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INTRODUCTION TO THE STUDY OF LANGUAGE
Phonetics & Phonology
Phonetics
The study of the physical properties of speech sounds
Phonology
The study of the sound system - how sounds
relate to and interact with each other in a language
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Part One
Organs of speech, classification of speech sounds
and phonetic transcription
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PHONETICS:
The scientific study of speech sounds – their description,
classification and transcription
(i) Articulatory phonetics: How speech sounds are
articulated -- i.e. what speech organs are involved, and what
physical gestures or configurations are required to produce the
sounds in question.
(ii) Acoustic phonetics: The physical properties of the sound
waves generated by speech -- e.g. the frequency of oscillation
(how many cycles per second), amplitude (how loud), and
duration (for how long).
(iii) Auditory phonetics: How speech sounds are perceived by
the hearer as having certain auditory properties that differentiate
them from each other, such as the quality of the sound (is it [i] or
[e]?), the pitch (high or low), loudness, length, and so on.
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The International Phonetic Alphabet
In the late 19th century, a group of British and French
linguists invented the International Phonetic
Alphabet (IPA), a system that uniquely identifies
all of the sounds, or phonemes, used in human
languages.
Each sound is represented by a single symbol, and
conversely, each symbol represents a single sound.
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The International Phonetic Alphabet
The English language uses 24 consonants and 24
vowels (including 12 pure vowels, 10 diphthongs, and
two triphthongs). A consonant is a sound in which
the voice, or breath stream, is interrupted or
impeded during production.
Consonants can be either voiced or voiceless; if the
vocal folds vibrate during production, the
consonant is voiced, and if they do not vibrate, the
consonant is voiceless.
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The International Phonetic Alphabet
A vowel, by contrast, is an uninterrupted voiced sound.
For all vowel sounds (with the exception of the
vowels, diphthongs, and triphthongs of r), the
tongue rests on the floor of the mouth, with its tip
resting against the lower teeth, and the arch in the
tongue determines the phoneme produced.
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PHONETIC CLASSIFICATION
Two broad distinctions:
(i) Consonants: sounds which are made with some
obstruction to the airflow in the oral cavity (e.g. [s]
as in see or [t] as in too)
(ii) Vowels: sounds which are made with a smooth,
continuous, unobstructed airflow through the oral
cavity (e.g. [i:] as in see or [u:] as in too)
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CONSONANTS
I. MANNER OF ARTICULATION
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II. PLACE OF ARTICULATION
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Vowels:
(1) the height to which the body of the tongue is raised,
whether it is high, low, or in between (mid);
(2) how forward the body of the tongue is, whether it is
front (advanced), central, or back (retracted);
(3) whether the lips are rounded or unrounded.
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Phonetic transcription
The representation of speech with phonetic
symbols: each symbol represents one and
only one sound
IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet)
A universal inventory of phonetic symbols
Representing the sounds in all human languages
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