ENGL 390: The Linguistic Structure of Modern English
Spring 2006 Dr. J. Rubba
Original text © Johanna Rubba 2006
English Sounds

Phonetics vs. Phonology Revisited

+ Phonetics:

• human ability to make and perceive speech sounds

• nature of speech as a sound wave

• covers phonetic features produced by vocal tract and how they combine to make speech sounds; pitch of voice; production and perception of stress

+ Phonology:

• each language’s “choices” of how to employ speech sound to build its pronunciation system ( = phonological system)

• “Choices” make languages different from each other; no two languages have exact same phonological system.

• covers:

F phoneme inventory (set of contrastive sounds)

F syllable structure “permissions” (phonotactic constraints)

F use of pitch (intonation) and stress

F phonological processes (see below)

Phonetics vs. Phonology Revisited - cont’d

+ Phonological “choices” English has made:

• Consonant inventory

• Vowel inventory

Phonetics vs. Phonology Revisited - cont’d

+ English vs. Hawai’ian phonology

• Hawai’ian phoneme inventory:

"The sounds intended by speakers do not always correspond directly to what they actually utter, and conversely … the sounds listeners actually hear are not always those which they think they hear."

E. Callary, "Phonetics", p. 321.

Phonological Processes

+ Phonological processes:

F changes in features or segments when a word is spoken

F occur between choice of word(s) from mental dictionary

F and actual utterance of the word/phrase.

+Input (mental form of word) —> processor (changes) —> output (actual utterance)

+Example: ‘compute’

• In mental lexicon; no processes applied yet:

F / k å m . » p y u t /

• Processes apply before utterance:

F aspiration 2x; vowel reduction 1x

F Product: [k^h \ m . » p^h y u t ]

F /k/ —> [k^h ]

F /å /—> /\/

F /p/ —> [p^h]

Phonological Processes, cont’d

+Example: Flapping of waiter, wader

• Mental form: /wetr`/, /wedr`/

• Uttered form for both words: [weRr]`

• Contrast between /t/ and /d/ is destroyed

Phonological Processes, cont’d

+ Why does English allow this?

• Speech has to be comprehensible (maintain contrast), yet

• Speech must be very fast

F Articulators must move from one mouth position to another rapidly

F Timing must be precise to create all features of a single sounds

F Example: keen /kin/

] 1 - make closure at velum for stop

] 2 - allow air pressure to build up behind closure

] 3 - pull tongue down abruptly to release air

] 3 - move tongue into position for /i/

] 4 - start up vocal cords (voice) for /i/

] 5 - keep vocal cords running for /n/

] 6 - move tongue forward and make closure for /n/

] 7 - drop velum to allow air through nose

] do all this in about a second, in precise coordination

+ Such precision is effortful

Phonological Processes, cont’d

+ Shortcuts/compromises allowed to accommodate speed:

• 1) Overlap of articulatory gestures

F Result: Features ‘spread’ from one segment to another (assimilation)

] /k/ of keen pulls forward to /i/ position prematurely:

v place of articulation of /k/ is palatal, not velar ([c])

] velum drops during pronunciation of /i/, anticipating /n/

v /i/ is nasalized

• 2) Sounds “reduced” or deleted:

F police /polis/ —> [p´lis]

F fifths [fIfTs] —> [fITs]

• The mental phoneme has various physical pronunciations:

Phonological Processes, cont’d

+ Phonemes:

• the sound in our minds, with its contrastive features

• how we “spell” the pronunciation of the word in our mental dictionary

+ Allophones:

• the sounds we actually say and hear

• processes apply before speech occurs

+ Processes almost completely subconscious

• Not noticed by native speakers

• We think we speak & hear the contrastive features

• We ignore the changes made by processes

+ Spelling reflects phonemes, not allophones

• Letters available for phonemes: ‘k’ and ‘c’ for /k/; ‘a’ for /æ/, ‘s’ and ‘z’ for /z/, ‘ee’ for /i/, ‘ch’ for / c‡ /, ‘f’ and ‘ph’ for /f/, etc., etc.

