PHONETICS AND PHONOLOGY BY BUSUNGU JOSEPH

By Busungu Joseph -

 

PHONETICS AND PHONOLOGY

Phonetics

Ø Phonetics is the branch of linguistics which deal with production, transmission and perception of speech sounds. Every language has the ability to produce speech sounds. Any speech sound produced from any language is called a phone.

Ø Phonetics is the general study of characteristics of speech sound.

Phones

Ø A phone is an individual sound which is capable of articulation. Any sound which can be articulated is a phone. Phones are phonetic units written by using square brackets [ ]. For example, [p], [t], [d], [ʤ] etc. phone exists in any language.

Allophones

Ø “allo” is a prefix which means one of the closely related set

Ø Allophone is a variant of the phoneme. It is the different realization of the same phoneme. Allophones and phones are indicated by using square brackets. For example, sound /p/ has two allophones;

                               i.            [ph] – aspirated ‘p’ eg pit

                            ii.            [p] – unaspirated ‘p’ eg help

Ø In the above examples, sound p is heard during the pronunciation of the word “pit”. Hence, [h] stands for aspirated sound.

NB:

·        Aspirated sound is not a phoneme.

·        In some languages, what is allophone in language x, it is a phoneme in language y.

This is marked by International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA). This is a system which justifies the assigning of symbols to a particular word.

BRANCHES OF PHONETICS

There are three branches of phonetics namely;

1.     Articulatory phonetics: this deals with the production of sounds by using speech organs.

2.     Acoustic phonetics: this deals with the transmission of the speech sounds produced.

3.     Auditory phonetics: this deals with the perception of speech sounds through our ears.

Phonology

Ø Phonology is the branch of linguistics which deals with the study of language system. It deals with the organization of speech language produced through phonetics. Each language has its own phonology (system of organizing speech sounds). That is why the number of phonemes differ from one language to another.

Ø Phonology is essentially a description of speech sounds in a language.


Phonemes

Ø Phoneme is a smallest distinctive sound unit. Phonemes are sounds used to differentiate meaning of words. Hence, disorganized sounds produced are called phones. When they are arranged according to the rules of a particular language are called phonemes. Phonemes are tested by using a minimal pair.

Characteristics of phonemes

i.                   Phonemes are used to differentiate meaning.

ii.                Phonemes are used in a particular language.

iii.              Phonemes are tested by using minimal pairs.

A minimal pair

A minimal pair is a pair of words which differ in only one sound in the same position.

Look at the following.

          Pen /pen/

          Hen /hen/

The meaning of the pair of words above is differentiated by the sounds /p/ and /h/. Thus, /p/ and /h/ are phonemes.

Phonemic transcription

This deals with how words are pronounced. Phonemic transcription uses slashes // not brackets. Eg sun /sɅn/

English phonemes

English phonemes are divided into two types namely.

  1.                        Vowels
  2.                      Consonants


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