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INTRODUCTION TO THE STUDY OF LANGUAGE

Phonetics & Phonology

Phonetics

The study of the physical properties of speech sounds

Phonology

The study of the sound system - how sounds

relate to and interact with each other in a language

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Part One

Organs of speech, classification of speech sounds

and phonetic transcription

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PHONETICS:

The scientific study of speech sounds – their description,

classification and transcription

(i) Articulatory phonetics: How speech sounds are

articulated -- i.e. what speech organs are involved, and what

physical gestures or configurations are required to produce the

sounds in question.

(ii) Acoustic phonetics: The physical properties of the sound

waves generated by speech -- e.g. the frequency of oscillation

(how many cycles per second), amplitude (how loud), and

duration (for how long).

(iii) Auditory phonetics: How speech sounds are perceived by

the hearer as having certain auditory properties that differentiate

them from each other, such as the quality of the sound (is it [i] or

[e]?), the pitch (high or low), loudness, length, and so on.

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The International Phonetic Alphabet

In the late 19th century, a group of British and French

linguists invented the International Phonetic

Alphabet (IPA), a system that uniquely identifies

all of the sounds, or phonemes, used in human

languages.

Each sound is represented by a single symbol, and

conversely, each symbol represents a single sound.

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The International Phonetic Alphabet

The English language uses 24 consonants and 24

vowels (including 12 pure vowels, 10 diphthongs, and

two triphthongs). A consonant is a sound in which

the voice, or breath stream, is interrupted or

impeded during production.

Consonants can be either voiced or voiceless; if the

vocal folds vibrate during production, the

consonant is voiced, and if they do not vibrate, the

consonant is voiceless.

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The International Phonetic Alphabet

A vowel, by contrast, is an uninterrupted voiced sound.

For all vowel sounds (with the exception of the

vowels, diphthongs, and triphthongs of r), the

tongue rests on the floor of the mouth, with its tip

resting against the lower teeth, and the arch in the

tongue determines the phoneme produced.

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PHONETIC CLASSIFICATION

Two broad distinctions:

(i) 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)

(ii) 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)

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CONSONANTS

I. 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 phonetic

symbols: each symbol represents one and

only one sound

IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet)

A universal inventory of phonetic symbols

Representing the sounds in all human languages

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