phonemes, allophones, and changes in nae...

Phonemes, Allophones, and Changes in NAE Consonants

Marla YoshidaUniversity of California Irvine Extension

International ProgramsTeaching English as a Foreign Language Certificate Program

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Thursday, March 1, 12

Review: Phonemes and AllophonesEvery language has its own set of phonemes.

Phonemes are the distinctive sounds of a language–the sounds that a native speaker of the language considers to be separate sounds.

Changing from one phoneme to another changes the meaning of a word. Sometimes it makes a word meaningless.



Review: Phonemes and AllophonesVariations of a phoneme that are still heard to be the same sound are called allophones of the same phoneme. They’re different sounds that function as the same sound.

A phoneme is an abstract concept. It’s related to the way our minds perceive and categorize sounds–not so much to the physical sounds themselves.



Review: Phonemes and AllophonesEvery language has its own set of phonemes. No two languages have exactly the same system.

Two sounds that are separate phonemes in one language might be heard as the same sound in another language–in that language, they’re just different allophones of the same phoneme.

When we learn a new language, we have to learn a new set of phonemes. We can’t just keep using the phonemes of our own language.



Review: Phonemes and AllophonesTo distinguish phonemes from allophones when we write IPA symbols, we put slash marks around phonemes: “pat” “button” “city” “pull”

/p Q t / /b!" t n / /s I"t i y / /p U l /

When we want to record smaller details, or different allophones of the phonemes, we put square brackets around the symbols:

[ p H Q t º] [b !" / n] [s I"R i y ] [ p H U ] Keep reading to find out what these new symbols mean.



Allophonic variations in consonantsOf all the consonant variations in North American English, these are the ones that are most important for you to know about as a teacher:

• Allophones of voiceless stops: /p/, /t/, and /k/

• Flaps and glottal stops as allophones of /t/

• “Dark /l/” and “light /l/”



Allophones of voiceless stopsIn English, there are three voiceless stops: /p/, /t/, /k/. These are pronounced slightly differently, depending on where they are in a word and what sounds are around them. These three phonemes have allophones that follow the same pattern.

(/t/ also has some extra things going on. We’ll see those a little later.)



Allophones of voiceless stops


1. When /p/, /t/, and /k/ come at the beginning of a word or the beginning of a stressed syllable, they are aspirated. That is, they are pronounced with a puff of air. We represent these sounds by adding a small “h” to the phonemic symbol:

[ph] pan, price, potáto, appéar[th] top, táble, togéther, atténd[kh] can, kéttle, compúter, accúse pie


Allophones of voiceless stops2. When /p/, /t/, or /k/ have /s/ before them at the

beginning of a word, they are unaspirated. There is no puff of air. To represent these sounds, we don’t add anything to their phonemic symbols.

[p] span, spécial, spring [t] stop, stáple, string[k] scan, scátter, screen


spy


Allophones of voiceless stops3. When /p/, /t/, or /k/ comes at the end of a word, it is

often unreleased. We start to say the sound by blocking off the air flow in our mouth, but we don’t release the air. We add a small circle to the phonemic symbol to represent these sounds.

[pº] stop, hope, devélop[tº] coat, state, básket[kº] back, cake, stómach


cup


What about voiced stops?


cub

Voiced stops in English (/b/, /d/, /g/) are never aspirated. They don’t have a puff of air in any position.

Voiced stops are often unreleased at the end of a word, just like voiceless stops:

/b/ rob, ádverb/d/ bad, avóid /g/ big, ládybug


More allophones of /t/We’ve just learned about three allophones of /t/:

The aspirated one [th] in “top”The unaspirated one [t] in “stop”The unreleased one [tº] in “coat”

In North American English, /t/ has two more important allophones that /p/ and /k/ don’t have.



The flap as an allophone of /t/The first “extra allophone” is the sound that we usually hear in NAE in the middle of the words water, city, or bottle. This is a voiced sound. The tongue taps the alveolar ridge very quickly, so that it sounds like a quick /d/. This is called an alveolar flap or tap, and it is represented by this symbol: [R ].


