Lecture 6

Segmental Phonology
CHAPTER 5: THE PHONEME

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1. Phonology

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1.1 Phonetics & Phonology
It was stated before that:

• Phonetics is the study of the general characteristics of speech sounds in

language; i.e., the way they are produced, transmitted, and perceived.

• Phonology is the study of the systems and patterns of speech sounds in a

language.

• Phonology is concerned with the abstract mental aspect of sounds rather than
the actual physical articulation of speech sounds.

• Only by studying both the phonetics and phonology of English, it is possible

to acquire a full understanding of the use of sounds in English speech.

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1.2 What is phonology concerned with?
It is concerned with:
a- the set of sounds that allows us to distinguish meaning,
e.g., The differences between /t/, /k/, /f/ in:
tar, car, far.
b- the variation in one sound according to the context,
e.g., The difference between /t/ in :
tea, eat, writer, eighth, two
c- sound patterns (clusters and syllables).

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1.3 Aspects of phonology
Since phonology is the study of the sound system and patterns of a language
and the set of rules that govern the way the function, two aspects can be
identified:

• Segmental phonology: analyses speech into discrete segments, such as

phonemes, and studies the phonological rules that govern the way
sounds function in a language.
In other words, it studies the phonemic system, the different realizations of
the various phonemes, and the phonological rules that govern how these
phonemes are combined to form clusters and syllables. Simply, this area
studies sounds (phonemes and allophones) and sound patterns (clusters and
syllables).
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1.3 Aspects of phonology
• Suprasegmental phonology: analyses features which extend over the
segment, such as stress and intonation.

• Many significant sound contrasts are not the result of differences between
phonemes.
• For example, stress is important: when the word 'im.port' is pronounced with the first syllable
sounding stronger than the second, English speakers hear it as a noun. When the second syllable
is stronger the word is heard as a verb.

https://www.english-at-home.com/pronunciation/noun-and-verb-syllable-stress/

• Intonation is also important: if the word 'right' is said with the pitch of the voice rising, it is
likely to be heard as a question or as an invitation to a speaker to continue, while falling pitch is
more likely to be heard as confirmation or agreement.

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Is it right?

You are right.

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2. Segmental Phonology

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2.1 Segment
• Speech is a production of a continuous stream of sounds. In studying
speech, the stream is phonetically divided into smaller units called
segments or sounds.
• Segment: is the smallest unit in a language that can not be divided
into smaller units.

“fan” /f, , n/ →has the three segments

“van” /v, , n/ →has the three segments
• If one segment of a word is substituted with another, the meaning of
the word will change. When two segments can be used to distinguish the
meaning of words, they are said to be two different phonemes.
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2.2 Phoneme / /
Consider the following examples:
• Substituting one of the short vowels / ɪ, æ, ɒ, e, ʌ, Ʊ/ for another in
/p_t/ results in six different words:
/pɪt/ ‘pit’ /pæt/ ‘pat’ /pɒt/ ‘pot’
/pet/ ‘pet’ /pʌt/ ‘putt’ /pƱt/ ‘put’
/ ɪ, æ, ɒ, e, ʌ, Ʊ/ are meaning-distinguishing sounds in English. They
are phonemes.

• Substituting /b, t, k, f/ for another in /_ɑː/ results in four different

words:
/bɑː/ ‘bar’ /tɑː/ ‘tar’
/kɑː/ ‘car’ /fɑː/ ‘far’
/b, t, k, f/ are meaning-distinguishing sounds in English. They are
phonemes.
So, what is a phoneme?
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2.2 Phoneme / /
• Phoneme: is the meaning-distinguishing sound unit in a language.
• The complete set of phonemes in a language is called the phonemic
system of this language.
• The phonemic system of RP consists of 44 phonemes (20 vowels, 24
consonants).

• What about the phonemic system of Standard Arabic?

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2.2.1 Minimal pairs:
• Phonemes function contrastively. Consider the following:
fan-van big-pig site-side

/f/&/v/, /b/&/p/,and /t/&/d/ are phonemes in English because there is a

contrast in meaning.
• This contrastive property enables us to test the phonemes that exist in a
language using minimal pairs/sets.
Minimal pair/set: two words (or more) are identical in form except for a
contrast in one phoneme, in the same position in each word.
Minimal pairs: e.g. fan-van big-pig site-side
Minimal sets: e.g. foot- fit- fat- feet- fate- fought.
e.g. big- rig- dig- wig- pig.

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2.3 Allophones [ ]
• A phoneme can be pronounced in different ways according to its context.

Compare:
• The difference in /t/ in the following contexts:
tea, eat, writer, eighth, two, but, petrol
1. tar [tʰ] aspirated. 2. eat [t] unaspirated. 3. writer [D] flapped.
4.eighth [ ̪t] dentalized. 5. two [tʷ] labialized 6. but, petrol [tˀ] glottalized.
• The difference between /iː/ in the following contexts :
see, seed, seat, seen
1.see [iː]. 2. seed [iː]. 3. seet [iˑ] pre-fortis clipping. 4.seen [͠iː] nasalized.

• Therefore, a phoneme may have more than one realization.

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2.3 Allophones [ ]
• The different realizations of a phoneme in different phonetic contexts
are called allophones of that phoneme. Those allophones never contrast
with each other.

• The allophones of a phoneme form a set of sounds that:

◦ (1) do not change the meaning of a word

◦ (2) are all very similar to one another

◦ (3) occur in phonetic contexts different from one another.

