Phonetics Review

& Phonology

LIN 001Y – A09

W I N T ER 2 0 1 7
F R I DAY JA N UA RY 2 7 , 2 0 1 7
TA – JE F F MOR A N
HW 2 & Phonetics: What Do
We Need to Review?
-Test 1
-Discussion
-Logistics

-Vowel chart
-Phoneme & allophones
-Minimal Pairs
-Complementary & contrastive distribution
 2 Minute Warmup
It’s Friday! I’m so happy I want you all to tell the world about it!

So… work with a partner to tell the world how happy you are in IPA!
(That’s a lot of exclamation marks!)

Please transcribe the following phrase into IPA:

Happy Friday
[hæpi fɹaide]
Vowels
Vowel Chart & Descriptions
• All voiced
• No/minimal air
obstruction
• So we don’t use place
& manner of
articulation

So we describe them with:

Front-Central-Back
High-Mid-Low
Tense vs. Lax
 Activity
Practice saying each vowel sound. Then, for each monophthong and diphthong, say
one word that contains that vowel sound.
Monophthongs Diphthongs
1. [ɑi]
2. [ɔɪ]
3. [aʊ]
American English IPA
Consonants & Vowels
 Transcription activity
Transcribe your full name

Jeffrey Chapman Moran

ʤɛfɹi ʧæpmən məɹæn

Phonology: 30 Second Review
Phonology is the branch of linguistics that is concerned with how
sounds are systematically organized within a language

It is distinct from phonetics, which as we have seen, is the study of the

acoustic properties of sounds

However, in order to understand phonological processes, one must have

a good grasp of phonetics.
More Basic Concepts
Phonemes are abstract mental representations of sounds. Phonemes are
marked by slashes ( ex. /b/ ) They reflect speaker knowledge of sounds.

Allophones are the physical “realizations” of phonemes. They are the

sounds that are actually made by speakers of a language. Allophones are
marked by brackets ( ex. [b] )

A phoneme can have just one allophone or more than one allophonic
realization
/f/ /p/ /t /
|
[f] [p] [ph] [t] [th] [ɾ] [ʔ]
Q: “Phoneme or Allophone?”
A: Ask a Minimal Pair
A minimal pair is a set of two words that differ by only one unit of
sound.
An example of a minimal pair is CAT [khat] and BAT [bat]
◦ [kh] and [b] both appear in the environment:
[#__ at]

◦ This shows that the choice of [kh] or [b] in the environment [#_at] produces
a difference in meaning.

◦ When the choice between two sounds produces a difference in meaning, we

say that those sounds are in contrastive distribution. They are therefore
totally different phonemes.
Why Minimal Pairs?
Sounds in contrastive distribution are psychologically distinct for
speakers of the language under investigation.
[k] and [b] are psychologically distinct sounds because the choice of one
sound over the other produces a change of meaning when put in the
same environment [#__at]
Sound that are psychologically distinct are allophones of different
phonemes.
/k/ /b/
| |
[kh] [b]
Minimal
Pairs Activity
pill fool
sip spin
look food
hot thought
ship lick
 IPA Transcriptions
pill [phɪl] fool [ful]
sip [sɪp] spill [spɪl]
look [lʊk] food [fud]
hot [hat] thought [θat]
ship [ʃɪp] lick [lɪk]

<sip> [sɪp] and <ship> [ʃɪp] are minimal pairs

Both [s] and [ʃ] can go into the environment [_ɪp] and produce a difference in meaning.

Thus, we know that [s] and [ʃ] are in contrastive distribution, so they are allophones of
different phonemes. That is, these two sounds are psychologically distinct for speakers of
English.
/s/ /ʃ/
| |
[s] [ʃ]

Based on the minimal pairs, what are some other distinct phonemes in English?
 Minimal Pairs

lick [lɪk] look [lʊk] /ɪ/ vs /ʊ/

[ɪ] vs [ʊ]

ship [ɪp] sip [sɪp] /ʃ/ vs /s/

[ʃ] vs [s]

hot [hat] thought [θat] /h/ vs /θ/

[h] vs [θ]

fool [ful] food [fud] /l/ vs /d/

[l] vs [d]
Minimal Pair Brainstorm
1. Work in groups of 5
2. Come up with as many minimal pairs as you can
3. Identify and describe the phonemes that are in contrastive distribution
4. Remember, don’t think spelling, think sound!

Jeff’s Examples
been vs. ban /ɪ/ vs. /æ/
High front tense vowel vs. low front lax vowel

cite vs. tight /s/ vs. /t/

Voiceless alveolar fricative vs. voiceless alveolar stop
American English IPA
Consonants & Vowels
“Phoneme or Allophone?”… Without
a Minimal Pair
Let’s look at [p] and [ph]. Are they allophones of different phonemes or of the same phoneme?

pie [phaɪ] stop [stap]

spot [spat] present [phrɛsɪnt]

Are there any minimal pairs with [p] and [ph]? No! But… is there a systematic pattern to where
each sound can occur? Yes!

[ph] only occurs at the beginning of words and [p] never occurs at the beginning of words (i.e.
elsewhere). Thus [p] and [ph] are in complementary distribution. [p] and [ph] do NOT produce
a contrast in meaning and thus are allophones of the SAME phoneme.
/p/

[p] [ph]
Natural Classes
A natural class is a group of sounds that share at least one phonetic
feature.
Often phonological processes occur to a natural class of sounds, not just
individual sounds.

◦ For example, in English, /p/, /t/, and /k/ are all aspirated at the beginning of
words : [phɪn] <pin>, [thul] <tool>, [khoʊld] <cold>

◦ Therefore, /p/, /t/, and /k/ form a natural class. What is that class of sounds
(i.e. what features do they share)?

VOICELESS STOPS
 Natural Class Practice
What are the shared features of the following groups of sounds?

1. [z], [ð], [v], [ʒ] VOICED FRICATIVES

2. [i], [ɪ], [e], [ɛ], [æ] FRONT VOWELS

3. [i], [u] HIGH VOWELS

4. [k], [g] VELAR STOPS

5. [n], [m], [ŋ] VOICED NASALS

 How to solve Phonology
Problems
Step 1: Identify the sounds you are investigating.

Step 2: Identify any minimal pairs (If there are some, what are they? If there are none, move to Step 3).

Step 3: List the environments for each sound.

 By the way, the list of environments for a sound is called its distribution.

Step 4: Make generalizations (using natural classes) about the environments in which each sound appears.
 Try to find a pattern (find one unique characteristic that explains one sound’s distribution that is not present
in the other sound’s distribution)

Step 5: Determine which is the underlying sound (the phoneme) (that is, which has the wider distribution?).

Step 6: Write a rule for the data.