Lecture 1

Overview of
Phonetics and
Phonology
Phonetics VS Phonology

z These are two different areas of study

z They are related and insights from studies in
one often inform the other
z But it is important to keep the difference in
mind
Phonetics = the study of speech sounds

3 Areas of Phonetics
• Articulatory Phonetics
• The study of how speech sounds are produced by the brain
and mouth
• Acoustic Phonetics
• The study of the physics of speech sounds
• Auditory Phonetics
• The study of how sounds are perceived by the ear and
brain
Phonology = the study of sound patterns

z Representation of sounds in the mind

z But we see the effects on the surface
z And we see the effects on second language speech

z Phonotactics – possible sound sequence in a language

e.g. some languages do not allow consonant clusters
Thai

z Allophonic variation -
Online Readings

z Wikipedia resource on
phonetics and phonology
Computer speech analysis program

z Online resources
z PRAAT
Homework 1
z Listen to your pronunciation of the words in Table A.2
and compare them to those provided in the CD for the
textbook.
What general comments can you make about your own
pronunciation ?

z Using the computer analysis program, inspect the files

from your own recording and compare it with the
recordings provided in the CD.
Describe one features of your speech that is different
from the speech samples of a native english speaker.