ring-a-ding-ding”)
Some English Phonemes
Retroflex LiquidRetroflex Liquid Lateral LiquidLateral Liquid
/r/(“really”)
/l/(“later”)
Some English Phonemes
Bilabial GlideBilabial Glide Alveolar GlideAlveolar Glide
/ʍ/(“wheel,” “which”)
/w/(“wish”) /j/
(“yellow,” “opinion”)
Some English Phonemes
voiceless
voiced
Acoustic◦ physical properties of sound, sound waves
Auditory◦ perception of sounds, psychological “reality”
Articulatory◦ pronunciation of sounds, articulation◦ aka “descriptive phonetics”
Descriptive v prescriptive approaches◦ Transcription vs. spelling
Avoid using your own categories◦ Find out how the system operates on its own
terms
Describe the patterns you find◦ Identify the units◦ Identify relationships between the units
Mapping the sounds of a language
◦ Helps you to analyze and pronounce sounds
◦ Helps you to analyze sound systems and to see patterns
◦ Guides you in understanding accents
different languages may use different sounds
to front[ii] seen[ai] sign[i] boid to center
[i] beer[e] bear[a] bar[] bore
to back[uu] sue[ou] hoe[au] how
gh, pronounced /f/ as in tough /tʌf/
o, pronounced /ɪ/ as in women /ˈwɪmɪn/
ti, pronounced /ʃ/ as in nation /ˈne=ɪʃən/
/ˈfɪʃ/
gh, pronounced /p/ as in hiccough /ˈhɪkʌp/
ough, pronounced /oʊ/ as in though /ðoʊ/
pt, pronounced /t/ as in ptomaine /ˈtoʊmeɪn/
eigh, pronounced /eɪ/ as in neigh /neɪ/
bt, pronounced /t/ as in debt /dɛt/
eau, pronounced /oʊ/ as in bureau /ˈbjʊəroʊ/
/poʊˈteɪtoʊ/
Sounds and their arrangements
◦ Phonetics & Phonemics Phonetics:
identify & describe sounds in detail (phones) Phonemics
analyze arrangements of sounds identify groupings of sounds (phonemes)
Examples: English “pill” vs “spill -- [ph] + [p] = /p/ Hindi “phl” (fruit) vs “pl” (minute) -- [ph] + [p] = /ph / +
/p/
phone◦ smallest identifiable unit of sound in a
language◦ more easily identified by outsiders
phoneme◦ smallest contrastive unit of sound in a
language◦ heard as a single sound by insiders◦ Contrasts are not predictable
a phoneme can be a single sound/phone
or it can be a group of sounds/phones◦ members of a group are usually similar
they are close on the phonetic chart they sound like ‘variations’ of one another
◦ members of a group are non-contrastive they don’t mark differences in meaning
◦ when such variations exist, they are called Allophones
are heard as ‘the same sound’ by native speakers
are usually ‘complementary’ to one another◦ we say they are in ‘complementary distribution’
because the variation is usually ‘conditioned’ by neighboring sounds, ◦ we can also call this ‘conditioned variation.’
allophones◦ non-contrastive◦ predictable distribution
[pn] and [spn]
phonemes◦ contrastive◦ non-predictable distribution
[pn] vs [tn].
Ken Pike, 1950s Core concepts in anthropology Etics
◦ outside, cross-cultural /comparative◦ absolute, objective◦ a step to emic analysis
Emics◦ inside, culture-specific◦ relative, subjective◦ a goal of emic analysis