Phonology handout

PHONOLOGY HANDOUT Laiza Leonor Rodas Ramirez Phonology Class Lic. Julio Anibal Blanco

INDEX INTRODUCTION

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UNIT 1: CONSONANTS

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EXERCISES

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UNIT 2: VOWELS

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EXERCISES

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UNIT 3: SUPRASEGMENTALS

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EXERCISES

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UNIT 4: CLUSTERS

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EXERCISES

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UNIT 5: HOMOGRAPHS AND HOMOPHONES

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EXERCISES

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UNIT 6: MINIMAL PAIRS

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EXERCISES

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CONCLUSION

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BIBLIOGRAPHY

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INTRODUCTION Phonology is the theoretical background behind the pronunciation and sounds that each phoneme possesses. While students receive phonology class, they have to know that it doesn’t just involve pronunciation or having a good accent better than the rest. It is about taking things to the next level and following the phonetical rules that it has.

Phonetics is a very useful course to take and very necessary in the process of the English major because it helps students to know and understand the difference between sounds that words have so that they can speak better and faster.

With the help of this handout students will be able to acquire these abilities and strength to help them in the process of their studies and ever challenge that comes with it. The topics that are demonstrated are consonants, vowels, suprasegmentals (ellipsis, schwas and assimilation), clusters, homographs, homophones and last but not least minimal pairs.

Special thanks to Mr. White that has taught me so much and has been an excellent teacher for me and all of my classmates. I hope that this handout helps you out and without further more let’s move on with the topics.

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UNIT 1: CONSONANTS In phonetics a consonant is a speech sound that is articulated with complete or partial closure of the vocal tract. These are all of the letters that are in the alphabet except for the vowels a, e, i, o, u and sometimes y. Consonants are classified in three categories:

PLACE OF ARTICULATION MANNER OF ARTICULATION VOICING (VOICED OR VOICELESS

PLACE OF ARTICULATION: The place of articulation or point of articulation of a consonant is the point of contact where an obstruction occurs in the vocal tract between an articulatory gesture, an active articulator (typically some part of the tongue), and a passive location (typically some part of the roof of the mouth).

Basically this means where the speech sound is produced. In this category, consonants are produced in different ways and can be bilabial, interdental, labiodental, alveolar, alveopalatal, velar and glottal.

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ďƒ˜ BILABIAL: Consonants made by bringing the lips together.

Bilabial consonants are: /b/, /w/, /m/ and /p/.

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 INTERDENTAL OR DENTAL: Produced by putting the tip of the tongue

between

the

front

teeth.

 LABIODENTAL: Produced by the lower lip against the upper front teeth.

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 ALVEOLAR: Produced by the tongue near the alveolar ridge.

Alveolars: /z/, /n/, /r/, /l/, /d/, /t/ and /s/.

 ALVEOPALATAL: Produced by the tongue touching between the alveolar

ridge and front part of the hard palate.

/j/, /Ʒ/, /ʃ/, /ʤ/, /ʧ/ 7

ďƒ˜ VELAR: Produced by the root of the tongue touching the soft palate or

velum (behind the hard palate). The air flow is obstructed between these two articulators.

ďƒ˜ GLOTTAL: Here the sounds are articulated with the glottis.

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/h/ and /É /

MANNER OF ARTICULATION: The configuration and interaction of the articulators (speech organs such as the tongue, lips, and palate) when making a speech sound. Mainly this term refers to how a speech sound is made by using the different passive and active articulators.

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ďƒ˜ STOP OR PLOSIVES: It is an oral occlusive, a consonant in which the vocal

tract is blocked so that all airflow ceases, this means, stopping the air flow completely and the suddenly letting it out. Phonemes that we find here are: /p/, /b/, /t/, /d/, /k/ and /g/.

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ďƒ˜ FRICATIVE: These are consonants produced by forcing air through a

narrow channel made by placing two articulators close together.

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 AFFRICATE: Are consonants that begin as a stop and

release as a fricative, generally with the same place of

 GLIDES/APPROXIMATES: They are speech sounds that involve the

articulators approaching each other but not narrowly enough nor with enough articulatory precision to create turbulent airflow. The phonemes that we find in here are: /w/ and /y/.

 NASALS: These are occlusive consonants produced with a lowered velum,

allowing air to escape freely through the nose. There are only three nasal phonemes and they are:

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ďƒ˜ LATERAL: It is an L-like consonant, in which the airstream proceeds along

the sides of the tongue, but is blocked by the tongue from going through the middle of the mouth.

/l/

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VOICING: When we talk about voicing it refers to the process in which the vocal cords vibrate while pronouncing the different phonemes. These speech sounds can be voiced or voiceless. A voiced sound is one in which the vocal cords vibrate, and a voiceless sound is one in which they do not.

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EXERCISES Indications: Write down 3 words for each pair of speech sounds.

1.