• No letters for flap, palatal stop version of /k/, or nasal vowels

• Polish uses the ‘ogonek’ (a small rightward hook) to mark nasal vowels:

Phonological Processes, cont’d

+ Processes and spelling

• Processes change identity of a sound

• Speller may pick wrong letter(s), and spell allophone’s features instead of phoneme’s

• Examples:

F /t/ becomes [c‡] before /r/: chrain for train, chree for tree

F vowels become [´] when not stressed:

misspelling correct spelling

compatable compatible

appose oppose

benifit benefit

siphen siphon

bottam bottom

F This phenomenon is called developmental or invented spelling.

English Phonology and English Spelling

+English spelling system is an alphabet.

+Do not confuse “English spelling” with “the English language”.

• Relation between a language and its spelling system is historical and arbitrary.

• Arbitrary: Nothing about the language dictates one spelling system over another.

English Phonology and English Spelling - cont’d

+ Alphabetic principle: Describes how an alphabet works.

+ Alphabetic principle =

• The spelling system is based on the phoneme inventory of the language.

• Each phoneme is assigned one or more spellings.

F English examples:

] Phoneme Spellings
/p/ p, pp: puppy
/c‡/ ch, tch: church, match
/f/ f, ff, ph, gh: fluff, phone, laugh
/i/ e, ee, ea, i: me, see, meat, machine
/o/ o, oa, ow: no, boat, flow

F Spanish examples:

] Phoneme Spellings
/s/ s, z, c: salsa, azul, cien ‘sauce’, ‘blue’, ‘hundred’
/k/ c: casa, vaca ‘house’, ‘cow’
/i/ i: ti , mismo ‘you’, ‘same’

F French examples:

] /o/ o, eau, aux: policier, eau, faux ‘police officer’, ‘water’, ‘false’
/f/ f, ph: faux, phrase ‘false, sentence’

English Phonology and English Spelling - cont’d

+Important: Keep this straight:

• Phonemes are abstract concepts -- our knowledge of which sounds are in which words. They exist only in the mind.

• Spellings are written letters: visual patterns. They are assigned to phonemes; they stand for phonemes on the page.

• Spellings work by triggering an association between a spelling and a phoneme.
When you see ‘ch’, you think /c‡/.

• The technical term for a spelling is grapheme: a particular letter or set of letters that is used to spell a particular phoneme.

• Some graphemes of English:
a, ai, ck, d, dd, gh, j, mm, ph, sh, th, x

• Neither phonemes nor graphemes are spoken sounds. All actual, uttered speech consists of allophones: an attempt at pronouncing a phoneme.

English Phonology and English Spelling - cont’d

+Not all spelling/writing systems are alphabets:

• Japanese kana and kanji are syllabaries: each character stands for a whole CV syllable.

Children’s acquisition of speech vs. writing

+Acquisition of speech (native/first language):

• Natural, universal, automatic (innate)

• Begins at or before birth

• Developmental: occurs in predictable stages immune to training

F Progressive expansion of individual sound inventory and syllable structure

• Subconscious: Children are not aware of language structure (individual sounds, syllable structures)

+Near complete at age 5:

• Can pronounce all or nearly all sounds of native language

• Can handle most syllable structures

• May have trouble with long words

• Speech may be slower and more effortful than adults’

Children’s acquisition of speech vs. writing

+ Learning about writing:

• Requires teaching (not innate, natural, universal)

• Requires exposure in home, community, school

• Developmental stages: top-down, whole to part

F 1. Awareness of writing/meaning connection

F 2. Awareness of writing/speech connection

F 3. Scribbles; random letters every which way around

F 4. Syllabic writing: e.g., 2 letters for a 2-syll. word

F 5. Alphabetic writing

+ Most children require:

• Phonemic awareness training

• Training in English spelling system (phonics)

+ Lack of phonemic awareness correlates strongly with reading failure

~ End ~