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Representation of Speech Sounds

Here are 5 detail led topics about representation of speech sounds

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Zahid Ansari
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67 views

Representation of Speech Sounds

Here are 5 detail led topics about representation of speech sounds

Uploaded by

Zahid Ansari
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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Representation of Speech

Sounds: Phonetic vs.


Phonological
Understanding the Difference
Phonological Level (Abstract Representation
of Sounds)
• At the phonological level, sounds are represented as phonemes,
which are abstract mental categories.
• Phonemes are the smallest sound units that can change the
meaning of a word in a given language.
• For example, the difference between the words "bat" and "pat" in
English is the initial phoneme: /b/ vs. /p/.
Phonological Representation
• Phonemes: These are not specific to any particular speaker or context.
They are the mental representations of sounds.
• Categorical: Phonemes represent a sound category that may vary
slightly in different environments, but those variations do not change
the meaning of the word.
• Language-specific: The set of phonemes and the rules governing how
they can combine differ between languages.
Phonological Representation
• In essence, at the phonological level, you're dealing with the
mental blueprint of sounds—a simplified, abstract version that
doesn’t account for how sounds are physically articulated.
• Example:
• The word “cat” is represented as /k/, /æ/, /t/ at the phonological
level. Here, the focus is on which phonemes are used to
distinguish this word from others, such as "bat" (/b/, /æ/, /t/).
Phonetic Level (Detailed Physical Representation
of Sounds)
• At the phonetic level, the representation becomes more detailed
and deals with how these abstract phonemes are articulated and
perceived in actual speech.
• Phonetics focuses on the physical realization of sounds, often
represented in allophones (contextual variants of a phoneme)
and actual articulatory gestures.
• Allophones: These are specific variations of a phoneme that
occur in different contexts but do not change the meaning of a
word. For example, the /p/ in "spin" is pronounced without
aspiration (a burst of air), while the /p/ in "pin" is aspirated. These
are allophones of the same phoneme /p/.
• Continuous: Phonetic sounds aren’t categorized as rigidly as
phonemes. They exist on a continuum of possible articulations, such
as slight variations in how you pronounce a sound based on its
surrounding sounds, speech rate, or individual speaker
characteristics.
• Language-independent: The phonetic realization of sounds follows
universal principles of speech production, even though languages
might prioritize different sounds.
• Example:
• The word “cat” is represented at the phonetic level with detailed
information about how each sound is produced:
• /k/ might be aspirated, [kʰ], in initial position (as in English).
• /æ/ may be nasalized if it follows a nasal sound in some dialects or contexts.
• /t/ may be pronounced with a flap sound, [ɾ], in some accents of English when
occurring between vowels.
Conclusion

• Phonological representation deals with abstract categories


(phonemes) that distinguish meaning in a language.
• Phonetic representation deals with the concrete physical
details of how those sounds are produced and perceived in real-
world speech, often including variations like allophones.
Phonemic and Phonetic Transcription
• A phonemic transcription (which is always enclosed in virgules / /)
is less detailed than a phonetic transcription (which is enclosed in
brackets [ ]).
• A phonetic transcription is sensitive to sound variations within a
phoneme class.
• An individual variant of this kind is called an allophone. Thus, a
phoneme is a family of allophones.
• Phonemes are the minimal set of sound classes needed to
specify the meaningful units (words or morphemes) of the
language.
Allophones
• Allophones are variations of a single phoneme, the smallest unit
of sound in a language.
• Although allophones are pronounced differently, they do not
change the meaning of the word.
• Different allophones of a phoneme occur depending on the
specific context in which the sound appears.
• For example, the English phoneme /t/ is pronounced differently in
the words "top" and "stop," but both sounds represent the same
phoneme /t/.
Types of Allophonic Variations
• Allophonic variation is of two types: complementary distribution and free
variation.
• In complementary distribution, allophones of the same phoneme
occur in different phonetic environments and cannot be substituted for
one another without making the pronunciation sound unnatural or
incorrect. They are context-dependent and mutually exclusive.
• In free variation, different allophones of the same phoneme can occur
in the same phonetic environment without altering the meaning of the
word.
• The choice of which allophone to use is often influenced by factors like
regional accents, speech styles, or personal habits, but both
pronunciations are considered acceptable.
Complementary Distribution
• Example: The English /p/ sound has two allophones:
• Aspirated [pʰ]: Occurs at the beginning of a word, as in "pin"
([pʰɪn]).
• Unaspirated [p]: Occurs after an /s/, as in "spin" ([spɪn]).
• These two allophones never occur in the same position. The
aspirated [pʰ] appears at the start of a syllable, and the
unaspirated [p] occurs after /s/.
Free Variation
• Example: The final /t/ sound in the word "cat" can be pronounced
as:
• Aspirated [tʰ]: [kætʰ].
• Unreleased [t̚]: [kæt̚], where the /t/ is not fully articulated.
• Both forms are acceptable, and using one or the other does not
change the meaning of the word "cat."

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