Beginnin g sound

Ending sound

/w/

/k/

/b/

/t/

/r/

/f/

/k/

/n/

/m/

/p/

List of words

2. Describe and classify the following phonemes.

/b/:

/j/:

/z/:

/ʤ/:

/ʃ/:

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3. In your own words, explain the following concepts:

Stop Fricative

Lateral

Bilabial

Nasal

UNIT 2: VOWELS A vowel is a sound pronounced with an open vocal tract so that the tongue does not touch the lips, teeth, or roof of the mouth. There is no build-up of air pressure at any point above the glottis.

For each vowel to be pronounced correctly we have to take into account different factors of the production of these speech sounds.

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 The position of the lips that can either be rounded, spread or relaxed.  The position that our tongue takes in the inside of our mouth. It can be high,

middle (mid) or low.  How long the vowels are pronounced. They can be long or short.  The way our mouth is, opened or closed.  Vowels can be tensed or relaxed.

VOWEL CLASSIFICATION CHART

The chart above demonstrates the classification of vowels. Our mouth is going to be more closed depending how high or low our tongue is at the moment we pronounce vowel sounds. A vowel sound can’t be correctly pronounced if the mouth is closed.

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For the front vowel the phoneme /i:/ is where our mouth is more closed and /á´‚/ is where our mouth is more open. For the back vowels, the phoneme /u:/ is where the mouth is more closed and the phoneme /É‘/ is more opened.

We also need to know that all vowels are voiced. There are no voiceless vowels. When we pronounce each vowel, our vocal cords vibrate, making them voiced phonemes.

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EXERCISES

Indications:

1. Classify the following phonemes:

/i:/:

/æ/:

/ɛ/:

/ɔ/:

2. In a table write down 3 words containing the following phonemes:

/ɔ/:

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/ɛ/: /i/: /æ/: /ʊ/

3. Design your own vowel chart.

UNIT 3: SUPRASEGMENTALS

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ELLIPSIS : An ellipsis is when a person entirely drops the sound of an unstressed syllable altogether and not just reduces the pronunciation of schwa sound. This effect reduces the number of syllables that a listener may hear. Both pronunciations are correct.

An ellipsis can also occur (usually in very casual speak) when native speakers drop the beginning of a word that has a schwa sound in it.

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How to use an ellipsis?

Some people will pronounce probably with three syllables (prob-a-bly), others will pronounce it with two syllables (prob-bly).

Some people will pronounce temperature with four syllables (tem-per-ature), others will pronounce it with three syllables (tem-per-ture).

EXAMPLES  general (gen-e-ral, gen-ral)  business (bus-i-ness, bus-ness)  vegetable (veg-e-ta-ble, veg-ta-ble)  margarine (mar-gar-ine, mar-grine)  evening (e-ven-ing, ev-ning)

Other examples of ellipsis are:



(remember, 'mem-ber) Remember when we went to the beach last year?

 (another, 'nother)

Another drink, Mr. Thompson?  (about, 'bout)

How about going to the movies tonight?

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SCHWAS : This phoneme refers to the mid-central vowel sound (rounded or unrounded) in the middle of the vowel chart.. An example in English is the vowel sound in the 'a' of the word 'about'. Schwa in English is mainly found in unstressed positions, but in some other languages it occurs more frequently as a stressed vowel.

This is the most common sound in English pronunciation. This is a quick, relaxed and neutral vowel very close to the / ʊ/ sound that permits unstressed syllables to be said more quickly at the moment of speaking.

There are four existing schwas and sometimes they can be confusing because of the similar pronunciation, but they are different in certain ways.

Monosyllabic words Stressed syllable in a multisyllabic word Spelling cases: •

“u”: but

•

“o”: love

•

“ou”: cousin

•

“oo”: blood

•

“oe”: does

Monosyllabic words Stressed syllable in multisyllabic words Spelling cases: • “ir”: bird • “ur”: hurt 22

•

“er”: fern

FIRST STRESS, SCHWA THE REST! Unstressed section Unstressed syllables in multisyllabic words Spelling cases: • a, e, i, o, u.

Unstressed section Unstressed syllables in multisyllabic words Spelling cases: • “ar”: sugar • “er”: after • “or”: color • “ure”: nature

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ASSIMILATION : This makes reference to the sound of a letter that is influenced by another letter that is before or after it. When this occurs, one of the letters is completely dropped, therefore the sound of it to. This changes the pronunciation of the words or frases. It mainly occurs when people speak fastly, they tend to drop letters because at the moment of

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pronouncing a word it is influenced by another changing the pronunciation and the syllable that another person may hear.

This occurs when the parts of the mouth and vocal cords start to form the beginning sound of the next word before the last sound has been completed. Examples:

/t/ + /j/ = /tʃ/ (T+Y=CH) 2. /d/ + /j/ = /dʒ/ (D+Y=J) 3. /s/ + /j/ = /ʃ/ (S+Y=SH) EXERCISES 1.

1. In your own words, define the terms ellipsis and assimilation.

Ellipsis:

Assimilation:

2. List 10 examples of ellipsis.

1.

6.

2.

7.

3.

8.

