UNIT 2

PHONETICS AND PHONOLOGY

Both phonetics and phonology are the study of sounds. Yet, phonetics focuses on sounds
of language and phonology focuses on sounds pattern of language. The difference of
these focuses will be observed in the following description.
A. Phonetics
a. Definition
Yule (2006:30) stated that phonetics is the study of the character of
speech sounds. it is devided into articulatory phonetics, accoustic phonetics, and
auditory phonetics. Artuculatory phonetic deals with how speech sounds are
produced. Acoustic phonetic deals with physical properties of speech sounds.
Other area of this study is auditory phonetic which deals with perceptual
phonetic of speech sounds. Hickey (... :21) proposed phonetics the general study
of human speech sounds in a particular language which emphasis on the
pronounciation of this language.
Meanwhile, Delahunty and Garvey (...:90) describes phonetic as a system
that record the sounds of language objectively. This study provides a valuable
way to understand written text than their actual spoken form. Thus, phonetics is
the study of speech sounds of language in the form of written text which
involves speech organs to pronounce the sounds.

b. Voiced and Voiceless Sounds

When we concern about articulatory phonetics, we will discuss about
voiced and voicedless sounds. The sounds of a language become voiced if when
the vocal cords are drawn together and the air from the lung repeteadly pushes
them apart as it passes through. We will feel vibration when we pronounce
these voiced sounds as in [z] or [v].
The sounds become voiceless if the vocal cords are separated, and the air
from the lung passes between them unimpeded. Because they are voiceless
sound, there will be no vibration when we pronounce it as in [s] and [f].
c. Place of Articulation

Bilabials
The initial sounds of pat, bat, mat are bilabials. They are presented by the
symbol [p], [b], and [m]. These initial sounds are produced using both bi (upper)
and labia (lower lips). Another sounds that can be produced by these organs is
[w] as in walk, work and way.

Labiodentals
Labia (lower lips) and dental (upper teeth) produce sounds [f] which is
voiceless and [v] which is voiced as in life and live. In addition, there are words
that are not represented by [f] but it pronounce as its sounds. Notice the final
sound of laugh and cough.

Dentals
The dental sounds are formed with the upper front teeth and the tounge tip
behind it. The symbol [θ] represent voiceless dental sound. We can find this
sound in the words thin, think, three, etc. The initial sound of these words are
voiceless dental sounds. Meanwhile, voiced dental sound, which is represented
by symbol [ð), can be found in the words the, that, thus, etc. The sound ‘eth’ can
be found in the initial words, but the word father has the sound in the middle of
the word.

Alveolars
These sounds are form with the front part of the tounge on the alveolar ridge
and the upper teeth. The sounds produced are [t] and [s] as voiceless, and [d],
[z] and [n] as voiced. We can find these sounds in the initial words of top, sit,
deep, zoo and nut. Another sounds that belong to alveolar sounds are [l] as in left
and [r] as in right.

Palatals
Palatal is also known as alveolar palatal. It means that the sounds
produced involved behind alveolar ridge and hard part in the roof of our mouth.
The examples of voiceless palatals are in the intial sounds of words shout and
shoe, and child and choose which are represented by symbols [ʃ] and [ʧ]. Palatal
voiceless sounds can also be found in the end of the word brush and church.
Voiced palatals sounds are represented by symbols [ʒ] which can be
found in the middle of the words treasure and plasure. Another palatal sounds
are represented by symbols [ʤ] as in the initial words of joke, germ, George, and
[j] as in you and yet.

Velars
Beyond the hard palate, there is a soft area, which is know as soft palate
(velum). When the back of the tounge meets velum, it will produce velar sounds.
This sound is represented by symbol [k], for example in kid, kill, cat or cold as
voiceless velar sounds. The words cook, kick, and coke have voiceless alveolar
sounds in their initial and final sounds.
Voiced velar sounds can be found in the intial words of go, give, glad, etc. These
initial sounds are represented by symbol [g]. In bag, tag, and plague, the velar
sounds are found by the end of the words. Another voiced velar sound is
represented by symbol [ŋ] and we can find this sound in words such as sing,
tongue, and ring.
 Glottals
Glottal sounds are represented by symbol [h] and produced without active use
of any parts of the mouth. The examples of the glottal sounds are who, have,
house, etc.

d. Manner of Articulation
In addition to voiced and voiceless sounds, we can pronounce the phonetic
symbols in various sounds. These ways are called manner of articulation and it
deals with consonants.

