APPLIED PHONETICS AND PHONOLOGY

TSL 485
WEEK 6
PHONOLOGY
FAKULTI PENDIDIKAN
UiTM, Shah Alam

SUDHAGAR NARASIMAN
1
PHONOLOGY
When you know a word, you know both its form (the
sounds that represent it) and its meaning.
We have already seen that the relationship between the
form and the meaning of a word is arbitrary.
You must learn both: knowing the meaning does not tell
you its pronunciation, and knowing how to say it does not
tell you what it means (if you did not know already).
2
Consider the forms and meanings of the following English
words:
sip fine chunk
zip vine junk



3
PHONEMES
Each word differs from the other words in both form and
meaning. The difference between sip and zip is "signaled"
by the fact that the initial sound of the first word is s [s]
and the initial sound of the second word is z [z].
The forms of the two words-that is, their sounds-are
identical except for the initial consonants. [s] and [z] can
therefore distinguish or contrast words.
4
They are distinctive sounds in English. Such distinctive
sounds are called phonemes.

5
Minimal Pairs
A first rule of thumb to determine the phonemes of any
language is to see wheth substituting one sound for
another results in a different word.
If it does, the sounds represent different phonemes.
When two different forms are identical in every way
except for one sound segment that occurs in the same
place in the string the two words are called a minimal pair.
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Sink and zink are a minimal pairs, as are fine and vine,
and chunk and junk. Note that seed [sid] and soup [sup]
are not minimal pair because they differ in two sounds,
the vowels and the final consonants.
Nor are bar [bar] and rod [rad] a minimal pair because
although only one sound differs in the two words, the [b]
occurs initially and the [d] occurs finally.

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Of course we can find many minimal pairs which show
that [b] and [d] are phonemes in English:
Bead [bi:d] deed [di:d]
bowl [bl] dole [dl]
Rub [rb] rude [rud]
Lobe [lb] load [ld]
Substituting a [d] for a [b] changes both the phonetic form
and its meaning. [b and [d] also contrast with [g] as is
shown by the following:
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bill/dill/gill rib/rid/rig

Therefore [b], [d], and [g] are all phonemes in English and
bill, dill, and gill constitute a minimal set.

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Free Variation
Some speakers of English substitute a glottal stop for d [t]
at the end of words such as don't or can't or in the middle
of words like bottle or button.
The substitution of the glottal stop does not change the
meanings; [done] and [don] do not contrast in meaning,
nor do [batl] or [bal].
A glottal stop is therefore not a phoneme in English since
it is not a distinctive sound. These sounds [t] and [] are in
free variation in these words.
12
Similarly, at the end of a word, a stop consonant may be
released or unreleased. That is, it will not change the
meaning of the word rope if in pronouncing it, you keep
your lips together or open them.
An unreleased stop is transcribed phonemically with the
diacritic [ ] after it, as [rope ]. Thus in English
unreleased stops do not contrast with released stops.
13
Released and unreleased stops occur in free variation.
You may freely use one or the other. Released stops are
not distinct phoneme in English.

There is another way in which two sounds may be in free
variation. In English substitution of [i] for [] in economics
does not change the meaning of the word .

14
Some speakers pronounce the word with an initial [i] and
others with an initial [] However, [i] and [] are not in
free variation in other words, since we cannot substitute
[i] and [] for each other in other words, such as beat
[bit] and bet [bet].
Did you beat the drum? does not mean the same thing as
Did you bet the drum?

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Distinctive Features
Even if we do not consciously know which phonetic
properties or features distinguish the contrasting sounds,
we know which sound segments represent phonemes in
the phonological system of our language.
Phonetics provides the means to describe these sounds,
showing how they differ; phonology tells us which sounds
function as phonemes to contrast the meanings of words.
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In order for two phonetic forms to differ and to contrast
meanings, there must be some phonetic difference
between the substituted sounds.
The minimal pairs seal [sil] and zeal [zil] show that [s] and
[z] represent two contrasting phonemes in English.
17
From the discussion of phonetics, we know that the only
difference between [s] and [z] is a voicing difference; [s] is
voiceless and [z] is voiced.

18
It is this phonetic feature that distinguishes the two words.
Voicing thus plays a special role in English (and in many
other languages). It also distinguishes feel and veal [f] / [v]
and cap and cab [p] / [b].
When a feature distinguishes one phoneme from another
it is a distinctive feature (or a phonemic feature).
When two words are exactly alike phonetically except for
one feature, the phonetic difference is distinctive, since
this difference alone accounts for the contrast or
difference in meaning
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Complementary Distribution
When first learning phonetic transcription, English
speakers are often surprised that all the Is they
pronounce are not identical. In the following table. the ls
in column A are voiced. while those in column B are
voiceless (indicated here by a subscript ).
Many speakers of English are unaware that they routinely
produce this difference in articulation, which can be heard
clearly when the words in column B are pronounced
slowly.
The voicelessness of the l sounds in column B is an
automatic consequence of their phonetic environment.
Voiced and voiceless vary systematically in that all of the
voiceless ls occur predictably after the class of voiceless
stops.

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Voiced and voiceless l in English
A B
blue
gleam
slip
flog
leaf
[blu:]
[gli:m]
[slIp]
[flog]
[li:f]
plan
plough
clap
clear
Play
[pl n]
pl a
[kl p]
[kl ]
[pl e]

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Since no voiced [l] ever occurs in the same phonetic
environment as a voiceless one (and vice versa), we say
that the two variants of l are in complementary
distribution.

[l] [l ]
After voiceless stops
Elsewhere
no
yes
yes
no
22
/s/ occurs after voiceless stops

/z / occurs after vowels, voiced stops, laterals, nasals

/iz/ occurs after fricatives, africates, stridents

/s/, /z/, and /iz/ are allophones of the phoneme /s/ and
they are in complementary distribution (where one occurs
the other will not occur).
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Stridents and Non-stridents
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If you live in Metropolis, you will see
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But
You never see Superman and Clark Kent at the same
time!
Superman and Clark Kent dont contrast.
In fact, they appear in different environments.
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Emergency!

Superman is always, and only, found in the environment of
an emergency.
27
No emergency
Clark Kent is seen only in
the environment of no
emergency.
28
We can conclude:

Clark Kent and Superman are different identities of the
same person.
=
29
The analogy
Clark Kent and Superman are like allophones.
Just as allophones are different forms of the same
phoneme, Clark Kent and Superman are different forms of
the same person.
30
Allophones of /n/
[n ] - dental by assimilation before a dental fricative[], e.g.
tenth, month
[n:] - lengthened before a voiced obstruent in the same
syllable such as [d], [z], or [], e.g. tend, tens, plunge
[n] - normal quality elsewhere, e.g. net, ten, tent
NOTE: [] not relevant here because this sound exists as
a distinctive phoneme in the English sound system, e.g. in
sin vs. sing, ban vs. bang)

31
Allophones of /Clark Kent/
/Clark Kent/ is realized as [Superman] in an emergency

/Clark Kent/ is realized as [Clark Kent] elsewhere
32
We can name the phoneme anything we
want
/Superman/ is realized as [Superman] in an emergency
/Superman/ is realized as [Clark Kent] elsewhere
33
We can name the phoneme anything we
want
*/Kal-El/ is realized as [Superman] in an emergency
/Kal-El/ is realized as [Clark Kent] elsewhere

*Kal-El was Supermans name at birth on planet Krypton.
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