1. Phonology

2. Phonology Is… The study of sound systems within a language
The study of how speech sounds pattern
The study of how speech sounds vary
The study of how speech sounds contrast

3. Definitions Phone: speech sound Phoneme / / Allophone [ ]
Contrastive units in a language
Never pronounced
Realized by one or more allophones
Allophone [ ]
Pronounced (every sound you produce)
Variation of a phoneme

4. Possibilities Allophones of separate phonemes
/t/ /th/
 
[t] [th]
Allophones of the same phoneme
/t/
 

5. Questions to Ask When Comparing Phones
What is the environment?
Is there a difference in meaning?
Are they allophones of the same phoneme or do they belong to different phonemes?

6. Types of Distribution Contrastive distribution: Difference in meaning
Form a minimal pair
Belong to separate phonemes
Example:
‘cat’ [khQt] and ‘hat’ [hQt]

7. Types of Distribution Cont.
Free variation:
Phones appear in exactly the same environments.
No difference in meaning.
Are allophones of the same phoneme.
Example:
‘Economics’ [i] or [E] initially.

8. Types of Distribution Cont.
Complementary distribution:
Phones appear in differing environments
Phones are allophones of the same phoneme
Example:
‘Top’ [thap] and ‘stop’ [stap]

9. Variation in Sounds: The Case of “t” in American English
Say the following words:
top, stop, metal, right
What is the difference between the four “t”s?
‘top’ [thap] the “t” is aspirated [th]
‘stop’ [stap] the “t” is unaspirated [t]
‘metal’ [mERl] the “t” is a flap [R]
‘right’ [raIt] the “t” is unreleased [t]

10. The Case of “t” in American English
The sound we perceive as “t” actually has four phonetic realizations.
Since in our mind, the abstract sound is still a “t” we call “t” a PHONEME.
Phones go in brackets [t], phonemes go in slashes /t/.
Every language has phonemes and variants of that phoneme, which we call ALLOPHONES.
Appearance of allophones depends on rules.

11. Phonemes and Allophones
What are the rules for the different allophones of /t/?
/t/
[th] [t] [R] [t]

12. Allophonic rules for /t/:
/t/ [th] word-initally and in front of stressed syllables
table, treat, attend, until, attack
/t/  [R] intervocalically, when second vowel is unstressed
better, Betty, butter, cutie, buttocks
/t/  [t] word-finally
set, right, caught, pit
/t/ [t] elsewhere
stop, street, antics, Baltic

13. Phonemes Are CONTRASTIVE
We have established that phonemes are abstract ideals of our language’s sounds in our mind, which are realized as different allophones
Phonemes are also agents that produce a change in MEANING between words. This why we say that phonemes are contrastive

14. Minimal Pairs Take the following pronunciations:
[braIth] [braIt] [braIt] = “bright”
Violating “allophone rules” results in unusual pronunciation, not confusion in meaning
When a switch in only one phone produces a change in meaning of a word, the two sounds CONTRAST so they must belong to different phonemes
[braIt] vs [braId] vs [braIb] “bright/bride/bribe”
So, we can say that in English, [t], [d] and [b] all belong to DIFFERENT phonemes /t/, /d/, and /b/

15. Minimal Pairs
Pairs (or trios, etc) of words that only differ in one sound, while the other sounds remain the same are called minimal pairs
Ex: cane/gain; decree/degree; back/bag
What are some examples of minimal pairs to contrast the following sounds?
[P] v [b]
[s] v [s&]
[l] v [r]

16. Phonemes and Allophones
So, in a pair of words like flea [fli] and free [fri] we can determine that the phones [l] and [r] are allophones of DIFFERENT phonemes.
In a pair of words like [phIt] and [spit] we can determine that [ph] and [p] are allophones of the SAME phoneme (since we can say [sphIt] and it’s still understandable).

17. Upcoming Special Features…
Bring Clark text on Friday
Journal 1 is due this Friday (next class!!!)
Homework 1 is being given out today
Homework 1 is due on Monday
Test 1 is next Friday covering:
9 ideas about language (review Clark, ch.5)
Phonetics (vowels and consonants)
Phonology (from today’s class and Friday’s)
Morphology (upcoming)