Phonology

Phonology

1. Phonology is the mental representation of sounds.

2. Phonemes: Each of the meaning-distinguishing sounds in a language.

   • Slash marks (/ /) indicate phonemes, and brackets ( [ ]), phonetic representations.
     • Phones: Phonetic units that appear in square brackets
       • We add the prefix "allo" when we have a set of phones, versions of one phoneme, and refer to them as "allophones". Example: the [t] sound in the words "tar" and "star"
         • When two words such as "pat" and "bat" are identical except for one phoneme, ocurring in the same position, they are "minimal pairs".
   • If we substitute one sound for another, we get a different word. Example: If we change the /f/ in "fine" for /v/, we would get "vine".

3. Phonotactics: System of rules that each language has that tells us which combinations of sounds are possible or not. Example: In Spanish, "twitear" becomes "tuitear", because spanish rules don't allow "tw" combinations.

4. Syllables: they must contain a vowel sound, including diphtongs.

   • Onset: First element of the syllable, it has one or more consonants.
   • Rhyme: Consists of a vowel , which is the "nucleus", plus any following consonant (s), described as the "coda"
     • Open Syllables: They have an onset and a nucleus, but not a coda. Example: me, to or no.
     • Closed Syllables: When a coda is present. Example: cup, at, hat.
   • Consonant clusters: When both the onset and the coda have more than one consonant. Example: stop, black, twin.

5. Coarticulation: Making one sound almost at the same time as the next sound.

   • Assimilation: When two sounds occur almost at the same time, and one of these copies the other. Example: Have by itself is /hæv/, but followed by "to" becomes /hævtə/.
     • "Any vowel becomes nasal whenever it immediately precedes a nasal". Example: "can" is pronounced as [kæn], but when we say "I can go", it becomes [aɪkəŋɡoʊ].
       • Elision: Not pronouncing a sound segment that is present in the careful pronunciation of a word in isolation. Example: [ɪntrɪst] for interest.