• Set of marks (diacritics) are added to the symbol of the phoneme in

order to indicate its actual realization.
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2.3 Allophones [ ]
• The different allophones of a phoneme cannot be found in the same
context. The separation of places where particular realizations can occur
is called complementary distribution. For instance, nasalized vowel, as
in seen, never occur in the same contexts of non-nasalized vowel, as in
seed.

• Allophones are in complementary distribution, and phonemes are in

parallel or overlapping distribution.

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2.4 The Phonemic Principle:
• Two or more sounds are realizations of the same phoneme if:
(a) They are in complementary distribution.
(b) They are phonetically similar.

• Two or more sounds are realizations of different phonemes if:

(a) They are in parallel ( overlapping ) distribution.
(b) They serve to signal semantic contrast.

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3. Symbols & Transcription

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3. Symbols & Transcription
• There are two kinds of symbols:
1. phonemic symbols: representing the phonemes of a language.
- Some phoneme symbols consist of 1 character, such as the
phoneme /ʃ/ as in ‘ship’.
- Some phoneme symbols consist of 2 characters, such as the
phoneme /tʃ/ as in ‘chip’ consists of two characters t and ʃ.
2. phonetic symbols (diacritics): representing precise phonetic
values.

• Accordingly, there are two kinds of transcription:

1. phonemic transcription 2. phonetic transcription

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3.1 Phonemic transcription
• Phonemic transcription: refers to transcribing an utterance in a way
that shows none of the details of the pronunciation that are predictable by
phonological rules.
• In this type of representation, only phonemic symbols are used, and are
enclosed in slant brackets / / as in ‘fan’ → /fæn/
• Advantages of phonemic transcription:
It is quick and easy to learn and to use.
• Disadvantages of phonemic transcription:
It is not detailed enough to give all sound differences.

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3.2 Phonetic transcription:
• Phonetic transcription: refers to transcribing an utterance in a way that
indicates more phonetic details predictable by phonological rules using
diacritics.

• Phonetic transcription contains phonemic symbols + diacritics and is

enclosed in square brackets [ ] as in ‘fan’ → [f͠æn].

• Advantages of phonetic transcription:

It is more accurate in phonetic detail because it contains more information

than phonemic transcription.

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4. Phonological Rules

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4.1 Allophonic Rules for English Consonants
•Devoiced [ ] :

• Approximants /l, r, w, j/ are partially or fully devoiced when they

occur after initial voiceless stops /p, t, k/.

“pride” “clue” “twin” “cue” → [prad] [klu:] [twn] [kju:]

• Voiced stops /b, d, g/ are partially devoiced when they occur word-
initially and fully devoiced when they occur word finally.

“bad” “dog” →[bæd] [dɒg]

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4.1 Allophonic Rules for English Consonants
• Aspirated [] : Voiceless stops /p, t,k/ are aspirated syllable initially.
“pie” “ten” “kick” → [pa] [ten] [kk]

• Syllabic [ˌ] : Syllabic consonant is a consonant which either forms a

syllable on its own, or is the nucleus of a syllable. Nasals and laterals are
syllabic at the end of a word when they come immediately after an
obstruent (stops, fricatives, and affricates).
“button” “bottle” → [btn]
ˌ [bʌtl].
ˌ

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4.1 Allophonic Rules for English Consonants
•Labialized [ʷ]: Consonants are labialized when their production involves
lip rounding when followed by rounded vowel sounds.

“two” “shoe” → [tʷuː] [ʃʷuː]

•Dentalized [ ̪ ]: Alveolars are dentalized before dental consonants.

“eighth” “tenth” “wealth” →[et̪] [ten̪] [wel̪]

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4.1 Allophonic Rules for English Consonants
•Velarized []: The lateral /l/ is velarized after a vowel or before a
consonant at the end of a word.

“file” “kill” “talc” →[fa] [k] [tk]

•Glottalized [ˀ ]: Voiceless stops /p, t, k/ can be glottalized when they

are followed by a consonant word medially or word finally.
“football” “petrol” “but” →[fʊˀtbᴐːl] [peˀtrəl] [bʌˀt]

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4.2 Allophonic Rules for English Vowels
• Nasalized [͠ ]: Vowels are nasalized when followed by a nasal
consonant.
“can” “been” →[k͠n] [b͠i:n]
• Pre-fortis Clipping [ˑ long vowels/ˇ short vowels/ ˇ diphthongs]:
Vowels are shortened when followed by a voiceless consonant.
“seat” “sit” “site”→[siˑt] [sɪ̌t] [sǎɪt]

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 Provide ONE example of the following and
transcribe the examples phonetically using
the symbols between brackets:
e.g., Pre-fortis clipping [ˇ diphthongs]. bite [b̥ǎɪt]

1. Devoicing [ ].

2. Aspiration [].

3. Syllabic consonant [ˌ].

4. Labialization [ʷ].

5. Dentalization [ ̪ ].

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 Provide ONE example of the following and
transcribe the examples phonetically using
the symbols between brackets:
1. Velarization [].

2. Glottalization [ˀ ].

3. Nasalization [ ͠ ].

4. Pre-fortis clipping [ˑ long vowel].

5. Pre-fortis clipping [ˇ short vowel].

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Transcribe the list of words phonemically then phonetically.
In your phonetic transcription use the following diacritics.

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Next Week
CHAPTER 8: THE SYLLABLE
CHAPTER 9: STRONG AND WEAK SYLLABLES

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