R


The flap as an allophone of /t/The following sentence has four flaps:

The wáiter bróught us some wáter and bútter.

Sometimes words with /t/ sound just like words with /d/:

látter / ládder wríting / ríding métal / médal

If students pronounce these words with a non-flap /t /, it’s OK. They can still be understood.

The wáiter bróught us some wáter and bútter.



The flap as an allophone of /t//t/ is pronounced as a flap when two things happen:

1. /t/ comes between vowels or a vowel followed by /r/.

2. The syllable before it is stressed, and the syllable after it is unstressed.


/t/ is a flap /t/ is not a flap

fórtyátom mátterstátedréticent

fourtéenatómicmásterstatísticretúrn

V t VV t V


The glottal stop as an allophone of /t/The phoneme /t/ can also be pronounced as a glottal stop, represented by this symbol: [/ ]. To produce this sound, the vocal cords close tightly and then open quickly. It’s like the beginning of a small cough, or the middle sound when we say “huh-uh” to mean “no.”

The following sentence can have five glottal stops.

Mártin Bénton sells búttons and cótton cúrtains.

We can also say these words with “regular” /t/ sounds instead of glottal stops.

Mártin Bénton sells búttons and cótton cúrtains.



The glottal stop as an allophone of /t//t/ can be pronounced as a glottal stop when two things happen:

1. The syllable before it is stressed, and the syllable after it is unstressed.

2. The syllable after it is / n / or a syllabic /n/. (That is, the / / sound disappears and /n/ becomes the whole syllable. The symbol for syllabic /n/ is [n].)

kitten button mountain sentence certain


V t V V t / n /

.


The glottal stop as an allophone of /t/It’s not absolutely necessary for learners to pronounce the flap [R ] and glottal stop [/ ] allophones of /t/, but they need to understand them when they hear them. And in normal NAE speech, they will hear them often.



“Light /l/” and “dark /l/”The phoneme /l/ is said to have two allophones: “light” or alveolar /l/ [ l ] and “dark,” or velarized /l/ [ …] . This is what most books say about light and dark /l/:

Light /l/ is pronounced with the tip of the tongue on the alveolar ridge and the back of the tongue down. It’s used at the beginning of words and before front vowels:

lip leap late timely

Dark /l/ is pronounced with the back of the tongue up, near the velum. The tip of the tongue can be on the alveolar ridge, or it might be lower. Dark /l/ is used at the end of a word and before back vowels.

pull fault hollow holes



“Light /l/” and “dark /l/”However, many Americans don’t make a clear distinction between dark and light /l/. They may pronounce an /l/ that’s similar to a dark /l/ in all positions.

(The difference between light and dark /l/ is much greater in British English than in American English, especially in some dialects, where final /l/ turns into /o/ or /u/.)

Because the difference between light /l/ and dark /l/ does not result in pronunciation that’s hard to understand, it’s best not to be too concerned about the distinction between the two kinds of /l/.



Summary• Phonemes are the distinctive sounds of a language.

Every language has its own set of phonemes.

• Variations of a phoneme that still function as the same sound are called allophones of the same phoneme.

• Allophones of voiceless stops: /p/, /t/, and /k/• Aspirated at the beginning of words: [ph] as in pan, [th] as in tan, [kh] as in can,

• Unaspirated after /s/ at the beginning of words:[p] as in span, [t] as in stand, [k] as in scan

• Unreleased at the ends of words:/b/ as in rob, /d/ as in bad, /g/ as in big



Summary• In NAE, /t/ has two more important allophones:

• /t/ becomes a flap in this situation:Stressed vowel + /t/ + unstressed vowel

• /t / can become a glottal stop in this situation:Stressed vowel + /t/ + / n /

• “Light /l/” and “dark /l/”

• “Light /l/” occurs at the beginning of words or before front vowels.

• “Dark /l/” occurs at the end of words or before back vowels.

• Most Americans don’t strongly differentiate these two /l/ sounds. The difference is not very important.



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