1. PHONOLOGY
Nabaz N. Jabbar
English Language Teaching
Near East University
17th Nov 2011

2. What is Phonology
• The study of the structure and systematic
patterns of sounds in human language.

3. Three major units of phonological analysis:-
1. Segments: Individual speech sounds.
2. Syllables: units of linguistic structure that
consists of a syllabic element and any
segments associated with it.
3. Features: units of phonological structure that
make up segments.

4. Minimal Pairs
• Minimal Pairs: A basic test for a sound's
distinctiveness. It consists of two forms
with distinct meaning that differ by only
one segment found in the same position in
each form.
e.g. [f] and [v] in fat and vat

5. SEGMENTS IN CONTRAST
• Segments are said to contrast (or to be
distinctive or be in opposition).
e.g. The segment [s] and [z] contrast in the
word sip and zip

6. Vowels contrast in English
• English vowels are distinctive, so they
contrast.
e.g. The difference between [ɪ] and [e] in
[bit] and [bet]

7. LANGUAGE-SPECIFIC CONTRAST
• Sounds that are distinctive in one language
will not necessarily be distinctive in another.
e.g. In English there is crucial difference
between these two vowels: [e] and [æ]
• But in Turkish this difference in pronunciation
is not distinctive.
e.g. The word for 'I' is [Ben] or [Bæn]

8. • Conversely, sounds that do not contrast in
English such as long and short vowels, may
be distinctive in another language, like
Japanese and Finnish.
• e.g. [tori] ‘bird’ [tori:] ‘shrine gate’
• e.g. [tuli] ‘fire’ [tu:li] ‘wind’

9. Phonetically conditioned variation:
• It occurs most often among phonetically
similar segments and conditioned by the
phonetic context in which the segment are
found.

10. COMPLEMENTARY DISTRIBUTION
• Variants of a phoneme that never occur in
the same phonetic environment*.
e.g. voiced [l] in slip [slɪp]
voiceless [l] in clap [klæp]
*Environment is the phonetic context in which a
sound occurs.

11. Sounds in contrast
• Phoneme: The phonological unit of speech
that differentiates or extinguishes meaning.
• Phone: Any speech sound in human language.
• Allophones: Variants of a phoneme, usually in
complementary distribution and Phonetically
similar.

12. Some other considerations
• Some sounds do not contrast in initial
position:
e.g. [h] and [ŋ] in [həʊp] 'hope' and
[ŋəʊp] doesn't exist.
• Also they do not contrast in final position:
e.g. [sɪŋ] 'sing' and [sɪh] doesn't exist

13. Free Variation
• When sounds do not contrast and can
occur in identical phonetic environments
and are phonetically similar.
e.g. [p] in stop [stɒp!] , [stɒp ̚] and [stɒ?p]

14. THE REALITY OF PHONEMES
• Speakers of English often have a hard time
hearing the phonetic difference between the
voiced and voiceless allophones of /l/,
because the difference is not contrastive, but
it's easy to contrast between /l/ and /r/ as in
lift and rift

15. • But, speakers of other languages like Japanese
sometimes find it difficult to distinguish
between them, because in their language /l/
and /r/ are allophones of the same phoneme.
e.g. collect & correct

16. CLASSES AND GENERALIZATION IN
PHONOLOGY
• Liquid and glide phonemes have (at least) two
allophones, one voiced and the other voiceless.
• Liquids and glides have voiceless allophones after
voiceless stops, and voiced allophones elsewhere.
e.g. Liquid /r/
• voiced → green [gri:n] , voiceless → creep [kr̥i:p]
Glide /w/ and /j/
• voiced → beauty [bju:tɪ] , voiceless → cute [kj̥u:t]

17. English vowels and glides:
Liaison (Linking):
• British English involve linking where having
two distinct vowel phonemes next to each
other tends to be avoided, so one of the
approximants /r/, /j/ or /w/ is inserted to link
the vowels.

18. • If the first vowel is not high, a linking r is used.
e.g. Star [sta:] starring [sta:rɪŋ] star in [sta:r
ɪn]
• If the vowel is high, a glide is inserted between
the vowels.
e.g. See [si:], seeing [si:jɪŋ], see in [si: jɪn]
Show [ʃəʊ], showing [ʃəʊwɪŋ], show it [ʃəʊ

19. Intrusive r.
• is used productively in present-day English
even in contrasts, it's obvious in borrowed and
foreign words.
e.g. [emər ætkɪnz] 'Emma Atkins'
[əkrɑ:r ən dækɑ:] 'Accra and Dakar'

20. TENSE AND LAX VOWELS
• Tense vowel: A vowel that is made with a
placement of the tongue that result in
relatively the greater vocal tract
constriction.
e.g. Heat and boat
• Lax vowel: A vowel that is made with a
placement of the tongue that result in
relatively less vocal tract constriction.
e.g. Hit and but
*There's no possibility of contrast between
tense and lax vowels.

21. The distribution of tense & lax vowels
• Closed stressed syllables: Any kind of vowel
except schwa, i.e. one that ends in a consonant.
e.g. Seek /i:/
• Open stressed syllables: Any tense vowels are
allowed, i.e. ones that end in a vowel.
e.g. Raw /ɔ:/
• Syllables closed by [ŋ]: Any lax vowels except [ə]
e.g. Bunk /ʌ/

22. LANGUAGE-SPECIFIC VARIATION IN
ALLOPHONIC NASALIZATION
• It's not unusual for nasal vowel allophones to occur
near a nasal consonant, but the patterning may vary
from language to language.

