Classification of English vowels
Vowel sounds are classified according to: the position of the tongue in the mouth, the openness of the mouth, the shape of the lips, and the length of the vowels.
1) the position of the tongue in the mouth Front vowels are the ones in the production of which the front part of the tongue is raised the highest such as [i:] [i] [e] [æ] [a].
When the central part of the tongue maintains its highest position, the vowels thus produced are central vowels such as [3:] [Ə] and [] . If the back of the tongue is held the highest, the vowels thus produced are back vowels such as [u:][u]
2)the openness of the mouth
close vowels: [i:] [i] [u:] and [u]; semi-close vowels: [e] and [3;] semi-open vowels: [ə] and [Չ:] open vowels: [æ] [a] [] [Չ ] and [:].
3) the shape of the lips rounded vowels: All the back vowels in English are rounded except [ɑ:]. unrounded vowels: All the front vowels and central vowels in English are unrounded.
4)the length of vowels long vowels: They are usually marked with a colon such as[i:] and [ɑ:] short vowels: other vowels in English are short vowels such as [e],[ə] and [æ].
Assimilation rules:
Word-final alveolars become dental before dental fricatives;
not thin ten thumps well thought
Bilabial and alveolar nasals /m, n/ become labio-dental before labio-dental fricatives;
ten forks come for me
Word-final /t/ become bilabial before bilabial consonants /p, b,m/;
that pen /..p pen/ that boy/..p b../ that man /..p m../
Word-final /t,d/ become velar before velar plosives;
that cup /..k k..
that girl /..k g../
good cup /gug k../
Word-final /s,z/ become palato-alveolar before palato-alveolar fricatives and the palatal frictionless continuant/; This ship This year has she those young men
Word-final /t,d,s,z/ become palato-alveolar affricates (/t,d/) or fricatives(/s,z/) before /j/ and /j/disappears;
Would you
What you want
As yet
In case you need it
Word-final /d/ becomes a nasal before a nasal, at the place of articulation of the nasal;
Word-final /v/ becomes a nasal before a nasal;
Word-final lenis fricatives become fortis before an initial fortis consonant;
Phonetics is general, classificatory and descriptive
Phonology aims to discover how speech sounds in a language form patterns and how these sounds are used to convey meaning in linguistic communication.
A phone is a phonetic unit or segment. The speech sounds we hear and produce during linguistic communication are all phones.
It does not necessarily distinguish meaning; some do, some don’t. For example, in the words feel[fi: ], ł leaf[li:f], tar[tha:], star[sta:],there are altogether 7 phones: [f],[i:],[ ], [l], [tł h]. [t], [a:], but [ ] and[l] do not distinguish meaning, ł[th] and [t] do not distinguish meaning as well.
A phoneme is a phonological unit. It is a unit of distinctive value. It is an abstract unit. It is not any particular sound, but rather it is represented or realized by a certain phone in a certain phonetic context
Phonemic contrast:
If two phonetically similar sounds are distinctive phonemes, they are said to form a phonemic contrast.
/p/and /b/ in pit and bit
/k/and /g/ in kill and gill
If two phonetically similar sounds are allophones of the same phoneme, they do not distinguish meaning, and they occur in different phonetic environments, they are said to be in complementary distribution.
When two different forms are identical in every way except for one sound segment which occurs in the same place in the strings, the two sound combinations are said to form a minimal pair.
Pill/bill till/kill pit/bit
Sequential rules in phonology
Rules that govern the combination of sounds in a particular language are called sequential rules.
1. The first phoneme must be / s /. 2. The second phoneme must be / p / or / t / or / k /. 3. The third phoneme must be / 1 / or / r / or / w /.
Stress: word stress and sentence stress
The location of stress distinguish meaning in English. A shift of stress may change part of speech of a word.
Stress can distinguish a compound from a free phrase.
White elephant
Red tape
Green house
See page 29
Sentence stress refers to the relative force which is given to the words in a sentence. Some words are more important than other words, and the more important words are pronounced with greater force and made more prominent.
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