Phonology: The study of the sound patterns of languages. We will extend this to include the letter patterns of language.

Phonology - the description of distinctive sound units of a specific language

Phonology The study of how the pronunciation of sounds changes according to context. We have already seen some phonological changes with respect to the phoneme /t/. English /t/ Word top stop batter kitten nitrate /najtrejt/ Broad Narrow Description aspirated unaspirated flapped glottalized palatalized

Phonemes and Allophones Principle of Contrast: There should be a separate letter for each distinctive sound; that is, for each sound which, being used instead of another, in the same language, can change the meaning of the word.

Phonemes contrast with each other; they are distinctive sounds Allophones do not contrast with each other;

They cannot distinguish between words.

Phonemes and Allophones For example--[t] and [d] are two different sounds (phonemes) in English; tip vs. dip MINIMAL PAIRS they can change the meaning of a word-~ [t] vs. [d] ~ pat vs. pad

Remember: two words that differ in only one sound are called a minimal pair. However, there is no minimal pair in English distinguished by a flap vs. a voiceless stop. Canadian English: British English: bottom bottom

CONTRASTIVE DISTRIBUTION: bit, beat, bet, bat, bite, bought, but, and bout the vowel sounds are in exactly the same phonetic environment, preceded by a /b/ and followed by a /t/. (Fromkin Rodman Hyams [2011] 268)

COMPLEMENTARY DISTRIBUTION

then-den, lather-ladder, and breathe-breed. In English // and /d/ are in contrastive distribution. (Fromkin Rodman Hyams [2011] 275-278) Spanish, // and /d/ are in complementary distribution. // occurs between vowels and /d/ never occurs between vowels duda ,the first <d> is pronounced /d/ and the second is pronounced //. In Spanish(never occur in the same phonetic environment). In Spanish, therefore, the difference between // and /d/ is said to be phonetic, but not phonemic.

NATURAL CLASSES OF SOUNDS: NASALS

/m/ /n/ and // are called nasals In English, vowels become nasal in the environment of nasal consonants. (Fromkin Rodman Hyams [2011] 282-284)

ASPIRATION: /p/ /t/ and /k/ form the natural class of voicless stops. voiceless stops are aspirated if they are followed by a stressed vowel and not preceded by /s/. If the consonant were voiced , the aspiration would be less pronounced. (Fromkin Rodman Hyams [2011] 239-240, 281)

VOICING

When Verbs add -ed to become past tense this ending becomes voiced as in planned or voiceless as in jumped. Since /t/ is not voiced and vowels are voiced, a /t/ between vowels often becomes voiced so that latter and writer are pronounced like ladder and rider. (Fromkin Rodman Hyams [2011] 238-241) STOPS BECOMES CONTINUANTS

Because /k/ is a stop, and vowels are continuants, an affix beginning with a vowel often changes /k/ to /s/. critic criticize or criticism fanatic fanaticism romantic romanticism

This ability of the <c> to have two different pronunciations allows us to spell these words the same way even though they are pronounced diffently (Fromkin Rodman Hyams [2011] 284-288)