Stops
In this manner, we start and finish the air completely. Sounds can be articulately
stop when they block the air flow and then suddenly released. For example
when we say [p], [b],[t],[d],[k], and [g]. The process is also known as plosive. We
can find these set of plosive sounds in word such as ten and kid. The word bed
begins and ends with plosive.
The glottal stop is represented by symbol [ʔ]. It occurs when the space between
the vocal cords is completely closed then released, for example when we
pronounce uh-uh which means ‘no’. Between the first uh and the second uh, we
do glottal [h] and then stops.

Fricatives
When we let the air comes out trough a very narrow passage and it creates
friction, it is called as fricative. The sounds produced in this manners are [f], [v],
[θ], [ð], [s], [z], [ʃ], and [ʒ]. We can find these sounds as in fade, value, thick,
there, size, rose, ship, vision , etc.

Affricatives
The affricate sound is the combination of stops sounds and fricative. The air is
completly blocked and then abruptly release it. The symbols that represent this
articulations are [ʧ] and [ʤ] which are the combination of stops and fricative.
The symbol [ʧ] is the combination of stops [t] and fricative [ʃ], and the symbol
[ʤ] is the combination of stop [d] and fricative [ʒ]. A good illustration words of
this articulation are cheap and jeep.

Nasals
Nasals sounds is produced by pushing out air from the nose. In English we have
three sounds, that are [m], [n], and [ŋ]. The words that begin and end with
nasals can be found in morning, knitting, and name.

Liquids (Approximant)
Liquids or approximant refers to the articulatory that involved approaches each
other but they do not really touch. This manner is devided into lateral
approximant and retoflex approximant. The first describe a process when the air
passes trough the back tongue to the front tongue with a little block of the front
tongue. The sound produced in lateral approximant is [l] as in led. The second
describes a process when the air from the back part of the tongue come to the
front tongue trough oral cavity and produced the sound [r]. This sound can be
found in word red.

Glides (Semi-vowels)
Glides is a sound between consonant and vowel sounds. This manner is also
called as semi-vowels. It is represented by symbol [w] and [j]. The examples are
wet and yes.

The following chart is the voiced and voiceless consonant sounds :

e. Vowels
The common characteristic of vowel is where nothing blocks the air
passes through upper and lower teeth. The sounds produced are formed with
the shape of the lips and mouth. Vowels are typically voiced.
Vowels are vary in quality, tone, intonation, and stress. It is produced with
an open vocal tract. The followign chart will describe the variation of vowels.

We usually hear these vowel sounds in the following words :

[i] eat, key, see [u] move, two, too
[ ] hit, myth, women [υ] could, foot, put
[e] great, tail, weight [o] no, road, toe
[ε] dead, pet, said [ɔ] ball, caught, raw
 [æ] ban, laugh, sat [a] bomb, cot, swan
[ə] above, sofa, support [aj] buy, eye, my
[ʌ] blood, putt, tough [aw] cow, doubt, loud
[ɔɔj] boy, noise, void

f. Diphthongs
A vowel symbol that has more than one sound is called as diphthong. In
pronouncing diphthong, our vocal organs is assumed form one vocalic position
to another as we produce the sound. The most important thing about diphthong
is the first part of the sounds takes much longer and stronger than the second
part. For example the sounds [ou]. The sound [o] is longer produced than the
sound [u] as in the word go [go

B. Phonology
a. Definition
If phonetic deals with the speech sounds, phonology deals with the organization
of these speech sounds in language (Davenport and Hannahs, 2005:2). It
arranges the sounds patterns of a particular language (Yule, 2006:43) to
differenciate the meaning in language (Hickey, ...:2). Therefore, phonology is the
study of sounds pattern of a particular language to differenciate its meaning.

b. Phonemes, Phones and Allophones

The smallest unit of language that distinguish its pronunciation and meaning
from another word is called as phoneme. It is an abstract representation of
speech sounds. Phoneme can be either a consonant or a vowel. The symbols of
a phoneme are inside twin slash / / as a bracket, for example /s/ and /r/. The
/s/ in soar differentiate it with the /r/ in roar. The /s/ in sing is different from
the /r/ in ring. Another examples are :
- /s/ in kiss and /l/ in kill
- /p/ in pat and /c/ in cat
- /æ/ in bag and /ı/ in big
As we can see that substituting one phoneme to another may result different
meaning. Generally, English has 44 phonemes as in the following chart :
There are different version of a phoneme that are produced in actual speech.
The different version is called ad phones. For example, the sound [t] in the word
top will be produced with a puff in the air (aspirated). Let’s compare with the
sound [t] in the word stop (unaspirated). The puff is not as strong as in the word
top eventough both words have consonant [t]. We can put our palm in front of
our mouth when we say top and stop then we will be able to differenciate
between the pronunciation of [t] sound in these two words. The aspirated
version is represented by [tʰ] as one phone. Eventhough the word top is
pronounced without aspirated, it will not change the meaning.
The [t] sound in the word writer becomes flap since it is placed between two
vowels, [i] and [e]. The sounds produced is represented as [D]. It becomes
 another phone of [t]. The word eighth (/etθ/) is ended by dental sound [θ]
which can be presented by [ṱ]. This is also another phone of [t]. These variation
sound [tʰ], [D], and [ṱ] are called as allophone. The substitution of allophone
does not change the meaning, it only result in a different pronunciation of the
same word.