4.

9.

5.

10.

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3. Give at least 5 examples of assimilation.

1.

2.

3.

4.

5.

UNIT 4: CLUSTERS

Clusters or consonant clusters are groups or pairs of letters that come together and are not intervened by vowels. The term cluster refers to the written form and the term blend refers to the spoken form.

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EXERCISES

1. Write at least five examples of the clusters given below.

st

mp

dr

Gs

blast

camp

dream

Bugs

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2. Underline the cluster in each one of the words given below. Remember that

it can be either at the beginning or at the end of a word.

bread camp curved

kept twin

hard busy rafts

creep myths

bold dwell

fives bulb

sobbed

text

laughs

surfed

dark

zinc

elves

tacks

finds

pans

tree

UNIT 5: HOMOGRAPHS AND HOMOPHONES

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HOMOGRAPHS : It’s a word that shares the same written form as another word but has a different meaning. However, some dictionaries insist that the words must also sound differently.

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These words have the same spelling but the meaning is totally different. The way to differentiate between meanings is to pay attention to the context of the sentence in which the word is put.

HOMOPHONES : A homophone is a word that is pronounced the same as another word but the spelling and the meaning of the words are different.

Examples: bear /beə(r)/ (n ) [C] a wild furry dangerous animal that lives in woods in some parts of the world. bare /beə(r)/ (adj) naked, not wearing clothes.Thisbear isn’t bare because he’s wearing clothes.

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hair /heə(r)/n [C or U] the mass of thin threadlike structures on the head of a person, or any of these structures that grow out of the skin of a person or animal hare /heə(r)/n [C] (plural hares or hare) an animal like a large rabbit that can run very fast and has long ears This little hare is getting her hair washed.

deer /dɪə(r)/ n [C] (plural deer – a herd of deer) a quite large animal with four legs which eats grass and leaves. The male has antlers (= wide horns like branches) . The female is called a hind or a doe and the male a stag or buck dear /dɪər/n [C or U] 1. costing too much; expensive 2. loved or liked very much A deer is very dear (1.) to buy but they are quitedear (2.) to most people.

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EXERCISES Fill in the blanks using the correct homophone.

1. Get up my

(sun / son).

2. You

3.

(ought / aught) to have said it long ago.

(Buoys / Boys) float on the sea to warn ships of danger.

4. He skidded because he did not apply the

5. We must try our best to

6. I did not have the

7. The

(caste / cast) away all prejudices.

(hart / heart).

(hair / hare) has a short tail.

8. The flesh of Kangaroo sells very

9. He told me the

(brake / break).

(deer / dear).

(tail / tale) of a fox.

10. The travelers had a terrible journey through the road.

(torturous/tortuous)

In your own words write the meanings of the homographs underlined in each sentence.

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1. After the performance the actor took a bow.

2. Mary ribbon bow.

tied into

a a

3. Slow down so you don’t tire yourself.

4. Jennifer’s bicycle has a flat tire.

UNIT 6: MINIMAL PAIRS Minimal pairs are words that have a difference in only ONE phonemic sound. A minimal pair is a pair of words that vary by only a single sound, usually meaning sounds that may confuse English learners, like the /f/ and /v/ in fan and van, or the /e/ and /ɪ/ in desk and disk.

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EXERCISES

Match the transcriptions with the correct words.

/fɪt/

heat /sɪn/ ship 34

/ʃɪp/

feet

/hɪt/

sheep

/si:n/

fit

/hi:t/

sin

/fi:t/

seen

/ʃi:p/

hit

Listen to your teacher reading the sentences below. Circle the word you hear.

1. They need more bins/beans.

2. Do you want a lick/leek?

3. He wants to buy the ship/sheep.

4. I can’t give you this chip/cheap.

5. You mustn’t hit/heat it.

6. He does it/eat sometimes.

7. It was a long wick/week.

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CONCLUSION Phonetics is a very complex topic that involves a lot of hard work in order to understand well what it is talking about. This course is something that every English student has to go through and it doesn’t just involve pronunciation, it’s everything about how to obtain a better pronunciation, spelling and understanding of the English language. This is a very interesting course that has taught me so much and now I am trying to pass my knowledge on to future students that will take this same course so they can get a better understanding in a simple and fun way.

When people are beginning to learn English they tend to get really frustrated and stressed and with these topics in phonetics and phonology it helps to understand better the language and assimilate different words with their meanings and in order to obtain this knowledge we need to take this course.

With this hand out I have learned that I love studying English and hope to succeed in the future, hopefully becoming a teacher. That way I can teach my very own classes with my very own students so that they learn the best they can to pronounce words in English. Remember to never give up on what you love and desire, in this case ENGLISH, and that way you will always give a hundred percent in everything you do. Blessings to everyone and hope you like this!

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BIBLIOGRAPHY

English Phonetics and Phonology by Peter Roach Better English pronunciation

My virtual work:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CHnWh9NdFm0

https://www.emaze.com/@AIRFOWCQ/welcome-aboard

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