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Describing English Language > Phonology > Flashcards

Phonology Flashcards

1
Q

Suprasegmental features

A
  • Stress
  • Intonation
  • Features of connected speech
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2
Q

Airstream mechanisms

A
  • Any system by which a flow of air is generated in the production of speech
  • To generate sound, it is necessary to have air pressure and air flow
  • What makes air flow is a difference in air pressure between the two places - therefore, air flow in either of two directions, depending on where the air pressure is higher
  • In the case of speech, this means that air may flow in two directions: egressive airstream mechanism - outward airflow (can result in ejective sounds) an ingressive airstream mechanism - inward airflow (can result in implosive sounds)
  • Egressive/Ingressive sounds - pulmonic (from the lungs), glottalic (from the glottis), lingual/velaric (from the tongue)
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3
Q

Airstream mechanisms in English

A
  • All human languages have pulmonic egressive sounds (such as vowels)
  • English speech sounds are produced with egressive pulmonic air (i.e. air is pushed out from the lungs)
  • Ingressive sounds in English include: laughter, quick counting, exclamations such as ‘huh’ or ‘sss’
  • ‘tsk!’ (expressing disapproval or pity)
  • Imitating sounds (e.g. horse trotting)
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4
Q

Minimal pair

A

Words identical in form except for contrast in one phoneme occurring in the same position - /red/ and /bed/ are a minimal pair

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5
Q

Minimal set

A

Groups of words that can be differentiated, each one from the others, by changing one phoneme in the same position of the word - /red/, /bed/, /fed/, /led/ are a minimal set

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6
Q

Transcription

A
  • Written English - represented by <>
  • Phonemic Transcription - how speech sounds are treated by native speakers (no detail on actual phonetic realisation of speech) //
  • Phonetic Transcription - writing down (visual representation) of speech sounds using a set of printed symbols (usually language-specific) > offers more phonetic detail []
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7
Q

IPA

A
  • Main and oldest representative organisation for phoneticians
  • Established in Paris in 1886
  • Developed a phonetic alphabet to capture the speech sounds for all languages
  • IPA established analytic framework for the study of speech segments
  • Each IPA symbol represents one speech sound and denotes the articulatory features involved in its production
  • IPA charts are re-issued annually
  • The aim of the IPA is to promote the scientific study of phonetic and the practical applications of this discipline
  • IPA fonts used for phonemic transcription
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8
Q

English segmentals - consonants

A
  • 24 consonant phonemes in English
  • In English, all consonants are produced with an upward and outward airflow from the lungs
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9
Q

Place of articulation

A
  • We mainly produce speech when breathing out
  • Consonants - produced by the shape made by different parts of the vocal apparatus: lips, teeth, tongue, alveolar ridge, hard palate, velum
  • Most consonant sounds - produced by using the tongue and other parts of the mouth to constrict, in some way, the shape of the oral cavity through which air is passing
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10
Q

Options for place of articulation

A
  • Bilabial - [p] (nv) [b] [m] [w] (v)
  • Labiodental - [f] (nv) [v] (v)
  • Dental - [th] (thin) (nv) [th] (bathe) (v)
  • Alveolar - [t] [s] (nv) [d] [z] [n] [l] [r] (v)
  • Post-alveolars - [sh] [ch] (nv) [s] (casual) [g] (gem) (v)
  • Palatals - [y] (yet) (v)
  • Velars - [k] (nv) [g] (gun) [n] (bang) (v)
  • Glottals - [h] (v)
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11
Q

Manner of articulation

A
  • Stops - [p] [k] [t] (nv) [b] [d] [g] (v)
  • Fricatives - [f] [th] (thin) [s] [sh] [h] (nv) [v] [th] (bathe) [z] [s] (casual) (v)
  • Affricates - [ch] (nv) [g] (rage) (v)
  • Nasals - [m] [n] [n] (sing) (v)
  • Liquids - [l] [r] (v)
  • Glides - [w] [y] (v)
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12
Q

Unvoiced/fortis

A
  • No vibration (air passes unobstructed through vocal cords)
  • Vocal cords spread apart
  • More energetic (involving more force/strength in the articulatory apparatus to produce - stronger articulation)
  • Typically longer duration
  • Vowels shortened before final fortis consonant
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13
Q

Voiced/lenis

A
  • Vibration of vocal cords (air pushes through to pass through vocal cords)
  • Vocal chords drawn together
  • Less energetic (involving less force/strength in the articulatory apparatus to produce - weaker articulation)
  • Typically briefer duration
  • Vowels have full length before final lenis consonant
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14
Q

Pairs

A

Plosives/stops: /p/ and /b/, /t/ and /d/, /k/ and /g/
Fricatives: /f/ and /v/, /th/ (thin) and /th/ (bathe), /s/ and /z/, /sh/ and /s/ (casual)
Affricates: /th/ and /g/ (gem)

