Introduction to

Phonetics and
Phonology
ELL 105
WEEK 1
Ms Sadia Malik
Assistant Professor,
ICG,F-6/2
Which is the strongest muscle in our
body???
What is Phonetics?
• Phonetics is the study of the sounds of language.
There are literally hundreds of them used in different
languages.
• Phonetics (from the phone, "sound, voice") is a
branch of linguistics that comprises of the study of
the sounds of human speech.
• The study of how sounds are produced and how the
position of the mouth can be changed to produce
different sounds (AVERY; EHRLICH, 1992);
• It is the science of speech sounds. The study of sound in
human language (COLLINS; MEES, 2008)
• It is the study of speech sounds. It is a wide-ranging field,
and it does not necessarily have a direct connection with
the study of language itself. It deals with the physical
reality of speech sounds (KELLY, 2000);
• It is concerned with: the physical properties of speech
sounds (phones): their physiological production, acoustic
properties, auditory perception, and neurophysiological
status.
 Articulatory phonetics
• Articulatory phonetics is concerned with the articulation
of speech: The position, shape, and movement of
articulators or speech organs, such as the lips, tongue,
and vocal folds.
• Study of vocal organs and how they produce speech
sounds.
 Acoustic Phonetics
• Acoustic Phonetics is concerned with acoustics of speech:
The spectro-temporal (frequency vs time) properties of
the sound waves produced by speech, such as their
frequency, amplitude, oscillation and intensity.
• Sound energy is a pressure wave consisting of vibrations
of molecules in any medium—a gas, a liquid, a solid; in
this case , air—air particles are disturbed through the
movements and vibrate the vocal organs especially the
vocal folds. The process continues as a chain reaction for
as long as the energy lasts.
 Auditory Phonetics

• Auditory Phonetics is concerned with speech perception:

the perception, categorization, and recognition of speech
sounds and the role of the auditory system and the brain in
the same.
 What is Phonology?
The word phonology comes from Ancient Greek
φωνή, phōnḗ, meaning "voice, sound," and the
suffix -logy (which is from Greek λόγος, lógos,
means “subject of discussion").
 What is Phonology?

• Phonology is concerned with abstract, grammatical

characterization of systems of sounds
• It is the study of the sound systems of languages.
• It is the aspects of language related to the distinctive
features of the representation and reception of sounds
of language.
• It is the study of the sound system of a given language
and the analysis and classification of its phonemes.
 What is Phonology?

• It is the study of how sounds are organized and used in

natural languages.
• It is the study of the way sounds function in languages,
including phonemes, syllable structure, stress, accent,
intonation, and which sounds are distinctive units within
a language; The way sounds function within a given
language.
 Branches of Phonology

• Segmental phonology :- It analyzes speech into discrete

segments, such as phonemes.
• Supra- segmental phonology :- It analyzes those
features which extend over more than one segment such
as intonation , stress.
 Phone , Phoneme , Allophone
• Phone is the smallest , perceptible , discrete segment of
sound in the steam of speech.
• Phone is the minimal unit of speech.
• Phones are the physical realization of phonemes.
• The speech is segmented and each of the segment is
called phone.
• Phone are grouped into phonemes through phonemic
analysis.
• Phone is enclosed within square bracket i.e [ p ]
 Phoneme
• Phoneme is the smallest , distinctive and segmental unit
of sound.
• It is the minimal distinctive unit in the sound system of a
language .
• Phoneme is enclosed within slants i.e / p /
• Phonemes are useful to analyze language at the
phonological level.
• Phonemes /p/ and /b/ are similar in place of articulation
and manner of articulation but differ in voicing. So they
are two phonemes.
 Allophones
• Allophone is a variant of a phoneme. The allophones
are very similar to each other ; they do not change the
meaning of a word and they don’t occur in the same
phonetic environment.
• For example, Syllable initial (pit/ bit) as opposed to
syllable final (bottom/bottle).
• All allophones are phones but all phones are not
allophones.
Relationship between Phonetics
and Phonology
DIFFERENCES
 Word of caution!!!!

• Phonetics and Phonology are closely

related to each other, and therefore it is
often recommended not to divide them on
the basis of strict rules or points.
Θæŋk ju

You don’t understand it?

Don’t worry.
By the end of this course, you will.