Phonology

How do words sound?

Sounds: distinct or continuous?

“ta-ta-ta”(time/frequency)

“nineteenth century”(time/frequency/intensity)

[source: Wikipedia]

Some key terms• phonemes: Sounds that are distinct enough to

distinguish different words• e.g., “p” in pear vs “b” in bear• allophones: Sounds within a phoneme that aren’t

different enough to distinguish different words• e.g., the “p” in pace vs. the “p” in space (one has a

puff of air, the other doesn’t)• voiced consonant: produced if the vocal cords vibrate

(“b”)• unvoiced consonant: produced if the vocal cords do

not vibrate (“p”)

Problems of English spelling• inadequacy, complexity • same pronunciation, different spellings: meet, meat, mete• same spelling, different pronunciations: wind/wind, invalid• different phonemes, same spelling: thin/then• same letter standing for several different sounds (or no

sound at all): s in sun, pays, treasure, tension, aisle• letter c redundant: only ever stands for sounds that can be

made by another letter or letter combination: call (k), cell (s), cello (ch), social (sh), indict (silent)

• silent letters (climb, yacht, sign, exhaust, autumn, receipt, castle, answer)

• sound with no letter (one, music)

Human speech organs(not on test)

Consonant phonemes in English(not on test, but helpful for later reference)

bilabial labio-dental

inter-dental

alveolar alveo-palatal

velar

stops voiceless p t k

voiced b d g

affricates voiceless č

voiced ǰ

fricatives voiceless f θ s š h, x

voiced v ð z ž

nasals m n ŋ

lateral l

retroflex r

semi-vowels

w j w

International phonetic alphabetic (IPA)Consonants

p pillb billt tilld dillk killg gillč chillǰ Jillf fillv veal

θthigh

ðthen

s sealz zealš fishž

measureh heel

x (Scots loch, Hebrew

Pesach)

m micen niceŋ singl lorer roarw worej your

Vowel phonemes of English

æ fad ɑ fatherɔ cod

ɛ fed ɘ solid (2nd

o code

e fade vowel) ʊcould

ɪ fit ʌ cudu coo

i feed

Diphthongs• combinations of two vowel soundsphonemic (contrast with non-dipthong version):ɑɪ liedɑʊ loudɔɪ loinallophonic (don’t contrast with non-diphthong

version):oʊ loweɪ laneɪə leerɛə lairʊə lure

Fun stuff

• The McGurk illusion:• http

://www.youtube.com/watch?NR=1&feature=fvwp&v=eQoYKuNcCpU

• fuller explanation: http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=endscreen&NR=1&v=T4fUi0eG1X4

• HAL9000’s voice played 200 times slower, with spectrogram: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zTi_HwdlJ20

• this man is just playing with his spectrogram:• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=faBFiEfPxUU