What is phonology?
Phonology is that branch of linguistics which studies the sound system of languages. The sound system involves
We shall focus more on the former because there is very little information about historical prosody!
(It might also be relevant to say here that we will distinguish phonetics from phonology. The former concentrates on the actual sound-making and could be thought of as being more akin to physics; the latter concentrates on how sounds are organised in individual languages. In order to do phonology, therefore, you will necessarily need to know at least some of the phonetics.)
2.
The IPA
Phonologists and phoneticians generally
have to use special symbols – usually the IPA, or International Phonetic Alphabet.
This module does not attempt to teach you the IPA, although we will introduce you to the symbols used for English.
One word of warning: we said that English spelling was phonetic, more or less; we also said that English spelling sometimes represents morphemes as well. We need to careful, therefore, and not assume that every letter represents a phoneme. For example, people often talk about ‘dropping the g’ in words like talking and running (often written as talkin’ and runnin’), whereas <ng> in talking represents one sound /ŋ/, and <n’> in talkin’ represents another sound /n/; ‘dropping’ suggests that one sound has been left out.
Another convention that might be useful to mention here is that orthographic symbols (including spelling) are indicated by the use of angle brackets, as in <ch>; phonetic symbols are indicated by the use of square brackets, as in [k]; and phonemes are indicated by the use of oblique strokes, as in /k/.
You might like to go to the IPA interactive chart: https://www.ipachart.com/
(It might also be
useful to add that a number of American linguists use a modified version of the
IPA, so be forewarned if you have consulted or are consulting American texts.)
First of all, the letters b, d, f, h, k, l, m, n, p, r, s, t, v, w, z are given their conventional values as in normal English spelling.
Here are some other symbols for consonants with examples of the sounds (italicised) from English words. The alternative symbols have been included for information and will not be used in this module.
IPA Symbol |
Word |
Alternative Symbols |
|
IPA Symbol |
Word |
Alternative Symbols |
g |
get |
|
|
χ |
loch (Scottish) |
|
ʒ |
pleasure |
(American) |
|
dʒ |
jam |
(American) |
ʃ |
ship |
(American) |
|
tʃ |
chin |
(American) |
ŋ |
sing |
|
|
ʔ |
settle (Cockney) |
|
θ |
thin |
|
|
j |
yes |
y (American) |
ð |
this |
|
|
|
|
|
Here are some
vowel symbols. Vowels are different from consonants (here I am talking about sounds,
not spelling) in that there is relatively little obstruction to the air
passage. The kind of vowel sound that you produce will therefore depend on how
you adjust some of the movable organs that affect the sound produced –
especially your tongue position and whether you round (pucker) or spread your lips.
If you took an
x-ray picture of your oral cavity whilst saying particular vowel sounds, you
will notice that the tongue can be raised more or less (be in a close/high
or open/low position), and whether the raising is towards the front
(towards the lips) or the back (towards the throat).
|
|
|
[i] is the sound in tea; the tongue is
high (close), and raised in front |
[u] is the sound in two; the tongue is
high (close), and raised at the back |
[A] is the sound in tar; the tongue is
low (open), and raised at the back |
We can summarise
the information in a chart. I am aware that the chart is difficult to read, and
the examples of English words are also a little problematic given that there
are many accents of English today with therefore a range of different possible
pronunciations. (So, by ‘Kate’,
I mean the beginning of the vowel, because many people glide off to another
vowel. By ‘tow’ I mean the pure vowel sound as spoken by
the Scots, or the first part of the sound by others before the glide – but
again there are accents where this sound is not used. And there are many
accents that make a two-way distinction between taught, tot and tar; and indeed some which have the same vowel sound for all three.)
The words given
as examples of the sounds are based on southern British pronunciation or RP
(see below for a discussion of RP).
Pure Vowels |
|
Non-pure Vowels |
||||
IPA Symbol |
Key Word (Wells) |
Alternative Symbols |
|
IPA Symbol |
Key Word (Wells) |
Alternative Symbols |
ɑː |
start, palm |
|
|
aɪ |
price |
ɑɪ,
ʌɪ |
æ |
trap |
a |
|
ɔɪ |
choice |
|
ɔː |
thought |
|
|
eɪ |
face |
|
ɒ |
lot |
|
|
oʊ |
goat |
əʊ |
uː |
goose |
|
|
aʊ |
mouth |
ɑʊ |
ʊ |
foot |
|
|
ɪə |
near |
|
ʌ |
strut |
|
|
ʊə |
cure |
|
iː |
fleece |
|
|
aɪə |
diary |
ʌɪə |
ɪ |
kit |
|
|
aʊə |
hour |
|
ɛː |
square |
ɛə,
eə |
|
|
|
|
ɛ |
dress |
e |
|
|
|
|
ɜː |
nurse |
|
|
|
|
|
ə |
comma |
|
|
|
|
|
The keywords are
from John Christopher Wells’s Accents of
English: An introduction (1982). You can see the list here as well: http://www.phon.ucl.ac.uk/home/wells/phoneticsymbolsforenglish.htm
3.
Range of accents
We use the term ‘accents’ (as opposed to ‘dialects’) to refer to differences in pronunciations. The standardised English spelling that we have today sometimes suggests that pronunciation should also be ‘standardised’. For example, there is only one standard spelling of butter today, but in the past these were also possible spellings: butere, buttere, boter, botere, botter, butre, buttur, butture, buttir, buttyr, botyr, boture, bottre and butyr.
(a) Does everyone pronounce the <r>? If it is pronounced, are there different ways of pronouncing the <r>?
(b) Almost everyone pronounces the <t>, but it can be done in various ways.
(c) Everyone pronounces the <u>, but it can be done in various ways.
Some accents have
received more attention than others from phoneticians and phonologists. These
are RP and GA.
Received Pronunciation (RP)
General American (GA)