Minimal Pairs and Sets

Minimals pairs is a test to examine whether a set of words belong to phoneme
or allophone. If a pair of words is contrast in a language, it belongs to phoneme.
For instance, the word pig and big which are contrast in phone [p] and [b]. The
substutution of the phones results in different meaning of these words. A set of
words as pig, big, rig, dig, wig and fig is called as a minimal set. Meanwhile, if [p]
in the word pig is pronounced in aspirated or in unaspirated and it does not
change the meaning, it is called as allophone.

c. Phonotactics
Phonotatics is part of phonological knowledge which concerns with the
reconstruction of sounds in a language. it serves freedom of which sound
preceed or follow the other sounds or which consonants are allowed to be in a
cluster. Each language has its own pattern that differ it from another language.
English does not have combination sounds as [fs] or [vs], but may be this
combonation exists in other languages. English combines [c] and [h] symbols
and it turns into /ʧ/ or /k/, (t] and [h] that turns into /θ/ or /ð/, etc.

Syllables and Cluster : Consonant Cluster

A syllable might contain a consonant and a vowel where the consonant usually
precede the vowel (CV). When a consonant goes before a a vowel, it is treated as
onset (it may consist of one consonant or more). Technically, a syllable consists
of an onset and a rhyme. A rhyme consists of a vowel, which is treated as
nucleus and a following consosnant, treated as coda.
For example the words no, go, and to. These words contains an onset and a
nucleus. We can not find coda in these words. The coda appears in words up,
 cup, or hat. The basic structure can be found in English words such as eggs
(VCC), green (CCVC), them (CVC), not (CVC), etc.
The basic structure of syllabel can be observed through the following diagram.

Both onset and coda may consists of more than one consonant that is called as
consonant cluster. The combonation of onset can be found in the word stick
/st/ which is [CC], and the combination of /st/ as coda can be found in the word
first. There are many combinations in English phonotactic, for example in the
words speak /spı:ĸ/, steak /steıĸ/, sweep /swi:p/, smell /smel/, and snake
/sneık/. The fricative /s/ in English can be combined with plosive, nasals, and
glides.
The longer combination of this consonant cluster (CCC0)can be found in splash,
black, scream, square, etc.

d. Co-Articulation Effects
The preceeding discussion seems to describe as if those words are pronounced
carefully and delibratelly. In fact, most of our talks are done spontaneously by
our articulators, and sometimes without stopping. The process of making one
sound almost at the same time as the next sounds is called as co-articulation.
There are two effects caused by co-articulation.
Assimilation
Assimilation focus on a process when two sounds segment in sequence and
some aspects of the segment are copied or taken by the other. The word can
may be pronounced as /kæn/. However, when we say I can go, the velar [g]
influence the alveolar nasal sound [n] comes out as [ŋ]. Thus, the sound of I can
go becomes [ajkǝŋgo]. This process is called as asimilation.
This process can also be described in the word
 Elision
The process of elision means elicit a certain sounds influenced by its
environment. The word and [ænd] is ended by [d]. However, when we say you
and me, it is transited as [yuǝnmi]. The [d] is not trancripted. It also happend in
he must be, transcripted as [himǝsbi]. The [t] in the word must merge with [b] in
be.
Summary
Phonetics focuses on sounds of language, and phonology focuses on the sounds pattern
of a language. Phonetics discusses place of articulation, i.e bilabials, labiodentals,
dentals, alveolar, palatals, velars and glotals, and manner of articulation, i.e stops,
fricatives, affricates, nasals, liquids and glides. Phonology discusses phoneme,
allophone, phonotactic and co-articulation effect. These are the process of sounds
combination of a language.

Exercise
1. What is the difference between acoustic phonetic and auditory phonetic?
2. Identify the manner of articulation of the final sounds in the following words
Cherry _____________ Funny _____________ Marry _____________
3. Using symbols introduced in this chapter, write a basic phonetic transcription of
the most common pronunciation in the following words
Doubt _____________ Phone _____________ Thought _____________
4. What is the difference between an phoneme and allophone?
5. What is an aspirated sound?
6. What is meant by the phonotactic of a language?