By Lecturer Samarnh

Phonology and Phonetics

Three components of languageSounds Structures Meanings

Phonetics(Smallest unit of sound), e.g. /b/

Morphology(Rules for forming words)

Semantics(The meaning of a word, phrase, sentence, or text)

Phonology(Sound productions and patterns)

Syntax(Arrangement of words in sentences)

Pragmatics(Language use and hidden meanings)

PRODUCTION OF SOUNDS

Human language displays a wide variety of sounds, but humans are not capable of producing all the sounds with the vocal tract in speech.

The class of possible speech sounds is not only finite, but also universal.

Any human is able to pronounce these sounds, regardless of his racial or cultural background.

SCOPE OF PHONETICS

Phonetics is the scientific study of speech and is concerned with defining and classifying speech sounds according to how and where they are produced.

A complex set of physical operations takes place when a spoken message goes from a speaker to a hearer.

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PHONETIC CLASSIFICATION

 Two broad distinctions:(i)Vowels: sounds which are made with a

smooth, continuous, unobstructed airflow through the oral cavity (e.g. [i:] as in see or [u:] as in too)

(ii)Consonants: sounds which are made with some obstruction to the airflow in the oral cavity (e.g. [s] as in see or [t] as in too)

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CONSONANTSI. MANNER OF ARTICULATION

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II. PLACE OF ARTICULATION

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Vowels: 

(1)the height to which the body of the tongue is raised, whether it is high, low, or in between (mid);

(2) how forward the body of the tongue is, whether it is front (advanced), central, or back (retracted);

(3) whether the lips are rounded or

unrounded.

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Phonetic transcription

The representation of speech with phoneticsymbols: each symbol represents one andonly one sound

IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) A universal inventory of phonetic symbolsRepresenting the sounds in all human languages

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ACTIVITY 1: Pronounce the following words to yourself before answering these questions: (i) Do the highlighted letters in each of the following sets of words represent the ‘same’ sound? a) city, cotton, species, cello.b) gold, ginger, gnaw, highc) can, can't, ancient, sofa.d) bus, news, vision, Asia.e) sit, site, machine, racial.f) rough, stuff, cough, through.g) kick, charisma, unique, cut.h) may, lame, fail, hey.i) chef, shell, mission, special. (ii) How many sounds do the highlighted letters represent in each of the following words?

tax, thing, schedule, school, are, though, chrome.

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ACTIVITY 2(i) Transcribe the following words, using the phonetic alphabet given above. Remember: don't confuse letters (or the spelling) with sounds. [NB. Some of you may pronounce certain words differently, which will naturally lead to differences in transcription. There's nothing wrong with that.] Compare your transcriptions with each other, and with those given in a standard dictionary (such as the Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English).(1) rough, (2) debt, (3) psyche, (4) schedule, (5) judge, (6) yacht, (7) march, (8) useful, (9) queen, (10) chalk

ii) Given below are some phonetic transcriptions. Can you pronounce them aloud, and identify the words that they represent?