english phonology

PHONOLOGY

Phones, phonemes and allophones.

By:

Yuliani                                                      (13411161)

Siti Masitah                                             (13411138)

Gita Octavia                                            (13411165)

Dian Budiyatni                                      (13411149)

Arby Maulida Hadija ZR                   (13411171)

Aswandi                                                   (13411168)      

MATARAM INSTITUTE OF TEACHER TRAINING AND EDUCATION

FACULTY OF LANGUAGE AND ART EDUCATION

ENGLISH DEPARTMENT

2015

CHAPTER I

BACKGROUND

     This paper is arranged to introductory on English phonology of the sort taught in the first year of The English Language. The students on such courses can struggle with phonetics and phonology ; it is sometimes difficult to see past the new symbols and terminology, and the apparent assumption that we can immediately become consciously aware of movements of the vocal organs which we have been making almost automatically for the last eighteen or more years. This paper attempts to show us why we need to know about phonetics and phonology, if we are interested in language and our knowledge of it, as well as introducing the main units and concepts we require to describe speech sounds accurately.

When it’s arranged to presenting the details of phonology, I have also chosen to use verbal descriptions rather than diagrams and pictures in most cases. The reason for this is we need to learn to use our own intuitions, and this is helped by encouraging us to introspect and think about our own vocal organs, rather than seeing disembodied pictures of structures which don’t seem to belong to them at all.

Our hope is that a through grounding in the basics will help us approach more abstract theoretical and met theoretical issues in more advanced courses with greater understanding of what the theories intend to do and to achieve, and with more chance of evaluating competing models realistically.

CHAPTER II

DISCUSSION

2.1 Definition of phones, phonemes and allophones.

As a starter:

·       Phones are speech-sounds;

·       phonemes are groups of sounds which speakers usually think of as "one sound";

·       allophones are the variations within each group.

In any one language or dialect there are usually rather more sounds than speakers are aware of. For instance, in many types of Southern British English the GOAT vowel  the words "code" and "cold" are usually different from each other. 

So, to sum up:

• Phonemes are groups of sound-variants; whenever we actually pronounce a sound we use an allophone, one of the variants in the group. The choice of which variant we use in any context depends on subconscious rules.
• A pronunciation dictionary therefore only shows the phonemes, not the allophones, since the choice of allophone is always automatic; also, if we always showed all the different variants, the transciption would become rather too complicated for normal use.
• Most (perhaps all) phonemes have several allophones. If you look at my page on the lateral, l,  for instance, you will find that there are more than the two I mention here.
• According to some phoneticians, each phoneme has one dominatant or usual allophone, and the other allophones are variants on this basic phone. I don't agree with this view

2.1.1 PHONEME

Phoneme is the contrastive sound unit in a language, it is contrastive because it distinguishes meanings when exchanged for other phonemes in language. It is also called smallest unit of the sound.

Each one of these meaning-distinguishing sounds in a language is description as a phoneme. When we considered the basis of alphabetic writing, we were actually working with the concept of the phoneme as the single sound type which came to be represented by a single symbol. It is in this sense that the phoneme /t/ is described as a sound type of which all the different spoken versions of [t] are tokens. Note that slash marks are conventionally used to indicate a phoneme, /t/ , an abstract segment, as opposed to the square brackets, [t], used for each phonetic, or physically produced, segment. 

An essential property of a phoneme is that it functions contrastively. We know that there are two phonemes /f/ and /v/ in English because they are the only basis contrast in meaning between the forms fat and vat, or fine and vine. This contrastive property is the basic operational test determining the phonemes which exist in a language. If we substitute one sound for another in a word and there is a change of meaning, then the two sounds represent different phonemes.

The Kinds of Phoneme:

1. Segmental

It is phonology that deals with the analysis of speech into phonemes which correspond fairly well to phonetic segments of the analyzed speech. Consist of consonant and vowel.

