The letter-phoneme correspondence Flashcards
What is the definition of a phoneme?
phoneme = a minimal distinctive and contrastive unit which can change the meaning. It is the main unit of phonology and it is written in slashes / . It is also an abstract (mental) representation of the sound.
RP has 44 phonemes - 20 vowels and 24 consonants.
How many letter do the English and Czech alphabet have?
English: 26 letters (5 vowels, the rest= consonants. Because of this, there is not 1-to-1 correspondence in relation to phonemes).
The Czech alphabet has 42 letters (27 consonant phonemes and 13 vowel phonemes)
What is the difference between language and speech?
Langue = competence, phonology - abstract realization, phoneme
Speech = parole (performance), phonetics - concrete realizations, phone (speech sound)
What is a grapheme?
Grapheme is the smallest distinctive unit in a written system. It is written in angle brackets. It can have different forms - graph, diagraph (two letter unit that makes one sound), polygraph (ough - 1 sound).
What is the relationship between graphemes and phonemes?
English - heterogeneous spelling (not 1-to-1 correspondence).
Czech - homogeneous spelling (1-to-1 correspondence present).
Are there any consonants in the RP writing/phonetical system that do have regular spelling?
Yes, there is 13 of them. 11 of them are regularly spelt (such as b, d, g, h, m).
The 11 consonants needed to makethe 24 total have to analyzed in connection with their position in words (e. g. /š/).
Are there any vowels in the RP writing/phonetical system that do have regular spelling?
5 of them do have highly regular spelling (/ae/, /e/, /o/, /au/, /ju:/. All the rest need to be analyzed according to position as an initial, medial, or final phoneme.