23. o Vowels are nasal in Scots Gaelic when
preceded or followed by a nasal consonant.
] 'about'
n] 'secret‘
o In Malay, all vowels and glides following a
nasal consonant and not separated from it by
a non-nasal consonant are nasalized.
e.g. [mãkan] 'eat'
[rumãh] 'house'

24. LANGUAGE-SPECIFIC VARIATION IN
ALLOPHONIC DISTRIBUTION
Phonemic contrast in one language may not prove to
be a phonemic contrast in another.
 In English, aspirated and unaspirated stops are
allophonic without contrasting form.
e.g. [pɪk] and [phɪk]
 But in Khmer (Cambodian), unaspirated and
aspirated voiceless stops contrast.
e.g. [pɔ:ŋ] 'to wish' [phɔ:ŋ] 'also'.

25. Defining the Syllable:
• Syllable: A unit of linguistic structure that
consists of a syllabic element and any
segments that are associated with it.

26. Four subsyllabic units of internal structure
 Nucleus (N): A vocalic element that forms the core
of a syllable.
e.g. [æ] in Patrick
 Coda (C): The elements that follow the nucleus in
the same syllable.
e.g. [nt] in Sprint
 Rhyme (R): The nucleus and coda of a syllable.
e.g. [u:] in Root
 Onset (O): The longest sequence of consonants to
the left of each nucleus.
e.g. [sl] from [slɪm] in slim

27. ONSET CONSTRAINTS PHONOTACTICS:
• The set of constraints on how sequences of
segments pattern.
e.g. The Russion word vbrog [fbrɔk]
pronounced as [fəbrɔk] or [prɔk] in English.

28. SOME ENGLISH ONSETS:
• There are syllable-initial consonant sequences
contain a voiceless stop consonant.
• e.g. [pl] in please
• And word-initial three-consonant cluster, which the
first is always s, the second is always voiceless stop
and the third is either a liquid or a glide.
• e.g. [spr] in spring

29. Accidental and systematic gaps
• Accidental gaps:Non-occuring but possible
forms of a language.
e.g. Blork
• Systematic gaps: Gaps in the occuring syllable
structure of a language that result from the
exclution of certain sequences.
e.g. pfordv

30. Language-specific phonotactics
 Some onset sequences can be found in many
languages while some onset sequences are rarely if
ever found. So, some onset sequences appear to
exist as part of human linguistic capacity.
e.g. pl as in play and lp as in help
 Each language has it’s own set of restrictions on the
phonological shapes of it’s syllable constituents.
e.g. fsl as in fslux ‘aloud’ which is not found in English.

31. Some further syllabification
• Turkish language has different syllable structure
constraints than English language.
e.g. alt, alta and altta

32. Syllabic phonology
• Syllables are units of phonological analysis because
they affect the distribution of allophonic features.
 Aspiration
 Ambisyllabicity
 Vowels lengthen

33. ASPIRATION IN ENGLISH
• Articulation accompanied by the release of air, that
is heard after the release of certain stops in English.
e.g. the first sound of /tɒp/
• English voiceless stops are aspirated when initial in a
stressed syllable.

34. Ambisyllabicity
o The simultaneous presence of a segment in two
adjoining syllables.
e.g. attack /əth k/

35. PHONETIC LENGTH IN ENGLISH LANGUAGE
• English vowels are phonetically somehow
shorter than they would normally be, when
they occur before voiceless consonants, before
sonorant consonants and in word-final position
e.g. Bad [bǣd]
• Conversely, the vowels are relatively longer
than they would normally be, when they occur
before voiced non-sonorant consonants.
e.g. Revise [rɪ.vaɪz]

36. Syllables and stress in English
• Penultimate: The syllable before the very last
one in a word, i.e. next to the last syllable.
• Antepenultimate: Stressed on the third syllable
from the end of the word.
So, English nouns are stressed on the
penultimate syllable when it’s Heavy;
otherwise, they are stressed on the
antepenultimate.
e.g. C binet

37. The features of English
1. Major class features:
• Consonantal [p b s z ʃ ʒ tʃ dʒ]
• Syllabic [i: e ɑ: ɭ̩ r̩ m n]
• Sonorant: only the singables: vowells, glides,
liquids, and nasals.

38. The features of English
2. Laryngeal features:
• Voice: according to voiced and voiceless
sounds.
• Spread glottis: distinguishes unaspirated from
aspirated consonants.
• Constricted glottis: In English there's only the
glottis stop [?]

39. The features of English
3. Place features:
• Labial: [p] [b] [f] [v] [w]
• Round: Sounds that made with the lips rounded
• Coronal: [t] [d] [θ] [ð] [s] [z] [tʃ] [dʒ] [n] [ɭ ] [r]
• Anterior: [p] [b] [t] [d] [s] [z] [θ] [ð]
• Strident: The noisy fricatives and affricates only.
[s] [z] [ʃ] [ʒ] [tʃ] and [dʒ]

40. The features of English
4. Dorsal features:
• High: Sound made with the tongue raised.
• Low: Vowels made with the tongue lowered.
• Back: Any sound articulated behind the palatal
region of the oral cavity.
• Tense: Follows the tense and lax vowels.
• Reduced: Only the schwa [ə]

41. The features of English
5. Manner features:
• Nasal: Any sound made with the velum
lowered.
• Continuant: Vowels, fricatives, glides and
liquids.
• Lateral: [ɭ ]
• Delayed release: Only affricate sounds [tʃ] [dʒ]

42. Thank You
• My only reference was the book of:
 Contemporary Linguistics
o By William O’Grady
Michael Dobrovolsky
Francis Katamba