The Segmental Sounds of English consist of:

a)   The English Consonant

The English consonants are twenty-four in number. The word consonant is phonemic. Of courses the word consonant here does not refer to the consonant found in the English alphabet, but rather to the consonants as they sound orally. The example of consonants are:

/p/, /b/, /t/, /d/, /k/, /g/, /f/, /v/,/θ, /ð/, /s/, /z/, /∫/, /з/,/t∫/, /dз/, /h/, /m/, /n/, /η/,/l/, /r/, /w/, /j/.

b)   The English Consonant described

It is a list of the English consonant phonemes and their major allophones. The allophones are describes phonetically.

c)   Consonant Clusters

It is a combination of two or more consonant. Such clusters may occur in initial, medial, or final positions.

d)   The English Vowel

The English vowels are fourteen in number. In addition to these vowels, there are glides and diphthongs, which are really combinations vowels. The examples of vowels are: /i/, /i:/, /ei/, /æ/, /ə/, /۸/, /з/, /a/, /u:/, /u/, /əu/, /α/, /כ/.

e)   The English Vowel Described

It is a list of the English vowel phonemes. They are described phonetically, and their distribution is given with example: phoneme / e / , allophone [ e ] description mid open front unrounded. It occurs only initially and medially. / end / [end] ‘end’ ; / send / [send] ‘send’.

f)    Length in English Consonants and Vowels

Means the time it takes to produce a sound. This does not mean the speed at which a person speaks. It means, rather, the relative length of time in which each separate sound is produced, as compared with a longer or shorter time in which the same sound or other sounds may be produced in the stream of speech.

2. Supra – Segmental

It is a vocal effect that extends over more than one sound segment in an utterance, such as pitch, stress, or juncture, pattern. In supra-segmental consist of:

a)   Stress

It is the force of breath with which sounds are produced. This force is relative; that is, the strength or weakness of the force is determined in relation to other forces of breath in the utterance or utterances of person. For example, in the word market, it is clear that the first syllable has stronger stress than second syllable. Four phonemic word stress levels :

·         Primary stress – symbol : /  /

·         Secondary stress – symbol : /  /

·         Tertiary stress – symbol : /  /

·         Weak stress – symbol : /  /

b)   Intonation

Means the changes in the pitch (or music) of the voice while producing speech. Every utterance is produced with some intonation and pitch. Pitch levels, like stress levels, are relative to each other.

c)   Pause

It is length of silence between parts of an utterance. In English, there are two pause phonemes. (Some linguistics believe that there are three pause phonemes). The two pause phonemes are a short one and a final one. bar The symbols used for these phonemes are a single bar for short pause and a double bar for the final pause.

d)   Juncture

It is really a very short pause; it is space in speech between sounds or word. In English, there is one juncture phoneme. The symbol for juncture phonemes is / + / ( a plus sign ).

e)   Rhythm

Means the beat of language. In English, rhythm is stress-timed. This means that the time between two primary stresses is the same. If there are many word or syllable between the two primary stresses, then these syllable will be pronounced fast; this is why native speakers of English jam their syllables. If, on the other hand, there is only a small number of syllables between the primary stresses, then these syllables will be pronounced slowly and more clearly.

2.1.2 Phones and Allophones

a.Same difference

Usually, of course, the different ALLOPHONES of the same PHONEME are all similar to each other - they form a FAMILY of sounds. The two o's in 'code' and 'cold' sound very similar - at least to an English speaker. But we mustn't fall into the trap of thinking that ALLOPHONIC difference is small while PHONEMIC difference is large. There is actually no real difference between these differences! We can see this by the fact that the same difference can be allophonic in one language, and phonemic in another.

Let's look at some examples. English as we know has the sounds s and sh:

seat/ sheet, massive/machine, basic/nation

Obviously these two sounds are SIGNIFICANTLY different from each other in English. Japanese also has s and sh: look at 'Mitsubishi' and ' Subaru'. But to our surprise, we find that Japanese speakers tend to mix up s and sh in English - it's as if they can't hear the difference between them as well as English speakers. And it turns out that the difference in Japanese is ALLOPHONIC rather than PHONEMIC - it is non-significant, predictable, unconscious. In Japanese there is only one phoneme, s, which is realised as sh in front of front vowels, and s elsewhere. So the Japanese word 'shimasu' (do) is phonemically 'simasu'. The distributuion of s and sh in Japanese is entirely predictable by their environment. We say that allophones have complementary distribution (Icelandic 'fyllidreifing'). In English, s and sh are phonemes, and so have contrastive distribution.

