Page 124 - DENG504_LINGUISTICS

Linguistics

Notes
Unit 10: Phonemes: Detailed Study

CONTENTS
Objectives
Introduction
10.1 What is Phonology?
10.2 Difference between Phonetics and Phonology
10.3 Some Major Concepts of Phonology
10.4 Theories of Phonological Analysis
10.5 Phonemes of English
10.6 Phonology of English
10.7 Summary
10.8 Key-Words
10.9 Review Questions
10.10 Further Readings

Objectives

After studying this Unit students will be able to:
• Define Phonology.
• Discuss Phonemes.
Introduction

Children do not learn the rules of spoken language by explicit instruction, but rather by a combination
of copying what they hear, and building up mental generalisations based on their experiences. How
much they are helped in this by some internal structure in the brain dedicated to language acquisition,
which linguists call a Language Acquisition Device or Language Faculty, is still a matter of debate.
Nonetheless, aspects of spoken language show very strong similarities to the types of patterns outlined
above for writing. Again, some differences between units matter, because replacing one with another
will cause a different meaning to be conveyed in the language in question: replace the initial sound
[k] in call with [t], and you have tall, an entirely different English word. Correspondingly,
English speakers perceive [k] and [t] as entirely separate sounds, and find them rather easy to distinguish.
In other cases, two sounds which phoneticians can equally easily tell apart will be regarded as the
same by native speakers. For instance, say the phrase kitchen cupboard to yourself, and think about the
first sounds of the two words. Despite the difference in spelling (another case where orthography, as
we saw also in the last chapter, is not an entirely reliable guide to the sounds of a language), native
speakers will tend to think of those initial consonants as the same—both are [k]s. However, if you say
the phrase several times, slowly, and think uncharacteristically carefully about whether your
articulators are doing the same at the beginning of both words, you will find that there is a discernible
difference. For the first sound in kitchen, your tongue will be raised towards the roof of your mouth,
further forward than for the beginning of cupboard; and for kitchen, your lips will be spread apart a
little more too, while for capboard your mouth will be more open. Unless you are from Australia or
New Zealand, this difference is even clearer from the phrase car keys, this time with the first word
having the initial sound produced further back in the mouth, and the second further forward.
In IPA terms, these can be transcribed as [k], the cupboard sound, and [c], the kitchen one. However, in
English [k] and [c] do not signal different meanings as [k] and [t] do in call versus tall; instead, we can
always predict that [k] will appear before one set of vowels, which we call back vowels, like the [• ]

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