1. Introduction to Phonetics & Phonology
Dr R. Oenbring
Lin 220

2. What is phonetics?
Phonetics is the study of speech sounds.

3. What is phonetics? Phonetics is the study of speech sounds.
a) how they’re produced (articulatory phonetics)

4. What is phonetics? Phonetics is the study of speech sounds.
a) how they’re produced (articulatory phonetics)
b) their physical characteristics (acoustic phonetics)

5. Sound/symbol correspondence

6. Sound/symbol correspondence The need for a transcription system

7. Sound/symbol correspondence The need for a transcription system
Consider written English

8. Sound/symbol correspondence The need for a transcription system
Consider written English
enough

9. Sound/symbol correspondence The need for a transcription system
Consider written English
enough through

10. Sound/symbol correspondence The need for a transcription system
Consider written English
enough through thorough

11. Sound/symbol correspondence The need for a transcription system
Consider written English
enough through thorough thought

12. Sound/symbol correspondence The need for a transcription system
Consider written English
enough through thorough thought bough

13. Sound/symbol correspondence The need for a transcription system
Consider written English
enough through thorough thought bough
think

14. Sound/symbol correspondence The need for a transcription system
Consider written English
enough through thorough thought bough
think those

15. Sound/symbol correspondence The need for a transcription system
Consider written English
enough through thorough thought bough
think those thistle

16. Sound/symbol correspondence The need for a transcription system
Consider written English
enough through thorough thought bough
think those thistle thong

17. Sound/symbol correspondence The need for a transcription system
Consider written English
enough through thorough thought bough
think those thistle thong
church

18. Sound/symbol correspondence The need for a transcription system
Consider written English
enough through thorough thought bough
think those thistle thong
church chemistry

19. Sound/symbol correspondence The need for a transcription system
Consider written English
enough through thorough thought bough
think those thistle thong
church chemistry loch

20. Sound/symbol correspondence The need for a transcription system
Consider written English
enough through thorough thought bough
think those thistle thong
church chemistry loch Cheryl

21. International Phonetic Alphabet IPA
Devised in the 19th Century to help describe the sounds of languages independently of a language’s orthography (= writing system).
Under continuous revision.
Last major revision was in 1993.

22. Sound/symbol correspondence
enough through thorough thought bough
[ʌf] [u:] [ə] [ɔ:] [aʊ]
think those thistle thong
[θ] [ð] [θ] [θ]
church chemistry loch Cheryl
[tʃ] [k] [x] [ʃ]

23. Key Terms
Phoneme - a unit of sound significant in a specific language (E.g., /s/ is a phoneme in English while the German ch sound /x/ is not)
Grapheme - The symbols (letters) used in a writing system such as our alphabet
Digraph - A single sound represented by two letters (e.g., th, sh, ea)
Phonetic Alphabet - a collection of symbols used for writing words phonetically

24. More Terms
Allophone - a variant of a phoneme; often not noticed by native speakers (e.g, spin, pin)
Minimal Pair - Two words that are pronounced the same except for one sound (e.g., Sue, zoo)
Voiced Sound - A sound produced with the vocal folds (cords) vibrating (e.g. voiced /z/ as opposed to voiceless /s/)
Diphthong - “a double vowel sound” - two vowels appearing together as the nucleus of a syllable

26. The Consonants of English

27. The Vowels of English

28. Allomorphs Based on Phonology
The plural morpheme –
[s] after a voiceless consonant
[z] after a voiced consonant
[\z] after a sibilant (s, z, sh, ch, or j)
The past tense morpheme
[d] after a voiced sound,
[t] after a voiceless sound
[\d] after a [t] or [d]