Phonology

1. Phonology • The study of the organization of speech sounds in a language • How they function • How they are distributed

2. Function • Contrastiveness vs. noncontrastiveness Do the sounds function to distinguish meaning?

3. Contrastive • Inter-changing sounds • > changes meaning of the word • English [p]/[b]: [kæp] ‘cap’ vs. [kæb]‘cab’ • Hindi [ph]/[p]: [phǝl]‘fruit’ vs. [pǝl]‘moment’

4. Minimal Pairs • Two (or more) words that differ only by a single sound in the same position • bin [bɪn] sin [sɪn]

5. bin [bɪn] pin [pɪn] • => Contrast for voicing • pin [pɪn] tin [tɪn] • => Contrast for place of articulation • tin [tɪn] sin [sɪn] • => Contrast for manner of articulation • bin [bɪn]bean [bin] • => Contrast for tenseness

6. Sounds in a minimal pair… • …contrast • …are unpredictable (i.e., must be learned) • …belong to different phonemes

7. Phoneme vs. Allophone • Phoneme • A minimal unit of sound that serves to distinguish meaning between words • May be composed of a set of sounds (‘allophones’) that are considered by native speakers to be the ‘same’ sound • Allophone • The different phonetic realizations of a phoneme

8. top stop little kitten [thap][stap][ lɪɾl ̩][kɪʔn̩] /t/ [th][t][ɾ] [ʔ] phoneme  allophones 

9. Complementary Distribution • When two (or more) phonetically similar sounds never occur in exactly the same environment, but in complementary or mutually-exclusive environments • p/ph: [spæt] ‘spat’ [phæt] ‘pat’ [spul] ‘spool’ [phul] ‘pool’ [spik]‘speak’ [phik]‘peak’

10. Minimal Pairs • => Contrastive • Hindi: • [phǝl]‘fruit’ vs. [pǝl]‘moment’

11. Sounds in complementary distribution… • …are allophones of a single phoneme • …do not occur in minimal pairs • …are noncontrastive • …are predictable (based on environment)