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15
Q

Phoneme pairs

A
  • Of the 24 consonant phonemes, 15 are voiced and 9 are unvoiced
  • There are 8 voiced phonemes that are within pairs and 7 that are not
  • There are 8 unvoiced phonemes in pairs and 1 that is not
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16
Q

Vowels

A
  • Sounds produced through the vocal folds without constraint of the airflow in the mouth
17
Q

Traits of vowels

A
  • The mouth is relatively open allowing air to flow freely
  • English vowels > produced through the pulmonic egressive airstream mechanism
  • Typically voiced
18
Q

Monophthongs and diphthongs

A
  • There are 20 vowels in English - 12 monophthongs and 8 diphthongs
  • Monophthongs - consisting of a single vowel sound
  • Diphthongs - consisting of a combination of two vowel sounds
  • Other languages - different amounts of vowel sounds - Spanish has 9, French has 14
19
Q

Vowel features

A
  • To describe vowel sounds, we consider the way in which the tongue influences the shape through which the airflow must pass
  • To describe the place of articulation of vowels, we have to think of the space inside the mouth as having: a front vs back area; a high vs low area
  • Features of vowels: tongue shape/position - front vs back (part of the tongue); lip shape (with or without lip rounding); duration (checked or unchecked); monophthong or diphthong
  • Vowel height - distance between the highest point of tongue/upper tongue surface and roof of mouth - related to vertical plane
  • The height of the tongue can be changed by moving the tongue or the jaw up or down (usually a combination of the two)
20
Q

Cardinal vowels

A
  • Set of vowels establishes and recorded by Daniel Jones, to serve as fixed reference points for the description of vowels in any language
  • Cardinal vowels describe the tongue height and part of tongue
21
Q

Lip rounding

A
  • Vowels can be produced with different degrees of lip rounding
  • Enlarges space within the mouth
  • Diminishes the size of the opening of the mouth
22
Q

Vowels can be:

A
  • Rounded - corners of the lips are brought towards each other and lips pushed forward
  • Spread - corners of the lips moved away from each other, as for a smile
  • Neutral - the lips are not noticeably rounded or spread
23
Q

Vowel lengths

A
  • Short (checked) and long (unchecked) vowels - short vowels are normally blocked by surrounding consonants, whereas long vowels are typically found in open end positions
  • Lengths is not the distinguishing feature - some transcription systems do not add length marks
24
Q

English diphthongs

A
  • When we produce diphthongs, the vocal organs move from one vocalic position to another
  • Diphthong - a sound combination that begins with a vowel and ends with another vowel or a glide - involves change in tongue or lip shape
  • Diphthongs - result of a change from one vowel to another (or a glide) within a single syllable, without the possibility of a break
  • In diphthongs, vowels change quality within the syllable - e.g. house - articulation changes from relatively open to relatively closed and back (in monophthongs the place of articulation remains relatively stable)
  • English diphthongs - first part is much stronger than the second part
25
Q

Allophones

A
  • One out of a closely related set of speech sounds of phonemes
  • When we have a set of phonemes, all of which are versions of one phoneme, these are allophones of that phoneme - allophones are different realisations of the same phoneme, appearing in different phonemic environments
  • If you substitute a phoneme for another, it will result in a word with a different meaning and a different pronunciation
  • If you substitute allophones, only the pronunciation of the word will change
26
Q

Two types of allophonic variation

A
  • Complementary variation/distribution - relates to position in utterance (what comes before and after the phoneme) - when we have two different pronunciations (allophones) of a sound type (phoneme), each always used in different places in words
  • Free variation - a question of accent - varietal (Australian; Indian; Singaporean), regional (Texan, Scouse), social (posh) and generational
27
Q

Features of connected speech

A
  • Co-articulation - the process of making one sound almost the same time as the next sound
28
Q

Simplification strategies in English

A
  • Linking - inserting sounds (or carrying them over)
  • Elision - dropping sounds
  • Assimilation - making adjacent sounds more like each other
29
Q

Elision

A

Leaving out a sound segment that might be present in the deliberately careful pronunciation of a word
- Consonants - especially /t/ and /d/
- Consonant cluster - reduced
- Three syllables are often shortened to two
- Vowels - unstressed syllables the first to go

30
Q

Assimilation

A

Sounds change to resemble neighbouring ones - very common process, responsible for the majority of sound changes - reducing distance between sounds, smoother transition and less articulatory effort
- Leading (regressive) - a sound assimilates to (becomes more like) the sound following it
- Lagging (progressive) - a sound becomes more like the sound in front of it
- Reciprocal (coalescent) - two sounds come together

31
Q

Weak forms

A

Common used grammatical words tend not to be stressed when we are speaking - because they are not stressed, they have a weak form - the full vowel is reduced, and is replaced by the ‘schwa’ vowel

Describing English Language (4 decks)

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