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LESSON 2 , UNIT
International sound barriers: fixed phoneme inventories
Although speech is a continuum of sound, it is possible to break it into different types of sounds, known as consonants, vowels, and semivowels. We will study how these different sounds are articulated, as well as how other features of sound, including stress and pitch, are superimposed over these sounds.A language only uses sounds taken from its own inventory of phonemes. An inventory of phonemes is a system of abstract sounds that undergoes very little change. Letters and sounds in English The English Alphabet is made up of 26 letters and 44 sounds. Standard Italian, on the contrary, features 21 letters and 26 sounds. Therefore, the English inventory of phonems has more vowel sounds. In British English we can single out: 12 vowel sounds 8 diphtongs (combination of two vowels) 24 consonant sounds.
Types of sounds
There are two types of sounds: Consonant sounds ( C ) Vowel sounds ( V ) The number of sounds in a word is not usually the same as the number of letters: Cfr. < duck > CVC / dʌk / Letters and sounds As a result, in English it can be quite difficult to identify consonant and vowel sounds as they do not correspond to letters: Night: CVC (Consonant-Vowel-Consonant) Dog CVC Rabbit CVCVC Frog CCVC Gorilla CVCVCV Snake CCVC Bee CV
The relation between letters and sounds in EnglisH
In speech, words are made of sounds that we produce or receive, but as soon as we transfer sounds onto the written page sounds are represented by letters. When we spell a word, we name or write the sequence of letters composing a word. As letters (26) are fewer than sounds (44) in English, this means that letters are not always the same as sounds. A letter or a combination of letters a) may correspond to different sounds , even though b) different letters may correspond to the same sound.
7. Spelling and sounds
In the following example, the same letter corresponds to two different sounds: Big /big/ (a short vowel sound) vs. Mine /main/ (a diphtong) However, the opposite process may connect two different letters to the same sound. KEY and CAR begin with the same sound [k], but the letters (two consonants) are different. In phonemic symbols, KEY and CAR begin with a different letter, but have the same sound: /ki:/ vs. /ka:/ Phonology: a short definition According to Fromkin and Rodman (1998): “phonology is concerned with how sounds pattern in a language”. (Fromkin V. & Rodman R., 1998, An Introduction to Language. Fort Worth: Harcourt Brace College Publishers).
Phonology: a detailed definition
According to Crystal (1994), phonology is: “a branch of linguistics which studies the sound systems of languages….The aim of phonology is to demonstrate the patterns of distinctive sound found in language….[it] is concerned with the range and function of sounds in specific languages, and with the rules which can be written to show the types of phonetic relationships that relate or contrast words and other linguistic units” Phonetics Phonetics, instead, deals with real instances of sound produced by human beings to communicate. According to Yule (2010: 46): “it is the general study of the characteristics of speech sounds”. We usuallly make a distinction between articulatory phonetics (the way in which sounds are produced), acoustic phonetics (sound properties) and auditory phonetics (the perception of sounds). Our attention will focus on articulatory phonetics , that is about the way in which different parts of our articulatory system work to produce sounds (see G. Yule, 2010. The Study of Language. Cambridge: CUP). Articulatory phonetics: the oral cavity:
Voiced sounds (suoni sonori): the vocal cords are drawn together and the air from the lungs creates a vibration while passing through them.
Graphemes and phonemes
To sum up the difference between letters and sounds, we can introduce two new terms: grapheme and phoneme. The grapheme refers to a letter of the alphabet; the phoneme, which is a basic notion in phonology, is a distinctive sound in a language and is capable of creating a distinction in meaning between two words.
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Phonolgy and phonemes
In phonology, we can say that the minimal unit is the phoneme. As we said, phonemes are underlying sounds, unreal sounds, abstract concepts. They are part of a system or phoneme inventory that is language-specific. In British English, we have an inventory of 44 phonemes, among which 20 are vowel phonemes (12 vowels + 8 diphtonghs), while 24 are consonant phonemes.
Phonemes
With the exception of the indefinite article a [ə] and the present indicative plural of the verb ‘to be’ are [ɑ:], discrete units of sound, such as [b] or [u], do not have any intrinsic meaning. Meaning can be attributed to them only when they come with other sounds to make up words. These sounds are called phonemes. In bar , for example, we have two phonemes: /b/ and /a:/
Minimal pairs
A minimal pair is a set of different words consisting of the same sounds except for one.
If we replace the consonant sound [d] in dog [dɒg] with another consonant sound [l], we obtain the
word log [lɒg].
Likewise, if we replace the vowel sound [ɒ] in the word log [lɒg] with another vowel sound [e], we
obtain the word leg [leg].In this way, thanks to minimal pairs, we can state that the sounds [d] , [l],
[ɒ] , [e] are phonemes because they create a distinction in meaning between two words.
Minimal pairs: a phonetic environment As a result, minimal pairs can
be seen as a phonetic environment, or a sequence of sounds. If we then establish a blank slot preceding the sequence /æt/ and replace different consonants in this slot, we can see if we get different words. If we do, then each of these consonant sound is a phoneme. /æt/: pat, bat, sat, mat, gnat, fat, that, vat, cat …
Identification of phonemes
If we can set a minimal phonetic environment, such as /_æt/ and get the words: p at, b at, s at, m at, gn at, f at, th at, v at, c at we can conclude that /p/, /b/, /s/, /m/, /n/, /f/, /ð/, /v/, and /k/ are all phonemes in English. Thus, bat and cat , for example, form a minimal pair, as do gnat and vat.
Minimal pairs: vowel sounds
This same concept of a minimal pair holds true for vowels as well. Consider, for example, a phonetic environment such as /p_t/. Substituting different vowels in the empty slot, we can generate numerous minimal pairs: /p_t/: p i t, p ea t, p a te, p o t, p ou t, p u t, p u tt, p a t, p e t … We can conclude that / ɪ/, /i/, /e ɪ /, / ɒ /, /a ʊ /, / ʊ /, / ʌ /, /æ/, and /ε/ are all distinct phonemes. Graphemes and phonemes Phonemes in English DO NOT correspond to letters in the written language. In many cases they share the same mark or symbol, ex. and /t/. In other cases there is no correspondence. For example, the grapheme represents : the phoneme /k/ in cut [k ʌt] the phoneme /s/ in nice [na ɪs]
Homophones and homographs
Homophones are words which are pronounced the same but spelled differently, such as bear / bare /beə (r)/, meat / meet [mit], or maid / made [meɪd] Homographs are words that are spelled the same but pronounced differently, for example, lead [li:d] (condurre) and lead [led] (piombo); tear [t ɪə] (lacrima) and tear [teə] (strappare).
Phonetic transcription
By convention, phoneme symbols are enclosed within slank brackets /…/, whereas the phonetic transcription of words is enclosed in square brackets […]. Graphemes are marked by angle brackets <...>. Therefore, the word has a phonological transcription with / dɒg / (phonemes) and a phonetic transcription with [ dɒg ] (phones).
Basic terminology
GRAPHEMES : written symbol representing a sound (enclosed between < > angle brackets)