Languages differ as to which differences are significant or not.

b. PHONEMES are realised as ALLOPHONES:

PHONEMES	ALLOPHONES
Significant	non-significant
Unpredictable	predictable
contrastive distribution	complementary distribution
broad transcription /.../	narrow transcription [...]

Phones is these phonetic units are technically that have difference in pronunciation.

For examples: seed and seen.

Allophones is these phonetic variants are technically, in English to realize single phoneme. For examples: [t], [th], and [d] are similar sound. They are similar because they are all alveolar stops. The only difference between them is that [t] is voiceless and unaspirated, [th] is voiceless and aspirated, and [d] is voiced.

2.1.3 Relation to Phonology      

     In contrast to phonetics, phonology is the study of how sounds and gestures pattern in and across languages, relating such concern with other levels and aspects of language. Phonetics deals with the articulatory and acoustic properties of speech sounds, how they are produced, and how they are perceived

We can start out by thinking of the SET OF PHONEMES for any language as a PRACTICAL, LOGICAL ALPHABET for that language. It's an alphabet with a one-to-one relationship between letters and sounds - no ph for f, no more silent letters such as k in 'knife' and gh in 'thought' and e in' stone'. The words 'phone' and' fun' would both be written f-something -n. 'Write', 'right' and 'rite' would all be written the same: two consonants with a vowel between them. And no letter would have more than one sound - forget c, forget gh. The bad speller's paradise, in fact.

2.2 Some differences matter, some don't?

The difference between t and d is obviously significant in English - 'town' and 'down' are different words. The same goes for 'cod' and 'cad' and 'keyed' and 'code' - they're all k-d with different vowels in the middle.

But some differences between phones are non-significant, and usually we don't think about them, or even notice them. For instance, in most varieties of English, we use a different t-sound in 'top' and 'stop' - the t in 'top' has quite a strong puff of air following it, while the t in 'stop' doesn't. In the south of England, most people have a different o-sound in 'code' and 'cold', and in RP the l in 'lip' is rather different from the l in 'milk'.

These differences are non-significant: they have nothing to do with meaning, but with the structure of the language. If you use the same type of o in 'code' and 'cold', or the 'wrong' type of l in 'lip' and 'milk', you'll sound strange, or old-fashioned, or posh, or uneducated, or foreign, - but you won't be changing meaning of the word. These two types of o or l are different realizations of the 'same' sound.

Our 'logical' phonemic alphabet doesn't need to show the non-significant differences, because they conform to simple rules which the speakers follow unconsciously, and usually without even knowing that the rules exist . For instance, there's a rule which says that the diphthong o is pronounced one way before an l (as in 'cold') and another way elsewhere (in 'code'). Another rule says that l has one form before a vowel ('light l') and another if no vowel follows ('dark l').

These non-significant differences are thus rule-bound; they are predictable according to context.

Ø PHONEMES are the basic sounds - the significant , non-predictable ones.

Ø The different ways the phonemes are realised in various positions are called ALLOPHONES - predictable, and non-significant.

2.3 MINIMAL PAIRS

When two words are identical in form except for a contrast in one phoneme, occurring in the same position, the two words are described as a minimal pairs.

For examples: fan – van, bet – bat, side –side.

When a group of words are differentiated, each one from the others, by changing one phoneme (always in the same position) is a minimal sets. A minimal sets based on the vowels and consonants.

For examples based on vowel: feat – fit, fat – fate, fought – foot.

For examples based on consonant: big – pig, rig – fig, dig – wig.

We use the method of building MINIMAL PAIRS to discover whether a sound is a significant one or not. So that we can say that in English p and b are phonemes, because they make a distinction for instance between the minimal pairs 'pat' and 'bat'.

Sometimes it isn't easy to find an actual set of words to make a minimal pair. For instance°we cannot find a a minimal pair for the medial sounds in 'mission' () and vision' (), so we make do with MINIMAL CONTEXTS

But we cannot make minimal pairs or minimal contexts with predictable sounds - allophones - a new word is not produced, but simply an unusual or "wrong" pronunciation of the old word.

A phoneme is thus an abstract idea, not a sound. When a phoneme is REALISED (= translated into sound) we use one of its ALLOPHONES